Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume3 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 2===

Shiroyama Kyousuke sat on the roof of an office building among the high-rise buildings of R Block. One end of his Blood-Sign was sticking off the building, the railing acted as a fulcrum, and he sat on the other end.

He held his smartphone in one hand.

“This is the ninth one. Aika, do you think there might be more Girl’s Backdoors out there?”

Short, panicked breaths interrupted his conversation.

He glanced into the air beyond the railing and saw a young man in a janitor’s uniform dangling down from the Blood-Sign’s tip caught on the back of his collar.

Just like with a seesaw, Kyousuke could not sit on the Blood-Sign without that.

The Government middleman spoke quietly over the phone.

“They were probably just expendable decoys, so they wouldn’t have received any accurate data from the real culprit. But based on the confessions we’ve gathered from the captured Girl’s Backdoor users, a total of nine seems likely.”

“Ghhh (deadpan).”

Isabelle wore a red military uniform with a tight skirt and several black belts and she leaned over the railing to reach toward the janitor man without worrying about the view it gave Kyousuke of her small butt. However, she was not attempting to save the dangling man.

“Good, good. I just super-sized retrieved the Girl’s Backdoor from his left hand.”

“Then ''do you even need him'' anymore?” asked Aika.

At that moment, Kyousuke got up from the Blood-Sign seesaw.

The Blood-Sign seemed to rotate more than tilt as it quickly swung around. Just before the nearly vertical object actually fell, Kyousuke grabbed it in one hand.

At the same time, the janitor man vanished from the world while trying to shout some kind of excuse. The Doppler Effect transformed his scream as it grew more distant and it was finally punctuated with a splash of water far below.

“Whatever the case, it’s lucky we managed to stop them before they actually did anything.”

“I would expect nothing less of my Onii-chan.”

“I’m not commenting on that anymore. Anyway, how did you get them to talk after we beat them up, threw them on the side of the road with zombie makeup on, and let an ambulance pick them up? Did you drag them into a garage lined with plastic sheets and use a raincoat and vegetable grater combo?”

“Please, we’re not that hunk of fat from Illegal. The great Government would never do anything so uncivilized. Torture is a war crime banned by international treaties.”

“But I doubt those scumbags would just tell you the truth.”

“All we did was invite them to a royal suite room in the Princess Gate Hotel. They’re probably ordering champagne in the finest of rooms right about now.”

“Hm? Wait. Don’t tell me…”

“But the way the world at large sees things, the rooms are listed under those scumbags’ names. …So what will they think when they see the bill? The room alone is about 500,000 yen a night and the food and other services cost extra, so their debt will balloon out of control real fast. And they can’t solve this just by leaving the room. They will find that they are strangely unable to checkout no matter how much they complain at the front desk. …Not until they have Government’s permission anyway.”

''You people are the worst,'' thought Kyousuke while sympathizing with the enemy.

It was a lot like sneaking into someone’s house while they were on an overseas trip, removing the phone from the hook, and leaving it connected to an automated premium rate information service. No obvious torture was needed to apply pressure to someone. With the proper preparations, making them feel like they were wasting precious time worked just fine. The balloon known as their heart would be filled to the limit in no time.

This would only look like they were treating someone to a top quality room, so Government was frightening in a pure sort of way.

Isabelle toyed with the Girl’s Backdoor leather glove in her hand.

“Nuuun (deadpan). What should we do with this?”

“If we throw it in a train station coin locker, the world police at Government will retrieve it. It isn’t very exciting, but that’s their job.”

At that point, Aika said something more over the phone.

“Onii-chan, we just got in some new information.”

“?”

“Someone’s started a Material battle in A Block’s international airport. At the very least, it isn’t a summoner and vessel pair registered with Government.”

“Is it related to the issue we’re dealing with?”

“There was some evidence suggesting a Girl’s Backdoor was used just before the Artificial Sacred Ground appeared.”

Kyousuke thought for a moment and then honestly spoke his question.

“This time I can’t see the algorithm. I can’t imagine where they’ll go next.”

“Then could this be the real culprit who was distributing them to the scumbags?”

“That I can’t say. Can you at least track them for us?”

“Summoners and vessels vanish from all cameras and sensors while using an Incense Grenade.”

“Follow the gazes of the normal people around there. Even if you can’t see them on the cameras, the people will be focusing on some spot for no apparent reason. That’s where the summoner and vessel will be. Follow that line and you’ll have their route.”

Even as he gave instructions, Kyousuke knew they were playing catchup here.

They did not have enough information. He could not predict what their opponent was thinking. They could never catch up if all they did was chase after whoever this was.

What did he need to fill that gap?

How could he catch up?