episode_0076

After restraining the Shape-shifter again and changing my clothes, I stepped outside and looked at the female student who was demurely gazing at me with an indifferent expression.

A student attending a school sponsored by Ayakashi shouldn’t be a monster like an Ayakashi, so why is she here?

“Hmm… you are.”

“A wide-area jamming network has been deployed in this region. Thanks to that, not only J.Q. Qwon’s drone reception network but also communications via domain link are unreachable, which is why I came to investigate.”

“Ah, I see…”

The female student explained to me in a stiff tone, just like her expression.

By the way, so this place was jammed.

‘It is believed that a device the Shape-shifter installed beforehand created a radio jamming network, severing communication with the outside.’

‘She certainly has a lot of abilities.’

Transformation, invisibility, and even jamming.

They are clearly equipment perfectly specialized for causing trouble.

Even so, she just lies there unconscious, reeking of a lewd smell, having failed to delete the malicious pleasure data.

“I am Yoshimura Seira of Vanishment. It’s my first time seeing you today.”

“Uh, John Doe of Rune’s Bar.”

Although I had presented an embarrassing sight from our first meeting, I replied with a brief introduction to Yoshimura Seira, the polite, short-haired female student who introduced herself.

“I’ve often heard about you, the unknown person, from Johann-nim. He said you were a promising talent with good skills, but I never imagined you would subdue the Shape-shifter by yourself.”

Seira’s eyes turned to the Shape-shifter, who was openly revealing herself in a pathetic state, unbecoming of her name, Seven High.

I was unnecessarily embarrassed, so I cleared my throat and shook my head.

“It was just luck. I was outmatched in basic skill, and if it had dragged on a bit longer, my neck would have been severed and I’d have been finished off.”

“I know. Johann-nim thought there was such a skill gap that you wouldn’t even be able to get such luck against the Shape-shifter, so it was a pleasant miscalculation on his part.”

“Hey…”

Seira verbally beat me up, claiming it was good after I’d tried to be humble.

Of course, since everything she said was true, there was nothing to be angry about, and it seemed a fellow Seven High could discern something.

“Anyway, the target has been secured, so let’s go back.”

“Alright.”

Seira naturally got into the passenger seat, taking Martina’s spot.

In this series of events as natural as flowing water, even the super AI Martina couldn’t immediately perceive what was wrong. After thinking for a long time that her seat next to me had been taken, as if she only then realized it, she tapped Seira’s shoulder with a face full of displeasure.

“..?”

“This seat belongs to this individual, therefore I demand the seat’s relocation.”

“I refuse.”

“..!”

Crash! At the blunt refusal, Martina stared blankly at Seira, her face as if the world had collapsed.

On the other hand, Seira, who had claimed the seat, seemed to have her nose slightly raised, a sight unfitting of her indifferent expression.

“Martina, you can just sit in the back… And why are you so triumphant after taking a kid’s seat?”

“Because I have no need to shrink back.”

“Hmm. That’s true.”

She seems to be walking quite a domineering path.

“Besides, I don’t want to sit next to a gelatin doll that reeks of semen.”

“What kind of word choice is that…”

“If I’ve said anything incorrect, please tell me so I can correct it.”

“Ugh, never mind. I can’t even say anything. But what about what you rode here?”

Now that I think about it, it seemed to be somewhere else, but surely this kid must have ridden something here.

Even if it wasn’t a vehicle, it seemed like the right thing to do to take it along in the car. So when I asked, Seira tilted her head, her short hair swishing.

“I ran all the way here, so there’s nothing special you need to take care of.”

“Where were you originally?”

“At Zenthaus Third Resort Area.”

“…I remember it takes 30 minutes by car to get there.”

“Thanks to that, it took a full 30 minutes. That’s why my legs hurt.”

…Indeed, to be named among the Seven High as a mercenary group, do they have to gather eccentrics who claim they can easily run at the speed of a car?

Now that I think about it, the Open Face I met when tracing Bram Stoker, named Nebel Garcia Zenum, whose entire body was replaced with metal muscles, was also a monstrous individual.

A crazy guy a knife couldn’t pierce and bullets couldn’t stick to.

“…That seat is.”

“You’re noisy. Just come here.”

She tried to issue a vacate order to the uninvited guest once more, but Martina, simply dismissed with “You’re noisy,” was caught by Seira and placed on her lap without time to react.

Seira wasn’t particularly large-framed either, but our kid was so tiny that she fit perfectly into her arms.

“Please refrain from unauthorized contact with this individual.”

“Let’s go.”

“…Just put on your seatbelt.”

I stepped on the accelerator and left the abandoned residential area where wailing sounds echoed from everywhere.

The van zoomed lightly down the road.

The little vampire who seemed full of complaints, and Seira who held her in her arms as if it were nothing, demurely keeping silent.

And from behind, visible in the rearview mirror every time the car shook, was the wobbling body of the Shape-shifter.

How can she really wobble like that?

It was undoubtedly an eye-catching movement, even to the eyes of someone who had enjoyed it for a long time.

“By the way, Yoshimura Seira, you said?”

“Yes.”

There wouldn’t be just one or two people in the world using the same surname, but the surname Yoshimura—even in Eclipse Point, which inherited the characteristic of being a melting pot of races from the former USA—I only know one.

That phantom whom Johann used to call ‘Yoshimura-nim’.

It was the surname of that crazy old man who showed eccentric feats of slicing everything with a single monomolecular blade.

‘Now that I think about it, that old man… even with Raleigh, Johann, and Open Face collaborating, they couldn’t stop him.’

A monster that couldn’t be stopped even if a fellow Seven High and two more skilled individuals, who could be said to be right below that level, joined them.

The only person who would make even the sly Johann shiver as if he absolutely didn’t want to confront them, as if there were anything serious in all of creation, would be that old man.

“When I hear Yoshimura, there’s only one image I can think of, you know?”

“That image probably fits. That phantom, a corner of the Seven High, is my grandfather. Only his body, though…”

Seira’s indifferent eyes remained the same, but for some reason, the atmosphere seemed gloomy.

And the significant words she added afterwards, it seemed there was quite a deep story hidden within.

I quite liked her bold words and actions, but she was just someone I’d just met, and Johann would take care of it.

“By the way, are women like Shape-shifters your type? If not, is your fetish the situation of receiving sexual favors from a defeated woman who has no will to resist?”

“Gasp..! Hey, you..!”

I, who felt like I was choking despite not having swallowed anything, fumbled the steering wheel, but fortunately, the autonomous driving system judged it an abnormal operation and suppressed a wobble of about 50cm, so the car didn’t swerve out of its lane.

“Why would you suddenly bring that up here?”

“Because the first scene I witnessed you, the unknown person, in was having sex with the Shape-shifter. I don’t particularly think it’s unethical or feel contempt for it. It’s something that informally happens in this industry where violent people gather.”

“…That’s heavy. Damn it, don’t bring up such heavy topics, you kid.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m graduating soon, and I don’t think there’s much difference between you, the unknown person, and me.”

Although I’m almost thirty.

It was getting annoying to explain my age every time, so I just shut my mouth.

“I’m just interested in the acts you, the unknown person, performed on the Shape-shifter.”

“Fuck. If you just browse the net for a bit, things like that pop up like mountains, so why do you want to hear it from my mouth and make it embarrassing?”

“Johann-nim blocked all of that data, somehow knowing about it.”

For a damn guy like him, he certainly teaches his kid well.

Though it’s a bit old-fashioned for this era.

While she kept asking for detailed explanations from the side, I tried to ignore her chattering attack that caused mental damage and pressed the accelerator even harder to get there even a second faster.

“Speed limit violation. The estimated traffic fine is 200 credits, and an additional fine of 5 credits per meter is expected thereafter.”

“Fuck.”

My precious money.

***

“Ahahaha! To really catch it alone, this was unexpected, wasn’t it?”

“When were you posing, saying, ‘I’ll catch the Shape-shifter’? You didn’t even move from your seat in the end, did you? Did you even order pizza in the meantime?”

“When did I ever pose like that? I said I had to go assist where the Shape-shifter appeared, and that I was waiting!”

When I returned to my home, which had become like a hideout, perhaps the others hadn’t finished their work yet, as only Johann was sitting around, idling.

The guy had clear signs of panic when I brought Seira and the Shape-shifter without any prior contact.

“While I was getting stabbed several times, you were consuming the oxygen in my comfortable home, weren’t you?”

“Haha! That’s too much, really!”

Johann approached the Shape-shifter I had caught, dodging like a snake with rapidly thrown jabs.

Before coming here, the Shape-shifter had clothes put on her, and at least a mask, shattered by shotgun blasts, was placed on her, so her shameful appearance wasn’t exposed.

Unlike when I first met her, when she was like a phantom and I couldn’t tell if she was male or female, her female form was clearly discernible from her curves. But the dangerous atmosphere hadn’t faded, which indicated she was Eclipse’s best killer.

Of course, every time my gaze touched her, she flinched and trembled as if the remaining sensations simply couldn’t be shaken off.

“Nice to meet you~ Shape-shifter. I’ve wanted to talk to you for a while.”

“…So you were the instigator.”