“I’m not actually smoking, it’s a freaking chocolate cigarette dude!”
“Everyone knows that cigarettes contain tobacco. No can do.”
“It’s a freaking snack, you moron!”
“As if there’s anyone who would set fire to a snack and puff on it. Don’t think you can pull one over on me.”
Arg, what am I dawdling for? Calm down. Precious time is being wasted while I hesitate. Let’s call Kaburagi-san already.
“Give me that lighter of yours also.”
“The fuck man?! You want to take my fire away too?!”
“When you hold a lighter, you’ll feel the urge to smoke. But since you aren’t going to be smoking, you won’t be needing that lighter. You might be really mad at a random stranger getting on your case about this, but smoking really is very harmful to your health, especially when you’re so young.”
“Whoa, hold on, dude, stop, give that back! Fuck! I SAID GIVE IT BACK!!!”
Even as the phone was ringing in my ear, with me anxiously praying for Kaburagi-san to pick up, I watched Detective Kumano pluck the lighter from Shouta-kun’s hand. That was clearly the last straw for him, as he snapped and unleashed a fist clad in cold air toward Detective Kumano’s stomach. However, the detective dodged it by shifting away his upper body. The two of them glared at each other...... and then plunged into a serious fight.
The only thing I could do was to watch on in dumbfounded shock. No, guys, stop, just hold on a moment...... Oh god, how did things turn out this way......
I wanted to throw up.
At the same time, I was incredibly thankful that Shouta-kun still had the presence of mind to not use his superpower at full output. If he did so, he could have turned Detective Kumano into an ice popsicle in a split instant. However, doing so would have been the same as killing him. Instead, Shouta-kun simply enveloped his entire body in a white mist of cold air, throwing punches and kicks with the intent of knocking Detective Kumano out. The detective, for his part, managed to calmly block or deflect every single attack. However, the cold air emitting from Shouta-kun must have been quite chilling indeed, as it took only a few parries before Detective Kumano backed off warily while clenching and unclenching his fists in an attempt to combat his slowing blood flow. Then, just as Shouta-kun charged at him again, Detective Kumano took off his suit jacket and threw it at Shouta-kun’s face, which caused the latter to lose sight of him for the briefest of moments.
“—and they’re literally in the middle of a fight right now. Neither are using knives or guns. It doesn’t feel like they’re trying to kill the oth—uwah Detective Kumano’s torn off a piece of the drain spout and is swinging it around! That’s property damage!”
“All right, I understand the situation now. Sago-san, have a World Shadow attack the both of them.”
“Eh? You sure about that? Won’t the timing seem too suspicious for a World Shadow to interrupt them right now?” That would be like as if it had showed up to help Shouta-kun. Or wait, I can just have it attack Shouta-kun, and it should be fine? I probably don’t have to worry about Detective Kumano mistaking it as an ally, but wouldn’t doing this still cause him to get suspicious about why a World Shadow would choose to attack him with that exact timing......?
“At this rate, Shouta-kun might get arrested for assault, which would be a hundred times more problematic to deal with. I think we’re going to have to give up any hopes of perfectly covering this up, which means moving onto the second-best outcome. Even if it might seem slightly forced, the top priority right now is to get through this situation. Afterward, we can cover it up all we want.”
“Didn’t you say that Kuma-san’s bureau wasn’t under your control yet?”
“And that’s why we’re going to have to resort to rather forceful measures. Worst case, I might have to arrange for Detective Kumano’s abrupt dismissal from the force.”
“Uwah...... so scary......”
“But that’s only the worst case scenario. I don’t particularly enjoy destroying someone’s life either.”
“All right, I’ll leave that part to you then. Oh, Shouta-kun just lost.”
Detective Kumano had managed to circle around to Shouta-kun’s back, seemingly fully resigned to taking frost damage from his positioning. Pressing his body close, he had a firm grip on Shouta-kun’s collar and, with the application of centrifugal force, managed to lock Shouta-kun into a stranglehold until he lost consciousness.
Kuma-san is freaking strong! He had managed to win against an esper who had numerous battles under his belt—even if the latter had been holding back—with the help of a drain spout and a suit jacket alone. His many, many years of training his body and techniques were not for nothing indeed. But with that said, he had not gotten off entirely unscathed either. His face was pale and he was shivering quite noticeably while blowing on his reddened hands in an effort to warm them up. There was even a thin layer of white frost on his hair.
To the very end, Detective Kumano had never called for backup. Even though Shouta-kun was in an enraged state after his fire had been seized, escaping from him shouldn’t have been too difficult for Detective Kumano. However, he still chose to do this alone. Was it that he just didn’t want to raise a commotion? Or did everything that happened take him so much by surprise that it had slipped his mind? Don’t tell me that he thought he could take him on alone? Perhaps he had been too excited at the opportunity to take out an esper with his bare hands like the protagonists of his beloved books did.
Well, whatever it was, I had to throw a World Shadow at him before he got around to snapping handcuffs onto the currently unconscious Shouta-kun.
Honestly, it didn’t matter so much that Shouta-kun had lost against Detective Kumano. The most important point was to get through this incident and then bury it. The time that Baba was buying for us was also going to run out soon. Let’s move this show on.
With the sound of falling water, a World Shadow fell down from the roof of the abandoned building, forming an eerie-looking black puddle on the asphalt. Detective Kumano, who had been just about to snap handcuffs onto Shouta-kun, turned around and widened his eyes at the sight of the black puddle squirming in a bizarre manner.
“What is it now......?”
While warily keeping his eyes on the World Shadow, Detective Kumano hoisted Shouta-kun up and backed away with him. Even as he was watching, the black puddle stretched upward, gradually growing a head, then arms, then legs, until eventually taking on a smooth-looking humanoid form.
“Are you Time Lady? Burning Girl? Or could it be, Invisible Titan? ......No hold on, you...... you’re one of the rumored......” Detective Kumano started off mistaking it for one of Shouta-kun’s allies come to save him, but I turned one of the World Shadow’s arms into a vicious-looking jaw like that of an alligator’s to make it easy to understand that it was an enemy. Detective Kumano caught on quickly. Then, after shuddering once, he took on a fighting stance while protecting Shouta-kun behind him.
“You’re a World Shadow......!”
⚔
“WEREISMYMOMMYYYY?!?!?!”
“There, there, you must be feeling lonely, right? I’ll help you look for your mom or your brother, so can you tell me your name first?”
“MOOOMMMYYYYY!!!”
The little girl who was clinging to his leg tightly and crying so loudly that he feared she might rip her vocal cords had Yasuo Yasui thoroughly confounded. He wanted very much to just kick her off and get away, but as a policeman, doing so could cause him a lot of grief later on. Although the road that they were on had very sparse foot traffic, it wasn’t entirely empty either. He made his way to the side of the street, and flashed a forced smile toward the salaryman walking by who was looking his way suspiciously.