8-1 Interrupted Lunch

Date: September 10

Place: Kyoto Headquarters

[Rei]

Walking away from those two who were sitting idly on the sofa in the lobby, I turned a quick left and vanished from their sight. I took my phone out of my pocket and checked if I'd got any message from those three. But I don't see anything in my notifications and they don't seem to have read it yet. Did their phone break? Are they even here yet?

I've already bought a lot of time for them because it'll be problematic if Noel finds out that they're nowhere to be seen.

I've arrived at the Supreme General's to hand in the report and the things that we've captured. But he looked different and didn't even hear me when I walked in when I noticed that his chair didn't turn around.

"Supreme General, Akashi," I called after I got close to his table. "Sir?" I gave up and walked past his table and took a glance at him. And upon close inspection, I felt that something was weird.

Even if he's trying to tease me, annoy me, or avoid me, he isn't blinking at all and I can tell that he's also not breathing. Once I realized what might be going on, I sliced his head with my knife, only to witness that my conclusion was correct. There was no blood or any muscle movement, it only glitched for a split second.

"That hurts," I hear his voice coming up to me from behind. And when I turned to look at him, he was holding his neck feeling what I just did to his hologram. "How did you like this device?" he asks, already sitting in his chair and holding it. "Isn't it marvelous?" another attempt to get a few words out of me.

"I hope you don't use that anymore, sir. Because I'm afraid I might kill you accidentally," I say with a stern tone, handing him the cages and the report that I've prepared beforehand. However, I made a few adjustments to the data as it was not like how I imagined it to be. "Now that I've done my purpose, I'll take my leave," but when I was about to exit, he stopped me.

"Aren't you even curious about what this is or where I've got it from?" he asks me, trying to get my interest in this topic. I had no authority to refuse this conversation when I saw some guards walking to the door to prevent me from exiting.

I turned to face him again only to see him signaling me to sit at the chair that was beside me using his glares.

"This is one of the few gadgets that we've gotten from the ongoing expedition to create another headquarters," he says with a grinning face. "You do know what I'm talking about, right?" he asked.

"How could I forget the expedition that my mentors went on?" I answered back. If that device meant that the expedition was going well and was continuing, it must mean that it was rather thinkable that there could be a high chance for unbelievable casualties. Besides, a headquarters usually has an enormous space so it must be a lot of work to clean the surroundings that are crawling with lots of unOrdinary.

I just hope they're fine.

[Akashi]

She doesn't look troubled or worried at all. Although I can sense that her mind is occupied with something else besides this topic. Well, that's not my problem.

And the reason I'm holding this conversation right now is to find out what she knows about this. My instincts are just telling me that it has something to do with her.

"There is something suspicious going on over there and I thought you might have any idea," I bluntly asked but she didn't react at all. "What I'm saying is, I want you to take a look at the place," I sighed when she looked more uninterested. "Just roam the place and make a report if you recognize or find out anything," thinking of other words to make her more excited about it. "This might be another lead, you know," and her face brightened a bit. "So what do you say?" I'm bothered by her attitude toward me.

"There's never an option when you locked me up like this," she only sigh as a response.

Then her stomach grumbles loudly which explains her temper.

"My other members will come back shortly with the private mission completed. I'll visit again later to discuss the other mission thoroughly," she says to cover the hungry state of her stomach as I permitted her to leave.

"Sure, have a good lunch," I say as she leaves the room.

But after ten minutes, someone came running into my office with a breathless and pale complexion.

"We have a problem at the headquarters project," one of the men I stationed at the other headquarters shouts with widened eyes looking directly at me.

And with the other headquarters' name being the subject, I have a bad feeling that this might be a huge problem.

My current offer to Rei to investigate the matter within the other headquarters might be a little hard for her to handle with this current problem going on.