“Are you in a good mood, Ayagawa-san?”

Mei turned around to see Kyou Usami stepping out of the shadows.

“You—! Why are you here?!”

She was extremely confused by the devastation spread before her, and the appearance of the girl who humiliated her a few days ago.

Ignoring Mei’s confusion, Usami opened her mouth.

“Why I’m here isn’t important. What matters is what you were trying to do here… Isn’t that right?”

Usami wore a thin smile on her face. Usually, it’d evoke admiration from her peers, however, for Mei, it was only her source of fear. Looking around, she noticed the same men in black she’d seen that day, all lurking around her amidst the shadows.

She’s reading all my thoughts!

Her face twitched for a moment, but she quickly recomposed and put on a fake face.

“W–What are you talking about?! I just climbed up to this high place because the stars look very beautiful today!”

“I see… So you came here without knowing anything about the people lying there, is that correct?”

“Y–Yes! That is correct!”

Mei lied through her teeth, trying her hardest not to let Usami know she was tricking her.

“I see, I see… So, can you explain what you meant by this statement?”

Usami took something out of her skirt pocket and pointed that long, thin object at Mei.

What’s she holding?

As she thought that, the object began playing sounds. What Usami held was an IC recorder.

“I will never forgive them! Haruki and that girl, Usami, I’m going to put both of you in hell!”

—That’s what Mei actually said in her room two days prior. As she was stunned, her voice kept flowing out of the recorder incessantly.

“I wonder what that girl looks like when she’s being r*ped by a homeless man!”

“Haruki, you’ll be my slave again!”

“I can’t wait to see their faces as they cry and beg for help!”

—The recorder kept playing the words Mei had spouted a few days prior. She could do nothing but gawk as that gadget kept playing for three minutes straight until it finally stopped.

“This isn’t me! I didn’t say this! It must’ve been someone else!”

“Would you like me to do a voiceprint analysis?”

“—!”

And she shut up at Usami’s words, her mind reaching its limit of confusion and impatience.

What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? How do I get out of here and away from this woman?!

Unable to form any coherent thoughts, she began foolishly spitting excuses.

“I–I haven’t done anything to you yet, though?! So please, help me! I haven’t broken my promise to you yet—!”

Not even listening to her stupid excuses, Usami began speaking over her.

“Haru was such a sweetheart, letting you guys off the hook back then… You should’ve been grateful for that, and remember you said you’d never get involved with us again? Aw, you should’ve kept your promise to him… If you had, I wouldn’t have to do this.”

“Hiiiiiiii—!”

Mei screamed pitifully when she saw Usami laughing with a beastly smile, which resembled a crescent moon. Then, she tried to flee the scene, only to have her escape route blocked by a man in a black suit.

“—!”

Unable to go forward, she fell on her butt and turned around, trying to change directions.

“It’s useless to try and escape, you know? Do you see that?”

Saying so, Usami pointed at the sky. Unable to do anything else, Mei followed her finger, only to see a red light flash at regular intervals, so far away it almost couldn’t be seen.

“What… is that?” She looked at Usami, her voice dripping with fear.

“That’s satellite Argos. I bought it just to keep an eye on you.”

She bought a f*cking satellite just so she could spy on me?!

Her mouth was left agape at the sheer absurdity of the situation.

“Fufu~ It was very cheap, you know? I found a satellite that was on the verge of being scrapped, so I just bought it on the cheap!”

And those haphazard words scared Mei the most.

“Argos’ function is to recognize only one person anywhere on earth. It uses input data of the said person and continues to follow them until he or she dies. Originally, it was developed to do that to a thousand people simultaneously, but it wasn’t approved since it was too dangerous of a project!”

Usami then burst out laughing, while on the other hand, Mei finally recognized that the being before her was from another dimension from herself.

“… Are you gonna use that to keep tabs on me for the rest of my life?”

“For the rest of your life? Hahaha! That’s just too much money! I’d say at most 30 years.”

She laughed happily while denying Mei’s words.

“So… what are you going to do?”

“…”

At this question, Usami stopped laughing for a moment, going dead silent. Then, she slowly opens her mouth—

“… The yakuza called the Mizushima clan pulls the strings around here. Did you know that?”

“?”

“Someone’s been messing with their territory lately, so I’ve ratted the culprit out to them… You.”

“—! You can’t be—” She glares at Usami, eyes wide open.

“Yes. They said they’ll never forgive you, even saying they’ll chase you to the ends of the earth! However, I told them where to find you, so I guess he’ll be here in about 20 minutes or so?”

“Hiiiiiiii—!”

Mei wailed pitifully, realizing that she had a future in which she would be constantly hounded by the yakuza. Unconcerned with her, however, Usami continued.

“So, you better run quickly! You don’t wanna get caught after all. Oh, well, even if you do run away, I’ll tell them where you are, so they’ll know right away!”

These words made her try to flee, but she was stopped by Usami.

“Ah! Wait a second, please take this!”

She threw a circular bracelet at her, and Mei picked it up from the floor.

“This will beep every time a yakuza gets within 100 meters from you. It would just be too boring if they caught you right away!”

Mei then picked up the bracelet and darted down the stairs. Shortly after she ran away, several luxury cars stopped near the building. Usami could see her running from the rooftop.

“You got what you deserve.”

She muttered with a happy pout.