CH 214

There were a lot of Hunters killing time inside the cafeteria of the forward base. They were put on standby in case of an emergency. They were basically made of two kinds of Hunters, one was those who applied to join the expedition but got rejected for some reason, so now they were waiting there in case anyone requested reinforcement. While the other half was the people who were deliberately left there as a reserve in case of an emergency. The former paid to be there, while the latter were paid to be there, both of them waited there, preparing for any emergencies.

Sara and Elena were among the latter Hunters. Both of them received an invitation to participate in the expedition from Inabe’s proxy. Then during negotiations, they learned that Akira was also planning to participate in the expedition as well, so they decided to join. But in the end, they were somehow assigned as reserves.

Inabe was hoping that Akira would return back from the expedition with a lot of old-world terminals, but if Elena and Sara were with him, there was a chance that Akira would decide to hold back. That was why Inabe arranged it so that Sara and Elena were assigned to the reserve team.

In the middle of their idle talk, Sara suddenly asked.

“Say, Elena, are you really okay staying only as a reserve?”

Elena tilted her head.

“Hm? Do you want to join the expedition instead? If you really want to go no matter what, I can try to negotiate with them again.”

“Hmmm, it is at least better than just sitting here, waiting for something that we don’t even know will happen or not. But it’s not like it is a must. It’s just that, although it’s great that we’re getting paid just to sit and wait, I know that you don’t really like this either, right Elena?”

Elena made a conflicted smile after her best friend pointed it out.

“…This might sound a bit ridiculous. I feel that should something happen while we participate in the expedition, Akira would try his best to look for us. He would prioritize us instead of himself. But if we don’t participate, he would have peace of mind and could just immediately withdraw.”

Sara gave out a similar wry smile.

“You have a point. It might sound ridiculous, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Elena and Sara believed that Akira currently liked them. But there was that one time when Akira almost completely cut off relations with them. So if they were asked if they had regained their original trust just like back then when they explored the Mihazono ruin together, they could not give a definitive yes.

But even so, he was still willing to go to dinner together with them, so it could be said that their relationship had mended although it was only a little. Elena tried to voice that out as if she wished for it or maybe even to hang on to it. To which, Sara also reacted with an agreement.

That was when a notice reached their information terminal. Elena checked the content of the notice and frowned.

“…Well, it seems that something has happened.”

“I wonder if Akira has some kind of weird bad luck that indiscriminately gets everyone around him involved in it. I do feel bad for saying this, but I somehow saw this coming.”

“And he survived everything up till now, no wonder he’s that strong.”

Elena and Sara exchanged wry smiles, then immediately turned solemn and prepared to move out. The content of the notice included, ‘HQ has lost contact with the Hunters sent to the deeper part of the ruin. We request for an urgent dispatch of Hunters to check up on them’.

Hunters who were posted to the border, which denoted the inner part of the ruin, were assigned to stop anyone who tried to enter the area. Only those under Inabe’s jurisdiction with permission were allowed to enter.

However, their actual job was not to stop intruders by force. They were equipped with powerful information-gathering devices and were tasked to watch their surroundings. If they spotted anyone suspicious, they were instructed to warn that person and to contact HQ. Of course, they could also get rid of that intruder on their own if they could. After all, it was expected that those who tried to enter the inner part of the ruin would be fully armed. The requester did not have enough spare resources to pay the guards who could always deal with that kind of intruder.

Togami and Reina had accepted that job. Since the area that they were assigned to was vast, there was basically no one else in the area.

Although it was only a guard job, it was their first Hunter job after a while. That was why Reina was extremely pumped for this request, but since nothing was happening, she started to feel bored.

“Although we did get back to taking Hunter job, this is rather boring.”

“We’re on guard duty, so having nothing in particular happening is good news.”

“That’s true, but still… By the way, do you want to try looking for relics around here? We’re still inside the assigned area even if we look around, so we can look out for intruders while searching for relics, right?”

“Just don’t get too carried away, alright?”

Togami was basically saying that he did not mind Reina going, but he himself would stay. Reina understood that and pouted. She did not say anything back and chose to stay.

Togami found that a bit unexpected. But that was all, he did not pursue the subject any further. But Kanae was forcing her hand over her mouth, holding herself back from laughing. Seeing that, Togami started to frown. Reina, who noticed that, jabbed at her.

“What?”

“Nope, it’s nothing. I just thought that it was funny how Milady came up with a suggestion and did not go even after Togami gave his permission. Having an ulterior motive is not a bad thing at all.”

“I see.”

Reina gave a rather forceful smile and cut the conversation short. She finally realized that sometimes, showing a reaction was not a good thing.

Although Togami had a lot of thoughts running at the back of his mind after seeing Reina’s reaction, he believed that it was only him reading too much. He reminded himself that Reina was only trying to take this request seriously since she was the one who decided to do it in the first place. Therefore, he shelved any other miscellaneous thoughts away.

Shiori made a guess as to what they were talking about and interjected.

“Milady, although Togami-sama gave his permission, we basically got ourselves this request by butting into Togami-sama’s request. Thus it would be unwise to neglect our main duty.”

“I-I know. That’s why I’m not going, can’t you see?”

“Milady, it’s better to think things through first before saying anything.”

“Yeah yeah, I know, I will be careful.”

Togami thought that his guess was correct, Reina started to fluster, Kanae noticed a few other things and just smiled bitterly, while Shiori was standing there with a neutral face, playing dumb.

Feeling awkwardness wafting in the air, Reina decided to bring up a change in subject.

“By the way, when we talk about Kuzusuhara ruin, there’s an urban legend. The beguiling ghost. There are a lot of rumours floating around related to it, but I’ve been thinking that it might be one of those holograms that we saw in the Lida commercial district ruin. Something like that might be a guide that would answer honestly when asked for directions. Though, since the ruin is already filled with monsters, the Hunters who followed its direction would get killed instead. What do you think, Togami?”

“Well, that does sound plausible. Or maybe the ghost deliberately sent them to somewhere dangerous after concluding that they were suspicious individuals. Or maybe, since the holographic image doesn’t have the ability to transmit information in the form of voices, they just decided to follow a holographic image, and then they found themselves in the middle of an old-world security facility before they realized it… Reina, with that equipment you used, you can see augmented reality better than others, right? Be careful not to simply follow any augmented reality holographic image if you come across one, alright?”

“Don’t worry, I know just how dangerous this area is. But still, if I ever meet that old-world beguiling ghost, I feel like I have many questions for that ghost.”

“I can understand what you mean. It might be interesting to hear some stories about the old-world.”

“Right? To Hunters like us, that topic is what we are most curious about.”

As Reina was having a good time chatting with Togami, Shiori suddenly interjected with a serious voice.

“Milady.”

“I know, I won’t just go following that ghost if I see it.”

“That’s not it…”

Shiori hung her sentence there and seemed hesitant. Reina found it weird, but she then noticed that Kanae was smiling amusedly on the side.

“Kanae, what is it now?”

“It’s not really something big, but, let’s see… Well, Milady has been working hard lately, so I guess it’s a good idea to give a hint from time to time, hoping that Milady would be able to become an independent Hunter one day.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Milady, think carefully whether it’s a good idea to ask why Ane-san cut herself off right there. If Milady doesn’t ask Ane-san, I’m sure Ane-san would just come up with something random to hide it.”

Reina seemed a bit confused and turned toward Shiori.

“…Shiori, are you hiding something?”

“Milady, there is too much sensitive information in the world that are difficult to handle. The main problem would be whether Milady has the ability to properly deal with it. Information management is also an important skill for a Hunter. Milady, do you have the resolve to know information that might kill you? Moreover, having the resolve alone is hardly enough. After all, it is still not okay to let someone jump to his death just because he has made that resolve. It is also important to know the limitation, to keep oneself from learning about forbidden knowledge. It’s just as people say, ‘curiosity killed the cat’. There are many who ended up on the fugitive list simply because they somehow inadvertently learned some forbidden secret of the Corporate Government.”

Kanae said with a smile. She still had her eyes on the surroundings while exerting a level of intimidation. Reina flinched back and got even more confused.

“Well then, Milady, which one is the right choice? Is it to ask? Or not to ask? This is a test of Milady’s skill as a Hunter, you know!! So go ahead and use all this free time to think about it.”

Reina looked at Kanae and Shiori in turns. Shiori let out a huge sigh and frowned.

“Kanae, what are you trying to do?”

“I’m just giving advice to Milady about information management in place of the overprotective Ane-san.”

“That’s my job.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Which one is your job? The one about teaching Milady how to handle information, or the one about managing information in place of Milady? Either way, it would all be in vain if Ane-san dies though.”

“Don’t just kill me off like that.”

“In that case, it’s okay for me to destroy that will which Ane-san wrote in case Ane-san dies, right?”

Shiori raised her eyebrows in reaction to Kanae, who said something like that in a slightly serious manner. Meanwhile, for Reina, it came as a huge surprise.

“S-Shiori, what is this will are you talking about…”

“Ah, Milady, about that…”

As Shiori was flusteredly looking for an excuse, Kanae suddenly gave a warning with a serious look.

“Milady, both Ane-san and I already did all the preparations in case we get killed anytime. That aforementioned will is just one of our preparations. If Milady gets surprised by small things like that, it means that Milady has a long way to go. Just how many times does Milady think we almost got killed this year?”

Reina could not hide her surprise. One of the reasons was that Kanae did not say that in her usual half-joking manner. But after that, Kanae immediately returned back to her usual self.

“Well, it seems that is indeed the case here. No wonder why Ane-san can’t help but get overprotective. After all, there’s no guarantee how far Togami would volunteer to babysit you. But well, being needy from time to time might be a love strategy to get Togami, but he will hate you if you do it too much you know, Milady?”

Even before Reina could react to that, Togami choked and coughed. Reina then flusteredly denied that.

“W-what are you even talking about, Kanae!?”

“Oh? so Milady is doing that without even being conscious about it, huh? Just my opinion here. Though it was not on purpose, I think inviting such a misunderstanding is cruel, you know?”

Since Kanae returned to her usual self trying to poke fun at the whole team, the awkward tense mood from just before was completely dispelled. But Shiori did not proceed to scold Kanae since she understood what Kanae was trying to say.

Kanae was being considerate to Reina, which was actually rare for her. Her opinion of Reina was nothing more than a naive rich lady. However, she significantly softened her stance after seeing how hard Reina had been trying. The reason why she said so was because she cared, otherwise, she would refrain from saying anything and would only do the bare minimum required for her job. She was being considerate in a different manner compared to Shiori.

If Shiori and Kanae died, then Reina would only follow afterwards. Unless she learned how to deal with such a situation herself, Reina’s future was not that bright. Although she did not wish to deny Shiori’s devotion, if that devotion became the reason she died, then making sure Reina learns how to handle the situation herself after that was a part of that devotion, or at least, that was what Kanae thought.

Shiori understood that as well, but at the moment, she could just handle everything herself. Therefore, it gave her a hard time on what to do. If she had the resolve to live beside Reina forever, then Kanae would not say anything about her being too overprotective. She also understood that Kanae was basically indirectly asking her ‘are you sure you are alright with dying?’ If that was the case, Shiori needed to put in more preparations to make sure that everything would be fine after she died, what she was doing right now was just a half-baked resolution. Nonetheless, it was a completely different matter on whether she could pull it off. The more willing she was to throw away her own life for Reina, the harder it was to make that decision.

After Kanae dispelled that awkward mood, Reina thought hard about information management that Kanae mentioned. Once she made up her mind, she then went to Shiori.

“Shiori, can you tell me what you wanted to say back then? But I won’t force you if you don’t want to. If you didn’t tell me because you think I don’t have the ability to deal with it, I have no wish to force you to tell me”

Shiori looked slightly surprised, she smiled gently at Reina and said.

“…Very well, Milady, I assume you have prepared yourself.”

“Yes.”

Togami, who was listening next to them, could feel that it was a conversation that should only be between them, so he felt a strange sensation of alienation as he spoke up.

“I don’t know what you guys are going to talk about, but don’t forget that there’s a single outsider here, okay? If it’s something that I shouldn’t hear, I can leave now…”

“I don’t mind if Togami-sama wants to listen as well, but it would bring the same danger that made me hesitate to tell Milady in the first place. If Togami-sama wants to listen in even after knowing that, then you may feel free to do so.”

“I see, well, I don’t see any reason why not, so I guess I will listen too.”

Shiori lightly nodded, her expression then turned serious.

“Now then, it is about the urban legend of Kuzusuhara ruin, the beguiling ghost. There’s a good chance that the real story about that ghost has been replaced by something those in Kugamayama city came up with.”

Reina seemed a bit disappointed as she tilted her head.

“Shiori, sorry, I don’t see any reason why you would hesitate telling me that.”

“There’s a problem with the original story. The story about the beguiling ghost was originally a series of multiple stories about it. It is a collection  of stories about multiple ghosts luring Hunters into the ruin. The original story has it that these ghosts are the area managers of the different areas inside the ruin.”

Originally, the Kugamayama city was an frontier base made by Sakashita Heavy Industry to explore Kuzusuhara ruin. Since it was big enough to be promoted into one of the five great corporations, it sent fully armed Hunters equipped well enough to be in the front line to hunt for relics inside Kuzusuhara ruin. But in the end, most of them did not return back alive, And that was the beginning of the beguiling ghost series.

Then one day, Sakashita Heavy Industry suddenly stopped sending Hunters to the ruin. After losing the monetary aid it once had, the frontier base that had already grown big enough to be a city, was not able to send anymore large-scale expeditions into the ruin. From that point on, the corporation was then relegated into a smaller-sized company, placed as the governor of the city and it no longer had the resources and the influence that it once had.

No one knew for sure why it stopped exploring the ruin, there were only various rumours regarding that matter. Some said that they found another ruin with more prospective relics. Some said that it was the result of an in-fighting within the corporation. Some of the rumours even made more extreme and ridiculous guesses.

The single most popular rumour among the Hunters was connected to the beguiling ghost. It was rumored that the corporation made a deal with an area manager to stop their expedition, or that they were threatened to stop, or that it had made a secret deal to only search the outskirts of the ruin.

Reina listened closely with immense interest to that story, but she still did not see any danger in knowing any of this so far.

“Well, what can I say? It’s just a rumour, so I don’t see why it’s that dangerous, or is it that simply because I can’t see where the danger is?”

“Milady, the main problem is that there are signs the city had deliberately changed the story. It means that someone in the upper echelon doesn’t want the real story to leak out. If someone somehow gets to know about the real story, they might have their eyes on that person. Although there’s no telling how much they don’t want others to know, there’s a good chance that they have enough influence to cause misfortune to anyone who gets to know about the truth. In the worst-case scenario, that person might even get killed. Shutting up someone would serve a warning to the others.”

Reina frowned. It was obvious that Shiori was not joking. The way she said it fully demonstrated that she was being serious.

“So they really don’t want anyone to know, huh? I wonder why that is the case?”

“Let’s see, among the stories in the beguiling ghost series, there’s a story about a treacherous beguiling ghost. That ghost would offer something to a party of Hunters, which caused them to fight against each other. As a matter of fact, there were Hunters who claimed to be victims of that ghost.”

“I see, so those who accepted that ghost’s offer would end up dead. With a few who survived claiming themselves as victims of a ghost. Overtime, it would slowly turn into that beguiling ghost urban legend, right? Hmmm, to be honest, I don’t see the correlation. I don’t think that is enough of a reason…”

“So, what if the Sakashita heavy Industry had made a secret agreement with the area manager to stop their expedition and used that rumour to make Hunters fight each other on purpose?”

“I-Is that really possible?”

“They needed a good reason to stop such a costly expedition. Well, in the end, this is nothing more than just my own speculation, so please don’t take it too seriously. I don’t know the real reason and I don’t think there’s any need to pursue the truth. The most important thing is knowing enough to make a guess that something malicious was behind it. Now that Milday knows this much, keep in mind that it will cause those who don’t want to know the truth to come out, to mistake Milady as someone who actually knows about the truth. So in order to avoid such a misunderstanding, it is important to handle such information with care. Since Milday already knows now, please be careful.”

Reina frowned and nodded repeatedly.

Togami hesitated, but his curiosity won as he asked Shiori a question.

“Shiori-san, is it bad if I ask you how you got this information?”

“We have an independent information network among us. And ever since Milady decided to go to Kuzusuhara ruin, we made sure to investigate that ruin as much as we could. Please accept this answer and refrain from asking any further questions.”

Togami understood what Shiori was trying to tell him as he gave a firm nod with a solemn expression.

“Understood, I won’t ask any further.”

“Thank you very much.”

Togami sighed in relief, he understood that although he made a mistake in asking, he was at least able to stop himself.

That was when a call reached them from HQ. Togami found that bit weird as he picked up that call.

“This is number 65. Nothing out of the ordinary over here. By the way, isn’t it a bit too early for the regular check up call?”

After listening to the explanation from HQ, Togami frowned and replied.

“Roger that. I’ll call again if we notice anything.”

“Togami, did something happen?”

“It’s just a warning call as well as a check-up to see if they can still contact us. It seems that HQ has lost contact with the Hunters in the expedition… Is this because of that ghost?”

Togami only added the last part as a joke, but Reina did not laugh at all.

***

Yanagisawa’s squad was watching the surroundings from a tall ruined building.

“What a mess, I wonder if it’s okay to just ignore them.”

Hunters, monsters, powered suits, drones, all of them were mixed in a massive battle royal. Both drones and flying powered suits filled the sky with countless bullets and missiles and warheads. Because of that, there were stray bullets falling haphazardly all over the places, causing more chaos in this already chaotic battlefield.

“Boss said not to do anything until further command either from him or from HQ, so it’s our job to just watch over them for now.”

There was no clear line of command, the IFF was also in a mess. Both the Hunters, the powered suits, and even the monsters, were killing each other regardless of friend or foe. It was pure chaos and their powerful weaponries did not help the situation at all.

“So then, any news from the boss?”

Yanagisawa’s men aimed their rifles upward and released a barrage. The bullets made a ricocheting sound in the air as if they pierced through something. Not too long after that, mechanical monsters with non-functioning optical camouflage started to rain down.

“Still nothing. Ever since that last order, to treat him as dead if we can not contact him for 12 hours, and that we can do anything we want afterwards, no one have heard anything from him or seen him. I bet he’s somewhere nearby doing something in secret though”

Stray bullets suddenly rained down on the building, destroying a portion of its roof.

“There is no doubt, he’s definitely scheming something. By the way, do you think this jamming is his doing too?”

The squad aimed their rifles and lightly wiped out the source of those stray bullets.

“Probably. Can’t say for sure though. Though, if it’s really his doing, it would be great if he could warn us beforehand. That jamming got our communication devices as well. Moreover, this is not the same effect from the colourless mist. Either way, it doesn’t really matter whether it is his doing or someone else’s doing, one thing for sure, something is going on right now”

There was an obvious difference in strength between the Hunters on the ground and Yanagisawa’s squad. But both of them were equally clueless as to what was going on.

The battle between Tsubaki and the powered suit squad continued. The fight was entirely one-sided. Although it was multiple black powered suits against a single automaton, the ground that was riddled with destroyed powered suits and the undamaged automaton body spoke for itself.

Tsubaki just stood there in serenity as if to guard the only destroyed part of the wall protecting her territory while mocking at the utter difference in strength.

The black powered suits raised their huge rifles and shot at Tsubaki. The released bullets were even bigger than a human’s arm. However, that countless hailstorm of bullets stopped in front of Tsubaki as if there was a transparent thick shielding in front of her. The bullets that came later struck those bullets that were stopped and bent them. But even so, they were not able to move the frozen bullets. All of them formed a wall of metal, and even if the following bullets were able to pierce through that wall, none of them could reach Tsubaki.

Once the shooting stopped, the bullets started falling to the ground. The same happened to the bullets that came from the top as well. Showing that the invisible wall was not from the transparent drones protecting Tsubaki.

The squad could not help but frown after seeing what just happened. A desperate voice soared through the speaker.

“Again! Dammit! What the heck is that defense!? It didn’t even produce any flashes of light! All force field armours generate light from energy conversion, you know?!”

“Like hell if I know!! If it’s some kind of barrier, that should at least shave away some of her energy! Just keep shooting and hope that it’s not useless!! Where are the reinforcements!?”

“Long-range communication is dead!! We have no other choice but to get closer back to base to call for reinforcements! And that’s what’s taking them so long!!”

“Try to call the unit that we sent back to HQ and get it to call the city defence squad!! They should send in some reinforcement!! We need to hold out until then!!”

The powered suit switched to its rifle and shot a bullet that was bigger than Tsubaki’s body right at her. 

Tsubaki’s expression did not change at all as she kicked the bullet. The shock wave from the kick made the bullet bent and exploded. But due to the way Tsubaki bent the round, the force of the explosion was directed upward, away from her. It was only enough to cause a blast of wind to blow, strong enough to sway her dress.

Right at the next moment, a gigantic chain-saw came crashing down from another direction. The glowing high-speed rotating fang bore down on Tsubaki. The powered suit abandoned the long-range advantage of its rifle and used its full strength to swing its chainsaw.

Tsubaki calmly stopped that chainsaw with one hand. Although the force was enough to bend her leg and create a crack on the ground, it did not throw off her posture. She stopped the rotating fang by force, which caused a loud cracking sound from the arm of the powered suit.

Tsubaki then swung her arm and threw the powered suit as if it was a lifeless doll, ripping off the powered suit’s arm in the process. That powered suit then took the chainsaw to the face. Its pilot was split in two and the severed body vanished into the distance.

The scene showed just how powerless the powered suits were in front of Tsubaki, which caused great shock to those in the squad.

“What the heck was that?! I know that it is an old-world automaton, but there’s a limit on just how powerful It can be, right?! Or is that the normal power of an old-world automata?!”

“…I bet it’s a military automaton or something like that. Although it looks like that, it has different specs compared to the other common drones and service automata… Spread out! Keep your distance from it!!”

Judging that they had no chance of winning, the squad leader ordered the squad to withdraw. They started moving away from Tsubaki while shooting the buildings around her to create obstacles between them.

Tsubaki looked at the falling rubble, she then cleared them with a clean single round kick. She actually just swung her leg around in the air, but the shock wave from that kick was transmitted through the colourless mist and blew away the falling rubble towards her retreating foes.

Tsubaki then mumbled.

“That should at least be enough to shoo off the incoming squad for now, then I just need to clean up the trash inside the area, where I can move freely”

She wanted to go to Kugamayama city herself if she could, but Tsubaki could not go out that far. Even being able to stand here required her to request permission first since it was outside her original allowed space. She was only able to gain permission since it was an emergency.

As Tsubaki was about to take a step, she suddenly stopped. She then looked at the pile of rubble. Right past that pile and countless ruined buildings, there was a man with a huge rifle aiming at her.

The man pulled the trigger, the bullet drilled a hole through the buildings and the rubble, absorbing their masses into the head of the round as it went right at Tsubaki. It reached Tsubaki in a blink of an eye, leaving a long clean hole that was obviously larger than the size of the bullet itself.

Right at the next moment, the bullet turned all the mass that it had absorbed in its path into pure energy,  releasing a huge explosion.

The shock wave from the explosion was so large that it could blast the whole area to smithereens. Thankfully, the explosion compressed the air around the area to its utmost limit, temporarily creating a layer of dense colourless mist. This layer served as a strong dampener, restricting the shockwave from spreading out too far and destroying the whole place.

Thanks to that, it created a strange phenomenon, the contained explosion and shock wave created a spherical cage, which seemed as if it devoured space. The area around that cage had only sustained relatively light damage compared to the scale of the explosion. But past the boundary of the cage, traces of immense destruction was apparent.

Even after being enveloped in that explosion, Tsubaki still stood there with the remaining 30% of her body. But it did not take long before her body started to crumble as well.

The one who sniped Tsubaki was Yanagisawa. He had been using a special old-world augmented suit, special annihilator bullet, and special camouflaging suit to hide while looking for a chance to strike. Then, using an annihilator bullet that he was barely able to obtain using his connections, sniped at Tsubaki.

Yanagisawa then came to ground zero and looked at the wreckage of the old-world automaton.

“Yikes, did I overdo it? I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry, but still…”

Yanagisawa squatted as a flying kick cut the air above his head, blowing away the rubble behind him. Tsubaki turned to her camouflaged backup unit after the automaton was rendered unusable and launched an ambush attack.

Tsubaki then stabbed her hand toward Yanagisawa, but Yanagisawa evaded that as well. He grabbed her wrist and stopped her hand. The shock wave from that thrust created a hole in the rubble behind Yanagisawa.

Still, with his hand holding Tsubaki’s wrist, Yanagisawa then said.

“Nice to meet you, I am Yanagisawa. You’re the manager of this area, right? If possible, I want to negotiate with you”

Tsubaki sent a cold gaze toward Yanagisawa.

“Is this the culture of yours? To attack the people you want to negotiate with? I don’t see any possibility of us forming a deal.”

“It’s just an introduction to let you know of our might. That’s all there is to it. After all, I’m sure you have no wish to negotiate with a bunch of ants that you can just squash, right? I at least want to let you know that while you might be able to kill us, it won’t be easy. Otherwise, you won’t even listen to what I have to say. That’s the most basic requirement for stepping into the negotiation phase, no?”

Yanagisawa lightly jumped back to open up some distance. Cold sweat ran down his back as he pulled out a black card from his pocket.

“Moreover, I have this. So, can we start?”

Tsubaki frowned with displeasure.

“If you think that I would listen to anything you say just because you have that card, then you’re sadly mistaken.”

Yanagisawa’s smile was mixed with false bravado, but even so, he still somehow managed to stay calm.

“Of course, but, it at least means that you would have to take our negotiation seriously, right?”

Tsubaki’s expression immediately returned back to normal, but of course, it still had a tint of coldness.

“In that case, throw your weapons down. That is, if you’re really wishing to negotiate with us.”

Yanagisawa managed to keep his smile. After a short hesitation, he made his resolve and let go of his weapons. He then smiled confidently at Tsubaki.

There was a few seconds of silence between Tsubaki and Yanagisawa. But those few seconds felt different for both of them. Right about when Yanagisawa started sweating, Tsubaki smiled amicably and guided.

“Very well, follow me then, I’ll guide you to a better place for negotiation.”

“Is this place not good enough?”

“I don’t think this place is suitable for a negotiation.”

“You have a point.”

Tsubaki smiled at Yanagisawa, who replied with a wry smile.

After that, two similar automata suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Now that there were 3 Tsubaki there, one stayed behind to guard the place, one guided Yanagisawa to the meeting place, while the last one started walking in front of them.

As Yanagisawa followed behind Tsubaki, he then thought.

[That would make it 4 automata in total, huh. I wonder just how many more she has, 10? 100? 1000? No wonder Sakashita Heavy Industry decided that exploring the Kuzusuhara ruin wasn’t worth the risk]

His expression then changed into a smile.

[But that’s because they don’t know about that thing, if they do, they would have forced their way into the ruin. But I know, and I will be the one to get that thing. If negotiations go well, we should have almost no obstruction in expanding the supply route. Though that was dangerous, I won the bet. In the first place, it’s not something that I can get unless I’m willing to risk my life for]

Yanagisawa’s smile vanished.

[Just a bit more!]

His face was now filled with resolve and determination.