Chapter 535: I feel that it’s worthwhile to observe her
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
The person that caught up to him was the dress-wearing woman… more accurately speaking, Fujishima knew that she was a female Spirit-branded Retainer!
She wasn't wearing ordinary Spiritual Ability user combat clothes, but Spirit-branded Retainer combat clothes instead. He could also sense her power and suppressive aura, which proved his inference.
He felt that the jacketed man was likely to be a Spirit-branded Retainer as well. To send two Spirit-branded Retainers, one male and one female… which major personage was so powerful to send such a force at them? It was just like cheating!
The suppressive power difference between them was just like driving a mecha into an army camp. It was no equal match at all.
Fujishima, who believed himself to merely be an ordinary fighter, felt that he would completely be unable to match up to a Spirit-branded Retainer.
He could only surrender.
Although he knew that surrendering would be useless if his opponent intended to kill him in the first place, he felt that struggling and resisting was even more foolish. Perhaps his opponent didn't feel the need to kill him in the first place, but if her hand accidentally slipped or she went all-out against him, then…
Someone who was weak like him needed to have the mentality of the weak as well.
Fujishima turned around and lifted up his hands when this female Spirit-branded Retainer approached him.
"I surr—"
*Smack!!*
He didn't even get to finish his words before he took a heavy blow.
The blow was from her sword scabbard.
'It seems that she doesn't intend to kill me…' That was Fujishima's last conscious thought before he fainted due to the painful impact.
Saving Haiga turned out to be easier than Seiji had expected.
Little Anna had tracked the license plate number of the individuals that kidnapped Haiga, and hacked into the traffic cameras to follow their car's course, which helped Seiji to lie in ambush.
His and Shika's equipment was all provided by Hana for his new team. It had just arrived today. Seiji never expected that he would use it so quickly.
What surprised Seiji the most was that these two opponents both chose to immediately run away when Seiji ambushed them. They barely tried to counterattack at all.
Seiji captured the driver while he had Shika catch the gunman. Neither of these two kidnappers managed to escape.
He sealed the Spiritual Abilities of these two people, and tied up and tossed the two unconscious men into a forest near the road. He also tossed the two halves of the car into the forest, and then took the unconscious Haiga and all of Haiga's belongings with him and left the scene in another car.
Hisashi had provided the car, while Kaede drove.
When Seiji asked Hisashi to lend him a car and driver, Hisashi indicated that his younger sister was an excellent top-notch driver!
And so, Seiji learned of the blonde teacher's hidden talent. He personally witnessed her abilities firsthand on the way here.
She drove at top speed the whole way, passing by other cars without any hesitation. She even drifted beautifully when taking curves… Seiji felt that she was no ordinary female driver! She was more like a female racer!
Kaede smiled and explained, "I used to really love driving in the past. I practiced on some mountain passes."
'Is there a driver named Takumi Fujiwara on these mountain passes, who delivers tofu for a living?' Seiji almost wanted to ask such a question . 1
Forget it, this counted as the True Knight Order's first ever undertaking. While this was a success, he couldn't get overconfident.
Seiji contacted Hana and sent her some pictures of the two tied-up men. He asked her to investigate who they were.
"Why do you need to investigate who these two men are?"
"I'll have a video chat with you to explain things later. Please investigate them for me for now."
He then took Haiga to a safe location that Hisashi arranged. Seiji placed a magical barrier here that could impede magical tracking spells. Seiji then cleansed Haiga of the sleeping spell that had been placed upon him and woke him up.
"…Seigo Harano?" Haiga woke up and recognized Seiji.
"Yes, it's me, Haiga-san. Anna-san requested for me to save you." Seiji handed Haiga his cell phone, which contained the message history between him and little Anna.
Haiga accepted his cell phone and read the messages. He then began typing and conversing with little Anna.
"Thank you for coming to my rescue, Harano-san." Moments later, he expressed his gratitude to Seiji.
"No need for thanks… Haiga-san, you're going to have to stay here temporarily for the time being. You can't go outside, because your enemies might still be looking for you. This house has a magic barrier over it that will prevent your enemies from finding your location."
Haiga nodded in understanding.
"Harano-san… I want to ask you, what do you intend to have Anna do for you?"
Seiji already anticipated this question and smiled upon hearing this.
"First, I'd like to have her assist one of my friends with financial investments to earn some money. I won't ask her to work for free. I'll pay her a reasonable portion of the profits as well, just as if I'm hiring her. Also, I'd like to ask for her help in creating a game—a different game from 'Anna.'"
Haiga fell silent upon hearing this.
"It's going to be impossible to continue working on 'Anna' with how things are now. But, Anna-san can still keep working on games together with you, just in a different method from before." Seiji looked directly at the game developer sitting across from him.
"…What type of game did you want to have Anna help you create?"
"An ero game."
Once again, Haiga was rendered speechless.
"Just joking." Seiji chuckled. "Actually, I'm working on creating a dating sim game together with my friends. My friends are helping me of their own volition, and this isn't actually the game I wanted Anna-san to help me with. I'd actually like to ask Anna-san to help me with a different game in the future. I haven't come up with the specifics yet."
"Some investments and creating a game… that's all?"
"Perhaps there will be other things in the future, but I'm definitely someone who keeps to my word. I won't make any unreasonable requests."
Haiga took a long glance at the boy in front of him who had such a sincere expression.
"Thank you." He lightly expressed his thanks again.
Hana found out for Seiji that the two Spiritual Ability users that captured Haiga were working for the Watajima Family.
The Watajima Family was on the same level as the Yoruhana Family. However, they were slightly weaker than the Yoruhana Family.
It would be quite troublesome if they didn't give up and kept trying to find Kazuhiko Haiga.
'Let's wait and see based on the situation.' Seiji prepared himself for anything that might happen.
The next day, the "Anna" cell phone game ended its maintenance and opened up its servers again.
However, the players soon discovered that the main character Anna was no longer as responsive to every single word they spoke to her. She was now just another ordinary NPC. This caused the players to become greatly disappointed and leave many scathing reviews on the internet. Lots of players uninstalled the game from their cell phones.
"Anna's no longer here… I'm dying…" Chiaki seemed to have lost her very soul. She collapsed on the table as if there was nothing more to live for.
Last night, she had heard about Anna's situation from Seiji, causing her to become quite depressed. She was still like this despite the fact that an entire night had passed since then. It appeared that she had taken a severe impact.
"Why don't you try playing a different game?" Mika tried to console Chiaki.
"No… I want Anna… Anna belongs to me…" Chiaki muttered in a heartbroken manner.
Seiji glanced at the depressed tomboy and knew that this was only a temporary state. She would likely recover back to normal in a few days. Still, he felt like he couldn't bear to watch a good friend suffer like this.
And so, Seiji logged on to the chatting application with his cell phone and contacted little Anna, explaining Chiaki's situation to her.
"Have her install this modified version of the game that I'll send to you. She'll be able to speak to me directly again in this method," little Anna told him.
"Is that really alright? This could be risky for you."
"Yes, I'm willing to do it. Chiaki Wakaba is a player that I'm paying special attention to."
"Why are you paying special attention to her?" Seiji was rather curious.
Little Anna fell silent for a moment.
"I don't really know… for some indescribable reason, I feel that it's worthwhile to observe her," the artificial intelligence told him.
Seiji didn't know what to say to this.
How was he supposed to interpret these ambiguous words?
He felt almost as if Chiaki would be the next one to Awaken to some Spiritual Ability… was this just a mistaken impression of his?
"Thank you for being willing to do this."
"No need for any thanks. I'm more than happy to do this for her."
Later, during lunch break, Seiji sent Anna's specially modified version of the game to Chiaki.
"What's this?"
"Something that will allow you to meet Anna again."
Chiaki instantly widened her eyes upon hearing this.
"Seigo…"
Seiji put his index finger on his lips, gesturing for her to remain silent.
"This is a secret that you absolutely can't let others know about."
Chiaki smiled brilliantly as she gazed at his handsome face.
"Seigo, I love you forever!" Just like yesterday, she passionately "confessed her love" once again.
Mika was once again rendered speechless.
"No need to love me. You should be thanking Anna. She was the one who was willing to do this so that you could meet her again," Seiji told her.
"Anna…" Chiaki immediately installed the modified game and opened it up.
"Welcome back, Chiaki." The black-haired, red-eyed beauty appeared on her cell phone screen and greeted her in a gentle voice.
"I should be the one saying that… Welcome back, Anna!" The tomboy's eyes welled up with a hint of tears as she spoke animatedly.
Anna's expression froze over ever so slightly.
"Yep… I'm back."
She revealed a slightly shy, somewhat different smile from before that was gentle and beautiful.