Chapter 55
A somewhat different atmosphere lingered in the grocery store's warehouse.
As the place where all the homeless people's hope (food nearing its expiration date) was stored, the warehouse was generally kept on the cool side, but.
The dawn wind slipping in through the ventilator was creating an ominous current.
Tick.
The lights came brightly on.
The pitch-black ninja, bound tightly from head to toe, screwed up his face as though dazzled.
Tension was clearly visible in the expression showing beyond his mask.
Then again, from his perspective, it was effectively being caught helplessly by a hostile organization.
It was astonishing that he had continued to burn with hostility while keeping silent until now.
Michael approached from behind me, while I was admiring him.
“I took a quick look, and it doesn’t seem like he has any cyberbrain devices such as a smart chip. His arms and legs do appear to be cybernetic prostheses, though.”
“If he doesn’t have a smart chip at all, there’s no risk of him being brainwashed like the people we saw at the church.”
“Yes, it seems they anticipated that possibility in advance.”
In any case, I had no intention of using the file Troy had given me.
Quite apart from the fact that it was illegal under city law.
Because I felt an intense revulsion toward the technology itself that could completely control a person’s personality and memories.
What about the people in the church?
In fact, I had been deceived by Troy too.
‘If I’d known from the start that it was going to re-brainwash people, I would have at least thought it over more carefully.’
I had nearly created a new cult religion in my own name.
I was already dying of embarrassment just from homeless people shouting, “Hot Dog Man!”
Anyway.
“What’s your name?”
“……”
The fake ninja, seated roughly on one of the boxes in the warehouse, didn’t seem inclined to answer easily, no matter what I asked.
It wasn’t unexpected, so I calmly shrugged.
Just then, a clear, refreshing sound rang out from the microwave.
Ding─.
I took out the contents of the microwave and casually held out a steaming hot dog to him.
“Want one?”
““…!!””
The people around us flinched at that.
My giving a hot dog to someone else was practically the same as entrusting my precious life to them……
─not quite.
I had only offered it out of pure goodwill, wondering if he was hungry since he kept scanning the products around the warehouse.
“…Ha.”
A very low laugh followed.
Perhaps my action had felt like mockery instead, because a grinding sound came from inside the mask of the fake ninja, whose name I still didn’t know.
“It probably contains a truth serum or something. It may be a shame, but I have nothing to say to any of you.”
“If you don’t want it, forget it.”
“……”
As I casually munched on the hot dog, the fake ninja’s brow naturally furrowed.
I squatted in front of him and repeated the process of eating a hot dog and throwing away the empty wrapper at intervals of mere seconds.
A feat impossible even for a competitive eater.
Perhaps because I had been through so many complicated things.
‘Mm, delicious.’
I felt I could eat at least one more box than my usual amount.
While I demolished countless hot dogs.
Michael, Rivera, and even Nova had all finished methodically preparing to make the fake ninja talk.
My gaze and the fake ninja’s simultaneously confirmed the presence of ‘tools.’
‘A bucket full of water, a filthy scrap of cloth, broken glass, bolts and nuts, a large pair of pliers, wire cutters, a screwdriver, an old hacksaw, and….’
What the hell is that?
One object after another spilled out, none of whose uses I could possibly guess.
The fake ninja muttered in a trembling voice.
“…It won’t do you any good. I’ve already switched off the pain sensors in my brain.”
“You can do that without a cybernetic implant?”
“Of course.”
Looking closely, I realized his voice wasn’t trembling from fear; it seemed his tongue wasn’t moving properly.
As I pressed down on the fake ninja’s thigh in fascination, Rivera, who had lit the ‘industrial torch’ with practiced hands, nodded.
“It’s all right. Give me two hours, and I’ll make him able to tell us what he remembers from the moment he was born.”
“Th-that is a very reassuring statement, but.”
Was this really all right from an ethical standpoint?
But Nova and Michael didn’t seem to find anything particularly strange about it, either.
“Then I suppose we should continue the interrogation by focusing on impairment rather than pain.”
“…Ah, I know a few similar methods myself. It seems my time working for a corporation is finally paying off.”
It was a moment when I caught a glimpse of the frightening side of District 49’s residents.
This is Risk City….
A city where it was only natural to have your eyes open and your nose cut off.
Not metaphorically. Literally.
Then again, none of them were ordinary people.
The fake ninja’s complexion darkened, but in the end, he did not bend his will.
“…Just kill me.”
He spoke the sort of line a knight captured by goblins might have said, as though steeling himself.
People in this merciless cyberpunk world were hardly likely to care about the Geneva Conventions.
Michael, Rivera, and Nova slowly moved toward him to punish the bastard who had dared make ‘Hot Dog Man’ bleed.
“Tsk, forget it.”
If I hadn’t casually brushed my hands off.
That was probably exactly what would have happened.
“It’s not as if I have anything serious to ask you anyway.”
“…?”
A question mark appeared above the fake ninja’s head.
But I continued flatly.
“No matter how I think about it, you don’t seem worth torturing to death. I’ve mostly cooled off in the meantime, too.”
That was what my ‘feeling’ told me.
If he had truly been a bad person, I would have made a bullet hole in his forehead without hesitation.
But unlike the people I had dealt with personally until now, he had no clear reason for me to kill him, nor did he give me a distinct impression of being a villain.
“And it’s not as if the grocery store’s location is a secret.”
The weapons I’d stolen by robbing the megacorp were already stashed away in some corner, so I hadn’t had any secret that needed hiding exposed.
Anyway.
We weren’t a real gang organization.
I couldn’t think of any reason to get cruel with him.
In fact, not wanting to see Rivera, Nova, and Michael act that way was one of the important reasons, too.
I undid the thick wire binding the fake ninja and spoke without turning around.
“That okay?”
“I’m fine with anything as long as Hot Dog Man is okay with it.”
Nova and Michael reacted similarly.
“I will prioritize the user’s choice.”
“From a risk-management perspective, it isn’t a particularly bad choice, either. Well, I had a feeling this was how it would turn out.”
I gave the ninja, who was standing up awkwardly, a light push from behind.
“Come on, you heard them, right? Don’t say you can’t move because you switched off your pain sensors. We’re not close enough to support each other.”
“…I can move.”
“Good. Don’t hang around here for no reason. If we catch you again, I won’t let you go as easily as this time.”
Even if he had turned off his pain sensors, could he withstand watching a peanut spin around dozens of times?
The sight made my knees weak just imagining it, so I quickly shook the thought away.
He slowly clenched his fists.
“…I really don’t understand. Does that mean a worthless nobody like me isn’t even worth killing?”
“Ugh, I’m letting you go and you’re still bitching.”
When I reflexively raised my hand, the ninja hunched his shoulders, apparently remembering the earlier fight.
“Just go.”
I had no intention of filming a third-rate splatter movie in my happy, peaceful warehouse.
Even if this was a world inside a game, I hadn’t forgotten the line I was supposed to maintain as a human being.
I had decided not to kill people simply for the sake of ‘experience points.’
Perhaps because he was not the trusting type, the fake ninja kept looking back at us several times as he walked toward the back door.
Just before he finally opened the back door and left.
“I have one question to ask.”
“What a funny guy. You proudly said you had no answers for us.”
“…I suppose that’s true.”
Apparently, even he thought it sounded strange.
He quietly took hold of the back door’s handle.
I asked him one last question.
“Go ahead, then. Let’s hear what you have to say.”
“…Why is there so much food here? Wasn’t this store only made to keep people’s eyes off you?”
“What? Do you have any idea how seriously I take being the manager of this grocery store?”
Even recently, I had been sitting dutifully at the counter, waiting desperately for customers to come in.
Although not a single customer had come yet.
I added to the fake ninja, who stood there blankly.
“Go back and tell your organization this: don’t bother people who are living decent lives.”
“……”
“Wow, what an asshole…. Now that his curiosity’s been satisfied, he won’t even answer me.”
“…It’s not like that.”
What wasn’t like that?
Leaving only those words behind, the fake ninja opened the back door and slipped away.
It was a quiet exit, just like his entrance.
* * *
A few hours later.
The fake ninja─no, Shadow─arrived at a safe house built by Hakuga-gumi and manipulated his terminal to contact the main force.
[This is Owl. Safe House Seven, state your business.]
“This is Shadow. I have just returned to Safe House Seven from the mission I was assigned.”
[…….]
The person he was supposed to contact in sequence suddenly fell silent.
A reaction as though he had heard a ghost’s voice.
[…Shadow was reported missing after failing in his assignment to guard the leader of the Infinite Truth Church and being captured by an organization under a mafia family.]
“That’s right.”
But Shadow conveyed the miraculous fact that, through ‘the other party’s goodwill,’ he had been able to escape ‘safely’ without leaking ‘any information.’
“I did not violate security protocol. I have moved to Safe House Seven in case I’m being tracked.”
They had spent hours going around and checking, but the result only made it clearer that he really had been released without them taking any action.
[Please wait a moment.]
“Understood.”
Shadow understood Owl’s reaction.
He himself could hardly believe the situation.
And shortly afterward.
A translucent hologram suddenly appeared above the old terminal.
The moment Shadow confirmed the face on the hologram, he reflexively knelt and slammed his forehead against the floor.
“…Shadow greets the captain!”
[Hmm.]
Countless scars ran across his face.
A bronze-skinned man in a white suit swollen as though it might burst leaned his head forward.
[Indeed, you don’t have a single wound.]
His low but booming voice vibrated with puzzlement.
“…There was a fight, but I was able to return safely to the main force─.”
[Considering the personality of that mafia bitch, her subordinate’s character must be anything but ordinary.]
The ‘captain,’ who held all of Hakuga-gumi’s power, cut Shadow off in a single stroke.
[But.]
As though he had never intended to listen in the first place.
[Even after they found out you belonged to Hakuga-gumi, you managed to escape with your arms and legs intact without being tortured at all, did you?]
Then a loud laugh rang out.
The laugh boomed so loudly that a line of blood trickled from Shadow’s ear.
[You really take me for a fucking idiot.]
His sharp fangs, like those of a beast, stretched wide as though they might bite through Shadow’s throat at any moment.
“I-I’m telling the truth.”
From Shadow’s perspective, it was simply unjust.
They really had just let him go.
The captain of Hakuga-gumi, [Black Tiger], slowly drew his head back.
Weariness settled over his expression again.
[Did you know? Even the Black Star Society treats dogs that bite their masters separately.]
The hologram’s screen gradually faded.
[A master may abandon a dog, but a dog must never bite its master. It seems you don’t even know something that simple.]
“That’s not it…!”
[You thought that if you broke your leash and moved forward, you would become a wolf, but in the end, a dog is still a dog.]
Every sound cut off.
Unlike at the grocery store, this time he was unable to leave even a single excuse behind.
Shadow was discarded by Hakuga-gumi.
“…Ha-ha.”
A small laugh escaped him.
Had he devoted his loyalty to Hakuga-gumi just to end up like this?
Shadow noticed that countless ‘dogs’ had already begun surrounding the safe house.
They could open the top of his skull and remove his frontal lobe to uncover the whole truth, but what good would it do by then?
The moment of unavoidable death.
The last thing Shadow thought of was.
Not anger, regret, or frustration.
The cat food sold at a certain grocery store.
‘If only…….’
After the incident involving the cult.
Several days later, one morning.
As usual, I stretched and was about to change the sign hanging at the grocery store entrance to 『Open』 when I spotted a familiar ragged figure in front of me.
“What is it?”
“…Do─mo, I’m Cat.”
The ragged figure was a familiar face.