Chapter 209: Not Two Choices (1/2)

Akira was waiting giddily in front of the Kugama building. The suitcase in his hand contained his custom suit that was finally finished. Today was the day of his triple date with Elena, Sara and Shizuka. And right now he was waiting to meet up with them.

Alpha was playing coy as she teased.

“You look pretty happy.”

“Is that so? Well, it’s fine, isn’t it?”

But Akira just ignored Alpha’s teasing. Normally, he would give more response than that, but not today. It was proof that he was in a better mood than usual. To make sure that he would not be late, he came earlier than usual, this was also another proof of that fact.

A little before the meeting time, Elena, Sara and Shizuka arrived. Just like Akira, they were also carrying their own custom dresses in suitcases.

Shizuka knew that Akira was waiting for them, she smiled at him and said.

“We were planning to come sooner than the meeting time, but it seems that we ended up making you wait instead, huh?”

“It’s no problem at all.”

“Is that so? Well, shall we get going?”

Although Akira tried to hide his glee, he was not able to trick anyone there. Seeing how happy he was to go to eat together with them, Elena, Sara and Shizuka could not hold back their giggles as they entered the building.

Akira had visited high-class restaurants located on the upper floor of the Kugama building a few times in the past, but even so, he still looked a bit nervous when he entered one. Elena then told the receptionist that they had booked dinner and went to separate changing rooms based on gender. They changed their clothes there before following one of the waitresses who guided them to their seats.

In the deeper part of the restaurant, there was a section separated by partitions. Behind those partitions, the tables were placed in rather wide intervals. All of the diners there were wearing proper suits, just like Akira. No one was using an augmented suit like he had done before. Even the cyborg diners with metallic skin were also wearing tuxedos suitable for that place. The luxurious decorations in that section gave off a high-class and elegant aura that veiled the whole section.

It gave off a feeling of a completely separate place away from the harsh world of the eastern district. Akira followed the waitress as he felt like he stepped into a completely different world.

When he arrived at their table, Elena, Sara and Shizuk, who arrived there first welcomed him with a smile. Charmed by them, he froze for a bit the moment he saw them.

Each of them was wearing a custom dress that boosted their respective unique beauty. Although each dress had a different focus, all of them gave the same sense of gracefulness and elegance, making their charm as ladies much more prominent.

The beautiful dress adorned Sara’s ample body as she smiled bashfully. In contrast to that, Elena’s dress capitalized on her wonderful arms and legs which gave off a feeling that it was not only simply pure beauty but they were also functional as she smiled confidently at him. While for Shizuka, in contrast to her usual working dress which covered her whole body, her dress was designed to boast that part of her as she blushed and smiled gently at Akira.

Elena led the pack by asking for Akira’s opinion.

“So, what do you think?”

“…Uhhh, I think it’s wonderful.”

Not only was Akira lacking verbal knowledge to express himself, but he was also so flustered that it did not help him at all in that situation. He only managed to say that short sentence. But judging from his reaction, they knew that he was honestly amazed and that was enough for them as they smiled with satisfaction and bashfulness.

“Thank you. It’s worth paying that much money for this dress. You also look good in that suit, you know?”

“Thank you very much!”

Akira bashfully replied.

Akira looked like a young master from some large corporation in his suit. Although he would normally look like a young boy in a suit, Celene had put all her talent into creating his suit. Thus his suit gave a strong aura of classiness and elegance, it did not even give off any weird feeling even though the one using it was Akira.

Celene did her best to fulfil their orders. Thus all of them were using dresses and a suit, which allowed even someone as clueless to fashion as Akira, to understand just how amazing they were. It even caused the waiters that guided them to look at them with sparkly eyes.

As Akira sat in his seat, the waiters immediately brought the appetizers. They had chosen their course beforehand when they placed their booking. Since Akira refused to drink alcohol, everyone decided to remove alcohol from their course. But even so, all the dishes were simply amazing. They had an amazing experience although they did not partake in any alcohol during their meal.

During dinner, Akira enjoyed exceptional food while having a light conversation with people that he regarded as his close friends. The food, the smiles from Elena, Sara and Shizuka, the subject of their conversation, the mood of the shop, all made Akira feel happy. The time passed by as he relished his time as he ate, not only for the sake of getting nutrition. The girls who watched him were happy to see that side of Akira.

Akira was completely in joy until the very end of dinner.

On the same day, Sheryl once again attended the feast in the Kugama building. After attending the same feast a few times, she had built up a level of resistance against the delicious-looking food served during the feast. So she only took a small portion onto her plate and ate it little by little. Although she thought that it was a blissful thing to be able to enjoy such amazing food, she was also having a hard time fighting back from making any exaggerated reaction to the amazing taste. Therefore, it was not like she could immerse herself in the food. Hoping to build her resistance, she took another small piece.

Inabe who saw that raised his eyebrows.

“You have quite an appetite there.”

Sheryl stopped her hand and smiled politely at Inabe.

“…I’m of that age after all.”

“I see.”

Sheryl finished the rest of the food on her plate and solemnly placed it back on the table. She then once again turned to Inabe.

“Inabe-sama, regarding the coordination support system augmented suit that you’ve been kind enough to let us borrow, how long can I expect for this kindness to last?”

“Hm? It depends on how well they are doing. To be honest, I don’t know for sure myself. Well, I know that it would be troublesome for you if you suddenly lose your fighting capabilities. I would at least tell them to let you know beforehand so as not to trouble you when they finish whatever they are doing. If you need it, I can ask them to extend the testing period, or instead, I can look for another alternative.”

“Thank you very much!”

“…Uhh, so, in exchange for that, I have one thing I want to ask though.”

“We’re really thankful for your help, if it’s something within our power, we’ll be more than happy to accept your request.”

“I want you to help me negotiate with Akira. You’re close to him, right?”

Sheryl was smiling politely up until now, but the moment Inabe said so, her expression suddenly turned sharp.

“Just to be safe, is it for an informal request that doesn’t go through the Hunter Office?”

“The answer to that is obvious, isn’t it?”

“That might be the case for common Hunters, but this is Akira that we are talking about. Personally speaking, I prefer to remove any possible discrepancy in what we are talking about to prevent unwanted outcomes in the future.”

Inabe saw Sheryl’s reaction as a warning not to cause any harm to Akira because of some unwritten convention or anything similar to that. Although that was not exactly a mistake, half of the reason why Sheryl asked that question was also because she was not that familiar with that kind of dealing.

“Very well. I’ll answer that question. Basically, it is in order not to leave any unnecessary records in the Hunter Office. After all, leaving such a record might cause a problem in the future.”

A formal request that went through the Hunter Office contained a strongly binding agreement between the requester and the Hunter who accepted that request. Both sides must strictly follow the written detail of the request. But in some cases, even for a request that was agreed by both sides, the Hunter Office could intervene using the Corporate Government’s authority to change the details of said request. The requests that had gone through such changes were simply that important.

In order to avoid this, the content of the request would be written in a vague way so that it could be interpreted in various ways, or simply did not provide the detail of the request in the written agreement. Since it was not written, normally, the Hunter Office could not do anything about it. So even if the unwritten part of the agreement contained some unfair clauses, the Hunter could not make an appeal through the Hunter Office.

On the other hand, when the requester did not want a part of the request to be known by the Hunter Office, they often have already made an agreement with the Hunter beforehand. They would have already decided things like how far the detail of the request would be written in the agreement. Of course, the bigger the job, the more difficult it would be, so it was not strange for Hunters to ask for a 3rd party to help during negotiation.

“Yanagisawa agreed to temporarily stop extending the supply route into Kuzusuhara ruin. So all the area managers, including me, have turned our focus to searching and gathering relics, that’s why we are in need of high-ranking Hunters. If I pass the request through the Hunter Office, there’s a good chance that the other area managers would try to mess with my request. Everyone from the larger corporations would also try to make a direct request to the Hunter. After all, it is well known that information about such requests does not require a high authority to be accessible. So this is just a precaution to avoid it. Will that be enough for an explanation?”

Inabe was not lying. But he also did not tell Sheryl the whole truth. Although, the thing that he was hiding from Sheryl was unlikely to cause trouble both for himself and for Akira. Sheryl noticed that as well, so she smiled politely and replied.

“Thank you very much. I will convey that to Akira and do my best to persuade him to accept your request.”

“If you have the confidence to persuade him, I actually don’t mind if you handle everything including the negotiation part though.”

“…Thank you but I will have to refuse that offer. I’m still an amateur in terms of my negotiation skill, so I will have to refuse so as to not cause you any trouble.”

“I see, in that case, I hope you’ll at least join the negotiation as a mediator.”

Inabe made a guess based on Sheryl’s reply.

[So, she basically doesn’t want to handle the most troublesome part of the deal which is the negotiations. She wants to avoid the risk of worsening her relationship with the Hunter supporting her gang, huh. As I thought, it’s not like she has Akira completely under her control. It seems that it’ll be difficult to use her as bait during the negotiation, I’ll have to think of another way.]

As Inabe and Sheryl were exchanging words, trying to analyze their respective partner in conversation. Katsuya, who was also attending the same feast, noticed Sheryl.

“Sheryl!”

Inabe and Sheryl turned to Katsuya.

“Inabe-sama, if you’re looking for a high-ranking Hunter, wouldn’t it be a good idea to try to talk to him?”

“That one is under Drankam after all. So the one that I will have to negotiate with is Drankam, not him. Well, I’ll do that if I need to, but that’s plan B for me.”

Akira and Katsuya would be perfect if some of their personalities and situations were reversed. Both Inabe and Sheryl had that exact same thought there.

Katsuya, who attended the feast, hoped to find Sheryl here, and was looking for her.

Ever since Sheryl pulled him out from his slump, he has been performing very well. As a matter of fact, his performance as a Hunter well surpassed all his past performances. Moreover, thanks to the coordination support system augmented suit that his team was using, the team’s performance was also greatly improved. Not only did he believe that his problem was solved, he also thought that his luck had turned around.

During the huge incident in Kuzusuhara ruin, they had gone through a hard battle defending the supply route. Although the battle was immensely difficult, they formed a close friendship during that battle. The number of people who looked down on Kastuya’s team had also significantly decreased after that. He finally felt that all his hard work was starting to pay off.

That was when he started to think that Sheryl could help him quickly solve his problems. As long as he had her by his side, he would not need to be afraid of any issues that might crop up, and that would allow him to keep himself at optimal performance.

When he spotted Sheryl and called her name, Sheryl welcomed him with a smile. Katsuya was elated as if he just met someone that he loved as he walked to her.

As Sheryl and Katsuya were talking to each other and enjoying their conversation, Inabe, who was being considerate, left them alone.

The subject of their talk mostly focused on Katsuya’s recent Hunter jobs. He was fulfilling his promise to return back alive and to share his experience. He happily spoke about the days he went out to her.

Sheryl happily listened to his story with a smile. And then, while still maintaining her smile on the outside, she thought in the back of her mind.

[…Again, huh. And like, isn’t he stronger than last time?]

Sheryl had no doubt about Katsuya’s strength. At least, he was strong enough for Drankam to evaluate him highly and allow him to join the feast. Even Inabe, who was an officer from City Management, was also thinking of getting Katsuya on his side. There was no doubt Katsuya was a strong young Hunter. Both the impression from meeting him and the data from investigating him pointed out to that conclusion.

However, Sheryl felt something that was bothering her. Though normal people would not find anything wrong with him.

Sheryl herself did not think that she had the ability to accurately identify someone’s strength. If she had that kind of talent, she would have been able to notice how powerful Akira was right from the start and she would not have treated him the way she did in the past. But when it came to Katsuya, she felt like there was something unnatural about Katsuya’s skill and talent, and that feeling somehow felt really clear to her.

Judging from the way Katsuya was talking with her, Sheryl was sure that he really liked her. But judging from his expression, there was a chance that it was a misunderstanding or it was fake. Although, her intuition told her that it was not the case and she trusted her intuition with no hesitation at all.

From her past experience, she knew that there was something affecting her evaluation of Katsuya. Although she did not know what that something was, just knowing that there was something provided her with a little resistance.

[…I feel like if I let my guard down, he’ll dictate my view of him. There are some people in this world who have this strange kind of charisma. I’m still not knowledgeable nor experienced enough to handle this. I need to be careful.]

Sheryl reminded herself to be more careful dealing with Katsuya.

After a few minutes, Viola returned to Sheryl who was still talking with Katsuya.

“Boss, I’m sorry but it might be a good time to leave soon. I have another business to attend to, so I won’t be able to give you support. I have arranged for someone to pick you up on the first floor. You’ll know who when you’re there, so don’t worry.”

“Alright, Katsuya, I’m sorry but I’ll have to excuse myself for today.”

“Ah, in that case, I’ll accompany you to the first floor.”

“Thank you very much!”

Sheryl then left the feast together with Katsuya. Seeing that, Viola smiled amusedly. But it was a rather ominous smile that reflected her bad personality.

—*—*—*—

After finishing his dinner with Elena, Sara and Shizuka. Akira was back in his augmented suit, equipped with his rifles. With that short period of time which felt like a dream now in the past, he completely returned back to his usual self.

Shizuka gently smiled at Akira and asked.