A Scientific Urban Detective

"In that case, aren't there only two official members left in our 'School'?" Yūmi Vanka said. "If my injuries don't recover soon, the actual combat power will be just you alone, Boss..."

"That's why I plan to rest for a while and recruit a new member while I'm at it," Teitoku Kakine said with some helplessness. "Tch, this request was a huge loss. It's better to take on fewer of these private employment tasks in the future."

If it were an official request, it wouldn't be so troublesome. There would be no need to consider everything. As long as there was an order, Teitoku Kakine could go all out and flatten the entire research institute without any problems. Therefore, even if Toshihisa Kuradō wouldn't give them a bad review this time, Teitoku Kakine didn't plan to continue accepting these private requests.

The cost-effectiveness was really not high, and it was also very troublesome.

Hearing that Teitoku Kakine intended to recruit a new member, Yūmi Vanka and Misaki Kakihara immediately became concerned.

"Why did Boss suddenly think of recruiting a new member?" Yūmi Vanka asked. "Could it be... to make up for the lack of combat power..."

Although he didn't want to admit it, Yūmi Vanka actually had a feeling of "insufficient combat power" after today's encounter.

If someone could support him or Misaki Kakihara, the battle situation probably wouldn't have been so ugly, right?

"Does Boss have anyone in mind?" Misaki Kakihara asked. According to the division of labor within the organization, the job of recruiting new members should be her responsibility.

Teitoku Kakine was an arrogant person, and when recruiting subordinates, he also adhered to the elitist principle of 'rather have none than have substandard ones'.

Misaki Kakihara was very curious about what kind of talent Teitoku Kakine had taken a fancy to.

"Not yet, I just have an intention," Teitoku Kakine said. "I'm planning to recruit a sniper. The ability level doesn't matter, and it doesn't even matter if they are an esper. The main thing is that their sniping skills must be good."

"A sniper? It's okay if they're not an esper?" The other two asked in surprise.

Teitoku Kakine nodded, but he didn't hide anything: "This was inspired by Lin Wuming just now."

"Boss means... the ricochet that injured him at the end?" Yūmi Vanka immediately remembered.

"That's right," Teitoku Kakine nodded. "It can be seen that Lin Wuming lacks defense against long-range sniping attacks—although it's just a relative 'lack', for people with a certain level of strength, this relative weakness may be the only weakness worth exploiting."

Sniping is originally a tactic characterized by "surprise attacks" and "sneak attacks". As long as it is applied properly, a skilled sniper can play a role no less than a level 4 esper.

Moreover, compared to level 4 espers, experienced snipers are actually easier to find.

Teitoku Kakine's idea of adding a sniper was not entirely to deal with Lin Wuming. The main purpose was to enrich the "School's" tactical options.

Because Teitoku Kakine realized that in many battles, an inadvertent bullet can play a decisive role. It might even be better than the "School" members spending a lot of effort to fight in close combat for most of the day.

"Um..." An unfamiliar voice suddenly came from behind the three of them. "I don't know what a sniper is, but if it's a hunter who shoots prey from a distance in the dark... I can do it!"

The "School" trio suddenly turned around and saw a girl in a white smock standing behind them.

"You are..." Teitoku Kakine frowned. He recognized that this girl was one of the girls they had rescued from "Production Plant" just now.

However, Teitoku Kakine had always been indifferent to these minor characters. Apart from Misaki Shokuhou, he was too lazy to remember anyone else, so he only had a slight impression at this time.

"It's you!" Misaki Kakihara also recognized her. "You are..."

Then she also awkwardly realized that she didn't remember the girl's name.

In order to gather information, Misaki Kakihara had been mixing with the girls in the research institute all day long. She thought she had mastered the detailed information of everyone, but in the end...

If it weren't for the impression of such a girl in her memory, she would have definitely thought she had misremembered.

"I can be your sniper!" The girl took a step forward and shouted loudly.

She seemed to have mustered up her courage, but her innate introversion made her "shout" only slightly louder than ordinary speech.

"This girl..." Yūmi Vanka couldn't help but look at his leader.

Sure enough, an interested expression appeared on Teitoku Kakine's face.

Yūmi Vanka nodded silently—to be able to follow us here without being discovered, this girl obviously has some kind of talent.

Leaving aside "sniper", with this talent, there would definitely be no problem being an "assassin".

"Why don't you introduce yourself first?" Misaki Kakihara said. "We don't know who you are or what your name is."

"I... I'm Ryōko Yumiya," the girl said. "I... I have learned hunting skills and I'm very good at shooting!"

As if to prove what she said, Ryōko Yumiya looked around, ran to a flower bed next to her, and picked up a pebble and a larger clod of earth.

She threw out the clod of earth first, then flicked her hand and threw the pebble, shattering the clod of earth in mid-air!

"I can hunt small prey such as hares and foxes with just stones!" Perhaps because she was talking about her area of expertise, Ryōko Yumiya's voice was also a little louder.

"Why did you follow us?" Teitoku Kakine suddenly asked.

Logically speaking, Lin Wuming and Misaki Shokuhou were the ones who saved them, and "School" had already identified themselves as their "enemies".

No matter how you think about it, this girl shouldn't have come directly to join the "enemy", right?

Ryōko Yumiya lowered her head, a strange light flashing in her eyes: "Because... I also want to defeat Lin Wuming!"

"Eh?" Misaki Kakihara asked in confusion. "Why is that?"

She originally thought that this girl might be a spy sent by Misaki Shokuhou, but what kind of spy would expose themselves so clearly right from the start?

"Because Lin Wuming took away my most important person!" Ryōko Yumiya said excitedly.

During the escape operation just now, everyone contributed their own strength. Her sister, Nyūka Yumiya, was even very active, and joined forces with Ayu Mitsuari to repel the approaching black smoke monster many times.

Only Ryōko Yumiya herself, accomplished nothing, could not do anything, and had no presence at all.

She was like a simple burden, just able to run away with the others without falling behind.

Ryōko Yumiya felt that even if she fell behind, she probably wouldn't be noticed by others.

—Just like now, she ran to find Teitoku Kakine alone, and her sister probably wouldn't notice that she was "missing", right?