Sky Striker Ace, but Symphogear

To better distinguish what each person was saying, the device she had made identified different voices and marked them in different colors.

She remembered that the voice she had marked orange-yellow belonged to...

"Ugh, I really can't deal with Miss Sakurai. It's definitely better to come out and hide for a while. Gulp, gulp."

Just as Raye was thinking, a flaxen-haired girl with an exhausted expression entered the changing room. Grumbling about something, she casually found a place to sit and began drinking canned milk.

[Hibiki Tachibana? Why is she here!?]

In an instant, alarm bells rang in Raye's mind, and every warning system went into overdrive. In that moment, she thought of countless possibilities that could have led to the current situation, then immediately rejected them one by one.

Hibiki Tachibana's protection level had clearly been raised. If she had appeared here, it meant that those government personnel were very likely nearby as well.

But that shouldn't have been possible. She and Chris had both disguised themselves, and they had come here solely because Chris had made the decision on a whim. Logically speaking, their movements shouldn't have been predictable.

[Calm down. Calm down. For now, it seems that there's only Hibiki Tachibana here, at least in this changing room. And Hibiki herself hasn't discovered my identity. There's no need to overreact.]

Before long, Raye managed to calm her mind again and began trying to understand the situation.

[In any case, I'll first call up a few reconnaissance drones and conduct a deep scan of the surrounding area...]

Thinking this, Raye solemnly operated the screen in her hands and began calling up backup drones, intending to use them to scout the area first.

Previously, because she hadn't thought soaking in a hot spring would pose any great danger, she hadn't set up particularly detailed surveillance here.

[It shouldn't be a major problem. As long as we haven't attracted attention, we're just ordinary tourists for now, so they shouldn't notice anything suspicious. But just in case, it's better to find a way to leave this dangerous place first. Once we're out of here, we'll have much more room to maneuver no matter what we do.]

While operating the tablet, Raye began considering how she could maximize her own gains while ensuring her safety.

[As long as we haven't attracted attention.]

Raye thought.

"What's wrong, Ruse? Why do you suddenly look so serious?"

Just then, Chris had finally adjusted her state of mind. Seeing that Raye had suddenly become serious for some reason, she felt somewhat puzzled and naturally asked her.

"Huh? There's someone else here?"

Her words also caught Hibiki Tachibana's attention, making her realize that a new guest had entered the hot spring's women's changing room.

"Hello! Are you here to enjoy the hot spring too? My name is Hibiki Tachibana. What about you?"

Then, whether out of instinct or simply because of her personality, the flaxen-haired girl naturally struck up a conversation with them.

"Tachibana... Hibiki? Wait, isn't that..."

Upon hearing the girl introduce herself, Chris paused before instantly recalling the mission target Raye had told her about earlier. She reflexively began to say something.

Bang—

In the blink of an eye, Raye used her body to block Chris from view, burying Chris's face in her chest and stopping her from speaking.

[Calm down, Chris. We absolutely can't reveal our identities here.]

Raye activated Telepathic Communication and began explaining the situation to Chris. Fortunately, despite what had happened earlier, Chris hadn't removed the telepathic communicator.

[What's going on, Raye? Why did our mission target suddenly spawn right in front of us like some kind of event reward monster?]

Although Raye's action had been somewhat... intimate, Chris understood the urgency of the situation and didn't care about it. Instead, she asked Raye about the current circumstances.

Chapter Forty-Six: Choice (4k)

[I don't know. I have no idea why Hibiki Tachibana would appear here.]

Raye spoke inwardly, and the tension in her voice was apparent.

[Then what should we do now, Raye? Should we capture her right now, here?]

Chris asked nervously yet excitedly.

If she could bring Fine's target back right now, then she and Fine's dream would certainly take a huge step forward.

[No. Not now. At least not yet. It's too dangerous.]

However, Raye quickly rejected Chris's reckless plan.

[The situation is unknown. We don't know how much combat power the other side has deployed here. It would be better to use a low-cost method to conduct a small probe first.]

Raye explained.

Since Hibiki Tachibana had appeared here, then considering the worst-case scenario, there might already be four or five mid-to-high-level combatants and more than a hundred miscellaneous soldiers lurking around her.

Moreover, Hibiki Tachibana herself was not an inanimate object like Durandal. She was an individual who could draw on the Relic fused within her body and erupt with an unknown degree of power at any time, possessing an unknown capacity for resistance.

In this complicated hot spring district, with unknown intelligence and an individual whose protective forces and ability to resist were both unknown, Raye would have to be out of her mind to agree to such a risky plan.

[In any case, I'll find a way to deal with Hibiki Tachibana here first. As for you, Chris, you can go do something else.]

While using Telepathic Communication to explain the plan to Chris, Raye released the embrace she had used to stop Chris from blurting out their identities.

[All right, I understand. Oh, right, Raye, this definitely doesn't count as our date. Don't forget to make it up to me next time.]

Chris agreed to Raye's request while emphasizing this through Telepathic Communication.

[Don't worry. I won't let you lose out, Chris.]

Raye gave the same assurance through Telepathic Communication, then turned around and faced Hibiki Tachibana while holding the tablet.

"Um, what were you doing just now?"

Seeing the black-clad, gray-haired girl turn around, Hibiki Tachibana asked in confusion. She didn't understand why merely saying hello had caused them to react so strangely.

"Just now? Ah, it was like this. Her body was feeling a little uncomfortable, so I gave her a quick massage to help relieve it."

Raye pressed her lips together and calmly gave the freshly invented excuse.

"Oh—she was feeling unwell? Is she sick, or is she injured? Do you need my help?"

Seeing no sign that the other girl was lying, Hibiki Tachibana accepted Raye's explanation without suspicion. Her naturally helpful nature seemed to have been triggered, and she immediately began asking whether Raye needed assistance.

"No, thank you for your concern. It's only a minor physical issue, nothing serious. I'm enough to look after her by myself."

Facing Hibiki Tachibana's enthusiastic offer of help, Raye glanced at the tablet she was holding like a drawing board and calmly declined.

"Oh, I see. That's good, then."

Hearing Raye say that, Hibiki Tachibana relaxed and put the little incident out of her mind.

"Whew... Speaking of which, you're Hibiki Tachibana, right? You came over to talk to us just now. Was there something you wanted?"

After handling Hibiki Tachibana's question, Raye sighed in relief and guided the conversation in another direction.

Thanks to Raye's timely recovery of the situation, the danger of their identities being exposed had basically been resolved. As long as they continued pretending to be ordinary tourists, there was little risk of their identities being revealed. Even if there was some risk, it was minimal.

[Fortunately, if we had been exposed, the cost of the subsequent investigation and the intensity of the battles we'd have to face might have risen by an entire level.]

Raye thought with lingering fear.

If the connection between the identity of Ruse and Raye were exposed here, not only would the risk of her surveillance drones being discovered increase sharply, but they might also deduce that she had been assigned to capture Hibiki Tachibana.

If that happened, Raye might have no choice but to fight a full-scale battle to the death against them while facing the Second Division's defensive fortifications.

Although Raye didn't think she would be the one to lose even in such a full-scale battle, she didn't want to make the mission any more difficult if it could be completed easily.

"Ah, I just saw that you were here to enjoy the hot spring too, so I wanted to say hello. Hee-hee."

Completely unaware of Raye's thoughts, Hibiki Tachibana continued chatting happily with Raye, who was, in a certain sense, lusting after her.

"Oh, I see. By the way, since you've told us your name, let us introduce ourselves too. I'm Ruse, and she's Christina."

Raye politely introduced their false identities to Hibiki Tachibana.

"Oh-oh, so you're Ruse-chan and Christina-chan."

After hearing Raye introduce her alias, Hibiki Tachibana habitually used affectionate nicknames.

"Wait, why did you suddenly skip straight to 'Christina-chan'?"

Raye showed no reaction to Hibiki Tachibana's words, but Chris nearly lost her composure. Calling someone so casually by a name ending in "-chan" right away was far too familiar.

"Well, Christina is a little long, so I shortened it a bit. Ah, so you don't like it, Christina-chan?"

Hibiki Tachibana gave a simple explanation with a foolish grin.

"Of course I mind, you BAKA..."

"It's fine. Don't worry about it, Hibiki. It's just one of Christina's habits."

[Chris, there's no need to argue with her over something so trivial. What you need to do now is reduce your presence as much as possible and avoid attracting their attention.]

Just as Chris was about to say something else, Raye stepped forward and blocked her from view, saying this to Hibiki Tachibana while soothing Chris through Telepathic Communication.

Although Raye didn't think the two of them would be exposed, she feared that saying too much could lead to mistakes. If Chris were allowed to speak freely, who knew what kind of trouble she might cause? The best choice was for Raye to handle all external communication and silence Chris.

[Mm, all right. I understand. I'll endure it.]

Understanding that this was no time to throw a tantrum, Chris suppressed her displeasure toward Hibiki Tachibana under Raye's reassurance.

[If you really feel uncomfortable, you can change your clothes and go soak in the hot spring for a while.]

[If you're worried that the underlayer is too embarrassing, you can find a cubicle and change out of it. I've unlocked that restraint suit for you, so you can take it off easily.]

[Also, pay attention to the procedures and taboos when bathing. Don't cause any unpleasant incident that draws people's attention.]

[If you don't want to soak in the hot spring, you can go to the shops outside and buy some snacks. I put the credit card in your clothes. Feel around and you'll find it.]

[There's enough money on the card for you to buy out the entire store, so don't worry too much about spending. Just buy whatever you like.]

[And if you go outside, remember to act naturally. Don't talk too much with others. If all else fails, say nothing and pretend to be aloof.]

Before Hibiki Tachibana had time to respond, Raye rapidly went through everything she needed to tell Chris, hoping to minimize the chance of anything going wrong.

[All right, all right, Raye. I understand.]

Listening to the endless stream of instructions in her mind, Chris touched the hard, rectangular card in her pocket and replied with a slight headache.

"Forget it. I'll go buy something outside. See you later."

In the end, Chris decided not to soak in the hot spring. Instead, she took the credit card and went to a nearby shop to buy some snacks.

After this incident, Chris had completely lost interest in bathing. She didn't want the memory of her first hot spring trip to be one of soaking alone while everyone else was gone.

"Eh, Christina-chan?"

Looking at the red-clad, white-haired girl's retreating figure as she fled, Hibiki Tachibana couldn't understand why she had suddenly left.

"Don't worry about it. She's just not good at dealing with people who have a personality like yours, Hibiki. It doesn't mean she dislikes you."

Raye explained Chris's behavior.

"Is that so?"

"That's right. By the way, judging by your age, you should still be in school, right? I seem to remember that today isn't a school holiday either. Why are you here enjoying the hot spring?"

After sending Chris away, Raye began multitasking. While using her equipment to scan the entire hot spring district, she tried to investigate why Hibiki Tachibana had come here through their conversation.

"Mm, it's because of all sorts of reasons. If I had to explain, I guess... the place where I work held a team-building event and brought me along. Something like that."

Hearing Raye's question, Hibiki Tachibana explained somewhat nervously why she had come here.

"Is that so? It seems the owner of the place where you work is fairly decent, then. What kind of work do you do, Hibiki? Are you a cashier or a sales clerk?"

[In other words, the Second Division brought her here. Whether or not the team-building story is true, it means this area is probably already filled with Second Division members. No wonder my operation at Lydian went so smoothly earlier. Most of the Second Division had probably already evacuated the place by the time I deployed my surveillance drones there.]

While dealing with Hibiki Tachibana, Raye made this deduction inwardly.

At that moment, the autonomous drones she had sent out to investigate had finished transmitting the images they had gathered nearby to her tablet.

After quickly scanning the footage, Raye spotted many familiar faces among them, further confirming her speculation.

"Well, um... I suppose you could call it cleaning work... maybe?"

On the other side, Hibiki Tachibana stopped to think for more than ten seconds before answering Raye's question uneasily.

"I see. So it's a job like being a cleaner? I didn't expect you to have started working at such a young age, Hibiki. That's really impressive."

Apparently not minding Hibiki's unusually long pause, the black-clad, gray-haired girl smiled and praised her.

"Ahaha, it's really nothing impressive. After all, um... I'm not exactly the most capable person at the company. There are seniors who are much better than me."

Rubbing the back of her head, Hibiki Tachibana gave an awkward laugh. She didn't want to continue the topic. Because of the confidentiality agreement, she had no choice but to lie, yet she really wasn't very good at lying.

[If I'd known this would happen, I wouldn't have said I had a part-time job. Making up lies is exhausting.]

Hibiki Tachibana regretted it.