Ultraman cubs begin to wreak havoc.

That was indeed the case, and that was precisely why Minamoto Subaru bought it. However, he didn't take such a small matter to heart at all. Rather, he thought no one would care about such a trivial favor. He crossed his arms and looked at Rikka Takarada, saying:

"If I'm mistaken, please forgive me. I feel like you don't want people to think we're very close, so I waited for you in this quiet place. If there's anything you need to tell me, could you?"

"Thank you for your understanding, but what you've done makes me a little embarrassed."

Rikka Takarada, holding the milk, spoke softly with a somewhat subtle expression. Subaru, however, waved his hand dismissively and continued, "..."

"What's there to be embarrassed about? Relax. We're not in your shop right now, and I'm not a customer... So, what exactly do you want to talk to me about?"

"Ah, I do have something I'd like to ask you, but please give me a little time first."

Rikka Takarada thought for a moment, then shook the milk in her hand and said:

"I feel like I won't have time to eat for a while."

After saying that, Rikka Takarada opened the cap, drank the milk in one gulp, and feeling the warm liquid flow over her body, she let out a soft breath, tossed the bottle aside, looked at Subaru, and, as if she had just drunk a cup of coffee, perked up, saying softly:

"Um, it's like this... wait a minute."

Rikka Takarada seemed to realize something, her eyes suddenly widening in alarm. She instinctively raised her hands to her chest and looked at Subaru, saying:

"How did you know I would pass by here? How do you know so much about my whereabouts?!"

"Ok?"

Gen Subaru paused, looked at both ends of the street, and said, puzzled:

"Isn't this the shortest route from the barbershop back to your house? I've been running this route the last few times, and I haven't had any problems."

"No, no, no, it's not about distance."

Rikka Takarada waved her hand and said softly:

"Why did you assume I would go home? Today is the weekend, a day off."

"so."

Subaru looked at Rikka Takarada with a question mark on his head and said:

"It's a day off, where else can you go if you don't go home?"

"you...."

Rikka Takarada felt a certain intellectual distance between herself and this guest. She pressed her temples and whispered:

"Is it possible that I still have the option of going out with friends?"

"what..."

"You didn't expect that at all, did you?"

Rikka Takarada looked helplessly at Subaru, who seemed to have his mind blank. This honest customer really wore his heart on his sleeve.

These days, you really don't see many honest people like this.

Silently muttering to herself, Rikka Takarada breathed a sigh of relief. To be honest, after what happened yesterday, she was quite sensitive. She hadn't slept well last night because she was thinking too much, and she dreamed of being chased by monsters. As a result, she didn't have much of an appetite when she woke up today.

And just at this nerve-wracking moment, someone seemed to pinpoint her location with unerring accuracy, and Rikka Takarada felt her heart truly pounding.

Fortunately, it turned out she was overthinking things. It has to be said that at a time when she felt the world was becoming increasingly strange, this guest unexpectedly gave her a sense of security.

"Alright, let's get down to business."

Subaru chuckled awkwardly, then steered the conversation back on track, looking at Rikka Takarada in front of him and saying softly:

"I also have a lot of doubts now, maybe we have something in common."

"Okay, let's sit over there and talk."

Rikka Takarada nodded, and after sitting down, she confided her anxieties and worries to Subaru. First, there was what happened yesterday. When Rikka Takarada woke up in the morning, she had hoped to get some comfort and guidance from her mother, but after a brief chat, Rikka Takarada realized that something was wrong. Her mother seemed to have completely forgotten about the monster.

Feeling uneasy, Rikka Takarada absentmindedly mumbled "uh-huh" in response to her mother's words while taking out her phone to see what people were saying about it online. However, after browsing several forums, she couldn't find a single post about the monster.

Rikka Takarada, unwilling to give up, assumed that the posts had all been deleted by the administrators. So she checked her browsing history, hoping to find some evidence to prove the existence of the monster. After all, she had read a lot of posts discussing the monster before going to bed last night. Even if the posts were deleted, the records were still there, they were just inaccessible.

But no, all the posts that Rikka Takarada remembered had disappeared, replaced by posts whose titles, while interesting, didn't match her memories at all. This made Rikka Takarada completely panic. In her panic, she still looked through the posts in her browsing history that she hadn't visited before and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

So, Rikka Takarada was really upset at that time, wondering if she was still half asleep and had some kind of memory error that made her so suspicious.

278 Evaporated Humans

With this troubling feeling, Rikka Takarada went out, again because of the Aoyama Barber Shop incident. On her way to the barber shop, looking at the city that hadn't been damaged at all, Rikka Takarada became increasingly convinced that she was hallucinating, and that all the monsters, customers, and giant robots were fake.

Yes, it must be fake. Such a terrifying thing should... probably, how could it possibly happen? I guess my brain has finally gone awry.

But upon arriving at the barbershop and seeing Subaru's figure, Rikka Takarada felt as if a nightmare had suddenly resurfaced, causing her distress once again. After finishing a haircut and taking a break, Rikka Takarada habitually checked her phone to see if she had missed any new chat messages or interesting gossip.

Then, Rikka Takarada noticed something was wrong. Because the school had already started preparing for the summer ball games tournament, each class had been assigned some tasks. The school held this ball games tournament every year, so after the initial excitement wore off, Rikka Takarada lost interest in the event. The main reason was that the ball games tournament didn't give out holidays; sometimes, after finishing in the morning, there were still classes in the afternoon.

But she couldn't resist her friends' love of joining in the fun, so she decided to just keep them company and joined a lot of temporary chat groups. Although she didn't really like talking in them, she still noticed the active members and remembered a lot of familiar IDs. She also discovered some seniors she knew from before in other groups.

Then, Rikka Takarada discovered that the number of members in these groups had changed. However, if it was just that some people left the group, it wouldn't be a big deal. But what disappeared were the previous group owners and administrators, who were the teachers and students in real life who were responsible for organizing the grade's ball skills tournament.

Also, note that it's not leaving the group, it's disappearing. When I woke up, not only had the group owner and administrators been quietly replaced, but when I casually mentioned why the original group owner and administrators left the group, everyone in the group said they had never heard of the name before, and asked if they were still half asleep or had the wrong group.

Rikka Takarada couldn't understand it. She thought it was some kind of school bullying, but now she could only admit that she had misread the group. Then she chatted with her best friend in private to find out what had happened. Then she realized that it wasn't bullying, but a true disappearance, as if those teachers and classmates had never existed in her school.

But that's impossible! Putting everything else aside, Kano Mimi, the administrator, is my senior. She's talked to me and helped me. How could she just disappear like that, without leaving a trace in anyone's memory? That's terrifying!

This explains why Rikka Takarada changed her attitude and looked at Subaru with that kind of gaze when he left. In this situation, she couldn't find anyone else to turn to for help besides Subaru, since she couldn't even see the robot in the old computer in her shop.

"You're quite calm."

Listening to Rikka Takarada's story, Subaru Genji glanced at the girl with surprise and said softly:

"Judging from your expression just now, I didn't expect you to be scared."

"Only idiots wear their hearts on their sleeves."

"That's what you said."

?

So you're not even aware of your own situation?

Rikka Takarada glanced at Subaru, but ultimately said nothing, quietly listening to the guest speak:

"First of all, there is no doubt that your memory is not the problem. There was indeed a battle with monsters over there yesterday, and last night, I should have been attacked by some kind of mental attack, which caused me to lose my sense of the outside world immediately. This is a very bad sign. Although I am in a bad state now, I should not be taken down so easily."

At this point, Subaru glanced at the monster's shadow outside the town, pointed in that direction, and looked at Rikka Takarada, saying:

Can you see anything over there?

"what?"

Rikka looked in that direction, straining her eyes to see, but apart from the blue sky and white clouds, and only birds passing by, she couldn't discern anything unusual.

Seeing Rikka Takarada shake her head blankly, Subaru nodded knowingly, then whispered:

"So it's because I'm an outsider? This setting is great, otherwise I wouldn't have a clue at all."

"Can we do without the riddle teller?"

Rikka Takarada, mimicking Subaru, leaned against the railing and said with a hint of helplessness:

"What's that over there? Can't I take a look too?"

"Sometimes ignorance is a form of protection."

Subaru thought for a moment, then declined Rikka Takarada's request, saying calmly:

"Furthermore, I haven't fully figured out what's going on yet, and I don't know what the consequences will be for you if you find out. If you trigger the enemy's actions, you'll probably be powerless to retaliate."

"Our...power?"

Rikka Takarada suddenly remembered something, grabbed Subaru Minamoto's wrist, and looked at him with a half-smile. Clearly, the girl remembered what happened yesterday afternoon, when she dragged a certain host around.

"...Although I am indeed powerless to restrain a chicken right now."

A black line flashed above Subaru's head, then his eyes lit up. He gently pried open Rikka's hand with his Nen power and casually said:

"But many times, I don't need physical strength."

"Telekinesis?"

Rikka Takarada looked at her hands in astonishment. Just now, she felt as if a gust of wind had blown her fingers apart. This experience was truly novel. At the same time, she remembered what the chuunibyou in her class had shouted before. She looked at Subaru with a tentative gaze.

"Yeah, almost."

"So who exactly are you?"

Minamoto no Subaru's gentle attitude made Takarada Rikka lower her guard. She felt that this person was somewhat complicated. When they were chatting casually, his expressions were very vivid, but when they started talking about serious matters, his face became stern and unchanged. His tone also became calm, as if he had become a different person.

But it must be said that the sense of security brought by this composure really made Rikka Takarada feel much more at ease.

Do you have any clues about those missing humans?

At this moment, Subaru changed the subject, and Rikka Takarada subconsciously took out her phone, seemingly trying to find something. However, after unlocking the screen, she realized that the relevant information had disappeared. The girl tapped her head lightly with the edge of the phone, trying hard to recall, and said:

"I don't know about the others, but I remember that Senior Kano's family ran a laundromat. I think the name was Kano Laundromat. It was on the same street as Lawson Supermarket."

"Oh, I see. I'll go check it out later."

Subaru wrote down this information, then continued speaking to Rikka Takarada: