Episode 16

Just when the knife was inches away from my chest, "Get away from her!" Tokiya's shout rang out in the empty lobby.

Haruka and Nagi followed, soon standing behind him.

Mr.Koume's hand froze upon the sudden intrusion as he turned around and shouted wildly, "Ah, great, it seems like more guests have joined this party! WELL, I SUPPOSE I NEED TO KILL YOU TOO NOW!!!"

(That was close...Now's my chance...!)

I shortly noticed that Mr.Koume had stopped paying attention to me and was occupied in looking at his new targets, giving me the chance of finding an opening.

"...Oh lightning, I command thee to smite my foe... 'Ira Tonitrus'..." I whispered to myself while my staff appeared in my hand.

Aiming my staff at Mr.Koume, a single streak of lightning darted towards his direction.

"Arrrghh!!!" The minute it hit him, Mr.Koume clung to his leg and screamed in pain.

"Nice shot Momoi, 'Grakius'!" Haruka later chanted a spell, causing fangs of ice to protrude out of the ground beneath Mr.Koume and grab hold of his feet. With his legs frozen solid in place, Mr.Koume was unable to move an inch. This made him furious as he forcefully struggled to break free from the ice.

"Try all you want Mr.Koume, but that ice is as sturdy as carbon steel, making it almost impossible for you to break free."

"Woah, that was awesome! How'd you know you could do that?!" Nagi exclaimed, his eyes widened in disbelief as he gawked at Haruka who casually smiled in return as she replied, "I honestly have no idea. I guess the words just came out of my mouth in the heat of the moment."

"So, what are we going to do about this old man?" Tokiya spoke out while staring at Mr.Koume, who had now grown unconscious due to all that had happened to him.

That's when Haruka abruptly blurted out, her expression surprised as she pointed at my stomach, "Oh no, Momoi, you're injured!"

"Oh, yeah. It's not a fatal injury, Mr.Koume simply managed to graze me earlier. Don't worry, I could use my healing spell to fix it later but first, we need to do something about his mother." I looked towards the terrified woman who was hiding on the floor behind the front desk.

I walked towards her and seeing me do so, the woman tried running away in fright. I understood why she'd be so afraid after being treated so harshly so I tried speaking as calmly as I could while extending my hand to her.

"It's okay, don't be scared. Your son can't harm you anymore." She looked up at me, small tears glinted in the corners of her eyes.

After a moment's hesitation, she grabbed hold of my hand as I slowly picked her up from the floor.

"We need to find a home for her. She's clearly in no position of taking care of herself, especially not in the state she is right now."

"You're right Momoi. Hey, why don't we find a retirement home for her? I'm sure the staff over there would take good care of her." Haruka suggested.

"Oh yeah, that's a good idea! C'mon, let's go!"

An hour later

After handing Mr.Koume over to the police and spending an hour in search of a retirement home for his mother to stay in, we eventually found one that was willing to take her in.

"Thank you very much miss. We really appreciate your help." I bowed in appreciation as I spoke to the employee.

"No need to thank me, this is my job after all. And don't worry, she's in very good hands."

I thanked her one last time before exiting the building.

"Phew. What a day, am I right?" Nagi sighed with both his hands behind his head.

"It was quite an unexpected surprise. But now that all of that is over, we really need to start our mission."

"Oh my goodness, I completely forgot about that!" Haruka shouted in a panic.

I turned on my phone as I looked at the remaining time shown on the screen.

(Only twenty-four hours left, we need to begin this fast...)

"Everyone, we need to hurry. There are only twenty-four hours left and we haven't even defeated a single noise yet."

"Right, let's go." Tokiya ordered, pressing the pin in his hand as he shortly vanished.

"I already told this to you earlier Tokiya... Seriously, wait for your teammates!!!"

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Back to Haruka's POV

After hours of continuously finding and defeating noise, we were left with twelve hours for the mission and we still had fifty more noise remaining to defeat.

"*Pant* I'm worn out... How long do we have to keep doing this...?" Nagi muttered out of breath, his hands on his knees.

"Me too... But we still have to keep moving. We barely have twelve hours and there is still half of the noise to defeat..."

I took out the pin from my shorts' pocket but just then, something really weird happened upon pressing it.

"What...? I've never seen anything like that before!"

In front of me stood a gigantic creature that looked somewhat like a dragon hybrid. Its large wings stood up in the air while its three-meter long snake tail swayed across violently. I could notice the razor-sharp fangs that lay bare, looking like they could rip even the strongest material in this world to shreds.

"Uh, guys. A-Are you seeing this...?" My voice quivered as I asked the others, my eyes still fixed on the ferocious noise up ahead.

"Y-Yeah..."Nagi mumbled in fear.

Tokiya later added, "I've never seen a noise this big before..."

"ROARRR!!!" The noise suddenly let out a prolonged cry, forming goosebumps on my skin due to its menacing voice.

"It is undoubtedly a five-star noise. Our mission here is to only defeat three-star ones so we need to quietly escape this place without letting it notice us." Momoi instructed.

"Alright."

We all slowly walked away, trying to be as quiet as possible to not grab the noise's attention. Eventually, we reached an area that was far enough from the noise so we all took out our pins.

"Okay, so now we just have to press the pin again and then we'll escape, right?"

The others gave an affirming nod to my question. I then pressed the pin but what I was anticipating didn't quite happen.

"What? Why aren't we leaving this place?!"

"I'm not quite sure... It should have worked, it always does." Momoi told with an expression of confusion on her face.

" I don't think it's that easy this time..." Tokiya took out his phone, revealing the message that he had gotten. It said:

"Surprise, surprise. Defeat this noise and you would instantly be finished with this mission. Killing the remaining fifty won't be required from you. But do keep in mind, five-star noise are troublesome.

Good Luck."

"What...? We have to defeat that thing now?!" I exclaimed, terrified as ever.

We all were taken aback by this sudden change of events, but just then...

"Ahhh!"

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