Outbreak Company: Volume 10

by Ichiro Sakaki

  “I’ve confirmed nine.”

  We had taken out one outside, two guards, and four reinforcements: seven in total. That meant there should be two more...

  “Two of them were here until just a moment ago,” Minori-san said, pointing to a desk in the corner. A laptop sat open on top of it. “They were working on something on that computer. They looked pretty upset. Then they ran out of here.”

  “‘A bird that takes flight leaves no tracks,’ huh?” Reito-san said, quoting a Japanese proverb. “That computer must be hooked up to the security camera network. When they saw their friends eating it, they wiped the most damning information and ran for it.”

  “Oh... Makes sense,” I said.

  Security camera tricks were hardly the sole domain of the Kanou household. You could tell these guys were professionals in part because they didn’t get obsessed with taking revenge for their comrades or something—when they saw the tide had turned against them, they just beat feet.

  The upshot was that all our opponents were either unconscious or gone. There were no guarantees that those first casualties wouldn’t be waking up soon, though, so we didn’t have time for a lengthy reunion here.

  “Minori-san, can you walk?”

  “I’m a little tingly, but I can do it.”

  A quick glance at Minori-san didn’t reveal any obvious injuries. Her clothes weren’t even too rumpled. They really had just tied her up. Then again, it hadn’t even been a full day since she’d been kidnapped, so maybe whatever they had been planning to do to her, they had been planning to do it later... Hmm.

  “They didn’t... torture you or anything, did they?” I asked as we piled out into the hallway.

  “Why do you look so disappointed about that?”

  “I—I’m not disappointed. But they didn’t, like, beat you or tear off your clothes or anything?”

  “Not once. They did drag me here and tie me up, though.” Minori-san shrugged. “I tried not to give them too much trouble. There was no way I was going to beat that many people.”

  Minori-san might have been an accomplished martial artist, but even she couldn’t hope to overcome five or six grown men all likewise trained in combat. Invincible heroes who can single-handedly take down dozens of enemies without breaking a sweat are the stuff of games and manga.

  But I had another question in mind. “Was it just that there were too many of them to fight? It wasn’t because they had two hot guys and you couldn’t bring yourself to run away?”

  “What are you talking about?” Minori-san said.

  Hmm. I guess my dream had been completely off. I was surprised to realize the Russian intelligence agency was apparently operating by the seat of its pants, not doing its homework. If I had been in their shoes, I would definitely have checked out Minori-san’s proclivities ahead of time so I could use them to make her talk.

  Of course, if they had wandered into yaoi territory, all the Russian agents might have ended up brainwashed by Minori-san...

  “...Shinichi, you do seem most unpleased,” Petralka said, glancing at me.

  “Huh? N-No, I am not like that,” I said.

  “Hoh?” Her eyes were cold. Minori-san seemed to be glaring at me too for some reason. She even had her arms crossed over her chest, as if she was hiding it from me.

  “W-Wait! You don’t think I’m the kind of guy who would picture you in that sort of situation?!”

  “I think I know you all too well, Shinichi...” Minori-san said, looking at me suspiciously.

  Well, to be fair, I had thought about it.

  “All right, come on,” Reito-san said. “We have to hurry.”

  We exchanged small smiles—and then we all left the building. Just then...

  “Shinichi-kun.” Minori-san came up close to me and whispered in my ear. I naturally slowed my pace, and she slowed down to walk beside me. “Don’t do something this foolish again—I’m serious. You know that if anything happens to Her Majesty, it’ll be a way bigger deal than one human life.”

  “...Yeah.” Boy, did I ever know.

  “But... thanks,” Minori-san went on. “Your big sis is actually sort of impressed.” She sounded almost... shy.

  Aaahhhh?! How can she be older than me and still so dang cute?!

  From Minori-san’s perspective, did I maybe, just maybe, look like a prince on a white horse (exaggeration)?!

  Had the age of big boobs and glasses really come?! Had my dad been right?!

  And so on and so forth...

  “Shinichi! What are you doing?!”

  Petralka, who was well ahead of me by now, must have sensed my inner moe turmoil, because she called out to me with thorns in her voice.

  “S-Sorry!” I said. Then Minori-san and I looked at each other, and raced to catch up with the others.

  Chapter Three: The Going Is Easy, but the Coming Home...

  It was the day after we had rescued Minori-san. A microbus and two black sedans were parked in front of my house. Strictly speaking, there was nothing special about them, but they must have given off a certain vibe, because we could see people turning and staring as they walked by.

  The three vehicles had been provided by the Japanese government to get us back to Eldant. Me and the girls would ride in the microbus, while our escort went in the sedans.

  “You look practically normal like this,” I said. I was standing just outside the front door, talking to a man in a black suit who was standing beside one of the sedans.

  “‘Normal,’ sure!” Reito-san said with a wry grin. The stereotypical otaku gear he’d been wearing until the day before—the black shirt, the fingerless gloves—were gone, replaced with a black suit, perfectly fitted and without a wrinkle in sight. He looked like a real, productive member of society. Okay, so his hair was still a little long, but he had it tied back by his collar. I guess clothes really do make the man.

  “The way you dressed and acted right up until yesterday—I guess that was to get us to let our guards down?”

  If Reito-san had shown up in Akihabara looking the way he did now, I would never have trusted him. It was the way we seemed to be fellow otaku that had helped me accept him, even if our meeting did seem a little convenient. It was pretty incredible that it was all part of his plan.

  “Nah, those are my civvies.”

  “Huh?!”

  “And that’s my personal car.”

  He sounded practically proud. His personal car? To be fair, I wouldn’t have known what to make of it if he’d said that itasha was government property.

  “You don’t get to have a lot of fun in this line of work,” Reito-san added.

  “Oh, is that it?”

  Then again, Minori-san was an otaku, too; a fujoshi at that. Maybe it made a certain kind of sense. Come to think of it, I had heard that the JSDF, and the US Army stationed in Japan, had uncommonly high percentage of otaku. I wondered if it was true.

  Minori-san came out of the house a moment after I did. “Are all the bodyguards here now?” She was followed by Petralka, then Elvia.

  So our party consisted of those of us going back to Eldant, Reito-san, two guys for each of the black sedans, and a driver for the bus. I gathered they were mostly CIRO people, although Reito-san told me they were subcontractors—“outsourcing,” he called it.

  CIRO, by the way, is sort of a public security or police organization. Traditionally, they haven’t gotten along very well with the JSDF—territorial disputes or something. Which might explain why they’d been sent to take care of us, considering what we had done to the JSDF intelligence guys.

  “This is about as many people as you can have and still keep a low profile. You have to be able to make excuses for why everyone’s here,” Reito-san said with a shrug.

  “Where’s Myusel...?” I didn’t know what she was doing, but she hadn’t come out of the house yet. I didn’t want to keep Reito-san and the others waiting. I was just thinking maybe I should go get her when she, my parents, and Shizuki all came ou
t the front door.

  “I am sorry for making you wait.”

  “What were you doing?”

  “We were talking about... the various things.”

  For some reason, her voice almost trailed off as she answered, and she blushed a little.

  Huh...? What’s with this reaction? It’s super-duper cute.

  “Shinichi.”

  I was just about to get on the microbus when someone stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. It was my dad. My mom and Shizuki were there with him. Myusel and the others glanced back at me, but Minori-san urged them onto the bus.

  “Y-Yeah, what?”

  “You take good care of that Myusel-san of yours, all right?”

  “Say what? That’s kind of out of the blue.”

  “She really is a good girl,” my mom chipped in. “She helped out so much at dinner. And she has so many kind things to say about you, for whatever reason.”

  “Hey, I’m your son, remember,” I said with a frown.

  Well... okay. So being shot down by my old friend had led to me totally ditching school, until I suddenly disappeared one day—maybe I deserved “for whatever reason.” But still... Myusel had said nice things about me? What in the world could that mean?

  “...What exactly did Myusel say?”

  I had to admit I was a bit embarrassed to ask. My parents, though, just grinned sly grins.

  “Oh, this and that. Like how you’re so cool, you’re so reliable.”

  “How you’re totally indispensable to all of them.”

  “G-Gosh, really?”

  Yikes! I was happy but also kind of freaked. Embarrassing!

  “You’re a good enough son, Shinichi, but for her to be so keen on you... I have to question her taste in men.”

  “Just what do you mean by that?”

  Geez, seriously—what a way for a mother to talk to her long-lost little boy!

  That was when something occurred to me. I was on my way “home” to Eldant, but I had no idea when I would be coming back to this home again. Six months? A year? Longer?

  “When will you come home again?” a blunt voice asked, as if its owner was reading my mind. It was Shizuki.

  “Well, I...”

  I was lost for words. I hadn’t even really planned to come back this time; it had only happened because I was worried about our dad. It had spiraled from there into an international game of spy-vs-spy. And it put me on notice that for better or for worse, I wouldn’t be able to just duck back to Japan any time I felt like it.

  As I stood there, trying anxiously to figure out what to say, my dad spoke up instead. “I’ll bet Shinichi can’t just waltz back here so easily. He’s an... otaku evangelist now. A goodwill ambassador, if you will.”

  “I’m so glad you’ve found your calling,” my mom said. “Out of the curse of your blood.” She smiled.

  Well, no question I was the full-throttle otaku that I was because I had happened to be born to these parents. Was it a blessing, or a curse? I guess that depended who you asked. Whatever it was, Shizuki seemed to have escaped it completely.

  “I guess it’s because you saw your mom and dad spend their lives doing what they love. All I’ll say is, do what you have to do so that you don’t regret anything. And... drop us a letter or an email sometimes, just to let us know how things are going. It’d be good for your old dad’s heart.”

  “Even if it does seem a little early for you to be leaving the nest...”

  The sight of my parents’ smiles left me speechless.

  Yikes! I was on the verge of choking up, here. Suddenly embarrassed, I looked away from my mom and dad—

  “Gotta say, though, it’s fine by us if you never come home again,” my dad said.

  “I-Isn’t that a little harsh?”

  “He’s right—you have a job, you’re living on your own. Obviously, the next time we see you will be when you bring your fiancée to meet us.”

  “What?”

  As I fought back panic, my dad leaned in and whispered: “Wherever your Princess Petralka comes from... is polygamy allowed there?”

  That’s what you’re worried about?!

  I tried to find the words to react, but before I could—

  “Come on now, everyone’s waiting for you. Hurry up and go.”

  “You’re the ones who stopped me!”

  My parents urged me toward the microbus; it felt a bit like I was being gotten rid of. In the bus, Myusel, Petralka, Elvia, and Minori-san were all sitting and waiting patiently for me. The rows in the bus were arranged with two seats, then the aisle, then another seat, for a total of three in each row. There were seven rows in the bus. Myusel and Petralka sat in one pair of seats, with Elvia in the one across the aisle. I took the open place next to Minori-san behind Myusel and Petralka. The driver made sure we were all on board, then started the engine.

  Minori-san opened the window and poked her head out. “Sorry it was so sudden. Thanks a lot for having us!”

  Everyone got out of their seats and went over to the side Minori-san was on, sticking their heads out the windows like she was doing.

  “We thank you for your show of the hospitality.”

  “It was very fun!”

  “Thank you very much. Please, be well.”

  “Our pleasure!”

  “Take care of Shinichi for us.”

  Finally, I squeezed up next to Minori-san, leaned out the window, and waved. “See you guys!”

  “Big brother—!” Shizuki, who had been sort of hiding in our parents’ shadows until that moment, ran up to the bus. “Take... Take care, okay?”

  She was stone-faced, her words the very definition of decorum. But coming from my little sister, whom I had hardly spoken to in years, they sounded different. More meaningful.

  “Thanks. You too, Shizuki.” I smiled and nodded—and at that exact moment, the bus pulled away. Flanked by the two sedans, it started rolling slowly, then picked up speed. My family, standing in front of the house, quickly got smaller, and then we turned a corner and I couldn’t see them anymore.

  I shifted in my seat and sighed. Minori-san gave me a mischievous smile. “Feeling lonely already, Shinichi-kun?”

  “Oh... Maybe, maybe not,” I said evasively, but then I had a thought. If I remembered correctly, Minori-san didn’t have any family. She could come back to Japan, but she couldn’t go back home, and she didn’t have any parents or siblings to share any tearful farewells with. That made me feel a little bad about how I had answered, but maybe trying to backpedal now would be just as rude. In the end, I decided just to be honest. “It would be a lie to say I’m not sad about it...” But I had something bigger on my mind. “Right now, what I mostly feel is, ‘Phew, I can finally go home.’”

  Home to my mansion in Eldant. Home to the house where Brooke and Cerise, and even Hikaru-san, were no doubt waiting anxiously for me.

  “I see,” Minori-san said with a smile and a nod.

  “I am glad I got to see my family, though,” I said. Then I thought about the way Shizuki had looked as we left, and added, “I even found out that my little sister doesn’t actually hate me or anything.”

  Or maybe she had, back before I went to Eldant. But at least, with everything that had happened here, I was able to reconcile with her. I was glad for that. I’m not going to act like I brought our family back together again or did any big-deal stuff like that, but there’s nothing better than siblings who get along.

  “Good, good,” Minori-san said.

  “We are glad, Shinichi, that we could to meet your father, your mother, and your little sister!” Petralka said, turning around and looking at me over the back of the seat.

  “Me, too... I am glad that I got to see the side of you I didn’t know, Master.”

  “Yakiniku. Very gud.”

  Uh, Elvia? One of these statements is not like the others...

  It seemed, though, like soy sauce and similar ingredients worked just fine for people from the other world. M
aybe I could start importing Japanese sauces, and we could have a yakiniku party over there sometime.

  In any event, with all that had happened, it still seemed like everyone had enjoyed themselves in Japan. As far as I was concerned, that was justification enough for having come home.

  Now all we had to do was... go home.

  We headed for Fuji’s Sea of Trees. The hyperspace wormhole waited for us there, and beyond it, Eldant.

  The bus ride back turned into the occasion for a reflective discussion about what had happened. Or maybe I should say an appreciative discussion—it wasn’t like we had screwed up or done anything really wrong. It was just a way of passing the time as we covered the considerable distance from my house to the JSDF base in the forest near Mount Fuji. After all, we had already discovered what happened when we tried to play car games or read books on the way over.

  Petralka started us off with some real praise: “This was a most enlightening journey!”

  We had released some sprites inside the bus so our translator rings could work as normal. That was great for us and our conversation, but the bus driver probably wondered what in the world was going on. All he would hear would be Petralka and the others speaking Eldant, and me and Minori-san answering in Japanese. But anyway...

  “Especially this!” Petralka said—and held up the little gacha**n figure she’d gotten in Akihabara. “Look at this Foreman! It’s so small, but the sculpting is so fine! Think—it’s made of a material that neither rusts nor rots, yet it’s cheap enough for even commoners to afford! We must share this technology with the dwarves!”

  In other words, Petralka was psyched. I thought the dwarves were going to have some trouble replicating this thing, considering how hard it would be to obtain materials, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were able to produce something almost identical using metal or stone.

  Incidentally, Petralka had taken to the Gaishi figures with a passion, shoving hundred-yen coins into the gacha**n machine as if she was going to empty it out. I had to stop her. Her bag now contained the complete series of figurines, but only because we had bought about half of them at a specialty shop later on. It almost had to be a better use of money.