Rebuild World

id.

“Well, about that, it’s true that normally it won’t work, but since I have limited control of your cyborg body, we might be able to use it.”

“Ah, I see…”

The guy then frowned, normally, he would never let others take control of his body for something like this, but since he had already done that, he might as well use it for his own advantage.

Shirou then continued.

“Although you can take back any of the food you want, I’m afraid that’s not the case for this VR device.
If you want to try, this is your only chance.
I do feel sorry for making you do this, that’s why I’m making this an exception.
So, do you want to have a try? Well, I won’t force you though.
It would be weird to force people to try this when they don’t want to after all.”

The guy hesitated, another guy suddenly interjected.

“Can I try then?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

Shirou replied with a smile.

After that, Shirou connected the VR to the other guy and turned it on.
From others’ point of view, that guy only seemed to be sitting without doing anything.
But with his 5 senses connected to the VR, although he only sat there without moving, he was actually moving around inside the VR.

After 10 minutes of using the VR, he then opened his eyes.
The guy next to him asked him, piqued.

“So, how was it?”

“…That was really something.”

That short impression left much to be questioned, but it was clear from his reaction that it was indeed something amazing.

The other guys looked at Shirou.

“Can we try it too?”

“Sure sure, feel free to use it.
Though there’s a limit on how many people can use it at the same time, so you guys can only use it in turns.”

The guys that hesitated at the start finally joined in too after hearing the impression from the others.
It did not take long for them to start using it in turns.

—*—*—*—

As Hammerz was getting his injuries treated in the infirmary.
He was also watching Shirou through the shared vision of the cyborgs that he had a shared control over.
Hammerz frowned as the Hunters were looking at naked girls, which he could watch as well.

“What the heck are they doing over there?”

He quickly called Shirou, and Shirou then waved at him through the Hunter’s vision.

“What is it? I’m still here and not doing anything you know?”

“Some of the Hunters over there have weird things in their sights, you know? What did you do to them?”

“Oh, about that, I basically lend them the VR device, so I bet it’s from the VR.”

After hearing Shirous’s explanation, Hammerz sighed.

“Listen here.
They are bodyguards, okay? Just what do you think you’re doing?”

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“It’s fine, isn’t it? Just let them play for a bit.
I believe things should calm down after that incident.
Moreover, we have some control over their bodies and are basically forcing them to guard me.
It’s scary for me to be here surrounded by angry people you know? So, at least let them enjoy this.”

“I didn’t know you were that much of a coward.”

“That’s because I always have a reassuring bodyguard next to me.”

In response to Shirou’s rather empty compliment that he said in his usual casual tone, Hammerz gave up and thought to himself.
[Well, this should at least not bring me any trouble.]

“Anyway, only send video feedback from the real world, don’t allow anything else in.”

“Yes yes.”

Shirou then closed the call and the video feedback sent from the Hunters were immediately cleaned up.
Some of them seem to be closing their eyes, so what was shown only reflected endless darkness, while some had their eyes fixed on the same point as if they were stationary cameras.
From there, Hammerz could see Shirou sharing laughs with the Hunters.

Seeing that, Hammerz thought that it should be fine and returned to treat his injuries.

—*—*—*—

As for Akira, after he received some treatments to make sure that his life was not in danger, he went and lay on a bed.
He had already been removed from the escort team roster because of the damage to both his body and equipment.
He just had to wait until the convoy reached the city.

Hikaru was sitting next to him.
After giving her report to the escort team and Kugamayama city, she was released and finally could relax.

Hikaru glanced at Akira’s sleeping face and thought.

[Judging from the condition of the isolation room, it is easy to imagine how intense the battle was and how powerful Akira is.
Although his might still instilled fear within, it still gives me a sense of reassurance.
I guess the only thing that draws the line between both is whether his power is directed at me or not…]

Akira had killed hundreds of people outside the walls.
In that situation where it would not be strange if he abandoned her, he still chose to save her even if it meant that he almost got killed because of it.
Hikaru just could not understand this person called Akira.

[It might be his loyalty toward his contract, but that doesn’t sound right.
After all, it’s just as he said, not saving me does not violate his contract…]

With that strange feeling welling, she looked at the sleeping Akira and mumbled.

“Say, why did you save me?”

“And here I went out of my way to save you because you asked me to, isn’t that question a little bit too insensitive?”

Hikaru was surprised, she did not expect Akira would answer her.
Akira then pushed his body up.

“Y-You were awake?”

“I just woke up.”

After an awkward pause, knowing that Akira had heard her, Hikaru thought that she should rephrase the question.

“I’ll say this again, thank you for saving me.
So, basically, considering the situation back there, I thought that it would be normal to abandon me instead.
That’s why I thought it was weird that you didn’t.
That’s all there is to it.
So, can you tell me? Why did you save me?”

Akira casually replied.

“If someone asks me for help, as long as helping them doesn’t put me in trouble, I don’t see why not.
Though it depends on the situation as well.”

“Although it might get you killed?”

“Dying is a normal thing for Hunters.
It’s nothing out of the ordinary.
Ahh, now that you mention it, that might sound weird for you since you live in the inner wall, huh?”

Hikaru’s face turned serious.

“…Uhm, it might be weird to hear this from me, but you already killed quite a lot of people outside the wall, right? Didn’t they beg for their lives?”

“Well, it usually happens when we are shooting at each other.
So, it mostly ends with an instant kill.
Actually, I don’t recall them having the chance to beg for their lives.
There’s also no reason why I have to listen to their plea right after we were trying to kill each other, right?”

Hikaru raised her eyebrows.

“Uhhh, Akira, do you get attacked that often? Although you’re this strong? It’s really hard to believe.”

“It’s not like I was this strong right from the start.
The slum is a place where it’s expected for you to get robbed when you’re just a child with 300 Aurum in your pocket.
The longer you survive in such a place, the more people you would kill.
That’s just how it is.
After all, I don’t want to die.”

Akira said so casually, allowing Hikaru to have a glimpse of how cruel his past was and it helped her understand his line of thinking.

“…I see, it must have been hard.”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

That was when Akira suddenly pressed Hikaru.

“Ah, by the way, since you asked me the reason why I helped you, it reminds me of what you said.
You mentioned that you’ll do anything, right?”

“Y-yeah I did.”

Although she did say that in a spur of the moment and that it was nothing but a verbal promise, it was still a rather reckless statement made to a powerful Hunter.
Hikaru was a bit scared of what he might ask her.

Akira then said to her with a serious face.

“As you promised, I’ll have you get me a good enough reward.
Wait.
No.
At least enough to pay for my expenses.
I ended up using a lot of expensive bullets and medicines, I also broke most of my equipment too.
Especially the one that I got with a huge discount thanks to my connection, I heard that they were originally very expensive.
I would hate to end up in red after going through all of that.
So please help me with that one.”

This request completely caught Hikaru off-guard.
It was a completely understandable request though.
After that, she smiled confidently and swore.

“Just leave it to me.
Negotiation is my speciality after all.
I’m also indebted to you for saving me as well, so I’ll be sure to do my best to get your reward.”

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Akira sighed in relief and pressed once more just to be safe.

“I’m really counting on you for this one, okay? You understand that, right?”

“Don’t worry.
You’re pretty famous as a new rising star in my department.
Even Kibayashi-san also describes you as an amazing person, you know?”

Seeing that Akira finally seemed to be relieved, Hikaru leaked a bitter smile.

…

The convoy finally received extra reinforcement for the escort.
They were the squad sent from Kugamayama city by Sakashita.
It included several powered suits and a few people with heavy augmented suits, all of them went to their respective transport vehicles.

Yanagisawa joined the convoy as well.
He received an emergency report and went to collect Shirou himself.
Hammerz finished his treatment and went to the waiting room.

Yanagisawa was smiling happily as he started the conversation.

“I heard that you went through quite an ordeal, I’m glad that everyone is okay.”

In contrast to Yanagisawa, Hammerz showed caution toward him.

“The escort duty should be given to us until we reach Kugamayama city.
If you want us to hand him over, we will have to go through Director Sugadome first, though?”

“But of course.
Since I’m already here, I was only thinking of at least introducing myself.
Nothing more.”

The door to the isolation room opened, Yanagisawa and his men entered.
As expected, the escorts stopped playing with the VR and stood ready.

Yanagisawa scanned the room, but Shirou was nowhere to be found.

“Where is him?”

Hammerz had a bad feeling and asked the Hunter escorts.

“Where’s Shirou? Is he in the bathroom?”

The Hunters frowned and pointed to the sofa.

“Eh? What are you talking about? He’s right over there.”

There was no one sitting on the sofa.
Hammerz frowned and checked the image from the sofa with the Hunters’ visions instead of his own eyes.
And indeed, there he was, Shirou looked apologetically while waving at Hammerz.

Hammerz quickly understood what was going on and inadvertently roared.

“That damn brat!!!”

Shirou controlled the Hunters’ five senses and showed them an illusion.
In short, he had escaped the room.

Hammerz angrily went to his comm to give a report, but he immediately stopped that and took some distance from Yanagisawa by pure reflex.

As expected, Yanagisawa also understood what was going on.
Right at that moment, his usual smile immediately vanished, and his face turned emotionless.
His expression was devoid of everything except for one thing, a sense of pressure that radiated terror.

It was a good thing that the Hunters had control of their bodies hijacked.
If they were free to move, they would have tried to shoot Yanagisawa.
Most likely resulting in Yanagisawa killing all of them.

The Hunters were overwhelmed by Yanagisawa’s presence.
If they could not control their emotions, they would have fallen to a state of dread.
Hammerz was also showing a strong sense of caution toward Yanagisawa, the mood inside the room turned intense in a blink of an eye.

Yanagisawa then returned back to his usual self.
He immediately retracted the terror that he was unconsciously radiating.
The dreadful terror that blanketed the room immediately vanished.

Yanagisawa took a deep breath to help him calm down.
He smiled politely at Hammerz and said to him.

“…My apologies.
It seems that Shirou-kun has been lost somewhere, huh? Let’s ask for help to find him.”

“You’re right…”

Although Hammerz was being very cautious of Yanagisawa, since he had regained his calm, he also immediately shifted his focus to solve the current dilemma.

At that point in time, Shirou was already outside the transport vehicle.
He went to the hangar with a group of his Hunter escorts, which he had hacked.
He then hopped on a powered suit that he had prepared beforehand and left, using a patrol mission as a disguise.

None of his escorts was suspicious of him as they were moving around the transport vehicle.
When someone got suspicious, Shirou would reconnect them to display that they were still inside of his room together with the other Hunters.

After the Hunters tried the VR and had their turn, they did not realize that their senses never left the VR world.
This caused them not to realize that they had gone out of the room with Shirou.

As unmanned powered suits were patrolling around, outside the transport vehicle, Shirou used fighting an incoming monster as an excuse and left the convoy.
Inside that powered suit, Shirou lightly laughed and said.

“I’m sorry, Hammerz, it’s just a small detour.
Don’t worry, I won’t cause you any trouble.
Just so you know, I’m being considerate of you here.”

His expression then turned serious.

“I’ll be able to move around freely for the time being.
So just wait for me.”

His goal for escaping the convoy was not to regain his freedom.
It was just a means to do something, and in order to accomplish that, Shirou took a long detour to head to Kugamayama city.

After that, rumours that an old-world connector from Sakashita Heavy Industry had infiltrated Kugamayama city started to appear.

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