C-Rank Ranked Match — An Image Of Beating Her

“It is certainly true that having Shiki snipe Tsubasa would be the quickest way, but…”

“No way, no way!”

Niko cuts in flatly.

“She’s got her blind spots covered with the Aegis, so even if you snipe her from behind, you’ll just get blocked, y’know~. And even head-on, Tsubby’s gonna catch the shot and react.”

“I-I know that. Um… I haven’t brought this up before, but I…”

I pull out my M1911 G-AGE.

“…have kind of an interesting weapon on me.”

I set the G-AGE on the table for everyone to see.

“And what’s this old-world gun supposed to do?”

“This gun can deal damage while ignoring the target’s Armor entirely. Which means it can break through any shield, no matter how sturdy!”

“”“Wha—?!”““

I release the data lock on the G-AGE so the other Space Girls can read its description too. The three of them scan it, and every one of them is stunned.

“Why, you…!”

Niko pinches my cheek.

“Why didn’t you tell us something this important sooner~?!”

“I-I’b showwy!”

I just never had the courage or the right moment to bring it up!

“Might I hear its detailed capabilities?”

“Y-yes!”

I lay out everything I’d learned about the G-AGE from testing it. ChaCha is the first to pipe up.

“Sooo interesting! A guaranteed kill if you hit a Space Girl’s weak point? That’s super interesting! And the whole live-round-gun angle makes it even more tempting~n!”

“But this game makes live-round guns a real pain to handle, so landing a hit’s tough.”

“No. It is precisely because live-round guns are weak that they work. Almost no one bothers to guard against a live-round gun. They are weak, after all. With Shiki’s skill, she will not miss an unwary opponent.”

Shiina looks me in the eye.

“This is exactly the natural predator of a Guardner like Tsubasa. It will serve.”

I look away.

“Um, about Tsubasa — those shields of hers, what are they, exactly? Their performance is clearly in a class of its own compared to other armaments…”

With a fight against Tsubasa coming, I want detailed intel.

“Come to think of it, I have never explained them in detail, have I.”

Shiina works the remote and brings up an image of a colossal humanoid robot modeled after a goddess.

“Her main weapon — those six large shields — are called Aegis. She refers to all six Aegis together as ComboAegis, or ‘C:Aegis’ for short. They move freely, are fitted with guns, and laser blades extend from their tips.”

Hearing it laid out again, it’s absurdly strong. And she can run all six at once, which is downright monstrous.

“It is only natural that they are so powerful, since acquiring them is quite difficult. This robot I have on screen now — its name is Aegis, and Aegis’s rare drop is a large shield bearing that very same name, Aegis. The recommended level is 100 or above, and the drop rate is 0.5%. Furthermore, Aegis has extremely hard Armor; unless you possess the Infinity Arts, felling it will always take at least ten minutes.”

“And she has six of them…”

“Apparently she gathered all six shields in a mere ten kills, across two hours.”

“Ehh?!”

“She is simply lucky. Watching her up close, I came to believe it myself: this is a person loved by gods and humans alike. She had a gift not only as a Guardner, but a sense for close- and mid-range combat as well. The one and only thing she was poor at was long-range sniping.”

Sh-she’s the complete opposite of me in every single way…

I have no luck, no one loves me, and on top of that I’m good at long-range shooting.

“But ‘C:Aegis’ is Rarity 10. Which means that, just like my Six Petals and railgun, it takes a performance cap in Ranked Matches. It cannot put out the kind of speed you saw on the Gold Planet, and the Power of each attack drops as well. As for Armor values — since Tsubasa’s level is lowered, the benefit of Guardian Deity falls dramatically, and the Armor values of her Shields and Shield Pieces decrease sharply. Breaking through from straight ahead is difficult either way, but the performance is not so unreasonably strong.”

On top of that, each Aegis apparently eats one armament slot. Six shields, six slots. Without Weapon Plus equipped, ‘C:Aegis’ plus two Shield Piece slots would fill her armament slots up completely. Her hand is thin on variety.

“It’s totally unfair! I know ‘cause I faced her once. A flat-out iron wall — I couldn’t form any image of beating her.”

“B-but…!”

I gather my courage and speak up.

“I… I do have an image of beating her.”

At that, Shiina smiles.

“Understood. I will do everything within my power to make sure you’re the one we pit against Tsubasa.”

Shiina switches the image on the screen.

“Now then, let us move on. Besides Crimson Wings, there are two more teams we must watch out for. The first is Funky Bomber Girls — FunBom for short — a team where every member is a Bomber.”

“Those guys are such a pain…”

“When they detect an enemy on Radar, all of them bombard the whole area. Haphazardly.”

It sounds idiotic, but honestly, if it actually caught you, there might be nothing you could do.

“Each of them mounts a nine-round rocket launcher on each shoulder, and they all launch at once. Nine times two times three — 54 rockets come flying.”

“If they’re not the laser type, then don’t they have a limited supply of ammo?”

“Ammunition for weapons that fire live rounds can be brought in up to 999, regardless of weapon type. Waiting for them to run dry is not a sound plan. That said, reloading does take time.”

“In that case…!”

“But they have already loaded a second pair of nine-round launchers into two more slots, so they will swap them in at once and fire a second volley.”

So another ×2… a hundred and eight rockets, flying at me one after another?!

“Get caught once and it’s the end. Those rockets home in on any Space Girl within a six-meter radius, so you can’t fully dodge ’em even with sloppy fire.”

“With FunBom, they could probably force their way through even Tsubasa’s guard.”

“It’d be perfect if those two teams just chewed each other up.”

Would it, though? Crimson Wings and FunBom knocking each other out… that would be, how to put it, kind of a letdown. Or is it strange of me to think so?

“The next one to fear is Reiwa Kunoichi¹ — a lineup of two Scouters and one Sniper. On this team, the Sniper dumps everything into Radar, and the Scouters dump everything into Stealth. The Sniper detects enemies with her Radar, and the Scouters assassinate them. Even a Sniper with high Radar can’t find them if she’s put even a little into any other stat.”

“…They probably won’t show up on my Radar either.”

“As a countermeasure, equip a Back Eye. If you can see behind you, you should be able to respond.”

I’ll just have to rely on my Loner Radar.

“That about covers the overview. Are there any questions?”

There are none. No one raises a hand. We’ve hashed out most of the fine details across our meetings so far, after all.

“Then we’ll adjourn here — but Shiki, please get some maintenance done by ChaCha at least once first.”

“Oh, come to think of it, Shikki’s never had a maintenance session yet, has she.”

Maintenance…?

“Come on over~. I’ll lighten you up a bit.”