"Hm… So the infiltration failed?"
Sitting with his legs crossed, I looked at the report with a curious yet disappointed feeling, all the while my shy Alcott tried to explain things beside me, albeit with a broken voice.
"Y-yes, Fitzgerald-sama. A-according to their info, t-the kid got-a-way before t-they were e-even there…"
Interesting, truly interesting. To think someone could actually foresee my dear assistant plan… And to who's the culprit, I might have a lead on that.
According to Melville, the only one that could actually foresee all of this, with the current evidence at hand, is the newcomer from that Agency. Even Lucy and Twain agree with this, even certainly so.
Also, based on the evidence left at the scene, Melville theorized that the kid seems to work with the infamous killer from the Mafia, whose name is… what's his name again? Akuragua?
Hm… whatever, all I know for now is the newcomer now working with the Mafia's strongest member, as I'm still wondering whether they're working under the command of the Agency, the Mafia or just by themself or not.
… Well well well, seems like all those times here have truly paid off, doesn't it. To think such talent hiding in this forsaken land, hiding his own potential among those filthy life…
Although the tiger boy didn't seem that impressive at all, or I could even dare to say "disappointed" for the one knowing the Book location, I honestly still wanted to pay gratitude to him.
Thanks to him, not only now I possessed the only income from the Book location, I also found out a new potential foe worthy to fight against…
So then, surprise me more, newcomer. I'll see the miracle you shall bring forward this scorching land, to see whether you'll defy fate or not…
"What's about the shipping at the port?"
"E-eto… The shipping is only 45% complete. We'll need approximately 2 more hours to complete."
"… Send Steinbeck team in to overwatch the shipping process."
"W-what?!"
Alcott started to panic with my sudden request, as I just looked at the document with some doubt in my mind.
If the newcomer could foresee my plan to abduct the kid, then maybe… no, no maybe here, he will do it next. So to counter that, I'll need to push my team further than normal, to both secure our base here and to take him down…
After all, if he already demonstrated his potential already, why wouldn't I also?
As Fitzgerald started to act to further secure everything, at the port side where boarding the large cruise ship…
"Hm? Fitzgerald sent you guys in?"
Asking the blond priest casually sitting on the chair reading his bible, as the milady from the 18th century just staring at the newly arrival dual of Steinbeck and Lovecraft in confusion.
"Yeah, the boss wanted us to make sure this went through smoothly. Something about the newcomer, dunno though."
A faint crack can be heard from Magaret, as she "accidentally" breaks her umbrella handle.
"How surprising. I think this is the first time the boss is paying attention to some outsider, beside the tiger."
"Yeah, he seems pretty intrigued by the kid… Not that I don't get it all."
Let out a sigh, Steinbeck remembers back to the day he escaped, where he basically played them real hard at that time.
In fact, even now he still thinks that he plotted the whole thing, that they're just mere pawns on the newcomer's hand.
Welp, even if that's the case, it's not his business until his payroll says so, so he doesn't really care for that guy for now…
"So things goin' on?"
"Nothing much honestly, besides this letter from the Mafia."
Hawthorne handed the letter written by crayon to the 2 newly arrived members to read, as their eyes slowly became intrigued. The content is just their statement of claiming 3 things as follows: The cruise ship, the life of Nathaniel Hawthorn and the life of Magaret Mitchell.
"Huh, bold statement. Are they actually gonna do it?"
"I'd like to see them try, but at this rate I doubt that they would actually succeed."
Mitchell answers Steinbeck with a sly grin, as Hawthorne just keeps a careful manner on his face at all times. But still, despite his cautiousness, everything's still going on without a hitch, and it seems the whole thing will complete smoothly…
"Sir!!"
A panic voice came right behind them, as a worker quickly approached them with a sweating face which disgusted Magaret out face.
"What's wrong?"
Hawthorne asked the guy for confirmation with a rather dissatisfied expression, as the worker then explained it all in one go.
"We got an intruder!!"
"Hm? Lead us to the intruder."
And with that, all 4 of them follow the worker to the place currently holding the intruder, which is at the back of the cruise ship. Once there, they see a figure wearing a lab coat with a rather weird haircut with wide tinted goggles covering his eyes, now acting all scared and goofy with the guard around him.
"You are…"
Looking at his face, Hawthorne is the first to realize his identity as the Port Mafia bomber, who recently tried to explode a train full of passengers but failed after the Agency interfered. A lowly member which is not even worth bothering about, that's his final conclusion.
"Wha–Why–Why are you guys…?!"
The guy mentally seems to degrade further seeing the 2 additional members joining, but suddenly Hawthorne shot something at him and silenced him immediately. It was a blood bullet from this guy's palm, now imprinted on the intruder coat with a letter "A" on it.
"Th–This is…?!"
"To think the Mafia is incompetent…"
Hawthorne looks down on the man with a truly disgusted gaze, as the previous worker brings forth a paper bag to him.
"He had this on him, sir."
Hawthorn takes the bag and opens it, just to see a bunch of lemons inside of it. His gaze then gave way to that of confusion and disappointment, as his view in the Mafia further downgraded to rock bottom…
"That guy… isn't he the one behind the train terrorist attack?"
"Indeed, John. And he's failed miserably under the hand of the Agency."
Steinbeck expressed his curiosity when looking at the intruder, as Hawthorne quickly assured Steinbeck presumption on him. He then handed back the bag to the worker, and picked one lemon out of it,
"Such useless ability… and to think they would send a bomber who couldn't even make a bomb himself after us…"
With a disgusting expression, Hawthorne casually picks the trigger hidden on the lemon while slowly walking toward the intruder, as the guy starts to panic even further.
"Wait!! No!!"
"Bask in the grace—"
"Could you stop with such cliché lines?"
An oddly familiar voice suddenly coming from above alerts everyone to look up, as the figure of a certain unremarkable feature shows up on the upper deck waving his feet.
To their horror, it's the newcomer, now looking down on them with a fake surprise expression.
"Wow, took you long enough ~"
"You…"
Hawthorne looked up with a horrified gaze, as Magaret began to do something with him. Just then, a gust of winds quickly surrounded as the newcomer's skin began to weather away, but he didn't budging one bit with everything.
Instead, with a sly grin, he shows a remote control to everyone to see while cheerfully warning them.
"Woah there, don't be such a hassle milady ~ Ya don't want to sleep with the fish aren't ya?"
"…Tch."
Clicking her tone in anger, Magarat canceled her ability as the newcomer's skin began to regain its color, while everyone else could just stare at him with disbelief.
Somehow, the guy, despite seemingly just being a normal human, has sneaked past the top notch security around here, placing explosives in this ship and climbing all the way up there aura-farming without anyone noticing one bit…
Just then, a helicopter suddenly arrived in every view, as it carried enormous cargo. But no one pays any attention to it… well, most of them.
"Hm… seems like the package comin' ~"
With a quick reflex, he drew a pistol from his belt and shot it at the cargo, which made a part of it suddenly blow up before everyone looked and tilted to one side.
And, dropping from the cargo, loads of lifeless lemon now fall into the water right beside the ship which alert everyone else. Then, just as the Guild member started to make way out of the cruise ship…
[BOOM!!!]
A loud explosion, followed by countless flash quickly engulf the whole ship in flame, as it quickly makes its way to the bottom. Luckily, the Guild members along with some survival guards have made it to the shore with the help of Lovecraft tentacle, and now looking at the destroyed ship in awe.
"That kid's… did he actually singlehandedly destroy our base?! How can that be???!!!!"
"…"
Mitchell screams full of distress and terror, as everyone just calmly looks around checking for ambush.
"We can't stay here, let's go."
With Hawthorn command, everyone then makes way to the emergency escape route deep in the harbor, and are now making their way down the stairs.
Then, before they can perceive anything, the whole route suddenly blows away, revealing them to the outside world once again as everything falls apart. And yet, once again, everyone survives the whole damn thing, as Hawthorne has quickly protected everyone with his own blood.
"How cunning, to actually foresee all of this. But still, this is as far as he can go. "
Hawthorne, with a calm facade, adjusts his glass as some guards who survive the attack are slowly regrouped with them….