"Hey, Chinatsu?"
"Yes, Sensei!"
"Yuuka is getting shot, right?"
Chinatsu pushed up her glasses with a finger, amber eyes observing the scene analytically. "Yes. That appears to be the case," she stated before returning fire with her pistol.
"Are you okay, Sensei?" Serina asked me in concern before firing her pink assault rifle. It did not, as a matter of fact, shoot syringes.
"Oh, peachy."
My mind was blown harder than when I got shot in Goodsprings.
Why is Yuuka bulletproof? No, for that matter, why are the enemies bulletproof too?!
The bullets she fired seemed to do minimal damage to the lightly armored enemies.
It was like watching fully-armored Brotherhood Paladins shoot each other with 9mm pistols. Lots of bullets being exchanged, nobody winning anytime soon.
In my experience, nothing was bulletproof. Deathclaws had thick, sinewy hide but could be brought to heel by a sufficiently high caliber. The most armored of robots and the most reinforced Power Armor were at least dented by sustained gunfire. Sierra Madre holograms and shielded radios were a load of bullshit, but they were ultimately dependent on a power source, a weakness that was easily exploited.
Toy guns, maybe? Their weapons and ammunition seem to be the real deal.
I brandished the All-American and took a potshot at one of the thug's legs. The thug reacted as if I kicked her lightly in the shin and resumed firing at Yuuka.
So their guns were the real deal. The enemy and Yuuka must have had something in common.
Their halos.
They were intangible, so I assumed that they were some kind of cosmetic. Evidently, I couldn't have been more wrong.
Their halos are basically Valence Radii-Accentuators on Buffout… It makes them absurdly durable, to the point of unfairness.
But when had I ever let unfair circumstances bring me down? I had a job to do, and I certainly wasn't going to hide behind a bunch of teenagers while they did the dirty work.
Also, the fact that they were shooting each other meant that bullets had to do something eventually.
I brought up my rifle and aimed the scope at one of the snipers' helmeted heads. I fired in rapid succession, each hit causing the sniper to recoil slightly, until eventually the thug's halo winked out of existence, and she collapsed. My HUD informed me that she was merely unconscious.
Eighteen rounds. Almost the entire magazine. Nowhere near as efficient as I wanted it to be, but still.
There were limits to the damage they could take.
Fascinating. So their skin was bulletproof, but only shock-resistant. Sufficient sustained fire to the head, even if it didn't penetrate, was a concussive force which brought them down as sure as any enemy.
"Sensei? You're fighting with us?" Chinatsu asked me incredulously, Serina mirroring her expression.
"It's my job to teach you how it's done, isn't it?" I asked cockily.
Chinatsu looked like she was going to reply but a well-aimed sniper round to the side of her head caused her to cry out in pain and forced her to retreat further into cover.
I swapped ammunition to 5.56 match hand load and aimed at the sniper who just fired on Chinatsu. It took twelve shots to the head for the sniper to go down. I made a mental note to make more hand loaded ammunition later.
With the rooftop snipers dealt with, I turned to Yuuka, who still held steadfast against the enemy fire. But telltale signs of fatigue crept onto her features, with an odd scratch appearing here, a bruise appearing there. She wouldn't last forever.
Though she's damn tough compared to the enemy. I guess these Seminar people really must be something, huh?
I dashed from cover behind the bus to a concrete barricade adjacent to Yuuka, stowing the All-American and bringing out Thump-Thump, a grenade rifle whose stock bore an adorable depiction of a pissed-off-looking beaver wielding a battle rifle.
"Sensei, what are you-" Yuuka began.
I activated V.A.T.S. and targeted the legs of the helmeted thug in the middle of the group. Low chance to directly hit, but that was rarely a problem with explosives. The 40mm plasma grenade sailed in an arc and detonated at the feet of the thugs in a beautiful display of swirling green energy. The blast knocked out five thugs, causing the rest to panic and scatter, which made them easy pickings for Serina and Chinatsu.
It seemed that energy weapons were still effective. But the fact that the enemies weren't puddles of goo meant that halos conferred a large amount of resistance to plasma.
"Giving you a fighting chance," I replied simply.
Yuuka gawked at the lightshow and turned to me. I raised a palm, stopping whatever she was going to say.
"Look alive, we've got reinforcements," I said, noticing several blips on my compass.
"Didn't you say we had four minutes and twenty seconds until we encountered hostiles, Yuuka-san?" Chinatsu asked neutrally.
"Four minutes and twenty-two-point-five-nine seconds, yes," Yuuka corrected. "But my calculations were on point! The GSC's intel must be outdated!"
She sure doesn't lack for confidence, huh.
Hostile forces numbering about ten flooded into the streets and began peppering our area with gunfire. All wielded assault rifles except for one at the back, who carried what looked like a minigun.
"So that's what Rin meant by well-equipped…" I muttered.
Under the ensuing hail of bullets, even Yuuka was forced to take cover beside me, hissing in irritation. The concrete barricade serving as our cover whittled away, slowly but surely. We needed to act.
Unlike the previous batch, the enemy was far too spread out for me to blow up in a few shots, so I swapped back to my rifle.
"I have a solution," Yuuka said, seeming a bit out of breath.
"Don't keep me in suspense."
"I'm going to advance into enemy lines. With the enemy's attention on me, that should give you all ample breathing room to take them out."
I raised an eyebrow. "You sure? You look like you're about to keel over."
"Just… trust me, okay?" she insisted, her blue eyes looking into mine.
I thought for a second, and nodded slowly. Yuuka had surprised me once, and it wouldn't be unusual for her to do it again.
"I'm sorry for asking this of you, since you're a teacher, but…" For a moment, her eyes were downcast.
Was she… worried about me? Considering how not too long ago I thought I was going to watch her die, the sentiment that this whole time she was considering my safety over her own was… touching, in an ironic sort of way.
"Don't be. I'm more used to this than you would expect."
Yuuka looked like she wanted to ask me to clarify, but decided against it for the moment. She took out what looked like a calculator and began punching in numbers, nodding to herself. I watched in fascination as, upon arriving at her final answer, a bright blue light expanded outward from the calculator, encasing her in a spheroid barrier. She nodded at me and our backliners.
"Now!" I shouted. Yuuka darted out of cover and right into the enemy formation, even taking out a secondary SMG to dual-wield as she put pressure on the enemy's backlines. Chinatsu and Serina began picking off the enemy's frontliners one-by-one while I focused fire on the heavy gunner.
Yuuka's barrier flickered under the onslaught from all directions but held. A bullet ricocheted off her shield and hit me square in the chest. It wasn't enough to penetrate my armor or even cause pain, but the force from the impact only assured me that their guns were not, in fact, toys.
Within twelve shots the enemy heavy gunner was rendered unconscious, and I helped our medics finish off their frontliners. With our combined firepower, we made short work of the middle forces.
Just as the last thug fell, Yuuka's barrier thinned out and finally expired. Fifteen second duration, it seemed. I scanned the area for hostiles and found none, then began heading to Yuuka.
"Told you I could do it." She gave a strained smile.
"That you did." I said softly. I eyed the two approaching combat medics, deciding who to choose. "Chinatsu, can you give her a hand?"
"Of course."
"H-hey, what are you doing? I'm fine-" Yuuka claimed before she stumbled, uneasy on her feet.
"No, you're not. You took several times more fire than any one of them-" I jerked a thumb at an unconscious thug for emphasis, "-did. Take some time to heal."
"But I…" Yuuka started, but relented when she received a look from me and Chinatsu. I crossed my arms.
She sighed. "Fine… but I'm rejoining you as soon as I'm healed up."
"That's all I ask," I said.
I turned to Serina. "Ready to go?"
"Always!" Serina chipperly replied.
We began our march toward the Schale building. It took some deal of restraint to not loot the minigun from the unconscious gunner, as I still needed to find some place to store the heavy junk I was already carrying.
I happily took their 5.56 assault rifle ammo, though, despite the look that Serina gave me when I did. Hollow point didn't grow on trees.
"Hey, Kirino, what's got you so worked up?"
"Worked up? What do you mean, worked up?! We're the last ones standing! We need to do something!"
"There's nothing that two Public Safety Bureau members are doing against an army of terrorists and a Crusader tank, let's be honest."
"But there must be something we can do… This is our chance to earn recognition and get promoted!"
"What, and end up like our higher-ranking comrades over there? Pass."
"Maybe we can carry them out of here and get them medical treatment, or something! Then we can get back into the fight."
"You know as well as I do that the moment we poke our heads out of our cover that Crusader is gonna blast us to kingdom come."
"Ugh… why do you have to be right…?"
"Chillax, buddy. You heard what that GSC lady said. Reinforcements are on their way. All we gotta do is sit tight and keep our position until they arrive."
"Well, we can't exactly lay around and eat donuts until they arrive either…"
"No, you see, Kirino, the secret is to only look busy when the reinforcements arrive. Mm… chocolate sprinkles…"
"Fubuki, I swear-"
I cleared my throat. The two girls wearing police uniforms stopped what they were doing at stared at the newcomers. Serina had the good graces to act like she didn't hear anything.
We found ourselves in a rudimentary moderate-sized police outpost, with temporary fortifications in the form of stacked sandbags surrounding the outpost. Bodies wearing police vests embroidered with K.S.P.D. lay scattered around the outpost. I assumed they were the Valkyrie students we were supposed to be backing up.
Beyond the outpost was a multiple-story building with many windows, the acronym S.C.H.A.L.E. displayed on its walls. Helmeted gangsters formed a line in front of the building, blocking off access. They were flanked by a tank that looked straight out of pre-war holotapes.
Problematic.
"Wh-who are you?" The blue-haired one sat up and put away the donut she was eating, suddenly looking nervous.
"We're your reinforcements," I said.
"Just… two people?" The white-haired one asked, looking around for more people. "We were expecting…"
"The Justice Task Force or Prefect Team or something. But they only sent a Remedial Knight and a halo-less person?" the donut one finished.
I found myself getting a little annoyed at being called halo-less. Was everybody in Kivotos going to assume that something can't be a threat if it doesn't have a halo?
Serina looked to me, presumably for permission to start treating the unconscious Valkyrie members. I nodded, and she smiled and got to work.
"That's right. Now give me a sitrep."
The two police students shared a look with each other, then the white haired one began apprehensively, saluting. "Yes! My name is Nakatsukasa Kirino, and this is Nemugaki Fubuki. We're first-year students with the Public Safety Bureau!"
"Public Safety?"
"Yes. Normally we deal with petty crimes as well as keeping public order."
"You know, like managing lost-and-found items and rescuing cats from trees," Fubuki helpfully added.
Kirino shot her companion a stern look then continued. "But Valkyrie has been forced to mobilize all the students it has in the past few days in response to the ongoing crisis. When we arrived to back up our upperclassmen, they were already…" She bit her lip and glanced at the unconscious bodies.
I was well used to arriving at NCR outposts and finding everyone dead, so I couldn't help but see the current situation as a breath of fresh air. I kept that to myself, however.
"And what of the enemy? This is all their forces?" I asked.
"According to what we were told, in terms of firepower, this is the bulk of their forces. There are more on the other sides of the building, and they're likely to come running if you try to push through on this side."
From what I gathered, there were a little over thirty, most of them wielding some type of assault rifle, a few wielding miniguns and hunting rifles. The biggest issue was the tank. I had no doubt that .50MG rounds or my grenade rifle could consistently deal damage to it.
However…
I poked my head out of cover and quickly retracted it. The payload of the tank's main gun whizzed past where my head was and exploded on a distant building behind us.
"That's one hell of a fast aim. Accurate, too. Does it even have a human pilot?" I asked aloud.
"Likely not. Crusader tanks in Kivotos tend to be automated and are piloted by on-board virtual intelligences," a voice from behind me informed. Yuuka and Chinatsu entered the outpost, laying low, with the latter assisting Serina in treating the incapacitated officers.
That was quick. Yuuka looked as good as new. I supposed that meant that medical advancements in Kivotos were up to par with Old America's.
"Good to see you're alright," I said.
She nodded, smiling. "Thanks to Chinatsu's help, I'm right as rain."
"So, what's the plan? We're up to six but still outnumbered," Fubuki asked.
I hummed. I could pick off the tank with an anti-materiel rifle from afar. But that wouldn't solve the issue of the helmet gangsters and their reinforcements. And without knowing the detection range of the tank, it might even be risky.
But Yuuka did mention that there was probably no human pilot. That had a few advantages but also some glaring weaknesses.
"Could your shield take hits from the tank, Yuuka?"
"Maybe two or three, but it's recharging," the Millennium student said.
I grimaced. A good diversion…
"Kirino, what are those canisters on your belt?"
"Smoke grenades… They won't be much help against a Crusader Tank, I'm afraid…"
"Perfect."
"Eh?"
"I need you to distract the enemies in front while I deal with the tank. Deploy the smoke screen and lay down suppressive fire."
"I can do that, but…" Kirino trailed off.
"How will you deal with the tank, Sensei?" Yuuka asked.
"Just trust me," I said cheekily. She glared at me when I parroted her own words.
I reached into my knapsack and retrieved a small device, attaching it to my left wrist. Yuuka and the Valkyrie students looked on in curiosity, then surprise, as I activated the Stealth Boy and vanished from sight.
"Do it, Kirino," I said as I left the police fortification.
"Um… okay. Okay. I got this. Here I go!" Kirino unhooked a grenade from her belt and fumbled with it a bit, before pulling the pin. She stood up over cover and hurled it at the enemy's frontlines… before being blasted directly in the chest by the tank. The resulting explosion threw back Fubuki, who was close to her, and sent Kirino skidding backward on the floor. Judging by the dazed look on her face and her flickering halo, she was out for the count.
"Kirino?!" Fubuki called in concern while coughing. Serina rushed to the fallen student to attend to her.
I winced. Not willing to waste the chance, however, I broke into a run and headed into enemy lines. The sounds of gunfire being exchanged by the two groups masked the sounds of my approach. The smokescreen served its purpose in being a diversion, with the added bonus of making it more difficult for the tank to line up its shots.
The space where the tank occupied was relatively unguarded. Perhaps they thought nobody would be stupid enough to attack their tank from up close.
They were wrong.
Once I was near the side of the tank, I pulled the pin of a pulse grenade and rolled it to the tank. The EMP from the grenade's detonation washed over the vehicle, sending its electronic components into disarray. The tank's main gun seemed to lock up, preventing it from firing at the shot it had lined up at my teammates.
I climbed atop the vehicle and located one of the least armored parts of the vehicle, the rear, and turned on my Power Fist, Greased Lightning. I began rapidly punching the rear of the tank until the metal gave way and exposed the innards of the vehicle. I armed a satchel charge and shoved it in, then leapt off the tank, getting some distance between myself and the imminent destruction. A very satisfying explosion ensued, completely wrecking the vehicle. A few of the helmeted gangsters turned around, wondering why their strongest weapon suddenly blew up.
Still encased in the stealth field from the Stealth Boy, I brought out Thump-Thump and began raining incendiary 40mm grenades on the thugs from behind their lines, causing quite a few to panic and blindly fire in my general direction, to no avail. This made them easy targets for Yuuka, who began to advance, and Fubuki, who was a surprisingly good shot with a rifle. They were joined by a few of their fellow Valkyrie upperclassmen, who had apparently regained consciousness and healed up enough to fight.
Once the last of the thugs had been defeated or fled, I disengaged the stealth field and approached Yuuka and Fubuki.
"That was… exemplary, Sensei," Yuuka praised. "It was reckless, yes, but what we just did would normally require a platoon to accomplish!"
"Sensei, right? I misjudged you big time. You should totally take over my patrols for me," Fubuki lazily said before nibbling on a donut.
Are all Valkyrie students like this?
The sounds of battle resumed around us as the Valkyrie forces engaged the approaching enemies.
"Those must be the enemy reinforcements," I commented, drawing my weapon.
Yuuka held a hand out, cell phone in other hand. "Wait, Sensei. I received a missive from the acting president. She said for you to enter the Schale building and head for the basement. She'll be joining you as soon as she is able."
"What about you?"
"I'll stay here and help hold off the enemy. Chinatsu called for some backup from the Prefect Team as soon as she saw the situation with the tank. They'll help us mop up when they arrive."
"The Prefect Team… Chinatsu mentioned they had their hands full in Gehenna district, no?" I asked.
"Right. But the sooner we can get vital infrastructure back online, the better. It'll ultimately benefit them to help us," Yuuka stated.
Even if they had a selfish reason for helping, the fact remained that the Prefect Team was making a personal sacrifice by diverting forces to Schale during a crisis. Which meant, Schale owed them.
I had no qualms with receiving aid, but unsolicited political favors tended to complicate matters.
"Alright then. Stay safe." I nodded to the two students.
"Likewise," Yuuka said before joining the battle. Fubuki gave me a half-hearted salute and followed the Millennium student.
I stared at the entrance to Schale in mild disappointment.
I was ready to have to pick the lock to enter the building, but it seemed the lock to the front door was broken.
Such shoddy security. If I was going to be working here for any appreciable length of time, then that would have to change.
I slowly opened the door and crept into the building. The halls were well-maintained and clean, leading to rooms serving a wide array of functions. I passed a gym, a lounge, even what seemed to be some kind of store called Angel 24. The building was seemingly uninhabited, but my intuition told me something was very off.
I soon found out why. As I proceeded into the interior of the building, I was greeted by a lovely sight.
Bombs. A preposterous number of bombs was attached to nearly every structural weakness in sight. On walls, to pillars, over windows, under benches, inside vents, in the fountain… I lost count past one hundred.
As I entertained the idea of abandoning the building entirely, I heard a soft, melodical, decidedly female voice humming.
I rounded the corner as quietly as I could, prepared to bolt the moment there was any sign the bombs would go off.
Around the corner was a woman with a red halo, fox-like ears, and a tail. She was clad in traditional Japanese clothing and an ornate mask. On her back was a bayoneted rifle bearing an identical design to her mask. I made out the word "Wakamo" in plain English text plastered on the side of the weapon.
She whimsically hummed as she placed another bomb snugly into a bookcase. She sounded as carefree planting explosives as if she were doing laundry or gardening.
If I thought my first meeting with Rin was tenuous, then tenuous didn't adequately describe how I felt about speaking to this person. She'd planted enough bombs in this building to topple the Lucky 38. I didn't like my chances of surviving something like that.
If this was the "Fox of Calamity" the GSC was talking about, then she certainly matched the moniker.
I didn't see any detonator on her. Time to try talking to the deranged terrorist.
"Hello," I stood up and said casually.
She whirled around to face me at breakneck speed; she had evidently not anticipated my presence. I looked at her hands. Still no detonator.
She stared at me, her expression and body language all but unreadable. I stared back.
"..."
"..."
This continued for an inordinate amount of time until I decided that something's gotta give.
"Come here often?" I asked.
She continued to stare, unmoving. Was she even breathing? Maybe she didn't speak Japanese. Unlikely, given her clothing.
Time to try another approach.
"You look like a gal who really knows her bombs," I said, leaning my arm on a part of wall that was free of explosives.
She perked up slightly at that. Finally, a reaction. But was it a good one? I couldn't tell.
I kept going with the only approach that seemed to work.
"It's obvious, really. From the way you placed these on key structural weaknesses. Getting the most bang for your buck."
One of her fox ears twitched.
"You know, I'm something of a [Demolition Expert] myself."
Her breath hitched.
"Maybe you and I could meet up sometime and… make things explode?"
She quivered, then stood stock still, as if she were petrified. Still, she said nothing.
I sighed. There really wasn't any time to spare, especially if these bombs were what I suspected they were.
"Detonator or timed?" I asked tiredly.
"…"
"Proximity? Dead man's switch?" I continued, listing off less likely options.
"…Timed," she finally spoke. Though her response was so feeble I had to strain my augmented hearing to register it. At least she wasn't mute.
"How long?"
"…Eleven minutes," she replied, her voice almost a whisper.
I nodded and immediately got to work, examining the bomb closest to me. A tad different than I was used to, but these were similar enough to satchel charges that I had no issue disarming it. I moved to the second bomb, keeping an eye on the Fox in case she tried anything.
"Aren't you going to shoot me…?" the Fox of Calamity asked, sounding like a confused child.
"Are you planning on shooting, stabbing, and/or blowing me up?" I asked, disarming the seventh bomb.
She shook her head.
"Then I won't shoot you."
Such a strange thing to ask, though I supposed I didn't blame her. Kivotos seemed to be full of the shoot-first, ask-questions-later type. Perhaps she was expecting her reputation as a renowned outlaw to cause me to try and take her out. But in my experience, no real terrorist simply stood by and let you disarm their bombs.
The Fox inched closer to me, watching intently while I skillfully disabled and took down the thirteenth bomb from the wall. I tossed the safely disarmed satchel charges into an empty corner of the room, forming a haphazard pile. I'd go to retrieve them later.
"Finally, I've found you…" she breathlessly whispered.
"Huh?" I looked up from the bomb I was working on.
"All my life, I was certain that nobody would ever understand…"
"What are you talking about?"
"The joy, the exhilaration of sowing wanton destruction!" the Fox of Calamity cried out. She reached out and grabbed my right hand, holding it with both of hers.
"The red thread of fate has connected us, my darling, don't you see?!"
I merely stared at her, at a loss of what to say. She brought one hand up to her mask, removing it and exposing her face.
She was an extremely attractive young woman, and her delicate facial features sported the most elated of smiles. A hearty blush tinged her mien, like that of a woman madly in love.
But her eyes…
Oh shit. She's crazy. Abort. Abort!
"We are clearly meant to bring chaos to this impudent city – together!" she cooed, bringing my gloved hand to touch her cheek.
"Uh… sure. But listen, Fox…"
"Please, call me Wakamo~"
"Okay, Wakamo. Can it wait until I disarm these?" I asked, a bead of sweat running down my forehead.
Her smile dissipated somewhat. "But why would you want to disarm my bombs? Don't you want to see this wretched building collapse in on itself?"
"No. Because I work here," I said flatly.
Or at least, I will.
She let go of my hand and frowned slightly. "You work for that miserable General Student Council?"
I guessed she had some kind of beef with the GSC.
"I work for no one," I responded emphatically. "But I've come to an… arrangement with the GSC. So I'm here for now."
I checked my Pip-Boy. Eight minutes left, and I wasn't even halfway through disarming all these. A compromise was in order.
"Tell you what. You help me disarm everything you've placed in this building, and we'll meet up here, say, a week from now," I offered, hoping that her strange infatuation with me outweighed her dislike of the GSC.
She gasped dramatically as her eyes went wide, and she suddenly turned bashful. "You mean… like… a date?" she asked, averting her eyes and wringing her hands nervously.
There's something wrong with people in this city…
"Sure, why not?" I answered, silently wondering what I had just gotten myself into.
"I'll be right back!" The Fox of Calamity donned the happiest smile I had ever seen and abruptly dashed off into the bowels of the facility.
"Guess that's a yes," I mused aloud.
Less than eight minutes left. I focused on the task at hand, carefully defusing bombs from every surface in sight then adding them to the growing pile in the corner. It took nearly seven minutes and three doses of Implant GRX to comfortably finish the job with time to spare. I stood back and admired my handiwork. Clean, explosive-free residential hall, and an enormous pile of satchel charges in the corner. I had even double-checked every nook and cranny to make sure no nasty surprises lay in wait.
Just as I wondered what had become of the Fox, she returned… balancing a comically large stack of satchel charges, C4, and grenade bouquets in her arms. The stack precariously wobbled but somehow did not fall over as Wakamo approached me.
"I'm back, darling~" she proclaimed in a singsong tone.
"…You booby-trapped the rest of the facility, too?" I asked in disbelief.
"Oh, heavens, no. Only the important-looking parts, like the basement," she explained. "Should I put these with the rest of the pile?"
"Please."
That stack she carried almost equaled the ones I just disarmed. This Fox was efficient, dangerous… but then again, so was I. Surely, I could find a good outlet for her destructive tendencies. But such notions could wait.
Now that the two portions had combined, the resulting stack of explosives nearly reached the ceiling. All things considered, I was pleased that I wouldn't run out of proximity mines and frag grenades anytime soon.
"What's next, my darling?"
A voice from behind me interrupted before I could reply.
"Sensei! Get down!" Rin shouted, drawing her pistol.
Wakamo deftly leapt to the side as if to keep me out of the crossfire and replaced her mask. She drew her rifle with one hand and fired, striking Rin in the forehead. As the woman clutched her head in pain, Wakamo dove through an adjacent window, shattering it.
When Rin recovered, she checked the window. The Fox of Calamity was gone.
"Sensei, are you alright?" the elf-eared woman asked. She took being shot in the head a lot better than I did.
"Yup."
"Do you know who that was?"
"The Fox of Calamity, right?"
"If you knew, why didn't you run and get help?" Rin asked in irritation.
I shrugged. Rin simply sighed.
"In any event, allow me to lead you to the basement. We should be cautious, however. There's no telling what kind of traps that wily Fox has laid for us."
"Ah, don't worry about that," I said good-naturedly, pointing at the stack of explosives. "I've already defused the situation."
"…Is that an attempt at… humor?" Rin asked as she stared blankly at me.
"Everyone's a critic," I grumbled, following the path to the basement.
Apparently, I had a "date" with a literal terrorist in a week. It seems that in Kivotos, being a [Lady Killer] is an extremely powerful weapon that should never be used lightly.