Outbreak Company: Volume 10

by Ichiro Sakaki

  That was when I noticed something: Shizuki had never gone back inside. She was watching us from the back door. As she vanished swiftly into the distance, I spotted a look of worry on her face.

  Aaaargh, what was with her being so adorable?!

  I didn’t know if she could see me or not, but I poked my head out the window and nodded to say everything was okay. She opened her mouth and might have been saying something back, but I couldn’t hear her over the roar of the accelerating Impreza.

  The house got smaller and smaller, and then the car turned a corner, and I couldn’t see my home anymore.

  It’s okay. Yeah. I’m sure of it.

  I felt more like I was trying to convince myself than anyone else.

  I swear: we will rescue Minori-san, together.

  And then we would all go home.

  We’re coming, Minori-san, I said to myself, and gave an uncharacteristically serious clench of my fist.

  We arrived among the love hotels. It really would have been too far to walk, but with a car it wasn’t that bad. The streets were pretty empty, and our Impreza made it there in just over half an hour.

  We got out and looked around. Considering the time, there was virtually no one there. Granted, half the places nearby were love hotels that were probably open 24/7. The rest were buildings dedicated to purposes I couldn’t fathom.

  And somewhere among all of it was Minori-san.

  We didn’t know what building or what room she might be in. Maybe we would just have to search them all...

  “Hey, just a second,” Reito-san said—he had gotten out of the car, too—as I was about to walk off with a sprite bottle in hand. He pulled out his phone and did something. Was he looking something up? What could it be?

  “Reito-san...?”

  Finally satisfied, he held the phone at about eye level and nodded at us. “Yep. That’s the place.” Then he pointed—not to a love hotel, but to a three-story building standing next to one. There was no sign and it didn’t look very used; I would have believed you if you said it was abandoned.

  “This building, it...”

  “It’s where Koganuma Minori is being held,” Reito-san said confidently.

  “Huh?! H-How do you know that?”

  “Because it’s leased to a company that does business with Russia,” he said, again confidently.

  Myusel, Petralka, and Elvia all looked at us perplexed, not quite able to follow what Reito-san and I were saying. The thing was, I didn’t understand much better than they did.

  “How did you figure that out so fast?” Smartphone or no smartphone, that seemed like awfully obscure info to come up with so quick. Some people might suspect an owner with a Russian name, but the building of a company supposedly doing business with Russia? Not everyone would come up with that off the top of their head. I’d already thought Reito-san might be smarter than he looked, but this...

  “Who exactly—”

  —are you? I was going to ask, but Reito-san interrupted me.

  “There he is,” he said and glanced over, his expression darkening.

  “What...?”

  I followed his gaze—and at that exact moment, I saw a white man emerge from the building and head in our direction. He was tall and very well-built. He had sculpted features, but was completely expressionless, like some kind of android. It was—

  “Huh? Ah...”

  Before I could stop him, Reito-san walked forward.

  “What it is? What’s wrong?” Petralka asked, clearly concerned, but I had no chance to answer.

  Reito-san had slouched up to the white guy and was talking to him. “Uhh, hey, sorry man, but I’m a little lost. Could you—”

  The guy didn’t wait for the rest; he grabbed Reito-san. I didn’t know much about martial arts, but even I could tell that this wasn’t some get-em-by-the-collar intimidation tactic. He wasn’t just taking hold of Reito-san, he was trying to fold his entire body—clearly a joint lock on the way to a choke. So this was sambo at work, or maybe systema. In any event, some kind of Russian military martial art.

  All of a sudden, though, Reito-san was no longer in the man’s arms. He took a half-step to the side, grabbed the man’s extended arm, and—

  “Ah?!”

  The exclamation of surprise came from Elvia. With her exceptional eye for movement, she was probably the only one who fully appreciated what Reito-san had done. As for the rest of us, by the time we registered what was happening, the white guy had already been slammed into the asphalt by the throw.

  “No way!”

  “Hrgh...” the guy groaned. This wasn’t like getting thrown onto a wood floor or a mat, something designed to help disperse some of the impact. Landing on solid ground would have been enough to put most people out of commission already (or so I had read in a book somewhere). The reason the police and even some military units learned the seemingly more subdued arts of judo and aikido, as opposed to more aggressive styles like karate or kenpo, was exactly because of their ability to overwhelm and control.

  “Don’t move.”

  Next thing that happened, the white guy discovered there was a gun stuck in his face. He froze.

  Holding the weapon was Reito-san. He was standing a step away, the gun fixed on his opponent. Exactly far enough to react if the guy tried to pull anything, I guessed.

  No matter how you cut it, this obviously wasn’t his first rodeo.

  “R-Reito-san...”

  He hadn’t looked especially athletic, and he had seemed like the textbook otaku. Now he had flung an obviously powerful man to the ground and was standing there holding a gun on him. It was a picture we couldn’t have imagined five seconds before, and all of us stared in shock.

  “...Say good night,” Reito-san growled, and then he let loose with a vicious stomp on the man’s stomach. The Russian agent (I’m assuming he was) passed out without a sound.

  And then...

  “I figured this was the place,” Reito-san said, stepping back from the Russian and glancing at us. “Ready to go?”

  I stayed where I was, about three meters away from him, and said, “Hang on a second, Reito-san. Who in the heck are you?” And I wasn’t going to be buying any more just-a-passing-otaku stuff.

  “Just a passing otaku.”

  “Don’t you have any other lines?!”

  “Hm?”

  “Okay, not the point—would a normal otaku have a gun?”

  And not just any gun, but what appeared to be a pistol with a small silencer on the barrel—in other words, special-issue military stuff. I seemed to remember seeing the same kind of thing in my dad’s airsoft collection. A SIG Sauer P228—a German model favored by Japanese police Special Assault Teams and the Coast Guard’s Special Security Team.

  In other words...

  “It’s a model gun.” Reito-san tapped the P228 as if to say, Look, plastic.

  “But... But you took down that huge guy so fast I hardly saw it.”

  “Oh, I’ve loved martial arts since I was a kid. You’ve practiced the kame**meha, right? It’s pretty much the same thing.”

  “Reito-san...”

  He was laughing loudly in an attempt to throw me off. Finally, though, he looked at Elvia and Myusel standing beside me and sighed, apparently deciding this wasn’t the time for deception. “Just don’t one-hit me with your magic, okay?”

  I caught my breath, and my questions turned to certainty. He knew about magic—which meant he knew about the other world. I admit, we had used magic in front of him once, but we had never told him what it was. It could have been some special martial art, or ESP, for all he knew.

  “I’m not your enemy,” he said, the thin smile vanishing from his face.

  “Okay, but what are you?”

  “You know about the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office?”

  I didn’t say anything. How could I? The words took my breath away.

  We stood in two groups in front of the nameless building. Elvia, Petralka,
and I were to the right of the doorway. To the left were Myusel and Reito-san.

  This was the division we’d come up with while trying to make sure that both groups had someone capable of ranged magic and someone who could survive hand-to-hand combat. Elvia and Reito-san would be our front line of defense. Myusel and I would be there for support.

  We didn’t speak. Reito-san nodded to us, then leaned over to peek inside.

  I took an involuntary swallow. I could feel how nervous I was. To this point, it had always been the enemy moving against us, and I had been completely occupied with how to respond, but now I was going to go flying into the jaws of danger. Terror started wailing in a corner of my mind. A little late. There was no way we were turning back now.

  I was standing there thinking vacantly about tracing the character for “person” on my palm—an old Japanese remedy for the jitters—when someone took my hand. Surprised, I glanced over and found myself looking into Petralka’s eyes.

  She nodded at me as if to say both Calm down and It’s okay. I was sure she was as nervous as I was, but she was also an empress, and she knew how to appear under control. Looking into her emerald eyes, I somehow found her composure contagious.

  I nodded back: Thanks, I’ll be fine.

  She smiled a little and let go of my hand. I was just a little bit sorry about that.

  I wished I could get back the sensation of her small, warm hand. I knew she had to let go; otherwise we wouldn’t be able to move freely. But still...

  Silently, Reito-san gave us the signal. He pointed into the building, then held up his pointer and middle fingers. Two people inside, it meant.

  We had devised a strategy, albeit a simple one, ahead of time. We would take a look in the building, and if there was no one at the entrance, then we would sneak in with Reito-san at the head of our group. If it looked like there were agents inside, though, then Myusel and I would burst in and take them out with our magic.

  Evidently there were people in there. That meant Myusel and I were up.

  Unlike a gun, there’s no explosion when you use Tifu Murottsu. And because it’s a ranged attack, you can get the opponent before he can get to you. Perfect for a situation like this.

  I took one deep breath. Forcing myself to be calm, I glanced into the building.

  Yep: there was a sort of lobby or reception area up front; I could see elevator doors farther in. Two white men were sitting in chairs on either side of the elevator.

  I took a sprite bottle from my vest and lobbed it into the building like a grenade.

  The men jumped up, alarmed. When they realized that the thing lying shattered next to them was just some kind of ceramic jar, they looked at each other in relief. They must have assumed it was a grenade at first.

  Naturally, they couldn’t see the magical energy spilling out of the broken jar. It looked completely empty to them.

  “Myusel!” I shouted.

  “Yes, sir!” she said.

  And then both of us jumped into the building.

  The two guys were even more surprised to see us show up. We, however, were ready for them: we intoned the final words of the incantations we’d been reciting and held our hands out toward them.

  “Tifu Murottsu!” we exclaimed together.

  A violent wind erupted from our outstretched hands, a tornado that should never have existed indoors. It blew the men backward, slamming them against the wall. There were twin thumps, two groans, and then they both slid to the floor. They didn’t move again—they must have been knocked unconscious.

  “We did it!” Myusel and I looked at each other and both clenched our fists, ecstatic about our success.

  Look at us—we’re really strong!

  That was probably giving ourselves too much credit—something we realized just a moment later.

  Maybe someone heard the men crash against the wall, or maybe there were security cameras in there, but soon we heard rushing footsteps and voices shouting in a foreign language. Before Myusel and I could hide, four more men were in the room.

  There was a lot more shouting (maybe in Russian?), and the men pulled their guns on us.

  Two of them, however, were almost immediately knocked over by kicks from Reito-san and Elvia, who emerged from a hallway. Their guns went flying through the air. While Myusel and I had been dealing with the first two men, our close-combat troops had snuck in and ducked into the hallway.

  Now Reito-san and Elvia were amidst our attackers. Two of them still had guns, but those were much harder to use in this chaotic situation. It would be too easy to shoot one of their friends—and in close quarters, a punch or kick is faster than trying to aim and shoot.

  Of course, Myusel and I couldn’t offer backup, for the same reasons. So it was four agents versus our two friends—outnumbered two to one.

  Aware of what had happened to their predecessors, though, the enemy obviously knew they couldn’t discount me and Myusel. With their attention divided, a punch from Reito-san and a kick from Elvia sent the men reeling.

  And then—

  “Fire!” Reito-san shouted, diving to the side. Elvia leapt in the other direction. Leaving just four vulnerable men right in front of me and Myusel.

  “Tifu Murottsu!” we shouted again.

  These four, like the first two, were slammed against the wall, grunted, and crumpled. Reito-san went over and gave each of them a kick for good measure. It looked brutal, but it was the only way to be sure they were out cold.

  At last, silence descended on the building.

  “Is it over...?” Petralka asked, peeking in from the entryway.

  “For now,” I nodded, and she came into the building.

  “Are these filth the foreign spies who kidnapped Minori?”

  We could tell the area was filled with the sprites from the bottle because the magic rings were working.

  “Maybe, but I guarantee this isn’t all of them,” Reito-san said.

  I was sure he was right. Even if there were some intruders, it wouldn’t make sense to send everyone in the building down at once. They must have had at least one or two people keeping an eye on Minori-san.

  By the way, Reito-san had a magic ring now, too. Matoba-san had sent an extra one with us, just in case—apparently one that they had brought back to Japan to study. Letting Reito-san communicate telepathically with Myusel and Elvia was going to make the rescue operation go a lot smoother.

  “It’s too early to celebrate,” Reito-san said. “We can’t let down our guard.”

  This was definitely the time to let a professional take the lead, so we put Reito-san at the head of our group and set out to search the building for Minori-san.

  “I downloaded the registered blueprints for the building to get us started,” Reito-san said, looking at his cell phone screen. “I don’t think the Russians would have enough architectural expertise here to screw with the floor plan, so the rooms ought to be where we expect them. Meaning...”

  Reito-san apparently had something in mind. The rest of us followed behind him, working our way up to a third-floor hallway. He pointed to a door at the very end of it. “...She’s probably in there.”

  The door was closed, but there didn’t seem to be any guards in front of it. We came slowly, carefully closer, and finally Reito-san put a hand to the door. He gently turned the knob. I guess it wasn’t locked.

  Reito-san didn’t say anything, but he turned back and nodded at us. Without waiting another instant, we piled into the room.

  “Minori-san!”

  Yes, she was there. The room was barren. Minori-san was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, her hands and feet bound. She must have been just clinging to consciousness, because when we came in, I could see her eyes widen slightly behind her glasses.

  Thank goodness. At least she was safe.

  “Sh—Shinichi-kun? And Myusel and Elvia... Your Majesty, even you...!”

  “Minori-sama, are yoo oh-kay?!” Myusel rushed over to Minori-san and sta
rted working on her bindings, but they were tied tight and wouldn’t come loose.

  “You let me! Let me!” Elvia said. She gave Myusel a little push to the side and grabbed the ropes... “Hrrrrrnnnggg!”

  “Hey... Elvia?”

  Was she trying to just tear them in two? No way, that wasn’t possible, no matter how strong you were. Not with today’s nylon ropes and such.

  “Elvia, you don’t have to—ouch, that hurts!” Minori-san shouted.

  “Ahh, I’ve got it, don’t worry,” Reito-san said. He produced a folding knife from his pocket and started systematically cutting through the ropes.

  “Hmph!” Elvia snorted, but Minori-san was free shortly after. “Here!” She and Reito-san sliced through the rope around Minori-san’s legs, and soon enough she was free.

  “Thanks, Elvia,” Minori-san said, massaging her wrists where they had been rubbed raw by the ropes. Myusel helped her to her feet and she looked at us again. “But why are you all here...?”

  “Ress-cue!” Elvia said emphatically.

  “Ress-cue...? You came to save me?” Minori-san almost sounded more exasperated than surprised. “I can’t believe you found me here.”

  “My mom and Reito-san did all the work.”

  “Reito...?” She looked at me, puzzled, and then at Reito-san, who was standing a step away from our joyous reunion, scanning the room alertly. Minori-san herself looked ever so slightly suspicious of him.

  “Oh, uh, Reito-san is an agent from the government, or I guess CIRO, who’s here to protect us...”

  “CIRO?” Minori-san raised an eyebrow.

  “Well, more of a subcontractor, technically,” Reito-san laughed.

  Incidentally, the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office was one of Japan’s intelligence agencies. Strictly speaking, it’s a division of the Cabinet Secretariat. In Japanese, it’s sometimes known as naichou (“CabInt”) or CIRO for short. It was originally established with the aim of being a Japanese CIA, but unfavorable public opinion and other criticism seems to have kept it from doing much in the way of gathering HUMINT.

  “Just like your zombie unit, they want to be able to cut me loose anytime they need to. On paper, I’m not an official employee of CabInt. But let’s save the org chart for later. We need to get out of here.” Reito-san had his gun in his hand and was looking down the hall. “Tell me, Minori-san, how many agents are there in total?”