By the roadside, a red Ferrari was parked, its window rolled down as Kirika Tachibana leaned against it, puffing on a cigarette.
Luo Shu, Natsuki Minamiya, and Suzuka Dairenji, who had just stepped out of the hotel, spotted her immediately.
Noticing them as well, Kirika rested her chin on the car window and asked:
"So? Did you manage to catch that Time Angel's clone?"
Suzuka couldn't help but glance at Luo Shu.
Scratching his head, Luo Shu walked up to the Ferrari and replied:
"Failed. Couldn't keep her, didn't even settle on a cooperative agreement."
"Mm, I could guess as much from your expressions."
Kirika took a drag from her cigarette, showing little disappointment. Instead, she teased with a grin:
"Though I must say, it's rare to see you fail at something. Given how smoothly you've been handling things lately, I almost thought you were omnipotent."
Hearing this, Luo Shu rolled his eyes and retorted dryly:
"Rather than mocking me, maybe you should worry about yourself, Commander, sneaking out in the middle of a major military operation."
"Ara? No need to fret over that."
Kirika plucked the cigarette from her lips, pinched it out, and smiled.
"Familiar Spirits of Yin-Yang Arts aren't so inconvenient, you know."
"As long as the spirit wearing my face is still directing things at Sakuradamon, nothing will go wrong there."
"You..." Luo Shu stared at her, speechless.
Wasn't she afraid of getting exposed at Sakuradamon?
"Some things never change, Tachibana."
Unlike Luo Shu's exasperation, Natsuki seemed to have expected Kirika's presence, even quipping:
"You always have a nose for opportunity."
Unlike Luo Shu, Natsuki and Kirika had known each other for some years.
She was well aware of her friend's nature—someone who never acted without benefit, always calculating for maximum gain.
The reason Kirika had sent a Familiar Spirit to handle command duties at the Metropolitan Police Department was likely because she'd caught wind of an opportunity here with Luo Shu.
She'd probably already assessed that no major issues would arise at Sakuradamon, hence her decision to assist in capturing the Time Angel's clone—all to secure greater advantages for the SDS.
Yet, much to Kirika's surprise, even with Luo Shu personally leading the operation, backed by Natsuki and Suzuka, they still failed to capture a single clone of Kurumi Tokisaki.
That was... somewhat embarrassing.
"Was that Angel really that troublesome?" Kirika asked curiously, still leaning against the window.
Luo Shu frowned, recalling the ambush.
"Not exactly troublesome. More like... neither side was serious. It was all just probing."
For example, Luo Shu had never truly considered fighting Kurumi Tokisaki. From the very beginning, he harboured no killing intent, only thinking, 'Is cooperation possible?'
Natsuki Minamiya also approached the cooperation with a similar mindset. Though she employed spatial techniques, she refrained from using her most powerful Familiar, clearly not going all out either.
As for Suzuka Dairenji's involvement, apart from harassing Kurumi Tokisaki, she lacked the necessary intelligence to effectively counter her opponent.
On Kurumi's side, the situation was much the same. Apart from her clones, her true form had never actually appeared. Every Kurumi Tokisaki Luo Shu faced had been summoned from different timelines.
Of course, her true form did eventually intervene, using a Spacequake generated by her Spirit abilities outside the hotel to rescue her clones and escape Natsuki Minamiya's spatial confinement. Still, it would be an exaggeration to say she suffered significant losses.
Reflecting on this, Luo Shu concluded:
"At best, this operation simply made both sides fully aware of how formidable the other is."
After this incident, Luo Shu strongly suspected Kurumi might decide to only ever face him with clones from now on, avoiding further traps.
This prospect troubled him greatly. While the Calamity Bringer's power allowed him to suppress the current Kurumi Tokisaki—even effortlessly eliminating her clones—his original intention wasn't to engage in a life-or-death struggle.
What he wanted was a subordinate Kurumi Tokisaki, not a Spirit who'd go out of her way to avoid him.
Unlike the frustrated Luo Shu, Natsuki Minamiya wore an expression of enlightenment:
"This operation revealed the flaws in my spatial techniques to that Time Angel."
Her personally crafted spatial confinement had been dismantled by Kurumi's Spacequake ability, which somewhat bruised Natsuki's pride. As someone who specialised in spatial manipulation, being outmanoeuvred in spatial applications by Kurumi—who excelled in temporal manipulation—was frankly embarrassing.
The most ironic part was that Natsuki considered her approach to be refined spatial control, whereas Kurumi's method was a brute-force instinct. Yet she'd still been countered, leaving Natsuki struggling to save face.
"Not just Luo Shu, but even you took a loss, Natsuki?"
Kirika Tachibana murmured before pondering aloud:
"Seems if we encounter this Time Angel during missions, all members below director rank should proactively abort to minimise losses."
Luo Shu didn't particularly disagree. According to his assessment, unless possessing a special Class, any sorcerer below Elite Rank would be utterly outmatched by Kurumi Tokisaki. Her City of Devouring Time could even restrain Suzuka Dairenji—a Divine General of the Onmyou Agency—making her practically a slaughter machine against weaker opponents.
Fortunately, dangerous as she was, Kurumi still maintained certain boundaries. Otherwise, with her abilities, targeting ordinary people to drain their lifespans could easily amass billions of years.
A Kurumi Tokisaki with abundant lifespan reserves would be worlds apart from her current cautious, rationing self. For humanity, an Angel like her posed such extreme danger that having SDS members avoid direct confrontation wasn't unreasonable.
That said... what exactly were the ranks below director level? Having been promoted straight to director, Luo Shu found himself somewhat confused...
Meanwhile, after assessing the danger posed by Kurumi Tokisaki in her mind, Kirika Tachibana immediately turned to Natsuki Minamiya and said:
"Natsuki, I'll need you to draft a report on the Time Angel next."
"I don't need you to remind me about such things. I would have done it anyway," Natsuki Minamiya replied irritably.
Seizing the opportunity, Kirika Tachibana pressed further:
"While you're at it, could you also estimate what kind of barrier we'd need to prevent someone like Kurumi Tokisaki from invading our base?"
"You certainly know how to put people to work," Natsuki said, rolling her eyes.
As the two conversed, Luo Shu came up with a plan to deal with Kurumi Tokisaki.
The base!
That's right, he had the base!
The Hidden Management Zone, beneath the Hidden Management Department, where Abyss Artefacts and dangerous lifeforms were stored.
If he could lure Kurumi Tokisaki there—even just one of her clones—Luo Shu was confident he could handle that outrageously flirtatious Miss Kurumi.
After all, that was the Divine Kingdom of this powerless (and authority-less) god, his home turf.
Though he'd formulated a plan to deal with Kurumi Tokisaki and create another negotiation opportunity, Luo Shu had no intention of voicing it immediately.
It wasn't that he distrusted Kirika Tachibana, but rather that he suspected Kurumi Tokisaki's clones might be watching them nearby.
And indeed, verification through the Mysticism Encyclopaedia confirmed that Kurumi had left clones observing them—twelve of them, no less.
This woman was far more cautious than Luo Shu had imagined.
Considering Kurumi's surveillance, Luo Shu deliberately rubbed the Mist Ring on his finger and remarked:
"What a shame. Even at the last moment, I couldn't find an opportunity to use an Abyss Artefact to subdue the Time Angel's true form."
Noticing Luo Shu's sudden gesture, both Kirika Tachibana and Natsuki Minamiya paused briefly before quickly regaining their composure.
Among them, only Suzuka Dairenji was unaware of the Demon Heart's ability to hypnotise women.
Yet, while Luo Shu was discussing using the Demon Heart against Kurumi Tokisaki, he was actually touching the Mist Ring—clearly suspicious.
In that instant, both Kirika and Natsuki realised Kurumi might still be nearby.
Otherwise, Luo Shu wouldn't have needed to make such an obvious misdirection in front of them.
Thinking this, Natsuki calmly changed the subject:
"There's nothing we could have done about it. We'll just have to create another opportunity next time."
"Speaking of which, has the Ghoul situation been resolved?"
As Natsuki shifted topics, Kirika responded naturally:
"By my estimate, the Sakurada team should be wrapping things up around now."
"Most of the task forces have probably begun orderly withdrawals already."
The joint operation involving 30,000 soldiers and 10,000 mystic side personnel represented nearly the upper limit of Japan's mobilisation capacity.
Though such large-scale operations revealed numerous issues, dealing with 20,000 Ghouls was still effortless.
Frankly, while Ghouls were rated as Class B threats, the assessment was noticeably inflated.
Within their species, only so-called SSS-rank Ghouls could barely qualify as Level 3 threats.
Most Ghouls hovered around Level 1 threat ratings, with only a few S-rank or above Ghouls reaching Level 2 threat assessments.
Among them, the weak Ghouls with a danger level of 1 were the true majority.
Out of twenty thousand Ghouls, at least seventeen thousand fell into this category.
Meanwhile, those from the mystic side participating in this extermination operation were mostly rated at level 2—the middle tier of their respective factions.
Thus, within just half an hour of the operation's start, the Ghouls had already been mostly dealt with, with only a few powerful ones still on the run.
As such, the real time-waster was driving to the Ghouls' locations rather than the battles themselves—it was a complete stomp.
Hearing Kirika Tachibana's response, Luo Shu couldn't help but mutter:
"So... it's pretty much over already?"
At that, Kirika Tachibana chuckled teasingly:
"So, should I congratulate you?"
"Your debut battle was exterminating a dangerous race of twenty thousand."
"From now on, Luo Shu, your fearsome reputation will spread throughout Japan."
"I heard the Bujin-shū from the Metropolitan Police Department have been secretly calling you the 'Black Reaper'."
"A fitting tribute to your first appearance, where you ordered the slaughter of twenty thousand Ghouls."
Hearing this, Luo Shu could only laugh bitterly:
"What kind of nonsense is this?!"