kscans

Chapter 53 - Episode 53

"Wh, why? Hayate, what in the world are you thinking?"

Unable to believe what she was seeing with her own eyes, Rena muttered in a daze.

She, along with her bodyguard Mochizuki Kureha and the maids, had arrived at the Shinonome Group hotel where they had originally planned to stay. She had been watching Hayate push through the dungeon on their way, but just as they arrived at the hotel, a problem occurred.

Hayate, who had gone missing at the airport security checkpoint, had entered a dungeon alone and successfully rescued Mary Tyler, the daughter of the US President. It was upsetting to be left behind without a word, but Rena could have forgiven him up to that point.

She told herself that he must have had his reasons for his actions. She just had to ask him for the reason when he came back. She had believed he would surely give her an explanation she could accept.

However, the problem started from there.

Just as Mary, who had appeared as a trophy, faintly opened her eyes, Hayate pressed something like a cloth to her mouth and knocked her unconscious. Then, cradling Mary in his arms, he floated into the air with a jetpack equipped on his back and leaped from the top floor of the Spring Dungeon.

As Mary was highly popular even within America, many media outlets had been watching the rescue of the four-sword style user Hayate. There were also numerous news helicopters flying around the dungeon.

The Air Force was also monitoring the area with helicopters and drones, but Hayate disappeared into the dark of night at a speed that eluded all their eyes.

Hayate, who had vanished without a word. The whereabouts of him and Mary were now unknown.

In this situation, Rena was not the only one in confusion.

Within America, the moment Mary was rescued, social media was flooded with celebratory comments, but the atmosphere changed completely when the news reported that they had gone missing.

Looking at the situation, there was no mistaking that the President’s daughter had been abducted by a Japanese national.

Although many of his fans defended Hayate, insisting there must be a reason, the scene where he knocked Mary unconscious with some kind of drug, which had been forcibly broadcast, was the final nail in the coffin. In an age where it has become easy for people to condemn others once the circumstantial evidence aligns, Hayate’s social media and streaming booth were flooded with a massive amount of slander.

—*—

Treating it as the abduction of a member of the First Family, the Secret Service and the CIA had already begun to act.

George, the father of the abducted Mary, had of course been watching the events unfold on the stream. But even after receiving the report from his aide that they had lost sight of Hayate, he remained stunned, unable to understand what had happened.

It was George’s order to invite Hayate Shizukuishi along with Shinonome Rena to this country. The aide he had appointed had successfully completed the negotiations with them, and when he heard that the Shinonome Zaibatsu’s private jet had arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport, George had felt a sense of relief, thinking, ‘My daughter will be saved now.’

Now, the situation had become something he had never imagined.

"N, no way… Did he think it was my order to kidnap her!?"

He had an idea as to why Hayate would take such an action.

When he had instructed his aide, David, to secure Hayate, David had acted on his own authority and mobilized a special forces team to kidnap Shinonome Rena. He had planned to make Hayate obey his orders by taking Rena hostage.

George had never intended to order such a heavy-handed act. But the problem was that David had mobilized the special forces team, claiming it was the President’s order.

"Mr. President!"

The female aide who was supposed to have met Hayate and the others burst open the office door and returned alone.

"Keaney. What is the meaning of this? Did you not get them to understand that the matter of kidnapping Lena Shinonome was a misunderstanding!?"

"Th, that was my understanding, but."

By paying a compensation of one hundred thousand dollars, Aide Keaney had tried to make the Shinonome Rena abduction plan, which another aide had executed on his own authority, a thing of the past. Hayate and the others had also seemed to accept that, but…

"No sooner do I receive a report that Hayate has gone missing than this happens. For him to do such a thing, I can only think of it as retaliation for that incident!"

"I was able to speak with Lena. At that time, she didn’t seem to think anything like this would happen. Therefore, I believe something must have happened to him after he went missing at the security checkpoint."

"Tell me what that something is! My daughter has been kidnapped, you know!?"

"W, well, this is something I would rather not consider, but…"

Around the same time Hayate went missing, a certain person had also disappeared. Furthermore, information from the Pentagon that a device this person was involved in developing had also gone missing led Keaney to imagine the worst-case scenario.

"It is possible that former Senior Aide David brainwashed Hayate Shizukuishi and had him kidnap your daughter."