My Favorite Thing is the Secret Art: Swallow Reversal. My Special Skill is the Secret Art: Swallow Reversal. My Hobby is the Secret Art: Swallow Reversal – Part 03
Craw moved his right arm, thrusting it forward. The giant pincer launched straight at me.
“Whoa!”
Yeah, I freaked out. I mean, his pincers could detach? Like missiles? I jumped aside to dodge, but at that moment I noticed something.
As I yelped like a loser, someone else let out a similar scream behind me. I turned my head slightly and saw him, standing at the top of the stairs at the end of the hallway. Orito.
Craw had shown up just after he left. If he’d heard all the ruckus from the classroom, it wasn’t strange that he came back to check. Totally reasonable. Should’ve expected this.
And that was when the flying pincer slammed into me. Was this what it felt like to get hit by a truck? The impact was insane.
I was lifted off my feet like it was nothing and sent flying down the hallway. The pincer snapped back to Craw. If I hadn’t transformed, my body would’ve been torn in two.
“Aikawa.”
Orito was staring at me with wide eyes. His arms and legs were trembling. Even if I told him to run, he probably couldn’t move right now.
“What is that outfit? It isn’t funny, man.”
Wow, really? That’s your first takeaway? Not the giant crawfish? I mean, I get being confused by the costume, but come on. Priorities, man.
“Get out of here, or you’re dead.”
He didn’t respond, just stood there like a mannequin. Not good. He wasn’t like me. If he took one hit, he’d actually die. He wasn’t a zombie, after all.
“Hey, Haruna!” I yelled toward the classroom, hoping the pretty girl was still inside. “We’ve got a civilian! Look after him!”
Craw’s beady eye flicked that way. Not on my watch.
I stomped forward hard enough to crack the floor and closed the distance.
I led with a flying kick and swung the screeching chainsaw. I had to keep Craw’s attention on me, not Haruna. I forced him back with a reckless tackle and kept swinging, driving him toward the far end of the hall.
Craw bounced back like a shrimp, dodging the chainsaw with agile little hops.
“Haruna! Hurry, I need you to get to him!”
“Shut up already! I got it, so stop barking orders.”
She rubbed her arms, maybe still chilled, and slowly stepped out of the classroom.
I’m counting on you.
A backhand pincer slam drove into my side. I shouldn’t have taken my eyes off him. It felt like my guts got crushed. Craw grinned smugly.
I grabbed the pincer, twisted it upward, and yanked him off balance. I then jumped on top of him and pressed the glowing chainsaw on his collar.
“That’s cute.”
Craw didn’t have just two legs. Dozens of limbs shot out from under the school uniform and pierced through my body. It didn’t really hurt, but man, it felt disgusting. Having things twist around inside you wasn’t exactly a pleasant sensation.
“Hohohoho! Die, Magiclad Girl!”
“Oh boy, do I have some bad news for you. I’m already dead.”
The chainsaw screamed as it carved into Craw’s neck. He’d let his guard down, thinking he’d won. Classic mistake. There were always idiots like him.
Those round, beady Megalo eyes widened in disbelief. Craw raised his shaking pincer at me. It looked like he was trying to launch it again like before. But he was already done.
I flung the severed head aside. Craw’s right pincer, drained of strength, dropped to the floor. Then the pincer meant for me launched on its own, completely out of control.
“Whoa!”
I got to my feet just in time as the rocket-speed pincer zipped past my feet. Talk about a last hurrah.
I turned to let out a breath of relief, and there he was. Orito.
What’re ya still doin’ ‘ere?
Yeah, I know I slipped into some random dialect there. I’d told Haruna to get him out of here. Did I phrase it wrong? Was it not clear enough?
Maybe it was the zombie blood in me, but I felt the color drain from my face.
Before I could process the dread creeping up my spine, I dove, face-down like a beach flag sprinter. Craw’s last desperate shot was headed straight for Orito.
Hey now, that pincer could mess someone up if they weren’t a Magiclad Girl. It’d straight-up kill anyone who wasn’t a zombie. My jaw dropped open.
Could I reach it? Just a tap. Just graze it and knock it off course.
I stretched out the chainsaw in my left hand, chasing that gleaming projectile as it zipped through the air, throwing off glowing particles.
Almost there. Just a little more. That’s it. Just hook the tip and bump it.
Yeah no. No way. I was nowhere close!
No sound came from my open mouth. I clenched my teeth and bent my wrist.
Only one option left—throw it. I had only one shot at it. I didn’t want to think about whether I could land the throw from this angle. I just had to try.
“Take this!”
I poured three hundred and six percent of my strength into my wrist and flung the chainsaw.
Dispelling my worry, the chainsaw smacked the pincer off course. The claw slammed into the hallway wall instead. Shards of concrete exploded, raining down on Orito, who flailed his arms and legs in a pathetic attempt to shield himself from the debris.
I exhaled hard, flushing the bitter air from my lungs. What the hell was Haruna doing?
“Hey, did you see a short girl around here?” I asked.
“Huh? Oh, you mean that super cute one? She was all red in the face, asked me where the bathroom was, all the while glaring at me, and when I told her, she went in without another word.”
Orito pointed down the hall, toward the side of our classroom.
Well, if she needed to go to the bathroom, I suppose I could let it slide. No big deal.
Hell no. It is a big deal!
I planned to give her a long lecture on the value of human life once I got home.
Orito let out a sigh of relief. “So, who are you?” His eyes were unusually serious.
There was no hiding it anymore. What a pain.
“I’m just a dead man. A plain old zombie.”
“So turning into a zombie means you end up wearing that?”
Orito clearly couldn’t get over the Magiclad Girl costume. I could explain it, but it’d take a while.
As I started laying it all out, Haruna walked out of the bathroom, looking refreshed. She flicked water off her hands.
“Oh, it’s over?”
She was too relaxed. With a straight face, she walked up and pressed her freshly washed hand against Orito’s forehead. He collapsed onto the floor.
“H-Hey! What the hell did you just do?”
“Memory alteration. I can’t cover the whole area right now, so you do it.”
“You can do that and didn’t say a damn word? I just spilled everything to him.”
“Not my problem. Just hurry up and do it already!”
Good grief. Following Haruna’s vague instructions, I raised the chainsaw and pointed it at the classroom, trying to activate some unfamiliar magic. Ruby-colored light extended from the blade, wrapping around the damaged room.
Apparently, it was something about messing with local spacetime whatever and using that same trick to alter memories.
Honestly? I had no clue what was going on.
It would’ve been nice if she remembered the actual terms. Spacetime something didn’t help at all. And it wasn’t some all-powerful magic either. My body still looked like it went through a meat grinder.
Well, I just need time and I should be back to normal. You know what they say, time heals everything.
Somehow, even without knowing what I was doing, the spell worked. The classroom looked exactly the way it did before Craw showed up.
So that’s how they erased all traces of battle. Maybe Megalo and Magiclad Girls had been fighting all along, right under our noses.
And with memory wipes, no one would know. Kinda convenient. If not for this ridiculous outfit, I might actually admire the whole Magiclad Girl thing.
Anyway, next up was Orito’s memory. Haruna said she’d already done it, but I wasn’t taking any chances.
I pointed the chainsaw at Orito, who lay snoring in the hallway, and followed another of Haruna’s vague explanations. Time to scrub some memories.
At the very least, I had to make sure he forgot about this cosplay.
It was more important than the crawfish thing. Or the part where I said I was a zombie.
Comment (0)