CH 88

Everybody Loves Sewer Shoots!

Translated by Dawn

Everybody Loves Sewer Shoots!

While Ikuo was studying for the exam, the president of the Bank of Japan announced that the government bonds would be sold to an anti-Japanese country, and IKUO and his team had to earn 200 billion yen within a month.

Ikuo and his team were troubled by the exam and the 200 billion yen problem, but there was a further problem.

Maya’s former classmates wrote bad things about her on the Internet, and Maya became depressed.

Kiriha comforted her and resolved the problem, and Ikuo and his team face the exam and the 200 billion yen problem again.

After buying swimsuits for Kiriha and the other girls, we wandered around the department store aimlessly.

Even though it was Saturday, there were so many people in the store that it was hard to believe that this was a country that had collapsed.

I was a little proud to think that this was all thanks to our efforts to rebuild the Japanese economy.

“What should we do now?”

I tossed the question with a can of juice in one hand, and everyone tilted their cans of juice as if thinking.

“We can’t go to places with few people, can we? Karaoke is out. No, IJUIN-chan’s prediction said we’d be safe for 24 hours, right?”

“But if you change your behavior after hearing the prediction, it might come out wrong, right? So, dark surroundings like in the movies are out, too.”

“And the arcade is also out.”

Matsumi groaned quietly.

“There’s no game that can be played with eight people, and we definitely have to spread out, no?”

“A playground with a bunch of people around, huh?”

The can of juice was empty and I looked for the trash can.

That was all it took for Maria, who sensed my intentions, to offer me her hand.

“I’ll go throw them all together.”

Her left hand was already keeping three empty cans between her fingers.

“Ah, please.”

Maria took my empty can with her right hand and headed away from us to the trash can next to the escalator.

After watching her back, I turned to Kiriha and the others.

“How about we go to a coffee shop somewhere and get something sweet to eat? Hey, Maria—”

When I returned my gaze to Maria, I saw an unknown woman running at full speed toward Maria with a devilish look on her face.

In her hand, she holds a gleaming blade.

Was Maria also targeted?

But wasn’t it an abduction, not an assassination?

A change of plan?

No, from all appearances, that woman was a street thief. Was she unrelated to the OU?

As various thoughts flew through my head, I shook them all off and teleported Maria back to us.

—Be on time!

But just before the teleportation was activated, the passerby screamed and collapsed.

“Guaaaahhhh!?”

The teleportation succeeded just as the knife was about to touch Maria, and Maria appeared next to me.

After that, the street witch convulsed violently where Maria was standing and then eventually stopped moving.

Two cords extended from her body.

I followed them with my gaze and saw Ijuin standing there, breathing heavily.

In his hand was what looked like a yellow gun.

It was kind of a taser or some kind of long-range stun gun, I think?

“Haa, that was close. Arima-san, are you hurt?”

After a big exhale, Ijuin pulled out the needle of his taser and walked over to us.

“I am not hurt, how did Ijuin-san get here?”

“I had a precognition that Arima-san was going to be attacked. This is a Taser I carry for self-defense. My ability is not suited for combat after all.”

Folding the cord into the barrel, Ijuin deftly called the police on voice command.

Once again, I checked on the street witch.

The street witch was lying on her stomach, slightly convulsed and foaming, with no sign of getting up.

“From the looks of it, she seems to be a civilian; I don’t think she’s an assassin from the OU, but I’d like to know why she’s targeting Arima-san. Koimai-san, can you do Psychometry on her?”

“Y-yeah.”

Maiko walked up to her fearfully and touched her.

Then Maiko hesitated and opened her mouth as if she was reluctant to say anything.

“Resentment, perhaps? She seems to be a fan of the band group that got busted and disbanded because of Maria’s Thoughtography”

Ijuin stroked his chin with a sharp look, then groaned quietly.

“I’m glad it wasn’t an OU assassin, but a grudge from a member of the public. I’ve heard of police, prosecutors, and judges being resented by the relatives of criminals, but I never thought we’d end up in the same boat.”

As Ijuin raised his eyebrows, Maria took a step closer, to him.

“I appreciate your help this time. And, Honey-san.”

“Don’t worry about it, I just used Teleportation.”

“That’s right, Mr. Arima. I, too, just had Precognition come down to me.”

Ijuin chuckled amiably and put his taser away in his pouch again.

“But really, weren’t you foreknowing Maria at all hours of the day? So that if Maria was in danger, you would be able to respond immediately.”

Ijuin smiled with embarrassment as I spoke to him.

“That’s, haha, to tell you the truth. I was thinking that if we were targeted, Arima-san might also be targeted by the OU. “

I knew it.

It was a little bit creepy, but it made me smile a little bit to think that Ijuin properly liked Maria, in Ijuin’s own way.

How many times had he made predictions because he was worried about the person he likes…?

That was where I felt uncomfortable.

—How many times has he made precognitions?

There was a relaxed atmosphere between Maria and Ijuin, and Matsumi and Shisae also seemed to be taking a fresh look at Ijuin.

However, only Kiriha and Miina looked at Ijuin’s face quizzically.

That confirmed my suspicions.

—Kiriha and Miina are also suspicious. Then this is not a misunderstanding.

If I was mistaken, I would apologize.

I was prepared to get down on my knees and apologize to Ijuin if the situation arose.

“Hey Ijuin, I’m pretty sure you know exactly what happened in the last 24 hours, right?”

“Yes, but I still have no information about our abduction, so don’t worry about it.”

Ijuin turned his back on me with a slightly smug look on his face and I asked him with a stronger tone of voice.

“Then how come you didn’t know until just now that Maria was going to be attacked? Didn’t you foretell Maria at all hours of the day?”

“I know, but it’s not like I always have a prophecy echoing in my head. I said at all hours, but the truth is that today was the first time I foretold something earlier. That’s why I rushed over.”

I didn’t miss the slight hardening of his voice.

“I know, but IJUIN, if that’s the case, why don’t you just call us first instead of coming to us? If you wanted, you could have contacted me via voice communication while moving, couldn’t you?”

I had no idea where Ijuin was, but that would be more reliable than making a prediction and then running here.

“Ah! Come to think of it, that’s true too. I was so upset I didn’t notice. Totally, I was just asking for your contact information for nothing. I’m sorry, Arima-san.”

Ijuin apologized in a deceptive, overacting manner Kiriha was beginning to form fingers, poison needles, on both hands.

I gave Ijuin a final word.

“Right. And Ijuin, can you undergo Maiko’s Psychometry for a minute?”

“…What are you talking about all of a sudden? There is no need for that, is there? If you want to dig up my feelings for Arima-san with that, it’s an invasion of privacy, you know.”

Ijuin took a step back, looking shaken, and Maiko, sensing something, quickly reached out her hand.

But as if foreseeing this, Ijuin twisted to avoid it and fled the scene.

“Whoops, you can’t run away from me, the 12-second 100-meter runner!”

Matsumi was already ahead of him.

Matsumi, standing in the direction of the path, tackled Ijuin with the instantaneous force of a football player.

But Ijuin, perhaps foreseeing even that, put his hands on Matsumi’s shoulders and leaped over her head like a jumping box.

“Whaa!?”

When Matsumi turned around after landing passively, Ijuin was already about to jump onto the down escalator.

So I let….Ijuin Apport in front of Kiriha.

“Huh?”

“Nice, Honey!”

Kiriha’s poisonous needle sliced through the space where Ijuin’s head had been until a tenth of a second ago.

“!?”

“That was a lie. My abilities are suited for combat.”

Ijuin avoided Kiriha’s attack with a low stance and ran away with a winning smile on his face.

I realized that no melee attack could hit Ijuin.

So, I stopped Matsumi and the others from chasing him with my arms.

“What is it, Ikuo, are you going to let him go!?”

“No, I haven’t done this for a while, I forgot about it, but this one’s for sure.”

I snapped my fingers and Ijuin disappeared.

Miina’s face turned pale.

“…Honey, no way.”

I made a face like Ijuin and said.

“Special technique, Sewer Shoot.”

“Honey-kun, I always feel sorry for the enemy when they are dealing with you.”

Tears of pity welled up in Miina’s eyes like the Virgin Mary.

“Also, the Taser gun has already been Apported, Maiko, please.”

“Yeah.”

Even if it was not the person themselves, the tools used to commit the crime could be read from the video footage immediately prior to the crime and the person’s intentions.

That was why Maiko was able to obtain information on the arrest of a criminal from the evidence of all kinds of crimes and from the remains at the scene of the crime every day.

“I got it. It seems that Ijuin-kun was inciting fans of the arrested celebrity on the Internet to attack Maria. So, he used precognition to find out in advance when she was going to attack her, and then lurked nearby.”

“So he was trying to make Maria fall in love with him by staging his own attack. But how did you know all that?”

That’s……he said it by himself fifteen minutes ago…….”

“How narcissistic you sound…….”

I and Maiko looked at each other and sighed at the same time.