Chapter 165: Negotiation with Viola (1/2)

When morning came, another group arrived at the Ezont family’s base. They were the people from Drankam. Although the battle last night happened in the area between the slum and the wasteland, Kugamayama city could not just ignore it. So they dispatched Drankam there in the morning to check on the situation.

Drankam had another reason why they had to come there. It was because one of their vehicles was destroyed around that area. When that vehicle was destroyed, its control device sent its last record back to Drankam. Before the City Management got suspicious that last night’s battle had something to do with them, Drankam decided to investigate the incident prior to the request from the City Management.

When Shikarabe arrived there, he looked around the courtyard and frowned.

“It must have been one hell of a battle.”

Now that the morning light shone the whole courtyard, the scene looked like hell. Corpses were scattered all over the places, he could see pools of blood formed in various places, and the whole area was filled with the nauseating smell of blood.

Yamanobe looked around in slight amazement.

“Whoah, this here… I’m pretty sure the body count can easily reach a few hundred. Depending on how many bodies we can find inside the mansion, it might even go up to thousands. And I don’t see any dead monsters at all, it’s entirely a fight between humans. Geez, honestly though, we have more than enough monsters to kill in the wasteland, there’s no need for them to kill each other, right?”

Velga checked the wreckages of powered suits in the courtyard and hummed.

“…Hmmm, they were even using this kind of thing to fight each other, huh. These guys were pretty invested in this, weren’t they? 100 or even 200 million Aurum won’t be enough to pay for this stuff, you know. Including the fuel and ammo that they consumed last night, it might easily go beyond 1 billion Aurum, no?”

After the three of them exchanged opinions about how horrendous the scene in the courtyard was, they immediately moved on to finish why they came there. They searched for Drankam’s vehicle among all the wreckage in the courtyard. Once they found it, it was already sliced in half, they then ripped the inside of the vehicle and extracted its black box. It should contain all the information until the vehicle was destroyed.

Shikarabe checked the damage on that device.

“Well, it seems that it’s still intact. But even if it wasn’t, it’s not our fault.”

Velga looked at the sliced vehicle and said.

“Was it sliced with a huge blade or something? I guess one of those powered suits must have had that, huh? So where’s the guy who was inside it? Shikarabe, did you find anything?”

“Nothing. I can’t say anything about the user unless we check the record inside this device first, I don’t even know who might have been inside. I heard that whoever took this out, used it without asking for permission after all. Well, since it’s basically turned into a pile of metal, the insurance won’t be able to fully cover it. I don’t know how much the gang would have to pay for it, but the guy who used it would not be able to get out of it unscathed, that is if that guy is still alive.”

Now that they had completed their mission and recovered their priority target, they made a call to Drankam. Drankam told them to get back to the base as soon as possible to check the record inside that device. So Shikarabe went and conveyed that to Velga and Yamanobe, that was when Yamanobe noticed Yumina and the other girls. Yumina, Airi and 10 other Drankam members entered the mansion.

Yamanobe raised his eyebrows and said.

“Those are from Katsuya’s team, right? I don’t see Katsuya with them though.”

Velga also noticed them, but he noticed something else too.

“Hmmm…? Isn’t that Nergo? What is he doing there with that group?”

Shikarabe frowned and obviously sounded rather annoyed as he said.

“Don’t know, and don’t care. Just leave them be, we have nothing to do with them.”

Seeing how Shikarabe’s mood turned worse the moment Katsuya’s name came up, Yamanobe and Velga smiled wryly. There was no need to keep souring Shikarabe’s mood by talking about that subject. So they decided to just move on and leave that place.

Yumina and her friends heard from Mizuha that there was a good chance Katsuya went to that place alone, that was why they came there to look for him.

The scene inside the mansion was more or less as horrendous as the courtyard. Although Yumina and her friends were already used to killing monsters, they never witnessed the leftover of a battle between humans that was this bad, more than half of them had a pale face and were filled with terror as they continued searching the inside of the mansion. The only one who was completely fine was Nergo. Since the group was mostly made of girls, Nergo was sticking out since he was a battle cyborg.

Nergo had rifles in all of his 4 arms, he was leading the team in front of Yumina while checking the safety of the surrounding area. Yumina then apologetically said to him.

“I’m sorry for making you do this. Although it was a request from Mizuha-san, I feel bad for making you help us in doing something this dangerous…”

But Nergo replied in a bright tone.

“Nah, don’t worry about it. Katsuya-kun did save me back then, so I still owe him some. I’m more than happy to help.”

Nergo looked at how the other guys were doing while he said so. Some of them seemed thankful, some others had no particular reaction, while some were simply people who did not express much of their feelings through their faces. Nergo closely observed every single one of them.

“By the way, although it might be weird to hear this from me, but if you want, I can search this place alone, you know? I know that you girls are Hunters, but I’m sure this scene is too much for you girls since you’re still young. If I find something, I’ll contact you, so you girls can just wait outside the mansion.”

Yumina thought that Nergo was simply being considerate to them. If Katsuya was really inside the mansion, judging from how bad the scene inside the mansion was, it would not be strange to find him dead. And if that was true, more than likely his body would be in a pretty bad shape. It would be too much to let herself and her friends see that. Yumina thought that was why Nergo said so.

Although Yumina understood that possibility very well, she still replied firmly.

“No, that would be asking too much from you. So we’ll come too, we’ll be fine.”

“…I see, you’re pretty brave.”

Nergo did not say anything more after that as he returned back to his search.

[It would be fine if we find him alive. But to be honest, if he’s already dead, I want to secure his body though… Well, I have my own reputation to hold in Drankam, so it’s better if I act for the sake of our long term goal.]

Nergo made that decision in the back of his metallic head.

They went deeper into the mansion. There they got a signal from Katsuya’s information terminal. But when they tried to make contact, there was no reply. So they prepared themselves for the worst-case scenario as they used the data from that signal to look for Katsuya. When they arrived at the source of that signal, they saw a room filled with dead bodies. Katsuya was on the floor, looking down, in the middle of that room.

They immediately swarmed Katsuya and asked him if he was alright. But Katsuya did not reply back, he kept his head down with a dark expression. Airi, Nergo and Yumina took a step back and scanned the room.

Yumina looked around and frowned. The room was filled with dead bodies, the floor was basically covered in blood. Airi was even slightly surprised when she counted the number of dead bodies in the room.

“That’s a lot of dead bodies, is it all Katsuya’s?”

“Maybe, but not all of them. Moreover…”

Among the dead bodies, Yumina looked at a particular dead body and made a saddened face. It was the body of a girl that was lying not too far from Katsuya, it was Alna.

After seeing that, Yumina understood what was going on. Katsuya came to rescue Alna and failed. It must be the reason why he was so depressed.

Yumina cut through all the girls that surrounded Katsuya, she then crouched in front of him and said to him.

“Katsuya, let’s go back.”

Katsuya still looked down without replying back.

“We need to bring Alna back.”

Katsuya raised his face. But he still did not reply. Yumina understood that it was all he could do at the moment, so she grabbed Katsuya’s shoulder and got him on his feet. Katsuya did not resist.

Yumina sent a glance at Airi. Airi nodded as she pointed at Alna’s body and said to the rest of the girls.

“We’ll take her too, help me.”

Alna’s body was soaked with blood. Her face was wiped clean of blood, but her body was soaked with her blood as well as the other people’s blood who were killed near her. The girls frowned seeing that body. Airi’s gaze turned sharp, the girls there winced back. That was when Nergo suddenly said.

“It’s fine, I’ll do it.”

Nergo pulled out a body bag from his backpack and gently put Alna’s body inside it. Airi who thought that Nergo was going to carry Alna’s bloodied body thanked him.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t worry about it. Like I said before, I’m fine with it.”

Carrying dead bodies around was not a strange thing for Hunters. Because of that, Airi did not find it weird that Nergo was carrying a body bag with him.

Looking at Alna’s dead body that was carried carefully, Katsuya mumbled while still crying lightly.

“…I wasn’t able to protect her.”

Yumina who heard that smiled both sadly and gently at him.

“…I’m glad that at least you’re alright.”

Katsuya then left the room with Yumina’s help. While Airi was carefully carrying Alna’s body in her arms. The other girls followed behind her.

Nergo was the last one left inside the room, he scanned the room once more and thought.

[All of these dead bodies are probably because of that boy, it’s pretty impressive to do this all by himself. I thought that his reputation is actually because of that thing, but I guess I need to revise it, huh… Well, it doesn’t really matter, even if that’s true, it doesn’t change my plan much. I need to confirm it with the others too, so I’ll shelve this for the latter for now.]

Nergo left the room soon after.

Katsuya and his group left the mansion after that. They then boarded the armoured APC parked outside the mansion and went back to Drankam’s base.

Katsuya was sitting on the long bench inside the APC in between Yumina and Airi. He still looked very depressed, but after leaving the battlefield, he regained some of his composure. But that gave him a leeway to think about something else and his head used that leeway to remember a certain sentence. Even when he tried to shake that sentence off his head, it still would not leave him alone. As a matter of fact, his efforts only made it ring louder in his brain. Katsuya inadvertently mumbled in resistance against that voice that was ringing inside his head.

[…Dammit!]

‘Unfortunately, you won’t be able to keep that promise’ that one sentence from Akira kept on playing on replay inside Katsuya’s mind.

—*—*—*—

Akira was sleeping like a dead log on the bed in his house. After he returned back from Ezont family’s base, he just put down his heavy weapons randomly on the floor, kept his augmented suit and his coat back in their original cupboard, dragged himself against the tiredness and the sleepiness assaulting him to finish his bath, took a heavy dose of medicine, and finally crawled to his bed. There was no doubt about it that he was exhausted after what had happened last night, so Alpha did not even bother to tell him to finish doing maintenance of his rifles before going to sleep.

Akira woke up in a dark room. It seemed that the sun had already set, he must have slept the whole day. But even inside that dark room, he could still see Alpha clearly.

“Morning, Akira, or more like, it’s already evening though.”

Akira’s brain had not fully woken up yet as he was thinking of taking another snooze.

“I don’t mind if you want to sleep again, but you had a call from Erio and Carol while you were sleeping, you know. They also left a text message, so you can check it out if you want.”

It was rare for Erio to call him. As Akira thought so, the curiosity helped him wake up. He pushed himself up, reached for his information terminal, and checked the message.

Akira frowned when he read the message. Erio was asking about Sheryl’s whereabouts in that message. And checking from the timestamp, that message was sent after Akira sent Carol to escort Sheryl.

“…She’s not back in her base, huh?”

After that, he checked the message from Carol. It said that Carol still had Sheryl with her and for him to call her as soon as he could.

So then Akira tried to make a call to Carol, who immediately picked that up.

“Oh, you finally called me? Weren’t you taking too long there?”

“Sorry, a lot of things happened after that. So then, is Sheryl still with you?”

“Yep, she’s here with me.”

“You didn’t escort her back to her base?”

“I did consider that, but my request was to take Sheryl to a safe place, right? It’s true that my request might as well be done once I escorted Sheryl out of that place, but I thought that if I took her back to her base while the slum was still engulfed in that battle, she might get injured or even killed if there were any following battles after that, and that would definitely cause trouble later. Personally speaking, I want to finish my request by handing her back to you, you see. That’s why I still have Sheryl with me.”

“Ahh, I see, you have a point there.”

“So then, if it’s possible, can you come here as soon as you can? Are you okay right now? Well, I don’t mind keeping her with me if you want, but keep in mind it’ll cost you more the longer you leave her with me, okay?”

Akira smiled bitterly after hearing Carol’s happy voice.

“Alright, I’m coming now, where should I come?”

“I’ll send you my location later, I’ll be waiting for you.”

Carol left Akira with that rather inviting line before closing the call.

Akira lightly sighed and drooped his head. As his brain started to wake up, he remembered all kinds of stuff inside his head.

“…I wonder how much should I pay Carol this time.”

“How much are you planning to pay her?”

“I don’t know the market price, but I’m planning to limit it to 50 million Aurum.”

Although he would have to negotiate with Carol about the reward, he had decided not to pay her more than 50 million Aurum. So in short, Akira would only pay that much money even if it made Carol think that she deserved more money for the work she did.

“I never thought that someone who likes to butt into other’s business without being asked to would say something like that. But well, I guess that was the suitable word for someone who would do something just to regret it later though. Aren’t you glad to have decided the upper limit of the reward beforehand?”

“Can’t agree more to that.”

Alpha smiled mischievously at Akira, who replied with a bitter smile.

Akira thought that he would be meeting Carol near his house, or somewhere in a cheap inn, or maybe a tavern. So he was surprised when he checked the coordinates of the location sent to him by Carol. It was located far away from the location where he picked her up before going to Mihazono ruin last time. Although he did find it weird, started his preparation to head there.

He took his augmented suit and protective coat out of the cupboard and put them on, that was when he noticed that the holes on his protective coat were all already fixed.

“Oh, they’re all fixed. That’s pretty amazing.”

“The cupboard is equipped with an automatic repair system. I also put in a little bit of medication there too. It should have done the maintenance for your augmented suit and coat.”

“You can even do that too, huh? That’s really convenient.”

“But because of that, you’ll need to replace the repair cartridge that you got when you bought that augmented suit. Make sure to buy a new one later.”

“I see, how much it costs by the way?”

“About 10 million Aurum.”

Akira froze.

“Don’t forget that there are still medicine, ammo, energy pack, and other consumables that you need to buy too.”

“…Aahh, my money…”

Akira remembered that Carol also changed her augmented suit depending on what she was doing. Up until now, Akira always thought that it was better and safer to keep using the better augmented suit all the time although it meant that he had to regularly pay more for the upkeep. But now he was not so sure if that was the best thing to do.

Akira finished his preparation. He brought along his AAH and A2D assault rifle as well as his CWH anti-material rifle, and of course, he also carried some spare magazines too.

He then headed to the Kugamayama city lower district. He did think that he might not need his CWH anti-material rifle, but he decided to bring it along anyway just to be safe while leaving his DVTS minigun and A4WM automatic grenade launcher behind as not to increase the chance of anything bad happening.

“I’ve completed rewriting the control software, so you have my full support this time. Well, in the worst-case scenario, let’s just run away.”

“…Of course.”

Although Akira did not ask her, Alpha did say what to do in the worst-case scenario. So he just smiled bitterly at her, said so, and went to Kugamayama city lower district.