Chapter 141: Reignition (1/2)

After he left Carol, Akira headed to Sheryl’s base.

Akira seemed to be in a good mood, noticing which, Alpha asked him a question.

“You seem to be pretty happy, was it really that fun talking with Carol?”

But Akira reacted in a surprised manner, it seemed that he did not notice it himself or he just simply did not feel that way.

“Do I look really that happy right now?”

“Yup, I always kept my eyes on you, so I can easily tell.”

“I see, well, it’s true that it was fun. After all, I got to hear a lot of things about being a Hunter.”

Alpha smiled gently after hearing Akira’s honest answer.

“I see, that’s good to hear. In that case, it might be a good idea for me to gather information around that subject to talk with you too.”

Alpha said gently. On the surface, it was as if she was saying it was for Akira’s sake, but behind it, she was only doing that for the sake of keeping him away from Carol.

Akira thought for a bit before replying.

“Hmmm. Well, to be honest, I learn more about common sense in the eastern district instead of knowledge about being a Hunter from you after all. I guess I want you to teach me about common sense first. After all, I don’t even know where the Kugamayama city is located in the eastern district, so, you can teach me about being a Hunter later after that.”

“Sure, got it.”

Suddenly Akira extended his hand and grabbed the man next to him, that man had Akira’s wallet in his hand. In one fluid move, Akira drove a kick with his enhanced strength to that man who was not using an augmented suit nor an armour. Although Akira held himself back, his kick still hurt. Enough so as to force the man to roll on the ground and writhe in pain.

Akira happily picked up his wallet and then walked toward that man. That man who was still gasping in pain, noticed Akira walking toward him and desperately reached for his pistol in his pocket. He aimed it at Akira as fast as he could, but due to the pain, he was too slow.

With a smirk, Akira kicked the pistol away from that man’s hand. The pistol flew and slid on the ground. Meanwhile, it had that man’s hand bent at a weird angle, it was obvious that the bone inside it was broken. That man screamed in pain.

Akira was in a good mood. Unlike back then when Alna caught him off guard and took his wallet, this time, he was able to properly protect his life-staking money. Alpha did not even need to help him at all, Akira was able to identify that man entirely with his own ability. He felt the satisfaction as if he had redeemed himself.

Thanks to that, even with all the sins the man had taken against Akira, the boy was in such a good mood. It could be said that he was being considerate to that man and only rendered him incapacitated. If Akira was in his usual mood, there was no mistaking it that man would have died by now. This was the back alley, it was not a strange thing to find one or two corpses lying here and there. His mood was the only thing that saved the man.

That man looked fearfully at Akira, who smiled at him in a good mood and said.

“You got really unlucky today trying to prey on me.”

Akira still sounded like he was in a good mood when he said that, but he immediately delivered another kick after he said that. That man shrieked, slammed to the ground, and rolled over.

For Akira, that was the end of the incident, it was done, it was finished, he got stronger, he was no longer careless anymore. After he could confirm that, he just turned around and walked back toward the main street.

But the voice behind him told Akira that it was not the end of the incident. That man, who was writhing on the ground in pain, suddenly shouted a curse.

“…Goddammit, I didn’t hear anything about this…”

Akira stopped, his smiling face turned cold in a snap.

Viola had an office hidden among the countless buildings in the Kugamayama city’s lower district. Colbert was there with Viola that day.

She was sitting on a sofa and said to Colbert in a good mood.

“Geez, you’re so cold, how about you come over here?”

Colbert was sitting not too far away from Viola and was able to clearly hear her invitation.

“No thanks.”

“Geez, you’re no fun.”

Colbert’s swift reply was more out of wariness rather than coldness toward Viola, but that did not ruin Viola’s mood at all, she was still smiling like usual.

Colbert looked at Viola, who seemed to be in an excellent mood, and told himself to be careful not to get involved in any troublesome stuff that she had in mind as he said to her.

“So then, why did you call me today? Is there anything you don’t like in the report that I gave you? Just so you know, I’m not going to return the reward.”

“Nope, it’s nothing about that at all. The report that you gave me was not bad. I just wanted to ask some stuff directly like what’s your impression of that shop.”

“I’m sure I wrote it in my report already, you didn’t read it?”

“I did. But even if it’s about the same subject, people usually give a different opinion when they’re asked directly compared to what they wrote in a simple report, you know. Even when you do negotiation, you would rather meet the other party directly even if it was something that you could’ve taken care of with text messages, right? That’s just how important the information that you can get just by talking directly. Or at least, for me, it’s that important, you do know that, right?”

Whatever the case, Viola was the one who hired him. Colbert made that as an excuse to give up there.

“…Alright, so then, what do you want me to tell you this time?”

“A lot of things, for the starter, what kind of girl is this Sheryl?”

Viola smiled bewitchingly at Colbert as they started going deeper into that subject.

That day, Colbert did not go to Sheryl’s shop out of pure coincidence, he was hired by Viola to investigate Sheryl’s shop. Although he hesitated at first to accept that request, since the reward offer was pretty generous, he eventually decided to accept it.

The only reason why Colbert tried to help out Levin was because he could do so while completing Viola’s request, and in case if it got exposed that he got that request from Viola, he could use it as an excuse to evade. It might also help him to avoid getting roped into troublesome stuff later on, after all, either for better or for worse, Viola was famous for causing trouble. A lot of people would raise their guard when they noticed that Viola had made some moves and there was nothing bad with being extra careful.

Viola asked Colbert about a lot of things and Colbert answered all of her questions. Most of them were about the same thing that he had already written in his report, while the rest were about some stuff that he thought to be unnecessary to be written in his report.

Viola was listening closely to Colbert, who had known Viola for a long time, at this point, he knew for sure that she had something completely different in her mind behind her outer expression. She sometimes looked deeply interested when she actually did not care at all, sometimes she looked like she did not care at all when she was actually really interested, and sometimes it was neither. Viola only showed an expression that would help her get more information.

Colbert knew that Viola had manipulated information in order to indirectly control other people multiple times in the past. So he took great care and was being very careful as he was speaking to her, but even after that, he was still doubting himself–wondering if he was already dancing to Viola’s tune.

“…That’s basically the gist of it. The boss of that gang and the owner of that shop, that Sheryl girl is basically a pretty impressive girl. After all, it seems that she has Akira on her palms too, so it’s not like her beauty is everything. This is only my guess, but I think that shop is doing well.”

“You have a pretty good review on that shop.”

“It’s just my opinion. If you’re questioning it, you can meet her and decide for yourself. In the first place, why are you interested in that shop? There are a lot of other similar shops in the slum city, right? Is it because Akira is involved?”

“Now that you mention it, did you see Akira there?”

“I didn’t get to see him when I went there. He might have been hiding somewhere. That room was surrounded with white sheets, he might have been hiding behind one of those sheets, though I can’t really say for sure.”

“I see, well, I have a lot of interest in that shop. Let’s just say that a lot of other shops are getting alerted by their new competitor. It’s nothing strange at all, right?”

“…Well, if you say so.”

Colbert could see Viola was hiding all kinds of stuff behind that excuse which she just gave. He could not tell if that was just his imagination or not since he might be mistaken, but he had no means to confirm it for sure.

“…If that’s all, I’ll head back home now. You can call me if you need anything else… One more thing though, I just want to make sure, it’s up to me what to do about the relics that I bought yesterday, right?”

“Yup. That’s one of the rewards from me, you can do anything you want with them. I’ll at least tell you this out of kindness, it might be a good idea to sell it, and don’t bring that to the Hunter Office’s exchange centre. If you get comfortable doing that, you’ll never be able to return back to being a normal Hunter.”

Colbert glared at Viola.

“Humph, it’s none of your business.”

“But of course, it’s completely up to you.”

Viola smiled when she said that. Colbert made a rather frustrated look as he left the room.

The door banged as Colbert slammed it on his way out. Viola looked at it and mumbled.

“Looking at how he acts, I don’t think he can return back to being a normal Hunter at this point. But well, that’s one way to live.”

Viola was the one who offered to pay Colbert with relics rather than with money in order to lure him to accept that request from her, taking advantage of his wish to never return back to being a regular Hunter.

A call reached Viola’s information terminal, she reached for her information terminal and said in a good mood.

“It’s me… Yep, yep, I’ve spread the rumour… Nope, my job is only to spread the information around to incite the fire and it is done when the fire has already started burning. Of course, I don’t mind going further, but it’ll cost you more, you know…? If you don’t want to pay me, then just wait. I did properly spread the rumour, so it’s only a matter of time… Yes, well, later then.”

Viola ended the call.

“I wonder what will happen from here and on, I can’t help but get excited.”

Viola smiled, imagining all kinds of possibilities.

***

The man who stole Akira’s wallet was folded over the ground. Akira was walking toward him with a grim expression. That man’s face was distorted not by the pain from his broken hand, but also by the fear of Akira who was coming at him.

He did think of running away, but the pain from his stomach and his hand, as well as the fear of getting killed by Akira, prevented him from making any sudden movements. It was impossible for him to make a run.

Akira stopped right in front of that man and asked him with a calm voice as if he was whispering.

“What do you mean by that?”

But that man begged for forgiveness instead of answering Akira’s question.

“P-please spare me!! I’m really sorry!!”

Akira prodded his rifle at that man and asked him once again.

“Answer. My. Question. What do you mean by what you said just now…? If you answer my question, I might give you some of my medicine… If you won’t talk even under threat of a gun, then I’ll be more than happy to grant you that wish.”

Akira’s mood had gotten considerably worse. Even if that man did not answer Akira’s question because he could not organize his mind from the terror of the rifle that Akira was pointing at him, Akira would probably not care about that and just kill that man.

That man desperately begged Akira to not kill him.

“O-of course!! I’ll tell you!! I’ll tell you everything!! So please don’t shoot!!”

Akira lowered his rifle, pulled out his medicine box, took out some pills, and forced them down that man’s throat. He did not care even when that man groaned. Then Akira grabbed that man’s broken hand and forcefully realigned it.

That man screamed in pain when Akira realigned his broken hand, his face was distorted in agony. But his surprised and pained face immediately changed. The medicine worked wonders, the pain from his stomach and his broken hand from Akira’s kick slowly but surely waned. Even his hand that was bent in an unnatural angle until just now, after Akira forcefully realigned it, that man was able to move it again albeit only slightly.

That man was confused and surprised that Akira really shared some of his medicine, but his confusion and surprise were blown away when he noticed Akira had already pointed his rifle at him again.

Akira really shared his medicine, just like he said. So, just like he said too, he might as well kill that man for real. That man opened his mouth in panic. If Akira thought that he had abandoned his promise, Akira could pull the trigger anytime, so before that, he tried his best to start speaking.

“…I bought that information. They said that there’s a certain careless young Hunter who carries a lot of money but an easy target to pick… And that it would be fine even if I get caught since someone got caught in the past too, but when that pickpocket ran and hid behind another Hunter, that boy was scared and ran away… The rumour is basically saying that you’re an easy target and that it’ll be fine even if I get caught…”

Akira remembered that he got careless in the past and had his wallet picked by a young girl named Alna. Unfortunately, he was not able to get his money back. After all, Katsuya protected Alna.

At that time, their difference in power was just too big, although he was against the idea, Akira ended up backing off. If Alpha had not stopped him back then, it was almost certain that a fight would have broken out and Akira would have been killed in that fight.

Akira’s mood immediately turned for the worst the moment he remembered that. His expression turned cold, although he was emotionless, a wave of dark and gut-wrenching anger could be felt welling out from him.

Looking at that, that man got super scared as he begged Akira to spare him.

“I-It’s not me!! It’s the information from the information broker!!”

Akira replied with a calm voice.

“How did you find me? Did you see a photo of my face or something?”

“…They told me some descriptions like the hairstyle and body build… And also they showed me a blurry picture too.”

“You were able to find me only with that?”

“L-Like I said, I got the wrong person. I mistook you with that boy Hunter.”

“Didn’t you say back there that you didn’t hear anything about this? You didn’t say that you mistook me for that easy prey, right?”

“T-that is…”

That man was lost for words. Akira fixed his gaze at that man without saying anything. That man could not bear the pressure and started to tremble as he begged Akira.

“I-I’m really sorry, I was tricked by that information broker, they gave me the wrong information. It’s my fault, I’m so stupid for getting tricked by that information broker. So please, have mercy on me.”