Instant Death Chapter 92

So Romiko promptly used "Calling".

On the bus, and among all of her cla.s.smates who were clearly confused about the powers they had received, she might have been the fastest one to use her power.

She searched her surroundings for a spirit weak enough so that they could not be sent out to battle.

Without any power, an ordinary person is useless. Though imperfect, she has been empowered by a sage, so she has to be expected to have some sort of special power.

Special, yes. But useless all the same.

Speaking of such a convenient spirit, she actually found one.

"Counter".

When searching for a spirit, the user can know what kind of power it possesses. But the ability of a "counter" is, namely, to count. As in, to count numbers. So it's probably useless for battle.

She quickly used "Calling" to have this spirit possess her.

With this, even if they try to use some ability to find what kind of power she has, her ability will seem to be "Counter" on the surface. It is possible that someone can use their own ability to see through her disguise, but she can't worry about that now. That's a problem for another time.

And so, Romiko was dismissed as someone useless for battle.

When it comes to not standing out, another, more reasonable ability would have been better, but being considered to be useless is better than being forced to fight in the middle of the battle if things go south.

— Though it turns out that that is a little troublesome.

But since coming here, everyone has been talking about "capturing h.e.l.l".

That's really troublesome.

She didn't know what kind of place it was, but she figured it'd be some dark, dirty, and damp place.

She didn't want to end up having to go to such a place, and at the same time, she didn't want to have to fight any monsters.

— Wouldn't it be nice to be able to get rid of Shinozaki Ayaka without going through such trouble?

Romiko sent the spirit she had been using out to do some surveillance of the surroundings.

Because of that, she knew that Ayaka had gotten this close and that her cla.s.smates had been killed.

Since it was too troublesome, she simply let everything be, thinking that when things got serious someone would appear and do something about it.

Thinking about it, that problem should have been dealt with already, but it is too late now.

So she decided she'd go to h.e.l.l with everyone.

But her policy stays the same. She'll continue to pretend she's useless until the very last second.

She probably won't get serious until everybody else is dead.

That's how Romiko thinks.

— Was Yuugo also hiding his power? Or did it suddenly wake up?

No one knows. The only thing that's clear is that Izumida Yuugo went on to challenge Shinozaki Ayaka.

That's because it's been written down on Aihara Yukimasa's book.

Yukimasa's cla.s.s is "Reader".

Readers are able to read and understand any text, regardless of language. That's what everyone thought his abilities are.

But in reality, it was something different.

His true power lies in the ability to read the future of events that surround him as if they were written in a novel.

The book he always carries with him is the embodiment of his ability.

It is basically a first-person novel where Aihara Yukimasa himself is the protagonist, but people he knows also make third-person appearances in the form of short stories.

According to it, Yuugo's true ability was far from what one would expect from the average cook.

Regarding what kinds of power cooks can have, there are many abilities that manifest an unparalleled power.

Using their abilities to discover ingredients, they can find any opponent that could be regarded as an ingredient. Using his knowledge of ingredients, they can instantly see their opponent's traits. And using their ability to dismantle ingredients, they can easily slice up any opponent.

"Simultaneous cooking" allows them to increase their cooking efficiency by branching off into a duplicate of themselves, and their ability to deep-fry allows them to manipulate high temperatures.

Some of them seem to have the ability to use fermentation to manipulate time itself.

They have a considerable wide array of abilities.

However, they are weak when it comes to defense. Cooks have no defensive abilities at all.

— So, you can't feel like you can take on the whole world with their abilities alone.

Pairing up with someone who has strong defensive abilities can compensate a cook's weaknesses. Such a combination might even be able to defeat any opponent, no matter what.

Perhaps, if only he had been advised about that possibility, things could have ended up differently.

But Yukimasa did nothing.

He simply stood by the sidelines.

— But I think there are many more that are like me.

People who carelessly show off their power are soon exposed. The only way to survive is to hide that power, that way you cannot be sent out to the front lines to risk your life.

The actual soldiers should have been in disguise, like Yukimasa.

In Yukimasa's case, being in disguise was easy.

All you need to do is write in that book of his, and reality will be altered.

You can also hide content that is not related to others, and even your own ident.i.ty.

— Well, in the end, someone could say "good grief" and defeat that devil.

Yukimasa was optimistic about the situation, thinking he didn't want to do it.