50 - Chapter 46: The Three Idiots' Seriousness ~The Tokusatsu TV-Style Fighting Game Boy~
I have dabbled in various fighting games, but the one I've put the most time into is Melty Blood. My main is Berserker Alucard. Occasionally Sachi.
"I'm up."
Having been called upon, Later stepped forward.
He went out of his way to switch the Rig Veda from his right arm to his left, and looked up at the giant beast that had been crushed by a landslide or flood of silver coins. Though it was a mass attack, it vanished because Marianne, who had been maintaining it, had exhausted herself. Now without the weight, Delgamiride was just about to stand up.
Watching this, Later wore a ferocious smile and thought once more.
He had only become conscious of being a furry fan and started running with it after becoming a working adult, getting somewhat depressed and seeking healing, but he had loved animals since he was a child. Back then, he had no particular twisted quirks and spent his days as a perfectly ordinary boy. Thus, he had been exposed to general subculture fields, and at first, he thinks he was probably an Anpan-style hero. And the next things boys usually get hooked on are Sentai shows, grasshopper Riders, or giant silver aliens. Not being an exception, Later spent his childhood watching tokusatsu works.
Yes, that is why most boys love them. Unidentified giant creatures that are big, rugged, and sinister, yet somehow impossible to truly hate.
In other words... kaiju.
(SOOOO BIG! No explanation needed!! Kuuuuuuh! Unidentified giant creatures are just overflowing with romance! I'm so glad I reincarnated!!)
Even in this situation, or rather, precisely because of it, the furry fan's excitement was exploding in his heart.
"Second up, Later. I'm charging in...!"
Staying in the mood of a party trick, Later opened his legs shoulder-width and raised his left arm. He concentrated all the magic power he could muster into the Rig Veda. Like Marianne, after hearing Geoglyph's analysis of the Geoglyphs, he had thought of something.
Ignoring the law of conservation of mass and bringing imagination into reality... the magic power that served as the key. Judging that it was possible if Geoglyph's hypothesis was correct, Later had tried it secretly in the middle of the night once, and it had worked. Furthermore, he found that the more magic power he poured in, the larger he became.
In other words.
"Kemoner... Flash...!"
As he slammed his right hand against the Rig Veda on his left arm, he was enveloped in light.
With a sound like a thunderclap, a right arm thrust out from within that light, emerging as it grew massive. A dull-colored armored giant, just like the Rig Veda. Its attire was more akin to a warrior, which was likely Later's taste. It was one size smaller than Delgamiride, but it still exceeded 70 meters, with a yellow crystal on its chest.
Later was inside that crystal.
It was not a direct control system that seemed to use brainwave control, nor was it a realistic control system that an SF otaku would prefer. What Later held while sitting in a floor chair was a controller consisting of one lever and eight buttons. The screen before his eyes was not a first-person perspective like an FPS, but a bird's-eye view deliberately filmed from the side by a drone-type Rig Veda.
It was exactly like the 2D fighting games he was familiar with.
Then, Later used a wine-grip on the lever and input forward-forward. In synchronization, the giant performed a full-speed dash toward Delgamiride.
"From a steady advance... into...!"
Ignoring the heavy vibrations that shook the earth, the command he slammed in was up-down-heavy K. Yes, it was a common scene for a protagonist's entry in tokusatsu...
"Opening Drop-kick!!"
Immediately after, the giant leaped into the air while maintaining its dash inertia and delivered a dropkick to Delgamiride's chest with both feet together.
"Here I come, Evil God. Today, I am... that red guy's Cyclone!! An intellectual macho who doesn't mind being a random attacker...!!"
Against Delgamiride, who had taken the super-heavyweight dropkick and managed to hold its ground despite stumbling, the giant lowered its hips and spread its arms, taking a fighting pose.
Thus, with the Harvester Plains as the ring, a loud and disruptive pro-wrestling match began.
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"Hmm. This tokusatsu feel. It has a real sense of weight, doesn't it, desu no."
"You're not one to talk, Marie. What's with that vibe of yours, which felt less like adding a magical girl and a transforming heroine and more like mixing them together?"
The violent clashes of the two titans, both nearly 100 meters tall, sounded like things not of this world, and the two idiots spoke such things while their bodies were shaken by the vibrations and shocks of every single blow.
Incidentally, although Marianne had collapsed near Delgamiride, she had been recovered by the Alvaresta Horse Archers immediately afterward thanks to Midglyph's arrangements. Now, she sat on the plains looking exhausted, striving to recover her strength with tea she had taken out of her storage magic.
"There are still many transformations I want to try, desu no. I just can't do them because my magic power can't keep up with the magical beasts."
"No, really, what is going on with your magical beast..."
Originally, it was something impossible according to magical science. For a higher-ranking magical beast to follow a lower-ranking summoner. Geoglyph wondered if this thing was just managing it through a contract full of drawbacks like a shortened lifespan, when Marianne looked around.
"Even so... it's quite a spectacle, isn't it."
"Well, it is flashy. Just like when it was your turn."
The surroundings... the Triad army had their palms sweating at this mythical title match, alternating between joy and sorrow just by the giant and giant beast punching and being punched, already having the vibe of spectators at an exhibition. Incidentally, the one most excited was Kazuha, who was cheering with her tail wagging wildly, eyes sparkling, shouting things like "Right there! Do your best, Later-sama!" or "Watch out! Dodge it!"
"Come to think of it, you're surprisingly not excited seeing that, aren't you? Despite being an SF otaku."
"No, I am! I'm envious! If anything, I want to borrow the Rig Veda from Ray and do that myself...! I'm just a bit busy right now...!!"
Geoglyph, who was working secretly in the back so as not to attract the magical beast's aggro, looked frustrated. Marianne sipped her tea, amazed, thinking that his emotions were certainly busy.
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On the other hand, Later, who like Marianne had a time limit determined by his magic power, was surprisingly leisurely, performing small strikes or locking up in a grapple. The reason, of course, was...
"Damn, it's still not fluffy...!? According to recent theories, dinosaurs had a nice amount of feathers!"
While wasting magic power to share senses with the giant, he lamented as he checked Delgamiride's texture...
"But this is cool and feels good in its own way!"
Or rather, he rejoiced. A furry fan's karma is deep.
That said, the end was near.
Later had more magic power than Marianne, but this method of use was closer to external emission. For him, who excelled at working magic power internally or on the body like internal qi, it was close to an external art. He had mastered it solely to fulfill the dream of fluffing a giant creature he would one day encounter in this different world.
Delgamiride swung its tail. In words, it sounded pastoral, but the opponent was a massive tail nearly 100 meters long. It was like having a steel tower swung at him, and no matter how capable Later was, he wouldn't escape unscathed.
He avoided the horizontal sweep with a vertical jump. As the giant landed with a thud, the surrounding earth floated slightly. To bleed off the landing inertia, he performed a forward dash with forward-forward. While maintaining the inertia, he used forward-light P + medium P for a headbutt, and upon hit confirmation, a medium P triple-hit for a flurry of chops, followed by down-down-back-up-light K for a follow-up roundhouse heel drop.
He earned damage with an easy combo, and Delgamiride took distance with a backstep to avoid it.
However.
"Hah! You think that half-baked distance is okay!? It's still within this guy's range...!?"
To a furry fan who knew animal instincts, it was easy to read. A beast retreats when pressed. It was a simple calculation. That was precisely why he ended the attack input with the light button, which had the least knockback.
The command he slammed in was forward-down-down-back-up + heavy P. The command notation was a full circle. With the fastest input, forward-down-back-up would suffice, but for Later, a wine-grip user with an arcade stick, this was the easiest to input.
Wind was generated.
With a mysterious suction force, Delgamiride was pulled toward the giant's arm and was firmly grabbed by the torso. Then, a vertical jump. Both froze as they made a great leap 300 meters into the air. Simultaneously, the giant swapped Delgamiride's position. In other words, he grabbed the giant beast's legs and fixed its head toward the earth.
And then, both of them spun round and round, like a screwdriver...
"Dreams, romance, and desperate strength in a pinch...!!"
Like a meteorite, they crashed into the earth. Delgamiride was driven head-first into the ground, and as if to witness this, the giant vanished.
"Damn, time over before I could do a victory pose, read the room, my magic power! I still had plenty of bits I wanted to do, like a lunar somersault or a flaming top...!"
Later, who collapsed onto the plains, regretted such things as he took a deep breath.
"Dammit. Sensei...! I'm out for the count here!! I'm leaving the cleanup to you...!!"
Just like Marianne, he flopped over.
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"Well done."
Having witnessed that, Geoglyph finally stepped forward.
Delgamiride, whose head had been slammed into the earth, was however still intact. One wondered what kind of durability it possessed, as it flailed and struggled, bracing its arms to pull its embedded head out. But looking closely at its body, one could see wounds that hadn't fully regenerated and armor plates that were dented or broken.
Damage had certainly accumulated. And time had been bought as planned. For the final push, he would have the guardian of this land do their best.
With a flutter, Geoglyph held up his right hand, his blue cloak fluttering in the wind.
"Third up, Geoglyph Triad. Now, false Evil God. With the will woven by humans, I shall grant you despair."
It came with a Demon Lord-like line, but in the end, it was still in the mood of a party trick.
"All magic deployment complete. All magic formulas released. Encode."
The magic that Geoglyph had continued to chant and store for ten years... now, it was released and returned to mere magic power.
Next time, again next week.