Chapter 1: Did you enjoy playing make-believe friends~~~?
A mysterious duo had suddenly appeared in the sky. And the venue, along with the ground beneath it, was floating in mid-air. At its center, Kazuma glared with an exasperated look.
“(Damn it~~~! Those guys! Just when I was about to bask in the spotlight and become super popular, they had to interfere~~~! I won’t forgive them!)”
He was a philistine who should have known shame. Despite having gained much honor and glory in the other world, Kazuma still craved more. It couldn’t be helped. The one thing he hadn’t managed to obtain was the supreme existence known as women, which at times surpassed even gold and silver treasures.
However, Kazuma, the philistine Hero, quickly shifted his thoughts. He pondered about the duo that had suddenly appeared in the sky. They were probably enemies.
However, their objective was unclear. The fact that they appeared so suddenly suggested they possessed a spatial-type Gift. If so, it was a mystery why they appeared in the sky instead of right in the middle of the venue, which would have been more direct.
“(Are there restrictions? Or can they only go to places they’ve been to or seen before? Well, whatever the case, they’re enemies, right…?)”
Kazuma judged them to be enemies because he could feel killing intent directed at him from one of the figures floating in the sky.
Kazuma wondered if he had done something to be resented, but nothing came to mind.
Kazuma thought he had no idea, but he had done things that would make many people resent him. Not criminal acts. If anything, Kazuma was also a victim, but from others’ perspectives, that didn’t matter.
He was on good terms with the Witch Alicia and the Holy Maiden Charlotte, so he was seen as an enemy by their fans and followers.
Of course, most of them knew their place, but naturally, some would go overboard. However, as far as Kazuma was concerned, no amount of harassment bothered him. If his acquaintances, friends, or family were harmed, he would devise countermeasures, but no such idiots had appeared yet.
“(Uuugh, I don’t get it. Did I do something~?)”
Kazuma groaned and desperately tried to remember, but in the end, he still couldn’t figure anything out.
Meanwhile, the two figures standing in the sky looked down on Kazuma and the others on the ground.
“Kukuku… Look at that stupid face. It’s a masterpiece.”
“…”
“Hey, hey, I get that you hate him, but let’s talk a bit, yeah?”
“There’s no need. Just go already.”
“Yeah, yeah. Well, make it flashy, will ya?”
Patting the other on the shoulder, one of the men vanished from the spot. Kazuma and the others, looking up from below, realized that the man who disappeared possessed a spatial-type Gift, but now that he was gone, there was nothing they could do.
“…Kazuma.”
The remaining man muttered Kazuma’s name in a hateful voice. He wore a hood, and his expression couldn’t be seen, but the faint sound of him grinding his back teeth could be heard.
“Hey, Kazuma. What do you make of this?”
Souji, who was looking up at the man from the ground, spoke to Kazuma.
“Their objective is unknown. However, looking at this situation, there’s no doubt they’re Terrorists.”
“Yeah, figures… Can you handle it?”
“Of course.”
“The security guards are evacuating the audience… Oh right, we’re floating in the air.”
“That’s right. If we’re dropped from here, everyone will die. Well, Senpai, you can float using Telekinesis, but most people will probably die.”
“So, that means we have to get that guy to do something about it?”
“That’s our only option, but whether the culprit will obediently comply…”
“That’s a tall order~~~.”
The entire venue was floating in mid-air, so if it fell, there would undoubtedly be casualties. Moreover, if such a heavy object were to fall, the damage would be considerable. It wasn’t a simple matter of just knocking the enemy away.
“In the first place, it’s even doubtful if he’s the one making the venue float.”
“Ah… So there’s a possibility they have allies other than the spatial-type Gifted from earlier.”
“Exactly. In other words, we’re completely on the back foot here, so we can’t make any rash moves. I’d like to say let’s wait for rescue, but the rescue teams can’t act carelessly either. After all, there are hundreds of hostages. By the way, what’s the capacity of this dome?”
“If I recall, it’s seventy thousand. It’s a full house, so that’s seventy thousand hostages!”
“Souji-senpai. Aren’t there any stealth-type Gifted?”
“We don’t have any in our group, but…”
Souji’s gaze fell upon students from other academies. Kazuma didn’t know all of them, but there were several stealth-type Gifted. A few students possessed Gifts like invisibility or camouflage, but in this situation, it was too late for that.
“If only we could somehow divert his attention…”
“Impossible. The moment we move, he might just drop us with a ‘thud’.”
“We’ll die if we keep ascending like this, though.”
The two of them spoke calmly, but the venue was still ascending. As Kazuma said, if it continued to ascend, it would break through the stratosphere, and everyone would die.
“We need to do something before that happens, but…”
“We’re at a loss. By the way, what is the National Defense Force doing?”
“Now that you mention it, yeah. You’d think they’d rush over immediately.”
Just as the two were talking, Aoi interjected.
“You two, look at the internet! The whole world is in chaos right now!”
“”Huh?””
Urged by her words, the two took out their mobile terminals from their pockets and checked the internet, where astonishing news was flying around.
“Ibinom appearing in major cities around the world?! And an Ultra-Large Ibinom on the ocean?! Huh, what is this!”
“Hey, hey, seriously…? Don’t tell me there’s a worldwide coordinated terrorist attack?!”
“Huh, it stopped loading?”
“Did the server crash?! This is bad.”
Currently, Ibinom were appearing not only in Japan but also in major cities of countries around the world like America, Russia, China, Great Britain, Germany, and France.
Gifted from various countries were swamped dealing with the Ibinom that had suddenly appeared in their cities, leaving them no capacity to head for Kazuma’s rescue.
Furthermore, an Ultra-Large Ibinom, comparable in size to a battleship, had been confirmed on the ocean. Small and medium-sized ones were seen year-round, but large ones appeared maybe once a year. And now, an Ultra-Large one, even bigger than the large ones, had been confirmed.
The entire world was in a massive panic. The appearance of a large one alone would make headlines, yet this was an Ultra-Large one, even bigger than that. If mishandled, not just cities, but the very survival of nations could be at stake. A decisive battle for the fate of nations was about to begin.
“Isn’t this too sudden?!”
“They were probably preparing for this all along… I thought there hadn’t been any terrorist attacks by the Ivera Church recently, but to think it was for this.”
“This isn’t the time to be impressed! We’re all going to die if this continues!”
“Even if you say that… Honestly, there’s nothing we can do. We don’t know what will happen if we attack that guy up there. If things go wrong… we’ll be wiped out. Besides, imagine this dome falling from this height. It would involve the surroundings, and the damage would be even greater.”
“So, you’re saying we should do nothing?”
“The correct answer is that we can’t do anything… but. Kazuma, if it’s you—”
When Souji turned around, Kazuma had suddenly vanished.
As Souji craned his neck, wondering where he had gone, he saw Kazuma floating alone in mid-air. Or rather, he was flying as if being drawn towards the man in the sky.
“Whaaaat—?!”
“Ka-Kazuma—!!”
Souji tried to pull Kazuma back with Telekinesis, but he couldn’t stop him; Kazuma was drawn towards the mysterious man.
Suddenly brought before the man who had appeared in the sky, Kazuma, unable to move in mid-air, decided to speak to him.
“Um~”
“…”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Why, you ask…? Hmph.”
When he asked the question, the man inexplicably scoffed at him. He laughed as if to say Kazuma himself should know the answer best.
“(Ehhh~, what’s with this guy? He seems like a pain.)”
“What’s with that look, you?”
The man showed a hint of anger towards Kazuma, who was frowning as if thinking he was a troublesome guy.
“Eh, no~… Haha.”
For the time being, Kazuma tried to laugh it off evasively, but perhaps that only made things worse, as the man became even more enraged.
“Is that how you always looked down on us and laughed!!!”
“Eh? Who might you be?”
“Hahaha, well, I guess you wouldn’t know…”
“I haven’t heard that voice before… From the way you talk, I can tell you’re a man, though.”
“You still don’t recognize me?”
The man, who had been wearing a hood, slowly took it off as if to show him.
Kazuma saw the man’s face revealed from under the hood and was speechless. An unbelievable, someone he didn’t want to believe, was standing there.
“N-No way… Why… Why are you…”
“You wouldn’t understand…! How I feel!”
“Akatsuki! Why are you here! No, that’s not it! What the hell are you doing!”
“I told you, didn’t I! You wouldn’t understand how I feel!”
“Of course I don’t understand! But you can’t just go around doing things like this!”
“Shut up!!!”
Kazuma flinched. He fell silent at Akatsuki’s roar.
“Hey, Kazuma. Did you enjoy looking down on us?”
“Wh-What are you talking about—”
“You’re the Crimson Knight, aren’t you?”
“Of course not! What are you saying, Akatsuki!”
“Don’t lie! I was told! That you’re the Crimson Knight! Look at this!”
What Akatsuki took out from his pocket was a mobile terminal. When Akatsuki operated it, footage played on the screen showing Kazuma, as a Humanoid Ibinom, fleeing into the restroom, and then immediately after, the Crimson Knight emerging.
“Why do you have that footage?!”
“So it really was you. Kazuma… you were the Crimson Knight all along, weren’t you!”
“No, that’s not it.”
“It’s useless to play dumb now! You’ve been hiding your true form like this, mocking us Support Course students, haven’t you…! I thought something was off. You’d just act all nonchalant even when the Combat Course guys got violent with you, and you’ve been so active in training that you’re the talk of the town. All of that was because you were the Crimson Knight, so you were fine with it, right!”
He was spot on. For someone who had it whispered to him by a third party, his reasoning was pretty good.
“You were laughing inwardly even when I told you my dream was to join the National Defense Force, weren’t you!”
“Of course not!”
“Even when you were always talking with us, you were looking down on us the whole time, weren’t you? Mocking us, laughing at us. Thinking we were just useless incompetents who couldn’t do anything! Just losers!”
“(Damn it, if only Momoko were here at a time like this, I could explain myself!)”
There was no doubt it was Akatsuki’s victim complex. Kazuma was the kind of guy who’d be mentally sexually harassing Momoko even while chatting amiably with Akatsuki and the others. He was an idiot who was constantly shouting lewd things in his mind.
Therefore, in a sense, he was innocent. Kazuma held no dissatisfaction whatsoever towards Akatsuki and the others, who had befriended him when he was a loner.
If anything, he was grateful that they had become friends with an idiot like him, but there was no way Akatsuki would know that.
“See! Look! The fact that you’re staying silent like that means it’s true, right!”
“No, this is differ—!”
“Everything I heard from that person was true! You were mocking us and looking down on us! I must have looked so ridiculous thinking someone like you… someone like you was my friend!!!”
“What did you just say? Just as you heard from ‘that person’?”
“Wh-what’s with those eyes! Are you angry because I hit the mark?!”
Faced with Kazuma’s chillingly cold eyes, Akatsuki, who had been furious just moments before, began to feel fear.
“(Akatsuki was instigated by someone? By whom exactly? No, that doesn’t matter… They’ll pay for laying a hand on my friend.)”
From the previous conversation, Kazuma realized there was someone’s will behind Akatsuki. Whether it was the National Defense Force, the Ivera Church, or someone completely unknown, he didn’t know, but Kazuma vowed to make them pay.