Two People I Can Rely On

Two People I Can Rely On

After proving that Kenning was the real thing, we moved to the living room of the Takanashi household.

"Hmm, hmm. So, to sum it all up..."

Folding her arms beneath her ample chest, Riko-senpai spoke.

"Miyu-chi came from a parallel world a hundred years in the future, making her effectively a person from the future."

"Yes."

"If things stay as they are, Japan will be destroyed within a few years. And there are monsters lurking within the government."

"Yes."

"We have no idea how to stop that, but decided we need military strength first."

"Yes."

"And you want to repair that humanoid robot, Kenning, but have no connections to anyone who can do it... Is that right?"

"Yes. Exactly."

"Uh-huh, got it."

After closing her eyes and nodding repeatedly, she said:

"Before I saw that robot, I could've said, 'What the hell are you talking about?' But now..."

She let her weight sink into the backrest, her brows drooping.

"There's no way ordinary people can do anything about this. This is totally a N●bita-kun or J●an/Cona● situation. Or maybe one for their mothers."

"Honestly, I thought the same thing."

I desperately wanted Dora●mon's whole gang or the Ko● parent-and-child duo to come help us. Then again, if there were a Dora●mon around in the future, we wouldn't have been driven this far in the first place.

"Actually, I still haven't really accepted this. Is that really something from the future? Couldn't it secretly be a modern masterpiece someone worked insanely hard to create?"

"If it were, we'd have to ask why it was in a place this rural."

"Exactly."

As we were having that exchange, the Master brought coffee for everyone.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. Sorry, Takanashi-chan, for using your kitchen without asking."

"No, not at all. I'm the host, yet I feel bad making you prepare everything."

"Don't worry. Unlike Riko, I'm not very familiar with SF-type stuff."

With a troubled look, the Master sat down.

"But I do know you're not the sort of person who would tell a lie like this."

Seeing the Master smile gently, Riko-senpai gave a small sigh.

"If Grandma says so too, then I guess it's gotta be true. Fine, time to switch gears."

"Thank you, both of you."

Following Takanashi-san, who bowed deeply, I bowed as well.

"No, no, don't worry about it. More importantly, Miyu-chi, can I see Kenning's OS? And, if possible, its maintenance manual too?"

"Yes. Here."

Saying so, she handed Riko-senpai the terminal she had brought from the future.

"It contains a maintenance manual left by the person who maintained the machine in the future. It also has a copy of part of the OS."

"Thanks. Lemme take a look."

Riko-senpai took the terminal, but her cheek immediately began to twitch as she looked at the screen.

"Wow. I expected it, but it's all in English. This is gonna be rough without a dictionary."

...Conversely, could she read it with a dictionary? That thing?

I'd been allowed a brief look myself, but even with English textbooks and a dictionary, I hadn't managed to decipher a single page.

Perhaps noticing me staring, Riko-senpai waved her hand.

"Ah, this is the kind of thing you can't read properly without at least some mechanical knowledge, Otaku-kun. But this person who wrote the manual seems to have broken everything down pretty well. Even I can understand it in broad strokes."

"As I recall, the maintenance chief made that manual for the personnel hastily assembled. He sent it to me, saying I should look it over as well."

"Ohhh, so it's for rookies and pilots. ...Huh. No wonder you called it a masterpiece mass-produced machine that's been in use for fifty years, Miyu-chi. This is simpler than I expected."

"Really, Riko?"

"Yeah, Grandma. I think even a small local machine shop could repair it to some extent. They'd still need ability-related technology, so it wouldn't be perfect, though."

Riko-senpai said it matter-of-factly.

Her words startled me again. We hadn't even explained anything about small local workshops. Had she figured that out just from glancing at the manual?

As I stared, Riko-senpai held her coffee cup in her left hand and grinned.

"Heh heh. I'm in the programming course at St. White Lily Girls' Academy, you know? This is a piece of cake for me."

St. White Lily Girls' Academy... That was supposed to be an elite school for young ladies.

Even in this era of declining birthrates, it maintained its status as a girls' school and sent successful applicants to prestigious universities every year.

"Heh heh heh. I'm an elite gy—ow!?"

This weirdo...?!

So it really was true that there was only a fine line between a fool and a genius.

"Honestly, Riko. You usually add extra milk, but you tried to drink it black just to look cool."

"There are moments when a gyaru absolutely has to look cool, Grandma...!"

Probably not now, Riko-senpai.

"Well, I'm a software specialist. Hardware isn't my field, so I'll have to leave that to Grandma."

"That's right. If we're talking about a local machine shop, then this is where I come in."

With a determined hmph, the Master clenched both hands.

"Wait. Does that mean you have specialized knowledge of machinery too, Master...?"

"No, no. Like I said, I don't understand that sort of thing at all."

"Grandma's the kind of person who still calls game consoles 'the beep-beep.' Don't underestimate her."

"'The beep-beep'...?"

Was that some kind of sound effect? Come to think of it, I vaguely remembered hearing somewhere that people in the Showa era called game consoles that.

"I happen to have a lot of connections. Leave it to me!"

"Hmm... Master, I think you have a small face, though."

"Takanashi-san, that was an idiom... She means she knows a lot of people."

"I see. So that's what she meant."

The Master gave a wry smile at Takanashi-san's reaction.

"Ahaha... There are several workshops near the café. They used to make bicycle and automobile parts, but would that be good enough, Riko?"

"Yeah. They should be able to make things like motors and other parts around here. Seriously, this humanoid robot is simple. Aside from the hardware and the ability-related parts, it uses mostly old technology even by this era's standards."

Riko-senpai gazed at the tablet's screen, half exasperated and half impressed.

"Whoever made this was definitely a genius. Not a genius at creating new things, but a genius at combining existing technology."

Having said that, she returned the tablet to Takanashi-san.

"...Well, I don't understand the ability-related parts at all! And the important parts of the system are almost completely black boxes too!"

"So even you can't unlock them, Riko-senpai?"

"Nope, nope, nope, not a snowball's chance! The security here is crazy tight. There's no way a mere student can crack it. Heck, I doubt even the teachers at my school could do it."

"Right..."

It was a military machine, after all. That was only natural.

"So what are we going to do about the ability-related parts? The frame, for example?"

"Ah, we have a plan there. Takanashi-san and I were thinking of preparing the lumber."

"I see. That's your Unique Ability, Yahiro-kun?"

"Yes."

When I nodded at the Master's words, Riko-senpai rested her chin on her hand.

"Huh. I didn't know you had a Unique Ability too, Otaku-kun."

"Yes, though only technically... 'Too'?"

Her wording caught my attention, and I tilted my head.

In response, the Master looked at me blankly too.

"Huh? Didn't I tell you?"

"Um... tell me what?"

"Riko and I both have Unique Abilities."

"Wha—"

Takanashi-san and I both froze.

Ability users were said to number one in ten thousand in Japan. And among them, people with Unique Abilities were considered especially rare.

I hadn't expected to find a grandmother and granddaughter who both had one standing right in front of me.

More importantly, what did that make of my identity...?!

"Ours are hardcore combat types, so our Unique Abilities aren't much use in a situation like this."

"Yeah. I don't think we'll be able to help very much."

"No, even your software support and introduction to the machine shops would be a huge help."

Ignoring my stunned state, Takanashi-san recovered first and bowed.

The Master waved her hands with a troubled look.

"No, no, it's nothing you need to worry about. But how should we explain this...?"

"You can just say you want to conduct an experiment combining golems and machines, right? Everything except the 'experiment' part would be true."

"...Yes, that's right. People everywhere are working on projects like that, large and small."

Somehow straightening my posture, I joined the conversation.

After it became clear that golems were less useful than expected, countries and ability users everywhere had tried to see if they could improve them.

It wouldn't be strange for a rural clan to join in. As long as we didn't show them Kenning, we could cover it up by saying it wasn't going well.

"Hmm... I feel bad, as though we're deceiving them..."

"But Grandma, there's no way we can tell anyone about this. We can't even tell the other clan members. Absolutely not."

"You're right... We have to harden our hearts!"

With a grave expression, the Master steeled herself.

I'd expected it, but this woman really was terrible at lying.

"Oh, but what about the money...? We're friends, but we can't exactly do this for free..."

"Oh, right... Even if the structure is simple, having someone make it would definitely cost about as much as buying a used car."

The Master and Riko-san held their heads, but Takanashi-san shook her head.

"No, that's not a problem. I'll pay."

"Huh? Miyu-chi, are you really that rich? Even for us, a sudden expense like this would be seriously painful."

"Yes. Fortunately, I have money Demi-chan-shi gave me."

"Oh... that Demiurge person. The 'Day of Regression' broadcast, Miyu-chi's time slip... None of this makes any damn sense."

I felt the same way. I had no idea what she wanted.

If I thought about it simply, she probably wanted to set up a countermeasure against the tragedy to come... but even then, it seemed far too roundabout.

Maybe she had some circumstances of her own, or perhaps another goal...

"Well, even if we tried to figure that out now, we don't have enough information, so there's no point."

Riko-senpai clapped her hands.

"Grandma will commission the parts from the nearby workshops. Miyu-chi will pay. Otaku-kun will prepare as many of the ability-related parts as he can. And I'll input the machine's balance and stuff."

"Yes. Thank you for your help, everyone."

"But, like... the most important part, or rather... Is it really true that there might be monsters among the politicians?"

Riko-senpai folded her arms beneath her chest again.

Her gaze seemed to hold more anxiety and fear than suspicion.

"Because if that's true, I get a really bad feeling that no matter how hard we work, we're screwed. Is that confirmed information?"

"It wasn't confirmed even a hundred years in the future. However, people did say the possibility was high. But..."

Takanashi-san creased her brow vertically for just a moment.

"That was only in a parallel world. We don't even know whether Ishiyama Iwako—'Rosso Vendetta'—is good or evil."

"What kind of cringey name is that?"

The self-proclaimed 'gyaru who's kind to otaku' was pretty cringey herself.

"Is Ishiyama-chan joining the clan?"

"Yes, Master. In the future, she is famous as a mass murderer."

"What...?!"

The Master opened her eyes wide in disbelief.

They must have already interviewed her, but Ishiyama-san had seemed like a perfectly normal person to her.

Well, apart from the whole chuunibyou thing.

"However, during the recent spiritual disaster, she fought with all her strength to protect the evacuation shelter."

Takanashi-san continued with a complicated look.

"Please help us determine what kind of person she is, Master. Whether Ishiyama Iwako will become a hero... or a monster."

"I don't know if I can really judge that, but... all right. I'll keep a close eye on her."

The Master met her gaze straight on and nodded.

"Also, a transfer student has come to Yahiro-san's school who appears to be a relative of Tōmi-san, one of the heroes spoken of in the future. Tōmi-san is said to be a police officer with Public Security, so perhaps she can identify the monster who has infiltrated the Diet."

"Oh? What, is this area some kind of singularity? Are there any other famous people from the future around here?"

Riko-senpai gave a daring grin and pointed at herself with her thumb.

"Like... this legendary super-gyaru, for example...!"

"No, not you, Riko-senpai."

"Wha—?!"

Riko-senpai slumped forward onto the table with an absurdly old-fashioned reaction.

Her ample breasts were pressed against the tabletop and spread sideways...!

"But Yahiro-san is quite famous."

"Takanashi-san, I don't think we need that information."

"No. I believe it would be better to explain that Yahiro-san is the legendary Super-Pervert Man, and that his female form is extremely popular."

"No. Absolutely not."

"Tell me more."

"I said we don't need that, you fake gyaru."

"You bastard! You mustn't say things like that!"

The revived self-proclaimed legendary super-gyaru narrowed her eyes and grabbed both my cheeks, pulling them.

It hurt a little. More than that, though, my heart leaped at her cool yet soft fingers.

Please stop. I'll fall for you.

"You two are really close."

"Yes. Strong cohesion within the unit is a good thing. Now, regarding Yahiro-san's female form..."

This was no time to be swooning. I had to stop that clueless person from the future.

After that, Riko-senpai laughed like crazy when she saw someone else's gender-swapped character. That was enough to kill a love that had lasted a hundred years.

"Who are you calling a feminized hero, huh?!"