Chapter 7:
An Unavoidable Fight and My Courage
“LOOKS LIKE YOU GOT ME again.” The unremarkable salary-man from the train stepped out of the bus. Habatake. He was a sneak, but apparently he was sportsmanlike enough to admit when he was caught.
“That bus is another illusion, right? What is it underneath, a minivan or something?”
“Right again! My, nothing gets past you, does it?” He snapped his fingers, and the bus was replaced with a van.
It looked just like the white van we used at my job, with curtains drawn across its windows. If someone else was hiding in there, I couldn’t tell. This was clearly the same trick he’d used to make himself look like a goblin.
“Did you use your illusions to trick the people inside the station so they wouldn’t come out here?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
That meant he could have at least two illusions active at a time.
“You’re not working alone, are you?”
“Oh? What makes you think that? I’m very interested in your reasoning.”
Was that sarcasm? Despite his polite tone, he was obviously mocking me. It was beginning to grate on my nerves.
“You can’t use miracles directly to harm another player, so you need a way to get around that rule. Getting me to voluntarily walk onto a disguised bus would just toe the line of acceptable. This must be the sort of twisted gambling you’re so hyped about.”
“I see, I see. Please, do go on.” Habatake nodded mockingly.
“You planned to drop the illusion and have your accomplice grab us from inside the bus once we were close enough, weren’t you?”
“Oh, I am impressed! You’re smart for a shut-in. To think I thought you’d never amount to anything.”
He really is trying to rile me up. Joke’s on him. I never thought I’d amount to anything either.
The snow was getting heavier, but I barely felt the cold. My anger and the heat of Carol clinging to me kept me warm.
“But how did you know the bus was a fake? I thought I did a pretty good job with it.”
He was right. Put it beside a real bus, and I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. But he didn’t factor in the snow. Because the bus was really a small van, the snow seemed to disappear through the roof as it fell. Without that, I would have fallen for it.
A few minutes ago, after checking our route options on my phone, I’d activated the weather miracle to make it snow. I was level 2 now—I could perform miracles in the real world as well.
“What now? You wanna negotiate again?” I smirked, trying to act tough. I couldn’t afford to show any weakness and worry Carol. Besides, we had a trump card. I glanced down at Carol’s backpack. A tiny hand poked out of a gap in the zipper, giving me a confident thumbs-up. Destiny really was a reliable ally.
“No. Our negotiations already broke down. Even if I offered you a better deal, you wouldn’t take it, would you?”
“That’s right.”
“You’re correct, I can’t harm you directly. That was why I had no choice but to enlist some help, much as I didn’t want to.” Habatake sighed and raised his left hand.
Three men emerged from the minivan. They all had brown-dyed hair, flashy clothes, and grins on their faces. To sum them up in one word, they looked dim. They seemed very similar to the guys Yoshinaga sent after me. If Habatake was telling the truth, these men weren’t players. That came with its own set of problems.
“You’re not allowed to tell outsiders about the game.”
“Correct. I just said I had a little job for them. Get me the book and the girl, and I’d reward them handsomely. That girl doesn’t even have a nationality. Kidnapping her won’t technically be a crime.”
So they were just a group of paid toughs. And since there were no miracles involved, it wouldn’t be against the rules for these men to harm me. Maybe the curtains in the van were less for hiding them from me and more so that they wouldn’t witness the illusions.
“Hey, you’re making it sound so bad! We’re just here to take that book back, which you borrowed from a friend. And you said that girl was your daughter, right?” One of the toughs grinned, but it was obvious he didn’t believe the story Habatake fed them. He knew he was abetting a crime.
“Ah yes, sorry,” Habatake said. “That’s right. Now, I’m going to give you one final chance to negotiate. Would you kindly pass me the book and the girl? I won’t be paying you anything, of course.”
This stingy bastard. Though obviously he could offer me any amount of money and I’d never give him what he wanted.
I held Carol closer to me. “No way in hell.”
Habatake shrugged and smiled. “I didn’t think so. Please accept my sincerest apologies. Gentlemen?”
“Yes, sir!”
The three toughs slowly approached. I knew what I had to do. I plunged my hand into Carol’s backpack and pulled out the towel-wrapped Destiny. I held it out in front of me.
“Don’t move,” I warned. “I’m not about to pull any punches.”
One of the toughs screwed up his nose. “What’s that gross-looking lizard thing?”
Destiny lashed its tail threateningly. It didn’t like being insulted one bit.
“What, you think we’re scared of a little reptile?”
“You know they taste great if you skin and fry ’em!”
“Or we could sell it to a pet store—make some money.”
The toughs didn’t slow their approach or show any fear. That was fine by me, especially since they were downwind of us.
“Use your poison breath to—”
“Spread out, boys! That man has a spray that can paralyze you!” Habatake called out.
The toughs immediately kept their distance and began to surround me in a semicircle.
He knows about Destiny?! Was he watching me fight against that punk?
“You got some sort of spray? And you think we’re the criminals?”
“I’m nothing like you!” I shouted.
Destiny’s breath would only hit one of them if they were spread out like this, and which one depended on the wind’s direction.