“Thank you for your cooperation,” Minori-san said with a bow, putting the game system into a suitcase.

  I knew appearances were important when doing something like this, so I mostly left the legwork to Minori-san, who looked soft and gentle. I bowed too, of course—only Hikaru-san stood over by the bird-drawn carriage, his back turned to all of us.

  “I sincerely apologize for having to cause such a commotion...”

  “Not at all. If anything, it’s a relief,” said the student’s mother, who had come out to the foyer. “He’s just been shut up in his room all the time, fiddling with that... gayme sys-tem, did you call it? And every time he opens his mouth, the most incomprehensible things come out...”

  “I’m... I’m very sorry about that...” I offered, shrinking into myself.

  The student may or may not have been playing Hikaru-san’s ero game, but it was perfectly possible to get addicted to non-X-rated titles, too. I really should have been alert to the possibility that this would happen.

  I really should have known.

  The people of Eldant didn’t have any “immunity” to these sorts of things. Even in Japan, there were kids who played games 24/7, and parents who worried about them. In a land with so few entertainments, bringing the most cutting-edge technology in was a recipe for addiction.

  “Once we’ve inspected the system’s contents, the system itself will be returned to you,” Minori-san said. “After that, we leave it up to your discretion whether to give it back to him or not.”

  I don’t know... Somehow, it was like we were doing a recall of a bad product.

  “We’ll be moving along, then,” I said. Bowing repeatedly to the student’s mother, we returned to the carriage and headed for the next house.

  Of course, that makes it sound farther away than it was. The houses we wanted were all packed in here, so we could have walked from place to place without losing much time.

  “Next is... here.”

  A moment later, as I double-checked the map and the register of student names, we arrived at our sixth house.

  There was a guard in a small guardhouse by the gate. We gave him our names and reason for visiting, and then he opened the big iron gate. As we got out of the carriage and went up the path to the front door, I gave Minori-san a weary look.

  “How many more of these?”

  “You ought to know. Four to go.”

  “Right...”

  We went from house to house, talking to the students, collecting game systems.

  Some of the pupils sulked, but nonetheless handed over their games—maybe they felt guilty, or really were playing ero games and didn’t want to be found out. But frankly, the ones who got angry and fought us about it to the bitter end were more common. Confiscation is such a simple word, but having to actually do it is amazingly exhausting. You would think we were devils who had come to take away these kids’ most precious treasures.

  The door of the latest house opened, and a middle-aged woman appeared from inside. “Yes, hello?” She blinked in surprise and looked at each of us in turn, then said, “You’re... the teachers from my son’s school, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Minori-san said with a nod. “I’m Koganuma Minori, and this is Kanou Shinichi and Ayasaki Hikaru.”

  “And what brings you here today?”

  “I apologize for the suddenness, but we’d like to speak to Claus-san. Is he here? It happens that a small problem has been found with the game systems that were given out as prizes after the soccer tournament some time ago. We’re visiting all the families who bought systems from the lizardmen, and collecting the systems in order to investigate the problem.”

  “Gayme sys-tem? Ah... yes,” the woman said, overcoming a moment’s incomprehension to nod at us. “I’m very sorry, but Claus isn’t at home right now.”

  “All right. We’ll come back again later, then. Do you know when he might be back?”

  “Perhaps around evening... Ahem, more to the point, my son no longer has your gayme sys-tem.”

  “Huh?” I asked blankly.

  He didn’t have it? Meaning...?

  “I must tell you, he sold it.”

  “He sold the game system?”

  “Indeed,” his mother said with a sigh. “After my husband went to such trouble to buy it from the lizardmen, he went and... Well, he wanted to buy something or other that’s apparently very popular at school right now. Picture-cards or some such?”

  Minori-san and I looked at each other, our eyes wide.

  She meant the trading cards. Probably rare ones, at that.

  Wow... Who knew that would come up here and now?!

  “Even after he comes home, he just spends all his time playing with those cards. He keeps talking about how he has to get stronger and stronger ones... It’s gotten a little frightening recently.”

  Obviously, I knew that some of the trading cards had become quite valuable in the classroom. But I never dreamed that someone would sell a game system just to get them. Granted this was a pilot program created with an eye toward full-scale sales in the Eldant Empire, we had introduced the trading cards specifically as low-price items. They just weren’t worth that much. I’d wanted them to be at a price common people could afford.

  In contrast, the game systems were prizes for the soccer tournament, which we had never intended to sell. In other words, there were currently no plans to bring any more of them over here, and everyone knew it—hence why they commanded such a high price. The main reason the lizardmen had sold them off was because they didn’t really understand video games, while they had a certain currency among students who had been introduced to games by the home consoles we had set up at the school.

  Put it this way: the students were well aware just how rare these things were. If one of them had sold his game system, it meant he wanted rare cards even more than that game.

  So this wasn’t just about ero games. The trading cards fed into some serious addiction, too.

  “I’ll speak with him too,” Minori-san said with a deep bow, “when the school is back in session.” Then we thanked the woman and went back to where our carriage waited at the gate.

  “Looks like it’s worse than we thought,” I said.

  “Yeah,” Minori-san said, sighing.

  The ero-game thing happened entirely without my knowledge, but the game systems were originally my idea, notwithstanding that the students had asked for them. And I had known that the trading cards would be imported, of course. I had agreed to it without reservation, in fact. I bore some of the responsibility for not predicting this outcome.

  It was a failure of experience.

  Amutech’s work had been going so swimmingly that maybe I had acted a little naïve. It was easy to criticize Hikaru-san, but I don’t think he was the only problem here.

  Speaking of Hikaru-san, he continued to look upset and not say a word. He just followed around behind us silently.

  He seemed to be ridiculing otaku, but it was probably...

  Didn’t he say something about his parents wanting a little girl?

  If you want to have fun dressing someone up, a girl is best. So his parents had been disappointed to get a son.

  I paused thoughtfully. How would it feel to have your parents tell you they wanted a girl instead of a boy?

  Hikaru-san had said to Myusel that he felt empty. He had behaved like a little girl so as not to make his parents any more unhappy. Loath to disappoint anyone, he became exceptionally sensitive to the feelings of those around him and tried to make their wishes come true before they had even articulated them. Whatever he wanted went on the back burner; he focused entirely on meeting others’ expectations, until suddenly he realized he didn’t even know what he wanted anymore...

  Maybe the emptiness he described was the result of living that life. And that made me sad.

  “Okay. Better get to the next house.”

  “Sure thing.”

  Minori-san and I nodded at each other, and I pulled out the map to check our destination.

  All of a sudden, I heard a noise I couldn’t quite make out.

  I thought it was a woman’s scream. I stopped and blinked.

  “Was that—”

  My imagination?

  For a moment, I thought so, but when I looked up at Minori-san, it seemed like she had heard it, too; she had her suitcase in her hand. Ever since our hostage crisis with the Assembly of Patriots, she had kept a 9mm handgun in that case to give us the upper hand even if we were attacked by multiple enemies.

  “What’s going on?” Hikaru-san stopped, looking around doubtfully.

  Minori-san was vigilant and ready to fight. “Shinichi-kun, Hikaru-kun,” she said. “Get back to the carriage, it’s—”

  —dangerous, is where I suppose she was going with that, but I was already running in the direction of the scream.

  “Hey! Don’t! Hold on!” Minori-san tried to stop me, but I ignored her and kept running.

  All I could think about was the kidnapped noblegirl. I didn’t know her name or what she looked like, but if she really had been kidnapped because of our work—Amutech’s work—then we had to do something. We had to do something about the next kidnapping that might occur.

  I rounded a corner onto another street. There, to my shock, I saw several men trying to drag a girl into a bird-drawn carriage. She was probably the daughter of one of the families that lived around here. Two women who looked like her attendants were collapsed on the ground.

  I instinctively hid myself in the shadows.

  Apparently I had found myself smack in the middle of an actual kidnapping. So were these guys part of the Assembly of Patriots?

  “No way...” Hikaru-san whispered. He had followed me and now joined me in my inconspicuous location. Minori-san did the same, even as she pulled the 9mm out of the suitcase and prepared to use it. It didn’t look like the men had noticed us. I guess Minori-san figured there was no reason to waste a perfectly good opportunity for a surprise attack.

  There was a total of five men forcing the girl into the carriage. It was a big one, pulled by no less than four head of birds. (Wait, is that how you count birds pulling a carriage?) The men climbed aboard themselves and got ready to leave. This was the noble quarter, and with houses so big, there was a good chance no one would hear the girl screaming. Even if they did, it would take time for people to reach the area.

  “Let’s follow them.”

  “Right,” Minori-san said, and clicked the sliding switch on her gun’s safety device—marked S, 1, M—from S (for “Safe”) to 1 (for “Single Round”). Machine pistols can spray bullets in a way that’s useful for suppressing multiple enemies, but worthless for pinpoint sharpshooting. From a distance, it would be impossible to get the men but not the girl. We’d be more likely to kill the hostage than rescue her.

  We would be better off breaking into the enemy base. If it worked, we might even be able to save the other kidnapping victim.

  “I’ll go get our carriage,” I said, jumping up and running for our ride.

  Bad luck: I was making a break for it just as one of the men looked my way.

  It probably really was just coincidence, but it was also the worst possible timing.

  Our eyes met.

  “Oh, crap,” I muttered, but it was already too late.

  The man shouted something to his companions, and the ones in the carriage all turned to look at me. I didn’t understand what the man was saying, which suggested he wasn’t wearing a magic ring. Those only functioned if both parties to a conversation were wearing one. And although I had learned to speak a bit of the local language, if someone was talking fast or had a heavy accent, my chances of understanding them were pretty well nil.

  The men had a short, brusque conversation that went over my head.

  “Shinichi-kun, get back!”

  No point in hiding anymore: Minori-san came out with her gun in her hand.

  At the same moment, the men shouted something. And a second later, BAM! The whole carriage shook.

  “Huh?!” From my spot, I couldn’t see what exactly had happened, but the yoke holding the Cho**bos—er, I mean, the large birds—had come flying loose.

  I wondered what they thought they were doing—but it became clear a second later.

  One of the oversized birds came charging straight at us.

  “Uh...”

  Why was this happening?!

  All the birds pulling all the carriages I had ever ridden in had been docile and polite. They were the size of cows or horses, but when you spent enough time around them, they became pretty endearing—maybe it was the plump, round bodies.

  The one making for us now, though, was definitely not endearing. Sure, it looked like any other such animal, but it was foaming at the beak and making a sound that might best be described as: “GYOOOO!!” Being a bird, the whites of its eyes weren’t really visible, but I assumed they were bloodshot.

  On top of that, I could see now that it wasn’t just their size that was threatening: this bird’s beak was fear itself. It was as thick around as my wrist, and as sharp as a pickax. If that thing ran you through, you would be lucky to survive the experience. These were birds with the strength to pull a carriage; they were certainly capable of delivering a lethal blow to a human being.

  The thing that startled me most, though, was the animal’s face.

  Specifically, a place just between its eyes and up a little.

  It almost looked like it was growing a horn.

  No. That wasn’t a horn...

  “Puppet...!”

  It was one of the spikes Bahairam had developed to control living things. The last time I’d seen one it had been pounded into a dragon, and this one was much smaller—but the shape, and the effect, were the same.

  The bird was being controlled with puppet magic. But why was Bahairamanian magic being used here?

  BLAM.

  A gunshot rang out. It came from Minori-san’s machine pistol.

  The huge bird slowed and pitched forward.

  “You hit it?!”

  That was Minori-san for you. She could land her shot even with the relatively low-accuracy machine pistol. Granted, it was a large target charging straight toward us, which made the shot comparatively easy, but still.

  “Minori-san—”

  But Minori-san just waved her hand in my direction, as if to say, Go! She kept her eyes on the bird.

  With a jolt, I saw why. Yes, the bullet had hit the bird. You could actually see blood dripping from its lower leg. But it showed no sign of pain or fear. In fact, it was frothing and screeching even more, as if to say that now it was angry...

  Then it charged at Minori-san.

  She fired again, and this time the bird didn’t even stop.

  You really can’t underestimate an animal’s ability to survive. I didn’t know the biological specifics of this bird, but I did know that if you were hunting big game like deer or bear, you would want a large-gauge magnum rifle. A 9mm handgun just didn’t have the stopping power.

  For that matter, there was the possibility that creatures being controlled with a puppet spike didn’t feel pain. The spikes themselves seemed to be a sort of weak point, but between the low accuracy of the machine pistol and the violent thrashing of the target’s head, it would be difficult to hit it squarely.

  With a sharp exhalation, Minori-san dove to the side, out of the way of the bird’s mad charge. She rolled along the ground, firing her gun again—in automatic mode, this time.

  Brrapapapapapap!

  A continuous roar, like a machine hard at work, echoed around. She must have fired at least a dozen rounds, and although some of them missed, several lodged themselves in the big bird, sending feathers flying. And still the animal didn’t flinch. In fact—

  “Minori-san, look out!”

  Minori-san immediately rolled out of the way. A second huge bird smashed into the spot where she had been just a second ago.

  Now it was two on one, against a pair of raging opponents who didn’t appear to feel pain. Opponents who could put a human out of a fight with one good blow.

  Maybe even Minori-san couldn’t get out of this one. But just as I was starting to really worry...

  “Hey...!”

  I heard Hikaru-san make a sound. I looked in his direction, to see the bird-drawn carriage rumbling off. When combined with the power of puppet magic, apparently it only took two birds to pull the carriage. Or maybe the two birds that had been set on Minori-san had always been intended for just this sort of situation.

  Hikaru-san gave a cluck of his tongue and set off running.

  “Whoa—hang on!” It almost looked like he intended to catch the carriage on foot. True, with just two birds, their speed would be somewhat reduced. Hikaru-san left the scene of the crime at a pace that suggested he was darn well going to catch them.

  This was bad. It would be bad to lose track of those guys, but it would be bad too if Hikaru-san got too caught up in chasing them and they captured him.

  “Shinichi-kun?!” Minori-san shouted, eyeing the two massive birds.

  “I’m going to go get Hikaru-san back!” I shouted back.

  I didn’t think there was anything he could do by himself. Minori-san, meanwhile, was trapped by her avian antagonists. Whether I stopped Hikaru-san or helped Minori-san, I was the only one currently capable of doing anything.

  “Hey...!” Minori-san called, paling—but I had no time to wait. I hated to leave her, but I went dashing off after Hikaru-san.

  I’ve got to admit, I definitely didn’t expect Hikaru-san to go dashing off after that carriage.

  Why not? I just figured he wouldn’t care if a stranger got kidnapped. He had told us in so many words that it was perfectly natural for otaku to commit crimes, and he had expected them to do so—so I took him for someone cold and unfeeling.

  But apparently he was not going to stand by and watch this girl get dragged off.

 

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