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Nanana’s Buried Treasure Volume 8 Chapter 4.1

Episode 18: The Third Stage ~The Winner is Decided~

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The door blocking the passageway leading to the treasure chest suddenly slid open without any warning. Ikusaba Hiiyo, who had been waiting in the depths of the <<ruins>>, next to the door, began to move through it. Ageha Kachou followed.

As Ikusaba and the others passed through the blocked passageway and stepped into the treasure room, they stopped in their tracks.

「You’re too late「, came the sound from a tall, large pedestal towering in the center of the square room. Standing on top of it and looking down at them was the great detective, Ikkyu Tensai. Behind Tensai was an open treasure chest.

「Tensai-kun, what happened to Yama-kun?」

Ikusaba immediately asks about the person who is missing.

「Yeah, Juugo grabbed the <<sword of Nanana>> and quickly went ahead.」

「Ahead.」

「It’s the passage beyond this pedestal.」

Tensai points behind her from the top of the pedestal with her thumb. It can’t be seen from where everyone else is standing, but there is another passage on the other side of the pedestal.

Ikusaba curses in his head. So there was another passage after all.

While waiting at the doorway, Ikusaba was still thinking about the structure of the treasure chest, which was yet to be seen, and about some possibilities for the structure of this room.

First, it is a pattern in which the pathway is made passable again by opening the treasure chest, and then it is a pattern that leads back to the entrance. This goes with patterns of <<ruins>> in the past.

But he also considered the possibility that this might not be the case.

This could be a pattern where there is another exit between the treasure chest and the far end of the <<ruin>>

If it’s the former case, they we can ambush Juugo when he turns back, we can attack from here and corner him in the chest room. If it’s the latter case, it’s a different story. They would have to continue to pursue Juugo, who is moving forward.  In the former case we would have the advantage when Juugo has to come back. In the latter case, Juugo would have the advantage as he escapes with the <<sword of Nanana>> in hand.

Because the <<ruins>> were only a part of the stage, and there was a limit to the number of people who could enter the treasure room, I figured that whoever was at the leading the stage (the person who first gets the <<sword of Nanana>>) would have an advantage in the stage…

「I never imagined it would turn out like this.」

I’m irritated. I’m irritated that my pessimistic prediction came true.

While Ikusaba was left devastated, Ageha Kachou (who had entered the room with them) quickly took action. For the time being, she ignored the traitorous Tensai and ran around the large pedestal that towered before her.

Ikusaba also shifted his plan from ‘cornering’ to ‘chasing’ and stepped forward. However, after running a few steps, he suddenly stopped and looked at the top of the pedestal.

「By the way, Tensai kun, why are you still here?」

「Don’t worry about me. I’ve decided to quit the <<game>> now.」, Tensai answered, still standing with her legs apart.

Is that so? I started to run again, but something caught my attention. No. What did Tensai say? No, what she said was probably true. She had never shown much interest in the <<game>> or the prize. So she would be likely to drop out whenever she felt like it.

If so, what is the problem? Then I realized. Ahh, I see. It wasn’t Tensai-kun’s actions that bothered him. He felt that it was something uncharacteristic of Yama-kun to leave Tensai-kun here all alone. It’s because she betrayed Ageha Kachou which would make her a target of retaliation. It doesn’t matter that she dropped out, there was no guarantee that Ageha Kachou as well as myself wouldn’t do anything to her.

Would Yama really leave a girl alone in such a dangerous situation? That is what Ikusaba was thinking. This was based on everything he had seen and heard from Juugo Yama up until now.

So he looked up, directly above her, and then laughed.

「Found you!」

「Did you find me?」

It was like a joke. At the entrance to the treasure room they had just entered, high above, about 15 meters from the ceiling, was the Juugo Yama. He was holding onto a device shaped like a combination of a gun and a belt. Stretching out from the muzzle was a wire with an iron hook at the end which was embedded into the ceiling.

I don’t know where he got it, but he probably fired it into the ceiling, then crawled up the device and stayed there attached to the ceiling.

He was surprised but Ikusaba started grinning. It was because Juugo was carrying a rather old looking sword on his back.

「Hey, little mouse! There’s no passageway anywhere… Ah!」

It seemed that Ageha, who had gone around to the other side of the pedestal, just noticed Juugo too. I see, so while she was leading us to the other side of the pedestal, he was planning to escape through the only entrance. It seems that the correct pattern for these <<ruins>> was the former. Juugo had used Tensai as a decoy to mislead us into thinking it was the latter.

Plus, if Tensai-kun is ever in danger, he could help her right away. Also if he yelled when he started running out of there, our attention would be drawn away from Tensai-kun and towards him. This is a typical trick for Yama-kun.

「But unfortunately, it looks like that plan has failed.」

I’m still standing almost directly below Juugo, near the entrance.

「Maybe not.」

Then Juugo threw something from above. Ikusaba immediately jumped back.

Bang Bangbangbang

They exploded with a loud sound. Bombs? No, maybe firecrackers that only make noise?

But that’s not all, some of them start to shoot out white smoke. Smoke bombs. Ikusaba’s vision is impaired by the smoke that is filling the room. Ikusaba looks up again.

The wench of the grapple hook launcher that Juugo was holding started to move. The wire that was wound up started to unwind, and Juugo slowly descended into the smoke. Ikusaba plunges into the smoke as well.

Okay! With this timing, I’ll be able to hit Yama-kun the moment he comes down. However there is a slight miscalculation there. Juugo lets go of the launcher when he’s stilla bout 5 meters away from the ground. The freefall reduces the time it takes to reach the ground.

When Ikusaba hit the smoke, Juugo was already there. Ikusaba was hit squarely in his shoulder. Losing his balance he fell to the floor and landed on his back.

「I’ll be off now. Oh and here’s a souvenir.」

Saying this, Juugo tossed something at him again. Ikusaba dodged it, rolling to the side.

Bang Bangbangbang

The same firecrackers and smoke bombs as before. This time the smoke was purple, though. The color made me stop in my tracks before I dove into it. Is it poison? No way. This had to be a bluff, the smoke was just colored.

Even though he thought this in his head, Ikusaba’s feet wouldn’t move. He decided in the end that it would be best to wait for the smoke to clear before moving.

It’s true that he would be held up for a bit here, but he had all the elements needed to make a comeback.

While the smoke was obscuring the entrance to the passageway, Hiiyo Ikusaba gazed silently at Juugo’s back as he ran down the hallway.

Just before Juugo’s back was completely obscured by the billowing smoke as he was reaching the gap of the door, he saw a swift slash being unleashed towards Juugo.

1

While hanging from the ceiling, I was wondering about something. Why did only Ikusaba-san and Ageha-ojousama come to the treasure room? Where is he? I thought he’d caught up with Ikusaba-san and Ageha-ojousama and was in the last room. Maybe he got caught in a trap on the way and couldn’t follow them? Or maybe Ikusaba-san and Ageha-ojousama defeated him? That would be very bad.

Unfortunately all my scenarios were wrong. Unexpectedly there was one person waiting at the door. I only realized this after he unleashed a flash of his sword as a greeting.

Tetsu-kun surprised me with a sudden horizontal slash. I arch my back while still running and bend my knees. I slide across the floor on my shins, as if I just scored a goal in soccer or was doing some limbo competition, and somehow manage to dodge Tetsu-kun’s slash. Well, actually it grazed the tip of my nose.

「Hey, Tetsu-kun! What if you just made my nose shorter?」

「If it was really long, I would have done you a favor.」

Ah, I see. That’s certainly true. It seems that I would have been saved thanks to Tetsu-kun. I feel defeated. Anyway, I quickly regain my balance and face Tetsu-kun, but by that time the blade of the sword he was hold was already approaching me.