Rune Troopers: Self-Defense Forces Adventure - Chapter 3: Shots Fired (Part 3)

But instead of being frightened, they begin to laugh.

“Hahaha! These comedians are delirious!”

“Hilarious!”

“Those kids are going to take you all the way to hell for a good time!”

As foul-mouthed words echoed through the corridor, the child’s young hand was gently held by a girl submerged in fresh blood. Her face was no longer pale. Death was approaching.

The children could not leave the side of the lady-in-waiting, who had taken care of them since their arrival at the castle as servants and who was like a sister to them.

Why must they be subjected to such an unreasonable situation? Why couldn’t anyone help them?

The children remembered the fairy tale the girl had told them at their bedside.

When someone is in danger, God sends a Hero.

Where was this Hero?

The children looked up at the men over there. They were strangers they had never seen before, dressed in a strange mixture of green and brown. They were staring intently into our eyes, anguish clinging to their expressions.

“Onii-chan, please help me! Save my sister!” The children exclaimed.

It didn’t need to be a Hero, but anyone who could save them.

Kuze gritted his teeth at the children’s heartfelt cries. At that moment, Kato shouted in his ear.

“A local civilian rescue call was confirmed! Eliminate any imminent unauthorized infringement on protected targets!” Kuze was startled by Kato’s words.

The PKO(Peacekeeping Operations) Dispatch Law had standards for the use of weapons: Any use of force to protect Self-Defense Force personnel or persons under their control permits the use of force only to the minimum necessary.

Now, these kids had told themselves they needed help. And Kato, the on field Commander, accepted it. Under these conditions!

Kuze stared at the black knight in front of him.

“To… get… fast… ku…” With the last of her strength, the girl said to the children. But they were not about to do so.

“Waaaaan! Onee-chan! Please, someone help me!” 

A black shadow stood beside them. He held a long sword in his hand and took a downward thrusting posture.

“Shut up, barbarians, shut up and die..”

—And three popping sounds, as if something had been slammed into them, rang out. The black armor flew backward and crumbled against the wall.

Kink! 

With the sound of metal clashing against the floor, a golden cylindrical object rolled across the marble floor.

The black knights had no way of knowing that it was the empty casing of a NATO-standard 5.56 mm high-speed rifle bullet. 

A cloud of gunpowder smoke was rising from the muzzle of Kuze’s Type 89 5.56 mm rifle. In order to ensure that he could subdue them, Kuze had switched the safety to a three-point shot, which shoots three bullets instantaneously, instead of a short shot, and pulled the trigger.

“Wha…!?”

“Ruid!?”

Seeing their comrade leaning against the wall, cunningly spurting blood, the black knights didn’t seem to understand what had happened for a moment. They were stunned and stopped moving.

However, they soon realized that the strange people in front of them had done something. Especially the young man who was pointing some kind of strange staff at them.

“You! Kill him!”

The enraged men rushed toward them all at once. A clear act of hostility. In this case, it was possible to hand out permission.

“Justifiable defensive shooting!” As if repelled by Kuze’s command, the men all pointed their guns at the black knights. Then, the firing flares flashed.

With a rumbling sound of gunfire, they were hit by countless bullets.

“Ugh!”

“Geez..!”

The black knights fell down so quickly. Not to mention their armor, even bulletproof vests could not prevent the high-speed rifle bullets from penetrating. The winner was decided in a span of five seconds.

“Hold your fire! Stop shooting! Don’t shoot, you idiot!” Kuze shouted at the top of his voice and stopped firing.

“Hee-hee…” Kato covered his ears and stared at the scene. Every single one of the black knights had died. It was only natural to die after being hit by a rain of bullets at such close range.

“Would you judge it as excessive self-defense?” Kuze asked Kato as he replaced the magazine of the Type 89 rifle he had just shot out.

His breathing was short and labored. The hand holding the rifle was trembling. Kato stared at Kuze’s face after killing and wounding the enemy.

As a self-defense officer, you have to carry out the act of using a weapon against a human being in some cases. But that did not mean that they could easily become like emotionless machines.

Kato thought about offering words of comfort, but then decided against it, thinking that now was not the time to do so. Instead, he looked into Kuze’s eyes and answered under the responsibility of being more senior than him.

“No. It was a legitimate use of a weapon, in my opinion.” 

“Are we going to talk about that too, if we make it out of here alive?” Kuze was on a kind of adrenaline high from the experience of real combat. After making a self-deprecating joke, he found himself laughing dryly and hastily erased the expression on his face.

Then he turned his attention to the child, noticing something significant. The girl still seemed to be breathing.

“What’s the girl’s condition?”

“The arrow, fortunately, missed the spine. But she’s lost a lot of blood, and if we pull the arrow out, she’s going to bleed out a lot! Damn, I should have brought a medic with me!” 

Kuze shook his head at his subordinate’s words.

“ Let’s make a first aid stretcher and carry her to the helicopter! The medical bay of the transport ship has a doctor and an operating room, and if we can get there in time, we might be able to save her!”

“I understand, I’ll get you some first-aid kit and perform emergency treatment!” 

Kuze bent his knees and looked at the children, then said in as gentle a tone as she could.

“You guys are coming with this big sister of yours. It’s okay…” As he said this, he wondered what would be considered okay.

In the middle of the battlefield what could be defined as okay? Kuze was already torn.

“Onii-chan will protect you! So don’t worry!”

The children turned their weeping eyes to Kuze. It was then he realized that he fired shots in order to protect these children.  At the very least, he realized it was not a mistake.

“Are you the Hero, Onii-chan?” Just as Kuze was busy in his thoughts, one of the children asked.

“Huh?”

“You’re the Hero, aren’t you?”

He didn’t quite understand what these children were saying, but decided to answer anyway.

“I’m sorry, but I am no Hero.”

“Then what is it?”

He chuckled, patted them both on the head, and muttered.

“Just a government employee…”