One-way traffic

Before Hatsune Miku could explain, the elevator doors in front of her opened gently.

Gumi patted the girl's shoulder and whispered happily.

"Then you'd better work hard. It's not easy to win over someone as aloof as him. But you two are childhood sweethearts, and with your idol-level princess status, I think getting a guy like him should be a piece of cake, right?"

"Oh my, it sounds so interesting! I'm going to my room now, remember to come find me when you're ready!"

With Hatsune Miku completely stunned, Gumi left the scene.

…Now this misunderstanding is impossible to clear up, even if you jump into the Yellow River.

The first person standing next to her gave her another strange look.

"What on earth are you doing, you idiot young lady?"

"...Don't ask me anymore, they themselves know nothing now, they've given up on everything..."

——————————————————————————————————————

What appeared before me was a large, very quiet room.

There are various small rooms on the left and right sides, which seem to be used for recording, resting, or arranging costumes.

The room directly opposite the elevator has huge floor-to-ceiling windows and an extended lounge area. The wooden floor in front is covered with a gray plush carpet, and some luxurious-looking wooden chairs are placed around it. There are also some pastries and snacks on a table on one side. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, you can see the vast urban environment below the building.

VOCALOID, a huge pure white label was placed on the wall in front of us.

This is the agency of VOCALOID, the world's most famous idol group company.

"Let's leave it at that for now. I'll go help Gumi sort out the paperwork a bit. You can take your time to tour our company on your own!"

The girl who left those words went into a room with Gumi, who had long green hair, leaving only the first girl standing there.

He began to feel that coming here with them was a mistake.

Accelerator curled his lip. If it weren't for the connection to that damn system, he wouldn't have bothered coming to a place that was completely unsuitable for him.

There seems to be a free drink machine nearby; you just need to fill a disposable paper cup.

The white-haired figure picked up a paper cup from the teapot, filled it with a latte, and then walked to the edge of the French windows.

He sat there, looking down at the city below.

Even in this extremely peaceful place, there may be many dark things, but it's nowhere near as dark as Academy City.

In other words, this flawless social environment, for Accelerator, is the peaceful world he has always been trying his best to protect.

but.

When this villain actually came to today's peaceful society, he seemed somewhat at a loss.

"That's incredibly stupid."

He frowned and took a sip of his coffee.

then.

"—It's really amazing to see a familiar face in a place like this."

A man walked into the rest room.

He had ice-blue hair and wore a blue and white casual outfit; he looked to be around eighteen years old.

"what?"

The first person looked at the other person and found that the man was staring at him in a rather inexplicable way, with a faint smile on his face.

"Who are you?"

"Oh dear, I think I should be asking you that question. I don't recall ever seeing a rookie idol like you in the company... Of course, I also know very well that you're not an idol."

The man also got a drink from the vending machine on the side, which looked like coffee, but it was white coffee.

"My name is Kaito. Am I like an idol or senior to Miku and the others?"

Kaito sat directly opposite the person in the first seat and they drank coffee together.

"You may not know me, but we have seen you before, just yesterday."

"What--?"

"When the comet crashed into the park yesterday, Miku suddenly ran back into the park for some reason, and that's how we found you lying there."

Accelerator was slightly taken aback.

This is such a troublesome thing...tsk...that idiot young lady, could she have let them see what's going on on her end?

"Miku said you're a friend she met in the countryside. Thankfully, it seems she just fainted because she happened to be watching the comet at the time and didn't have time to escape the park, right?"

"Compared to this kind of thing, your observatory here couldn't even investigate a meteorite fall properly? That's really incompetent."

"Haha, there's nothing we can do about it. After all, it was a comet that was only discovered suddenly, so no one noticed it at first."

Kaito smiled and then continued.

"—However, I noticed that you don't seem to be very clean."

"what?"

"Just like it says."

The man in front of me said with a light laugh.

"The aura of a dark society is crystal clear."

Was Chapter Twenty-Eight an Accident?

It was almost subconscious.

The first one wanted to control the wind in the entire room and then kill the man in front of him in one go.

But he stopped himself from having such thoughts without hesitation. This was not Academy City, and it wasn't even the same world.

The man sitting in front of him couldn't possibly know anything about him, so no matter what he said, he absolutely couldn't do anything out of line.

…Have you actually developed this into a professional habit?

The first one felt a slight headache; this tendency to instinctively feel hostility whenever he heard anything dark had almost become his instinct.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, stop pretending. I've seen my share of dark things, so I can tell if someone has those kinds of auras."

Kaito waved his hand, saying that it probably just referred to something similar to the underworld in society.

This immediately relieved the person in the first place.

He didn't want to involve people like that in the academy city, which was a million times darker than modern society.

"But you should just listen to what I say and not take it seriously."

Kaito placed his empty glass on the table and casually glanced at the scenery outside the floor-to-ceiling window.

"I've had a lot of dealings with those dark things in the past, but in the end, I became an idol, which is truly a miracle."

"It's truly a miracle. Normally, you'd be lucky if you weren't arrested and shot by the cops in this situation."

"Haha, so it seems you have some experience with it after all."

Like old friends who had been chatting all afternoon, Kaito chatted happily with Accelerator... of course, it was only one side of the conversation.

This guy is really outgoing.

"Stop this boring conversation. I just want to ask you one question: what exactly do you want to say to me?"

"Huh? You actually figured it out?"

Kaito's purpose in seeking out Accelerator was definitely not just for casual conversation or to discuss profound dark secrets. At least, Accelerator was certain it couldn't be just about such trivial matters.

As the strongest man who has traversed countless chaotic and complex underworld locations, he has a good understanding of human nature and other such things. In other words, Accelerator has an incredibly rich experience in social interactions.

But that's what Kaito said.

“There is a thread connecting you and Miku.”

"Huh? You were just talking to me about the profound mysteries of gangsters, and now you're playing this unrealistic psychic game?"

That's not what I meant.

Kaito shook his head.

"What I'm trying to say is that there's actually a unique relationship between you and Miku."

Accelerator frowned, even more puzzled.

But he didn't angrily interrupt the other person. If it were his more irritable self from the past, he might have already laughed and grabbed a gun to tell the other person to get lost.

But he didn't.

He waited for the other person to finish speaking.

"I don't know what kind of complicated relationship you and Miku have. The only thing I know is that you are probably childhood friends."

"But I can definitely see something else."

The man with long, ice-blue hair thus expressed his views.

“Miku has a deep opinion about you; I can tell just by the way she looks at you.”

"That child seems to have gone through something big that we don't know about, something that may have affected some part of her heart. However, under these circumstances, she treats all of us in a slightly conservative way, but she is completely open with you, almost like she is about to open her heart to you completely."

“This isn’t just a teenage girl’s simple infatuation. I can see that it’s a deeper feeling. Miku has a deeper understanding of you that she may not even be aware of herself.”

"And you actually share the same view of Miku as she does."

If Accelerator's guess is correct, the man in front of him has probably already guessed that Hatsune Miku has indeed experienced the baptism of the zombie world, but he himself cannot say exactly what this thing is, so he can only classify it as a simple big thing.

Because of this major event, Hatsune Miku's heart was deeply shaken and she was in a state where she didn't want to open up to her friends and tell them about it.

Except for one person.

That's one-way traffic.

Perhaps even Accelerator himself doesn't know what's going on. Is it because he protected their relationship in the zombie world? Or is it because he saved her even at the cost of his own battery?

But no matter what, Accelerator has always been convinced of one thing.

My opinion of that legendary idol heiress is that she's just an ordinary teammate, someone I've had some contact with at most.

But Kaito told himself that Accelerator's view of Miku was different.

Under normal circumstances, the first person wouldn't bother with such a pointless topic and would probably leave in a huff, clearly dissatisfied.

But he didn't do that.

Even he himself didn't know why, but he chose to listen, hoping to get an answer from Kaito.

But the young man in front of him only gave a wry smile.

"Don't look at me. No matter how much you stare at me, I can't answer these questions for you. I'm not a psychology master. At most, I can only use my experience in the world to help you make a little judgment."

Accelerator took a deep breath, banishing all these unrealistic ideas from his mind.

"Well, in short, all I really want to say is just one sentence."

Kaito paused, then looked at the first person in front of him and spoke.

"If you and Miku really have to take on or handle something that is important to you both in the future, I just hope that you can protect her and help her as much as possible."

“I can tell she cares about you a lot. I’m not quite sure what those feelings are, but I hope you won’t let her down… if you’re just a friend.”

"And I believe you can definitely do it, because you don't resist any of it."

The first one silently closed his eyes.

"probably."

He stood up and took a slightly uncomfortable breath.

"Speaking of which, I've already told you my name, so I'd really like to know what your name is?"

"One-way passage".

"Yifang... Eh? Oh, I see. You're Yifang-kun, right... I'm sorry, I lost my composure."

Kaito hesitated for a moment, somewhat surprised, before thinking, "This... Accelerator..."

Why do they sound so much like skill names from an RPG game...?