Chapter 254: The Extent Of a Job

The camping car was running on autopilot back to Kugamayama city. So, there was no need for someone to stay behind the wheel. Reinas team, which was basically getting a free lift, was taking up the position of escorts. As long as nothing big happened, Carol and Akira could just take a break inside the camping car. Because of that, it would not be strange if Carol decided to fully lower her guard and took a good long rest inside. Outside of Akiras expectations, Carol was doing something strange.

She was lying on the bed naked. Although she placed a sheet on top of her, it was a very thin white sheet that did not help much in hiding her naked body. The inviting l.u.s.trous skin combined with a well-proportioned body was on full display. The white sheet that was partially see-through, drew a line between hiding and showcasing her body, which was very erotic.

Even being shown this scene, Akira understood that Carol was not trying to tempt him.

It was obvious that Carol was tired. After they saw what happened back in the ruin and returned back to the car, she brusquely took off her powered suit and just dropped it off without a care. It was as if someone, who was too afraid of letting go of her rifle, finally ran out of ammo, and threw everything away in a fit of rage. Just like that, Carol dove on top of the bed and stayed silent up until now.

Even Akira could tell that she was depressed. But his communication skill was not that good to find the words to cheer her up. Though, as her escort, he did not think leaving her like this was the right choice. Therefore, for now, he decided to sit next to Carol.

Although the mood was not that bad, it was also not the right mood to get into a trivial conversation. Although they were not trying to stay silent, there were no words spoken between them. After a moment of awkward silence, Carol suddenly opened her mouth.

Akira.

Yes?

Youre my escort right now, right?

Yep, and?

Their conversation came to a pause there. Akira looked confused, he did not understand Carols intention behind that short exchange.

After a short pause, Carol once again restarted the conversation.

Akira.

What?

It seems that theres a big fight going on in that ruin, if I somehow got involved in that fight, what would you do?

Wouldnt that be obvious? Ill of course run away.

Yeah, that one was obvious.

Hearing the answer that she had fully expected, Carol replied with a rather droopy, discouraged voice.

Akira himself understood that he could not give the reply that she was wis.h.i.+ng for. That was why he added some explanation, as if he was trying to justify his answer.

Come on. Just think about it. Even if I am your escort, theres no way I can do anything about that fight. Theres no other choice for me but to run away, right?

I know.

Carol unconsciously returned a short and brusque reply. It was as if she was annoyed that she was told of something that she already knew well.

Another moment of silence. This time, it obviously felt awkward. Akira showed a rather surprised reaction to her reply. But after that, he sighed and spoke up again.

Well, I know that theres still meaning behind fighting an unwinnable fight. Also, youre paying me to be your escort right now. However, youre not someone who would risk your life just because you refuse to run away no matter what, right? Running away is also a good option, no? Although as an escort, I might be useless in terms of extra firepower, Ill properly do my job and find a good escape route for you, you know?

Carol suddenly turned her whole body to face Akira and looked at him with a surprised face.

Is that so?

Yep. Well, I bet it wont be easy, but if we focus on running away right from the start, Im sure we would find a way to safely escape. Though I need to tell you that when it happens. I will never do something as stupid as telling you to go ahead and leave me behind. After all, we have a better chance to survive if we run away together. In the scenario, I can keep telling you where to go to get away from that place.

Really?

Yeah, doing so is definitely better for our odds of survival. That is one thing that I can say for certain.

Akira interpreted Carols surprise as her way of expressing doubt, that was why he then nodded confidence to make sure she did not doubt him. Although the reason why he was so sure he would be able to find a safe escape route in that situation was all because of Alpha, he did not mention that at all.

Carol pushed her body off the bed and waved at him to come closer.

What now?

Carol did not say anything and kept waving at Akira. Akira tilted his head and sat closer to her. That was when she suddenly hugged him.

Im sorry to have doubted you. And, if things ever get to that point, I will be counting on you.

Well, its my job after all, so Ill properly do it. Though, I cant guarantee that we would be able to escape safely no matter what. Ill at least do my best.

In reaction to Akiras straightforward and casual answer, Carol still had her arms around Akira as she smiled quietly.

When Akira said that he would run away, Carol thought that Akira meant he would leave her behind. Although she knew that it was completely expected, she hoped that was not the case. The bigger that hope, the harsher she was. .h.i.t by his answer back there.

However, it was actually a misunderstanding on her part. Right from the beginning, what Akira meant was to run away together. The moment Carol noticed it, she was much happier than she had expected. At least, it was enough to blow away all the depression that she had after watching the ensuing battle back in the ruin. Although she did not suddenly jump and skipped around, it was silent happiness that allowed her to regain her calm.

Other than that, she also felt that it was a bit unfortunate that Akira did mention it as his job. In order to remove that emotion from her, she started to lean her body weight forward with Akira, who was still wrapped in her arms, trying to push him down.

But Akira did not budge. Carol was an enhanced human with enhanced physical strength, but it was still no match against Akiras augmented suit. In the first place, the mood was not right to force Akira down. If Akira fought against it, that would be the end of it.

Akira frowned and threw a question.

What are you doing?

Though I already knew beforehand, Akira, you really cant read the mood, can you?

I dont know what youre trying to say but, can you get off me already?

Carol lightly sighed and let Akira go. She then returned back lying on the bed, but this time, she looked like she was pouting, as if she was throwing a tantrum.

Akira, I believe youre already at that age where you start getting interested in girls instead of food, though? Youre no longer just a little boy anymore, so it might be a good idea if you stop prioritizing food all the time, you know? Or is it that youre at that age where anything is fine as long as you can eat it?

What are you even talking about? Just so you know, lately Ive been more interested in taste rather than just the amount, you know? As expected, Im no longer the same as the past me when I didnt care about the taste as long as I can eat.

Seeing how Akira speak proudly in front of an extremely tempting naked body, Carol could not help but think of something foolish. [Maybe I should start learning how to cook?]

***

Hammerz continued fighting against Olivia with a stern look on his face. He identified where each attack was moving towards and countered them with punches reinforced with forcefield armour. Olivia was sending out high powered energy light waves, which could cut through matter due to its sharpness. These were basically light blades, which flew afar and betrayed the normal range of a blade.

These light blades were dispersed when they were met with Hammerz punches. But even after they dispersed, they still packed the same cutting power that easily sliced everything in the area, raising up a storm. The destroyed buildings that had already become rubble, were chipped into even smaller pieces.

[Tch! They still can cut even after being dispersed, huh!? What a pain!]

Hammerz could not evade every light blade, so he took some hits. But his superhuman body and his fighting suit made to endure the might of a superhuman, easily caused those blades to bounce off. Although he still got injured from taking them on, it was not enough to hinder his fighting capability. He then quickly leapt forward to close the distance at a speed where air started to crack and released a punch that went over the speed of sound.

The blast wave from that punch released a shock wave to its surroundings. The shock wave was greatly damped by the colourless mist in the air, causing its momentum to quickly lessen. But even so, it was still strong enough to blow wreckage and rubble around them away.

The fist that did not lose any of its power from the colourless mist, hit Olivia. The powerful punch, enforced with forcefield armour, which was strong enough to pierce the armour of an inter-city transport vehicle, hit the maid uniform, which seemed no different to a piece of cloth. However, instead of piercing that cloth, it was only enough to create a small wrinkle on Olivias maid uniform. Furthermore, that wrinkle quickly disappeared after she jumped back to open distance from Hammerz. His fist had completely been nullified.

[I didnt see light from force to energy conversion. Is it simply because thats just how strong her maid outfit is? Or is she using a forcefield armour that did not produce light? Including her blade and her rifle, she has an excellent set of equipment.]

Olivia was keeping her distance from Hammerz, it was obvious that her aim was to buy time and she had no plan to fight Hammerz seriously. But even so, Hammerz could not just ignore Olivia and go after s.h.i.+rou. If Hammerz showed his back to Olivia to chase s.h.i.+rou, he knew that Olivia would injure him enough to buy even more time.

Originally, Hammerz was planning to quickly take Olivia out and chase after s.h.i.+rou. But it seemed to be impossible to do now due to how powerful Olivia was. Although Hammerz was holding back so as to not get s.h.i.+rou caught up in the fight, Olivias fighting capability was way out of his expectation. In the end, Olivia slowly bought more and more time for s.h.i.+rou to getaway.

Although some of the powered suits from the interceptor team were sent to chase after s.h.i.+rou, most had been cut down by Olivia. And that interceptor team was acting in place of the rescue team, which had already been decimated.

Olivias blade was too powerful for Hammerz to take on in place of those powered suits. Even if he was able to deflect her light blades, there was still a limit on how many Hammerz could deflect.

Of course, they had also sent a few powered suits to take a long detour to avoid getting cut down by Olivia, but there was no guarantee that they would be able to capture s.h.i.+rou.

After s.h.i.+rou left the ruin and went out into the wasteland, some drones with camouflage on, left the area as fast as they could. It was difficult to catch up with the drones that could not be shot down in the wasteland. The wasteland was just simply too wide. There was also the danger of encountering monsters. But as long as they kept their distance, there was a good chance that the colourless mist would cover their presence. In his desperate escape, the vast wasteland was on s.h.i.+rous side.

Hammerz thought that everything would be okay as soon as he arrived, but evidently, that was not the case. Hammerz cursed his own naive thinking as his expression turned dark.

He did not wish to hold back any longer, but he had to conserve some of his power. He was confident he could defeat his opponent if he went full power. But the repercussion would not be light, it would definitely hamper his main objective.

If he could capture s.h.i.+rou afterwards, he would go all in. However, the chances of that would diminish to zero once he used all his might here. It would be meaningless to squeeze all he had for virtually nothing. Unnecessarily injuring himself would be against the corporations work ethic, that was why Hammerz had no other choice but to not use his full power.

But even so, Hammerz started to wonder if it was better to take out his opponent to rea.s.sure his patron. That thought was running through his mind and was reflected by his action. He started to lean forward, and his gaze started to turn sharper. Right when he had decided to end his opponent, Olivia, who kept smiling even in the middle of the fight, suddenly said to him.

Would it be okay to stop here?

Hammerz raised both of his eyebrows.

What do you mean? Are you trying to tell me that this is futile and that I should just stop?

Hammerz inadvertently made a guess as to Olivias answer. However, that guess only served to sour his mood. His mood and increased hostility toward his opponent caused him to make a grim expression. A normal human would have cowered under his gaze.

But Olivia did not seem bothered at all as she smiled and shook her head.

Nope. Im saying that theres no meaning in continuing our fight. Thats why, if you want to chase that young man, you can go ahead and just do that.

Hammerz seemed confused at those unexpected words from Olivia. He was even more confused since there were no signs of Olivia lying.

That is a rather strange suggestion considering how hard weve fought against each other. Why do you suddenly want to stop?

Ive worked enough for what I have been paid, thats all there is to it.

Hammerz looked confusedly at Olivia. He had already disengaged his hostile posture as well. So, Olivias smile slowly turned into a business smile.

If you wish to continue, then I am more than happy to oblige. But it would not be for free. I will only put in effort depending on how much you would pay me beforehand, so I hope that you understand.

Hammerz did not take his eyes off Olivia as he picked up his communication device.

Its me, tell me the damage.

Hammerz could not help but frown when he listened to the response. Many people got injured during his fight against Olivia. But none of them were dead. s.h.i.+rous request was not to kill anyone, and Olivia accomplished that brilliantly.

That restriction also applied during that fight just now, but that would no longer be the case if they continued. It meant that Olivia had been holding back, in a sense, she was sparing his life. Since Hammerz noticed that, he could not help but frown even more. However, at the very least, it also served to confirm that any continuation of this fight would be against his duty.

Hammerz heaved a huge sigh as if he was expelling all the grudge inside him, and with that, he no longer showed any hostility toward Olivia.

Alright, lets not Good grief, just who exactly are you?

In response to those words that Hammerz only meant as a complaint, Olivia made her usual business smile and gracefully bowed.

Oliva of Lion Steel. A pleasure to meet you.

Hammerz was completely flabbergasted.

Lion Steel? What do you mean by that? Why is someone from Lion Steel causing trouble for Sakas.h.i.+ta Heavy Industry? Is it okay for me to interpret this as an act of hostility from Lion Steel against Sakas.h.i.+ta? Did you join hands with one of the other big five or something?

Not at all, we have no wish for such a thing.

Then what is it? Are you trying to say that youre just lending a hand to an in-fighting in Sakas.h.i.+ta? So, Lion Steel is not trying to cause trouble with Sakas.h.i.+ta? Just because some of our officers are working with your corporation, dont think that such an excuse would-

Excuse me but let me add one more thing. It seems that youre confusing our corporation with another corporation which is using the same name without our permission. Our Lion Steel company has no relation with the one that calls itself the Lion Steel Eastern District Main Branch.

Hammerz was even more confused, but it only took a few seconds for it to finally dawn on him.

Youre the one from the old-world, huh!?

Although I dont really agree with that way of calling our company, but that is correct.

Hammerz finally understood why Olivia was that powerful and rubbed his temple. The observation log from Sakas.h.i.+ta Heavy Industrys facility did not show any indication that s.h.i.+rou had made a connection with the old-world Lion Steel. And it was too short of a time frame for him to form that connection after he had escaped. So, it was only natural for him to think that s.h.i.+rou had that connection beforehand when he plotted his escape.

[Did s.h.i.+rou come to this ruin to meet up with her? Just what in the world is he trying to do? To even spend all of his Chrome to pay her? Just I really cant even begin to guess]

As Hammerz realized he was about to fall into deep thought, he shook his head and put that aside for now.

You said that you were paid, right? How much did he pay you? And what is his objective?

My apologies, but I cant leak the content of my contract with the others. Thus I am afraid I shall refuse to answer your questions.

I dont know whats the basis for being a customer, but I bet that s.h.i.+rou doesnt satisfy the requirements, right?

Regarding that matter, I can only say that he satisfied a very special set of requirements.

Olivia threw a white card to Hammerz, Hammerz caught that card and s.h.i.+fted his gaze from Oliva to that white card.

It must be some kind of fate that we met. So let me give you our companys card. By all means, please contact us, well be waiting for your request. Now then, allow me to excuse myself.

When Hammerz returned his gaze to Olivia, she was already gone.

Well, I guess this has resulted in at least one good thing.

Hammerz light sighed and tucked that white card. His face then turned gloomy as he had to give his report, that they had failed to capture s.h.i.+rou.

Olivia returned to the Lion Steel branch office located on the 57th floor of the Seranthal building. She transferred the AI core to the branch offices system and proceeded to do maintenance on her body.

The automaton body floated in the middle of the maintenance system, and its maid uniform disappeared, revealing the naked body of a beautiful automaton that the company had spent a huge fortune to create. The naked body then cracked, creating crevices all over its beautiful body, which then slowly opened.

After readjusting the body, it then exposed the inside, which seemed to be made of metallic organs. Some of those organs were in the shape of spheres, among those spheres, two were taken out and replaced with new ones. Those spheres were old-world generators which powered the automatons body. The generators had been damaged from the previous battles and were now being replaced.

Although from one point of view, it could be said that Olivia was taking it easy when she was dealing with Hammerz, but in reality, she did not have that much leeway. To fend off Hammerz, she had to spend two of her expensive generators. She might end up in red even after receiving the 15 million Chrome as payment. When she added up the repair cost for the damages to her body, she judged that it was not worth the trouble.

If she continued fighting Hammerz, she would definitely end up deep in the red. Although it was her first job after such a long time, the result was unsatisfactory. Olivia felt frustration welling up inside her as she lightly sighed inside the cybers.p.a.ce of the system.

That frustration was all because she did not receive a satisfying job, so it did not cause her any more woes. The warehouse on the 57th floor still had a good stock of generators. And even if her body had been destroyed during her fight with Hammerz, it was not like she would lose her AI data. So, she just could download her data into a different automaton just like one could change from one dress to another.

Olivia had already transferred to the automaton located in Iida commercial district ruin. The old-world automaton that was originally used to escort VIP targets. It was equipped with a powerful generator and was granted permission to fully utilize that generators output when necessary.

Even if there was a chance of her AI data getting erased, she did not feel any fear toward that at all. As a general-purpose AI from Lion Steel, getting herself deleted only meant losing one of its many ma.s.s-produced AI, after all.

As a general-purpose AI, Olivias line of thinking was created using the human mind as its base. But an imitation was not the same as the real thing. As a matter of fact, their line of thinking was closer to a fanatic or a zealot.

Olivia was thinking about the future with her fanatical non-human mindset.

That was when Seranthals system sent a notification to her. The content was a demand from Seranthal for an explanation regarding the battle that happened on the outskirts of the Mihazono residential ruin.

Olivia connected herself to the Seranthal buildings system and called Seranthal.

***

Yanagisawa was on his personal transport aircraft as he was heading to Mihazono ruin. He already received the report that they failed to capture s.h.i.+rou. Because of that, he was in an awful mood. He used an expensive special line to contact his men out in the field and was listening to their report.

Let me confirm this again. The powered suit that you thought to be piloted by him turned out to be empty, right? Are you certain that hes not sitting in the pilot seat with camouflaging on or something like that?

In order to maintain his calm, he was trying to keep to his usual tone, but it did not work out well. His men could feel Yanagisawas irritation from behind the speaker as they anxiously replied.

We did our best to try to capture him. But he still escaped.

I see. So, it was only a decoy, huh? Dont worry about it, things like this happen from time to time. Just continue searching for him like usual. Ah, dont forget to send the powered suits data to me. Though it might be tempered by that guy, I might still find something useful.

Roger that.

Yup, Ill leave it to you then! Good luck!

Yanagisawa replied with a flippant tone and closed the call. He then faked a smile in order to help him recover his groove before opening a call to Hammerz.

Ah! h.e.l.lo there! Yanagisawa here! Is it a good time right now?

What is it? Im pretty sure the report as well as my apology for failing to capture s.h.i.+rou have been sent through another commutation route already?

Well, I just want to ask more details about that, you see. To be more precise, why did you let him go?

Yanagisawas words were tinted with a grudge, but Hammerz only reacted with a sigh and a silence. After a short pause, Hammerz then replied.

Its true that we failed to capture s.h.i.+rou although youve given us very good information about him. Regarding that matter, you have my apologies. But excessive animosity will be seen as a hostile act toward Sakas.h.i.+ta, you know?

Yanagisawa was obviously playing coy as he laughed and said.

No no no, of course, I have no wish to do something like that. Its just that I never thought that you guys would fail. After all, someone as strong as you were moving and you made it on time to meet him. So, I was wondering if it was intentional. Its only natural to get suspicious, right? Ah, or is it that you lowered your guard since you believed that as long as you know his location, you can already retrieve him? That itll be an easy job?

Hammerz sighed one more time.

He escaped from Sakas.h.i.+ta, so its only natural to expect him to have a good escort. Well, since I was unable to properly judge at that time, that could mean that Ive lowered my guard. If that really is the case, I cant deny that I did. It might sound like Im trying to s.h.i.+ft the blame here since I was the one who let him get away, but when you pinned down his location, you didnt detect any escorts with him?

Well, Im really sorry about that.

It was obvious that Yanagisawa did not really mean that as an apology. So Hammerz just reacted with another sigh.

After that, Yanagisawa inquired about Hammerzs fight with Olivia, as if to create an excuse for him to close their call.

Thank you for the invaluable information. Well, considering that you were unable to capture s.h.i.+rou-kun even after you reached the location on time, it might mean that its a good idea to rethink our approach to capturing him. Its rather worrying for me, thats why I even called you. Im sorry about that. But, since this failure is because of special circ.u.mstances, it really relieves me. Personally speaking, its rather difficult for me to prepare people to capture someone that even you cant capture, you know?

I bet it is. Im also busy over here, so excuse me for closing the call.

Yes, thank you very much.

The call ended there, Yanagisawas smile once again vanished.

[At least it doesnt sound like hes lying to me. But]

Although he worded it out as if he was joking, Yanagisawa was really suspecting Hammerz of intentionally letting s.h.i.+rou run away.

After all, it was a fact that s.h.i.+rou escaped when he was inside the inter-city transport vehicle. This was something that was normally unthinkable. And then even after Hammerz reached s.h.i.+rou during a capture mission, s.h.i.+rou still escaped. Normally, it was unlikely that Hammerz was helping s.h.i.+rou escape, but since it had happened twice, being suspicious was only a given.

Moreover, Yanagisawa knew that s.h.i.+rou had made some kind of secret deal behind the scenes with Sugadome. But he could not confront Sakas.h.i.+ta about it since it would be proof that he hacked into Sakas.h.i.+tas secret line. In the worst-case scenario, he might even get erased because of that. Unfortunately, Yanagisawa had no information on what the content of that deal was. The only thing he knew was that s.h.i.+rou was in regular contact with Sugadome.

[I dont want to think about it but, the escape from the inter-city transport vehicle, and the failure in the capture mission as well, it would all make sense to say that it has all been orchestrated by Sakas.h.i.+ta. If I take Hammerzs words as the truth, then that would not be the case, unfortunately, I need to remember that hes also from Sakas.h.i.+ta. Theres a chance that his irritation and everything else was just an act Or is it that Im simply being too paranoid?]

According to his original plan, by now, he would have already borrowed s.h.i.+rou to finish the administration with the black card in the Seranthal building. He would then finally be able to do his business in the deepest part of Kuzusuhara ruin. But something unexpected happened, twice even. Yanagisawa was not that stupid to just sweep that under the rug as nothing more than bad luck.

[I dont want to think that Sakas.h.i.+ta noticed my goal and is trying to get in my way, but Better safe than sorry.]

Yanagisawa took a deep breath to calm himself down. That was when the pilot notified him.

Commander, were close.

Hm? Alright.

The aircraft landed. It was on the hanger attached to Seranthal Building. Yanagisawa had already received Seranthals permission to use it.

Well, Ill be going then. Ah, just to remind you, dont leave the aircraft, okay? The one with the permission is only me. If someone else comes out of the aircraft, the security drones will kill them. And Im not joking.

R-roger that!

Yanagisawa only said so after leaving the aircraft. He then waved goodbye and went inside the building. He came there that day since Seranthal called for him, demanding an explanation about the recent ruckus near the Mihazono residential district ruin.

When he entered, the image of Seranthal was already waiting for him. He who saw that tilted his head as there was one more person next to that holographic image of Seranthal.