Eroge? Bad Ends? Betrayal? I’m Just Here to Suplex Monsters through Buildings. (Patreon)

Piledrivers are Perfect (6.2).

…

It took a couple more fights, but we eventually got Daichi’s attention.

Along with his attempts to take us off the board.

Daichi made his move against us by trying to get some security guards to steal away Kine and Helena while I was fighting. The result was Kine taking care of the threat in a very decisive manner, and after that there was an attempt to poison the food in our room through the staff. I made the person who did it eat it, and we got upgraded to a higher-class suite when they started developing symptoms.

The first two attempts would’ve dealt with normal foes just fine, but once they were trounced, he sent in something only a ninja would counter.

A needle engraved with microscopic talisman sigils and poisoned to boot.

It passed through the gap in the air vents and was promptly turned off by the security boundary that I set up.

Practically declaring that his fellows were after him.

We had our own people in the staff bribed to keep an eye on him, and we expected him to take off after the revelation, but he stayed put.

Probably the smart move, since he’d remain under the protection of the corporations, but one that we expected.

“Alright, time for me to start busting out actual moves.” Under the guise of adapting to fights, I was going to start sneaking in actual techniques into my coming matches. With Daichi paying attention to us, I needed to make it clear that facing me in combat would result in his loss, which would mean that he’d make a run for it. “Kine and Helena, you both need to be on guard. He tried taking you both as hostages before, so he’ll try again.”

“Really? Even after seeing what I did to the idiots he bribed?” Kine had made a statement with the first attempt. She practically tore them apart without even transforming or using her weapons. They were quick to draw their guns and fire, but she just shrugged off the bullets. A .45 caliber just gave her a couple bruises that disappeared overnight. “He doesn’t have any former ninja followers, right?”

“None of his current retinue are, but you should still stay on guard. Plenty of his current followers live here. They’d risk their lives for a chance at getting out.” Most of his retinue were from the under city. He took control of a gang and was trying to become a pseudo-warlord over a whole district by getting funds from the arena. It was a good plan, if not for the fact that it made him very easy to find. You can’t really hide who you are if you’re trying to get tens of thousands of people to follow your lead. “Numbers have plenty of quality. Just be sure to use that backup weapon I gave you if things get dicey. Don’t hesitate. Just use it and get out; I’ll do the same.”

“Sure thing.” Kine nodded, and I believed her. So far, she’s shown the most promise at not being bad-ended. Maybe she was a subversive character. Despite wearing a bikini beneath a red jacket and leather chaps, she was surprisingly lethal and no-nonsense. “You’ll be fine heading out alone, if that happens?”

“Yep. I’ll get out faster without having to find you guys, too. And, besides, if I’m in trouble, you’re better off getting Asakura over to help me than trying anything yourselves.” I told her things as bluntly as possible. “If you can’t find her for whatever reason, or if she’s dead, you should get out through the sewers, hit up the safe house, grab the cash, and scram. That’s why we have those escape routes planned in the first place.”

“Usually, I don’t back away from a contract, but these stakes are crazy. I’d be a moron not to have an out.” Kine stated with a nod. “So, if I can’t fight my way out, pop the seal, get out, and find Asakura. If I can’t, the whole mission’s a wash, and I should take an early retirement. Sounds good.”

“What about me? Do I go to the Hiyo Clan?” Helena piped up. As per usual, she was eating a bowl of some food or another from the kitchen. Between the daily training and food, she was getting fit fast. Years of gene-editing and transformation weren’t going to just go away, though. Unfortunately, the bimbo body isn’t going away. “Or, do I just start a life with the money from all the betting?”

“Depends on if you think you can handle yourself, or if you think you need help. Personally, I think you should take your money and stay with the Hiyo Clan. She can set herself up with a new life just fine. You? You’ll get into too much trouble.” Helena nodded at my statement, but then I shook my head. “But that’s just in case something crazy happens. My plan is to scare the shit out of Daichi and push him out of here before anything happens.”

“I mean, he’s already trying to come after you outside the ring. That means he’s already scared.” Helena gave a hum. “Maybe we should go after him back? We won’t need to worry about running if we deal with his retinue.”

Huh.

“That works. It works really well, actually. I like retaliating first, too.” Why just weather the situation and have backup plans when I can just attack? I mean, it’d be stupid if I just went over there and started trouble, but there were ways to get things done quietly. “He goes out to his territories often, right? We can ambush his people.”

I looked at Kine, and she had a grin filled with fangs in response.

“Why just us? We can bring in the others, as long as they hold back.”

Man.

She’s really working hard to have me hope that there’s a chance a person can choose not to be a victim in this world.

…

Interlude: Asakura Hiyo, the Fiery Blade

…

Daichi’s chosen gang in the underground city called themselves the Tunnel Kings, and they were the strongest, with only three other gangs working together able to keep them in check. Their main source of income was drugs and prostitution, with them launching frequent raids all over the underground city to keep their stable full while also ensuring control. Daichi took on their leader, killed him, and effectively usurped control through strength of arms before giving concessions to the lieutenants and conquering more to maintain his influx of capital.

It was standard operating procedure for overt operations in cities such as this during war, when we could subvert the corporation’s centers of power without breaking the truce. It was a path unavailable to us, but not to him. He needn’t fear reprisal from the corporations since he was a former ninja turned demon, after all.

Still, the strategy did have its weakness.

As genetically modified as the populace of the underground city was, they were just slightly stronger humans. They were to be waves of easily recruitable fodder or hardy breeders for stronger beasts. Past the tough visages and rippling muscles and reinforced skeletal structures, they were still mostly human. A common individual with enough training could patch them. Someone utilizing various drugs could reach their level of strength and durability in but a moment, though with severe repercussions.

Even if these people were all trained, chemically and mechanically enhanced, and equipped with the latest weapons of the corporate elite, they will still fall. Perhaps against the ninjas a century ago, these masses of thralls could swarm and attrit the clans. But the clans now would devastate them. The Hiyo Clan had tens of thousands of familiars ready to be unleashed and ravage the enemy, alongside remote-controlled weapons, and that was before considering new techniques that would create closed spaces the size of city blocks perfect for filling with flames. Keita’s former clan, the Uwabami, had poisonous fogs that they could direct and control, along with seals filled with poisoned senbon that sought out their foes by the hundreds.

We learned and adapted against sheer numbers since the last conflict, developing many techniques to shatter armies, and now the paradigm was back to that of ancient times.

The mighty standing against the mighty, while armies can do naught but wait to hold what the victor claimed.

Fighting against Daichi’s new forces should have been easy, and I was tempted to just confront them head-on, but I stayed cautious.

Perhaps it was due to my recent loss, but I did not wish to leave anything to chance.

I followed Kine’s plan to ambush Diachi’s people and gathered information on the common recruits of the corporations as I did.

We began with automatic rifles. With talismans, I set a multitude up in many windows and appointed them to fire upon living beings I would tag with my power. It was an old trick once used with crossbows or even bamboo rods with needles. Catherine would simulate more guns, while Alecia and Leona were to kill those who they encountered with the crude blade weapons forged in this under-city.

The grouping of a dozen armed men came under fire, and it was enlightening to see their reactions.

Though they lacked formal training, subliminal messaging and hypnotic therapy had them swiftly respond to the ambush. They took cover and split apart and searched for shooters. They paired up out of instinct and looked up, whereas most humans aboveground would never consider it. Those with melee weapons picked up a rock or some sort of rubbish with sufficient weight and made themselves larger targets, while those with ranged weapons kept quiet and almost hid their weapons in their silhouettes while searching for targets.

A few shots from the rifles brought three down, but the rest were only grazed by the shots, and they were quick to respond. They assisted one another, clambering up walls and squat housing with little communication beyond glances, and approached the windows where the guns fired from. Two different groups went for reinforcements, bounding in two separate directions, which Leona and Alecia were thankfully covering.

By the end of it all, they never saw us, and they all died, seemingly at the hands of their own kin in the undercity.

But what I saw was worth the trouble.

“Bloody hell, they were moving like professional soldiers down there.” Catherine floated to my side, while I felt Alecia and Leona draw near. They both discarded their weapons already and were not even touched with blood. “Genetically modified and hypno-trained. Put them in power armor and chem them up, and they’ll be decent at putting down monsters. They won’t be much against you lot, though.”

“True, but with this much manpower and this much strength, I have a feeling that they don’t intend to attack us. No, I think the corporations might intend to take over what’s left of the government.” They held much control over it already. Many of the senators and representatives chosen by the people were financed by them. It took much of our own effort to keep the executive and judicial branches away from their reach, along with many of the generals. But that could change with this. “They may very well be able to launch a coup, then have enough soldiers to hold to make it stick, or at least threaten a civil war that will force us to the bargaining table.”

They had more than two dozen of these cities on the western half of the continent with populations in the hundreds of thousands. If they can call upon the populations of those places to war and if they respond like this, they have a large army that can hold ground. Green, but with these instincts and training, along with their willingness to fight for their newly claimed territories, they will take time and effort to dislodge. Too much time and too much effort, perhaps, for us to win.

That’s without considering the possibility that they do not contain a latent order, that their masters perish to ravage everything, or that they are defeated.

It would be the sort of thing that the corporations do.

If they cannot have everything, then they will take what they can and deny everything else to increase the value of what they hold.

Alecia and Leona’s arrival drew me away from my thoughts.

“Well then, the wastrels are dealt with. Are we to wait again, or will we do something whilst Keita is in danger?” Since news of the martial artist from foreign lands arrived, Alecia had been antsy. Still, from my familiars keeping an eye on her, she hadn’t allowed her anxiety to make her lax. She felled the foes who went her way without error. “This Daichi of yours may decide to stay in there because of her.”

Leona gave me a small nod in greeting but had nothing else to say.

“Daichi would be killed for trying. The martial artists of the Middle Kingdom treat any with demonic blood as foes the moment they speak to them. He lives now because he avoids her, and that gives her prestige.” I informed the vampire godling, and she frowned. A huff left her lips, and she crossed her arms while she made a chair of shadow and took a seat upon it. Catherine went over to Leona to ask her of her findings. Leaving me to deal with Alecia by myself. “Rest assured her continued presence there ensures he will be coming our way. She may very well choose to be rid of him the moment he ceases improving her reputation. Not to mention, if she decides to be a threat to him, Keita will stage an escape. He told us as much.”

Alecia opened her mouth to speak but scowled and looked away.

“Very well. I suppose even if his escape fails, I can recover him in a few decades.” Alecia sighed, and I did my best to not shake my head. She spoke so eagerly about entrapping his soul when he wasn’t present, but she could hardly speak up in his presence. I did not see her as the master of the relationship, if such a relationship ever arose. “So, did this little escapade achieve our goals?”

She directed the question towards Leona and Catherine, who were observing a larger swathe of the city.

Catherine gave a thumbs up while Leona spoke.

“The Tunnel Kings have heard and are gathering in force to search the location. They will find nothing.”

I nodded as Leona gave more information, the most pertinent being the surprising number of firearms our opponents were equipping themselves with, but my focus turned towards the resort town in the center of the city.

Daichi, your safe haven is starting to come to a boil.

How long before you decide to jump here where I await?

How long before I say goodbye to my youth in truth?