Chapter 54
A tactical operative affiliated with Hakuga-gumi.
The ninja known as Shadow moved swiftly between buildings like a flying squirrel.
Though low groans escaped him involuntarily from the throbbing pain in his joints and muscles, his movements were exceptionally light.
‘Indeed, indeed….’
He had not been personally recruited by the Sparo Rapido Family for nothing.
Shadow nodded to himself as he recalled the enormous man he had encountered a little while ago.
Not only had the ‘nano cells’ created with a megacorp’s latest technology been half-destroyed, but the impact of his casually swung attacks had penetrated the outer-shell implants and made his bones throb.
Since he had already lost the target he was supposed to protect,
there was no reason to continue the fight there.
Shadow planned to rendezvous with the main force as quickly as possible and report Hot Dog Man’s danger to his superiors.
‘I thought he was just an ordinary Purist.’
Contrary to Shadow’s initial expectations, the man did not seem to use magic circuits.
No signal from a cybernetic prosthetic body had been detected either, so what the hell was the source of that ‘absurd strength’?
‘Even if he were one of the beastmen I’ve only heard rumors about, it would be difficult for him to display that level of might.’
He did not need to make that judgment himself.
Since the organization had yet to properly identify Hot Dog Man’s identity or objective, Shadow had set off the smoke bomb and attempted to flee without hesitation for that very reason.
However.
“…Hey, you.”
Shadow had no choice but to reflexively stop at the voice of a ‘woman’ that suddenly came from behind him.
The hand blade thrust backward passed precisely through the spot where an intruder was presumed to be.
Whoosh!
At the same time, a long shuriken shot from his fingertips and went clattering into the floor─.
“……”
Shadow slowly exhaled.
No one was visible behind him.
It felt as though he had been bewitched by a ghost.
‘…Did I hear things?’
Then again, this was normally impossible.
He had been running at full speed.
After confirming that there was no sign of anyone nearby, Shadow calmed his startled heart and prepared to dash forward again.
The building’s rooftop─.
Until he found a short woman blocking his path.
He really had intended to do so.
“…!!”
Shadow felt a cold sweat trickle down his temple.
Because he could not sense any presence whatsoever from the woman before him.
Rivera, a miraculous result secretly created through experiments at a certain megacorp, tilted her head indifferently.
“You just came out of that church building over there, didn’t you?”
“……”
“And….”
She leisurely closed her eyes, as though focusing on her sense of smell.
“…This smell of blood.”
It belonged to someone she knew.
Risk City’s air quality was atrocious, and the wind was laden with dust, factory fumes, heavy metals, and fine particulate matter, but.
Rivera’s keen senses could pick out one person’s scent of blood from all that.
A chill swept down Shadow’s spine like a wave.
‘……This is dangerous.’
He quietly asked while counting his remaining shuriken.
“…What are you?”
“……”
Of course, there was no answer.
She was the one who asked questions, not the one who answered them.
A blunt piece of metal poked out from Rivera’s long sleeve.
It looked like a piece of metal she had picked up carelessly from a nearby trash can, but it felt sharper than any weapon in the world.
…Shadow quietly gritted his teeth.
* * *
“…There was a suspicious person running away over there, so I caught him and brought him here.”
“Good.”
I gave a thumbs-up.
A soft giggle came from behind Rivera’s shaggy bangs.
When I roughly tousled her long hair,
“…!!”
The fake ninja watching us stood there gaping as if he had been shocked.
“That monster….”
Anyway, what we needed to worry about right now was not the fake ninja’s fate.
The church’s spacious chapel.
The area was noisy with people murmuring.
“S-so what exactly happened?”
“…Oh, God. Wait a minute. But who was our god again?”
“The name of God was Hale Cree─, urgh, no! Another face is appearing in my head.”
Even the people who had previously been brainwashed by the cult leader seemed to be in the midst of great confusion after Troy’s file was uploaded to the main system.
Still, they looked better than before, when they had been rampaging madly.
“…Excuse me, God?”
“I’m not that kind of person.”
“Of course not. How could anyone compare a great god to a mere person?”
“No, I mean I’m not a god.”
“Please, do not test our faith….”
The brainwashing itself had not been undone.
It was starting to give me a headache.
Just as a chick that hatches from an egg regards the first person it sees as its mother, those who had already been thoroughly brainwashed could not even conceive of another possibility.
I tried contacting Troy, who had created this whole mess, again, but.
Perhaps something urgent had come up, because he did not reply to the message I had sent, either.
Well, what could I do?
For now, I had no choice but to somehow resolve this troublesome situation.
Just then, the fake ninja I never wanted to look at began muttering to himself with a smirk.
“As expected, this was your plan from the very beginning. While cutting off our Hakuga-gumi’s limbs, you’re simultaneously expanding your own forces little by little─.”
“Shut him up.”
“……Mmph!!”
What should I do first?
Just as I was continuing to ponder while looking at the chapel filled with people.
This time, Michael unexpectedly began climbing onto the platform at the end of the chapel.
“Now, I shall begin the first worship service dedicated to the great, the truly great Hot Dog God.”
“…Drag him down too.”
“Ah, this wasn’t it…….”
No.
Nova, who had been quietly standing beside Rivera, dragged Michael away by the hand.
Anyway.
To properly bring this incident to a close, I cautiously took a step forward.
As I stepped onto the platform, the voices of the murmuring people naturally grew quieter.
“Th-that person is definitely the one I saw in my memories….”
“…So God really did exist.”
If I shouted hallelujah here, it felt like I could immediately go down the cult-religion route, but of course, I had no intention of doing that.
Being a grocery store manager was a far more satisfying career than being a cult leader.
I simply intended to roughly sort out the situation so that people would not be confused.
Bzz─.
The microphone’s feedback hummed.
My amplified voice rang out across the chapel.
“Ahem, hello.”
““……””
In the slightly awkward atmosphere, I started with an introduction.
“My name is Abel Anderson, and I’m the manager of a grocery store operating around here.”
“…Did God just speak the name of the holy land?”
Ignoring the murmurs of the people.
I quickly said what I had to say.
“People around here call me by the strange nickname Hot Dog Man…. Ah, that’s not important.”
““…Hot Dog Man!””
“Yes, I know; you don’t have to shout. Most of you, except for a few who came here for the first time, don’t realize it, but you’ve been infected with illegal malware.”
I spoke the truth plainly, but there was no particularly remarkable reaction.
“Malware…?”
“Urgh, my head suddenly….”
Everyone merely complained of headaches, as if they had heard something they were not supposed to hear.
I guess this won’t work.
“To cut to the conclusion, the church’s worship services end today.”
““…What?””
“Go home, work hard, eat your meals properly, sleep comfortably, and just live decently without causing trouble for others.”
This shouldn’t cause any other problems, either.
“Also, since there are many bad people in the world, don’t trust others too easily…. And don’t agree when someone asks you to co-sign a loan. Well, it’s not an absolute rule; I mean, don’t do it ‘if you can help it.’”
Things to observe if possible.
It reminded me of the doctrine of the Flying Spaghetti Monster somewhere out there, but it was still far better than the rules laid down by a crazy cult.
In other words, just live well on your own.
At the same time, someone in the chapel raised a hand high.
“Go ahead.”
“Wh-what should we do about the Nine Commandments we’ve been following?”
“They’re all canceled.”
The murmuring grew louder, but my job was over at this point.
“Everyone, dismissed.”
As I stepped down from the platform without hesitation, confused people began crowding around.
But perhaps because they could not bring themselves to touch a ‘god,’
no one blocked my path.
Immediately after we left the church.
Michael cleared his throat softly and spoke in a carefully casual tone.
“…Um, is that really all right?”
“It couldn’t be helped.”
It wasn’t as if I could take care of those people for the rest of their lives.
“No, I mean….”
“What?”
“…Nothing.”
Michael started to continue in a somewhat uneasy tone, but.
Soon he nodded to himself and accepted it.
What a silly guy.
* * *
The peaceful grocery store in District 49.
Apparently, a new group of homeless people had recently settled in one corner of the vacant lot and begun praying.
They worked diligently at whatever jobs were available in District 49, ate well, slept well, and lived decently without causing trouble for the people around them, but….
There was just one thing.
There was one matter on which they would never compromise.
“Hot Dog Man, my ass. There’s no way anyone with a shitty nickname like that is normal.”
A newcomer homeless man who had come to the grocery store grumbled, oblivious to the atmosphere.
“They’re obviously drugging people with sleeping pills or something to harvest their organs. …What the fuck? Why don’t you all get the hell out of here? Do you know who I am, swarming around me like—”
Eventually.
The clueless homeless man, surrounded without a sound by the ‘believers,’
was newly ‘re-educated’ through a thorough clubbing.
Only the grocery store manager was unaware of this.
* * *
The pitch-black interior suddenly lit up all at once.
The tactical operative of Hakuga-gumi, commonly known as Shadow, calmly awaited the crisis that would soon befall him.
Having spent his entire life in Hakuga-gumi, he was confident he could keep the organization’s information secret until the very end.
‘However….’
This place, supposedly a base for an organization, surely wasn’t actually operating a grocery store.
‘……Why are there so many foodstuffs?’
Shadow sat atop a box of cat food and pondered carefully.