Side Story: America Now

Side Story: America Now

Side: None

Miami, Florida, USA.

It was one of the world's premier resort destinations, famous for its white-sand beaches.

But wherever the light shines brightly, shadows naturally form. Gangs. Smugglers. International criminal organizations.

The police continued to battle such elements.

But this had nothing to do with the evil of the 'human world.' It was an age when the evil of the 'divine world' could now reveal itself with ease.

"Aaaaaaah!?"

A scream echoed down the main street.

The street was lined with glamorous buildings, while taxis and luxury cars came and went. Yet this place, where even the underworld's inhabitants rarely caused a scene, had been stained red.

People lay fallen everywhere. Men and women, regardless of race or wealth, had holes torn through various parts of their bodies and lay sprawled across the ground.

A large man holding a gun stood among them. His bloodshot eyes darted about as he frantically waved his handgun from side to side.

No one could mistake his mental state for calm. At first glance, the carnage appeared to be the result of his rampage.

But he was merely one more pitiful victim.

"D-don't come near me, you monster! Stay away!"

A gunshot rang out. A bullet fired without aim struck a road sign with a shrill clang.

The next bullets gouged the road and scarred a wall. After this happened several times, all that could be heard from the gun in his hands was a series of clicks.

"A-ahhh...!"

As he turned pale at the sight of his empty gun, a monstrous creature appeared before him.

Only moments earlier, there had been nothing there. The being had appeared as though seeping out of the air itself.

It was about as tall as the large man. But its face was beyond anything that could be described as merely intimidating.

It was a fish. Its round, emotionless eyes stared blankly, while sharp fangs showed through a mouth without lips. Its damp, scaled face belonged to a predatory fish.

Its heavily muscled body was also covered in scales, and it gripped a three-pronged spear in one hand.

'Gigi...'

It made a sound no ordinary fish would ever make. Then the corners of its mouth lifted.

The man holding the gun thrust a knife at the monster, his eyes bloodshot, as it grinned eerily.

"Don't you dare look down on me, you monster!"

The blade was thick enough that, in the hands of the right person, it might have split even a cow's bone. The man swung it at the monster without hesitation.

But the blade passed through as if he had swung it at mist. Immediately afterward, the three-pronged spear pierced the man's throat.

"Agh..."

'Gigi...!'

The fish-faced monster drove its fangs into the fallen man as it laughed.

'Sahagin'

The fish-human monsters were not limited to that single one.

Ten... twenty... more than fifty of them were enjoying slaughter and a meal in that place.

Creatures invisible to ordinary people were greedily devouring the blood and flesh of the people there.

The sound of a dog barking joined the chaos. Immediately afterward came the panicked voice of a little girl.

'Woof! Woof!'

"No! No, John! Please, be quiet...!"

Behind a car that had crashed after being attacked by sahagin, a girl desperately hugged a medium-sized dog and tried to calm it.

Three monsters noticed them and began to approach slowly. They deliberately adjusted their mana so ordinary people could see them, grinning maliciously as they came.

"Eek...!"

The girl, not yet ten years old, drew a tight breath in her throat. She could do nothing but cling to the dog, which had only now begun to whimper fearfully, and stare at the monsters.

The three-pronged spears were raised, as though taking aim at her wide-open eyes.

Just before they came crashing down—

"Hyaaaaaah!"

A deep war cry split the air, and an axe smashed through the sahagin's right arm at the same time.

'Gigiigii!?'

The staggering monster cried out, but the axe sank into its neck on the backswing. The intruder forced the blade through to the bone with sheer strength, then slammed the sahagin's body into the ground.

The other two fishmen immediately raised their weapons, but an arrow pierced one of them and a spear pierced the other.

"You charged too far ahead, Morgan!"

"I had an urgent matter! Thanks for the cover!"

"You owe me a beer later!"

Standing in front of the girl was a tough guy more than two meters tall.

He proudly displayed his well-developed muscles. The only garment he wore was a pair of black pants around his waist. Several belts were wrapped directly around his skin, and he wore a horned helmet on his head.

With an axe in his right hand and a shield in his left, the man flashed the girl a broad grin.

"It's all right now! Run away quickly! Get up and run!"

"Y-yes!"

At his words, the girl immediately ran off with her beloved dog.

With no time to watch them go, the man—Morgan—readjusted his grip on his axe and shield.

A knightly man carrying a spear took his place beside him, while a Chinese-style woman behind them drew her bowstring taut.

"...You've certainly been rampaging to your heart's content, you monsters."

'Gigi...!'

The sahagin turned their eyes toward the three people who had suddenly appeared and could actually harm them.

The difference in numbers was overwhelming. But the three stared back at the monsters without flinching.

"From here on, you're fighting us!"

'Giiii!'

Morgan and the knightly man charged, while an arrow fired by the Chinese-style woman flew past them.

The sahagin naturally moved to meet them, but the points of their tridents were deflected by shields and armor, while steel blades tore into their bodies in return.

"Hyaaaaaah!"

"Hmph! Hmph! Hmph!"

"Hah...!"

Morgan used his massive frame to send several of them flying at once with shield bashes.

The knightly man swung his spear with sweeping force, while the Chinese-style woman precisely picked off the individuals approaching from the two men's blind spots.

"We've spent a year training in dungeons! You don't stand a chance against us now!"

"Morgan! We have company! A powerful mana signature is approaching!"

"What!?"

A new monster appeared, pushing aside the sahagin being cut down around it.

It stood two and a half meters tall. The fishman was so massive that even Morgan had to look up at it. Its features and dorsal fin revealed what kind of fish had been mixed into its form.

'Shark Blood'

The shark fishman raised the two-pronged spear in its hands without a war cry. Its spearhead was so long and thick that it was difficult to distinguish from a glaive.

"Damn...!"

Morgan immediately stepped in front of Shark Blood and raised his shield, preventing it from targeting the rear guard.

But in the next instant, his body went flying.

"Huh?"

A vacant-sounding voice escaped him, and his broad back slammed into the asphalt.

Then agony seared through his brain.

"Gaaaaaah!?"

Morgan's wide eyes stared at the place where his left hand had been.

His hand had been pulverized along with the shield, and everything below his wrist was scattered around him as chunks of flesh.

"No...!"

"This is bad! Shark Blood is supposed to have physical abilities comparable to an 'orc'...!"

The remaining two were shaken by their leader's injury.

The sahagin did not miss that opening.

"Gwah!"

"D-don't come near me!"

Unable to withstand the impact of the tridents thrust at him from all sides, the knightly man fell over. The sahagin began closing in on the Chinese-style woman, surrounding her atop the roof of the car.

Outnumbered and outmatched, Morgan crouched while clutching his wound as the shark fishman lumbered toward him.

The spearhead mercilessly smashed through his skull.

Nearby, the remaining two were surrounded by sahagin and repeatedly stabbed with spears without mercy.

The monsters raised a victorious roar over their motionless enemies.

'Gaaaaaaaaaah!'

"Hyaaaaaaaaaah!"

Then a human man's voice joined the uproar.

An armored warrior came running toward them at full speed. Wearing Japanese armor and a helmet, he charged the sahagin with a sword in hand.

Compared with the earlier three, his movements were clearly those of an amateur. But he was fast.

Shark Blood readied its weapon, fully alert. In less than ten seconds, the distance of several hundred meters between them had vanished.

"Hyaaah!"

'Gwaaah!'

The weapons of the two crossed, leaving trails through the air.

Shark Blood's torso was cleaved cleanly in two.

There was no need to explain what happened to the sahagin after that.

＊　　　　　＊　　　　　＊

Washington, the White House.

"Damn it, I have to get there at once...!"

"Wait, Samuel! You don't need to go!"

Vice President Tyler grabbed President Freeman by the shoulder as he literally tried to dash out of the conference room.

"Let go, Miguel! I'm Big Brother!"

"It's over! Japanese ability users have arrived at the scene and exterminated the enemy. From here on, it's the doctors' and firefighters' job. You'll only cause confusion at the scene if you go!"

"Damn it...!"

As the vice president spoke with a smartphone in one hand, President Freeman lowered his head.

After letting out a relieved breath when Freeman stopped moving, the vice president gestured with his eyes for the other participants to leave. No one objected, and soon only the two of them remained in the conference room.

"...Miguel. How many victims?"

"...More than a hundred confirmed so far. Three of them were ability users from the state National Guard who rushed to the scene."

"I see..."

President Freeman clenched his large fist with a harsh grinding sound.

"If only I had realized sooner...!"

"It couldn't be helped... Catherine isn't here anymore."

Deep shadows fell across both their faces.

Catherine had supported President Freeman since the time he became a congressman. She had died only three days earlier.

The cause of death was a fire caused by negligence. She and her family had burned to death together. The condition of the bodies had been so terrible that they could barely tell who was who; they had identified them as Catherine and her family only from the circumstances.

"...The true cause of death is still under investigation. Catherine couldn't have died through mere carelessness...!"

"...You're right. But if she was murdered, then who could have done it...?"

"I don't know. But there are plenty of enemies even inside the White House. Don't let your guard down. I won't, either."

Vice President Tyler deliberately kept silent about the information uncovered after Catherine's smartphone was examined in painstaking detail.

He still could not believe it himself. If anything, he was trying to believe that someone had attempted to frame her.

The possibility that Catherine had been supplying weapons to 'Calamity' was unthinkable given everything known about her career and personality.

Tyler even suspected that she had not merely changed, but that someone else had taken her place.

"...Let's change the subject. The ability users we headhunted from Japan have been doing excellent work. As expected, Japanese and British ability users seem to possess exceptional spiritual talent."

"...Yes, they have."

President Freeman took a deep breath, then turned to Vice President Tyler.

"But why are they leaving their homeland and immigrating to America in such numbers? I've been told their numbers are still growing... I hear that in Britain, ability users are granted the title of 'Sir' and serve in Europe's defense."

"Because they all believe in you, Samuel."

Vice President Tyler shrugged exaggeratedly.

"Japan has one of the deepest divides between ability users and non-ability users among the developed nations. If there is a developed country whose president—the representative of its people—is an ability user, it isn't strange for them to flow there."

"I see..."

That was precisely why Japanese ability users were so quick to accept America's offers.

Vice President Tyler's expression did not change, but inwardly he frowned.

Japan had been leaning toward excluding ability users to an unnatural degree. Only recently had it finally begun returning to normal.

Some countries treated ability users almost as though they were witches to be hunted. But most developed nations were instead working to keep them close.

Few countries were as unusual as a certain nation that conscripted every ability user in the country and used every existing technology available to impose rigid brainwashing. Even so, Japan's active attempts to drive its strongest ability users abroad raised questions.

However, Tyler pushed the matter to the back of his mind, knowing that telling President Freeman anything short of confirmed information would only cause trouble.

More than anything, unlike the president who called himself 'Big Brother to all humanity,' the vice president was, in a sense, a properly political man who thought first of his own country's interests.

"Still, losing three elite members of the state National Guard is a serious blow. There are so few ability users capable of fighting as it is..."

"I suppose that means I have no choice but to deploy more often...!"

"Learn Clone ninjutsu first. Don't forget your duties as president."

"Ngh...! If I really put my mind to it, I can attack simultaneously with my afterimages...!"

"...I see."

While recoiling inwardly, Vice President Tyler maintained a serious expression.

"Speaking of which, Miguel. What happened to that 'Gladiator'? There was talk of using the prototype to create mass-produced models..."

"To be honest, we haven't made much progress. Producing magical devices with machinery is more difficult than we expected. They won't function properly unless an ability user makes them by hand."

"I see... That's disappointing. Still, have the staff continue their research. Gladiator's technology may prove useful in another field someday."

"I hope so too. We paid a great deal to have it made. It needs to do more than serve as an election mascot."

"───What did you say?"

President Freeman's eyes sharpened. Vice President Tyler twisted his mouth as if he had just let something slip.

"Miguel. Don't tell me that, at such a critical time, you used an enormous budget and a valuable production-type ability user solely for an election?"

"Not just for that. I hope we'll be able to mass-produce them someday. Besides, the people need reassurance. Otherwise, economic activity will stagnate. Think about the country as a whole, Samuel."

"But false reassurance will peel away in an instant! When the people learn that what they trusted was a lie, they will suffer even deeper despair!"

"That's why we need to bring even more Japanese ability users to America before that despair arrives! And for that, we need you to remain president!"

"What!? Are you saying you want to turn even me into a bunny girl standing outside a store to lure in customers!? Is that how you've been looking at me, Miguel!?"

"No! No, no, no! Listen, Samuel! I don't want to see you dressed as a bunny girl! No, that's not it! That's not what I mean, Samuel! I'm thinking of the national interest!"

"This is a time when humanity must join hands and cooperate! Monsters are not nations! There is no possibility of resolving this through negotiation! This is not the time to fight over pieces of the pie! You have to understand that!"

"All these pretty platitudes! Just because we have a common enemy, do you really think people can understand one another!? People act only for profit! Morality is merely a supplement to that!"

President Freeman and Vice President Tyler glared at each other with enough force to send spittle flying.

They were clashing over opinions they would never reveal at a press conference. Precisely because they were close, their tempers flared.

"Then are you saying you stay by my side for profit alone!?"

"That's right! Otherwise, who would put up with someone like you...?"

At that point, Vice President Tyler's words finally stopped.

He had seen the genuinely wounded expression on his friend's face.

"...No. That's not what I meant, Samuel..."

"...No, it's all right. What you said has some truth to it."

Vice President Tyler tried to say something, but President Freeman stopped him with a raised hand.

Normally, before they became this heated, their dependable secretary would have stopped them by force if necessary. Then she would have sighed in exasperation and broken down their arguments so she could explain each side to the other.

But Catherine was gone. The president's chief secretary was no longer in this world.

As silence took control of the room, there was a knock at the door.

"...What is it?"

"My apologies, Mr. President. It is nearly time for the White House's 'Magic Inspection'..."

"...Understood. Sorry. I'll go now."

President Freeman nodded to the second secretary, who delivered the report with visible trepidation.

Both men thought this was no time for that. But neither said it aloud. Somewhere in their hearts, they had wanted to put some distance between themselves for a while.

'Magic Inspection' was the work of one of the Japanese ability users they had headhunted: a person with a magic eye capable of seeing mana, who checked the building and its staff for suspicious magical reactions.

Normally, it should have been carried out without warning, but that was impossible at the White House. The date and time had to be announced a week in advance so preparations could be made.

"...Do you think Catherine was being controlled by magic? Otherwise, how could she have died like that...?"

"...Who knows? Everything is still shrouded in darkness."

The two men left the conference room side by side.

Despite standing side by side, a deep gulf had formed in their hearts.