Fires blazed everywhere in the town, and residents hurriedly packed essential items, moving towards a certain place.
They had all trained for this during exercises, but these monsters were even faster than them.
The monsters quickly targeted the scattering humans, tearing at their flesh and blood, making them part of themselves.
Among the fleeing crowd, a special presence was battling these monsters.
With every attack, she took a monster's life, like a savior, the Little Loli rescued these people.
"Hurry! Run with the other adults! Don't look back! Just keep running!"
After dealing with one monster, Inaba Tsukiyo pulled up a Little Girl who had fallen to the ground, scared by the monster, and told her to leave quickly before turning to face the other monsters.
She wasn't a saint, but if she couldn't even save the Little Girl in front of her, could she still be considered human?
When disaster strikes, humans are always like this, to survive, they would even sacrifice others to be their stepping stones.
Herrscher Tsukiyo watched everything in front of her silently, just as she had expected; these humans would only think of themselves, and when they fled, even children would be mercilessly abandoned.
This is humanity, or rather, most of humanity.
"Killing you all can also be considered a rescue. I believe you wouldn't want to harm others, right?"
Looking at the endless stream of monsters appearing before her, Inaba Tsukiyo took a breath and returned her sword to her waist.
Cloud Radiance: Instant Light!
With Inaba Tsukiyo's attack, most of the monsters blocking her were sliced open; more than twenty monsters were cut in half by this move.
In the upper district, a distance from the lower level, most people instinctively ran here from above.
A two-meter-high wall had been built here, along with continuously defending buildings, forming a protected area, and this was also the Goten, the residence of the city's master.
As the number of monsters increased, these people were trapped here, and the gathered commoners were very panicked.
Most of the women and children were crying softly, and some were complaining about why the samurai hadn't protected them properly.
At this time, a large number of samurai near the wall were constantly using steam guns to shoot down the monsters trying to climb up the mountain.
However, these steam guns could not effectively strike these monsters; even if they were shot down, they would climb up again.
As time passed, the number of monsters gathered by the wall grew larger and larger.
On the stairs near the wall, several samurai were protecting a certain girl.
This was a young girl with dark gray eyes and long hair, tied in a high ponytail, wearing a pink kimono.
This girl was the owner of the city, the daughter of Shikomorikawa Kenjun, the head of the Shikomorikawa family, Shikomorikawa Ayame.
"Ayame-sama! It seems someone is fighting the Kabaneri! She… she is protecting the city's residents!"
A samurai observing the situation near the wall noticed the situation inside the city and hurried to Shikomorikawa Ayame, saying.
"Someone is fighting the Kabaneri? How is that possible?"
Shikomorikawa Ayame took the binoculars offered to her and, with their help, indeed saw a Little Girl fighting the Kabaneri.
"Oh? Not bad, huh? Compared to you adults who only hide here, she's much more capable than you."
Just as everyone was looking at this scene in shock, a baby face Little Girl with her hands behind her back and short braids on her head walked out from around the corner.
She wore a short skirt decorated mainly in red and white, with white Honkai energy entanglement around her thighs; although she looked like a Little Girl of about twelve, her figure did not look like a twelve-year-old Little Girl no matter how you looked at it.
That's right, at least in terms of her chest, this girl really didn't seem like a Little Girl, and it's likely that even some adult women didn't have a figure like hers.
She carried a portable individual steam engine on her back and two red specialized steam short guns, making her much more formidable than the monotonously equipped samurai.
"This isn't a place for a brat like you to talk! Get out of my way!"
A bad-tempered uncle looked at the Little Loli unhappily, wanting to drive her away.
But the moment he touched her, he was quickly knocked to the ground.
"Don't touch me. Seriously, I get bothered if I'm underestimated."
The girl touched her head, glanced at the figure fighting the Kabaneri not far away, curved her lips, and rushed down the stairs, easily leaping over the two-meter-high wall with her excellent physical fitness, jumping into the center of the Kabaneri.
Although she looked like a delicate Little Loli, her actions were not as cute as a Little Loli.
She directly grabbed a Kabaneri that pounced on her and used her short gun to cut off its head from below.
Kabaneri are very sensitive to blood, and the girl used this red spot to lure all the surrounding Kabaneri away.
Inaba Tsukiyo, who was dealing with the Kabaneri, was just letting out a sigh of relief when she noticed someone running towards her.
"Hey (#`O′)~ I've brought gifts for my visit."
With a brilliant smile, the girl had at least dozens of Kabaneri chasing behind her.
"I don't like this gift at all. I apply for a return."
Ignoring the girl who quickly ran past her, Inaba Tsukiyo drew her weapon and charged into the Kabaneri, who were bumping and crashing towards her.
"You… you're crazy!"
Just as the girl was about to help, the Kabaneri surrounding Inaba Tsukiyo were cut open with a single slash, severed in two from the heart.
Inaba Tsukiyo's agile body danced among the Kabaneri; every time a Kabaneri was about to grab her, she would dodge in time.
In a short while, twenty to thirty Kabaneri were dealt with by Inaba Tsukiyo.
"You are… Ji Xuanyuan?"
After dealing with the Kabaneri, Inaba Tsukiyo finally had time to observe the girl who had brought her 'gifts'.
"Ji Xuanyuan? No way. Can I see your weapon? I've never seen anything that can break through the Kabaneri's heart membrane before."
After thinking for a moment, Inaba Tsukiyo handed mikazuki munechika to the other party.
Even if she didn't give her the weapon, Mumei might still snatch mikazuki munechika, just like Takenouchi Yuki's capricious personality.
The girl began to study the weapon in her hand, her fingers tracing mikazuki munechika's blade, and then she tried looking at the wooden board.
With a light swing, the wooden board split into two as if it were tofu.
"What a powerful weapon, but you're also amazing. To be able to wield a weapon half your height so easily." Mumei returned the weapon to Inaba Tsukiyo. "But your swordsmanship is also very impressive. Completely different from those samurai."
"How come I feel like you're implying I'm short? I'm only twelve, I still have room to grow."
This body hadn't developed for hundreds of years, but she still believed she could grow, even if it was just a centimeter!
"Really? I'm like you, I'm only twelve too. I think we can be friends, right?" Saying this, the girl extended her right hand, looking at Inaba Tsukiyo with a smile. "I'm Mumei, can you tell me your name?"
"...I don't want to be friends with you." Looking at Mumei's outstretched hand, looking at Mumei's chest, then glancing down at her own, a surge of inexplicable anger rose within her.
"Eh? Why? Is it because of my figure? I can't help it. Even though I don't eat much, my chest keeps growing. I also wish I was like you, so it wouldn't affect fighting."
Here it comes, this is when those with smaller chests envy those with larger ones, but those with larger chests envy those with smaller ones.
Even without malice, even if the figure wasn't a concern, being annoyed was just being annoyed, for no particular reason.
"Enough about that, why are you here?" Inaba Tsukiyo wisely skipped the topic and asked, "Shouldn't you be leaving with the others?"
"This place is beyond saving. Even if all the Kabaneri are eliminated, the breach is simply too large. It's impossible to repair it."
Mumei pointed to where the train had just crashed through. Repairing that breach would take a lot of time, and with the Kabaneri interfering, it would be impossible to complete.
"These Kabaneri have surrounded the castle above. For the Iron Fortress to start, it needs a special key held by the Lord's woman. To ensure her safe arrival at the station, I came to lure these Kabaneri away."
"And then you gave these Kabaneri to me as a gift, is that right?"
Inaba Tsukiyo wasn't sure what the Iron Fortress Mumei mentioned was, but from her words, it seemed to be a tool for safely leaving this place.
"I understand. Before you arrived, I had already dealt with all the Kabaneri I saw. Besides the Kabaneri you just lured over, there shouldn't be many left."
"Understood." Mumei nodded, drawing her specialized steam gun. "Let's go together. With your help against these Kabaneri, I can relax a lot more. You still have energy, right?"
"Who do you think you're talking to?" Inaba Tsukiyo puffed out her cheeks, feeling underestimated. With a few swift slashes at the wooden house behind her, it turned into several pieces on the ground. "Dealing with these monsters doesn't require much strength at all."
"...Ahaha, you're really interesting. I really do want to be friends with you."
Even seeing Inaba Tsukiyo cut the wooden house into several pieces, Mumei showed no fear. Instead, she laughed excitedly, then made a nimble leap onto the top of a nearby building.
"I'm going first! You have to keep up with me, little rabbit!"
Smiling, Mumei turned and retreated in the direction of the station.
"Who's a little rabbit? Really... what a strange girl. She's so similar to Ji Xuanyuan (Blackened), and she's only twelve, what did she eat to grow so big?"
"Truly... a strange girl."
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