Reincarnated as the Villain Who Experiments on Orphanage Kids – Why Are the Test Subject Girls Begging Me for "Night Experiments"? - Chapter 25

Chapter 25: That Is the Strongest Mad Scientist

“Don’t mess with me! That guy isn’t a ramen shop worker!”

Priere, Rafal, and Fioraia had just taken down Jimbara, an executive of the Rebellion.

Right when I thought we had beaten the tough enemy and the fight was over,

an angry voice rang out around us.

It wasn’t the roaring growl from before. It was the furious shout of one adult man.

“…Huh?”

While I stood there confused, Jimbara got back up.

He still looked like a monster, but there was clear reason in his eyes now.

“Man, what is this body? It feels seriously gross. I’m not even human anymore.”

“That voice…!?”

The second Jimbara spoke, Priere’s eyes went wide in shock. She stared for a moment, then nodded like she understood.

“I see. So this is what that man turned into after becoming a monster.”

“Yeah! It’s you, little miss. Been a while.”

“Why do you still have your reason?”

“I don’t know either. I thought I was dead for sure. This drug is still in the test stage, so who knows what’ll happen. Basically, I’m a test subject too.”

Jimbara grinned.

From the way he talked, it sounded like Priere had already fought him.

Because of that fight, the beaten Jimbara ran to the orphanage.

Then he turned into a monster and attacked me.

So the direct reason I became a victim was Priere.

“……………………”

Damn it. I should have taught her not to poke her nose into extra stuff. As an educator, I failed.

“Huh. Looks like the other two are from the same group. So I just need to take you all out.”

Jimbara looked the three girls up and down with a nasty smile.

But the moment his eyes met mine, his expression changed right away.

“So who the hell are you?”

“A ramen shop worker, but?”

“No way! Why would a ramen shop guy be at an orphanage? Delivery?”

“Ah, we don’t do delivery. The noodles would get soggy. We put our life into delivering the best bowl every time.”

The boss inside me was aching. He wanted to ban this guy for looking down on ramen.

“You looking down on me?!”

But the one who got angry was him.

“Whatever. You’re not that guy. So I just need to kill everyone here.”

The second he said that, the color in his eyes changed.

The killing intent was insane. Just his stare was enough to make me flinch.

“You’re ready, right?”

“Of course!”

“Hmph, obviously!”

Even so, the three girls didn’t flinch at all.

If anything, they didn’t think they would lose for a second. It was really reassuring.

But I didn’t want round two to start here. This was the orphanage yard, after all.

I didn’t want to add more repair costs.

“Hey everyone, let’s move the fight somewh—”

“Let’s go!”

“Here I come!”

“Let’s do it!”

“Heh, I’ve already died once anyway. I’ll go as wild as I want.”

“Wait a second. At least not here, let’s go to the academy or some open space—”

“Taaaaah!”

No matter how much I tried to stop them, nobody listened. They wouldn’t stop.

And just like that, the rematch with Jimbara began.

“…Our orphanage doesn’t have money, you know.”

The day of living on bean sprouts was getting close.

A life of garlic ramen with extra vegetables (no noodles, just toppings).

※

After the second round started, a fierce back-and-forth battle unfolded.

“Priere!”

“I know! Fioraia!”

“Leave it to me! Taaaaah!”

The three of them showed perfect teamwork. Each one did her part and they launched flawless attacks.

If it was like before, Fioraia’s strike would have ended it right there.

“Kh—!?”

“What’s wrong? That all you got?”

But Jimbara with his reason back was way stronger than I imagined.

He flowed around the attacks with smooth footwork and threw in counter kicks.

“……”

Fioraia blocked with her sword guard on reflex, but the impact was so strong she lost her balance.

“Leave it to me!”

But the three didn’t fall apart there.

Right away, Rafal’s magic flew out. Wind stakes wrapped around his giant body like they were tying him down.

“Whoa, that’s some rare magic. But…”

Jimbara lightly swung his arm and the restraints broke. With the same force, a magic-powered shockwave swept the area.

“Whoa, close one!”

Rafal quickly backed away.

“Your movements are totally different from before!”

“Of course. Don’t lump me in with that monster.”

Earlier he had been a beast that lost all reason.

So his attacks were straight-line and just swinging with raw power.

But this Jimbara was different.

He had reason.

And more than that, every move showed real skill. Even his footwork was incredibly refined.

That’s why Priere and the others were struggling.

“………………”

Did something like this happen in the original story?

As far as I knew, it didn’t.

The Jimbara who fought the protagonist should have smiled and lost, moved by the protagonist’s brightness.

He overlapped his old training buddy with the protagonist.

At least he shouldn’t have turned into a monster.

So why did it turn out like this?

No matter how I thought about it, I had no clue. It was really strange.

“Look, I used to be a knight. I’ve been through my share of fights, so I can tell.”

The next second, Jimbara stepped in.

He circled behind Priere at explosive speed.

“You girls have no rhythm. It’s not just about swinging your sword with all your strength.”

“——!”

Before Priere could react, his claw came down.

Giiing! The sound of metal clashing rang out.

The one who blocked the attack with her sword was Fioraia.

“Hmph! In a fight, physical strength is justice!”

“Physical, huh… Yeah, little miss, you’ve got speed and power, but…”

Jimbara gave a cheerful grin,

“your core is a bit weak, isn’t it?”

He swept her leg with no wind-up.

“Whoa!?”

Fioraia couldn’t dodge and her stance broke. He followed up right away.

“I won’t let you!”

Priere quickly got her sword ready to block, but

“Little miss, you’re a bit too skinny, aren’t you?”

“——!”

“Whoa!?”

A huge impact hit, and both Fioraia and Priere got blown away together.

“Priere! Fiora!”

Rafal shouted.

She instantly cast her magic and sent a barrage of wind blades.

“Too slow!”

But Jimbara didn’t stop.

He dodged with light footwork and stepped in hard.

His big claw rushed at Priere.

“Ha—!?”

Priere twisted her body on reflex, but the claw was way too large.

She probably couldn’t dodge it completely.

So my body moved before I could think.

“…!”

I jumped in between them. I slammed the ball into the falling claw.

“Kh—!”

Right after, a crazy shock hit my whole body.

My arms creaked and my bones screamed. I didn’t expect the damage from draining hot water to come back all at once right now.

No way I can hold this. I seriously can’t take it.

But if I didn’t hold it here, Priere would get hurt.

As the head of the orphanage, I couldn’t let that happen.

“Don’t look down on a ramen shop worker!”

I clenched my teeth with everything I had.

My feet sank into the ground and my knees almost gave out, but I desperately held on.

“Damn it…!”

My arms were already near their limit from all the hot water draining.

But not yet. I could still endure.

If our shop gets super busy, I’ll have to drain even more hot water than this.

No way I’m reaching my limit over something like this!

I was firing myself up when it happened.

“Sai!”

A voice came from behind.

The next moment, my arms felt just a little lighter.

Priere must have added her sword from beside me.

“Opening!”

Then Rafal’s magic layered on top,

“Leave it to me!”

and Fioraia stepped in.

The four of us pushed back together with all our strength.

“Whoa! Close!”

Jimbara’s giant body got knocked backward.

The recoil made me stumble hard.

“…Haa… haa…”

My breathing was rough. My arms were shaking. My knees and lower back hurt.

But I somehow held on.

“You okay?”

I called out to Priere behind me.

“Yes. Sai is a god.”

“I see.”

Her answer was perfectly weird, but it sounded like she was fine.

But this situation was really bad if it kept going.

We were barely holding for now, but any moment someone could take a fatal hit.

The three girls were worn out more than I expected too. We needed a move to change the flow of the fight.

“Fuu…”

I let out a small breath and took it out of my pocket.

The other ball. But this wasn’t a normal ball. If it worked, it could flip the entire battle in one go.

“I’ve got one trump card.”

I told the three while keeping my eyes on Jimbara.

“I haven’t tested it, so I don’t know if it’ll succeed, but in theory it should work. It can end this fight.”

When I said that, Priere’s eyes sparkled.

“So it’s an experiment?”

“Yeah. This is an experiment. You could even call it a human experiment in a way.”

Depending on how you looked at it, that was true.

It was questionable if the current Jimbara could even be called human, but since he turned into a monster, it was worth trying.

“An experiment, huh. Our first experiment together, Master.”

“Hmph! Human experiments don’t scare me at all.”

“Fiora, are you shaking?”

“Shut up! Let’s do the experiment already!”

“Yes. Let’s do the experiment.”

Priere smiled brightly.

Then she stepped forward with her sword ready and declared loudly.

“Well then, shall we begin? Our — human experiment!”