n

n

n

nThe camping car was running on autopilot back to Kugamayama city. So, there was no need for someone to stay behind the wheel. Reina’s team, which was basically getting a free lift, was taking up the position of escorts. As long as nothing big happened, Carol and Akira could just take a break inside the camping car. Because of that, it would not be strange if Carol decided to fully lower her guard and took a good long rest inside. Outside of Akira’s expectations, Carol was doing something strange.

nShe was lying on the bed naked. Although she placed a sheet on top of her, it was a very thin white sheet that did not help much in hiding her naked body. The inviting lustrous skin combined with a well-proportioned body was on full display. The white sheet that was partially see-through, drew a line between hiding and showcasing her body, which was very erotic.

nEven being shown this scene, Akira understood that Carol was not trying to tempt him.

nIt was obvious that Carol was tired. After they saw what happened back in the ruin and returned back to the car, she brusquely took off her powered suit and just dropped it off without a care. It was as if someone, who was too afraid of letting go of her rifle, finally ran out of ammo, and threw everything away in a fit of rage. Just like that, Carol dove on top of the bed and stayed silent up until now.

nEven Akira could tell that she was depressed. But his communication skill was not that good to find the words to cheer her up. Though, as her escort, he did not think leaving her like this was the right choice. Therefore, for now, he decided to sit next to Carol.

nAlthough the mood was not that bad, it was also not the right mood to get into a trivial conversation. Although they were not trying to stay silent, there were no words spoken between them. After a moment of awkward silence, Carol suddenly opened her mouth.

n“Akira.”

n“Yes?”

n“You’re my escort right now, right?”

n“Yep, and?”

nTheir conversation came to a pause there. Akira looked confused, he did not understand Carol’s intention behind that short exchange.

nAfter a short pause, Carol once again restarted the conversation.

n“Akira.”

n“What?”

n“It seems that there’s a big fight going on in that ruin, if I somehow got involved in that fight, what would you do?”

n“Wouldn’t that be obvious? I’ll of course run away.”

n“…Yeah, that one was obvious.”

nHearing the answer that she had fully expected, Carol replied with a rather droopy, discouraged voice.

nAkira himself understood that he could not give the reply that she was wishing for. That was why he added some explanation, as if he was trying to justify his answer.

n“Come on. Just think about it. Even if I am your escort, there’s no way I can do anything about that fight. There’s no other choice for me but to run away, right?”

n“… I know.”

nCarol unconsciously returned a short and brusque reply. It was as if she was annoyed that she was told of something that she already knew well.

nAnother moment of silence. This time, it obviously felt awkward. Akira showed a rather surprised reaction to her reply. But after that, he sighed and spoke up again.

n“Well, I know that there’s still meaning behind fighting an unwinnable fight. Also, you’re paying me to be your escort right now. However, you’re not someone who would risk your life just because you refuse to run away no matter what, right? Running away is also a good option, no? Although as an escort, I might be useless in terms of extra firepower, I’ll properly do my job and find a good escape route for you, you know?”

nCarol suddenly turned her whole body to face Akira and looked at him with a surprised face.

n“…Is that so?”

n“Yep. Well, I bet it won’t be easy, but if we focus on running away right from the start, I’m sure we would find a way to safely escape. Though I need to tell you that when it happens. I will never do something as stupid as telling you to go ahead and leave me behind. After all, we have a better chance to survive if we run away together. In the scenario, I can keep telling you where to go to get away from that place.”

n“…Really?”

n“Yeah, doing so is definitely better for our odds of survival. That is one thing that I can say for certain.”

nAkira interpreted Carol’s surprise as her way of expressing doubt, that was why he then nodded confidence to make sure she did not doubt him. Although the reason why he was so sure he would be able to find a safe escape route in that situation was all because of Alpha, he did not mention that at all.

nCarol pushed her body off the bed and waved at him to come closer.

n“What now?”

nCarol did not say anything and kept waving at Akira. Akira tilted his head and sat closer to her. That was when she suddenly hugged him.

n“…I’m sorry to have doubted you. And, if things ever get to that point, I will be counting on you.”

n“Well, it’s my job after all, so I’ll properly do it. Though, I can’t guarantee that we would be able to escape safely no matter what. I’ll at least do my best.”

nIn reaction to Akira’s straightforward and casual answer, Carol still had her arms around Akira as she smiled quietly.

nWhen Akira said that he would run away, Carol thought that Akira meant he would leave her behind. Although she knew that it was completely expected, she hoped that was not the case. The bigger that hope, the harsher she was hit by his answer back there.

nHowever, it was actually a misunderstanding on her part. Right from the beginning, what Akira meant was to run away together. The moment Carol noticed it, she was much happier than she had expected. At least, it was enough to blow away all the depression that she had after watching the ensuing battle back in the ruin. Although she did not suddenly jump and skipped around, it was silent happiness that allowed her to regain her calm.

nOther than that, she also felt that it was a bit unfortunate that Akira did mention it as his ‘job’. In order to remove that emotion from her, she started to lean her body weight forward with Akira, who was still wrapped in her arms, trying to push him down.

nBut Akira did not budge. Carol was an enhanced human with enhanced physical strength, but it was still no match against Akira’s augmented suit. In the first place, the mood was not right to force Akira down. If Akira fought against it, that would be the end of it.

nAkira frowned and threw a question.

n“What are you doing?”

n“…Though I already knew beforehand, Akira, you really can’t read the mood, can you?”

n“I don’t know what you’re trying to say but, can you get off me already?”

nCarol lightly sighed and let Akira go. She then returned back lying on the bed, but this time, she looked like she was pouting, as if she was throwing a tantrum.

n“Akira, I believe you’re already at that age where you start getting interested in girls instead of food, though? You’re no longer just a little boy anymore, so it might be a good idea if you stop prioritizing food all the time, you know? Or is it that you’re at that age where anything is fine as long as you can eat it?”

n“What are you even talking about? Just so you know, lately I’ve been more interested in taste rather than just the amount, you know? As expected, I’m no longer the same as the past me when I didn’t care about the taste as long as I can eat.”

nSeeing how Akira speak proudly in front of an extremely tempting naked body, Carol could not help but think of something foolish. Maybe I should start learning how to cook?

n—*—*—*—

nHammerz continued fighting against Olivia with a stern look on his face. He identified where each attack was moving towards and countered them with punches reinforced with forcefield armour. Olivia was sending out high powered energy light waves, which could cut through matter due to its sharpness. These were basically light blades, which flew afar and betrayed the normal range of a blade.

nThese light blades were dispersed when they were met with Hammerz punches. But even after they dispersed, they still packed the same cutting power that easily sliced everything in the area, raising up a storm. The destroyed buildings that had already become rubble, were chipped into even smaller pieces.

n…Tch! They still can cut even after being dispersed, huh!? What a pain!

nHammerz could not evade every light blade, so he took some hits. But his superhuman body and his fighting suit made to endure the might of a superhuman, easily caused those blades to bounce off. Although he still got injured from taking them on, it was not enough to hinder his fighting capability. He then quickly leapt forward to close the distance at a speed where air started to crack and released a punch that went over the speed of sound.

nThe blast wave from that punch released a shock wave to its surroundings. The shock wave was greatly damped by the colourless mist in the air, causing its momentum to quickly lessen. But even so, it was still strong enough to blow wreckage and rubble around them away.

nThe fist that did not lose any of its power from the colourless mist, hit Olivia. The powerful punch, enforced with forcefield armour, which was strong enough to pierce the armour of an inter-city transport vehicle, hit the maid uniform, which seemed no different to a piece of cloth. However, instead of piercing that cloth, it was only enough to create a small wrinkle on Olivia’s maid uniform. Furthermore, that wrinkle quickly disappeared after she jumped back to open distance from Hammerz. His fist had completely been nullified.

nI didn’t see light from force to energy conversion. Is it simply because that’s just how strong her maid outfit is? Or is she using a forcefield armour that did not produce light? Including her blade and her rifle, she has an excellent set of equipment.

nOlivia was keeping her distance from Hammerz, it was obvious that her aim was to buy time and she had no plan to fight Hammerz seriously. But even so, Hammerz could not just ignore Olivia and go after Shirou. If Hammerz showed his back to Olivia to chase Shirou, he knew that Olivia would injure him enough to buy even more time.

nOriginally, Hammerz was planning to quickly take Olivia out and chase after Shirou. But it seemed to be impossible to do now due to how powerful Olivia was. Although Hammerz was holding back so as to not get Shirou caught up in the fight, Olivia’s fighting capability was way out of his expectation. In the end, Olivia slowly bought more and more time for Shirou to getaway.

nAlthough some of the powered suits from the interceptor team were sent to chase after Shirou, most had been cut down by Olivia. And that interceptor team was acting in place of the rescue team, which had already been decimated.

nOlivia’s blade was too powerful for Hammerz to take on in place of those powered suits. Even if he was able to deflect her light blades, there was still a limit on how many Hammerz could deflect.

nOf course, they had also sent a few powered suits to take a long detour to avoid getting cut down by Olivia, but there was no guarantee that they would be able to capture Shirou.

nAfter Shirou left the ruin and went out into the wasteland, some drones with camouflage on, left the area as fast as they could. It was difficult to catch up with the drones that could not be shot down in the wasteland. The wasteland was just simply too wide. There was also the danger of encountering monsters. But as long as they kept their distance, there was a good chance that the colourless mist would cover their presence. In his desperate escape, the vast wasteland was on Shirou’s side.

nHammerz thought that everything would be okay as soon as he arrived, but evidently, that was not the case. Hammerz cursed his own naive thinking as his expression turned dark.

nHe did not wish to hold back any longer, but he had to conserve some of his power. He was confident he could defeat his opponent if he went full power. But the repercussion would not be light, it would definitely hamper his main objective.

nIf he could capture Shirou afterwards, he would go all in. However, the chances of that would diminish to zero once he used all his might here. It would be meaningless to squeeze all he had for virtually nothing. Unnecessarily injuring himself would be against the corporation’s work ethic, that was why Hammerz had no other choice but to not use his full power.

nBut even so, Hammerz started to wonder if it was better to take out his opponent to reassure his patron. That thought was running through his mind and was reflected by his action. He started to lean forward, and his gaze started to turn sharper. Right when he had decided to end his opponent, Olivia, who kept smiling even in the middle of the fight, suddenly said to him.

n“Would it be okay to stop here?”

nHammerz raised both of his eyebrows.

n“…What do you mean? Are you trying to tell me that this is futile and that I should just stop?”

nHammerz inadvertently made a guess as to Olivia’s answer. However, that guess only served to sour his mood. His mood and increased hostility toward his opponent caused him to make a grim expression. A normal human would have cowered under his gaze.

nBut Olivia did not seem bothered at all as she smiled and shook her head.

n“Nope. I’m saying that there’s no meaning in continuing our fight. That’s why, if you want to chase that young man, you can go ahead and just do that.”

nHammerz seemed confused at those unexpected words from Olivia. He was even more confused since there were no signs of Olivia lying.

n“That is a rather strange suggestion considering how hard we’ve fought against each other. Why do you suddenly want to stop?”

n“I’ve worked enough for what I have been paid, that’s all there is to it.”

nHammerz looked confusedly at Olivia. He had already disengaged his hostile posture as well. So, Olivia’s smile slowly turned into a business smile.

n“…If you wish to continue, then I am more than happy to oblige. But it would not be for free. I will only put in effort depending on how much you would pay me beforehand, so I hope that you understand.”

nHammerz did not take his eyes off Olivia as he picked up his communication device.

n“It’s me, tell me the damage.”

nHammerz could not help but frown when he listened to the response. Many people got injured during his fight against Olivia. But none of them were dead. Shirou’s request was not to kill anyone, and Olivia accomplished that brilliantly.

nThat restriction also applied during that fight just now, but that would no longer be the case if they continued. It meant that Olivia had been holding back, in a sense, she was sparing his life. Since Hammerz noticed that, he could not help but frown even more. However, at the very least, it also served to confirm that any continuation of this fight would be against his duty.

nHammerz heaved a huge sigh as if he was expelling all the grudge inside him, and with that, he no longer showed any hostility toward Olivia.

n“Alright, let’s not… Good grief, just who exactly are you?”

nIn response to those words that Hammerz only meant as a complaint, Olivia made her usual business smile and gracefully bowed.

n“Oliva of Lion Steel. A pleasure to meet you.”

nHammerz was completely flabbergasted.

n“Lion Steel? What do you mean by that? Why is someone from Lion Steel causing trouble for Saka**a Heavy Industry? Is it okay for me to interpret this as an act of hostility from Lion Steel against Saka**a? Did you join hands with one of the other big five or something?”

n“Not at all, we have no wish for such a thing.”

n“Then what is it? Are you trying to say that you’re just lending a hand to an in-fighting in Saka**a? So, Lion Steel is not trying to cause trouble with Saka**a? Just because some of our officers are working with your corporation, don’t think that such an excuse would-”

n“Excuse me but let me add one more thing. It seems that you’re confusing our corporation with another corporation which is using the same name without our permission. Our Lion Steel company has no relation with the one that calls itself the Lion Steel Eastern District Main Branch.”

nHammerz was even more confused, but it only took a few seconds for it to finally dawn on him.

n“…You’re the one from the old-world, huh!?”

n“Although I don’t really agree with that way of calling our company, but that is correct.”

nHammerz finally understood why Olivia was that powerful and rubbed his temple. The observation log from Saka**a Heavy Industry’s facility did not show any indication that Shirou had made a connection with the old-world Lion Steel. And it was too short of a time frame for him to form that connection after he had escaped. So, it was only natural for him to think that Shirou had that connection beforehand when he plotted his escape.

nDid Shirou come to this ruin to meet up with her? Just what in the world is he trying to do? To even spend all of his Chrome to pay her…? Just… I really can’t even begin to guess…

nAs Hammerz realized he was about to fall into deep thought, he shook his head and put that aside for now.

n“You said that you were paid, right? How much did he pay you? And what is his objective?”

n“My apologies, but I can’t leak the content of my contract with the others. Thus I am afraid I shall refuse to answer your questions.”

n“I don’t know what’s the basis for being a customer, but I bet that Shirou doesn’t satisfy the requirements, right?”

n“Regarding that matter, I can only say that he satisfied a very special set of requirements.”

nOlivia threw a white card to Hammerz, Hammerz caught that card and shifted his gaze from Oliva to that white card.

n“It must be some kind of fate that we met. So let me give you our company’s card. By all means, please contact us, we’ll be waiting for your request. Now then, allow me to excuse myself.”

nWhen Hammerz returned his gaze to Olivia, she was already gone.

n“…Well, I guess this has resulted in at least one good thing.”

nHammerz light sighed and tucked that white card. His face then turned gloomy as he had to give his report, that they had failed to capture Shirou.

nOlivia returned to the Lion Steel branch office located on the 57th floor of the Seranthal building. She transferred the AI core to the branch office’s system and proceeded to do maintenance on her body.

nThe automaton body floated in the middle of the maintenance system, and its maid uniform disappeared, revealing the naked body of a beautiful automaton that the company had spent a huge fortune to create. The naked body then cracked, creating crevices all over its beautiful body, which then slowly opened.

nAfter readjusting the body, it then exposed the inside, which seemed to be made of metallic organs. Some of those organs were in the shape of spheres, among those spheres, two were taken out and replaced with new ones. Those spheres were old-world generators which powered the automaton’s body. The generators had been damaged from the previous battles and were now being replaced.

nAlthough from one point of view, it could be said that Olivia was taking it easy when she was dealing with Hammerz, but in reality, she did not have that much leeway. To fend off Hammerz, she had to spend two of her expensive generators. She might end up in red even after receiving the 15 million Chrome as payment. When she added up the repair cost for the damages to her body, she judged that it was not worth the trouble.

nIf she continued fighting Hammerz, she would definitely end up deep in the red. Although it was her first job after such a long time, the result was unsatisfactory. Olivia felt frustration welling up inside her as she lightly sighed inside the cyberspace of the system.

nThat frustration was all because she did not receive a satisfying job, so it did not cause her any more woes. The warehouse on the 57th floor still had a good stock of generators. And even if her body had been destroyed during her fight with Hammerz, it was not like she would lose her AI data. So, she just could download her data into a different automaton just like one could change from one dress to another.

nOlivia had already transferred to the automaton located in Iida commercial district ruin. The old-world automaton that was originally used to escort VIP targets. It was equipped with a powerful generator and was granted permission to fully utilize that generator’s output when necessary.

nEven if there was a chance of her AI data getting erased, she did not feel any fear toward that at all. As a general-purpose AI from Lion Steel, getting herself deleted only meant losing one of its many mass-produced AI, after all.

nAs a general-purpose AI, Olivia’s line of thinking was created using the human mind as its base. But an imitation was not the same as the real thing. As a matter of fact, their line of thinking was closer to a fanatic or a zealot.

nOlivia was thinking about the future with her fanatical non-human mindset.

nThat was when Seranthal’s system sent a notification to her. The content was a demand from Seranthal for an explanation regarding the battle that happened on the outskirts of the Mihazono residential ruin.

nOlivia connected herself to the Seranthal building’s system and called Seranthal.

n—*—*—*—

nYanagisawa was on his personal transport aircraft as he was heading to Mihazono ruin. He already received the report that they failed to capture Shirou. Because of that, he was in an awful mood. He used an expensive special line to contact his men out in the field and was listening to their report.

n“Let me confirm this again. The powered suit that you thought to be piloted by him turned out to be empty, right? Are you certain that he’s not sitting in the pilot seat with camouflaging on or something like that?”

nIn order to maintain his calm, he was trying to keep to his usual tone, but it did not work out well. His men could feel Yanagisawa’s irritation from behind the speaker as they anxiously replied.

n“…We did our best to try to capture him. But he still escaped.”

n“I see. So, it was only a decoy, huh? Don’t worry about it, things like this happen from time to time. Just continue searching for him like usual. Ah, don’t forget to send the powered suits’ data to me. Though it might be tempered by that guy, I might still find something useful.”

n“Roger that.”

n“Yup, I’ll leave it to you then! Good luck!”

nYanagisawa replied with a flippant tone and closed the call. He then faked a smile in order to help him recover his groove before opening a call to Hammerz.

n“Ah! Hello there! Yanagisawa here! Is it a good time right now?”

n“…What is it? I’m pretty sure the report as well as my apology for failing to capture Shirou have been sent through another commutation route already?”

n“Well, I just want to ask more details about that, you see. To be more precise, why did you let him go?”

nYanagisawa’s words were tinted with a grudge, but Hammerz only reacted with a sigh and a silence. After a short pause, Hammerz then replied.

n“…It’s true that we failed to capture Shirou although you’ve given us very good information about him. Regarding that matter, you have my apologies. But excessive animosity will be seen as a hostile act toward Saka**a, you know?”

nYanagisawa was obviously playing coy as he laughed and said.

n“No no no, of course, I have no wish to do something like that. It’s just that I never thought that you guys would fail. After all, someone as strong as you were moving and you made it on time to meet him. So, I was wondering if it was intentional. It’s only natural to get suspicious, right? Ah, or is it that you lowered your guard since you believed that as long as you know his location, you can already retrieve him? That it’ll be an easy job?”

nHammerz sighed one more time.

n“He escaped from Saka**a, so it’s only natural to expect him to have a good escort. Well, since I was unable to properly judge at that time, that could mean that I’ve lowered my guard. If that really is the case, I can’t deny that I did. It might sound like I’m trying to shift the blame here since I was the one who let him get away, but when you pinned down his location, you didn’t detect any escorts with him?”

n“Well, I’m really sorry about that.”

nIt was obvious that Yanagisawa did not really mean that as an apology. So Hammerz just reacted with another sigh.

nAfter that, Yanagisawa inquired about Hammerz’s fight with Olivia, as if to create an excuse for him to close their call.

n“Thank you for the invaluable information. Well, considering that you were unable to capture Shirou-kun even after you reached the location on time, it might mean that it’s a good idea to rethink our approach to capturing him. It’s rather worrying for me, that’s why I even called you. I’m sorry about that. But, since this failure is because of special circumstances, it really relieves me. Personally speaking, it’s rather difficult for me to prepare people to capture someone that even you can’t capture, you know?”

n“I bet it is. I’m also busy over here, so excuse me for closing the call.”

n“Yes, thank you very much.”

nThe call ended there, Yanagisawa’s smile once again vanished.

nAt least it doesn’t sound like he’s lying to me. But…

nAlthough he worded it out as if he was joking, Yanagisawa was really suspecting Hammerz of intentionally letting Shirou run away.

nAfter all, it was a fact that Shirou escaped when he was inside the inter-city transport vehicle. This was something that was normally unthinkable. And then even after Hammerz reached Shirou during a capture mission, Shirou still escaped. Normally, it was unlikely that Hammerz was helping Shirou escape, but since it had happened twice, being suspicious was only a given.

nMoreover, Yanagisawa knew that Shirou had made some kind of secret deal behind the scenes with Sugadome. But he could not confront Saka**a about it since it would be proof that he hacked into Saka**a’s secret line. In the worst-case scenario, he might even get erased because of that. Unfortunately, Yanagisawa had no information on what the content of that deal was. The only thing he knew was that Shirou was in regular contact with Sugadome.

nI don’t want to think about it but, the escape from the inter-city transport vehicle, and the failure in the capture mission as well, it would all make sense to say that it has all been orchestrated by Saka**a. If I take Hammerz’s words as the truth, then that would not be the case, unfortunately, I need to remember that he’s also from Saka**a. There’s a chance that his irritation and everything else was just an act… Or is it that I’m simply being too paranoid?

nAccording to his original plan, by now, he would have already borrowed Shirou to finish the administration with the black card in the Seranthal building. He would then finally be able to do his business in the deepest part of Kuzusuhara ruin. But something unexpected happened, twice even. Yanagisawa was not that stupid to just sweep that under the rug as nothing more than bad luck.

nI don’t want to think that Saka**a noticed my goal and is trying to get in my way, but… Better safe than sorry.

nYanagisawa took a deep breath to calm himself down. That was when the pilot notified him.

n“Commander, we’re close.”

n“Hm? Alright.”

nThe aircraft landed. It was on the hanger attached to Seranthal Building. Yanagisawa had already received Seranthal’s permission to use it.

n“Well, I’ll be going then. Ah, just to remind you, don’t leave the aircraft, okay? The one with the permission is only me. If someone else comes out of the aircraft, the security drones will kill them. And I’m not joking.”

n“R-roger that!”

nYanagisawa only said so after leaving the aircraft. He then waved goodbye and went inside the building. He came there that day since Seranthal called for him, demanding an explanation about the recent ruckus near the Mihazono residential district ruin.

nWhen he entered, the image of Seranthal was already waiting for him. He who saw that tilted his head as there was one more person next to that holographic image of Seranthal.

n