The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time

Chapter 315.3 - Side 51 - Reincarnated individuals fly

Traveling through the skies on a military transport aircraft would normally be a fairly comfortable experience.

But the ‘Druid’ Joseph Smith was anything but comfortable.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Or rather, it’s way too ominous that me and these people are all being put on the same plane,” he muttered as he looked around at the Bravers that were about to board the aircraft with him.

“Joseph, it’s the first time we’re seeing each other since your return to work, so stop saying such terrible things! Maybe you should become a babysitter after all,” said Derrick Sander, unable to hide his irritation.

Derrick was a reincarnated individual with the codename of ‘Chiron,’ and on Earth, he had been the homeroom teacher of a different class from Vandalieu’s.

As a teacher, he had been in charge of the same field trip as the ‘Chronos’ Murakami, but unlike Murakami, he didn’t care about being called ‘Sensei.’ He also didn’t treat his former students like students. But still, he had always approached the other reincarnated individuals with the same enthusiasm as he had on Earth.

If asked, he would look after people, and if people put distance between him and themselves, he would get involved in their affairs but maintain that distance. If Banda were to describe him, he was like an Asagi who understood the concept of interpersonal distance.

Even now, his words were causing Joseph to glare at him. But this behavior had just become a habit for him after he became a Braver, as he had often worked as an instructor for soldiers, police, and rescue squads. Behind his words was a genuine worry for Joseph, whose mind had suffered in the past from missions that he wasn’t suited for… though his words were still unpleasant to Joseph nonetheless.

“I’m not concerned about you, Derrick. I’m talking about the other two,” said Joseph.

“What? Haven’t you guys been hanging out a lot lately?” said Derrick.

They looked at the other two – the ‘Asclepius’ Nanamori Misato and the ‘Sandman’ Youdou Masaki.

“You’re not the only one, Joseph. I was thinking that it’s ominous for all of us to be here too,” said Nanamori.

“Yeah, I’m in agreement,” said Youdou.

On Earth, both Nanamori and Youdou had been students from another class than Vandalieu – Amamiya Hiroto. And like Joseph, they had encountered Vandalieu in their dreams.

Though Nanamori hadn’t suffered as much as Joseph, she had been very stressed and considered retiring from the Bravers. Youdou had been conducting his missions without a problem, but… in private, he had been tormented by suicidal ideations.

They had encountered Vandalieu in their dreams, received fragments of his soul, and were guided. They were now allies of Joseph and had recently been volunteering to take shifts guarding Mei and Hiroshi.

But the three of them had nothing else in common.

“This choice of personnel is too strange,” said Joseph.

These three had very different cheat-like abilities, mission history, skills, and knowledge.

Joseph’s ‘Druid’ was an ability that controlled plants. Nanamori Misato’s ‘Asclepius’ was an ability that doubled the effects of healing magic. And Youdou Masaki’s ‘Sandman’ was an ability that caused living creatures to sleep and become unable to act.Please visit fr𝐞𝐞w𝒏.𝒸𝑜𝔪 website to read fastest update

In combination with her own magical skills, ‘Asclepius’ allowed Nanamori to save fatally wounded people if they had even a one percent chance of surviving – though there was no guarantee that they would make a full recovery with no lasting damage.

Youdou’s ‘Sandman’ stopped the movements of any human, plant, animal, or even bacteria and viruses that were invisible to the naked eye, with a range of about a hundred meters as long as there were no obstacles in the way.

None of these three had abilities that could be considered suitable for combat. They were still sometimes recruited for missions involving combat, but not very often.

And Derrick’s ‘Chiron’ was an ability that targeted those he taught. It consisted of two abilities: Increasing the learning ability of the target and promoting the target’s improvement.

If he were a private tutor, any motivated student under his instruction would be capable of entering a prestigious university and graduating at the top of their year. If he were a coach for athletes, he would be able to produce world-class sports stars one after another.

His ability had so much potential that before the Bravers were founded, he had been worried about the effects and results his ability might have and settled for working at a gym and making more people successful at dieting… and the reason the Bravers had been able to become so highly capable after only several months of military training was because he had become their instructor at some point.

Now that the Bravers organization was taking responsibility for the possible consequences of his instruction, he was now helping produce exceptional soldiers, police, rescue personnel, and mages all over the world.

In other words, Derrick was extremely unsuited for combat in terms of his ability, regardless of his rugged appearance. It wasn’t that he couldn’t fight at all, but… he was nothing more than one capable soldier.

It made even less sense to send him to the frontlines than Nanamori.

“Well, I get what you’re trying to say. It’s been a while since I’ve been on a dangerous mission, too. But I’m sure they rounded us up because the other members happened to be busy on their own missions. Besides, this mission is important, but it’s just a guarded escort. Don’t be so uptight,” Derrick said, slapping Joseph’s shoulder as he got onto the aircraft.

There was some reason to what he was saying. But…

If Rikudou knows that we’re his enemies…

But it would be bad to abandon this mission now.

Joseph and the others exchanged looks as they followed Derrick and boarded the aircraft.

And so, the transport aircraft took off. Several minutes after it left the airspace of the Federal States, they could hear shouting coming from the cockpit.

“Has something happened?” asked Youdou.

“There’s a friendly aircraft on the radar! But we’ve detected a lock-on! There’s a missile coming at us!” the pilot shouted.

“Ah, so a fighter aircraft of the Federal States has fired a missile at us. This is a tougher situation than I anticipated,” Youdou said, grimacing.

He had been prepared to deal with most unexpected situations that occurred after takeoff… such as a bomb in the plane, the pilot being a subordinate of Rikudou’s and ejecting after making the plane’s flight controls inoperable, or Derrick attacking them.

“What’s the matter? What’s happened?!” asked Derrick.

“A missile will hit this aircraft in a minute’s time,” said Youdou.

“That will be quite difficult to deal with,” said Joseph.

“What?! Can’t we fire decoys?! What about the parachutes?!”

The two pilots were flustered and Derrick was panicking, but Joseph, Nanamori, and Youdou remained calm.

“We should assume that the parachutes have been sabotaged. We can’t rely on the decoys, either,” said Joseph.

“Even if we were able to jump out, we can’t maneuver while we’re in the air, so we’ll be sitting ducks for bullets,” said Nanamori.

“… Man, I hate bullets. I’d rather take on the missile,” said Youdou.

Even in the world of Origin, where magic existed, modern military weapons were terrifyingly lethal. Given that these weapons were required to defeat enemies that were capable of using all kinds of magic, it was possible that they were even more powerful than the military weapons used on Earth.

This missile was an example of Origin’s exceptional military weapons, and it was aimed at a completely unarmed transport aircraft in mid-air. But even so, any combat-experienced Braver would likely be able to survive this situation.

However, three of the Bravers here were certainly not combat-experienced, and Derrick was an exceptional instructor but had little experience in real battles. None of them would be able to protect the transport aircraft from the missile.

“Damn it, we have no choice but to jump out! We’ll freefall until we’re close to the ocean, then use magic to decelerate or glide to land safely, and we’ll have escaped from the enemy aircraft!” said Derrick.

Any ordinary person would normally give up and share the transport aircraft’s fate, so it was impressive that he was even coming up with a plan to survive.

“I’ll do something about the pilot! You babysitters worry about looking after yourselves! Don’t try to be a hero, got it?!” Derrick shouted.

He began moving to have the two pilots eject without parachutes. He was certain that this was the plan with the highest chance of survival for himself and the pilots, as well as the mentally unstable Joseph and the other two.

But Joseph and the others weren’t obeying him. In fact, Joseph grabbed Derrick’s shoulder to stop him.

“Let’s not do that. Tighten your seatbelt and brace for impact,” Joseph said.

“What?! What the hell are you saying –” Derrick began.

“No, Derrick, you should go and give some words of support to the pilots. It might not be much, but ‘Chiron’ might have some effect,” said Youdou.

Before Derrick could give an angry retort, a report came from the cockpit that extinguished all hope.

“The missile is coming!” one of the pilots screamed.

Derrick shut his eyes tightly and pictured the face of his lover, whom he had intended to propose to after this mission was over.

A dull thud echoed across the aircraft and it lurched to one side briefly; if anyone had been standing, they would have staggered and fallen over.

“Th-the missile misfired…?” one of the pilots murmured in bewilderment.

Derrick opened his eyes to see that they were all still alive, and the transport aircraft was still in flight.

“I made it misfire,” said Youdou. “I used my ‘Sandman’ to make the gunpowder and explosive chemicals in it ‘go to sleep.’”

The missile, which had been rendered an unexploded dud by Youdou’s ability, was falling towards the sea.

“What?! Your ability doesn’t work on inanimate objects, does it?!” Derrick said in surprise.

“It didn’t before I started babysitting,” Youdou said. “But its range hasn’t changed, so I’m glad it was a missile. Missiles are helpful in that they come towards us. Well, I stopped the explosion, but I couldn’t stop the impact because of how the law of inertia works.”

The Bravers were looking up at a black van. It looked sturdy, but there were no wings or rocket engines attached to it. However, there was a black object on its roof.

“J-Jesus…!” Baker muttered, praying to God at the sight of Banda, who was flying with the wings on his back while holding the van with the suction cups he had produced on the ends of his six jointed legs.

This certainly didn’t look like reinforcements; Baker could only assume that some new enemy that was even more terrifying than the armed insurgents had appeared.

It seemed that the subordinates of Rikudou who were dressed up as armed insurgents had thought the same thing. About an hour had passed since the attack on the Amemiya residence, but they had cut communications in the area so that Narumi and the other Bravers couldn’t communicate with the outside; they hadn’t been able to acquire any intel from the outside, either.

If they had been provided with the necessary intel, they would likely have fled as fast as they possibly could or thrown their weapons down and surrendered. But because they hadn’t, they pulled their triggers, taking aim at Banda and the vehicle he was carrying.

As bullets struck the vehicle and caused loud thuds to reverberate loudly inside, Hiroshi screamed as he clung onto Ulrika.

“Is it really gonna be alright?!” Hiroshi shouted.

“There’s nothing to worry about. This car was already bulletproof to begin with… and there’s a coating of my blood and exoskeleton around it now. And I’ve actually replaced the windows with my eyes’ lenses that have been stretched out to be very thin. Even anti-tank rifles can’t put a scratch on the car now,” Banda assured him.

“Anti-tank rifle?” said Mei, confused by these words she had never heard before.

“I’m talking about the guns that are shooting the bullets that make the loudest noises when they hit the car, Meh-kun,” Banda told her.

Hiroshi, Mei, and Ulrika were sitting in the car that Banda had improved, wearing seat belts made from his tentacles.

“I’m not talking about the car, I’m talking about Aunt Ulrika! She’s passed out!” Hiroshi shouted.

It seemed that Hiroshi was trying to wake her up rather than clinging onto her out of fear.

“… I forgot about that. Ulrika, I’m sorry, but please wake up,” Banda said gently.

Startled, Ulrika jolted awake. “W-where am I?!”

“Sorry, but I need you to use ‘Echo’ – right now, while it’s still just the armed insurgents that are attacking us,” said Banda.

“G-got it! ‘Echo!’”

The gunfire that had been focused on the car suddenly turned 180 degrees and returned to the men who were firing.

With that, Rikudou’s subordinates fell silent. Of course, there were still plenty more of them, as they had half-surrounded this city, whose urban functions had been paralyzed by the earthquake. However –

“Enemy reinforcements!” one of the mercenaries shouted.

“… It’s time,” said another. “Retreat!”

The mercenaries had never been ordered to fight against the Bravers, and they certainly hadn’t been ordered to exterminate this monstrosity. They began retreating in an organized fashion.

With that, the reincarnated individuals on Rikudou’s side and the limited death-attribute magic users who were supposed to eliminate Narumi and the others couldn’t make their move. There was no way they could win that battle while also taking on the local government troops, the international rescue squads, and the flying monstrosity as well.

They also retreated, hiding themselves among the mercenaries.

The local government troops were perplexed by these events, but they kept their weapons aimed warily at Banda. It was Narumi and the others who made them put their weapons down.

“Our friend, the ‘Echo’ Ulrika, is inside that car! That car is an ally!” Narumi said.

“R-really? Then is that thing on top of the car a special ability of one of your friends as well?” asked the commander of the troops.

“I think so. I need to communicate with Ulrika and find out. Until then, please don’t attack!” Narumi pleaded.

The commander nodded and ordered his men not to shoot.

People from all over the world had ill feelings and suspicions towards the Bravers, but it was fortunate that in this case, they had been rescuing people and fighting against a common enemy just moments earlier. Narumi and her companions had rescued a remarkable number of people, and the battle against the insurgents had created a sense of fellowship between them and the soldiers. This sense of fellowship prevailed over Banda’s grotesque appearance.

By communicating with Ulrika using ‘Angel,’ Narumi gained a rough understanding of the situation. She decided to explain to everyone else that Banda was one of the Bravers’ abilities, so he was accepted for now.

“I have mixed feelings about this,” Banda murmured to himself as he watched Hiroshi and Mei running over to be safely reunited with their mother.

“Well, it’s a mother and her children. I don’t think it can be helped –” Ulrika began.

“I never thought that I would be treated as one of the Bravers’ abilities.”

“Oh. That’s what you have mixed feelings about.”

“Yes. I would have been fine with being considered a part of your ability, or the ability of Joseph, Youdou, or Nanamori… Can I call you ‘master’ for now?”

“Please don’t. The responsibility is so heavy that I’ll be crushed to death.”

Banda had no misgivings towards the fact that Mei and Hiroshi loved their parents. It was a very wholesome thing, after all. Given that his objective was Mei and Hiroshi’s happiness, their family being amicable was something he welcomed.

Narumi walked over, accompanied by Mei and Hiroshi.

“Umm, are you Banda? Mei’s friend… the… person? Who helped Ulrika and Joseph-kun?” she asked.

“Yes, Meh-kun and Hiroshi’s mom. I’m Banda. I think it would be best for you to think of me as something like Meh-kun’s guardian spirit,” said Banda, introducing himself in a rather business-like tone. He was slightly surprised at the fact that he felt no emotion regarding the fact that he was speaking with Narumi. “By the way, what shall we do now? Personally, I think we should move to a safe location and treat the injured while we wait for everything to be resolved.”

He had no intention of revealing his true identity to Narumi. He didn’t care if Meh-kun’s mother were to realize his true identity herself, but he saw no point in going out of his way to tell her if she didn’t.

“No, if Rikudou-kun… if Rikudou has betrayed us and is trying to do something dangerous, it’s our responsibility to stop him,” Narumi said. “I don’t really know what you are, but… it’s true that you protected Mei and the others, so I believe you. Please take care of my children in the future as well.”

Narumi didn’t realize Banda’s true identity after all. But that was to be expected. There wasn’t a single thing in common between the appearances of Banda and Amamiya Hiroto, her former classmate.

Even his voice and tone of speech were different. If she were capable of recognizing him despite all this, she would have realized long ago that the ‘Undead’ was Amamiya Hiroto.

“I see… Well, I thought you’d say that. Very well. I will take responsibility and protect Meh-kun, Hiroshi, and Ulrika,” said Banda. “Now then, shall we go to where Mari-chan is, Meh-kun?”

“Huh? You’re going to protect Ulrika as well? I mean, I’m happy about that, but who is Mari-chan, and where are you going? And Mei is going as well?!” said a bewildered Narumi.

“Yeah!” said Mei. “We’re going to where Mari-chan and the others are! Gab-chan, Bo-kun, and Yukkie are there, too!”

“Mom, this guy’s normally a good guy, but he never listens to what people are saying, so you’d better be careful,” Hiroshi warned his mother.

Banda gave a dry laugh. “Hiroshi, you sure know how to hit me where it hurts.”

With that, Mei and Hiroshi walked towards the car to get back in.

“Ah, I have to go through this again!” Ulrika grumbled, but she got into the car as well.

“H-hey! Don’t think you can just do whatever you like! You think we’re just gonna let you?!” Baker shouted.

But to Banda, he was nothing more than a stranger, and his words wouldn’t stop him.

“You won’t let me. So what would that entail?” said Banda.

Baker froze, unable to say anything in response.

He had no idea what he was supposed to do about a monster that was completely unharmed after withstanding a hail of bullets.

When a monster stops hiding, it has nothing to be afraid of.

“Wait! I’m going with you!” said Narumi.

“Huh?” Banda said as Narumi got into the car as well.

“Mama, you’re coming to where Mari-chan and the others are, too?! Yay!” Mei said happily, removing Banda’s ability to refuse Narumi’s request.

“It cannot be helped. Well, Meh-kun’s father and his group should be there as well, so I’ll be counting on you to explain things and persuade him,” said Banda.

“I can understand explaining things to him, but… what do you mean by ‘persuade?’” Narumi asked.

“Let’s talk about that in the car. It’s a delicate matter that I would rather not have heard by soldiers and rescue squads from all over the world,” said Banda.

“Banda, that’s nice and all, but I’m hungry,” said Hiroshi.

“Ah, come to think of it, it’s well past time for a meal. Then I suppose we’ll stop by at a supermarket on the way,” Banda said.

“Stop by at a supermarket?! Are you serious?!” exclaimed Narumi.

“Yes, and you won’t have to worry about paying. I’ve got a credit card that I’ve taken from ‘Balor,’ and I know its PIN as well… It can be used in Africa, right? If not, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until we can get to a supermarket in Europe or the Middle East.”

And with that, Banda grabbed the car and took off once more, now carrying one additional passenger.

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