Episode 216: The Supreme Court
“Whoa, hold on!”
Ignoring the flustered Yuma and Rui, Akito opened the door and began fiddling with the area around the handle.
“Akito! That’s stealing. We’ll get in trouble!”
To Rui, who tried to stop him, Akito said, “I’m just borrowing it for a bit, keep quiet,” and wouldn’t listen.
“Besides, the owner’s already run off, right? Even if we use it, no one’s gonna make a fuss.”
“There’s no key, is there!?”
Rui, thinking he was looking for the key, raised his voice, but—
“Are you an idiot! I’m not looking for a key. Watch my skills!”
Akito destroyed the cover around the handle with Thunder Magic, pulling out the wiring. He gathered Lightning Magical Power at his fingertips, creating a small “blade of Lightning.”
He cut the wires with that blade, short-circuiting the electrical system.
“There’s no way something like that from a movie would work,”
Rui said, looking exasperated, but the engine started with a vroom.
“Hah hah hah, how’s that! I can do it with an old car like this, are you surprised?”
Yuma and Rui frowned, perplexed, wondering, “Where did he learn that skill…”
“Hurry up and get in! We’re leaving.”
Akito, already sitting in the driver’s seat, gripped the steering wheel.
When Rui asked, “You don’t have a license, do you?” he showed no remorse, saying, “I can drive without one!”
“In the first place, even if I had a Japanese license, it wouldn’t matter overseas! Stop complaining and get in!”
Yuma and Rui exchanged glances, wondering what to do, but faced with Akito’s goading, “Hey, hey, hey,” they couldn’t say anything.
Reluctantly, Rui got in the passenger seat, and Yuma got in the bed of the pickup truck, and they set off for the city of Cuttack in Odisha.
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“I got so lost because the car navigation doesn’t work,”
Akito muttered as he turned the steering wheel.
After about two hours, the three of them arrived in Cuttack and looked around from inside the car. The cityscape resembled Indonesia, and it wasn’t exactly a metropolis.
Cars were abandoned everywhere on the public roads, so they had to weave through them. There were few people around, and they had only seen a few since entering Cuttack.
Being the front lines of the battle, only Seekers were likely left.
“It seems the Mana is interfering with the GPS. We’ll have to look at the map and go to our destination,”
Rui, sitting in the passenger seat, spread out a map and checked the route. They were heading for the Supreme Court, which served as the Seeker base in Cuttack.
“It should be left on this road…”
As Rui said, Akito turned the steering wheel to the left and entered a narrow alley. While worrying, “Is this okay?” they drove for a while until they saw a red building.
“Ah, that’s it. That building!”
Rui said excitedly, pointing. Akito also sighed, “We finally arrived.”
They stopped the pickup truck in front of the gate, and the two got out of the car. When Rui looked in the truck bed, Yuma was asleep, carefully holding the bag containing his Pickel.
“Yuma, we’re here.”
Rui tapped his shoulder, trying to wake Yuma up. He thought, “How can he sleep in such a shaky truck bed?” but Yuma seemed quite tired from using unfamiliar Fire Magic.
The only way to recover Magical Power was to rest. Sleeping was also an important form of rest.
While thinking about that, Yuma woke up.
“Huh? Oh, we’re here.”
Yuma stretched greatly before standing up and jumping out of the truck bed.
The three passed through the red gate and entered the grounds of the Supreme Court. Several men were at the building entrance, looking at them suspiciously.
One of the men stood in front of Yuma and the others, pointing something like a baton at them.
“What’s this? You guys aren’t from around here. Who are you?”
The three stopped and looked at the man, who was exuding hostility.
“Hey, these guys have translation devices in their ears like us. Are they Seeker reinforcements from overseas?”
When Akito asked Rui, Rui said, “No,” and denied it.
“India has multiple languages within the country. There are probably many people gathered here from various regions.”
“Is that so?”
The man with the baton frowned as Akito and Rui started talking on their own.
“What are you muttering about? I said, who are you!?”
Rui stepped forward and started talking to defuse the situation, holding back Akito, who was starting to get angry at the man’s overbearing attitude.
“Excuse me. We are Seekers from Japan. We are here as an official response to the Indian government’s request for assistance. Is there a person in charge here?”
When Rui said that, the man looked puzzled and went to report to his companions behind him.
After about three minutes of conversation, the man returned.
“I haven’t heard anything about that. You guys are suspicious, get out of here!”
“Huh!? Are you picking a fight!”
Akito snapped and became enraged. He looked like he was about to jump at any moment, but Rui stepped in and somehow stopped him.
“Leave this to me.”
Admonished by Rui, Akito clicked his tongue and crossed his arms, sulking.
Yuma also thought that if he went, it would turn into a fight. He decided to leave the response to the man to Rui.
“We know that New Delhi was attacked by Monsters. The government’s information transmission must not be working well. However, we are here as reinforcements for the Indian Seekers, so it shouldn’t be a bad thing for you all. Please, won’t you let us participate in the battle?”
When he said that much, the man also started scratching his head and worrying.
The man with the baton went to his companions again and started talking. This time, two of his companions went inside the building.
It seemed they were asking for instructions from someone higher up.
The three breathed a sigh of relief and decided to wait for the result.
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“This way. Come in.”
After about thirty minutes, the man returned. He opened the building’s door and urged them to enter.
Yuma and the others looked at each other, but there was no choice but to go. They entered the building as the man told them.
Marble floors and solid concrete walls. Several wooden doors lined the hallway.
The exterior was a magnificent building, but the interior was even more solid. It might be a good place to use as a Seeker base.
“This place was a courthouse, right? It’s my first time entering a place like this,”
Yuma said nonchalantly, and Rui nodded, “That’s right.”
“It seems it wasn’t just any courthouse, but originally the Supreme Court. Well, I don’t know what kind of judicial system India has, but it’s definitely a prestigious place.”
“Heeh.”
Yuma followed the man, looking around.
The man knocked on a door on the second floor, said, “Excuse me,” and turned the doorknob. Yuma and the others followed him into the room.
It was a place like an office. It wasn’t very large, but there was an old wooden desk. The person sitting there looked up.
“Good work, you can leave.”
The man who had guided them bowed and left the room.
In the room were Yuma and the other two, and one person sitting in an office chair. Long, beautiful hair and exotic features.
Her bangs covered her left eye, but her bewitching beauty was evident.
“Nice to meet you, I am Dasha Baramon, who leads the Indian Seeker Clan. Welcome, guests from Japan.”
The person who stood up was a dignified woman over 170 centimeters tall.