Before we depart to Nagoya, I call Assaf-sensei to tell her that we’ll be heading there.

‘You kids just go and cause some mayhem. No need to worry about us.’ she assures me.

‘Please call us if you ever run into trouble.’ I tell her.

‘Now now, there’s no need to be so worried. Have you forgotten who I am?’

‘My important girlfriend?’

A few seconds pause.

‘...Well done, you made the most terrifying necromancer who ever lived to blush like a maiden. Come back safely, and I’ll make sure you’ll experience a night even wilder than the one we had at the hot spring.’

‘Even wilder than that?’

She chuckles. ‘Yup. Just look forward to it.’

‘Can you pass the phone to Kuromi?’

‘Of course.’

‘I am here, master.’ I hear Kuromi’s voice from the other side of the phone next.

‘Kuromi, the rest of us are heading to Nagoya, a city next to this one since more business came up.’ I tell her. ‘I want you to stay at the bunker with Assaf-sensei until we come back. Can you do that for me?’

‘Certainly, master. Your wish is my command.’

‘Be careful while you’re alone. And don’t take everything that Assaf-sensei tells you at face value.’

‘Understood. Please be careful when you are out there, master.’

‘Don’t worry, I will.’ I assure her. ‘Well, I’ll hang up now.’

‘There’s one more thing that I would like to tell you before you do, master.’

‘Yeah?’

I hear Kuromi clearing her throat and breathing rapidly for a few times before she speaks again.

‘I love you, master.’

‘I love you too, Kuromi.’

‘Assaf-sama, it’s not working at all. He is not even slightly fazed.’ I hear Kuromi complaining to Assaf-sensei.

‘I should have known. Well, no matter. By the time they’re back, I would have taught you everything you need to know to make a man go crazy over you.’

‘Understood. I shall be a diligent student so that I can please master.’

‘Good. Let’s start with all kinds of s*x position.’

‘Wait a minute. What exactly is going on over there?’ I demand from Kuromi.

‘Don’t worry Akira-kun. I’ll teach Kuromi lots of things, so expect lots of fun activities to do after you’re back.’ I hear Assaf-sensei’s voice instead.

She disconnects the call before I could say anything. Oh man. We really need to finish this up quickly.

‘Any idea on how we search for those extremists once we’re in Nagoya?’ I ask Madoka since she’s the expert on this kind of things.

‘It’ll be difficult.’ she replies. ‘They’ve most likely made contact with each other all the time to check and report on each other’s progress. Now that this group is arrested, the group in Nagoya will definitely get suspicious and lay low until all the excitement for them has slightly died down.’

‘But that won’t help them, right? Not with you searching for them?’ I ask her.

She smiles confidently. ‘Naturally. It might take some time, but I can definitely find them.’

‘Is there anything the rest of us can help on?’ Motome-senpai asks her.

‘As a matter of fact, yes. Please have them openly patrol the streets to search for those extremists in large numbers. That would definitely make them even more scared to come out and cause trouble so that it’s easier for me to find them.’

‘We’ll definitely get it done.’ Amesaki-senpai assures. ‘Who knows? Some of our colleagues might accidentally bump into them.’

‘Sorry for making you do this kind of job all the time.’ I tell Madoka.

‘If you’re guilty about it, you can come with me.’ she offers.

‘I would love to, but won’t I just get in the way?’ I ask.

‘Not at all. I mean, I’ll be collecting information with modern methods before I do any surveillance myself.’

‘Wait, so you’re not going to sneak in some forbidden places while being in a disguise, or eavesdropping on conversations from the vent or ceiling?’ I ask.

‘Akira, I’m different from a ninja, okay? Information Squad are not all about those things you mentioned.’ she tells me patiently.

‘Bummer. Well, in that case, please let me join you.’

‘Gladly.’

It’s around two hours and a half journey from Kyoto to Aichi, one of the cities in Nagoya. To go there, we’re separated into groups and head inside one of the armored vehicles used by the civil servants. I’m in the same vehicle with majority of my girlfriends that’s being driven by Amesaki-senpai. Along the way, Madoka teaches me about how her and the rest of the Information Squad usually gather the intel of their target.

‘Even if we know the approximate location of our targets, it would take too long to search for them. By the time we find them, there’s a high chance that they’ve already fled or worse, completed their mission. If we want to find their location as quickly and efficiently as possible, we have to figure out their thought process. How are they going to accomplish their mission, what will they do when they are standing by, that sort of things. This way, we can narrow down the search area.’

In other words, in order to find the extremists, we should place our allies at temples and shrines since they’re here to look for the Japanese Gods’ weaknesses.

If the situation isn’t dire, that is.

In case my speculation is correct, we don’t have the leisure nor the time to wait for them. Plus, they would already have been done with the questionings for all we know. Lastly, Madoka asked Motome-senpai to increase the street patrol so that the extremists will be too scared to come out for a while. She definitely isn’t thinking of using a passive method like a stakeout. She did tell me to think like an extremist, but this is too shallow-leveled. If I really want to think like one, I have to go one step further.

‘I’m supposed to think like their leader, aren’t I?’ I ask her.

She smiles and nods approvingly. ‘Good. You’re getting it. It doesn’t matter how many extremists are here. In the end, all of them follow the orders of the one with the highest Grade. The leader is the one who decides what to do the moment they set foot in this country. The leader is the one who decides on where to stay. The leader is the one who decides what to do with the information they gathered. If we can grasp the thought process of this leader of theirs, we can at least find their base.’

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

‘Wait a minute. I’ve kind of forgotten about this but isn’t Hunter their leader? I doubt that he’ll tell us where the remaining extremists are.’

‘Actually, we have some evidence which proofs to us that there may be more than one leader among them.’ Amesaki-senpai tells me while driving.

‘What kind of evidence, senpai?’

‘First of all, there’s the fact that they were split up into two groups. You could argue that they wanted to cover more grounds, but it’s much more than that. You see, the reason we managed to know of their existence in the first place is that some of them have attacked the locals when all of them were in Kyoto.’

That made me sit up straight. ‘Are those who got attacked fine?’

‘Out of the six who got attacked, four were heavily injured, while the other two got killed.’

‘What? Why would those extremists go that far?’

‘One of the heavily injured victims managed to regain consciousness last night. According to him, a group of men and women who looked like they were tourists head inside an udon restaurant and started to ask all kinds of questions about the local Gods. The customers and the victim, who’s the shop keeper of the restaurant, were happy to entertain them until those tourists start to be disrespectful towards Them. Harsh words were exchanged, and before long it escalated into a fight.’

‘I take it that those “tourists” didn’t do the fighting themselves.’

Amesaki-senpai shakes her head. ‘No, they didn’t. They summoned their angels and totally wrecked the restaurant, injuring or killing everyone in the establishment before fleeing the crime scene. Somehow, they managed to evade capture.’

‘Do you think they’re the same group we managed to capture just now?’

‘No. They’re definitely not.’

She sounded so confident and sure I was a bit taken aback.

‘How could you tell?’ I couldn’t help but ask.

‘Remember, you’re supposed to think like Hunter here. Then again, I guess it’s impossible for you since you have no data on him.’

‘The thing is, Hunter is a pacifist. He would never allow those under him to kill unless absolutely necessary.’ Madoka continues.

‘But, there were deaths involved.’

‘Hence our theory that he’s not the only leader who was on a mission here. The Church is very strict on following orders. Some offenses are even punishable by deaths that even involve the offender’s family. Even if these are renegades, they still follow the same basic rules.’

‘If Hunter is really a pacifist who doesn’t allow pointless killing, and some of them did it anyway, then they were most likely spread into two factions led by two different leaders before they even set foot on Japan.’ I say in an attempt to connect the dots.

‘That’s most likely the case. They were supposed to act as a team when they arrived in Kyoto, but the killing of the innocents caused a rift to form between them, so the killers led by the second leader went to Nagoya instead.’

‘How many extremist leaders are there?’

‘Eight.’

‘Is that a confirmed number?’

‘It is. And it really helped that they’ve proclaimed their names and looks for the whole world to see. They even told us their Grades.’

‘Hurrah for egoistical religious fanatics. So there’s still seven of them to analyze after Hunter’s out of the picture.’

‘That’s right. Out of the seven, three of them are known to have extreme distaste of foreign religions, so they’re definitely not going to come here themselves. That leaves only four.’

‘And how many of them are fine with their followers killing innocents as long as they get things done?’

‘Three.’

‘So more than half of them are out of the picture.’

Madoka nods and stares at me. She’s not saying anything, so she’s probably expecting me to think of a method to further narrow down the list by myself. Her or Amesaki-senpai would have told me if there’s anything I need to know, so I’ve already got all the hints I need.

Let’s see. They’re supposed to be very easy to find since they won’t hesitate to harm innocent civilians. The problem is that even they won’t be that stupid to cause trouble with the civil servants openly searching for them. In that case, they won’t come out of their hiding place that easily…

Oh. Man, I’m so slow sometimes.

‘We can also try to figure out their hiding place based on their personalities, can’t we?’ I ask.

She smiled, so that means I got it right.

‘Coincidentally, all of them prefer lavish lifestyles and rather die than hide out in some rundown factories or other abandoned buildings, so we don’t even have to earch for those places.’

‘Have you hacked into the database of all the hotels and other homestay accommodations in Nagoya?’ I ask Madoka.

She takes out her phone and starts to do it right away. She tells to us the results she got after a while.

‘There are five hotels with a huge number of guests checked in recently.’ she reports.

‘That’s quite a lot.’ I note.

‘It can’t be helped. It’s the holiday season now, after all. Still, the number has dwindled down by quite a lot, so things are much easier for us.’

Madoka shares the details like addresses of those accommodations and the room number they stay in to the rest of us, and we decide to split into groups again.

‘Is it okay if Akira is paired up with me, Amesaki-senpai?’ Madoka asks Amesaki-senpai.

‘Of course it is. Why are you asking for my permission?’

‘I was thinking that you might want to go on another date with him.’

Most of us in the car yelp loudly as Amesaki-senpai suddenly loses control of it and sways the car left and right dangerously.

‘N-N-N-N-N-N-N-N-No I don’t! Not one bit!’ Amesaki-senpai stutters violently.

‘Amesaki-senpai, please steer the car more carefully!’ I tell her.

‘Oh no, we’re all going to die in a car accident!’ Yui shrieks.

In the end, Amesaki-senpai had to stop the car at the side of the road to calm down for a bit before continuing the journey again. I’m just glad that we didn’t get into any accident.

‘Huff…huff…that was dangerous.’ I pant.

‘Mashiro should have travelled using Destroyers. Or with her own magic.’ Mashiro says while looking a bit pale.

‘I’m sorry for making you lose control just now, Amesaki-senpai.’ Madoka apologizes to the civil servant mildly.

‘Its fine. Really. Now then, let us continue our journey.’

‘Are you sure that you’re in a condition to drive, senpai?’ I ask her.

‘Absolutely. Don’t worry about me.’

As she’s starting the engine, I look at Sakuya and Madoka.

‘Please don’t say anything to agitate her until the car stops at Nagoya.’ I warn them in a soft voice.

‘Duly noted.’

‘Why is your big sister being warned too?’

‘You know very well why. Now please control yourself from saying anything inappropriate.’

‘Okay~.’

After we reach Aichi, Amesaki-senpai dropped all of us off at a secluded place since it might arouse suspicion if a group of high school students came out of an armored vehicle of all things. Sakuya is being paired up with Amesaki-senpai, which is why she didn’t get down from the car.

‘All right. Let’s go through the plan once more. We’re going to split into groups and find out which accommodations those extremists are hiding in. We can’t just barge into the floor of the room they’re staying, so we have to use the spider drones. If you find them, don’t be reckless and tell the rest of us first. Do all of you understand?’

All of them nod solemnly. Bit by bit, they leave the secluded spot, leaving only Madoka and myself.

‘Well, let’s go.’ I tell her.

‘Got it.’

Suddenly, she links my arm with hers.

‘Um, Madoka?’

‘Amesaki-senpai isn’t the only one who wants to go on a date with you.’ she tells me.

‘Wait. Did you ask to pair up with me just for this?’

‘Yes.’ she tells me honestly.

‘You could have just tell me, you know.’

She shrugs. ‘It’s not really my character.’

‘What is, then?’

She lets go of my arm and use both her hand to grab some hair from both sides of her head.

‘Don’t be mistaken. It’s not like I want to be alone with you or anything.’ she says in a calm tone.

‘Nope. That’s definitely not it.’ I tell her.

Her knife suddenly appears at her hand.

‘It’s all so I could have you for myself.’ she tells me with blank eyes.

‘Please stop. That’s genuinely terrifying. Please stop pointing your knife at me.’

The radiance of her eyes return in an instant.

‘You’re not into yanderes?’ she asks me while putting away the knife.

‘Are you seriously asking me that after looking through my treasure trove multiple times?’

‘I just wanted to make sure.’

‘Come on. Let’s go for real already. As fun as this is, we’re wasting time.’

‘Of course.’

We link arms once again and leave.

The hotel we’re in charge of searching is a twenty minutes walk from where we are.

‘Is it a coincidence that the two of us has to search a hotel that’s quite far away?’ I ask her.

‘Yes. It absolutely is.’ she tells me with a straight face.

‘Even though you’re the one who assigned which accommodation each group go to and the one who suggested to stop the car at that spot just now?’

‘You wound me, Akira. I didn’t have a single ulterior motives.’

I decide to let it drop.

Contrary to my assumption, Nagoya wasn’t all about car factories. It has the usual places to have fun like cinemas and arcades.

‘It would have been nice to walk around this city normally with the others. You know, without having to do a mission.’ I say to Madoka.

She clings on to me even more.

‘I feel bad for them, but at least I get to spend some alone time with you.’ she says to me sweetly.

That really made me suspicious.

‘All right, what are you not telling me?’ I ask her. ‘I’ve watched enough anime to know that whenever a girl is acting out of character, she’s definitely hiding something.’

‘First of all, you have to differentiate between anime and real life.’

Hmm. If only she knew.

‘Secondly, I promise you that I’m not hiding anything from you. There’s no way I’ll ever do that.’

‘Uh-huh. Can you say the same for the times you looked through my computer without my permission?’

A pause.

‘Those don’t count. I just forgot to get your permission, that’s all.’

‘You know what? I’ll just drop it since there’s not arguing with you.’

We start to get a little hungry, but we don’t really have the leisure to stop by a restaurant or something. We had to make do with going inside a convenience store and buy some onigiris and sandwiches that we could eat while walking.

‘We’re almost there.’ she tells me while eating her salmon onigiri.

‘About time. Not that I’m not enjoying this stroll, but this really isn’t the time for it.’

‘Agreed. Let’s do this again sometimes. Just the two of us.’

‘Definitely.’

Finally, we can see the hotel that we’re supposed to search: a building that’s at least twenty storeys tall.