[Master K] The bad one next door

Although he is very worried about Hatta's situation, Maya can only put it aside for the time being and start investigating the environment on the second floor.

The burnt walls left hideous black marks, which are shocking at first glance.Mami reached out and wiped the stain lightly, but failed to remove the dust, but suddenly realized that there was something wrong with the wall in front of him.

When Shinya was staring at the wall and frowning in thought, Hirobe had already returned from the depths of the corridor.He frowned slightly, and said, "The terrain on the second floor...is like a maze."

Maki turned to look at him in surprise: "Maze?"

"No, how should I put it... Yazawa-chan knows about the tombs of ancient Egyptian pharaohs, right?"

Hearing his sudden question, Mami didn't turn around for a moment, but nodded hesitantly, and replied vaguely:

"I heard that I heard some..."

"The layout here is a bit similar to a mausoleum." Hirobe squatted down, pulled the torn wires, and arranged them in a "Y" shape, "At the end of a corridor, there will be two branches, and if you choose one of them A corridor continues to move forward, and there will be two other new branches. Countless branches can extend countless possibilities—when building a mausoleum, this kind of maze is the best obstacle to confuse tomb robbers.”

Although there was no deep concept in his mind, Hirobe explained it in such detail that even though he was stupid, Shinya understood the meaning of his words.She couldn't help biting her thumbnail, frowned slightly anxiously, and murmured:

"However, if this is the case, it will be difficult to find Misaki..."

"...Well, it's not a big problem."

"what?"

Hirobe raised his head, staring at her with clear blue eyes, without any emotion in his eyes: "Because there are robot wreckage along the way."

Mami was taken aback for a moment, and after realizing what he was talking about, she couldn't help but fell silent.

The wreckage of the robot.

You don't need to think about it to know what's going on.

The anxiety that had been suppressed with great difficulty before was churning again in her heart, and she was so suppressed that she could hardly breathe.Seeing that her mood was down again, Hirobe quickly put on a smiling face, and patted her on the shoulder as a sign of comfort:

"No, but it's okay! It's fine when we find Hatta and ask the matter clearly, don't you think so?"

...Although it feels like the matter is not that simple, as Hirobe said, it is impossible to solve the problem by worrying about it like this.Mami sighed slightly, tried to calm down, and bowed his head to Hirobe to thank him: "Thank you, Hirobe-kun."

"We are partners, so don't worry about such a small matter. But then again..."

"Ok?"

The silver-haired boy suddenly showed a foolish smile, and smiled and moved his face closer, his eyes flickering.Mami took a step back uncomfortably, and whispered: "Hey, what's the matter..."

"...Yazawa-chan cares about Hatta so much, does it mean he likes him?"

Mami was stunned for two seconds.

"……what?!"

……

—An unexpected question.

—It was so shocking that I didn't know how to react at all.

Her eyes widened subconsciously, and she could only stammer and repeat Hirobe's words for a while: "Xi, Xixi like...?"

Hirobe looked at her with great interest, and exclaimed exaggeratedly with a face full of novelty:

"Ah, I'm blushing! The top of my head seems to be steaming! It's amazing! Hey, even the tips of my ears—"

"Please stop talking!"

Under the repeated verbal teasing, Maki felt his face was burning.She lowered her eyes in panic, her face flushed: "This, this kind of thing..."

Do you like Misaki? ——When asked such a question out of the blue, Maya, who had never thought about it before, couldn't help but feel at a loss.

Undoubtedly, Hatta, who grew up together, holds an extremely important position in her heart.But she couldn't just answer it directly, because she knew that the "like" that Hirobe said was not the "like" she thought.

and--

When Zhenya recalled the days of getting along with Hatta, she found that she didn't even know what kind of emotion she had for Hatta.

Family?friendship?Or is it just pure dependence?She compared them, and felt that they were all a bit close, but she couldn't just use a simple word to symbolize this feeling.

In this way, if you still avoid it with excuses such as "Misaki is just a friend" and "Misaki is just a relative", it is obviously self-deception.

- If none of these things, then...

"..."

Seeing that Mami was silent for a long time, Hirobe couldn't help calling her: "Hello, Yazawa-chan?"

Shocked, Maki regained consciousness from her messy thoughts.When she met Shangguangbu's suspicious eyes, she turned her eyes slightly, stared at the gray marks on the wall and muttered: "Probably..."

"perhaps?"

Miya's face turned red.She opened and shut her mouth for a long time, but still couldn't utter a word, and finally turned around with a blushing face, "...I-I don't know either! Compared to this, it's more important to end the search quickly and catch up with Misaki and the others." !"

Hirobe followed her with a look of disbelief, and couldn't help thinking about it.

"Huh? Wait, what kind of answer is 'I don't know'? It's easy to tell whether you like it or not! Ah... Are you Yazawa-chan, the legendary 'super dull girl'? It doesn't matter to me. I can teach you! Yazawa-chan, imagine if Hatta likes other girls, will you be unhappy? If he holds your hand, will you resist? If he holds you, will you hate? If he Wouldn't you be happy to kiss you? If he peeks at the book behind your back—oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

Before he finished speaking, Shinichi turned around quickly, slapped Hirobe's face in anger, and pushed his face away: "Enough Shinichi Hirobe! This topic ends here! You unacceptable!"

"Woo——It hurts so much QAQ! Yazawa-chan is so scary!"

"Just to help you squeeze the waste out of your head! All you think about is useless things! Also, Misaki doesn't like to watch those crappy things like you do!"

"I'm sorry——!!"

The second floor, the middle area.

After a boy named Takeshi Yamamoto asked "Would you like to take a break", after a moment of discussion, the group finally decided to stay where they were and make some adjustments.

The second floor is all corridors, unlike the first floor, there are no rooms that provide special rest.However, the robots in this area have basically been cleaned up, and it seems that there will be no danger for the time being, so there is no problem in relaxing a little.

Sawada Tsunayoshi wanted to find a random place to sit on the spot, but suddenly caught a glimpse of the young man in the peaked cap sitting against the wall from the corner of his eye.He hesitated for a while, then stepped forward hesitantly, and said tremblingly: "That...Mr. Akagi, can I sit here?"

Chicheng looked up at him, seemed a little surprised, but still nodded to him friendly: "You can do whatever you want."

With permission, Tsunayoshi heaved a sigh of relief and sat down beside Akagi.After a long period of non-stop fighting, Chicheng also began to feel tired, and closed his eyes as soon as he sat down, trying to adjust his disordered breath.Seeing this, the brown-haired boy who just followed behind to pick up a few miscellaneous fish couldn't help feeling ashamed.

He didn't make a sound to interrupt, and waited silently for Chicheng to recover, and then said: "Chi, Mr. Chicheng..."

Chicheng opened his eyes and turned to look at him suspiciously: "What's the matter?"

The boy looked away a little uneasily, and his eyes drifted for a while, before finally making up his mind, he turned his clear dark brown eyes to the young man in the peaked cap.

"I... am a little concerned." Tsuna paused for a moment, tangled for a long time, and then gritted his teeth and asked, "Mr. Akagi, what happened between you and Mr. Hatta on the first floor?"

Chicheng was taken aback: "...Why do you think so?"

Tsuna-kichi pursed his lips, looked at him anxiously, and said in a low voice, "Because Mr. Hatta has been very strange since we met, and seems to be very depressed... Ah, hug, sorry! Of course! Just, it doesn't matter if you don't say it... ..."

Seeing that Chicheng's face darkened quickly, the brown-haired boy hurriedly changed his words, but accidentally bit his tongue in a hurry, and immediately burst into tears with pain.Seeing his embarrassing posture covering his mouth in a hurry and desperately gasping for air, Akagi looked away helplessly, sighed, looked up at the ceiling, and said softly: "One of our friends, in order to help us lead away the bloody crowd, he himself Couldn't make it up."

"..."

Hearing this, Gang Ji forgot that his tongue was still hurting, and opened his eyes blankly: "No, not coming up means..."

After seeing Akagi's expression, he fell silent.

In this case, the symbolic meaning of this statement is self-evident.

Sawada Tsunayoshi couldn't help feeling remorse for his slip of the tongue.He drooped his head and said in a low voice, "...I'm sorry."

"It's nothing." Akagi shook his head, lightly pressed the brim of his hat with his index finger and thumb, raised his head and cast heavy gazes at the corner of the corridor, "That's a very good boy, and he is a very important person to Hatta, he will It is reasonable to be hit to this extent... In short, let him be alone for now."

Tsunade followed his gaze.Not far away, the orange-haired boy was sitting alone on the wreckage of the robot, staring at the thing in his hand in a daze.And at his feet was a baseball bat that had been severely deformed by the flames.

The brown-haired boy bit his lower lip and lowered his head deeply.

"...Yes, I understand."

……

After she actually sat down, Hatta Misaki felt her lungs tingling like fire.

This is caused by shortness of breath during strenuous exercise.In fact, his body should have reacted a long time ago, but until just now he had been ecstasy in fighting, his nerves had long been paralyzed, and only when he relaxed, the nerves in his brain would send out dull pain.

Hatta stared blankly at the baseball bat in his hand.The baseball bat had been twisted badly under the constant blows. Although it could still play a fighting role in his hands, it was at best a piece of scrap iron.He stared at the weapon that had been with him for a long time, and couldn't help being lost in thought for a while.

If Maya were here, she would definitely accuse him of not caring for herself with a worried tone.Obviously she is not a talkative person herself, and sometimes she is even messier than him, but when she encounters something about him, she suddenly becomes righteous, with a long-winded and serious look, which makes people completely do not know what to do refute.

Although I knew that she cared about me, it was annoying after listening to it for a long time.

...But that idiot would never speak to him in that tone again.

Hatta's vision blurred again.He gritted his teeth, raised his hand and rubbed his sore eyes fiercely, but the suffocation in his chest still couldn't dissipate.The pain accumulated in his chest stirred his rational nerves.After a long while, he finally couldn't help standing up angrily, as if he wanted to vent all the emotions accumulated in his heart, and threw the baseball bat to the ground with red eyes: "Damn it! If at the beginning..."

The crisp "ping-pong" sound of the baseball bat hitting the ground was extremely clear in the empty corridor.

——It would have been nice if he had pulled her back and refused to let her go.

... Although in this short 10 minutes, he thought about it countless times, but he actually understood.

No matter how regretful it is.

No matter how much I miss you.

——Already anyway...

In any case, it cannot be undone.

He hung his head and panted for a while, then sat down on the wreckage of the robot.And just as he sat down, a faint light suddenly broke into the corner of his vision.

Although the light was dim, it quickly caught Hatta's attention.He subconsciously turned his head to look.On the white marble floor not far away, a piece of iron the size of a little finger was shining under the white fluorescent lamp.

It seemed that it just accidentally fell out of his trouser pocket with his large movements.The orange-haired boy muttered impatiently, "What is this?", bent down to pick it up, and turned it over neatly.

However, when he saw its whole picture, he was stunned.

Lying quietly in the open palm is the Tokyo Butei High School emblem engraved with exquisite patterns.

The lines that make up the pattern of the gun are flying and unrestrained, and there is a dull pain when the fingertips touch the slightly protruding part.Yata held it tightly, and suddenly realized that this was the last thing Yazawa Maiya left for him before parting.

The cold and sharp-edged iron seemed to still be warm from the girl's fingers.Hatta stared at it blankly for a long while, his eyes turned red a little bit, and at the end, tears finally couldn't hold back and fell down.

The school badge that once belonged to Shinya was stained with transparent water in an instant.

The orange-haired boy kept reaching out to wipe away the falling tears, couldn't help but choked up, and cursed in a nasal voice:

"What the hell are you thinking, that idiot..."

the other side.

Maya and Hirobe were walking quickly along the corridor.

Indeed, as Hirobe said, if you follow the robot wreckage, it is not difficult to find Hatta and the others.But the biggest problem facing them at present is that they cannot confirm whether the route Hatta is taking is safe.But since the two don't know what the other routes are like, the best thing to do right now is to follow Hatta's footsteps and meet up with their companions.

...Moreover, Maki always has a faint intuition. ——That child, Asakami Harataro, would never easily make unfavorable judgments for himself.If he follows Hatta, at least it can be confirmed that this route will not be a dead end.

So, the two quickly finalized their goals, and then set off without stopping.Since the roadblocks had been cleared, they did not encounter any danger along the way.

The deeper you go, the more robots there are, sometimes so many that they pile up in the corridors, making it difficult for people to get off.Hirobe raised his leg and stepped over a piece of mechanical debris that was emitting black smoke, looked up at the black-haired girl walking in the front, and cautiously called out, "...Yazawa-chan?"

When he spoke, Shinya stopped, turned around, and stared at a wall in front of him, thinking about something.Hearing his weak voice, she turned her head in doubt: "What's wrong?"

"...Are you still angry?"

Mami was stunned for two seconds before realizing what he was saying.She smiled a little embarrassedly: "Ah, I'm fine now. Sorry, I scared you."

Hirobe stared at her for two seconds, and saw that the apology on her face did not seem to be fake, so he was relieved, shrugged exaggeratedly, and complained: "Yeah, Yazawa-chan before was really super-terrible, scared My liver is cracked, you have to pay me for the medical expenses when you go back."

... This man really opened a dyeing workshop just by giving some paint, his skin is extremely thick.Maya couldn't help but seriously consider whether he made a mistake in apologizing first.She suppressed the emotions on her face and said expressionlessly:

"Let's just crack it, it just so happens that the world is also clean."

"—Ehhh QAQ?! So ruthless!"

"Who told you to say something strange before." Mami sighed, and turned to look at the wall again, "Compared to this... Hirobe-kun, don't you think that these corridors are a bit strange?"

"Something's wrong...?"

Hirobe approached her blankly, stared at the wall in front of her, looked left and right, and muttered, "Is there anything different? I can't tell at all."

Mami didn't say a word, stretched out her hand, and moved her fingertips slowly on the wall for a while, finally stopped on a wall that didn't look unusual: "Hirobe-kun, please put your hand here."

The silver-haired boy obediently put his hand up.The next second, his eyes widened suddenly: "Ah, really! This wall is different from other parts, it seems to protrude a little bit!" As he spoke, he groped on that wall again. After a while: "This seems to be...the shape of a door?"

"It really is a door." Mami clenched his right hand into a fist and propped his chin in thought, "If this is the case, it seems that there will be a hidden door in every corridor."

Hearing this, Hirobe's movements paused, turned to look at her, and raised the corners of his mouth knowingly: "I see, I said just now why you stopped to touch the wall every time you passed a corridor, and this is actually the reason. How did you find out?"

"When Mr. Hirobe was exploring the aisle, I accidentally touched it on the wall, so I kept an eye on it."

Having said that, Mami paused.She stared at the snow-white wall in front of her without any flaws, and murmured: "But, what are these doors for?"

Hirobe shrugged.

"This is very simple, it is a secret passage."

"Dark way?"

"Ah. Think about it, how did those robots appear in such a completely enclosed place? It's impossible to wait here forever, or it would consume too much energy. So, I think, there should be someone there When the passing of people is detected, those big guys are sent over through this kind of secret passage.”

Saying that, Hirobe touched the wall again.

"If there is anything that can detect our tracks, it is undoubtedly the so-called surveillance camera. If there is such a surveillance, then our every move at this time is completely exposed to the other party's eyes Come on...cut, it's really annoying."

Hearing him snort slightly, Mami couldn't help but sigh.Under the current situation, besides losing contact with Misaki and Wuyue, the worst thing is being monitored.Then she thought, if this monitoring is for the entire Japanese network, will everyone who doesn't know Barbara see it?

If this assumption holds true, consider using this to send them some information...

Just when Shinya fell into deep thought, Hirobe's suppressed voice suddenly came from beside him: "...Hello, hello, Yazawa-chan."

Mami raised her head in bewilderment, "What's wrong?"

The silver-haired boy was facing the aisle in a daze.Hearing her voice, he turned his head slowly with a dull face, and pointed to the road in front of him: "That, that...the wreckage..."

Maki looked in the direction he was pointing.The next second, she froze suddenly.

What came into view was an empty corridor.

Under the bright fluorescent lights, the marble floors, which are as clean as they have just been scrubbed, are neatly arranged and gleaming.Even the white walls were completely new, as if nothing had happened.

——The robot wreckage that was piled up there just now quietly disappeared from under their noses in the blink of an eye.

A suffocating silence spread between the two of them.

Mami turned her head stiffly to look at Hirobe, and pulled out a dry smile: "Yeah, I guess I didn't read it wrong... Hirobe-kun, did you see any strange hallucinations? For example, the robots disappeared or something... ..."

Hirobe held his forehead and muttered.

"...Yeah, it's really a weird hallucination. I think I should go to the ophthalmology department after I go back——no, maybe the brain department should also see it. Yazawa-chan will pay me for the medical expenses. Liver treatment fee. Ha, ha ha ha ha..."

When he was halfway through the "ha" with a dull face.

——Suddenly, there was a light "click" from the wall at hand.

In the next second, before the two could react, the ground under their feet turned violently as the wall reversed.With a sense of dizziness, Maki only felt that the scene in the corridor disappeared in an instant before his eyes, and then his vision suddenly darkened.In the darkness where she couldn't reach her fingers, her body began to fall suddenly.

"Hahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

At the last moment before she lost consciousness, the last thing she heard was the whistling wind when her body fell, and the lingering sound of Hirobe's half-laughter turned into a scream and then crying and howling his mother.