Vol 2 Chapter 17 (1/2)

The train slowly pulled into the subway station under the National Diet Building, on the Marunouchi line

The combination of the train station’s location and the office hours of the government employees meant that they started to head home around this time

A lot of these workers had secretly watched the National Diet broadcast during their working hours, and they couldn’t help but sneak peeks at Lelei, Tuka and Rory, who stood out due to their eye-catching appearances

In any case, every single look directed at the girls was like a physical stab to Itami

His JSDF uniforiven to him by one of Komakado’s men, who told him to take the train instead

In his current outfit, Itae salaryuy?” if they saw hi next to these three lovely ladies with their blonde, black and white hair

It would be hard to say “They’re iven their different hair colors Maybe he could try, “They’re iven the circuht even work, but Itas

A kindhearted third party seeing Itaanization which kidnapped foreign girls for nefarious purposes It was a natural conclusion to reach

It ht be possible, but it would also be difficult to pass the japan (with Ita the three idols back to his office A these three options, the first and the third would be eliminated first

If he wanted to i and wave it while saying “Hihi~ please walk this way~”, taking the them in front of ads which read, “For illustration purposes only” That way, at least onlookers would think this was soency

Ita the plan to board the train in front of him, and in the instant the door opened, he swiftly darted aboard, as though to escape people’s eyes Lelei and Tuka joined him, and then looked around in curiosity

Rory, on the other hand, looked afraid It was an expression he had never seen on her before

A quick glance around the cable showed that Bozes and Piña were looking uneasy as well, while Kuribayashi+ and Tomita were beside them as their escorts

“Yo”

Ita, and Tomita nodded to him

“We were supposed to take the bus to the hotel, but ere suddenly told to alight at Yotsuya and take the subway over Tiot a bit hairy”

“Well, at least you boarded without a probleht?”

Ita to Tomita’s arm

Although everyone expected Toainst Bozes, the way the two of therats, you two!”

Tomita wore a jacket and leather boots, and he stood tall, radiating an air of masculinity In contrast, Bozes was a noblewoold jewelry, but his visual impact was no less than hers; in fact they even complehtened look on Bozes’ face As a singlehe could be happy about when he saw them

Piña was not clinging to someone like Bozes, but she stood stock-still beside Kuribayashi+, her nerves all wound up But if there were a loud sound and a power stoppage, she would probably shriek and tightly hug Kuribayashi+

As he thought about this, Itami was te everyone angry

“They call this the Marunouchi line, but it feels one into a catacomb At least, it feels just as uncomfortable Even if everyone says not to worry, what if the ceiling collapses? What if the lights go out? Are we going into the depths of the earth like this? It’s kind of scary”

They had boarded froround When it plunged into the earth halfway during its journey, it gave Piña a huge shock She could not cals to her After all, thisexperience in Piña’s life to date The train car’s lights were bright, but outside theshe could only see the jet black of the underground It was like taking public response, but Piña had no frame of reference for this at all, and she had no idea where they were headed while underground Asking her not to worry in these circumstances was an impossible task

“Are your ghost houses called ‘catacombs’’? (This was a neord, so he had to scribble in his phrasebook) Well, between the noise and the ringing in the ears, it’s no wonder you’d be scared But you know, the Marunouchi line is hts would cut out while the train was in o dark”

Just as everyone was chatting like this, the train horn blew, and the cabin doors shut

The noise frightened Rory so badly that her body was tre uncontrollably She nervously reached a tiny hand out and tightly clutched Itami’s hand

“What, what’s wrong?”

Was Rory frightened like Piña was? However, there seemed to be a fundamental difference between Piña and Bozes’ discomfort, and Rory’s abject terror

“The, the underground is Hardy’s domain…”

“Hardy? Is he a friend?”

“He’s bad news If we met him here, I’d be snatched away to becoo, always, always, always, always…”

As she said that, Rory squeezed Itahtly

Her right hand was holding her canvas-wrapped halberd Although he was not too sure what she was on about, this God called Hardy (since he lived underground, could he be sohten Rory into a child-like state

“So why are you hugging me?”

“To scare away Hardy Hardy hates ht stay away”

At thisRory to suddenly protest, “Don’t, don’t getrepellent! You’re just caht now, his life would be complete

Teaching people froion about the ways and customs of this world seemed like an uphill task, but as a true otaku, he still wanted to hear Rory say those cliched lines Itahly educate her in these matters

The next stop was Kasureeting

“What happened?” Itami asked

“Turns out we’ve been followed, and they kneere leaving fro the train So far, we’ve got at least two possible suspects for the leaks We need to take care of those guys following us, or at least, shake them up a little”

By “taking care” of the them worked for

“And the two people who ht have leaked the info?”

“We’ll leave them be for now It’s all part of the plan”

“Wouldn’t catching them be better?”

“There’s no need for that We’ve known they would leak secrets for some time now Our plan is to have the ene theical organization, or maybe they’ve been honey-trapped and made to work for the enemy They’ll be dealt with sooner or later, but for noe’ll keep an eye on them”

“A honey-trap, huh…”

“It’s called a honey-trap, but it’s also a way to enjoy yourself If they reported that they were honey-trapped to their superiors, ould have prepared some suitable information for them to pass on So they can enjoy their cash, wo as they keep their superiors inforets mad and threatens to reveal the secrets they have, since we’re already aware of it, all we need to do is oes this way”

The enemy would obviously prefer to pick people ould not turn on them The problem was that japanese iven that nationalism was treated as a dirty word nowadays, it would seem the enemy could pick and choose hen and where to strike

Komakado knew that any country in the world could easily honey-trap japanese citizens, and he laughed coarsely

“Well, ouldn’t have to worry about Mr Ita honey-trapped, at least”

“Really?”

“Don’t you think so…”

As Ko to Itaht, and Tuka behind hih schooler in her T-shi+rt and jeans Komakado had not seen the Diet telecast, so he did not know Rory and Tuka’s ages

“Well because e, no, wait…”

If ene Loli operatives, japan would be in grave danger “No, no, wait Recently, there have been a lot of call girl agencies recruiting young girls Maybe we should keep an eye on those…” Ko seriously as he said that

“Call girl agencies?”

“Ah, well, these—”

Komakado made sure the ladies around hi to Itami

These were known to provide fehly-placed officials ere sensitive to scandals or first-rate businesshest quality, dressed frooods The actual “transaction” would take place in a five-star hotel, to create the iether so as to avoid the suspicion of bystanders

If these organizations were actually run by soans, they would have people record the indecencies which their targets would perform with their partner After that, they would threaten their target with exposure of these deeds to the ht even just upload the relevant io viral

Perhaps their targets ht still be able to explain it away as a simple love affair if their partners were adult wo in lewd acts with an underage girl, there would be no way out of it Therefore, anyone black socially and financially ruined

“No here would they get little girls like that?”

“Soe that”’

They could select attractive young girls from their population, brainwash them into obedience and then send theht training, just like the way suicide bombers could fearlessly blow theun down their fellow h to achieve in a country which laughed at the concept of huhts History also told of women like Da Ji, Bao Si, Xi shi+ and Diao Chan, all of ere beautiful ht powerful nations to ruin

Itami watched quietly as Komakado whipped out his phone and sent an SMS to all his active officers conducting searches He could not send the round, but he could finish typing it up and send it once they reached the surface again

“It’s a bit ahead of schedule, but we’ll be heading to Hakone now”

Komakado told Itami of their travel plans as he typed on his phone However, Rory interrupted hi profusely and her skin was as pale as death

“Hey~ could we get out of here right now, please?”

“What’s wrong, are you carsick?”

“I don’t know, I just feel really uncomfortable, and I can’t calm down”

“We’ll be getting off two stops later Can you hang on a bit more?”

Rory’s fingertips sank forcefully into Itaht at Itami, a sincere, earnest expression on her face She looked miserable

Just at this moment, the train reached Ginza Station

Although he should have been in a lot of pain froh, he felt no pain at all Itami covered Rory’s powerless hand with his own, and looked to Komakado

Koesturearound Lelei locked eyes with him and her expressionless face seeed to show that she wanted to get off the train

Toreed Piña and Bozes were not particularly fond of the subway, so they did not show any hint of resistance

The station was flooded with office workers heading home and shoppers ere done for the day And then a briefopened — the instant when the passengers on the train had finished alighting, but just before the incoers came aboard —

“Mr Koet off the train here”

“Coroup off the train like a father ainst the flow of traffic, all the incoer shot dirty looks at him However, once they saw Piña and Bozes, that resent able to read the atmosphere” only applied to their fellow countrymen When they saw people from another culture, all they could do was say, “It can’t be helped” and try to be

“Hey, wait, what are you guys trying to do?”

Left on the train, Komakado tried to catch up with Itami Since he was japanese, the croas only too happy to press him back and into the train, so he looked like a swih choppy water before he finally ed to squeeze out of the train

“This is good too, right? Besides, we’re only one stop away”

Ginza Station was right in front of Tokyo Station, and they would only need to walk a little further to reach it However, as Ita crossed the ticket stand, they heard that the train on the Marunouchi line — which was to say, the one they had just gotten off — had been halted halfway between Ginza and Tokyo Station by a line fault

Rory sighed in relief, glad to be outside of the underground train station and back under Ginza’s night sky She stretched her arh the air here was filthy, to Rory it was still better than being under the earth She was happy to be out of Hardy’s clutches Piña and Bozes also seeround once more

Everyone looked around at night-tihts everywhere, and in readiness for the fierce mercantile coe variety of illuht into a sea of ht

Kuribayashi+ and Toe, and as they realised the s ary eyes

“What does the ene this?”

Itami’s questions made Komakado’s eyes narrow into a line

“They’re probably trying to prove soth, which means this is a recon in force”

“They” had already tried isolating and following the ht be otherworldly visitors aboard

“They” had even gone so far as to engineer an incident to force a train stoppage

Although none of the of incidents had everyone on their guard Could it be that “they” just wanted to let Itami’s side know and fear their power? In other words, this was a warning along the lines of “Mark my words, you will not escape the palm of my hand”

However, all their schemes had failed so far; the microbus surveillance was foiled by Koe because of Rory and sheer luck

“The eneainst theh chance they’ll take direct action this time”

The fact reed fro to track down leaks even though hiswith confusion Who on earth had revealed that infor over his shoulder as a result

“When you say direct action, what do you mean?”

“Well, for example—”

Just as Koan to speak, Rory was attacked A man who looked like some sort of punk tried to snatch away the wrapped-up halberd she was carrying

“Grabbing an ite a chase in order to lure people into a trap is a traditional !”

However, in the instant that the punk grabbed Rory’s halberd, it squashed hiround and left him unable to move Ita looks on their faces as they looked on the poor punk in pity However, Koe that a punk could be pinned under so so easily

Koe, and in thatsound ca broken

“Gwaaaaah!”

It was an acute lumbar muscle sprain… in other words, he threw out his back Worse, he iven hih his torso, and Komakado could not help but collapse to both knees, and then fall to the ground on all fours

“It’s so da?!”

Koround People around the around to see what the excitement was all about, and the distant sirens of an ambulance carried over the commotion At the same time, some people who had watched the National Diet telecast, and they whipped out their phones to take pictures of Rory, Tuka and Lelei

There was no way the eneets

And so, the third attack by the unseen enemy was foiled by the sacrifice of Komakado’s body

Because the bills had not been paid, the cell phone line had been cut

So was the gas

Phone calls kept coetting worse

Pension and health insurance payments? Yep, they were due

However, without the co would be over, so the power bill had to be paid, along with the Internet fiber charges In exchange, there was no money to buy food

Cereal and soya bean milk from the 99 yen store cost 208 yen for 2 meals (1 meal = 104 yen)

After that, the 99 yen store again once etables and rice This was dinner, which cost 208 yen

Thank you, 99 yen store, our japan is such a prosperous country

Since yesterday, all three meals had been cereal and soya milk, a diet without any variation However, this meant that the day’s meals would only cost 312 yen, so no matter what, this discomfort had to be endured