Stalling

"Even if you two are healed for now, there's no saying what will happen if you pushed yourselves!"

The doctor chased after us.

"It's nothing! We are good enough!"

Masato spoke as Ko and I ran alongside him.

"There's no need to rush!"

"Not happening, doc. We don't have the luxury of time."

I felt my legs burn.

"M... Masato... Hah... I... can't keep up..."

"I thought so..."

He thought for a second, before looking back to both of us.

"Noboru, Ko, grab my arms."

"Huh?"

We both said in unison.

"Hurry! Just trust me!"

When he yelled, we decided to trust him, and grabbed his arms.

"Okay, let's GO!"

Without any warning, Masato's left leg transformed into a jet which sped up to an insane amount of speed.

"WAHH!"

I screamed.

"WE'RE GOING TO DIE NOBORU!"

Ko cried, and we both closed our eyes.

As fast as the jet sped up, it slowed down almost immediately after a few seconds.

"There we go!"

Opening my eyes, I saw that we were in front of my house.

"Ko, it's okay! It stopped!"

Ko slowly opened her eyes, and breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Phew... I thought we were 100% dead!"

"Could you get off me now?"

The white haired boy looked at us.

Feeling anger and hatred, Ko punched Masato's head.

"Ow! You should be thanking me!"

"When did they even build in a jet into your leg?!"

"Oh, the robots that operated on me were incredibly fast, so I asked them to build me a jet as a
joke. Who would have thought they'd take it serious?"

We exchanged a deadpan glance towards each other, before letting go of him.

"You're back."

A girl with purple hair appeared in front of us. Her face held the same emotionless eyes and her voice sounded robotic.

"Masami! Why are you showing up in front of us?"

I stepped in front of my friends.

"You could say that I was a bit worried since you collapsed last night."

She said in her similarly robotic voice, but for some reason, it seemed like she meant what she said.

I'm just imagining it...

"You don't have to lie about something like that."

After I said this, she closed her eyes for a few seconds, before opening them again. 

"I'm sorry. I won't speak like that anymore."

"Hey, Noboru! That wasn't nice of you! She meant it!"

Masato snapped at me.

"It's unlikely! She is the Number's spy! Why would she care about the people she watches over?!"

My brain stopped for a moment, before I continued.

"Why would she care about me?! I'm weak, and nothing special!"

"Stop it!"

Ko shouted.

"Please, stop this! I know we're all stressed, but we don't have much time left!"

My gaze fell towards the ground.

Why am I arguing with him?! And why did I assume that Masami didn't care about me?

...

I'm an idiot...

"You're right... We should stop making pointless arguments..."

Having enough of this, Masato nodded.

"I'm sorry, Masami. I shouldn't have been rude to you."

Her blue eyes looked towards mine.

"You shouldn't be. I've been through mental torture, which was a part of training for all the spies. I doubt any mental damage could break me."

Silence...

"Alright, we know 6 locations, right?"

I spoke up.

"Yeah, should we split up maybe?"

"Are you crazy, Masato?! We were lucky enough to defeat that giant snake!"

"I'm not crazy, Noboru! I think that we will save time if we all go to one location."

"And how do you plan on fighting against..."

I looked at the holographic documents.

"A bunch of spies on that hill?!"

His gaze went towards the hill, that was behind us.

"I'll fly over them, and drop a chemical bomb filled with argon!"

How stupid are you?!

"That wouldn't work. You need to insert it into the designated hole."

"Dammit!"

Thinking over again, there is only one option.

"There's no other choice, then going together to multiple locations a day."

"I agree!"

Ko raised her hand with a big smile.

"Eh... Fine. I could have looked cool beating those guys..."

Masato mumbled the last part, but I could still hear him.

"It wouldn't be cool if you died."

"Don't listen in when I talk to myself!"

His face was red from embarrassment.

"Okay, where are we going first?"

"Maybe to the abandoned school? It is close by."

Ko suggested.

"Have any other places on mind, Masato?"

"No, it's fine by me."

He just shrugged.

"Okay then, prepare quickly, we're meeting at the front entrance..."

I checked the time on my handphone.

"at 13 PM sharp."

"That's in 2 hours. It's enough time."

The comedian gave me a thumbs up.

"Enough for me too!"

"Good. You two should hurry back home then, and restock."

Ko immediately called her ride, as her house was far away from any transportation point.

"Masato, do you want me to give you a ride home?"

"If you could, then I would appreciate it."

He probably just wants to ride in a limousine... The transportation point to his street is 5 minutes from here.

Without anything to do, I rush inside, and restock my water and food.

Should I bring a weapon this time?

...

Probably. There are spies on the hill, so I don't know if there are more on different locations.

Looking around my room, I noticed the electro-shock gun that I had buried in a pile of boxes with my parent's belongings.

It's their 5th "Shock Gun" prototype. I remember that police and army demanded one of these when it was supposed to launch. Such a shame it didn't...

"Well, I'll put it to good use."

I stuffed the gun into my bag.

"Did I forget anything?"

I expected no response, but to my surprise...

"You should have probably doubled your water and food supplies. It will take long anyway."

Masami spoke in her usual monotone voice.

"Ah! Masami! Where did you come from?!"

"I was standing here the entire time."

I sweatdroped.

"It doesn't matter. Will you be coming with us?"

The question made her confused.

"Why would I come along?"

"Because you will keep an eye on us either way, so it doesn't really matter. Plus, I think you would like some company."

It looked like she was torn about her decision, which surprised me.

"You make a point, except for the second part. I don't like people distracting me."

"Alright... Let's get going them."