Mash-Up: Anything for Money

"The time shouldn't be long, but Finland is so big, maybe I should ask someone..." With that thought, Hakuto unexpectedly jumped directly off the tall building.

This building was the highest one Hakuto could find within his line of sight, towering over a hundred meters. Yet, Hakuto actually jumped off it!

As he felt gravity pulling him down, his long bangs were even scraped painfully across his face by the force.

To be honest, Hakuto had been wanting to do this for a while, but making such an arrogant move in public still had a bad impact.

However, being in a foreign country, there were no such worries. After all, no one here knew him, and Hakuto wouldn't be staying long.

...

In a small alley on a street in Finland, Hakuto held a boy who appeared to be two or three years younger than him by the arm and slammed him hard against the wall.

"I was still debating who to ask, and you ended up trying to scam me."

Most Finns have typical European features, and Hakuto, with his Asian face, stood out in the crowd, making him very noticeable.

Naturally, he was assumed to be a tourist. And, as it goes with tourists, they were often targeted by locals for scams.

The boy, now crouched on the ground, watched Hakuto warily.

Hakuto felt quite lucky. 

He had just been thinking of finding someone with the ability to steal abilities, and here he had found someone who was scamming tourists.

With that thought, Hakuto, speaking fluent Finnish, took out a photo of Otosaka Yuu and showed it to the boy in front of him.

"Have you seen him?"

"You... can speak Finnish?" The boy seemed a bit surprised.

"Of course, I heard you call me a fat sheep in front of others. I heard it loud and clear."

"Looks like I've messed up..."

"I asked if you've seen the person in this photo?"

Hearing Hakuto's words, the boy swallowed and, after a moment of thought, nodded.

"I've seen him. There aren't many Asians in Finland, although I don't think you two look much different..."

"When and where did you see him?"

The boy hesitated, his face showing a hint of uncertainty as he remained silent.

Hakuto raised an eyebrow at the sight. It was no surprise. 

A person younger than him had the audacity to scam tourists, so it was clear what was going through his mind.

However, Hakuto wasn't carrying any euros, and he wasn't planning to pay!

"I used to be like you, someone who only saw money..." Hakuto smiled warmly. "But I never took what wasn't mine."

A few minutes later, Hakuto walked out of the alley with his backpack on, chewing on a piece of bread.

This was the product the boy was selling. The taste wasn't great, and it was obvious that it lacked some modern technology.

"Two days ago..." Hakuto thought to himself. Two days should be enough time for Otosaka Yuu to still be in Finland, and not far from here.

"Such a hassle..." Hakuto sighed lightly and swallowed the bread.

On the bustling streets of Finland, no one noticed the sudden disappearance of Hakuto in the crowd.

...

In the evening, the beautiful Finnish city, with its distinctive European architectural style, shone under the brilliant moonlight, showcasing its unique nightlife.

On top of a secluded building in this city, a young man dressed in a brown trench coat, with black messy hair and bangs that nearly covered his eyes, stood, observing the city.

The boy was dirty from head to toe, with one eye covered by a gray eyepatch. The other, exposed eye looked somewhat dull, and even his facial expression was stiff.

In his hand was a map of Finland, and strangely, in his eyes, the seemingly ordinary map had little green dots constantly moving on it.

The boy's gaze was fixed on the green dots. In the next moment, he put the map away, and with a gust of wind, he suddenly took flight.

Naturally, he was flying toward the locations where those green dots had appeared on the map.

This boy was Otosaka Yuu, the very person Hakuto had been searching for—though perhaps it should be said that he had already found him.

Because directly beneath the flying Otosaka Yuu, Hakuto was weaving silently through the streets and alleys, following him closely.

It was odd—one was flying at full speed, while the other was moving on foot, even having to navigate terrain and crowds.

Yet, the distance between them didn't widen at all. In fact, it seemed Hakuto was deliberately keeping it that way.

"Found him..."

"And he hasn't noticed me even at this distance. Looks like I'm doing a decent job staying hidden."

"But why isn't he using spatial jumps..."

Hakuto pondered. Just one glance from afar at Otosaka Yuu earlier had told him that something was wrong with his condition.

How to describe it?

It was like a shallow-water fish that had suddenly entered the deep sea, the crushing pressure threatening to tear it to pieces.

Otosaka Yuu was currently in a state like that. Logically, the combination of abilities from several countries should be enough to balance each other out.

But it seemed Otosaka Yuu didn't actually know what abilities he had right now, so it wasn't that he didn't want to use spatial jumps—he had simply forgotten, subconsciously.

With thousands of abilities intertwining, there was no way to organize them. It was inevitable that Otosaka Yuu's brain couldn't handle it.

His mind had likely entered a kind of self-protection mode. 

According to the law of conservation of mass, if you take in something new, you have to let go of something old.

Hakuto figured that even if he stood directly in front of Otosaka Yuu right now, Yuu probably wouldn't recognize him.

"Hello, sir, would you like something?"

"No thanks."

Interrupted by a nearby vendor, Hakuto stopped thinking too deeply. 

For now, all he needed to do was follow Otosaka Yuu, ensure his safety, and make sure he didn't do anything reckless...

Like killing innocent bystanders, for example.

"At least the eyepatch is still on. That's some good news."

Before Otosaka Yuu left, Hakuto had Otosaka Ayumi make an eyepatch for him, specifically to suppress his memory-based teleportation.

So far, it seemed to be working well. At least the siscon hadn't taken it off.

...

In a deserted park, flashes of green light kept appearing. 

Each flash represented a new ability being added to Otosaka Yuu's mind—and something else being lost.

Hakuto stood at a distance, silently watching it all. He wasn't worried about being exposed; to Otosaka Yuu now, he was nothing more than a stranger.

"Next location..." Otosaka Yuu let go of the ability user, now half-unconscious, and opened the map again to look up his next destination.

Seeing this, Hakuto shrugged helplessly. "Looks like there won't be any sleep tonight..."

Saying that, he put on his portable music player and continued to follow behind Otosaka Yuu.