Chapter 27 - The Abandoned Building

Author note: Hey all, holiday season over for me, so I'll be writing a bit more now. Anyways, here's a chap. Maybe good, maybe not.

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Arriving in front of a large building that was blocked off by a large wall marked with construction tape and 'Do Not Enter' signs, Jin double-checked the coordinates for the tutorial mission location. After confirming it again, he refocused on the building that looked like an abandoned factory from what he could see. Contrary to its ordinary appearance, an eerie atmosphere pervaded the surroundings. Jin found it strange that nobody nearby reacted at all to it.

"Seems like this is the place," Jin commented.

"It's telling us to go here?" Mikoto asked, brows slightly furrowed.

"Is that a problem?"

"...No."

Hearing some reluctance in her voice, Jin looked at her, raised a brow, and asked, "Is there something wrong with this place?"

"Uh… well, some of my classmates mentioned recently that they thought this place was haunted, but it's probably just some tall tales. Like, it's probably just gang activity or something. Ghosts don't even exist in the first place."

'So, she's able to accept the existence of magic but denies the possibility of ghosts?'

Despite his thoughts, Jin replied, "I see. If it's gang activity, then no problem. Either one of us on our own could easily handle that. If it's ghosts? Well, that's a normal thing where I'm from, so also no biggie."

Giving him a strange look, Mikoto hesitantly asked, "There are ghosts where you're from?"

"Sort of. It's complicated."

"..."

Shrugging at the girl's silence, Jin turned his attention to the building in front of them. He started looking for an entrance. Unfortunately, all the gates and doors were sealed shut.

"Guess we'll need to break in, then," Jin murmured just loud enough for Mikoto to hear him.

"You better pay for it if I get a ticket for trespassing or something."

Raising a brow, Jin retorted, "You're too young to get a ticket."

Seeing a pout on the girl's face out of the corner of his eye made his lips curl upward slightly out of amusement.

'Not good. She might actually retaliate with a railgun if I mess with her too much, but it's so much fun messing with her,' Jin jokingly thought to himself. However, he hardened his expression a moment later by reminding himself it was time for a mission.

To bypass the nearly four-story wall, he formed a steep stairway of barriers at a remote section of the abandoned facility where no bystanders could see them. Meanwhile, Mikoto placed her hands on her hips and raised a brow at him. She also looked at his mostly translucent barriers for a few seconds.

After ascending a few steps, Jin glanced back down at her and asked, "You coming, or would you rather wait here?"

Rather than reply, Mikoto strolled over to the nearest locked door. She then placed her hand on a keypad next to the metal door before facing him again. The smirk on her face made Jin raise a brow. A moment later, jolts of electricity sparked around the keypad, and the metal door clanged upon with a rusty squeak.

Sporting a proud smile, Mikoto copied his question back at him, asking, "You coming?"

Jin dismissed his barriers and dropped to the ground. Upon reaching the door, he scanned with his eyes beyond the doorway for any dangers. Only when he saw an empty lot aside from some decaying vehicles and building supplies did he look at Mikoto again.

"Let's discuss our approach beforehand next time. I'm still a bit stuck in my head from what happened earlier, so my bad for just going about this without your input so far. Let's try some teamwork and work to each other's strengths, yeah? Would hate to see you get hurt from recklessly running in since we don't know exactly what we're up against."

Jin's serious tone caught Mikoto off guard at first, but then she shook her head and retorted, "Weren't you also being reckless by using those barriers to get over the wall?"

"I just wanted to get a better look inside. I'll make sure to tell you my intentions next time I do something like that. In return, let me know if you've got good methods to overcome a situation since my understanding of your abilities obviously won't be as thorough as yours. Deal?"

Mikoto stared at Jin's outstretched hand for a moment, all the while sporting a thoughtful yet puzzled expression. Within a few moments, she confidently shook his hand, smiled slightly, and replied, "Deal."

"Good. Now, I'll go first using a barrier since we don't yet know what we're up against. Sound good?"

Mikoto nodded and said, "Sure."

Jin nodded, cast a barrier in front of himself, and then entered the facility premises. He looked around the mostly empty outdoor lot. Nothing of interest caught his eye. He also didn't notice Misaka staring at his back with a strange expression.

"Looks clear aside from abandoned vehicles and materials, so whatever our target is, it's probably inside."

"...You're a lot more serious now than when you first got here, Jin-san," Mikoto commented.

Glancing back at her, Jin remained silent for a few moments before saying, "As much as I enjoy joking around, it's impossible for me to not take a mission seriously, no matter the difficulty."

"Uh-huh. I see… I recall in the chat history from the first day I joined that you mentioned a past life. If that was real, did you join the JSDF or something before?"

Raising a brow, Jin briefly considered explaining some of his past, but then he shook his head, smiled wryly, and answered, "That's a really long story, and it doesn't really matter anymore, but it was something like that."

"So you're actually an old man inside. You must have a lot of stories."

Jin blinked. Then, he pinched the bridge of his nose. He almost retorted, but then noticed a playful grin on Mikoto's face. In response, he couldn't help chuckling slightly.

"Perhaps a bit, but it's irrelevant. Let's just focus on the mission."

"Seems like you lightened up a bit."

"Hm? Eh, maybe."

Turning his back to the girl, Jin started walking toward the facility. Mikoto followed, unable to wipe a proud smirk off her face as though she just won a game of some sort.

Upon reaching the main building, Mikoto shorted the controls to another electric door, allowing them access to the inside of the facility. Once again, Jin entered first using a barrier in place of a blast shield. Inside, both of them stared wide-eyed in stunned silence.

The room they entered looked like a massive warehouse area located at the end of numerous complicated assembly lines. The advanced machinery was not what surprised them, though. Rather, an interconnected mass of ethereal tendrils writhed and encroached upon the surfaces of the floor and machinery. Red, vein-like strings pulsed and glowed inside the dark mass, casting an eerie glow across the entire factory floor.

At the epicenter, a small child huddled into itself in a crouching position with its back toward them. Ragged clothes that looked like the remains of a blouse and skirt along with long silver-blonde hair gave the impression of a little girl no older than six or seven years old.

Narrowing his eyes, Jin thought, 'Is that… the target this time? This could be troublesome in a very different way from the last time.'

Troubled by what was obviously the target of their mission, Jin looked at Mikoto with concerned eyes. Even more so than him, she displayed an anxious expression as though restraining a desire to run forward and help the child.

Jin placed a hand on Mikoto's shoulder, which made her flinch. She looked back at him as he quietly said, "If combat occurs, how about you leave the main job of subjugation to me and back me up from a distance?"

"What do you mean? Handling something like this would be super easy for me."

The girl's gaze dropping to the floor didn't instill much confidence, though.

"Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should or have to. You've already got more baggage than you should have at your age, so leave this one on my shoulders, alright?"

Brow wrinkling, Mikoto fell silent for several seconds, but eventually nodded and affirmed, "I'll just cover your back, then."

Nodding at her response, Jin replied, "Good. I know how capable you are, so I'll gratefully entrust my back to you."

With that out of the way, Jin removed his hand from Mikoto's shoulder and solemnly laid his eyes on the child knelt within the eerie dark mass ahead of them.

'The mission was to subdue and cleanse…' Jin mentally reminded himself. He also noted the lack of hints from the chat group application, which forced him to conclude that he needed to confront the so-called corruption before potentially receiving any hints about cleansing any of it.

Cracking his knuckles, he silently stepped forward.