Rebuild World: Volume 7 (eBook)

Nahuse (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-9118-5 (ISBN)

Infos

Akira heads east to a brand new city! He's reached hunter rank 50, a reward for his role in fighting the nationalists and a sign that he is outgrowing Kugamayama. And with new growth comes a new woman in his life-the prodigy city official Hikaru! She convinces Akira to help guard a convoy heading east. But the monsters farther east might prove to be more than he can handle. Formidable new monsters and startling surprises await him out on the frontier!

Textauszug

Chapter 191: More Visitors

With their respective goals and desires on the line, Akira and Yumina had fought each other to the death, and Akira had won.

The boy had found killing necessary to survive the back alleys of the slums. And ever since escaping his old life and becoming a hunter, the number of those he had killed—whether monsters or humans—had continued to climb.

In his old slum days, he’d had nothing to speak of—now, among other things, he had a fit, muscular body, clean clothes, and a roof over his head. And he no longer had to worry about where his next meal was going to come from. He owned powerful gear and weaponry to protect himself and had earned an unimaginable sum of money. And he’d met someone he’d absolutely never wanted to see die—someone he’d certainly never wanted to kill.

Yet in the end, he’d slain her too and survived once more.

At first, he’d tried not to grieve for her. What right did he have to be sad, when he himself had ended her life? How arrogant would that be? But when he’d woken up in the hospital, Shizuka had embraced him and given him permission to cry, telling him it was okay to mourn.

So Akira had bawled in her arms, mourning the loss of his special someone from the bottom of his heart. It no longer mattered that he’d been the one to kill her—losing a loved one was tragic all the same. This firsthand experience and understanding was yet another thing Akira had gained from winning that fight.

Still, many more battles lay ahead. And Akira would continue to gain, learn, and experience even more that he hadn’t been able to in the slums—as long as he kept surviving.

◆

When he could cry no more, Akira sighed deeply in Shizuka’s arms. Noticing his tears had finally stopped, she gently released him and stepped away. Then she smiled—he looked calmer. He would probably be fine now.

“Um...” he began, embarrassed by his behavior. “Th-Thank you. I...feel a whole lot better, actually.”

“You’re very welcome. I can tell you’re in a much better mood now. Well then, I should probably be going. I’d like to stick around a little longer and chat some more, but visiting hours are almost over already, it looks like. Time really flew, huh?”

Then Akira realized he’d been clinging to Shizuka and crying for longer than he thought. He gave her a stiff, awkward smile to hide his bashfulness. Seeing right through him, she found his reaction amusing—but also reassuring. He wasn’t trying to cover up his sorrow or act tough. Most likely, he hadn’t completely recovered from Yumina’s death yet, but if he was able to smile like that, at least he was now looking forward instead of backward.

Thank goodness, Shizuka thought, glad that she had been able to play a part in helping him and grateful for the opportunity to do so.

“Now be sure to rest,” she instructed. “I mean it. When I see you back at my store, I want you to be in tip-top shape. Understand?”

He nodded. “Yes, ma’am. You got it!”

Shizuka gave him one last smile and returned his nod before leaving the room. Once she was gone, Akira felt Alpha’s gaze on him.

What are you staring at me for?

Hm? Oh, one sec. Alpha wrapped Akira in her embrace. But Alpha only existed within his augmented vision, so he didn’t actually feel anything. As she pressed his face against her chest, the shape of her breasts changed as if they were real and soft, but the only effect they had on Akira was to obstruct his vision.

What’s this all about, Alpha? Akira muttered with a puzzled frown.

Alpha released him and gave him a teasing, melodramatic sigh. So hugging me doesn’t have the same effect unless you can feel me with your whole body? I guess touching me with just your hands isn’t the same as the embrace of a real woman, is it?

For a moment, Akira looked even more confused, but then he realized what Alpha was getting at. Since he’d lost the use of both hands during the battle in the Kuzusuhara Town Ruins, he was currently wearing prosthetics while undergoing treatment. Alpha had reprogrammed his prosthetic hands so that he could now “touch” her, or at least simulate the experience. As the memory surfaced, it reminded him of his reaction when he’d felt her breasts like pillows in his hands for the first time. In an effort to hide his embarrassment, he lay back down on the hospital bed, covering his head with the sheets. I’m tired, okay?! Night!

Very well. You do need your rest, after all, she said. Sweet dreams.

Akira hadn’t disliked Shizuka’s embrace at all—rather, he’d enjoyed it—and was glad that she’d let him cry in her arms. But Alpha’s words flustered him all the same.

In other words, he’d recovered enough from Yumina’s death to feel something besides grief.

◆

About the time the swelling around his eyes had gone down and his mortified blush had faded, the doctor came in to explain his medical condition.

Aside from his hands, Akira had made a full recovery. He could technically be discharged right now, but since Inabe currently had him under lockdown, it was up to the city executive to decide when Akira could actually leave the hospital.

Then the doctor asked Akira what kind of treatment he wanted for his hands. Ultimately, he had three options: keep his ruined hands as they were, replace them with upgraded prosthetic versions, or have his original hands restored. The artificial hands he wore at present, aside from the fact that they were white and had a texture like rubber or plastic, were so high-tech that they felt as natural as his real hands when he moved them. They wouldn’t prove an obstacle to any part of his daily life. Even in combat, the powered suit would compensate for any consequent loss in functionality by receiving and processing the signals from his nerves just as his regular hands would have. So at least until he decided he wanted upgraded, prosthetic hands or his old hands back, he could choose to keep the artificial hands if he wanted.

If he chose the upgraded prosthetics and had his current prosthetics swapped out for mechanical versions, the doctor told him, he’d obtain a host of new perks not available to a fully human body. On the surface, they’d look exactly like normal hands, yet they would instantly grant him levels of strength that only a superhuman could typically achieve. He could deviate from—or even transcend—the possibilities available to normal humans: for instance, additional joints might allow him to rotate his hands more than 360 degrees, while other modifications could let him transform his hands into guns or blades at will. Plus, if his hands ever got broken or damaged again, he could simply repair them or replace them with brand-new ones, allowing for a swifter, more effective, and much cheaper recovery than that afforded by the large doses of medicine to which he was accustomed.

The doctor nonchalantly pressed him to consider the prosthetics, although not so aggressively as to make the boy feel like he didn’t have a choice in the matter. “So, how about it? If I were you, I wouldn’t pass up this opportunity. Many active high-ranking hunters these days have at least one artificial limb, but hardly anyone would lop off a perfectly intact appendage just to replace it with a cyborg version. Nearly all of them lost their limbs in battle, like you.”

“R-Right,” Akira said, sounding hesitant.

“And by the way, the city will be paying for your treatment in full this time. That means if you decide to go for the prosthetics, you can get the city to cover them, and you won’t have to pay a dime. In other words, depending on your answer, you could turn your misfortune into a blessing. What do you say? Ready for a new you?”

Despite feeling pressured, Akira managed to say, “Um... I think I just want my old hands back, thanks.”

“I see,” the doctor said. He looked ever so slightly disappointed but didn’t let his smile falter. “Very well. Then there are two ways we can go about restoring your hands.”

He told Akira that the boy could either have new human hands generated from his stumps, or he could have the hands grown independently, then surgically reattached. There were advantages and disadvantages to each method, but because the first approach would mean he couldn’t use the artificial hands while waiting for his hands to regenerate and would therefore be impaired during his entire recovery, he chose the latter option in the end.

The procedure began without delay. First, both of his limbs were severed at the forearm to serve as bases for the growth process. Then two devices that read nerve transmission information—the same kind used when exchanging human limbs for prosthetics—were installed onto the stumps of each severed arm. Finally, the white artificial hands he’d used before were reattached. Now Akira’s biological hands could receive his nerve data even while they were growing, which meant that after surgery, he wouldn’t need rehab to get used to his old hands again. He’d be able to move them normally right off the bat.

The initial procedure was so simple that it was completed in around ten minutes and was performed while Akira was still conscious. He was given anesthetics so he wouldn’t feel any pain, but he still couldn’t...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 17.12.2025
• Reihe/Serie: Rebuild World
• Illustrationen: cell, Gin, yish
• Übersetzer: Perry Logan
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Science Fiction
• Schlagworte: Cyberpunk • Guns • Light Novel • male protagonist • post-apocalyptic • Survival
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-9118-8 / 1718391188
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-9118-5 / 9781718391185