Chapter 82

The team sent to the Busan Branch to escort a girl as requested by the Association’s shadow consisted of three members in total.

The sea is vast, so both pirates and navies need to see the lighthouse to come ashore. The Lighthouse Team specializes in scouting others, identifying their weaknesses, and guiding to victories from those weaknesses.

To traverse the wide sea, vessels that carry something are needed. The Ship Team includes members who possess versatile abilities to handle various situations and someone who can create a ‘ship’ that can carry them and withstand any situation.

Even sea people need to stay on land sometimes. Land is, after all, the foundation. The Land Team, who possesses brute yet perfect power, was also present.

The basic plan was that the Lighthouse Team would identify those attempting to approach the escort target beforehand, the Ship Team would then deter or eliminate them. If that became impossible, the Land Team, which had been solely dedicated to guarding, would join and buy time until the situation resolved.

Even with powerful enemies, the group consisted of high-level supernatural ability users who could manage to buy time. However, they had some problems to address since their team was set to fend off external assaults by other supernatural ability users.

“Should we intervene or not?”

One of the issues was whether they should intervene when the escorted target was bullied within the school.

Since the current location of the escorted target wasn’t rented from a school, stopping the bullying by pretending to visit the restroom was not a difficult task, but there was a complication.

The request from the party asking for protection included a stipulation: Erica, the escorted target, should never know she was being protected.

Following this, they might end up not revealing themselves when genuine protection was needed.

Moreover, the team consisted not of powerful supernatural ability users authorized to eliminate threats in emergencies, but ordinary students.

“Hmm…? But if the protective detail being passive while someone gets bullied gets back to the requesting side and then to the Branch Manager, it might get problematic, right? Just charging in might be better.”

Among the troubled supernatural ability users, a voice with a slight dialect could be heard. The girl, who was set to inherit the next Busan Branch Manager position and currently known as Busan Girl, stood out.

Despite her young age and relatively less experience compared to others, the surrounding individuals immediately prepared to act upon her words.

The girl possessed ‘leadership,’ a quality that could command those older and more experienced than herself.

Unfortunately, her orders held less significance due ironically to her ability to move people more strongly than a girl who turned people into dolls or a woman who emotionally swayed others.

Before the group even reached the restroom, a blonde, delinquent-like woman appeared, knocked out all the surveillance officers in the hallway, and swiftly cleared the situation.

The efforts the supernatural ability users had deliberated were fruitlessly rendered meaningless, but it was also fortuitous that the problem was resolved without their intervention.

While the Busan Branch members were contemplating the mixture of anticlimactic and oddly fortunate outcome, the blue-haired Busan Girl briefly met eyes with the delinquent woman looking at her through the restroom window, but dismissed it as a mistake.

After all, her location wasn’t just any building rooftop. Through the ‘ark’ ability of the Ship Team member, they were observing the current situation from an entirely different space, undetectable by mere students.

Later, when the delinquent woman had brought the escorted target back to the room and the team continued their watch, they relaxed once the target entered the auditorium with other students.

Reviewing the school profiles, there were quite a few powerful supernatural ability users, so even if someone targeted the escort, the students could presumably buy time until their team arrived.

However, that reassurance was short-lived. The escorted target, for an unknown reason, left the auditorium before the recreation activities ended and met a woman presumed to be a supernatural ability user outside.

Not knowing the exact nature of her abilities, some were analyzing her powers while others reviewed the provided profile again, but by then, the escort target had already joined the woman and headed somewhere.

As they watched where they were going, the team couldn’t help but panic.

“…Why here? There’s no reason to come to this building, which is why we selected it as a surveillance spot. How did she find out?”

“Do we have time to deliberate this? Listen, how about we sit still? The intruder might not see our inner sanctuary even if they come looking. Or perhaps they came here for a different purpose and we should sit tight. Or should we flee?”

Every member of the protection team turned their gaze to the Busan Girl, who grinned and exclaimed,

“Leave it all to me~!”

And used a dialect different from the local Busan dialect.

Initially, the government’s policy to eradicate the Busan dialect aimed to erase the city’s uniqueness, so the dialect the Busan Girl used was merely a rough imitation learned from the internet.

*

A terror organization was following them, reported Kana.

The girl guiding her showed a subtle sign of irritation on her face.

Perhaps due to heightened alertness, the individual she had just met had detected the tail more swiftly than she had, only realizing after being informed.

Of course, Erica’s ability was ill-suited for detection, so she naturally wouldn’t have noticed, yet it was frustrating because her perspective differed.

Seeing words floating above people’s heads wasn’t typically a big deal, but with her power, even if someone hid perfectly behind walls, she could detect their continued presence. She had used that ability to find Kana.

Moreover, even if she couldn’t see the faces of the extras classified as such, their unusual conditions were still visible to her. Therefore, she should have noticed quicker than Kana.

In fact, the dolls of the doll maker were clearly labeled, making her ability excellent for detecting tails.

‘That’s right—he was around too.’

The doll maker, whose reasons for attacking her remained unclear. If that attack wasn’t a coincidence, they were bound to meet again.

“Do you know anything about the doll maker?”

[Why the sudden question about her?]

Seeming interested, Kana stopped walking and wrote in her sketchbook to show Erica, much to Erica’s mild surprise, as she had intended to bring it up casually.

And, truthfully, Erica didn’t have any grand reason to ask—only the high probability that one day she would fight whoever had attacked her before.

After a brief pause, Erica’s lips moved.

“…I have a deep-seated bad karma with her.”

Though ultimately a lie that emerged after a long pause, Erica couldn’t help but fabricate since she couldn’t recover her lost memories regarding her own history.

What couldn’t be retrieved had to be invented.

[Oh? Do you happen to know what the bad karma is about? If I knew, I might be able to provide a little information about the special dolls the doll maker uses.]

“Special dolls information? You have that?”

To Erica, who simply wanted to know whether an ordinary student had any rumors about the doll maker and what kind of rumors existed, this was an unexpected discovery.

It felt like tripping over unexpected cash.

“But it’s a very sensitive story, so I can’t tell you much.”

Though it was a lie Erica made up believing it wouldn’t be uncovered.

She wasn’t that evil to craft another lie just to extract information from a potential threat— unless, of course, lying itself was considered evil.

[I have details about the doll maker herself. I was bullied before, so if you tell me what happened, I’ll share those details too.]

Was this an information exchange event? As Kana repeatedly asked about the doll maker’s past but instead offered information about the doll maker, Erica had a fleeting suspicion.

“Could it be that you…?”

Was Kana actually interested in the doll maker? It made sense if she was interested: knowing about her and asking about their encounters.

Though the doll maker had attacked Erica, Kana didn’t know what the doll maker had done for her. Erica also had no knowledge of the incident that made Kana unable to speak.

Perhaps that incident was somehow related to the doll maker. Erica shook her head.

“No. First, let’s head toward the ones watching us.”

Regardless of the delay, it would take only a minute to reach the rooftop.

Though they were a bit late due to the conversation, since there were only the stairs to ascend to the rooftop, escape was impossible.

Erica slowly but surely walked with Kana toward the presumed location of their “enemy.”