Chapter 56

SUB.06 After getting beaten up by Monsieur Microwave’s ferocious attacks, Saflee Opendays had to drag herself back to the waiting room, keeping one hand on the wall. The spiky-haired boy was nowhere in sight; he must have gone somewhere. She was the only person in the room. Her first match had been hard-won. “Turned out that guy knew how to fight,” she said to herself, raising a plastic bottle of mineral water to her mouth. Then she scowled at the metallic taste and spat it back out into the sink. She still didn’t know how an EM wave could cut up the inside of her mouth, even though that’s exactly what the one attack had done. …And my opponents are all gonna be that good? It’s not my style to pay attention to how much of a beating I take, but maybe that needs to change. She didn’t quite have the energy to change back into her normal clothes, so she sat down on the bench, still wearing the dress she’d worn for the match, and took a deep breath. The Natural Selector tournament was structured so that all the matches in the first round would occur on the first day, all the matches in the second round would occur on the second day, and so on. It was set up this way to prevent contestants from having to fight more than once per day. With her first match behind her, Saflee was free for the rest of the day…but could she really recover from the wounds she’d sustained in just twenty-four hours? Then she saw something appear on the lock panel next to an unfamiliar door. As she was wondering about it, she heard a pattering of footsteps, and several Baggage City security guards ran inside. For all their hatred of Academy City, they acted pretty much the same as it. Given the wet spots on their clothes and the patches of snow on their shoulders, these guards must not have been stationed inside the facility. That meant they had come in from the blizzard outside. “Are you all right?” one asked. “All right?” Saflee repeated. “I mean, sure. What, will I get shocked from an electrical discharge if I touch that panel or something?” “No, there’s apparently an intruder. We’re going around to all the leaders and competitors to make sure everyone is safe.” The spiky-haired boy and Monsieur Microwave came to mind. “Well, that sounds like a big job. Aren’t there, like, a hundred competitors?” “There are more of us than that, so it’s not an issue.” “And yet you didn’t respond to those self-styled ‘men in black’ at all.” “They’re not the same, apparently. Broadly speaking, the intruder could be connected to Academy City.” “……” Hearing those stiff words, Saflee exhaled deeply in spite of herself. Figuring it would be a waste of time to give them the whole destruction spiel, she once again turned her thoughts to that spiky-haired kid. How had an amateur like him made it into Baggage City anyway? …Those “men in black” infiltrated, too, she thought. Maybe the boy happened to find a hole they left open. If he waited for those guys to do all the work, then he’d be a pretty bad dude…but that doesn’t smell right, either. And. What was the reason he’d given for sneaking into Baggage City again? No matter what they’re after, the things they end up doing in public to achieve their goals will hurt a lot of people. Saflee heaved a sigh. Then she slowly rose from the bench. “What will you do with the intruder?” “Shoot them dead.” “What should I do?” “Please wait here until the danger has passed. We’ll be standing watch for you.” “Gonna say this a second time, but you didn’t do anything about those self-styled men in black.” “We’re not protecting you all to try to ensure a fair contest. We’re protecting you to prevent the technology that might be the bedrock of the Anti–Academy City Science Guardians from falling into the wrong hands.” “……” In her humble opinion as a blockhead who lived to test her martial arts against others, none of that seemed very thrilling. Especially not the part where these guys had to wonder if they should abandon someone in need just because they might not have a responsibility to help. People who worried about something so trivial would smugly tell her that destruction was a bad thing, and she always thought people like them were the reason the world was so messed up. Saflee looked at the Baggage City security guards again. There were four of them, clad in military uniforms and helmets and holding pump-action shotguns. “Looks like the wise choice would be to do as you say,” she remarked. “You don’t have any reason to get violent,” one guard said. “The thing that bothers me is that you’re wrong.” And so… With a chop to the neck… With a fist to the center of the gut… With a throw to the floor… With some pressure to the carotid artery… …she swiftly disabled all four of them. She put her hands on her hips and sighed. “Isn’t it weird how saying you went easy on someone makes you look like a nicer person? It’s not like saying that makes the violence any different.” Even though the men were unconscious, she didn’t feel like getting changed in front of them, so she left the waiting room in her dress. “Yikes! It’s so cold!” The next instant, she turned back around and swiped the jacket off one of the security guards. It was cheap, but after being in a heated environment for so long, she’d completely forgotten how little her totally impractical cocktail dress actually did for her. She haphazardly pulled the jacket over her shoulders to stave off the cold, but that didn’t stop her from hugging herself. “…Shit. This thing’s soaked from the melted snow. And they call this cold weather gear?” She’d gone to the entrance of the dome, but outside the glass door, all she could see was white. Only the heated paths stood out, their black asphalt distinct against the snow. For some reason, the squarish concrete buildings lining the streets made the whole sight even colder. For a moment, she wanted to drop everything and leave. But she couldn’t afford to. When she opened the glass door, she immediately regretted it. “Nooo!” she wailed. “This is even harder than fighting military hounds! In fact, I wish there was a dog around—then I could put it in my coat!” The boy had told her that he was looking for a connection between Baggage City’s higher-ups and Gremlin. And without any hints about Gremlin, simple thinking would lead him to search the neighborhood of the former. No wonder he’d tripped security. And so Saflee began her search for the spiky-haired kid. Her current goal was only to prevent him from being shot by security guards for sticking his neck into the wrong place. The whole matter of exposing Baggage City’s secrets—what he personally seemed to be after—was another story. She would figure out whether it would be thrilling or not, then decide. And so… “Guess I’ll knock him out when I find him. That would be the fastest way—both to get him out of danger and to hide him from security.” Saflee had come up with a plan to keep it simple. She headed toward the closest off-limits area to the domed sporting facility. The place was formerly a resort hotel, and now it apparently served as office space for the execs. On the way, she used her fists to take care of three or four security patrols trying to stop her. Eventually, she entered the hotel from the commercial use loading docks and discovered she’d already caught up to the young man in question. “Huh? What are you doing he—?” “Clothesline boom!” With the same casual air as someone waving at a friend, Saflee immediately threw out a punch. It was an attack in bad taste—aside from its simple speed, she’d thrown it at the most surprising moment possible. Kamijou, who had taken the headless rider–level upper arm directly to the neck, tumbled to the floor, spinning and slamming into it. As he lay sprawled out, mouth opening and closing, Saflee put up her index finger. “Well, that’s just great. My hair’s getting a little frozen. You’re really putting me through a lot of trouble, you know. Oh, and you should be grateful that little number was all it took. I’ll hear you out on the details, okay? So let’s just get out of this area first. It’s off-limits… I can’t believe you seriously tried to just walk into the sponsor’s private area.” “B-brph…”