Rebuild World

…By the way, Akira, how many people have you killed till now? It might be rude for me to ask this, but it has something to do with submitting your permission, you see.”

Akira pulled back his head and thought for a bit, but eventually, he shook his head and said.

“Sorry, I have no idea, it’s not like I’m counting it in the first place…”

“There’s no need for a precise number, an estimation like how many digits should be enough.”

“In that case… 3 digits… I guess? I’m sure it doesn’t go as far as 4 digits or does it? Hmm… It’s just my guess though.”

“I-I see… Is that the number from the ones you killed directly? Or does it include those who are killed indirectly as well?”

Leaders often counted the people that the team killed due to their orders.
Hikaru thought that Akira might be one of those when she asked that question, but he interpreted that question differently.

“Does indirect include something like I shot them, but they did not die right away only to die later because of the wound too?”

“That would be direct.”

“In that case, that number is from the direct ones.”

“I-I see.”

Akira answered Hikaru’s questions as if it was a casual conversation.
Like what he just had for lunch a few days ago.
Hikaru was only barely able to maintain her smile thanks to her greatly polished negotiation talent.
She then reached for the information terminal and stopped the car.

“Sorry, I forgot to report something to Kibayashi, can you please wait here for a bit? I’ll go out and make a quick call.”

“Sure.”

Akira replied with a short affirmation, so Hiraku smiled at him and left the car.
She unconsciously walked away from the car where Akira was, half-running.
After she opened some distance from the car, she repeatedly took some deep breathes to calm down her throbbing heart.
She tried to calm down as much as possible before calling Kibayashi.

“Oh, did something happen?”

Kibayashi’s casual voice incited an explosion of emotion from Hikaru.

“Don’t give me that!? Just what the heck is wrong with him!?”

“Even if you yell at me like that, I have no idea unless you tell me what happened, you know?”

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Kibayashi was chuckling since it turned out exactly as he expected as he listened to Hikaru’s explanation.
After that, he then innocently asked Hikaru.

“I see, so, is there any problem?”

“Are you-!? Of course, it’s a huge problem!? Why did you let someone who killed that many people into the middle district?!”

“Why, you ask? What are you even talking about? Isn’t that because you asked me to?”

“It doesn’t take a genius to refuse that request, you know!? Don’t tell me that you did something behind the curtain to get permission for him.”

“I didn’t do anything.
Well, if you ask me if he’s a dangerous person, I’ll give you a straight yes.
Even I would hesitate to let him into the middle district.
So, I’m really amazed by your negotiation skill, you really managed to get him into the middle district.
I’m being serious here, I’m honestly impressed that you actually did it, didn’t I tell you yesterday as well, remember?”

In contrast to Hikaru, who was barking complaints, Kibayashi replied with an amused tone.

“It seems that you’re suspicious why your request got through, the final decision for the permission is made based on many considerations.
For example, even if it’s true that Akira killed hundreds of people, that happened outside the wall.
In short, that happened out there in the wasteland.
So, I bet the higher-ups are not really concerned about it.
But with that being said, if he was a murderer who killed people he saw no matter where he went, the permission would not have been granted.
As a matter of fact, he would have been put on a bounty.
Even if he has killed hundreds of people, it happened outside the wall, and considering that the public safety outside the wall is virtually non-existent along with his hunter rank being 50, I bet his permission was only barely managed to get approved.”

“T-that’s… Aren’t you going a bit too far with that guess of yours?”

“But that’s completely possible, you know? Didn’t you work so hard to close that gap? That peaceful resolution with Drankam through the hunter office, and with that as a basis, you get them to join operations with him.
That should be enough to prove that Akira is a professional hunter who obeys his contracts closely.
Basically, what you have done so far is guarantee that he’s safe.
Man, that’s really impressive.
If it was me, I wouldn’t be able to do that.
After all, that guy went in alone and crushed a huge gang in the slums just to kill someone who stole his money, you know? He did kill quite a lot of people during that incident, after all, so there’s no way his kill count only stopped at dozens, you know.”

“S-so that was not because he somehow got roped into the conflict…?”

“Hm? The record didn’t go into that detail, huh? Did the record mostly omit that part because of its connection with that powered suit? Hmm? I see.
It’s under the information restriction, huh? Well, I guess things like this do happen from time to time, ah, right, make sure not to leak this info, okay?”

Hikaru’s face turned paler and paler.

“I’m sure you’ll be deemed responsible if he causes some sort of issue there.
Though it won’t go as far as firing you, I bet you won’t be able to live inside the inner wall anymore.
But again, I bet you know this very well before you brought him into the middle district, right? By the way, I went to call you in person yesterday because I just wanted to confirm if you’re sure with what you were doing, just to be safe, you know?”

Hikaru then thought that she should have noticed it the moment Kibayashi said something suspicious to her yesterday, but all that she could do for now was just to wallow in her regrets.

“Well, basically, everything will be fine as long as he doesn’t do anything bad and it’s your job to make sure that nothing bad happens.
Be careful, yeah? If a random thug in the inner wall said to him that they would kill him, there’s no doubt that he’ll go ahead and kill them instead, that’s just the kind of person Akira is.
Even with the fact that he’s a ranking 50 hunter with a connection to city management’s officer and a strong letter of recommendation from city management staff, he only managed to get temporary permission to enter the middle district, you see.
So, I’m sure you understand the meaning behind it without any further explanation.”

Hikaru always thought that high ranking hunters with connection to city management’s officers would always be proper hunters, but that did not seem to be the case.

“He might be able to accomplish whatever crazy plan you have, you know? So, just give it your best shot, I’ll be waiting for the result.”

Even after Kibayashi closed the call, Hikaru still stood there without doing anything for a few minutes.
When she returned to herself, she finally understood that Kibayashi was using her to do something crazy and she had no inkling of how to get away from that.

Sending Akira as the escort for the inter-city transport was supposed to be a low-risk high-return gamble, but now, it has completely changed into a life-staking high-risk high-return gamble.
Unfortunately, she had gone too far to back out now.
Not only did she forcefully get Akira into a job related to another city, if she suddenly decided to back out of it at the very last minute, her reputation would be crushed to nothing.
In the worst-case scenario, they might blame her and banish her from the inner wall.

In the first place, it was highly unlikely that Akira would be okay with quitting at this point.
For the hunters, the request to escort inter-city transport was a fortuitous request.
If Hikaru told him to back out although she was the one who strongly pushed that request to him, it would definitely buy her a lot of grudges.
She did not even want to imagine what would happen to her after that.

“Okay okay! I just have to do this, right?!”

Her route of retreat had already been destroyed.
Which meant, her only choice was to push forward and reach for the win.
She clapped both of her hands on her face and expelled the fear inside of her.

“Let’s do this!”

Hikaru declared so to help herself get fired up as she gave off a strong smile.

The transport terminal inside the wall was built like a harbor to handle large cargoes.
The huge trucks carrying countless containers were going back and forth between the transport trucks and the warehouses.
The size of the tires of those large trucks was even bigger than Akira.
The transport truck was large enough to make those large trucks that hunters used look like cute tiny baby trucks.
The scene laid out here really threw off the sense of the size for everyone there.

Akira was looking closely at one of those vehicles and was completely overwhelmed by the size of it.
Although he encountered them a few times in the wasteland, he never looked at them up close.
Their sizes really felt different when he was this close to it.

“I know that this thing is designed to be used in the wasteland, but still, it’s really something.
If a vehicle this huge is going through the wasteland.
It’s no wonder it would attract monsters.
That would explain why there were so many pruning requests.
Well then, I’ll be going now.”

“Of course, good luck.”

Akira walked through the ramp and boarded the vehicle, Hikaru saw him off with a smile.
But after Akira vanished into the vehicle, her smile quickly turned wry.
She only stood there while running her brain at full power, and then when the ramp was about to be removed, she finally made her decision and ran into the vehicle as well.

Akira went to the room that he was assigned to and took a short rest there.
Since the inside of the transport vehicle was considered as a part of the middle district, it was well equipped to welcome the guests suitable for those who would visit the middle district, the individual rooms were relatively large and equipped with all kinds of facilities.
And to match its size, the bath in the bathroom was also equally big.
The wall was equipped with holographic displays and projected the scene from the outside of the vehicle, it gave off a sense of grandiose.
Hunters could also pay extra to get better rooms with more facilities, but Akira did not think that it was a wise thing to spend his reward for that.

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Akira’s job was to watch the outside and to follow command when a battle broke out.
Since the escorts’ groups and posts were already decided beforehand, they were free to do anything until they were called upon.
Akira was thinking of going to the cafeteria or perusing the merchant quarters to waste time.
As he left the room, that was right when Hikaru, who was running toward his room, arrived at his door.

Hikaru was still panting when she asked Akira.

“A-Akira… Where… Are you going?”

“I’m just thinking of checking the cafeteria or the stands…”

“I-I see… W-well… Can you please stay in your room… For now? P-Please…”

Hikaru was still panting as she meekly pushed Akira back into his room.
Akira was weirded out by it but still decided to get back to his room.

Hikaru was trying to calm her breath while giving off a rather anxious look, Akira frowned at Hikaru and threw a question at her.

“The truck will be going soon, is it okay for you to be here? Weren’t you planning to give me support from the city?”

“That was the plan, but there’s a small change in that plan.
I’ll be going with you too.
It’s faster to give you support from closer by after all.
Although I can’t help you during the fight, we don’t need to worry much about lag and interference when we’re close.
I’ll be with you for the full 3 days, so, I’ll be in your care.”

“I see, in that case, I’ll be in your care as well.
Now then, I’ll be going out for a bit-”

“Wait!”

Akira stepped back and was really weirded out by Hikaru, who stopped him so suddenly and desperately.
But Hikaru then gave a polite smile and said.

“Please just stay in the room.
If you want to do something outside, please tell me first.
If it’s something I can do, then I’ll do it for you.
So don’t leave this room, okay?”

“…Why don’t you want me to go out that much?”

As expected, Akira started to find it suspicious.
Hikaru tried to keep calm as she looked for an excuse.

“Although you received permission to go to the middle district, we actually kind of forced it so that the permission got approved on time.
Because of that, some data is still being processed.
I’m worried that the security system might not correctly recognize the permissions supposed to be granted to you.
So, if it’s possible, I want you to just stay in this room.
I’m sorry, this is all my fault.”

“Is that so? Ah, that’s why you suddenly have to change your plan, huh?”

“Y-Yes, exactly! I’m really sorry.”

“Well, it can’t be helped then.
Fine, I’ll refrain from going out from this room as much as I can.”

“Thank you, and again, sorry.”

Hikaru sighed in relief, Akira sent a glance at Alpha who was floating next to Hikaru.

“Alpha.”

“She’s not lying, but I bet it’s just an excuse.”

“Thought so.
Well, I’m sure she has her reasons too.
She has been acting weird ever since she left the car to call Kibayashi, I wonder if Kibayashi said something to her.”

Since it was basically an order from his requester and it was not something that hard to do, Akira thought that there was no need to unnecessarily refuse that order and did not dwell any further on it.

For the time being, Hikaru’s plan was to reduce Akira’s contact with others.
This was in order to reduce the possibility of him causing any form of trouble as much as possible and that plan was going well for now.

The displays on the wall suddenly turned on, showing the views outside the vehicle.
It seemed that the vehicle finally started moving.
The large transport vehicle approached the high walls.
The wall then started to move and opened a passage into the wasteland.
The transport vehicle passed through that opening and immediately accelerated the moment it entered the wasteland.
With this, Akira’s request to escort the transport had begun.

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