Chapter 54 - Their Respective Decision (1/2)

Looking from Akira’s expression, Yajima understood that Akira did not think Reina and s.h.i.+ori as his friends. While from Reina and s.h.i.+ori’s expression, he understood that they too did not regard Akira as their friend and they did not understand the current situation.

Yajima knew that he could use s.h.i.+ori and Reina to get out from this dangerous situation. So he decided to exploit them.

When Akira lowered his rifle, Yajima was actually celebrating inside. After all, he at least was able to get out of the situation where he could be killed anytime. He now just needed to wait until the effect of the jamming smoke weakened to contact his friends for help.

And so, he decided to start acting in order to buy more time. But fortunately, someone who did not have her guards up suddenly approached him without suspecting anything. Yajima was thankful for his devil’s luck.

Reina, who was captured by Yajima squeezed out some words while in pain.

“W-what are you doing?”

Yajima laughed vilely as he replied back, he was obviously mocking Reina.

“Are you seriously asking me what I’m doing? Do I really have to explain this? I didn’t think there’s someone that stupid, you know? I think this situation explains itself really well. But I guess, just to be safe, in the rare case if those two also don’t understand what’s going on. I’m basically holding you hostage to threaten the other two people in this place.”

Yajima stopped smiling and turned to Akira and s.h.i.+ori.

“Don’t move or I’ll kill this girl.”

Although his voice was calm, it was clear that he was serious.

Akira and s.h.i.+ori did not make any moves while staring at Yajima. Akira’s face was stern as he glared at Yajima. As for s.h.i.+ori, she was obviously directing her killing intent toward Yajima. Although she tried hard to keep a calm expression, she was actually furious inside and it was projected from her eyes. She glared intensely at Yajima as if she was trying to bore holes through him with her gaze.

Yajima looked at Akira and s.h.i.+ori who just stood there and said.

“…Very nice. It’s really helpful that you guys are smart enough to understand what’s going on.”

Yajima still kept his eyes on s.h.i.+ori and Akira as he said to Reina.

“Now then, since your sorry brain can’t understand what’s going on, I’ll let you know about this too. I can easily crush your neck with my hand. So don’t do anything stupid. It might be true that I’ve lost my right arm and was lying on the ground until a few minutes ago. So it’s completely understandable if you’re thinking of waiting for a chance to escape. But that would be a big mistake. I won’t lower my guard and I’m not so weak that you can break away even if there’s an opening. If it seemed like I lowered my guard to you, it’s just because I look so from your point of view, and you were completely mistaken. You might not believe my words. But looking at how the person who’s wanting to help you is just standing there obeying my words, I hope you understand the meaning of that.”

A moment of silence drifted. After confirming that Reina did not try to fight back, and Akira and s.h.i.+ori did not do anything suspicious, Yajima continued.

“…That’s good. Then, throw down your weapon.”

s.h.i.+ori quickly dropped the gun that she was holding. She also dropped down the gun in her holster and any other weapons that she had on her. After she removed all of her weapons, she took a few steps back.

s.h.i.+ori kept her eyes on Yajima for even the slightest opening. When she removed all of her weapons, she noticed that he frowned slightly.

Yajima turned to Akira, s.h.i.+ori looked puzzled and turned towards him too.

Akira was still gripping his rifle. He still had his guards up as he was staring at Yajima.

“…Akira-sama, could you please drop your gun?”

s.h.i.+ori pleaded with Akira to drop his gun. But he did not say anything while still staring at Yajima.

“…Akira-sama?”

“I hear you.”

Akira only said that, but he did not look like he was going to drop his rifle anytime soon.

Yajima frowned. He tightened his choke on Reina and made her groan in pain. s.h.i.+ori looked hurt when she heard Reina groan.

Yajima calmly said.

“I’m sure you heard what I said, or is it that you wouldn’t listen to me? Are you saying that you don’t care if she dies?”

“How much more would you demand from us? Is it until your friends come here and kill us?”

“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I don’t have friends. If you drop your gun, I’ll just withdraw to the hallway and let this girl go after I gain some distance from here. I promise you that. Ahhh, I didn’t tell you that I’m going to release her if you drop your gun, huh. My bad. So, do you get it now?”

“You… You’re thinking of stealing relics, aren’t you?”

Yajima slightly reacted when he said that. Akira then continued.

“I got that right, didn’t I? Back then when you tried to kill me, you didn’t try to make any excuses and instead immediately tried to kill me without hesitation. Which meant that the moment I saw your face, you had no other choice but to kill me. You’re a cyborg, so you can freely change your expression the way you want. But even so, you still tried to kill me when I wanted to contact the HQ. I bet there’s something down here that you don’t want the city to notice no matter what.”

Akira’s guess was correct. Yajima and his friends had hidden relics in multiple places in the underground city, and one of those places was around that area. His friends should already be transporting the relics from the other places. His job was to guard that place until his friends came there to carry the relics.

Akira continued.

“You’re planning to kill everyone who saw your face, aren’t you? Since we know your face, the city staff would easily identify you after all. You’re basically picking a fight with the city, they would have a bounty for your head. So in order to avoid that, you have no other choice but to kill us. Am I wrong?”

Yajima who was only listening without saying anything replied as if he was reproving someone that would not listen to him.

“It seems that you’re misunderstanding a lot of things here. I don’t mind telling you where you went wrong with your guess that is full of holes, but I have a feeling that you would not listen to me no matter what I say.”

“So, for how long do you need to buy time? How strong are your friends? Seeing how you’re taking this slowly, it seems that they’re strong enough to be able to kill us easily.”

“Even if I go along with your rubbish talk, one thing for sure is, this girl will die if you don’t drop your gun.”

“If you kill that girl, there’s no mistaking it that you won’t leave this place alive. But you’ll still kill her even after knowing that, huh. I guess you’re confident that you have enough power to deal with us then.”

Akira and Yajima locked gazes with a serious face. There was a moment of silence before Yajima coldly said.

“This is the last warning. Drop your gun.”

“No thanks.”

Akira swiftly refused Yajima’s demand. They stared intensely at each other, s.h.i.+ori’s face was already turned pale as she was watching them.

Yajima sighed.

[…Is this boy for real? He knows my plan and also knows that I’m not planning to leave anyone alive. What should I do now? I don’t know for sure when Kain and Nelia will arrive. This boy might decide to shoot me on the spot the moment he sees Kain and Nelia. My cyborg body is badly damaged, I don’t think I can evade if he shoots at me.]

Yajima looked exasperated.

“Although I’m taking hostage a beautiful girl like her here… You’re really a cold person, you know. Don’t you have any sense of righteousness in your heart?”

“I don’t want to hear that from the person who’s taking that beautiful girl hostage.”

“It’s fine for me, I’m a villain after all. I can do bad things without feeling guilty at all. It’s the special right only for villains, so a hero can’t afford to do that. Well, putting that aside, since it seems that this hostage isn’t important to you, I’ll just ask the other person who cares for the hostage.”

Yajima then turned to s.h.i.+ori.

“If you don’t want this girl to die, go kill that boy.”

The moment Yajima said that, Akira put up his guard against both Yajima and s.h.i.+ori. Yajima noticed that slight change and inadvertently took a step back while still holding Reina.

Akira still had his CWH anti-material rifle pointed downward. If he had pointed his rifle at Yajima, Yajima would have reacted with something more extreme.

s.h.i.+ori was in dismay and exchanged glances between Akira and Reina. She was shocked and confused as she was put in that absurd situation.

Akira chose not to drop his gun. The rest was up to s.h.i.+ori to decide, and all the available options that she had were hopeless.

Akira was waiting to see what s.h.i.+ori would do as he asked Alpha.

“…Alpha, what do you think?”

Alpha replied back almost instantly.

“I think she’ll decide to attack you.”

“And the reason for that?”

“It’ll allow the hostage to live longer by attacking you. If she doesn’t follow what he said, he would realize that there’s no meaning in holding the hostage and kill the hostage. Even though she knows that he plans to kill everyone, as long as the hostage is still alive, there’s a hope that she would be able to save the hostage. Looking from that point of view, there’s no way she would let this chance to keep the hostage’s life slide.”

“I totally agree with you for the same exact reason. Dammit, I should’ve not worried about explaining the situation back then and just quickly killed this man.”

“Nothing will change even if you regret it now. Let’s just do what you can do right now. In the worst-case scenario, you’ll have to kill everyone, okay?”

“Roger that.”

Akira had made his resolve.

While on the other hand, s.h.i.+ori still could not resolve herself to decide on anything. If she lunged at Yajima, he would immediately kill Reina. But even if she killed Akira, there was no guarantee that Yajima would not kill Reina. She believed that Akira’s guess was correct, Yajima planned to kill everyone in the end.

Looking at s.h.i.+ori who was still standing frozen in place, Yajima acted angrily and said.

“…What the heck, so taking this girl hostage is basically meaningless, huh? I guess I have no other choice but to kill her then. I’m sure I’ll be dead too afterwards, but my friends would definitely avenge my death when they get here.”