電車の中でも寝る前のベッドの中でもサクサク快適に。
もっと読みたい！がどんどんみつかる。
「読んで」「書いて」毎日が楽しくなる小説アプリをダウンロードしよう。
タイトル、作家名、タグで検索
ストーリーを書く
タイトル、作家名、タグで検索
ストーリーを書く
電車の中でも寝る前のベッドの中でもサクサク快適に。
もっと読みたい！がどんどんみつかる。
「読んで」「書いて」毎日が楽しくなる小説アプリをダウンロードしよう。
テラーノベル
アプリでサクサク楽しめる
Having secured a full day off, Tsutsui was engrossed in a PC game at her apartment late into the night.
In the middle of the game, the smartphone issued by her company rang. Frowning, Tsutsui clicked the answer button.
“Hello? Oh, yes, this is me. Huh? Tomorrow? Well, I’m not scheduled to visit the Watari Lab tomorrow, so I’m free. I see — so it’s one of those ‘revitalizing the town through pop culture’ projects? I should head straight there in the morning? Understood.”
Tsutsui put down the phone and let out a deep sigh.
“Well, I suppose I have to do some actual reporting work once in a while. It’s an early start, so I’d better get some sleep.”
The next day, dressed in a trouser suit and carrying a shoulder bag containing her laptop and digital camera, Tsutsui took a train close to her destination and then transferred to a bus.
Sitting in the back seat, she checked the reference materials on her smartphone.
“Huh … ‘creating a new Tokyo city center’ … ‘aiming to become a hub for the content industry,’ eh? It feels like a pretty standard pitch, but I wonder if it’ll actually succeed.”
Just as the bus approached an overpass, the driver began honking the horn frantically.
As passengers looked ahead, wondering what was happening, the driver shouted:
“Everyone! Hold on tight!”
An instant later, a lateral impact jolted the vehicle, and the cargo bed of a large truck appeared outside the front right window.
The truck’s body scraped against the side of the bus, causing it to lurch and tilt.
The bus smashed through the overpass guardrail and plummeted toward the road below. Amidst the screams of the passengers, Tsutsui felt her world turn upside down.
As an even greater shock coursed through her body, Tsutsui’s consciousness began to fade away.
Enduring the throbbing pain spreading across her body, Tsutsui pulled herself up to find a scene unlike anything he had ever seen before.
The area was lined with nondescript, identical high-rise buildings and shrouded in gloom. Although it was daytime, thick, black clouds hung low in the sky. If the faint patch of brighter light marked the sun’s position, it should have been noon, yet the heavy cloud cover cast a twilight-like dimness over everything.
There was not a soul in sight. Wide, well-laid-out arterial roads — three lanes to a side — ran in an orderly fashion, though here and there, black scorch marks suggested something had burned.
She stood up and checked her body for injuries. She appeared to be unhurt; aside from a light coating of dust on her clothes, she was perfectly capable of moving around.
However, despite searching the immediate area, she could find neither the bag nor the smartphone she had been carrying.
Taking in the cityscape once more, Tsutsui noticed something unnatural: far off in the distance, she could see what looked like a wall.
The wall appeared to be as tall as — or perhaps even taller than — the high-rises near her.
When she shifted her position to look toward the edges of the city, she saw that same towering wall in every direction.
It seemed the entire city was encircled by an incredibly high wall. Tsutsui had never heard of such a place existing in Japan — or at least, not anywhere near Tokyo.
Hoping to find signs of people, Tsutsui began to walk aimlessly. After a short while, she caught the faint sound of human voices. She quickened her pace toward the sound and emerged into an open plaza on the ground floor of one of the buildings.
Dozens of people were there. Makeshift stalls resembling small street-food stands were crammed together, constructed from steel beams and planks that looked like they had been scavenged from somewhere.
It reminded Tsutsui of the post-war black markets she had seen in photographs. The people gathered there wore clothes dulled by grime, and their faces were dark with soot.
Tsutsui peered into a nearby stall — something like a stand-up bar — and tentatively asked the proprietor and the two male customers inside:
“Um, excuse me. What is the name of this place?”
The proprietor glared at Tsutsui, looking startled.
“Huh? It’s Tokyo City Center No.4, obviously. You a newcomer?”
The customers also stared at Tsutsui with undisguised curiosity.
“Hey lady, did you come from the other side of the wall?”
“Huh, that’s rare. Wait a minute!”
One of the customers let out a frightened cry.
“You’re a woman, aren’t you? Which side are you on?”
Tsutsui looked bewildered as she asked back: “Which side …? What are you talking about?”
The proprietor, too, demanded an answer, his face turning pale.
“I’m asking which side you’re on — the Femi-tribe or the Ota-tribe!”
“Well, actually, I’m neither.”
At those words, the proprietor and the two customers let out sighs of relief loud enough to be clearly heard. Handing over a grimy glass of water, the proprietor asked:
“What brings you to this town?”
“Um, I don’t really remember. I think I was in a bus accident, and when I came to, I was here.”
“Hmph. Anyway, watch out so the Ota-tribe doesn’t spot you. If they mistake you for a Femi-tribe, you’re a dead woman.”
Just then, someone shouted from the corner of the square: “Ota-tribe patrol! Everyone, watch out!”
The stall owner hurriedly pulled a panel about thirty centimeters tall from behind the counter. It featured a ‘moe’-style illustration of a pretty girl character. As he propped the panel up at the entrance of his stall, he muttered resentfully:
“Damn it … we’re just trying to make a living here. Why do we have to get dragged into their war?”
Before long, accompanied by the sound of marching boots, a group of men of various ages appeared in the square. People at other stalls watched the group pass by, forcing the friendliest smiles they could muster.
Spotting Tsutsui, the group suddenly quickened their pace and closed in on her. One man opened a golf bag and pulled out an assault rifle.
The men surrounded Tsutsui, and the one holding the rifle pointed the muzzle straight at her. Trembling with fear, the stall owner and the customers fled the scene.
At a nod from the man holding the gun, two others moved behind Tsutsui, grabbed her shoulders and arms from both sides, and forced her down. As she was made to kneel on the ground, Tsutsui let out a cry of protest.
“W-wait, what are you doing?”
The gunman spoke in a cold, ruthless voice.
“You’re one of the Femi-tribe, aren’t you? This is the territory of us Ota-tribe. Did you think you’d make it out alive?”
“W-what is this? Is this some kind of IRON-BLOODED ORPHANS-style scenario?”
“Hey, hold it!”
A man in his thirties — apparently the group’s leader — restrained the others. He then squatted down in front of Tsutsui and stared intently at her face.
“She’s definitely a woman, but … she’s not Femi-tribe? Hey, how many heroines are there in the ’Super Dimension Fortress’ series’ Micro Delta?”
“Five. Well, that’s excluding the former member who’s now in PR.”
The men let out a collective murmur of amazement.
“Leader! Could she be … the legendary…”
The leader held up a hand to stop his eager subordinate and asked Tsutsui another question.
“This is a question only a true otaku could answer correctly. Listen up, woman. Answer carefully. Is the game ’Fate/stay night’ rated R-18 or not? Well?”
Tsutsui answered instantly, without a moment’s hesitation.
“There are both versions. An all-ages version without the erotic scenes, and an 18+ version that includes them.”
The leader looked absolutely stunned.
“There’s no doubt about it. She’s Ota-tribe. She’s one of us.”
The two men who had been pinning Tsutsui down suddenly helped her up and brushed the dust from her back.
“Sorry about that. We were certain you were one of the Femi tribe.”
“That must have hurt. Our apologies.”
Bewildered and unsure of what was happening, Tsutsui stared blankly as the man who appeared to be the leader extended his right hand.
“Would you mind shaking hands? It’s been years since I last saw a female otaku. I never thought I’d encounter one again.”
Not fully grasping the situation but sensing the mood, Tsutsui tentatively shook the leader’s hand.
The surrounding men stepped forward one by one to speak to her.
“I’m so glad you survived. Welcome.”
“Wow, this is the first time in my life I’ve ever seen a real female otaku.”
“I’d only ever heard stories about them. To think a female otaku actually existed!”
“So, it wasn’t just a legend after all.”
The leader held up a hand to quiet the others and spoke.
“Anyway, come to our hideout. It’s dangerous for a female otaku to be wandering around alone. If the Femi tribe spots you, they’ll burn you alive on the spot.”
Tsutsui racked her brain, trying to make sense of the situation. She still didn’t fully understand what was going on, but it was clear that this was a dangerous place to be alone.
“Understood. I’m counting on you.”
The man who appeared to be the leader handed something to Tsutsui. It was a silver hair clip — though somewhat tarnished — with the alphanumeric string “OTA009” embossed on its surface.
One of the other men spoke up, looking astonished.
“Tiger! Are you sure? Isn’t that a keepsake from your lover?”
The leader handed the clip to Tsutsui and replied:
“She’d be happier seeing it put to use for the living than just sitting there for the dead. Women often get mistaken for members of the Femi-tribe. Wearing that shows at a glance that she’s one of us.”
As he walked along with the group of men, Tsutsui quietly asked the man beside him about the accessory now in her hair.
“Does this item have a story behind it?”
“Yeah, it’s a keepsake from our leader Tiger’s lover.”
“A keepsake … so, what happened to her?”
“She was killed by the Femi-tribe. Burned to death — while she was still alive!”
The men guided Tsutsui to a building that looked like a factory. Its corrugated iron roof had rusted to a reddish-brown, and the walls were blackened with soot.
Stepping inside the two-story structure, she found the ceiling lined with countless lights, making the interior feel far brighter than the outside.
Beside rows of conveyor belts, a large number of men were assembling devices that resembled electronic equipment. Tsutsui asked the man who appeared to be the leader — known as “Tiger” — about the work.
“What are you making?”
Tiger surveyed the factory floor before answering.
“Weapons for the final showdown. We lacked the firepower to counter the Femi-tribe’s flamethrowers, you see.”
“Flamethrowers? Are you planning to start a war?”
“Don’t worry; we’ll win in the end. The government has supplied us — the Ota-tribe — with an ultimate weapon.”
“An ultimate weapon? What kind?”
“I can’t say yet. It’s top-secret until the time comes.”
Tiger left, saying he had work to attend to, so Tsutsui decided to observe the surroundings of the factory.
In one corner of the site, a dozen or so small passenger cars were lined up in a row. Tsutsui asked the man inside a small, box-like building that looked like a guard shack.
“Excuse me, could I borrow one of those cars?”
The man, who had been reading a manga with strangely rough binding, answered with an air of annoyance.
“I don’t mind, but where are you going?”
“Oh, I just want to get a feel for the city. I only just arrived here, you see.”
“Then use the one on the far left. They’re all beat-up electric cars, but that one’s the best of the lot. Here, take the key.”
Tsutsui took the key from the man and got into the car — a soot-stained silver model. The controls didn’t seem much different from the cars she was used to.
She drove the car out of the factory grounds, heading first toward the massive wall visible in the distance. As she turned the steering wheel, she muttered to herself.
“What on earth is this city? Another world? A parallel universe? Or did I somehow slip through time?”
Tsutsui drove toward the colossal wall looming beyond the main street. Glancing around the city as she went, she spotted the lights of street stalls on the lower floors of high-rise buildings that otherwise appeared deserted.
Even in apartment complexes that looked like ruins, laundry hung in the windows, suggesting a fair number of people lived there.
Upon reaching the base of the wall, Tsutsui was once again overwhelmed by its sheer scale. It stood well over a hundred meters high, and there was no sign of any gate or door that would allow one to see what lay on the other side.
As she drove along the wall, it continued in a gentle, endless curve, with no visible seams or joints anywhere. It appeared that the entire city was an enclosed zone, completely encircled by this massive wall.
Just past the halfway point of the city’s perimeter, a warning sound chimed from the dashboard. Startled by the beeping, Tsutsui glanced at the instrument panel and saw the battery gauge flashing red.
She grimaced and looked out the window.
“Is the battery dying already? This thing really is a piece of junk. Hmm, I wonder if there’s a charging station around here somewhere?”
As she drove cautiously forward, a vast open plaza came into view. A large crowd of people had gathered there. Relieved, Tsutsui drove her car into the area.
Two middle-aged women noticed her car and hurried over. Tsutsui was startled and instinctively touched her head when she realized they were wearing rugged, military-style uniforms that looked like men’s attire.
“They look a bit intimidating … Oh boy, what should I do?”
Just then, her hand brushed against that hair accessory. She hurriedly removed the ornament — given to her by the ‘Ota-tribe’ man named Tiger — and shoved it into the inside pocket of her jacket.
The women in military-style uniforms stood beside the driver’s seat and tapped on the window. When Tsutsui rolled it down, they peered inside and spoke to her.
“Oh, a woman. You seem to be alone — what brings you here?”
Tsutsui put on her most charming smile and replied:
“Um, my car battery is running low. Is there anywhere around here where I can charge it?”
“I see. There’s a charging station at the far end of the plaza. You’ll get to see something special while it charges, too. You’re in luck today.”
Just as Tsutsui connected the charger at the far end of the plaza to her car, one of the women in military-style uniforms approached her.
“It’s about to start. You’re a woman, so you must belong to the Femi-tribe, right? You should watch this.”
Tsutsui instinctively felt it would be best not to resist. She followed the woman and asked, “Start? What is starting?”
“We’re going to pass judgment on evil. Look, over there.”
In the center of the plaza, a metal pillar — as thick as a large log — towered several meters high. A young, overweight man with his wrists handcuffed together was dragged out, prodded by iron rods wielded by several women in military-style uniforms.
The man was chained to the metal pillar by his handcuffs, rendering him unable to move away. One of the women held several large sheets of paper high above her head and loudly proclaimed to the surrounding crowd — ordinary-looking men, women, and children who wore expressions of terror:
“This man kept a large number of illustrations demeaning to women hidden in his home. We will now administer a rehabilitation procedure.”
When Tsutsui squinted at the illustrations, she saw anime-style images of beautiful young girls in miniskirts — what were known as “moe” art.
As two other women in military-style uniforms approached the man from either side, a collective groan of fear rose from the crowd.
Both women carried cylindrical tanks on their backs, connected by hoses to thick, gun-like devices held in their hands.
Stopping about five meters to the man’s left and right, the two women aimed their cylindrical devices at him. The man screamed in a state of near-hysteria.
“Waaah! Stop it, cut it out! What did I ever do?!”
The woman holding the illustrations stepped right in front of the man, hurled the stack of pictures into his face, and shouted.
“Shut up! A misogynist deserves the retribution fitting his vile deeds. Do it.”
As she stepped back, two women carrying tanks on their backs unleashed streams of orange flame from the nozzles of their equipment — flamethrowers.
“Gyaaaaaa!”
Engulfed in flames, the man writhed in agony. But with his wrists handcuffed to a pillar, there was no escape.
The man — now a thrashing ball of fire — soon went still, and the stench of burning flesh filled the air.
The fearful groans of the surrounding crowd shifted into a murmur of shock; they appeared to be people who had been forcibly gathered there.
Tsutsui crouched down, covering her face with both hands to suppress the urge to vomit. Seeing this, the woman who had brought her there spoke without so much as a change in expression.
“Oh my, was that your first time witnessing a ‘correction’?”
“Is this a correction? That man … he died, didn’t he?”
“If he’s dead, he can’t discriminate against or look down on women anymore, can he? Our fight won’t end until we’ve wiped out the ‘Ota-tribe’ infesting this city. If you’re a woman, you need to cooperate with us.”
“I’ve caught a glimpse of that Ota-tribe before, and they had real guns — the kind the military uses. Can you really go toe-to-toe with them?”
Tsutsui frowned at the woman’s reply.
“Don’t worry; we’re being supplied with secret weapons by the government. Once those are ready for deployment, the Ota-tribe won’t stand a chance.”
Tsutsui got into the fully charged car and drove away, hurrying just enough to avoid arousing suspicion. Once she had put enough distance between herself and the scene, she stopped and began rummaging through the glove compartment.
“This world is insane. And the fact that both the Ota- and Femi-tribes are secretly being supplied with secret weapons by the government — that’s just not right. There has to be a clue somewhere…”
She found a small notebook tucked into the corner of the compartment. The cover read: “New City Center No. 4 Administration Office.”
She entered the address into the car’s navigation system, and it pinpointed a location near the center of the city. Tsutsui drove toward it.
An exceptionally tall building stood at the location. Though not physically damaged, the structure was enveloped in a desolate atmosphere, making it look like a ruin.
Tsutsui parked nearby and started walking toward the building; the moment she did, a sharp gunshot rang out, and sparks flew from the asphalt near her feet.
A man stood at the building’s entrance, aiming an assault rifle. Another man rushed out from inside and shouted to the gunman.
“What is it?”
“There’s a woman over there! A Feminist intruder!”
Hearing this, Tsutsui took the hair ornament Tiger had given her from her inner pocket and attached it near her right temple, making sure it was clearly visible.
Two men rushed over to Tsutsui; the one holding a gun pointed the muzzle right at her.
“You’ve got some nerve. I’ll send you to the afterlife, just like you wanted!”
The other man noticed the hair ornament Tsutsui was wearing and knocked the gun barrel of the fellow upward from below.
“Wait! Look at the clip she’s wearing.”
The gunman stared at Tsutsui’s temple with a puzzled look, then gasped in surprise as he noticed the string of characters engraved on the ornament.
“OTA-009!”
He shifted his gun to a vertical position and bowed deeply to Tsutsui, bending at the waist a full ninety degrees.
“Please accept my humblest apologies! I never imagined you were the legendary female warrior of the Ota-tribe.”
Tsutsui gave a bashful smile.
“Oh, no, I’m not actually her. I received this hair clip from someone…”
“From Tiger?”
“Ah, yes — that was the name he went by.”
“In that case, you are the person our leader has recognized as the successor to the female Otaku warrior. The Ota-tribe holds effective control over this building, so if there is anything you need, please do not hesitate to ask.”
“Well, there’s something I’d like to look into. The New City Center No. 4 Administrative Office used to be in here, right?”
“Understood. Hey, you.”
The gunman called out to his companion.
“Show this lady to the 15th floor. And make sure you treat her with the utmost respect.”
Upon entering the room, he found a layout typical of a government office, with rows of computers and workstations.
She pressed the power button on a dust-covered computer — positioned differently from the others, suggesting it belonged to a supervisor — and the monitor lit up. It seemed the system was still functional.
While clicking around with the mouse, she discovered a file labeled “Top Secret.” When she tried to open it, a prompt appeared asking for a passcode.
Tsutsui looked around the room, but found no notes or clues that might reveal the code.
Clutching her head, he muttered to herself:
“Hmm, this is the kind of system that probably lets you fail a few times before locking you out. Let’s start with the one combination that’s absolutely impossible.”
She typed “1234567” into the seven-digit entry field and pressed Enter. An “Authentication Successful” message appeared, and the file opened.
“No way! That’s such a cliché pattern. Then again … maybe they thought it was so cliché that no one would ever suspect it.”
As Tsutsui read through the document, she gasped.
“So this is the government’s true agenda! If that’s the case, I have to stop it!”
Tsutsui got back in her car and headed toward the plaza where the Femi-tribe had gathered earlier. Words escaped her lips unconsciously as she drove.
“They’re gathering the extremists from both the Ota-tribe and the Femi-tribe in one place, pitting them against each other so they destroy one another —effectively wiping them both out. If that’s the plan, it makes perfect sense that the government would supply secret weapons to both sides.”
Tsutsui parked her car at the entrance of a building — apparently a former commercial complex — adjacent to the plaza, then stepped inside to look for someone who appeared to be the leader.
Spotting the woman who had first approached her earlier, she ran over. The woman noticed Tsutsui and, wearing an eerie smile, spoke up.
“Oh, you’ve come at just the right moment. Our secret weapon is finally about to activate. Look, over there.”
In the vast open space where the woman pointed stood a colossal creature with bright red skin. Atop an elephant-like lower body, a multitude of dragon-like heads were lined up in a row.
“This is the secret weapon?”
When Tsutsui cried out in astonishment, the woman explained with a look of triumph.
“It’s a biological weapon created by culturing cells exclusively from the females of various animal species. Its weapon is the flames it spews from its countless mouths. We call it ‘Femila’.”
Tsutsui stood dumbfounded for a moment, gazing up at the massive monster — easily thirty meters tall — before snapping back to reality and telling the woman about the classified file she had seen at the New City Center No. 4 Administrative Office.
She revealed the government’s true objective: to confine the Ota-tribe and the Femi-tribe in the same location, forcing them to kill each other until both sides were wiped out — and that the secret weapons given to both groups were intended for precisely that purpose.
But the woman, along with the crowd of other women dressed in military-style uniforms, simply burst into laughter.
“What kind of nonsense are you spouting? Justice is on the side of us, Femi-tribe, you know.”
“Hey, wait a minute. You aren’t one of those Otaku sympathizers, are you? Even though you’re a woman?”
One of the women said this, and the entire crowd turned their gazes toward Tsutsui in unison. Panicked, Tsutsui spun around and sprinted back toward her car at full speed.
Just as the car began to pull away, a woman carrying a flamethrower on her back burst from the building, unleashing a torrent of fire. The flames fell just short of the vehicle.
Watching Tsutsui’s car speed away, the woman asked the leader — the same woman from earlier — for instructions.
“What should we do? Shall we pursue her?”
The leader replied in a perfectly composed tone.
“Leave her be. Once Femila is unleashed, they’ll all be slaughtered anyway.”
Tsutsui drove at full speed toward the factory that served as the Ota-tribe’s stronghold. She skidded to a halt and sprinted inside the building.
She frantically asked the men inside for the whereabouts of the man known as Tiger. Following the direction they pointed, she found herself descending flight after flight of stairs until she reached an underground area.
Rushing to Tiger’s side, Tsutsui cried out desperately.
“It’s a disaster! The Femi-tribe’s secret weapon … it’s a gigantic monster.”
Tiger and the men around him turned to look at Tsutsui, grinning.
“You mean that thing?”
He pointed to a large monitor displaying the scene at the plaza she had just left.
On the screen, a building at the edge of the plaza was being smashed open from within, and a massive, four-legged creature with countless dragon-like heads charged out into the open. Tsutsui, her face contorted with alarm, spoke to Tiger.
“Yes, that’s it! We have to do something — fast.”
But Tiger and the other men merely smirked.
“I told you before, didn’t I? That we, too, possess a secret weapon supplied covertly by the government. Hey — open the shutter. The time has come.”
At Tiger’s words, a massive shutter stretching all the way to the ceiling rattled as it rose. Tsutsui gasped at the object revealed beyond it.
“What is this?”
What came into view was a silver object standing some thirty meters tall. Its physique resembled that of a Tyrannosaurus, but with thicker, sturdier limbs. A single, large, eye-like feature sat in the center of its face. Two rows of pentagonal, fin-like structures ran from its back all the way to the tip of its long tail.
Its entire body gleamed with a dull silver luster. Scattered across the surface of this colossal frame were colorful paintings of various “moe-style” beautiful girl characters. Tsutsui murmured:
“A robot?”
Tiger gave Tsutsui a friendly pat on the shoulder and announced:
“It’s our ultimate weapon, born from the combined mechanical expertise of the Ota-tribe. Its name is … Mecha-Moera!”
At Tiger’s signal, the platform bearing the robotic monster rose upward, and the factory ceiling directly overhead slid open.
Tsutsui shared the information she had seen at the New City Center No. 4 Administration Office with Tiger. But they all simply doubled over with laughter. The men around him laughed and said:
“Hahaha! I bet the Femi-tribe put some ideas in your head.”
“Those people will tell any lie that suits them.”
“Justice is on our side. Don’t you worry.”
Meanwhile, Mecha-Moera’s massive body was hoisted up to the surface, and the single eye on its face began to glow green.
Tsutsui noticed a large map hanging on the wall — apparently of the local city — and, struck by a sudden realization, asked Tiger:
“Um, if both monsters keep advancing like this, won’t the battle break out right in the city center?”
Tiger replied in a tone that suggested he couldn’t care less.
“Yeah, that’s how it’ll go. So what?”
“But there are so many civilians living in the city center! Won’t they get caught in the crossfire?”
“That can’t be helped. Our goal is the annihilation of the Femi-tribe. We’re here to avenge the old comrades and contents they burned to the ground. A few casualties are inevitable.”
Tsutsui slowly backed away, then turned and ran toward where her car was parked. As she ran, she muttered incoherently:
“They’re insane! The Femi-tribe, the Ota-tribe — they’re both completely insane!”
Tsutsui got into her car and headed toward the city center. From time to time, heavy, earth-shaking vibrations shuddered through the vehicle.
Two avenues away, she could see Mecha-Moera advancing.
Upon reaching the area of the city center lined with buildings, she leaned out the window, honking her horn and urging the residents to evacuate.
“Everyone! Get out of here — fast! This area is about to become a battlefield!”
Femila’s crimson form emerged from behind a building in the opposite direction. One of its dragon-like mouths spewed flames, while a blue beam shot from Mecha-Moera’s single eye.
The flames and the beam collided, creating a blinding flash and an explosion in mid-air. The resulting shockwave shattered the exterior wall of a nearby building.
Huge sections of the wall tore away and collapsed onto the residents who had rushed out into the street in response to Tsutsui’s warning.
Tsutsui drove off to put some distance between herself and the monsters. Femila unleashed successive torrents of flame, while the pentagonal fins on Mecha-Moera’s back fired jets and launched themselves as missiles.
The two colossal monsters closed the distance until they were nearly touching, unleashing their respective weapons; with every exchange, surrounding buildings crumbled into ruins.
One of Mecha-Moera’s missiles tore off one of Femila’s heads; the severed head flew through the air, still spewing flames, before crashing down onto the Femi-tribe’s stronghold.
The severed head, wreathed in flames, struck the Femi-tribe members who had been watching the battle, engulfing them in crimson fire.
Then, one of Femila’s heads deflected a missile launched by Mecha-Moera. The missile spun out of control and slammed into the factory where Tiger and the others were watching the fight on a screen.
Caught in the explosion, they were all blown away and killed instantly.
Locked in a close-quarters struggle, Femila and Mecha-Moera unleashed every weapon they had, and both were enveloped in light and fire.
From inside her car, Tsutsui noticed a group of children walking tearfully beside a building. Just as she steered the car toward them, the bodies of Femila and Mecha-Moera exploded violently.
The building collapsed from the shockwave, and the children vanished amidst the falling debris. Tsutsui’s car was overturned by the blast.
Crawling out of the vehicle onto the road, Tsutsui found herself surrounded by charred ruins. Staring blankly at the scene, she screamed through her tears:
“Why?! Why did it have to come to this?”
Tsutsui sank to her knees, gazing at the pile of rubble where the children had been buried.
“Why was it necessary to hate and fight each other this much?”
Tsutsui looked up at the sky and screamed. Suddenly, a voice came from nearby.
“It’s because ordinary people like you didn’t stop it.”
Startled, Tsutsui looked around; a pile of rubble shifted, and a boy — looking to be of elementary school age — rose unsteadily to his feet, his body covered in blood. Looking exactly like a corpse, the boy walked toward Tsutsui and spoke again.
“Back then, when they started the fighting, none of you stopped them, did you?”
From another spot, the corpse of a girl — apparently kindergarten-aged — stood up and spoke to Tsutsui.
“You’re just as bad, you know. What do they call that?”
Piles of rubble all around Tsutsui began to shift; the corpses of children rose from within and, as they closed in on her, spoke in unison.
“I know. They call it complicity.”
“That’s right, complicity. All adults are complicit.”
“Hey, give it back. Give us back our future.”
Before she knew it, Tsutsui was surrounded by a multitude of children caked in blood and mud. They stretched their arms toward her and slowly closed in.
Tsutsui covered her head with her arms and screamed.
“Aaaah! Nooooo!”
Tsutsui screamed, expelling every last bit of air from her lungs, and thrust her hands into the air. When she opened her eyes, she found herself in a bed — apparently in a hospital room.
A female nurse, alerted by her scream, rushed over and grasped her shoulders, trying to calm her down.
“You’ve regained consciousness. It’s all right; you’re in a hospital. I’ll go get the doctor right away, so please don’t worry.”
Tsutsui checked her attire; she was wearing a patient’s gown. She sat up in bed and looked out the window, seeing nothing but an ordinary cityscape of the metropolitan area. She murmured:
“Was that … a dream?”
Later that afternoon, members of the Watari Laboratory, having been notified, came to visit her. Miyashita filled her in on the details of the accident and what had happened afterward.
The bus had plunged from an overpass but had completed a full 360-degree rotation before hitting the ground, minimizing the impact; consequently, all the passengers had escaped either unharmed or with only minor injuries.
Tsutsui alone had failed to regain consciousness, remaining unconscious for a full twenty-four hours. However, she had sustained no significant external injuries and was expected to be discharged that very evening.
When Tsutsui recounted what had happened at the City Center No. 4, everyone burst out laughing. Watari, wiping away tears from laughing so hard, remarked: “That was quite a grand, epic dream you had there.”
Tsutsui scratched her head and replied: “A dream … I suppose that’s what it was.”
Toyama turned to Matsuda and asked: “Is there actually a ‘New City Center No. 4’ project? Surely the Self-Defense Forces or the police would have heard of it?”
Matsuda shook his head.
“I’ve never heard of it. How about you, Ms. Miyashita?”
Miyashita shook her head as well. Finally, Watari spoke up:
“Well, after what you went through, it’s no wonder you had a bad dream. You should take it easy and rest for a few days.”
Miyashita placed a bag containing a change of clothes by the bedside, and the group left the hospital room.
Afterward, Tsutsui underwent X-rays just to be safe; once the doctor confirmed there were no abnormalities, she completed the discharge procedures and stepped outside.
As she reached the hospital gate — now dim as the sun had set — Tsutsui felt something odd at her temple. She touched the spot and found a metal hair clip.
“Huh? When did I put this on?”
When she took it off and examined it, the surface was blackened with soot. Tsutsui muttered to herself, glancing at the trash can nearby.
“It’s all grimy anyway — might as well just throw it away.”
She tossed the hair accessory into the bin for non-combustible waste and walked away.
Inside the bin, the accessory struck other pieces of trash and tumbled about. As it came to a stop, the layer of soot flaked off, revealing a string of characters engraved on the surface.
The inscription read: “OTA009”
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みぅですっ🤍🥀 13話、読み終わりました… 最初はただのバス事故から始まったのに、気づいたら壁に囲まれた街で、オタ部族とフェミ部族の争いに巻き込まれてて…展開が早くて息つく暇なかったです💦 筒井さん、現実に戻ってきたと思ったら髪留めが残ってて、「えっ!?」ってなりました…あれ、現実でも存在してるやつですよね…？ 終盤の子ども達の遺体が「あなたも同罪」って迫ってくるシーン、すごく胸に刺さりました… この物語、ただの夢では終わらない気がして、続きがすごく気になります✨
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