A hero who wants to help others wants to live a normal life - Chapter 51

Chapter 51   Catch Them All in One Fell Swoop

——◆◇◆◇——

“Can you climb up?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

After moving into action for a while, I was able to discover the source of the monsters. I then found the most suitable spot to target the location and pulled the other three up to the rooftop of a building.

“So, how about from here?”

It’s a bit of a distance, but my skills should reach this far. Plus, with this much distance, even if we fail, we can still escape. It would be great if we could wipe them all out, but since that might not be possible, it’s better to prioritize safety.

“Yes… there shouldn’t be any problems. From here, we can see the enemies clearly, and if we’re spotted, we should be able to escape quickly.”

“Whoa! There are so many enemies! It looks like it’ll be a blast if we fire off something there!”

Just like Rinrin said, monsters were swarming around where we were looking.

“Alright, you two, get ready.”

“Okay! Leave it to me!”

“Sakura, Moriya, if anything goes wrong, please retreat immediately.”

“Got it.”

“Yeah, leave it to us.”

After we nodded, Kujou stepped forward, standing at the edge of the building, and looked down at the monsters below.

“Whew… Rinrin, are you ready?”

“Absolutely! Bring it on anytime!”

Despite her usual lighthearted response, Rinrin’s expression was more serious than I’d ever seen, and her eyes were filled with determination.

“Alright then, here we go. –––– ‘Opening Again. I shall not forgive the evil that spreads in this world. All my pain and my life are dedicated to protecting people –––– I must repel all evil.'”

As Kujou calmly chanted the blessing as usual, a glowing ring with intricate patterns appeared above her head, and a divine-looking Japanese bow materialized in her hand.

“Renact! Light is terrifying. Sound is painful. The world is frightening. But that is precisely the mystery, the miracle. I seek these things. Let those who stand in my way burn in God’s wrath –––– I am one who enjoys the world.”

In contrast to Kujou, Rinrin finished chanting her skill with a strong, confident tone. A simple glowing ring appeared above her, and her entire body began to crackle with lightning.

The two of them, now fully prepared, exchanged glances and nodded at each other simultaneously…

“Here we go!”

“Boom! Crash! Blow them away!”

The two launched a powerful, wide-area attack.

A beam of light shot from Kujou’s hands, while another beam rained down on the monsters from above. Although both beams of light were different in nature, their goal was the same—to eliminate the monsters.

When the two beams, with their distinct properties, struck the horde of monsters simultaneously…

“Amazing…”

“But, with power like that…”

The beams tore through the monsters, scattering thunderous sounds and shockwaves in all directions.

“Sakura, what’s the status of the remaining enemies?”

Even Kujou, who seemed fatigued from unleashing such a powerful attack, staggered slightly as she returned from the edge of the building to the center, her voice noticeably less energetic than before.

“Hold on… I can’t see everything from here, but there are probably only two or three left. And those are injured from your arrows and lightning. We can probably take them down pretty easily now.”

The dust from the earlier attack still faintly covered the area where the monsters had been, but from what I could tell, there didn’t seem to be many moving shadows left. Even if any were still alive, there wouldn’t be many able to move after taking such a hit.

“I see. Can you two handle the remaining ones?”

“Just the two of us? Wouldn’t that be tough?”

She’s talking about me and Moriya, right? If you ask whether we can do it or not, we probably can. But it would be safer and more certain if Kujou and the others helped. Kujou knows that too, so the fact she’s asking us to take care of it means she must be really exhausted.

“Yes, with an attack of that magnitude, I’ve expended quite a bit of energy. I could still launch some basic attacks, but it would take at least thirty minutes, ideally an hour, to recover enough to fight properly.”

“What about you, Rinrin?”

I asked, but seeing her collapsed on the ground, it’s obvious she’s done for. Up until now, even after using her skills, she would only stagger a bit and could still move. This time, she must’ve put in much more effort.

“I’m out too… I really can’t move. I’d need at least a day to recover.”

“Looks like Rinrin’s just fine,” I joked.

She responded with a playful remark, so it wasn’t too serious. But using too much power beyond one’s limits with skills or blessings can cause people to lose consciousness or collapse. She might not be able to move, but at least it’s not that bad.

“Wait a sec! I’m not fine at all! I said I can’t move!”

“Come on, we can’t wait an entire day. If you can joke around like that, you’ve got some energy left, right?”

“I’m serious! I’m joking, but I really don’t have any strength left!”

Well, yeah, that makes sense. But I’m not going to be cruel and demand that they get moving right away either.

“There’s no rush. From here, we’ll know if anyone approaches that area. For now, why don’t we rest here for a while?”

“Yeah, that’s right. You and Kujou did all the heavy lifting, and I’m not going to push you too hard. You should rest, even if just for a bit.”

“Thank you.”

“I’ll keep an eye on the surroundings, so Moriya, can I count on you to guard them?”

“Of course. Leave it to me.”

——◆◇◆◇——

And so, we waited for Kujou and Rinrin to recover enough to move. After about 20 minutes of resting while keeping an eye out for enemies, we headed to collect the points from the monsters we had defeated…

“Huh? Sakura!”

As we reached the pile of charred monster corpses, Toudou’s team appeared at the same time. But something felt off—they seemed unusually frantic, almost like they were in a hurry. Even Toudou’s team members seemed tense for some reason.

“Hikari? I didn’t expect to see you here… but what’s going on?”

“What do you mean? There were a lot of monsters around, so we figured we could rack up a ton of points if we headed this way… but isn’t that why you’re here too?”

“We came for pretty much the same reason.”

Looks like everyone had the same idea. Well, we’d already beaten them to it.

“By the way, there was a huge lightning strike while we were on our way here. Do you know anything about that? It seems too convenient for lightning to strike the monsters out of nowhere in this weather…”

Of course, Kujou’s light arrows might not have been visible from certain angles, but Rinrin’s lightning came down from the sky, so anyone could have seen it.

Oh… Could it be that Toudou’s team has been on edge because of that? Maybe they think there’s some powerful enemy capable of summoning that kind of lightning, or they’re worried they’ll face a monster so dangerous that we needed to use lightning to defeat it.

“Oh, that? It’s a skill from Rinrin… I mean, Hayashi-san, a member of my team.”

“A skill? That was a skill? I thought one of the teachers used a ‘blessing’ because it was so powerful.”

“Yes, the power is impressive. So much so that, like you said, it could easily be mistaken for a ‘blessing.’”

“It’s rare to hear you compliment someone like that, Sakura… But from the way you’re saying it, does this person have some issues? Like, does their skill have side effects or something?”

“Well, something like that…”

Kujou probably didn’t mean anything by it, but a hint of exasperation leaked through, perhaps reflecting her pent-up feelings about Rinrin’s antics.

To be honest, Rinrin is full of problems—a walking disaster, really. Or maybe Kujou’s just exhausted, too tired to maintain her usual demeanor.

“Hey, could you not try to pry into our team’s information?”

I don’t blame Kujou for being worn out. The burden on her has been immense.

But this is still a test, and there’s the possibility we’ll be competing against other teams. Even if they’re close, like sisters, leaking information about our team isn’t something we can allow.

“Huh? Oh, it’s you. Isn’t ‘prying for information’ a bit much? This is just casual conversation, you know, normal stuff.”

“But you were asking about someone else’s skills and weaknesses, right? And we’re in the middle of a test, competing against each other. If you’re trying to learn about an opponent, it’s fair to say you’re trying to get information, don’t you think?”

“Well… yeah, I guess so.”

Toudou seemed a bit disgruntled but backed down after realizing I had a point.

“Kujou, I get that we come from different backgrounds and that you’re happy to see someone who’s like a little sister to you. But we’re a team right now, so you need to be more careful.”

“…You’re right. I’m sorry. I let my guard down a bit too much.”

Even though I was just stating the facts, seeing her look that apologetic made me feel like I was the bad guy. Maybe I should’ve just gone with the flow and let them chat. Ugh, this is why I don’t have friends, isn’t it?

“For the record, I’m not the little sister here. If anything, I’m the older one.”

Toudou chimed in, maybe trying to break the slightly tense mood.

“Huh?”

Kujou seemed genuinely surprised by Toudou’s comment. Like, really surprised.

“Wait, Sakura, what’s with the ‘huh’? Do you have a problem with that?”

“N-no, that’s not what I meant…”