novelPeace, or a Trap Laid — Board_Game (2)
| ← Ch.157 | Ch.159 → |
They seemed to be killing time there, but since Kamijou did not see any prizes, he guessed they were doing nothing but losing. He had no idea how much money they had spent on it, but he had difficulty judging how much the ugly stuffed dolls in the glass case were worth. Kamijou Touma was on a quest for food, so that wasted money sent a shiver down his spine.
He guessed it was all due to the minimum student council president who had steam rising from the top of her head.
"U-uuuhhhh.... Almost there... almost there. Focus! You need to pour your willpower into this! Okay, let's do it!!"
"You're skipping past technique to focus on your mental state? And isn't the crane game more about how loose the springs in the arm are? In fact, it's about as cruel a business model as the settings at a pachinko-..."
He stopped when the glasses boy covered his mouth with a hand.
The glasses boy also placed an index finger in front of his own lips.
He was saying to stay quiet because this was amusing.
The brown-haired middle school girl was sticking her arms past the Jumpy Bunny, so Akikawa Mie was the one operating the buttons because the president had too much steam coming from her head. Kamijou started to suspect her student council work also came down to wishing, just like someone praying that the food they were cooking would taste good.
"(She's always like this. Akikawa-san stops by to help afterschool and she honestly checks through about 80% of the paperwork, stamps them, and gives the go sign. )"
"So someone really has usurped the student council! Aogami, our delusions weren't so crazy after all!!"
"(Yes, but we really just do odd jobs, so being usurped honestly just takes a load off our shoulders. But while Akikawa-san does everything perfectly, she doesn't realize how much she's actually helping out. It seems the president that represents the school needs to be rather unique... both physically and mentally. )"
One of them was treated like an idol-style one-day police chief with no experience but lots of charisma. The other was treated like the police bureaucrat that could reliably handle all the paperwork.
"I can't tell if they're loved or being mocked..."
"What!? Wh-wh-who are you saying is currently doing something that deserves being mocked!? Well excuse me for being the president yet just barely having average grades!!"
"Ehhh!? You're the president, but you don't get perfect scores!?"
"Eeeek! Eeeeeeeek!!"
"Um, but, Onee-chan, it's just like you to not go for all 0s either."
"Bfh! Wahhh!! You're obviously just trying to make me feel better, Mie-chan! I'm surrounded!"
"Hm, so you're not all that exciting in either direction. You're just normal."
Then someone clicked their tongue.
It was Kamisato Kakeru who loved being normal.
"That's how the real world works. Being right in the middle is perfect. It makes you a proper human being."
"Problem Student #1-kun, you're not really helping my case!!"
"Sorry, but you can't look for reality in someone like a student council president. They should only be an ideal that has nothing to do with my life."
"And #2-kun is crushing my basic human rights to prioritize his own dreams!?"
Kamijou ignored her complaints and looked over to the crane game.
"What's even in this thing? It looks like a bunch of round and heavy stuffed dolls. Wow are they ever ugly."
The glasses boy answered.
"They're all reproductions of old mascots."
"What?"
"That car with a human face is a leftover from a motor show, that round one is the mascot for a lunar development forum half a year ago, and that twisted giraffe-like one is Mast-kun, official mascot two world cups ago."
"Wait, you mean none of these things are in season!? I can already see the warehouses filling up!!"
Whatever their original price was, their current value had to be lower than 0 and they would almost have to pay someone to take them away. So why were they making an attack on this lineup that seemed to be rebelling against capitalism?"
The Jumpy Bunny, who was neither a genius nor a failure, bit her lip.
"I promised Mie-chan."
"?"
Kamijou tilted his head, so the modern middle school girl smiled bitterly.
"Half a year ago, we promised to go to that lunar development forum together. We weren't interested in the academics of it, though. Um, we were really just excited because a major actor was there to promote a movie set on a space station. But, well, you know how people can get too excited the night before and end up with a fever?"
The glasses boy gave some supplementary information.
"Our tutoring system lets a high school student provide one-on-one lessons for a middle school student to help them advance to the high school. That's where the connection between the president and Akikawa-san came from."
"Hm. So the president wants to get that stuffed doll for the girl who got a fever back then?"
"N-no... I was the one that got the fever..."
"You little brat!!"
Kamijou's lack of mercy brought the president about 80% of the way to tears.
"M-Mie-chan could've gone on her own, but she insisted on looking after me since I had a fever. So she wasted her chance..."
"I didn't really mind, though, " said Akikawa while nearly embracing the girl from behind.
However...
"Sorry to interrupt your emotional scene, but... hey, four-eyes. You said the high school helps the middle school with a tutoring system, right?"
"Since the two schools are combined, it's really just a system to keep the middle school students from being taken away by other high schools.... And the president isn't much help as a tutor, so she really only ends up having Akikawa-san look after her. She even has a lunch made for her every day, so the idiot can't even feed herself without help from a middle schooler."
"Eeek!!" shrieked the Jumpy Bunny, but Kamijou already had a hand on his head.
That minimum president was gathering popularity by creating an odd desire to protect her. He could only assume she won the student council election with nothing but pity votes.
That said...
"So you just really want to get that lunar development forum mascot?"
"U-um, getting that now isn't really going to change anything, but since I saw it here, I would feel kind of guilty if I just ignored it."
"(If it isn't valuable or anything, couldn't she get one really cheap at a used goods store?)"
That fundamental question was silenced by a chop to the neck by the glasses boy.
He seemed to be prioritizing his enjoyment of this.
The palm-sized president breathed from her nose.
"Okay, here goes! Let's do this! Mie-chan, you help me. We can see the one direction from here, so Problem Students #1 and #2, you two watch the case from the sides! We need to get this exactly right!!"
"No matter how many people you have watching from the same side, they'll still see the same thing."
Kamijou's objection was rejected.
He had no choice but to join Kamisato to view the crane game case from the side as instructed by the president who had Akikawa's hands on the controls.
"(Hey, four-eyes, the president isn't actually doing anything!)"
"(This is really the state of the student council in a nutshell. But it's amusing, so just roll with it. )"
Othinus was still inside Kamijou's scarf, which put her less than ten centimeters from Kamisato. That dire situation seemed to double Kamijou's heartrate, but then his shoulder bumped lightly into Kamisato's.
"Ow..."
"?"
"Unfortunately, my body doesn't regrow and heal itself as conveniently as your right arm. I have a ton of bandages under my clothes right now. And on top of the injuries you gave me, I had to fight some stray dog."
"So you're asking me to apologize? You chopped off my arm, remember?"
"Heh."
For some reason, that made Kamisato laugh.
"I'm relieved, harem boy. If you were such an indiscriminate philanthropist that you would even whisper sweet things to me, I would have given up on trying to speak with you. Y'know something like 'I didn't really want to fight you, you know? (smile)'"
"Sometimes, it's hard to tell what the target of your hatred even is."
"Also." Kamisato ignored his comment."If this thing can erase you, then you must have conflicting desires. Y'know, like complaining that you want to return home from the alternate world you've found yourself in but also enjoying the harem you're building up."
"Please don't use alternate worlds in your examples! Not everyone's going to understand that!!"
"Really? As you can see, I'm the kind of normal high school boy you can find anywhere, so a trip overseas actually feels more out of reach to me. Manga and video games feel a lot closer to home than desperately mastering a foreign language and heading to the airport with a passport and plane ticket in hand."
"To be honest, I thought you didn't have any hobbies."
"Can you really call that a hobby? I like them, but I don't know all that much about them. That's always how it is with me. I might say my hobby is watching movies, but I can't list off a bunch of French films no one's ever heard of. I listen to music, but I've never been to a concert. It really is all things like that."
"You really are stupid. You don't have to earn a gold medal in something before you can call it a hobby."
"What's the point of something you aren't willing to spend that much time on?"
The boys held their discussion while watching the toy-like crane.
Kamijou wondered if the root of Kamisato Kakeru's "distortion" came from how clean he liked everything. It was not that strange a desire and Kamijou felt there were a few similar people even in his own class.
"I have nothing and I don't want anything I can call myself best in the world at. But I do wish I had some major achievement that was noticeable even from an objective standpoint. In that way, I think Akikawa Mie-san is truly amazing. As a middle schooler, she's taken control of the high school student council just by helping out a little. When she takes it that far, you have to call it a form of individuality. Just bringing it up in conversation can fill in the gaps. It destroys the awkward elevator silence. I have nothing like that. No matter how far I follow the things I like, it's all so light."
He refused to rely on cheap tricks even if he knew he could not reach #1, but he also could not forgive himself for not reaching #1 when playing fair. Kamijou had no idea where or who this "#1" was, but Kamisato had built up that monster in his head and was burning with a desire to challenge it.
He wanted to reach #1 fair and square, so being pushed up in the ranks by a stroke of good luck would not make him happy. It only felt awkward.
That was why he sought a proper reason and justification for any good fortune he ran across.
And if he could not find that, he would reject it as not his to take.
He knew nothing was free, so he assumed that what he was given had been stolen somewhere along the line.
In his case, he had concentrated that into his relationships.
He would not allow others to spoil him.
He would say it was unnatural and wrong.
"Living like that has got to be exhausting."
"Sorry, but I can't read minds."
Conflicting desires.
Kamisato Kakeru made that sound like a form of evil, but Kamijou was not so sure. You might wish you had gone for ramen while eating katsudon, but not many people would immediately push the katsudon aside and start making ramen. It might be the next day or the day after that, but they would eat ramen eventually. But for the time being, they would focus on the katsudon in front of them.... What was wrong with that?
Kamisato would not allow that second desire. He would only allow himself to continue down the direct path to the dream in his mind. He would not allow himself the mental weakness that prepared a backup in case it failed. He would not allow himself to hold the possibility of failure in a corner of his mind. He would never allow himself to utter the phrase "realistic compromise".
That seemed like another sign of Kamisato's need for everything to be clean.
He claimed to be the kind of normal high school boy found anywhere and he was exactly right.
He was not driven by an incomprehensible end-times philosophy based on a strange myth or legend. His thoughts were normal ones that a few people in any given class would have.
However, he had World Rejecter, the unique right hand which had defeated Magic Gods by the dozen and even destroyed Kamijou's Imagine Breaker in a direct clash.
That was what had made the result look so strange, just like giving a small child the launch codes for a nuclear missile.
"Ideal Sender, hm?"[1]
"What about it?"
"That really is perfect for you, " spat out Kamijou.
His reflection in the crane game's glass contained a smile that was anything but friendly.
"If someone is thinking of a realistic compromise, you send them to the far reaches of the ideal. You hide it behind some confusing stuff about a new world, but that's really what you're doing. Not everyone that vanishes wanted an ideal world. The one who wants the ideal more than anyone else is you, the one wielding that right hand. Whether it's you or someone else, you just can't allow someone to let go of the ideal as reality crushes them. So you want to give them a push forward with that right hand of yours."
In that way, he was a hero.
Of course people would gather around him.
Especially those with extreme individuality who already had someone they wanted to be or a direction they wanted to head in.
Everyone wanted someone to accept their dream and give them a push in that direction.
But...
"Nephthys said there was probably a reason World Rejecter ended up in your right hand, just like there was a reason Imagine Breaker ended up in my right hand.... It's true that right hand wouldn't suit me. It's really convenient, but it wouldn't fit me. The word 'save' might be too presumptuous, but my idea of 'saving' people and your idea of 'saving' people are two different things."
Someone might want to correct the world, bring back someone who died, become the very best, or never again see a tragedy like the one they had seen. Their ideal was not wrong, but Kamijou had seen several magicians and espers who had grown so focused on that one thing that they spread quite a bit of damage which completely defeated their original purpose. When Kamijou fought, he shattered that solidified "ideal" and tried to look at it from a different angle.
He destroyed illusions.
No matter how many words one used, that was the essence of Kamijou Touma.
What would Kamisato Kakeru have done if he had been there then?
He would have given them a push forward.
He would not have hesitated to give them that push toward the cliff waiting beyond their ideal.
"Do you really understand?"
Kamisato's tone underwent a change.
Even if he had started as a normal high school boy, this was the voice of someone who did not know where he was ultimately headed.
"It was a perfectly normal school in a perfectly normal city. Ellen, Claire, Elza, and all the rest lived as they wished, no one stood at the center, and they paved their separate ways toward their own dreams. But then along came this right hand. It was just like iron sand gathering around a magnet. They all went crazy, they broke, and they were twisted. They became 'special' and can only see anything in that one direction. There's no freedom in such an obvious form of 'special'. It's as shallow as an alternate world RPG with four battle command options and a linear story. More times than I'd like, I've seen that 'special' thing taken from them, leaving them with nothing at all. Do you really think you can see what lies at the bottom of my heart?"
A wrong decision might have led to a wrong conclusion. Kamijou was not a Magic God that could create a world from scratch and discussing the "what ifs" of history was silly, but he might have been able to judge what would have best if he compared reality to those "what ifs".
Still, he had a feeling that giving a push to those backs would not lead to smiles.
Not even for the one whose ideal had been made a reality thanks to that thorough support.
"It's okay to waver."
So Kamijou no longer hesitated.
There was nothing to be afraid of.
"You can have a hundred or even a thousand conflicting desires, swap them out whenever it's convenient, and say the exact opposite of what you said five seconds ago. All of that's okay as long as everyone's smiling in the end. If you can reach that conclusion, then throwing out your principles and morals is perfectly fine. I'd be much happier as that kind of clown than as some great hero who adheres to his principles all alone and can't smile with anyone."
Kamisato started to say something, but the words never came.
The palm-sized student council president known as the Jumpy Bunny raised her voice instead.
"Here we go, here we go, here we go!! It's finally here! This is the best match and the best position!"
"Yes, yes. Now quit jumping around, Onee-chan."
"It's perfect side-to-side, so now we just have to move it back!! We're counting on you, so watch carefully!!"
The crane moved at a standard speed within the giant glass case. Kamijou and Kamisato ended their conversation and watched the arm's movement.
"Keep going. Keep going. Keep going some more!"
"There are two of those round things, one on the front pile and one in the back valley. Which one are we after? Well, I guess the one on the pile would be easier."
"What are you talking about? The one in the back has the top loop of string sticking out nicely. The round body is too big, so we can't get it without the arm grabbing that loop."
"The pile."
"The valley!"
"Eh? Eh? Who am I supposed to listen to!?"
"You idiot!! You're going to pass them both by!!"
"You idiot!! You're going to pass them both by!!"
The Jumpy Bunny hopped up with a loud cry and she bumped into Akikawa Mie who was reaching her hands in from behind. Her hands left the large buttons and the crane took its final position at not quite the pile and not quite the valley.
The light electronic jingle sounded almost melancholy. Kamijou and Kamisato felt like they were watching a car driving off a cliff as the arm slowly lowered toward another prize altogether.
The glasses boy gave his assessment with a cheerful smile.
"Oh, that's Soapy Sukebe-Isu-chan, mascot of Japan's Proud Sex Industry Exhibition. I think the most recent one was at the end of October."
"What was Japan doing while some of us were facing World War Three!?"
The Jumpy Bunny looked confused and Akikawa Mie blushed bright red. Now, which of those reactions was more worthy of comment?
"That's strange. Weren't we in a serious bind since the superpower of Russia had declared war on us?... And the event itself is just awful! Was this really a character people wanted walking around there!?"
"Well, I suppose this isn't something you can give a middle school girl to apologize for getting a fever.... Her disappointment would quickly change to worry."
The crane arm grabbed the stuffed doll as if stabbing it in the eye. And for some reason, the arm seemed to have excessive power this time. Some other stuffed doll was caught on the first one, but the crane forcibly pulled them both up.
The tearful president pressed both hands against the glass.
"Ah, ahhh, ahhhhhh..."
"Oh, that one caught on it that looks like a dried-up banana is Sticky Higozuiki-chan."
"Why do you know so much about this, four-eyes?"
That sexual harassment doll seemed to have formed the foundation below the other prizes, so pulling it out seemed to have caused the ground to shift. A nearby pile wobbled and finally collapsed.
And that included the round target at the top.
A ton of stuffed dolls poured toward the hole like a landslide and Kamisato Kakeru gave a horribly bitter smile.
"I just saw a miracle occur, so why don't I feel even remotely jealous?"
"Maybe because these are all trash if you don't have any emotional attachment?"
Besides, with Kamijou Touma's misfortune, he would never encounter a miracle that included getting a bunch of stuffed dolls that anyone would actually want. If a miracle had occurred, there had to be some reason why it was a problem.
The Jumpy Bunny with long black hair and large ribbon picked up the round stuffed doll and held it toward heaven with a beaming smile.
"Yes!! We got Lunar Zit-kun!!"
"Its name is an insult!?"
"Here you go, Mie-chan! Now I've preserved my dignity as an upperclassman. Heh heh!!"
"Ah... ah ha ha. Thanks... (What am I supposed to do with this?)"
The modern middle school girl seemed to be practicing how to use her facial muscles.
Kamisato pointed something out with flat emotions that strayed from the others' excitement.
"So what do we do about the other prizes? It doesn't look like the president plans to take them with her."
Everyone but the president (who looked like she was seeing heaven) exchanged a glance in the real world.
And that included Akikawa Mie who had already had one forced onto her.
They glanced over at the malicious prizes still sitting in the prize slot by the dozen.
The negative aura was quite impressive.
None of them had that kind of esper power, but a black and purple haze seemed to appear.
If they were suspected of a crime and their home had to be searched, this bizarre collection would be shown on a talk show as an example of a modern disease. And after that, proving their innocence would be difficult indeed. Who could say how often those things would be brought up in the dramatic trial.
The glasses boy cleared his throat.
"To make this fair, let's play rock-paper-..."
"Please no!! I already know I'll lose and end up with every last one of them! You understand, don't you? That wouldn't be fair at all. Kamisato, you can vouch for me, can't you!? You know how karma treats you when you have a special right hand like this! You have World Rejecter, so you don't want this to come down to a game of chance, do you!?"
"Well." Kamisato gave a heavy sigh while clenching and unclenching his hand."The only thing I can think of is inexplicably having every girl around me obsessing over me. I'll agree it's a frightening side effect."
"Okay, that's it, Mr. Popular. Fists! We're settling this with our fists!!"
Part 6
It was the middle of the night.
Kamijou Touma was trudging back to his dorm with an armful of stuffed trash.
But at the same time, Misaka Mikoto, ace of prestigious Tokiwadai Middle School, was walking slowly along a river a short distance from District 7's shopping district.
She had no real destination in mind.
Tokiwadai was strict about its dorm rules, so being out at night was risking a lot for little in return.
She could have easily gotten lost in thought inside her dorm room, but she had still decided to sneak out past the strict guard there and walk through the city at night. She may have wanted a different environment or to place herself in an abnormal and irrational position.
Why went without saying.
"He's so..."
Even now, Academy City was recovering as a city and people would be filling the shopping district. But the scars had not been entirely erased."Under construction" signs and yellow tape blocked some areas off and a lot of places had yet to replace their broken windows.
Misaka Mikoto knew what had caused this.
The Magic God known as the High Priest.
And the boy who had challenged that monster head-on.
"He's so far away!!!!!"
"Sigh..."
A white breath entered the biting night air.
Simply put, she had been stewing. She was afraid that boy would leave her behind and she wanted to pursue him if she could. But how could she? She was one of Academy City's seven Level 5s. She was the #3 Railgun. That undoubtedly made her a rare person, but that also meant that she had nowhere else to go and that she could not turn back.
That immense and stable power was the worst possible restraint.
She had nothing that especially stuck out.
(So what am I supposed to do now?)
Even if she mastered Academy City's Curriculum, she doubted the #3 Railgun could defeat the #1 Accelerator. That had been proven by cold calculations, so there was no doubting it.
Then should she give up on anything related to her esper power? Was there something else she could reach for? But even if she started on something new, she could not see herself climbing the invisible staircase to the next stage.
Yes, there was a next stage.
The High Priest and that boy stood on it, so she knew it was there.
But she could not picture herself on it.
She was only a step away from being the strongest.
She was the #3.
As someone who had approached the final stage of comparative power, she understood.
It was just like the final stage of a chess or shogi game. Unlike when the pieces were first lined up, the spaces she could move to were limited. There was no freedom and only a few cramped routes remained.
And she doubted any of those would take her to that stage.
Unpleasant ideas spiraled through her mind.
She felt like a bowling ball was weighing on her stomach.
(Could it be... ?)
In other words...
(Did I develop in the wrong direction... ?)
She gulped.
The cold wind dropped further in temperature and stole away her body heat.
The lost time would not come back. Once the game piece had been sent out, it could not be brought back. She was dizzied by the shocking fact that it was her partial success that had told her this optimum path did not lead to the answer. Where had she taken the wrong fork in the road? Would she have to move further and further back and finally restart her life from the very beginning if she wanted to reach this goal? That vision filled her mind.
And...
She did not know.
Even if she knew her current path did not lead to the goal, she did not know what it was she had to redo and what it was she had to obtain if she was to stand on the same stage as that boy. She could not tell. She knew she had done something wrong, but she could not reflect on or regret her mistake. And all the while, time moved on. She knew her train was not travelling to her destination, but she did not know where to switch to another train. She felt impatience filling her chest.
And to make matters worse...
(He... )
Misaka Mikoto clenched her teeth.
(He isn't necessarily going to stay on that same stage forever. )
Yes.
Her goal was not arriving at that stage. It was the person there. Returning to the train metaphor, they had no set meeting point and he was constantly on the move. She knew the name of the last station he had been seen at, but she did not know what line led to that station. Plus, he was wandering through that giant and complex station and could board some other train at any time.
He would move further and further away if she did nothing.
He would freely board whatever other train he wanted and continue his journey to some utterly unknown place.
(Calm down... )
After following the river for a while, Mikoto walked toward a large bridge crossing it.
She looked over the railing at the dark water and stared at the cold moon floating in it.
(At the very least, there is a line that leads there. He isn't in Ryugu-jo or Kaguya-hime's palace. He climbed to that stage himself, so there has to be a line leading there. The answer has to be right in front of my eyes. But how do I see it? How can I change my viewpoint?)
It was probably something like Columbus' egg.
It only looked complex to her because she did not know how to view the trick art.
The world was always there before her eyes.
No one had maliciously locked it up with a key.
She heard the city at night, felt the biting chill of the wind, and saw the moon floating in the water's surface.
She had left her usual room and its usual warmth because she had hoped this new stimulus would pry open that door. She had hoped it would be just like getting stuck on a crossword puzzle and having the answer come to her as she took a light jog.
But it had not.
This stimulus was insufficient.
It was not enough to change the colors of the trick art that was the world.
(It isn't that we live in different worlds. )
She thought to herself as she rested her elbow on the railing and her cheek in her hand.
She felt like a profiler analyzing a target's mental state from their actions and statistical data.
(He's looking at Academy City and District 7 just like me... but what colors does he see this city in?)
Suddenly, a new stimulus cut off her vainly circling thoughts.
It was a footstep that felt like the ripples of a pebble disturbing the moon in the water's surface.
She turned toward that solid sound and then she saw it.
"Hi."
She did not recognize the barefoot girl.
Her silver hair glittered at certain angles like a CD and it was rolled up on either side of her head like disks or demon horns. She had a small and slender body. Most noticeable of all, she wore translucent raincoats directly over her bare skin, creating a bizarre outfit that only seemed practical if she was worried about getting a victim's blood on her in a dark bathroom. She held a heavy sports bag by a shoulder strap, but Mikoto seriously doubted it contained baseball bats or lacrosse sticks. Even if it did contain sports equipment, Mikoto doubted it would be used in the intended fashion.
Despite the cold, the girl seemed to be eating a vanilla popsicle.
No. Mikoto had no way of knowing, but that was actually a bleached leather paddle meant for striking people. That tool of torture was easier to use than a whip which required snapping, and it could apply deep and definite damage.
"Lick, lick. Hmm, leather doesn't taste very good. Or maybe the problem's the oil rubbed onto it for maintenance."
Sounding displeased, the double raincoat girl removed the paddle from her mouth. She then easily tore it in two like a rejected contract.
Mikoto did not know the details, but whatever that had been, she knew it was not normal to tear apart that thick a piece of leather with one's bare hands. It had to be even harder than tearing the phonebook in two.
The danger of the city's night had just risen.
Mikoto felt her pulse in both her heart and the blood vessels of her neck as a prickling pain covered all of her skin. She had no idea who this was, but she was already receiving danger signals.
This girl gave off the image of a ferocious beast.
She approached one step at a time and would charge at Mikoto if provoked.
Mikoto was an ace known as the #3 Railgun of Academy City's seven Level 5s.
But this sense of danger overturned even that assumption.
"Misaka Mikoto."
The girl with a waterproof hood over her head placed the words on her tongue as if reading them off a document.
This "thing" knew her name.
That fact alone seemed to scorch Mikoto's nerves.
"Misaka Mikoto. Yes, this has gotta work well. Hamazura Shiage didn't really seem like a good match. While he's worked alongside Kamijou Touma, he's essentially part of a different circle. I tried it since I'd run across someone connected to Kamijou Touma, but he wasn't quite what I was looking for. It would be hard to say attacking him would do any damage to the Kamijou Faction.... But most of all, his response was pretty amusing."
The raincoat girl's shoulders shook with laughter.
The shaking produced a metallic rattling from the sports bag.
"But I won't have that problem with you, Misaka Mikoto. You've gotta be about as deep in the Kamijou Faction as it gets. If I'm gonna crush someone, it would be you, don'tcha think? Relationships aren't neatly divided out like a honeycomb. They're like a twisted house of cards. Pull out a single card, and it'll all start to collapse."
"Who... are you?"
The vague pressure and tension had a definite directionality to it.
But not because this girl knew her personal information or was announcing intent to harm her.
This ferocious beast was acting on her knowledge of the name Kamijou Touma.
"Now. What should I call myself?"
A white breath escaped the raincoat girl's lovely lips as she honestly pondered that question.
"Should I simply go with Salome? Or should I say I'm the Mass Murderer that the mass media refuses to cover? No, I think I know what would be most effective. After all, I'm picking a fight with the Kamijou Faction right now."
"... ?"
Mikoto looked confused as those lovely lips split apart.
They bent maddeningly and maliciously.
The raincoat girl grabbed the cheap toy pocket watch hanging from her neck by a thick thread and she lightly kissed it.
"Yes. You can call me Kamisato Kakeru's little sister. Oh, but we're not blood-related."
All sound seemed to vanish.
All color seemed to burst.
As soon as Mikoto realized Salome was running straight toward her like a bullet, the danger signal grew explosively in her mind. She released bluish-white sparks from her bangs almost on reflex. The way the approaching raincoat girl stuck out her small tongue and licked her lips stabbed into Mikoto's mind to an odd extent.
An explosive sound followed.
It felt like it lasted just an instant. It also felt like a simple flash of light. A one billion volt Lightning Spear had burst from her bangs, but it did not hit Salome. It only scorched the air and there was no longer anyone there.
Mikoto emitted electromagnetic waves from her body and used them like radar, so she was able to follow the other girl's movement.
However, she had trouble believing the answer that gave her.
Salome had not run past her.
Nor had she jumped over her.
The only word she could think to describe it was "dancing". Salome was dancing, just like the legend from which she took her extremely ominous name. And that gave a hint as to what desire was contained within the action.
She would seduce the king and decapitate a holy man.
It was truly a dance of death.
(What... is that? Can human joints really move like that!?)
"Too slow."
The voice was distorted.
She moved so quickly a burnt smell from the torn pavement reached Mikoto after the fact.
The sound had come from... behind her!?
"... !!"
Mikoto did not turn around.
It was lucky her opponent had a toy pocket watch hanging from her neck. That strengthened Mikoto's radar sense. She considered magnetically pulling it straight up to hang the girl, but...
Don't touch me, stranger. Do you want me to vivisect you?
"..."
That thought reached her via pressure rather than via a voice.
A chill seemed to flash freeze her entire spine.
She was honestly glad she was not facing her opponent at the moment.
Before her body tensed up, she simply manipulated magnetism. She gathered iron sand from her surroundings and vibrated it at high speed to create an Iron Sand Sword that could instantly slice through a wind turbine. She then launched it directly behind her.
While it was essentially a sword, the blade's length and shape could change like a whip.
Its incredible cutting power could slice through anything in a single blow. She saw no way this cruel attack could be successfully blocked or avoided if her opponent was seeing it for the first time.
And yet, a dry bursting sound rang out as Misaka Mikoto's Iron Sand Sword was mercilessly destroyed.
It vanished.
The reliable sensation of that weapon... no, that lifeline had vanished.
"Wha-... ?"
The #3's thoughts were briefly swallowed up by a void.
This was different from the #1's reflection. The Iron Sand Sword had shattered. It was destroyed. It was negated.
She only knew one person who could do this.
Or so she had thought.
"Ah?"
There were no more strategies or tactics. Mikoto's mind remained blank as she turned around to find an answer to her question. She found Salome's evilly smiling eyes at extreme close range.
Yes.
The raincoat-wearing mass murderer was smiling.
The bottom of her double raincoat spread out like a dancer's veil.
"External Offering."
She spoke the words as if rolling a piece of candy around in her mouth.
A moment later, violent attacks crossed paths between them.
One was a Lightning Spear fired from Misaka Mikoto's bangs.
The other was Salome's casually swung right hand. It swung diagonally upwards with the fingers gently bent. It should have not quite reached Mikoto's body, but the chilly night air split apart, the asphalt was torn into at her feet, and the railing was sliced in two with a burst of orange sparks. Mikoto had quickly leaned her upper body backwards, but all of the buttons burst from her coat and a few strands of her bangs were cut away.
Tension scorched her nerves.
But not because this was a mysterious invisible attack. She had recognized it.
She knew the answer.
"An Iron Sand... Sword!?"
"Correct."
Mikoto manipulated magnetism as she moved back to put some distance between them. A bicycle floated up from the cold river, a wind turbine was pulled out at the base, and a second Iron Sand Sword gathered around her right hand.
She launched them all at once.
But...
"External Offering."
As soon as she detected the invisible attack that produced familiar results, the rusty bicycle was annihilated in midair.
"External Offering."
Next it was the supporting column of the wind turbine.
"External Offering."
Finally, the pure Iron Sand Sword was destroyed again.
Each time Salome swung her arm and the slash with a mysterious reach rushed out, the attack was different. Its weight changed, is sharpness increased, and it evolved into an even more violent storm.
"Your attack isn't just destruction or negation."
Mikoto doubted this was simply an esper power.
But then what was it?
"Do you absorb it and then gain its traits and destructive power!?"
"Is it really that shocking?"
Salome clenched and unclenched her right hand while tilting her head.
"I'm using a Celtic system, but you can find things like this all over the world. By destroying a specific weapon, jewel, or animal's flesh and abandoning it at a designated place, it acts as a sacrifice and prayer for victory. The idea of a living sacrifice stands out a lot and can seem to exist in a vacuum, but that's only the extreme version after it all escalated. The original and proper form of a sacrifice is to use an object, a dance, or some other kind of offering that doesn't require taking a life."
"... Eh... ?"
Her mind gave up on parsing that as language.
No, she could not let herself be trapped by her own thoughts.
She could not stop here. She had to keep going.
This was scorching her mind, but it had to be some kind of starting point.
This would help her change the angle at which she viewed the trick art that was the world.
"So I can absorb anything I can destroy with my own hands."
An explosion stabbed across the bridge.
The raincoat girl with the tan lines of a school swimsuit on her bare skin took only a half step to the side.
She smiled.
"But if it's too powerful for me to destroy or it doesn't function as a weapon, then I can't absorb it as a means of attack."
A high-pitched sound filled the air.
Misaka Mikoto had flicked an arcade coin up with her thumb.
Salome's evil expression remained intact.
It was not that she did not know what was coming. She knew and she was waiting for it.
At three times the speed of sound, an orange beam roasted the air as it shot forward.
The air was whipped up.
A violent shockwave surrounded them.
The asphalt was ripped from the road.
"Hee hee."
She laughed.
Unscathed, Mass Murderer Salome laughed with her lightly clenched right hand swept out horizontally.
It had severed the orange trail.
Misaka Mikoto's signature Railgun was nowhere to be seen.
"Something I can't destroy barehanded doesn't normally apply for my External Offering, but now that I've built up this much of a 'chain', pretty much anything goes, don'tcha think?"
"..."
"And now I've consumed the #3's Railgun and offered it up. Its destructive power is now mine. Now. A question. Iron Sand Sword, bicycle, telephone pole, rubble, and a Railgun to finish it off. Now that it's snowballed up so much, just how flashy an attack will this be? The answer is coming up after these messages."
"... Heh."
"Why the hell are you laughing?"
"Well..."
What look did she have on her face right now?
This was even more incredible than that boy. But at the very least, she did not feel despair. Her signature Railgun had not reached her opponent. She should have been panicking, but the shock was surprisingly small. The Magic God known as the High Priest had done the same thing, but that was not enough to explain the lack of shock.
Then what was it?
Mikoto asked herself that, but she did not want to find the answer.
She was pretty sure she would hate herself if she did.
"So it really is out there. I was having trouble finding the stimulus I needed to gain a different view of the trick art known as the world, but here it is just waltzing up to me."
Were her eyes filled with the shadows of a hopelessly dark new moon?
Or were her eyes filled with the light of a hopelessly bright full moon?
She did not want to know.
She did not want to know.
She did not want to know.
"I hate dealing with stuff like this. You've gotta be completely insane."
"More. Give me more. This has to be taking me in the right direction. I can't understand you at all as I am, so if I can overcome you, I can find the next stage I'm looking for!!"
"But I guess I was right to start this here. I'm crazy enough that people call me a mass murderer behind my back, but you're gonna take it even further than me if you keep going in this direction."
Mikoto ignored her.
She greedily licked her lips and pulled out another arcade coin. Taking a direct hit would mean instant death and she could even absorb and accumulate the full power of Academy City's #3, so Mikoto was no match for Mass Murderer Salome. After all, Mikoto could only use "up to" her full power whereas Salome could add more on top of that. The difference was simply insurmountable.
It was kill or be killed.
Those two extremes were the only options and odds were good Mikoto would be the one to die.
But she would do it.
No matter how biased toward her personal viewpoint it was, Mikoto had a reason to defeat Salome.
She would defeat her and ask her how to properly view the trick art that was the world.
She would ask her for the foothold she needed to climb onto the same stage as that boy.
She would make those things hers!!
"Daaaaaahhh!! Stop that, stop that. Why would you create a super opponent that can keep up with your mass murderer side!? Are you seriously trying to bring about the end of the world here!?"
Just before she could, someone interfered.
Flying was not quite the right word. The glasses girl seemed to drop down from the night sky, but she had probably launched herself up by wrapping ivy around the bridge's railing from below.
Her black hair was tied back in twintails and she wore a white dress that looked chilly in midwinter. She would have looked plain, but the giant tropical flowers on either side of her head changed that impression entirely.
She stood next to Misaka Mikoto.
Mikoto could tell she was an esper, even if not one made in Academy City. She would not provide the foothold Mikoto needed to solve the trick art she wanted to process and understand.
"And you stop giving Salome all that unnecessary fuel! Salome is a mass murderer who gains power indefinitely as long as her chain continues. Under the right conditions, she seriously could walk right in and singlehandedly destroy the White House. Priority one when trying to defeat her is to break her chain. It doesn't take that much thought to figure that out, does it!?"
The raincoat girl scratched her head through her waterproof hood and shook the rattling sports bag.
"Hmm. Claire, you're being a little hard on her, don'tcha think? She doesn't know that my External Offering reverts to neutral if I don't give it another weapon within three minutes."
"Shut up, Mass Murderer."
Mikoto's temperature finally dropped below the boiling point.
At the same time, she realized something. If those two were telling the truth, then that sports bag had to contain "emergency rations". Salome could destroy one of its contents if the chain was about to break in order to absorb the new weapon and keep things going for another three minutes.
Claire was exactly right.
When someone set a snowball rolling, the fear began once it reached a certain size. And then even the person who had started it would be crushed if it rolled over them. Plus, Academy City had crammed research institutions and next generation law enforcement weapons into its limited space, so it was just about the worst environment to challenge this girl.
"Kamisato-san has his own plans. Observing his school life should be enough to tell you he doesn't need any direct killing done right now."
"Oh? I was wondering what this was about, but you're putting my brother first, are you? Still, would that coward really agree to harming his little sister?"
"Unfortunately for you, I'm willing to eliminate Kamisato-san's relatives as long as it's for his sake in the end."
The girl named Claire clapped her hands together in front of her chest.
A bewitching light glowed through her glasses and she spoke in a low voice.
"Don't get carried away, little girl. You're just a remora that gains her status by clinging to his brand, so don't think the protection of being his sister will protect you forever. If you think you can trick me into thinking you alone are special, you're dead wrong."
"Oh, dear. Why is everyone around my brother like this? Well, the only difference is that one of us knows we're crazy and the other doesn't, so arguing over who's superior is just plain silly."
The raincoat girl sighed.
"Also, do you honestly think I'll let you stall for three minutes? Don't underestimate me, you little weed. You're at the bottom of the food chain. Blades and weapons are symbols of civilization, so get lost unless you want to get reaped by human hands."
"..."
"..."
The silence lasted a few seconds.
After a dull sound, the two of them vanished from the bridge.
(Into... the river!?)
Mikoto immediately looked to the side, but she could only see a slight disturbance in the moon floating on the dark water's surface. Not even an electromagnetic scan told her what those two were doing, but it seemed they were fighting on top of the water, not in it.
The reading grew more distant.
Misaka Mikoto was dumbfounded for a bit, but then a gust of chilly wind struck her heated body.
That was when her thoughts finally caught up to reality.
"Uuh..."
What had she been trying to do?
What would have happened if that plant girl named Claire had not shown up?
Would she have been unable to find a solution and simply been smashed by Salome?
Or...
Or?
"Urp!!"
She held her mouth.
She curled up on the spot.
She just barely suppressed the rising urge to vomit, but she could not suppress the tears. She sobbed again and again as her entire back shook.
"I hate dealing with stuff like this. You've gotta be completely insane."
That had been an ominous prophecy.
It would have been simple to write it off as some crazy girl's nonsense.
But it echoed in her ears nonetheless.
It echoed there and would not go away.
"I'm crazy enough that people call me a mass murderer behind my back, but you're gonna take it even further than me if you keep going in this direction."
She curled up and curled up and curled up.
She trembled and trembled and trembled.
The unstable girl finally tried to swallow it all down.
But...
Just as she prepared to stand up on her unsteady legs, a question slipped into her brain based on the information planted there by the mass murderer.
——Then what are you going to do?
"... Ah..."
——Can you really remain normal? Can you just really remain where you are?
"Yes."
The biting chill of the wind struck the girl.
Her shaking finally stopped.
Misaka Mikoto slowly but surely stood up.
She stood up.
Between the Lines 2
"Well, this is it..."
It was more than four times larger than a school gym.
A woman in a cheap suit and lab coat sighed as she looked around the vast space.
She was Kihara Yuiitsu.
The countless halogen lights hanging down from the tall, tall ceiling swept away all of the night's darkness. But while the space was filled with light even more dazzling than midday, it was lacking in heating equipment and the biting December chill mercilessly permeated it.
Her breath was white even indoors, but Yuiitsu seemed to be enjoying herself. This actually seemed to give an edge to the speed of her thoughts.
The large space looked like a plane crash investigation.
Bent and mangled metal parts were methodically lined up with alphanumeric plates set up next to them. And those parts belonged to military weapons that would never find their way into civilian hands: excitation rods for laser emission, large missile containers, bunker-busting drills, sprayers for flame throwers or liquid nitrogen, various types of armor and rocket boosters, etc.
Altogether, they were the Anti-Art Attachment.
Not even Kihara Yuiitsu could fully grasp that far-too-unique weapon system and it belonged to someone who was no longer with her.
"Is this what you want to know about, Yuiitsu-chan?"
The small girl next to her, Kihara Enshuu, tilted her head.
She was an expert at emulating the other Kiharas using the screens of smartphones, handheld devices, and handheld game consoles. It was possible she could approach a Kihara Noukan that Kihara Yuiitsu was unfamiliar with.
Yuiitsu smiled.
"I still can't believe that he was taken out, but the facts are the facts. And I will take appropriate revenge on the bastard that did that to him. That's a given.... But if they could defeat him, then their power must be complete overkill. If I try to figure this out after running across them, I'll be taken out in a single blow, unfortunately."
Kihara Yuiitsu was a researcher through and through, so she did not believe in praying to god or karma. What had happened back then? She would dredge up every last piece of information and have a plan to defeat her enemy before actually confronting them.
She had two hints.
First, the Anti-Art Attachment had bizarre scars that did not look like anything from this world.
And second, the Anti-Art Attachment itself.
Know your enemy and know yourself and you need not fear even a hundred battles. Only investigating one side would not make for a proper analysis. She had to know the details of everything related to that battle, so she had to rudely tear away the mysterious veil surrounding her former teacher.
"Um, Yuiitsu-chan? Did you not find anything on Noukan-chan's storage or cloud? Are you relying on me because it was too complexly encrypted?"
"Well..."
For some reason, the woman in cheap suit and lab coat hesitated a moment and awkwardly scratched at her cheek.
"I did get into it, but all I found was a virtual Doberman figurine, a collection of a Great Pyrenees links, a digital handshake ticket for a District 15 Tosa idol, and data for a St. Bernard body pillow that could be ordered with a single click. Yeah, so I thought digging any deeper would be a violation of romance..."
"?"
The two of them weaved between the piles of wreckage and finally arrived at the center of the vast space.
That area alone was empty.
Or perhaps it was the spot where the golden retriever should have been.
"Okay, are you ready to get started?"
"Yes, but..."
Kihara Enshuu seemed unusually hesitant.
The cheap suit and lab coat woman frowned and the small girl continued.
"You won't get mad, Yuiitsu-chan?"
"Why would I?"
"Well, you've had a really scary look on your face for a while now."
"Oh."
Yuiitsu relaxed her shoulders.
Or she thought she did.
"Not to worry. I'm just a little irritated that this person in front of me might know a side of that teacher I wasn't aware of. But that's just the skill you have, so you haven't done anything wrong. Right?"
Enshuu tilted her head because she apparently could not understand that human subtlety.
At any rate, she had permission, so she grabbed one of the many devices dangling from her neck. A complex waveform appeared on the small screen.
"Yes, yes."
She muttered something of unclear meaning.
"I understand. Noukan-chan would do this..."
As Kihara Enshuu stared at the screen with her pupils dilated, irregular convulsions ran through her entire body. Yuiitsu gently supported the small girl's back as she jerked about.
In a seemingly kind yet actually forceful action, she whispered sweetly into Enshuu's ear.
"What do you see?"
"Ah, ahh... ahhh..."
"Enshuu-chan."
She bit the girl's earlobe and gently stroked her back. A mother rubbed her baby's back to stimulate the parasympathetic nerves and physically provide calming signals. But Yuiitsu had a different intent. Her fingers dug in to carve out signals of displeasure that mercilessly prevented Enshuu from departing for a world of trance-like dreams.
With nowhere to escape to, Enshuu's mind raged within her small body, her shoulders and hips jerked around a few more times, and then she finally focused on reality again.
She spoke with weak and feverish breaths.
"I... don't understand it."
"..."
"But I know a familiar sensation. This is the same feeling... as when I tried to dive inside Kagun-chan..."
"Oh, I see."
Yuiitsu grinned and let go of Enshuu's back.
Kihara Kagun, aka Bersi.
He was a heretic among heretics who had reached for techniques beyond science despite being a Kihara. Yuiitsu had some fragmentary information about his self-destructive strategy taken against Kihara Byouri at the end of the Eastern European Baggage City affair.
Kihara Yuiitsu herself had been the one to draw up the blueprints for handling the commotion in Baggage City, so the Board of Directors could not restrict her access to information on what had happened there.
"Pant, pant."
With all strength gone from her body and no more support from the fellow Kihara, the girl crumpled weakly to the floor.
She looked up at Yuiitsu with damp eyes and still managed to force out some words.
"But this is different again from Kagun-chan. It isn't that there are unreadable corrupted files 'inside' Noukan-chan. It's more like there's a link there and carelessly accessing it will send you somewhere else entirely. The source of what made Noukan-chan special must have been 'outside' of him..."
(That explains it. )
Yuiitsu smiled warmly, but her brain worked coldly.
(That's why Kihara Enshuu was isolated in that juvenile hall even though she didn't really need punishment. Someone... someone on the same level as sensei was afraid of having this decoded. )
Kihara Enshuu was not an expert at trickery, but it still had to have been incredibly difficult to get her to hole up deep inside that prison like it was a luxury hotel while thinking it was her own idea. Whoever this was had pulled it off splendidly. It had been enough to completely overturn her murderous schedule and the joy of being needed by those around her.
Yuiitsu's list of candidates was quite short.
And just one person on that list had any real connection with the Kihara brand.
(The Archetype Controller. So it's that Board Chairman. )
"Was I..."
Breathing heavily and face flushed, Enshuu forced her voice from her throat.
"Was I useful, Yuiitsu-chan? Did this... really help... ?"
"Yes, so don't worry."
(I just wanted confirmation from someone else that a normal Kihara can't analyze this. )
She supported the back of the small girl on the floor, gently held her in her arms, and whispered in the ear of this fellow Kihara who had beads of sweat running down her forehead.
She whispered sweetly, kindly, and compassionately.
"Hey, Enshuu-chan? If you're that worried, you can always emulate me... emulate Kihara Yuiitsu."
"Yes, yes. I understand. Yuiitsu Onee-chan would do-... !?"
Enshuu could not finish.
This time, her head dropped as if the thin thread supporting it had snapped. When she saw the girl completely lose consciousness, Kihara Yuiitsu carelessly let go like a child tossing aside a doll she was tired of playing with.
Yuiitsu's expression remained unchanged.
(Oh, dear. Does this mean I have one foot planted on "the other side", just like him?)
"Now, then, " she said quietly.
She left the giant indoor space to gather her thoughts. She did not hesitate to turn her back on the empty spot her beloved golden retriever, Kihara Noukan, had filled.
Some attachment remained. She had regrets.
But she saw no reason to drag them along with her. He had said so when he had left.
She no longer had to be his student. She was to surpass him and become something unique that no one else could.
"..."
She stepped outside.
She reached into her lab coat pocket and pulled out a thin rectangular case. It contained a row of quality cigars. She bit off the tip with her front teeth and placed it between her lips, but she did not light it. Still, that was enough to fill her nose with a pleasantly sweet aroma.
It was December.
She stood outside a papermaking factory late at night. Technically, it was a large box simply registered that way on paper. Kihara Noukan had had replacement weaponry for his Anti-Art Attachment in all twenty three districts and this was one of those storage facilities.
She leaned against the wall and shook the thick cigar in the corner of her mouth as she looked up into the night sky.
(This just about confirms what that power he relied on was. )
The problem had looked unprovable when viewing the numbers, but she had simply lacked the information needed to find the answer and had not even noticed that she was making leaps of logic. That had produced the error.
She only had to analyze it all one thing at a time.
It did not matter how precipitous a problem looked. The answer was always right in front of everyone's eyes; it was just that the people of that era could not see it. Universal gravitation had existed in the BCE days. The theory of relativity had formed the instant the universe came into existence. But the people of the time had not seen it because they thought the world was supported by an elephant or turtle or they thought the universe revolved around the earth.
This was not a paradox that only existed in theory or in a play on words.
These things existed as actual phenomena, so no one could keep those theories and laws to themselves.
Technology and knowledge were equal to all.
(In that case, what was the attack method, effect, conditions, and range of Kamisato Kakeru who slaughtered sensei's "power"? Could I determine that by comparing it to the behavior patterns of Niang-Niang and Nephthys that he warned me about using the term "Magic God"?)
A sound reached Yuiitsu's ears as she immersed herself in thought.
She turned her head and saw a small girl giving her a frightened look from behind the fork lift and wooden boxes used to camouflage the facility. The girl held a leash as if for a pet, but she did not have a normal dog at her feet. Perhaps due to dorm restrictions, a small pet robot was wagging its tail there.
"U-um... Miss. You have a white coat on, so are you from the health department?"
The girl hesitantly spoke to her.
It really was something she should not have done.
"Where is... the gold doggy?"
Kihara Yuiitsu smiled cheerfully.
A moment later, bluish-white sparks exploded in the city night.
The girl swayed to the side and collapsed onto the asphalt ground. Yuiitsu pulled a device resembling a stun gun from her lab coat pocket, but it was not actually a stun gun. It used amplification circuits to send out a high power pulse that destroyed electronic circuits and unlocked doors, but she had further modified it to work on people.
Simply put, it could erase the short-term memories of anyone within ten meters.
The electric signals stored in the cerebral nerves were destroyed and rendered unreadable.
In a way, it was the nastiest nonlethal weapon.
"Just like a chop to the neck or a punch to the stomach, not actually damaging the brain isn't easy."
Rather than the collapsed girl, Kihara Yuiitsu approached the pet robot that lacked the ability to sense the danger. She picked it up, inserted a cable, and read its internal memory. It did not seem to be the type that wirelessly recorded things to the cloud. Not that she had been very worried since she would have received advance warning if it had been sending out electromagnetic waves or an infrared signal.
After modifying a few of the image records, Kihara Yuiitsu slowly exhaled.
She set down the pet robot after switching it off.
Killing any witnesses, regardless of age or sex, would be faster. It reduced the risk of the memories or records being repaired. More importantly, it was much more Kihara-like.
But she did not do that.
She clicked her tongue, pulled out her cellphone, and called someone.
"Yes, yes. Case C has occurred, so take response #4. I already took out their 'eyes', so you have to deal with that. Prioritize removing everything from the site and erasing all traces within twenty minutes. I'll leave the next candidate site to you, but return to normal duties within three hours and don't forget to set up an above average level of security. And don't make a big commotion. That would gather attention and have the opposite effect."
There was no such thing as perfect security.
So instead of gathering attention by building the thickest barrier possible, she focused on blending into the background so no one would target her in the first place.
And of course, her surprised subordinates asked why.
Not that they would expect this to overturn her decision.
"Well..."
Kihara Yuiitsu did not give it much serious thought.
She simply looked down at the girl and pet robot that lay on the asphalt like they were dead. She was probably thinking about that girl whose dorm did not allow her to have a pet and the golden retriever who had given that normal person a small taste of her dream.
Then the Kihara answered with the unlit cigar in her mouth.
She did not hesitate.
"Because that is the essence of romance, I suppose."
Notes
1. ↑ The kanji for World Rejecter.
| ← Ch. 157 | Ch. 159 → |