Chapter 143 – Question (2)

“I went to the same company as Grape, Grape is the team leader and I am a subordinate…”

They know each other, which is an answer that lacks an explanation.
I more accurately explained to Rapid how we knew each other.
Grape suddenly murmured beside him in a low voice.

“Yes… Same company…”
“Ah!… If you are a Grape company… A law firm?”
“No, it’s a development company… Grape is the dispatch team leader…”
“Uh? Didn’t you say you’d stop dispatching that thing before Grape?”
“I changed my mind… I was continuing…”

He stopped dispatching… It’s probably something I said quite a while ago.
Maybe that’s what he said while drinking and thinking about how far he could go as a team leader.
Unlike now, it was a time when corporate life was difficult, so it was a time when Grape, like me, wanted to quit.

“Uh? But how do you know Grape is a magical girl… ?”
“That… That is…”

With her visor broken, she finds out that she is Grape while having sex.
But I can’t tell that to Rapid.

“Somehow… I’m not wearing it now, but she found out because the visor that was originally used to cover her face was broken.”
“Aha…”

Grape thought that he was poisoned with liquid and attacked me, so he was unable to answer Rapid’s question.

“… It’s the same company, is that why you came?”
“Uh? So come… ?”
“Yeah, Grape was originally… You couldn’t come down the subway.”

Maybe this is Grape’s dog phobia.
Grape didn’t answer anything, perhaps because he was sensitive, and Rapid continued talking as if he wasn’t asking for an answer.

“Great, for her co-workers… Grape has been really great about that since before, for the sake of her comrades…”
“Ah… Not a work colleague. I am a subordinate… Because she quit.”
“Yes?”

I listened to Rapid’s words and corrected what was false.
Then Grape, who was standing in front of me, flinched, and Rapid looked surprised as well.

“I was leaving work today and this happened to me…”
“Uh? Leave, leave… ? Uh… ? Why… Why?”
“Well, for the same reason as everyone else, I quit because it was difficult to go to work.”
“Uh… ?”

Are all reasons for leaving the same?
I just said something obvious, but Grape and Rapid’s reaction is strange.
Rapid glances at Grape, and Grape, with his back to me, shakes his shoulder.

“Uh… Is it hard? Grape… Uh?”
“Ouch, ugh…”
“Two people… He’s a good friend… Right? What… Are you in a relationship?”

Rapid asked if he had imagined Grape bullying me at work, looking at Grape with a visibly cautious attitude.
Grape never bothered me… It doesn’t seem like there is, but Grape was the cause, so he was cursed.
It’s a misunderstanding, but it’s not a misunderstanding, it’s an imagination.

“Well, it’s not that I hate it… Friendly, friendly… ?”
“Oh, right? If you don’t like it, Grape will come to save you…”
“What kind of relationship… Now I’m not a subordinate or a boss, um…”
“Ah… !”

What kind of relationship should I define between Grape and me?
I was thinking about what to say when Grape suddenly interrupted the conversation.
His voice trembled and his words were cut off.

“Now, now, now… Yet, that… Yes, the bad thing is… No, because… Know each other…”

To be clear, to Grape, I would have to say that I was between a rapist and a rape victim who raped while drunk and then raped her all day even though she didn’t want to, but I don’t think it’s necessary to say that.
Grape looks a bit uneasy as if he was thinking the same thing…
Know each other… It seems like something is lacking in explanation, but it’s not wrong.
Grape and I are acquainted.

“… Yes, we know each other.”
“Yes… That’s right… Know, know… Between…”
“Ah, yes, yes…”

He nodded and agreed with Grape. For some reason, Grape trembled even more, stuttered his words, and confirmed what he had said to Rapid.
Seeing Grape like that, Rapid nodded his head blankly as if he thought it would be better not to touch something, then suddenly changed his words.

“Ah! Grape, hair tie!”
“Uh? Uh?”
“Has it been cut off before? I’ll give it back! My mana is also full, and I can get back those little things! The one that fell… We are here!”

As soon as he spoke, Rapid picked up the black ash, whose original shape had been melted and burned.
I heard that magical girls have different senses from normal people, but Rapid seems to have a better sense of space than other magical girls.
Immediately, the ash that had been burned black in Rapid’s hand, which used magic, returned in the shape of a familiar hair tie.
It’s a cheap hair tie decorated with grapes that I bought for Grape.

“Ah… ! Thank you…”

Grape smiled broadly as soon as he received the hair tie, then glanced at me and tied his hair neatly.
Neatly, neatly… The ponytail falls down with a fluttering feeling different from Rapid, where the curls leave a soft and fluffy feeling.

“It’s a bit like the hair tie breaks every time… ? Grape, would you rather change it to a special hair tie at this point?”
“Ah… Since I’m spending all of my support money separately, I have to save even a little bit… Is that what Rapid is using right now? Tied up nicely… ?”

Grape, who was talking about something with his hair tied, suddenly stopped him and blinked his eyes quickly.
Seeing Grape suddenly stop talking, Rapid and I looked at Grape silently asking why.

“… Uh?”

Grape looked anxiously at Rapid’s tied-up hair, then slowly moved his gaze down to his face and large chest.
His eyes quivered, his breath became rough, and he swallowed in gulps.

“Grape?”

Seeing that he seemed nervous to anyone, Rapid raised a worried voice.
Grape, who had been quietly coming out and receiving Rapid’s gaze, glanced at me and muttered something incomprehensible to himself.

“… Oh no… No, no… Huh… I didn’t even know your name.”
“Grape? Are you okay? What’s the matter?”
“Yes? No! Are you okay!”

I don’t know why Grape is suddenly like this.

“… Huh?”

Just as Grape continues to react strangely, he suddenly hears strange noises above his head.
The sound of flying bees echoes loudly from above, reverberating through the vertically open tunnel.
It was a sound that people after the appearance of the negative had become too accustomed to.

After announcing that the situation was over, drones from the Defense Force entered the basement and came in after quite some time.
Rescue drones spray water on the heated wall, and the heat on the wall evaporates moisture, filling it with water mist in an instant.
The drones then spun and blew the mist upwards.

Countless groups of drones divided their roles and moved skillfully.
It is divided into a drone that cools the heat and a drone that blows away fog, and then it is divided into a drone that breaks the hardened wall with claws and a drone that cuts off the broken steel frame, and is busy cleaning up the surroundings.
Seeing the drone fly by, I realize that the situation is really over.

When I saw the drones adapting to the scene and moving, I was silent and admired.
The Defense Force’s rescue drones are not completely unmanned.
There is a National Guard pilot in charge of numerous drones at once, and the automated program repairs the drone directly, and the difficult part is repaired by a human intervention.

As much as I know the fact in detail, the sight that unfolds in front of my eyes is amazing.
No matter how you look at it, the current movement is not controlled by a person, but a movement that the drone judges and operates on its own.
How on earth can artificial intelligence be designed so that drones can judge and move on their own even in this situation?

Right now, it seems that only the drones for rescue and site cleanup of the Defense Forces have arrived, but when the rough cleanup is over and the city restoration drone manufactured by True Vision flies in, the reconstruction will begin immediately and it will be restored in a short time.
This kind of urban destruction and reconstruction is now a daily occurrence.
People who go to work for a while will have a hard time, but I’ve already left the company, so I don’t have to worry about that.

[Thank you for your hard work, this is the National Guard signalman code A42.]
“Wow.”

As I was quietly watching the drones move, a rescue drone flew in from among the drones cleaning the wall and said in a voice mixed with mechanical sounds.
As much as I prepared a communication soldier, I know why this drone came and what the situation is.
This is to understand the circumstances of the incident in a place where communication was completely cut off and to collect a database.

The Defense Force’s rescue drones are originally used as a communication channel with magical girls in this way.
A lifesaving mechanical arm comes out of the drone and rubs its hands like a human.
It is man-controlled.

[I’m sorry you must be tired, but can I ask you to explain the situation?]

The data collected through conversations with magical girls are later used to change combat manuals or develop new equipment.
Of course, the drone came to talk to Rapid and Grape.
I took a sneaky step back from Grape’s side to get out of the way immediately.

Then, for some reason, the drone followed me.
I thought I saw it wrong, so I moved again, and it followed me as much as I moved.
As I was staring at the drone, the drone suddenly stopped in front of my face and took out a scanning device to scan my face.

“Uh, huh?”
[Name Anger, Designation A.N.G.E.R, Resident of Precinct 6, Job Developer, right?]
“Yes? Uh… M-Is that right?”
[The scan result is… No infection information, trainee? Hmm… Good grades, huh? Leaving out?]

I don’t understand the situation.
Why are you suddenly searching for my information?
Even though I can’t guess anything, my heart is pounding because I wonder if the hypnosis application was discovered somewhere.

I’m anxious even though I can’t.
I have never done anything worthy of being investigated by the National Guard.
I wondered why I was doing this, and as I exhaled heavily, Grape suddenly intervened between me and the drone.

“For a moment… What happened?”

[Sorry Grape-sama, this is Ash-sama’s order. I need detailed information about the incident, but there are things I can’t understand no matter how much I look at it…]
“Ash… An order?”
[Situation occurred from 1:32 pm today, situation reported by Louie, support request occurred, Grape support… I understand up to this point, but this part is strange no matter how I look at it, can you please explain in detail?]

From the bottom of the drone, a vision pad, a tablet PC of True Vision, suddenly appeared and was held out in front of Grape, and what appeared to be a report appeared on the screen.
Looking at the screen that I can see, I see a journal with today’s date, location, and progress written down.
One of them is greatly enlarged for better visibility.

[Esther appeared in the radar detection information after Grape requested additional support… This is a filming device inside the shelter… What are you doing here?]

Attached to the journal is a noise-laden photo that appears to have been taken the moment I planted my tentacle on Esther.