The Rising of Tanaka – 83
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Pasifista
Emergency
「Ni-ku-men!! Ni-ku-men!!」
As if resonating to each other, the wild voices of the men echoed in the arena.
「Ni-ku-men! Ni-ku-men!」
Tanaka, who was in the audience, also stood up and shouted.
「Ni-ku-men!! Ni-ku-men!!」
And then, the man who had been receiving all the cheers from the crowd of men was taking a stance on the stage. It was player Nikumen, one of the leading players of the main tournament.
There were no weapons in his hands, as he wore nothing but a mask resembling manga meat and gaudily patterned pants. Perhaps his spirit to head into battle without any weapons had grabbed the souls of the men.
「Ni-ku-men! Ni-ku-men!」
No, that wasn’t it. The cries of the souls of the men were clearly filled with murderous intent. What in the world was the cause of this situation? The cause was within the man who was facing player Nikumen.
「Kya~! Knight of Rose-sama!」
The high-pitched cheers of women echoed as though weaving through the wild cheering of the men. Perhaps receiving these supports. The man floated a confident-filled smile on his face.
The other leading player on the stage, the imperial knight, Hansamu. The armor with gaudy decorations resembling tulips looked excessively good on him. The setting was too loose, you know, O Knight of Rose?
In addition, his seemingly flaunted sharp jaw made the men burn with flames of jealousy whether they wanted to or not.
「Nikumen! Crush that punk!!」
Just as the voltage of the men reached its peak, the match began.
As if possessed by the jealous spirits of the men, Nikumen boldly rushed forward along with the signal of the beginning.
Perhaps Nikumen was intending to unleash his special signature move as he was. The moment his hands were seemingly about to grab ahold of Hansamu’s armor, Hansamu disappeared from Nikumen’s sight. And then, Nikumen’s consciousness was cut off there.
Nikumen slowly fell forward.
「Nikumen!!」
The tragic cries of men echoed throughout the arena.
Hansamu, on the other hand, floated a refreshing smile on his face, still in the pose of unleashing his hand like that of a sword. As he managed to win without actually pulling out the sword at his waist, most likely he had quite the leeway in it.
「Knight of Rose-sama, so cool! Embrace me!」
In response to such cheers of the women, Hansamu flashed a smile.
「That bastard! He stole the number one line I want beautiful women to say to me!」
Tanaka, who was in the audience, shouted in agitation. His eyes were overflowing with juice. A true testament of the depth of the bond between him and Nikumen that was born in this match. They were surely not tears of jealousy or anything.
「Wait, Tanaka-san, please calm down!」
Next to him, Toby was desperately trying to calm down Tanaka, who continued to howl.
「As if I can be calm about this. Nikumen, by that bastard…! Our star of hope has been taken down! Damn it! As expected, facing a sword user bare-handed was giving too much of a handicap, huh. Acting so reckless….」
「No no no, he didn’t even pull out his sword, did he? In the end, it was a bare-handed match, alright?」
Toby let out such retorts, but inconvenient words were unable to reach Tanaka-san’s ears.
「If it weren’t for that handicap, Nikumen wouldn’t have lost. As a pro myself, I can tell!」
「Oh, so you do get it, sonny. There’s no way our Nikumen would have lost to such an effeminate guy, right?!」
Tanaka struck up a rapport with the old men who were also cheering for Nikumen nearby.
「These people are no good…. They can’t see the reality due to excessive jealousy….」
While the audience was bustling with men who were escaping from reality, one of the matches thus came to an end.
◇ ◇ ◇
「—heck! Now is not the time to dilly-dally like this! I’ve got a match coming up too, after all!」
「Hmm.」
In contrast to Toby, who was in a panic, Tanaka was leisurely making himself at home in his seat while putting popcorn-like something into his mouth.
「Geez…, you said ‘it’s an emergency so you too come along!’ so I decided to accompany you, but wasn’t it just cheering?」
「You fool! It was a showdown between Nikumen and handsome men, you know?! It was something that you couldn’t help but feel that the God of men (noodles) was telling you to watch, right? It was to the point I wanted to try biting into nothing but men…. Hey, Toby. Isn’t here where you’re supposed to retort ‘men is something you slurp!’ or something? Come on, bring it on.」
「I don’t get it at all! Rather, I’ve never heard of such a God before. Haa…, and here I thought for sure that you’ve found Yashichi-san….」
Toby’s expression clouded. Ever since acting separately, Toby and Yashichi would meet from time to time, but recently, there was suddenly no contact from Yashichi at all.
On the other hand, as the company where he was supposed to meet up with Echigoya had disappeared, Tanaka was spending his days in vain, still unable to make contact with Echigoya. The way he exhibited his inherent indecisiveness to the fullest, all could be said was as expected of Tanaka.
In such a situation, it could be said to be a natural development for Toby to ask Tanaka to look for Yashichi.
「Don’t be so downhearted, I’ll do something about it, alright? I’ve been called Tanaka-san who can do anything, but looking for people is what I’m best at. Don’t worry.」
What a truly reliable man. It was hard to believe that he was a man who was goofing around without even looking for Echigoya. Toby seemed to be implying as such with this silent gaze.
「That’s why, you should just focus on your match. Becoming the champion, be popular and introducing me to girls are the only things you can do right now.」
「Impossible! It’s impossible in a lot of ways! To begin with, even when I tried to focus on the match, you would be there and sparing nothing to distract me anyway!」
「Tch! Just let that one go already. You need to be more mature. Alright?」
Which one of them was immature? As proofing it seemed to be harder than finding Tokugawa buried treasure, so I’d refrain from mentioning it here.
「… It can’t be helped, let’s cleanly give up on winning this time. That’s why, at least try to get close to Imperial Princess-chan and introduce her to me.」
「The degree of difficulty is as high as ever! Rather, just what do you think the Tournament Festival is?」
「Phew, I know it, alright? That for the sake of my ambition of building a harem, you’ve been secretly trying to help me out. That’s why leave the matter about big bro to me.」
Tanaka gave a thumbs up and moved to take his leave in a cool manner. His reliability was as good as a mud boat.
「No, I never thought about such a thing…. You sure are made up of misunderstandings from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.」
With such remarks from Toby as BGM, the man departed the arena.
◇ ◇ ◇
「—even if I want to fish him out, what to do, I wonder?」
Moving out to the streets, Tanaka was drifting around aimlessly.
Tanaka, for his part, even without Toby asking him, was intending to look for Yashichi. It was because he wished to maintain a good relationship with Yashichi, who shouldered the title of the strongest hero.
It was surely too healthy of a thought for a little man to want to hide in the back of a powerful person at times, and at other times wanted to show off with the power of a powerful person as the background.
In other words, as far as Tanaka was concerned, it was an important matter to take this opportunity to say hello to Yashichi again.
Thus, Tanaka was looking for him relatively seriously, but….
「Oh! That’s….」
There was a single person who stood out in the bustling crowd of people. Clad in a maid uniform that was out of place with the surroundings, her each and every dignified movement inevitably attracted the attention of everyone around. The woman was effortlessly making her way through the congested crowd of people.
「Fufu…. It seems that my fishing has finally succeeded.」
Along with whisper so quietly that no one could hear it, she continued to move through the crowd. Moving away from the crowded main street, she soon found herself in an area whose security wasn’t very good even in the imperial capital.
She eventually stopped when she entered a deeper back alley, a little open cul-de-sac, with no presence of people around.
「You seem to be stealthily scheming something in this Imperial Capital, but I’m also getting tired of investigating what that scheme is.」
When she turned around, there stood a group of several people who had been eyeing her.
「What you have hidden in your hearts. Shall I have you lay bare all of it here?」
The combat maid Eclair took out a huge scythe that was disproportionate for her slender body and took a stance.
The next moment, however, the eyes on Éclair’s crisp face widened in surprise. This was because among the people who had been tailing her, there was one who conspicuously stood out from the rest. It was a man who was engraved even in the memory of her junky self.
「Phew, I never expected you to be such an aggressive woman. That means the face you previously showed wasn’t your true face, huh. Good grief, looks like I’m still a little green, huh? However, please worry not. I don’t hate that kind of passionate-ness. That’s why let’s have you accept it. The passion hidden in my heart. And then, let’s walk down together, our kyakya ufufu aisle!」
In the midst of the bunch who were clearly oozing dangerous air, there was a man who was so blinded by his own desires that he could not see his surroundings.
This was the second encounter between the Junkers. What would this encounter bring forth to the conspiracy-ridden Imperial Capital? It might bring forth nothing.
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