Stay Quiet
"Handler...!"
"Ah, you're here? That was incredibly fast. Did you run the whole way?"
"Of course I had to run...! Do you have any idea how dangerous it is out there right now? Why were you even trying to go outside...!?"
"Ah.... Um......"
Batori arrived while I was still waiting in front of the shelter, and the moment she did, I found myself on the receiving end of a spectacular lecture.
It wasn't that I couldn't understand where she was coming from. I just honestly hadn't expected Batori, of all people, to be the one scolding me.
Then again, I was usually the one doing all the lecturing around here. I'd never had any reason to be on the other end of it. Even accounting for that, though — Batori, of all people? I was genuinely surprised.
"Shall we head up for now? I don't know exactly what's going on outside, but if you were able to make it here on time, things can't be all that bad, right?"
"Haa..."
"I know it's a little dangerous."
"It's not just a little dangerous..."
That said, the child had been sobbing her heart out. I couldn't just ignore that completely. I could have, technically — but I wasn't the kind of person who could.
In more ways than one, I simply didn't have a choice.
And so Batori and I began climbing the stairs, one step at a time. We had to go from the basement all the way up to the seventh floor, which was exhausting, but we gritted our teeth and kept at it.
"Haaah..."
"......"
"I should've just walked up..."
It was miserably hard. I was forced, yet again, to confront just how pathetically weak I was. Today was another reminder that an office-worker-optimized body was far frailer than I'd given it credit for, and I found myself wondering if I ought to start working out. Then again, if I hadn't started by now, I probably never would.
"Haaah..."
"...Are you all right?"
"Haaah......"
"......"
"Just... one minute... let me rest... for one minute... huff..."
"...Okay."
I was going to need a break, at least for a moment. Climbing from the basement to the seventh floor had been so punishing that if I kept walking like this, I was genuinely going to collapse. I clung to the stair rail and just stood there, holding myself up.
"Hooo......"
I caught my breath for a moment. Batori, by contrast, looked completely unaffected, simply standing there watching me. Our abilities really were on entirely different levels, weren't they? Once again, I was reminded that I would never, ever be cut out to be a hero.
"From what I've heard... a villain organization launched a terrorist attack on this area."
"An organization?"
"Yes... so a fair number of heroes have already gathered, but since it's an organization, it doesn't seem like it's getting resolved easily... Starting from the first-floor lobby, quite a lot of villains have occupied the building, and they've been fighting."
"...From the first floor?"
Batori's words, delivered while I was still catching my breath, caught me off guard. I'd been looking after the child while trying to get a sense of the situation outside, so I hadn't fully grasped what was happening. And now she was telling me villains had taken the first floor.
The shelter itself had been specially constructed, of course — the kind of place villains generally couldn't target easily. Even so, the fact that they'd seized the building from the first floor up was clearly a serious threat. Anyone on the first floor who hadn't made it to the shelter was probably already...
"......"
I was struck all over again by just how unstable this world really was. I needed to find that child's mother quickly and get back to the shelter. Whether she was even still here was another question — but I realized this was no time to waste standing around catching my breath.
"The first through third floors are where the villains and heroes are fighting, so there probably aren't any villains above the fourth floor."
"...I see. Let's get inside quickly, then."
"Yes...!"
My breathing was still a little ragged, but I said as much to Batori and we stepped onto the seventh floor in earnest. I opened the shelter door and went in, and what greeted us was a department store utterly devoid of people.
A place that would normally have been packed and bustling was silent, not a soul in sight. The building did tremble now and then, and from far below came the faint, very faint sound of something exploding — but that was all.
"...There's no one here."
"Y-yeah..."
"Shall we take a look around, then? I realize this basically means I'm asking you to bodyguard me, but..."
It couldn't be helped. I had no idea exactly what was happening downstairs. All I could do was make the somewhat shameless choice of trusting that Batori would keep me safe somehow.
"Batori, how about we start the cheering now?"
"I think we should look around the area first..."
"Then I'll just quietly cheer you on from behind."
"Uugh... okay...!"
Batori's power only worked properly when people paid attention to her and cheered her on, after all. Through several experiments and real situations by now, I already knew her ability responded to the intensity of the support she received. So I began cheering for her, trailing along behind.
"You can do it...! Fighting!"
"Uuughaa..."
She got embarrassed whenever I cheered from behind, but there was nothing to be done about it. I had zero combat ability — not even a passing familiarity with fighting. All I could do was carefully follow along behind a goblin girl smaller than myself.
Well. Even that little goblin girl, once you started cheering for her, began growing right before your eyes. And as Batori grew, her height increased and her figure filled out until the clothes she was wearing were only just barely still fitting her. The grown-up version of her was pretty in its own way.
"Batori, do you know which heroes came to fight downstairs?"
"I was originally going to fight with them too, but then you contacted me, so I didn't get a proper look... I did see Saran unnie, and Baek... the Fox."
"Hmm..."
"Besides them, there were plenty of B-Class heroes around too... ah, and a lot of C-Class ones as well."
"I see."
What I could gather from Batori's report was that this villain group was no joke. Terrorist attacks generally did draw a large hero response, but even accounting for that, a considerable number of heroes had arrived, based on what she was telling me. Of course, the fact that I'd called in an A-Class hero myself had a lot to do with it.
At any rate. Batori and I wandered the floor slowly, but we couldn't find anyone of note. There were no people in sight at all, period.
"There's no one around. Maybe they fled upstairs?"
"Hmm..."
I was diligently following behind Batori — who had, at some point, grown taller than me — scanning our surroundings, but the child's mother was nowhere to be found. Then again, there were no villains in sight either, nor anyone who'd fallen victim to them. In a situation like this, wouldn't it make more sense to check the floors above, or even below, rather than staying on the seventh?
The seventh floor was far less dangerous than the first, where the attack had actually taken place. The thought that searching elsewhere would be more productive came to me naturally.
"...Let's check the remaining spots first. There's still a restroom over that way."
"Okay."
We did, but we didn't find a single person, so we naturally headed upstairs. The attack had happened on the lower floors, so of course people would have fled upward. If they'd gone downstairs instead... well. That would just be unfortunate.
"Batori. You're about 160 centimeters tall right now. How much stronger are you in this state?"
"I think I'm about three times stronger than usual."
"Oh..."
I see. That was an even better ability than I'd thought. Batori was fundamentally a tiny girl at 135 centimeters, but her strength was already several times that of an ordinary adult. Last time I'd seen her, a single punch had been enough to drop a grown man. Three times that...
Yeah. Best not to mess with Batori.
"Hmm..."
"...Um, Handler."
"Yes, Batori? What is it? Did you find the child's mother?"
"...Stay quiet for a moment."
"......?"
The words came suddenly as we were making our way around the eighth floor. Batori grabbed my shoulder with one hand and said that. I craned my neck forward to see what was going on, but nothing was visible. Which only made me more curious.
"......"
But Batori meant it. Completely, utterly serious. And we were in a dangerous situation to begin with. So I shut my mouth for real.
And as I did... Batori began advancing, slowly, carefully, step by step. Was there someone there? It felt too tense for her to simply have spotted a person. The reason she was acting like this was almost certainly a villain.
Step by quiet step, she moved forward. The shops of the eighth floor gradually came into view.
"......"
"......"
And then what emerged was a single person who looked suspicious by any standard. They were wandering through a store belonging to a brand so famous that anyone who heard the name would go, "Oh, that one?" — smashing display cases and looting the merchandise inside. And in their hand, they were holding a weapon that looked distinctly dangerous...
"...Ah. So there were still people left."
"...A villain."
It was a villain.