Chapter 110
Nishino-kun held Rikka-chan for a while, but eventually he suddenly came to his senses and hurriedly pulled away.
"Ah... s-sorry, Rikka."
"Huh? What?"
Nishino-kun was flustered, and his face seemed slightly red.
Rikka-chan, on the other hand, didn't seem particularly conscious of it.
The contrast between them couldn't have been clearer.
Speaking of the underwear incident, Rikka-chan really does let her guard down around men.
Even though she can be attentive to the smallest details, she's surprisingly careless in strange ways...
A lot of guys probably get the wrong idea. She does have a big chest, after all.
"Ah, youth..."
The old man sitting on the bed was watching us as he muttered that.
He looked vaguely familiar... Who was he again?
Oh, right.
He was the old man who had desperately begged Nishino-kun and the others for help at the hardware store.
So this man had survived, too.
The delinquent was in the bed beside him—Shibata-kun, was it?
Apparently, he had survived as well.
(Only three of them...)
Just as the email said, the rest of their companions still seemed to be separated from them.
They didn't seem to be dead, and if they were still in contact, they would probably reunite before long.
More importantly, the problem was...
"B-by the way, Rikka, where's the person who was traveling with you...?"
"Oh, right. I'll introduce you. Hey, Nattsun―――wait, what?"
Rikka-chan turned around and tilted her head.
Then she looked around the room.
The only people inside were Fujita-san, Rikka-chan, Nishino-kun, the delinquent, and the old man.
So, where was I?―――
"...What are you doing over there, Nattsun?"
Rikka-chan said that while peering at the door with narrowed eyes.
Yes, that's right.
After entering the nap room, I quietly erased my presence and slipped into the hallway.
Then I watched what was happening inside through the crack in the door.
Why, you ask?
(Because this seemed more like something Ichinose-san would do, right?)
If it were her, wouldn't she refuse to enter directly, saying something like, "N-no... I'll wait here, so go ahead without me"?
That was probably how she would act.
And right now, I was Ichinose-san.
I had to behave in a way that seemed properly like her.
≪You have met certain conditions≫
≪You acquired the Skill 'Acting'≫
See? Even the Skill said so.
Actually, how lucky.
I got a pretty useful Skill, too.
"D-don't worry about me. Just go ahead with the conversation..."
"No, no, we're worried! Come on, stop being shy and get over here!"
Rikka-chan practically dragged me inside.
Yes, this was it. This was exactly how Ichinose-san would act.
With Rikka-chan escorting me, I entered the room.
"...Ah, um..."
My eyes met Nishino-kun's.
"...It's been a while, Ichinose. Um... do you remember me?"
"Huh...? Um, well..."
What? Nishino-kun knew Ichinose-san?
Damn it, I hadn't asked Ichinose-san anything about this.
I was completely bewildered.
Taking my reaction a certain way, Nishino-kun let out a deep sigh.
"...You really don't remember me, do you? Well, we didn't talk much. Ah, but you remember Ohno, right? He used to talk to you a lot when you were in your first year."
Ohno...? Who was Ohno?
I rummaged through my memories for several seconds.
Oh, the bespectacled guy.
The otaku-looking guy who had clearly stood out while hanging around with the delinquents.
That's right. His name was Ohno-kun.
(But I don't know anything about that stuff, either...)
So there was only one option.
I quickly hid behind Rikka-chan.
"W-wait, Nattsun...!?"
Sorry, Rikka-chan.
But I couldn't say the wrong thing and let the truth slip out.
I hid behind Rikka-chan and watched Nishino-kun's reaction.
(...Huh?)
For some reason, Nishino-kun looked apologetic.
What was going on?
(Maybe it's because he looked the other way when Nattsun was being bullied?)
Rikka-chan quietly whispered that in my ear.
(Really?)
(Yeah. Nissy thought I was the one who had taken the lead in bullying Nattsun.)
Ah, I see. So that's how it was.
I really had no idea.
Huh? What kind of situation had that been?
(I should've asked Ichinose-san a little more about the bullying when I had the chance...)
No, but forcing her to talk about something she didn't want to discuss felt wrong, too...
It seemed the consequences of putting it off had finally caught up with me.
Still, if she didn't go out of her way to talk to me, that was fine.
If she was holding back because of some strange sense of guilt, that was actually more convenient for me.
As I wondered what to do, the door suddenly flew open.
Everyone's eyes turned toward the door.
A bespectacled woman with the air of a secretary entered the room.
Or rather, it was a face I knew extremely well.
(Chief Shimizu...)
So you survived, too.
Nijo-san and the others had survived, so there was no reason she couldn't have, either.
Her eyes still looked as cold as ever.
"..."
Our eyes met.
I instinctively tensed, but Chief Shimizu gave me a look that clearly said, "Who is this guy?" before quickly looking away.
(...She didn't see through me, did she?)
Of course not. I was in disguise.
But this woman had always been strangely perceptive, so I couldn't let my guard down...
To be honest, she made me uncomfortable.
"Shimizu-chan? What's with the rush?"
"Huff... huff... Don't ask me what's with the rush. I've been looking all over for you, honestly..."
She pushed up her glasses and straightened her posture.
Then, with a serious expression, she said,
"Fujita-san, and everyone else, please come to the first-floor lobby right away. Mayor Uesugi has something important to tell you."
...Something important?
What could it be?
We followed her instructions and headed for the first-floor lobby.
Meanwhile―――
Ichinose Natsu was on the rooftop of a building some distance from City Hall.
It was the tallest building in the area.
It was the perfect vantage point, offering a panoramic view of the surrounding area, including City Hall.
With her Skill, infiltrating the building had been easy, and with Momo's Skill, opening locked doors had been just as easy.
She had slipped into the building without being noticed and continued to keep watch.
"No abnormalities..."
She watched City Hall through the rifle scope.
There was nothing particularly unusual to see.
"All right, next, over here... Oh, I found three goblins..."
When she turned her attention away from City Hall, she saw goblins strolling through a residential neighborhood.
They were about 400 meters away. Easily within range.
Three short cracks rang out—bang, bang, bang—and the goblins were shot through the head and died.
"Mm, hit."
Surveillance and hunting.
She was doing both at the same time.
Monitoring the area mattered, but so did gaining experience.
She had to earn as much as she could while she had the opportunity.
She would have liked to collect the magic stones, too, but that was impossible under the circumstances, so she decided to give up on them.
The corpses might be eaten by other monsters or wild animals, but there was nothing she could do about that.
(If I can hunt the monsters that come to feed, I'll hunt them. If I can't, I'll leave them alone and report it to Kazuto-san...)
This was something she had discussed and decided beforehand with Kazuto and the others.
Powering up the monsters and wild animals, and leveling themselves up.
After agonizing over which to choose, Kazuto and the others had chosen the latter.
"It's gotten completely dark..."
The sun had set, and she was getting hungry.
She took a plastic bottle of tea from the backpack beside her and took a sip.
Kazuto had prepared it for her.
In addition to several days' worth of water and food, the bag contained a sleeping bag, a flashlight, spare underwear, and sanitary products.
He had been incredibly thoughtful.
But the best thing of all was...
"Momo-chan, come on out."
"Woof!"
Momo emerged from her 'Shadow.'
Momo had once only been able to enter Kazuto's shadow, but now that they were in the same party, she could enter Natsu's shadow as well.
The moment Momo appeared, Ichinose's face lit up as she hugged her.
Then she enthusiastically buried her hands in Momo's fur.
"Mmm, Momo-chan is so cute!"
"Whine, whine..."
Her technique for fluffing Momo was every bit as good as Kazuto's, if not better.
Momo couldn't help letting out a blissful sigh at the pleasant sensation.
"Come on, Momo-chan, let's eat, too. Kazuto-san prepared food for you as well."
Saying that, she pulled from her backpack a package of 'Super-High-Class Premium Dog Food—Once Your Pet Tastes It, They'll Never Escape This Flavor Again—,' priced at ¥17,890.
Momo became incredibly excited at the sight.
Her tail wagged furiously in delight.
"Hee hee, do you want it? Is this what you want?"
"Woof! Woof! Woof-woof!"
Momo's eyes were fixed on the 'Super-High-Class Premium Dog Food—Once Your Pet Tastes It, They'll Never Escape This Flavor Again—,' priced at ¥17,890.
The flavor was positively bewitching to dogs.
There was even a story about a dog being trained that smelled this dog food and jumped over a wall to come eat it. (According to the manufacturer.)
She served the expensive dog food into a dish.
"I'll have the green one..."
Beside it, she set up a cup of instant noodles for herself, on sale for 68 yen.
She also had some vegetable juice.
She boiled the water and waited three minutes.
The crispy toppings added afterward were the height of culinary perfection.
"All right, let's eat!"
"Woof!"
Slurp, slurp, huff, huff, gobble, gobble.
The cup noodles tasted delicious on a rooftop with such a good view.
They tasted even better because she was eating them with her beloved Momo-chan.
(But... it still feels like it would taste better if Kazuto-san and Rikka-chan were here, too...)
Food eaten together with someone else was delicious.
In just a few days, her palate had become spoiled by the warmth of companionship.
(I'm lonely, so I'll send them an email.)
Tap, tap, tap—she sent them one after another.
She was already sending a 'No abnormalities' email once every minute, but it seemed fine to send a few more to ease her loneliness.
The number of 'No abnormalities' emails was already abnormal in itself, but she hadn't noticed.
Of course, Kazuto had put his phone on silent mode as well.
He would surely see the number of incoming emails and scream internally.
(They're both working hard, so I have to work hard, too.)
And so Ichinose Natsu steeled herself in a somewhat misguided direction.
"Phew, thanks for the meal."
"Woof!"
She had Aka's clone eat the garbage left after the meal.
Very eco-friendly.
"Well, shall I resume my watch?"
She looked toward City Hall from the rooftop again.
Then an unbelievable sight entered her field of vision.
"...Huh?"
For a moment, she thought she must have seen it wrong.
"Huh? No way. Really?" she said, looking again and again to confirm it.
But no matter how many times she checked, it was the same.
"Momo-chan, that... It's really there, right? I'm not imagining it, am I?"
"...Woof."
She instinctively asked Momo, who was sitting beside her.
Momo was surprised, too.
She wasn't imagining it.
"...No way, right?"
The sight left her speechless.
It was impossible.
It couldn't be real.
An utterly ordinary sight spread before her.
And―――precisely because of that, it was an utterly bizarre sight in the world as it now existed.
"...The lights... are on...?"
The glow of civilization.
The light of 'electricity' was brightly illuminating City Hall at night.