Third-order.
Nobody could imagine what kind of monstrous being one would become at this stage. The entire esper schtick offered rapid advancement and evolution of humans. A second-order esper has at least twelve times the normal human's power. It was enough to reshuffle the world order to those with the largest number of espers.
Tokyo's ability to re-organize and reinforce order lay on it. Both the zaibatsus and the official government gathered most of the evolution fruits found a week prior to the apocalypse. They used these as a starting capital to pull everything together.
A person who could reach the third-order…
Who could he be?
Asuna hesitated. She could not produce an answer on the other side of the phone. She looked at everyone. Asuna does not know whether he would give them the leisure to decide. Group discussion about this is not viable.
'Asada-san's friend…'
In the end, she gritted her teeth and made her decision.
"Alright."
*****
'That would be two SSS rated confidantes, no? But if they have their Purity broken…'
Eishi no longer thought about it. His shot at the SAO group is all to gain new confidantes. Things are questionable between Kazuto and Asuna at this point. He hasn't forgotten about another girl, however.
Thinking of the girl who practiced kendo—who ended up liking her own blood cousin—he shook his head.
'I don't want much drama. I'll see to it later.'
He dislikes getting himself into complex emotional entanglements. Instead of untying this 'knot' for days, if not weeks, it would be better to use the time to find more trouble-free confidantes instead.
"Hiraoka-kun. There are people coming."
"Officers?"
Shino nodded, her eyes remaining closed.
"They are… chasing someone. A girl. They are about 500 meters away, on the west of the villa."
Question marks appeared in his eyes. Eishi held back the urge to ask whether she was beautiful or not. He remained mindful of Shino, the girl he would 'trick' later.
He glanced at the direction pointed by Shino, and to his surprise, a conspicuous green light appeared.
Simultaneously, a prompt appeared in his eyes. It was his "daily lucky opportunity" working.
"I'll take care of it."
Without waiting for Shino and Saeko, he activated his time stop. He left the villa at astonishing speeds. Before long, he saw the girl in question. Her slightly dull golden pupils matched her long light-golden hair. She wore a dirtied school uniform, with her light blue vest torn and filled with dust. Her pale face was mixed with signs of exhaustion.
[Mashiro Shiina]
Innate Talent: Ink Master (SS, First-order)
Non-exclusive Talent: Spirit Boost (B, First-order)
Life Level: First-order, Three-stars
Strength: 40
Agility: 42
Constitution: 38
Spirit: 140
The second page revealed the pragmatic evaluation as usual.
[Mashiro Shiina]
Appearance: 98
Figure: 95
Temperament: 95
Purity: Intact, Can be bound
Overall Rating: SSS
Another qualified triple S rated confidante came to his lap… and he is sure as hell to never let go of her.
Eishi pulled Mashiro out of the officers' encirclement. Their dubious looks and undisciplined movement made it clear they weren't from the military. Tokyo's reckless recruitment of espers caused it.
He carried her on her waist. The stopped time did not prevent him from feeling the softness of her waist. She was unbelievably light, reminding Eishi of him carrying Mahiru.
'What a scummy behavior…'
He shook his head at his own behavior. He placed her feet on the ground before resuming time.
Mashiro's golden pupils turned blank as she saw her position change in a blink. The addition of a random stranger added more confusion to the mix.
"Huh? Who are you?"
"A-aniki…"
"An esper? You think you got it?"
The leading esper—a buzz-cut man with an ugly and intimidating face—glared at Eishi. The latter smiled at this refreshing treatment.
He did not care about his weirdness and continued threatening:
"You think you're it after being an esper? So you'll mind our business? Huh?!"
Eishi's restrained chuckle grated the man's nerves.
"You better regret this encounter… in your next life."
Boom-!
Bam-!
Crack-!
All they saw was a blur. The next moment, the buzz-cut man's head exploded like a watermelon. Red and white brain matter rained down upon the men. Eishi was spared out of it thanks to time stop.
Thud-!
He squatted downwards and grabbed the walkie-talkie on the headless man's shoulder. He faced one of the terrified men and asked:
"Give me your channel."
"A-a-ah! S-spare..!!!"
Seeing his unintelligible look, Eishi turned to look at others, but to no avail. Everyone was straight-up terrified of his strength. Pools of yellow fluid collectively dirtied the ground.
A light sigh escaped his mouth.
"This is troublesome."
His plan to resolve the SAO group's dilemma—and to meet with the shelter's higher-ups—is to stir up trouble. It won't be as ostentatious as provoking an entire army to attack him. Eishi wanted to use both words and raw power to accomplish it.
He believes that the shelter's higher-ups would rather 'talk' to him than lose their precious manpower.
The time spent on talking with Haruno was well spent.
Forgoing the terrified soldiers, Eishi turned around to look at Mashiro. Her golden eyes looked at him curiously.
'Am I not that scary? These guys definitely look scared.'
Mashiro's thought process wasn't to be trifled with. Eishi is destined to be left clueless for quite some time.
"Are you alone?" He asked.
She shook her head.
"You can go."
Mashiro shook her head again. Her eyes remained glued at him.
"Trouble. I want to help."
"No need."
"...Please."
Hearing her soft pleading, Eishi caved in.
"Is there anyone else chasing after you?"
"Yes. My friend… in trouble."
Upon hearing of her friend, he immediately pictured one of the cast in the 'Sakurasou' dormitory. He was still in the dark on what happened to Mashiro.
Eishi listened to her storytelling.
She had just arrived in Tokyo when the entire blood rain incident occurred. She was one of the few who got drenched and survived due to blind luck. Later on, she came across someone who brought him to their home.
The common-sense-deprived Mashiro survived purely because of her care. Without her presence, she might have died in the first few days of the apocalypse.
Things were supposed to turn for the better when they survived through the insect swarm. The official shelter had expanded to half of Tokyo, allowing those who were trapped in their homes to be rescued.
Unfortunately, their rapid absorption of manpower led to a lack of discipline and supervision. A group of security officials coveted Mashiro's and the other girl's beauty, which ended up in a wild goose chase. Due to the girls' inexperience, they held back on using their esper powers, which made their already dire straits worse.
'What kind of flippant corruption is going on…'
Encountering two such events in the span of a day made Eishi speechless. Tokyo might have been stronger, but when it comes to administration, he would choose Yokohama's any day.
He looked at the group of scared espers before shaking his head.
"Shiina-san. You did one thing wrong at this time."
"..?"
"You never went for the killing blow."
Before she could process his words, he had already taken out his enhanced M9A3 and shot each and every esper dead. The force of a third-rank pistol was akin to cannons. It wasn't only their heads that exploded; their bodies too.
The glaringly loud gunshot echoed across the block. Eishi did not care whether it would receive unwarranted attention or not. Even, he wanted them to come right at him. This was the fastest way to talk with Tokyo's big shots. It establishes the authority born out of his unreasonable power.
Mashiro's golden pupils blanked out at the grotesque scene. She never expected Eishi to kill them at the drop of a hat. Although she had witnessed a lot of blood and gore in the past twenty days, killing humans is the final hurdle she could not cross. She held a sliver of hope—an idealistic thinking—that everyone would come to their senses.
It was this "stupid" mentality that almost made her a zombie snack on the first day of the apocalypse. Had it not been for her savior, Mashiro would have lost her life a dozen times.
"This is the apocalypse. I hope you can understand it." He paused before saying, "If this was everything you amount to, I will have to decline your help."
Without saying anything else, Eishi walked back to the villa. Mashiro stared at him in a daze. Her thought process was surprisingly simple.
'He… is right.'
Living the life of a sheltered young lady and having it easy with her prodigious painting talent set her apart from the rest of the world. Oftentimes, Mashiro could not properly express herself. She does not know a lot of common sense like many others do. She is also extremely naive in interpersonal affairs—a death sentence at a brutal time like the apocalypse.
Only when she was put on a brink… when she was saved once more by another person, did she fully snap out of it.
'I… will help too…'
Before she knew it, her legs started moving towards him.
"Wait…"
Hearing her faint voice, Eishi stopped. He turned around and met her eyes. It was extremely pure, devoid of the prior conflict he had seen earlier. She reminded him of the clutz Shizuka and Mahiru combined, though Shizuka still has it better than Mashiro in terms of human relationships.
An urge to hug this clueless hamster here and then rise up from within.
'Are the Shiinas destined to be my bane…'
Eishi thought helplessly as he suppressed this urge. He couldn't be blamed. Both Mashiro and Mahiru are extremely cute.
"You haven't told me where your friend is. It just so happens that I am already an enemy of the state."
"Me too. The police tried to apprehend me for something we never did…"
She stopped grumbling and continued on her words:
"Kuroneko and her sisters ran the opposite way from mine."
Hearing another familiar name jolted Eishi awake.
'...No way.'
In terms of order and stability, he would never choose Tokyo. But in terms of the number of confidantes, he definitely would!
The Shinomiya Zaibatsu suggested the presence of at least two qualified triple S rated confidantes. Mashiro's 'Sakurasou', Shino's 'SAO', and now Kuroneko's 'Oreimo' confirmed four ACGs at the very least. If there were more of them, coming here would be a huge profit for Eishi.
'Confidante limits… This won't do. I need to find new ways to level up.'
From first to second-order, the limit increased by one. His level-up from the second to third-order increased it by two:
[Bound Confidantes (10/13)]
-Airi Akizuki (SSS)
-Haruno Yukinoshita (SSS)
-Mahiru Shiina (SSS)
-Saeko Busujima (SSS)
-Megumi Kato (SSS)
-Saya Takagi (SSS)
-Shizuka Hiratsuka (SSS)
-Utaha Kasumigaoka (SSS)
-Yukino Yukinoshita (SSS)
-Shizuka Marikawa (SSS)
Looking at the growing list made him a bit overwhelmed. With great power comes great responsibilities, or so they say.
'Responsibilities, responsibilities…'
Eishi fully accepted his scumbag identity. However, this does not mean he would leave everyone hanging after one night. He managed to strike a balance on fulfilling his women's emotional needs as well. Compared to other scumbags, he is far up the rankings.
'Once there are, what, twenty women… I'll think about it later.'
Soon, they arrived at the villa. He brought Mashiro to Saeko and Shino. The two had varied reactions upon seeing her.
Saeko had an all-knowing look, as if it was 'expected' for Eishi to save another beautiful girl. Shino, on the other hand, admired him for his actions. She had seen everything transpire under God's Perspective, down to the ways he convinced Mashiro that she was wrong.
The gaze she sent Eishi became stronger.
"I'm going out for a while. I will leave the villa to you two." He turned his gaze towards Saeko. "Do as you seem fit."
"Mhm."
He asked Mashiro for Kuroneko's address one last time before leaving.