SWNOVELXO 4 - There's No Allowance for Field Work (1)
While a combat soldier’s primary duty is to be a meat shield, that’s not to say we’re completely useless in regular extermination missions. When working collaboratively with other families, we also serve as servants and attendants, and when dealing with opponents beneath the direct family members’ dignity, we provide support alongside branch family members.
If you ask why a great family moves for such trivial matters, it’s because of face and money. For missions where it’s acceptable for a few combat soldiers to die, they really do grind us up. Since the compensation for special missions can exceed hundreds of millions of yen, we units worth tens of thousands of yen are quite useful resources. The cost of feeding and maintaining us is the same whether they buy new ones or use existing ones.
Anyway, today’s work was that kind of job—working with a private exorcist.
We briefly descended from the mountain and waited with one branch family exorcist for our partner to pick us up. In environments where a large number of personnel cannot be mobilized, combat soldiers who can handle everything from combat to hospitality must be used, and unfortunately, I fall into that category, so I’m often called for such tasks.
The most malicious aspect of this is that our Ohime is not in the best mood on days I’m absent, so after returning from journeys of at least one or two days, I had to indulge her sulking for a while.
Dealing with your boss’s tantrums after fieldwork and business trips? Isn’t that every office worker’s idea of hell?
How lamentable is my fate that I can’t even quit.
“Mr. Combat Soldier.”
“Yes, Lady Kanon. Do you have instructions for me?”
The person waiting quietly beside me was Kanon, an exorcist from a branch family. She was a character who appeared early and served as a companion, and she was quite vividly etched in my past life memories.
Hmm. Her activities were impressive. She dies tragically in every route.
Having her head eaten by an intelligent spider great yokai and dancing naked while hanging from threads, becoming a breeding ground for insect yokai, or was it Taira no Masakado, serving as the head for a Japanese-style Dullahan.
She was unforgettable as the character who demonstrated the game’s first gore/guro/interspecies/birth gimmicks. No joke, I vomited while playing the game.
As luck would have it, the first bad ending I saw was related to Kanon, and when I later checked the collection, the ending was named “The Taste of First Love.” For reference, it’s an ending where you’re forced to eat Kanon’s meat after she’s subjected to a dismemberment show by an oni.
Much later, when I looked it up on a wiki, I quietly confirmed it was classified as a “mild” bad ending, which became one of the reasons I quit the game.
Shit. It’s still horrifying to recall. Hattori, you bastard who recommended the game, I will find you and take revenge.
Though I’m just a mere combat soldier, perhaps my grudge as an exorcist can curse beyond worlds. I really hope that’s possible.
“Um, I heard that the person we’re working with this time is quite modern.”
“Yes. They’re quite different in style from the tradition-valuing Tachibana.”
“Will I be able to get along….”
She murmured anxiously, clutching her Buddhist implements. Of course she’s anxious.
A woman with dyed blonde hair, wearing sunglasses and firing pistols indiscriminately. Though I don’t know for sure until we meet, she doesn’t seem to match well with a proper young lady from a good family.
And apparently she makes good money and drives a sports car.
In some ways, she might be a character that fits the fin-de-siècle atmosphere permeating the entire work.
Original appearance? If she appeared later in the game, I don’t know. At least she hadn’t appeared up to the early part I played.
With no way to comfort her and no reason to do so, I sat dumbly on the road waiting, when a sports car quietly raced up and stopped as if sliding.
I heard high-performance cars have good ride comfort, and seeing how it moved without a sound, it seemed to be a good car indeed.
“Hey, friends. The troubleshooter has arrived.”
“Lady Kanon. I think that’s her.”
“Uh, uh. Uhh. Uhhh.”
“She says it’s nice to meet you.”
“Are you mute? That’s possible!”
“No, I’m not…”
The woman, who burst into laughter watching Kanon fumble with how to get in the car, introduced herself.
“Haha, I’m Karasu Tenri, running a hole-in-the-wall office in a corner of Tokyo.”
“I’m Tachibana Kanon.”
“I’m Combat Soldier Model 82, please feel free to address me casually.”
“Oh? I thought you were human. You’re incredibly natural, does that involve Tachibana technology?”
“Th-this combat soldier is treasured by the young lady of the main house…”
“Ah, I’ve heard rumors. That’s it, that’s what it is.”
I cautioned her as she raised her pinky finger.
Do you want to die? I may be a scarecrow, but my boss can erase people without leaving a single drop of blood.
She apologized to me saying it was a joke, then pressed a button, and the car doors opened vertically.
Kanon, startled, grabbed my arm.
“Cool, right? They’re called scissor doors. Get in!”
“It’s, it’s amazing.”
After escorting her to safely get in, I took the front passenger seat. A 2-door 4-seater, I believe. Anyway, she was thorough in maintaining the car’s interior, as there was no smell and everything was neatly organized. Despite her boastful talk, it was modest, and it didn’t seem to have any special tuning.
Whether it’s because she loves the car, or despite her outwardly carefree appearance, she has a meticulous and obsessive personality, I’m not sure.
Once I sat down and fastened my seatbelt, she revved the engine powerfully before setting off. Hmm, though it’s an unpopulated area, her manners aren’t great.
Leaving Kanon alone as she still seemed anxious, gripping her seatbelt tightly and glancing around furtively, I opened my mouth to gather information about Tenri.
“For a hole-in-the-wall, the car packs quite a punch.”
“Oh, you know something about cars?”
“I know that not only the purchase but also the maintenance costs are considerable.”
Without a consistently high income, it would be impossible to maintain.
Implying that meaning, Tenri slightly lowered her sunglasses and said:
“No need to speak indirectly. You’re wondering how someone running a hole-in-the-wall manages this, right?”
“I have doubts about whether everything you say is credible.”
“That’s too harsh. At least I don’t lie. I have a well-off sponsor, that’s how I get around like this. And, no.”
She muttered that if you look wealthy at first impression, your words carry more persuasion. She smoothly navigated the mountain road’s curves. Though she had revved the engine at the start as a kind of power play, her driving style was textbook clean. Safe driving with no sudden stops or starts. Even after entering the sparsely populated countryside, she was the type to strictly observe signals and signs.
“This job is, well, minor, but you know. You’re here for the money too, right? If it’s enough to tempt a great family, it’s naturally juicy for me too.”
“Do you primarily take on these kinds of jobs?”
“Yeah. It’s sort of a know-how for making a living, though it’s not much.”
No, the talk of it not being much is a smokescreen. With mediocre exorcism skills, if you try to take on jobs beyond your level, it’s the end of your life. Like the defeat endings in the eroge.
She must have at least minimal abilities.
So she takes on jobs that are precariously at the upper limit of what she can handle. Then forms a temporary team to resolve them.
Though she appears to be a money-hungry ghost at first glance, that’s not all there is to her. I noticed she’s somewhat timid and boastful.
Now that I understand her operating principle, her behavior makes more sense. Without establishing dominance initially, she’s already outnumbered and could be forcibly dragged along by the authority of a renowned family.
Without knowing our information, she probably thought Kanon might have the dirty mentality typical of famous families who treat people like dirt, ultimately submitting to power, being dragged around like a slave, and finally being abandoned as bait and dying—that would be the worst ending.
The engine revving and the girl-crush vibe she displayed were all thought to be image-making.
“You don’t need to approach with such an affected attitude; we won’t eat you. We generally don’t abandon people either.”
“…Haven’t you been told you lack tact? You can’t just expose a girl’s heart like that.”
“That’s enough. Just wear your sunglasses properly. Your eyes reveal everything.”
“Hmm. But the one in the back doesn’t seem to know.”
“She’s a pure and noble person.”
“The combat soldier thing is a lie, right? I’ve never seen a combat soldier like this before.”
“I can tell you my manufacturing number if you’d like.”
Tenri seemed slightly tense as her words gradually decreased compared to the beginning. Though she put on airs, this request isn’t simply easy. If it were truly trivial content, branch family personnel wouldn’t be dispatched, and there would be no reason for Kanon, who is gaining everyone’s expectations with her extraordinary attack and defense powers, to come out.
An enemy that cannot be defeated unless Kanon fires her main cannon.
An opponent that requires me, the fastest runner, to run for my life.
Considering how the main house deploys people, these two things are clear. Rather, finding Tenri’s role in this composition is key. It’s written that pistols are her main weapon and curses are her specialty.
“Please explain the request content that Tenri received.”
“…First, a wolf-type yokai has appeared on Mount Kitsue in the south. It was a low-level yokai when discovered, but is presumed to have grown after eating humans. The objective is to subjugate it.”
“Suspicious points?”
“There are. It’s too detailed about the yokai. If it were a well-known yokai or a monster with a name, I might understand, but to know so much about a low-level yokai yet let it escape…”
“It’s one of two things. Either it’s a trap to catch people, or that wolf yokai was a pet satisfying someone’s hobby.”
“Hmm. I agree.”
“The part about it eating people is probably true. There’s a high likelihood it ate some guards during its escape. It’s certainly stronger now than when it escaped.”
“…Are you really a combat soldier? All the ones I’ve seen before were half-crazy.”
“Yes. Look up Model 82 later and find my face.”
It was about time to stop driving. I carried Kanon, who was still trembling in fear of the car, as we got out, and parked the car on the shoulder of a hill where the road ended.
The air is good. Comparable even to the mansion.
Perhaps because she came from the city, I spoke to Tenri, who had a slightly amazed expression at the mountain scenery.
“This probably won’t be a one-day job, so shouldn’t we set up a campsite?”
“Will it take long?”
“If it truly is a yokai that escaped after being raised in captivity, it will be extremely cautious. Even if we provocatively spread spiritual power, it might run away. Shouldn’t we lower our guard and appear as completely safe prey to increase the chances of it appearing?”
“Hmm. That makes sense.”
I called Kanon, who was crouching beside the car with a gloomy expression, seemingly because she didn’t know anything. Though I could go out and search on foot, it seemed necessary to help restore her confidence by giving her something to do.
After assigning her to search for a space to use as a campsite and materials that could be used from the surroundings, I climbed to the highest peak of the mountain to understand the surrounding geography.
Perhaps because it was a place where not many people frequent, there were no clearly marked hiking trails. Of course, there were paths where soil was exposed from human footsteps, but they were very narrow and rugged, making them difficult to use regularly. At best, they were probably paths made by occasional mountain climbers like herb gatherers.
Rather, a suitable place for fighting would be the hillock with steep cliffs.
Though the terrain has severe elevation differences with cliffs in between, for an unbalanced party like ours with essentially no tank, it might actually be of value. Let’s mark it.
Looking from high places and personally surveying, I found a total of three areas good for battlefields.
Depending on the number and condition of the wolf yokai, we should guide them to the most appropriate place.
If the opponent can’t be taken down in one blow by Kanon, I’ll have to run for my life, so the more spacious the area, the better. I don’t want to be cornered in a dead end.
When I went down with the information written on paper, they had secured a space where the three of us could stay for up to three days, and using Kanon’s yokai repellent and her barrier techniques, they had made it a safe space.
The modern camping equipment must be items that Tenri keeps on hand.
“This is excellent.”
“Right? She may be timid, but she works well.”
“Hehe. It’s thanks to Tenri.”
Kanon’s expression was much brighter, perhaps having become friendlier while working together. Maybe it’s because Tenri is more sociable compared to the introverted Kanon. Or perhaps in an environment with few female friends, she found common ground with an external partner.
Of course, in a world where even after such heartwarming scenes, a yokai that appears secretly from behind might snap off heads and suck out brains, I can’t let my guard down.
I hope she hasn’t been infected by something while I was away. Mountain yokai are sometimes malicious, so one must always be careful.
Actually, one of my biggest traumas. The CG of Kanon, full of larvae in her belly, giving birth to yokai through her navel. It wasn’t even a bad ending but a middle scene, so it didn’t have a name.
Damn. It’s still horrifying to think about. The developers should be punished by heaven.
I briefly examined their physical condition with a slightly nauseated expression, but there was no special reaction, so I organized things and unpacked in our quarters.
Caution is essential. But excessive tension demands too much fatigue in long-term operations.
Whether we become prey or hunters.
Thorough preparation, patience, and appropriate tension are what aid survival.
Recalling the experiences of past battles, I inwardly sharpened my blade.