The official response from the General Inspections office took less than five minutes. The ones spared by Saeko dialed the task force's emergency hotline. It helped that network connections these days are present on satellites, not on signal towers. Fixing the outposts that received the connection allowed them to keep their communication lines intact.
Upon receiving their call, the officials judged Saeko and the other unknown man to be extremely dangerous. They dispatched one of the city's strongest espers along with a hundred-man team. Part of it is to facilitate their surrender. The other is to keep their losses to the minimum.
With Nobuyuki's death, the Sword Art Online group's affairs are completely exposed to the shelter's higher ups. They viewed the group as well as the two espers that aided them as extremely dangerous. Anyone related to them is scheduled to be interrogated; detained at worst.
Things were going in an orderly manner… until the hundred-man group was utterly defeated.
"Manners are no longer prevalent in Tokyo. This kind of power tripping… even I hadn't done it."
Everyone who got thrown off-ground looked at the source of the voice. Its frivolousness showed utter disrespect towards their authority.
"That man acted arbitrarily without asking questions. I only did the same. You, yes, the…"
Eishi's words stopped when he saw a somewhat familiar face amidst the fallen officers. The dead fish look and the unkempt hair was unmistakable. His snarky attitude and confidence in his methods, only to change for the better after a series of challenges, was what made his character remarkable.
Out of all the light novels he had seen, Hikigaya Hachiman takes one of the top spots when it comes to being a memorable character.
As if sensing his gaze, Hachiman's eyes met Eishi's.
"Superpowers cannot be used."
The moment these words left Hachiman's lips, a restriction was imposed on Eishi. He saw as this strange force enveloped his milky white core, forcing its way through but to no avail.
He tried to use [Time Dominator] but to no avail. Eishi checked on the other talents. Nothing changed.
'It's just the innate talent. Also…'
The restriction felt like paper. He could easily pierce through it as he wills, and so he did.
Crack-!
Shatter-!
Click.
The familiar time stop turned the world into pale gray.
Eishi looked at Hachiman. He did not see a trace of orange light from him. Out of everyone, only three out of ten harbored orange lights.
As for the green lights, there are aplenty. Eishi estimates there are hundreds of hiding places of different evolution fruits. There are also moving green lights, with Shino being a part of them.
Clearly, confidantes who met his SSS rated criteria are included on the scope of his 'opportunities'.
There are two more slots, but it won't hurt to have more…'
He made sure there are no longer any other weapons capable of threatening Saeko before undoing the time stop.
Nothing seemed to have changed except for a clear pathway leading out of the encirclement.
They weren't able to react when two figures blitzed this open path, leaving the hundred or so men dumbfounded.
Hachiman, who had met Eishi's gaze earlier, only has one thought in his mind:
'What kind of monster did we encounter?'
*****
"What do you think of it? Tokyo."
"Leagues ahead of Yokohama."
Saeko shook her head in this comparison. Whether in terms of 'unity', strength, and manpower, it is a far cry from Souichiro's city hall. Without Eishi's help, they might have fallen long ago.
Saya's mother becoming its sole second-order esper made everything stable. Beside that, Yokohama is leagues behind Tokyo's current development.
Their talks continued as they reached the villa Eishi bought in Tokyo. Since he had money, he bought several villas in every city and filled it with some supplies. They jumped over the locked gate, reaching the front door.
Shino had just opened it when she saw the two disregard the five-meter-tall gate. At the same time, Eishi saw her real appearance.
Aside from her neon light blue hair turning into brown, there are no notable differences.
"It is nice meeting you, Asada-san."
"...Likewise, Hiraoka-san."
She stared at his face uncontrollably. Shino wasn't surprised to see his in-game avatar corresponding to his real-life appearance. It was his temperament that caught her off guard.
Being around him makes her feel an inexplicable sense of security.
"Mind if we talk inside?"
"Y-yes."
She let the two in before closing the villa's door. Once the three reached the living room, an awkward air came from the two women.
"Saeko, this is Asada-san." He paused before looking towards Shino. "Asada-san, this is Busujima-san."
That brief introduction broke down the unfamiliarity between the two. They exchanged nods before Shino explained their troubles.
"Yuuki-san… The leader of the Sword Art Online group, decided to leave Tokyo tonight."
"Leaving Tokyo? How?"
"That… I am not sure. She told me to meet up at Shibuya Station later at eight."
"This is dangerous."
Eishi's single comment silenced Shino. She knew herself how dangerous this reckless plan was. It was just that they had no other choice than to bite the bullet. They had already offended Tokyo's higher-ups, more so when Eishi killed Nobuyuki.
"I want to meet them. Do you have a way?"
"A-ah?"
His request startled her.
"Right now?"
"Yes."
"Hold on."
Shino dialed Asuna's number. It took a while before the other side picked it up.
"Asada-san, what's the matter?"
"My friend wants to talk with you."
"The one that…"
"Yes. It is him."
"...I understand."
Shino passed her phone to Eishi. He did not hesitate to start the conversation with this familiar yet unfamiliar woman.
"Greetings, Yuuki-san. Asada-san told me about your predicament, and I can help."
"...Hiraoka-san, is it? What do you want in return?"
A thin smile appeared on his lips. Asuna's toughness was there when she was the Knights of Blood's Vice Guild Leader. The apocalypse's descent merely brought back her decisive self.
"I want your group to work under me. As you have heard, I came from Yokohama. I need a team who will respond to my orders in Tokyo. Of course, this comes with a bunch of rewards. Fruits, techniques, esper knowledge, I can give them all based on your merits…"
At this moment, Eishi's 100% win-rate fish bait appeared to hook someone else once again.
*****
Sword Art Online.
It is a game that brought 10,000 people together, for better or for the worse. It was supposed to be the world's first ever virtual reality game, capable of simulating the five senses to a large extent. It is an epoch-making technology produced by a prodigy named Kayaba Akihiko.
Everyone was caught off guard by the following stunt he made. Upon its first day of release, everyone currently online was trapped inside the game. There are no log-out buttons. Those who tried to pull the plug on the Nervegear had their brains fried by the EMP inside.
This act forced the players to traverse Aincrad, the floating castle, and reach the hundredth floor. Only then would they be able to leave this death game.
The entirety of Sword Art Online lasted for over two years. Kirigaya Kazuto, the Black Swordsman, uncovered a huge farce.
The guild master of the largest guild, Knights of Blood, turned out to be Kayaba Akihiko in disguise!
It resulted in a confrontation, to which Kazuto managed to delay his impending death through sheer willpower. He ended up bringing down Kayaba with him, freeing everyone still alive from the death game.
The ensuing aftermath was huge. A large portion of their survivors suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Some could not cope with the real world's laws. The cases of psychosis went up rampantly until they managed to form resolutions that processed the survivors' damaged psyche.
They are to regularly visit their designated psychologists. As for those who got held back two years due to the death game, a special institution was built for them in Tokyo—the SAO Survivor School.
It housed all of the minors who got trapped into the death game. The institution offered various courses, making it no different from normal school. Only, about twenty percent of its population are a part of the high-level clearing team. Their reaction times are swift, allowing them to create split second decisions.
It was this experience that allowed the SAO Survivor School to become one of the most prominent esper groups out of the entire Tokyo. They possessed combat experience from the game unlike the others. The fact it formed an esper group of more than a hundred people speaks for itself.
Its leader, Yuuki Asuna, has a prestige that goes way back to the Aincrad days. She also has the Black Swordsman, the clearer of Sword Art Online, with her.
This line-up was supposed to be invincible if given the time to develop, but unfortunately, they were not given time.
Nobuyuki ordered the task force members beneath him to arrest Yuuki Asuna in the name of suspected murder. It was baseless. Heck, even those officers are all bought by Nobuyuki.
Asuna was supposed to come with them, but when the others heard of the truth arrogantly revealed by the officers, everyone lost their calm. The official shelter's officers died in their hands.
With this stain, Nobuyuki turned the baseless claim into a legitimate one, sending one task force team after another to subdue, if not eliminate this dangerous esper group.
The original 200-member team dwindled to 120 in the past five days. Their large numbers made it difficult to run away, which led to them splitting up in twelve groups. This further increased their fatality rates.
Today, Asuna checked on them and lost contact with three teams. The weight of their predicted deaths bore heavily in her heart.
'If I came with them…'
Kazuto, who was about to comfort her, bit his lower lip. A sense of helplessness emerged in his chest.
Just then, shocking news came.
"Shino-san? Do you need help?!"
"No. Nobuyuki… he is dead."
"Ah..?"
Nobuyuki. Dead.
These two words shouldn't have come together. His defenses at the General Inspection Office are sky-high. There are dozens of espers inside along with hundreds of armed men. Under the wrath of gunfire, first-order espers are targets to be mowed down.
"M-my friend… He took care of them."
Asuna fell silent. Breathless, even.
"Friend" meant singular.
She could hardly believe one person could do such a feat. Her doubts are understandable. Both Asuna and Kazuto awakened SSS rated talents. They are unaware of the esper ratings, though they have a hunch that their talents are 'stronger' than others.
The worst thing about it was resource consumption. While others raised up four stars, they only went up a single star. The attribute disparity between them and the lower rated espers is becoming more apparent. Their saving grace was their talents' inherent 'hack-like' capabilities.
However, Shino is a trustworthy ally—friend, even. She would not lie when it comes to it.
"...Bring your friend over. We need to escape from Tokyo today."
Whether it was true or false, Asuna pinpointed their current predicament. They can no longer stay in Tokyo.
The call ended.
"Kirito-kun. Nobuyuki… Asada-san said he was killed."
"What? How?"
Asuna briefly mentioned Shino's friend.
"I wasn't clear with the specifics, but she is likely to be telling the truth. Asada-san won't lie."
"...Then we need to move even faster."
"That is right."
After a brief period of rest, Asuna issued orders through the radio frequency they were in. She voiced out the 'code word' they agreed upon, which means they have to leave Tokyo with all of their means.
They were moving when Shino called for the second time. It was the moment Eishi entered into the fray, offering his help in exchange of the group's command.
As if the prior temptations weren't enough, he decided to spill some basic esper knowledge.
"I classified espers per order. These orders are further divided into stars. First-order one star, two stars, up to nine stars…"
Eishi's classification opened up her eyes, halting her feet.
"Then, there are second-order, third-order, and so on. I hope you get the gist."
"...I got it."
"Roughly speaking, almost all of the espers I encountered sit in the first-order. They are vulnerable to guns and the like. You, along with everyone else, are at this level."
Soon, Eishi's intentions were revealed.
"The reason why I managed to kill Nobuyuki is that…"
He made a dramatic pause before continuing:
"I am a third-order esper."
*****
A/N: Time and time, I felt like I forgot something. Then it dawned on me.
Eishi's reference picture.
For forty-eight freaking chapters, I forgot to place it here. I used Tenjou Yuuya's looks as a basis (with his brown hair being black), mainly because I got ragebaited too hard by this novel. I read it like 5 years ago. When it recently got an anime, I remembered how much I got ragebaited by it (again). There are so many infuriating things the novel did. I won't detail it here.
Feel free to search "I Got a Cheat Ability in a Different World, and Became Extraordinary Even in the Real World" on Novelupdates. Every single one-star review shares my sentiment…