In the evening on one of the days during the period of time when we were making preparations for the traitor event, just when I was looking for the car keys so that I could go pick Baba up from Kaneyama Tech, Kaburagi-san suddenly came to a start as if something had occurred to her, and then she said, “Be careful of the police.”
As I tilted my head, wondering where this had come from, Kaburagi-san turned halfway in her seat at the counter and waved the script of the event that she was working on while continuing.
“More specifically, by ‘police,’ I mean all the investigative organizations crawling around Tokyo, really. Although I’m pulling strings in many places, I’m still having a bit of trouble with CIA and the Public Security Intelligence Agency. It’s going to take quite a bit of effort planning the event while also taking into account the police’s movements.”
This is something that can be handled with “a bit of effort”? Aren’t CIA and PSIA respectively the biggest intelligence agencies of America and Japan......? Although she has the enormous advantage of a superpower and it seems that she has other people running around for her, she’s still effectively fending off entire countries on an individual level, right? That’s amazing.
No wait, theoretically, it should be possible. I mean, in actual fact, she’s pulling it off even now. And those organizations also have rather tarnished histories of being led around the nose by fake religious cults and whatnot. With a capable leader at the helm, and everyone following orders properly, concealing information from a country or throwing them off scent was very much possible. But that said, “it’s possible” doesn’t automatically translate into “I can do it.” At the very least, even though I have my telekinesis, I can hardly imagine myself being able to pull it off. The only thing I am capable of is overwhelming displays of power, such as killing off all the members of every single intelligence agency in the world in a single night. So basically, yea, Kaburagi-san is freaking amazing.
“You’re always such an enormous help. In comparison, I’m always just messing things up and causing trouble for you. Sorry.” Come to think of it, Kaburagi-san is looking after my livelihood and often hangs out with me and even takes care of me. Am I her kept man?
As I expressed my contrition, Kaburagi-san lifted an eyebrow slightly while responding, “Be careful, too much humility can come across as sarcasm. Although it’s true that I’m drop-dead gorgeous and super smart and extremely rich and have an amazing personality......”
“Eehhh......” You’re going to say that about yourself? Though it’s all true, but still......
Though admittedly, if Kaburagi-san referred to herself as ugly and stupid and poor and had a terrible personality, now that would indeed have been sarcasm.
“There are people around the world who can do what I can. If two or three people slightly inferior to me got together, they could completely replace me, and maybe even do a slightly better job at it. But in contrast, is there anyone who can replace you, Sago-san? How many other telekinetics are out there? And who among them can bestow superpowers to other people? Are they using their superpowers for someone else’s sake? Sago-san, I think it an enormous honor to have been chosen by you. There is not a single thing that you need to feel reserved about with me. Please have a bit more confidence in yourself. Even if you have the most confidence in the world, I would still think it fitting. You are literally the most powerful person in the world, after all.”
“S-Sure, okay.”
I felt like her words had been a bit extreme, but the gist of what she was saying made sense. After being told again and again that I was useless and worthless during those years I spent in that exploitative company, maybe I had indeed lost my self-confidence. Let’s try to be a bit more confident, then.
Ah, here are the car keys. Guess I should bring some a random gift for the Kaneyama Tech guys while popping in.
⚔
A mere thirty minutes after resolving to be more confident, I found myself being questioned by a police officer sitting in a café filled with a burnt smell.
“I’m sorry, this is just procedure. We’ll be done soon, so could you wait just a little longer?”
“Yeah, okay......”
All this right after I just got warned to be careful of the police. I could almost feel my confidence being whittled down. However, I wanted very much to make the case that half of what happened was beyond my control.
What started it all was that I had arrived at Kaneyama Tech earlier than planned, and thus decided to kill time at a nearby café until the pick-up time.
While sitting in my seat after having ordered a cup of coffee, a man obviously touched in the head entered the store dramatically by kicking the door, shouting “I’M FIIRRREEEEEE MAAAANN!!!” while rampaging about with fire spraying from his hands.
Tokyo of late was fast becoming a bargain sale of such people with a few screws loose. As a result of all the eccentrics and oddballs gathering in Tokyo due to the Super Water Sphere Incident, a certain number of crazies also gathering was perhaps inevitable.
The reason why Baba, a real life otherworlder with elf ears, didn’t stand out so much was because pain in the asses like this “Fire Man” here were popping up here and there, grabbing everybody’s eyes and ears with their flashy antics. I wasn’t sure if it was meant as tribute to BG and FK, but there was an inordinate number of people rampaging about with ice or fire.
Whereas more than half of the outbreak were just street performers innocently doing routines on the streets (without police permission), among them were some who were literally assaulting nearby people. Doing an about turn immediately upon encountering such people was becoming an iron rule of common sense.
I should also have ran away quickly before getting caught up in the commotion. However, my luck ran out the moment I stupidly decided to hide under a table in my panic. By the time I remembered that I was an esper who had a barrier that could withstand even molten lava permanently deployed around myself and crawled out from under the table sheepishly, it was already after the café store owner, whose apron had gotten singed, had already immobilized the staggering Fire Man by smashing a chair onto his head.
How does it look that a store owner fighting against an invader of his store showed more guts and resolve than the boss of a secret organization who supposedly fights against shadows of the world? I’ve really got to pull myself together.
After that, I decided to bank on the one in a million chance of the perp being a naturally-occurring pyrokinetic and stayed behind to observe him and make sure, and consequently ended up missing my window of opportunity to run away. Nearby policemen who had heard the commotion arrived at the store, and so I ended up being subjected to questioning.
The result of my checking when I helped the store owner tie Fire Man up was that he had a makeshift flamethrower composed of a ventilator and spray can filled with gasoline hidden inside his sleeves. In other words, he was a bogus esper. Although I did feel a touch of the extraordinary from the Fire Man who was being escorted away by police, bluntly put, he was just a common arsonist. He deserved no sympathy or salvation.
The police apparently intended to take statements from all ten-something customers who had been in the store, and so I was made to stand against the wall to wait for my turn. I had already given Baba a call to explain the situation briefly and inform her that I would be late in picking her up.
“......Master? Aren’t you the Master of Ama-no-Iwato?”
“Hm?”
The person who had been made to line up next to me suddenly peered into my face and talked to me.
For a brief second, I thought, “Who’s this guy?”, but then quickly remembered him as one of the very few regular customers at Ama-no-Iwato. He was a middle-aged man with a face that looked half Japanese and an aura of someone really good at their job. Every time he came to the store, he would do so in a suit, and would drink until he passed out.
It wouldn’t be an over-exaggeration to say that a certain percentage of underground bar Ama-no-Iwato’s income was supported by this very man. I did not know his name nor his job, but judging by his clothing choice, spending ability, and demeanor, it was my guess that he was probably someone relatively important in a large company.