Surviving a Shounen Manga
Chapter 97

The Deal

This is it!

I cried out inside my head.

My nervousness had been blown away as soon as I’d met Cormier face to face.

It was a stroke of luck on my part that he ‘was already here’.

I’d been struggling with the possibility that he ‘might not exist yet’.

As per the setting, this guy had been staying here for the past three months, but that was hardly credible. Any place not designated as the realm of an ongoing chapter was just a ‘collection of background elements outside the actual work' that could be changed whichever way the author liked.

Of course, this was the city confirmed as the future stage by the preceding plot, but that could also change at any time. Just like during the previous chapter.

So I’d been ready to be disappointed. Just in case.

I grinned at the blond young man with a face full of black smudges.

"Nice to meet you."

"Who are you?"

However, Cormier apparently interpreted my smile of honest joy as full of some sinister insidiousness.

Calling me outside, Cormier asked about my identity with quite a wary look.

"I’m not an enemy, so you can relax."

"I’d feel more reassured if you actually told me who you really are."

"Ah, right. Call me Hiro."

"I wasn’t asking for your name…"

"Ah, yeah. I’m Squatjaw."

"…"

Hmmm.

His face didn’t show any recognition.

"You mean you haven’t heard of me? Squatjaw. Or ‘The Monster'. I'm famous these days."

"Never."

He really didn't seem to know me.

He wouldn't have been staring at me like I was a crazy person otherwise.

Cormier must’ve thought I was missing his point, so he quickly added another question.

"All I want to know is… how did you know about me?"

"Oh, that?"

I would’ve tried to come up with a plausible answer in the past. But things were different now. There couldn’t be an easier question to answer – because I could just ‘bluff’.

"Why are you asking me that? Don't you already know? You should know better than me."

And very quickly,

"…"

Cormier's expression froze once again.

Success.

This was a tactic I’d already used to great effect in Eastland. Just let the one asking think and figure out some convincing nonsense on their own.

Cormier was probably in the same situation right now as the princess had been in Eastland.

"… I didn't expect you guys to be so quick… but there's no way you could’ve tracked me here!"

"Are you curious how I did it?"

Cormier gently shook his head.

"No, I’m more curious about why. Why, instead of kidnapping me, are you asking for my cooperation? Why would you people do that?"

Whoo.

Cormier came to the main issue faster than expected.

‘There’s the ‘Cool Guy’ Cormier I know.'

After Cormier had joined Leo's party in the original, some fans in the community had called out how his character had an overlap with Kiriko’s.

Because of his cool and sharp demeanour, which had some similarity to how cold and aloof Kiriko acted.

But I didn’t agree. Kiriko was eccentric and radical, whereas Cormier was much colder and more rational.

"I should clear up your misunderstanding first. I'm not from that group. Like I said, I’m not your enemy, so you can relax. I just received a commission to track you down."

"… Commission?"

Cormier reacted to the word.

Maybe he thought his ‘enemies' weren't the type to entrust an assassination quest to another group.

There was no way I could convince him since I lacked information.

So I could only change the topic.

"Let’s not try digging deep into each other’s affairs, alright? Anyway, I thought you could benefit me more than them. That's why I came to you with a proposal. To be honest, their dossier on you was somewhat amazing."

"…"

Cormier's expression was becoming complicated.

He seemed to be contemplating whether it was worth listening to me or not.

And within that contemplation I glimpsed a ‘possibility'.

The possibility that I could really team up with this guy.

‘This… isn’t a bad reaction, right?'

Somehow, he had much less resistance to his ‘enemy' than I thought. Even though he’d appeared in the original Northland arc as almost an avatar of vengeance.

I could guess the reason. Because his background hadn’t been set in such detail yet.

Right now his background setting was probably pretty superficial, something like ‘I’m running away from my pursuers and hiding my tracks'.

Cormier's past was slated to be revealed quite far in the future, so it seemed reasonable. Adding in extra details early into a character would add a lot restrictions on their words and actions.

Then,

"Can I ask about the details of your commission?"

Cormier slowly spoke.

"Ah, that’s a bit difficult for me to answer. You know how it is."

"Then let me ask something else. How many people are involved?"

"People involved?"

"I mean, is it just you? Does anybody else know about me?"

At that moment,

‘Jackpot!'

I almost screamed out loud by reflex.

Now came the long-awaited question!

A question that could lead to the best possible situation.

A magical question that could make Cormier relax.

"Yeah, just me. I swear it."

"… Right."

Cormier again began thinking.

The current situation was indeed fortuitous. He didn’t have strong hostility against his enemies, and he was asking me questions to convince himself.

In fact, this had been the sticking point. To bring up Cormier's past, I had to pretend to be in league with his ‘enemies', which could’ve made me lose him if he was strongly antipathic to them.

But now, I had a shot.

A burst of optimism was welling up inside my heart.

Anyway, Cormier might become a member of the Leo Adventurers in the future, but that won't happen in this arc.

Now the author was simply drumming up interest in his character, creating an initial relationship with the heroes, to leave a possibility for the future.

In other words, it was at the level of calling ‘dibs’ at best. There wouldn’t be any kind of promise like ‘let's share the future together' or ‘when we meet again, we'll be colleagues'.

Leo's party itself was not a problem.

But I did have concerns about how the author would take it.

That was then.

"What’re you offering?"

Cormier took the bait.

Oh?

I answered quietly, hiding my excitement.

"I told you, I want you to make me a special weapon…"

"That’s not a proposal. That’s just a requirement."

"Aha, you mean what can I give you in return?"

Instead of answering, Cormier stared at me. He seemed to be trying to get something out of me.

Of course, right now I didn't have anything to offer.

Even if I offered a mountain of gold, I didn't know if he’d accept, but I didn’t have that on hand either.

But there was something I wanted to give.

The future, my trust, and my body (?).

To sum it up, ‘I promise to be your ally and fight against your enemies.'

In fact, this was also my ultimate goal. Not just a one-time collaboration, to really become companions, to the very end – to the top of the Tower of Adventure.

The problem was that Cormier couldn't accept this.

Of course not. How could he trust me so suddenly?

Also, whether he trusted me or not, this wasn’t a great incentive as far as Cormier was concerned.

The reason? Simple. Because I wasn’t strong enough to make this guy flinch.

Of course, this guy who was currently ‘not wearing any equipment' wasn’t strong.

But if he donned his full set of ‘combat gear', he’d become a monster against whom even Karl Zayed couldn’t easily guarantee his victory.

So in the end –

"This."

There was only one thing I could offer.

I pulled an object wrapped in a small piece of cloth from my pocket.

The very thing that many people nearby Gibrante were chasing after.

"This should be enough."

Cormier kept staring into my eyes without looking down at it.

"What is it?"

"A mirror."

"Mirror?"

"An ancient artifact called the Ramirez, the Mirror of Souls. You can probably guess its value just by looking. It’s also infused with a certain special ability."

"A special ability…"

Cormier lowered his gaze to the Ramirez as if interested.

"What ability?"

"It’ll reflect what you want to hide the most."

"What do you mean, want to hide the most?"

"For most people, it’s their weakness, right? Something like that."

I looked closely at Cormier's expression.

Clearly, he was interested, right?

Although that was just my guess.

I thought he had no choice but to be interested.

Same as in the original.

This guy who’d been hiding in a shabby warehouse hammering away at smuggled products, had put on all kinds of combat gear and jumped into battle… what was that if not interest?

"Can I take a look?"

"As you like."

I handed the Ramirez to him right away.

And then,

"…"

When Cormier looked in the mirror, his hand began to tremble.

I didn't ask what he saw.

I just waited for him to calm down.

And then,

"What do you need?"

He asked me.

Done!

I smiled and snatched the Ramirez from his hand.

He must’ve been clutching it tight, but the mirror easily came free and his hand twitched.

"It’s nothing big. First, bring me all the weapons you’ve made. Also, I'm going to install a few booby traps, so I need some explosives. And, yeah, what about robots? Have you already made any?"

"… Huh? No, wait…"

"And most importantly, combat gear. There’re a lot of guys I have to deal with right now, and they're a little too strong. Didn’t I mention it already? A Multifunctional Armoured Cavalry."

"Uh…"

Cormier looked at me like I was touched in the head.

"Well? What is it? You do want this, don’t you?"

I waved the Ramirez in front of him.

"…"

I knew he wouldn't be able to give it up.

The reason why many strong people, including this guy, coveted the Ramirez was very simple. Because they believed that they could use it to identify others’ weaknesses. It could be the key to destroying their enemies.

In other words, those who had enemies couldn’t help but chase after it. The stronger their enemy, the more determined they’d be.

"Try your best. Then I’ll give it to you."

After a while,

"I understand."

Saying so, Cormier began to turn back, but paused again to ask another question. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the N0ᴠᴇFɪre.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

"What’s the deadline?"

"Deadline?"

"The deadline for giving you the gear you mentioned."

After thinking for a while, I answered.

"One week."

"… That's a bit tight."

"I believe in you. I’ve heard how great you are."

"…"

Cormier turned away without answering.

He probably already had a running list of tasks inside his head.

Because he was a fast worker.

That was then.

"But there’s one thing that I want to ask you."

As if he suddenly remembered, Cormier stopped walking and turned to look at me.

"What is it?"

"That, that Multi… Cavalry? What’s that?"

"Huh?"

"That Multifunctional Armoured Cavalry? What exactly is that?"

"… Huh?"

Four days later.

A late night.

Near the left corner of the Gibrante factory area.

Amidst the rows of shabby warehouses, a small abandoned building stood alone.

Although it was tall and narrow in shape, it was only about three stories high.

I was standing in front of the building that looked like a psychiatric hospital that’d popped out of a ghost story from the sixties or seventies.

"Is this the one?"

Of course, I wasn't here to test my courage.

I’d heard from the smuggler named Jean at Cormier’s place, that the basement of this place was the residence of one of Gibrante's three ‘chief smugglers'.

Although they were in charge of the smuggling, in fact, none these people were directly involved in the trade.

They were only responsible for managing and protecting the vendors, and that protection extended to threats from their Northland counterparts, internal disputes between vendors, claims from customers, and even tracking from the Westland government.

They controlled this huge black market that even the continental government couldn’t mess with easily.

And that deterrence stemmed mostly from one person.

Capone the Smuggler.

One of the five major players in the battle for the Ramirez.

The de facto ruler of Gibrante.

In other words, the smuggling chiefs were Capone's closest aides.

And now, I was about to raid the entourage of one of them.

"This is making me nostalgic."

I looked around the old building a last time.

I’d had quite a few records of attacking black organizations like this.

Starting with the first time I’d attacked the mafia in Virgin City, then infiltrating a cafeteria to track down Cocoa, then that time I’d marched straight into the mafia boss’ home in Destomb, and finally infiltrating Firmino’s underground city to rid Cocoa of her slave mark.

And the results had always been the same for those organizations.

Utter annihilation.

It probably wouldn’t differ much this time either.

I put my breathing in order and entered the abandoned building.

It was quiet inside.

I’d heard that the actual residence was underground, but still, it was eerily quiet. Not the faintest whisper, not even the buzzing of insects.

"Where's the way down…?"

I opened my pathfinding eyes and looked around.

Thinking I should be able to find a path pointing down.

But five minutes came and went as I searched, yet nothing stood out.

This couldn’t be simply because my eyes were poor.

Presumably, this place was ‘designed' with a specific ability to prevent unauthorized intruders.

"Hmm."

After looking around for another three minutes or so,

"I give up."

I gave up on finding a path.

Rather than trying to break the limits of my own abilities, it felt more like a giant waste of time.

All it did was tire out my eyes.

Instead, I decided to take a different approach.

"Let’s see now…"

I gently raised my right arm, just as Cormier had instructed.

The trigger word was supposed to be ‘laser cannon', right?

"Laser cannon."

And then,

Whirrrrr–.

Click-click.

The glove on my right hand shone once, then stretched out to cover up to my shoulder. The leather glove transformed into steel, and energy outlets appeared on my palm.

It was an amazing sight.

"Heh heh heh…"

It was a visual that made you puff yourself up just by looking at it.

In fact, the combat gear I’d originally ordered from Cormier was the ‘Multifunctional Armoured Cavalry'.

This referred to a boardable mecha equipped with multiple special abilities, and it could be seen as the culmination of Cormier’s design philosophy.

The problem was,

"I really don’t know though? This is my first time hearing about it."

This guy didn't know about it.

Was it my mistake?

‘It can’t be…'

Of course, that weapon never appeared in this arc. But I clearly remembered Cormier mentioning it –

‘Next time I'll bring a ‘real' mecha, then we’ll see how the fight goes.’

What he’d been referring to was a ‘Multifunctional Armoured Soldier'. A rideable mecha.

Of course, it actually appeared a long time later, in the Northland arc.

But I thought it should’ve already existed. Cormier knew in advance that he could make it.

‘Hmm… well, now how about this?'

Instead, he’d given me this ‘arm', a prototype he’d made in Jean’s shop.

Why this alone?

Because just this arm already had two special abilities, ‘Shockwave' and ‘High Heat'.

‘How much damage can it do?'

I aimed the energy outlets on my palm at the building and muttered softly –

"Launch."

A powerful vibration travelled through my right arm at my command.

And then,

Fwooosh–.

"… Wow."

The building disappeared.

Literally, there was no trace of it left.

I alternately looked at my palm and the scene before me.

"My goodness…"

The destructive power of the laser cannon was beyond imagination.

Of course, it was a consumable. Still, Cormier had said I might be able to use it up to three times…

At that moment, a grin unconsciously appeared on my lips.

Afterwards,

"Is it here?"

I turned my attention to the open space where a building very recently used to be.

A staircase heading underground lay revealed.

"Alright, let’s go."

Editor's Notes:

None for this chapter.

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