Koneko was looking at me seriously. Was it my imagination that her cheeks were red? We were just talking about what happened.
"...No. Ise-senpai wears a warrior face when it's important. Even though you usually have a lewd look..."
...Seriously? Did I really have that kind of lewd face normally?
As I was touching my face with my hand—.
"—!"
Koneko suddenly looked up at the ceiling ahead of us.
"...Above!"
As I followed the gaze of the surprised Koneko—.
Stretching straight up to the ceiling was a rope—no, a line! Descending from the ceiling using that Tarzan-like rope was—.
"—Hyoudou! The first attack is ours!"
It was Saji! He prepared to attack me while positioning himself for a knee kick! Moreover, there was someone on Saji's back!
I quickly guarded using my gauntlet as a shield!
Dogon!
The impact of the combined force of the momentum of their fall, the kick, and the weight of two people was transmitted to my body through my gauntlet!
My stance shook from the force of the attack, but I recovered, and I prepared to advance on the enemy in front of me.
"Yo, Hyoudou."
Saji had appeared. Next to him, the one who had been riding on his back was a girl. A member of the student council, huh. I think she was a first-year student. She often acted together with Saji from behind him.
Saji's right arm had a black snake wound around it several times. Its shape was different from before! There had just been a deformed lizard head there before. Did his Sacred Gear evolve?
There was also a line connecting to my right hand, but...it wasn't connected to Saji's Sacred Gear. Rather, it seemed to be tied to something far away. Was this line connected all the way to the enemy base?
It was weird, but it didn't feel like my power was being sucked away.
Saji noticed that I was looking at his Sacred Gear and spoke while smiling bitterly.
"Well, I did some training. The result of that is this. So, when I had stuck a line in the ceiling and rose up in order to observe the store interior from above, I saw two people hiding under cover further away. Since you didn't notice me, I used that brief chance to do a Tarzan attack."
I see.
"I also trained. I spent almost all my summer vacation being chased by a dragon! And it was not pretty."
Just then an announcement reached the ears of me and Koneko.
[One of Rias Gremory-sama's "Bishops" retired.]
—! What!? Which one! Hadn't the game just started!? Asia was with Buchou, so— Saji grinned.
"The one that was taken out is most likely Gasper-kun."
...Gasper was taken out? That was too fast, wasn't it? Wasn't he transformed into bats and moving around the inside of the store for the sake of surveillance?
"Gasper was caught."
Saji continued as I thought dubiously.
"We were contacted and told that Gasper-kun's Sacred Gear was sealed according to the rules. As such, it was inevitable that he would use his vampire powers instead. [He will change into bats and observe the situation within the store]. This is what Kaichou thought. So we utilized our base."
Your base? That was the grocery store. Saji continued further.
"First, one of our members moves suspiciously at the Sitri base. Then, Gasper-kun, who was doing surveillance, would naturally be interested and follow them, you know? Then, when we showed more suspicious behavior, he would call the other bats he had launched and start to observe with several of them. When all the many bats had gathered, that's when it happened. If something happens to the bats when all of them are gathered, they revert back to Gasper's body. Near the place where the bats had assembled together was garlic, a vampire's greatest dislike. Our base is a grocery store on the first floor of the west side. There were large quantities of garlic left there. It was easy to catch Gasper with that."
So they captured and took him out while he was incapacitated by the smell of garlic. Ah, Sona is good with mind games. I need to say she is above Rias in that matter.
"It's pretty simple, right? But even if I say that, this method of taking him out won't work again. Kaichou said that, no matter how much training he did, he still wouldn't be close to overcoming his aversion to garlic yet. It was a lucky coincidence that we had a base at such a location, but even so, a defeat is a defeat."
No, no matter how effective it is on you, you should be able to withstand garlic to a point, Gasper! From the start, that joke is too overdone already!
After this is over, I'll replace your normal food with garlic rice and garlic toast! You can't just withdraw from the front lines without doing sufficient surveillance!
Having gotten mad, I tried to activate my Sacred Gear, but—.
[Partner, doubling is dangerous. Now that you're connected to that guy's Sacred Gear, you'll have part of your power stolen by him if you double.]
—Saji's Sacred Gear has the ability to suck in energy from the thing it is connected to—
[To detach this line, you have no choice but to blow it away by using the after-shocks from activating Balance Breaker.]
"Already then, [Balance breaker]."
~~~
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