Chapter: 20
The Magical Girl Comic Book Festival.
Having been launched three kilometers away, Vira managed to return to the event venue in 30 seconds, only to find that Eight had already vanished long ago.
‘Damn it— has my intuition completely rusted from inactivity?’
Honestly, coming to a place like this was a huge mistake. There were too many people, and avoiding contact was impossible. In security detail, the most crucial aspect is preventing others from getting close. If that’s not possible, then you shouldn’t even consider going to such places in the first place.
Entering an enclosed space was even worse… But what could I do? It was already done. I needed to prioritize dealing with the incident instead of wallowing in regret. Taking a deep breath, Vira shouted.
“─Ayleeeee—!”
Her voice echoed throughout the venue, and the sudden loud shout drew everyone’s attention. The gawking otakus around quickly averted their eyes upon noticing the difference in skin color on some of her limbs.
Just after she called out, Ayle began waddling toward her from a distance. It looked like she wasn’t very used to wearing heels, making her movement painfully slow. Spotting her, Vira dashed toward Ayle.
“Eh, sis? What’s going on all of a sudden…?”
“Eight has been kidnapped. The culprit has teleportation abilities.”
“W-What…?”
For a moment, Ayle stared at Vira, bewildered, but soon she comprehended the chaotic situation and began to fluster. Her reaction was that of a total amateur, utterly lost.
Having been somewhat of a pro, Vira immediately started giving orders.
“W-What do we do!?”
“First, you need to head back to HQ. Be ready to jump out at any moment. Also, notify Galm and Levi-chan about this. I’ll contact them too, just in case.”
“Y-Yes, ma’am—!”
“… I’ll contact the Boss first. Now go.”
After sending Ayle back to headquarters, Vira swallowed hard and pulled out her phone. She knew she had to inform the Boss, but at the same time, she was overwhelmed by a feeling of reluctance.
It hadn’t even been a week since the Boss entrusted her with the scientist, and now she had failed to protect him? If this had happened when she was still professional, she would have been dismissed on the spot, never to return to the industry again— an enormous blunder.
Vira gulped again and cautiously dialed the Boss’s number. After a few rings, the Boss answered.
[Vira. What’s going on?]
“Milady. The scientist has been kidnapped.”
[… What?]
“I truly have no excuse. I’m prepared to accept any punishment.”
[We’ll discuss the details later. Do you think you can find him?]
“─Absolutely. I will take full responsibility for locating him.”
[When you return, make sure you both come to my office.]
After hearing the Boss’s considerate instructions, Vira expressed her gratitude before ending the call. Now, what remained was to find out who had kidnapped Eight and why.
Fortunately, this event venue was littered with CCTV cameras, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find the criminal’s face by going to the control room…
‘How dare they mess with an Evil Organization.’
Whoever had the guts to mess with them would soon find out— it would not end peacefully.
They would soon learn what it means to provoke an Evil Organization.
*
It’s humiliating.
Is this how a professional boxer feels after being knocked out by a high schooler?
Being kidnapped as a member and executive of an Evil Organization was downright disgraceful. The fact that those who abducted me didn’t seem professional at all just magnified my embarrassment.
“Hey, look at this guy’s contacts. He only has two?”
“What? Let me see… Wow— it’s true. Just the Boss and this Ayle person.”
“Then is this Ayle the girlfriend he was just hanging out with?”
Their casual chatter in front of their victim, without a care to hide their faces, showed clearly that they were far closer to amateurs than professionals.
It was clear they weren’t specialized in kidnappings; it seemed they just fumbled their way through this chaos.
“…I have a question.”
“You’ve got some guts, old man? Kidnapped and you’re asking questions?”
“Why me?”
I looked around at the kidnappers as I asked that. The Boss’s information control was impeccable. There were even some members of the organization who didn’t know I was the Evil Organization’s scientist.
Therefore, they probably hadn’t kidnapped me for my knowledge— that much was certain. So why the heck had they targeted me?
The answer came quickly.
“─You stood out to us.”
“…What?”
“Dude, you got out of a fancy car, right? And you were prancing around with a woman over there… We thought you had some weird hobby thriving off superiority over the otakus, so we picked you.”
“No, but that’s ridiculous—”
“We’re going to be villains.”
One of the kidnappers pointed to himself as he spoke.
“We commit bad acts to join a famous villain organization. Plus, if we can snag some cash on the side, that’d be great.”
“…Ha, ha ha. You’re committing crimes for that—?”
“People like us give heroes something to do too, so it’s a win-win, right? So, old man— you look rich. How about a little donation?”
He handed me my phone while saying that. It seemed they weren’t completely clueless and hadn’t realized I could call the police or a hero. They probably thought they could handle this situation given their confidence in their abilities.
After all, it was their power that had facilitated Vira’s arrival, the one who had vowed to protect me at all costs. She vanished before she even had a chance to react, thanks to someone’s teleportation ability with zero time lag…
I didn’t know what powers the other kidnappers had, but they were certainly low-quality enough to want to join this villain endeavor, yet capable enough to have a teleporter among their ranks. In short, resisting would not be a good plan.
“…Is it okay if I make a call?”
“Go right ahead. Oh, and put it on speaker.”
“Uhm—.”
I worried that they might dismiss the Boss’s voice as a joke, but well, it was better than doing nothing. I dialed the Boss, and not long after, she picked up.
[Scie─.]
“Boss. I’m right here in front of my kidnappers.”
[… I see. What do they want?]
I shrugged and held the phone out to the kidnappers. One of them laughed and began talking to the Boss.
“We need a bit of money. Can you help us out?”
[How much?]
“The more, the better… like, about a million dollars?”
[Give me the account number.]
“City Bank 7ET…”
The kidnapper raised an eyebrow at how easily the Boss was agreeing to the ransom, then cautiously started reciting his account number. Not long after, he checked his phone and confirmed that the money had been deposited, flashing a smug grin.
Acceding to their demands so easily was the worst possible response. It’s one of the most notorious worst-case scenarios in criminal psychology. Sure enough, the kidnapper’s tone started to shift.
“Oh— what should we do? Thinking it over, that seems a bit short.”
[Short? Well then, I’ll send more.]
“Eh?”
Then came another deposit notification.
The expression of the kidnapper tightened slightly as he checked his phone. How much did he actually receive…?
“Uh, um—”
[What? Is this also not enough? Do you need more?]
Ding─!
The kidnapper’s expression went completely rigid.
After chewing on his lips for a moment, he glanced at me and let out a gasp of realization.
“Oh— I understand! This is some kind of cyber money, right!? Fake cash made to fool villains! I won’t be fooled by that! Bring real cash, cash!”
[Where do I send it?]
“… To the subway locker in City G. Locker number 5, the one closest to exit 10.”
[Give me 10 minutes.]
Shortly thereafter, the kidnapper was told that the cash was fully prepared. He teleported away, and then returned shortly after with a bag full of money.
The kidnapper, now back with the cash, looked between the bag and me, his eyes trembling slightly as he cautiously spoke.
“…Old man, what do you do for a living?”
“Just an ordinary guy.”
The kidnapper looked at me in disbelief and rushed out of the room with his accomplices. I glared at them as they left but cautiously shifted my gaze elsewhere.
‘─Did they leave the phone behind?’
I quickly grabbed the phone and began making modifications. I had upgraded the phone for situations like this. That preparation was finally about to pay off.
*
After leaving the room with his accomplices, the kidnapper began to nervously chew on his fingers, trembling. His companions looked at him, puzzled.
“Hey— what’s wrong?”
“Shit, I think we’re screwed…”
“Why do you say that?”
The kidnapper cautiously extended the bag of money he had brought. Inside was an amount so vast that he couldn’t even guess how much it was.
An amount so enormous he could never have dreamed of earning in a lifetime.
Robbing banks, kidnapping, committing acts of terror— none of those villainous deeds could ever lead to this kind of fortune, and now these amateurish wannabes stood before this reality, trembling in disbelief.
“Ah, no— it can’t be real…?”
“It’s real… Even the same amount just hit my account…?”
“No, seriously… is this double…?”
Faced with a sum of money that could only belong to a major corporation or state organization, the kidnappers began to tremble, realizing they had not just messed with a regular guy.
Anyone who could casually offer such a sum might send a horde of heroes to arrest or kill them.
Or maybe the heroes were already surrounding the area.
“We should let him go…?”
“Why not just leave him here and ditch it?”
“Yeah, yeah! With this money, we could live comfortably for the rest of our lives—”
“Sorry, but I’d like you to leave that money behind.”
The kidnappers jumped in surprise at the sudden voice and turned around. There stood Eight, the man they had kidnapped.
Seeing him, the kidnappers sighed in relief, but they cautiously replied.
“…Old man. We’ll let you go, so just stay put. You’re not even a powers user.”
“Hmm? Did I say I was powerless?”
“Oh, we can tell by this guy’s ability? We know whether someone has powers or not. That’s actually part of why we kidnapped you. If you were a powers user, we wouldn’t know what kind of powers you had.”
Ah-ha — so that’s it!
Realizing the last accomplice’s ability, Eight broke into a wide grin and raised his phone. He pressed a button with a click.
A moment later, an unpleasant noise erupted from the phone. The kidnappers winced at the shrill sound.
“What are you doing…?”
“Don’t even think about using your abilities. Your body will explode if you do.”
“What the hell—”
“If you’re curious, go ahead and try using them.”
At Eight’s words, the kidnapper chuckled dismissively and attempted to teleport. His plan was to snatch the phone from this arrogant hostage and silence that annoying sound.
However, the instant he tried to teleport, he felt his head pulsating uncontrollably and vomited.
“Urgh—!”
“I told you not to use them.”
Eight smiled lightly as he watched the kidnapper doubled over on the ground, spewing. He needed to give these clueless criminals some easy-to-understand explanations. He had to stall for time until his teammates arrived.
“It’s based on the Space Control Techniques related to the quantum folding phenomenon presented by Professor Emilia… To put it simply─ anyone who uses their abilities from now on will die.”
Of course, that was all a bluff.
But it seemed that these amateurs didn’t have the capability to discern it.
With a smile, Eight waved the noisy phone back and forth.
As the sharp beeps and the kidnapper’s retching filled the air, sufficient time had passed. Enough time for his colleagues to arrive following the tracking signal hidden inside the money.
“─Scientist!”
BOOM—!
The upper part of the building was completely blown away, revealing the evil Magical Girl.
As debris tumbled down, signaling a loss of consciousness, Eight looked up at Ayle.
‘Friendly fire……’
Now and forever, what’s most dangerous on the battlefield is often the friendly fire.
Especially when that friend is a superhuman who can demolish buildings with a single strike…
Shortly after, Ayle landed on the ground, her eyes filling with rage as she saw the unconscious scientist.
“How could you do this to Mr. Scientist…!”
“N-No, that happened just now because of you…”
“I won’t forgive you—!”
Ayle’s wrath was about to unleash upon the kidnappers.
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