“Enough talk!”
“Shut up and obediently be crushed!!”
Two humanoid heavy machines hastily approached. With their legs of steel, every step they took produced a small tremor.
They flailed about wildly with their arms of steel, but neither the arms themselves nor the objects they sent flying managed to hit any of their targets.
Before long, impatience took them, and they desperately tried to get closer, but Shinichi showed no signs of fear.
“At this rate, we’re just making more work for the employees here,” Shinichi said.
In fact, he was leisurely enough to show concern for the employees of this place.
“Just cleaning these will take a few days, you know! A few guys might even get fired!” Shinichi said.
But if he was really concerned, then as far as Tomoe was concerned, he should just hurry up and settle this matter already.
The warehouse was a mess as though a storm had passed right through.
Tomoe felt terrible for the losses of the company that owned this place, but Shinichi was actually still alright since he believed he just had to compensate them for their losses.
Tomoe couldn’t do much despite how she felt because there were two opponents.
Were there just one, she would have long gone after the weak point Shinichi mentioned.
But with another opponent present, it wouldn’t be pretty if the other one managed to attack during the attempt.
It would have been good if she could use a simple exoskeleton, but alas, they hadn’t received permission to do so.
So she turned to Shinichi to ask him what to do, but he just turned around and curtly said.
“Let’s go out.”
“Alright!”
In the next moment, they both jumped backwards and made their way for the opening in the shutter that the men had dented.
That was the front entrance for transporting heavy equipment. The opening was tiny compared to the whole thing, but with all the flying objects that had gone its way, it was more than big enough for one or two people to pass through.
“Huh? W-Wait!”
“Damn it! They got away!!”
Tomoe and Shinichi were so calm throughout the whole ordeal that the two men actually forgot that they could escape.
When the two men realized that they had been made a fool out of, they became even angrier and stepped on the pedal, causing their units to accelerate straight for the shutter.
With the shutter already dented, they easily broke through it and found themselves outside.
“Where are those brats!?”
But it was hard to see in the dark after coming from a bright place.
They had to wait for their eyes to adjust, but even without that, the result might not have changed.
“Here’s your consolation prize.”
Because that voice came at them from above.
The men looked up reflexively, but by the time they recognized the two shadows falling on them, it was already too late.
“Agyah!?”
“Goga!?”
Those shadows filled their vision and crushed them.
A sharp but deep kick by none other than Tomoe and Shinichi had found their way into their face.
A crushing or breaking sound resounded, then Tomoe and Shinichi kicked off against their face to send themselves into a flip midair. As they nimbly landed on the ground, the two machines behind them collapsed.
The weakness of the humanoid heavy machinery was none other than the cockpit – and what an obvious weakness it was, what with all of its exposed parts.
The humanoid heavy machinery was designed to have no restrictions other than its torso to maximize ease of handling, movement, and visibility.
It was such that its operation manual stated that the operator needed to wear a special helmet, but unfortunately, there was no one here who knew that.
“Fuu, I knew it was safe because of the Foster, but jumping from that height still gave me a fright,” Tomoe said as she looked up at the high roof of the warehouse.
“Whether you’re a good boy or a bad boy, that’s not something you should imitate, okay?” Shinichi said.
For a moment, Tomoe was stupefied, wondering who Shinichi was talking to, but then she realized he was talking to Kouta.
Indeed, the boy was bound to get hurt if he were to copy them and jump from a high place. A warning certainly was necessary.
Shinichi and Tomoe had jumped to the top of the warehouse as soon as they got out, then jumped back down to kick their two foes in the face when they too managed to get out.
Even if they failed to hit them in the face, they would have still been left defenseless until they got back up on their feet.
“So. now what? Do we drag them out and tie them up first?” Tomoe said.
Tomoe believed this would be a piece of cake, but Shinichi quietly shook his head.
“No, it’s almost…”
“Now what!?”
Tomoe spoke before Shinichi could finish, and she took out her weapon.
She didn’t want to be taken by surprise again so she’d been alert the entire time. This time she clearly heard cars approaching.
There were as many as ten black sedans approaching at speeds past the speed limit.
They abruptly slammed on the breaks and came to a halt in a line as though to surround them.
Men in suits jumped out one after another and lined up to cover the gap between the cars.
Tomoe became alert at the sight of the group of strong-looking men, none of whom appeared to be respectable.
“What!? The reinforcements came already!?” Tomoe said.
“Hmm… It was about time, but I’m not sure whether this is fast or slow,” Shinichi said.
They looked to be the same sort as those guys from earlier, so Tomoe braced her self, but Shinichi remained calm.
He was always like that, but he seemed to know something, so Tomoe wasn’t sure how to act.
In any case, she decided to take out a sword with a dull blade.
“Ah.”
A man came out of the lead, but the atmosphere about him was different compared to the others.
He appeared to be the same generation as those around him, but his hair was dyed blond, and he had a face both stern and scarred. A strong will could also be felt from his piercing gaze, so much so that Tomoe found herself gulping.
Though the suit he wore was a similar design as those around him, it was of a far superior quality.
Indeed, he was far above any of the those men.
The pressure he emanated was also an order of magnitude above those around him.
Compared to him, the people until now were nothing but mere impostors.
It was a person like that that──
“Grandpa!”
“What?”
──Kouta happily called grandpa, then that stern face too crumbled.
When Shinichi saw that, he put Kouta down, and Kouta ran to the man as fast as he could, who then lifted him up with his robust body and placed him on his shoulders.
“Hah?” Tomoe said.
“Kouta, are you hurt anywhere?”
“Not at all! That big bro and big sis saved me! They were so cool! They were like ‘bam!’ and then took everyone out! Those big things couldn’t even land a hit. A single kick was all it took for them to knock them out!”
“Ahaha, that’s amazing.”
“…What’s going on?” Tomoe said.
Everyone including Shinichi seemed to take the stern man’s good-natured attitude as though it were a matter of fact; Tomoe alone was left in the dark stupefied.
“Could someone explain what’s going on!?” Tomoe yelled.
Tomoe turned to Shinichi with a face full of question marks, but Shinichi just shrugged his shoulders.