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97 Night in the Forest 2 Difference in ability
「Waoon!」
「I see, you have a name called Tarou. Nice name」
「Wafun, wau, wau」
「Oh, I see. You got your name from the person called Mai. How did you met-nojya?」
「……Kuuun……」
「……I see, that’s hard……looks like you also went through many things」
Tarou and Shiro face each other, and they looked like they are having a conversation.
Shiro strokes Tarou’s back while becoming teary eyes, and Tarou also looks like it is sad as its ears and tail are down.
「When did the two of them get along? Wasn’t today the first day they meet each other?」
「Un. It looks like Shiro-chan has the same Talent as Shinozaki-san.」
「I see. No wonder…… People with 【Communicator】 can speak to dogs, huh」
「No, she is orginally a fox」
「……Fox?」
Akai and Kagura are sitting in front of the campfire while looking at the two of them. By the way, because Shiro is using the figure of a girl, everyone thinks that Shiro is a girl, but Shiro’s gender is male.
When both of them looked at Shiro and Tarou’s mysterious exchange, suddenly, one animal and person……to be more precise, two animals turn and run up to them.
「Somehow, it smells good-nojya」
「……You mean this?」
Akai has been grilling the meat with the campfire. Today’s dinner was the curry made by everyone, but for Akai, that wasn’t enough, so he brought back a wild rabbit that was dragged into the training with Hikawa, as a snack. A wild supper.
「You wanna eat? There’s still more」
「C-Can I!? Thanks-nojya!」
Akai holds out the meat skewer to Shiro, and he starts to eat it as if snatching it away. He also gives Tarou some leftovers, and Tarou looks happy as it wags its tail.
When they finished eating, Shiro spoke to Akai while licking his palm.
「You……are quite a good guy. Do you have a name? If not, I will give you a name」
「Me? It’s Akai. Akai Tsubasa」
Shiro raised his ears, and started to say the words that came out from Akai’s mouth.
「……Akai? Tsubasa……Akai……Tsubasa……」
Just like that, after reciting Akai’s name like a spell, he said this.
「No, too long-nojya! You are Tsuba-jya」
「……Tsuba?」
Upon hearing the name, Akai had a strange look on his face, and Shiro now turns to Kagura.
「And……you are Mai? I heard from Tarou」
「Waoon!」
Receiving looks from both Shiro and Tarou, Kagura smiles.
「That’s right. You are Shiro-chan, right? Nice to meet you」
「No! Not Shiro-chan. It’s Shiro!」
Shiro who desperately corrects his own name. Kagura was puzzled for a moment, but she immediately smile, and
「I understand! Nice to meet you, Shiro」
「Umu」
Just like that, Shiro and Kagura start a trifling conversation. Seeing them from the side, Akai walked into the forest alone.
◇◇◇
「I really couldn’t do anything……」
I lost utterly in today’s training.
I didn’t stand a chance against him at all, and he completely go easy on me midway after being disappointed. That might be inevitable. I can’t even put up a good fight due to the huge difference in ability.
I know the reason of the difference.
The movement of Hikawa is totally different than mine. Akai doesn’t have any 「movement means」 using the Talent like Serizawa and Hikawa. That’s why, the situation gets worse and worse for him, and even if he manages to land a surprise attack, he will be outpushed immediately.
No, it’s a lie if I say that I don’t have a movement means.
I have a high speed movement means for emergency evasion. A method of 『jetting flames directly』 from my body. But that can’t be used for a normal movement means. If I do it, my skin will be charred in seconds.
Today, I actually tried using it once.
As a result……I destroyed myself instantly.
Although I manage to move quickly for a moment, my skin was burned terribly, and after that, I had to fight him while feeling the pain for the whole time.
When I showed the burned marks to Kagura, she scolded me harshly……
If I make a mistake, I might be on the verge of death by my own flames. What a ridiculous thing.
Serizawa somehow can’t feel the heat itself, so he handles it as there’s no heat in it. That’s why, he can accelerate that quickly by heating near his body rapidly.
On the other hand, Hikawa creates a wall of ice skillfully, and hit it to the ice beads to create a sudden propulsive power. That one is something that becomes true with skilled moves.
In addition, those two didn’t acquire it with effort, but with just their natural sense.
Ability and talent. That movement is something that can be done with both of those.
In comparison to that, I……
「Fly by using the blast」 of the fireball. That’s my best. However, I must still do it with the resolve of getting wounded to a certain extent.
「I’m getting sick of myself……」
When I thought that I was lionize by the army and private schools, I lost in succession.
When it comes to real thing, I have not done anything on my own. When I’m with the guys who are one step better than me, I will just be a small fry.
I know that more than enough already.
But still……
I must become at least a meat shield at the critical moment. I must make sure Kagura survives. It’s to repay my debt to her father who brought me up.
「……I need to think of a way……」
Even though I say that, I can’t think of anything.
As if to dodge it, Akai starts his usual muscle training.
Sit-ups, push-ups, squats. Daily running, and if he has the time, rope-jumping. He plainly build his stamina.
「……I have been doing only these recently……」
There’s no way that this way is fine.
But I don’t know what I should do.
Without knowing what to do, Akai just moved his body continuously in the dark forest.
Thank you for the chapter.
The agony of the weak, every weak mc have a taste of it and after overcome it they become strong.
The problem is akai is not the mc.
So true, though my heart definitely cried a bit for poor Akai.
Akai is a prime example of a musclehead. If he would just review basic physics and do some light research on propulsion and thermodynamics, then he wouldn’t be struggling so much. The issue of being burned by his own flames would be solved if he could just control the direction in which his flames burn. Take the blowtorch: more pressure on the fuel(gas)=steadier flame and less dispersion