The Story Where I, the Strongest Mercenary, Was Reincarnated as a Bullied Introverted High School Student ~ When I Was Freely Enjoying My School Life, for Some Reason the Girls Around Me Started Glancing at Me~ - Chapter 12: A Moving Reunion

“Gwooooh!”

Gilberto, who had been running with me, let out a cry of agony and collapsed. I instinctively stopped.

“Son of a bitch!”

Gilberto, still on the ground, shot a mafia member through the head with his assault rifle and said to me:

“Ryuji, I can’t run anymore! Leave me here! I’ll hold them off as long as I can!”

I ignored those words and hoisted Gilberto up.

“Hey! That’s reckless! You can’t run while carrying me!”

“Don’t talk, you’ll bite your tongue!”

I ran at full speed. The launch base should be just a little further. I didn’t want to lose any more comrades.

“H-he’s really running while carrying me! I weigh 108.4kg, you know?”

“You bastard… you gained the weight back… I told you to diet.”

I managed to reach right in front of the facility with the launch pad while carrying Gilberto. I couldn’t grasp the full scope, but it wasn’t that large a building.

“Unbelievable… we really escaped…”

“We’ll hide in these bushes…”

Gasping for breath, I lowered Gilberto to the ground, then I looked at his shot leg. This… he definitely couldn’t move anymore.

Gilberto forced a laugh.

“Leave me here. Without rocket launcher ammo, I’m just a charming fat guy.”

“I can’t leave you in a place like this. There should be somewhere to hide you inside the facility. One leg is fine, so you can walk from here.”

Forcibly lending Gilberto my shoulder, I stood up from the bushes. As if realizing something, Gilberto began to speak.

“Ryuji, I want to eliminate hunger from the world. That’s why we have to stop wars that cause poverty.”

“Yeah, I know. Even so, you eat too much.”

“Fat is a symbol of happiness. Besides, this body of mine is useful sometimes, you know?”

It was at that moment we were talking that I heard a ‘clang’ of something falling behind us.

Immediately after, I was shoved by Gilberto. What my surprised eyes saw was Gilberto diving toward a grenade that had fallen to the ground.

“Gil!”

“Ryuji, I’m counting on you!”

He turned a full smile toward me, and the grenade exploded. Gilberto’s large body protected me from the blast, and I was covered in his blood.

…I was probably still immature as a mercenary. I had always been bad at training to suppress emotions.

“Whew…”

Taking a deep breath, I sharpened my focus. I converted all the anger that seemed to burn my body into my own power and gripped the survival knife from Gilberto’s belt.

I’d kill them all. Every mafia member in this forest…

I became a demon and danced until the forest regained its natural silence… I annihilated all enemies.

“Hah… hah… Gil, Aaron. I’ve avenged you both.”

I removed the dog tag from Gilberto’s corpse and attached it to my necklace along with the other comrades’ tags.

◇◇◇

When I entered the missile launch facility, mafia corpses were scattered about. Seeing those bodies, I was certain whose work this was.

(That’s Oscar from the separate unit. Everyone’s necks are cleanly broken.)

Since it was a narrow indoor space, he must have eliminated all enemies inside the facility using only martial arts and surprise attacks without using guns. He was my martial arts instructor. I still had never beaten him even once.

While cautiously exploring the facility, I spotted a girl sneaking around.

“Hey, Char.”

“Eeeek! There’s still an enemy!? Don’t kill me, wait, Ryuji! A-are you okay!? There’s so much blood!?”

I reunited with Char, who had been targeting this base through the back entrance with Oscar’s separate unit.

“I’m fine, it’s all other people’s blood.”

“I-I see… What about the other comrades?”

“…”

“…I see, I understand.”

“What about your side? Where’s Oscar?”

“The last enemy was a martial arts specialist. Oscar got into a struggle with him… they fell off a cliff together…”

Saying that, Char showed me Oscar’s dog tag. He must have given it to her, prepared to die.

“I see… Looks like we’re the only two survivors. The missile?”

“Probably underground. The door to get there got deformed by a grenade so it won’t open, so I was looking for tools to fix it.”

“Alright, I can force it open. Show me the way.”

Following Char, I inserted an iron bar I’d found and opened the facility door. Beyond that, Char hacked open doors as we went down. Finally, a vast space and the missile warhead appeared.

“W-who are you people!?”

“Heroes of justice!”

I knocked out what seemed to be researchers around the missile. The large control panel screen showed 38 minutes remaining until launch. Apparently we’d made it just in time.

“Char, can you stop the missile from launching?”

“Leave it to me! That’s what I came here for!”

Cracking her knuckles, Char connected her laptop to the missile’s control panel. After a few minutes, she struck enter with a flourish and the missile’s launch timer stopped.

“Good! Now I’ll set the time bomb—”

As I started preparing, an alert began sounding.

“External cyber attack detected. This missile will self-destruct in 10 minutes.”

“10 minutes!? Char, can you stop it!?”

“…No good! It’s completely blocking system interference! We have no choice but to run!”

There was a self-destruct device for evidence destruction. The missile itself wasn’t that powerful. It only served as a spark for war.

Even so, we’d definitely be caught in the explosion before we could escape to safety in 10 minutes.

I looked around searching for a solution. And I found one.

“Char… take these.”

I put the comrades’ dog tags around Char’s neck, including my own dog tag, Miyamoto Ryuji’s…

“There’s a manual emergency blast door. I’ll close this to narrow the explosion range, so Char, run as far as you can in the meantime.”

“N-no way…! I don’t want to! I can’t be the only one to survive!”

I gently stroked the head of the sobbing Char.

“Char, live. And tell our families: ‘They had a noble end’. You’re the only one who’ll remember us.”

“N-no way… wuu…”

“There’s no time left! Partner Char, I’m counting on you!”

I immediately ran and turned the lever to close the blast door. It was a door that sealed the entire room where the missile was located. Naturally, it wasn’t designed to be operated by one person and was incredibly heavy.

“Goooooo! Char, go!”

I turned the lever with my trained muscles. Slowly but surely, the gate-like massive blast door was closing. As she ran through the door, Char looked at me while wiping her tears.

“Ryuji… I love you.”

I thought I heard those words in Japanese.

“Self-destruct in 10 seconds… 9… 8…”

After closing the blast door, I took out my family photo from my chest pocket. Char had surely been able to escape far away by now.

“Shiori, Yuuka, Masaya. Please be happy.”

3, 2, 1

Thus I completed my mission and gave away my life.

◇◇◇

And now, reincarnated as a high school student, before my eyes was Char, who had survived without a scratch.

She wore clean clothes, with her beautiful blonde hair arranged neatly. Except for her exceptionally beautiful face, she was no different from any high school girl you’d find anywhere.

“I have something to tell you about your husband, Miyamoto Ryuji.”

After Shiori showed a slightly surprised expression at those words, she composed herself and smiled warmly. Char was speaking Japanese fluently, having mastered the language she’d been studying.

“…Please come inside. I’ll make tea.”

“…Yes. Excuse me.”

Prompted by Shiori, Char entered the house.

In her hand, my dog tag was held preciously.