NOVEL NEXT Chapter 17 - Encounter
Time goes back a little.
“……This place is wrong too……”
12:30 PM. In the Tokyo Bay area.
A girl walked out of an apartment near the sea.
Blonde hair and red eyes. Her flawless white skin enhanced her appearance. It was fair to call her a beautiful girl.
Alicia Edelhart, a sixteen-year-old high school student.
“Well, I skipped school today. I’m just a government worker now.”
Alicia attended a national high school.
Being intelligent, she was a top student. Her abilities were also ‘S-Rank,’ making her a candidate for the next ‘Top Ten.’
However, she had a problem. Her work often forced her to take unavoidable absences. Her teachers knew her situation, but her friends did not.
“So, Alicia is just like me,” a cute voice came through the communicator at her ear.
“Shut up. You just don’t go to school,” Alicia retorted.
“What?! I go when I have to!” the voice, sounding slightly childish, protested.
Despite the voice, the girl on the other end was also a high school student like Alicia.
At sixteen, she was a top-class hacker, the only member of the ‘Special Abilities Division’s’ information team.
She spent her days lazily but worked nightly for peace. This girl was Takayashiki Mio.
“If Mikoyuki went to school, I’d go too,” Mio said.
“……”
Alicia conversed with Mio through the communicator as she walked down the street.
She couldn’t talk to Mio face-to-face. The last time they met, Mio exclaimed, “Such a cute girl near Mikoyuki!? You better not be doing anything weird to him!” making any conversation impossible.
Alicia’s thoughts drifted to the events at the movie theater yesterday.
“Alicia…?” Mio’s voice brought her back.
“Where’s the next location?” Alicia asked, checking her smartphone and heading to the location Mio had indicated.
Currently, Alicia and her team were searching for ‘Collad Bomb’s’ headquarters by investigating past locations they might have used. Originally, it was Mikoyuki’s job, but due to Genkō’s arrival, Alicia and Mio were assigned.
Typically, tasks for the Special Abilities Division were carried out in pairs for immediate assistance from headquarters—mainly Mikoyuki. Mikoyuki had special permission to work alone.
This was already their eighth search. The headquarters were usually in abandoned buildings. Many areas in the Tokyo Bay were still undeveloped, with plenty of unoccupied buildings.
In other words, it was a perfect place to hide.
“Eh…?”
At a crosswalk near the station, Alicia, weaving through people, turned around.
The scent of perfume, like flowers, from the girl she just passed brought a sense of nostalgia. The girl with silver hair to her shoulders wore a white dress, contrasting with Alicia’s black top.
“Gabriel…?”
Alicia suddenly remembered her younger sister who died over a decade ago. A precious, adorable sister who always clung to her. The girl she just passed reminded her strongly of her sister. Alicia instinctively followed her. The girl, unaware, turned a corner and disappeared into a dim alley, right where Alicia suspected Collad Bomb’s headquarters to be.
“It can’t be…”
Even if it was just her imagination, it was dangerous for a girl to go alone there.
As a law enforcement officer, Alicia’s sense of justice urged her to step into the dim alley.
Minutes passed. Alicia, now jogging, navigated the narrow paths.
Something was wrong—no sign of anyone after all this searching. The desolate alley, surrounded by abandoned buildings, felt oppressive. A crow cawed.
“……”
In the silence, a dull clash of two ices echoed.
Before Alicia stood the girl from earlier.
Her cold, blue eyes locked onto Alicia.
The ice on the ground vanished as if it melted away.
“Let’s get to the point. Are you with Collad Bomb?”
“……”
The girl didn’t answer, but ice emerged at her feet, spreading toward Alicia.
“If so, I’ll make you talk!” Alicia summoned pillars of ice, leaping onto one to avoid the advancing ice.
“What’s happening there!?” Mio shouted, sensing the situation from the audio.
“I’m fighting a silver-haired girl! Send my last GPS to headquarters!” Alicia responded, but the communicator was suddenly filled with noise. She landed on a wall, noticing a black object in the girl’s hand.
“Jamming…!”
Clicking her tongue, Alicia shot small hail at the girl. The hail, with incredible speed, attacked, but the girl summoned an ice wall to defend herself.
“Another ice attribute ‘creation and manifestation’ user…!” Alicia exclaimed.
“Why are you here?” the girl asked, glaring at Alicia as an ice storm approached.
“At first, I thought it was dangerous for a girl to be here alone…! But it seems that’s not necessary,” Alicia retorted, dodging the ice and launching medium-sized ice shards.
The ice battle heated up, cold winds blowing down the summer alley.
“Kyaa…”
An ice shard hit near Alicia’s feet. She stumbled, landing on the icy asphalt. Suddenly, she felt dizzy.
“Ugh…what…”
Dizziness, fatigue, and unbearable cold assaulted her. She shivered, her face flushed.
“This ice…?”
The ice at her feet climbed up her shoes, intensifying the sensation. Alicia tried to overwrite it with her own ice.
“…I can’t overwrite it?”
In same-attribute abilities, the stronger user’s power prevails.
“She’s stronger…than me?”
The girl, still with icy eyes, stared at Alicia.
It was unbelievable. Alicia had trained her powers for ten years, aiming to defeat Collad Bomb, enduring grueling training nightly. She prided herself on being the best of her generation, apart from Mikoyuki. Yet now…
“Regret later! Focus on the mission, Alicia Edelhart…!”
Frustration and helplessness swirled within her. She couldn’t fail here. Mikoyuki would scold her. Alicia, encouraging herself, focused on the girl.
“Alicia… Edelhart?”
The girl repeated her name as if confirming it, her demeanor changing from earlier.
“No way…”
The girl’s earlier bravado faded. She seemed scared of the truth before her.
“No way”
Alicia realized. The same-attribute abilities were rare, especially with such similarity. Unless they were blood-related—siblings.
“You…could you be?”
The ice vanished, warm wind brushing their hair. In the silence, Alicia was about to speak the truth when—
“Sorry, but could you not harm my friends any further?”
The air grew heavy. The oppressive atmosphere pressed down. Alicia, breaking into a cold sweat, looked behind the girl at a black-haired boy who had suddenly appeared. A certainty filled her mind. Without hesitation, she spoke.
“You’re—”
“My name is Shiroba Souichi. Yes, I’m the boss of your enemy, ‘Collad Bomb.'”
“The mastermind!!”
In an instant, Alicia launched an ice spear at the boy—Shiroba Souichi.