Chapter 61 - Lucky / Unlucky Ending (2/2)

“Alpha! Where did these people come from?! I didn’t notice them at all!!”

“They just came. All of them are using camouflaging devices, that’s why you didn’t notice them.”

“C-camouflaging devices…?”

“Those are devices that prevent other people from detecting your location. There are many types of camouflaging devices, starting from heat camouflage, movement camouflage, sound camouflage…”

“That’s not what I’m asking about…”

Then one of those guys said something that answered Akira’s question.

“Don’t move!! We’re Kugamayama Defense Squad!! Surrender yourself and don’t try to fight back!! If you don’t obey our orders, we might judge that you’re against the City Management!! We even have the permission to take you out in that case!!”

Those guys were soldiers from Kugamayama Defense Squad. More of them kept appearing as they surrounded Akira.

Other than Akira, there were many who were trying to make contact between the underground exploration HQ and the temporary base. Although Akira failed to make contact with the temporary base, other people successfully conveyed the message from the underground exploration HQ. The Head Commander of the temporary base thought that the situation was pretty bad and decided to quickly send out the city’s defense squad.

The defense squad quickly patrolled the area around the underground exploration HQ. In the midst of their patrol, they noticed explosions as if someone was fighting nearby. That was when Kain sent his powered suit to the building where Akira and Nelia were. The defense squad thought that it might be the relic thieves fighting against monsters, so they sent some of their men to check the source of that sound.

When they arrived, they saw Akira aiming his CWH anti-material rifle at Nelia.

Akira looked at the people who were surrounding him and let out a sigh. It was obvious that they were more skilled and had better equipment than him. They looked completely cautious as they pointed their rifles at him. They could kill him anytime if he made any suspicious move.

“I feel like this has happened before.”

“What a coincidence, actually I too feel the same.”

Akira was talking about the experience he had when he was about to kill Yajima. At that time, he should have quickly pulled the trigger, because he didn’t do it he had to pay for that mistake by fighting s.h.i.+ori. But with that being said, it’s not like he could do that in this situation.

He quickly raised his hands and yelled before Nelia could say anything. After all, it would be problematic if she said something that would complicate the situation.

“I’m Akira!! I’m a Hunter working in the underground city exploration operation! The relic thieves ambushed me when I was on my way to the temporary base! You can ask them for confirmation!!”

“Chain them!! You have permission to shoot them if they fight back!! We’ve received reports of dead Hunters from the underground!! So keep your guard up!!”

“I’m just a Hunter…!!”

A few men restrained Akira and handcuffed him, he did not fight back when they did that. The defense squad then took him and Nelia away from that place.

Akira could feel the tension inside his body and mind loosen. No matter what the outcome was, his battle had finally come to an end. Both his body and psyche were very tired. Akira, who did faint once, did not have the ability to fight back that tiredness now.

His eyes were slowly closing. Before he lost consciousness, he could hear Alpha’s voice.

“It’s okay, don’t worry, just take a good rest.”

Alpha smiled to rea.s.sure Akira. It was a smile telling him that there was no longer any danger.

“…I see… Good night then.”

He was relieved as his consciousness slowly faded away. The defense squad panicked as they supported Akira, who suddenly went unconscious.

“The target has lost consciousness!!!”

“Check for his vitals and respond accordingly!! He might be one of the relic thieves!! Don’t let him die no matter what before we can extract all the information that we can get from him! Call the medical squad from the underground exploration HQ and tell them to be on standby!! B squad, search the building!! There might be more relic thieves around!! If you find any of them, take them alive if it’s possible!! If it’s not, you have the permission to kill!”

The rest of the men quickly got into their job, following their commander’s order.

Just like Akira, Nelia was also secured by the defense squad. Although she was only left with her head, the device installed inside her head allowed her to make a long-range call with other people. Because of which she came to know about the situation outside.

Although Nelia could not control her body, she caught a glimpse of Akira when she was carried away.

[You see, just like I said, it’s going to be fine.]

Nelia was smiling. She knew that if she bought time until the defense squad arrived, she might be able to get out of that situation alive, and she actually did.

Her luck allowed her to survive. It could also be said that it was Akira’s luck that allowed her to survive.

Kain escaped until he reached the outskirts of the Kuzusuhara ruin. He met up with some men there. Although they looked different from one another, it was obvious from their appearance that they were cyborgs just like Kain.

They then saluted Kain. The representative among those men stepped forward and said.

“Welcome back, sir!”

Kain replied back.

“Thanks for the hard work, give me a sitrep.”

“Yessir!! We’ve withdrawn everyone that we’ve dispatched. We’ve also received reports that our moles have successfully pulled back.”

“I see. We should pull back too. Just to be safe, we’ll not visit Kugamayama city and head straight to another city. Let’s go.”

“Are we going to just leave them alone?”

When they mentioned “them”, they meant the people who Kain was working with when he was stealing the relics from the underground city. They were still waiting for him and Nelia near the truck, but they were no longer his friends at this point.

“Yeah, I’m sure the defense squad would take care of them for us. If we take care of them ourselves, it would only make it easier for the defense squad to track us. Although it might be okay if they discover about me, it would be a hindrance to our operation if they found out about the others too.”

“Roger that, let’s move out!!”

Kain then left that place together with those men. In the middle of their travel, one of those men asked him.

“Sir, I heard that you changed the plan during the last hour. Is there any reason why you did that?”

“The main reason was because a guy named Yajima got killed. He was responsible for the transportation. Things got complicated after his death. Because of that, we had to cancel our original plan.”

“Was it impossible to somehow save that man?”

“His death shouldn’t have caused much trouble in our original plan. That man was supposed to be alive only until he brought the old world relics to our place… If you want to mock me for my inability to predict something like this, which had turned the whole operation into a failure, you can go ahead and do that, I’ll take full responsibility.”

“No, that’s not it. I can understand that something bad happened which was outside of your control and it was not something that we can deal with. I apologize if my question rubbed you the wrong way.”

That man noticed that Kain’s mood was worsened. So he decided to stop asking any more questions.

Kain fell into deep thought.

[But still, how did it end up like this? According to the men from inside the Long-term Strategic Division, there should be no Hunter in this area who can take out Yajima or Nelia. Nelia did say that there might be an agent mixed among the young Hunters from Drankam. Now that I think about it, Drankam did send some young Hunters to the underground city, and I heard that there was someone among them who was actually a good Hunter. Did the city send some agents to Drankam in order to control that big gang from the inside? And did we encounter one of those agents by pure chance…? If he’s really an agent from the city, that explains why he’s that strong. I guess I’ll look into it more later.]

He then asked the guy near him.

“I heard that there was a big group among the Drankam’s young Hunters, do you know who’s the centre of that group? Since we’re talking about a young Hunter here, simple propaganda should be enough to pull him in, they should at least come up with such a plan.”

“Certainly… The target name should be Katsuya. Do you need us to make a detailed doc.u.ment about him?”

“No need. I’ll investigate about him myself later. I’ll ask you to make one later in case if I need it.”

“Yessir.”

That man decided not to say anything needless in order not to make Kain’s mood worse again. But because of that, he lost the chance to correct their misunderstanding.

Kain and those men left Kuzusuhara ruin and vanished into the wasteland.

Nelia was imprisoned in a solitary cell inside the Kugamayama city’s prison. It was equipped with devices to restraint a cyborg. There was a table inside that solitary cell. Nelia was fixed above that table. She was still only a head.

There were a lot of cables connected through her neck. Most of them were for keeping her alive while some of them were to block her from contacting other people. So she couldn’t do anything and felt bored to death.

Shortly after, a man came in. He smiled at Nelia.

“Uhhh, Nelia-san, right? I’m Yanagisawa. How are you, I guess?”

Nelia smiled and replied.

“I can’t say that I’m doing good. I’m feeling so bored. I don’t mind if you put a filter on, but can you at least let me connect with the outside world?”

Yanagisawa smiled and shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but sadly, I don’t have the authority to do that. But I can at least accompany you in wasting some time. Don’t worry, we’ll just have a good talk. In short, I just need to get information out from you, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t have a good civilized talk.”

“I have told you everything though. Well, I don’t mind talking to you, but this is an exchange, okay? For everything that I’ll tell you, make sure that it’ll reduce my sentence, okay?”

After saying that, Nelia smiled invincibly.

Yanagisawa smiled back.

“Of course, I’m someone who thinks that human rights apply even to criminals. That also includes the right to make a deal. Making a deal is important. It’s one thing that binds people together. It’s a means to communicate with people in different positions. Those who can’t make a deal with other people are the same as monsters. After all, it’s not like you can negotiate with them.”

Nelia seemed to be a bit annoyed by Yanagisawa’s att.i.tude. She stopped smiling and asked.

“…So then, what do you want to ask me?”

“We want to know more about this Kain.”

“I’ve told you everything before. Do you want me to tell you the same thing one more time?”

“Well, it’s true that you did. We’ve heard about him both from you and your friends. We followed the information you gave and tried to chase this guy named Kain. But then there’s one thing that we discovered, this Kain guy doesn’t exist. I’m not here to complain to you that ‘Kain’ is a fake name. If it’s fake, then it’s fake. One thing for sure, this guy who’s using this fake ‘Kain’ name does exist.”

“Don’t blame me for your inability to make a proper investigation.”

Yanagisawa just smiled silently. That smile somehow made Nelia worry.

He suddenly said.

“By the way, what do you think will happen for your punishment?”

“…Hmmm, let’s see. I guess my cyborg body will be confiscated by the city and they’ll make me do forced labour. They’ll send me to dangerous ruins controlled by the City Management. Then they’ll use me like an expendable good until I can repay my debt to the city. So until then, I’ll be spending my days excavating relics from that dangerous ruin.”

Yanagisawa smiled and said.

“That’s correct. But there’s only this one thing that you are misunderstanding here, you see. What you said would be your punishment if you’re a relic thief. That is if they think that you’re only a common relic thief that you can find in abundance in this eastern district.”

Nelia’s expression turned grim. Even when Akira pointed his rifle at her, she did not make this face.

“What do you mean?”

Yanagisawa smiled, it only made her even more worried.

“We believe that this guy by the name of Kain is one of the Nationalist. Moreover, he’s not a goon, he’s one of their upper echelons.”

Nelia was shocked. Looking at her, Yanagisawa’s smile widened as he continued.

“We have quite a lot of problems in the eastern district because of those Nationalist, you see. Not only do they encourage common thugs to steal relics from under the City Management, they then robbed them off those relics. They caused the City Management so much losses to the point that we can no longer ignore them. Then we noticed from all the troubles that happened around the city that there must be someone orchestrating them, but we didn’t know for sure who that person was. We believe that Kain is the person in question. The defense squad that secured you guys were all well armed, right? Those men were originally sent to capture the Nationalist.”

Nelia’s face turned pale, after hearing what he said, she understood her situation.

Yanagisawa continued. He kept talking about the subject that made Nelia even more worried. It made her understand just how bad the situation that she was in.

“Right now, the city is suspicious of you since it seems that you’re pretty close to this Nationalist officer. So we’re rather suspicious if you’re actually hiding some information that might help us identify that person. Some of us even think that you might be one of those Nationalist that stands against not only this city but against the whole Corporate Government. If this misunderstanding doesn’t get cleared up, your punishment will be very… very…. miserable. To be more precise, you’ll be used in the Rebuild laboratory experiment.”

Nelia sounded terrified as she asked.

“W-wait. Didn’t that laboratory get disbanded…?”

“Of course, the Rebuild laboratory was publicly disbanded. But it’s not like we killed all the researchers or sc.r.a.pped all the research results from that lab. They’re still researching even now. But this time, they’re doing more ethical experiments compared to before. As long as they keep producing results, the Corporate Government is willing to turn their eyes away. Under the management of the Corporate Government, they’re producing a huge amount of results at the expense of the human rights of a very small number of people. But of course, these people are chosen from ‘unredeemable’ criminals, I’m talking about criminals who have caused quite a significant loss to the City Management.”

Nelia was so scared that she had trouble saying anything, but she somehow was able to raise her voice although only barely.

“B–b-but… I-I’m not…”

“Well, I’m sure that’s the case. I’m sure you’re not one of them and you have nothing to do with those Nationalist. That’s why you better try your best to prove that you’re telling the truth. Tell us something that will make us believe you. Like I said before, I’m someone who believes that human rights apply even to criminals. I believe that we need to at least uphold the minimal level of human rights like sentencing criminals to death by turning them into minced meat, or by injecting them with poison, or by feeding them to the monsters. That’s why I don’t really agree with the idea of handing criminals over to the Rebuild laboratory for experiments. But I have duties that I need to fulfil too, you see. That’s why I hope that you cooperate with me. And also, to be honest, I don’t know for sure what they do inside the Rebuild laboratory. After all, it’s a secret that only the Corporate Government knows.”

Nelia was frozen in fear. Yanagisawa smiled and continued.

“So then, you’ll tell me everything, right? Don’t worry, we have a lot of time in our hands. Not to mention that you did say you’re bored, right? Now you have something to spend your time on.”

It could be said that it was Nelia’s luck that was keeping her alive, it could also be said that it was Akira’s luck too. But she regretted the fact that she was still alive as she was desperately trying to make excuses so that she could continue to stay alive.

Whether it was a lucky thing or an unlucky thing, no one knew for sure yet.

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