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Before something happens, there are several prior signs of it happening. It is important to take notice of these signs and take pre-emptive steps to deal with it.
Banda thought about this. “Meh-kun, were there any signs that you would be kidnapped and put in the container of a large truck?” he asked.
“Uh-uh.”
“I thought not.”
Meh-kun – Amemiya Mei, had been kidnapped along with her older brother Amemiya Hiroshi, the woman who was their babysitter as well as a male bodyguard.
Banda quickly reflected upon the events that had led up to this point.
First of all, the Amemiya couple had been absent since the day before.
The couple were the ‘Braver’ Amemiya Hiroto, the leader of the Bravers, and the ‘Angel’ Amemiya Narumi, his wife. It was their job to move out in response to incidents and natural disasters in order to capture criminals and rescue people.
But it was rare for both of them to be absent… especially the mother, Narumi.
Ever since the destruction of the Eighth Guidance, there hadn’t been any incidents that had required all of the Bravers to mobilize at once. Although the Bravers had substantially decreased in number, there were still more than eighty of them remaining.
And it wasn’t that the people of this world other than the Bravers… other than the reincarnated individuals, were all powerless. They used their advanced science and technology as well as magic in order to carry out criminal investigations and maintain the security of their nations; the world was about as peaceful as Earth.
More importantly, the Amemiya couple had done their best to have at least one of them with Mei at all times, since she was still young.
But due to some unfortunate coincidence, or because the criminals’ patience had finally paid off, both parents were out on a mission and only four people had been left at the Amemiya residence – Hiroshi, Mei, the babysitter woman and the bodyguard.
The four of them had decided to go shopping at the nearest large supermarket. The supermarket had a membership system, and it was supposed to have very good security.
But the moment they parked their car in the parking lot, the bodyguard had collapsed. The babysitter had immediately tried to escape with the children in the car, but she had collapsed in a similar fashion as well.
The criminals had ambushed them with state-of-the-art military active camouflage suits that functioned using light-attribute magic.
Mei and the others had then been abducted in a large truck that had been parked in a way that obstructed the view of the family’s car from security cameras.
Seemingly relaxing after having succeeded in their kidnapping, the criminals had removed their active camouflage suits and were talking amongst themselves.
“Phew. To think that these things make it more difficult to detect our Mana. The newest equipment really puts the Bravers to shame. It almost makes me want to ask for these as our payment.”
“These disposable things that become useless after an hour? It’s so hard to breathe in them, too. They’re just heavy pieces of junk now.”
The bodyguard and the babysitter had been knocked out with stun guns, and their hands and feet were bound now. Even Hiroshi’s were bound as well just in case. There were also collars that had been placed on their necks, which prevented them from using any magic. It seemed that the criminals hadn’t let down their guard completely.
But Hiroshi hadn’t been knocked unconscious.
“Y-you guys! Just you try doing something to me or Mei! Mom and Dad will never let you get away with it!” Hiroshi shouted at the criminals.
But it was clear to the criminals that Hiroshi was talking out of fear and anxiety. They laughed at the little boy’s futile attempts at resistance.
“The criminals… There are five of them here, but only four right now. And I suppose there’s one in the driver’s seat,” said Banda, pointing at the criminals and counting them.
“That one?” said Mei.
“Ah, that one doesn’t count.”
“Why not?”
“That one isn’t a criminal anymore.”
Two of the criminals looked uneasily at Mei.
“What is that brat talking about?”
“Hell if I know. She’s a baby. She’s probably got some imaginary friend that only she can see.”
The criminals could not see Banda, who was made of spirit form.
They were unaware that they had actually guessed correctly, and Mei really did have a friend that only she could see.
“Stop laughing!” Hiroshi shouted at the criminals. “If Mom and Dad got a hold of you guys, they’d –”
“Then why don’t you try and do something about us yourself? You’re the son of your very strong papa and mama, aren’t you?” said a hot-headed-looking white man, the most muscular of the criminals, with a slight accent to his speech. “That collar inhibits magic, but it doesn’t stop the Bravers’ abilities. Your stupid old man would be able to break it off without a problem. Come on, why don’t you give it a try?”
Hiroshi made a frustrated noise, but had nothing to say back in response to the white man’s ridicule. He knew best that he didn’t have special abilities like his mother and father.
He worked hard, dreaming that there was a power within him that would awaken one day, but such a power had never shown itself.
The criminal looked at Hiroshi and laughed. “You can’t do anything after all, can you! You stupid, loud-mouthed brat! Nobody’s going to come and help you just because you’re crying!”
“I-I’m not crying!” Hiroshi said without thinking.
Banda extended his tongue towards Hiroshi as the white man opened his mouth to continue his rant.
But another white man interrupted him in a displeased tone. “Hey, give it a rest. We didn’t kidnap these guys so that we can watch you take your anger out on this kid.”
The second white man had a callous-looking face, and if the first could be described as a wild-looking gang member, the second had the air of a skilled assassin about him.
“What’s your problem… It’s not like I hit the kid. Or did it hurt your feelings? Am I supposed to listen and make you happy like you’re my babysitter?” the wild-looking man taunted.
“There’s another hour until Woo moves this container into the warehouse. I’m telling you that I’m not going to sit here in this tiny space listening to you and your monologue,” said the callous-looking man.
“You bastard, don’t you go acting like you’re the leader here.”
“Well, that’s what they’re saying… It’s been a while since I’ve used this foreign language, so I might have made some mistakes here and there,” said Banda with his tongue still extended as he translated the men’s conversation.
Partway through, the criminals had begun speaking the English-like language of Origin. Vandalieu, the source of Banda’s personality, had actually been more proficient in this foreign language than Japanese (or rather, the Japanese-like language of Origin).
Naturally, he was translating the conversation for Mei. Of course, she was just over a year and a half old, so there were more words she couldn’t understand than ones that she could, but it seemed that she had understood the gist of it.
“Onii-chan isn’t poop,” Mei said.
“No, he isn’t… I’ll do something about this, so you take a little nap,” said Banda, tearing a piece off the fur-cloak-like membrane that covered the outside of his body and placing it on top of Mei.
“Okay, Banda.”
Banda then cast the ‘Deodorization’ and ‘Silence’ spells. With this, Mei would not be able to see, hear or even smell anything around her.
Meanwhile, the criminals were more focused on their argument with one another, and didn’t notice anything strange happening with Mei.
“I don’t mind killing you, and then we’ll just split the reward amongst us four and Woo,” the callous-looking man, the one who seemed to be the leader of the group, said threateningly.
“… You bastard!” said the other man, clicking his tongue and stepping back.
He pointed a finger at a pale-faced man who had been leaning against the wall of the container with his hands covering his ears.
“… What is it?” asked the man.
“Why are you getting all pale-faced just because you got hit once? If you’ve got so much free time, then hurry up and kill the bodyguard and the woman!”
“N-now? They’re still unconscious…”
“Are you stupid? You’re supposed to kill them while they’re still unconscious! If they wake up and put up a struggle, there’s a small chance that something might go wrong, right?! The woman who managed to hit you before she lost consciousness isn’t just an ordinary babysitter! She’s a professional guard, so don’t let your guard down and make sure to kill her properly!”
It seemed that the criminals had taken the bodyguard and the babysitter woman from the parking lot in order to buy as much time as possible before their crime was noticed. And in the end, they planned to kill them.
“… Alright,” said the pale man.
“Hey, don’t use your gun or your magic. If the container is broken, we might get stopped by the police.”
“Was that guy always like that? Isn’t there something different about him?” said one of the other men, nodding towards the pale man.
“Isn’t he just getting shaky because it’s his first big job?” said the callous-looking man.
“… Was he really that inexperienced?”
Ignoring this conversation, the man who had been ordered to kill the bodyguard and babysitter went to drag them towards the back of the container, where the criminals had discarded their active camouflage suits.
“Hey, why are you bothering moving them? You’re not planning to take some kind of revenge on them before you kill them, are you?” one of the men asked.
“… No, I just thought that it would be noisy if the children were to start crying,” said the pale man.
“Well, you’re right about that. God help us if they piss themselves.”
“H-hey, what are you doing to Mr. Hiyashi and Ms. Sakuma!” said Hiroshi, noticing that something was wrong. “The two of them… haven’t done… anything…”
But suddenly, his eyes closed and he fell fast asleep.
“W-what’s up with this kid? He just fell asleep,” said one of the criminals.
“Hey, make sure he’s alright. He might have had a seizure or something,” said another.
The truth was that Banda had injected Hiroshi with a fast-acting sleeping drug using his extended tongue. He had produced a small proboscis on the tip of his tongue, materialized it behind Hiroshi’s back where the men couldn’t see it, and injected the drug into Hiroshi’s finger. By the time Hiroshi registered the pricking sensation of the injection, he was already asleep.
After that, Banda placed a membrane that was invisible to the criminals over Hiroshi.
“Don’t worry about him. We were told that the smaller kid is the important one, right? That we can give up on the bigger kid if we need to,” said the group’s leader. “Hey, hurry up and take care of those two –”
But before he could finish giving out his orders, two gunshots rang out.
Two of the criminals, who had both been shot in the temple, collapsed with a thud.
“You bastard… What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” the wild-looking man shouted, raising his magical medium that was disguised as a wristwatch.
The group leader immediately raised his revolver as well.
“To think that my Artillery Skill would come in handy at a time like this…” the pale-faced man murmured to himself. “Ah, sorry. I’ve gone and used this gun. I mean, I’ve always wanted to try shooting a real automatic pistol, so I couldn’t help myself,” he said expressionlessly as he pointed his gun, with which he had killed two of his companions, towards the other two men.
Blood was dripping from his ears.
“You, that blood…!” the wild-looking man muttered.
“Well, there’s an explanation for this,” said the pale man.
When Mei and the others had been abducted at the parking lot, Banda had decided to see how things turned out, since there were security cameras where the abduction happened and the criminals seemed to have no intention of killing anyone at the time.
But just in case, he had embedded the Demon King’s sub-brain into the brain of the criminal who had conveniently been knocked down by the babysitter, taken over his body with the Demon King’s nerves and turned him into something that was no different from an infestation-type Demon King familiar.
The Demon King’s fragments weren’t visible to anyone, as they had been materialized inside the criminal’s body.
And now, after the kidnapping, the criminals had insulted Hiroshi. They had also attempted to kill Sakuma-san, who was a good babysitter to the children, and a bodyguard whose face Banda was familiar with.
On top of that, there were no security cameras here.
There was no more reason to hesitate in disposing of the criminals.
“You bastard, who hired you?! Are you working for the Bravers?!” the wild-looking man shouted angrily at the pale man, a companion with whom he had spent a considerable amount of time with.
He seemed to have the kind of personality that quickly converted anxiety and discontent into anger.
“No, that’s not really the case… By the way, the driver’s seat is behind you two, so I can’t use my gun or my magic. Could you please step to the side a little?” said Banda through the mouth of the pale-faced man.
The driver’s seat of the truck was behind the two remaining criminals, and an Asian man named Woo was behind the steering wheel. Banda was worried that if he fired, the bullets could pierce through the criminals’ bodies, through the container and through the back of the driver’s seat, killing or injuring Woo and causing an accident.
Of course, Banda was confident that he would be able to protect Mei and Hiroshi even if the truck were to do a barrel roll and explode in flames. It would be slightly more difficult if he took Hayashi and Sakuma into account, but even then, he was capable of doing it.
But making sure that any cars near or behind the truck wouldn’t get caught up in the crash would be difficult.
If it turned into a big accident, the cover-up that Banda was planning might not go very well, and if there were civilian casualties, it wouldn’t be good for Mei or Banda’s mental well-being. Thus, he wanted to avoid that if possible.
Naturally, the wild-looking man ignored Banda’s request.
“Stop messing around, you bastard! Mana, fill my fist with the fury of the earth!” he shouted, rushing in towards the man whose body Banda had taken over.
His boxing-style footwork was sharp enough to take on a professional boxer.
But his movements were slower than the pulling of a trigger. Banda, controlling the pale-faced criminal’s body, fired at the wild-looking man’s face.
“‘Rock Knuckle!’” shouted the wild-looking man, deflecting the bullet with his fist.
It seemed that the incantation he had recited moments ago was an earth-attribute spell that made his fists as hard and heavy as boulders.
The wild-looking man roared as he unleashed a heavy body blow, immediately followed up by a left straight punch to the face. His fists, which were hard enough to deflect bullets, had been transformed into lethal weapons. The body of the criminal that Banda was controlling sustained catastrophic injuries, with several internal organs bursting and the bones of his face caving in.
However, the Demon King’s sub-brain and nerves continued to function. Banda raised the barrel of the gun and pointed it at the torso of the wild-looking man, who had let down his guard, thinking that his enemy was defeated. Fortunately, the man had moved in order to attack, so the driver’s seat was no longer behind him.
But before Banda could pull the trigger –
“‘Impact Bullet!’” shouted the group leader.
A bullet fired from his revolver struck the forehead of the man that Banda had taken control of. With tremendous force, it sent bone fragments and pieces of the man’s brain flying out of the back of his head. The Demon King’s sub-brain and nerves remained undamaged, but they had been sent flying out of the man’s body along with the pieces of his actual brain.
It seemed that the revolver also contained a magical medium, and the group leader’s fighting style was to use that to apply various enchantment effects to its bullets.
“… He’s dead. What the hell was wrong with him? I’ve never seen a guy continue to keep trying to move after taking my punches,” the wild-looking man muttered, not noticing the Demon King’s sub-brain among the dead criminal’s blood, flesh and bone fragments that were scattered across the floor.
“There’s no mistaking that it was strange, but now that he’s dead, he’s nothing more than a corpse. Check his belongings and his cell phone; he might have left some evidence,” said the group leader. “I’m going to go and… calm Woo down.”
It seemed that Woo had heard the gunshots; the group leader’s phone was ringing with what could be assumed to be texts from Woo.
“Okay,” said the wild-looking man. “I’m surprised these brats are still asleep. There were four gun… shots…?”
“Don’t worry about it, it’s just a bit of trouble. It’s taken care of,” the group leader said into his phone, talking to Woo, but he looked up, noticing that the wild-looking man had suddenly fallen silent mid-sentence.
And then he saw it as well.
Long, white hair. Four eyes. A tear-like mouth that extended all the way from ear to ear. Four black arms and six legs. A creature that was too grotesque to look like a living creature.
“… W-what the hell are you?” the group leader whispered.
“I am your enemy,” said Banda, who had materialized his entire body.
Surprisingly to the criminals, Banda’s voice sounded very articulate and intelligent for belonging to such a creature. They seemed to have expected to hear a beast-like howl or an ear-piercing shriek; they stared for a moment with their eyes wide open… and then they sprang into action.
“‘Flare Bullet!’” the group leader shouted.
Banda was glad that he had declared the simple truth that he was the criminals’ enemy; he was satisfied that things were going as he had planned. He put up no resistance as he was showered in the group leader’s bullets.
The bullets produced small explosions on impact. It was likely that they were designed to explode within their targets’ bodies, causing fatal wounds… but the bullets were being deflected by the Demon King’s exoskeleton. There wasn’t a single scratch on Banda.
“Hmm, hmm. I see,” Banda murmured. “Could you please tell me more about what kind of barrel that revolver has and what kind of bullets you’re using? With that information, I could more accurately determine my own –”
“Shut up! ‘Bolt Bullet!’ ‘Heavy Bullet!’” the group leader shouted, continuing to cast wind and earth-attribute and pull his revolver’s trigger, despite being shocked at the fact that his bullets were being deflected.
It seemed that he possessed an affinity for multiple attributes, but his talent itself for magic wasn’t particularly special. In other words, he was a jack of all trades, master of none. He was likely making up for that fact with the magical medium in his revolver.
“I could more accurately determine my own defensive capabilities,” said Banda, finishing his sentence.
None of the bullets even managed to scratch Banda’s exoskeleton, let alone pierce it. Some of the bullets had hit his joints and face, but even those hadn’t damaged him at all.
“What the hell is your body made of…?!” the group leader muttered with cold sweat dripping off his face, finally out of bullets.
The sense of danger seemed to have brought the wild-looking man back to his senses. “Goddamn! Mana, fill my fists with the fury of the earth and the fighting spirit of iron!” he shouted, charging at Banda.
His fists came swinging with the sharp technique of a professional boxer. A restraining jab, a deep hook and a straight punch that looked for a gap in Banda’s defense. It was a spectacularly executed rush-down.
All of these blows were stopped by a single one of Banda’s four arms. Banda deflected the punches with the soft palm of his hand so that the wild-looking man’s fists wouldn’t be harmed.
“Your fists were like boulders before, but they’re like metal now… An enchantment spell that makes your fists as hard and heavy as iron or steel, is it? Hmm, this really might work even against an enemy whose defenses are capable of deflecting bullets,” Banda murmured.
A right punch, a left, another left, a third left, a feinted right into yet another left punch with a right straight punch follow-up the moment the left was blocked – Banda blocked all of these with the palm of a single hand and continued his observations with his other three arms folded.
“J… Jesus…!” the wild-looking man panted, continuing his punches but with a look of despair finally dawning upon his face.
“I’m sorry, but to me, you people are too weak,” said Banda.
Banda was a being that Vandalieu from Lambda had created by putting together pieces of his own soul; he was a branched clone of Vandalieu.
Thus, he possessed the same experiences, skills and physical capabilities that Vandalieu himself had possessed at the moment of their separation.
He possessed physical strength that made him capable of killing monsters with his bare hands. Bears, lions and even tyrannosaurus rexes looked adorable in comparison. He possessed such speed that he could toy with his enemies, and his stamina exceeded theirs.
And he was not only a master in magic, but in ‘Unarmed Fighting Technique’ as well.
For an ordinary person in Lambda, having a combat-related Skill at Level 5 would firmly put one into the realm of being a first-rate user of that Skill. Someone with a Level 10 Skill, in Origin, would be a superhuman… the kind of master that existed only in fiction, not in reality.
A superhuman-level master of unarmed combat, fighting with the physical strength of a monstrosity. That was what Banda was in Origin.
“I’m toying with you partially to measure my own strength, but let’s put that to an end now,” said Banda as he tightly grasped the wild-looking man’s fist.
The man screamed in agony. “M-MY ARM, MY AAAAARM!”
Banda easily crushed the man’s iron-like fist, and his claws sank into the man’s skin.
“W-wait! Do you not care about what happens to these brats?!” the group leader shouted.
He had reloaded his weapon, and was pointing it at Hiroshi.
It seemed that he intended to use the children as hostages. Considering that he was aiming at Hiroshi rather than Mei, whom his employers considered to be of more importance, it seemed that he had not completely lost his mind. But his face bore an expression of fear, the expression of a cornered animal.
Banda simply materialized the membrane covering Hiroshi and Mei, not even glancing in their direction.
The membranes that had been invisible up until now suddenly concealed the children, causing the criminals to gasp in shock.
“Those membranes are as solid as my exoskeleton. If you think that you can do anything to them, then please go ahead and try,” said Banda. “Ah, I don’t mind if you try touching them, either. Your hands will just end up damaged.”
Despair was now completely covering both men’s faces.
“Sh-shit… Why do those damned Bravers have a monster like this?! Damn it, I can’t avenge my older brother…!” the wild-looking man muttered.
“You’re not only motivated by money? You want revenge on Amemiya Hiroto? If your older brother was killed for some reason, then I can understand your feelings of hatred,” said Banda.
“W-what?”
Hatred was an emotion. Sometimes, it could not be clearly explained through reason. Considering the fact that the older brother had been killed by Amemiya Hiroto, and considering the actions of the younger brother, it was almost certain that he had been a criminal, and a vicious one at that. Even so, Banda had no intention of denying the man’s hatred.
Even if it was allowed by the law, even if it was justice, it was still killing. No matter how much others tried to reason it away, it was up to this man as to whether he felt hatred or not.
“But with that said, it doesn’t change anything,” said Banda as he threw out a second arm in a hook punch that tore into the side of the man’s body.
He felt the light sensation of the man’s ribs snapping and a number of internal organs being crushed by his fist as the air was squeezed out of the man’s lungs.
“Just as you have your own motives, I have my own reasons for killing you. And I am overwhelmingly more powerful than you are,” Banda continued as he unleashed a body blow with a third arm.
He held back just enough so that his fist didn’t pierce through the man’s torso and emerge out the other side, but even so, more of the man’s internal organs were crushed.
The man coughed, spewing out blood.
“And I have a message for you. ‘Onii-chan isn’t poop.’”
With that, Banda’s fourth arm extended in a straight punch aimed at the man’s face. The man mustered the last of his strength to try and protect his head, but… Banda’s punch smashed through the man’s skull along with the hand that was in the way.
It looked and sounded like a hard-skinned, fleshy fruit being smashed to pieces. That noise echoed across the inside of the container.
Leaving the body of the man whose head, body and both hands had been completely destroyed, Banda faced the petrified group leader once more.
“… Alright. I won’t resist, so at least kill me quickly. Make it instant,” the man pleaded, throwing his revolver aside as Banda approached.
He got onto his knees, as if offering Banda his own head.
“If you’re going to kill yourself, I think shooting yourself with that revolver would have been easier, wouldn’t it? You still have bullets left, don’t you?” Banda asked.
“… I can’t commit suicide because of my religion,” the group leader replied, closing his eyes.
“You can’t for religious reasons, huh,” Banda sighed in exasperation.
Just what kind of religion allowed the kidnapping of an infant and the murdering of people, but forbade suicide?
The problem isn’t religion, but this man’s ethics, Banda thought.
All the same, he approached the man to decapitate him.
“Travel through empty space and return to my hand. ‘Apport!’” the man murmured.
In the next instant, he suddenly stood up and thrust his right hand towards Banda. It was holding the revolver that he had cast aside moments earlier, and its barrel was pointed directly into one of Banda’s four eyes.
A gunshot and an ominous-sounding explosion echoed inside the container.
The man’s surprise attack had succeeded spectacularly. But…
“W-what…?” he murmured.
He could not declare victory over Banda; his voice was instead filled with astonishment and utter despair.
“I was careless. To think that you would surrender, then use space-attribute magic to return your weapon to your hand and shoot me in the eye once I got closer,” said Banda.
His four eyes stared at the revolver that had been broken by the explosion and the face of the man, which was bleeding after being cut by the metal fragments that had been sent flying.
“It was a good choice to aim for my eye,” Banda continued. “It is indeed softer than the other parts of my body. But… my eye can’t be destroyed by something like your gun.”
His body was composed of fragments of the Demon King. Fragments of the Demon King were extremely difficult to damage with anything other than equipment made of Orichalcum, a legendary metal of another world that could only be created by the gods.
Banda’s eyeballs were no exception to that.
“You damn… monster,” the man whispered.
Perhaps a fragment of the gun had found its way into his brain; the man collapsed with a thud. Banda stood on his neck, crushing his vertebrae and finishing him off, then went to check on Woo, the last remaining member of this group of criminals, in the driver’s seat.
With this much noise coming from the container, he would certainly have noticed that something was wrong.
Banda undid his ‘Materialization’ and passed through the wall of the container towards the driver’s seat to see Woo with a panicked look on his face, continuing to drive with one hand and furiously tapping at his cell phone with the other. It seemed that he was trying to contact the group’s leader again to find out what had happened.
Banda simply watched Woo until he finally lost his patience with nobody answering his calls and stopped the truck in a place with nobody around.
“‘Poison,’” Banda murmured, putting Woo to sleep with a poison created through death-attribute magic the moment the truck stopped, before Woo could get out of the driver’s seat.
Banda then returned inside the container to check that Mei, Hiroshi, the bodyguard and the babysitter were unharmed.
“Everyone is unharmed and the truck has stopped safely on a road without many cars. Ah, I’m so glad everything turned out well. In terms of me retaining my humanity as well,” he sighed in relief.
Banda’s main body was Mei. However, his personality was completely separate from hers. Thus, he didn’t need food or sleep, and his form was very different from that of a human.
And he was powerful, just as he had demonstrated to the criminals. Although the criminals had used the cheap tactic of active camouflage suits, they had managed to abduct two trained professional guards while keeping them alive. And yet Banda had killed five out of those six criminals, and captured the last alive.
There would be no turning back if Banda were to become conceited with his power and began to look down on the people of this world. There would be no turning back if he were to take lives for no reason without feeling any guilt, or commit mass murders and large acts of terrorism without any deep thought beyond telling himself that it was for Mei’s sake.
In the end, none of that would be beneficial for Mei. Banda becoming a monster for her sake alone would only end up hurting her as well.
“And… no matter how powerful my defensive abilities are in this world, I’m powerless against Amemiya Hiroto, who can ignore them. Cheat-like abilities really are cheating,” Banda complained to himself as he began his cover-up operation using the blood of the criminals scattered all around the inside of the container.
“Mmm, Banda,” said Mei’s groggy voice.
“Ah, you’ve woken up,” said Banda, undoing the ‘Silence’ spell on her. “Just wait a little longer, okay?”
He produced the Demon King’s fur on his fingertip and used it as a brush to draw a skull with an octagon around it on the wall of the container.
“The Eighth Guidance’s mark that I saw on TV the other day was something like this, wasn’t it? … If I ever manage to make contact with Legion again, I need to apologize for using it without their permission,” Banda murmured.
The cover-up operation that he had thought of was to make the whole incident look like the doing of the Eighth Guidance, who were supposed to have been destroyed.
All of the Eighth Guidance’s members had died in battle against the Bravers, but the only ones who knew that were the Eighth Guidance themselves and the reincarnated individuals who had already been reincarnated in Lambda.
Some of the Eighth Guidance’s members’ corpses didn’t exist, and although they were considered to be dead, their status was unknown, strictly speaking.
For example, there was Shade who had possessed ‘Oracle’ Endou Kouya’s body and killed himself along with Kouya. And then there was Baba Yaga, who had blown herself up along with the ‘Mage Masher’ Minami Asagi.
There were other members whose only discovered remains were pieces of flesh, and there was also Ghost, whose existence hadn’t even been known to the Bravers until the final battle.
Thus, if Banda were to leave this mark, the authorities who saw it might be misled to believe that this incident was the doing of the Eighth Guidance’s surviving members or unknown members who had not been present during the final battle.
“I’ve managed to produce an internal conflict within the group, so they might think Shade managed to transfer himself to one of the corpses… although they would probably question why the Eighth Guidance would save Meh-kun,” Banda murmured to himself.
But as long as the authorities believed that there were other criminals involved, that was enough for Banda.
And the Amemiya couple might feel danger and strengthen the security around their children.
There was someone out there who had hired criminals to kidnap the children, so the current security setup was insufficient.
“Well, I’ve captured one of the criminals alive, so I’ll let the authorities do their best to investigate the person who hired them,” Banda told himself.
He would try asking the spirits of the dead criminals, but… he didn’t possess the ability to charm the dead, so he didn’t know whether he could successfully threaten them into talking.
He couldn’t break their souls, since it was possible that Rodcorte would take notice of him if he did that.
And even if he managed to make them talk, his range of movement was limited to within fifty meters of Mei. It would be difficult to go after the mastermind.
Having finished his cover-up operation, Banda looked around for the criminal group’s leader’s cell phone, wanting to report the presence of a suspicious truck to the police so that it would be found.
As he did so, he noticed that Hiroshi, whom he had made unconscious, was crying.
“… He must have been very frustrated.”
This incident would potentially become a large scar on Hiroshi’s young mind. It was too optimistic to think that he would recover, spring back from this painful experience and use it to develop as a person.
He would likely need something to lean on in order to get back onto his feet. If the Amemiya couple could provide that to him, then it wasn’t Banda’s place to do anything. But if this were to have a lasting effect…
“If the time comes, maybe I’ll try teaching him no-attribute magic. I’m sure it would be helpful for him to become able to use ‘Healing Power Enhancement’ and ‘Strengthen Physical Ability.’”
No-attribute magic was undiscovered in this world, but it fell far short of the cheat-like abilities of his parents that had created his complex. Still, it would probably become something for him to lean on.
“Banda, Nii-chan, bacam friends?” Mei asked.
“We might ‘bacam’ friends,” said Banda, matching her mispronunciation. “But first, I’ll try talking to him without showing myself to him… It would be easier if I could appear in his dreams.”
Finally finding a cell phone, Banda looked for buttons to press… and found himself quite confused as to how to use it for a while, as it was a smartphone.
The kidnapping of Amemiya Mei had failed. Despite hearing this report, the ‘Avalon’ Rikudou Hijiri wasn’t disappointed.
“Everything is as planned,” he said.
The kidnapping’s failure had been planned all along. Or to be more precise, the kidnapping was supposed to succeed, but information regarding the criminals would be leaked to the authorities before the situation progressed to the point of no return, and Mei and Hiroshi would be recovered safely. The criminals would be arrested or shot, and the ‘client’ would be later discovered as a corpse. The true mastermind would remain unknown.
The objective of this plan was to make the Amemiya couple strongly perceive a notion that their children were being targeted. And since they trusted Hijiri, he would suggest to them that a member of the Bravers should be with them at all times, and he would start coming into frequent contact with Mei.
In other words, he would create a situation where Mei was in the palm of his hand.
“Amemiya Mei… That child is an important sample to my research into the death attribute. Full-scale research will have to wait until she turns three years old, when the Mana in her body stabilizes and scans can detect her attribute affinities, but there’s no harm in setting up this environment now,” Hijiri said.
“I understand that, but… things happened differently from how we planned it,” said the ‘Shaman’ Moriya Kousuke, another reincarnated individual who was one of Hijiri’s subordinates, as he handed Hijiri a copy of a report of the incident. “Before we could leak the information about the criminal group to the investigating authorities, the police were alerted to the presence of a suspicious truck. When the police investigated the truck, they found the four kidnapped victims and the criminal group responsible. The four victims are all alive, and five of the six criminals are dead. And although this has been kept secret from the media… the mark of the Eighth Guidance was found drawn on the wall of the container.”
“What did you say?” Hijiri uttered in surprise as he looked down at the report.
The report was filled with nothing but bizarre details.
As the one who was pulling the strings of Murakami’s group of defectors, he knew that all members of the Eighth Guidance were dead. Comparing what he knew with the documents regarding the members who had escaped from research facilities, there was no mistake in this fact.
It was difficult to imagine that there were multiple exceptions like Ghost, but…
“… It’s impossible for a mere copycat to go as far as to do this. The ‘Undead’ and the Eighth Guidance have clearly demonstrated that death-attribute Mana contamination occurs when certain conditions are fulfilled. In the same way, the Eighth Guidance may have contaminated someone else with the death attribute. I thought that if this had occurred, then the only possible person it could have happened to is Amemiya Mei, but it seems that we must be cautious,” said Hijiri. “But it does not change the fact that most things are going as planned. We will guard Amemiya Mei and investigate this fake ‘Eighth Guidance.’ Their objectives, their abilities, where they are, everything.”
“Yes. Please leave it to me,” said Kousuke.
Kousuke immediately began an investigation into the fake ‘Eighth Guidance,’ but he failed to find any leads whatsoever.
Because the one he was looking for was always with Mei.
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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riahnlouise
“Finally finding a cell phone, Banda looked for buttons to press… and found himself quite confused as to how to use it for a while, as it was a smartphone.”
This line made my heart broken in to pieces. 😭😭😭 my precious Van doesnt even know how to use a smartphone even coming from the present earth wherw technology is advance too.
Hobbes
Banda: “Hey Me, I really want a version update & a high bandwidth, fail-safe interdimensional consciousness connection if possible.”
Winter
I wonder if Van can eventually connect to Origin to “update” Banda to his current power level 😛
Zenden1st
Now you just need to stop time and do flurry attacks while shouting some catchphrase
JKingSniper
Banda really need to kill Avalon
caccuhuy
Meh’s stand: branched clone of Vandalieu (Demon King)
randomlnreader69
Wouldve been better if they reported that he possesses a strange ability since there have been many bullet traces seen
Chiu ChunLing
Well, but various magical abilities exist in Origin without being considered “strange”. That Rock/Iron Fist Earth attribute spell would account for all the deflected bullet fragments, and it would be considered pretty vanilla by Origin standards.
Stoic_Alex
Banda is the man! Yes, teach Hiroshi no attribute magic. Haha
Dr. Steel
Banda should be considered an honorary Eighth Guidance member. That or as the spirit clone of the Undead, who could be considered the founder, he’s a member, or the head.
Vitor
I’m afraid I must disagree, Eight Guidance were more like a cult than an organization, and the Undead was more like their god, not their founder… Banda would be something like an angel… thought a very creepy one
Rogal Dorn
An angel for some – a demon to others
MBA
I have read a review on NU that pointed on something in this chapter that, upon checking myself, I found out to be false and a misunderstanding of the reviewer. In case anyone else finds it and questions:
The term “white man” here exists in the source material, and is not deliberately changed by the translator (You can accuse him of doing that on a bunch of other things that are hard to localize to English that I will explain soon, but not this).
It also serves to specify who of the unimportant characters is acting, since we also have an asian man, wild-looking man, callous-looking man, pale-faced man, etc. These are all part of the source material, and is in no way related to the shitshow started on Chapter 228.
However, looking at this chapter again made me realize what may have aggravated the problem: It’s the repetition of the words. One of the changes the translator is doing is modifying the text in a way that sounds more natural in English, for example, by specifying who is talking, hence, we get “said the XX man”, “contested the XX man”, and so on. This does not exist in the Japanese version and is kept implicit.
The deal is, in Japanese, and heavily used in Death Mage, many characters have their own speech quirks, so for example, if in the context a girl uses “atashi”, that’s most likely Pauvina, if it’s “Watashi” in katakana, that’s Orbia, if it’s a boy using “Ore”, it’s likely Van, if it’s “Boku” in Katakana, that’s Privel, if it’s “Washi” and ends her sentences with Noja, it’s Zadiris, while if she uses “Ware” and ends her sentences with Noja, then it’s Tiamat. There are many characters in many scenes, and in japanese, you can more easily understand from those nuances…
But in English, all those words can be translated as the same “I”, meaning, the English reader will have no way of knowing who the hell is talking, thus, Yoshi, the translator, adds them into the text so everyone knows who is talking (and he can make mistakes too at first), however because of these, I can see the repetitions happening, and causing a small discomfort turning into paranoia.
Draggador
In this series, Banda is my second favourite character after Vandalieu.
Yonko
As Banda is a Spirit Clone will he eventually fuse back with Van? Also I hope Meh-kun becomes a Subordinate God or Familiar Spirit of Van in the future(don’t know if that is even possible though) and that Van soul destructes Hijiri once he’s reborn in Lambda.
GeassAye
I find the side series more entertaining than the main one
Dust
I just realized that Banda is like a stand from jojo
Dragon_King_Kyoleth
Honestly I was thinking one of the living Sacred Gears from DxD (Like Canis Lykaon, or Regulus Nemea) But a stand is actually a pretty good description.
Denkir
Roughly how many more chapters until the volume swaps over to 11?
KingJake122
i wonder if hijiri will be the one to get the demon kings power when he dies.
Valeth
I guess there is always a chance, however I doubt he would be compatible with them. They would most likely drive him crazy the way the Fragments do normal people.
Jonathan Hurd
I think he’s already plenty crazy at this point. I feel like Hijiri and Guduranis would actually have good compatibility. They both don’t trust others, both toy with life without care, both enjoy being on top, and both seek to hold power over others. I think he might pull off a fusion of sorts with Guduranis. He could also probably get the most benefit out of anyone if he inherited Gudas memories since he has the fast learning skill.
Valeth
I can see this, too a degree. I also feel that while Hijiri is toying with life, he wants to be Immortal, and be in control. Guduranis on the other hand, destroyed everything he touched and delighted in the death and suffering that he caused.
I feel they are potentially compatible in many ways, but the driving force behind them is still vastly different.
Not to mention having the memories of a Eldritch God implanted inside your mind can’t be good for anybody.
Kazza
This may be just me, but I was always under the impression Gudurandis was more of a die-hard “might makes right” kind of guy. I don’t think he particularly delighted in death or destruction for the sake of it, but only enjoyed displaying his philosophy by destroying those weaker than him, as the greatest display of his power and control. He did come with an army, full of those weaker than him, so if he truly enjoyed destroying everything weaker than himself he left them alone for some reason.
In that way, I think he and Rikudou are alike. They enjoy displaying their power and control, endulging in cruel acts because they enjoy putting themselves above others.
To be honest, if it were a normal fragment, I think Rikudou would be fine. He’s obviously crazy enough to be get a mental corruption skill when (maybe if? Banda’ll probably do more than just kill him) he gets to Lambda.
However, Alda wouldn’t give him a sealed fragment, so that leaves only our very dumb reincarnation god with his DK soul fragments. And since Birkyne showed that “soul fragments” can subtly take over the host, I think “Rikudou” wouldn’t last long after getting to Lambda.
Flesh Sculptor
“And I have a message for you. ‘Onii-chan isn’t poop.’”
With that, Banda’s fourth arm extended in a straight punch aimed at the man’s face. The man mustered the last of his strength to try and protect his head, but… Banda’s punch smashed through the man’s skull along with the hand that was in the way.
It looked and sounded like a hard-skinned, fleshy fruit being smashed to pieces. That noise echoed across the inside of the container.
This is the weirdest, most confusing, most adorable one liner a man could possibly hear before a gruesome death…
Chiu ChunLing
It’s a bit weirder in the translation cause the guy called him “stupid”, rather than “shitty”.
But yeah, I wonder if the last thing that went through that guy’s head (before Banda’s punch, at least) was, “Oh crap, this thing is being controlled by the little sister…I guess I’m not the only one who has an older brother!”
Sinfulmass
Honestly I’d read a story just about the adventures of Banda and meh kun.
Madness
The story feels really boring i might just quit it….
Sinfulmass
I’m just curious, what did you find “really boring”?
Chiu ChunLing
Lol.
When someone waits till an action scene in Vol 10 to claim that a story “feels really boring”….
Dyneamaeus
A question: Since Rikudou’s cheat is just that he can train and get stronger forever(his growth has no limit) would he be stronger in Lambda, or just like everyone else? Physically impossible feats that Rikudou could theoretically attain in Origin are kinda the norm in Lambda. Train your skin to be durable enough to deflect bullet? Congrats, you’ve attained rank C~ish. Learn supra-awesome magic? Well done, you can now access high mage job.
On the other hand, maybe he just wouldn’t experience ‘walls’ like normal people? That would still be pretty busted, but training isn’t exactly easy in Lambda. I can’t help but feel his cheat isn’t going to be very good if he crosses over.
Renrobt
In Lambda he would be Broken OP. More so than any other cheat. He has 2 abilities Unlimited growth and Increased Learning speed. His first ability on Lambda would indeed translate to no walls. Usually one has to overcome a wall by dedication and training. This can be eased by example a god’s divine protection, but even then that doesn’t erase the wall, just gives an innate boost to overcoming it, so if they hit a very difficult wall it might still not be enough.
Rikudou is above that. Far above that. His other ability also allows him to perfectly learn new skills in just a day on Origin. Even if we limit him by saying that he can only lvl up 1 skill a day and only by 1 lvl, that means it takes him to get to swordsmanship to lvl 10 (something that only the most talented can even hope to achieve during their lifetime, let alone evolving the skill) in 10 days. And I doubt that his cheat ability would be this limited. He would break the skill system by acquiring all the skills he can think of and then evolve each. And maybe even evolve it further.
Just to drive it home how OP that is: Under normal circumstances just getting to lvl 2 in any skill takes a couple of years. And getting to lvl 2 in a combat oriented skill is effectively what is required of a soldier. Even if he starts with the same curse as Van, that his skills don’t carry over, it would probably take less than a day for him to overtake a Knight in skill and probably reach low C or high D rank adventurer levels.
In short he will become a threat greater than Van + Guduranis in about a month if left alone. Possibly even forcing the dismantling of the skill system just to slow him down.
Valeth
I doubt his cheats are anywhere near this powerful. I do believe that they will make him a complete monster eventually. However, I don’t recall them ever fully explaining how well they work.
I seriously doubt he could level a combat skill by a level a day. I do believe that his Increased Learning speed would help. It does not however, take into account the bodies ability to perform the skill. Remember Simon before training with Van activated a combat skill against the wolves, but his body was not able to keep up, and the skill effectively never worked.
This is something he would need to train, and would require him to level. I feel that he would level quickly, and his Unlimited Growth would reduce the walls that appear. However, like Van gaining classes. The walls are a part of the system, and he would hit them eventually, although like Van he could probably overcome them.
Edit: I would also like to add the starting stats of the Bravers in Lambda are not that impressive as compared to Van. Remember Kanata’s Stats were basically the same as Van’s when they meet. However Van’s stats are suppressed because of his child like body. When he finishes maturing into a adult I seriously doubt they are even a threat to Van who has leveled a crap ton sense then
Renrobt
To be fair we only know 2 things about Rikudo’s ability that was stated: He has unlimited growth and that he can learn completely new skills over the course of a day. To what degree was not mentioned but we can assume that it is at least to a level where for example in chess he can challenge regular or maybe even expert players even if he didn’t even know the rules the day before.
I do agree that it could be possible that his body won’t be able to keep up with the rapid leveling of skills, but considering how fast he learns he will likely learn to limit or circumvent the abilities to the point he can handle them almost right away. His whole shtick is learning fast and as this is a cheat level ability then one can assume it isn’t just on the level of having a talent for everything, rather more like gaining insight and deeper understanding naturally.
And about the walls, there I have to disagree. Again he has the cheat ability unlimited growth. All limits to his growth are removed or circumvented. Walls are indeed part of the system and that is exactly why it is a cheat ability that would be especially OP on Lambda.
And to be more specific his cheat ability is Unlimited Development. This not just applies to his mind, but also body, skills, mana, etc. As long as he trains his body/skill/etc those will grow without stopping. The point of this ability is that can break any and all limits imposed by gods, biology, possibly even physics, as long as he has enough time to train up. Even if he starts on the level of child Van or even as a child himself, he won’t need to wait till growth spur for his abilities to drastically increase, as he is not limited by his biology.
Edit: Ah and don’t forget Elves’ and Dark elves’ growth and apparent age slows down after age 10 or so, and this also carries over to Dhampirs, so Van won’t be growing into a full blown adult for quite a while, to his utter disappointment. Tho to be fair his stats will still increase because of his insane leveling, especially now that he gets xp just from people praying to him. At this point he could really just level like an Idle game. So yeah not like Van isn’t broken, just Rikudo is possibly even more broken due to the likely removal of limits on the skill system.
Tejing
The one-day thing was hillwillow, not rikudou. I don’t think we have any specific information about how much faster rikudou learns.
Renrobt
Ah damn, looked back to see if there were references and yeah I mixed up the 2. My bad. Tho I do think it would make sense considering that it is a god given cheat ability.
But indeed we have no concrete information on Rikudo, only the description of his abilities, which as seen with Kanako’s Venus, it can actually also be misleading/incomplete, thought not a falsehood.
a_really_original_name
Even so, if he reached level 20 in any ability, he could probably level it into a superior skill incredibly easily.
InfernoHomura
Meh-kun is so adorable
Rilarion
When will Van NTR Amemiya?
Boop
I don’t think that will happen cuz Van has moved on from taking revenge on the Bravers
InfernoHomura
that face tho handsome
Renrobt
Eh Van doesn’t hold any ill will against him pretty much since he was a few months old. After calming down and having Darcia as a proper caring mom he really doesn’t care about them as long as they don’t interfere with him.
Since Banda is Van but with special care for Mei, I really don’t think he will mess with them unless absolutely necessary. For Mei’s sake.
Jonathan Hurd
I think Vans feelings towards Amemiya are probably quite of few parts fear and some resentment. We see a little of the fear in how even Banda views him. Van has definitely come a long way from when he was utterly terrified of the cheats the reincarnators have, but I think the trauma of Hiroto killing him is still there. Vans also never going to be happy to see the guy who received his portion of fortunes, destinies, and abilities while leaving him with nothing.
I don’t think Van wants to murder them anymore. Mostly because he doesn’t have the time and he is busy pursuing his own happiness with those he loves. I am looking forward to the day Hiroto passes over though. We’ve constantly seen people justify killing Van because he holds a lot of power. I wonder if Van will choose a different option than annihilating the threat out of fear.
Renrobt
I wouldn’t call Banda’s attitude here fear, rather caution. Thanks to Legion and possibly Amemiya’s nativity he gained a proper description of his cheat abilities, one of which is ignoring defense. This time around he just asserted that his body made of DK fragments is mostly impervious to damage even in this world. And honestly I don’t think he has much resentment for him anymore, either. As long as they don’t mess with his family and friends Van and by extension Banda doesn’t care about the Bravers. And most of his remaining resentment is aimed at Rodcorte.
And totally agree I wanna see the day Hiroto gets confronted, tho I think Banda will sooner or later reveal himself to him, at least before his death. This might result in him actually refusing to kill Van and getting sent to Lambda mindwiped by Rodcorte turning him into a rather fanatic weapon with no hesitation. Would be interesting to see if Van can restore him, if he is even willing to or will be forced to destroy.
SilverEagleLive
He’s more likely to get his daughter seeing as how he’s pretty much best friends with her
Guroga
Guess it will be a while before all of them go to Lambda.
Lord Rin
Aww Mei continues to be adorable. Even while in the process of being kidnapped, she’s calm enough to say that her onii-chan isn’t poop.
Banda is like Mei’s protective big brother and it sounds like he might end up being also like a big brother to Hiroshi too since he’s decided to teach him no-attribute magic.
Evidently the people of Origin have just assumed that all mana and magic always has an attribute so they’ve never bothered to discover no-attribute and what it can do. Anyways Banda thinks it won’t compare to a cheat but his main persona Van tends to undervalue things where accomplishments or powers are actually much better than he thinks. Banda isn’t just some no-attribute mage that can teach Hiroshi; he’s a Hollow King mage. Hiroshi may not learn how to shoot Hollow Cannon but under Banda’s tutelage he may learn something similar or like a lesser version like a Hollow Bullet. In fact he might actually be able to learn Hollow Cannon. Van and Banda have so much mana that despite their high mana control, even what they consider just ‘a lit bit’ of mana is a huge amount so if Banda teaches Hiroshi no-attribute magic then Hiroshi might be able to adapt some of the spells that Van and Banda put in a lot of mana that they consider only being ‘a little bit’ and make them work with his lower mana pool so there might be a possibility that Hiroshi can learn Hollow Cannon or a weaker version of it that uses less mana.
So the kidnappers were working for Rikudou though they seem to have just been catspaws and didn’t even know who they were really working for and why exactly they needed to kidnap Mei. Sounds like they were just a bunch of common thugs and terrorists who had a grudge against Hiroto and just jumped at the chance to get back at him when somebody presented an opportunity to them and even the person who hired them seems to also have been an expendable catspaw. I can’t say that this plan wasn’t clever on Rikudou’s part but he thinks he’s more clever than he actually is. Like sure he’s clever and managed to create this big shadow organization but part of it is because he’s lucky that Hiroto is a naive idiot that can be easily manipulated. If somebody more competent was leading the Bravers I sincerely believe Rikudou wouldn’t have been able to do what he wanted and create a shadow organization with huge influence.
Absolute Zer0
Eleanora can crash brain of Bravers for sure, since they can manipulated like dolls by ‘Avalon’
Tejing
Eleanora? Birkyne’s former subordinate? I’m assuming that’s a case of name confusion?
Absolute Zer0
It sayed she was spy y’know. Maybe isla too. No need to mention Emperor Marshukzarl who is expert in it.
Jonathan Hurd
I think why he’s bringing Elanora up is because she has Evil Eyes of Charm. Since Mari was brainwashed other Bravers could also possibly be brainwashed using Elanoras eyes to help.
Admittedly when we first met Elanora she used her Evil Eyes to get info out of Tarea and try to get info out of Van.
I will just put forward that while Mari is indeed brainwashed that was through a ton of drugs and hypnosis. Give Van a few days and he could probably also destroy/change someone’s psyche like that, but probably not worth it in the long run.
Jonathan Hurd
I do agree Hiroto is doing a terrible job, but do remember he was always the face and muscle of the organization. The Brains were all killed by Murakami and the Eighth Guidance. Now the fact that none of the idiots who became Rodcortes familiar spirits noticed anything before their deaths, that to me is the true travesty in leadership. Add in how incompetent they were in handling the Eighth Guidance case and I basically have no faith in the Bravers to get the job done.
To be fair to Hiroto though he’s basically too stuck in his own justice. He’s basically trying to be Superman and no government wants someone like that. From the common man’s perspective super man swooping in and saving your life is great. To a government it means you have a vigilante with vastly more power than you who is making you look incompetent. They even went and made their own justice league too. So everyone on the outside probably already resents, is afraid, or is envious of his powers to some degree.
Then you add in the fact that Hiroto basically forced the other Bravers to join his justice league and follow his ideals without asking, and you have almost no one willing to work with him even on the inside. To make matters worse Hijiri already killed almost everyone who was faithful and trustworthy.
It’s laughably easy to screw around behind the scenes because Hiroto doesn’t even have a grip on what’s happening in front.
Chiu ChunLing
I’m not giving El Braver a pass on that, since he was supposedly in charge of things when Murakami defected (an obvious and avoidable outcome of blackmailing everyone into joining the Bravers when many didn’t want to and weren’t suited for it) and killed off the brains (also something he should have seen coming, while the brains were still alive, but didn’t because he prioritizes avoiding being told uncomfortable truths).
El Braver‘s not trying to be Superman. He’s trying to pretend to be Superman, and hiding any evidence to the contrary, from himself and his allies. That has led to some seriously bad decisions on his part.
First, he never asked Kouya why he had more than twice as many powers and double the fortune of anyone else. Superman and every other ‘good’ superhero struggles with “Why me?” Often to the point of being silly, but El Braver doesn’t want to know.
Second, he never asked everyone whether they wanted to be part of the Bravers, he just went ahead and blackmailed them into joining. Even Asagi tried asking a few people first, though he didn’t accept their answers. El Braver knew the answer would be “no” in many cases and he wasn’t willing to accept that. So he never asked.
Third, after meeting Narumi, he deliberately avoided finding out anything about what happened to Amamiya Hiroto specifically, and then lied to her and claimed that he most likely chose not to be reincarnated. He also leaned on Kouya to never ask about Amamiya Hiroto, but to support the position that he must have been reincarnated. Sorry, but even if he’d asked Aran what probably happened to Amamiya Hiroto, the answer would have been “didn’t he somehow get mixed up with you because of your names sounding the same?”
Fourth, he didn’t ask Kouya, “doesn’t the fact that he won’t attack us as long as we don’t show hostility mean we can negotiate?” or any similar question. I know that the Bravers didn’t have military training by then, but the tactic Kouya suggested is obviously perfidious even to people who don’t know the definition of the word “perfidious”.
A lot of other people made these same mistakes (mainly Kouya), but they were following El Braver‘s lead and he was deliberately telling people what was convenient to keep them from asking these questions.
El Braver‘s double dose of fortune along with his powers affected how willing others were to follow him. And he intentionally led them astray cause he didn’t want them to find out things he suspected but didn’t want to know.
Madparadox99
The attribute death is the closest power to the second art of non-existence: “end”. His wish is something only a fool would wish for, the power of the Eclipse
WholesomeAF
Woohooo! New update! I miss mei kun~ and bands I hope mei grow fast for a show of badasserie
彡[赤目]彡
Thanks yoshi, thanks every sponsor thanks all Van’s worhlshipper.
This might be the last chapter for me to read before I go to hell. (or if Vida or van reincarnation is really, i wish I reincarnated there)
Nox
Thanks for the chapter.
Poor, poor Hijari who doesn’t know that the further his plan is moving forward the further immortality is getting away from him.
Why is Banda sad/angry that Amemiya was being ridiculed as he has all Vans cheat like abilities and furthermore killed him?
Kazza
… I think you misread it. Hiroshi was being insulted, not Hiroto. Mei loves her brother, so Banda would take an interest in defending him to make her happy. I think you got it confused with the thug saying he’s trying to get revenge on Hiroto for his brother.
Soulzer1
Nope Banda was talking about how the dad (Amemiya) could hurt him with his cheat ability by bypassing his defenses. @Kazza where and how did you get the son (Hiroshi) out of anything @Laeman just wrote?
Kazza
…But Laeman asked why Banda is “sad/angry Amemiya is being ridiculed…”
I might’ve missed a reference to Hiroto being insulted, but the chapter seems to only reference Hiroto in A) Comparing Hiroshi’s lack of power, and B) having killed that thugs brother. A) is just a small sentiment used to insult Hiroshi and in B) Van seems to agree with insofar as hatred is natural. He didn’t seem upset at that. But there is a clear reference for him being angry Hiroshi was insulted:
“And now, after the kidnapping, the criminals had insulted Hiroshi. They had also attempted to kill Sakuma-san, who was a good babysitter to the children, and a bodyguard whose face Banda was familiar with.
On top of that, there were no security cameras here.
There was no more reason to hesitate in disposing of the criminals.”
If you see a better quote I didn’t then ok, but Laeman didn’t provide a quote so I assumed this was what he was taking about and he got the two confused.
Blackpercher
ahhh its been awhile, hey anyone knows how many side chapters on volume 10?
Banzai Meh-kun!!
Aliosius
Wait a minute there is a Jesus Christ in Origin too?! Lmaookkkkk
ObserverBias
That was addressed some time ago, wasn’t it? Earth had some amorphous amalgamation, while Origin has multiple figures, up to and including the public interpretation of Pluto among them, and divided between “light” and “dark” gods, iirc. Should be listed under Van’s Divine Protection list.
Tonatsi
I can’t wait for Banda to reveal himself to the world.
“I AM THE UNDEAD YOU FORSOOK, WITHOUT EVEN LISTENING TO MY PLIGHTS”
akatsuki kuranashi
lol he is defenetly not an ALLCAPS character
Santoso
Can’t wait for mei debut as brave with his cheat power,banda
Absolute Zer0
Stand name: Banda
Attribute: Death
Dyneamaeus
I’m expecting something extreme will be the only way to draw him out in public. Like, the family is caught in some kind of battle and Meh-kun’s about to take a hit. “The Amemiya’s both leap for Mei, trying to throw up a barrier but they can tell they won’t make it, when a skeletal black hand appears in mid air and catches the bullet.
‘BANDA!’
‘Yes Meh, I’ll handle this.’ declares a disembodied voice just before the attackers all drop dead.”
Rogal Dorn
This is not the way Van/Banda speaks. Too much cringe for him
Absolute Zer0
He may be be able to take full-powered blow from Great-God, but he can’t survive embarassment of line ‘I will handle this’.
ExplodingPenguinDood
I hope there are more Meh-kun centric stories, they’re such a nice change of pace and break from the original story, like salt to chocolate. It enhances the enjoyment of the whole tale for me. I think the same will be achieved with a Pau-chan centric one so I hope there will be one too or at least she will be heavily in focus, one can hope I guess
Jomajo
It would be nice to see full side story novel with Meh-kun – Amemiya Mei as main character.
Kuro-san
Thanks for the chapter!
Raidanzoup
Heck yeah, I’ll help myself to a double chapter serving of this series, yum yum.
Banda should leave a note in blood saying “I know what you did last summer” to spook Hijiri.
SuicidalSkeletin
Lol my thoughts exactly
Tom
I always love the storys about Banda and Mei they are always so different and provide a really good built up for possible future opponents and threats to come. Plus I just like the relatinon between Banda and Mei.
Ltshrek
Hmmmmmm, isn’t Banda basically a stand? Cept he’s much more op
Tonatsi
Stand user: Mei
Stand name: G O D
Yoki
Nonono… The STAND name has to be Gloomy Sunday
The most infamous suicide song ever
gomezseba37
I mean amamiya can ingore defenses but that doesent mean he can kill banda at most he has the strenght of an A rank adventurer
Dio3
El literalmente no puede matar a banda por el cuerpo de banda es mei así que si quiere matar a banda entonces debe matar a mei y yo dudo que el lo haga
ObserverBias
I mean he “could,” probably… it would just require, y’know, killing his own child, which is highly unlikely to happen on purpose (which is probably why it’s well-established he can’t stop it once it’s fired and it’s not particular about only hitting its target).
Jonathan Hurd
Yeah I believe since Mei is the main body her death would force Banda to return to Van. Ameimeiya might be able to pierce defenses but he definitely can’t touch souls. So there really isn’t any way for him to takeout Banda without hurting Mei.
Dyneamaeus
I think he can take Banda in Origin, but it would depend entirely on whether he can hit him in spirit mode. In Lambda he’ll have no hope. Piercing defenses is all well and good, but in Lamba Vit-tanking is a thing.
unwanted child
I KNEW HE WOULD TEACH HIROSHI NO-ATTRIBUTE MAGIC!
Irazori
HA! I’d like to see that retard hijiri try to get close to Mei, only to have his soul broken by Banda.
Superboy8338
HURRAY FOR VAN!!!
Triduo
It’s Banda ! They’re two different entities ! ^^
Paradoxe : Only because the double is a Demon Familiar Patchwork and a younger version of Van’s personality influenced by the kid he’s protecting. -__-
Superboy8338
What’s the difference?
VEreality
Not much. They are one person. They are unable to communicate because they are in two different worlds, but we have to keep in mind that there is only one soul and no difference in the way they think
Chadd
Nothing new to update but here is the reincarnation list again. I guess Hijiri has become aware of ‘something’ strange going on but whether or not that will lead to Banda’s discovery is questionable. Even a super genius wouldn’t be able to come to the conclusion that the undead has become a living god and has a fragment of his soul protecting Mei.
-Souls Destroyed (2)-
Kaidou Kanata (M/Gungnir) – Ex-Bravers – Ignore interference
Konoe Miyaji (M/Death Scythe) – Murakami (Betrayed) – Spends mana to paralyze parts of the body after seeing his victim’s face.
-Lamba (17) –
Vandalieu [Amamiya Hiroto] (M/Undead/Dhampir) – Vandalieu Faction – None (Death Magic)
Minuma Hitomi (F?/Gazer/Legion) – Vandalieu Faction – Future Sight
Tsuchiya Kanako (F/Venus/Chaos Elf) – Vandalieu Faction – Copy and Paste
Melissa J. Sautome (F/Aegis/Chaos Elf) – Vandalieu Faction – Barrier
Doug Atlas (M/Hecatoncheir/Human?) – Vandalieu Faction – Telekinesis, Omnidirectional Perception, Force Vision
Asagi Minami (M/Mage Masher) – Sealing Van Faction – Magic Canceler
Shouko Akaki (F/Ifrit) – Sealing Van Faction – Heat/Flame manipulation
Tendou Tatsuya (M/Clairvoyance) – Sealing Van Faction – Vision related abilities
Mao Smith (F/Noah/Dwarf) – Neutral Faction – Storage space
Mackenzie (F/Urðr/Baby) – Neutral Faction – See into past
Sarua Legston [Sameshima Yuuri] (M/Perseus/Baby) – Neutral Faction – Halt movement of target
Sieg [Tanaka] (M/Skanda/Baby) – Neutral Faction – Speed Boost
Gotouta Kaori (F/Super Sense/Elf) – Neutral Faction – Enhance 5 senses
Murakami Junpei (M/Chronos/Human) – Hostile Faction (Rodcorte) – Spell/Skill Delay
Hasamada Aki (M/Odin/Human) – Hostile Faction (Rodcorte) – See few seconds into future
Misa Anderson (F/Sylphid/Elf) – Hostile Faction (Rodcorte) – Turn body into gas
Inui Hajime (M/Marionette/Human) – Hostile Faction (Fitun) – Body Manipulation
-Origin (79)-
Amemiya Hiroto (M/Braver) – Bravers – All Attributes Affinity(Not Including Death Attribute or Time while on Origin), Chant Revocation, Multi-Cast, Ignore Defense (4 others)
Amemiya Narumi (F/Angel) – Bravers – Telepathy, Joint Sensation
Iwao ???? (M/Titan) – Bravers – Gravity
???? Baker (?/Hermes) – Bravers – Object Creation
Joseph Smith (M/Druid) – Bravers – ???
Rikudou Hajiri (M/Avalon) – Avalon (Fake Bravers) – Learning Speed, Unlimited Development
Moriya Kousuke (M/Shaman) – Avalon – ???
Shihouin Mari (F/Metamorph) – (Brainwashed by Avalon) – ShapeShifting
And 71 others
-Purgatory (3) –
Rodcorte Angels:
Shimada Izumi (F/Inspector) – Former Braver – See through lies
Machida Aran (M/Laplace’s Demon) – Former Braver – Calculation/Predictive Analysis (Based on known facts)
Endou Kouya (M/Oracle) – Former Braver – Predictive Analysis (Based on information known by souls in Rodcorte’s system)
Tom
Wow thats really helpfull to remember everything about the bravers, thanks
Tejing
A general note: I’m not sure what you want to do to distinguish the order of given and family names, particularly since most reincarnators swapped them upon arrival in Lambda. Right now you’ve done that kinda randomly. Maybe use square brackets for their lambda names like you already are for the 3 babies?
Minuma Hitomi is definitely female… no need for a ‘?’ on her gender really.
At first, I thought you’d gotten Melissa’s last name wrong, but it’s only spelled ‘Saotome’ in recent chapters. It was indeed ‘Sautome’ in older ones… I would go with ‘Saotome’ since it’s the most direct transliteration of the original katakana.
Doug’s race is named now. He’s a Dark Human.
Shouko Akaki should be Shouko Akagi. (A lot of the early mentions are written as akaki, but recent mentions like in chapter 180 and side chapter 32 correctly follow the katakana and write it as ‘akagi’)
Sarua Legston’s previous name was Samejima Yuri, not Sameshima Yuuri.
Sieg’s full previous name was Tanaka Jin.
Gotouta’s given name is Kaoru, not Kaori (Yoshi retroactively fixed this when their names were finally written phonetically in katakana upon their arrival in Lambda)
Odin’s name is Hazamada Akira, (In pre-lambda order) (Same issue as above)
Avalon’s name is Hijiri, not Hajiri (That was a typo only in that TLN. It’s Hijiri everywhere else)
Joseph Smith’s ability isn’t clearly explained, but we do know it’s ‘useful for agricultural work’.
That’s all I noticed. Sorry if I seem like a complainer >.< just trying to help get it accurate. (Some of the katakana in their names were misread by Yoshi: 'gotouta' should actually be 'gotouda', for example, but he's doing those consistently, so best leave them as Yoshi translated them)
Kazza
Oh my Vida. You guys can’t see it, but I have the largest smile on my face, so much so that I’m making the Joker look like an angst-riddled teen. There might be damage to my face, I don’t know.
This chapter is almost exactly what I wanted when I first read about the kidnapping. Like, almost everything.
Banda gaslighting the kidnappers until he had no option but to reveal himself? Done near masterfully.
Banda curbstomping the fuckers with the power of the New Demon King? Hell yeah.
Mei being an adorable little thing that feels no fear because she’s got a literal god as a stand? Fear her, fuckers. Oh wait, you can’t, ’cause you’re dead.
The only thing I didn’t like was that Banda was actually surprised by the Space-Attribute gun move. If Densuke had asked me, I would argue Banda, being Van, has built an entire fighting style on doing the unexpected, so he should’ve been suspicious. I would’ve had him bite and shatter the guys pistol/arm when he did it, like Saitama did to Sonic’s sword in their second meeting in One-Punch Man. Just to drive home how not only physically, but strategically inferior they are to the King/Emperor/Eldritch Nanny.
And it looks like Banda is taking steps to try and help Hiroshi’s complex as well. I will say, I think he’s doing the Van thing of vastly underestimating the capabilities of magic other than the cheats. No-Attribute can grant you access to shit like telekinesis and Mana sharing. Not to mention it would be immune to Braver cheats like Mage Masher and Chronos. He’d literally piss all over Asagi if he was still alive. And some of the competition is “can make an impenetrable shield” and “can switch between multiple types of vision.”
Granted, he doesn’t have Van’s mana pool, so he can’t cast the actual world-breaking stuff like The Hollow Cannon. There’s also the question if it’s possible, because apparently the attribute doesn’t exist (?) in Origin, even though Death Magic didn’t either… Till it did. Honestly, can someone explain that? I understand Origin’s god isn’t like Lambda’s gods, so they’re not in charge of specific attribute maintenance or whatever. So when they say “doesn’t exist” do they mean “not possible for a native” or “a native has never discovered/used it.” ‘Cause apparently the cheat abilities “never existed” before in Origin either.
And Rikudou at the end there. Finally, I was right! I guessed the kidnapping was going to be a set-up by Rikudou, because it seemed a bit too small and slapdash. Running-and-grabbing didn’t seem like his style.
Dear Vida, I hope the next chapter is Origin focused. Someone who reads the raws, I don’t need spoilers, just tell me whether the next chapter is Origin focused. I don’t think I could handle otherwise…
Alex-dono
“Oh my Vida”. I see what you did there
Triduo
Dragolstice : I think that “doesn’t exist” actually means “haven’t been found yet”.
Like you said : Death-attribute magic didn’t exist but it was found and they tried to recreate it since it was an attribute different from the others.
Paradoxe : Why wasn’t it called as “No-attribute magic” then ? -__-
Dragolstice : Because it’s a magic with an attribute and its own effects that the other attributes can’t replicate ?
Paradoxe : Then, why didn’t they found out about the “No-attribute magic” ?
Dragolstice : Because they can only detect the attributes compatibles with the user’s magic. Since No-attribute magic can be used by any Mage while not having any connection with an element or concept, I don’t think that they ever tried to develop it.
Paradoxe : Oh, so they prefer to see powerful magic making flashy effects rather than useful magic able to reinforce them and their abilities ?
Dragolstice : I never said that those Searchers were clever. ^^
Halfsweat
I think when they say that certain attributes didn’t exist it’s more like they aren’t discovered but by that same point it might also just be that certain magic’s are only native to certain places idk
VEreality
This is something that is bugging me, but I rember that at some point in time someone said that the people from Origin don’t have space or time magic. However, now one of them just used space magic. Soooooo… do I remember wrong or has Van just killed the first space attribute user in Origin? Or is this a big OOF from the author?
Also, I don’t think that I remember wrong because Origin only knows about 8 attributes: fire, water, earth, wind, light, darkness, life and death.
Wannabe
I think it isn’t necessarily space magic. He seemed to do the Harry Potter style “call an item and it flies to you” technique instead of teleporting it. Although I would call telekinesis no-attribute magic. I’m not sure what element it’s considered in the story.
Kazza
Sorry, but Banda describes it as:
“I was careless. To think that you would surrender, then use space-attribute magic to return your weapon to your hand and shoot me in the eye once I got closer.”
You could argue he misidentified it, but he’s an extension of Van, who has a Space-Attribute god as a direct subordinate so I assume he knows more than enough to not make that mistake.
Kazza
I thought it was only Time that existed in Lambda but not Origin, but I think you’re right because the Eighth Guidance banned themselves so because they are the Eighth discovered attribute.
If I was to try and stretch my fanon hat (which I don’t like doing), I’d say the most likely possibility is that when Zuruwarn crossed over to grab the Eighth Guidance, he allowed the natives of Origin to develop Space-Attribute magic. That doesn’t work because it’s only been like three years and Space-Attribute messages would be coming out of the woodwork trying to master this new attribute, but there you go.
But yeah, Occam’s Razor says big OOF. They’re around if you look enough. I caught a couple during my rereading. In the first chapter, for instance, it describes:
“As Hiroto continued rampaging after killing everyone in the laboratory, not satisfied with this revenge, familiar faces appeared before him.”
Y’know, everyone. Yep, totes everyone.
Then again, it could be something with the translation…
Doesn’t mean Densuke’s a bad writer or anything, just an explanation on the contradiction.
Kazza
Oops, I should’ve looked a little higher. During the prologue, they list all seven before death:
“In Origin, there were seven attributes of magic that could be used – the four elements of earth, water, fire and air as well as the additional attributes of light, life and spatial magic.”
VEreality
I am not trying to say the writer is bad. This story has 250+ chapters and this is the first time I encountered such a thing. It happens even to the best. More so when we take into consideration all of the details that go into the world building. Also this is a one time character so we might as well ignore it.
Kazza
Oh, I wasn’t accusing you of that. Just trying to be critical of Densuke without being insulting. Especially since we turned out to be incorrect anyways.
a_really_original_name
I think I remember it being time that was undiscovered.
franz941
i think they have space magic, they don’t have time magic. time and space magic are separated things.
Tejing
Origin doesn’t have the Time attribute, but Space is a thing there. Your list is long enough because you mistakenly included ‘darkness’, which isn’t an attribute in any world in this story. Origin has fire, water, earth, wind, light, life, space, and (kind of) death.
Dr. Steel
Darkness isn’t an attribute. And Origin has Space attribute, but not Time
Tonatsi
The best part is he can possess anyone he wants with the sub brain
Darkhelios
Concerning the Banda being surprised by the Space-Attribute gun move:
Can an ant kill a God even with a successful surprise attack?
In my opinion, this is why Banda didn’t bother to worry about the possibility of a trap. Even if the man managed to attack him, he wouldn’t do any damage. Not to him, not to the children. Banda knew that he was that far stronger than them. In conclusion, it was unneeded for him to worry about a surprise attack.
It also possible that, while he was surprised, Banda decided to let the man finish his attack without bothering to guard in order to check if his eye could get damaged…
Moreover letting the man do his thing and showing him that it was all for nothing is quite satisfying, don’t you think? “Hey… That was your best attack? Too bad… It did nothing.” The last frightening experience before his death. ^^
Kazza
Thing is, maybe if he was Goku or Vegeta, but Van as a character fights much more strategically. He uses techniques and methods that take the enemy by surprise and destroy them. He gathers as much intelligence as he can on an enemy before entering a fight on his terms with a high chance of success.
But in situations where he is taken by surprise, he’s upset with himself because he knows that if he was any less… eldritch, I guess… than what he was he would die. He chastises himself for not having appropriate defenses against the assorted demon eyes and takes measures so that he won’t be caught off guard by a Sleygar-level assassin. You can call this paranoid and unnecessary, but that is a core character trait.
He already got the data on his defensive capabilities he needed, showing off more by pulling a DBZ move is just something Van doesn’t do because there’s no need to introduce unnecessary risk.
And even just the idea of him being taken by surprise. Van is a bit naive, sure, but he’s not an idiot. He sees that the man is acting suspicious and his reasoning doesn’t make sense, yet still falls for it. Van’s better than that.
Lord Rin
I think Banda got surprised because the opponent was so weak that his surprise attack couldn’t generate enough potential danger to even activate his Danger Sense: Death.
Darkhelios
“maybe if he was Goku or Vegeta”… No need to compare Banda to what I call “bu***** characters / Superman like characters” who would either take the hit head-on, catch the bullet mid-air or, like you wanted, avoid the said bullet displaying their unlimited senses and speed… I believe the most accurate comparaison would be Ainz allowing himself to take damage from the angels as he knew that it wouldn’t be enough to beat him.
“He already got the data on his defensive capabilities he needed”.
You see that’s the problem here. Banda didn’t have all the data: Previously no bullets hit one of his softer part of his body, one of his potential weak points.
However he understood that a gun couldn’t destroy his eyes… so why not try to take the hit head-on? No need to avoid what can’t hurt you. Even if it does some kind of damage, Banda could probably regenerate it quite quickly and prepare some countermeasures for future fights. That’s how Van fights after all. Preparing countermeasures, preparing himself for bigger fights.
Moreover him avoiding the bullet might have given unnecessary hope to the kidnapper. That “it avoided the attack because it was dangerous” and “if the bullet manages to hit, I might have a chance!”. No need for that.
If the bullet hit and do no damage as expected then everything is good. If the bullet hit and do some damage then just need to repair the said damage, take note for future fights and thanks the man for his help. In both cases, the kidnapper would only feel despair. The despair of a man who no matter what he tries to do, nothing will work.
Kazza
I think you’re misunderstanding me. Not like Goku in action, but in personality. Goku would take the bullet head-on because he’s got the power level or whatever to show it didn’t affect him. I’d argue Van wouldn’t because Van’s not interested in showing off he’s the baddest ass in the world. He wants two things: power measurement and victory. He doesn’t sadistically drag out their suffering so he can get some catharsis. The only times he drags out the fight against a much weaker foe is when he wants to talk, like he did when he killed Palpapek.
And I’m sorry, but you’re confusing me. Are you saying Banda wasn’t surprised? The text explicitly says he was surprised by the attack, which is my actual problem. Dodge it, catch it, I don’t honestly care, but him being surprised is telling us he hasn’t learned anything from Gubamon or Sleygar. He should be growing stronger both physically and mentally, learning from past hits he’s taken so they aren’t repeated. Yet Densuke is pulling a Toriyama-style move to show us he’s only increased in physical powers.
And honestly, I think it would be more despair inducing if Banda did foresee it. It would show that the man was outsmarted, that his trick move that he may have used before to save his life means nothing to the literal god. If you combined it with my idea of Banda biting down on his arm, that is also a huge amount of physical pain to add on to the despair.
Darkhelios
Concerning the comparaison, this is why I compared Vandalieu to Ainz instead. They have a more similar personnality. They both likes to prepare themselves for any possibility. And… Ainz decided to take the attack of a high-angel head-on just to “feel” some damages. He already knew that this attack wouldn’t kill him so “why not do some tests?”.
I’m not saying that Banda wasn’t surprised. I’m saying that, even if he was, even if he could have avoided it, he didn’t have to. His victory was already certain. Not avoiding the attack would also allow him to test the defenses one of his weakest part of his body which is another big plus for him in order to prepare for future fights. Even if he did receive some damage, he would be able to restore it. In conclusion: 0 drawback / 1 benefit (testing one of his weak points).
Banda being surprised isn’t that unexpected either as Vandalieu also tends to rely on his Danger Sense: Death in order to judge the threat and react accordingly. The kidnapper / the ant wasn’t strong enough to be considered as a danger.
Concerning the despair inducing…
Maybe imagine a game in order to visualize it:
A creature can’t be defeated no matter what you do / no matter what you used Vs a creature who do the same unless you aim for his weak point, in which case it keep avoiding the attacks. And that’s the only difference between those two creatures (= speed/strengh/defenses/life/…etc are the same).
As for me, I would prefer to fight against the second creature:
The creature suddenly deciding to avoid my attacks would tell me it was “dangerous” for his/her, meaning that if I can hit this/those weak point(s), I might actually be able to kill it or, at least, delay it… Also, considering that the second creature would try to avoid my attacks, attacking it would give me more time to take my distance as the creature wouldn’t just run toward me. While, for the other creature, I wouldn’t be able to do anything but run, hide and pray that it doesn’t find me… and I would have to do this until the game decides to give me a new tool able to fight the said creature…
In one case, I would have the hope of “being able to do something”. In the other case, I wouldn’t have any hope if the creature finds me.
And now, we can go back on the story: The creature: Banda. The player: The kidnapper. The location: A truck. The equipment: A gun. Your munitions are limited. You don’t have anywhere to run/hide. All your attacks are useless even if you aimed for its weak points. No possibility to find a better equipment. No possibility of receiving back-up. No hope to defeat/delay the said creature.
Now if you want to disagree, we can agree to disagree. After all, I don’t think I will ever think that “having a hope” is more despair inducing than “having no hopes at all”.
Kazza
Ok, I don’t think you are doing it deliberately, but you keep misconstruing my argument. In my hypothetical, Banda is not going to dodge and then run backwards in a panic. He would foresee the attack, dodge it, and counter, presumably with a killing blow, or maybe just a crippling blow if he wants to gloat.
I also don’t get what you’re trying to prove with the video game example. You can use nearly any metaphor to assist your point because you can only focus on the similarities. I can as well:
For instance, in Pokémon Emerald there was the battle frontier, a post-game area that’s harder than hard because it is filled to the brim with challenges meant to test your abilities and adaptability. However, you are playing a ROM, so you have the ability to cheat and hack the game.
So Shedinja has the ability Wonder Guard, allowing it to ignore all supereffective damage. There’s also the Pokémon Sableye, whose Dark/Ghost typing means there are no types it is weak to. Therefore, with your hacking skill, you create a Sableye with Wonder Guard. And maybe that works, as you progress deep into battle tower or wherever with this genius plan you came up with.
Then, you get to a random floor. Not even the final floor, and you’re faced with a fire-type. You feel confident, and laugh as it uses Fire Fang, which is not super effective, but that laughter ends when the attack connects!
See, Fire Fang has a glitch, whether intentional or not, that bypasses Wonder Guard. Since Shedinja (the only Pokémon who can have Wonder Guard) is weak to fire anyways, it was never fixed. However, seeing the potential to shatter your cheating, it was programed to be used in the battle frontier if you had a Sableye with Wonder Guard.
Because, as it turns out, your plan isn’t some masterful strategy Sun Tzu would pull off if given Pokémon. It was a clever little move you thought of that anyone else can, and that includes the Devs. So, feel despair, because Sableye isn’t up for the task of fighting a trained opponent that can fight back, and will die to 1 or 2 hits. All your work and effort to get here mean nothing, because your trick was already foreseen and countered by your opponent. Your trump card is gone, and you’re going to lose because there is no escape.
Replace the fire type with Banda, the gun trick with the Wonder Guard combo, etc. etc.
Yes, if I use this one situation that proves my point, my argument becomes that much stronger. In the end, neither of us proved anything.
And you have to make a decision on this: Did Van not see the attack coming, or did he see it coming a second before it happened and Parallel-Processed the pros and cons of taking the hit? You keep saying he wants to test the strength of his eyes, but if he was surprised then he didn’t want to get shot. If you’re trying to say he’s justifying it afterwards in an “I-totally-meant-to-do-that” kind of way, I think that’s a disservice to Van’s character.
If you want a compromise, how about this: Banda sees the man is acting suspicious, so he uses Telekinesis to bring the revolver to him, which gets the guy to panic. Noticing this, Banda offers him the revolver, confusing him. He takes his chance, teleports the gun into his hands, shoots the eye, nothing. Ends the same way afterwards, with Banda thanking him for helping him test the defensive ability of his eyes.
That looks like it should be acceptable to both of us, don’t you think? Banda shows he had learned from his mistakes with Gubamon/Sleygar, and he still gets to test his power while showing off?
Just because I think a scene can be improved doesn’t mean it’s bad, or it doesn’t make sense.
Jonathan Hurd
For my two cents I will just say it is possible for a superhuman to be taken by surprise. Now nothing the kidnapper did was ever going to work. Banda made sure to protect the two squishy targets long beforehand and his body is indestructible to them. That doesn’t mean the guy teleporting the gun isn’t surprising. To me it’s an important and interesting lesson that even now there is still things for Banda to learn and watch out for.
Chiu ChunLing
From what he says, we could construe that he did foresee the attack, and chose the counter of using his eye to stop the bullet.
I don’t see why this is particularly difficult to believe.
Chiu ChunLing
I personally doubt Banda is above calmly stating “I was careless” as a bit of an ironic touch, after showing an opening that was in fact not. Showing a fake opening to control his opponent’s moves is one of his specialties.
Paps
HAHAHAH, the author shows how good he is by keeping Origin part of the story still well alive. Thanks for the translation Yoshi.
Absolute Zer0
Really only isekai novel keeps multiple world ‘alive’ with solid world building. Author knows how to show off his skills for sure. I myself tried some scribbles and know how hard it is to build even single one. But lo and behold Death Mage keeps two solid built world that has well thought story.
no1
Thank you again for this chapters Yoshi and so soon. Yeah Banda and Mei had another appearance. It was pretty obvious in the previous side chapter that the kidnappers were working for Avalon, since it seemed like they were targeting the children. So Banda’s materialized form is able to physically harm people, but it doesn’t seem to allow Banda to use his full abilities like charming the dead. However, Banda’s actions only seem to strengthen Avalon’s theory that Mei inherited Pluto’s death attribute magic when Pluto tried to kill her mother. I can’t wait to see the confrontation between Banda, Mei and Avalon. Also I wonder what Van in Lambda will say if Mei and Banda somehow get sent to Lambda.
VEreality
Van: hey me
Banda: ‘sup me
Van: I see Meh-kun is here as well
Banda: indeed
Mei: Two Banda!!!!*happy child noises*
Van: hhmmmmm welp, seems like I have to make space for another person in the castle
Yoki
I wonder though, what would happen to Banda if he went back or meet up with Van again? Would he merge together or would he be updated to match with Van more?
I really hope that it is the latter and then Banda will bevome his own seperate entity, kinda like a subordinate god to Van
Jonathan Hurd
I feel like Banda has taken on enough personality of his own to stay separate. I think Meh-kun will eventually also end up in Lambda and Banda will stay with her there as well.
a_really_original_name
I feel merging is more likely as banda is just a fragment of vandalieu’s soul.
SilverEagleLive
I’m honestly curious who’d win in a fight between Banda and Hiroto. Pretty sure the main Van could win, but I don’t know about Banda. On one hand, Hiroto has double the cheat abilities and experience, but on the other, Van has gained quite a lot of power before splitting himself and has the information advantage. He says he’d be powerless, but he has downplayed himself quite a few times already. There’s also the fact that Hiroto has a bunch of cheats in his organization to help, though it seems not everyone wants to follow him.
Also, if anyone’s seen or read Arifureta, I get Kouki vibes from Hiroto.
Triduo
You mean… Trying too hard to help and be the Hero everyone wants to rely on even though he’s only seeing what he wants to see, leading him on the path of self-destruction while being easily manipulated by the enemy ? :3
Paradoxe : Dude. Spoilers ? O_O’
I’m sorry ! (\___)\
Kazza
I mean, I don’t think you spoiled anything the audience couldn’t guess… that’s like saying I’d be spoiling if I said “Fitun is going to fight Van using Hajime’s body.”
Like, hasn’t happened yet, sure. Sorry if you haven’t guessed it yet, but it doesn’t take too much thought.
As for the fight itself, I’d say that one-on-one Banda wouldn’t have a certain victory, especially since we don’t know the rest of his cheats. However, Van isn’t someone who relies on direct combat unless he has an absolute advantage. So, if Van had to beat Hiroto or disarm him, he’d use subtle tactics like poison/disease, which Origin can’t resist cause skills don’t exist.
Triduo
Paradoxe : But Science exist.
But Van makes his own Poisons and Diseases ! ^^ <Even Origin's scientists couldn't heal all of Van's chemical creations !)
Paradoxe : … Ok, fair point.
gomezseba37
The diesease creating hability banda has makes him a walking disaster he made a disease that took out an entire army in hours no ammout of science can stop something that kills you immediatly
Dyneamaeus
Could Hiroto even hit Banda? He’s kind of permanently incorporeal at will, and we know he can cast from that position. Maybe if not existing on the same plane counts as a defense I guess? The real problem though is that Hiroto has two helpings of real, in universe plot armor, so I guess anything that would be unfavorable to Banda would 100% happen if they came to blows.
Irazori
Nah, that moron was already self-destructing because he was too much of a pussy to kill hostile human-ish enemies.
snjwffl
If you’re going to post spoilers, please at least have the decency tag it so *before* the spoiling text. The way you did it, it feels like I read your comment thinking it was just a hypothesis and then you came out to say “Haha I spoiled you”.
Or you could just *not* say it’s a spoiler and make it seem like a prediction. I made this account just to say this since I feel like you do this on most chapters, and there’s no way to hide a single person’s comments. I like reading comments and predictions but dont like definite spoilers, as I’m sure many others do as well.
Also, totally unrelated to what I just wrote: I don’t understand the “paradoxe” thing. Is it like you’re having a conversation with yourself, or something to do with the word “paradox”, or something else?
Yoki
Personally though, I don’t mind spoilers much, I mean yeah you would know what will happen but you dont know how it is going to happen. As a side note, I probably won’t even remember the spoiler by the time I read the next chapter but I do agree with tagging spoilers, or even predictions, first before telling them because they’re basically the same thing anyways.
reisben55
In Origin’s rules Hiroto’s abilities are downright broken.This doesnt mean he is invincible though.
Vandeliu would crush him easily for one thing.
Banda though. I am not sure. I feel like it would be a mutual defeat in 1 on 1.
gomezseba37
Even if hiroto can ignore defense banda is still made out of fragments of the demon king an he can materialize and dematerialize to avoid attacks i think hiroto has no cahnce on a 1 v 1 fight
Alter
Van should win against Hiroto. But Banda shouldn’t. As mentioned in the chapter, Hiroto has the “Ignore Defence” against which Banda or even Van would be helpless and Banda only has 1 billion mana. No dark magic, no group binding.
Irazori
I feel like “ignore defense” would be his actual cheat skill, while the others would just be higher tier ones that already exist in Lambda.
Jonathan Hurd
Honestly it’s hard for me to call the fight since we lack so much info on Hiroto. I believe he has 7different cheat skills one is the defense negation and another was chant revocation and multicasting together. There are still five more abilities to take into account. Considering how much the reincarnators rely on those I need to know them before calling a fight.
As far as magic and martial arts go Banda and Van have him easily beat. Most of the Bravers never bothered to learn martial arts since guns were easier. As for magic most of them have come in with level 5 unevolved magic skills. Comparing that to Dark King Magic and Hollow King Magic there is no contest. So the battle really should co m e down to if the cheat skills can fill in the gap in status enough.
Irazori
Yeah, I’ve read all of Arifureta. Though I feel like it’s an insult to amemiya. Because kouki was too much of a self-righteous wannabe hero, while idiotcorte’s champion actually understands that he’s lacking as a leader of a faulty organization. The kouki vibes would be bigger in asagi, or maybe that moron identifies more of an itsuki (from shield hero).
Blackpercher
Kouki you mean
a hero should be center of attention
a hero should turn things around in a moment of crisis
a hero should have all the beautiful heroines
a hero should have victory as long as he doesn’t give up
the one that has all these delusions? yeah hope so…that would be interesting.
Chiu ChunLing
Banda can just kill El Braver without ever revealing himself.
He simply wants to avoid that because it would negatively affect Mei’s relationship with her family.
He’s nervous because El Braver might need to be ‘persuaded’ to accept Mei having Death Attribute and an invisible friendly monster at some point, but doing so gently enough for him to still function as a father figure might be difficult because of all his cheat abilities.
Triduo
Kidnappers on a truck tried to kidnap children.
Onii-chan tried to help but he couldn’t.
Bodyguard-san and babysitter-san couldn’t help anymore.
Kidnappers thought they won but then…
Banda was there.
Now they’re not here anymore. ^^
Tejing
I love how Mei isn’t even slightly scared, despite being a toddler whose world was just turned upside down. She just has total faith in Banda.
I’m really curious how Amemiya Hiroto will respond when he learns about that mark.
Triduo
Paradoxe : Oooh, he’s gonna have a pale face alright ! I mean, he thought that he killed all of them but it turns out that one of them is still alive and protecting his children for unknown reason !
^^ <He'd be a failure of a dad if he started to accept that as a good sign !)
Yoki
Well to be honest, from his perspective, his child was saved twice by the same group that he destroyed, so I’m guessing he will be going for a guilt trip…
Superboy8338
I feel the same.
Kazza
Honestly, I’d love to watch an episode of CSI:Origin, where Avalon and Co. have to deduce what exactly killed the men and how, seeing the little inconsistencies that don’t make sense. How did the driver, Mei and Hiroto fall asleep? How did the assailant paint the symbol in blood without being seen by a passing driver or camera? Where could he have gone, and how did he get in?
I just need to think of a good cold open…
Looks like these guys…
*Glasses*
…Didn’t stand a ghost of a chance.
YYYYYYEEEEEAAAAAA- No. No, that was crap. Don’t encourage me.
VEreality
No no no no. Think about it. This should be like one of the video games about the Cthulu mythos.
One detective with a past that he wants to forget get’s called to solve a mistery for the ages. As he goes deeper and deeper into the weird story of this crime. After finding more and more clues that lead to nowhere. He finds out the haunting truth.
V4NQU1SH
You can find Banda… in your dreams. that is if Banda wants to.
Thanks for the chapter~!
VEreality
That sounds ominous as all hell and I love it
Triduo
Let’s hope that Banda will help Meh-kun’s Onii-chan in dreams ! ^^
kuraba susumu
a monster invulnerable to weapon and bloody, gored messed up victim
this is like a scene taken straight up from a B-rate horror flick 😀
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…
Morgan
Thanks for the chapter
serapheid
I love the Banda side-stories as much as the main. I get my reincarnation fantasy fix at the same time as an espionage crime horror mystery.
VEreality
Banda is the perfect material for a horror movie monster. Also, the news are going to flip about this. This is going to be very interesting.
Quoting from the man himself, H.P. Lovecraft: “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”. Oh boy… the good people of Origin are going to get the scare of their lives.
Thank you Yoshi-sama!
Triduo
And here I thought that Banda would sign this sign with a “Take care of Meh-kun, from the ‘Undead'” ! ^^
Paradoxe : Banda’s not a show-off, I don’t think he’ll do this, even if he wanted to assure the protection of Meh-kun. -__-
But it still would have been great ! Right ? ^^
Paradoxe : Your opinion is your opinion. -__-
Jeanean
Thanks for the chapter! And Avalon is gonna have a fun time chasing an imaginary friend XD
Apokryphos
Yey, thanks for the translation~
It’s nice to see some more action for Banda…. maybe not so good for the kids~