Chapter 88: Reunion with Sakiko!
"Kitano, over here..."
Kamijo Touma was holding Index in his arms, and he had already noticed Kanzaki Kaori standing on the rooftop opposite them with obvious hostile intent.
Given his personality, he would normally insist on staying behind to face her himself while letting Makoto take Index away. But if he did that, how could he be sure Makoto would not get dragged in even deeper?
Makoto understood what he was thinking.
"Leave this to me. Just count it as you owing me one. Don't worry. I won't die."
Touma opened his mouth, then finally bit his lip and said, "Not one. Two. You drove off two enemies for me."
After saying that, he ran toward the stairwell with Index in his arms. Across from them, Kaori raised an eyebrow and bent slightly, about to leap after Touma and Index, but before she could move, Makoto had already landed in front of her.
"Sorry, this road's closed."
A faint chakra glow appeared across his body. Against Kaori, he did not dare be careless in the slightest.
If Makoto could move at one hundred meters per second in his normal state without drawing on the tailed beast's power, then Kaori could break the sound barrier with her body alone. Her draw and sheathe motions could be completed within one-hundredth of a second.
She was that strong because she was one of the fewer than twenty Saints in the Toaru world. A Saint was someone born with magical signs similar to those of the Son of God.
Because Saints possessed bodily traits similar to the Son of God, they inherited a portion of that power and could freely wield it.
So even if Makoto burned luck right now, he would probably still lose to Kaori. Of course, if he used spatial manipulation, she probably would not have many ways to deal with him either.
Still, he knew the two of them did not need to clash that far. Even a magic-side Saint like her would not dare make too much noise inside Academy City, the stronghold of the science side.
"Move, or die."
Kaori placed her hand on her blade and tried to intimidate him.
Makoto paused for a moment, then quickly came up with a way to calm her down.
"Academy City has the best medical treatment in the world. No matter what you want to do to that little girl, you should at least wait until her injuries are treated."
"And aren't you going to take care of your teammate?"
He pointed at Stiyl, who was still embedded in the wall and looked peaceful in the way only a half-dead vegetable could.
The woman glanced at Stiyl's state, where he seemed to have more air going out than coming in, and her brows tightened. With him hurt that badly, she could not simply ignore him.
But if she let Touma take Index away just like that, then they would have to track the two of them down all over again later. That would be troublesome.
Seeing that she was still hesitating, Makoto added a little more pressure.
"Besides, do you really want to fight me here? If we start trading blows, the commotion will probably be on a city-shaking scale. The satellites overhead will likely record everything the moment we begin."
He was actually being modest. In all likelihood, people with the right resources were already watching everything happening here.
Only then did Kaori's expression ease slightly. She removed the pressure from the hilt with her thumb.
But she still did not lower her guard. Instead, she pointed at Makoto and asked, "Who exactly are you? Who do you represent? Are you here to stop us on Academy City's orders?"
Makoto sighed and pointed at his room door.
"I'm just a passerby trying to keep his dorm from being burned down."
Kaori glanced at his room and said nothing more. She jumped into the dorm corridor, hoisted Stiyl up, and disappeared from Makoto's sight after only a few leaps.
Makoto lightly dropped back to the ground. Looking at the damaged wall with a chunk blasted out of it, he suddenly had a bad feeling.
As expected, sirens sounded in the distance.
Although he had successfully prevented Touma from triggering the fire alarm, he had also successfully attracted Anti-Skill and Judgment.
Fortunately, Stiyl's spell had driven everyone out of the dorm building earlier, so no ordinary students had seen Makoto fight. He did not need to worry about being treated as the culprit.
"Why is it you again..."
Shirai Kuroko stood with her hands on her hips, suspicion on her face.
"Why do you always get dragged into incidents?"
Makoto immediately pushed the blame elsewhere.
"You should be asking yourselves that. Isn't this revenge from Fantasy Hand users?"
Kuroko froze for a moment, then rested one hand under her chin and thought for a few seconds.
"That actually does sound possible... Anyway, it's good that you're fine. I've already confirmed your identity with Anti-Skill."
Because Mikoto got along well with Makoto, Kuroko's attitude toward him was not exactly friendly. But as always, once student safety was involved, she remained one of the most dutiful people around.
"Then thanks for that... By the way, when can we go back into the dorm?"
Makoto pointed toward the cluster of young students already gathering around the cordoned-off area. They were the bystanders Stiyl had driven away with his spell.
At that, Kuroko's face showed a rather gloating smile.
"After Anti-Skill finishes examining the traces of the battle, a construction company still has to inspect whether this building is safe. I suggest you prepare yourself to stay elsewhere for a week."
"If you really don't have the money, you could ask a classmate if you can stay over... Hmm, you don't actually only know a handful of people here, do you?"
Before Makoto could respond, a dissatisfied voice came from behind Kuroko.
"Kuroko, how can you talk to Kitano like that? He's our friend and our comrade-in-arms!"
"If he just got to Academy City and doesn't know many classmates, isn't that normal? Right now we should be helping him book a hotel, not mocking him. I'm really disappointed in you, Kuroko."
Hearing Mikoto's sharp words, Kuroko instantly turned to stone. She turned around with teary eyes, clearly wanting to explain that she had only been joking, but Mikoto had already taken out her phone and started scrolling on her own.
"Let me see which hotels are nearby... How about this one? Forty-eight thousand yen a night, and it even comes with an esports room and an indoor hot spring!"
Seeing Mikoto's eyes shining, Kuroko cried out in exasperation, "Onee-sama, don't tell me you're paying for him again! That's seven days. Altogether that's nearly three hundred thousand yen!"
"He can just stay at an ordinary inn. Academy City will cover part of the expense anyway!"
Mikoto froze for a second, then her eyes shifted evasively.
"I... I just wanted to help. Besides, I was also apologizing on your behalf, Kuroko. It's not that much money."
After saying that, she even pushed the phone toward Makoto, clearly still wanting to pay.
Makoto could not help smiling inwardly. Had Mikoto awakened some strange hobby where she tried to maintain their friendship through friend expenses?
Kuroko was right. There was no way he could let Mikoto pay for a hotel that cost nearly fifty thousand yen per night. That simply made no sense.
In the end, with her help, he chose a suite that cost eighteen thousand yen a night, about the level of a three-star hotel.
After Academy City's subsidy, he would only need to pay ten thousand yen per night himself, which was a reasonable price.
"So no esports room anymore..."
For some reason, Mikoto sounded a little disappointed. Then she seemed to notice something and asked, "Kitano, why did you book a suite? A single room would be cheaper, right?"
Suddenly, she seemed to realize something. She took a shocked step backward, and her expression turned strange.
"Y-you're not planning to stay there together with that female friend you're meeting tomorrow, are you? That's not okay. Absolutely not. That's completely shameless!"
Mikoto had raised her voice too much and attracted a lot of attention. Thin-skinned as ever, she quickly grabbed Makoto by the wrist and dragged him into a corner.
Kuroko wanted to follow, but Anti-Skill pulled her away to help record statements from more students, so she could only watch Makoto and Mikoto whispering from the corner of her eye.
"Anyway, you have to understand, we're still students. We can't be too reckless, and improper relationships are absolutely forbidden, do you understand?!"
Mikoto tried to put on a lecturing face, but the blush on her cheeks gave her away.
Makoto had no intention of making any promise on that point, so he simply replied vaguely, "I'm just preparing for the possibility. If she books a room herself, then tomorrow I'll switch to a normal single room."
"Besides, the suite I booked doesn't have a double bed. Even if we stayed in the same suite, we'd sleep in separate rooms. Why are you so nervous?"
"I just..."
Mikoto choked on her words. She knew perfectly well that she had no real reason. She simply wanted, on instinct, to stop something she did not want to see happen.
"All right, thanks for the help. But it's almost your dorm curfew, isn't it? You should head back."
"I'll wait for Kuroko. You should check into the hotel first."
The smile returned to Mikoto's face, as though she had already sorted out her mood.
Makoto did not suspect anything. After returning to his dorm to grab a change of clothes, he headed straight for the hotel.
What he did not know was that behind his back, Mikoto had taken out her phone. Sparks flickered over her fingers, and she quickly hacked into the security system of the hotel where he was staying.
Only after she saw him enter the room he had booked did she put the phone away.
She wanted to see just what kind of person he was meeting tomorrow.
Time passed quickly, and the next day arrived.
Makoto rarely got such a peaceful night's sleep.
He had assumed that the battle would cause at least some aftermath, perhaps some summons from important Academy City figures or something along those lines. But there was no sign of any of that happening.
For a moment, he could not tell whether the disturbance he had caused simply was not big enough or whether the higher-ups did not consider him important at all.
Still, no news was good news. It meant he could focus on training and on preparing to meet Toyokawa Sakiko.
He first went to the Main God Space and trained with Yukino for two hours, then returned to the real world and headed to the arrivals hall of the international airport in District 23.
Watching groups of travelers wheel their suitcases through the hall in twos and threes, Makoto found himself unconsciously rising onto the balls of his feet, searching for that familiar shade of hair.
He was even a little worried. During her second mission world, had Sakiko gone through something terrible that had changed either her personality or her body?
After all, the total time he had spent with her was only about four hours. Could those four hours of fighting side by side really outweigh the erosion of two full weeks in the real world?
At last, a figure with blue hair and a simple dress entered his field of vision.
She noticed him immediately, yet there was not the slightest expression on her face, as though she were looking at a complete stranger.
At the instant Makoto saw her, the expression on his own face froze completely. He could not understand what had happened to her.
Because right now, Sakiko's luck value had fallen to only 1.
Had she encountered some grave danger and been forced to burn her luck, or had some force harvested it away and left her with only 1 point just to keep her barely alive?
That thought darkened Makoto's expression. But as Sakiko stepped up in front of him, he still forced out a smile.
"Sakiko, long time no see."
"Yes, long time no see."
Her voice sounded tired, yet steady and firm, and it carried a chilling coldness that made him uneasy.
"Let's go back to your place first. This isn't somewhere we should talk. Also, I came here with a tour group, and tomorrow I still have to follow the normal itinerary. Today, at least, I can move around freely."
Makoto frowned. Before he could ask whether she could leave the group, Sakiko had already added, "It's not easy for an ordinary person to enter Academy City as a tourist. This tour group was already the limit of what I could do right now."
Her tone was calm, but Makoto still caught the trace of bitterness hidden beneath it.
Sensing that, he said no more. The two of them took the subway, then switched to a bus, and only after they arrived at the hotel entrance did Sakiko's expression finally change slightly.
She stared at him and asked, "Why did you choose this place? Without my identification, you wouldn't have been able to book me a room, would you?"
Makoto took out his phone and opened the news article he had prepared in advance. The headline read: Student Dorm in District 7 Attacked by Suspected Fire Esper, Nearby Students Advised to Be Cautious After School.
"I'm one of the students who got caught up in it, so for now I can only stay at a hotel for a week. I booked a suite. If you don't like it, I can book you a separate room."
Makoto met the clear amber eyes in Sakiko's cool gaze. There was no impurity in either of their looks.
Just when he thought she would refuse, she smiled beautifully and said, "No need. I can accept staying with you, Kitano-kun."
"But there are some things I hope we can clear up after I put down my luggage."
Naturally, Makoto had no reason to refuse. After helping her complete the check-in, he led her into the suite.
The door had barely opened when he felt a burst of force slam into his chest.
Sakiko shoved him hard against the wall. Both hands pinned his shoulders, and for some reason, a trace of blood-red color had appeared deep in her eyes.
The words that left her mouth made Makoto's heart jolt.
"Do you have anything you'd like to explain, Mr. Liar?"
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