A Scientific Urban Detective

"In any case, let's take it back and show them first," Bowhunter made a decision. "It won't waste too much time anyway. If it's fake, it's not too late to come back and find him."

Bowhunter knew from the start that Item's trio had been following her—something a tracking expert like her would naturally be aware of.

Following the scent, Bowhunter found a van on the third floor of the parking lot.

"Congratulations, you passed successfully!" The car door opened, and Kakine Teitoku clapped his hands, praising, "Bowhunter, you are very talented and just the kind of person we need."

Bowhunter handed over the hard drive with a bright smile on her face.

"Is this real?" Bowhunter asked.

"Who knows?" Youmiya Aiai shrugged, taking the hard drive and looking it over. "Doesn't look fake."

Saying that, he casually stuffed it into a file bag and put it away.

"Not going to check it?" Bowhunter was a little surprised.

Although they hadn't spent much time together, she had noticed that Youmiya Aiai was an expert in manipulating electronic devices. If he said so, he would definitely be able to tell whether the data on the hard drive was genuine or not.

"Peeking at the client's confidential information is a major taboo in this industry," Kakine Teitoku warned. "Our task is just to retrieve this data. Since the client didn't mention the specific content of the data, it means they don't want this information to be leaked."

The data itself was heavily encrypted. Although it wasn't impossible to decrypt, it wasn't worth the effort for SCHOOL to do so.

Hesitating for a moment, Bowhunter continued to ask: "But… what if the data is fake?"

The data locked in the hard drive was completely unfamiliar to Bowhunter. She couldn't judge the authenticity of this prey, so she felt very uneasy and worried.

"Don't worry," Yakumaru Kaumi explained. "Our task is just to retrieve this hard drive. As for whether the data inside is real or fake, it's none of our business—after all, we didn't know the specific content of the data from the beginning."

This was also the main reason why the three members of SCHOOL were willing to restrain their curiosity. Compared to real money, the boring confidential data from the research institute was not attractive at all.

"But there's still one more thing," Kakine Teitoku suddenly said. "Bowhunter, what do you plan to do with that man?"

"He wasn't the real prey, so I didn't bother with him," Bowhunter said. "Because there's an antidote, he can probably save himself."

Tilting her head, Bowhunter asked, "Should I have killed him?"

"It doesn't matter, either way is fine," Kakine Teitoku said. "You completed your task very well."

The van started to leave the parking lot and went to the lower level—exactly the floor where the target's car was parked.

"Let me teach you something first, learn to use the power of the organization," Kakine Teitoku said. "The affiliated organizations of SCHOOL, and even the power of other members."

"From a concealment perspective, you made the right choice not to kill him, which can reduce a lot of trouble for us to clean up," Kakine Teitoku turned his head and said. "Youmiya, you do it."

Youmiya Aiai nodded and looked out the window through the one-way glass on the car.

The target man's car suddenly started, scraping against other vehicles on both sides, and drove out of the parking space in a crooked manner.

Then, the car suddenly went crazy, darting out and instantly reaching top speed in the narrow indoor parking lot.

Bang!

As expected, the car crashed into the wall at the end of the runway… passage, even smashing a large hole in the reinforced wall, and the entire car rushed out.

The van carrying SCHOOL did not stop for even a second, but accelerated and left the scene of the accident.

"Now, things are completely over," Youmiya Aiai said. "Even if the security guards investigate, they will only conclude that the car owner had a sudden allergic reaction, which caused the vehicle to lose control due to misoperation, ultimately leading to the accident."

Youmiya Aiai used his ability to remotely control the target vehicle, mimicking the effect of an accident.

Of course, there were many flaws in this method, and it was highly unlikely that it could truly deceive the security forces. But that didn't matter, as long as a reasonable explanation was given.

There was a certain tacit understanding between the security forces and the dark side organizations.

Compared to the hard work of coming, the return trip was much more comfortable. They rode in the van all the way and returned to the hotel within an hour.

On the way, they had conveniently handed the hard drive to the middleman, who would pass it on to the client.

By the time they returned to the suite on the top floor of the hotel, the reward for this mission had already been deposited into their accounts.

"After deducting the organization's operating expenses, the rest will be divided equally," Youmiya Aiai said. "Bowhunter, you will receive 100,000 yen this time."

Bowhunter did not raise any objections to this distribution method. In her opinion, 100,000 yen was already a huge sum.

You know, before this, she had almost no opportunity to spend money, so the larger the number on the account balance, the less she felt, and the smaller the amount, the less she cared.

What Bowhunter valued more was the recognition of her companions.

The latest novels are first published on Liǔ 9 Shūbā!

This distribution method was also the routine of SCHOOL. Seeing that the newcomer had no objection, the others didn't think there was any problem, and naturally skipped over this topic.

After completing the first day of "internship", Bowhunter returned to "home" in the evening as agreed with her good friend, Miya Aiai.

She was originally a little worried that her whereabouts would be discovered by Shokuhou Misaki; but as expected, Shokuhou Misaki, who was busy all day, had not yet returned.

—A small fry like me doesn't need to worry about this kind of problem, right?

Bowhunter thought with some self-deprecation.

—However, starting today, I am different from the past! Although it's not a superpower, I also earned money by my own strength. At least in this regard, I don't have to worry about being called my sister's burden anymore.

"Eh~" Miya Aiai leaned closer and asked with interest, "Is the dark side so profitable? Just one day and you earned 100,000 yen!"

"Because there happened to be prey today."

Bowhunter had a very positive attitude. She knew very well that this was just like hunting. It was impossible to hunt plump prey every day, or even to have a harvest every day.

It was normal to have no harvest for a few days or ten days after a rich harvest.

"…Where's Iruka-chan?" After searching around the house, she couldn't find her sister, Bowhunter Iruka, which made Bowhunter a little concerned. She originally wanted to show off to her sister a little.

"She went shopping with the teacher—today the teacher seems to be planning to invite the Kiyama Hyouka family downstairs to have dinner here," Miya Aiai said. "It will probably be a while before they come back, right?"

Among the girls who came from the Artificial Facility, Kazakiri Hyouka and Yuuri Chiyo were still in the hospital receiving treatment; Shokuhou Misaki was busy every day and rarely had time to stay at home; Miya Aiai and Bowhunter were not very sociable in terms of personality and liked to be alone.

So, the only girl in the house who was still considered normal was Bowhunter Iruka. She also became the most capable assistant of teacher Toomine Yori, and she helped the teacher with many household chores.

"Iruka-chan is amazing!" Bowhunter praised her sister without hesitation.