Escalation
As Natsume and the others advanced toward the half-man, half-fish creatures, the monsters opened their wide, split mouths and began threatening them with thick, guttural growls.
Natsume's mouth curled into a knowing smirk.
Figured as much.
She braced the shotgun's fore-end with her left hand and leveled the muzzle at the pack.
“Well, goblins at least look mammalian. These bastards look like straight-up amphibians or fish. Guess expecting 'em to be friendly was a little optimistic. ...Kanon, Mako. We're closing to fifteen yards. Anything past that, it's happy time.”
Chat
: The hell is “happy time” lol
: Girl's way too trigger-happy.
: This IS Natsume we're talking about.
: She grew up in Texas, after all.
: Slander against the entire state of Texas. ...Can't exactly say you're wrong, though.
The fishmen came toward them, growling and brandishing their harpoons.
In one smooth motion, Natsume slipped her index finger inside the trigger guard and pulled the trigger.
The creature was roughly the size of a grown man, its body covered in hard scales. But like a human being, the front of its abdomen was poorly protected. The shotgun blast tore through its belly, bursting scales outward from beneath before punching through toward its back.
The creature collapsed before it could even cry out.
Kanon's pistol barked almost simultaneously.
Two rounds to the abdomen.
Three to the chest.
One final round to the head.
The shots flowed into one another, dropping the creature with brutal certainty.
“F-fuh... scary... I-I'm scared...”
Tears shimmered faintly in Mako's eyes.
But she wasn't trembling.
She wasn't running.
She maintained the shooting stance she'd been taught and fired slowly—but deliberately. Rather than relying on rapid fire, she sent each round downrange one at a time.
She wasn't nearly as fast as Kanon.
But Mako's first shot punched into the abdomen and stopped her target's advance. The second struck the chest with lethal effect. The last went into the head.
Minimal ammunition. Methodical shots. One target taken out with certainty.
By the time Natsume had dropped three and Kanon two, Mako had killed one.
Everything she did was cautious.
“Alright. Clear.”
Natsume checked the area.
“Mako, good work. Kanon, you did good too.”
As far as Natsume was concerned, both approaches were correct.
Mako's slow, deliberate accuracy worked.
So did Kanon's willingness to burn ammunition in exchange for speed.
If they were fighting trained soldiers armed with firearms, that would be a different story. But these were apparently low-intelligence monsters carrying crude wooden harpoons.
For now, technique was secondary.
What mattered was that they could point a weapon at a living target, pull the trigger, and follow through on the act of taking its life.
That was enough.
...Still.
A thought nagged at Natsume.
Mako used to cling to me over damn near everything. Monster or not, could she really pull the trigger that easily? Sure, she's used to gutting fish and chopping up animal organs when she cooks, but... was she always the kinda girl who could look at this and keep functioning?
For just a moment, Natsume wondered whether the goddess had done something to their minds when she'd transported them here.
Some kind of mental interference.
Some kind of protection.
Then the thought passed.
As far as Natsume was concerned, if the goddess had done something that kept them functional in a world like this, that was one hell of a useful support package.
She was more inclined to be grateful than complain.
“Mako, Shioji, watch our surroundings. Kanon, give me some space and cover me. I'm checking the bodies.”
Chat
: What the hell, is she a soldier now? Natsume's mental state is terrifying.
: They're efficient as hell. Mako-chan's slow shot-to-shot, but she doesn't miss.
: THAT was slow? Looked normal to me.
: Kanon did two abdomen, three chest, one head. Six rounds total. Going by her Bill Drill scores, she's not exactly world-class, but that's plenty fast considering she's changing her point of aim.
: What about Natsume with the shotgun?
: “Normal.” Shotguns are more about what her reloads look like, though.
: From the old archived streams, Natsume's Bill Drill scores were better than Kanon's. Natsume on a bad run is about Kanon's average.
: Came here because they went viral and now I'm scared of the old fans. Have you people actually fired guns before?
: The old-school fans used to do meetups at ranges in Guam.
: Not me, though. I'm an armchair expert.
Natsume picked up a stone and threw it at one of the fallen fishmen.
No reaction.
Satisfied that it wasn't playing dead, she crouched beside the nearest corpse. She slung the shotgun over her shoulder, drew the machete from her waist, and brought it down hard.
CLANG.
The impact sounded almost like metal striking metal.
The machete bounced away, knocking several scales loose.
Natsume narrowed her eyes.
“Goddamn, that's hard. This bastard's got thick, heavy scales like an arapaima. Back and outside of the limbs are damn near armored.”
She picked up one of the dislodged scales and examined it.
“Come to think of it, don't they carve arapaima scales into handicrafts down in South America? Maybe these otherworld fish-man scales are worth something too.”
Natsume drove the machete into the softer tissue around the abdomen and joints, then used it as a lever to pry the scales loose from underneath.
Wet, cracking sounds followed.
Blood and viscera spilled through the widening gaps as the scales tore free. A heavy fishy stench, almost like something beginning to rot, spread through the air.
“Na-chan, we can't stay here too long,” Kanon warned. “That smell is pretty strong... It might attract other monsters.”
“Yeah. Good point. I'll just take what I can get off this one. Wanted to look for one of those mana stones too, but...”
The smell of blood was too much of a risk.
Natsume decided not to push her luck.
She pulled a plastic bag from one of her pouches, gathered up the scales she'd removed, and headed back toward the others.
“Alright, folks. Fresh-caught, genuine isekai fish-man scales.”
She held up the bag.
“We'll throw these on Shioji's Flea Market later. Hell, maybe somebody can make scale mail outta the damn things.”
Chat
: Early-game armor crafting material acquired.
: If it can bounce a machete, you could make legit scale mail out of that.
: Think it'd stop bullets?
: Even if the round didn't penetrate, the impact would probably break bones.
“Actually, the nine-mil hollow points that went through the belly didn't make it through the hard scales on the back.”
Natsume looked down at the bag again.
“.22 or .32 ACP ain't punching through this shit. ...We might seriously run into something where we need 5.56, 7.62, or maybe even .50 BMG.”
She wiped the blood from her machete and broke into a broad grin.
“Oh. Hell, look at the time. About noon already, ain't it?”
She sheathed the blade.
“Let's get the hell away from these corpses and have ourselves a nice, fun little discussion about buying guns.”
Natsume marched off in high spirits.
Shioji watched her go.
“...She's dependable, but... I wonder if I can really keep up with these people.”
On the other side of the screen, the viewers immediately began flooding the chat—some earnestly encouraging her, others clearly having the time of their lives at her expense.
