The Hostage Is Too Big of a Shot (3)
The Hostage Is Too Big of a Shot (3)
Winterer's terrorist attack had come a full week early.
On top of that, the hostage she'd taken was the Prime Minister of Japan.
The absurdity of it left my jaw hanging open, but...
-I froze.
'...Was this because of me?'
A sudden thought.
The day before, I'd gleefully beaten down five villains.
The matter had been swept aside when a Gate opened immediately afterward, but...
What would the situation look like from Winterer's perspective?
Her fellow terrorists had been captured by the enemy.
Worse, the opposition included the Hypnosis Breeding Guy.
There was no way she would trust her comrades in that situation.
Instead, she'd think...
Ah, those bitches will spill my entire plan! They will be hypnotized, with hearts in their eyes, just like in a dirty comic!
In other words, I was the reason she'd moved the attack forward.
It was a butterfly effect caused by my katana.
'So Suguru had come because of Master!'
And why had someone as important as the Japanese Prime Minister appeared so suddenly?
Master had used a fair amount of power to break the barrier the day before.
He must have seen that and wondered, "Why is Ninomiya there?"
As for why he came in person...
Suguru knew better than anyone how important Master was.
He seemed to have come personally because he was worried that she had defected.
Master's expression and mine hardened together.
"Disciple. If that man dies..."
"If this ends well, it will only cause a diplomatic crisis between Korea and Japan. If it ends badly, it could become a localized war—or, at worst, World War III."
The Japanese Prime Minister had died after being caught in a Korean villain's terrorist attack?
In Korea, the world's strongest awakener nation, of all places?
And the attack had occurred on the very day the Prime Minister entered the country in secret?
It was a coincidence so perfect that it seemed contrived.
Far more people would believe that Korea had disguised an assassination as a coincidence than accept it as a freak tragedy.
The two nations already had poor relations, providing more than enough motive.
I knew that it wasn't a coincidence, but everyone else would inevitably see it that way.
The resulting fallout would be enough to set the world ablaze with war.
'Besides... If Suguru did not use his influence for us, marrying Master would become much more difficult.'
For personal reasons as well, he was someone I absolutely had to save.
Despite countless objections,
he had strongly supported my marriage to Master, declaring, "Everyone has the right to love."
I couldn't allow my benefactor to die.
"We have to save him, no matter what."
"Agreed."
Master and I immediately reached the same conclusion.
We entered "Save Him at Any Cost" mode.
...Winterer's attack was my fault, while the Prime Minister had been captured because of Master.
It felt rather like causing the illness and then offering the cure, but in any case...
I quickly signaled the Chairwoman.
"I'll say this again. I do not negotiate with villains. Release the hostages and surrender peacefully, and then I may hear you out..."
[Complete Hypnosis activated. Activation failed.]
"......?"
I made a hypnosis attempt that couldn't possibly work, merely to draw her attention.
The Chairwoman's eyes snapped toward me.
Her irritated gaze seemed to ask what the hell I was doing at a time like this.
I held up a Post-it note.
[Do not panic. Hostage is the Prime Minister of Japan. Contact with Winterer is essential. End the call.]
"...Hm. No. I'll be there within ten minutes, so wait and do not try anything foolish."
The Chairwoman ended the call the instant she read it.
The office erupted in shock.
"Why is the Prime Minister of Japan being held hostage!?"
"The Prime Minister!? Isn't that basically the president!?"
"There was nothing like that on the news..."
"Master confirmed it. He is unquestionably the Prime Minister."
Ignoring the commotion, I quickly briefed them.
Winterer didn't seem to know it, but her hostage was the Prime Minister of Japan.
If we allowed him to die, this wouldn't end as a mere terrorist incident.
The Chairwoman clutched her head.
"The bombs alone are enough of a headache, and now we must save the hostage too."
"Seol Hayeon. What's this about bombs?"
"Winterer told me that she planted ice bombs throughout the country. They will explode if she dies, so she warned us not to try anything."
The Chairwoman's concern came from Winterer's vicious method of terrorism.
Her method worked as follows.
First, she planted numerous bombs in dark alleys throughout both shopping and residential districts.
Second, she threatened to detonate all of them unless Seol Hayeon came to her.
"But if I go, it's obvious she'll try to kill me..."
Third, once Seol Hayeon arrived, Winterer drew her in under the pretext of talking.
The villains hidden nearby then launched a coordinated attack.
Because of that three-step combination, the Chairwoman often ended up dying together with Winterer in the game.
The country would then become a villain paradise, causing the difficulty to spike.
What if the player fought alongside her and won while keeping Seol Hayeon alive?
Even then, the bombs couldn't be stopped from exploding.
Nearly ten thousand people would die, and the Chairwoman would lose all of her influence.
Winterer was a boss guaranteed to punish anyone who did not know the gimmick in advance.
'That was why I had planned to spend all day Saturday dismantling the bombs...'
Conversely, if you knew the trick, the encounter was trivial.
Perhaps because the scenario had been designed for repeated runs, the bomb locations were always the same.
The game even helpfully gave the exact addresses.
As I had during the First Round, the player merely needed to visit them in advance and disperse the mana.
As for Winterer herself, we didn't even need to go. A large force of awakeners could swarm and capture her.
'Tsk. The bombs and the hostage...'
The problem was that the situation in the Second Round was far more vicious.
The bombs? I hadn't dismantled them, so they remained active. They'd explode if Winterer so much as blinked, and even if Master killed her instantly.
The hostage? The Prime Minister of Japan. If he died, we were ruined.
There was a reason even the battle-hardened Chairwoman was clutching her head.
I, the Second-Round Hypnosis Breeding Guy, also struggled to find an answer...
-Squeeze.
"Daddy, Granny. What's wrong?"
"...Haru?"
"You look sad. Smile like Haru. Hee-hee."
Haru intervened in the middle of the tense situation.
She wore the most innocent smile in the world, trying to cheer us up.
At first glance, it seemed like an odd thing to do at such a serious moment.
"Haru, this isn't the time to..."
"———Our Haru is the best!!!!"
Thanks to her, inspiration struck.
There was one solution capable of resolving this hopeless situation.
I quickly swept my gaze across the room.
"Y-Yujin...?"
"......."
'Alice had already been quite capable when I saw her yesterday. Judging by the time she hit my father-in-law, Sia must have been at a similar level.'
It was a terrorist attack for which we had been unable to prepare.
To overcome it, I needed all six people in the room.
Sia, who could move through shadows. Alice, who wielded fire.
Master, the strongest sword. The Chairwoman, a veteran of countless battles.
And me, the Hypnosis Breeding Guy.
And finally...
'With Haru here, we could make it work somehow.'
Someone who had once served Winterer.
A doll who had been captured far too easily for her abilities during the previous attack.
My adopted daughter, Seo Haru.
I could see a path to victory.
"I have a plan. If it works, we can save the Prime Minister without allowing a single bomb to explode."
"......!!!!?"
The room stirred at my declaration.
Sia and Alice stared, and even Master's eyes widened.
The Chairwoman, by contrast, smiled with shining eyes.
Her gaze practically dripped with affection as she looked at me.
"Ha, haha! You have another plan, Yujin?"
"Yes. The basic outline of the plan is..."
"We're short on time, so skip the explanation. Tell me what you need me to do."
Her crisp, immediate acceptance was an added bonus.
Receiving such complete trust as a freshman who'd enrolled only the previous week was a little overwhelming, but...
I'd repay that trust with results, so perhaps it didn't matter.
"Yes. First, please take a look at my phone."
"A navigation app? What is this?"
"The places bookmarked here are where Winterer planted her bombs."
"What?! No, how do you know that?"
"My ability is EX-rank. There is not enough time to explain."
"...I'll hear it later."
I showed her the locations I'd marked on my phone in preparation for the following day.
Contrary to Winterer's bluff, all twenty locations were within Seoul.
"She said all over the country, but they're all in Seoul."
"Villains could not possibly travel freely throughout the entire country. In any case, Chairwoman, please hold out while we dismantle them."
"What do I do?"
"Talk to Winterer and buy time. Keep her talking for as long as possible, until just before she tries to kill a hostage. Signal me if you cannot hold out any longer."
The Chairwoman would serve as the decoy in my plan.
Her brow furrowed.
"My Sixth Sense tells me that I can buy roughly twenty minutes. Even if we deploy every Association employee, dismantling all the bombs in that time will be impossible."
"That is fine. We have Alice and Sia!"
"...Ho-oh. I see."
Her furrowed brow relaxed at my words.
Our gazes shifted toward Alice and Sia.
The two looked bewildered.
"Her and me? What could we possibly do?"
"Cadet Yoo Sia, I won't ask for details, but your ability concerns shadows, correct? The sun will set soon. Can you use the darkness to travel at high speed?"
"...Ah!! Yes, yes I can!!"
"Yujin, what about me?"
"Alice, you use fire magic. Burning the magic circles away should be the fastest way to disable them."
"......Yujin, you're amazing!!"
Their expressions quickly brightened.
Before the regression they had already been A-ranks, and now they possessed S-rank Innate Talents.
Alice could destroy the ice bombs before they exploded, while Sia moved through shadows to deliver her at extreme speed.
They seemed confident that they could manage that much.
"Thousands of lives depend on this. Sia, Alice—can I ask you to do it?"
"I don't like traveling with this vixen, but... fine. It cannot be helped. Leave it to me."
"We're pine-needle comrades! Leave it to us!"
The two readily accepted the bomb-disposal role.
My admirable wives seemed especially lovable at that moment, but I turned my gaze elsewhere.
Toward the two wild cards in the plan.
"Master, Haru, and I will..."
-Whisper, whisper.
"Understood."
"Okay. Haru and Daddy will play secret agents. Haru is excited."
The anti-terror operation was ready.
* * *
Sia and Alice would leave first.
Their task was the most urgent.
-Grab.
"Then we'll be going..."
"Eep!? S-Sia?"
"Huh? What is it?"
"That, that..."
"Your hand is touching my chest."
"It is your fault those useless lumps of fat are so ridiculously huge!"
Even in an emergency, apparently she couldn't let that pass.
Sia's voice remained as bright and sharp as ever while she held Alice in her arms.
While I averted my eyes, the two rapidly receded into the distance.
"Why are you holding me like this in the first place...?"
"This is the fastest way. Anyway, Yujin, I'll contact you using the Chairwoman's phone when we're done!"
-Fwooosh!!
"M-my underwear will show like this...!"
Alice's voice faded with a Doppler effect, while a scrap of white fabric briefly peeked between her thighs.
...Even in the middle of an emergency, my wives were adorable.
I truly loved them.
In any case, after the two carrying the greatest responsibility departed...
We headed to the scene.
We headed toward the shopping district just outside the academy's main gate, where Winterer had begun her attack.
An acrid smell stung my nose as we arrived...
"Until this baldy's head bursts like a watermelon: ten~ nine~ seven~ f-four~"
"Tch. Can't even count."
"Ah-ha. You're really fucking late. Is it because you're old?"
"At my age, the joints start to creak, you see."
Seol Hayeon and Winterer.
Korea's strongest awakener and its worst villain faced each other.
"You said you wanted to talk to me. Go ahead and say your piece."
"———I'll take control of the villains. I will stop killing. So stop persecuting us."
"......What?"
It was the beginning of an unprecedented terrorist incident.