[175] Miss Okita's Whereabouts

Tokyo, a certain hotel.

In one of the rooms of this hotel, the lighting was extremely dim at this moment. The doors and windows were all sealed shut, and the curtains were drawn, demonstrating the guest's determination to prevent anyone from seeing inside.

Inside the room, on the pristine white bed, lay a young girl dressed in a pale blue haori.

Her smooth, shoulder-length hair cascaded naturally over the clean pillow. Her delicate features resembled those of a doll, and her sleeping face was as serene as a baby's, her breathing slow and steady.

At a certain moment, the girl abruptly opened her eyes.

There was no trace of sleepiness in her gaze—her eyes were as cold as ice water. She didn't look like someone who had just woken up, but rather like an executioner about to carry out a sentence.

She sat up, threw off the covers, and fixed her gaze on the miniature listening device by the bedside. After a brief pause, she clipped it to her chest.

Rising from the bed, she pulled open the curtains, pushed the window ajar, and stepped onto the windowsill.

Then, in one swift motion, she leapt out and vanished.

The curtains fluttered in the wind, making an almost imperceptible sound. Inside the room, a keycard lay on the table, the only evidence that a guest had once stayed here.

Outside, the girl in the haori stood atop the hotel skyscraper, her icy gaze sweeping over the city below.

"The peerless songstress, the unparalleled idol, Sylvia Lyyneheym, is set to perform the third-to-last concert of her world tour at the Tokyo Budokan! Only one day remains until the show!"

"Tickets for Sylvia's concert available here! Limited to one per person! Front-row seats! Starting price: 10 million yen..."

Spatial windows displaying such advertisements were plastered across every corner of the city.

Some shops even openly advertised scalped tickets, yet people still flocked to them in droves.

In this world, Tokyo remained the capital of Japan, though the nation's governing power paled in comparison to the influence of the integrated enterprise conglomerate "Ginga" that had taken root here.

Ginga's headquarters stood in the heart of Tokyo.

The towering skyscraper at the city's center, nearly piercing the clouds, was Ginga's headquarters—its presence dwarfing all symbols of Japanese authority, from the Prime Minister's residence in Chiyoda to the Imperial Palace and the National Building. They seemed like mere infants gazing up at the heavens in comparison.

A month ago, when Roy first arrived in this world, he had landed near Tokyo.

After realizing this was the world of Asterisk War, he immediately began stirring up trouble.

What kind of trouble?

Neither killing Ginga's personnel nor kidnapping one of its top executives.

Instead, he had infiltrated Ginga in secret and hypnotized one of its highest-ranking officers.

Among the Genestellars, there were indeed witches and mages with mental interference abilities. However, such individuals were typically placed under strict surveillance and control by the conglomerates the moment they surfaced, never to taste freedom again.

Roy, however, was a rogue "mental interference ability user." His actions—targeting a top executive within Ginga's headquarters—sent shockwaves through the upper echelons once exposed.

If he could hypnotize me today, he could hypnotize you tomorrow.

As long as he remained at large, Ginga would never know peace!

Shortly after, Ginga issued a global warrant for his arrest, making it clear they wouldn't rest until he was dead.

Thus, Roy spent over a week being hunted down.

It wasn't until one night when he dreamt and connected with Claudia again that, with her help, he managed to infiltrate Asterisk City and enroll in Seidoukan Academy, finally finding temporary respite.

Before leaving Tokyo, Roy left his familiar, Souji, in a hotel room, setting up a barrier to keep unwanted visitors away.

Now, he was remotely controlling Souji's actions by sharing its vision and the sounds transmitted through a listening device.

It felt like manipulating a puppet, quite similar to Silas Norman's methods. Since the master could only share the familiar's vision, control was somewhat inconvenient. That's why Roy had prepared the listening device—with both visual and auditory assistance, remote control became much easier.

Under Roy's remote guidance, Souji arrived near the Ginga headquarters building.

After being hunted by Ginga for so long, Roy felt it would be a shame not to give them a taste of their own medicine.

That's right—he was here for revenge.

"But this is strange..."

Souji stood on the rooftop, its cold gaze fixed on the distant Ginga headquarters building.

"The atmosphere feels off."

Souji's vision was exceptionally sharp. While not quite clairvoyant, with magical enhancement, it could discern even the finest details of a carpet two kilometers away.

Its eyes focused on the Ginga headquarters building, where faint, thread-like substances shimmered around the structure.

These threads weren't solitary. Upon closer inspection, Souji counted at least seven or eight visible ones.

Silently leaping into the air, Souji approached the nearest thread. Following Roy's command, it reached out to touch the thread, only for her pale wrist to pass right through, as if the thread didn't exist at all.

Yet when it turned to look, the thread still floated lightly in the air, undisturbed.

After several more attempts, Souji finally managed to grasp the thread by coating her hand with mana. A gentle tug revealed it had almost no mass.

"Is this not a physical thread, but some kind of energy formation?"

Through Souji's eyes, Roy pondered this silently.

How odd. When he was last here, these threads shouldn't have existed... or should they? His vision was no worse than Souji's—he wouldn't have missed something like this.

"Is this some new defensive measure by Ginga? Or..."

Could some enemy have set their sights on Ginga?

Roy quietly considered the possibilities.

Honestly, it didn't seem like a new defense system.

If they'd had something this useful, Ginga's top executives would have deployed it much earlier. For it to be set up within half a month of his departure seemed too coincidental. Moreover, it showed no signs of defending against mental interference, making it unlikely to be specifically targeting him.

So was someone else targeting Ginga?

Roy found this possibility far more plausible.

"How interesting!"

At this thought, Roy's mood brightened considerably.

Someone wanted to cause trouble for Ginga?

Why not sit back and watch the tigers fight?

Having Souji act now might risk being used as someone else's pawn.

In that case, it would be better to remain hidden in the shadows, waiting for the moment when the two tigers fight. Only then would he have Souji leap out, allowing her to strike at the heart of the Ginga with a single decisive blow.

"Where is the source of these threads?"

Souji ran along the threads through Tokyo's towering skyscrapers, following their direction and quantity in her search.

But even after searching all night, she couldn't find the origin of the threads.

They appeared sparse at first glance, yet turned out to be unexpectedly numerous, spreading across every district of Tokyo. Nearly all government institutions were entangled within them. It was hard to imagine who could possess such capability, silently establishing so many threads throughout the entire city.

Though she failed to locate the source, she did find where the threads converged most densely.

—Tokyo Budokan.

***

Hey readers!

Want to read ahead? 📖 Join my Patreon for early access to 30+ advance chapters! Your support helps me write more and bring the story to you faster.

🔹patreon.com/aarvan🔹