Chapter 187 - A Giant Amalgamation of Hatred (1/2)

Chapter 187, A Giant Amalgamation of Hatred

After Yatsubayashi let Tiol into his clinic, he made coffee with a coffee maker. He returned back with a cup of coffee in both hands and offered one to Tiol.

“I have nothing but coffee though, you’re okay with it, right?”

Tiol frowned.

“…No thanks.”

“Oh, do you prefer tea perhaps?”

“I can’t drink nor eat with this body.”

Tiol said so curtly, but Yatsubyaashi seemed to find it amusing.

“I see, so this body is a remote body, huh? That would mean you’re controlling it from another body and I bet it’s somewhere nearby.”

Tiol raised his eyebrows and sent a glare at Yatsubayashi.

“…You can tell!?”

“I’m a doctor, you see.”

Tiol raised his guard toward Yatsubayashi who was acting casual. But there was something that he was hoping for from Yatsubayashi, which lowered his wariness toward him.

“So then, Tiol-kun. What brings you here today?”

“Revenge, what if I say so?”

“Well, it would be for revenge then. But let me give you a warning, I don’t really recommend that. Moreover, it’s your fault in the first place for running away while you were in the middle of the treatment. So if anything happens because of that, it won’t be my responsibility. Or more like, we already have an agreement on this, right?”

Tiol clicked his tongue seeing that Yatsubayashi won’t even budge even after being threatened.

“…Well, whether I’m here for revenge or not depends on what happens next. I want to make another deal with you. Fix me… And I’m talking about fixing, not experimenting! You hear me!?”

Tiol got a little emotional and raised his voice, and was breathing hard after he said those heartfelt words. Seeing that, Yatsubayashi smiled amusedly.

“Fix, huh? Sure. Though I can’t really say for sure if I can fix you or not without checking your condition first, I can at least promise you that I’ll do my best. Though it actually depends on how much you can pay me for that. So then, how are you going to pay me? Let me tell you that I’ll charge you if it’s not for an experiment, you know?”

Tiol glared at Yatsubayashi.

“…Don’t get ahead of yourself, I can easily kill you here and now.”

Tiol slowly raised his left arm and pointed it at Yatsubayashi, but Yatsubayashi did not seem to be bothered by that at all.

“Hah, making a one-sided demand like that and you dare to call this a deal? You’re making me laugh here, you brat.”

“Don’t you know how I got away from that room?”

“I’ve seen the record from the camera so many times already, so you don’t need to tell me. It was a good piece of information, you know. If you think that it is enough to threaten me, you need to rethink your approach. You’re free to test it though, but once you do that, you’re no longer my patient and I have no need to be polite to you anymore, just so you know.”

The way Yatsubyaashi looked at Tiol changed. Between a patient and a guinea pig, Yatsubyashi started to look at Tiol as the latter. His words there were basically saying that he could easily take care of Tiol even if Tiol rampaged there.

Although Tiol was suspicious that it was a bluff, he still lowered his arm and clicked his tongue.

“…I have no money. So for the payment… My body. You can go ahead and take a look at its construction, nanomachine, and stuff like that. The other thing would be information. I have a lot of information right now, so I can answer your questions.”

“That sounds pretty enticing, but I’m not sure if that would be enough. Or more like, I don’t know how much I need to fix, so I can’t really say for sure how much it would cost. Although you’re only using a remote body right now, it looks like you’re doing just fine. So what exactly do you want me to fix?”

Tiol paused before replying with a pained voice.

“…I want to return to being a human.”

Seeing Tiol’s pained expression, Yatsubyashi tilted his head.

“That’s still pretty vague, do you mean you want me to get rid of the nanomachine that has changed your body? Well, I won’t be able to say anything unless I give you a quick check first. Bring your real body here, there’s nothing I can gather from checking your remote body.”

“It’s not that simple. I can’t bring my real body here, that’s why I came here in a remote body. So, if you want to get to my real body, come with me.”

“Listen here, you do know that we’re in an emergency over here, right? There are gigantic monsters roaming right outside. I have no plans to get out from the temporary base before the situation calms down first.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell them not to attack you.”

Yatsubayashi raised his eyebrows in surprise as Tiol said so in such a casual manner.

“…Are you the one behind this attack?”

Tiol frowned.

“…I can’t answer that.”

“That answer is more or less the same as a ‘yes’, you know?”

“…I can’t answer that.”

Yatsubyashi gazed at Tiol with suspicious but serious eyes. After a short ponder, he then smiled amusedly and said.

“I see. So basically, you’re under a leash from a higher system, huh? And because of that, you can’t give me a straight yes. Truly interesting, but in that state, you won’t be able to give me the answers that I want to know, right? So you won’t be able to pay for the treatment at all.”

“If this attack is successful, most of this restriction will be taken off. That’s the deal that I have with her.”

“Her? Who? Judging from the fact that you’re attacking the forward base, is it the ruin’s AI manager?”

Tiol frowned even more.

“…I can’t answer that. And also stop there, giving you this answer is already hard enough for me.”

“Hard? I see, so you’re feeling some kind of pain or discomfort for fighting back the system restriction, huh. But even if it’s something that the AI can’t fight back, you can still more or less resist it. Which means… Is this AI trying to win her freedom by using you?”

“…Stop it! Didn’t I tell you this isn’t pleasant at all!?”

Tiol raised his voice again, his glare was filled with hatred. But even so, it only served to get Yatsubyashi even more interested.

“Does the restriction get triggered just from recognizing the question and thinking of the answer? Or is it judged as a slip in the system and that’s why you can still say that? It’s a pretty lax system, to be honest, is it because you have a higher privilege over that half-baked system that you can somehow fight back the restriction? If I have to make a bet, it must be some kind of makeshift system then. If only I can get rid of that pain, or even isolate and deactivate it, then I can get all the good parts and…”

Tiol, who was gritting in pain and filled with hatred, twitched and aimed his shaking left arm at Yatsubayashi. It seemed that he was on the edge of his sanity.

Yatsubyaashi noticed that Tiol was pushed to the edge and flusteredly tried to calm him down.

“Okay okay! I’ll stop here! We can continue the rest once you get rid of the restrictions! Fixing your body should help out too!… So calm down, alright?”

Tiol was breathing heavily as he lowered his arm again.

“…We have a deal then?”

“Yeah, although it’s not really how I usually make a deal. It seems that I can expect enough payment from you. We have a deal. I’ll properly fix your body, so don’t worry.”

“…I see, I’ll take you to my real body then.”

“Alright, get on the passenger seat. It’s over there.”

Tiol got up and dragged himself toward the passenger’s seat while swaying left and right. Seeing that, Yatsubayashi let out a sigh of relief. His alerted face slowly changed into a smile, a suspicious smile.

[…He’s pretty unstable. I wonder if it’s because he’s at his wit’s end or is it because of the repression from the system. Though I want to take my time examining it, well, the job comes first.]

Yastubyashi hopped on the driver seat and excitedly said.

“Let’s go! I just need to get out from the forward base and into the ruin, right?”

“Yeah… Do you have an information terminal that I can use?”

“Are you okay with the one fixed into the vehicle?”

“It’s fine as long as I can connect to it.”

Yatsubayashi handed a terminal to Tiol, who then thrust that terminal to his head. Since there was no opening on his head, the terminal opened a wound on his head and blood dripped out from that wound.

A 3D holographic map appeared in the vehicle’s display. It showed the current location of the clinic as well as the destination and the big monsters around the area.

Yatsubyashi chuckled.

“That’s pretty convenient. But I have a wireless one if you would have asked, you know?”

“Non-wireless is easier to hack in.”

“So you’re hacking on the system level, huh. That’s pretty scary. It’s my vehicle, so don’t break it, okay?”

“…I’ll try to be careful.”

Tiol sulked a bit. Seeing that, Yatsubayashi just smiled bitterly and started the mobile clinic.

—*—*—*—

After they agreed on temporarily working together, Akira and Nelia were hunting huge monsters in the area. Although it was a deal that they made on a whim, and one of them was using a bike while the other one was using a powered suit, they were able to work together efficiently. Sometimes, one would act as the decoy while the other delivered the killing blow, pincer attack, long-range barrage, close-range slash. So, they were able to easily take down the gigantic monsters one by one.

Seeing how that black powered suit performed up close reminded Akira of how amazing it was. In the eastern district where firepower was everything, a huge body would only be an easy target to shoot at. But these gigantic monster’s vitality, viciousness, and speed made up for their size. They even posed more danger than the smaller monsters because of that. But even so, the black powered suit was able to defeat them with its light blades, although it was an ally, Akira could not help but to make a stern face.

On the other hand, Nelia was also amazed by Akira’s movements. Although they did not communicate at all about how they were going to move, Akira’s support was nothing short of amazing. He targeted the legs to slow the monsters down, sniped with the long-range gun and forced the monsters to close combat, peppered the large monsters that he could not take down himself with bullets to keep their attention on him, and if it was a monster he could take care by himself, he did so quickly. It was as if Akira always presented the situation so that Nelia could easily deliver the killing blow in the shortest time.

Nelia thought highly of Akira’s skill and Akira was wary of Nelia’s skill as both of them defeated any big monsters that they encountered.

Nelia’s voice suddenly came out from Akira’s information terminal.

“We’re doing pretty well. We’re really in sync, don’t you think so? If we’re really this compatible, we should really date each other, you know?”

“No thanks. Like hell I would go out with someone who keeps saying she would kill me.”

“It’ll be fine, we’re allies right now, right? I have no plans to kill you for now.”

“That’s not the problem here.”

“Geez, you’re so hard-headed.”

“The heck!?”

Nelia was having the time of her life talking with Akira, but in contrast to that, Akira replied back bluntly. Although they did not exchange information about how they would move in the middle of their idle chit-chat, they were able to keep their perfect combo.

“Just to let you know though, I’ll immediately leave the moment I run out of ammo, so do your best alone when that happens.”

“If you don’t have a blade, I don’t mind lending mine, you know?”

“I’m not going to fight those monsters up close! That aside, you only have melee weapons with you, don’t you? Even powered suits can use rifles too, you know? Didn’t you bring any rifles with you? Is it because you can’t or something?”

“Hmm, to be honest, I don’t really like guns. They just don’t fit me for some reason.”

“Just because you don’t like them? Is that all the reason why you didn’t bring rifles with you?”

“Oh my, things like this are very important, you know? There are many people who mock me for that, but for some reason, all of them died before me. And it all happened because they decide to let go of the weapon that they’re most comfortable with.”

Nelia sounded sad as if it was an old wound when she said so, Akira, who heard that, quickly let go of his anger. It was rather convincing although it was a vague excuse, he could not tell if it was the real truth or just some kind of occult thing.

“…Well, it doesn’t really matter. That aside, there’s just no end to these monsters. Just how long will this take us.”

“The swarm might disband if someone kills the boss of the swarm. Though I’m not sure if the disbanded swarm would just return back to the ruin or we would still have to fight them.”

“I heard that the bigger monsters are taking command of the smaller monster swarm to attack the supply route. It seems that the bigger monsters are acting like commanders to the smaller ones and there’s a good chance there’s another monster commanding the bigger monsters. Well, it’s just a guess from another squad though, so there’s no evidence to support it. They just told me to go after the bigger monsters when I spot them.”

“Hm? I haven’t heard anything about that though?”

“It was more like an idle chat between squadmates after all. So it’s not a formal order from the forward base.”

Akira felt that such important information should be broadcasted to all Hunters, but he bet that it had something to do with the squad that Nelia belonged to. He stopped himself from thinking too much about it and instead focused on the subject of the commanding monsters.

“…A boss monster commanding the other monsters, huh. I wonder if it’s an even bigger monster.”