Chapter 56 - Post-Mortem Revenge Request Program (1/2)

Akira, Reina and s.h.i.+ori were still on their way to the HQ. Reina was supporting s.h.i.+ori who was on the verge of collapsing as they were walking through the underground hallway. As for Akira, he was walking a little further away beside s.h.i.+ori and Reina, his distance showed that he was still cautious of them.

Akira was regularly consuming medicines while keeping his eyes on his surroundings. The medicines that he was taking were the ones that he bought from s.h.i.+zuka’s shop. Compared to the medicines found in the old-world ruin, their potency was extremely low. But even so, if he chugged a significant amount of that medicine, it would at least speed up his fatigue recovery and the healing of his wounds.

He glanced at the warning printed on the medicine’s packaging. Thanks to Alpha’s training, he was able to recognize words, and so he was able to understand the warning. But even so, he kept on chugging that medicine frequently.

Akira was weak. He understood that well, and so, it was important for him to maintain his body in the best possible state. Even if it meant that he would definitely die 10 years later from the side effect of the medicines that he was consuming. He knew that he had to do crazy things to survive the present, to stay alive tomorrow, and to keep his body functioning next week.

Reina watched Akira chugging medicines and asked him.

“…I noticed that you’ve been regularly consuming a lot of that medicine. Are you alright with consuming that many at once?”

Akira answered back swiftly.

“I bet it’s not alright.”

Reina was surprised by his answer.

“N-not alright, huh…”

“Although it doesn’t say how many is too many, it does warn to not consume a large amount of this medicine in a short time. So I bet it’s bad for my body.”

“T-then why…?”

s.h.i.+ori thought that if she let Reina and Akira continue that conversation, the subject of their conversation may turn into something that was not pleasant to talk about between the three of them. So she squeezed her leftover power to interject in their conversation.

“Milady, we’ve moved quite far from that area. I know it’s rude for me to ask, but can you please check if we can already contact the HQ or not.”

The reason why Akira was consuming such an excessive amount of medicines, even though he knew that it was bad for his body, was because he was injured and extremely tired after his fight with s.h.i.+ori. He did it so that he would be in the best possible condition in case they encountered monsters on their way back. So in short, it was s.h.i.+ori’s fault as well as Reina’s too. And it was not something to discuss in that situation.

s.h.i.+ori’s mind was still slightly numb as she thought that she should have stopped Reina sooner, or at least warned her not to talk about anything sensitive. If she was in her usual condition, she would have warned Reina way sooner than that, but the current her was unable to do that. It was because she was focusing all of her remaining energy to keep herself awake and not to fall unconscious in that place.

Akira understood why s.h.i.+ori suddenly interjected, but since he also did not want to cause any fight there, he just kept quiet. Reina was the only person who did not notice that as she focused on her terminal.

A voice came out from her terminal.

“This is HQ-“

“It’s connected!!”

The moment Reina confirmed that her terminal was connected to the HQ, Akira immediately yelled at the terminal.

“This is number 27!! We’ve got 3 injured Hunters after fighting against that suspicious person!! We’re not in a condition to face any more fights!! The suspicious person is dead!! There’s a good chance that he brought more of his friends from underground tunnels!! It seems that they’re planning to secretly carry relics out from the underground city!! Send us Hunters who can fight well and are proficient in providing support!! My terminal was destroyed by that suspicious person when I fought him!! That’s why I’m contacting you from another Hunter’s terminal!!”

There was a brief pause before the HQ staff replied back.

“Number 27, explain what happened. First of all, about that suspicious person-“

“Give us permission to return back to HQ first.”

“Number 27, we need to confirm the situation first before we can do that, so answer our questions first-“

“The permission first!”

Akira was yelling. From his voice, it was obvious that he was tired. The staff understood that it was pointless to argue back, so he just gave them permission to return.

“…Very well, you’re permitted to return back to the HQ. But answer our questions while you’re on your way back, understand?”

There was a slight intimidating nuance coming from his voice.

“…This is number 27, roger that.”

Akira took a deep breath in order to calm himself down.

They could hear sounds of a commotion leaking out from the terminal, it seemed that there was something going on in the HQ.

Akira was answering the questions from the HQ staff while walking back to the HQ. He told the staff about Yajima who suddenly attacked him out of the blue, about the jamming smoke that prevented him from contacting s.h.i.+ori and Reina, about the fact that he killed Yajima, and about the reason why he thought Yajima and his friends were planning to secretly carry out old-world relics from the underground city. He properly answered all the questions that the HQ staff asked him.

The staff was also thinking of asking s.h.i.+ori and Reina too. But Reina still could not fully recover from that chaos and was still a bit dazed by everything that just happened. Not to mention, she was really worried about s.h.i.+ori, as such, she was not in a condition to answer the staff’s questions. As for s.h.i.+ori, she was barely conscious, she was also not in a position where she could properly answer his questions. Thus he was only able to question Akira.

Akira was giving his report while carefully moving forward, he then noticed a group of Hunters running towards them. Reina and s.h.i.+ori were relieved that their rescue finally arrived, but in contrast to them, Akira frowned.

“Reina!! s.h.i.+ori!! Are you guys alright?!”

The reason why Akira looked slightly annoyed was because it was Katsuya’s group who came running.

s.h.i.+ori was so relieved that they were finally able to meet up with the other Hunters, that she immediately lost consciousness then and there. Reina panicked and tried to hold her up as she was about to collapse. Katsuya and the others quickly surrounded her and helped Reina support s.h.i.+ori.

Alpha then said to Akira.

“Let’s just leave her to them. We should leave quickly. If you stay around them, it would be a pain in the b.u.m when they start asking you about the situation.”

“You’re right. It’s not like they told us to go back to the HQ together anyway. And I want to avoid anything troublesome if it’s possible.”

Akira was quietly walking away from Katsuya’s group, but Katsuya noticed him and tried to stop him.

“Wait!! Where do you think you’re going?!!”

s.h.i.+ori was obviously in a bad shape as she fell unconscious and Reina panicked when that happened. The only person who was completely calm, Akira, was trying to sneak away. From the situation that they were in; plus his distrust of Akira, Katsuya thought that Akira was the real cause of that situation. He thought that Akira did something bad and caused s.h.i.+ori and Reina to get injured, or even maybe it was he who attacked Reina and s.h.i.+ori.

Akira was already running away from that place. Alpha smiled at him and warned him.

“You can’t stop running, okay?”

“I know.”

Even without Alpha telling him, Akira ignored Katsuya’s voice as he kept on running towards the HQ.

Katsuya was at a loss whether he should chase Akira or not. Then suddenly HQ staff’s voice came out from Reina’s terminal, and the staff was unaware that Akira was already gone from that place as he asked a question.

“Number 27, what was that sound? What’s going on over there?”

Katsuya sounded obviously angry when he replied back.

“This is Katsuya from Drankam!! We just met up with the injured Hunters!”

“Who? What number?”

“…It’s number 52!!”

“Where’s number 27? Is he not there? I heard that there were 3 injured people including number 27.”

Katsuya realized that number 27 was Akira as he answered back as if he was venting.

“If it’s that guy, he looks completely fine and ran away!! I don’t even know where he’s going!!”

“…I see. The rest of the injured Hunters are from Drankam, right? Number 52, I’ll put the other two back in your team, you take the command from here and on. That’s all.”

Katsuya yelled at the terminal.

“Wait!! Are you telling me to bring Reina and s.h.i.+ori around rather than sending them back?”

“Your duty is to confirm your situation. Check how bad their injuries are and decide whether to bring them along with you or to let them rest in the defensive point. You can even bring them to the medical team if their injuries are serious. You guys decide what to do from there. Whether you would send some people back or not, or proceed with your duties with the remaining Hunters, or whether you bring your whole team back since it doesn’t seem like you can continue with your current situation, it’s up to you guys from Drankam to discuss and decide on your own. Don’t ask us for every single thing on what to do. Ask Drankam instead. Only inform the HQ if you decide that it’s necessary to do so. We’re also busy here, you know. That’s all.”

The HQ staff ended the call after saying that.

Katsuya could feel that the HQ was taking s.h.i.+ori and Reina’s situation lightly. His face was twitching with anger. He then quickly decided on what to do next.

“We’ll take s.h.i.+ori and Reina back to the HQ.”

Taking everyone back to the HQ could be interpreted as abandoning his duty. Airi understood it, so she asked Katsuya.

“What about our duties?”

Katsuya smiled as he answered back.

“They told us to decide on our own. We’ll return back to HQ, leave Reina and s.h.i.+ori with the medical team, and then return back to our duty. After all, our friends’ lives are much more important than our duty, right?”

Seeing how Katsuya prioritized his friends’ lives over his duty, the other young Hunters in his team looked at him with approving gazes.

Although Yumina was not sure whether it was a good idea to bring everyone back, she felt like Katsuya would decide to be the one staying behind if she said anything, so she just kept quiet. She knew how skilled s.h.i.+ori was and something had happened to render her in such a bad shape, so she did not want to let Katsuya take any risk by going alone.

***

When Akira arrived at HQ, he went on to give his report about Yajima. He thought that the staff would be asking him a lot of questions again, but instead, he was let go after giving a simple report.

It was because they had already asked the necessary details when Akira was on his way back to the HQ together with s.h.i.+ori and Reina. And also, while Akira was on his way back, the situation had changed. There seemed to be more of Yajima’s friends found in the underground city and they killed some Hunters that the HQ had dispatched.

Akira let out cold sweat when the HQ staff told him that there were some deaths reported after the clash between them. If he had encountered more people who were as strong as Yajima on his way back, there was no doubt he would have been dead by now. He barely dodged the bullet back there.

Looking at Akira who was lightly s.h.i.+vering, Alpha just smiled and consoled.

“I’m glad we quickly left that place.”

“You can say that again. I wonder why I’m always pushed into this kind of dangerous situation? Is it because I really ran out of luck?”

Alpha replied back as if she was cheering the mumbling Akira.

“I’m sure it’s because you were thinking of leaving a beautiful hostage to die back then. You might need to do more good deeds in the future.”

Akira looked annoyed.

“Don’t be crazy. If I had threw down my weapon, there was no mistaking it that he would have killed me immediately, you know?”

“I bet you’re right. Although you somehow saved her, that might not be enough to balance everything. Or it may be since you were able to save her ultimately, your luck increased and were able to get out from that unlucky place right before anything troublesome happened.”

Akira mumbled.

“That’s just unreasonable.”

While it was true that if he had stayed together with Katsuya’s group, it might have turned into something troublesome. Akira did not want to think that it was because of luck that he was able to escape. If it was possible, he wanted to use his acc.u.mulated luck for something better.

He understood that Alpha was only joking in order to cheer him up. But for some reason, she sounded really convincing to Akira.

Although there were only a few minor external wounds, Akira’s body was actually in a terrible state. The cheap medicines were not enough to heal his wounds. So he asked the staff about the medical team and the staff explained to him about the details.

“I don’t mind if you want to meet the medical team. But let me tell you this beforehand, it’s not free. There are a lot of Hunters who misunderstand this point. So be careful with the bill.”

“What should I do to pay the medical bill?”

“You should negotiate it with the medical team. Most of the Hunters have their medical bills subtracted from their rewards. The amount of the bill depends on the medical services you seek and whether you have taken the insurance or not. Ahh, your terminal was broken, right? You should go and get a replacement first, the medical team won’t help you without the terminal. If you don’t share your location through the shared network, they might think that you’re going to run away without paying. So be careful about that too.”

Akira followed the staff’s suggestions to first get a new terminal before heading to the room where the medical team was on standby.

Although they were called as the medical team, there were many other Hunters who did not have a biological body like Akira. Some of them used nanomachines to enhance their bodies, some of them were cyborgs with human-like appearance, and some of them looked completely mechanical from the outside. These types of Hunters needed fixing rather than healing.

As Akira followed a board saying ‘biological body is this way’, a man wearing a white coat welcomed him.

That man, Yatsubayas.h.i.+, looked more like a scientist who loved to do human experiments rather than a doctor. He was stationed there to heal Hunters with biological bodies.

Akira looked worried when he saw Yatsubayas.h.i.+. Although he never went to a doctor before, it did not take him much to notice that Yatsubayas.h.i.+ was obviously a shady person.

Yatsubayas.h.i.+ welcomed Akira in high spirits.