rebuild world

Chapter 7, The Beguiling Ghost

Kahimo felt strange when he saw Akira walking into a building. It was a feeling that he got when he knew something fishy was going on. And since he knew that someone invisible to his eyes was accompanying Akira, it only made him more cautious.

“The boy started moving again. Hayya, how about the girl? Does it look like she’s guiding him there?”

“Yeah. The girl is pointing at the building and leading the boy into it, she entered the building together with the boy. The relics might be inside that building, so what to do now? Should we go in too?”

“…No, let’s wait outside for a while.”

“Are you sure? We might lose sight of the boy, you know?”

“We know that boy’s face. Even if we lose him now, we still can find him if we look in the slum. So, there’s no problem. That aside, we have to move carefully so that we are not spotted by them. And, if that boy comes out from the building just fine, then that means that the building is safe.”

“Oi oi, you’re really being too careful, you know.”

Since only Hayya could see Alpha, he was observing them closely. He really did not want to miss this chance, so he was urging Kahimo to follow them. But as Kahimo replied back with an unmotivated answer, he started showing his dissatisfaction.

Then Kahimo made an ultimatum.

“If you don’t want to wait, fine, just go ahead by yourself. After all, you’re the only one who can see the ghost, and if the ghost story is true, then you can go ahead and die too.”

“D-don’t say that. A-alright, I understand that I was being too hasty.”

Hayya was sweating a bit as he tried to dodge the suggestion with a laugh.

Kahimo and Hayya stayed there for some time, while observing the building. If it was only a quick search, then Akira should be coming out from the building anytime now. But even after waiting for long enough, they still did not see Akira coming out from the building. Thus Kahimo started getting annoyed.

“He’s not coming out. Is that boy dead or something? Or is he so absorbed in searching for relics that he didn’t notice the time?”

As for Hayya, who had been piling up dissatisfaction, was close to reaching his limit.

“Say, Kahimo. Let’s just stop laying low and search inside the building. If the boy is dead, then there’s no meaning waiting for him here. We’ll only be wasting our time, you know?”

“…You’re right. But there are dangerous monsters around this area, so just because we might find expensive relics, we should not lower our guard, okay?”

“I know, I know.”

Seeing Hayya acting all excited, Kahimo made a stern face. Despite all the warnings that he had given, Hayya was still not being careful.

Kahimo stopped in front of the entrance of the abandoned building.

“Hayya, I’ll be staying here so you won’t mistake me for the boy. You go ahead and search the building. If you find the boy or the girl, or if anything happens, contact me immediately. Also, come back here after 1 hour, no matter what, okay?”

“Okay. What should I do if I find the boy? Should I just drag him here?”

“You can do that if the situation allows it. If he fights back or if you are suspicious of him, then just kill him. If you find something wrong with him then just kill him. Don’t let him fool you and take advantage from it, kill him when you have the chance.”

Hayya looked surprised at all the “kill him” orders from Kahimo.

“Kill him, you say? You sure we don’t need to interrogate him?”

“We can’t be sure whether he would give in without a fight. So we can interrogate him only after shooting his leg or arm at least. And be careful not to get lured by the girl, they might have prepared a surprise attack for you.”

“Why are you being so careful with him? He’s just a small kid, you know?”

Hayya felt rather weird seeing Kahimo being really careful with the boy, so he tried to relieve the tension with a laugh. But his laughter died down as Kahimo kept staring at him with a serious face.

“We talked about the beguiling ghost just a moment ago, right? There’s a chance that the boy is being tricked and lured here just to get killed by that girl just like in that ghost story. I’m being careful because I’m worried about you, you know? But it’s not like I’m going to force you, so you can do as you like.”

“W-wait for a second, if that’s true, then are you really going to let me go in alone?”

“You’re the only one who can see the girl. So no one but you can do this. Go now. If you think you’re in danger, then get back here as soon as possible. I’ll wait for you here. She might actually have lured us here, so I have to secure the entrance or it will be bad, you understand now?”

“Y-yeah, I understand.”

Hayya nervously went into the building. Kahimo looked at him and thought.

[I’m sorry, but I’m still suspicious that it’s all part of that boy’s trap, and not to mention that you might betray me if you are able to find a lot of relics there. Moreover, there were a lot of dead victims in the past, that’s why it is a ghost story. So it must be pretty dangerous inside. Just give your best there. As for me, I’ll start with watching the current situation before going in. But well, I hope it’s just a needless fear though.]

Kahimo made a snicker as he sent Hayya off.

—

Akira was waiting inside getting ready to welcome Kahimo and Hayya. He was making a serious face, but nervousness could be clearly seen on it. He was trying to calm himself by taking deep breaths.

Alpha had already told him the plan. She assured him with a confident smile that he only needed to follow her plan to be able to win.

Akira believed that too and it was not just a blind faith. After all, in the past, there was a time when he was able to defeat weapon dogs with just his handgun by following Alpha’s instruction. Now he was trying to follow his own words about believing in Alpha and building trust between them.

“Akira. They’ve entered the building. One of them is on stand-by near the entrance and the other one is searching the building. They don’t seem like they’re planning to interrogate you for the relics’ place, they’re planning to kill you. That’s why we’re also not going to hold ourselves back.”

“…Okay.”

Although he was interested in how Alpha got that information, he quickly dismissed it as a needless thought. If he thought of something needless, then he would make wrong move and it would prevent him from following Alpha’s instructions accurately, which in turn would increase the chance of getting himself killed. That is why he would execute Alpha’s instruction and plan as fast and as accurately as possible. That was the only thing he should be thinking. And so he made his resolve and refocused himself.

In order to encourage Akira even more, Alpha made an invincible smile.

“We’ll start now, are you ready?”

“Yeah.”

Akira gave a firm nod. There was not even a trace of doubt or fear on his face. All of his fear and doubt were shoved aside by his resolve.

Alpha gave a satisfied smile looking at that, then in the next moment, she vanished from Akira’s view, just like they had planned. After that, Akira took a deep breath, his face turned serious, and he started running towards the location Alpha mentioned.

—

As Hayya was carefully searching the building, his expression suddenly changed, he saw the white dressed girl in the hallway, that was Alpha. He saw that girl slowly vanished deep inside the hallways and he did not think twice when he started running towards her direction. But he somehow remembered Kahimo’s warnings and was able to stop himself and immediately contacted Kahimo.

“Kahimo, I saw that girl just now.”

“Is she with the boy?”

“No, she is alone. She was deep in the hallway, I’m going to pursue her.”

“The boy might be around, be careful.”

“Yeah, I will.”

Hayya started pursuing Alpha, but because he was moving slowly while being careful of Akira, he could not catch up with her. But at least, he didn’t leave Alpha out of his sight.

He moved slowly, confirmed the safety of his surroundings, and then moved again. While he kept doing so, his expression started to loosen up. And together with that, his vigilance also loosened up. Every time he looked at Alpha, he spent more and more time admiring her beautiful figure, as such, he spent less time watching his surroundings.

He could see Alpha’s fair skin from the big opening on that gorgeous white dress’ backside. Her silky hair was long enough to almost touch the ground. Every time she took a turn, Hayya caught a glance of her well endowed chest and beautiful face. The combination of her unique beauty and gorgeous dress eluded Hayya’s heart in no time. He really wanted to see her face closer and feel her soft skin.

Alpha’s alluring back was right in front of him. He could not stop his desire, he lowered his guard and his steps quickened. As his face twisted into a face of a pervert, he already threw the word cautious out of the window.

After following her for sometime, Hayya was finally able to catch up with Alpha. He grinned at Alpha who was just standing at the end of the hallway. He saw Alpha opening her mouth as if she was saying something to him.

Hayya tried to listen to what Alpha was saying, but he could not hear anything. He was a bit puzzled by that, but Alpha just kept moving her lips while smiling.

Alpha suddenly looked to her side as if she just noticed something, Hayya was baited to follow suit, but he saw nothing out of the ordinary through the glassless window. When his expression got even more puzzled, suddenly sound from gunshots reverberated from his back.

He heard 3 gunshots. The first bullet passed through his armpit. The second bullet hit the floor where he was standing. While the third bullet brushed and tore off some flesh from his right ear.

The one who shot him was Akira. Akira shot him from the hallway at the opposite direction of where he was facing after he was baited by Alpha.

Hayya was stunned for a few seconds after what just happened. But then regained his focus because of the pain coming from his ear and started shooting back. The sound of gunshot continued to echo as he kept shooting. Countless bullets landed on the floor, ceiling and wall. But Akira had hidden himself from him when he was stunned. So his counter attack was just him wasting his bullets.

Kahimo’s voice burst out from the communication device.

“Hayya!! What happened?!!”

Hayya was breathing hard as he shouted.

“I-It’s that boy!! That boy just shot at me!! That damn boy!! He almost got me!!”

“He almost got you? Did you get shot from a close distance although you were being careful? Tell me everything!! And keep watching your surroundings!!”

Hayya tried to calm himself and began explaining what had happened. Hearing his explanation Kahimo got annoyed and started scolding him.

“Are you saying that you almost got killed because you were chasing that girl? Are you stupid or something? Didn’t I repeatedly remind you to be wary of her?”

“W-well, it can’t be helped, that girl was really beautiful, you know!”

“Hmm, so you’re saying that she’s so beautiful that it’s worth dying for, huh? No wonder why it turned into a ghost story.”

Hayya’s excuse that was made in a hurry was not enough to bring Kahimo’s mood back. Kahimo also knew well that it was not the right time to start talking about insignificant stuff like that, so he just cut it short and changed the subject.

“So, is that girl still there now?”

“Yeah, she’s just standing here. She seems to be saying something but I can’t hear her.”

“Well, that is expected. The only information that your eyes can retrieve from the network are just images. It can’t retrieve any audio. Just to be safe, check if you can touch her or not. Who knows, may be it actually is a physical entity that I just can’t see. After all, I normally can’t see an active autonomous doll with optical camouflage ability, but your eyes should be able to see them. So try touching her.”

Hayya extended his hand towards Alpha’s chest. But his hand could not touch that well endowed chest, instead, his hand went through Alpha’s chest and went inside Alpha’s image. Hayya was visibly disappointed.

“I can’t touch her. It’s just an image. To think that I can’t feel this amazing chest right in front of me, this is a type of torture on its own… Wait for a sec, but this is an image of such a beautiful girl. This image alone might fetch me a lot of money… Since I can see her, I’ll bypass the output from this image and…”

“This is not the time for that!! You better get a hold of yourself!!”

Kahimo scolded and shut Hayya down.

“Next, try telling her to raise her right hand.”

Hayya told Alpha to raise her hand, Alpha stopped moving her mouth and raised her right hand.

“Oooh? She just raised her right hand like I told her to.”

“Alright then. Tell her to point at the direction of people other than you. And next the direction of that boy near you.”

“What the hell is that order?”

“Just do it!”

”O-Okay.”

Hayya did as he was told, to which, Alpha pointed to the floor,

“Hayya, how was it? Did the girl point at me?”

“Wait for a sec… According to my AutoMap, I’m here and you’re there, so… Oooh!! She’s really pointing at you!! This girl is really something!!”

Hayya was a surprised and pretty much amazed. But then Kahimo replied back with a shout.

“Dammit!!”

“W-what’s wrong?”

“It’s a trap! That boy already knows our position! He might have asked that girl to point the other people around him and discovered us! That girl is just a bait!! The boy must have told her to just wander around inside the building and lure you to a place that is easy for him to launch a surprise attack! Now that girl has lured you to such a place!!”

Hayya immediately shouted out angrily.

“Th-that boy!!! How dare he look down on me!! I’ll f*cking kill him!!”

“That girl might be a guide or something from the ruin. Since it obeyed your order, so I’m sure it obeys just anyone’s order. Ask that girl to guide you to where the boy is and kill him, do you need my help too?”

“It’s okay! As long as he doesn’t catch me off guard, I can finish a little boy like him all by myself! After all, it seems that he’s just an amateur and he only has a hand gun with him!”

“Just be careful! If he was an expert, you would have gotten yourself killed in that surprise attack just now, you know?”

“I know. You just look out for that boy and make sure that he doesn’t run away.”

Hayya then shouted at Alpha.

“Show me where the boy is!!”

Hayya once again walked behind Alpha. But this time, rather than feeling infatuated by that beautiful figure, he was filled with so much anger that her seductive figure did not divert his attention at all.

—

Akira, who was running hurriedly to the next planned location, was able to hear Alpha’s voice.

“Unfortunately, that was a failure. Although it would have been great if you could have finished him there.”

He could not see Alpha, but he could hear her voice. It was the same when he launched that surprise attack on Hayya. He listened closely for Alpha’s signal for him to jump into the hallway and took shot at Hayya.

The dead corner where he hid himself, the timing for his surprise attack, the number of shots he took before withdrawing just as fast as he shot, all of these were done as instructed by Alpha. Akira tried his best to follow Alpha’s every order as accurate as possible.

But even so, he could not defeat the enemy. Akira’s expression turned grim as he showed a bit of regret.

“…That didn’t work, huh. Maybe I should’ve taken a better aim.”

He muttered those words as he could not help but think that if only he took more risk and took a better aim, then his enemy would be dead. Akira did not doubt Alpha’s instructions at all. After all, the fact is that he was able to take the shot from behind enemy’s defenceless back. In short, it was a perfect surprise attack. But even so, it could not finish the job. If he thought about the reason for that, there would be none except for his bad aim.

But then Alpha replied back with a rather harsh scolding.

“No, you should not. If you had taken more time and stopped even for a moment in order to take a better aim, the chance for you to be killed from the counter attack would’ve soared up. What you did was already the best course of action.”

For preparing Akira’s surprise attack on Hayya, Alpha considered their respective equipment, skill and their habits. As such, if Akira took an action outside of what he was instructed, then the chance for success of his surprise attack would plummet. And so she gave a strong warning to Akira.

“…I see. As I thought, I’m really weak.”

It was not enough despite the fact that he had done all he could. He was again reminded of how weak he really was, he was downtrodden. Knowing that, Alpha said to Akira with a strong but gentle voice.

“Everyone starts as a weak person. Akira, you’ve done all you could and that’s all that matters. Since you just launched a surprise attack on someone far stronger than you and were able to retreat safely, I think that alone was pretty amazing. As for your current lack of skill, later you can train as hard as you can to improve. I’ll keep training you even if you say that you already had enough of it, so there’s no need to worry about that.”

Hearing Alpha saying something that was so obvious to him and how she behaved as if surviving this encounter was a certainty, Akira was able to pick himself up and let out a forced smile.

“…You’re right, I’ll be counting on you.”

“Just leave it to me. And also, from that surprise attack just now, I was able to confirm the enemy’s equipment and his line of thinking. I’ve also completely analyzed his habits. You should be able to kill him next time.”

“Really? You’re really something, you know.”

“I’ve told you before that I have a high level of competency in these areas, haven’t I? Now, to get him next time, you’ll need to get really close to him, so get yourself ready for that.”

“I understand, don’t worry, I’m ready for it.”

He knew well that all he should do was to give his best for the next move too. He blazed towards his next position. His resolve could be seen on his face.

—

Hayya’s attention was not distracted by Alpha since he was very angry. He moved deeper into the building while being vigilant of Akira. But with time, his vigilance started to loosen up again. Since nothing out of ordinary happened, he began to calm down and relax. Moreover, as long as Alpha was guiding him, he had to look at Alpha’s back. Hence, he was once again lured by that beautiful back. And even if he tried to look away, it only made him more and more bothered by that mesmerizing view. As a result, he stopped being vigilant of his surroundings. Moreover, since he consciously tried not to look at Alpha, he was being careless of what was in front of him.

Even he himself started to think that this was getting pretty bad. His attention was divided between the distraction in front of him and watching his surroundings. He did not have the leeway of dividing his attention for something else other than those two things. This time, when he looked back at Alpha after scanning his surroundings, she was already standing near an intersection just ahead of him while pointing at a direction.

[…That boy is over there, huh!]

Hayya made a guess that Alpha was pointing at where Akira was hiding. He ran and stopped right before the intersection as he judged he was safe from that distance. With half of his chest peeking out from the intersection, he pulled the trigger on his finger and keep shooting at Akira’s probable location.

The sound of the gunshots echoed through the hallway. Most of the high speed bullets landed on the floor, wall and ceiling. Countless shrapnel ricocheted through the hallway and hit all the blind side of the hallway.

When Hayya was about to change the cartridge of the gun which was now empty, Alpha lowered her hand. Hayya noticed that and interpreted it as a sign that his target has been eliminated.

“Alright, he’s dead, huh!?”

Thinking that he had won, Hayya felt relieved and he stepped into the hallway without changing his gun’s cartridge and tried to confirm that he had killed Akira. But he could only see a hallway that was destroyed by the flying bullets. His relieved expression suddenly turned grim.

“Oii, the boy isn’t here, you know?!!”

Hayya walked back to Alpha while he kept shouting at her. But Alpha just smiled and moved her lips. Hayya could not hear her voice, so he angrily shouted at her again.

“The boy!! Show me the damn boy!!”

Again Alpha pointed to the direction behind Hayya and he looked back without thinking twice, but no one was there.

Suddenly, another gunshot echoed. Hayya knew that he was hit from the pain coming from his abdomen. He was stunned from the shock, this gave an opening to the assailant, who then fired multiple bullets at him. Although he was wearing only a cheap armor, it was enough to prevent him from getting any fatal wounds as the bullets could not pierce through it. But it was enough to take him down. He fell down on the ground while screaming angrily.

Hayya tried to make sense of what had happened just now as he was lying down on the ground writhing in pain.

[…I got shot?! From where? I didn’t see anyone though!! There is only that girl… Wait, that girl shot me!? Impossible!! She is just an image!! There’s no way she was able to shoot me…]

Hayya was confused by the impossible situation he was in. But his confusion was quickly cleared up as Akira stepped out from inside Alpha.

[He was right inside her so I couldn’t see him, huh!?]

Akira came closer to Hayya with both his hands gripping on his gun. He lifted his gun and aimed for Hayya’s head.

Hayya gritted his teeth to withstand the incoming pain as he pointed his gun at Akira and pulled the trigger. But nothing happened, he then remembered that the cartridge in his gun was empty.

In front of his imminent death, Hayya racked all his brainpower, that he normally did not use, in order to survive. Then, right before his death, when everything was moving slowly he realized something.

[…So it was all a trap right from the beginning, huh?]

Alpha made him look away when Akira launched his surprise attack in order to take his attention away from Akira. She stopped in a strange location and pointed her finger so that he would waste all his bullets. She stopped pointing her finger so that he would stop exchanging the cartridge. She looked and smiled at him in order to lower his guard.

Once he realized that, everything about her, her dress, the hallway that she lured him into, her movement speed when she was guiding him, and all the other minor things, all of them were in order to kill him. He kept thinking of all these useless things in the short time that he was still alive. He just wasted his precious time and brainpower for these meaningless things right before his death. And like that Hayya had spent all the time he had left.

Hayya muttered while making a crooked smile out of fear.

“… The beguiling… Ghost…”

After that, Akira’s bullet pierced through his head and ended his life. The last thing that he saw was Alpha’s ruthless smile as she approached and hugged Akira.

Kahimo’s voice burst out from Hayya’s communication device.

“Hayya, what happened? Did you finish that boy?”

But then Alpha warned Akira.

“You shouldn’t answer that. He would notice the situation if you do.”

Akira quickly stopped himself from making any sound and nodded.

“Let’s quickly take off his equipment. With this, we’ll have more weapons.”

Akira took Hayya’s equipment. Although it did not really fit him, at least he had better equipment now compared to before when he had his gun only.

“Then for the next step, throw his corpse out through that window.”

Akira was rather surprised to that unexpected order. But Alpha just smiled at him like usual.

—

Kahimo, who was on the first floor of the abandoned building, more or less understood what was going on and his face turned grim.

[There’s no mistaking it, I heard gunshots. After that, he stopped responding. It means that he’s at least in a condition where he can’t answer me or he might even be dead already. Did he do something stupid and was caught off guard again? No, judging from the sound, it was at least a shoot out between them, huh?]

Kahimo was at a loss as to whether he should go and check the situation or just keep standing there.

[If I go and check them. I might get lucky and get to monopolize the relics. I can also sell his equipment for money. But, there’s a good chance that we were actually lured here, the problem is, how far are we going to get lured in? And what if the fabled relics actually don’t exist? What if that boy is actually luring hunters that can see that girl in order to kill them and then take their equipment? What if this building is actually his hunting ground? If that’s true, then it’s dangerous to assume that boy as a novice… Wait, am I over thinking here?]

The fabled relics and his dead companion. Both of these factors made Kahimo more suspicious. His mind was telling him to run away, he involuntarily shifted his gaze towards the exit of the building.

But right at that moment, he saw Hayya’s body falling down. Hayya’s corpse was stripped off its equipment. It made a huge sound as it landed on the ground. Kahimo was surprised and approached Hayya’s corpse. But he stopped right before he stepped outside the building.

[The boy took Hayya’s equipment. He is still alive and he deliberately threw his corpse outside. He knows my position…]

Kahimo raised his head and looked up with a dreadful expression. He could see the boy who killed Hayya running towards him with his handgun aiming to shoot him.

“…That damn boy!”

His opponent was just a small kid, the word patience and vigilance had gone from Kahimo’s head. He changed his mind and started moving in order to kill Akira. When he pulled out the information terminal and checked for Hayya’s location, he could see Hayya’s indicator was moving. It showed that Akira had Hayya’s information terminal.

[I knew it, he’s upstairs. It would be great if he misunderstands that he is the only one who knows others position. I can still outsmart him then.]

Kahimo let out a small laugh and rushed inside the building.

—

Akira received another instruction from Alpha for the next place for the surprise attack.

“Akira, take out the knife that you didn’t sell back then.”

“This one?”

The knife that he took out was a relic of the old world that he found during his first time in Kuzusuhara City ruin. Its blade looked dull and it looked as if it would not be able to cut anything.

“Yes, that one. There’s something prodding out on the bottom of that knife, right? Take your gun and shoot right through it.”

Akira stuck the knife on the ground and got his gun ready. As he was getting his gun closer to the knife, he asked Alpha.

“…Excuse me for asking this, it will break if I shoot it, right?”

“Yes, it will break.”

“It feels like it’s such a waste. This is also a relic of the old world, right? I should be able to get quite a lot of money from selling this…”

“Think of it as a necessary expense and get over it. Or instead, I have another way to get over this situation which is 3 times more dangerous, so which one you would choose?”

Seeing how Alpha was smiling full of confidence, Akira just shut his mouth and pulled the trigger.

—

Kahimo checked his terminal again for Hayya’s location. Hayya’s indicator was standing in the same place for 10 minutes. Akira might be waiting to jump on him there, or it could be some kind of a trap. Kahimo thought of both possibilities as he kept moving deeper into the building carefully.

Kahimo found Hayya’s information terminal discarded in the middle of a hallway. He then took it while looking annoyed.

“…Did he leave it here because he knew that I could track his position using this?”

If he did not realize that Kahimo could track his position through that information terminal, then Kahimo could still set up a surprise attack on him. But if Akira noticed that Hayya was moving straight towards his position without taking any wrong turns, then he would have left the information terminal as a bait in order to prepare a surprise attack. If that was the case, Kahimo was thinking of predicting Akira’s surprise attack and taking him by surprise instead. It was rather unexpected for him to be able to think like that in this situation.

Kahimo’s face turned grim. He knew that it would not be easy to hide oneself in this place and shoot at him. But even so, he could not clear his bad feeling. Instead, it was only getting worse. The enemy must have set up a surprise attack. His intuition was telling him that he was correct, and in fact, he was actually correct.

On the next instance. Kahimo’s body was split into two. His armor was completely useless. As the upper and the lower part of his body fell and rolled down onto the ground, he could see his blood and organs spilling out. Kahimo was shocked by the pain. In the short moment of his last remaining life, he noticed that there was a big cut on the wall right beside him. He understood that something cut him in half through the wall. But before he could finish his thought as to what exactly cut him, he drew his last breath.

—

On the other side of the cut wall, Akira was frozen still after he swung his knife sideways.

Just like Alpha instructed, he swung the knife sideways right after he destroyed the bottom part of the knife with his gun. And when he did that, a blue light shot out and cut Kahimo and the wall in front of him. The knife could not reach the wall from where Akira was, but even so, it left a 5 meters wide cut mark on the wall. He could barely see what was on the other side of the wall from the 1 cm thick opening on the wall. Smoke came out from the cut mark and there was a burning smell. After that, the knife vibrated and disintegrated into dust.

Akira was shocked and stood still while holding what was left of the knife. While on his side, Alpha smiled and nodded.

“Alright, you’ve killed him. We are safe for now.”

“…Eh, Ah, Right, I see.”

Alpha was behaving as if they just accomplished something small and minor. Akira’s mind could not catch up with what was going as he was standing there perplexed. And then he looked back to the knife which caused that situation, only its handle was left.

“Alpha, what exactly is this knife?”

“Well, even if you ask me, all I know is that it’s just a knife of the old world. It was meant to be used by common people and was sold freely.”

“Did the commoners of the old world need a knife that could even cut open walls?”

“It’s not like its main use is to cut walls, you know. It’s just that because they kept aiming for a better sharpness and durability, they somehow ended up with something that could even cut the wall. If you had not destroyed the safety device, you wouldn’t be able to do such a thing. You did destroy its main body, remember? With that, it could muster the maximum cutting power just this once. By doing so, it would be able to ignore its limit and use the maximum stored power, that should normally be used for maintaining its durability, to increase its cutting ability. If we had not done that, then it wouldn’t be able to cut open the wall together with the person behind it.”

“…But, that in itself is already dangerous enough, isn’t it?”

“It’s a safe tool as long as you use it properly. But since we used it for such a purpose, that’s why it looks dangerous to you. But that is something to be expected, right?”

“Well, you’re right, I understand it now.”

Although he thought what Alpha said was indeed correct, he still could not help but think that the knife was a dangerous tool. And to think that something like that was distributed freely in the old world, it only made him to admire the old world even more.

Alpha giggled as if she was teasing Akira.

“So now, are you satisfied with my support? Although we had to destroy a relic from the old world, we were able to defeat 2 hunters who were way out of your league. You may be feeling really thankful for having me, right?”

In contrast to Alpha who said that as if she was joking, Akira nodded with a serious face.

“Yeah, it’s thanks to you that I was able to survive this situation. Thank you. I’m sorry that I did not fully trust you up until now.”

Alpha returned back to normal and smiled gently.

“There’s no need to worry about that. I’m happy that it was enough to make you trust me. So then, what do you want to do now? Should we return to look for relics like we originally planned? Or instead, should we just go back home?…Akira, you’re tired, right? It’s not efficient to keep pushing forward when you’re tired. There’s no need to push yourself too hard.”

Akira made a difficult face.

“…If I am to be honest. I’m really tired right now so I want to go back home. But we still haven’t gotten anything yet. If I want to get the rest of the money from the Exchange Center, I should bring something home…”

“In that case, how about we only search around this place. If I help you, we should at least be able to find some relics that other Hunters have missed.”

Akira then decided to follow Alpha’s suggestion to look only around that place before going home. He was only able to find some handkerchiefs. But these handkerchiefs were in such a bad condition that normal Hunters would have ignored them. Even for Akira, if it was not because Alpha told him that they were relics of the old world, he would have ignored them too. But even so, he decided to take them and concluded the search. And then he took as much stuff as he could from Kahimo and Hayya’s corpses before returning back to the city.

The building was left empty except for Kahimo and Hayya’s corpse. Hunters fighting against each other and not going back home was a common happening in the eastern region.

Chapter 7, The Beguiling Ghost

Kahimo felt strange when he saw Akira walking into a building. It was a feeling that he got when he knew something fishy was going on. And since he knew that someone invisible to his eyes was accompanying Akira, it only made him more cautious.

“The boy started moving again. Hayya, how about the girl? Does it look like she’s guiding him there?”

“Yeah. The girl is pointing at the building and leading the boy into it, she entered the building together with the boy. The relics might be inside that building, so what to do now? Should we go in too?”

“…No, let’s wait outside for a while.”

“Are you sure? We might lose sight of the boy, you know?”

“We know that boy’s face. Even if we lose him now, we still can find him if we look in the slum. So, there’s no problem. That aside, we have to move carefully so that we are not spotted by them. And, if that boy comes out from the building just fine, then that means that the building is safe.”

“Oi oi, you’re really being too careful, you know.”

Since only Hayya could see Alpha, he was observing them closely. He really did not want to miss this chance, so he was urging Kahimo to follow them. But as Kahimo replied back with an unmotivated answer, he started showing his dissatisfaction.

Then Kahimo made an ultimatum.

“If you don’t want to wait, fine, just go ahead by yourself. After all, you’re the only one who can see the ghost, and if the ghost story is true, then you can go ahead and die too.”

“D-don’t say that. A-alright, I understand that I was being too hasty.”

Hayya was sweating a bit as he tried to dodge the suggestion with a laugh.

Kahimo and Hayya stayed there for some time, while observing the building. If it was only a quick search, then Akira should be coming out from the building anytime now. But even after waiting for long enough, they still did not see Akira coming out from the building. Thus Kahimo started getting annoyed.

“He’s not coming out. Is that boy dead or something? Or is he so absorbed in searching for relics that he didn’t notice the time?”

As for Hayya, who had been piling up dissatisfaction, was close to reaching his limit.

“Say, Kahimo. Let’s just stop laying low and search inside the building. If the boy is dead, then there’s no meaning waiting for him here. We’ll only be wasting our time, you know?”

“…You’re right. But there are dangerous monsters around this area, so just because we might find expensive relics, we should not lower our guard, okay?”

“I know, I know.”

Seeing Hayya acting all excited, Kahimo made a stern face. Despite all the warnings that he had given, Hayya was still not being careful.

Kahimo stopped in front of the entrance of the abandoned building.

“Hayya, I’ll be staying here so you won’t mistake me for the boy. You go ahead and search the building. If you find the boy or the girl, or if anything happens, contact me immediately. Also, come back here after 1 hour, no matter what, okay?”

“Okay. What should I do if I find the boy? Should I just drag him here?”

“You can do that if the situation allows it. If he fights back or if you are suspicious of him, then just kill him. If you find something wrong with him then just kill him. Don’t let him fool you and take advantage from it, kill him when you have the chance.”

Hayya looked surprised at all the “kill him” orders from Kahimo.

“Kill him, you say? You sure we don’t need to interrogate him?”

“We can’t be sure whether he would give in without a fight. So we can interrogate him only after shooting his leg or arm at least. And be careful not to get lured by the girl, they might have prepared a surprise attack for you.”

“Why are you being so careful with him? He’s just a small kid, you know?”

Hayya felt rather weird seeing Kahimo being really careful with the boy, so he tried to relieve the tension with a laugh. But his laughter died down as Kahimo kept staring at him with a serious face.

“We talked about the beguiling ghost just a moment ago, right? There’s a chance that the boy is being tricked and lured here just to get killed by that girl just like in that ghost story. I’m being careful because I’m worried about you, you know? But it’s not like I’m going to force you, so you can do as you like.”

“W-wait for a second, if that’s true, then are you really going to let me go in alone?”

“You’re the only one who can see the girl. So no one but you can do this. Go now. If you think you’re in danger, then get back here as soon as possible. I’ll wait for you here. She might actually have lured us here, so I have to secure the entrance or it will be bad, you understand now?”

“Y-yeah, I understand.”

Hayya nervously went into the building. Kahimo looked at him and thought.

[I’m sorry, but I’m still suspicious that it’s all part of that boy’s trap, and not to mention that you might betray me if you are able to find a lot of relics there. Moreover, there were a lot of dead victims in the past, that’s why it is a ghost story. So it must be pretty dangerous inside. Just give your best there. As for me, I’ll start with watching the current situation before going in. But well, I hope it’s just a needless fear though.]

Kahimo made a snicker as he sent Hayya off.

—

Akira was waiting inside getting ready to welcome Kahimo and Hayya. He was making a serious face, but nervousness could be clearly seen on it. He was trying to calm himself by taking deep breaths.

Alpha had already told him the plan. She assured him with a confident smile that he only needed to follow her plan to be able to win.

Akira believed that too and it was not just a blind faith. After all, in the past, there was a time when he was able to defeat weapon dogs with just his handgun by following Alpha’s instruction. Now he was trying to follow his own words about believing in Alpha and building trust between them.

“Akira. They’ve entered the building. One of them is on stand-by near the entrance and the other one is searching the building. They don’t seem like they’re planning to interrogate you for the relics’ place, they’re planning to kill you. That’s why we’re also not going to hold ourselves back.”

“…Okay.”

Although he was interested in how Alpha got that information, he quickly dismissed it as a needless thought. If he thought of something needless, then he would make wrong move and it would prevent him from following Alpha’s instructions accurately, which in turn would increase the chance of getting himself killed. That is why he would execute Alpha’s instruction and plan as fast and as accurately as possible. That was the only thing he should be thinking. And so he made his resolve and refocused himself.

In order to encourage Akira even more, Alpha made an invincible smile.

“We’ll start now, are you ready?”

“Yeah.”

Akira gave a firm nod. There was not even a trace of doubt or fear on his face. All of his fear and doubt were shoved aside by his resolve.

Alpha gave a satisfied smile looking at that, then in the next moment, she vanished from Akira’s view, just like they had planned. After that, Akira took a deep breath, his face turned serious, and he started running towards the location Alpha mentioned.

—

As Hayya was carefully searching the building, his expression suddenly changed, he saw the white dressed girl in the hallway, that was Alpha. He saw that girl slowly vanished deep inside the hallways and he did not think twice when he started running towards her direction. But he somehow remembered Kahimo’s warnings and was able to stop himself and immediately contacted Kahimo.

“Kahimo, I saw that girl just now.”

“Is she with the boy?”

“No, she is alone. She was deep in the hallway, I’m going to pursue her.”

“The boy might be around, be careful.”

“Yeah, I will.”

Hayya started pursuing Alpha, but because he was moving slowly while being careful of Akira, he could not catch up with her. But at least, he didn’t leave Alpha out of his sight.

He moved slowly, confirmed the safety of his surroundings, and then moved again. While he kept doing so, his expression started to loosen up. And together with that, his vigilance also loosened up. Every time he looked at Alpha, he spent more and more time admiring her beautiful figure, as such, he spent less time watching his surroundings.

He could see Alpha’s fair skin from the big opening on that gorgeous white dress’ backside. Her silky hair was long enough to almost touch the ground. Every time she took a turn, Hayya caught a glance of her well endowed chest and beautiful face. The combination of her unique beauty and gorgeous dress eluded Hayya’s heart in no time. He really wanted to see her face closer and feel her soft skin.

Alpha’s alluring back was right in front of him. He could not stop his desire, he lowered his guard and his steps quickened. As his face twisted into a face of a pervert, he already threw the word cautious out of the window.

After following her for sometime, Hayya was finally able to catch up with Alpha. He grinned at Alpha who was just standing at the end of the hallway. He saw Alpha opening her mouth as if she was saying something to him.

Hayya tried to listen to what Alpha was saying, but he could not hear anything. He was a bit puzzled by that, but Alpha just kept moving her lips while smiling.

Alpha suddenly looked to her side as if she just noticed something, Hayya was baited to follow suit, but he saw nothing out of the ordinary through the glassless window. When his expression got even more puzzled, suddenly sound from gunshots reverberated from his back.

He heard 3 gunshots. The first bullet passed through his armpit. The second bullet hit the floor where he was standing. While the third bullet brushed and tore off some flesh from his right ear.

The one who shot him was Akira. Akira shot him from the hallway at the opposite direction of where he was facing after he was baited by Alpha.

Hayya was stunned for a few seconds after what just happened. But then regained his focus because of the pain coming from his ear and started shooting back. The sound of gunshot continued to echo as he kept shooting. Countless bullets landed on the floor, ceiling and wall. But Akira had hidden himself from him when he was stunned. So his counter attack was just him wasting his bullets.

Kahimo’s voice burst out from the communication device.

“Hayya!! What happened?!!”

Hayya was breathing hard as he shouted.

“I-It’s that boy!! That boy just shot at me!! That damn boy!! He almost got me!!”

“He almost got you? Did you get shot from a close distance although you were being careful? Tell me everything!! And keep watching your surroundings!!”

Hayya tried to calm himself and began explaining what had happened. Hearing his explanation Kahimo got annoyed and started scolding him.

“Are you saying that you almost got killed because you were chasing that girl? Are you stupid or something? Didn’t I repeatedly remind you to be wary of her?”

“W-well, it can’t be helped, that girl was really beautiful, you know!”

“Hmm, so you’re saying that she’s so beautiful that it’s worth dying for, huh? No wonder why it turned into a ghost story.”

Hayya’s excuse that was made in a hurry was not enough to bring Kahimo’s mood back. Kahimo also knew well that it was not the right time to start talking about insignificant stuff like that, so he just cut it short and changed the subject.

“So, is that girl still there now?”

“Yeah, she’s just standing here. She seems to be saying something but I can’t hear her.”

“Well, that is expected. The only information that your eyes can retrieve from the network are just images. It can’t retrieve any audio. Just to be safe, check if you can touch her or not. Who knows, may be it actually is a physical entity that I just can’t see. After all, I normally can’t see an active autonomous doll with optical camouflage ability, but your eyes should be able to see them. So try touching her.”

Hayya extended his hand towards Alpha’s chest. But his hand could not touch that well endowed chest, instead, his hand went through Alpha’s chest and went inside Alpha’s image. Hayya was visibly disappointed.

“I can’t touch her. It’s just an image. To think that I can’t feel this amazing chest right in front of me, this is a type of torture on its own… Wait for a sec, but this is an image of such a beautiful girl. This image alone might fetch me a lot of money… Since I can see her, I’ll bypass the output from this image and…”

“This is not the time for that!! You better get a hold of yourself!!”

Kahimo scolded and shut Hayya down.

“Next, try telling her to raise her right hand.”

Hayya told Alpha to raise her hand, Alpha stopped moving her mouth and raised her right hand.

“Oooh? She just raised her right hand like I told her to.”

“Alright then. Tell her to point at the direction of people other than you. And next the direction of that boy near you.”

“What the hell is that order?”

“Just do it!”

”O-Okay.”

Hayya did as he was told, to which, Alpha pointed to the floor,

“Hayya, how was it? Did the girl point at me?”

“Wait for a sec… According to my AutoMap, I’m here and you’re there, so… Oooh!! She’s really pointing at you!! This girl is really something!!”

Hayya was a surprised and pretty much amazed. But then Kahimo replied back with a shout.

“Dammit!!”

“W-what’s wrong?”

“It’s a trap! That boy already knows our position! He might have asked that girl to point the other people around him and discovered us! That girl is just a bait!! The boy must have told her to just wander around inside the building and lure you to a place that is easy for him to launch a surprise attack! Now that girl has lured you to such a place!!”

Hayya immediately shouted out angrily.

“Th-that boy!!! How dare he look down on me!! I’ll f*cking kill him!!”

“That girl might be a guide or something from the ruin. Since it obeyed your order, so I’m sure it obeys just anyone’s order. Ask that girl to guide you to where the boy is and kill him, do you need my help too?”

“It’s okay! As long as he doesn’t catch me off guard, I can finish a little boy like him all by myself! After all, it seems that he’s just an amateur and he only has a hand gun with him!”

“Just be careful! If he was an expert, you would have gotten yourself killed in that surprise attack just now, you know?”

“I know. You just look out for that boy and make sure that he doesn’t run away.”

Hayya then shouted at Alpha.

“Show me where the boy is!!”

Hayya once again walked behind Alpha. But this time, rather than feeling infatuated by that beautiful figure, he was filled with so much anger that her seductive figure did not divert his attention at all.

—

Akira, who was running hurriedly to the next planned location, was able to hear Alpha’s voice.

“Unfortunately, that was a failure. Although it would have been great if you could have finished him there.”

He could not see Alpha, but he could hear her voice. It was the same when he launched that surprise attack on Hayya. He listened closely for Alpha’s signal for him to jump into the hallway and took shot at Hayya.

The dead corner where he hid himself, the timing for his surprise attack, the number of shots he took before withdrawing just as fast as he shot, all of these were done as instructed by Alpha. Akira tried his best to follow Alpha’s every order as accurate as possible.

But even so, he could not defeat the enemy. Akira’s expression turned grim as he showed a bit of regret.

“…That didn’t work, huh. Maybe I should’ve taken a better aim.”

He muttered those words as he could not help but think that if only he took more risk and took a better aim, then his enemy would be dead. Akira did not doubt Alpha’s instructions at all. After all, the fact is that he was able to take the shot from behind enemy’s defenceless back. In short, it was a perfect surprise attack. But even so, it could not finish the job. If he thought about the reason for that, there would be none except for his bad aim.

But then Alpha replied back with a rather harsh scolding.

“No, you should not. If you had taken more time and stopped even for a moment in order to take a better aim, the chance for you to be killed from the counter attack would’ve soared up. What you did was already the best course of action.”

For preparing Akira’s surprise attack on Hayya, Alpha considered their respective equipment, skill and their habits. As such, if Akira took an action outside of what he was instructed, then the chance for success of his surprise attack would plummet. And so she gave a strong warning to Akira.

“…I see. As I thought, I’m really weak.”

It was not enough despite the fact that he had done all he could. He was again reminded of how weak he really was, he was downtrodden. Knowing that, Alpha said to Akira with a strong but gentle voice.

“Everyone starts as a weak person. Akira, you’ve done all you could and that’s all that matters. Since you just launched a surprise attack on someone far stronger than you and were able to retreat safely, I think that alone was pretty amazing. As for your current lack of skill, later you can train as hard as you can to improve. I’ll keep training you even if you say that you already had enough of it, so there’s no need to worry about that.”

Hearing Alpha saying something that was so obvious to him and how she behaved as if surviving this encounter was a certainty, Akira was able to pick himself up and let out a forced smile.

“…You’re right, I’ll be counting on you.”

“Just leave it to me. And also, from that surprise attack just now, I was able to confirm the enemy’s equipment and his line of thinking. I’ve also completely analyzed his habits. You should be able to kill him next time.”

“Really? You’re really something, you know.”

“I’ve told you before that I have a high level of competency in these areas, haven’t I? Now, to get him next time, you’ll need to get really close to him, so get yourself ready for that.”

“I understand, don’t worry, I’m ready for it.”

He knew well that all he should do was to give his best for the next move too. He blazed towards his next position. His resolve could be seen on his face.

—

Hayya’s attention was not distracted by Alpha since he was very angry. He moved deeper into the building while being vigilant of Akira. But with time, his vigilance started to loosen up again. Since nothing out of ordinary happened, he began to calm down and relax. Moreover, as long as Alpha was guiding him, he had to look at Alpha’s back. Hence, he was once again lured by that beautiful back. And even if he tried to look away, it only made him more and more bothered by that mesmerizing view. As a result, he stopped being vigilant of his surroundings. Moreover, since he consciously tried not to look at Alpha, he was being careless of what was in front of him.

Even he himself started to think that this was getting pretty bad. His attention was divided between the distraction in front of him and watching his surroundings. He did not have the leeway of dividing his attention for something else other than those two things. This time, when he looked back at Alpha after scanning his surroundings, she was already standing near an intersection just ahead of him while pointing at a direction.

[…That boy is over there, huh!]

Hayya made a guess that Alpha was pointing at where Akira was hiding. He ran and stopped right before the intersection as he judged he was safe from that distance. With half of his chest peeking out from the intersection, he pulled the trigger on his finger and keep shooting at Akira’s probable location.

The sound of the gunshots echoed through the hallway. Most of the high speed bullets landed on the floor, wall and ceiling. Countless shrapnel ricocheted through the hallway and hit all the blind side of the hallway.

When Hayya was about to change the cartridge of the gun which was now empty, Alpha lowered her hand. Hayya noticed that and interpreted it as a sign that his target has been eliminated.

“Alright, he’s dead, huh!?”

Thinking that he had won, Hayya felt relieved and he stepped into the hallway without changing his gun’s cartridge and tried to confirm that he had killed Akira. But he could only see a hallway that was destroyed by the flying bullets. His relieved expression suddenly turned grim.

“Oii, the boy isn’t here, you know?!!”

Hayya walked back to Alpha while he kept shouting at her. But Alpha just smiled and moved her lips. Hayya could not hear her voice, so he angrily shouted at her again.

“The boy!! Show me the damn boy!!”

Again Alpha pointed to the direction behind Hayya and he looked back without thinking twice, but no one was there.

Suddenly, another gunshot echoed. Hayya knew that he was hit from the pain coming from his abdomen. He was stunned from the shock, this gave an opening to the assailant, who then fired multiple bullets at him. Although he was wearing only a cheap armor, it was enough to prevent him from getting any fatal wounds as the bullets could not pierce through it. But it was enough to take him down. He fell down on the ground while screaming angrily.

Hayya tried to make sense of what had happened just now as he was lying down on the ground writhing in pain.

[…I got shot?! From where? I didn’t see anyone though!! There is only that girl… Wait, that girl shot me!? Impossible!! She is just an image!! There’s no way she was able to shoot me…]

Hayya was confused by the impossible situation he was in. But his confusion was quickly cleared up as Akira stepped out from inside Alpha.

[He was right inside her so I couldn’t see him, huh!?]

Akira came closer to Hayya with both his hands gripping on his gun. He lifted his gun and aimed for Hayya’s head.

Hayya gritted his teeth to withstand the incoming pain as he pointed his gun at Akira and pulled the trigger. But nothing happened, he then remembered that the cartridge in his gun was empty.

In front of his imminent death, Hayya racked all his brainpower, that he normally did not use, in order to survive. Then, right before his death, when everything was moving slowly he realized something.

[…So it was all a trap right from the beginning, huh?]

Alpha made him look away when Akira launched his surprise attack in order to take his attention away from Akira. She stopped in a strange location and pointed her finger so that he would waste all his bullets. She stopped pointing her finger so that he would stop exchanging the cartridge. She looked and smiled at him in order to lower his guard.

Once he realized that, everything about her, her dress, the hallway that she lured him into, her movement speed when she was guiding him, and all the other minor things, all of them were in order to kill him. He kept thinking of all these useless things in the short time that he was still alive. He just wasted his precious time and brainpower for these meaningless things right before his death. And like that Hayya had spent all the time he had left.

Hayya muttered while making a crooked smile out of fear.

“… The beguiling… Ghost…”

After that, Akira’s bullet pierced through his head and ended his life. The last thing that he saw was Alpha’s ruthless smile as she approached and hugged Akira.

Kahimo’s voice burst out from Hayya’s communication device.

“Hayya, what happened? Did you finish that boy?”

But then Alpha warned Akira.

“You shouldn’t answer that. He would notice the situation if you do.”

Akira quickly stopped himself from making any sound and nodded.

“Let’s quickly take off his equipment. With this, we’ll have more weapons.”

Akira took Hayya’s equipment. Although it did not really fit him, at least he had better equipment now compared to before when he had his gun only.

“Then for the next step, throw his corpse out through that window.”

Akira was rather surprised to that unexpected order. But Alpha just smiled at him like usual.

—

Kahimo, who was on the first floor of the abandoned building, more or less understood what was going on and his face turned grim.

[There’s no mistaking it, I heard gunshots. After that, he stopped responding. It means that he’s at least in a condition where he can’t answer me or he might even be dead already. Did he do something stupid and was caught off guard again? No, judging from the sound, it was at least a shoot out between them, huh?]

Kahimo was at a loss as to whether he should go and check the situation or just keep standing there.

[If I go and check them. I might get lucky and get to monopolize the relics. I can also sell his equipment for money. But, there’s a good chance that we were actually lured here, the problem is, how far are we going to get lured in? And what if the fabled relics actually don’t exist? What if that boy is actually luring hunters that can see that girl in order to kill them and then take their equipment? What if this building is actually his hunting ground? If that’s true, then it’s dangerous to assume that boy as a novice… Wait, am I over thinking here?]

The fabled relics and his dead companion. Both of these factors made Kahimo more suspicious. His mind was telling him to run away, he involuntarily shifted his gaze towards the exit of the building.

But right at that moment, he saw Hayya’s body falling down. Hayya’s corpse was stripped off its equipment. It made a huge sound as it landed on the ground. Kahimo was surprised and approached Hayya’s corpse. But he stopped right before he stepped outside the building.

[The boy took Hayya’s equipment. He is still alive and he deliberately threw his corpse outside. He knows my position…]

Kahimo raised his head and looked up with a dreadful expression. He could see the boy who killed Hayya running towards him with his handgun aiming to shoot him.

“…That damn boy!”

His opponent was just a small kid, the word patience and vigilance had gone from Kahimo’s head. He changed his mind and started moving in order to kill Akira. When he pulled out the information terminal and checked for Hayya’s location, he could see Hayya’s indicator was moving. It showed that Akira had Hayya’s information terminal.

[I knew it, he’s upstairs. It would be great if he misunderstands that he is the only one who knows others position. I can still outsmart him then.]

Kahimo let out a small laugh and rushed inside the building.

—

Akira received another instruction from Alpha for the next place for the surprise attack.

“Akira, take out the knife that you didn’t sell back then.”

“This one?”

The knife that he took out was a relic of the old world that he found during his first time in Kuzusuhara City ruin. Its blade looked dull and it looked as if it would not be able to cut anything.

“Yes, that one. There’s something prodding out on the bottom of that knife, right? Take your gun and shoot right through it.”

Akira stuck the knife on the ground and got his gun ready. As he was getting his gun closer to the knife, he asked Alpha.

“…Excuse me for asking this, it will break if I shoot it, right?”

“Yes, it will break.”

“It feels like it’s such a waste. This is also a relic of the old world, right? I should be able to get quite a lot of money from selling this…”

“Think of it as a necessary expense and get over it. Or instead, I have another way to get over this situation which is 3 times more dangerous, so which one you would choose?”

Seeing how Alpha was smiling full of confidence, Akira just shut his mouth and pulled the trigger.

—

Kahimo checked his terminal again for Hayya’s location. Hayya’s indicator was standing in the same place for 10 minutes. Akira might be waiting to jump on him there, or it could be some kind of a trap. Kahimo thought of both possibilities as he kept moving deeper into the building carefully.

Kahimo found Hayya’s information terminal discarded in the middle of a hallway. He then took it while looking annoyed.

“…Did he leave it here because he knew that I could track his position using this?”

If he did not realize that Kahimo could track his position through that information terminal, then Kahimo could still set up a surprise attack on him. But if Akira noticed that Hayya was moving straight towards his position without taking any wrong turns, then he would have left the information terminal as a bait in order to prepare a surprise attack. If that was the case, Kahimo was thinking of predicting Akira’s surprise attack and taking him by surprise instead. It was rather unexpected for him to be able to think like that in this situation.

Kahimo’s face turned grim. He knew that it would not be easy to hide oneself in this place and shoot at him. But even so, he could not clear his bad feeling. Instead, it was only getting worse. The enemy must have set up a surprise attack. His intuition was telling him that he was correct, and in fact, he was actually correct.

On the next instance. Kahimo’s body was split into two. His armor was completely useless. As the upper and the lower part of his body fell and rolled down onto the ground, he could see his blood and organs spilling out. Kahimo was shocked by the pain. In the short moment of his last remaining life, he noticed that there was a big cut on the wall right beside him. He understood that something cut him in half through the wall. But before he could finish his thought as to what exactly cut him, he drew his last breath.

—

On the other side of the cut wall, Akira was frozen still after he swung his knife sideways.

Just like Alpha instructed, he swung the knife sideways right after he destroyed the bottom part of the knife with his gun. And when he did that, a blue light shot out and cut Kahimo and the wall in front of him. The knife could not reach the wall from where Akira was, but even so, it left a 5 meters wide cut mark on the wall. He could barely see what was on the other side of the wall from the 1 cm thick opening on the wall. Smoke came out from the cut mark and there was a burning smell. After that, the knife vibrated and disintegrated into dust.

Akira was shocked and stood still while holding what was left of the knife. While on his side, Alpha smiled and nodded.

“Alright, you’ve killed him. We are safe for now.”

“…Eh, Ah, Right, I see.”

Alpha was behaving as if they just accomplished something small and minor. Akira’s mind could not catch up with what was going as he was standing there perplexed. And then he looked back to the knife which caused that situation, only its handle was left.

“Alpha, what exactly is this knife?”

“Well, even if you ask me, all I know is that it’s just a knife of the old world. It was meant to be used by common people and was sold freely.”

“Did the commoners of the old world need a knife that could even cut open walls?”

“It’s not like its main use is to cut walls, you know. It’s just that because they kept aiming for a better sharpness and durability, they somehow ended up with something that could even cut the wall. If you had not destroyed the safety device, you wouldn’t be able to do such a thing. You did destroy its main body, remember? With that, it could muster the maximum cutting power just this once. By doing so, it would be able to ignore its limit and use the maximum stored power, that should normally be used for maintaining its durability, to increase its cutting ability. If we had not done that, then it wouldn’t be able to cut open the wall together with the person behind it.”

“…But, that in itself is already dangerous enough, isn’t it?”

“It’s a safe tool as long as you use it properly. But since we used it for such a purpose, that’s why it looks dangerous to you. But that is something to be expected, right?”

“Well, you’re right, I understand it now.”

Although he thought what Alpha said was indeed correct, he still could not help but think that the knife was a dangerous tool. And to think that something like that was distributed freely in the old world, it only made him to admire the old world even more.

Alpha giggled as if she was teasing Akira.

“So now, are you satisfied with my support? Although we had to destroy a relic from the old world, we were able to defeat 2 hunters who were way out of your league. You may be feeling really thankful for having me, right?”

In contrast to Alpha who said that as if she was joking, Akira nodded with a serious face.

“Yeah, it’s thanks to you that I was able to survive this situation. Thank you. I’m sorry that I did not fully trust you up until now.”

Alpha returned back to normal and smiled gently.

“There’s no need to worry about that. I’m happy that it was enough to make you trust me. So then, what do you want to do now? Should we return to look for relics like we originally planned? Or instead, should we just go back home?…Akira, you’re tired, right? It’s not efficient to keep pushing forward when you’re tired. There’s no need to push yourself too hard.”

Akira made a difficult face.

“…If I am to be honest. I’m really tired right now so I want to go back home. But we still haven’t gotten anything yet. If I want to get the rest of the money from the Exchange Center, I should bring something home…”

“In that case, how about we only search around this place. If I help you, we should at least be able to find some relics that other Hunters have missed.”

Akira then decided to follow Alpha’s suggestion to look only around that place before going home. He was only able to find some handkerchiefs. But these handkerchiefs were in such a bad condition that normal Hunters would have ignored them. Even for Akira, if it was not because Alpha told him that they were relics of the old world, he would have ignored them too. But even so, he decided to take them and concluded the search. And then he took as much stuff as he could from Kahimo and Hayya’s corpses before returning back to the city.

The building was left empty except for Kahimo and Hayya’s corpse. Hunters fighting against each other and not going back home was a common happening in the eastern region.