Unabara Mitsuki was in a multi-tenant building in District 10.
The building had a lot of empty space and he was in one of the rooms that no one was renting. It may have had to do with the fact that the Academy City's only juvenile hall was right outside the window.
There were a few dozen armed men in the small room and there were four boss class figures standing in a line. A business desk that had been left there by someone had their guns, laptops, disguise tools, and hand cream on it.
(…This certainly didn't go as planned.)
Currently, he was not "Unabara Mitsuki".
He had fought back one of the attackers and "borrowed" his face.
(He was pretty weak, so I never thought he would be one of the central figures of the organization...)
His plan had been to disguise himself as some small fry, find a good time to go run an errand or something, and then sneak away from the group, but it seemed the person he had defeated was one of the boss class members.
That meant sneaking away was going to be difficult. Everything he did stood out and the group moved with him wherever he went.
Because of this, he hadn't found a good opportunity to escape and had been forced to move from District 7 to District 10.
"What is it, Yamate?" asked a voice coming from next to him.
A tall woman was standing there. She was slender, but her body was covered in hard muscles. She looked less like she was tense and more like she had been carved from stone. At first glance, you could tell she worked in some kind of underworld business, but, from what he had heard, she had gone undercover into Anti-Skill's headquarters.
After thinking about all that, Unabara thought back on what the muscular woman had said to him.
Yamate.
Apparently, that was his current name.
"It's nothing."
"Pull yourself together. The success of the plan depends on your power."
Everything she said was very polite. It could sound like she was being kind or that she was looking down on him.
"School has begun moving," said a large bear-like man. "We're the ones that sent them the info on Management, but… Tch. Couldn't they have waited just a bit longer to take action?"
"It looks like this isn't going to be easy. Outwitting Academy City is hard. But that's also why we can't give up now."
(…)
Unabara sorted out the information he had while listening to the woman.
It seemed this organization was called Block.
It seemed this organization had the same level of secrecy and authority as Group.
It seemed they were planning something, but another organization, School, had taken action on the same day before they could and that happened to get in their way.
In order to correct for that as much as possible, Block had covered for School with that explosion. That was how Unabara had gotten wrapped up in it all.
(And…)
Block had given up on dealing with the effects of what School had done and were now switching over to carrying out their plan.
(School and Block. This sounds like it's pretty complicated…)
Then the muscular woman spoke to the large bear-like man.
"What about you know who?"
"…Oh, the man on the phone? That won't be a problem. The guys in the powered suits that act for him are tied up dealing with the aftermath in Avignon. The man on the phone can't do much right now. He's in trouble. He usually passes on orders from farther up the chain, but once we start our rampage he'll probably take the blame and get executed. Also, Hound Dog and its leader Kihara Amata were destroyed in the 0930 Incident so they won't get in our way."
(Apparently, this organization has someone who gives them orders just like Group.)
However, it was unclear whether the person on the phone was one person or multiple people. Multiple people could be commanding a single organization or each organization could have someone in charge of them. It could even seem like it was multiple people while it was just one person artificially altering their voice. It was all unknown.
(Well, whether it's one person or multiple, it can't be too large a group. They seem too responsive to be a large group.)
Unabara pushed the issue of the voice on the phone aside. He concentrated on Block's conversation and started thinking about the structure of the organization.
(At the very least, they're clearly not acting on the orders of the upper classes of Academy City right now. What are they planning on doing while the powered suits are gone?)
Unabara glanced to the side. The men of Block's subordinate organization were standing there. They were helping out with an obvious rebellion, but…
(I wonder how many of them realize it.)
Even if the upper classes told them it was an emergency and ordered them to gather at Point A, in the city's underworld, that was quite often a lie. In this world that was complicated by assumed ulterior motives, no one took an order at face value. In the end, you trusted in and acted on what you saw for yourself. There was the information that could very well be a lie and Block that would shoot you to death if you turned your back on them. If you had to trust in one of the two, you would choose the latter. That was the way to stay alive.
(It's divine punishment really. They're always lying to their subordinates, so eventually the credibility of their information will drop.)
"Okay," the large bear-like man said as if he had gotten over something. "I won't let anyone delay this any longer. Let's get started. Enough with Block. I'm not going to keep working under those higher ups like this."
He didn't start moving after saying that. Instead, he surveyed the area.
Unabara asked a question.
"What is it?"
"Nothing. I just want to do the usual safety check first."
The large bear-like man smacked his large hands together as he spoke. At that signal, a gloomy girl calmly stepped forward.
"Tetsumou. …We need to use your Skill Polygraph. We need to make sure there isn't a traitor amongst us."
"Will do. Reading people's minds is all I'm good at."
(…!?)
Unabara Mitsuki thought the surprise was going to come out on his face.
He pretended to casually grab a bottle of hand cream that was on the business desk and looked around the area. With the four members of Block (Unabara included) and the subordinate organization, there were a few dozen people there. It would be bad if he was found out here.
"Oh, and let me say one thing. The second you refuse to be 'read', I'll assume you're a traitor. I like transparency."
After the large man's announcement, the girl called Tetsumou started grabbing the hands of her colleagues one by one. An inhuman, mechanical voice came from her mouth as she did.
"Saku Tatsuhiko. Age: 28. The leader of Block. His primary duty is to keep an eye on the level of cooperation from friendly institutions outside of Academy City."
After the large bear-like man was the muscular woman.
"Teshio Megumi. Age: 25. A formal member of Block. As a member of Anti-Skill, she...!?"
Tetsumou's expression suddenly became distorted. For an instant, a menacing atmosphere came over the area, but Teshio herself didn't seem worried.
"…You don't have to read that far. Why that kid has no parents and can't speak isn't an enjoyable past to see."
Tetsumou shook her head and turned her gaze in Unabara's direction.
That was when the bottle of hand cream Unabara was holding slipped.
"…Ah, sorry."
The bottle rolled over towards a member of the subordinate organization. When Unabara reached out for it, the young man approached and handed over the bottle.
"While you're up here, you can go ahead," Unabara invited.
The young man had happened to step right in front of Tetsumou, so he interrupted the order and held his hand out towards her. It seemed he wanted to get his check over with.
It happened when the two of them held hands.
"Gaaaaaaahhhhh!?"
The young man and Tetsumou's hands burst into red flames. With a boom, blood flew through the air. A few fingers did as well. Tetsumou held her right hand, but the pain and blood loss was too much for her causing her to collapse onto the ground and stop moving.
The young man hurriedly reached over for the first aid kit, but the large bear-like man stopped him.
"What did you just do?"
"I don't know. I have no idea what just happened!"
"What the hell did you do!?"
"I was a victim here, too!!"
Saku didn't say anything more. He pulled his handgun from its holster, pressed the barrel between the young man's eyes, and pulled the trigger.
"Wait. I didn't do anyth-…!?"
The young man was completely dumbfounded, but a gunshot rang out.
The blood-covered young man fell to the ground.
Saku stared down at the red-stained corpse and spoke.
"…Well, at least we found him before we got started. What did he even do?"
"What do we do now? Do we continue?"
Saku shook his head at Unabara's question. It didn't look like Tetsumou was going to be of any more use.
"There's no time to find a replacement. We'll prepare a confirmation device later."
He didn't seem interested in Tetsumou and ordered some subordinate members to take care of the body.
(…)
Unabara glanced over at the body of the young man lying unmoving on the floor.
Before the young man had held hands with Tetsumou, he had handed the bottle of hand cream to Unabara. When he had, Unabara had gotten the cream on his palm on the young man's hand. And a small amount of liquid explosive had been mixed into the cream.
Unabara rubbed some hand cream into his palm. This time, it had a chemical mixed in that would eliminate the liquid explosive.
(He may have been an enemy, but… No, I can't have thoughts like that right now.)
Unabara didn't let his thoughts show on his face and Saku spoke as if he had pulled himself together.
"Now then. How about we get started?"
There was a laptop in front of him.