Part 5: Osaka’s Auntie Battle a Giant
Chapter 21: I Must Fight the Giant
Haruna rode the fastest horse towards Mourtry Town. Partway there, she stopped at one of the towns nearest to Mourtry to gather some information from townsfolk who had fled the giant infested town.
Naturally, the people were not happy about being forced out of their homes, The Mayor of Mourtry had set up an emergency headquarters within this temporary settlement and was in the middle of hiring adventurers to subjugate the giants.
Unfortunately, the adventurers sent to get rid of the giants were all soundly defeated time and again. It was already the 20th day since the people of Mourtry Town had been driven out of their houses.
Haruna headed over to meet with the mayor immediately as soon as she arrived. Since they had met once before to discuss the opening of a branch store, they recognised each other immediately.
“You have come, at last! Are you here to do battle against the giant?”
The mayor was in his mid-30s. However, due to the stress of dealing with a giant rampaging his town, his hair had greyed prematurely.
“That’s right! I’ll definitely win against the Giants! Aside from the burning of the Osaka Castle, the people of Osaka will only go to war for this!”
Haruna had put on a pair of yellow and black striped tights. Of course, the patterns weren’t inspired by railway crossing; the colours were meant to simulate a tiger’s striped pattern. Baseball matches were the only times when Osakans would come together and roar out their fighting spirits in full force.
“Miss Haruna, though we all believe that you are the most powerful swordmaster to ever live, a shining example of what all Adventurers aspire to be, the giant is extremely powerful. Some said his strength is equivalent to four dungeon monsters from the Level 30…”
“Hah, that means an easy win, yan! I deal with monsters like those all the time. It has gotten so regular that it’s kind of like taking the train between Kyoto and Nara.”
Haruna said blithely.
“I’ll be going to the town now, so please tell me everything you can about your town.”
The mayor did his best to stop Haruna from rushing to her death, but Haruna’s overwhelming personality ended up forcing him to tell her everything he knew about the situation.
“I’m not going to die from this, I’m going over there to beat up the enemy into a bloody pulp. Nothing beats the feeling of beating down an enemy in his own turf. As a representative of the Tigers faction from Kantou, I will not bring shame to my team!”
“May god bless your mission, Miss Haruna…”
“May the gods, Buddha and Yagi-sama be with us.”
This Yagi-sama [1] is a baseball pitcher who is revered as a god by his fans. His position in the hearts of fans is comparable to that of Hiyama-sama [2]. No, it could be said that his social status exceeded that of Hiyama-sama.
Please read this at kitchennovel dot com ~~
When she reached Moutry Town, a half-naked giant swaggered up to her.
The destruction within the town was actually less than what she had expected.
It looked like the giant had turned up in search of food and the townsfolk had gathered all their food in one area to appease it before fleeing the scene. Thanks to this move, the structural damage was quite minimal. Thin spirals of smoke floated here and there from put out fires. Though there was plenty of food around, the presence of the giant actually frightened off the wild animals that were tempted to enter the village.
With all the humans having fled the town, Haruna’s small form was especially eye-catching. Moreover, she made no move to hide her flashy presence.
“Hey, you squatter! Giants should just go back to the mountains where you belong. Or maybe we could just make a Giant’s Encampment [3] for you guys to live in?”
The giant’s reaction to a human presence was quite typical–
“GUOOOHHH!!!”
Immediately, a large club swung down. To Haruna’s eyes, it looked like the club got bigger and bigger the closer it got.
The club was, of course, giant size, and looked like it was made from a whole tree.
“What’s this? What a weak swing, ya na!”
Haruna easily dodged the attack.
“With this kind of ability, you won’t even be able to touch Fujikawa [4] in his golden days!”
Fujikawa was a former record-breaking pitcher in his time.
“Tei! Eat this! This is what a true swing is like, ya!”
She began to slash at the giant to find his weak point.
“Paciorek & O’Malley Attack!”
With tremendous strength, the sword slashed down on the giant’s body, to no avail.
By the way, both Paciorek and O’Malley were foreign baseball players who had supported the Hanshin Tigers [7] in the past.
Of course, though Haruna’s attack did not seem to have hurt the giant too much, her strength was undeniable.
Moreover, she almost reached the condition where she could execute a critical hit attack.
That’s right, there’s that special attack within Haruna’s status that had yet to be used.
“Since I’m fighting Giants, I should bring out the Anti-Giant Attack.”
Haruna was the strongest human being armed with the best magical attack against a giant. In short, the perfect weapon against a giant.
“Kuuuhh!! Uwooooohhhhh!!!”
The giant yelled out in great pain as it held its shin.
From below, the attacks continued. Looks like the giant’s weak point really was his shin.
“Oi, Giant! We may have lost the league, but we will win the CS like always!”
Perhaps due to a deep-seated personal grudge, Haruna’s next attack against the giant was devastatingly powerful.
The critical hit was just a little bit off, which meant the giant was able to avoid a fatal attack. However, being struck so hard at a vulnerable spot still hurt the giant really badly.
“Everyone, it’s time to rev up our power! It’s time to target the Koshien[8]! We’ll not spare any effort on this, no grain of sand will be left unturned to achieve this dream!”
Haruna continued her attack without pause.
“Toritani [9] Attack!”
“Kanemoto [10] Attack!”
The spirit of baseball seemed to have taken over Haruna’s body as she kept shouting out names of famous Hanshin Tiger players as attacks.
“Kameyama [11] Attack!”
“Kuji [12] Attack!”
Because of the giant’s height, she was unable to directly attack the face or the head. However, she could still reach his weak points with her high powered jumps.
“Koshien may be in Hyogo Prefecture, but we can get there from Nanba via the Hanshin line! We’ll also pass by the Osaka Dome along the way, so it’s perfect!”
While it’s true that going to Hyogo Prefecture where the Koshien is held via Namba is a little troublesome, for the sake of catching any extra innings, some fans preferred to take this route since the last train out from Hyogo connects directly to Minami Station at Namba. In a way, this makes it more convenient for die-hard fans.
A short while later, the giant had fallen to the ground, clutching at his knees in agony.
“Uguuu… Aughhhh…”
Its body was so large that the miserable sounds it made were like the lamentations of a crowd of people rumbling through the air.
“Since there’s no rain, we won’t be playing a cold game, but no matter, I will still fight on!”
Haruna’s figure cast a long shadow over the fallen body.
“A moment please…”
A grey-bearded old giant came up in front of Haruna.
“Oh my, there’s someone who could actually talk, kai~”
Haruna stopped her attack.
“I am the elder of the giant clan. Please accept my apologies for having attacked this town… However, there’s a reason behind this…”
“An elder of Giants, is it? Very well, I shall address you as Mr. Shigeo [13].”
The Giants held the position of being a famous team and thus Haruna felt that they deserved some measure of respect.
“So, what is the reason? It seemed deeper than the Korakuen’s pond, ya?”
The giant elder began to speak and told Haruna all the reasons behind this attack.
It seemed like the giant elder intended to speak in a low voice. However, since he’s still a giant, to Haruna, it was like listening to someone talking through a megaphone.
[Gumihou: … So… so much baseball info… TT]
[1] Yagi-sama – Baseball Player – Yagi Hiroshi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshi_Yagi
[2] Hiyama-sama – Baseball Player – Hiyama Shinjiyohttps://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=hiyama001shi
[3] Kind of reminds me of the Red Indians encampment… [4] Fujikawa-sama – Baseball Player – Fujikawa Shunsukehttp://npb.jp/bis/eng/players/51255131.html
[5] Paciorek – Baseball Player – Jim Paciorekhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Paciorek
[6] O’Malley – Baseball Player – Tom O’Malleyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_O%27Malley
[7] Hanshin Tigershttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanshin_Tigers
[8] Koshien – Japanese High School Baseball Championshiphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_High_School_Baseball_Championship
[9] Toritani – Baseball Player – Toritani Takashihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Toritani
[10] Kanemoto – Baseball Player – Kanemoto Tomoakihttp://www.thehanshintigers.com/team-history/legendary-players/tomoaki-kanemoto/
[11] Kameyama – Baseball Player – Kameyama Tsutomuhttps://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Tsutomu_Kameyama
[12] Kuji – Baseball Player – Kuji Teruyoshihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teruyoshi_Kuji
[13] Mr. Shigeo – baseball player – Shigeo Nagashimahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigeo_Nagashima
Thanks for the new chapter!