Chapter 490: The Reason is That the Shapes of Their Souls Are Similar, but Their Wavelengths Are Slightly Out of Sync

Author's Preface
Apparently, there's a guy out there who carelessly asked for name suggestions and genuinely panicked when a massive list of names flooded both the author's notes and the comments section.

Is heaven... whispering for me to write a BBS chapter...?

Well, the fastest way to encounter Vash is to clear the invitation quest. When I told her that, Imron sprinted off toward the Coliseum in the blink of an eye... I wonder if that noble-looking rabbit who scooped her up along the way is the one in charge of Imron?

Well, that's that, and I'm me. I should finish up my own business. Thinking that, I headed to the throne room in the Rabbit Palace where Vash would be, only to see...

"N-Nyaaa..."

A surprisingly comical yet tense scene where a wide, white Cait Sith reminiscent of a Maneki-neko and an intimidating tortoiseshell Cait Sith—who looked like a superior version of Aramis—were flanking a tiger-striped Cait Sith, who was shivering under Vash's gaze.

"..."

Feeling like it'd be awkward to jump into this with a featureless inorganic face, I swapped my mask for the True Gaze Bird Mask. Out of sheer curiosity, I tried to give off an "Oh, don't mind me" vibe while shifting into a bystander role—

"Unfortunately, you are also involved."

"Seriously?"

With a single comment from Aydward, who was scratching his ear in a troubled manner, I was forcibly dragged into the middle of this animal trial... Ah, Emul, you bastard, you ran away!

"T-T-The Bird-person...!!"

"Hm? Yep, I'm the Bird-person. This is our first time meeting, right?"

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Bird-person. I am Treville... Commander of Catzeria's 'Boots Knight Order,' Treville. And this here is His Majesty, King Nyai the Thirteenth of Catzeria."

"Nice to meet you, Nya."

What a perfectly standard verbal tic...! Damn it, and no matter how you look at it, that crown is just a giant Koban coin...! Do I lose if I react? I definitely lose if I react.

"—And this fellow is Dulnyata, who was Catzeria's greatest Jeweler."

Dulnyata... Dulnyata... Ah, I remember now. He's the guy who made the Levin Trigger: Hazard and the Star Cloak of Lapistella.

"...So, why is he in this state?"

It definitely didn't feel like they were here for a party. If anything, it felt like five minutes before someone was going to be forced to cut off their pinky or get fitted for cement shoes...

"Yeah, Sunraku. Turns out this guy pocketed the gems ya left with 'im, see?"

"Gems?"

Ah, right, considering the massive amount I left with him, the number of accessories sent back was pretty small. I mean, I figured he'd pocketed some of them, but...

"Well, regarding that, it was sort of like an unspoken agreement, like I was handing them over as a down payment or a tip..."

But apparently, this wasn't an issue that could be settled as mere embezzlement.
The root of the problem was that one of the gems this tiger-striped cat, Dulnyata, had personally pocketed was discovered in Catzeria.

"This is it, Nya."

"...?"

I'm pretty sure that's just a normal Roen-Anva Amber Crystal, though...?

"This amber has an extremely powerful attribute sealed within it, Nya. It is a Superior-grade item, Nya."

"I-I see."

Logically speaking, there shouldn't be anything strange about a Cait Sith using 'Nya' as a verbal tic, but since Aramis, Treville, and even Dulnyata speak normally, it just feels incredibly out of place...!

"Knowing that we Cait Siths love gems above all else, the Bird-person gifted us many gems as a down payment, Nya. In that case, this fellow's duty was to craft the greatest possible masterpiece. To pocket a Superior-grade gem for himself is equivalent to destroying the Bird-person's honor—and by extension, the honor of Vysache-dono, Nya."

"I-Is that right... Is it?"

No, no, no, it's not like I don't care at all about getting my top-tier rare items pocketed. But the two accessories he sent me in return have utterly broken, god-tier performance, you know? I can't even count on both hands the number of situations I wouldn't have survived without them. Especially Levin Trigger: Hazard—that thing is seriously godlike. The work of an absolute Genius, seriously.
Its synergy with Dead Horizon—a skill that activates when you're aggressively side-stepping along the absolute bleeding edge of your HP limit—is insanely good.

But I couldn't say any of that out loud. Because I am Japanese.
Amidst an atmosphere that felt like they had skipped about three crucial steps of a proper trial and were already debating the method of execution, I simply couldn't scrounge up the guts to say, "Hey, the stuff you made was actually pretty good!"
Or rather, judging from Vash's attitude, this is...

Right then,

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, ain't you sayin' some slick things, Cat Boss? Damn straight, the Head Honcho at the top's gotta know when to smash his foot on the gas."

An unfamiliar voice, packed with an overwhelmingly intense character archetype, echoed through the room.

"When dealin' with a weak-ass scrub, whether yer smashin' 'em or fixin' 'em up, ya gotta beat 'em down first before anythin' starts... I'll be watchin' closely to see exactly how you settle this score, Boss."

What is this... What is with this hyper-concentrated character?! A pompadour! His pompadour is insane! A red-haired pompadour! What is that... What?! You, youuuuu...!
Even within this space of highly amusing characters—Vash, Emul, me (reluctantly objectively speaking), Treville, Nyai XIII, and Dulnyata—this rabbit's character archetype is leaving everyone else in the dust!!

What was it called again? Those baggy student pants that look like they're stuffed with balloons, with a name that sounds like a bomb... Bontan? Was it really such a divine-sounding name? [*1] Anyway, he was wearing pants like that along with a long coat-style school uniform, and resting on his shoulder like a sword was something that, no matter how you looked at it, was just a square plank of wood... Was that a Gewalt Keule [*2], defined as an improvised bludgeoning weapon from the late twentieth century?!

"It's Evelle onii-chan, desu wa!"

"Evelle... As in 'E', huh."

What was his deal again? He wanders as a mercenary through the "countries" that have formed alliances with Rabituza, or something like that. Bilac had complained that he was negatively influenced by Ceecrue's deadbeat tendencies, but... no, this guy's personality is pretty much a one-of-a-kind original.
I'm still hung up on that mention of "countries"... but there's one thing I do know.

Excluding the top three siblings from Aydward to Ceecrue, who all have some sort of "restriction" holding them back, when it comes to pure physical combat power, this Evelle is the absolute strongest.

"...Heh."

In this very moment, something sparked inside me.
Let's see? What was that angle Emul mentioned again? "It's seriously scary, so please don't look at me from that angle, desu wa"...

"—I'm Sunraku. Mind if I intervene in this little situation?"

"—Haaah?!"

Right now, there are two ways for me and Evelle—who both belong to the same Rabituza faction—to throw down in this room.
Punch him without thinking about the consequences? That would definitely cost me more than just a pinky, so it's out of the question.

In that case, I have to argue against Evelle's claims. Defending Dulnyata—who already has one foot dangling off the cliff of taking Responsibility—is the smartest way to settle the score with this guy who inexplicably pisses me off just by looking at him...!!

Prepare yourself, Gewalt-Bat Rabbit. Tonight, this Shoebill becomes a bird of prey...!!

Author's Afterword
※ Incidentally, it seems everything from the Catzeria Kejime Incident to Evelle's appearance was a completely spontaneous lore addition.

Translator's Notes

• [1] Bontan / Bonten: Sunraku is making a pun on Bontan (extremely baggy student uniform pants favored by Japanese delinquents/Yankees) and Bonten (the Japanese Buddhist name for Brahma, hence the "divine-sounding name").

• [2] Gewalt Keule: German for "violence club". A term used in Japan to describe the wooden staves and improvised blunt weapons wielded by radical student protesters in the late 20th century.