Frantic Message: Danger Inbound

[The Devil System is currently idle]

[Waiting for conditions to fully activate...]

[Calculating...]

[...]

[Progress Towards Activation: 31%]

...

Suddenly, I noticed a vibration in my pocket.

I quickly checked my phone.

It was a message from the headmaster.

—call me right now

What...?

From the looks of things, this was a pretty urgent message. I wasn't really left with any other choice aside from doing what she's asked. Aiko was walking beside me, holding the plushie in her left hand. I had to come up with some sort of excuse.

"Sorry, I need to go to the bathroom."

"That's fine, go."

She was still as cold as before.

I swiftly made my way to the nearest bathroom and locked myself inside one of the stalls. I was a little too frantic in shutting the door as a clang echoed through the room. Luckily, there wasn't anyone else inside, so I seemed to be alright. There was a good chance that this call would involve some confidential information.

The phone ran for less than a second before she picked up.

"What is it?"

"Are you alone right now?"

"Um, I'm pretty sure."

"Alright, I noticed that you're in the city mall right now."

"Er..."

Looks like she's got some sort of tracker on me. At this point, I wasn't even surprised.

"Anyways, what are you doing right now?"

"I'm on a date with Aiko."

"Seriously? I'm impressed, but sadly I've got some bad news."

"What is it?"

I heard a little static on her side of the phone.

"Hello..." I mumbled.

"I've noticed some suspicious figures near your area, I'm not completely sure what their goal is, but they've got disrupters on them. I want you to find somewhere safe until Spectrum-Judgement arrives. Ah, and keep Aiko safe as well."

"Uh, alright then, I'll go grab her now."

"Good, don't go getting yourself killed."

"I'll try not to."

With that, the phone went silent. I quickly made my way back out of the toilets and looked around the area for Aiko. As I scanned the area, I noticed that Aiko was nowhere to be seen. There were a few shoppers walking around, but I couldn't find her. In the hustle and bustle of the shopping centre, I looked around.

Where could she have gone?

Normally, I'd assume that she'd gone off somewhere, but the situation was a little different.

Ugh, I guess I don't have a choice.

I leaned up against a wall and concentrated my thoughts.

As a side-effect of being the lab rat for the second blueprint of the Realiser, I gained a mundane yet useful ability.

Now that my mind was completely clear, I began making the calculations.

I scanned the entire shopping centre, searching for signs of EM-waves. My ability was one that told me the state of every single wave within a several-hundred-metre radius; I was able to observe all d-waves and EM-waves in the area.

If the headmaster said that the perpetrators were using Disrupters, then there should be some pulsing. Disrupters worked by converting all EM-waves in a general area back into d-waves. If they were here, then I should notice EM-waves turning into d-waves.

After scanning the entire shopping centre, I sensed that there was some pulsing near the bottom floor.

How could they have gotten so far away already?

The disturbance in waves was quite large. It was pretty clear that Aiko had been kidnapped. There weren't many espers in the city who could generate such a large number of EM-waves.

With that in mind, I started making my way down the escalator.

Still, I didn't understand. Even with Disrupters, I doubted that Aiko would let herself get captured so easily. She was an A-rank esper. After all, even without her powers, she would likely have self-defence techniques that would at least slow them down. Something didn't seem right.

As I rushed down to the bottom floor, I leaned up against a wall once again. I needed to get a more precise pinpoint of their location. After scanning the entire underground parking space, I was led toward where they were.

I needed to be careful as well, however.

I snuck around the back of some of the vehicles parked around the place. It was a dark, concrete building with only slight rays of light penetrating through. I didn't have enough cover to conceal myself as I made my way over completely. There were only a small number of cars parked since it was still relatively early.

Hiding my body as much as I could, I made my way closer to their location. I could hear the faint sound of stomping as I peeked from behind a car. Suddenly, I heard the sound of an engine starting. The rumbling of the loud engine travelled through the echo chamber that was this practically-empty car park.

Shit, I don't have any more time.

Showing myself from behind cover, I started running toward the group of perpetrators. I couldn't quite see them from this distance, but I noticed that they seemed to be in almost business-like attire. It was completely different from the outfit that REWORK wore.

Who on earth were they?

For some reason, one of their members was left behind as the car sped away.

They must have noticed me.

The perpetrator was wearing a midnight-black suit, complete with grey pants, a dark-green tie and a white shirt. It was quite odd. They looked more like people who would show up to an executive business meeting than people who would kidnap a girl off the street.

Whatever the case, it looked like I was going to have to fight.

They had a Disrupter in hand, but it didn't really matter.

I drew my sword and quickly closed the distance between us.

All of a sudden, I noticed that they were materialising some sort of bright yellow blade. It produced a bright light that lit up the entire building. I guess that was their ability.

As I got closer to them, I noticed that they were younger than I expected... well then again, espers were all usually around my age.

I raised my sword and prepared to engage them.