Alpha, any luck in contacting Elena or Sara?

  Regrettably, it appears the call still won’t connect.

  Gotcha. His expression grew more grave. If they didn’t show up at the meeting place, he might seriously have to go to their aid, or even bail them out of a desperate situation. Having Carol along as additional firepower would definitely be a boon in the latter case.

  As he thought this, his gaze unconsciously gravitated toward her.

  Carol keenly sensed him looking at her and grinned. “Does my body finally interest you, Akira?”

  “Oh—yeah, kinda. Your suit—it’s not actually an Old World suit, right?”

  Carol pursed her lips. He hadn’t been interested in her body but in the powered suit she was wearing. “No, it’s modern—it’s just modeled after an Old World one. Sorry to disappoint you.”

  “Figured. Hmm... Maybe it’s not my place to say this, but is there really any merit in a bluff like that when we’re going to the ruins?”

  From his use of the word “bluff,” Carol deduced that Akira thought she’d chosen that design to make herself seem stronger than she really was, and a wry grin formed on her lips.

  Of course, her real motive was to make it easier to lure in clients for her side venture. The design of the suit complemented her already-bewitching body to make it all the more enticing. Her MO was to lure in unassuming men and extort them for all they were worth—sometimes taking their money, other times their very lives. But Carol kept all this from Akira and for now simply focused on assuaging his doubts about her strength. “Just to let you know, this suit wasn’t cheap. I’d say it’s a good deal more expensive than the suit you’re wearing, and higher-spec as well.”

  “Oh, really? Hmm... Now that you mention it, I guess it is pretty top-of-the-line, huh?” Back when Akira had been fighting the multilegged tank on the side of the skyscraper, Carol had joined in, running down the building unaided with him. Akira belatedly realized that her suit must be pretty nice if she could do that without support like Alpha’s.

  “Sure is! Don’t lump me in with all those cosplayers—I’m not wearing this just for show.”

  “Oh, so people really do wear them for show.”

  “Well, yeah, sometimes.” Determining that she must have sufficiently allayed Akira’s doubts, she changed the subject. “By the way, I know it’s a bit late to ask this, but was hiring me really okay? You didn’t tell this Elena girl that I was coming along, did you?”

  “I sent her a message, though I’m not sure if she got it. Well, you were an emergency addition anyway, so I guess you and I will just have to go on our own if she says no.”

  “Oh? You’d go with me and not Elena? That’s surprising.”

  “Well, I hired you, so we ought to stick together. We haven’t decided on how long or anything, but you can at least join me for today.” Even if it turned out that Elena and Sara did disapprove of Carol joining them, at that point he’d at least have been able to confirm that they were safe, so he would have accomplished his mission all the same. Not being able to go with his friends would be a bummer, but as long as he knew they weren’t in danger, he could deal with it.

  “Thanks, Akira. That makes me happy,” Carol said with a charming, enticing smile.

  But Akira only gave a curt nod in response.

  He really is a tough nut to crack, Carol thought. And he doesn’t seem bothered at all about introducing someone dressed like I am to a team of two other women. Well, he treated those two maids back in the ruins casually too, and he doesn’t show interest in any of my advances, so I guess his sense for that sort of thing is really off-kilter. I wonder if maybe these friends of his are just as strange. If so, it all makes sense. With that, Carol felt satisfied—although if Elena and Sara had been able to hear her thoughts, they would have been decidedly less so.

  Chapter 111: Mihazono in the Wake of the Anomaly

  Once they’d finally reached Mihazono and Akira had parked just outside the ruin, it became immediately obvious to the two of them just how dire things had gotten since their last visit.

  The area was bustling. The overflow from the ruin’s already-packed parking garage—not just desert utility vehicles belonging to individual hunters but also trailers doubling as mobile stores for selling hunter necessities—were parked all over. A makeshift clinic, as well as provisional bases for several relic hunter syndicates, had also been set up.

  Security guards were busy directing traffic to keep the path to the Hunter Office outpost clear. One of them called out to Akira. “Sorry, kid, but you can’t park your car here—you’re blocking traffic! If you’re just picking someone up or dropping them off, though, that’s fine. The original parking garage is full, but they’ve set up a temporary one over there.” The official pointed. Then, looking amused, he added, “Also, just to let you know, if you came here to hunt relics, I’d reconsider. It’s a little more dangerous than usual today.”

  No sooner had he said this, a building in the distance toppled over, as if to prove his point. A vast cloud of smoke billowed up, blanketing the whole area around it. Clearly some large-scale battle was taking place within the ruins.

  Akira smiled dryly. “Oh yeah? I couldn’t have guessed.”

  “Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Take care!”

  After the guard had left, Akira took out his terminal and tried to contact Elena and Sara again. They still didn’t pick up. Without him realizing it, his face became grim.

  Carol saw his expression and pulled out her own terminal. “No dice, huh?”

  “No. I thought maybe I might have better luck if we were in the same ruin. But at this rate, it’s not looking good.” From the way that building had just collapsed, he figured the situation inside Mihazono was likely even worse than he’d expected.

  Akira didn’t plan to just stand there and speculate, nor did he have any intention of turning back. However, he realized meeting up with Elena and Sara was going to be tougher than he’d initially assumed, and his expression hardened even more.

  Then Akira noticed that Carol was busy talking to someone on her terminal.

  “Yeah, it’s me,” she was saying. “Yeah, I’m calling about that favor from earlier. What’d you find out? Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ll pay you, so don’t worry.” Suddenly she looked surprised. “Huh? Wait, really? Are you sure? Okay, fine, I’ll try it. Catch you later.” She hung up and turned to Akira with an uncertain, somewhat exasperated expression. “Hey, Akira. Can you connect your terminal to mine and try calling your friend again?”

  “Huh? Sure.” Puzzled, he still did as he was told.

  Someone picked up. “Hi Akira, Elena here,” came his friend’s voice. “Sorry to have you call me so early in the morning. Listen, about the rescue job...”

  It had connected.

  Akira was so surprised he let out a yelp, which surprised Elena on the other end as well.

  “Wait, Akira, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

  “N-No, it’s just... I kept trying to contact you so many times, but the call never went through—and now it has all of a sudden...”

  “Really? That’s strange. I mean, we’re connected now, right?”

  “Y-Yeah, but...” Akira was completely bewildered.

  Carol lightly patted Akira on the shoulder and cut into their conversation. “Let’s leave the details for later. For now, decide on a rendezvous point. Isn’t that what you came here to do?”

  “Y-Yeah.” Realizing Carol was absolutely right, Akira relayed her suggestion to Elena.

  “Okay. Where are you right now? Still at home?”

  “No, I’m in Mihazono already. In the wasteland, just ahead of the road the Office outpost is on.”

  “Really? You got here awfully quick, then. Shikarabe and his team are headed your way with the victims, so after he gets there, just go with him to where we are. Best to travel in groups.”

  “All right. Talk to you soon.”

  “Yes, we’ll be waiting. See you then.”

  Akira cut the call. Hearing Elena safe and sound had taken a great weight off his shoulders, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Then he noticed Carol was giving him a dissatisfied stare. “Um, I’m not sure why you’re looking at me like that, but thanks for your help.”

  “Don’t mention it. As long as you got your money’s worth hiring me, that’s all that matters,” she said, still sounding a bit upset. After all, she had really been looking forward to this job, supposing that she and Akira would have to comb the ruins to locate and rescue Elena and Sara. She’d hoped to show off her skills as a surveyor.

  But now they’d contacted Elena without difficulty, which had in a sense eliminated the whole reason Akira had hired her in the first place. She couldn’t help but feel let down, especially after being woken up in the middle of the night for this.

  Akira lacked the interpersonal skills to pick up on all this, but he could at least guess that Carol wasn’t too happy about getting invited to help with a problem so simple that apparently anyone could’ve solved it.

  “Um, Carol,” he asked, somewhat hesitatingly, “just how did you manage to reach Elena?”

  “I didn’t do anything. The call connected without issue.”

  “But it didn’t work for me—”

  “No surprise there. You’re using a cheap line.”

  Communication services weren’t typically free. However, most terminals came packaged with a bonus service that included free calls and messages. Akira had gotten by up until now using this service. However, you got what you paid for—since the line was free, it was rather low quality. In the event that the volume of calls and messages suddenly skyrocketed, the lower-tier lines would be cut off first to maintain service for the ones with higher priority.

  Currently, a ton of calls were taking place around the Mihazono Ruins. Kugamayama City, the hunters, and the companies involved were all flooding the pipelines trying to gather information on what was happening. The insurance companies were no exception. In fact, to maintain communication with their dispatched rescue squads and with their clients in need of rescue, they were routing individual calls over multiple comm channels at once to reduce the load on each, allowing for better call quality.

  Elena and Sara had received their jobs through the insurance companies, meaning they’d also benefitted from the improved connection. Their line wouldn’t cut out so easily. And with a sufficiently high-quality (and thus expensive) line, anyone from the outside could have connected to them without issue as well. Since Akira had been having issues, Carol had initially thought Elena and Sara were likely already in distress, perhaps somewhere in the ruins outside of the terminal’s range. In other words, she’d assumed the problem was on the other end. So she’d gotten a friend of hers, an information broker, to pinpoint Elena and Sara’s location, as well as find out where their last rescue operation had been.

  But the broker had responded by saying that Elena and Sara’s connection with the insurance companies was still strong. Carol found that hard to believe—until he’d reached them instantly through her terminal. That could only mean that Akira had been trying to reach them using a cheap, low-priority line.

  Many hunters who ran into such issues would purchase software or a plan that automatically switched the call to a better line when necessary, but clearly Akira hadn’t even done that much. Carol explained all this to Akira, who nodded in understanding. But she was looking at him so incredulously that he averted his eyes in embarrassment.

  “Akira, I know you said earlier that you were still in the process of learning about the world, but overlooking something this basic could seriously put you in danger. You need to be careful,” she warned him.

  Ignorance was deadly. And if someone (i.e., Carol) ended up joining his team, they’d be in danger as well. Indeed, if Akira had gone deeper into the ruins without realizing the quality of his line, and Carol had continued assuming he possessed this basic knowledge, then they would’ve ended up wandering around in areas outside the connection range, searching for Elena and Sara when the latter weren’t even in any trouble to begin with. In this way, he would’ve ended up exposing Carol to unnecessary danger. With that in mind, Akira seriously reflected on his actions. The more he did, the more dejected he got.

  “Okay.” He hung his head. “I’ll be careful.”

  Seeing how down he was, Carol thought that perhaps she’d gone a bit too far. As they were currently teammates, leaving him depressed like that could seriously hamper their activities going forward. So in an attempt to cheer him up, she deliberately gave him an exaggerated smile. “Well, either way, thanks to my noble efforts you got in touch with your friends, and we got to confirm they were safe and sound, right? So I’ll be expecting my pay to reflect that,” she teased, bringing her face closer to him.

  Akira looked a bit surprised by that for a moment, but then let out a snort and grinned. “All right, fine. I’ll raise the pay for your efforts, just like you want. But considering what happened the other day, that’s just going to be funneled right back to me as my protection fee once you run into trouble again.”

  “Oh, we’ll see about that!” she exclaimed, returning his look.

  They were both in good spirits, now that Akira had regained his enthusiasm.

  Soon after, Akira got a message from Shikarabe saying that since they were already meeting up, Akira should head to the provisional clinic and help out with unloading the transport. Akira responded that he was on his way, and drove off.

  As he was riding along, a thought occurred to him. Hey Alpha. Did you not notice the thing with the line either?

  Well, it connected just fine up until now.

  Yeah, I guess so. Akira thought that made sense, and didn’t question her any further.

  But Alpha’d never said she hadn’t noticed. She’d merely chosen her words to lead Akira to believe that was what she meant.

  Alpha’s goal wasn’t for Akira to avoid the normal trials of life around Kugamayama; all she cared about was that he gained the power to overcome epic perils. So if Akira and Elena ended up arguing and broke off ties with one another because he’d failed to meet up with her and Sara, that was of no consequence to Alpha.

  She wouldn’t lie to Akira. And by the same token, she could say whatever she wanted as long as it wasn’t a lie. Satisfied, she remained by his side—just like always.

  ◆

  The provisional clinic had been constructed on the wasteland outskirts of Mihazono as a joint effort by several insurance companies. As such, it accepted all of their clients without question. Of course, the treatment wasn’t free, and only the insurance company’s clients would be admitted—after all, it would have been unfair to paying customers if those who didn’t pay were able to receive the same care.

  Shikarabe’s armored military transport vehicle was parked in front of the clinic. The back hatch opened, and the injured began alighting from the vehicle and making their way to the entrance. Most with lighter injuries were able to enter the building on their own, while only a few needed to be helped by their comrades. The more severely injured were carried inside in body bags.

  Shikarabe was hoisting one of these bags when Akira and Carol showed up. “Oh hey, Akira. Now that you’re here, I’d like you to start by helping me carry all the badly wounded out of the vehicle and— Ugh?!” He broke off at the sight of Carol standing beside Akira.

  She smiled pleasantly. “That’s an interesting way to greet someone. Long time no see, Shikarabe.”

  “Y-You too,” Shikarabe muttered.

  Then Togami emerged from the vehicle, carrying a body bag of his own. “Something happen, Shikarabe? Whoa—Akira?! What’re you doing here?!”

  “What do you mean? You guys asked me to come here.”

  “O-Oh, really?”

  Shikarabe and Togami were each taken aback, while Akira found both of their reactions puzzling. Carol was the only one completely unbothered.

  “For now, let’s just do as Shikarabe says and carry these bags in,” she suggested.

  “Hm? Yeah, okay,” Akira agreed.

  The two of them entered the armored transport, and Shikarabe’s and Togami’s eyes automatically followed them. But only for a moment, and the Druncam hunters quickly got back to transporting the injured—though their faces still showed traces of confusion.

  Why is she with Akira? Shikarabe couldn’t help wondering. Did Elena and Sara call her here? If not, then why? What’s going on?

  Togami was just as perplexed. Why is Akira here? What’s with that woman’s getup? Why is he bringing someone like that along? What the hell’s happening?

  Neither of them had any answers, and though their inner thoughts were slightly different, they both looked puzzled.

  The inside of the transport vehicle reeked of iron. The floor and the seats were stained with blood. It was nothing if not a macabre scene. Yet Akira and Carol occasionally created grisly scenes of this nature, so something like this hardly fazed them as they began carrying the body bags out of the vehicle. Akira was about to pick up someone lying on one of the benches when he noticed that the bag they were in had been left unzipped, exposing their head. From the way the bag sagged down at the bottom, it was clear their lower half was missing. He grabbed the bag from the upper half.

  The person’s eyes snapped open. Akira froze in surprise.

  “Where am I?” the person in the bag said.

  “Um, er, in front of a temporary clinic. I’m getting ready to carry you in there.”

  “I see... Pardon me... Thank you...” The person closed their eyes. Whether they were dead or merely resting, Akira didn’t know.

  Carol smiled. “Just warning you: don’t just assume they’re dead and carry them like a sack of potatoes. We’re not doctors, so we don’t have the authority to declare whether a person’s gone or just severely wounded. Treat everyone like they’re still alive.”

  Akira recalled what he’d seen back in the infirmary in Kuzusuhara. Even those who were no more than severed heads had been considered “severely wounded” until a doctor confirmed they were truly beyond saving, so it was entirely possible this person might survive. This was a clinic using modern medicine, after all. Over time, as medical procedures had incorporated more Old World technology, the line between life and death had become less certain.

 

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