47 Power!
Early morning.
When I checked the remaining number of people, it had decreased to ‘forty-two’.
I wondered if there were dangerous people attacking people in the middle of the night.
I thought about looking for the bunny suit, but I concluded that it would be impossible without any clues.
The reason Enka was able to find the double suit was because she had made arrangements to search for him in advance.
So, I took a peek at the contents of the envelope I got from the bunny suit, but there was nothing that could tell me her location.
It couldn’t be helped.
For now, I just have to think about getting through this battle royale.
When Ryugo suggested they “go to school separately,” Aira made a face.
“…Why?”
“If we walk together, people might talk about us and it’d be embarrassing…”
“Oh, yeah, I hate that too. If they called me a fast slut, I’d want to kill them.”
“That’s true.”
“But Ryu-kun was my first love, so it’s pure love?”
If anyone else than Aira had said it, it would have been adorable.
In the end, they decided to go to school separately.
Apparently, Aira was going to go out of her way to take her usual route. I thought she’d be reluctant, but she said she wanted to be thorough with her disguise.
And then, Ryugo arrived at the school gate and was stunned.
“Thirty people…”
That wasn’t the remaining number of people.
That was the number of holders that Ryugo’s sensor had detected.
“…”
The mark on his smartphone screen indicating the enemy passed right by Ryugo.
It wasn’t a matter of where they would attack from.
They could attack from anywhere.
Furthermore, the enemy could hypnotize people and act in groups. Those who had been hypnotized wouldn’t show up on the sensor, so there was no way to deal with them.
“I see…this is bad.”
Moreover, the enemy knew his abilities and level. They would use this situation to their advantage and target him first.
“What’s wrong, Tanuki?”
It was Misato who had spoken to him.
Apparently, Ryugo had stopped in front of the door just as he was about to enter the classroom.
“Oh…well, it seems like I’m in a bit of trouble.”
“Trouble?”
“Double Suit has started a new game…”
“But that shouldn’t be possible…”
“They can’t continue the game. But they can start a new one.”
“That’s just a play on words!”
“I thought the same thi—”
“Tanuki!”
Misato pointed behind him, and he turned around reflexively.
“…!”
A boy who had been peeking out of a nearby classroom hurriedly retreated.
“So, they’ve come to target me, huh?”
He must have been trying to hypnotize her while hiding.
He wasn’t after Ryugo; he was after Misato, who was nearby, in order to attack his smartphone.
He probably thought that targeting someone he was close to would catch him off guard, but his level and experience were far superior.
As soon as this battle royale had begun, he had hypnotized Misato as a “friend” so that he could protect her.
“‘Soldier’…destroy that guy.”
Walking down the hallway, I hypnotized and gave instructions to several students.
As they entered the classroom next door, the next moment,
“Gyaaa!”
A scream echoed.
Peering in, I saw a boy throwing his smartphone out the window, savoring the taste of defeat.
Checking, it seemed that I had been able to destroy his smartphone just now, and the remaining number of people had decreased.
“I can’t afford to let my guard down.”
I can’t even afford to stand around chatting in the hallway… If I don’t wipe them all out quickly, I’ll end up getting tripped up.
I’m so insecure because I know I’m not very smart.
And thanks to defeating the enemy, my level had risen to ‘280’. It’s almost meaningless to check at this point.
“Phew…”
“That was quite a sight. I can’t imagine how scary it must be to be attacked by several people in an instant. I feel sorry for him.”
It must have seemed quite unreasonable to him.
But still, that boy. I couldn’t hypnotize him even though I attacked him from behind. How much trouble did I have manipulating him?
If hypnosis had been cast on Misato, there would have been an error sound. You can’t hypnotize someone who is already under hypnosis.
“That’s right, Misato.”
“Hm? What?”
“My level is pretty high now, so I think I’ll restore your memory. It might be too late if I wait any longer. There’s a good chance I’ll lose.”
The difference in level actually creates a significant difference in strength.
However, it’s only the power to manipulate others. It doesn’t mean I’m strong myself.
If I’m caught off guard, my level will be nothing more than decoration.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I probably won’t be able to get my hands on any new hypnosis anyway. It’s getting in the way here, so let’s move for a bit.”
Ryugo and I moved to the corner of the hallway. Of course, it was a place where people could see us.
If we were to go somewhere where there were no people, we would be sure to lose.
That’s because if there’s no one around, the other side can increase their manpower in advance, but we can’t.
This makes it impossible to make use of my ‘Number of People Hypnotizable’.
“Alright… Let’s do it.”
Ryugo added free input from ‘Command’.
Right away, restoring the memory–
“…………Ugh!”
In an instant, memories surfaced.
The parts that had been painted over like shadows until now regained their proper colors.
…I was always with Koki and Misato. I used to fight with someone and get scolded by Misato, and sometimes I would get her involved. That was my everyday life.
How could I have forgotten such an ordinary routine?
“Did it…come back?”
Ryugo hesitated at Misato, who looked up at him anxiously.
“Yeah… I think so.”
“So, do you remember? The mountain climbing two years ago?”
“You overtook us and reached the summit first, but you threw up because you were so tired.”
“Oh! W-well, I guess it’s fine even if you remember things you should forget.”
Seeing Misato grinning happily as she said this, I felt a little relieved.
The old her that existed in my memories used to smile like this as well.
Her face is beautiful, despite the dirty talk.
“Even after getting my memories back, I guess I haven’t changed much.”
“You’re just too blunt…”
“Is that so? Well, anyway, this should solve Enka’s problem.”
With this, Misato shouldn’t have to suffer anymore.
I checked the time on my phone, thinking that class should be starting soon――
“――Watanuki Ryugo.”
When someone calls you by your full name from behind, have you ever had a good experience?
I turned around and saw a female student I didn’t recognize standing there with a vacant look in her eyes. From my past experiences, I could tell that she was being controlled by someone.
“I have a message for you.”
“Who’s it from?”
“I can’t say. But there’s one thing… We have Era in our custody. Come to this school at ten o’clock tonight.”
“… Seriously?”
I had been wondering where she’d gone ever since we parted ways at home, but it seems that this was the situation.
The girl who had delivered the message left with robotic, brisk movements.
“Why would you use deadly poison as bait?”
“Rather than poison, it’s more like a garbage dump full of nails. It’s like illegally dumped garbage that fish end up eating and suffering from…”
“And this is the kind of thing that fish would flock to.”
“Why?”
“Several people must have heard our conversation just now.”
“W-what… So what are we going to do?”
“We’ll go with the full-force dash strategy, with the macho soldiers as our escort. If anyone gets in our way, the machos will crush them.”
“That’s just brute force.”
In the end, what will really come in handy at the crucial moment isn’t hypnosis or strategy.
It’s power.
◇
The number of participants has been gradually decreasing.
Even so, there are still “37” people left. It’s still too many.
I wonder how many of these people we’ll end up fighting.
From Noble mtl dot com
On our way to gather as many machos as we could, I caught sight of some people chasing after Ryugo’s car on bicycles and mopeds. It was like a parade of idiots in my side mirror.
Even if they do catch up, all they’ll find is a carnival of genocide by the machos.
“The school at night, huh.”
Ten o’clock at night.
There were no lights on in the familiar school building, and only the moonlight shining brightly through the clouds illuminated my field of vision.
Incidentally, it also made the machos’ well-trained muscles glisten.
“There’s no mistaking it, we look like suspicious people.”
Even though it’s for self-defense, I feel really sorry for making the machos go through all this.
Checking the app’s sensor, it was no surprise that quite a few people were caught. They were lurking all over the school.
Would one of these be the guy who attacked Aira?
“Guess we’ll have to check them out one by one…”
We split into three groups and started searching for Aira.
The school building was small. Even if ten of us, including Ryugo, moved together, there would be people who couldn’t fight. So, it would be more efficient to spread out.
That’s probably what the intended opponent. With the difference in the number of people they can control, they would definitely want to fight in a state that was as even as possible.
Walking through the dark first-floor hallway, I peeked into the rooms through the windows.
“If anyone’s there, come out!”
It would be easy if they came out when called, but it was too scary to just keep walking.
The school was eerily quiet under the moonlight.
It would be the perfect time for a Grim Reaper to emerge from the thick darkness.
“This is Team B. Second floor, no abnormalities.”
The voice coming from the group call on my smartphone informed me of the safety of the other teams.
“This is Team C. Third floor, no abnormalities… Uwaaahhhhh!!”
Along with the noise, the sound of a fierce battle echoed.
I could hear screams coming from the floor above.
It sounded like they were beating each other up with something, but the opponent seemed to have weapons. All we had were batons that we could hide in our pockets.
“Engaging the enemy!”
“Do you need backup?”
“No! There are six enemies. We can handle it here!”
That’s good, they’re safe…
I gave the power of ‘Attitude: Soldier’ to a powerful person, so they probably won’t be defeated by ordinary powers. After all, power is power.
The enemy’s shadow on the sensor moved away from Ryugo.
Did they get scared of the macho man?
“First floor search complete. Team A will now head to the gym.”
“Roger that.”
I changed course after hearing Team B’s response.
But still, it was strange.
Even though we all knew that we were close to each other, there was no fighting at all.
It was as if everyone had agreed to target Ryugo.
“…”
While staying alert to my surroundings, I arrived at the gym.
There was no sound coming from inside.
I slid the door open just a little and slowly peeked inside.
There was one figure in the dimly lit gym.
“Is that… no way.”