They say that humans dream every night. Only, they can’t remember them all.
But there is one dream that Nakamura Shinichi just can’t seem to forget.
A dream about a certain memory.
‘It wasn’t a unique tale by any means.
A boy on his last breath was saved by a group of kindhearted people. The boy tried to repay their kindness, but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t do anything. In the end, he prayed to ‘god’ and killed all of his benefactors, then he lived happily ever after.
The End.’
It was such a dumb story that it was more likely to be taken as satire rather than tragedy.
The kind of story that would leave one in painful laughter rather than lamentation.
After all, humans were very good at adapting.
Run the same dream for two years, and it’s only natural that the tears would dry up and the wails grow silent. The only thing left: a creaking heart.
Humans are such terrifying creatures because they can even get used to something like this.
No matter how the times or place may change, so long as there are people, then though there might be some differences here and there, some things will never change.
For one, there will always be ‘criminals’.
“…”
Two men wore a blonde wig to disguise their real hair. They walked alongside each other.
Blonde was a color that would allow them to pass by unnoticed from the passersby.
They were looking for a timid woman with a bag who was evidently not used to this place.
If one thought about it a little, it wouldn’t take much to realize that these men were looking to snatch her purse.
As for their getaway, they’re probably thinking of relying on their high agility rank and disguise to get them by.
This would be their 13th mission, but it doesn’t seem at all as if they would be caught.
In a sense, these two were not criminals born by the age, but criminals committing crimes purely on their own volition.
They did not have any circumstances that would make one empathize with them.
No. They were merely fools who enjoyed stealing from others and running away.
“Found her,” one of them said briefly as he indicated to his partner the target.
The person they were looking at was a girl wearing glasses about 15 to 18 years old, who was looking around her while wearing a cloudy expression.
It was evident that she had either lost her companion or was lost. She had a bag that she wore over her shoulders.
To these two crooks no situation could be better.
If there’s any problem, then it would be the fact that the hair coming out of the girl’s beret was blue.
In other words, she was a Garestonian. But because of these two crooks’ recent success, they saw that little tidbit in an optimistic light. In fact, they saw that as a challenge.
You could also say that it was because the girl looked weak that they were willing to target her.
“Let’s go.”
The modus operandi of these two crooks was simple.
One of them would intentionally bump onto the girl, while the other would grab her belongings while still distracted.
Like this, in the worst case scenario, no one would know that the two men were working together.
After a brief exchange, the two men signaled at each other with their eyes, and one side approached the girl.
The man slipped into the crowd from behind and walked toward the girl to hit her.
“You’re in the way.”
“Kyaa!?”
After being pushed out of the way all of the sudden, the girl staggered and looked at the guy who bumped into her.
This was a chance for the other man.
The other man rushed toward the girl and took her bag.
“Huh? What… Ah! Wait!”
With everything happening so quickly, the girl couldn’t respond in time.
She knew that the bag she had on her had been taken away, but she couldn’t react.
She didn’t know whether to give chase or to cry thief.
The moment the two men succeeded, however, they let their guard down.
The man playing the role of the decoy lusted after the prey in front of him… He lusted after the thing she was holding.
That was a pure Garesto-made terminal (Foster). Even if only the person registered in it could use it, it should still fetch a high price when sold. Because of that the man reached out toward that defenseless back.
“Ouch. Kyaa!”
The man grabbed her arms and forcefully took the foster, then he pushed the girl out of the way and ran.
This sudden turn of events left the girl frozen.
And despite falling on her backside, no one tried to help her. Perhaps they’d assumed that someone had merely crashed into her because of the crowd of people.
The man acting as the bait used that as an opening to run away.
“Ah, t-thief!”
When the girl finally saw the back of that man running away, she cried thief, but unfortunately, it was a bit late, and when the surrounding people glanced at her, there was no thief left to be seen.
The two thieves chuckled to themselves how easy this was, but mysteriously, they ran toward the same direction.
It was curious if that was merely a coincidence or they thought that there was no point in running toward different directions anymore, but regardless…
“W-What is this!?”
“Why are there so many people like this!?”
Something unexpected blocked their way. It was a crowd of people as tight as a wall.
The two thieves didn’t know this, but before they tried to snatch the girl’s purse, an artist had performed a guerrilla live here.
The concert had just ended, which is why there were so many people here in the first place. Unfortunately, for the two men, the great crowd of people had formed a wall, and they couldn’t get through.
Without any other way to go, the two men had no choice but to turn around.
Of course, they also noticed that the back had gotten noisy.
Unfortunately or fortunately, they had never been in a situation where they had to break through; hence, when they were met with this situation, they couldn’t keep their wits about them.
“Tch. Get out of the way!”
There was only one thing on their mind, and that was to run away. They even tried to brandish their weapons to clear a path.
“If you don’t want to get hurt, then move!”
One of them took out a knife while the other took out a stun gun, causing the people to cry out and keep their distance from them.
It was dangerous to be seen by so many people, but they trusted their disguise too much.
The moment the path cleared and a family of four was revealed at the end, the fate of these two men was decided.
“Move woman!”
“You’re in the way, brat!”
As they ran, one of them turned his knife toward the woman, while the other pushed his stun gun toward the boy.
Although they didn’t have any actual basis for it, they figured that doing this would surely clear the path open, but unfortunately, the only sentiments contained within the two pairs of eyes meeting them was a dangerous brilliance.
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