abcnovels
Chapter 110
Chapter 110: The Light of Civilization
Nishino-kun hugs Rikka-chan for a while before suddenly separating himself from her.
“Uh… sorry about that, Rikka.”
“Hm? About what?”
Nishino-kun seems flustered and his face turns red. In comparison, Rikka-chan seems like she isn’t particularly conscious about it. What a difference in temperament.
Rikka-chan appears to have a loose guard against men. While she pays attention to small details, she’s quite insensitive in certain regards… There might be a lot of guys that misunderstand her intentions. After all, her chests are huge… “Iyaa, how nice to be young.”
So says the ossan sitting on the other bed. He looks familiar… where have I met him?
Oh, right. He’s the one that was pleading with Nishino-kun at the home center. So he managed to stay alive. On the bed next to him is the delinquent… his name’s Shibata-kun, I think? So he’s safe as well.
(Only three…)
As stated in the mail, the others haven’t arrived. They’re not dead, and since they could contact each other, they should have no trouble uniting.
The bigger issue right now is…
“By the way, Rikka, where’s the person that accompanied you?”
“Oh, I’ll introduce you to Natsun….eh?”
Rikka turns and tilts her head. Then, she looks around the room. Only Fujita-san, Rikka-chan, Nishino-kun, ossan, and the delinquent are in the room. As for me“What are you doing there, Natsun?”
Rikka-chan asks while staring at the entrance.
Indeed. After entering the napping room, I hid my presence and slid back to the hallway. I have been watching their interactions through the gap of the door. Why?
(Well, this suits Ichinose-san’s behavior, does it not?)
If it’s her, wouldn’t she say, “No, it’s alright…I’ll wait here…” and refuse to enter? At least I think she will. Right now, I’m disguising myself as Ichinose-san. I should act as if I am her.
“Certain conditions have been met.”
“You have acquired the skill ‘Acting’.”
Look, even the skill agrees. Also, how lucky of me. I got a skill that sounds promising.
“Don’t mind me… You can continue your discussion from earlier…”
“Nono, it’s disturbing. Stop being shy and come over here.”
I am dragged inside by Rikka-chan. Yes, yes. This is how it should be. Just like how Ichinose-san would behave. I enter after being arrested by Rikka-chan.
“Uh… um….”
Nishino-kun’s eyes meet mine.
“It’s been a while, Ichinose. Do you… recognize me?”
“Eh… umm…”
Eh? Nishino-kun and Ichinose-san are acquainted? Shoot, on this matter, I haven’t heard anything about it from Ichinose-san. I panic. Nishino-kun sighs upon noticing my reaction.
“As expected, you don’t. Well, it’s true that we haven’t talked much. Ah, but you do remember Ono, right? After all, in during our first year, you guys often had chats.” Ono? Who the hell is Ono? I take a few seconds to search my memories. Oh, the one with the glasses. Surrounded by delinquents, his otaku-like appearance certainly distinguished him from the rest, and yes, he was called Ono by the others.
(Even so, there isn’t much that I know about…)
So there is only one course of action that I can take in this situation. I hide behind Rikka-chan.
“Eh, Natsun…!?”
Sorry, Rikka-chan. I can’t take the risk of exposing myself by running my mouth carelessly. Hiding behind Rikka-chan, I glance at Nishino-kun.
(….Oh?)
For some reason, Nishino-kun has an apologetic expression on his face. What does this mean?
(Most likely, it’s because he turned a blind eye when Natsun was being bullied.) Rikka-chan whispers to me.
(Is that so?)
(Yeah, Nisshi thought I was leading the bullies against Natsun.)
Oh, so it’s something like that. I don’t really get it. What exactly was the situation like?
(If I knew this would happen, I would have asked for more details about Ichinose-san’s bullying incident.) But then again, it doesn’t fare well with me to force her to talk about what she doesn’t want to remember… Postponing the issue has come back to haunt me in this regards.
Oh well. As long as the other side (Nishino-kun) doesn’t begin an unnecessary conversation with me, it shouldn’t be too big of a deal. He has a guilty conscience restraining him, so it’s convenient for me.
When I start thinking about what to do, the door of the room opens vigorously. Everybody’s eyes concentrate towards the direction of the door. The person who comes in is a glass-wearing woman that looks like a secretary.
And she’s someone I know.
(Chief Shimizu…)
So she survived until now. Well, Nijou-san and the others managed to stay safe, so it isn’t really strange for her to be alive. She still has those cold eyes.
“Hmmm…”
Our eyes meet.
I ready myself, but Chief Shimizu’s eyes seem to simply ask, “Who is this?” (… She didn’t notice?)
Of course she hasn’t. I am disguised after all. Nevertheless, this person can be surprisingly sharp at times, so I shouldn’t let my guard down… Bluntly speaking, I don’t like her.
“Shimizu-chan? What happened? What made you so flustered?”
“Haa…haa… what do you mean by what happened? I’ve been searching for you…” She corrects her posture and raises her glasses.
With a serious expression, she says, “Fujita-san and the others, please come to the first floor. Mayor Uesugi has an important announcement to make.” An important announcement? What is it about? Obeying her instructions, we begin to make our way towards the first floor.josei
Meanwhile—-
Ichinose Natsu was waiting at the rooftop of a building near the City Hall. It was one of the tallest buildings around the City Hall. She was in a position where she could get a panoramic view of the surrounding area, including the City Hall.
With her skills, it was easy to break in, and with Momo’s skills, it was even easier to unlock the doors. In this way, she was able to enter without alarming anybody and monitor her surroundings.
“Nothing abnormal…”
She gazed towards the direction of the City Hall with her rifle’s scope. Nothing was out of place.
“Then how about this place… Oh, three goblins found…”
In the opposite direction from the City Hall, there were goblins walking around in the residential area. They were approximately 400 meters. It was a distance that she could snipe without any difficulty.
Tan. Tan. Tan. Along with these sounds, the goblins died after having their heads penetrated.
“Hm, bull’s-eye.”
Monitoring and hunting. She was doing these two simultaneously. Monitoring was important, but earning experience was also important. She had to earn it when she could.
She preferred collecting the magic stones as well, but she gave up as it was not plausible in her current situation. The stones might be consumed by other monsters and wild animals, but that was that.
(If the monsters that come to eat can be hunted, I’ll hunt them down. Otherwise, I’ll leave them alone and report to Kazuto-san. ) This was decided in advance after speaking with Kazuto. Strengthening other monsters and wild animals in exchange for raising their levels. After worrying about the pros and cons, Kazuto and the others chose to prioritize the latter.
“It’s getting dark…”
The sun fell and she was hungry. She took out a bottle of tea from her backpack and drank. It was something Kazuto had prepared for her. In addition to water and food that could last for a few days, there were also a sleeping bag, a flashlight, some replacement underwears, and sanitary products.
He was very attentive. Yet the best thing was…
“Momo-chan, come out.”
“Wan!”
Momo appeared from her shadow. Previously, Momo was only able to navigate through Kazuto’s shadow, but after forming the party, she was able to enter Ichinose’s shadow as well.
The moment Momo appeared, Ichinose hugged Momo with a big smile plastered on her face. She immediately proceeded with mofumofu-ing Momo/ “Hmmm, Momo-chan is so cute!”
“Kuun, kuun.”
Her mofu-mofu techniques were as good as Kazuto’s. Momo exhaled in admiration and comfort.
“Look, Momo-chan’s dinner is also here. Kazuto-san also prepared for some you.” Having said that, she took out “Ultra high-class premium dog food – Your pet can no longer escape from this taste”, which had a fixed price of 17,890 yen, from the backpack.
Momo was excited at this sight. Hooray! Her tails were swinging in joy.
“Fufufu. You want it? Do you want this?”
“Wan! Wan! Wan!”
Momo was staring at the “Ultra high-class premium dog food – Your pet can no longer escape from this taste”. Its taste was truly magical for dogs. There was a legend about a disciplined dog jumping over fence for the food after smelling the food (company’s side of the story).
Such high-quality dog food was served on a plate.
“I’ll… have the green one.”
Next to the dog food, she had a special cup noodle worth 68 yen for herself on standby. There was also a vegetable juice prepared.
She boiled the water and waited for 3 minutes. The crispiness of the ramen was its selling point.
“Now, itadakimasu.”
“Wan!”
Zuru zuru, wafu wafu, gatsu gatsu.
The cup noodles tasted truly delicious as she ate while watching the beautiful view from the rooftop. Having her favorite Momo-chan made it even better.
(But… I think it would have been better with Kazuto-san and Ricchan…)
Eating with someone else made the food taste better. In just a few days, her tongue became accustomed to this.
(I feel lonely, so let’s send a mail.)
Pochi, pochi, pochi.
For the time being, I have been sending a mail with “No abnormality” written every other minute, but it should be fine to send another one to ease my loneliness. Although the number of “No abnormality” sent was already abnormal, she didn’t notice this.
Of course, Kazuto also had his Mail on manner mode. He would surely scream when he notices the number of mails that he received.
(The two of them are doing their best, so I should work hard as well!)
In this manner, Ichinose Natsu motivated herself in the wrong direction.
“Thank you for the meal.”
“Wan!”
The trash that remained would be given to Aka for absorption. It was very ecological.
“Okay, I guess I’ll continue monitoring.”
As she looked back towards the City Hall from the rooftop, she witnessed an incredible scene.
“What…?”
For a moment, she thought she was seeing things.
She confirmed repeatedly, muttering, “Eh? For real?”
However, the scene in front of her did not change no matter how many times she checked.
“Momo-chan… I’m not seeing things right?”
“Wan!”
She asked Momo next to her. Momo was also surprised. She was not making a mistake.
“You have to be kidding?”
The scene blew her mind. It was impossible. It was incredible. What she saw was something incredibly normal— and that was why it was a strange scene to witness in the present world.
“The lights are one…?”
The light of civilization. The light generated through electricity was brightly illuminating the City Hall at night.