Arifureta After – As the Daughter of Demon King Part 4

There is a third. Pay attention.

Ten kilometers above the sky.

There was a jumbo airplane. With a sea of clouds below, while the powerful jet engines were rumbling loudly, the plane was heading straight for America.

But, the flight of that airplane was in a situation that wasn’t normal at all. It was because there were multiple fighter aircrafts following behind that airplane from a close distance. It wasn’t because there was a near miss between planes, or because this airplane was actually the exclusive airplane of the president. There was an entirely different reason why fully armed fighter aircrafts were flying behind a passenger airplane as if though they were keeping watch.

It was for the sake of shooting down the airplane in the worst case scenario before damage could be inflicted to the country because an airplane that was hijacked by terrorists wasn’t any different than a flying cannon shell possessing great mass.

Yes, that passenger plane was currently hijacked by terrorists. Due to the terrorists that somehow slipped handguns aboard the plane, the inside the plane was now being ruled by nervousness and fear.

「Oi, you……」

「?」

Everyone was staying quiet, and only waiting for this fearful time to leave. A passenger businessman stole a look at a patrolling terrorist before calling with a small voice to the young man across the aisle from him.

So that he wouldn’t be standing out, the young man only lifted up his hanging head slightly. When he directed a glance at the businessman that was calling him, immediately a small paper scrap was thrown on the lap of the young man.

The young man was startled, and he directed his gaze at the businessman, but at that time the businessman was already looking down and sitting quietly on his seat as though nothing had happened.

The young man was feeling a sensation of cold sweat going down his back while being careful of the patrolling terrorist; he spread open the folded paper scrap inside his palm.

――17:35

That was the only thing written on the paper. Normally such writing would be too cryptic, but the young man felt a shock as though electricity was running through his body. He guessed it. The written time, which was ten more minutes from the current time, was the time where the situation inside the plane might change greatly.

With a glance, the young man gazed at the businessman at his side. The businessman also moved his gaze without moving his face and gave a small nod. The will to rise in a counterattack in order to resolve this hijacking incident existed in that businessman.

Most likely this paper had gone not only to this young man but also to other people. It was unknown who was the one that started circulating this paper, but the person who dispatched this paper should be expecting for even more people to answer the call.

Surely it was because that person had vaguely guessed the objective of the terrorists that he decided to make a sink-or-swim gamble. In the recent news, there was an abundance of topics regarding suicide bombing. The features of the terrorists’ faces obviously looked like the characteristic features of the people of the country where the famous terrorist organization that was reported every day in the news belonged. In that case, it was possible to imagine the worst case regarding the objective of this plane hijacking.

The young man, thinking that they would die anyway if this situation kept on, scolded his heart that was withering in fear and nodded briskly at the businessman. And then, in order to increase the number of courageous comrades even just by one, he secretly handed over the paper, where the time for the counterattack was written, to another person.

Before long, inside the plane where eerie silence was ruling, the watches of the passengers were about to reach the time that was written. The tension was suddenly rising. Beside the young man, the businessman was wiping the sweat on his forehead. The young man also understood really well that feeling. Their fate might be decided in a few minutes. The tension the businessman was feeling wasn’t something average. The young man himself was feeling the sweat that was trickling down his back and neck and the feeling of his body growing cold.

But, at that time, the back of the plane suddenly became noisy. Angry yelling and screams, and then *pan* the sound of a gunshot resounded. The young man lost color. It finally began.

The young man and the businessman, and then several men――a father with a family, a middle aged male who seemed to be riding the plane with his wife, and so on, they were looking for a chance while their faces were straining with tension.

And then, the terrorists who noticed the strangeness at the back of the plane rushed from their posts while saying something. It was at that moment,

「UOOOOOOOOH」

「Hold them down-」

「Steal the gun-」

The passengers who had conspired beforehand simultaneously revolted. One of the terrorists who turned his back was tackled from behind; the tackler desperately held down the hand of the terrorist who hadn’t let go of his gun even when he fell. One other terrorist, when he turned his gaze at his tackled comrade, was also immediately wrestled by the father with a family who was right at the terrorist’s side and both of them fell on the floor.

It became noisy inside the plane. At the same time, the hope that perhaps at this rate they would be able to subdue the terrorists were beginning to spread between the passengers.

But,

*pan-*

A single gunshot resounded, at the same time, the businessman who was holding down a terrorist slumped down while groaning. And then one more shot. *pan* A gunshot resounded, and the father with a family, who was holding down another terrorist, screamed and fell.

Immediately, the terrorists punched away the other passengers, and then they further shot with their handguns while cursing and standing up. The young man who was similarly shot on his leg was making a pained voice while turning his gaze, and there he saw the figure of a flight attendant holding a small handgun.

「No way……why……」

The young man leaked out a bewildered voice. That was only natural. The flight attendant was a blonde haired Caucasian, no matter how he looked her nationality was different from the terrorists.

Due to the feature of the terrorists and the everyday news, the passengers were completely under the impression that the terrorist organization was made up of the race of that country only. But in fact, the terrorists had taken methods of abducting people of various countries, which they brainwashed, before they returned the people to their original country in order to cooperate with the terrorisms, so terrorists were not necessarily limited to the race of only that country.

「Father-, father-」

「Dear-, hang in there-」

Anxious voices mixed with screams reverberated. Looking there, a young girl and a mother were crying while clinging to the shot father.

The male terrorists who were swearing while venting their anger at the revolting passengers, the moment they saw those family crying, their expression changed into something ugly as though to say that they had found a good target to be made into a lesson. They then walked toward that family.

「The sin of treating with disdain our kindness of making you all accompanying us in an honorable death is heavy. Just die meaninglessly, along with your whole family.」

The terrorist aimed his handgun at the family. The shot father, even while his expression was growing pale from bleeding too much, desperately tried to cover his daughter and wife.

Everyone imagined the tragic end of the family. The fact that their revolt ended in complete failure would be planted inside the passengers with this public execution.

But, when the terrorist was about to pull the trigger, suddenly a gunshot thundered from the back of the plane. The terrorist’s hand stopped moving due to that sound. However, guessing that the same thing as here was happening at the back, he immediately put strength into his finger on the trigger.

Right after that, gunshot sounds in succession could be heard once more. The terrorist’s movement stopped once more while thinking that they were really flashy back there. At that time, the terrorists who were in this area were believing without a doubt, that their comrades were also making example back there.

After all, there was also a brainwashed conspirator from another country hiding back there too, so no matter what happened they could launch a surprise attack. There were also more terrorists that were stationed at the back compared to the front. Regarding the consecutive gunshots, there were a lot of hot-blooded guys amongst the terrorists, so the terrorists here thought that it was because of that.

「Oi oi, just what are those guys doing back there?」

「……Yeah. As expected they are shooting too much. Just what are they going to do if a stray bullet hits the window.」

The terrorists looked at each other’s face dubiously. The cause of that was because of the intense shooting sound that was reverberating even now.

The objective of the terrorists was a suicide attack on the capital of America using the hijacked plane. They couldn’t let the plane crash until then so they had to pay meticulous attention even when they were using guns. Yet regardless of that, right now, the gunshot sounds audible from the back of the plane made them think that the shooter wasn’t making any consideration to that, and instead, it sounded like a shooting that was done in desperation to avert death.

「Oi, Nadim, Karim, what are you all doing? Report the situation.」

Because the front and the back areas of the plane were partitioned from each other and they couldn’t see what was happening, they were unable to grasp the situation by eyesight. And so they used a communication device to contact the others, but what they could hear was only「Impossible-! What, is that-」an incomprehensible voice that was a mix of terror, unease, and confusion.

「Oi, Nadim! Just what is going on! Report-」

『A woman is-, it’s impossible-! The gun doesn’t work-. The blonde woma――』

The voice of the man called Nadim cut off. At the same time, the fierce gunshot sounds also stopped.

An eerie silence enveloped inside the plane.

The terrorist who was staring at the communication device gave a signal using his gaze to the other man and the flight attendant. Both of them nodded and aimed their gun at the partition toward the back area.

『This is Yosef. Saeed. What happened to Nadim and the others? Just what is happening over there?』

A communication from the terrorist comrade that was occupying the cockpit came through. The door to the cockpit was solidly closed, and it had been arranged previously so that the door couldn’t be opened no matter what happened in the passenger area. And so, the terrorist who introduced himself as Yosef didn’t come out from the cockpit, but he could still communicate and asked for a report that the other terrorists couldn’t ignore.

Furthermore, Yosef was able to accomplish trespassing into the sturdy cockpit that normally couldn’t be opened by any mean in the middle of flight because beforehand the terrorists had taken the pilot’s family hostage. The pilot was pressed with a mortifying choice even while vaguely understanding that he would be killed anyway in the end, comprehending that this option would only worsen the situation, but when he was shown the image of his young son’s soft skin being pressed with a knife, he finally chose to obey the terrorists. The one who carried the guns inside the plane and opened the cockpit door was also the pilot.

「I don’t know. We will confirm it now.」

Saeed said that, and then he approached the partition to the back area while readying his gun.

But, before he reached the partition, the cause of the abnormality finally arrived from the other side. A slender finger peeked out from the edge of the partition, and then like that, the partition was casually opened wide.

「Oo」

「……」

For a moment, Saeed forgot the current situation and leaked out an admiring voice. The other male terrorist was also wordless, but his eyes opened wide in obvious shock.

The one who showed her figure from the back area, with smooth and fluffy golden hair fluttering and crimson eyes narrowing with a sleepy look, was a peerlessly beautiful girl that was like a bisque doll. It went without saying, that it was Yue in girl mode.

In order to trample all the schemes of the terrorists and make all of their actions become meaningless, she boarded the hijacked plane using space teleportation.

Yue’s eyes ran through the terrorists in turn. Saeed, whose gaze met Yue’s, felt his body temperature rising against a girl who could only be seen as a girl in the first half of her teens. Even though the appearance of this girl could only be seen as a small girl no matter how he observed her, the atmosphere she was clad with was the personification of bewitchment itself. It felt like he was an insect that was lured by an insect trap; if he let his guard down, then it felt like he would assault the girl while staggering on his feet.

Yue turned his gaze to the family who was trembling at Saeed’s feet. The family was also directing dumbfounded gazes at the beautiful girl who suddenly appeared.

「……It’s fine.」

Yue smiled at the little girl who was clinging to her father and gave her those words. And then, casually, without any wariness, she walked toward the family.

That extremely defenseless figure reversely caused Saeed to return to his senses, and then his gaze moved toward the back area through the opened partition. Over there was……

「-, What, are. What are you doing……Carlo-」

There, he saw a scene of his comrade on his knees, strangling his own neck by himself. It seemed that the man was already unconscious, the white of his eyes was exposed while foam was coming out of his mouth. It was really an abnormal scene.

「……I’m no match for Kaori, but this much is no problem.」

Saeed returned to his senses once more due to that voice which came from below him. With a ‘hah’ he lowered his gaze, there the figure of Yue holding her hand over the shot father, and the figure of the father being enveloped in a faint golden light could be seen. It was as though time was being rewound as the blood was flowing back into the wound of the father before the wound visible closed. The bullet that had entered the body was also pushed out from the wound and fell down with a ‘plop’. The mother and daughter were dazed, staring at that miraculous scenery.

Yue, who ascertained that the wound had been closed, quietly stood up. She was right in front of Saeed and perhaps because he had witnessed unimaginable scenes one after another, the inside of Saeed’s head was already all messed up.

Even so, his long years of training and experience of terrorism that he had moved his body on its own accord, telling him only that the too beautiful girl in front of his eyes was a threat for him and his comrades. His gun muzzle aimed at Yue’s head and his hand thrust forward the gun.

「Yo, you, just who in the――」

「……All of you too, it’s fine already.」

Even with the gun muzzle thrust at her, the girl didn’t show even a bit of agitation. Rather, Yue, who looked like she didn’t even acknowledge his existence, caused Saeed’s expression to cramp.

Yue acted as though she was not concerned of Saeed, and waved her fingertip like a baton and scattered golden light. After that, the businessman who was on the verge of death from the heavy wound, the young man, and the other passengers who participated in the revolt had their wounds healed similarly like the father just now. It didn’t stop there, even the people who had already lost their lives had their heartbeat brought back, and they recovered their consciousness.

For the passengers, that was exactly a scene of miracles.

But, for the terrorists, it was a scene of nightmares.

Therefore,

「Kuh, this monster-」

*pan-*, Saeed pulled the trigger, and the bullet flew toward Yue. It was a shot that was impossible to miss from this close range. Everyone’s mind showed them the scene of death where the brain of the girl who manifested this miracle would be splattered from her head.

But,

「Such, thing……impossible.」

The bullet stopped still at the space in front of Yue. In the air where there was nothing, as though something soft was blocking the way, without any change to the shape of the bullet it was floating still.

Yue’s gaze was turned to Saeed once more. There was no emotion at all in those cold eyes. The moment Saeed saw that he was made to understand whether he wanted to or not. That for the girl before his eyes, he was something without value, just like a pebble on the side of the road. There was no meaning in him getting born; he brought nothing but harm by living, just a hindrance to be removed, he would vanish without anyone even lifting an eye of it……that was the kind of existence he had.

「Uh, aaAAAAAAAA-」

His very existence was rejected. That terror and that humiliation caused Saeed to burst. From very close range, he continued to pull the trigger as though he was possessed. Following after him, the other terrorist and the flight attendant also aimed at Yue and fired.

The passengers screamed. However, that too happened only for a bit. When they saw that all few dozen bullets were floating still in midair around Yue, their screaming was gradually dying down.

Saeed and the others desperately changed their handgun’s magazine and continued to shoot until all the bullets that they had run out.

Like that, *kachink* such a transient sound echoed. The handgun that had its top slid back still, informed them of the end. Yue, who was completely unmoving during all this, slowly ran her gaze through Saeed and the others. The bullets floating around Yue fell on the floor all at once and scattered. And then, a word.

「……so?」

「-」

「Ua……」

「Hih」

Saeed and the others staggered backward. Their handguns fell on the floor with a thump. Already there was only fear that could be seen in their eyes.

「You are, you are, what are――」

「…….You have no need to know. For now, 『Shut up』.」

「-」

Saeed’s mouth opened and closed trying to ask Yue’s true identity. But the moment Yue told him「Shut up」, his voice couldn’t come out. While Saeed was staring in a daze, Yue’s words came out further.

「……『Kneel』」

Saeed and the others simultaneously kneeled. There, Yue let out the finishing――”Divine Statement”.

「……『Slowly strangle, your own neck』」

Until the end, Yue’s crimson eyes possessed no color of emotion at all toward them. That became the last sight that Saeed and the others saw.

Yue’s gaze moved toward the last enemy, toward the terrorist who was occupying the cockpit. And then, when she walked toward the solid door between her and the cockpit, as though such a thing was only something trivial.

*DOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON-*

「-」

A fierce shock and thunderous sound assaulted the inside of the plane. Right after that, the plane tilted down with a jerk, and oxygen masks fell down from overhead all over the place. The passengers screamed. The passengers who were seated at the back area witnessed black smoke spouting out intensely from the two wings of the plane, and their face turned pale all at once.

It appeared that all four engines that were installed on the plane were destroyed. Perhaps it should be said that it was a miracle that the wings themselves were still intact. Or else, perhaps it had been calculated to end like that.

Yue’s gaze quietly narrowed toward the cockpit. The cause of this was obvious. The last terrorist judged that at this rate there was a high possibility that the suicide attack on America’s capital would fail due to the abnormality happening inside the plane, so he activated the set up explosive.

As a matter of fact, this was the third hijacked plane that Yue had boarded and suppressed. The judgment of Yosef, which was made with great resolve, was surely because of the thought that even if the plane he hijacked himself couldn’t fulfill the objective, there were still the other hijacked planes. Rather than having this plane completely suppressed and taken back, he would prefer to crash this plane down sacrificing the many American passengers, bringing as much tragedy as possibly for America. The fact that he didn’t directly destroy the body of the plane and instead only the engines were surely because of his thinking of making even greater damage by choosing the place where they plane would fall.

「……Nn, this is my error. I’ll correct this mistake.」

Right after Yue was talking to herself like that, she used “Heaven Existence” to erase her figure from the inside of the plane.

「Am I, dreaming?」

The one who muttered that in a daze was the pilot who was following after the passenger airplane. There was a voice demanding a situation report resounding from the radio, but the pilot didn’t have the composure to answer that.

But, surely it would be cruel for anyone to criticize the pilot for that. The reason was that at the end of his gaze, the smoking plane that had just been falling due to the sudden explosion, which was then enveloped by golden light in the next moment, continued to fly straight even now. It was because of this extremely absurd sight that caused the pilot to be like that.

And what caused the pilot’s gaze to be nailed in place, what forced him to be dumbfounded, was the figure of a girl standing on top of that airplane. A person was standing on top of a plane that was flying at a high altitude――even though just that was enough to make him doubt his own sanity, there was also how that girl was enveloped in the same golden light like the plane, and furthermore, a pair of shining wings were spread from her back.

Perhaps noticing the gaze of the pilot, the golden girl, Yue, turned her face in his direction. And then, she suddenly showed a smile. ――The fighter aircraft jerked violently. The pilot was pressing on his chest as though he had been shot through by something. He should quickly grasp the control stick instead of that.

Yue returned her gaze to the front, and then normally began to walk on the plane, as though the wind resistance and the temperature had no effect at all. She got down in front of the cockpit.

「A, a girl? No, but, eh?」

「Wha-, wha-, wha-wha-wha-wha-」

The pilot who was bleeding from his head and Yosef were making really funny faces. The copilot was lying down from being shot. It seemed that he was still barely breathing, but perhaps he could only keep his life for a mere few minutes more. Yue, while being enveloped in golden light, quietly pointed her fingertip at the copilot.

Immediately, a faint light enveloped the copilot and healed his wound.

「Yo, you are-. This, monster-」

Yosef guessed the reason why he couldn’t contact his comrades in the passenger areas and raised a trembling angry voice. And then, he aimed his handgun at Yue who was outside the cockpit and was about to pull the trigger. He planned to crash this plane anyway. After this far he wouldn’t even hesitate about something like breaking the window of the cockpit.

However,

「……『Don’t move』」

「-」

Naturally, his movement was easily stopped. The pilot was bewildered at Yosef whose movement hardened with a snap like a stone. But, in the next moment, Yosef’s figure vanished into thin air.

Yue teleported him. Yosef then appeared right above the plane at the blind spot from the cockpit. Yes, he appeared outside of the jumbo airplane flying at the altitude of eight kilometers with the speed of a few hundred kilometers per hour. Furthermore, he was looking up with his hands spread apart as though he was being crucified; he was completely attached to the top of the plane.

「……Die while freezing.」

Yosef opened his eyes wide. Normally a normal human would immediately lose consciousness in this condition, but savagely he was given protection against cold and an oxygen supply, so he wouldn’t die that easily.

Yue softly flew backward. She flapped her golden wings and then she was flying while matching her speed with the airplane speed. Looking from the point of view of the pilot and the copilot who had recovered his consciousness, it looked like there was a girl floating casually in front of a flying airplane.

Yue floated a smile at the two people who were staring at her in astonishment and added,

「……Do your best.」

After saying that, her figure vanished with a puff.

Even after Yue vanished, the plane was still enveloped in golden light. There was only one engine that was still operating, but the plane could still maintain its altitude. The difficulty of the piloting was going up, but mysteriously the two pilots didn’t feel any anxiety of the plane crashing.

「……William. I am a criminal.」

「Captain……」

The pilot was holding the control stick while squeezing out those words from his throat. Hearing that, the copilot William made a complicated expression that couldn’t say anything. From the conversation of the terrorists, he had guessed that the pilot’s family was kidnapped and he was threatened that his family would be hurt right in front of his eyes. Perhaps because he could see the expression of the pilot that was filled with bitterness, that even now after he had almost just died William was unable to say any word of vilification.

The pilot told to such William.

「But, god has told a criminal like me, to live. Do your best, deliver the passengers safely home. If you cannot agree with this, then I’ll stay quiet and yield the control to you. But, if――」

「Captain. I too have a family. If my son meets the same experience as your son, a confidence that I can say that I’ll prioritize the passengers still……is something that I don’t have.」

The words of the pilot were cut off in the middle by William. And then, he nodded with a serious expression while returning to the copilot seat. That gesture indicated more eloquently than any words that he would leave this plane to the pilot one more time.

「……My thanks. This is my last flight. No matter what happens, I swear I’ll land this plane safely.」

「It’s going to be fine, captain. After all, the protection of the goddess is with us.」

「Yeah, you’re right.」

The captain’s face warped difficultly. That was a complicated expression that was a mix of relief and regret, gratitude and apology, and various other feelings.

(Goddess. Please, I beg you no matter how shameless this sound. My family…….please-)

The captain couldn’t help but pray like that in front of the miracle that he witnessed.

Half a day later, the tattered airplane that was enveloped in golden light safely landed. In the middle of the airport that was in an uproar due to the unprecedented situation, the captain who was receiving questioning heard how his family was saved by a beautiful rabbit-eared woman. And then, he became a zealous believer of the golden goddess and the rabbit eared beauty.