Qualia left Ace with Ina just in case, and headed towards where he shot the beam.
“…”
Spirito ran with him, but looked over with suspicion as if she was looking at a lump of discomfort.
Maybe she had questions about Qualia shooting a beam like that. That was what Qualia predicted, so he spoke to her.
“Request understanding. A pattern not recognized was detected in the information of the air in the building, along with quiet sounds. After detecting an inclination to purposefully erase the information of their position, it was deemed to be a threat that was here to cause harm.”
“Well… Nice call, I guess…”
Qualia was wrong. Spirito was not actually questioning his action.
“Threat detected.”
Right after that, he activated his 5D printer again.
“Type GUN.”
Qualia fired a shot to the right and above, that blinked in front of Spirito for just a moment all of a sudden.
“Ah? Eh?”
“Detecting threat has been neutralized.”
It was natural for Spirito to be confused by this seemingly illogical attack. But there was something nearby. Once they opened a door, they saw something black writhing.
This person was clad in black, had their face covered with a mask, and was holding a knife coated with poison. It was more than enough information to determine this was an assassin.
“Goboh… Kah…”
The assassin pressed the burning hole right in the middle of the chest, and took their last breath.
Qualia checked the liquefied heart of the corpse with a casual attitude, and ran towards Lobelia. It was so smooth, that even Spirito was taken aback for a moment.
“Qualia… No, forget it.”
She understood that they were in a different situation. Something was targeting them. She herself had no pity for the assassins, and would not hesitate to get her hands dirty. Still, she could not help but notice the slight change in Qualia at the moment.
He always had an unconcerned look on his face, but this was too unconcerned.
She felt as though he traveled from a policy to neutralize enemies, to a policy to eliminate them. That he was too casual in his operation to eliminate all he saw as an enemy, like a magic doll following instructions to take lives.
On the other hand, she also saw him as someone fearful from the bottom of his heart that someone precious to him would be hurt again.
■ ■
“Threat neutralized with one shot.”
When Qualia and Spirito arrived, they saw a black clad assassin on the floor, in agony. Unlike the previous one, this assassin was shot in the stomach, and did not die instantly.
But that was purposeful on the part of Qualia. Once a person died, they could not talk, and their information could not be input. And so, he left the assassin alive.
“Were you the one who did that, Qualia?”
“Affirmative.”
“Yes, thanks. You really saved me there… You saw through that covert operation like it was nothing.”
Lobelia stood close to the assassin, not confused at all, as she seemed to have already worked out what happened. Still, she was astonished at how Qualia sniped the assassin without even looking, and could only nod to him in response.
Even the assassin seemed to realize Qualia was the shooter, and looked at him with trembling eyes.
“Can’t… be… How did you know where I was…!?”
“Your request for an explanation is denied. Request explanation. Why did you infiltrate this mansion? Qualia can learn the intention of the attack through you.”
Qualia said something that sounded irrational, as he looked down at the assassin.
“Zero Division.”
It was Lobelia, who stood to the side with her arms crossed, who answered this question.
The assassin’s head twitched a little, leading Qualia to perceive that this was correct.
“…I’ve heard about a unit of Troy that specializes in assassination. I’ve only heard rumors, but apparently they were true.”
“W-what are you talking…”
The assassin shook his head, even as he gasped in pain. But everyone there knew he was lying. And even if they were not from Zero Division, it did not change the fact that they were assassins who were there to kill them. And the timing meant that Woodhorse, the commander of Troy, was the only suspect they had in mind.
It seemed this assassin would be stubborn to the end.
“What are you doing?”
“Calculating optimal solution. Making this individual output information.”
And so, Qualia would make him output it. Or in human terms, make him confess.
Qualia put out his right hand towards the assassin.
“Activating function of 5D printer, Cracking.”
A pale light was released from his five fingers, and those five lines quickly covered the assassin’s body.
The lights were not piercing his body like beams. The 5D printer was simply installing bugs into his hardware.
“Oh… Boh…!?”
The assassin suddenly bent backwards.
“Ah, abah, abababababababababababababababababababababababababaaah!!”
The pain was clearly not coming from the wound in his stomach. He pressed his body with his hands, as if his entire body was being stabbed with needles, and screamed in pain as drool escaped his mouth.
“W-what did you do!?”
“Reworked the hardware with the 5D printer in two ways. Rewrote neural network, so all sorts of signals in the brain are recognizing pain to the highest possible degree. And rewrote it so the brain forcibly maintains a state of consciousness, making it so he cannot pass out.”
“W-w-w-what’s thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?”
So basically, he made his nerves go haywire, creating intense, infinite pain. And he was not even allowed to faint.
Qualia did this. It came from him cracking his enemy’s body.
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