DEM Corporation, the top floor office of the UK headquarters building.
"Ah~ That boring eting is finally over."
A young man wearing a pitch black suit, with gray hair as sharp as a blade, who looked to be only in his thirties. The Executive Director of DEM, Sir Isaac Ray Pelham Westcott, sat at his desk, resting his chin on his right hand, and couldn't help but complain. His lazy attitude made him look like a student who had overslept until exams were over.
Just a few minutes ago, Westcott had attended a DEM board eting. The eting was about Westcott's illegal use of power in Japan, which led to the near paralysis of DEM's Japan branch, classified Realizers being seen by the public, and the mass resignation of Wizards due to the influence of the "Hacker". If all these events were converted into financial losses, it would easily exceed a billions.
The fact that he could summarize a eting that could threaten DEM's future international standing with the simple word 'boring' showed just how terrifying Westcott's way of thinking and values were.
But in reality, the true purpose of this eting was just to put pressure on Westcott. Murdoch , one of the board mbers, had previously bribed many board mbers to demand Westcott step down.
Naturally, anyone who raised their hand to support this proposal, without exception, had their arms cut off by the laser blade of the secretary next to Westcott. Now, those board mbers were all in DEM's dical departnt, using Realizers to reattach their arms.
"Even though I'd gladly give the whole company to them once my personal entertainnt is over. They're so impatient—"
Westcott shook his head and sighed with deep regret. As for when his so called personal entertainnt would be over, probably only he knew.
"Ellen, get a cup of coffee."
"Here."
The mont Westcott finished speaking, Ellen had already placed a freshly brewed cup of coffee in front of him.
"Delicious. As expected, Ellen, you understand ."
"I am flattered."
Westcott took an elegant sip of the coffee and praised her. Ellen stood next to Westcott and said calmly:
"However, Ike, the consequences caused by the Hacker are indeed a troubleso issue."
Westcott nodded in agreent.
"As expected, Ellen thinks so too."
If there was anything in that eting that slightly piqued Westcott's interest, it was the very last point—the mass resignation of Wizards caused by the Hacker's influence.
Not deaths, but voluntary resignations.
Although no one died in the line of duty, the Wizards who had fought the Hacker all showed varying degrees of physiological rejection towards Realizers. In mild cases, they would turn pale and sweat profusely; in severe cases, just putting on the wiring suit would cause them to pass out.
Westcott could understand this. After all, fighting a natural disaster-like being with a weapon that brings no sense of security is, in itself, a stupid thing to do.
"And yet those guys pushed this topic aside and tried desperately to force to step down. It really makes lose the desire to play along."
Westcott shook his head helplessly.
"The Hacker's suppression of Realizers is indeed a problem."
Ellen frowned slightly. It went without saying for electronic machines like Bandersnatch, but even for Wizards, if they couldn't deploy a Territory strong enough to shield against all electromagnetic waves, standing in front of the Hacker was no different from being a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
"Well, there are still thods." A smile appeared on Westcott's face. "Although we've lost contact with the Artificial Spirit we sent out a while ago, it still allowed to discover so interesting things."
Ellen said, looking a bit surprised:
"Can what happened last ti solve this problem?"
"Well, I don't know yet. I might need to ponder the results a bit more."
Westcott shrugged and asked Ellen.
"But Ellen, I feel that even if we really solve the Hacker problem. I'm afraid there aren't many Wizards left right now who can actually be deployed as combat forces."
"Yes."
Hearing Westcott's words, a hint of distress appeared on Ellen's face too.
Although it was true she was the world's strongest Wizard, there were many tis during missions when she encountered problems she couldn't solve alone in ti. It had to be said that during the last battle, Mana's betrayal and Jessica's death were indeed quite a bit of trouble for Ellen.
"Recruiting talent, that's what we need right now, isn't it?"
Westcott provided the answer to the problem for Ellen.
"Indeed."
Ellen nodded in agreent.
As for this issue, Westcott and Ellen actually already had candidates in mind.
In this world, besides the Hacker and the successful sneak attack by Itsuka Shido, there was another Wizard who had managed to injure Ellen in combat.
___________________________________________________________________________
"Ah..."
Shido collapsed onto the sofa with a sigh.
Today was October 21st, Saturday. It had been five days since Natsumi disguised as Shido and appeared at school.
Since then, Natsumi hadn't appeared in front of Shido even once. But since she said her revenge was just beginning, she definitely wouldn't just leave it at that.
"But with so much ti passing and nothing happening, it actually makes a bit uneasy..."
He had thought of ways to find Natsumi, but if she didn't trigger a spacequake, the Fraxinus tracking devices couldn't detect her.
Just as Shido was staring blankly at his ceiling, he suddenly felt a heavy weight drop onto his stomach.
"Guh... Wh-what is it?"
The sudden weight brought Shido back to reality. He turned his head and saw his sister Kotori, wearing her black ribbons, sitting on his stomach.
"...I say, Kotori."
"Oh my, seeing this thing not moving at all, I thought it was a sofa made of human skin."
Kotori said with a mischievous smile.
"We don't have furniture fitting a serial killer's tastes in our house."
Shido sighed and retorted helplessly.
"Well, just a little joke for Shido, who's losing his sense of tension. One, two—Heave-ho!"
"Gwah—!"
With the Chupa Chups in her mouth, a mischievous smile appeared on Kotori's lips. Using the reaction force, she pressed her weight hard into Shido's stomach and stood up. Shido's eyes bulged, and he let out a sound like a deflating cushion.
"I tell you..."
Shido rubbed his stomach and slowly stood up. He was about to scold Kotori a little, but then he noticed his sister's face had suddenly turned serious.
"What's wrong?"
Shido asked, confused.
"This was dropped into our mailbox this morning."
Saying that, Kotori handed a white envelope to Shido.
Holding the envelope, Shido noticed it seed to have sothing inside. Not only was it thick, but it also had a bit of weight to it.
"Is this... a letter?"
"No. It's a love letter—sent by Natsumi."
"What?!"
Following Kotori's gesture, Shido turned the envelope over and saw the na "Natsumi" written under the wax seal.
Shido swallowed nervously.
"Is it safe to... o-open it...?"
"Yes. But there's also a chance it might explode when you open it. We did an external scan on the Fraxinus, and there shouldn't be any dangerous materials—of course, since it's from a Spirit, we can't be 100% sure."
"Don't say things that make want to chicken out."
Shido didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Taking a deep breath and steeling his resolve, he opened the envelope. Inside, he pulled out a stack of photos and a postcard.
"Is this... ?"
Kotori frowned as she looked at the photo in his hand. It showed Kotori in her middle school uniform, wearing her white ribbons. Judging by the fact that Kotori wasn't looking at the cara and the distance, it was clearly a secretly taken photo.
Not just Kotori. Tohka, Origami, Yoshino, Kaguya, Yuzuru, Yutsuki, Miku, Ai, Mai, Mii, Tama-chan sensei, and even—Tonomachi. They had all been secretly photographed without knowing.
Only Yutsuki and Origami seed to have noticed the cara, looking straight at it.
"This is..."
Seeing these photos, Shido felt a bad premonition welling up inside him for so reason. He picked up the postcard from the envelope; a short ssage was written on it.
[ I am among these people. Can you guess which one is ? Before everyone disappears from this world]. —Natsumi.
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