Chapter 97: Reunion

Separated by a single wall, it felt as though he had gone from hell to heaven in an instant.

Yuuki gained a tangible understanding of what the bartender had meant by saying that “the great and powerful exist in places you cannot see” and that “their standard of living is far beyond what you could imagine.”

“When we earned our second point, the official office of Moth Nest City arranged this place for us.”

As Balaru opened the front door, he explained.

Garum nodded. “I have to say, it really is comfortable.”

He was an old soldier as well as an old man. He did not mind sleeping in a trench or a sleeping bag, but it was obvious that resting in a proper house would let him recover his strength much better.

“If they hadn’t installed so many bugs and cameras and made us clear them out until after midnight, I’d be a lot more grateful,” the unfamiliar young man said, his tone carrying a faint thread of anger that was easy to miss, though it sounded almost like a joke.

Led by their host, the group entered the living room. Yuuki found a chair, sat down, and began to look around.

Indeed, the place was excellent, so good that Yuuki suspected the authorities had already decided they would not be staying long and did not mind letting them “borrow” it for a few days.

“First, let’s see whether those bastards slipped anything in while we were out.”

Garum lifted a device that looked like a scope and began scanning the surroundings with great care. It was an extremely precise thermal imaging sight. As for how it found cameras, the principle was simple: any surveillance camera in operation would generate heat, however slight, and that tiny difference could be picked up by this specialized sight.

If it was made by Kanegon, it had to be top quality.

Yuuki thought for a moment, then silently switched to Gate. If there was surveillance, there had to be data transmission. Otherwise, if everything were merely stored locally offline, it would be far too delayed to matter. Such monitoring would be pointless.

The moment he swapped out the environmental adaptation skill, “Infiltration,” Yuuki frowned. He felt a clear pressure settle onto his shoulders and back, as though he were deep beneath twenty meters of water.

It seemed this planet had stronger gravity than Earth.

It was not enough to crush him flat at once, but moving under that weight would be difficult. After a few dozen steps, he would probably be gasping and unable to go on, let alone fight.

Yuuki quickly looked around. Good. The living room was clean. But through the window, he could see the outside space filled with those shimmering, rainbow-hued lines. Perhaps they would become a clue leading to the boss room.

Aside from that, Yuuki also discovered a thin network line, emerging from one of the metal beads on the bracelet around his wrist. It ran upward into the sky, entirely different from the communication lines in the city.

This was...

Yuuki guessed it was the data link used to synchronize the bracelet’s energy status. The end of that line was probably one of the three gems somewhere in the Land of Light.

The line was very thin. That was understandable; a device this small could only support a channel of that capacity, at most sending something as simple as heartbeat packets.

Still, that did not affect Yuuki’s use of Gate. Good. That gave him one more route for retreat.

After finishing his inspection, Yuuki switched back to Infiltration and once again merged with his surroundings, instantly feeling far lighter.

By then, the three-man team of RUSH Hunters, having confirmed the area was safe, had formally reunited.

“Maguna.”

“You brat.”

Two heavy slaps landed on Maguna’s back from either side. The three were together again, yet none of them could really smile. Everyone present was splattered with blood, and none of it was their own. It was the blood of the people who had cheered them on. In a scene and atmosphere like this, it was impossible to feel happy.

Maguna introduced his three teammates to Balaru and Garum, while from the very beginning, Yuuki had been interested in the unfamiliar third man.

Since the consciousness of Yuuki had awakened in this world, there had not been many people whose identities he had failed to grasp.

The shadow that had killed someone right in front of him at the rocket launch site was one.

The young man before him, with his indifferent gaze, was the second.

Yuuki studied him carefully. Just by appearance, he looked even younger than Yuuki himself, perhaps fourteen or fifteen. If he were on Earth, he would probably be a high school student. He was a little shorter than Yuuki, with short curly hair and a brown furry scarf around his neck. Unlike Balaru, who let his scarf flutter in the wind, this young man had tied his scarf neatly into a very proper knot and tucked the ends beneath his coat. He wore a plain overcoat, and the light-colored fabric was marked all over with faint bloodstains. It was obvious someone had tried to clean them, but not thoroughly; instead, the stains had only spread.

As Yuuki examined him, the unfamiliar youth across from him was also looking at them. His gaze swept over the four of them, paused briefly on Pega, then quickly moved away.

What was that brief pause supposed to mean?

Yuuki glanced at Pega as well and found that Pega had not noticed the look at all, and was still curiously studying the room.

After Maguna finished introducing the three on Yuuki’s side, it was his turn to introduce the three on the other side. But after naming Balaru and Garum, Maguna stalled, staring blankly at the unfamiliar young man.

“Shin. My name is Shin.”

The young man gave a simple introduction. “Temporary teammate with Balaru and Garum.”

He was referring to the three-person challenge program.

For a moment, everyone fell silent, seemingly waiting for more. Yet the young man who called himself Shin had also gone quiet. He had nothing else to say.

Then, in the next instant, Yuuki stepped forward and took the young man by the arm. He said to Maguna, “This is the one I was looking for. Thank you, Maguna.”

Takaru Soya: “???”

Pega: “???”

Shin: “...? ?”

After the initial surprise, Maguna came to his senses. “Great, congratulations, Yuuki!”

Throwing out a quick “I’m borrowing the study,” Yuuki pulled the still-bewildered young man into a study whose door stood open. On the way past, Yuuki had already taken a look inside; the room contained nothing but one entire wall of books and not even a chair. It was clean, so it must have been a shared space, at least not anyone’s private office.

Then he would make temporary use of it.

After closing the door behind him, Yuuki looked back once, listening carefully to the sounds outside. Only after confirming that no one had followed did he turn to the young man and say, “You’re Tsuburaya, right?”

At that, the other man’s pupils contracted. “How did you...?”

Good. That confirmed it.

Once he had verified that, Yuuki rolled up his sleeve and showed him the bracelet on his right wrist. A row of blue square-cut gems caught the light and reflected it in a soft glow.

“The captain said you brought me a piece of equipment. Do you still have it with you?”

Yuuki deliberately kept his words brief, striving to reveal as little as possible.

After all, this place was unfamiliar and dangerous. Even if they said they had cleared out all the surveillance, what if something had slipped through? What if the devices they had found were meant to be found, simply to hide the real ones?

Yuuki would not call him by Zero’s true name. He would not mention the captain’s name, either. He would not even state plainly what that equipment was.

If that one sentence was not enough for Zero to understand what he meant, Yuuki would add more.

Sure enough, Zero understood. He cast a wary glance around, then felt inside the inner pocket of his coat and took out an object wrapped in a black bag, still warm from his body heat.

For an experienced warrior, important mission gear was something to keep on hand at all times.

“You are...”

Zero thought it over, then did not go on to expose Yuuki’s cover. He understood what Yuuki was worried about.

Yuuki did not care who Zero thought he was. That was unimportant. He opened the bag and took out three folded components, along with a sheet of paper covered in the writing of the Land of Light. The paper was semi-transparent, and the text floating on it seemed to sway faintly, emitting a blue glow.

Though it took some effort, Yuuki still managed to decipher the text. It was an instruction manual, telling the user how to equip the three components.

Each component consisted of a strangely shaped metal plate and black straps, sized to fit an ordinary human body. One piece was an X-shaped metal plate about the size of a palm, meant to cover the center of the chest. The other two were only about the size of a USB drive. One had to be fastened to the left upper arm, about four finger-widths above the elbow; the other had to be strapped to the right thigh, roughly a fist’s width above the knee.

When each component was worn correctly, a small indicator light on it would turn on. When all three were worn and positioned correctly, another small light on the upper part of the chest plate would illuminate.

That was the instruction manual as Yuuki summarized it. The original wording was far more technical and cumbersome, enough to make one’s head spin. It made Yuuki wonder whether the person who wrote it had deliberately tried to make sure no one could understand it.