Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume6 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 7===

“Onii-chan…”

Inside a room that took up the entire top floor of a luxury apartment building, the slender bikini girl named Aika waved around two boxes of chocolates: one shaped like mushrooms and the other like bamboo shoots. This was a part of a hundred years’ war or an endless Armageddon, but the Tanabata fair had changed that somewhat. A limited edition advertised as “An overgrown bamboo shoot that forms a light stick of bamboo!” had been released, so the bamboo shoot version was going to be the winner for the time being.

As Aika cheerfully opened the boxes, Kyousuke flatly spoke to her.

“Do you need something?”

“The liger is super scared and cowering over in a corner, so could you lower the level of irritation in here? If you rode an elevator with a normal person right now, they’d probably suffocate to death.”

“Hm?”

Kyousuke looked over in surprise and found the 5 meter combination of a lion and white tiger was indeed in the corner. More than the king of beasts, this was an emperor who did not exist in the natural world, and yet she was trembling like a kitten out in the cold. Her tail was tucked between her back legs and her body language clearly said “please don’t look at me” in the cat language.

“Sorry, sorry, liger. This has nothing to do with you.”

“Onii-chan, if you really want to make up with her, you need to offer her an extra-large hunk of meat on the bone.”

“Yes, I suppose a frightened animal is supposed to be dangerous.”

Adventurer Shiroyama Kyousuke entered the tiger’s den with a giant club of meat that looked like a giant hunk of ham before it was made into ham. It was just like what one might see shown off at a Spanish restaurant.

And Biondetta did not betray anyone’s expectations.

That demon was more cruel than mischievous and she raised her hands behind Kyousuke.

“Wahh!! Crash, bang, boom!!!!!!”

“Hee! Are you trying to kill me, you idiot!?”

Right in front of history’s greatest carnivore, Kyousuke and Biondetta started having something like a pillow fight using giant hunks of meat. Everyone’s beloved big sister rolled around, causing some highly indecent things to occur at the chest and thighs of her mini-yukata.

On a sofa at the other side of the room, Modified China Dress Lu Niang Lan was curled up with her arms around her knees. She had gone entirely pale and no one would have believed this was the legendary assassin who had killed Government’s Award 1000 after he became a global tyrant.

“It doesn’t matter… I’ll just find a way to shine in this position. Eh heh heh heh.”

But this was no time to be goofing off.

Meinokawa Renge and Meinokawa Higan had been taken away by Bridesmaid who worshipped the Queen. He had to save them somehow.

“Excuse me.”

They were all interrupted by the silver-haired brown girl who was too skinny to call slender, who wore gold decorations and red jewels, and who was wrapped in bandages and a Y-shaped cloth as thin as fairy wings. The way she took charge may have been from her position as a ruler.

“I would like to get down to business. I cannot abandon the summoner and vessel who helped save the tomb keepers under my command. As that irreverent lot holds the crucial cards and we do not know when the time limit will arrive, we cannot afford to waste even a second.”

She argued from a position of responsibility just like a class representative.

When the light of her pale blue eyes reached them, they all gathered in front of Sekurtiti. Even the frightened white liger obeyed her and sat in front of her.

After obediently sitting down, Kyousuke raised his hand for permission to speak.

“It is true that it looks like Bridesmaid is in complete control here. We don’t know where Renge and Higan are, so we can’t attack their hideout. But just waiting for their invitation earns 0 points as a plan. That leaves us no chance of taking them back.”

“Meaning?”

“They need the Founder’s Gallery. They even mentioned the Natural History’s missing entries. They want the Diamond Master Key and the ancient map no matter what. That means they’re sure to designate a location for a hostage exchange. …Of course, the odds of them returning the hostages safely are more or less 0.”

“But what does that give us? They will choose the location, so they are still in control. If we complain about the location, it might lead Bridesmaid to harm the hostages. So aren’t we stuck waiting regardless?”

“You’re surprisingly hardheaded. You like to stick with the first step, don’t you? Everyone will walk all over you in the world of the Summoning Ceremony where all sorts of monsters run rampant,” interrupted Biondetta (who made sure to raise her hand first). “It’s true that Bridesmaid is in control with the hostages in their grasp, but this city is the home ground of my client and his Government and Illegal hangers-on. They know the area far better than outsiders like Golden Luxury or The Saint. And there are only so many locations in a city that will satisfy a professional for this kind of hostage exchange. My client and his hangers-on know Toy Dream 35 well enough to have likely thought up a few candidate locations right away.”

Next was Swimsuit Aika who was giving a giant hunk of meat on the bone to the white liger who had calmed down by now.

“They’re probably quickly searching out a delicious restaurant for their party and preparing to decorate it, but we only have to get ahead of them and buy up all those restaurants. Do that and we can stab them in the back before they’re ready.”

“Ah,” said Sekurtiti with a surprisingly cute voice.

This may have been a glimpse of the girl before she had become half divine.

“To be blunt, this would never work out if we tried to turn things around after arriving at the stage Bridesmaid had already set for us. It would be like starting a chess game while already in checkmate and trying to turn it around from there. But things are different if we sneak around and make a surprise attack when the pieces are still scattered and the checkmate is not yet complete. We can reclaim control of the situation.”

Coming up with the actual methods was a job for Aika in Government and Lu Niang Lan in Illegal. A projector displayed the data they had gathered onto the ceiling. This was one of the self-indulgent items installed for the swimsuit shut-in to surf the web while lying down.

“This is a crime prevention map that Government updates in real time.”

“And this is a map of the patrolling police officers that Illegal keeps tabs on.”

“This is a map of the areas controlled by the different factions within Government.”

“This shows the territories of the different organizations and families that make up Illegal. Think of this map as the underground version of that last one.”

“Honestly, Illegal’s search system looks so dangerous.”

“I don’t want to hear any talk of righteousness from a group that used to be led by a scumbag who kept his vessels in animal cages.”

“You’re getting off topic,” pointed out Kyousuke for a gentle course correction.

There were plenty of areas people rarely went, but comparing the 2 data sources eliminated most of those. People apparently already controlled the harbor or warehouses at night, as well as the party spaces at fancy restaurants or hotels. They looked private but were actually casually monitored, so no outsider professional would go there.

But there were a few areas not filled in by either color.

It would be hard to find somewhere not covered at any time around the clock, but they only needed somewhere that cleared out in the early morning or late at night. After all, this was for an exchange and not a hideout.

“Here. This is the primary candidate.”

Kyousuke used a lecturer’s laser pointer to indicate a point on the ceiling map.

“Z Block’s metropolitan zoo. It’s empty from around midnight until the employees arrive at 6 in the morning, and no faction uses it for anything. The temperature is automatically controlled by heaters, so they barely have any nightshift staff. This meets the conditions we’re looking for.”

“And isn’t this the amusement park rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a girl who fell into a cage and was eaten by a lion, Onii-chan?”

“I’m pretty sure those rumors started when people saw you going out with your pet for late night trips to the convenience store.”

“Really, though. A faceless phantom girl in an amusement park? We’re not talking about The World’s Happiest Girl who was supposedly involved in the creation of the Toy Dream parks.”

“What was that again? Didn’t President Toydream create the amusement parks to match a new fairy tale he had written, but that fairy tale was never released and no one knows what the story is?”

“But I’ve heard the completed story is hidden somewhere in the Toy Dream cities scattered across the world. A lot of books end up in my Chinatown trying to pass themselves off as the real one. They even go out of their way to use authentic paper and ink like with those fake Da Vinci diagrams or Einstein journals…”

“We’re really getting off topic now…”

Aika actually steered them back on topic for once.

And it was Sekurtiti who resumed the discussion with a puzzled look on her face.

“Anyway, there is no guarantee Bridesmaid will choose this location, is there? There are plenty of other possibilities.”

“Yes. A quick glance here shows about 23 different suspicious spots.” Kyousuke did not sound worried. “But nothing says we can’t eliminate their possibilities. Maybe there’s a small fire, an electric short, a gas leak, or a burst water pipe. We just have to cause some harmless but noticeable accidents to gather attention. The trick is to use enough variety that it won’t seem unnatural even when it happens at 23 places in a row. We’ll change the flow of people to ruin their ideal hostage exchange locations.”

Their time was of course limited, but there was no excessive rush in knocking out those candidate locations. Even if Bridesmaid had already decided on a spot other than the zoo, they would have to switch to another candidate if that one was eliminated.

Meanwhile, Kyousuke and the others could not put off dealing with the zoo itself. If they did not infiltrate the location ahead of Azalea’s group, they could not fool them.

Kyousuke immediately made up his mind.

“Let’s split into 2 groups. Biondetta, you take out the other candidates. Sekurtiti and I will infiltrate the zoo as a pair.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll give this my all☆”

“Lu-san, I need your help as a supply shop. Sekurtiti is ultra conspicuous in nothing but bandages, so get her some clothes.”

“Yes! Finally a job only for me that that pheromone waitress can’t do!!”

He ignored the sexy modified China dress as she trembled in mysterious joy.

“Azalea’s group might begin their party in as soon as an hour. Time is our enemy, so let’s get ready as quickly as possible.”