Surviving a Shounen Manga

The Ramirez Scramble (5)

Those repair drones had there been one left?

Karl Zayed brushed away the dust thatd piled up on his clothes, and slowly reviewed his memories.

When hed first encountered that Cyborg Gelop, that piece of scrap metal, there were a total of three simple repair drones attached to him.

Called Alpha, Bravo and Charlie.

Although they were repair drones, their use was close to being replacement parts.

When Gelops arm was broken, one filled in, and when half his body was blown away, another hurriedly took its place.

And only ten minutes ago the last one had replaced Gelops two legs.

That was all of them, wasnt it?

In fact, at the end, Gelop couldnt respond when his left side of his body got blown off.

There was no way Karl Zayeds memory could be wrong.

Was this some other hidden trump card, or

Is it really somebody else?

Karl Zayed raised his head again and stared at the unidentified cyborg, on whom no trace of the last battle could be found, no matter how hard he looked.

Hmm. Youre quicker, too.

The bastard looked at himself and tilted his head.

What actually happened?

Huh? What do you mean?

You have changed.

Ah, I did some repairs.

It wasnt just the appearance being restored in an instant that made Karl Zayed doubt his identity.

Once he started talking

His voice remained the same, but the tone had completely changed. The way he used to speak was extremely harsh, but now

Im feeling irritated just remembering that guy.

He was getting annoyed.

Also, the most important part, the power

The power of the energy cannon was different.

To the point where hed avoided it without daring to take it head-on.

You dont show any sign of repairs. And that energy cannon was is it your original one?

Hey, youre sharp, huh? You even noticed Ive changed weapons.

Even a three-year-old kid would notice the power difference. No, you bastard, more things have changed than that.

Its no a big deal, I just changed the CPU.

Seepee what?

Dont worry about it, dude. Just think of it as changing some parts.

However, Karl Zayed wasnt feeling convinced that this wasnt a different being, because he hadnt seen the replacement process with his own two eyes.

Not to mention that there hadnt been nearly enough time.

Soon,

Hmm

Karl Zayed shook his head to shake off his thoughts.

There was no point pondering it over. If he had an unanswered question, couldnt he just grab the guy and ask directly?

So decided, he pulled out a sword from his waist.

It was a weapon hed started carrying around one day, because it was occasionally useful.

It was hard and sharp.

He couldnt remember where it originally came from. Probably from some fool whod rushed at him without knowing his own place.

Same as the pile of scrap metal now in front of him.

Oho, you use weapons too? Since when? I dont remember this.

I sometimes take it out when I get tired of just breaking things by hand. Like when I have something to cut.

Although Karl Zayed said that, actually, pulling out his weapon was more of a sign of showing respect for his opponent.

Because the cyborg now looked like hed brought some pretty expensive parts.

And finally,

Huh. Then let me respond in kind.

The pile of scrap metal seems to have a similar idea.

About respect, or boundaries.

As the cyborg raised his arms, a blue light began to hum through the energy outlets at the centre of his palms.

Everythings overhauled except your brain, hm? You still dont know your place.

You say that even after taking out your sword? Besides, what do you even know about my brain? How outrageous. A mere human dares to look down upon an AI I bet you cant even multiply three-digit numbers in your head.

Hmph, cheeky machine.

See, now youve got nothing to say. The greatness of AI Ill carve it straight into your head.

Soon,

Whiiiing.

Fwosh!

A huge flood of energy roared out of one palm along with a shockwave.

Its different.

The magnitude of the force was now so strong that the original was no comparison.

The energy cannons had taken several hits from Karl Zayeds fists already, but to do the same now would be unreasonable.

Bumping into something that volatile would leave his fists shredded, and his sword broken.

But, of course,

If thats not feasible, lets just not do that.

Thatd happen only if he clashed head-on.

Karl Zayed quickly evaded the rushing energy, and then rushed towards Gelop.

Fwosh!

Left then right.

Fwosh!

Fwosh!

Zig-zagging, Karl Zayed avoided the energy shells flying in. Albeit slowly, he was making progress.

Although the attack was immensely powerful, it didnt make him panic. The attack pattern was foolishly consistent.

Fire a series of energy cannons, then back off when youre approached. Then attack again after recharging.

But Karl Zayed wouldnt give him the time.

It was kind of disappointing. Those arms, legs, and so forth had been blown off once, but nothing essential had changed.

How boring.

Karl Zayed waited one more time, even though Gelop was already within his range.

A total of seven energy cannons had been fired so far. Four on the left arm, three on the right arm.

Previously, six shots were the maximum, so no matter how much the accessories had changed, Gelop was probably at his limit.

Are you going to shoot once more? Or are you done?

Then,

Whiiiing.

Fwosh!

The eighth shell flew.

Its over.

Karl Zayed didnt even care about the shell that brushed past an ear, and rushed at Gelop.

Then,

Have you got more arms ready? This is the third one gone.

He swung his sword at the cyborgs left shoulder.

There was no doubt in his mind that the opponent would be sliced apart.

But,

Whatre you doing?

Huh?

The bastards reaction was strange.

He didnt dodge at all.

For a moment, Karl Zayed met his blank eyes and felt a terrifying feeling.

That was then.

Hm!?

Both the cyborgs palms flashed a sinister red, for the first time.

And then,

Fwooooosh!

A new kind of energy shell hurtled towards him.

Uh

Karl Zayed immediately fell back at his fastest speed, but a large part of the shockwave had already passed through his arm to his torso.

Oh, youre super fast, huh? And sturdy too.

Karl Zayed forced his shut eyes to open and checked his own status.

His arms had gone limp. They wouldnt rise. He didnt have the strength.

There wasnt even any pain. As if everything had been burnt out.

I got baited.

Both his arms were completely broken, and the rest of him wasnt doing too well either.

His body parts thatd been exposed to the attack were glowing red hot.

Despite not having been directly wounded, his body that would normally quickly recover from any wounds wasnt functioning properly.

What is this, its over with just one hit? Boring.

Karl Zayed bit his lip. Hed looked down on his opponent too much.

Things werent going well. This was dangerous.

Well, that didnt mean he was helpless. All he had to do was use that.

Soon after,

Sizzle.

His body quickly recovered.

Huh? Wh-, what?

Gelop was startled at the sight.

Growth mortgage.

Extracting power from his future growth and using it for immediate physical recovery.

In return, his growth would stop until he managed to recharge the power thus consumed.

This was the latest skill hed acquired.

I have to admit it. I underestimated you.

This mortgage system actually operated at quite a loss. At first blush it might look like an equivalent exchange, until one considered the fact that it also paused the, otherwise constant, growth of his unique ability.

In other words, the duration hed stay stagnant was much longer than itd otherwise be.

And this

Youll have to pay for that.

Also meant that he couldnt let this guy go.

That was then.

Uh youre already using that? Here?

The bastard asked, sounding very bewildered.

What?

Isnt that your ultimate technique?

Karl Zayed froze.

You know my ability?

He hastily searched through his memories. Had the two of them met before?

It couldnt be. This was obviously their first encounter.

No, more than anything else, this ability had emerged very recently.

Then how come the other party knew about it

Umm thats not it. More like, it just feels like that?

This was a very unconvincing response.

But Karl Zayed didnt express any further doubts.

It wouldnt change what he was planning, anyway. He just needed to catch this guy properly and interrogate him.

I have something else to ask.

As Karl Zayed was about to advance

Suddenly,

Uh, wait a minute. Lets stop here for now.

The cyborg raised his hand and stopped him.

What?

This is all for today. Ive gotten bored, so Ill just be off.

It sounded absurd.

Have you gone crazy? I just underwent a full recovery, the same as you. And do you think therell be more opportunities like this? Even if its just a coincidence, youre the first person that made me do my best

Funny. Werent you beaten bloody before? And whats so difficult about it? You arent as great as you imagine.

What?

Karl Zayed felt his heart pound for a moment.

What was this guy saying? What did he know? Him being beaten bloody?

Impossible

Karl Zayed clutched his sword tight.

No matter what, he couldnt let this guy leave.

Only those words were echoing through his mind.

You bastard, looks like you really want to die. No, more than that

Carl Zayed surged forward, mid-speech.

Do you think you can leave?

But at that very moment,

Shouldnt you dodge? Else

He was frozen in place, as if ice had covered him.

Because place his enemy was aiming at with a grin,

You might be in danger.

Was his Achilles heel.

It was inconceivable.

You, you are

Got what Im saying? Lets just leave things here today. In return, I wont aim for the token. Now then later.

Karl Zayed couldnt stop Gelop as he disappeared.

No, he couldnt do anything.

Unanswerable questions continued to swirl in his mind.

Who the hell was that guy really?

After a while, a single word forced itself out of Karl Zayeds clenched teeth.

Squatjaw.

Whoo

Things had almost gotten dangerous.

I never thought that Karl Zayed might use growth mortgage.

If I hadnt managed to scare his off, things mightve gotten really dangerous for me.

Because my equipment had already run out of energy.

I removed the high-power energy cannon attached to my arm and threw it to the floor.

Clatter-clang.

In order to properly deal with him, I needed to mobilize the smart armored cavalry, but I couldnt use that yet.

Karl Zayed still had a lot of work to do.

Anyway, this was a success.

Its tough

I stopped running and momentarily basked in the sense of pride welling from my achievements.

A lot of information about me had been exposed, but it didnt seem to matter much.

Wouldnt it all come out one day anyway

That was then.

Ah, wait. Wasnt that guy about to mutter my name out loud?

I scratched my head. Was I already completely exposed?

Well

But soon,

Well, maybe thats for the better.

I grinned again.

It mightve even been a blessing in disguise. In the first place, Id faced Karl Zayed in order to snatch his spotlight. In this way, his loud doubts about me could completely cover up his own brilliance in the readers eyes.

Actually, the time had been a little bit different from what Id done with Leo.

Leos case was just to confuse the readers and reveal my goblin-like traits, but this time I also had a more important purpose.

Right, making Karl Zayed look weak.

In the original story, this Ramirez Scramble could practically have been called, blocking Karl Zayed.

Hed been the only character almost unaffected by the power balance adjustment, and had shown unrivaled strength at this time. Even the reader community had been up in arms about nerfing him.

And as it turned out, he actually had had a huge nerf scheduled in this arc.

His weakness, revealed by the Ramirez.

It wasnt a direct decline in ability, but itd calmed down the demands to nerf him. Because of how absolutely fatal the weakness was.

And what I was trying to do here, was to prevent this scheduled development.

I didnt think itd be that difficult. Because things were quite different now, compared to then.

Now, Karl Zayed was indeed considered a powerhouse, but not some OP munchkin.

The reason was simple. Because of me.

And therefore, there was no loud clamour about nerfing him. There was some talk, sure, but my actions today would douse that even further.

This meant there was no reason to unconditionally reveal Karl Zayeds weakness. At least in public.

And why I wanted to prevent the information from being public was simple.

To use it. If only I knew his weakness, only I could use it.

If everybody knew, it couldnt be my exclusive weapon anymore.

And another reason

It was funny. Why nerf a guy who wasnt even the strongest? If somebody had to be nerfed, it had to be me.

In other words, revealing the weakness of the strongest man was an event that had to focus on me. That way, itd attract the readers attention; and put the murmurs of Squatjaw OP, plz nerf to bed.

He got damaged, so its okay for now, but

The problem was the future. If he stopped running wild, itd be fine, but if he went and invaded another area

That was then.

Hm?

I looked around at the sudden sense of strange incongruity.

Its odd

It was too quiet.

Itd been about twenty minutes since Id headed north after leaving Karl Zayed behind.

The city shouldve been alive with gunfire and ringing of swords.

But I couldnt see any signs of ongoing battles, not even any noise.

Didnt I even tell the goblins? To make some messes

How pitiful.

Whyre they being so quiet right now?

Then, suddenly,

Ah!

I could see why.

It was simple. Along with the realization came a sense of disappointment.

Because the powerhouses were taking the lead in snatching the tokens.

In the original, theyd spent time observing, but this time, they were all rushing in headfirst.

Jimus, Leo, Karl Zayed, Gelop everybody.

In other words, the two-bit idiots were too scared to make trouble.

They didnt even have a token, so there was no point fighting among themselves.

This was tough. Unless there were fights and grudges aplenty, the goblins would be left with nothing to stir up.

In the east side, the place where Leo and party were should be quite active by now, but clearly the rest of the area was still quiet.

The south, where Karl Zayed was, and the west, where Gronyan had gone, would be the same.

And finally

I see.

I, was the biggest problem.

I grabbed the sphere in my pocket and hurriedly started running.

As if rejecting the bright sunlight outside, the factory area was dark, dull roofs covering the entire sky.

A street where only a dim neon light lit up the darkness

A man stood, quietly suppressing his anger.

Kiriko, the redhead.

Where the hell are you

He couldnt understand this at all.

After calling him here, the inviter was gone. Telling him nothing.

What was he doing?

He really wanted to smash the place up and make a fuss. He wondered if then the man would show up.

But,

Ive changed.

He endured the furtive peeks the street vendors occasionally took at him.

Because they were innocent.

Kiriko could admit this to himself. As hed kept adventuring with Leo, hed become much gentler.

Yet, somehow, that didnt bring a sense of weakness of with it.

Whoo

Maybe he was relieved in his heart.

That Squatjaw was missing.

No, thats not it.

A little while ago, Kiriko had asked himself, Can I beat Squatjaw?. He was honestly not sure. Perhaps the odds of his defeat were higher than the reverse.

Until that time in Clone City, he couldnt understand what Leo had seen in that guy.

But now was different. Seeing Squatjaw himself, he could finally see why.

Squatjaw was strong. So strong so that he couldnt help but pay attention.

Besides, it wasnt just Squatjaw either.

Karl Zayed. That monster looked stronger than ever. To an extent where instead of considering the odds of success, he instinctively wanted to withdraw.

And a third

Gronyan. Yans father.

It was the first time in his life that hed felt relieved, that this was the father of a colleague, not an enemy.

That sense of presence had directly overwhelmed him.

It was shameful.

God damn it.

Since when did this start happening? Thered been a time when he thought himself without equal.

Kiriko clenched his fists.

And he was walking aimlessly like this, riddled with such useless thoughts; all because of that squat-jawed bastard.

The anger thatd subsided was about to rise again, but

Howdy.

A voice intruded upon his thought.

Huh?

When Kiriko looked back,

What what the hell, you bastard! Where the hell did you go!? Even though you were the one who called me!

There stood Squatjaw.

Hey, calm down.

Squatjaw took something out of his pocket and threw it towards him.

Take this.

It was a round object.

A bomb?

What is this?

Kiriko didnt dodge, he just caught it. Because he didnt want to give the impression that he was scared.

You know.

I dont. What is it?

Take a good look.

Kiriko looked down at the object and was immediately startled.

It was a sphere. A sphere that proved the qualification to own the Ramirez.

Keep it. Ill come find you in two days.

Wh- what?

It was a senseless series of words.

And then,

Oh, and

Squatjaw suddenly pulled out two revolvers from his waist.

Wh-, what!

And,

This could be a disease or a cure. To be honest its probably both, but you wont get sick if you get it right, yeah? So focus.

Squatjaw muttered something else that he couldnt understand.

As you know, [Six Burning Bullets] can be combined. Six types of bullets, thirty-six combinations. But thats not all.

Huh?

You know how to use rapid fire, right? If you that and change bullets every time No, its better to show you once than to explain it. So, do it like this

Then Squatjaw was aiming his guns at him.

Come on, wait a minute

Therere thousands of possible combinations. Be careful.

And at that moment,

Ratatatat!

Ratatatat!

Kiriko witnessed a scene of great despair flying in the shape of a bullet.

There was nothing he could do to stop it.

That despair hit Kirikos body.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

His consciousness switched off for a moment, then turned on again.

What happened?

His body didnt move.

An indescribable pain was enveloping him.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh

Kiriko did his best to check his condition.

When he focused all his strength, his right arm moved. But the left didnt.

It was a serious injury.

That Squatjaw had done this to him, without him being able to even respond.

I, I need a healing bullet right now

That was then.

Whooooo! Heres a token, everybody! That red-headed gunslinger has one! Wait, what!? This guy is dying!? What a chance to make a clean score! Hahaha!

The piercing shriek out of Squatjaws throat pierced his ears.

Wait, wait a minute

This was dangerous.

He could die like this.

Kiriko thought he had to stop this guy somehow.

So he somehow barely moved his head to look, and

Good luck for the next two days.

Squatjaw was giving him a smirking wink.

Hey, you fucking bastard

Kirikos face turned black.

Editors Notes:

None for this chapter.

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