MHGA Chapter 256 – Kazuma's Unorthodox Hacker Legend
"Chotto matteeeee!!!"
Kazuma suddenly threw out both hands, stopping everyone from speaking further.
After that loud outburst, he took a deep breath.
He had a bad feeling—like tonight, he'd just gotten himself wrapped up in the most troublesome thing yet again.
Just like always!
All he wanted was to live peacefully as a wealthy noble in comfort and leisure! But there was always some absurd mess getting dumped on him! Like that Headless Horseman that showed up in the starter town! Like the mobile fortress! And all those other, other things!
Kazuma squatted down and started muttering to himself, but it was Lucy who spoke up first.
"Why do you know David?! And… why are you with him? With the heir of Arasaka?! Are you all in this together?!"
"And also…"
Lucy looked past them, and fear flickered in her eyes.
Because there, lying lifelessly on the floor behind them, was the most powerful man in all of Night City.
Saburo Arasaka—dead. His body like so many corpses on Night City's streets. Lifeless, discarded.
She hadn't expected Saburo to die so abruptly… and even less expected that both his son and daughter would be here in the same room.
"I—" Yorinobu was just about to speak with the girl David had feelings for when Kazuma suddenly sprang up from the floor.
"This isn't the time for long explanations! I'll do it!"
"Listen up! David is one of us Hunters! We had Rogue help get him introduced to your team! This guy is Yorinobu Arasaka! He's on David's side! He just now killed Saburo Arasaka! That unconscious woman over there is Hanako Arasaka! She's not on our side, so we're going to kidnap her later! That's V, she's a merc, and currently one of us Hunters!"
Kazuma rattled it all out in one breath, summarizing everyone's relationships before any misunderstandings could blow up:
"And why the heck are you here?! Wasn't Naofumi supposed to be protecting you guys?! Why the hell are you out here trying to assassinate Saburo Arasaka?!"
"Protecting… us?" Lucy looked genuinely confused.
"Yeah! David went to rescue you all, then went one-on-one with Adam Smasher to protect the people he cared about! So one of our guys went to back him up… why are you here instead?!" Kazuma screamed, gripping his head in frustration. "Why do all the problems end up on me?!"
"…No wonder David liked her." Yorinobu looked at Lucy with newfound admiration.
The only reason he'd been able to find this place was because of his years working with Saburo—he understood Saburo's patterns, and he knew Night City well. Even then, it had taken all that plus a little luck to find the place with Kazuma and V.
But Lucy? Lucy had found it all on her own…
"You guys knew about David fighting Adam Smasher?!" Lucy's eyes widened. "Then why would you let him go alone?! That's ADAM SMASHER!!"
"Oh please, it's just Adam Smasher," Kazuma said confidently.
"Among our Hunters, there are at least seven who can easily wipe the floor with him! No joke!"
"Kazuma-sama could beat Adam Smasher in a single move! Ever heard of 'sweat and effort'!?" Kazuma shouted with dramatic flair.
Lucy, of course, didn't know that Kazuma wasn't joking.
Among the current ten Hunters, excluding the newcomers Shirou, Rakuro, and David, the rest could easily take out Adam Smasher—and each had their own way of doing it.
Take Kazuma, for instance: he could literally steal all of Smasher's cyberware the moment they met. His absurd Luck stat had once even stolen the head of a Demon King general—so what chance did Adam Smasher stand?
"Hey."
V cut in, breaking up the escalating chatter.
"This isn't the time to talk. Arasaka's noticed something's wrong here. If we don't leave soon, we're screwed."
"I could try to explain things using my identity?" Yorinobu suggested.
"No good. Arasaka isn't stupid—and Hanako's still here. If they find out you killed Saburo, we're done," V replied, then turned to Lucy.
"You're a hacker, right? Can you wipe everything in this system? Ideally torch the whole villa with it."
"I can, but there'll definitely be traces…" Lucy nodded.
"This system is standalone, but it's still Arasaka tech—not easy to fully erase."
"Then we'll have to deal with it. We don't have much time," V frowned.
"Next is figuring out how to get out… and we have to bring her too." She gestured to Hanako.
"…Right," Yorinobu muttered, starting to think seriously about how to shake off the inbound Arasaka response team.
Then—
Kazuma raised his hand.
"We Hunters already had a plan in place…"
"Huh?" Yorinobu blinked. "What do you mean?"
"Simple: we use one of our Hunters' trusty Wingdrakes—or a good ol' Wirebug…" Kazuma said casually. "Also, I've got a solution to the trace data problem."
Five minutes later, atop the villa's rooftop helipad, Kazuma was all set for takeoff.
"This… is how we're escaping?" V looked at the current arrangement, visibly disturbed.
At the moment:
Kazuma had an unconscious Hanako strapped to his back.
His right hand was being gripped tightly by V—who, in turn, had one arm around Lucy.
On Kazuma's left side, Yorinobu clung tightly to his waist.
Kazuma's legs were wrapped around an unconscious Takemura.
All of them… hanging entirely off Kazuma in a bizarre and tangled mess.
"This is the only way! No time to complain!" Kazuma shouted.
"Listen up—Lucy, once we're airborne, open fire!"
With that, Kazuma used his only free hand—his left—to activate his Hunter's grappling hook and summon a Wingdrake.
In the blink of an eye, the beast swooped down from the sky, and Kazuma's launcher locked onto its harness.
The small but mighty creature lifted the entire group into the air, wings beating powerfully.
And at the exact moment they took flight, Lucy, the only one with a free hand, aimed at a pool of gasoline below—
—and pulled the trigger.
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