Chapter 8
1065words
No, the sounds continued—student laughter, background music, clinking dishware—but in my reality, all I could perceive was the ice-cold killing intent radiating from those three men, as palpable as fog.
"What's happening? What's going on?"
"Is there some kind of problem with those customers?"
"That girl just drenched that guy..."
Clueless students whispered, their curious gazes converging on the standoff. Yui sensed the tension, nervously gripping her apron as she whispered: "Rin...what's going on?"
"Step back, Sato-san." Rin's quiet voice carried unmistakable authority. She maintained her apologetic bow, but her body had transformed into coiled steel, ready to strike.
The two men approaching—Targets A and B—moved in classic flanking positions, one left, one right.
They moved deliberately, applying tactical pressure while avoiding drawing attention.
But I could "hear" their mental communication—cold, clinical, inhuman.
"...Implement contingency. Neutralize interference, extract primary target."
"...Commander, the butler is monitoring our movements."
"...Irrelevant. Civilian observer. Eliminate the immediate threat first." This came from Target C—their commander—still dripping with water.
"Rin! They're targeting you first!" I mentally warned her.
This was my first deliberate attempt to transmit intercepted intelligence.
"Intelligence received." Rin's acknowledgment was crisp and clear.
The instant Target A breached her one-meter perimeter, Rin struck.
Her apologetic stance never wavered, but as she straightened, the empty tray in her hand became a projectile, whistling through the air toward Target B's face!
B clearly hadn't anticipated her preemptive strike and reflexively jerked his head aside.
This was precisely the distraction she needed!
Her true target had always been A on the left!
As the tray launched, she closed distance with A, her movement fluid as water.
A froze in surprise, and before he could raise his guard, Rin was already inside his defense.
Her knee, at a devastating angle, drove upward into A's solar plexus!
"Hngh!"
A strangled grunt escaped him as his face turned ashen, body folding like a collapsing chair.
Rin showed no mercy, her elbow hammering downward with surgical precision into the base of his skull.
Without even a whimper, his eyes rolled back, and he crumpled to the floor.
"Whoa! What happened to that guy?"
"Did he just faint? Low blood sugar maybe?"
Students gasped in surprise.
"Sir! Are you okay?!" Rin caught the falling body, her voice pitched with convincing concern. She expertly arranged him against the wall in a position suggesting a simple fainting spell.
The entire sequence flowed so naturally that most witnesses only saw a man collapse and a concerned student rushing to help.
"B behind you! Drawing weapon!" I warned again, ignoring the splitting headache from the mental effort.
Having dodged the tray, B assessed his partner's neutralization in an instant. With a suppressed snarl, he whipped out a telescoping baton and swung it viciously at Rin's exposed back!
Nearby students screamed in alarm!
"Look out!" Yui shouted instinctively.
But Rin possessed supernatural awareness.
Without looking, she twisted left with liquid grace. The baton whistled through empty air where she'd been a millisecond earlier, smashing into the wall with a dull crack.
Mid-spin, she casually plucked a fork from a nearby table setting.
Rather than stabbing, she used the handle as a pressure point weapon, striking B's wrist joint with pinpoint accuracy as she glided past!
*Crack!*
Another sickening sound of bone giving way.
B's pained hiss accompanied the baton clattering to the floor.
The conflict wasn't finished.
Commander C, soaked but undeterred, abandoned all pretense. Using the distraction, he lunged from behind the counter with predatory speed, targeting me—his primary objective—standing vulnerable near the entrance!
"Ai-kun! Move!" Yui screamed in horror.
I froze, mind blank with terror.
Too fast! My body wouldn't respond!
"Ayashiro-kun!"
Just as C's hand reached for me, a dark object plummeted from above.
It was Rin's thrown tray!
After ricocheting off the wall and ceiling in a mathematically perfect trajectory, it crashed down onto C's head with a resounding *CLANG!*
C staggered from the impact, his charge disrupted.
That single-second interruption created the critical opening I needed.
But it wasn't me who capitalized on it.
"Your engagement is with me."
Rin's voice, cold as arctic wind, materialized behind C.
She'd already neutralized B with a butter knife pressed against his carotid, then materialized behind C like a phantom.
In her other hand appeared a wet cleaning cloth from nowhere.
With a snap of her wrist, the cloth cracked like a whip, striking C's face with devastating precision!
*CRACK!*
A sharp, echoing impact.
This surreal tableau plunged the café into stunned silence.
Everyone gaped at the incomprehensible scene before them.
One man unconscious on the floor.
Another with a broken wrist and a knife at his throat.
And a third, face reddening from being publicly whipped with a dishcloth by a teenage girl.
"This is... some kind of performance, right?"
"Is this a special event for the festival? It's... incredibly realistic..."
A student finally broke the silence with a nervous laugh, grasping for the most rational explanation.
"That's right!" Yui recovered first, her festival committee experience kicking in as she clapped loudly. "Congratulations, everyone! You've witnessed our special hidden event—'The Elite Maid's Combat Demonstration'! Wasn't it incredible?"
With this explanation, the tension visibly dissolved.
"Wow! A performance! You had me completely fooled!"
"That was amazing! Is she from the martial arts team?"
"Even the butler's acting was on point—look how genuinely terrified he looks!"
...That wasn't acting, you idiots!
Amid applause and relieved laughter, Rin calmly released B and C. The operatives' faces burned with humiliation and rage, but surrounded by witnesses, they were completely neutralized.
"Support units deployed. Perimeter secured."
Rin's voice whispered in my mind.
I glanced outside to see several people in maintenance uniforms whose bearing screamed "military." They had already secured all building exits.
This invisible battle fought in plain sight had ended.
I sagged against the doorframe, legs like jelly, feeling as if I'd run a triathlon.
Rin approached me, those bottomless eyes regarding me with something I'd never seen before—an actual emotion I couldn't quite identify.
"Report: Surveillance subject has successfully executed active intelligence support for the first time. Assessment: Exceeds operational parameters. Protocol revision... warranted for discussion."
Hearing her mental report, I realized the invisible dynamic between us had fundamentally shifted.
We were no longer simply watcher and watched.
In this conflict, we had become... partners.
