Miine Is Precious

Translated by Dawn

“Because you two are dating, aren’t you? Then, even if he steals from you with apport, wouldn’t you give him your tacit approval? Rather, wouldn’t he steal anything if you, his beloved, asked him to?”

It was too late, I thought.

Kiriha lowered the temperature of her gaze to absolute zero and replied in a voice filled with strong hostility.

“You do know that Honey undergoes psychometry checks every day, don’t you? If so, that makes you and me an accomplice too, doesn’t it? You’re just saying that now, and your desire to turn Honey into a criminal is transparent. Are you abolitionists?”

As the name implies, the Abolitionists are an organization that seeks to abolish people with abilities from society.

Although they are not taken seriously by the public, they have some devoted followers.

If you publish a book that criticizes people with abilities, they will surely buy it, so several critical books that can be expected to sell a certain amount of copies are dared every month.

“If this interview is about finding material to condemn us people with abilities, then we’re going home.”

Kiriha really stood up and tried to leave.

The reporter hurriedly tried to stop her, and I, too, sat her down, holding her by the shoulders.

I did not want to damage Kiriha’s image.

“Now, now, Kiriha. All right, then, I’ll take this opportunity to ask you. Kiriha, if I ever steal anything with Apport, please be merciless and hit me with a poison needle. Also, I’ll be Kiriha’s worker bee for 24 hours.”

“R-really?”

Kiriha raised her finger and poked me in the side, with a face that was more than a little naughty.

“Ah. I promise you in front of the reporter. Oh, you can write an article about this. If I do something wrong, like not talking to any other girls but you, or something like that, it’s OK too.”

“Then will you take a bath with me and wash my body?”

“What are you saying while we’re recording? I’m not going to misuse Apport!”

“Eh~, I kind of want you to misuse it.”

“Stop it.”

I posed for a chop, and again, Kiriha put her forehead against my chop.

“Forehead touch ♪”

Kiriha makes a kissy face while indulging her forehead. It was so cute that I lost myself for a moment.

And the reporter was looking at us with annoyance.

I guess he doesn’t have a girlfriend.

“Okui-kun, you’re also in the Metal Team, right? Can I interview you and Uchimine-san together?”

“Ah, yeah. That’s fine.”

Ignoring the reporter gritting his teeth, I moved with Kiriha to the seat next to Miine.

The reporter in charge of Mina was the same woman who had been questioning Director Sayuri.

If Director Sayuri can’t make it,  I would beat the dust out of her subordinate’s abilities.

Such intentions overflowed from her eyes.

With her guard up, the reporter asked Miine.

“Uchimine-san, are you able to extract certain elements from an object?”

“Yes. For instance, I can collect only iron atoms from discarded cars to make iron ingots, and if there is a pile of discarded devices, I can collect pure gold from them to make gold nuggets. However, the amount of gold used in devices is small, thus it would take a considerable amount of it.”

Miine was not nervous and handled the situation calmly.

She was indeed the idol of the school. She possesses excellent communication skills.

“But with all that power, you could make a lot of money yourself, couldn’t you?”

“Ummm, I’m not interested in that sort of thing. I would use this power for the good of the nation.”

“But, you know, you’re young, and I’m sure you have things you want. If you wanted to, you could buy a high-rise apartment, couldn’t you?”

We already lived in a high-rise apartment. It was a government building though, so it was rented.

–What is this reporter up to?

“No, I am not interested in luxury. As long as I have enough income to live on, that’s fine. And, you see, I don’t have any channels of exchange, and at best I can take it to a precious metals buyer. Also, you have to pay income tax on that too, right? If I leave all that hassle to the government, I can enjoy earning a living. I’m sly, aren’t I?”

With a sly smile, the reporter bit her teeth in frustration.

“Are there any problems or difficulties in the working environment?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of problems?”

The reporter was upfront.

“It’s the point where I work fewer hours.”

“What?”

With a straight face, Miine began to speak fluently.

“I can recover only the resources from the trash heap. If I wanted to, I could empty every landfill in Japan. But I have to leave work in the evening because they can’t force students to do more work. Don’t you think it’s a bit leisurely when I don’t know when I might die in a car accident or from illness? The landfills in Japan will be full in another 20 years, so I should free up as many landfills as possible during my lifetime. And yet, I’m having trouble because it’s too white.” (+)

“Aren’t you all being exploited by the government?”

–Wow, she ignored Miine’s entire statement. What kind of brain does she have?

There were many people like this.

They first created a premise and conclusion of their own liking, and then they only looked at things in a manner consistent with that premise and conclusion, leading them to the conclusion they had prepared in the first place.

–Then this reporter is trying to make defections and turn this into a government responsibility issue.

But that move wouldn’t work on Miine.

“Did you listen to what I had to say? If you had listened, you wouldn’t have asked me that question, would you? I am cooperating with the project to save Japan of my own volition. If you distort my story, the interview ends here. Also, I will post this video on the Internet as promised.”

“What? You, if we were in the wrong, you would get carried away, and we would not let you do that!”

“What? You, If you were on our bad side, you’d be in trouble, and I wouldn’t let you do that!”

“I agreed to the interview on the condition that I would record the interview and post it on the Internet. You’re an adult, and you’re going to break your promise?”

“That’s because you were selfish enough not to give me an interview otherwise.”

“In other words, you deceived us. This could be considered an act of fraud.”

“Don’t quibble with me!”

The female reporter yelled at Miine, her face contorting so much that her makeup looked as if it might crack.

The gazes of the other people with abilities at the table were all on the reporter. Yes, the gazes of the people with abilities, with [REC] displayed above their heads.

That brought the female reporter back to her senses.

But there was nothing she could do to make things right now.

The reporter glared at Miine as the last stand and quickly walked out of the conference room.

“Miine, you’re good.”

“It’s no big deal. Because I’m only saying the right thing, or is this [logical harassment]?”

“No, [reasonable and unreasonable] is no longer working. I hate that word. And that’s the reason why people hate me.”

“But you and your girlfriend are in love.”

“Hey, don’t ruin it here.”

With a light tsukkomi, a small, young reporter with a ponytail sat down in front of us.

“Oh, I’m in charge of the fuel team, Okui-kun, can I ask you a question?”

“Yes, I will answer most questions except those that would lead me to the answer.” (+)

“Don’t worry, I know Director Sayuri.”

The reporter with a ponytail smiled.