𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐬

file 036 | intentionally causing problems

"January 23rd. Although I was deliberating on what to do for a while, I decided not to notify the police and call them instead. To my surprise, a woman answered the phone. A stuck-up woman who talked as if she were a queen. Her request was that she wanted to buy the software that I was developing at a high price if I could finish making it in a year. I guess she's a member of the same group as the big man that previously came to see me.

"February 13th. Their way of contacting me changed to e-mail. I decided to accept the offer under the condition that they deposit the payment into my account in advance and that they stop snooping around me anymore.

"December 22nd. No good. I can't do it after all. I abandoned making that software not only because my vision started weakening, but for the sake of mankind."

"For the sake of mankind?" Agasa echoed.

"February 9th. The deadline is drawing nearer. I have decided to hide the unfinished software and the check of the payment they made to me near the computer of my villa and escape abroad. The email with instructions as to the time and place of where the software will be handed over to them should be arriving five days later at midnight. I'll try to somehow make it abroad by then."

Suzume leaned back. That date is four days ago, which means, since it's currently 9 PM, it should be arriving three hours from now. I suppose Itakura-san was planning to escape abroad before seeing the email.

"Oh? There seems to be invisible writing even after the last day," Agasa said.

"February 10th. I wonder what they're going to do with that software? The queer words of that woman who first answered the phone won't leave my ears. Yes. I couldn't stand the overbearing tone of voice of the woman, so I taunted her saying, 'Just who the hell do you think you are?' She laughed and replied, 'We can be both God and the Devil. Since we are trying to raise the dead against the stream of time.'

Both Agasa and Suzume recoiled at those words.

"We can be both God and the Devil, since..."

"We're trying to raise the dead against the stream of time," Ai finished from behind the pair.

"Ai?"

"Ai-kun?"

The girl narrowed her eyes. "What is that? Are you trying to read some kind of fantasy story where a witch or something appears?"

"Yes, exactly," Agasa agreed immediately. "I'm hooked on this internet series of western novels, you see."

"And you?" Ai leveled Suzume with an unimpressed stare. "What are you doing here, Suzume?"

Suzume opened her mouth to say something when Agasa walked over to a box. "She came to try out my new invention," he said.

"I suppose I did," she agreed with a thin smile.

Agasa handed over the device. "Personally, I call it 'Fire a ball anywhere device'," he said as she looked it over with an appraising eye. "It looks like any ordinary device at first glance, but when you adjust the dial and push the button." He reached out and did as he said, a soccer ball popped out, inflated and bouncing on the ground. "There. One soccer ball to go."

Suzume smiled at him. "Thanks, Professor," she said. "It's easier than just carrying around a soccer ball in my bag. More inconspicuous, too."

"It's very elastic, too. Depending on the amount of gas that's put in, it can become as large as an advertisement balloon," Agasa added.