The Mastermind
Jinhyuk lifted his head. Even seeing it with his own eyes, he could hardly believe it was real. An explosion like this, in a quiet, peaceful tourist district. The entire area had been thrown into chaos because of it, and startled people were running toward them, away from the blast.
"About eight hundred meters, sir!"
"Let's get out of here first."
They were just about to slip away before the commotion swallowed them when Jinhyuk's eyes went wide. Momo came staggering out of a dim alley, her clothes in tatters, her entire body covered in soot.
"Momo!"
Jinhyuk rushed over and scooped her up. No major injuries, but she was covered in small cuts and scrapes, and for some reason all the strength had gone out of her.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Momo's tough, so I only got a little hurt. I went whoosh and then I was rolling all over the place."
Jinhyuk let out a sigh of relief. Momo had no combat abilities to speak of, but she was loaded with self-protection traits like Presence Suppression. That was why, even after being caught in the blast and sent flying, she'd gotten off this lightly.
"Momo's clothes are all ripped."
Momo looked down at her torn outfit with the world's most dejected expression. She'd been so taken with it from the moment they picked it out, insisting it was made just for her. Now it was completely ruined, and she looked heartbroken.
"I'll buy you something even prettier."
He patted her head until she settled, then ducked into an empty alley.
"The wounds aren't deep, so they'll heal soon."
Elia, who had slipped into the Workshop of the Stars, came back with an assortment of potions and medical supplies. Jinhyuk took them and began treating Momo with painstaking care, dabbing potion onto each wound and covering it with a bandage.
"Whew. All done."
He wiped the sweat from his forehead. He'd never done this before, and it had him breaking out in a cold sweat. Then he stared at Momo and scratched his head.
"Sorry, Momo. You actually look worse."
The bandages were so crooked and piled on so thick that she looked worse than before he'd treated her.
"Looks like she's hurt pretty bad, sir."
"The master's not much with his hands, is he now."
Jinhyuk knew it too. His hands just weren't that deft. But what could he do? Every one of his companions was so far beyond the ordinary that wiping out enemies before anyone got hurt was simply how they operated. Nobody in the party actually knew how to treat a wound.
Would be nice if the next companion was a healer.
The current party was overwhelmingly combat-oriented. With sudden situations like this cropping up, having someone in the healer class would be a real comfort.
Jinhyuk sat back against the alley wall and settled Momo on his lap.
"What happened, Momo?"
"The streets were so pretty, so I was just wandering around, and then this lady and this man called Momo over."
"They called you? People usually can't find you because of Presence Suppression."
"Yeah. But the lady's eyes were super sparkly. That's how she found Momo easier than other people."
Thanks to Presence Suppression, Momo's presence was practically at air-level. That didn't mean her appearance was completely hidden, though. Whether someone was looking for her on purpose or spotted her by chance, the moment they registered her, Presence Suppression stopped working.
"So what did they say when you went over?"
"The man stretched his hand out. And then it went boom."
Almost certainly a class skill. There hadn't been a physical bomb at all — that was why Kancho hadn't detected it in advance.
"Hmm."
Jinhyuk let out a low hum. Momo hadn't been caught in some unlucky explosion. Someone had targeted her, approached her, and set off the blast. That much was certain.
"So I canceled Card Manifestation right away. But if I showed up right next to Master, someone might see, so I manifested in this alley! Momo did good, right?!"
"Momo's the smartest."
"Momo's smart, how about that!!!"
Momo puffed out her chest as if she'd never been sad at all. Finding the sight adorable, Elia joined in and ruffled her fur with gusto.
"Kancho, how about it? Can you pick up the scent?"
Kancho, Vice-Captain of the Yordle Rangers and a master of explosives. The moment anything related to explosions was involved, his five senses spiked in sensitivity. Those same senses had let him easily find dozens of bombs aboard the Newkali-ho.
After checking the scent clinging to Momo and sniffing a few times, Kancho turned his head.
"Found 'em, sir!"
"Go after them."
"Want me to blow 'em sky-high right now, sir?! They hurt our item-looting gofer Momo, so we gotta grind 'em to dust!"
"Gofer sounds so cool! Momo's a gofer!"
Momo beamed with the world's sunniest smile, having no idea what the word meant. Jinhyuk snorted a laugh and turned toward where Kancho's eyes were pointing.
Momo's wounds weren't deep. Her gloomy mood had already bounced back. But he had no intention of letting this slide.
How dare they touch our little cutie Momo.
Whoever had laid a hand on his companion was going to regret it thoroughly.
"Just track them for now. Someone gave the order, so we'll grind them all to dust together."
"That's our Supreme Commander for you, sir! Roger that! Vice-Captain of the Yordle Rangers, Kancho, deploying!"
Kancho slipped into Stealth and scampered off toward the blast site. Jinhyuk let out a quiet breath and looked at Momo.
Momo hadn't made any enemies of her own, which left only one possibility. He couldn't be sure of the exact motive, but someone targeting Jinhyuk had chosen Momo as their first mark.
Two candidates immediately came to mind. The Hosaka family, whom he'd recently clashed with, and Vesta, whom he'd wiped out on the Newkali-ho.
The former made him think, Surely not? Even after what had happened at the exchange meeting, the Hosaka were one of Japan's most prominent families. Setting off an explosion in the middle of Kyoto? That was not the behavior of a rational actor.
The latter seemed more likely. Vesta was still being hunted down and eliminated by Genex, but the remnants hadn't been fully wiped out yet.
"Let's head back to the inn for now."
He hoisted Momo onto his shoulders and left the alley. Whether it was the former, the latter, or some third party entirely, it wouldn't take long for them to surface. After all, the one chasing them down was none other than Kancho, Vice-Captain of the Yordle Rangers.
Kobe, Sannomiya, Japan. A man stepped out of a car and entered an old traditional house — headquarters of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest yakuza organization representing Kobe.
Men with rough faces lined up and bowed as one.
"Yanagi-san! Thank you for your hard work!"
"Thank you for your hard work!"
Yanagi, fixer for the Yamaguchi-gumi, gave a perfunctory wave. A moment later his partner Nishi stepped through the entrance, and the yakuza snapped out the same greeting for her.
"Ugh, so grim. So damn grim. Can we please do something about that gangster greeting?"
Nishi heaved a sigh and walked over to Yanagi. They went side by side into the inner courtyard, where an old man sitting on the wooden veranda raised a hand. This time, Yanagi and Nishi bowed deeply.
"I've received the report. You handled it well."
"Yes. You said not to touch the target, so we just took out the kid who was nearby and came back."
Togan, boss of the Yamaguchi-gumi, looked satisfied. These two had never failed a single mission in all their years, and they hadn't disappointed him this time either.
"Heh heh. Poor kid. Picked the wrong friend and ended up like that."
Togan clicked his tongue and sipped his tea. Even yakuza didn't usually go after children. But this client was such a heavyweight that refusing hadn't been an option. The job was to erase the people around the target first, as painfully as possible.
"Looks like the Hosaka are genuinely furious this time. Haven't they been holding back on jobs like this ever since they got so big?"
"They have. They've got more to lose now."
Togan's mouth curled up as he pulled a photograph from his coat. The main target sent over by the Hosaka: Yu Jinhyuk.
He had no idea why Hosaka Judo had suddenly decided to go after this man. From the young man's perspective, though, he'd well and truly stepped in it.
Hosaka Judo, chairman of Ronia and the great elder of the family. Togan knew better than anyone what kind of man Judo was — a cold-blooded operator who would use any means necessary to remove whoever he judged to be an obstacle in his path.
As this job made clear, Judo didn't discriminate by age or gender. Black or white, ally or enemy. If he decided someone needed to be erased, he gifted them the most horrific end imaginable, whoever they were.
"Have you found the target's house? They wanted it blown up before we kill him."
"We're asking around, but it's going to take some time. Whoever did it, I don't know, but—"
"Wait!"
Nishi cut Yanagi off and lifted her head. In a single bound, she was up on the roof of the house.
"What's going on?"
Yanagi followed her up and looked around. Nothing on the roof. After checking every inch, Nishi frowned.
"Something was watching us from the roof."
"What?"
Impossible. The security level of the Yamaguchi-gumi compound was stronger than any other yakuza organization. Hundreds of yakuza lived here year-round, and the place was packed with alarms and detection devices. Even Yanagi, who came and went regularly, didn't know where all the traps were — and someone had gotten through all of that?
"Something? Explain properly. A kid? Or what?"
"That's the hard part."
Nishi scratched her head. The thing that had been peeking over had fluffy fur. It was so small it reminded her of the badger tower-dwellers she'd seen on the lower floors of the Tower of Despair.
"Judging by how blurry its form was, it was using a Stealth skill, or wearing gear with a similar option."
She didn't bother mentioning that she hadn't sensed its presence at all until she'd spotted it with her eyes. Yanagi, her senior standing right in front of her, hadn't sensed it either.
"Tsk."
Yanagi clicked his tongue. The roof was directly above where Togan had been sitting — and where he himself had been standing. Some unidentified thing had crawled all the way up there, and he hadn't caught even the faintest hint of a presence. How was that even possible?
"Hm?"
Yanagi spotted something and crouched down. A single tiny footprint stamped into a roof tile. Now he understood why Nishi had said it was hard to explain.
A transformation ability? Into an animal?
In this world, nothing that happened, nothing that showed up, was strange anymore. The reasonable conclusion was that a rival organization had sent an ability user to gather intel.
"Nishi. Notify every branch. Raise the alert level and stay sharp for the next two or three days."
If they valued their lives, they wouldn't storm the Kobe headquarters. Warning the relatively less-guarded branches was the right call for now.
Yanagi ground his teeth and glared at the print below. Whoever it was, they were going to regret this. Regret laying a hand on the Yamaguchi-gumi without a shred of fear.