Ch.39Discovery!

#039

Two white dots were blinking slowly at the edge of Himena’s radar screen.

As Dexter and Himena approached the two women and the skinny man, the skinny man was the first to react.

He was involuntarily having a good time, but when a muscular man and a woman in a suit approached, he was the first to show a reaction.

“…Who are you?”

As the skinny man displayed wariness, the two women standing beside him glared at Dexter.

Of course, not intimidated by such looks at all, Dexter spoke to the skinny man with a sly smile.

“I need to talk to these women, so would you mind stepping aside?”

For Dexter, the man was truly not even worth a single punch, so he was speaking as gently as possible.

“N-no, I don’t want to.”

“What?”

“I said no.”

At the cold rejection, the smile disappeared from Dexter’s face.

“I was asking nicely for you to leave.”

“…What would you do if you asked not so nicely?”

Dexter decided to show the skinny man a concise action instead of a verbal response.

However, since there were many onlookers, without any violent acts, he simply displayed his clenched fist and bulging arm muscles that looked like they might burst through his shirt.

The skinny man gulped as soon as he saw Dexter’s fist, and his pupils began to tremble.

“…I’m sorry!”

In the end, the skinny man, defeated by the silent threat, ran away in a hurry.

Himena’s mouth fell open as she watched Dexter make someone retreat with light intimidation rather than violence.

For Dexter, who had lived in the harsh universe, this was an everyday occurrence, so he ignored Himena’s reaction and spoke to the two women.

“Ladies, shall we have a little chat?”

“…What is this?”

“Who are you people?”

Among the two women showing clearly wary looks, the short-haired woman began whispering to the long-haired woman.

Dexter couldn’t tell what she said, but it seemed like something not good.

And at that sight, Dexter opened his mouth.

“That’s—”

“He’s a sexual predator!”

Before Dexter could properly start speaking, the short-haired woman suddenly pointed at him and shouted in an urgent voice.

“What?”

Confused by the absurd accusation, Dexter approached the short-haired woman, but this time the long-haired woman pointed at Dexter and shouted.

“T-this man was groping me! Help!”

“No, wait, let me just talk—”

“Hurry! Someone catch this man right now!”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

As Dexter tried to grab the short-haired woman first, a burly hand suddenly appeared from behind and seized Dexter’s forearm.

“Look at this criminal bastard who can’t live up to his face.”

“No, wait. Hey, this is a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding!”

“What misunderstanding? The victim is clearly crying right in front of us!”

When Dexter looked toward the two women, they were covering their faces with both hands and making sobbing sounds.

“Everyone, let’s throw out this bastard who can’t live up to his face!”

“What? No, just listen to me!”

Around the bewildered Dexter, expo attendees filled with a sense of justice were rushing at him.

In the midst of this, the two women slightly removed their hands covering their faces, surveyed the situation, and quickly fled.

As Dexter was instantly surrounded by other people, the hesitant Himena began chasing after the women instead of rescuing Dexter.

“Kill him!”

“Enemy of ugly men!”

“Hey, why am I your enemy?!”

“Handsome guys are the enemy!”

“What nonsense is this?!”

As the crowd trying to attack Dexter for strange reasons grew larger, Dexter, with both arms held by men, protested in an indignant voice.

“Come on. This is fucking ridiculous! Hey, those women were lying!”

“Pretty women don’t lie!”

“Oh, for fuck’s—”

He couldn’t reason with the large men holding his arms.

Watching Himena chase after the two women and getting farther away, Dexter shouted.

“Catch those women first! I’ll follow right after!”

Himena looked back and nodded, saying.

“Got it, see you in a bit!”

While Himena following the two women wasn’t a concern, Dexter first needed to escape this convention center safely.

The problem was finding a way to subdue these well-meaning civilians with minimal harm while escaping.

With both arms held by two burly men as muscular as himself, Dexter said.

“Um, friends? I have a wallet in my pants pocket. Could you take it out for me?”

“Why should I go through a man’s pants pocket!”

“No. I’m asking you to look at my ID, you idiots. Who likes strangers touching their wallet?”

Dexter spoke in an exasperated voice tinged with pleading.

Instead of the two burly men holding Dexter’s arms, a man with permed hair next to them took out the wallet from Dexter’s pocket and opened it.

The Honeygood Prison ID card inside was immediately visible.

“It says he’s a correctional officer at Honeygood Women’s Correctional Center?”

“Yeah, idiots. I’m a correctional officer. I came to help with an investigation and got caught by you—”

Dexter was feeling the grip of the two burly men holding his arms gradually loosening.

At that moment, an aging man with outdated hippie hair pointed at Dexter and shouted.

“He’s a government stooge!”

“What?”

Similarly, an elderly man wearing round glasses like John Lennon pointed at Dexter and shouted.

“Informant bastard! Here to monitor the expo!”

“A civil servant daring to sexually harass! Citizen’s arrest! Tie this bastard up!”

A balding white man was pointing at Dexter while calling for convention center security.

Dumbfounded and unable to say anything, Dexter hesitated as chaos began to take over around him.

“Catch him!”

“This guy is a complete villain, everyone!”

“Let’s post him on social media and shame him!”

Unable to understand what was happening, Dexter shouted.

“Come on, you ridiculous bastards. Just listen to me!”

As Dexter, frustrated to the point of madness, was considering using force to escape, it happened.

“Wait, what’s going on here?”

Amid the commotion, a young man in a dark navy blue uniform approaching Dexter’s direction with the expo security.

The man, a police officer from LVMPD, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, had a blue rank insignia on his left arm indicating he was a sergeant.

“What’s happening that’s causing such a commotion?”

When he asked the burly men holding Dexter’s arms and the surrounding people, everyone started talking at once.

“This bastard just sexually harassed—!”

“How could a correctional officer commit such a crime—!”

“All handsome guys should die—!”

“Quiet, quiet! One person at a time!”

The police officer pointed to the burly man holding Dexter’s left arm and asked.

“What happened?”

“Two women said they were sexually harassed by this bastard.”

“Is that true?”

“Sergeant, please hear me out first. I’m going crazy with frustration.”

Dexter spoke while struggling against the burly man’s grip.

“…Let him go first.”

When the police officer spoke to the burly man, he released Dexter with a disgruntled expression.

Dexter dusted off his shirt, smoothing out the wrinkles, and said.

“…I’m Dexter Hughes, a correctional officer at Honeygood Women’s Correctional Center. I spotted two women identified as suspects in the single men abduction and fainting case here and was trying to quietly arrest them when this mess started.”

Dexter snatched his wallet from the man holding it and showed his Honeygood Prison ID card to the police officer.

The ‘single men abduction and fainting case’ was a case the police officer was familiar with.

Although he wasn’t at the arrest scene himself, he knew well that his colleague had come up empty-handed at the suspects’ arrest scene.

Especially since this information was only known to insiders, the police officer had to acknowledge that Dexter was at least involved in the case.

“I thought the perpetrators of that case had escaped… But first, why is a correctional officer here helping with the investigation?”

To the police officer’s question, Dexter nodded and said.

“As you know, our prison is a women’s prison. When we heard about criminals with similar crime patterns to our inmates, the FBI invited me to a special investigation team to look into it.”

Dexter said while rubbing his two arms that had turned red from the burly man’s tight grip.

“We didn’t expect the perpetrators to frame us as sexual predators to escape the convention center.”

“Then, does that mean we can catch the perpetrators now?”

“The FBI agent accompanying me should be chasing the two perpetrators. We don’t have time. If we don’t follow quickly, they might escape to another city.”

The police officer nodded at Dexter’s earnest request.

“…Understood. Let’s go after them right now. Follow me.”

Dexter looked around and saw confused citizens.

“……”

Dexter just stared at the people blankly, then began following the police officer out of the convention center.

* * *

Meanwhile, Himena was chasing the succubus professor and researcher who had escaped outside the convention center.

“Huff, you two over there. Huff, why are you running?!”

“…Shut up, OSA!”

“Do you think we’ll let you catch us?”

Himena, not knowing how they had pinpointed that she was from OSA, asked.

“No, huff. How did you know?”

To Himena’s breathless question, the short-haired woman said.

“Anyone wearing a black suit is obviously OSA!”

“Huh?!”

Himena was dismayed at being discovered for such a trivial reason, and her running speed slowed slightly.

As the short-haired woman said, among federal departments, OSA was the only one that required wearing black suits.

“Hurry up and get on!”

The short-haired woman, who had already mounted a motorcycle prepared in the parking lot, was calling to the long-haired woman following behind.

It was a black Harley-Davidson Fat Boy from the 90s, like the one in that movie where a robot from the future time-traveled to past America to prevent nuclear war.

Soon, as the long-haired woman mounted the motorcycle behind the short-haired woman, the short-haired woman glanced at Himena once and then pulled the throttle hard.

The Harley-Davidson engine began to make a heavy sound, and soon the motorcycle carrying the two women started to move.

“Oh, this isn’t good!”

Himena hurriedly looked around as she fumbled in her pocket for wireless earphones and put them in her ears.

She could see an Uber delivery motorcycle briefly parked nearby after completing a food delivery.

Rushing to the Uber motorcycle, Himena, with no time to explain the situation, pushed the Uber delivery person forcefully with both hands.

“Aaah!”

The Uber delivery person tumbled onto the sidewalk and looked at Himena with an expression of injustice.

“I’m sorry, sorry! Come to Las Vegas City Hall later!”

“W-wait, my motorcycle!”

Seeing the Harley-Davidson appearing as a dot in the distance, Himena began twisting the throttle without properly apologizing to the Uber delivery person.

The Uber motorcycle Himena was riding was a Honda Super Cub.

Although there was an enormous displacement difference between the Fat Boy and the Super Cub, Himena, pulling the throttle as much as possible, was busy trying to keep up.

Himena, with little experience riding motorcycles, felt sweat beading on her back.

‘No matter how much I pull the throttle, it doesn’t go fast enough, and I’m scared to weave between cars…!’

Her hand holding the throttle was trembling slightly.

But for someone who was scared, she was doing quite well at weaving between cars.

The motorcycle carrying the two women took the road right in front of the Sands Expo Convention Center and made a sharp left turn onto a wider 6-lane road.

As the two women’s Harley-Davidson took the sharp curve, it left a dark skid mark, and the acrid smell of burning tires rose.

“Be careful!”

After narrowly brushing past a sports car, the long-haired woman shouted at the short-haired woman.

“Professor, don’t worry!”

While the two women’s motorcycle momentarily failed to gain speed, Himena, who had caught up closely to the grinning short-haired woman, began hurling curses.

“Stop this nonsense, seriously! What movie do you think you’re in?!”

“OSA agents have such harsh language!”

“Shut your mouth!”

At that moment, Himena’s phone started ringing.

“Hello?!”

Although the wind noise against her earlobes made it difficult to hear clearly, she could tell it was Dexter calling.

-Where… are… you… now!

“I can’t hear well! I’m on a motorcycle chasing two women! They’re on a black Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and the two women are riding without helmets!”

The two motorcycles began heading toward a straight boulevard that could lead directly to the outskirts of Las Vegas.

“East Flamingo Road!”

-I’ll follow… just wait a bit…!

“Okay, you need to hurry!”

If they continued like this, they might escape to the outskirts of Las Vegas.

Himena’s mouth was dry, and her hand gripping the throttle was sweaty from tension.

She wanted to grab the brake right away, but this was an opportunity she couldn’t afford to miss.

“I can’t let them get away!”

Himena roughly stepped on the gear shift lever with her shoe-clad foot to change gears and pulled the throttle hard again.

At a speed she had never experienced on a motorcycle before, Himena’s knees were weak, and she shouted toward the two women far ahead.

“I’m going to kill you when I catch youuuu!”