Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Vongrak.
Izumi POV.
"For the love of—what are you doing, Miyamura?!" Tawata yelled as I dodged the attack and sliced the ant in half before dodging the next one. All without taking my eyes off my scroll.
"Hmm? Watching the raid broadcast." I said, as if it were obvious, scrolling up. Tawata looked at me incredulously before moving away and killing the next ant.
"WE'RE on the raid!" Tawata exclaimed incredulously. I snorted.
"We've been killing ants for 10 minutes now, which got boring exactly 9 minutes and 30 seconds ago. Watching the raid is much more entertaining than these ants," I said dryly. To prove my point, I dodged the ant and killed three of them in a single circular motion.
Besides, I could see Taylor more clearly. Yes, I was 10 seconds behind, but it was better than nothing. In fact, it was entertaining. Watching Taylor babble about ants was always cute. I was also reading the comments section; apparently, she was gaining support quickly.
Apparently, having an expert on insects and ants for a raid on an ant nest was actually a good thing. I thought with amusement.
I looked up only to see Tawata glaring at me.
"We're not here to have fun, much less to be entertained," Tawata grumbled in annoyance.
"I don't see why we can't do both. We're killing ants, so we're doing our job, and there's nothing wrong with entertaining ourselves." I said without hesitation. Tawata just growled louder.
"You're going to give her an aneurysm," Mai said playfully through our mental connection, thanks to our soul resonance. I laughed inwardly.
"Please, she's an S-Rank hunter, she can take more than this," I said jokingly.
"Are you speaking from experience? Did you cause someone to have an aneurysm with your stupid personality?" Mai asked mockingly. I shrugged.
"Maybe... or maybe not... something I did," I said, shrugging. Mai laughed almost sadistically.
"Oh, that sounds like a story," Mai said playfully.
"It's not interesting at all." I rolled my eyes. "Just a male professor trying to push his old, biased, traditionalist views on some very impressionable children. So we argued, I made my point very clear, and I think he fainted when I told him that all men have the same sex drive as women and we shouldn't have to repress it." I said, sounding exasperated.
"Children... impressionable? How old were you?" Mai asked, genuinely curious. I paused for a few seconds.
"8," I said after hesitating for a few seconds. Mai burst out laughing.
"Eight years old?! You told an adult, a man, a teacher, that children have the same sexual desire as women, at only eight years old?!" Mai exclaimed, laughing loudly. I just grunted.
"In my defense! He made us practice social distancing! He made us put balloons between us, to see how 'appropriate' a distance was from a girl. And he said that if we got too close, the balloon would pop. And that every time a balloon pops, an angel cries. That old man was crazy!" I said incredulously. Mai burst out laughing.
"No!" Mai gasped incredulously. "It has to be a lie, it's impossible that anyone said that!" Mai said between laughs. I snorted.
"I wish, but no, it was very real. It was a man, very old, wrinkled, and annoying. They almost kicked me out of that place." I said dryly. Mai chuckled.
"Oh goddess, I'll be asking Iori about this," Mai said, finally calming down. I shuddered.
"Yes, no, thank you very much, I don't want you to remind her. I was grounded for two months because of that. Apparently, educating me about the realities of our world at the tender age of 8 is too precocious and something I shouldn't have done, so I was punished," I said with a pout. Mai giggled.
"And she was right, though it was useless, you grew up to be a pervert. But you really have to start telling me about these things. Or I'll ask Iori. I'm sure there are too many stories to tell." Mai said playfully, and I snorted.
"I'll let you know I'm a decent pervert, thank you very much." I said with a grimace. Mai snorted.
"Your decency vanished the moment you started uploading porn of yourself to the internet. In fact, that decency never existed." Mai mocked. I rolled my eyes.
"A little exhibitionism doesn't hurt anyone. " I shrugged. Mai snorted playfully, shaking her head in denial.
"Miyamura! Focus!!" Tawata growled sharply. I just looked up to see the dead ants around me.
"Ah, yes, the transmission." I said, looking back at the scroll. "Thank you, Tawata!" I exclaimed in her direction.
"Miyamura!!" she exclaimed, annoyed. I chuckled.
"Hey, look, they've reached the brood chamber. They're getting closer to the queen," I said with a hum. Tawata paused before nodding. "They must be about halfway there, so... another 15 minutes of this." I said as I killed the other ant.
I froze completely when I finally felt it and could see the consequence with my future vision. It was moving. I frowned as I followed its pace. It was moving fast.
"Tawata!" I exclaimed loudly, catching her attention, and she turned around.
"What?!" she yelled back. I just moved closer to her before placing my hands on her shoulders and then pushing her down, straight into my shadows. Tawata's eyes widened in surprise, and she tried to scream before she was submerged within my shadows.
Then, a small, plump toad emerged from my shadows and quickly grew in size; I didn't even hesitate to go inside its mouth.
I had prepared myself to act quickly. My speed wouldn't have been enough if I'd had to traverse all of Jeju to try and save the other hunters. Luckily, I had my toads capable of taking me to all the right places.
Before we split up at the start of the raid, I had created a Totality with Toad as its base and Rabbit Escape and Orochi. This allowed the small toads to grow large enough for a person to fit inside their mouths. And I had hidden them within the shadows of every huntress from Draw Sword and Taylor.
So I emerged from the mouth of another toad, in Akari Shimizu's shadow. My hands surfaced and I grabbed Shimizu's legs before dragging her into my shadows. Then I moved and did the same to Tanaka and Fujishima. I grabbed both of them by their legs and dragged them into my shadows before they could scream.
Then I looked out of my shadows, just in time to see Ant King appear nearby. My eyes widened slightly. Wait… Ant King!? That… that ant definitely had a female figure!
It was still a large, muscular humanoid ant, with a black armored exoskeleton, glowing red eyes, and sharp claws. But its figure was definitely a bit more feminine than I remembered.
And then I paused briefly… why was the Ant King male in the canon from the very beginning?
My mind quickly returned to everything Taylor had said about ants. And she had a lot to say about her insects when she was given the chance to talk. She was cute, in a nerdy way, but sometimes she got lost in the details.
The point is that male ants were almost nonexistent. Males only existed during reproductive periods, and their main function was to mate with future queens so they could produce offspring.
And all the others, from factory workers to soldiers, including the queen's royal guards, were female. And the monsters, just as Taylor had been discovering, followed the same biological instincts.
Yes, the males were among the few ants that grew wings, and the Ant King had wings, but… considering that all ants had evolved to have wings at this point, it was still unnecessary.
So there was absolutely no need for males beyond what was necessary, and there was no reason for the queen to create a male ant to be the primary and most lethal attacker.
And then I stopped again. Sung Jinwoo… did he have any feminine shadow? I remembered him reviving the ant queen for a few panels and… that was it? Was this some kind of sexism? On Sung Jinwoo's part or the author's? Was it just a coincidence that Jinwoo never encountered a female opponent, monster or human, strong enough to warrant reviving?
My mind went blank for a few seconds before shaking off my thoughts when I saw the mutant ant scream in fury before it sped away.
I shifted between my shadows and submerged myself in my toad form once more. This time, I emerged beneath Kumamoto, Izawa, and Kei. I could sense the mutant ant rapidly approaching. Apparently, it wasn't going to wait. Finding no enemies where the previous group should have been, it decided to attack the others immediately.
So I didn't hesitate before grabbing each of their feet and plunging them into my shadows. I could feel the seven Draw Sword hunters twitching in my shadows and speaking almost in a panic. I had positioned them together, so they were all close to one another.
I ignored them as I stared at Ant King—Ant Queen? Ant Princess? I could hear Taylor's voice in my head giving another fact about ants. Princess ants, or virgin queens, also have wings.
No, wait, or that would mean they can reproduce, that that mutant ant could lay eggs and recreate the colony. A chill ran down my spine at the mere thought of Ant—you know what, screw them, I'll call it Ant King until I finish killing that thing or figure out what the hell that thing is.
I huffed and puffed as I watched the Ant King rage once more, sensing its prey had escaped again. To my surprise, it walked back and began to hide once more. I simply sighed, relieved it wouldn't attack the others immediately.
Then I plunged into my shadows until I saw the Draw Sword group arguing.
"Miyamura!" several of them shouted. It was strange, really, talking inside my shadows. We were all floating or swimming close together. There was air in here, which I constantly replenished, so we could talk easily.
"What's going on and why are you holding us prisoner here?" Tanaka asked, arms crossed.
"I'll explain it to you shortly." I said with a grimace.
"No later, now." Izawa said, frowning.
"You're trapped in my shadows, you really can't escape," I said, rolling my eyes. "Besides, I doubt they'd believe me," I added mockingly.
"Just say it," Tawata said impatiently. I rolled my eyes.
"In case you've forgotten, I can see the future to a certain extent," I said with a snort, crossing my arms. "And I've seen that seven of you will die." I said coldly. Their eyes widened before one of them snorted.
"Come up with something better, Miyamura, now free us." Tanaka said, shaking her head. I just raised an eyebrow.
"Like I said, you wouldn't believe me." I rolled my eyes. "And besides, this way, I'll also prevent the Korean group from being killed." I said dryly.
"What?!" they all exclaimed in surprise.
"You think we would kill the Koreans?!" Izawa asked incredulously. The others looked equally surprised. I just stared at everyone else in astonishment.
"Miyamura, what the hell! You can't accuse us of going to kill the Koreans!" Tawata exclaimed incredulously. "Nobody likes them, but that doesn't mean we were going to kill them!" she added indignantly.
"Well... I don't dislike them," Tanaka said, shrugging. "Fighting them was enjoyable," she added with a hum.
"Wait, wait, wait, you really don't know?" I asked incredulously, looking at them. They all stared at me blankly. I just grunted in annoyance.
"Just spit it out already." Kei grumbled, annoyed. "You can't accuse us of murder and then ignore us," she added. I just sighed and crossed my arms.
"Goto made a deal with the president of the Association. She'll let the Korean group die during the raid to weaken Korea," I said simply.
"What?!" "Goto wouldn't do that!" "You're crazy!" "Stop lying, Miyamura!" they exclaimed at the same time. I snorted.
"Think what you want, and not only that, why the hell do you think I'm here? Just like Taylor? And why was she sent to live with the Koreans?" I said curtly. They remained silent.
"Goto... she wanted Shusui, didn't she?" Shimizu remarked shyly. The others shuddered slightly.
"But really kill a student for that?" Izawa asked impatiently.
"Goto... has changed a lot over the years," Tawata said uncertainly while biting her lip.
"Yes, she did, but there's a difference between changing and plotting the deaths of Koreans," Tanaka said, arms crossed.
"We still don't know if it's true, we only have her word," Kei said, pointing at me almost contemptuously. I raised an eyebrow in her direction.
"And who do you think sent me? Do you think Nezu didn't know about the assassination attempt? That she didn't look for ways to prevent it?" I asked mockingly.
"Nezu sent you to save the Koreans?" Tawata asked incredulously.
"This is sounding more and more unrealistic," Kumamoto said, shaking her head.
"No, wait... was it all an act"? Tawata asked incredulously. "Acting like an idiot to throw us off and make us ignore you, and all that attacking Sung Il-Hwan's son, was it all on purpose?" Tawata asked, almost horrified. The others looked at me in surprise. I just smiled mockingly. No, actually, no, the invasion I felt from Jinwoo's quirk was real. I acted almost on instinct. Even so, they didn't have to know. Tawata looked at me as if she wanted to kill me.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!" We all stopped at the loud scream that reached even through my shadows.
"What the hell was that?!" Izawa asked, frowning.
"The queen ant is screaming for help; it seems the Koreans managed to corner her and kill her," I said without hesitation.
"Uh... so they succeeded." Fujishima said calmly, then looked at me. "That means the ants failed and what you said isn't going to happen, or you were just lying." She said, narrowing her eyes. "So, you'll let us go?" she asked, almost threateningly.
"Tch, why are we even talking to him?" Kei asked irritably, looking at me with disdain. "I'll just create ice until we get out of here," she said, and I could see her hands begin to emit frost.
"Kei! Wait! I'm sure there's a reason Miyamura did this! Whether what he said is true or not," Tawata said quickly, then looked at me intently. "No?" she asked through gritted teeth. I opened my mouth only to be interrupted.
"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!" This scream was much louder than the previous one, and we could all feel the aura of malevolence hitting us hard.
"That's... that's the reason." I grunted in annoyance. "You know I can see the future. I already said it: that thing over there is going to kill more than half of our S-Ranks. I mean, you." I said without hesitation. "I'm not just here to save the Koreans, but everyone on Jeju." I said dryly.
"What?!" "Impossible!" "There isn't a monster that strong in Jeju! It's impossible!" "Kill half of us?!" "This isn't the time for jokes! Let us out!"
"I don't have time for this." I grumbled in annoyance, then a huge toad swooped up and swallowed us whole. We were spat out by another toad lurking in the shadows beneath Taylor. The hunters grumbled in annoyance, but I just pointed upwards. "Look," I said solemnly.
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