C-Rank Ranked Match — The Encircling Net

And Gamma…

Not here. She got away.

“?!”

My Radar lit up with a whole cluster of player icons. Eleven of them!

“Shoot. She called in her friends…!”

One against eleven. This is bad. Let a crowd that size close in around me and I’ll seize up, frozen stiff. I need to run. There’s no way I can take this.

Distance! Distance! With enough distance, a crowd doesn’t rattle me! If I’ve just got the distance, I can bring them all down!!

The icons were fast, closing the distance by the second.

“…N-n-no good! The Thruster gap between us is way too big!”

As I ran, a call came in. It was Shiina. I picked up.

“My apologies, Shiki. I had a bit of a bad feeling just now, so—”

“Sh-Sh-Shiina! It’s bad, this is really bad! Please, help me!”

“…What happened? Stay calm, and explain the situation.”

“R-right now, I’m being chased by a gang of bandits! There’s no way I can win against this many!”

“I am heading to your coordinates now. I am at the Station, so it will not take long. Hold out for about four more minutes.”

Four minutes?! That’s forever… but—

“Understood!”

I cut the call there.

Time… I need time… how do I buy it?

“Hold it right there!”

Enemy units closed in from every side: front, back, left, right. Eleven of them, all kitted out much the same, every last one fitted with Wings. I could pick Gamma out among them. So it really had been her who called them in…

So this is… as far as I go, huh.

“A-wawawawa…!”

M-my body won’t move.

“Oi, oi, she’s shaking like a little puppy. This is the girl who took out our top two?”

“I mean, look how low her level is! Twenty…?”

“The Guild Master made her out to be such a big deal. Turns out she’s just a small-fry.”

“Don’t drop your guard.”

Gamma stepped out to the front of the group.

“This one’s dangerous. Her marksmanship is no joke, and she’s carrying some strange live-round gun.”

“Yeah, yeah. But offing her that quick would be a waste.”

“She took our money, after all. We’ll spawn-kill her.”

Someone grabbed me from behind, wrenching my arms up so I couldn’t move. A gold-hooded Space Girl set a capsule bed down right in front of me.

N-no way…?!

I understood why she’d set the bed down.

“Go on, open up this capsule bed. Do that, and your respawn point gets set right here.”

“And every time you come back to life, we’ll gun you down all over again.”

“That gold you stole! You’re gonna cough up every last coin of it!”

Though if you trace it back, that’s money you stole off somebody else in the first place…!

My body won’t move…! I’ve gone completely stiff with nerves…!

S-someone… help—

“Now die!!”

The enemy leveled her muzzle right at me. And in that very instant…

“That’s quite enough out of you, you lot!”

The voice came from atop a pillar of gold crystal behind me. Every last one of them looked up toward its peak.

“Who’s there?!”

“The cutest girl in all the world… and her name is—!”

A twin-tailed, ridiculously cute Space Girl…

“Tsubasa…?”

“That’s riiight, it’s Tsuba~~~sa!! Ahh, I finally caught up to you, Shiki!”

The instant the Konpeitou crew got a clear look at Tsubasa, alarm shot across their faces.

“Shinkai Tsubasa…?!”

“The Guardner from the former A-Rank team, Yggdrasil…!!”

An A-Rank team… that means a top-tier team, right?

So… does that mean she’s seriously strong…?

“Now then, my dear background mobs. Think it’s about time you cleared off the stage?”

Six large shields materialized around Tsubasa.

“—Your turn is over now.”