We left the park and walked down the street, but our feet suddenly stopped.
“What’s this place?”
“Is this the entertainment district?”
There was a street right in front of us, but the atmosphere was incredibly gloomy. There was a lot of trash scattered around, and crows were flying everywhere.
“Are we going in?”
“We have Minato to think about.”
“Yeah, I guess… It just feels unpleasant.”
“You got used to places like this in the other world, didn’t you?”
There had been plenty of places like this over there.
There were even slums.
“Should we go in…? At least let’s suppress our mana.”
We steeled ourselves and entered the gloomy street.
Then we saw groups of men standing in front of suspicious-looking shops.
“Touts? This really is a red-light district.”
“I don’t like this…”
We walked on while the touts stared at us.
Still, none of them actually approached us.
Well, it was probably because I was with Ayaka.
“…Do you sense any unusual presence?”
I quietly checked with Ayaka.
“…It feels like there are a lot of people, but that’s all. What about you?”
“…I don’t sense any mana.”
We continued walking and eventually passed through the street, arriving at a district filled with bars and restaurants.
However, since it was still daytime, everything was closed.
“I see… We should probably assume that public order has deteriorated.”
I didn’t know what it had been like before, but to me, this felt like an unnatural place in Japan.
“Yeah, probably. But I don’t think any of our classmates are here.”
“What if they’re concealing their mana?”
“That’s possible, but…”
Would someone really be thinking that carefully while enjoying themselves?
“Hmm… what should we do?”
“Let’s come back again at night.”
“Then let’s go to a hotel. We should rest for a bit.”
Yeah…
“Let’s do that.”
We didn’t really feel like going back the way we came, so we took a detour around the area. After returning to where we started, we searched for a hotel.
Then we found one online that opened for check-ins from 2 PM and headed there.
“How should we handle the rooms? Should we stay together?”
Ayaka asked while looking up at the hotel.
“I don’t know, but do hotels even have rooms for three people? We have Elvis with us.”
“I’m fine sleeping on the floor.”
Elvis’s voice came from inside my pocket.
“Hmm… Should we get a twin room and a single room?”
“Then I’ll take the twin room and Ayaka gets the single.”
That seemed like the safest choice.
“Let’s do that.”
We entered the hotel and headed toward the reception desk, where a young woman was working.
“Welcome. Do you have a reservation?”
“No, we don’t. We’d like to get a single room and a twin room.”
“For a single and a twin room, it’ll be 8,000 yen and 12,000 yen respectively. Would you like to include breakfast?”
Because Elvis was with us…
“No, that’s fine.”
I said that and placed two 10,000-yen bills that Elvis had given me on the counter.
“Then these are your room keys.”
Looking at the keys, the single room was 304 and the twin room was 502.
Apparently, they were on different floors.
“Thanks.”
We took the keys and got into the elevator.
Then, with a ding, the doors opened on the third floor.
“We’ve got time until night, so after I check my room, I’ll come over to yours.”
Ayaka said that as she stepped out of the elevator.
“Got it.”
I nodded, and the doors closed as the elevator began rising again.
It stopped on the fifth floor, so I searched for room 502.
“Ah, here it is…”
I used the key and entered.
Inside was just a room with two beds and a simple table.
It was completely different from the inn we stayed at yesterday.
“Elvis, you can come out now.”
When I said that, Elvis jumped out of my pocket and returned to his original size.
“Ahh, I’m exhausted. Not being able to see outside was pretty stressful.”
Elvis twisted his neck and sat down on a chair.
“Good work. Did you sense anything, Elvis?”
“I felt mana here and there. But that’s all.”
That was true. I had sensed mana too.
Actually, I could even sense it from the two Self-Defense Force members.
“Honestly, in terms of mana alone, they’re no match for me or Ayaka.”
Of course, that wasn’t an absolute measurement of their strength.
“You guys are on a whole different level.”
Elvis gave a wry smile and pulled out a cigarette.
“Ah, it’s non-smoking.”
“Seriously? You should’ve gotten a smoking room.”
“I checked online. All the rooms were non-smoking.”
“Figures. Looks like I won’t be able to smoke while we’re in Kumamoto.”
Elvis put away the cigarette, so instead I handed him the cigarettes we had bought at the convenience store earlier.
“Here. Is this what you wanted?”
“Thanks. I just wanted to try them, so anything was fine. More importantly, how was the red-light district?”
Elvis asked with a mischievous grin.
“They were staring at us a lot. I’ve never even been to a place like that in the other world, but is that what it’s usually like?”
If I had been alone, I definitely would have turned around and left.
“Who knows? Apparently, there was one in Beppu too, but demons don’t use those kinds of places, so I can’t really say.”
They don’t use them…?
Considering there were succubi around, I had assumed places like that would exist. Don’t blame me for thinking that.
“Still, how are we supposed to investigate this…”
“Why don’t you just go inside?”
“I don’t go to places like that.”
Actually, there was no way I could go.
“Yeah, yeah. You’re in your late twenties, right? Why are you saying things like a kid?”
“My heart is still young because I was transported to another world while I was still a kid.”
I was basically in a state like Urashima Tarō.
“Hmm… Oh? It’s Ayaka.”
I heard a knock at the door.
“Coming.”
I went to the door and let Ayaka in.
“Hmm… This room is a little bigger.”
Ayaka looked around the room.
“Is yours smaller?”
“Almost all of it’s just the bed. It feels like a place meant only for sleeping.”
“Maybe that’s what business hotels are like. The inns in the other world were much bigger.”
“Yeah…”
“So, how was the entertainment district?”
Hmm…
“Do you think Minato would go there? At the very least, I don’t think he’d go alone. Actually, even if Riku was with him, I don’t think he’d go…”
Even the four of us hadn’t been able to go.
Ah, no—
It wasn’t that we couldn’t go.
We just didn’t.
“Maybe it was a dead end… Going to a place like that and getting into fights… It just doesn’t really fit Minato’s personality.”
I agreed.
“Tonight, let’s go there one more time. If he isn’t there, we’ll return to Beppu. Even if those guys are somewhere in Kyushu, we can just have them come over to our side instead.”
They probably wanted to return to Tokyo too.
“That makes sense. Then we’ll just wait until night.”
Ayaka said that and sat down on the bed, so I sat down on the bed beside her.
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