Editing The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village:Volume2 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 5===

The next day, I killed time in the inn with the Sunekosuri until evening. The Sunekosuri’s eyes opened wide when he saw the overall extravagant food, but it seemed the food was not made from Intellectual Village ingredients. Then again, a traditional Japanese meal where everything from the water to the rice was produced in Intellectual Villages would likely cost 2 million yen a person.

It was a bit strange how the Japanese could not afford to eat what was the pride of Japan.

It may have been used as a means of acquiring foreign currencies.

“Sunekosuri, it’s about time we headed out. Let’s begin our attack on Amemura Ryuu-chan.”

“Eh? You know she’s going to leave her house? But this is the middle of summer break.”

“She has her extracurricular lessons year round. She lives in a scenery protection zone where cars are banned from entry, so her father is unlikely to take her to and from those lessons. And even if he does, I can create an excuse to separate them.”

We once more walked through the streets of Kyoto that looked straight out of a period drama. I knew where Amemura Ryuu-chan’s lessons were held, so I headed there. To disguise myself as a tourist, I peered into souvenir shops, ate dango while embracing the Sunekosuri, and had even more fun with the Sunekosuri while heading to our destination.

Then my decoy cell phone rang.

The call was from the Illness Magic User I had exchanged numbers with the day before.

“I have found information related to Tenkyuu at United Hive.”

“Okay, okay.”

“United Hive is a collection of small- to mid-sized factories in Kansai that even create industrial technologies related to satellites, right?” asked the Sunekosuri. “I’ve heard they have successfully negotiated to use a foreign country’s launch site to launch small satellites made with their own independent technology.”

“At first glance, that appears to be going well, but they are having problems behind the scenes,” explained the Illness Magic User. “Their business related to the satellite itself has been a success, but they were badly burned when they tried to go further and create their own rocket technology. It seems a powerful rival group has interfered by claiming they plan to use the rockets as missiles.”

“But Amemura Ryuu-chan’s mother is only the president’s secretary right? If she ends her contract and distances herself, she does not need to worry going down with them. She technically works for an employment agency, so it doesn’t matter to her if the company with her contract fails. If she is skilled, she should be able to find a new job easily enough.”

“I do not know if it was in hopes of making money or if she wanted to gain the favor of the president, but it seems Tenkyuu bought the corporation’s stock in addition to her normal secretary duties. Now that this other group is interfering with the development of the rocket engine, she is in trouble. …Simply put, the Amemura family is in a lot of debt.”

“And that’s where Akki Rasetsu comes in.”

“Eh? So is the Amemura family working with Akki Rasetsu?” asked the Sunekosuri.

“They may not know the details of the project, but they likely know they’re doing something,” I replied. “They probably do realize they are helping assemble a Youkai-related Package, though.”

They likely felt it was on the level of stealing credit card information.

But unfortunately for them…

The scope of the Package had to be much greater than that for people like us to be sent in.

“Well, I had a feeling there was more to this since the Amemura family had not been abducted despite being deeply related to the project.”

“It would be simpler to abduct them than to approach them to make a deal. Why would they do it this way?” asked the Illness Magic User.

“Because they wanted to finish this quietly. That’s also why they came to Kyoto to hide a tree in the forest.” I turned towards the Sunekosuri who was the representative of Hyakki Yakou who we were truly working for. “By the way, do you think slaughtering the Amemura family would suffice to destroy Akki Rasetsu’s project?”

“Y-you can’t do that!! They are normal people who have nothing to do with us! If you get them involved in that way, I will directly go to my higher ups to see that you are not paid!! Woof woof!!”

“That’s what I thought. We don’t know what makes the Amemura family useful. If it ends up being a talent 1 in 100 people have, they could use a different candidate to continue their project. It’s also possible killing the Amemura family acts as a trigger to activate the project.”

In other words, it was possible they were intentionally being left alive so they could be killed at the proper time.

And that would of course be kept a secret to the Amemura family who thought they were simply helping.

“Should I search for more information related to United Hive?” asked the Illness Magic User.

“No, I doubt you would find anything more anyway. Tenkyuu does not seem directly related to the Youkai. I am about to contact Amemura Ryuu-chan, so just wait for my report.”

I ended the connection and stuck my cell phone in the pocket of my hot pants before turning a corner.

At the same moment, Amemura Ryuu-chan exited a building after finishing her dance lesson.

I put on a soft smile that would leave others in my business speechless and raised a hand.

“Oh, so we meet again, young lady.”