Chapter 88: The expedition group was almost discovered.
Ayane answered the question Luna asked her in a way that wouldn’t sound suspicious.
"No, I don’t think so."
Reina answered too quickly.
"We never saw you."
Misaki looked at her and Luna narrowed her eyes further.
"Your voice sounds familiar."
Reina picked up her coffee.
"I have a common voice."
"I can assure you that’s not the case."
"I say it is."
"And I don’t believe you."
Ayane intervened.
"Maybe she confused us with other people."
Luna looked directly at her, to which Ayane tried to keep a neutral expression.
The barrier was still working, so after a few seconds, Luna stepped away.
"Perhaps."
She returned to the counter and the three of them waited before saying anything.
Misaki was the first to speak.
"That was close."
Reina drank her coffee.
"We could defeat her if she finds us out."
Ayane shook her head.
"We didn’t come here to fight."
"How boring."
"Besides, Noah is here."
Reina smiled.
"Ah, right, you..."
Ayane realized the slip.
"I meant it would be dangerous for civilians!"
"Sure."
Misaki looked at the wall clock.
"Her shift ends in forty minutes."
Ayane grew serious.
"We’re staying."
Reina raised an eyebrow.
"Are you going to order another cake to justify it?"
Ayane looked at the plate, since she still hadn’t tried the first one.
Reina smiled.
"I thought you’d like it because Noah chose it for you."
Ayane immediately took a bite and Reina laughed again.
Forty minutes later, the three of them left the café and hid on a side street while waiting for Noah to finish his shift.
Misaki had managed to memorize part of the shop’s layout, while Reina had managed to get Noah to serve her three times and Ayane had managed to put her photograph away again without Reina being able to take it from her.
It could be considered a partial success, but then Misaki pointed toward the corner.
"We’ve got company."
Ayane looked and saw three women who remained near the café’s back exit, who clearly weren’t customers.
Ayane recognized one of them, who belonged to another unit of the organization, so her expression changed.
"Unit Nine."
Reina stopped smiling.
"They found the place too."
Misaki observed their positions.
"They’re preparing a tail."
Ayane clenched her teeth.
The staff door opened and Noah came out accompanied by Luna.
Luna spoke with him for a few minutes and then they separated when they reached an intersection, so Noah continued alone toward the station.
The three members of Unit Nine began to follow him, so Ayane took a step, but Misaki stopped her.
"What are you doing?"
"Stopping them."
"We also have orders to capture him."
"Today we’re only watching."
"But they aren’t."
Reina smiled.
"Jealous?"
"No, it’s not because of that!"
"Then let’s let them capture him."
Ayane looked at her.
"That would be irresponsible."
"Why?"
"We don’t know what they’ll do with him."
"The order says they can keep him."
"Exactly."
Reina let out a small laugh.
"Does that bother you a lot?"
Ayane ignored the comment and activated a small amount of energy.
The three women were following Noah from about twenty meters away.
One of them took something out of her pocket, which looked like a tracking device, but Ayane moved two fingers and the device stopped working.
The woman hit it several times, but the device didn’t respond.
Misaki observed that.
"Interference caused by magic?"
"Yes."
The second member tried to communicate through an earpiece, but Ayane altered the frequency, so the woman heard a loud noise and took the earpiece off.
Reina seemed entertained watching that.
"What’s next?"
"Don’t do anything."
"I could throw something at them."
"Denied."
"Just a small monster."
"Denied."
Unit Nine sped up so as not to lose Noah.
Ayane saw a pedestrian traffic light, so she used a small electrical discharge caused by magic and the light changed, making Noah cross.
The three women were stopped by the traffic and one tried to advance anyway, but a vehicle honked, at which Noah looked back.
The women pretended to be waiting normally.
Ayane waited until Noah turned the next corner before deactivating the interference and, when the unit was able to cross, he was no longer in sight.
One of the women hit a wall in frustration and Reina started laughing.
"That was cruel."
"I prevented a kidnapping."
"Our job is to kidnap him, you know?"
"Not today."
Misaki crossed her arms.
"Just admit that your logic has flaws."
"My logic keeps the mission under control."
Reina approached Ayane.
"And keeps Noah away from other units."
Ayane avoided looking at her.
"Th-That also avoids internal conflicts."
"Yeah, right."
Meanwhile, Noah was walking toward the station.
He had noticed three women behind him shortly after leaving the café.
At first he thought they were just going in the same direction, but then they started speeding up every time he did, so Noah was already considering calling Luna when the traffic light changed just as he arrived.
He crossed and, when he looked again, the women had been left trapped on the other side of the street, so Noah took the opportunity to change routes.
After walking several blocks, he no longer saw anyone following him, so he sighed in relief.
’I got lucky.’
He took out his phone and considered telling Luna, but then he imagined her reaction.
She would probably fly back, check the entire area and want to accompany him home for the rest of the week.
Noah put the phone away.
’It was just a coincidence.’
He kept walking.
Several streets away, Ayane watched as he disappeared among the people.
Misaki was at her side, the same as Reina.
"So..."
Reina said.
"Are we still pretending we want to capture him?"
Ayane frowned.
"We want to complete the mission."
"You just prevented another unit from completing it."
"Because they acted without preparation."
"And if tomorrow another unit arrives better prepared?"
Ayane stayed silent, so Reina smiled and Misaki answered for her.
"She’ll sabotage that one too."
Ayane turned.
"I-I didn’t say that!"
"You don’t need to."
Reina started walking.
"Our team is weird."
Ayane followed her.
"Why?"
"We have orders to capture Noah, but we end up protecting him from those who try to capture him."
Misaki adjusted her glasses.
"It’s an operational contradiction."
"It’s not a contradiction."
Ayane said.
"We’re preventing other units from interfering with our mission."
Reina looked back.
"Yeah, sure."
Ayane pressed her lips together, since she had no intention of admitting it.
She had no intention of saying that the idea of another unit capturing Noah felt completely unacceptable to her.
Nor did she intend to explain why she carried a photograph of him in her pocket and much less was she going to talk about the cake she had ordered solely because Noah recommended it to her.
Her mission remained the same.
Watch Noah Reed, analyze his movements, prevent him from falling into the wrong hands and, when the time came, capture him themselves.
At least that was what Ayane kept repeating to herself.
Meanwhile, Noah was calmly returning home convinced that he had been very lucky.
He didn’t know that three members of the organization had just spent the entire afternoon observing him, nor that Luna had been seconds away from recognizing them, nor that another unit had tried to follow him and he also didn’t know that the same woman who had orders to kidnap him had been the one who prevented him from being kidnapped.
Without meaning to, Ayane’s group had just become something much more complicated than a threat.
It was also starting to function as one of his strangest protections.