novelThe Wandering Beast and Outside the Cage. Dead_Girl (1)
| ← Ch.083 | Ch.085 → |
Part 1
If he was being perfectly honest, he could not say it had not irritated him.
Tsuchimikado Motoharu had been a magician who had earned the title of an Onmyou expert at a very young age. Officially, magic was known as a field for those without talent to overcome those with talent. For that reason, he did not like the term, but "genius" did fit him quite well. That was how skilled he was.
And then he had been given the mission to sneak into Academy City.
He was to sneak in as a student, so he would need to undergo the psychic powers development of the science side. One did not even need to read the records on the accident involving Sherry Cromwell and Ellis Warrior to know the simple fact that espers could not use magic.
Simply put, the Anglican Church had asked him to abandon magic.
He had of course wondered why he had been chosen and resented the higher ups for choosing him. If it had simply been a means of taking care of someone the higher ups felt was a bit too skilled, he would have simply laughed and left the organization. What was not funny was the fact that he truly had been the best suited person for the undercover mission.
And if Tsuchimikado Motoharu had not accepted that, the balance between magic and science would have collapsed.
Something had been advancing below the surface that had forced them to make that judgment.
"If you are to fake your identity as a student, you must have all the relationships that come with it."
The one who had shrugged and told him that had likely been Bishu.
"In other words, a family."
Tsuchimikado Motoharu, Tsuchimikado Bishu, and Tsuchimikado Touzu.
The last two were not to sneak into Academy City. They merely took on those names to play the role of his family outside the city. But they had been forced to abandon their family names of Urabe and Ashiya, so it could not have been an enjoyable task for them.
Tsuchimikado Motoharu had lightly clicked his tongue and replied, "This fake identity will be seen through in half a day."
"Then how about we mix some truth in with the lies?" Bishu had immediately replied. The response had seemed arbitrary on the surface, but she had of course prepared everything in advance."After you arrive in Japan, go around to different orphanages. Choose a... young girl to add to the family. This will be a girl who truly knows nothing of magic or science. Her existence will confuse the analysts in Academy City's intelligence department. They may think you might be an enemy, but they will find it too irrational for an enemy to do this."
It had not been an enjoyable suggestion.
He was being ordered to bring an innocent girl into the picture.
"That may help, but it still won't last longer than 3 days. I don't see the point."
"Three days is long enough for the entire world to change, " Bishu had said."Sneak into that city of science and show some results before their intelligence department catches up to you. If you are able to become indispensable to them, you might be able to 'stick' when they try to wash you away."
That had been the circumstances surrounding it.
It had been a family that was held together by lies and contained no hint of love.
The reason Tsuchimikado Motoharu had chosen that girl to join the family had been quite simple: her circumstances made it easy to fake her official records. That was all there had been to it.
And so...
Tsuchimikado Motoharu had said the following to that girl while on the way to Academy City with her:
"If you do not question the circumstances you find yourself in, I will give you anything you want."
That had been the extent of the contract between them.
It had been his way of apologizing in advance for an expert like him getting an amateur like her involved.
That girl of course had not understood the situation, so she had tilted her head in confusion.
"You'll do anything for me?"
"Within certain limits."
"But..." That girl had smiled as she continued to speak truly smoothly."If I have a ticket like that, I should give it to someone who actually needs it."
"..."
He had not expected that response.
Tsuchimikado Motoharu had been abandoning everything about himself as a magician. And that response had been enough to softly stimulate something that had just barely begun to appear within him.
Part 2
Diazinon Insecticide - Toxic.
Those words were printed in large text on the side of a tanker truck. The driver's side door opened and Fugan Ryuuzou stepped out onto the asphalt. He inserted bill after bill into a drink vending machine on the sidewalk and pressed the green tea button repeatedly. He had a small refrigerator inside the truck similar to a hotel or hospital room, but the drinks inside had run out.
A light electronic tone rang from the pocket of his work uniform.
He used different tones to distinguish between business and private and this was the business one. He pulled out his cell phone with a grimace. Even more wrinkles covered his face when he saw an even more ridiculous order than he had expected.
Nothing was blatantly spelled out in the email, but a list of unrealistic "products" was hidden beneath the surface if one saw through each of the metaphors and codes.
"An auto-loading mortar? What are they thinking? Are they planning to load it into a disaster relief robot to cause some kind of disturbance?"
Fugan was not a weapons seller.
He was nothing more than a designer. Whether it was a safe device or a dangerous one, he would draw up the plans for whatever his clients asked for and send those plans to them over the internet. Thanks to private video services becoming so plentiful lately, net rentals with excellent copy guarding and timed file deletion had become easy. He had no trouble passing the necessary data to the client while also preventing the data from spreading uncontrollably.
As he walked toward the tanker truck holding a large number of plastic bottles, Fugan thought about whether he should accept this job or not. His initial opinion was 8 to 2 opposed to the idea. With this sort of job, there was no established price, but the amount suggested was still a problem. But not because it was too low. It was too high. This was likely either a rookie who knew nothing of the business or an Anti-Skill sting operation.
(Well, first impressions are important. I just finished a major job, so I don't need to take any risks. In this field, you will never survive if you can't trust your own nose. )
As he thought, he opened the driver's side door and leaned inside to drop the drink bottles on the seat.
And then...
Someone kicked the door closed with Fugan Ryuuzou caught in the middle.
"Bh... gh!?"
Fugan's entire body convulsed as if he was being bitten into by a dinosaur. He felt so much pain he was amazed he was not coughing up blood. He might have broken some ribs, but the attacker did not care. Fugan's arms were brought behind him and handcuffed. The attacker grabbed his clothes, spun him around 180 degrees, and slammed his back up against the side of the driver's seat.
The attacker was a boy who had thin-lensed glasses and short hair dyed brown.
He was Tsuchimikado Motoharu.
"... Pant... pant... Why?"
"Why do you think?" said Tsuchimikado in a low voice."Why do you think a weapons seller like you is being attacked now?"
"..."
For an instant, the attacker glanced somewhere else. Fugan wanted as much information as he could, so he desperately followed the boy's gaze while the boy still held his collar. Inside the half-open truck door was the small screen of the car navigation system. It had 1seg functionality and could receive the news.
Fugan could only think of one possible connection.
The recent news of a fire that had been disguised as a completely normal incident.
"Wait! Please wait! I had nothing to do with that. I only sold the designs. This is how I make my way through the underside of this city without dirtying my own hands. Do you really think I would do something to anger you!?"
"Are you saying you don't know where the weapon you sold the plans to was manufactured or who did it?"
Tsuchimikado gave a small smile.
However, his eyes were not smiling.
"Liar."
"..."
"You're afraid of these dangerous weapons plans spreading uncontrollably, so you use the net rental format. I doubt someone like that would stop tracking things after the sale. You monitor them. You check to make sure what you created is only used within the scope of their request."
"I-I don't do that. You're just speculating. What proof of this do you-..."
Fugan Ryuuzou trailed off.
This was because Tsuchimikado had suddenly let go of his collar. Fugan fell into a sitting position and coughed.
And then he saw it.
That boy in the chic jacket was pulling out a toolbox from the floor of the passenger seat.
"W-wait..."
"Did you think this was a police interrogation room where you would be served katsudon? Or were you expecting a scene of me presenting evidence sealed in plastic bags?"
"Wait!! Why are you lining up wrenches and crowbars on the street!?"
"Then again, recording things like they do in an interrogation room isn't a bad idea. Or maybe a live broadcast would be better. I may not look it, but I know how to put on a blue-fin tuna dissection show. I can even show you your beating heart while you are still breathing. Do you know how hard it is to bring out the heart without using anesthesia?"
"... !!!???"
Fugan almost cried out in fear, but he managed to cover his mouth with one hand. Tsuchimikado had started by breaking his pinky finger.
"Bbh... Bbah!! I-I get it... wait, stop!!"
Next came his ring finger.
And then Tsuchimikado reached for the man's plump middle finger.
"Stop!! Stop! I-I'll talk... !!"
In truth, Tsuchimikado did not have time to slowly torture the man. If an unrelated person came along and called Anti-Skill, it was all over. And a rotten weapons seller who dealt with the dark side would never break in just a few minutes if all Tsuchimikado did was punch and kick him.
Not all pain was equal.
Some was worth much more than others.
How much fear could be produced with a single act of violence? That was where the preparations became important. It was not just in the medieval witch hunts that experts would line up cruel collection of overly musty tools with ominous stains still on them. Even if those tools were never used, they could still be quite effective.
Tsuchimikado Motoharu was not only a member of the science side as a resident of Academy City.
He was also a member of the magic side as an expert from the Anglican Church which specialized in inquisitions.
"I'll talk!! I'll talk!! What do you want to know first!?"
As Fugan's trembling almost reached the point of being convulsions, Tsuchimikado grabbed his collar once more and slammed his back against the side of the tanker truck.
He slowly spoke in the man's ear.
"If someone sees us and interrupts this, I will kill you. So make sure you tell me everything before that happens, okay?"
"... I-I fucked up big time, " weakly spat out Fugan."It was wrong of me to hold some strange sense of justice despite being so deep in this world. I caught a glimpse of something I should not have seen."
"What exactly was it?"
"Wait..." Fugan Ryuuzou shook his head while Tsuchimikado still held his collar."Please, please. I know this is someone dangerous. I don't want to make an enemy of them. I'm already on the edge of a cliff here! I think what happened to your friend was unfortunate, but that doesn't mean I'm ready to die with you!!"
"..."
"I wasn't able to track them! I've been involved in a lot of dangerous incidents, but this is the first time I've completely lost the trail. I don't know who exactly this is, but I know they're dangerous. This was a sign that I shouldn't investigate any further. I don't want a monster like that turning their focus on me! Please believe me! I really don't know anything more!!"
"I see. Fine then."
"What are you-... ?" started Fugan before catching on.
After letting go of the man's collar, Tsuchimikado Motoharu pulled out Fugan's business phone and used his thumb to operate it.
"I hear you're one of the top weapons sellers in the city. You must make a lot of money."
"I'm a general designer. It just so happens that most of the requests I get are for weapons."
"This was clever of you." Tsuchimikado used a fist to bang on the tank loaded on the back of the large vehicle."Undiluted toxic insecticide. With that kind of warning, Anti-Skill isn't going to open it up and check inside even if you're pulled over at a checkpoint or for questioning. And even if they crack it open, they'll back off when the smell hits them. No one will try to check further inside. And no thief is going to steal such an obvious truck. Gold bars are heavy, so a weapons seller who doesn't trust the defenses of internet banks needs a giant vault on wheels to carry around his earnings."
With that casual comment, Tsuchimikado tossed the cell phone back toward Fugan. The man's arms were handcuffed behind him, so he could not catch it. However, when it bounced off his chest and landed on the asphalt with the screen up, his eyes opened wide.
"I announced your defeat and revealed the secret of your vault. The hyenas should arrive in 5 to 10 minutes."
"Ah... ah..."
"If you won't give me the information I need, I'll try someone else. This is a total of 7 billion yen, after all. I'm sure someone important will be mixed in with the hyenas. I'll pursue them."
"Ah... Aaaahhhhh!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"
Fugan cried out and slammed his heel against the ground.
But before the sneak attack gimmick hidden in his shoe could show itself, Tsuchimikado grabbed his collar and threw him onto the sidewalk.
"Bh... bgh... !?"
"I'm not going to kill you here. Killing you would be easier, but I won't. Do you know why that is?" slowly asked Tsuchimikado while crouching down next to the man. A cold look could be seen beyond the lenses of his glasses."Because this way is more effective. The sight of a crippled herbivore being devoured by hyenas is quite unpleasant. I recommend you hide somewhere and wait out the storm."
Fugan Ryuuzou was lying on the ground having trouble breathing and Tsuchimikado unhesitatingly stomped on the man's right knee.
He heard the dull sound of the joint breaking followed by a scream.
"Agh... aghaaahh!! Agyagahh!?"
"This is what you get, you piece of shit. The plans you prepared were used to make a weapon to kill my little sister. You don't get to say you had nothing to do with it."
"Shit! Damn you!! I'm still handcuffed. How am I supposed to run away without my leg!?"
"Don't ask me. If the hyenas find you, your life is over. Crawl away. That suits you."
Tsuchimikado headed for the back of the tanker truck while ignoring the designer writhing on the ground.
Fugan could do nothing with his arms restrained behind him and one knee crushed.
Despite his erratic breathing, he loudly asked, "Ow... What is it? What are you willing to go this far to search for!?"
Without turning around, the jacketed boy replied, "The Agitate Halation project."
Everything had changed the instant he had gotten involved in that.
In that case, the identity of the person who had thrown his little sister into a sea of flames had to be connected to that project.
Part 3
Learning facilities were often created with public funding. That was why those nonprofit institutions often managed to not be pushed on by the flow of time.
For example, a library.
And unlike a middle or high school, elementary schools (mostly) did not need to worry about entrance exam preparations. For that reason, the libraries near them did not have a specialized space for quiet studying. Some might then wonder what the point of the building was, but if one took a step back and looked at it, it may have looked like a day care center.
"Nyah, nyah! Santa Claus really, really does exist! Nyah!!"
"Don't be stupid. There's no way Santa is real!!"
Despite that fairly chaotic argument being shouted back and forth in the afterschool library, the young female librarian did not try to stop them. Even if the library was meant to be orderly and quiet, she may have felt this was better than the complete silence of the library being empty because no one read books anymore. There was also the Learning Core facility nearby that was a combination of a museum, a library, and other similar institutions. The library needed to compromise if it was to survive.
The blonde-haired, blue-eyed elementary school girl in the center of the commotion was Fremea Seivelun. Her class was having a debate over whether Santa Claus existed. The class had split between the "he does" side (mostly girls) and the "he doesn't" side (mostly boys) and the situation had almost developed into a fight. Every time Fremea moved about roughly, the white rhinoceros beetle key chain on her red backpack would shake around.
This conflict would produce nothing but sorrow, so the class's intellectual girl (with glasses) had made a suggestion to put an end to it. She had suggested going to the library to check to see who was right.
And so...
"Nyah! See, it says it right here! In the first place, Santa Claus exists!!"
"You idiot. That's a picture book!! Japan's skies are protected by radar. If a sled was flying through the sky, it would be spotted right away!!"
"Nyah! In the first place, what is radar!?"
"I don't know, but radar is radar!"
But then the intellectual girl (with glasses) found a book that mentioned that NORAD, famous for ballistic missile defense, used radars and satellites to track Santa Claus. This only confused the situation further.
A few of the boys who had grown tired of the fight, decided to make a pass at the young female librarian (with giant breasts). She had been trying to read an SF novel (that she had brought from home) which used way too much hard slang to ever receive a translated version.
"Hey, hey. Does Santa exist or not?"
"I make a point of not discussing religion, baseball, politics, or what the best ramen shop in Japan is."
"Is it true there's a miniskirt Santa?"
"Eh? There's a bearded old man wearing a miniskirt?"
And then a new development occurred with Fremea and the others who were still arguing.
It started with a comment from the intellectual girl (with glasses).
She nervously asked, "Um, Fremea-chan?"
"Nyah! What is it, Azumi? In the first place, are you trying to say Santa Claus doesn't exist too!?"
"N-no, it's not that." The girl named Azumi seemed to hesitate over whether she should say something but finally spoke."Hey, Fremea-chan. If Santa really does exist..."
"Nyah?"
"There's a story in Germany about a black Santa Claus that kidnaps bad children. So is that true too?"
A new topic had appeared.
Panic filled the afterschool library.
Part 4
As expected, Fugan Ryuuzou's tanker truck was attacked within minutes. The situation was reminiscent of leaving a sugar cube near an ant hill. At first, a few groups began fighting over it, but they soon realized it would all be for naught if someone called Anti-Skill. Once they decided to work together, they used gas burners and high pressure water jets to disassemble the tank and take away all the gold bars.
The weapons seller who owned the truck had hidden directly below it. It had been a desperate strategy forced onto him by his inability to move. If any of the men had glanced under the truck, his death would have been unavoidable.
"..."
Tsuchimikado was on the roof of a nearby building.
He was monitoring the situation using binoculars that could digitally change the magnification. One of the hyenas may have been keeping track of the time with a stopwatch because they scattered at exactly seven minutes. Tsuchimikado started hearing Anti-Skill sirens two minutes after that, but it was of course too late.
(Now then... )
Tsuchimikado took a deep breath and pressed a few buttons on the side of the binoculars.
He switched the mode over to one that displayed a few glowing bluish-white lines on the cityscape below. The lines were all straight but took countless turns along the way as if they were carelessly travelling through a maze. Needless to say, the lines indicated the escape routes of the hyenas who had taken the gold bars.
Tsuchimikado had added a special "scent" to the gold bars Fugan had collected.
(When things go this well, I start to suspect a trap. )
The hyenas had started fighting when they first saw each other, so they were obviously not comrades. The different teams naturally used different escape routes.
However, as Tsuchimikado watched on from the rooftop, the scattered groups started to converge on the same point.
(Just as I thought, someone bigger is secretly controlling all of the hyenas. )
Tsuchimikado noted the location and then left the building rooftop.
The hyenas all gathered at a coin laundry in District 7. Or technically, the ruins of one. None of them were stupid enough to try to just take the gold bars with them. They needed to be "laundered" by melting them down and altering their form. A large-scale facility was needed to process so much gold, so the hyenas left their gold bars at the coin laundry to let a specialist handle it.
However...
The person controlling the hyenas would of course disappear with the gold instead.
Tsuchimikado hid near the abandoned coin laundry and waited for the hyenas to leave. As he continued to watch the abandoned building, a new figure appeared. Once he saw a young woman drive up in a street cleaner and enter the building, Tsuchimikado followed.
Two men were set up as guards at the entrance, but they were on the lookout for weapons and esper powers.
The street cleaner, the guard rail, the street signs, and the asphalt.
They were surrounded by all sorts of hard objects, but they did not give them much thought. A blow to the head knocked them both unconscious.
Partially to prevent a surprise attack, Tsuchimikado tossed the men into the abandoned building.
"Hi, there."
"!?"
The young woman wearing a tight jacket and a long skirt frantically turned around and brought a hand to her back, but then she froze in place
Tsuchimikado smiled.
"That's right. If we start a firefight here, Anti-Skill will show up. Those gold bars are heavy. You would have to abandon the treasure you went to such effort to gather."
"Dammit... You put a 'scent' on them, didn't you!?" spat out the young woman as she kicked a dirty dryer.
The ruins of washers and dryers lined up along the wall had likely been used as lockers by the hyenas. By telling them which dryer on which row to use, each hyena would put their gold bars in one of the lockers without realizing a different hyena put gold bars in the locker right next to it.
"I didn't expect to find the Spider Queen was behind this. You're one of the official intermediaries. There are even rumors that you're an AI with no real form."
"Stop it. I was already regretting that I'd lost my edge. I was seriously considering retiring."
Tsuchimikado let out a small sigh and said, "Do you want to know what kind of perfume I used? You'll have no way of laundering the gold without that information. There are some scents that stick around even at the high temperatures needed to melt gold."
"Tch. What do you want in exchange?"
"The Agitate Halation project.... Who would want to kill someone over that name?"
"Do you really think I know everything the higher ups are after? If so, you're overestimating me."
"But you pay careful attention to the soldiers below you. Your specialty is spreading your web to control people."
"Even that has its limits. I can only wrap my web around those I deal with directly as an intermediary."
Tsuchimikado almost burst out laughing when he heard that.
It was a blatant lie. But it was also the answer he had expected.
He had already lost a fair bit of time, so he made a mental memo that he needed to take some shortcuts.
"That may be the industry rules, but it doesn't add up. You've spread your web around everywhere to control the entire battlefield. And that means you need information from more than just your allies.... You've been spying on people, haven't you? On your enemies, on your allies, and on the data controlled by the other intermediaries."
The Spider Queen let out a deep sigh.
And then she said, "Maybe I should give up on the gold and kill you here."
"I suppose you would be eliminated if this information got out. If it was me, I would fake my own death and get cosmetic surgery. And you just so happen to have the funds for it."
The young woman only grew more frustrated and scratched at her hair.
"I get the feeling you'll torture me if I give this answer, but I don't know. I haven't been given any jobs or allocated any personnel related to the term Agitate Halation."
"Could you have taken the job without being told the name?"
"It's certainly possible, but if I was, I think I would have heard the term at some point during the job. If any of my pawns see something they were not meant to see, they have to give a debriefing. After all, there are certain taboos that must be hidden no matter what. However, " added the Spider Queen."This is the age of the internet. Some of the most dangerous jobs are given directly to the pawns without using an intermediary. Although that just seems like suicide to me."
"Do you have a way of knowing when that happens?"
"There are a few pawns who have left my control in the middle of another job, but that's all I know. You're free to try your luck and attack these pawns, but you might find they're involved in some other dangerous project that has nothing to do with Agitate Halation."
"That's fine, " replied Tsuchimikado with a shrug."Give me the list.... I'm not expecting to easily pick the right one. I'm just hoping I will find the right one after trying all of them."
The Spider Queen pulled a memo pad from her jacket pocket, jotted down a few names, ripped off the page, balled it up, and tossed it toward Tsuchimikado.
"That paper is made from corn starch and the pen uses chocolate ink. If you eat it, you will digest it. Do you understand what I'm getting at?"
Tsuchimikado checked the names and then swallowed the list.
He grimaced.
"You could at least fry it and add some salt."
"Is that so? Well, those are the ones who ignored my services and took jobs on their own. You could say they betrayed me. You can deal with them however you like. How about you fry them and add some salt?"
She used people as she saw fit and then responded like this when she was betrayed. Perhaps one had to be that way to survive in the city's darkness.
"I've told you everything I know.... What number is the perfume you put on the gold?"
"Clairpharm #1056."
"Shit!! That's a cheap one that disappears at 300 degrees!!"
The Spider Queen looked angry enough to ignore her situation and start firing her handgun like crazy, but Tsuchimikado merely smiled, raised his middle finger, and left the abandoned coin laundry.
The memo he had swallowed had listed around 10 names.
The odds were extremely good that one or all of them had driven Tsuchimikado Maika to her death.
Part 5
Who is the terrifying black Santa Claus!?
His official name was Knecht Ruprecht. This mysterious person was occasionally spotted in Germany. The good children would have presents brought to their houses by the normal Santa Claus while the bad children would be visited by this creepy black Santa Claus who covered himself in pitch black clothes. Those bad children would be stuffed into a giant bag and would never be seen again. No one knew what happened to the bad children after that.
"Ny-nyahh..."
"Don't worry!! Santa doesn't even exist in the first place! It's unscientific! Both the red and black ones don't exist!!"
"No, Santa Claus exists! In the first place, I know the truth!!"
"Then that means the black Santa is real too! He'll probably be stopping by your place."
"Fgyaahhh!!"
It was evening while Fremea and the other children were trembling and heading back to their dorms in District 13. The elementary schools were gathered in this district and the dorms provided many more services than those for older children. Naturally, some people wondered why the children were left unsupervised as they walked home if both the school and the dorm were so heavily supervised. However, letting them walk home was considered important for many different reasons: it gave them firsthand experience with the traffic rules, it prevented them from becoming too out of shape, it helped cultivate a sense of direction, it helped develop their spatial awareness, it taught them how to read a map, etc.
However...
This allowed ghost stories to be told on the way home from school.
It was not unusual for Anti-Skill to come running after someone spotted a mysterious person hanging around, but it always turned out to be a sociologist or folklorist studying the creation and spread of rumors.
The intellectual girl (with glasses) named Azumi nervously said, "U-um, but the black Santa Claus only takes away bad children."
"Nyah. And?"
"If the black Santa Claus does exist, won't he stay away as long as we are good?"
That was of course the exact reason German mothers spread the story, but Fremea and the others did not think it through that far.
"Ny-nyah... You're right. Then we're safe! Nyah!"
"Don't act like you're a good kid."
"Nyah! In the first place, if the black Santa Claus is coming, he'll be coming for you!!"
Another fight broke out. The white rhinoceros beetle key chain on her red backpack shook as she moved.
And then...
The intellectual girl (with glasses) named Azumi tugged on Fremea's clothes. Fremea looked over in confusion to find Azumi frozen stiff and looking off into the distance. She was looking quite high up. Her gaze was fixed on the rooftop of one of the buildings lining either side of the road.
She had glimpsed some sort of black figure.
It had been so quick she had not seen the details, but she had definitely seen the black figure holding some sort of large white cloth.
"It's the black Santa Claus..." muttered Azumi.
He really existed.
And this black Santa Claus supposedly abducted bad children. Once Fremea's thoughts made it that far, she let out a gasp.
"H-Hamazura's in trouble!!"
"?"
Meanwhile, Kuroyoru Umidori, a partial cyborg and resident of the city's dark side, frowned while jumping from building to building. She wore a top and bottom made of tight black leather and a white coat with just the hood over her head.
She had heard some kind of commotion on the surface, so she wondered if something had happened. (Although she was not the type to go help if something had. )
"Well, who cares. I have work to do.... Wah!?"
Kuroyoru let out a shout just as she tried to get back to the task at hand. She had almost stepped on a girl wearing a white dress who was sleeping on the rooftop with a body pillow shaped like a white rhinoceros beetle. Kuroyoru could not guess where the girl had gotten it, but there was a chicken sleeping next to her while puffing itself up with its feathers.
"Mumble mumble... Dreams are so delicious... This information is worth eating..."
"She's insane..." muttered Kuroyoru Umidori before quickly leaving.
Part 6
This was an old story.
Tsuchimikado Motoharu had successfully infiltrated Academy City.
However, his guess of it lasting three days had been a bit too high. It had actually taken only 36 hours for him to be found out as a spy sent by the Anglican Church.
If he had been even a bit slower making his preparations, he would have been assassinated.
On that day, Tsuchimikado Motoharu had been forced to go from being a spy for the magic side to being a double spy who passed information to both science and magic. This had all been according to plan, but both the Anglican Church and Academy City were not single solidified organizations. He had to pay careful attention to ensure he was not stabbed in the back by someone.
He and Tsuchimikado Maika had ended up living in separate student dorms, but their relationship had started to change bit by bit.
"That is a good sign."
It had probably been Bishu who had laughed and told him that over the phone.
While observing Maika, he had discovered that she always wanted to share her possessions with others. She loved cookies and chocolate, but she would readily split them with others. She would finish her homework early so she could show it to her classmates the following day. It sounded good to say she naturally liked to help others, but as an intelligence specialist, Tsuchimikado Motoharu had immediately determined what it was that motivated this side of her.
She wanted to be useful.
What that meant completely changed when one realized it was because she did not want to be abandoned by others.
That was why she had always given others the #1 spot and shared her possessions with them.
Tsuchimikado Motoharu had set one of his goals to eliminating those worries and fears of hers. If he was going to use her in the framework of a family member, he had decided he needed to give her every benefit of being in a family. He had seen that as perfecting his camouflage.
But he had failed.
Tsuchimikado Motoharu had always been an expert spy. If necessary, he could fake a coincidence, approach his target, and become their good friend within 15 minutes. Yet even he had failed. He had watched the direction of her gaze, the strength of her tone, the trembling of her lips, and the minute movements of her fingertips. He had accurately read everything about Tsuchimikado Maika from the visible reactions on the surface of her body, but all of his prearranged conversations had ended in failure.
"Hey, I hear there's a school that trains maids in District 7."
She had said that when she was just about to enter middle school.
She had wanted to be useful. She had even wanted to perform physical labor for others.
According to Tsuchimikado Motoharu's analysis, that had been based in dark fears of being abandoned.
But she had said more.
"Helping everyone live their lives with a smile is the most wonderful dream I can think of."
Once she had revealed her cards to that extent, Tsuchimikado Motoharu had finally realized something.
He had been analyzing Maika under the assumption that everyone had a hidden side. That was why he had completely misread her and had not given her what she wanted.
Tsuchimikado Maika had not been an enemy during a spy mission.
She had been family.
She had not been someone whose every statement and action he had to read between the lines of so he could act first.
She had finally let him realize such a simple fact.
"Ahh..."
In the end, Tsuchimikado Motoharu had been wrong to think he needed to save Tsuchimikado Maika.
It had been the same as someone cleaning his room when faced with a huge pile of homework. It had been nothing but an escape. He had wanted the goal of mentally saving his stepsister as a distraction from the pressure created by the constant threat of an assassin from either the science side or the magic side.
And so...
From that moment on, Tsuchimikado Motoharu had silently sworn to truly protect his little sister.
He had sworn to protect that true family member who had slowly taught him something so obvious.
Part 7
The first was Anjou Haruka.
She was found floating face down in a District 18 river.
The second was Kuromatsu Takao.
He was found hanged by a rope from a tree in the mountains of District 21.
The third was Imagawa Shiguma.
He was found with gum stuffed down his throat in a back alley of District 15.
...
...
...
"!!"
Tsuchimikado jumped from rooftop to rooftop.
His gaze was fixed on the back of a man around 15 meters ahead of him.
He was in District 15. This chase scene through Academy City's largest shopping district had started in an underground mall and eventually moved to building rooftops.
(You aren't getting away. )
These were the 10 possible members of the team that had been tasked with killing Tsuchimikado Maika.
A quick investigation had found that nine of the ten were already dead. And these were not natural deaths. Now that their job to kill Tsuchimikado Maika was complete, they were being buried in the darkness. It was the most obvious sort of one way trip.
This man was the sole survivor.
This could very well be the last person who knew who had truly been behind the plot to kill his stepsister.
(I will not let you get away!! If you get away after all this, I lose everything!!)
All of the previous victims had been killed by some form of suffocation. The second victim had been hanged by a rope just long enough that he could barely reach the ground on his tiptoes. Whoever had killed him had gone to a lot of effort to ensure the death was by suffocation.
This was a combination of surefire results and a cruel sense of playfulness.
Tsuchimikado did not know who had done it, but they had clearly been a specialist. The person was enough of a specialist that a lead of only one minute or even one second could influence the fate of those involved.
"You shit!!"
The fleeing man pulled out something.
Its barrel was too thick to be a submachine gun. It was a handheld grenade launcher.
With a muffled noise, an object was fired in a parabola. Tsuchimikado frantically jumped to the side.
The weapon did not produce a normal explosion.
Instead, a high-pitched whistling sound burst out.
"Gah.... !!"
(An ultrasonic weapon!!)
The weapon had been developed for quickly suppressing an enemy in a location such as a museum or armory where secondary damage had to be avoided at all costs. Simply put, it used noise to tear apart the lungs from the inside. That cruel toy would cause anyone directly hit by it to drown in their own blood.
(But its range must be really small if I was able to avoid it at the last second. Why is he using something like that?)
The man fired a second and then third canned coffee-sized object.
Instead of trying to hit Tsuchimikado, he seemed to be trying to cut off Tsuchimikado's paths of escape.
(It uses a timed fuse. It takes somewhere between 3 and 5 seconds!)
Tsuchimikado reached around to the back of his chic jacket and pulled out a semi-automatic handgun. He did not even have time to carefully aim. He pulled the trigger and shot one of the grenades out of the air.
"Ah..." said the man in surprise, but Tsuchimikado ignored him.
Tsuchimikado ran through the opening he had made in the wall of grenades.
The man who had hastily assumed Tsuchimikado was done for quickly prepared to flee once more. He frantically swapped out the thick magazine for his weapon and grimaced when he saw something on a display. He opened a cover on the grenade launcher and sprayed some kind of coolant inside.
"..."
Tsuchimikado's first shot hit the man in the shoulder.
Before he could even cry out, the second shot hit the coolant spray the man had dropped at his feet. It exploded.
With an unnatural white steam enveloping his legs, the man fell face down with his eyes opening wide. He seemed unsure whether he should touch his ankles which had been transformed into something like a frozen fish.
"Gyah! Gbh!! Uuh... My legs... !?"
"Don't move, " said Tsuchimikado Motoharu as he approached the man while circling around the white steam. He returned his handgun to his belt."Modern technology can perfectly thaw out your legs as long as they take extra care while transporting you to the hospital. But once they break, they can never be fixed. I recommend not provoking me."
"Shit, " cursed the man as he slammed a fist against the concrete floor. He clenched his teeth, but he understood that he could not escape."What do you want to know?"
"Nine of your colleagues were killed over the past few hours. You are the only one left. Do you know why this might be?"
"..."
While the man fell silent, Tsuchimikado slowly placed his foot on top of the man's frozen ankle.
This ankle was now less reliable than a biscuit.
The man frantically shook his head.
"Wait! Wait!!"
"Tell me everything you know."
"I am... well, what they call a 'destroyer'!!"
"... ?"
"I slip into large projects at the bottom level. I then intentionally cause trouble and secretly kill my colleagues. Those that want the project to succeed no matter what will want a greater guarantee of their success. They don't want any more problems and so the price of each individual soldier is driven up."
(In that case... )
Tsuchimikado thought back over the names of the nine who had already died.
He thought back over the fates of the team sent to carry out the mission.
Their deaths had not been an attempt to cover up the evidence of the plot to kill Maika.
"Heh. I did quite a bit of damage, didn't I?"
"You piece of shit..."
That was also why the man used those ultrasonic weapons with a low destructive range when another type of grenade would have been more dangerous.
He was the specialist who had insisted on suffocating them. There had been no perfect way of estimating their time of death. However, this made it obvious they had been killed just before they were meant to attack Maika.
"But I didn't expect what happened next. I thought I had stopped the fire by killing those nine, but there must have been more people involved than I thought. The overall plan continued and now I'm not getting paid because I 'didn't do my job'."
"Who is it?" asked Tsuchimikado in a low voice."Who is behind all this!?"
"That's all I can tell you."
"Do you want me to shatter one of your legs?"
"This is as much information as I'm willing to give in exchange for my legs! If you're gonna do it, then do it. I'd rather live the rest of my life in a wheelchair then anger this person!!"
"I see."
All emotion disappeared from Tsuchimikado's eyes.
Every last hint.
"Then I just have to do something even more horrible."
"What?" said the man nervously, but Tsuchimikado ignored him and stuck a hand inside his jacket.
He pulled out the kind of simple travel toothbrush sold at any convenience store.
"Wh-what?"
"What do you think I'm going to do?"
Tsuchimikado also pulled out a small tube similar to the ones containing sauce for a bento. He squeezed some toothpaste out of it and onto the toothbrush.
"If you use this in a way it is not meant to be used, you can make even a battle-hardened mercenary cry like a baby. So how can I use this normal toothbrush in such a devilish way? Hint: mucous membranes."
Tsuchimikado applied a great pressure on the man by intentionally leaving out the details.
The man was caught by the technique in just two seconds.
He already had both legs literally frozen, but now he was unable to even move his fingertips.
"Stop... wait! Stay back!! Stop!!"
The man's shouts suddenly ended.
Something like a dart had stabbed into the side of his neck.
It had been a long distance attack.
"!!"
Tsuchimikado suddenly jumped behind an outdoor air conditioning unit. But he quickly realized that was not enough.
(What was that? Did that dart just fall straight down from the sky!?)
Once he had crawled into the gap between the air conditioner and the concrete floor, Tsuchimikado finally had time to carefully yet nervously observe what had happened.
"..."
The back of the object had feather-like objects attached and the sharpened needle on the front had the sort of drug administering case used with tranquilizer darts. However, the effects were not those of a tranquilizer.
"Gh.. bh!?"
The man choked oddly.
His skin grew purplish red around where he had been hit on the neck. The area quickly swelled up. It looked like plastic being heated in a fire. As the skin bulged out from within, the right half of his face swelled so large a face recognition program would not have recognized him.
"Gy-gybh!? Gagaaaaahhhh!!!???"
Tsuchimikado clicked his tongue as he watched the man yell out and writhe on the ground.
He recognized the man's symptoms.
It was not all that rare a thing.
"Formic acid!!"
That substance was found in bee venom. However, this man had been injected with a huge amount, so the change had occurred all at once. He had to be swelling below the surface as well and the swollen flesh would be constricting his windpipe.
In other words, he was being suffocated.
Just like the nine who had already died.
The attacker had chosen the same method this man had used as a "destroyer".
(Is this supposed to be ironic?)
That "destroyer" had killed nine people on this day alone, but Tsuchimikado thought it was unlikely someone had come to take revenge.
This was likely the person behind the entire plan.
This was the act of someone who knew who held the more dangerous information. This person had understood who to attack to cut the last thread leading back to them.
(Still, this is pretty cruel. His death is unavoidable, but he's going to suffer for over 15 minutes before finally dying!!)
Normally, insect venom was only used to disguise a death as natural.
Using it at such an escalated level showed this person had an abnormal obsession.
And...
(How did they shoot this? It wasn't a normal sniper rifle. This was a direct hit on the neck of a target lying on the ground. You can't hit something like that so easily. Unless it was dropped down from above, they couldn't have hit a target lying down like this!!)
There were weapons that fired up into the sky and dropped down onto the target from above. However, those were normally used to fire explosives, not for accurate sharpshooting.
(Is this another nasty piece of cutting edge technology? Or was some esper power used to help out? Either way, this is no normal opponent. )
Tsuchimikado heard a hard sound repeating at irregular intervals.
The man could no longer even grab at his own throat. His arms were sprawled out and convulsing. The sound came from those arms hitting the concrete.
"H-hel-..."
The man turned his head to look at Tsuchimikado.
The swelling was no longer contained to the right half of his face. He had not been punched even once, but it was becoming hard to tell the front of his head from the back of his head.
"... Help... me..."
(Shit!!)
There was nothing he could do.
If he so much as poked his head out, he would be hit with that bee venom just like the man had been.
"I can't do anything to help. This is your only chance to leave a dying message. Will you let them have the last laugh or will you use your last breath to get back at them. Choose for yourself!!"
"I... don't want... to die..."
Tsuchimikado heard a squishy noise.
"... Help... me... I don't... want to die..."
"Stop that. You should have known you would never meet a proper end once you set foot down this path."
"......"
It was impossible to tell where the man's eyes were looking, but he still stared Tsuchimikado in the face. The man could not make any proper expressions, but Tsuchimikado understood what emotion he was filled with.
Tsuchimikado clicked is tongue and spoke.
"This is toothpaste." He tossed the bento sauce sized tube toward the man's hand."The magnesium carbonate inside is weak, but it has a muscle-relaxant effect. Swallow it all! That will free up your windpipe!!"
"I-I'll survive... ?"
"Yes."
"You're really saving me... ?"
"Yes, now hurry!! Do you want to die because you waited too long!?"
While still lying on his back, the man frantically grabbed at the toothpaste tube. He could barely hold on to it, but he gathered all of his strength to slowly, slowly bring it to his mouth.
"... Thank... you..." said the man while barely able to form the words. Tsuchimikado did not want to listen."Thank you... so much..."
It was impossible to tell if the man's eyes were open or not, but some clear drops of liquid fell from them. And then the man spoke a single name to Tsuchimikado.
It was the information Tsuchimikado had wanted most.
The name belonged to the person behind it all.
"..."
In the next instant, the man's entire body began to convulse violently. This happened the instant he poured the toothpaste into his mouth.
The magnesium carbonate inside did not have the effect Tsuchimikado had said it did.
It was obvious what would happen if that thick substance was poured down the slight gap left in his throat.
There was nothing Tsuchimikado Motoharu could have done to save the man.
And so he had given him the one thing he could: a quick release from his pain and fear.
(... Dammit. )
He still did not know where the sniper was or how the sniper was targeting him, but the sniper had to know Tsuchimikado was there. And he doubted the sniper would overlook him when it was possible he had received some information from the man.
Tsuchimikado might have to wait dozens of hours before he could crawl out from under that outdoor air conditioning unit.
He could not let himself be stuck here.
Tsuchimikado Motoharu gritted his teeth while hiding in the slight space between the air conditioning unit and the concrete floor.
(I have to break through this floor. )
Normally, that would be impossible. He could not destroy a thick concrete floor with his bare hands. He had undergone Academy City's psychic powers development, but had only received the ability to apply a weak membrane over torn blood vessels to stop the bleeding. He could not use that in a destructive manner.
However...
He had another power. One could call it his trump card.
But in exchange, he bore the risk of tearing apart blood vessels all across his body.
(I don't know how many times I will be able to use this trump card, but I have to use it here!!)
Magic.
This was worth taking that life-or-death gamble.
The words that man had spoken on the verge of death had been...
(A member of the board of directors... )
Part 8
Tsuchimikado Motoharu escaped the sniper by destroying the building's roof with magic and taking refuge inside. An unpleasant straining sound came from his entire body and blood soaked his clothes in places. Each time he took a breath, he tasted blood.
(Shit... The worst result the very first time!!)
"Cough, cough!!"
He had injured a thick blood vessel.
He knew this, but did not have time to call an ambulance.
The sniper would soon realize he had lost Tsuchimikado. Once he did, he would contact the person running the Agitate Halation project and put them on guard. If this person disappeared, Tsuchimikado would lose his chance to attack the one who had driven Maika to her death.
He forcibly regulated his breathing and used an underground tunnel to travel through the shopping district just to be safe.
From the moment that man had told him that name, he had already known where he needed to go.
Most of Academy City's elementary schools were gathered in District 13, so it received a relatively large law enforcement budget. To prepare for worst case scenarios, different universities had also built large hospitals in the district.
One of those hospitals was officially known as a detached part of a university, but it was actually operated for the sake of a single patient. It would treat over 500 patients every day, but all of those were handled by the hospital's "excess" ability.
"Doctor."
"Yesss?"
A woman in her thirties slowly turned around when a young nurse called out to her. The woman was also wearing a white coat, but unlike the nurse's, its design made her look like a doctor or scientist. Her nails were manicured and her long hair was curled and left loose. From a sanitation standpoint, this was not suited for hospital work, but no one tried to stop her.
This was direct proof that this was no ordinary hospital.
The nurse who wore a pink coat and a cardigan spoke expressionlessly.
"I have the test results for Mr. Gerascophobia. I also have the treatment schedule for "I am fat because of a fried chicken conspiracy"-chan and a complaint to the hospital from the Clean-Freak Princess. Please look over it all."
"... Um, Rensa-chan. You can give the patients friendly nicknames if you like, but keep it within the nurse station." The woman in the white coat who had been referred to as "doctor" spun her index finger around."One other thing, Rensa-chan."
"What is it?"
"This is a hospital, so keep your electronic output from getting too high."
The nurse tilted her head in puzzlement.
She had been reading her report from a cell phone screen.
"I have it set to airplane mode, so it is not transmitting any signals."
"That isn't what I meant."
Rensa remained expressionless and the white coat-wearing "doctor" gave a bitter smile.
And then...
A quick change came over the fluorescent lights on the ceiling. It was less a flickering and more a slight dimming before returning to normal.
"..."
Rensa remained silent and lightly brought her fists together in front of her chest.
After hearing a dull sound, the "doctor's" cheek stiffened.
"Rensa-chan, you're a nurse, remember? And what is a nurse's job?"
"The power has switched over to the emergency power supply."
"Seems that way."
The hospital had newborns and patients who would have trouble without life support devices, so an attack on the power supply was a life-or-death problem. Nevertheless, the "doctor's" expression remained completely unchanged.
For one, Academy City's power was supplied by countless wind turbines, so there was little danger of a major sudden power outage even if a portion of those were attacked. And even if one did occur, this hospital had a second power supply created by underground generators.
The lights in the hallway had not cut out even for a second.
The same went for all of the electronic equipment. They had not even needed to restart.
"Buuut anyone who would bother attacking here would know that."
"I shall exterminate them."
"That means their true goal might not be what it seems at first glance."
"I shall exterminate them."
"Please, Rensa-chan. Please give some other answer."
"Doctor, you said 'please' twice."
"Is this really the time to bring that up?"
The enemy had attacked the hospital's power supply as if to cause a power outage.
However, no real damage had been done thanks to the emergency power supply.
If the enemy was clever at all, they would have known this would happen.
And yet the enemy had still taken the risk of making the attack.
That meant the attack had held some other meaning. Was there some merit in having the hospital switch over to the underground power supply facility?
"Oh, damn." The "doctor" slapped her hand against her forehead."This was to see what rooms are brought online first! Even if the entire hospital recovers in a fraction of a second, power is restored to the most important equipment first!! This defeats the purpose of the hospital's labyrinthine structure and all the hidden rooms!"
"Search complete. The top priority is the Sticky Freezer on basement floor 5."
"Rensa-chan, what did I tell you about the nicknames?... But I suppose the Critical Pathogen Specimen Freezer is the most dangerous. In that case, Rensa-chan, please take some soldiers to check it out."
"Understood. What will you do?"
"I will be evacuating just to be safe☆ That's the protocol after all."
After waving her hand next to her face, the "doctor" opened a nearby door and stepped inside an empty ultra-high frequency treatment room. She locked the door behind her and roughly pushed aside a metal box-shaped piece of machinery with a high voltage warning on it. This revealed a small door that led directly to a service elevator shaft. If she climbed down a maintenance ladder, she would have a direct path to the underground parking garage.
"Physical labor is so exhausting, " she complained.
"My apologies, " replied a voice.
The "doctor" froze in place and then slowly looked around the room. She had no idea where he had been hiding, but a bloody boy was now leaning against the wall next to her. He was Tsuchimikado Motoharu.
"..."
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