The Rising of Tanaka – 66
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Pasifista
I’ve Been Waiting, You Know? For You To Get To That Answer
The time rewound back to when Tanaka and the other soared toward the volcano to meet Uesama.
Tanaka and the others, who didn’t take that much time to arrive at the volcano, after doing some explorations for a while, were staring down at a crater, with smoke rising out of it, from above.
「… As expected, they should be in this place, right?」
「The monsters caught in my detection were indeed considerably powerful, but they were still nonetheless ordinary ones, after all. If there are any others, they’re most likely somewhere in this place.」
The energy of the volcano was so powerful which made it impossible for even Kaku-san to detect the depths of the crater. There was probably no other way to find Uesama, their purpose of coming there, than to actually head into the crater.
「Do we seriously have to go into there? It looks crazy hot, though…., heck, that’s not the point! I’m going to get burned to death! I’m going to get burned to death before I can even burn out in my harem!」
It was a wonder how he’d burn out in a harem that still had zero members. Tanaka-san’s nonchalant bluff-contained yell echoed in the crater.
「As always, what a delicate guy you are. By the way, I have no problem with heat at all.」
Kaku-san, whose real body was that of an immaterial small ball of light, boasted in a side-chest pose.
「I’m also fine with the heat -degozaru.」
As if competing with him, Suke-san faced kaku-san and struck a side chest pose as well.
「No, no, no, Suke-san, you’re not fine at all, alright?! Even if you don’t feel the heat, if you touch that red thing, you’ll burn, alright!」
「What the! Is that sticky red thing that hot-degozaru?」
「That’s right! It’s crazy hot! Geez, you’re too careless…. I won’t be able to calmly make jokes like this, you know?」
Tanaka unleashed good grief – palms raised formula. This was a legendary class good grief that allowed you to walk half a step without spilling a glass of water placed on your beautiful, horizontally spread raised palms. Was making jokes that important to you to the point you’d even unleash such a special move, Tanaka?
「For the time being, let’s try calling them out from here. It’d be less troublesome if they did come out, after all.」
A man who would tread on the easy path when faced with a bind. He was truly the ideal protagonist we could ever ask for. Tanaka-san moved into action at once.
「Ta-ka-shi-ku-n!」
「Wait, who the heck is that?」
「It can’t be helped! We don’t even know their real name, after all!」
「Now that you mention it, that’s indeed the case.」
「Looks like we have no choice but to do trial and error-degozaru.」
After that, Tanaka tried all sorts of patterns he used to employ when inviting his friends out from the doorway back in elementary school. However, he didn’t have that much of a repertoire. Tanaka-san’s eyes teared up.
「I was a rather smart child, you know?! I thought that being a kind of precocious child who cared about others would make me popular, but it ended up making them hesitate to call out to me instead!」
What an insatiable desire even when he was still just an elementary school student. What a terrifying precocious child. That was why, it was by no means that he didn’t have many friends or anything. I’d state it once again for the sake of Tanaka-san’s honor. It was not that Tanaka-san didn’t have many friends or anything.
「As expected, looks like we have no choice but to head into there and look for them ourselves, right-degozaru?」
「But still, no matter how much of a Kyushu boy I am, I still can’t stand such heat, you know? Let me ask the world! I prefer the comfort of spring or autumn! Very please!」
He was a delicate man to no end. The way he performed a bow at the right angle toward the direction of the day after tomorrow was so man-like that would bring everyone to tears. But would the world fulfill his wish?
「You can control the air, so shouldn’t you be able to do something about it?」
「……」
After a moment of silence, Tanaka floated a fearless smile. As soon as swiftly performing an act that seemed as though he was about to pointlessly comb up his hair, despite having short hair, he struck his signature pose with a snap.
「Phew, you finally got there, huh. I’ve been waiting, you know? For you to get to that answer.」
The figure of him sharply pointing out with two fingers in a cool manner was truly so leader-like.
「The battles from now on will surely consist of high-level exchange of attack and defense. What matters the most during those times is your insight. By honing your insight, you will be able to obtain an advantage, no matter how slight it may be. But this small difference will most likely be the deciding factor in our battles from now on. If you master it, you’ll be able to evade attacks with 100% certainty, so make sure to train on it.」
「Say what?! I didn’t notice it at all-degozaru.」
「Seriously…?」
Thus, Tanaka-san, who managed to safely protect his paltry pride, attempted to control the air with live-support magic.
「But still, how should I actually do it, I wonder? The strategy for this kind of situation is… bubbling bubble, huh. I guess I can just create a cooling space between me and the heat using a bubble. Phew, with this I’m also finally creating an ultimate… Nah, scratch that. I have a terribly bad feeling about it. I can’t even make a bubble in the first place. All I can make is froth when I lose consciousness.」
With sharpness that would remind anyone of that of a sloth, the way he evaded all possible danger looming from all sides could only be said to be as expected of him, but the method to break into the crater wasn’t quite willing to dawn upon him just yet.
At times like this, the only one we could rely on was the hidden potential lying within Tanaka. It was the fearsome beasts that resided in the depths of his mind – in his subconsciousness — that even Tanaka himself was unaware of. Currently, in Tanaka’s inner world, eleven hamsters were having a discussion. Mysterious hieroglyphs lined up on the whiteboard. As the discussion grew more heated, more scribbles were added one after another. This incomprehensible equation was exactly one of the truths hidden in the world.
「Kukuku, I feel that this one is going to work somehow…. ‘Pra-Ise-and-Scold—S-Ince-Child-Hood!’」
As he sent a shout out to all parents all over the world who were struggling to raise their children, Tanaka’s live-support magic was splendidly invoked. As if to prove it, the scenery in front of Tanaka and the others trembled dubiously. Its true identity was an air membrane created by continuously circulating air with high speed movement. Like a finger piercing into a vinyl, an invisible path gradually stretched out into the crater.
「Phew, as expected of me. I don’t really get what’s going on, but I feel that it’s working well.」
「How curious-degozaru. What’s going on-degozaru?」
Suke-san, brimming with curiosity, tried to touch the air membrane.
「Stop it, you mustn’t do that, alright?! If you touch it, it will be really dangerous, alright?! Specifically speaking, it will be as dangerous as Kaku-san’s wide area magic, alright?!」
「Why are you mentioning my magic there?!」
「Don’t you even realize it?! That bloody land incident is still a trauma for me even now, you know?!」
As expected of Tanaka-san. The words of the foremost man who was oblivious of his own power truly had a different level of persuasive power.
「I want to quickly head into the depth of this crater or something-degozaru.」
「Mmm, you’re right. Now is not the time to be messing around in a place like this. Now then, let’s go!」
Tanaka and the others descended toward the crater. The heated up air was exhausted way further back, and room temperature air was replenished in its place, maintaining the environment inside the continuously circulating air membrane to be the same as outside.
「I said it half-jokingly, but to think you’d actually do it for real….」
Tanaka, despite Kaku-san’s astonishment, continued to proceed forward. The fact that he didn’t get carried away and brag about it there was most likely testament that Tanaka-san was also maturing up. It definitely wasn’t because he was proceeding toward the depth with trepidation that Kaku-san’s words failed to reach his ears. The best evidence of this was the dead fish-like eyes of Tanaka-san, who was swaying suspiciously.
Eventually, they arrived at the bottom of the crater, where red bubbling magma was stirring. It was a world that was extremely unlikely for any living being to possibly exist there.
「I think anyone who lives in a place like this surely is not sane. Once they come out, first of all, I’ll make sure to give them a scolding. As they are severely lacking in cooperativeness. Just how hard do they think it is to deliver the circulars to a place like this?」
Once he realized that no one was around, there was nothing he was afraid of. Tanaka-san displayed his vessel as a leader at such a critical moment. The fact that what he took out was the vessel of a little man was surely just a trivial mistake.
『Hmm, I don’t quite get it, but at the very least I do understand that you’re making fun of me there.』
A voice echoed out of nowhere. Hearing this voice, which was filled with profound intensity, Tanaka’s lower half involuntarily lost its strength.
「D, d, d, don’t scare me like that, Suke-san. Have you finally reached the age where you have a change of voice? But still, don’t you think that your internal speaker is not quite in good shape?」
While saying this, Tanaka looked around at his surroundings. He couldn’t seem to find anything particularly suspicious.
「I didn’t say anything, though-degozaru.」
「I, I see. Dear me, so it was just my imagination, huh. Well, I haven’t been getting enough sleep lately, so it wouldn’t be surprising if I had an auditory hallucination or two.」
Did this mean that Tanaka-san, who ceaselessly carried out his grueling daily routine of lying down at dusk and striving in his image training until almost noon, was also finally approaching his limit?
「You mean to voice form earlier, right? I perfectly heard it, too, you know?」
「No, no, no, no, that can’t be right, alright?! I never saw any ghosts until I turned twenty, you know? Like really, ghost and the likes are simply impossible to exist, alright?!」
The surrealist man, who believed in the fireball plasma theory, stubbornly denied the existence of ghosts. He had a feeling that he might not not have a spirit as one of his comrades, but he still denied the idea nonetheless.
Eventually, Tanaka-san clenched his fists and began to emphasize that, ‘Fantasy should not exist in reality!’. The one who brought Tanaka-san, who was at the pinnacle of confusion that he even denied the meaning of existence of this very book in such a manner, back to reality was a pillar of flame that suddenly erupted in front of him.
『You’re so noisy, human.』
And then, what appeared there was the incarnation of flame which looked like a flapping large bird.
『I am ‘En’ou Zonmer’. The one who governs the flames.』
What would the fate of Tanaka and the others be now that this supernatural entity had finally appeared?
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