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Nanana’s Buried Treasure Volume 8 Chapter 5.7

「President. Naruko has started moving with the support of the other participants. Masaaki and Tsurezure, who went with him, are engaged in combat with Shiki Maboro, who is in charge of the Nanaejima General Security. Tai-chan has reported that the first floor defense line is functioning without any problems.

「Understood. Let’s keep in close contact and let me know immediately if any problems arise.」

And the ones who will be defending them to the death are the defense forces.

First up is Tanabe-san, the giant dragon. It uses its long body to surround Asumi and the others for protection, crushing the approaching humanoids with its huge fangs and slicing them to pieces with beams of water that it shoots from its mouth.

Flying gracefully around Tanabe are two demons. They are incarnations of komainu, Naata and Otoko. Both are lively girls wearing shrine maiden outfits that expose a lot of skin, and they have komainu ears and tails growing from their heads and butts. They both brandish naginata in their hands, keeping the humanoids away.

Even more intimidating, standing in front of them, was the man who posed the greatest threat to the humanoids.

「Ha!」

With a single, determined slash, Tetsunoshin Tsujimi chopped off the humanoids heads. One by one, he cut down the approaching humanoids.

「That’s amazing, Tsujimi-sempai」, Misao muttered next to me.

According to him, his family home taught Lai style swordsmanship.

When he was attending Fifth High School with Asumi and the others, he was also a member of the kendo club. Asumi had watched his flowing, commanding swordsmanship countless times.

Tetsunoshin now is completely different to the way he appears in Asumi’s memories though. The sword he swings now has such fearsome vigor that it is almost animalistic. What is really needed from those who wield the sword is not their skill, but their heart. Those are words that Tetsunoshin once taught Asumi, and it is Asumi’s favorite quote. True to those words, Tetsunoshin now exudes the determination to protect others even at the risk of his own life.

Tanabe, Naota, Otoko, and Tetsunoshin. With the efforts of those four, not a single one of the attacking humanoids has been able to reach Asumi and the others. But at the same time, the number of approaching humanoids showed no sign of decreasing. They were coming out one after another from the cloak of the big man at the other end of the corridor, staring fixedly at them. Without interruption, without limit.

Watching the scene, Asumi felt a sense of impatience in her heart. Tanabe-san, Naata, Otoko, and Tsujimi-kun had all cut down nearly fifty humanoids. But there was no end in sight.

I glance at M who is lying there. However, considering her condition, I don’t really want to move her from there.

「Ah!」

Hearing Misao’s voice, Asumi turns around.

Tetsunoshin pulls out his sword from its sheath and swings it diagonally, but the sword stops halfway through the humanoid’s body. The humanoid that was slashed turns into black mist, but in the meantime the other humanoids attack Tetsunoshin, and he is tackled by them and falls to the ground.

The tail of the giant dragon Tanabe knocked the humanoids flying.

「Kid, step back for now. There’s a long way to go.」

At Tanabe’s words, Tetsunoshin hesitated for a moment, but then said, 「I’ll leave it to you for a while.」 Then he stepped back inside Tanabe’s encircled giant body, where Asumi and the others were.

「Are you okay, Tsujimi-kun?」

「No problem. I’ll be right there」, Tetsunoshin said. He was breathing heavily and dropped to his knees. He wiped the sweat from his forehead.

He looked extremely tired. It was no wonder. He had been slashing away at the humanoids without a break for a while now. His stamina must have long since exceeded its limit.

「Haa haa haa.」

「…..」

Tetsunoshin was catching his breath and I was just there beside him. I couldn’t say anything to him, and he couldn’t say anything to me. It was silent.

But there’s so much I wanted to say. But… I can’t put it all into words. Instead, I just remember so many things. The days I spent with Tetsunoshin, the days we fought together, the feelings we had when we stood side by side like this.

「Nishi.」

「W.. what is it, Tsujimi-kun?」

Asumi was so surprised when he suddenly called for her.

Tetsunoshin, who was facing straight ahead and not looking at Asumi, simply said one thing.

「I’m sorry.」

It was probably a ‘I’m sorry’, that meant a lot of things.

That’s how I felt.

I clenched my fist.

Something welled up inside me, but I swallowed it. I did my best to stop it from coming out.

「Do you remember what my favorite food is?」

「Chocolate mint ice cream.」

Hearing that I lowered my head.

「I found a good restaurant near our school. Please treat me next time.」

She said this in a joking voice to the person she liked… No, the person she used to like.

「Yeah, for sure.」

And with that, Tetsunoshin ran towards the humanoids again. Asumi, left alone there, just looked down.

I can’t seem to lift my face for a while, until the tears stop flowing. Until I can suppress my feelings. What kind of expression do I have right now?

**********************************************************

Outside the royal castle, Yukihime and the others confront Shiki inside Seven’s Land.

「Hey, hey. What’s wrong?」

Shiki beckons them to hurry up, as the three of them pant.

It’s no use. She’s playing with them like they’re toys. Yukihime knows that once she gets tired of playing with the toys, it will end quickly. And there’s no doubt that the moment Shiki Maboro intervenes, the wishes of Asumi Nishi and all the other participants in Seven’s Land will be crushed in an instant.

「Let’s use the Nanana collection.」

Yukihime makes this suggestion to Kagetora and Masaaki.

「That’s fine」, Masaaki nodded.

On the other hand, Kagetora spoke with a sulky tone, 「Unfortunately, I don’t have a Nanana collection.」

「Then please act as a decoy. My Nanana collection is a weapon called the <<wedge of the sun god>>, which can absolutely restrain an opponent. I couldn’t use it alone because there were no openings, but with three of us I think there will be plenty of opportunities to use it.」

「Okay.」

「Then leave it to me. My Nanana collection is <<Hekatonkeiru’s Shackles>>. Its ability is physical strengthening. Once she’s caught, I will immediately attack.」

The three nodded to each other.

「Is the strategy meeting over?」

Shiki, who had been watching the three furtively discuss the situation, laughed  happily. Meeting that smile head-on, Yukihime Fugi addressed the two others.

「Okay, let’s go.」

***********************************************************

The onslaught of pitch black humanoids continued unabated. An endless stream of humanoids emerged from the big man’s cloak. No matter how much they were slashed, more keep coming. There is literally no end to it. But even so, Tetsunoshin, swinging his sword in front of him, doesn’t stop. He keeps slashing and slashing and slashing the humanoids that come at him.

「Tsujimi-kun, step back and take a rest for a moment.」

Asumi shouted from behind.

「I don’t care! Even if my body breaks down, I will absolutely protect this place!」

Two humanoids charged towards Tetsunoshin. Just as he was about to swing his sword at them…

「!」

Tetsunoshin’s knee gave out. Fatigue had reached the limit of his physical strength. The humanoids did not miss this slight opening, and seized the opportunity to attack Tetsunoshin.

Donk

But the humanoids ran into an invisible wall and were repelled.

「You have to defeat your enemy first before you say something like that, Tsujimi.」

Grinning, the young lady (Ageha Kachou) clutching a silver egg (<<Humpty Dumpty>>) continued to swing her <<air shock hammer>> blowing the humanoids away.

「I’ll take over for a while, so stand back and rest.」

At Ageha’s command, Tetsunoshin steps back, breathing heavily and saying, ‘Go ahead’.

「You’ve done well, Tetsunoshin.」

「Why are you acting so arrogant when you haven’t done anything, Tensai?」

The great detective, Ikkyu Tensai, had given the praise to Tetsunoshin. Inside the lowered, coiled dragon (Tanabe), Tetsunoshin was greeted by a smug Tensai and Ageha, who had just escaped from the <<ruin>> and were reuniting in order to respond to Asumi’s call that they had heard from within the <<ruin>>.

This gave Tetsunoshin, who was desperately defending the defensive line, time to take a rest and swap places with Ageha, just like Haruto and Isshin who were using <<Milt Meer’s pocket watch>> on Saki.

However, unlike Ageha, Tensai is completely useless. She has been gazing with interest at the body of the dragon Tanabe, which was around them, for some time now, touching and tapping it. Tanabe doesn’t seem to mind and lets her do as she pleases.

Tensai, who is not helping, pats Tanabe’s body as she thinks about various things. Thinking about the formation protecting Saki Yoshino, Asumi’s plan, Juugo’s whereabouts, the Nanaejima General Security outside, and above all the big man controlling the humanoids…