With the destruction of the Red Tormentor Kai factory finished, today's activity is over, Yumio and Takahiko part ways with Mika and return to the hotel.
From now on, the plan is to attack the home base of Hachiku's rest the day after tomorrow. It was decided that it would be better to wait a day and go to the base the day after tomorrow rather than rushing to the base immediately the next day. On the next day, the degree of vigilance is also intense.
Mika argued that if you take a day off, the tension will be a little less the next day, and the fatigue from the previous day's alert will still remain on the enemy. In addition to that, he said that he will have an important talk tomorrow night.
"Oh, that guy called Shin, it's been a long time since I've had an impact. I can't think of him as a human being, even though he's such a kid."
Recalling the battle with Makoto, Takahiko brought it up as a topic.
"And about Mika. Do you think she's an enemy? It's true that she's hiding something."
"It's a delicate place, but uh, if it's an enemy, you'll probably do a little better."
Yumio doesn't think Mika is an enemy. But when she's hiding something, she can't even bring herself to believe it.
"My actions are being checked by someone, and my conversation is leaking through. I understand. Is that someone the enemy? I came in contact with you as a help - is that a conscientious interpretation?"
Takahiko's interpretation was similar to that of Yumio, but he seemed to want to take Mika's side.
"She said Makoto Aizawa wasn't an enemy, but do you know what she means?"
"I didn't really feel any murderous intent, and there seems to be some kind of reason.
No matter how much I think about it, I don't know why a human who wasn't an enemy attacked me, whether I was able to get along with the rest of Hachiku, and why I was about to be killed by Hachiku's rest.
"Is there something between Junko Yukioka and Hachiku's rest?"
"The Red Tormenter is a unique weapon that Junko-chan made in the first place. It's something that can be used for self-defense.The Red Tormentor Kai that has been remodeled is being sold as a recreation of Hachiku.
Mika seems to know everything, but even if I ask her at this point, she's unlikely to tell me.
Since there are many unknown points and Mika knows about them, she decided that it would not be a good idea to break up with Mika now, so she decided to keep the connection.
"I have a really bad feeling about this time. It was that girl who changed my life. She seemed like a really nice girl, but I was a little scared.
Yumio was more worried about the fact that Junko was involved than Mika's secret or the relationship between Junko and Hachiku.
"So, are you afraid that he's your enemy now?"
Takahiko also knows Junko very well. Before falling into her backstreets, he and Yumio spent some time at the Yukioka Research Institute when Junko taught her everything from combat training to backstreet knowledge.
"I still don't know if they are enemies or not. If it weren't for Aizawa Makoto's suspicious behavior and Tsukina-san's words, I would have been able to conclude that they were enemies. It's fine to assume that we're teaming up.
Takahiko, who always showed an easy-going and relaxed demeanor, saw Takahiko's unusually weak posture, and his expression turned serious.
"It's the established theory on the battlefield that the one who gets scared and dies first after saying something like that, isn't it? Don't turn your fear into fun, too. It's precisely because there's fear that we're having fun, and that's why we're immersed in this world."
Takahiko encourages him, but Yumio shakes his head slightly.
"It's different from the terror of Donpachi, isn't it? It's something else... Ah, it's hard to explain, this. A creature that confronts the creator? Son Goku on the palm of Shakyamuni's palm? It's vague, isn't it?"
When Yumio first met Junko, he had the impression that he was an elusive person. Looking back on it now, he realizes that his senses were quite different from those of a normal human being, and she was an unpredictable child.
He can't help but feel uneasy about the fact that such a person will give him a new life, and that he might make such a person his enemy.
After receiving her power, she taught me the basics of living in her backstreets, so I was able to make my debut as a groomer, and I am indebted to her. In that sense, he doesn't want to set things up. But no matter what the reason, he has no choice but to kill each other if he becomes hostile.
"What do you want me to stop doing here? Mika was disrespectful when she was hiding something. I wondered what her original motive was."
"No, there's no need to throw it in the middle."
"The bow man said with a straight face."
"It's kind of disgusting to stop here. Once I go on stage, I have to stay on stage until the end. I'm always the main character on the stage I go on. Yeah."
"Yes, yes, I'm always your option, a supporting role."
Takahiko spoke with an unfaithful tone, but with a smile on his face.
＊＊＊
At noon the day after two of Hachiku's resting hideouts were destroyed in quick succession, Kura invited Junko and Makoto to a restaurant he frequented.
"I wondered if I would be stuck in the lab all the time."
With three bodyguards standing behind him, Kura sat across the table from Junko.
Makoto and Junko were sitting next to each other as if they were cuddling up. At first glance, they look like a good-looking couple, but Kura guesses that in reality, Makoto will immediately protect Junko if something happens. Unlike the Tasmanian Devil, this restaurant is not a no-fight neutral zone.
"I'm grateful, but this guy is needless help. If you leave him alone, he won't be able to go out for more than a month.
"You don't have to say unnecessary things, either, Shin-kun."
Makoto pointed at Junko next to her with the tip of a fork, and Junko smiled embarrassedly.
"As a side note, I would like to clarify what happened yesterday when I was invited to dinner. They were scattered and almost killed together."
Kura's expression stiffened at his true words. Sensing the disturbing atmosphere, the tension ran through the three bodyguards.
"Umu. I've heard from Fukuda... But there's no way I'd give such an order. Something went wrong."
Kura was trying to face the situation with a straight back and a calm stance, but he couldn't contain his turmoil and his voice trembled slightly.
It would be unbearable to be hostile to even a mad scientist who is considered to be one of the living legends of the back alleys in the midst of antagonizing a revolutionary with an international level of fame and a brilliant groomer.
"Actually, something like that shouldn't have happened." Although he had ordered Kakinuma to question all the members of the organization, I can only assume that something went wrong.
"I didn't anticipate that kind of development either. If you think about it normally, I can't think of any reason why you guys should kill Makimi. There is also the possibility that there was a child who held a personal grudge against him."
"The surveillance cameras in the factory were also turned off, so there is no evidence. We would like to prove our innocence, but there is no method."
Junko was friendly as usual, but Kura was mainly conscious of Makoto when she was talking to her, as she had an expressionless but clearly threatening aura.
"Incompetence is also a good thing. If you were in my position, do you think you would be willing to lend a hand after something like that happened?"
Makoto declared while looking at the storehouse. It was a merciless remark from a child who was not even half of himself alive, but Kura was horrified before he got angry.
"I can't... But how can I prove it? I can't do anything."
"Kura has a painful expression on his face."
Suddenly, Makoto stands up and pulls out a pistol from his pocket. The three bodyguards reacted to that and put their hands on the guns in his pocket.
"Stop, you guys."
Kura calmed down with a quiet but resolute voice. These three people see through that it is very difficult to stand up. Even if he were to be killed here, he would be the only one killed.
"Aren't there three of us here?"
One of them said so, but Kura's gaze stopped him and he stiffened.
"Look into my eyes, not that one."
Placing a gun to Kura's head, Makoto declared. A breathtaking warehouse.
"Speak with your eyes as it is. If I judge that there is no falsehood, I will not do anything."
In response to Shin's words, Kura sat down on his stomach and caught Shin's gaze. There was fear, but there was not even a speck of deceit.
"Gaki! Just shut up and listen!"
As if to add water to the exchange, the impatient-looking bodyguard with a shaved head glared at the truth with a look of wrath. Unlike Kura, he felt anger rather than fear at the impertinent talk of a kid who was like his own child.
"It's a cliché of short-lived small fish."
In truth, the shaved head is completely cut off and tries to pull out his gun.
Within a few seconds of pulling the gun out of his bosom, a large hole was dug in the center of his shaved forehead, and the back of his head spurted blood and brain fluid as it collapsed.
"The other customers in the restaurant froze." No one screamed. It seems that he didn't even say a word because of the shocking event. It may have happened that there were few female customers.
Makoto held two large caliber pistols in each hand and aimed them at the foreheads of the two remaining bodyguards.
"Both of them couldn't react at all." Before they knew it, their colleague had been killed, and their fate was in their hands. He puts his hand in his pocket and is stiff with a gun in his hand.
"You don't have to kill me. With your arms, I could have held you down without killing you."
Kura glared at the truth and gritted his teeth.
"I thought I'd try to see if I was trustworthy, but there was an extra mess. Besides... I killed you because I wanted to kill you. You don't seem to be such a bad guy, but choose your subordinates a little more."
Looking up at Kura, the truthful words he spoke from above blew Kura's fear away and instantly reached a critical point of anger.
"Have you tried it? Are you confused? You don't have to go so far to trust me!"
Kura yells, slaps both hands on the table and stands up.
"Is that so. Should I die then?"
A cold light dwells in true eyes. Kura and the two bodyguards turn pale as a ferocious murderous intent unleashes from the truth.
Kura's anger suddenly abated. An abnormal bloodlust that made even the air feel paralyzed. He looks like a small handsome boy, but inside he's an extremely dangerous beast. Kura felt that he had learned the word "frog that was stared at by a snake".
"Oh, this pear is delicious."
Junko, who was the only one who continued to eat without feeling nervous, let out a lively voice.
"Yes, um"
And stretched the pear stuck in the fork toward the true direction.
Makoto focused his eyes on the pear, pondered for a moment, then opened his mouth with a gun pointed at the two of them, thrust her face forward, and tried to eat the pear.
Junko quickly withdraws her outstretched hand, puts her pear in her own mouth, looks up at her, and widens her mischievous grin.
"Immediately after that, a second shot was fired."
"I didn't shoot at Kura's bodyguards." The gun in her right hand, which was aimed at one of them, was aimed at Junko's head. However, Junko dodged her bullet by tilting her upper body with a light movement.
"Tit-tit-tit, it's still late."
Junko raises her index finger and shakes it in front of her face, smiling. Makoto, who had always been expressionless, turned bitter for a moment.
"Don't lick me...!"
One of the bodyguards, freed from the curse of true murderous intent, groaned and filled with murderous intent.
The bodyguard put his stiffened hand in his pocket and pulled out a gun from his pocket to shoot.
However, as soon as the gun came out of his bosom, his true right hand, which did not look at the bodyguard, was pointed at him again.
The moment the bodyguard's expression of despair appeared, a gunshot resounded. Just like the first person, blood and brain plasma scatter from the back of the head, blood overflows from the center of the forehead, and it collapses.
"You can't tell a lie that you can't deal with if it's found out, right? Without solid grounds that it will never be found out. That's a dangerous gamble. Even at the point of telling a big lie, I feel like I'm tired.Including the time I tried to kill you."
Junko said to Kura in a persuading tone.
"That's why I'm saying I don't know! I'm not lying! We're not hostile to you guys!"
Kura screamed desperately.
"The two people in front of me are more crazy than I had imagined." A few seconds later, it could easily be killed on a whim. It may be their production to show that way, but even if it was a production, the two had already been killed at this point.
"They used the Red Tormenter I made as a base, remodeled it, and sold it as their own product.
"Remodeling based on without notice?"
Kura is perplexed that the story is strange. It turns out later that Kakinuma made a mistake and didn't give permission to use the product name, but the modification itself should have been permitted. No, I believed it and never doubted it.
"Besides, what you guys are doing really doesn't suit me. Is there an evil aesthetic for evil? I have that kind of thing, and I have my own rules, huh.If you look at that side, you guys are really useless. I don't think it's all bad to rip off my invention, but I don't think it's a bad thing to do it without permission. If it turns out good, I think it's fine. Well, it wasn't good either."
"Wait a minute, that's strange! I've never heard that I didn't get permission to modify the virus in question!"
At Kura's desperate cry, the smile disappeared from Junko's face and she looked at Kura with a surprised expression.
"Hmm, I thought it was amazing that you had the audacity to use your name on top of stealing someone else's product.
Staring at the storehouse, Junko wondered.
"Besides, it's good to be daredevil to have your eye on your product. This guy doesn't look like the type to do such a stupid thing."
Makoto utters a line that will be a lifesaver for Kura.
Kura was annoyed at the fact that he was a little relieved by his true words just now. He was the one who killed two of his men in front of him.
"Yeah, it doesn't look like you're making up a story out of desperation."
Junko agrees with the true words.
"I would like to beg for my life, but I have the minimum amount of common sense and humanity. The same goes for that child, but I didn't commit such a betrayal.Please believe me."
Kura gazes at Junko's crimson eyes with a sincere look, even as her forehead is dripping with sweat.
"Yeah, I believe."
Junko simply nodded with her usual carefree smile.
"That means Mr. Kura will have an idea of who the mastermind is, don't you think?"
Junko's point made Kura suddenly realize.
"Is it Kakinuma…!"
Kiichi Kakinuma, the organization's number two, was entrusted with the production of the Red Tormenter.
"Actually, I already investigated months ago that he was the spearhead of the rip-off plan. Or rather, my purpose is that person. Mr. Kura didn't know the actual situation. As expected, it was unexpected.Perhaps that person was planning to take over the organization after I killed Mr. Kura? I wonder if he tried to kill you when he could have killed you.It was the best timing to set it up.It means that you can kill all the troublemakers at once.But, as I said earlier, when I fail, I will follow up and take care of myself. At the point where you don't think about your ability at all, it's too haphazard."
"He's always like that... If he succeeds, it'll be great, but he'll do whatever comes to his mind without thinking about the risk of failure. I was a fool to look at it, evaluate it, and pick it up..."
Holding his forehead, Kura gave the bodyguard a wink. Seeing this, Makoto puts his gun in his pocket, and the remaining bodyguard also pulls his hand out of his pocket.
"By the way, if you say it's unauthorized, why didn't you complain when you sold the Red Tormenter Kai?"
It was funny too. Why did you bother to bring up that topic now? There should have been plenty of opportunities to complain first. Even when I arrived at the organization's headquarters, I hadn't even touched it.
"Hmm, it's because I want enemies. It's my rule that I can play freely with the lives of those who are hostile to me. I always have a lot of enemies in stock, and if I can increase it as much as possible. I keep increasing it, and when I want to play, I choose from the stock and use it.There is no need to crush it immediately.So, this time, I will check how much the mouse that I have been keeping free has evolved. For that reason, I'm just playing with you guys who counted it as one of the stocks and playing with a mouse that was left free-range.Oh, by the way, I asked the Banara government to make a deal with your organization. I was the one who recommended that the Novam National Liberation Army hire Yumi-kun and the others, but I was also expecting that with his personality, he might go so far as to destroy the weapon manufacturing organization that created the outrageous BC weapons. I didn't have any confirmation, but it would be interesting if it did. It's a clumsy gimmick.
After listening to the story, Kura was attacked by the feeling that his whole body was losing strength. If this story is true, then everything is nothing more than this girl's play, and many people's destinies are deranged because of that play. Kura thought that the girl in front of him was a devil.
"Ah, I'll apologize for the time being. I was invited to dinner, but I'm sorry that I ruined it. Well, I had a good time."
With her smile on her face, Junko spoke her apology without any guilt.
"Are you saying that you enjoyed killing two of our humans?"
"I wasn't the one who killed him, so it's not my own fault? Because I didn't think about the difference in ability between him and me, I turned my murderous intentions towards someone who was stronger than me.Well, it's the minimum necessary rite of passage to prove my innocence. Wait, do you want me to split up?"
Even though her original fault is her own, Junko's innocent words make Kura feel her feelings boil in her intestines.
"I'll go home as soon as possible and question Kakinuma."
"Oh, there's still food left? Even though it's delicious."
As Kura stood up from her seat, Junko, who was calmly continuing to eat, called out to her.
"I can often eat calmly in a place like this."
"Sarcastic Kura." Not only the stench of blood but also filth leaked out from the two corpses giving off a terrible stench. After taking out her mobile phone and helping with the disposal of the corpses of the backstreet conflicts, and repairing and reimbursing the damaged equipment, she calls the organization that specializes in disposal, the "Great King of Terror Supporters' Association."
"I'm used to the smell of blood and corpses.
Kura didn't even have the energy to respond to Junko's innocent request.