Kamijou and the aging woman walked side-by-side down the street.
There were plenty of people around, but no one gave them a second look. They looked like nothing more than a high school student carrying grocery bags and an old woman with a coat over her arm. What could look more harmless than that?
Kamijou glanced sideways at the woman without turning his head, and she gave a smile that seemed inappropriate to the situation.
"You needn't be so nervous."
She ordered him to turn off his cell phone and gave him slight instructions as to where to walk. He couldn't refuse because of the object she had hidden in her coat. He didn't know what exactly it was, but he knew he couldn't let his guard down.
He thought it was possible that he could reverse the situation if he waited for a chance and attacked her.
(But I don't know what she's holding... If I make the wrong move, things could go from bad to worse.)
As Kamijou was pondering all this, the woman spoke quietly.
"Just act naturally. It's not like I'm saying you can't move at all."
"Yeah, well...You say that, but what do you have under your coat there?"
"Achoo!"
"Watch out!!"
The woman suddenly sneezed and Kamijou yelled out without thinking.
The other students in the area looked at him oddly, but soon their gazes moved elsewhere.
"Like I said, you don't need to worry. What has you so scared?"
"Mostly whatever it is you have under your coat that needs to be hidden from view!! What is it that you're jamming into my side anyway!?"
"Oh, my. You needn't worry about that. It's not going to go off from just a sneeze."
"G-go off? So is it what I think it is!?"
"And it makes quite a noise, too. Although it has a little device on it that silences that noise."
"That's a pretty big hint!!"
That left Kamijou trembling with fear, but the aging woman didn't seem to mind.
As Kamijou was being escorted, he noticed that they had left the major shopping district, turned onto a side street, and were now heading for an area lined with student dorms. It wasn't the area his dorm was in though. Since 80% of the residents of Academy City were students, there were quite a few areas "lined with student dorms."
(Where are we headed...?)
If they had been headed toward an old abandoned factory, his danger sense would have been maxed out, but this area didn't feel like that at all. He could smell a dinner of white stew coming from the dorms. And these dorms must not allow pets because he saw some elementary school girls gathered in front of one of the buildings giving some stray cats cans of food.
And then the aging woman suddenly stopped.
"Here we are."
"?"
Even after hearing that, Kamijou didn't really get what was going on.
They had come to a children's park.
It didn't really look like an area set aside to be a park; it was more like it had been made solely to fill up a left over piece of developed land. Maybe it was because the standard amount of playground equipment had been forced into the area, but it had a cramped feel to it.
(Why here???)
As he stared at the entrance to the abandoned park, Kamijou cocked his head to the side quizzically.
At least it wasn't the kind of "special place" he had expected to be brought to after having someone stick something into his side on the roadside.
"Sorry about all this. Now let's go in."
As the woman said this, she continued to casually stick whatever was in her coat into Kamijou's side. He had no choice but to do as she said but couldn't imagine what possible merit his going in the park gave her.
At the woman's instruction, he sat next to her on a bench at the edge of the park.
Kamijou had expected there to be someone waiting for them in the park or that someone was going to come meet them there, but it didn't feel that way.
Kamijou bent over slightly and put his grocery bags on the ground. The woman didn't stop him from doing so. If he had a weapon in his shoe, he could have fought back, but Kamijou wasn't the type to equip himself like a ninja.
He thought of throwing a stone at her, but he realized that if he didn't have a clear chance, all he would accomplish would be to make her raise her guard.
He decided to give up for the moment and sat back up.
He then asked the woman a question.
"So? What are you trying to start here?"
"No, no. It's nothing major like that."
The aging woman with "something major" hidden under her coat jammed into his side smiled as she spoke.
"Let's talk."
"Talk?"
"Yes. About the great chaos that is occurring throughout the world."