Invaders of the Rokujouma!? Volume 6

by Takehaya

  In truth, they were supposed to visit the amusement park yesterday, but they’d run out of time after their encounter with the Sun Rangers. Kiriha felt badly about it.

  “Kiriha-san, there’s no need for you to apologize. They’re the ones at fault.”

  “That might be true, but... I’m still sorry, Koutarou.”

  As Kiriha tilted her head, her hair fluttered slightly and her smile changed. It became a happy one rather than an apologetic one.

  “...You’re quite a woman, you know...”

  All that had changed was her smile and the tilt of her head, yet when she apologized again, all the negative emotions vanished from Koutarou and he returned to his normal, cheerful self.

  “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  “Good.”

  Koutarou smiled too, albeit a bit distantly. Kiriha revealed rare, refreshing expressions like that from time to time. Up until now, Koutarou had always tried to ignore them to keep himself from getting pulled in by her. But he treasured them now that he no longer thought she was trying to do anything like that. Kiriha had a fantastic smile, and he took a moment to let it sink right in to his heart.

  You really are quite impressive...

  But that led to a new set of doubts. Koutarou couldn’t figure out why Kiriha would intentionally do things to try and make him suspicious or untrusting of her. If she revealed her true intentions and smiled at him like she just had, Koutarou would probably easily obey her.

  “You’re quite a man yourself.”

  “Is that a compliment?”

  Koutarou’s faint smile curled into coy smirk. Kiriha had stimulated his sense of humor.

  “Heh, what do you think?”

  “You really are quite a woman...”

  Koutarou and Kiriha smiled together as the train rolled along the tracks.

  “I found them! They just came through the entrance!”

  “Good job, Sanae. Ruth, have the unmanned craft continue tracking them.”

  “Understood, Your Highness.”

  “I see them too!”

  Theia, Ruth, Sanae, and Yurika were again following after Koutarou and Kiriha. They were waiting in the same alley as the day before for Koutarou and Kiriha to come out from the station.

  “At 10:10 AM, they begin walking towards the amusement park.”

  After issuing commands to the unmanned craft, Ruth recorded a verbal account of Koutarou and Kiriha’s actions using her bracelet. Shizuka had to work again today too, so Ruth had promised her another report. Shizuka was dying to know about Koutarou and Kiriha, but unlike the other four girls with a personal stake in the matter, Shizuka was just curious.

  “But it’s still suspicious. Just like yesterday, both Satomi-san and Kiriha-san are acting completely different from normal.”

  “Koutarou’s definitely being fooled by her sex appeal.”

  “Koutarou’s an idiot and honest to a fault!”

  “There are countless knights that have lost their way over a woman. Satomi-sama is just lacking in self-awareness!”

  Koutarou and Kiriha were calmly walking down the street together in stark contrast to the anxious girls secretly following them. But much like yesterday, Koutarou and Kiriha looked closer than ever. The four girls each had their own opinions on Koutarou’s relationships with women, but they were all equally on edge as they watched the situation develop.

  “Let’s go, Your Highness!”

  “Yes, we wouldn’t want to lose sight of them now. Let’s hurry after them!”

  “Roger!”

  “Okay!”

  And so the four girls ended up spying on Koutarou and Kiriha just like they had the day before.

  The first thing Kiriha did after they entered the amusement park was take Koutarou to a small theater that showed movies related to events the park was holding. Right now, it was being used to promote a new anime.

  “Is this really what you wanted to do?” Koutarou asked when he returned from buying tickets and pamphlets.

  “Yes. This is fine,” Kiriha replied and nodded contentedly.

  She took her pamphlet from Koutarou and stroked the cover. It was with the same affection she might pat a child on the head, so Koutarou assumed she was getting sentimental.

  She might really be feeling nostalgic...

  Koutarou looked down at his own pamphlet, which read “Kabutonga, the King of Beetles: The Movie” in large letters. The movie was a theatrical rendition of an anime that aired ten years ago, and it was being shown again as a promotion for the newest edition to the series: Kabutonga, the King of Beetles: Second Impact! There were other events being held along with the screening to promote the new show too.

  Kiriha hadn’t said much of anything serious to Koutarou during the two days he’d spent with her, but he noticed that when she did, she kept saying things like “in the past” and “ten years ago.” From that, Koutarou gathered that the places they’d been visiting had something to do with her childhood. If that was true, then the same might be true for the movie. He figured that’s what had gotten her feeling nostalgic.

  “Koutarou, look.”

  Kiriha presented a brand new metallic foil card to Koutarou. It read “Kabutonga No. 1: Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle,” followed by a picture of a hero striking a pose in an outfit designed after the beetle. It was a trading card included as a promotion with certain snack foods, and it was very popular with kids at the time. It had been reprinted and added in as an extra with the pamphlet for the movie.

  This is... Kiriha-san’s...

  Koutarou remembered seeing the card before. Though the last time he saw it, it wasn’t brand new. It was aged and worn enough that it had lost most of its luster. On top of that, it had been scribbled on.

  “Kiriha-san, isn’t this...”

  “Heh...”

  Kiriha smiled. It was bright and innocent, and it radiated the fond nostalgia she was feeling. It was the best smile Koutarou had gotten yet today. Seeing that gave Koutarou his answer.

  It must be, which means...

  In Koutarou’s mind, Kiriha’s behavior the past eight months and the events of the past two days all lined up in accordance with a certain principle. It all led to a single answer. However, knowing that much wasn’t enough to assuage Koutarou’s doubts. Like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle, Koutarou was missing one piece before the big picture would really be cleared up for him.

  “You’re surprisingly feminine.”

  That was all Koutarou truly understood right now.

  “How unfortunate. I’ve been trying to act feminine all this time...”

  “You’re doing it on purpose, aren’t you?”

  Koutarou lightly tapped Kiriha on the forehead with his fist.

  “That hurts, Koutarou. How could you treat a woman’s face like that?”

  She exaggeratedly held her forehead and glared at Koutarou. Seeing that, Koutarou sighed.

  “Stop fooling around and let’s go. The movie’s going to start without us.”

  “That would be a problem.”

  But the tension was only momentary. The two of them soon returned to smiling as they entered the theater filled with children.

  “A theater, huh?”

  “This is bad.”

  “Yes, this is bad. Very bad.”

  Seeing Koutarou and Kiriha go into the theater, Sanae and Theia looked at each other with grave expressions. They both knew this meant certain danger.

  “Why? C-Could it be that Satomi-san wants to take advantage of the darkness to make a move on Kiriha-san?!”

  Yurika, still unaware of the real danger at hand, was worried about something completely unrelated.

  “Of course not! There are kids all around them!”

  “The problem has nothing to do with them.”

  “Then what is it?”

  Yurika stared at Sanae and Theia with a quizzical look on her face. The two girls then glanced over their shoulders at the same time.

  “Satomi-sam
a and Kiriha-sama have entered the theater. I’m putting the unmanned craft on standby above it.”

  They looked at Ruth, who was currently giving commands to the unmanned craft. Yurika followed their gazes.

  “...It’s Ruth?”

  She realized who they were talking about, but she didn’t understand what the problem was. She couldn’t imagine what Koutarou and Kiriha going into a theater had to do with Ruth. Still confused, she leaned in to whisper with the other girls so Ruth couldn’t hear them

  “That’s right. In fact, I regret taking her with us now.”

  “Yurika, take a good look at the sign by the theater. Just don’t raise your voice, no matter what you see.”

  Theia and Sanae were worried Ruth would notice the sign first, so they casually moved in front of her to obstruct it.

  “The sign?” Yurika asked, blinking a couple of times in confusion.

  She then looked towards the theater and saw the very sign they were talking about.

  “Eek!”

  She covered her own mouth to keep from shrieking, but it may not have even been necessary. She was so surprised that she probably wouldn’t have been able to anyway.

  The sign read: “Parents and children alike, please enjoy this special screening of the masterpiece Kabutonga, the King of Beetles: The Movie to commemorate the broadcasting of Kabutonga, the King of Beetles: Second Impact!”

  “Th-There’s nothing to enjoy about that!”

  Unlike the modern anime industry that relied heavily on CG, the decade-old movie had been entirely produced using hand-drawn cells. Yurika couldn’t help but feel hatred coming from the taunting smile of the hero on the poster. To her, he looked like a demon that had crawled up from hell with the metallic beetle carapace used to transform in his hand.

  “Jeez, you idiot! Don’t be so loud!”

  “Shhh! Shhh!”

  “Hmmph, mhhhm, hmmhmm!”

  Theia and Sanae pounced on Yurika as soon as she started making a fuss. Ruth was mostly observing things through the unmanned craft’s point of view, so she hadn’t seen what was written on the sign. But if Yurika kept it up, she would notice sooner or later. That was the last thing Theia and Sanae wanted.

  “Quit messing around! Do you understand the situation?”

  “Mmh, mmh, mmh!”

  “If you make a fuss again, you know what’s going to happen, right?”

  “Mmh! Mmh! Mmh!”

  Sanae and Theia quietly threatened Yurika, and Yurika anxiously nodded her head in response. They were being dead serious, but if the situation were reversed, Yurika knew she might be doing the same thing.

  “Is there something wrong?”

  Noticing the commotion, Ruth turned around. With no idea what was going on, she just stared at the other girls and waited for an answer. Sanae and Theia quickly jumped off of Yurika and the three of them began clamoring for a cover-up.

  “I-It’s nothing, Ruth! It looked like Yurika had a small pebble stuck in her shoe! So I was just thinking of getting it out for her!”

  “Yeah! Right, Yurika?”

  Theia was planning on surviving the situation by pretending they were helping Yurika with something minor, and Sanae was quick to play along.

  “Huh? Really?”

  Yurika, however, misunderstood Theia and immediately looked down at her shoes. Of course, there was no pebble to be found.

  “I don’t see any pe—”

  “...Shut up!”

  A thud rang out.

  “There is one. In the pattern by the heel.”

  “I-Is that so?”

  Ruth looked at Yurika, who had begun crying for some reason, with a questioning look. However, before she could say anything else, Theia walked up to her, grabbed her by the hand, and walked in the opposite direction of the theater.

  “Let’s go, Ruth.”

  “Your Highness? Are you okay with leaving Satomi-sama and Kiriha-sama?”

  Theia continued walking, trying her best to tear Ruth away from the theater. At the very least, she wanted to put some distance between them and Yurika.

  “I don’t mind. Just leave the unmanned craft on standby until Koutarou comes out. The movie will probably last for over an hour, and I don’t intend to just sit here and wait for them.”

  “But what if they do something ind—”

  “That won’t happen. Did you forget that they’re surrounded by kids in there?”

  “Now that you mention it...”

  “Koutarou might look unreliable, but he won’t dare do anything to traumatize children like that.”

  “Yes, of course. That is certainly true.”

  Ruth was worried about just leaving, but after hearing what Theia had to say, she quickly changed her mind and was soon walking alongside her contentedly.

  “Would you give it a break?”

  “I’m sorry... I didn’t mean to...”

  “If you do something like that again, I’m going to possess you and keep your mouth shut for you.”

  “Anything but that!”

  Just a short while later, Sanae and Yurika followed after Theia and Ruth. Although it might just have been an excuse that Theia came up with on the spot, there really was no point in waiting outside the theater for over an hour.

  “Hey, everyone, why don’t we all go see the haunted house since we have the time? I hear it’s really scary.”

  “I don’t mind.”

  “That does sound like fun.”

  “I absolutely refuse! I live with a ghost, so why would I need to go see a haunted house?!”

  After leaving Koutarou and Kiriha behind, the four girls were all ready to explore the amusement park for themselves. They had about two hours until the movie ended, so they had plenty of time to enjoy it.

  However, none of them knew what lay ahead. None of them had any idea that another event was being held at the venue outside the haunted house. It was a tragedy that could have been avoided if only they had paid more attention to the sign at the theater. Unfortunately, since they’d had to leave in a hurry, no one had the chance.

  Meanwhile, Shizuka was on the job, meaning on a stage wearing a full bodysuit. Her performance during last week’s show had caught the eye of a professional, so she’d been scouted to participate in another show that would double as an audition. Of course, it was also a hero show.

  “Poison scales don’t affect me! Have you forgotten that my body is a machine? Absorbing Madame Butterfly’s ability backfired, Scarab King!”

  Shizuka acted out the scene in accordance with the hero’s voice flowing out from the speakers.

  The acting should be exaggerated, exaggerated...

  Even though she had been told to exaggerate the acting, compared to practicing for the Blue Knight play in November, a hero show needed to be even more over the top. Since her helmet covered her face, she had to make bigger, more dramatic gestures to make her character easier to understand.

  As if she was doing a karate demonstration, Shizuka powerfully pointed at the actor in a large beetle costume in front of her. And as if he’d been waiting for exactly that, a deep, male voice came through the speakers.

  “So what, Kabutonga No. 1?! Even if they don’t work on you, what about the humans around you?!”

  As the voice resounded from the speakers, the Scarab King started his own set of gestures. Unlike the homemade hero show from last week, all of the dialogue was done over the speakers. A big part of the actors’ job was moving around with the lines to make it clear who was speaking.

  “Oh no! That was your goal all along?!”

  As she pretended to be overly surprised, female extras began surrounding her. They were civilians being controlled by Scarab Kings poison scales.

  “Blast, you coward! Fight me fair and square!”

  “I refuse! Good guys like you hide behind words like ‘fair and square’ to give yourselves an advantage! That makes you the coward, Kabutonga No. 1!”

  “Curse you, Scarab King! Your o
nly skills are in twisting people’s words and planning such nefarious deeds!”

  The extras closed in, shrinking their circle as they trapped Kabutonga No. 1. Kabutonga No. 1 was a hero of justice, so he couldn’t just attack innocent women who were being controlled.

  “Don’t worry, No. 1!”

  “Just leave those women to us!”

  That was when two new Kabutongas appeared on the stage. They had large horns and bigger builds than No. 1. They were Kabutonga No. 1’s allies, Kabutonga Hercules and Kabutonga Atlas.

  “You’re here, Hercules! Atlas!”

  Kabutonga No. 1, the hero Shizuka was playing, was designed after the Japanese rhinoceros beetle. Because of that, it had a smaller body compared to Hercules and Atlas, and in turn required a smaller actor. Shizuka was chosen for the part for her small frame and her precise movements on stage.

  “Stag-man created an antidote for the poison scales, so just leave this to us!”

  “No. 1, you take care of Scarab King!”

  “Thanks, guys! I’m counting on you! Here I gooooo!”

  Following the script, Shizuka slipped through the circle of women and closed in on the Scarab King. Before Shizuka was involved, they couldn’t rely on scenes that required dexterous movements like that. So in that sense, she was already living up to the stage director’s high hopes.

  “That traitor again?! Curse you, Stag-man!”

  “Scarab King, your ambitions end here!”

  Using the momentum from her run over to him, Shizuka took a flying leap. In reality, there was a trampoline hidden in the floor that couldn’t be seen from the audience. And with a well-timed jump, Shizuka got good air before coming crashing down feet first on the Scarab King.

  “Kabutongaaaa Kiiiiiiiick!”

  Just before the kick actually connected, fireworks and smoke filled the stage. Using it as cover and a distraction, the Scarab King crouched down and Shizuka landed on a cushion right behind him. It would be dangerous for both actors if she actually landed a kick like that.

  But the children didn’t know any better, and they cheered wildly all the same. To them, it looked like the Kabutonga Kick had caused the Scarab King to explode.