“Does that kind of stuff really work against robots?”
“Who knows? We never thought we’d have to use it against mechanical beings. The talisman actually uses a technique that makes us difficult to perceive even if we’re still visible per se, but considering we haven’t been found yet, I think it’s safe to assume it’s working.”
Her answer was a bit roughshod, but President Momone was right in so far as what really mattered right now was results. The robots hadn’t found the shrine yet, and that was a good thing.
“However, the invisibility talisman is merely a temporary solution. We have no idea when the robots might show up here, so the next step is to plan our escape.”
“I don’t have any objections to that, but how are we gonna get out of here?”
“I’ve investigated several escape routes already. Those robots are all over town, but they’re scattered. It’s not like they can be everywhere all at once, so we’ll wait for the right time—when they’re all clear of the escape route we choose—and then we’ll make a run for it.”
President Momone had said that running past the robots was relatively safe. At the very least, they didn’t attack on sight. The real risk would be them discovering the shrine before everyone was ready to leave. If they came in to destroy the place with everyone here, it would be bad news. But if we waited too long, then... Ultimately, I was glad the timing of the operation would be up to President Momone and her grandfather. As for my role in all of this...
“That will leave the roles of escorts and decoys to us,” President Momone announced.
“Figures...”
I’d kind of expected that, so I gave a resigned nod without any protest. I did have one question, though.
“Are you and your friends going to be decoys too, Ai?”
“That’s right, meow.”
“But you guys aren’t that strong, are you?”
If I recalled correctly, the nekomata had lost to Pon and his crew when they had their turf war. Then President Momone singlehandedly beat up all the local yokai. None of them were remarkably strong.
“That’s so mean, Rekka! We can do it if we try, meow!”
“That’s a nice thought and all, but...”
“You’ve got it wrong, Rekka,” Pon interjected. “This is for our sake too.”
“Really?”
“We cannot flee with the other humans, so we’ll need to move on our own regardless. That being said, there’s no guarantee we can escape safely on our own.”
“Yeah... I guess you’re right.”
“That’s why, in exchange for our work as decoys, the Demon Slayer’s granddaughter and that blond axewoman will accompany us. That will greatly increase our chances of survival.”
“...”
That still wasn’t a guarantee, but if Pon was satisfied, then I wasn’t in any position to argue.
“Can I be of help too?” Poppy asked President Momone, raising her hand from where she still sat atop my shoulder.
“Of course. We may be escorts and decoys, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s going to be any fighting. Someone as small and hard to see as you would make a great scout,” President Momone said, patting Poppy’s head with the tip of her finger. “Like I said before, the robots haven’t shown any interest in people so far. All of this planning is mostly a precaution. Our real priority will be avoiding danger.”
Pon had mentioned that Yulia—and presumably Yorun, too—would be joining us for the operation. That meant that more or less everyone familiar with the supernatural would be in on this.
Touko...
Thinking of all our friends gathered here, my mind turned to one who wasn’t: Touko Iwazu. She wielded the power of words, meaning practically anything she said became reality. If she were here, we could have this whole robot disaster cleared up in a snap.
Except that it goes against her beliefs to use her power for the good of others...
Knowing it was probably hopeless, I tried calling her anyway... but she didn’t answer. Come to think of it, she hadn’t picked up earlier either.
“Oh, well...”
I gave up on Touko for now, put my phone away, and turned to President Momone.
“Um, so what should I do?”
Though I was lumped in with everyone else because I was familiar with the supernatural, I didn’t have any special powers or useful skills like everyone else. I couldn’t do much as an escort, and my usefulness as a decoy was also questionable.
“First, let me give you these talismans. One for distraction and one for defense. You can activate them even without any spiritual power.”
“Okay. How do I do that?”
“You visualize using them and then throw them into the air. The rest is intuition.”
So much for instructions...
“Right, okay. Got it.”
I nodded, but President Momone raised a dubious eyebrow.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing. It’s just that you normally whine a bit more. You’re being oddly obedient today.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. And today isn’t the usual yokai diplomacy errand, either. It’s a genuine emergency, yet you’re more resolute than ever before. It’s almost like you were ready for this.”
“...”
I was ready for this? Tokiwa has said something similar. That made two people who thought that... No, I had to admit it was three of us. A similar thought had crossed my mind, as well. It was getting harder and harder to say it was just my imagination. That being said, I still didn’t have an explanation.
Maybe, just maybe... The answer had something to do with what was going on.
“...”
I continued to ponder it until Yulia and Yorun returned.
▽
After half an hour or so...
“We’re back! Huh? What’s wrong, Rekka?” Yorun asked as she looked at my face curiously.
“Nothing, I was just thinking...”
“Yeah? You okay in there? If you push it any harder, I think smoke’s gonna come out of your ears.”
I gave a casual wave of my hand so she’d think I was fine, but truth be told, I really wasn’t. At this rate, my brain genuinely was going to overheat, and I wasn’t even anywhere close to arriving at an answer.
Time was up, however. Now that Yulia and Yorun were back, we needed to prepare for our escape. I could dwell on personal stuff later.
“Problem child!”
Right on cue, President Momone called me over. Her grandfather was around front rounding up the refugees and filling them in on what was going to happen. Meanwhile, the rest of us were behind the shrine with President Momone—who had changed into her shrine maiden outfit—going over the escort and decoy plan.
“Listen up, everyone. We cannot let the refugees see the yokai, so we’ll have to maintain a safe distance from them. That said, we can’t stray too far. We’ll have to strike a balance. We’ll be following behind the main group, but use side streets as necessary.”
“How will we contact each other?”
“We’ll use shikigami.”
“Not cellphones?”
“My grandfather isn’t very good with technology. Even if you handed him a cellphone that was actively on a call, he’d find a way not only to hang up, but to break the phone.”
“Sounds like one of those nasty gremlins that destroys machinery,” Yulia muttered with a shrug of her shoulders.
“...!”
A sharp pain ran through my head when I heard her say something about gremlins. It bothered me, and I would’ve loved to get to the bottom of it, but I forcibly stifled the odd feeling rising in my chest and focused on the important discussion at hand.
“Like I said before, the goal here is to avoid danger. Drawing attention to yourself is strictly forbidden. Especially you flying yokai—make sure you stay low to the ground. As for the nekomata, I don’t have a problem with you running along fence tops, but stay off of r
oofs.”
The yokai all nodded at President Momone’s instructions as she rattled off precaution after precaution. As I listened to her too, I checked to make sure I still had both talismans she’d given me. The talisman of distraction was in my right pocket, and the talisman of defense was in my left. I double-checked and then triple-checked just to be certain. They were all I had to protect everyone—and myself—if it came down to it. Of course, President Momone had her own talismans too. If she ran out, though, I’d be more than happy to give her mine. She was the real powerhouse of the escort and decoy team, after all.
Once the mission briefing and ensuing discussion were concluded, we temporarily disbanded to take care of individual preparations. It wasn’t like I had any weapons or anything to get ready, however, so I didn’t really have much to do. Mostly I just needed to tie my shoelaces and go to the bathroom one last time. But then...
“Ah, Tokiwa.”
Just as I was about to go back around to the rear side of the shrine, I ran into Tokiwa loitering around.
“...!”
Her expression brightened significantly when she spotted me...
Tmp, tmp, tmp, tmp... WHUMP!
And she made an unusually powerful running jump for me, arms outstretched.
“What’s the matter, Tokiwa?” I asked.
“...”
Instead of replying, Tokiwa simply hugged me tighter. Clinging to me, she refused to let go. To be honest, it was bad for my heart when she pressed herself up against me like this... I was glad Poppy had wandered off to do her own thing for the moment.
“Tokiwa... what’s wrong?” I asked again.
After a pregnant moment...
“Rekka, are you really... going to be a decoy with Momo?” she whispered into my ear.
She’d probably heard about the operation from President Momone herself. Concerned, she pulled back a little and peered up at me with a desperate look. If this were a movie, I was dead sure a dramatic kiss scene would have followed. But unfortunately, Tokiwa and I weren’t in that kind of relationship. So instead of a kiss, I had to use words to reassure her.
“It’ll be fine, Tokiwa. President Momone keeps saying we’re decoys, but that’s really only in a worst-case scenario. Our goal is to avoid any and all danger, and I have every confidence things will be just fine with President Momone taking the lead.”
“I know Momo’s strong, but...”
“It’ll be fine! She’s your childhood friend, right? Have some faith in her.”
It was a little unfair of me to phrase it like that, but it was the only way.
“...”
Tokiwa continued to look up at me with an unconvinced expression, watching me with worried eyes. And I...
“Don’t worry.”
For some reason...
“If it comes down to it, I’ll figure something out.”
Those words slipped my lips like they were nothing.
Despite the fact that I was completely powerless... Despite the fact that I was the weakest member of the team... I had taken it upon myself to see the plan succeed.
Was I getting overconfident because President Momone had complimented me earlier? Well, maybe that was part of it, but rather than something so fickle, this felt more like... It really did feel like it came naturally. Yeah, it was almost like I was prepared for this. Like I had been through it plenty of times before.
“...”
Tokiwa stared at me intently, but then she wrapped her arms around my neck and leaned in close.
“Don’t get hurt,” she whispered before kissing me on the cheek.
As she stepped back, I watched the ornate butterfly hairpin she wore in her long hair pull away from me. My cheeks were burning hot... and probably bright red, too.
“So soft...”
I couldn’t say anything else. If I did, I would remember the sensation again. It would probably make my whole body—and not just my cheeks—overheat this time.
Hands on my cheeks, I made my way around back again. I now had to find a way to calm myself down before we left. The moment of escape would soon be upon us.
▽
Roughly 20 minutes after Yulia and Yorun returned to Kibi Shrine...
“Let’s get moving.”
At President Momone’s signal, we all stepped out of the barrier placed around the shrine grounds. Of course, President Momone was in the lead. I was behind her, basically acting as lieutenant. Yulia and Yorun were positioned in the middle of the group, both of them with their weapons at the ready. Ai and Pon were in charge of their respective nekomata and yokai groups in the event anything happened. And together, we formed the escort and decoy team.
The refugees had evacuated ahead of us, and we followed about 50 meters behind them. It was far enough that we lost sight of them whenever they turned a corner ahead of us, but President Momone had a paper talisman that looked like an origami crane that she used to keep in contact with her grandfather.
“There are no issues here. Proceed as planned,” it reported.
“Understood. Things are quiet back here too,” President Momone replied.
Once their transmission ended, President Momone turned to the rest of us.
“Continue forward,” she ordered, running ahead to take the lead again.
I mean, I said running, but because we had to keep our distance, it was more like a brisk jog. Almost half of the refugees were injured, so they couldn’t move but so fast, and we had to match their speed. Not that that was really a problem, I guess. You could say we were all saving our stamina in case something bad happened.
“...”
“...”
“...”
Almost everyone in the escort and decoy group—human and yokai alike—had a tense look on their face. But that was to be expected. No matter how we hid as we moved...
Whirr-clunk. Whirr-clunk.
We could hear the clunking sound of the robots’ footsteps from every direction. To be honest, it really put me on edge.
“How much longer?” I asked.
“We only just left,” President Momone replied bluntly.
She then stopped at the corner and quietly checked to make sure the coast was clear.
“...All right, let’s go.”
But just then, a transmission came over the crane talisman.
“Momone,” her grandfather called.
“What is it?” she replied.
“The roof of a house has collapsed along the intersection between Second and Third Street. We may need to change our route.”
“You can’t get through the rubble?”
“We’re trying now, but we can’t waste too much time clearing the way. Is there a detour we can take?”
“I’ll have a look,” President Momone replied.
There, she pulled a map from the pocket of her shrine maiden outfit and began scouring it for an alternate route between the intersection and our current position.
“How’s it look?” I asked. “What about the route headed east? That’s probably the closest one from here.”
“No, the scouts put an X over that road. That means it’s impassable.”
It seemed President Momone and her grandfather had carefully chosen the route we were on because it appeared to be the only one that was clear. When I got a closer look at President Momone’s map, I could see that it was covered in X marks. With the number of roads that were blocked off to us, trying to find an alternate route would mean a rather roundabout detour.
“Damn it all...”
The longer we took—both to find a detour and then to follow it—the greater the risk we ran of being discovered by the robots. President Momone and I stood there contemplating the map until Ai suddenly poked her head out from the group of humans and yokai gathered around us.
“Over here, Rekka! We can pass through here, meow!”
“That’s a house, Ai.”
“No, meow! I mean the garden! It’s just a wooden fence and some hedge
s, so even you humans should be able to get through!”
“Ah!”
I had to admit it was a rather cat-like approach. I certainly wouldn’t have thought of it. And better yet, the house next to the one with the garden had a back gate that connected right to the intersection in question.
“Nice one, Ai. Let’s go with that,” President Momone said, patting Ai’s head as she praised her.
“Thank you, mrrrow! But I’d rather Rekka pet me.”
“We’ve got a special request for you, problem child. Make her happy.”
“E-Er, okay...?”
“Mee-yow!”
As I petted Ai’s head in President Momone’s stead, she contacted her grandfather.
“...So we’re going to check and see if we can get through.”
“Destroy the fence and hedges if possible. Several of the refugees have injured legs and can’t climb anything. It’ll be difficult enough to get them over even small obstacles.”
“Well, we can always blame the damage on the robots.”
“This is an emergency. Don’t hesitate to do what you need to.”
“All right, kids, you heard the man. Let’s get to work.”
With those last words directed at us, President Momone took off running. We followed her about a minute down the road to the house Ai had been pointing to earlier. It was a single-story home made of wood that was lucky enough to have escaped the robots’ destruction so far. It was also surrounded by a low fence and hedges just like Ai had said. Passing through the yard shouldn’t be a problem. Hope bloomed within us all.
“Yulia, Yorun. You two work with the yokai to remove the hedges here. I’ll check around back with the problem child.”
“Okay.”
“You can count on us.”
Yulia and Yorun both put away their weapons and got ready to get their hands dirty with the yokai at President Momone’s request.
“Now, problem child... You and Ai come with me.”
“Roger!”
“Got it, meow!”
We followed President Momone around to the back of the garden. The pathway through the garden was clear, but there was a slightly taller hedge dividing the garden from the next house over. The children and cats in the group would have no trouble crawling under it, but not so much the adults and the elderly refugees.
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 14 Page 5