CH 6

After school.

When I arrived at the government building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, I was told by Director Sayuri to send the other ability users to their respective workplaces before I went ahead with Shisae.

The first to go was Uchimine who was in the metal group.

Director Sayuri had assigned her to a certain port facing the Pacific Ocean.

In front of me was the blue ocean, and behind me was a warehouse area that I had only seen in video games and movies, stretching endlessly.

Uchimine's long black hair, pulled up halfway up her head, fluttered in the warm spring sea breeze.

For a moment, I rubbed my nose as I sniffed the sea breeze, while thinking how beautiful she looked.

“Is this where Uchimine works? There's no one here, is there?”

“Yeah, technically, it's inside that cargo ship.”

Saying this, Uchimine ran into the shadow of an anchored cargo ship and scuttled to the back of the ship, as if to guide me.

--But then again, that's a heck of a boat.......

I followed behind her, looking up at the vessel casting a vast shadow on the wharf.

Then I saw that the cargo ship had left its huge rear hatch open and the hatch was submerged in seawater.

“Teleport me into that thing.”

Uchimine graciously grabbed my hand.

--It’s amazing how easily a girl can hold a boy's hand, even Shisae.

Except for bi***es, but Shisae and Uchimine of course weren't bi***es. They were just normal girls.

This was probably because she was that friendly or communicative.

Even in the morning, she followed up on Bando, who was not a good friend of mine at school.

We both teleported to the entrance of the cargo hold as I was instructed to do.

Our vision switched like a TV channel change.

“As expected, it's a big place.”

The inside of the cargo hold was much larger than the gymnasium, and the back part of the room was almost like a haze.

--The total length must have been 100 meters.......

“So, Uchimine, what do you do in a place like this?”

Director Sayuri said that she wanted me to hear the details from Uchimine over there.

Was there a reason she couldn't talk about it in the government building?

“I'm in the metals group, so I extract metals from the ocean.”

“Eh?”

While I was surprised, Uchimine started walking toward the sea.

The hatch opened wide toward the sea.

At the end of it was a comfortable-looking sofa and a table.

Sitting down on the sofa, Uchimine kicked the floor with the tip of her shoe with a thump.

A moment later, her feet sparked.

The light, like an electric current, disappeared into the floor, the hatch, and then into the sea. Instantly, the water from the sea rushed into the ship all at once.

“Wow! Huh?”

After taking a step back in surprise, I tilted my head.

I thought I saw seawater climbing up, but then I saw that the soles turned silver. [1]

A number of thin silver rivers ran across the floor. No, for some reason, only two of them were a different color.

One was golden and one was reddish.

As I followed the scene with my eyes rolled back in my head, Uchimine's gentle voice began to explain.

“This is what I do." My ability is Rebuilding, which is the breaking down and rebuilding of matter. Did you know? There are 77 kinds of elements dissolved in the ocean. Among them are iron, copper, gold, silver, and platinum. As for gold, mankind has dug up 220,000 tons of it so far, but there are 5 billion tons of it dissolved in the ocean.”

“That much!? Then why isn't anyone extracting it, or is the concentration too low?”

When I quickly realized and made the correction, Uchimine smiled like a homeroom teacher whose student had scored 100 points.

“That's correct. It's only one milligram per ton of seawater. The cost of fuel to evaporate the seawater would be much higher.”

There was no mockery in Uchimine's laugh, which rang like a bell. It was honestly cute and made me want to watch her for a while.

---I guess a girl like Uchimine actually exists.

“The golden ones are gold, the reddish ones are copper, and the silver ones are other metals.”

“That's right. So, sorry Okui-kun, but from now on I want you to come back every 10 minutes and teleport each ingot to a different part of the warehouse.”

“That's why I'm at this port, huh?”

I nodded, remembering the endless warehouse area.

“Open the file that Director Sayuri gave you a moment ago. You should be able to find the map information there.”

As I opened the file I received from Director Sayuri, a floor plan of the warehouse area filled my field of vision.

Countless warehouses were marked with their warehouse numbers and what metal they were to teleport.

I turned my head and glanced around to the back of the warehouse.

Ingots were stacked in pyramids for each metal, and the height of the pyramids continued to grow.

At this rate, this spacious warehouses would be full in ten minutes.

“But, Okui-kun, please don't say anything about this to anyone.”

“Is that so it won't be misused?”

“That's part of it, but if the world finds out about this, surely the United Nations will restrict the use of seawater, right?　I still think they will find out at some point, but the question is how much metal can be collected before then. My job is ostensibly to recover metals from [urban mines], but the gold in the [scrap] is 10,000 tons. The quantities are too different.”

Urban mines.

As I recalled, it was a way of making the metal in appliances and other mechanical waste into a vein of ore, right?

“That's why.”

Uchimine got up from the sofa and walked over to me with soft steps.

“This is a secret from everyone.”

Her wink and smile had me frozen in place for a moment.

That was how attractive Uchimine's smile was.

It wasn't that I didn't like Uchimine.

However, I had a heart that was attracted to audiovisual information, as well as to cute dogs, the beauty of Mt. Fuji, and listening to music.

So, even though I felt like I liked Uchimine's relaxing voice and soft smile, I made excuses to myself that this was inevitable.

But no matter how many excuses I made, there was no way to cover up the fact that I felt a sense of satisfaction and satisfaction from sharing my secret with her.

--I guess I'm after all just a man.

I was sure that Director Sayuri would know about it, and it wasn't a secret between me and Uchimine. But I felt a bit of self-loathing, thinking that it was a stupid thing to think about.

But I didn't hate this feeling.