Chapter 55

The instant the ricochet bullet hit me, I used the sniper rifle in my right hand to target the submachine gun in Tsubasa-san's left hand, and I used the Bullet Piece I had released earlier to aim for her head. Distracted by the attack on her head, Tsubasa-san lets the sniper round pierce the submachine gun.

Submachine gun destroyed.

"As expected! You don't go down easy, do you!!"

The two Aegises used for the ricochets are far away—safe to ignore.

The remaining barriers are one Aegis, twenty-two Shield Pieces, and another weapon—her black box—boosted one step by Weapon Plus.

"One more!"

Tsubasa-san materializes another submachine gun.

(So she was planning to dual-wield from the start.)

Simultaneous fire from two submachine guns, then ricochets off the Aegis to finish the kill—that must have been the original plan.

But right now she only has her left hand, so she can only wield one at a time. Good thing I grazed her right arm in the earlier clash.

Tsubasa-san opens fire on me with the submachine gun. The bullets ricochet far behind me, but I still dodge.

"Perfectly dodging ricochets...!"

The ricochet accuracy is decent—about seventy out of a hundred.

The aim is precise, but the bullets group too tightly. She should scatter them over a wider area; this way they're easy to avoid.

"Dust Mirage."

I materialize the Dust Mirage cloak.

For now, raising stealth is meaningless. I have another goal.

( Concealed Shot. )

I hide the rifle's muzzle under the cloak.

"That's bad news!!"

Alarm shows on Tsubasa-san's face.

(At this distance, dodging a rifle shot without seeing muzzle or trigger is impossible. If she blocks the front with Aegis, she'll lose sight of me—then she won't be able to react when I draw the M1911. She has only one option.)

Tsubasa-san reinforces two vitals with Shield Pieces and aims the submachine gun at me. I target the gun with my sniper rifle.

A trade. My sniper rifle is destroyed by the submachine gun, and the submachine gun is destroyed by my sniper shot.

"Now..."

"My remaining weapons...!"

I draw the M1911.

The safety zone is less than 100 meters; dawdling will end in a draw.

—I won't accept a draw. Can I call myself a sniper if I fail to bring down my mark?

"Tsubasa wins here."

Tsubasa-san holds the last remaining Aegis in her left hand.

I line up the M1911 on her. One shot—dodged. Two shots—dodged.

(Fast!)

This speed isn't Gardner's.

Tsubasa-san moves as though the shield itself is pulling her.

"She's using the Aegis thrusters for acceleration...!"

She's moving with her own thrusters plus the Aegis's thrusters. That lets her exceed normal speed, and gives her extra vectors.

"Exactly! This burns EN like crazy, but I don't need to hold back anymore!!"

I can't track her. Three misses. Four misses.

(Is this the moment?)

After I activated Dust Mirage, I secretly slid a Bullet Piece under the cloak and into the lake at my feet.

The Bullet Piece traveled through the water and now lurks on either side of Tsubasa-san's feet—eighty centimeters away. Too close to dodge by reflection.

(Bullet Piece!!)

The Bullet Piece fires. A laser beam streaks toward Tsubasa-san's waist.

"—I noticed, you know. Shiki-chan."

"!?"

The Bullet Piece's attack is blocked by a Shield Piece.

"A reaction to a shot from that distance... impossible...!?"

"I read you. I saw you hide that Bullet Piece in the lake. That's why I've been watching the water the whole time. Tiny ripples, faint sounds—I didn't miss any."

Tsubasa-san cleaves the Bullet Piece with the edge of her Aegis.

"gh!!"

Undeterred, I fire the M1911—fifth, sixth shots.

"Struggling in vain."

She evades effortlessly.

"Piercing bullets, huh. But with that alone you can't pin down Space Girl. Without the Bullet Piece and the other guns, hitting me is impossible."

I fire the seventh shot straight at Tsubasa-san's face. She avoids it with a slight tilt of her head.

"Useless."

"N-no way..."

"Say, Shiki-chan, could you please not make this ugly? I want a brilliant finale."

I fire the last round of the M1911. Tsubasa-san twists lightly and the bullet misses.

"Ah... ahh..."

Empty.

I pull the trigger again and again, but no more bullets come.

"See? Everything moves just the way Tsubasa planned."

I drop the magazine to reload. At that instant two Aegises charge from behind. I barely dodge, but the impact knocks the M1911 from my right hand into the lake.

"No—!?"

"The moment you reload—been waiting for that. This is the grand finale."

Tsubasa-san raises the Aegis in her hand and accelerates with thrusters, launching a charging attack. I crouch on one knee to stay off the line of fire from the Aegis cannons.

(Two Aegises are tailing Tsubasa-san. Even if I dodge the charge, I can't escape their pursuit.)

Tsubasa-san... you're smart. You must know I still have one weapon left unused.

Yet you judged that if G-AGE were destroyed, the charge would be unstoppable.

And you're right. Even if I had a hidden assault rifle, sniper rifle, or bazooka, I couldn't block that charge. I couldn't strip the shields in an instant.

If I thrusted backward I'd leave the safety zone and lose. If I flew left, right, or up, the two trailing Aegises would finish me. To dodge the main thruster-assisted charge I'd have to break stance, leaving no room to evade the pursuit.

Perfect, Tsubasa-san. Choosing that shield charge for the finale was perfect.

—If I had exhausted G-AGE, that is.

(Thank you, Tsubasa-san, for staying sharp to the very end.)

I draw the second pistol from my belt.

It was materialized together with Dust Mirage: the trump card hidden on the back of my belt, concealed by the cloak.

"It went exactly as I planned."

I squeeze the trigger of the pistol in my hand.

The bullet pierces Tsubasa-san's shield and drills straight through the center of her chest.

"gh...!?"

The Aegis shatters.

With her thrusters destroyed at a vital point, Tsubasa-san's momentum dies and she tumbles across the lake.

"Y-you mean... you had two guard-piercing pistols...!?"

Kneeling, Tsubasa-san forces the words out with her last strength.

"Wrong. I only had one G-AGE."

Tsubasa-san looks back and forth between the M1911 floating in the lake and the G-AGE in my hand.

"Then... how...!?"

"From the moment we arrived at this lake until now, the pistol I've been using was just an ordinary M1911 painted to match G-AGE."

!?

From the beginning, I'd been using a fake G-AGE made by Chacha-san: a plain M1911 with no special abilities.

A fallback plan in case I missed with G-AGE, or in case Kurenai-san or Len-san had already used it and exposed its existence before I faced Tsubasa-san—my dummy gun.

Tsubasa-san stares up at me with a twisted face unbecoming of an idol.

I think she's realized—every scheme that brought us to this point.

"The bullets you were desperately dodging were just peashots your armor could have shrugged off."

Cracks spread across Tsubasa-san's body.

"You monster...!!"

Allowing her to see through the Bullet Piece was intentional too, so she'd believe that was my last resort. That attack alone couldn't have been fatal.

Every miss with the M1911 was deliberate—had even one bullet grazed her shield or her body, she'd have known it was fake.

Running out of bullets was deliberate, of course. Firing the empty trigger in such a pathetic way was also deliberate—an act to portray my helplessness.

Dropping the M1911 was deliberate too. I let Aegis knock it into the lake on purpose.

I also deliberately gave her the chance to aim for my reload. Before that, I showed her one reload, letting her see that the M1911 couldn't be reloaded in an instant. In truth I could do it faster, but I slowed it just enough—imperceptibly—to make it look like an opening. And since I had only one hand, the reload must have looked like the perfect bait.

Layer upon layer of acting and staging.

Everything was to lower your guard, to lure you to a spot no luck or talent could let you dodge from.

Everything was for this single strike to land.

"Dead on."

Tsubasa-san was deleted, and Marshmallow Smile's victory was secured.

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