Chapter 71 (1/2)

Index

Editor: Silavin

Proofreader: p4553r

While it was not always true that the enemies of your enemies were your friends, but almost always, the friends of your enemies were definitely your enemies. According to what Katsuya said, he basically put himself in a position where he allied himself with Akira’s enemy. Thus, from Akira’s point of view, Katsuya and his friends had already shifted from being innocent people, who got roped into this situation, to his enemies.

It would be nothing strange if Akira suddenly opened fire. Because of that, Alpha warned him with a stern expression.

“Akira, you can’t. I won’t allow you to do this. It’s 7 vs 1, 6 of them are used to fighting, while the remaining one can fight you equally even when you have your augmented suit. You can’t take this fight.”

“7 against 1, huh…”

Those words were mumbled more to himself than to Alpha. Since he always communicated through telepathy with her, he thought that Katsuya and the others will not be able to hear what he said.

But his stance was already showing that he was ready to fight. Currently, his focus was divided into two, observing the enemies in front of him and planning on how to dispose of all of them. As such, he forgot his usual routine. Thanks to that, his obviously hostile statement that he just mumbled were heard by Katsuya and the others.

Yumina did not think that Akira would not recognize the difference in their strength, so when she heard him mumbled that statement, she was hoping that he would withdraw from that place.

But Shiori suddenly said something unexpected.

“It’s not 7 against 1. I, Reina, and Kanae would not get involved in this fight. We won’t aid Katsuya-sama nor Akira-sama.”

After she said that, Shiori pulled Reina behind her and Kanae.

“S-Shiori-san!?”

Yumina was taken-aback when Shiori said that. There was no trace of blame in her voice, she was just purely surprised by that statement.

Katsuya and Airi were also surprised. Without dropping their guard against Akira, they looked at Shiori as if they were asking her what she was thinking.

Akira’s expression did not change at all, he was still observing Katsuya and the others closely as he sent a glance to Shiori. He tried to guess what Shiori’s group was going to do next since they made an unexpected but suspicious decision.

As Akira and Katsuya’s group focused their attention on Shiori, she showed a wilful expression and said to both of them.

“Katsuya-sama, if you are going to risk a fight in order to protect someone, who you just met for the first time, I do think it’s a commendable act and I can respect that. But it is a completely different thing if it gets Milady involved too. So please handle this situation without involving us.”

Shiori said that with a serious face while exuding an intimidating aura.

“Akira-sama, as long as you do not pose any danger to Milady, including misfire, I can promise you that we won’t attack you. So please make the right decision to avoid any needless battle.”

Shiori basically said that her group would not help either side if they decide to fight it out. While at the same time, she was also questioning Katsuya’s decision to risk his and his friends’ life for Alna’s sake. She was also telling Akira to rethink whether this fight was really that important or not.

Both Akira and Katsuya could make a decision to not fight there. But if none of them backs-off, then anything that would happen after that was their responsibility.

Shiori then pushed Reina, who still could not recover from the confusion, backward as if she was urging her to move. They were slowly distancing themselves from Katsuya and Akira.

“Milady, let’s go.”

“B-but–“

Reina tried to resist a bit as Shiori pulled her away from that place, but she did not try to seriously break off from Shiori to fight beside Katsuya against Akira. To be more precise, she did not even want to be chosen as the third party observer there.

Shiori frowned as she said to Reina.

“My apologies. Milady, I’ll have to pull you away even if it’s against your will… Or is that you’re planning to repeat the same mistake again?”

Shiori did not clearly state what kind of mistake she was talking about. It was so that Reina would figure it out by herself about the worst mistake that she made in the past.

Reina immediately remembered everything that Shiori might be referring to.

That time when Yajima and Akira were arguing in the underground city, both of them were making statements without any proof or evidence. So there was no telling which one was lying and which one was not, but actually Akira was telling the truth at that time. But again, there was no guarantee that it was also the case this time.

She also remembered that she was taken hostage when she carelessly approached Yajima. So, she feared that the same thing would happen again if she tried to approach Akira to calm him down or if she tried to approach Alna to protect her. After all, if Alna took her hostage, Shiori might be forced to fight Akira again. And if Akira took her hostage, then Shiori might be forced to fight Katsuya.

She would just end up as a deadweight again and be forced to watch people killing one another in front of her eyes.

The regret that she was holding inside her heart since that day pushed her to make her decision.

“…Katsuya, I’m sorry. I can’t help you this time. I don’t think it’s wise to risk my life for protecting that girl.”

It was a tough decision for Reina, but her love for Katsuya was not big enough for her to rope Shiori into that problem for his selfless action.

Yumina became saddened as she looked at Reina, while on the other hand, Airi’s gaze was saying that she was condemning Reina’s decision. It seemed that both of them loved Katsuya so much that they would be happy to sacrifice their lives for him. Enough that they would choose to fight Akira rather than pulling Alna off from Katsuya and handing her over to Akira–an act which would make Katsuya hate them.

Kanae suddenly said something with a cheerful voice as if she could not read the mood at all.

“Ah, I don’t mind taking Katsuya’s side though.”

Shiori immediately directed a silent but immense pressure toward Kanae, making her retract her words.

“Ah, I’m sorry! I take that back! This is also my job as a bodyguard! So I can’t do that! Well then, we’ll excuse ourselves here! Milady, let’s go back home!”

Kanae placed both of her hands on Reina’s shoulder and started pushing her away to the point that they were jogging. Shiori lightly bowed and followed Kanae and Reina.

After Reina, Shiori, and Kanae put enough distance from where Akira was, he mumbled.

“Now, it’s 4 on 1…”

Katsuya and his friends were staring at Shiori, who left that place, forgetting about Akira. But the moment Akira mumbled those words, their attention returned back to him, their stances indicating that they were ready to fight anytime.

Although they had not pointed their guns at Akira, their hands were already extended to right beside their own respective rifles. The moment one of them touched their rifles, Akira might quickly react by grabbing his own rifle and start shooting. That was why Katsuya, Airi, and Yumina did not dare to make any sudden or suspicious moves.

Akira’s words reconfirmed their current situation, it was not 3 against 1, but 4 against 1. So in short, Akira included Alna as his target to kill, so Katsuya would have to fight Akira while protecting Alna which would put him at a disadvantage.

Katsuya’s expression turned stern. Since the tension between them was extremely high, it shaved their spirits the longer they stood there staring at each other. And that unbearable tension was tempting Katsuya and his friends to make the first move before Akira.

Akira’s expression did not change as he glared at Katsuya. His eyes were saying that he had no wish to lessen his hostility towards them. He simply had no wish to back-off in such a situation. The only reason why he did not make any move was simply because of the difference between their fighting power.

Akira himself had no plans to go as far as to sacrifice his own life just to kill Alna. After all, if that was not the case, he would have made his move when Katsuya and his friends took their eyes off from him.

After losing Shiori, Reina, and Kanae, the gap between their fighting power greatly reduced. But it still did not change the fact that Akira only had a slim chance of winning; even if he were to put down his life.

Akira’s sense of reason stopped him from pushing forward, but his hatred and anger prevented him from backing off. Because of that, he could not make any moves.

The trigger that changed the situation was Alpha. She scolded Akira with a stern expression.

“Akira, step back! Now! If you just wait for a bit longer, you’ll get better equipment. There’s no reason for you to recklessly charge into a disadvantageous fight, without even waiting for your new equipment, just to kill that girl. From my point of view, what you are going to do now is just adding more salt to your injury. If you fight now, there’s no mistaking that you’ll die. Akira, are you going to disobey me now? Do you not trust me now?”

Even after hearing Alpha’s words, Akira’s expression showed no change. The hostility that he directed to Katsuya did not reduce at all as he was still glaring at them.

But then, Akira, who did not lower his guard and was keeping his eyes fixed on Katsuya and his friends, took a step back without turning around. He then slowly stepped back to the alley where he came from. Akira’s expression did not change and he still glared at Katsuya and his friends until he finally vanished deep into the alley.

Even after Akira’s figure disappeared into the alley and his presence completely vanished, it took a few minutes before Katsuya, Airi, and Yumina lowered their guards. All of them let out a big sigh as they were liberated from the high tension which acc.u.mulated during that confrontation.

Even though they did not fight at all, they felt exhausted. That confrontation was psychically more taxing than a fierce battle. It might be because they had no experience fighting against another person. Since they were lucky to be proper Hunters and with a big gang like Drankam behind them, Katsuya rarely had any occasion where he had to fight other Hunters.

Although they had gone through a lot of fights during their job as Hunters, this was the first time someone bore such a level of killing intent and hostility at them.

Yumina strongly scolded Katsuya, which was very rare considering her nature.

“Katsuya!! Don’t expect me to help you if something like that happens again, okay?!”

Katsuya did not think it through as he reflexively replied back.

“Are you seriously telling me that I should have just given this girl away to him?”

“That’s not it!!”

Katsuya’s reply caused Yumina to raise her voice and shut him up. Her fiery reply caused Katsuya to wince back.

“If you hadn’t said what you said back then, we could’ve resolved this peacefully?!! So why in the world did you say that?!”

“I-I didn’t think that he would get enraged, you see.”

“What I’m asking you is the reason why you said that?! Did you really think that he would just laugh it off and forget about it when you say such things?!!”

“I-It just slipped off from my mouth… I-I’m sorry.”

Katsuya sounded like his apology was sincere, it seemed that he at least knew it was his mistake.

After letting out her pent up emotion, Yumina finally calmed down. Her intense glare had returned back to normal. After she took another long breath, she then scolded Katsuya again.

“The next time you do anything like this, I’ll replace that mouth of your’s with a cyborg part and I’ll set it so that you can’t say anything without my permission, okay? Do you get that?”

“O-Okay.”

After hearing his answer, Yumina finally let go of her rage. Now that she had regained enough composure to think about Alna, she approached Alna, who was still dumbfounded by what had happened, and said to her.

“I’m sorry, it seems that things always get complicated because of Katsuya.”

Then Alna fl.u.s.teredly thanked Katsuya and his friends.

“P-please don’t be! It’s me who should be apologizing for roping everyone into my problem! Thank you very much for saving me!”

Alna was now sending passionate gazes at Katsuya. It was normal for a girl to send such a gaze to a member of the opposite s.e.x who saved her when she was in trouble, and of course, Alna was not an exception.

Airi watched that confrontation between Akira and Katsuya from a location little far from Yumina.

Unlike Katsuya and Yumina, who became Hunters starting from a blessed environment, Airi started from a rather poor environment. According to her past experiences, she bet that Akira was telling the truth.

Airi was at a loss whether to tell Katsuya and Yumina or not, but in the end, she decided not to say anything. After all, if she did, then she would have to explain her reasoning. But the main reason why she did not tell Katsuya and Yumina was because she did not want to ruin Katsuya’s mood. As Airi thought that it had ended anyway, she decided to not tell Katsuya and Yumina.

—*—*—*—

Akira was walking through the back alley, he was heading to his original destination, Sheryl’s base. His expression had not changed much since his confrontation with Katsuya.

Alpha thought that it would be bad to let Akira meet anyone while he was in this mood. Since with his current mood, even the slightest misunderstanding could trigger an unnecessary fight. So she gently made a suggestion to Akira to calm himself down.

“Akira, how about you take some deep breaths?”

Akira stopped. He did not say anything as he turned to Alpha, while she returned his stare with a smile.

“Hm? What’s wrong? You don’t know how to do it? Do you need me to explain it? Or do you need an example?”

Although Akira was staring at her with an abnormal expression, Alpha’s smile did not diminish. The intonation of her voice also remained the same.

Akira did not say anything as he took a deep breath. He then repeated the process again and again and again.