Chapter 143: One more time (1/2)

Akira was taking a dip in the bath inside his house while thinking about what happened that day, his consciousness was hazy thanks to the bath.

“…For some reason, I feel so tired today though I didn’t get into any fights.”

Akira was exhausted. It must have been because a lot of things happened that day, both good and bad. He let the warm water help him recover his physical fatigue.

Alpha was also in the same bath, just like usual. She looked at Akira as if she was thinking about something.

Akira noticed Alpha’s gaze.

“What?”

“As I thought, it has minimal effect unless you can touch it, huh?”

“What?”

“I’m talking about when Shizuka hugged you.”

Akira, who was leaning on the bathtub, slowly sunk deeper into the water. When his mouth and nose finally went underwater, he breathed in some water, which startled him as he immediately pushed his body back up and coughed.

Akira panicked for a bit since he was about to drown there.

“…W-what are you even talking about!?”

“Like I said, I’m talking about when Shizuka hugged you. To be honest, I think outlook wise, I’m better than Shizuka. But even so, it seems that it doesn’t affect you that much, so I guess it’s because you can’t touch me.”

Alpha did not seem to be teasing him. She was simply asking an honest and straightforward question to Akira, and that made Akira waver a bit.

“W-was I really fawning that much?”

“Well, different people will have a different opinion about it, I’ll leave it at that.”

Akira flustered for a bit since Alpha only gave a vague answer. Looking at that flustered Akira, Alpha did not show any sign of teasing as she started scolding him.

“Well, I guess I’ll give you a little warning. She thought of you as a small boy, which you are, but there’s a limit on how far this can go, right?”

“I-I know.”

Akira decided that he had to make sure not to leave any bad impression on Shizuka.

Alpha did not lie there. It was true that each person would have a different opinion on that matter. And even if Shizuka saw Akira’s expression at that time, it was unlikely for her to think that Akira was fawning over her, she would only think that Akira only felt relieved and nothing more.

But the actual reason why Alpha warned Akira was to check how he would react to that.

She was checking how far people could manipulate Akira’s course of action, which could affect her own objective. In turn, she might need to come up with a special plan in such a scenario. At least for now, Alpha was able to confirm from Akira’s reaction when he was hugged that she needed to be careful about that.

—*—*—*—

Alna was walking through the Kugamayama lower district in the middle of the day, she looked terrified. She kept looking around her surroundings as if someone was hunting her.

But in reality, no one was actually hunting her. But even so, Alna kept walking while keeping check of what was behind her, what laid on the next corner, what was hiding in the dark alley around her.

A sound suddenly came from behind her. Alna flinched, she looked back while trembling. A signboard just fell over behind her. It was not because someone was hiding behind it, it was simply because of the wind. Once she realized that, she sighed in relief and her expression softened.

But her expression immediately tensed up again. She still looked terrified as she mumbled.

“…Why is this happening to me?”

Alna kept on running without knowing if anyone was chasing her and without knowing where she could run to.

Last night, Nasha came to Alna’s hideout, that was where it started.

Alna, who was already sleeping, immediately woke up when she heard someone knocking on her door. It was already deep into the night, it was not the time where people would usually visit others. So, she carefully checked outside the door and she saw Nasha standing there with a grim face.

Alna let Nasha come into her hideout. Nasha scanned her surroundings first before she stepped in, she looked around the room with a grim expression, she felt slightly relieved after she confirmed that there was no one else there, but the grim expression on her face did not change.

It was obvious that there was something big going on, Alna tried to calm Nasha down as she asked Nasha what was wrong.

“Nasha, what happened?”

“Alna, are you alone?”

“…Y-yes.”

“Is there anyone else other than me and you who knows about this hideout?”

“I don’t think so. I didn’t tell anyone about this place except you.”

Nasha looked at Alna with a serious expression and said to her.

“Calm down and listen closely. Once we’re done here, get away from this place as soon as possible. This time, hide somewhere where even I don’t know about, okay?”

“W-whoah there, what’s going on?”

Alna started to feel scared. Nasha placed both of her hands on Alna’s shoulders, her voice was trembling as she was about to tell a painful truth to her best friend.

“Akira is going to kill you, he told the gang to look for you.”

Alna froze.

Alna had heard from Nasha that Akira was the Hunter supporting Sheryl’s gang. But it did not seem like Akira was looking for her, at least until now.

Akira would eventually forget about her with time. So after talking with Nasha, Alna was planning to join Sheryl’s gang later once it grew bigger and got more members. And just to be safe, she was planning to fake her name too, that way, she might be able to sneak in into the gang without getting noticed by Akira.

Akira was not someone who would leech off from the gang, while the boss of the gang, Sheryl, even put some effort to teach the members of the gang how to write and read. Compared to the other gangs in the slum city, Sheryl’s gang was a significantly better place for children from the slums. A lot of small children wished to join that gang, and if it grew so big to the point that it had a branch, it would be even safer for Alna to sneak in. Alna had her hopes up when she heard that plan from Nasha.

But now, here, her hope was crushed.

Alna asked Nasha while trembling.

“W-what? Why? Since when? Everything was calm until now, right?”

“I have no idea, they suddenly told us to keep our eyes for you. They gave us a picture of you and told us to report back if we spot the person in that picture. And it seems that they distributed that photo to everyone in the gang.”

Nasha showed the picture that she received from the gang to Alna. Alna’s face turned pale as if she just saw something that she could not believe, the person in that picture was really her.

“H-he even has my photo… But how? How did he get that? When did he take this photo?”

In reality, no one took a picture of her. That photo was produced straight from Akira’s memory when he saw Alna. Its quality was not bad, as a matter of fact, the person in that picture could easily be identified as Alna.

Nasha tried to calm Alna down since it seemed that Alna was about to scream.

“Alna, calm down, calm down, alright? Just calm down!”

Alna looked at Nasha with teary eyes, she was about to break.

Nasha then slowly and calmly said to Alna in order to calm her further.

“Calm down, please, just calm down. There’s something important that I need to tell you and I want you to listen to me closely. I received that picture when Alicia, an officer in the gang, told me to keep my eyes if I spot the person in that picture. But then, she also said that there’s no need to get out of my way just to look for you. As in matter of fact, she told me not to do that, she said that it’s okay to just report where and when I spotted you later.”

“W-what do you mean? They’re looking for me, right?”

“I don’t know the details either, but from what I heard, you have a Hunter friend who is stronger than Akira. That’s why there’s no need to forcefully bring you in since it’s dangerous. Alna, do you have any idea who that Hunter is?”

Alna shook her head.

“I see, then it must be a misunderstanding. They might be talking about that Hunter who helped you back then. Who was it again… Katsuya, was it again?”

“…That’s right, Katsuya-san.”

When Alna said Katsuya’s name, it sounded as if she placed her hopes on him.

Nasha then continued.

“I think you have two choices here. First of all, you can try to run away as far as possible from here. Although the lower district is pretty big, we don’t know how far Akira would go to look for you. But I’m sure that he won’t go as far as looking for you in another city, so you just need to run away at least that far.”

It would be suicide to walk all the way to another city. If she really chose that option, Alna would need to make an arrangement for transportation. But doing that was not cheap, after all, the wasteland was filled with dangerous monsters. So not only for the transportation, she would need money to arrange for the escorts too.

“Your other choice would be to seek help from that Katsuya. If he’s a kind person and if he’s someone who won’t let the person who he saved once get killed, even if it was only out of a whim, he might be willing to help you again. Akira himself said that Katsuya is stronger than him. So if that Katsuya told Akira not to mess with you, he might stop looking for you.”

Nasha has never met Katsuya before, so she did not know what kind of person this Katsuya was. But she knew that Katsuya was kind enough to help out a total stranger, so she thought that if Alna desperately begged, he might decide to help her again.

“It might be even better to try both the ways out. Try and ask for that Katsuya’s help, and if it doesn’t seem like he’ll help you, then make a plan to escape to another city.”

Nasha gave Alna some hope. Thanks to that, Alna was able to calm down for a bit. But it did not fix her situation at all.

It was just that Alna had two possible ways out and both of them were unlikely to work. She might not have any means to run to another city, and Katsuya might refuse to help her again. Both choices did not give a guarantee that she would be saved.

Nasha pulled out a pistol and some money, she then handed them both to Alna.

“Use this, it might be not much, but it’s better than nothing.”

Alna was so surprised and flusteredly said.

“T-this pistol, isn’t it the gang’s property?! If you get caught…!?”

Nasha smiled at Alna as not to make her worry.

“Don’t worry, just use it. I’ll be fine, I can just tell them some lie.”

“B-but!?”

“It’ll be fine.”

Nasha hugged Alna and stopped her words midway, she then looked lonely at Alna and said.

“…I’m sorry. Although I call myself your best friend, this is all I can do for you. I did think of telling Sheryl about it and ask for her help, but it seems that won’t work too. She is scared of getting on Akira’s bad side, so I don’t think she’ll help out someone who Akira is planning to kill. As in matter of fact, I’m sure that if she knows I’m your close friend, she would do anything to make me leak your location.”

“T-then, you should come with me too.”

Nasha was still hugging Alna when she shook her head.

“No, I’m sure it won’t be much trouble if the gang lose one person worth of money and Katsuya might help you if you’re alone. So both the choices you have might not work if I’m with you, that’s why I can’t come with you.”