7:30 AM.
Akihabara vicinity.
Hidden Management Department branch.
"A place like this stronghold, and you let a mere yokai like me waltz in. Should I call you confident or just plain arrogant?"
Hagoromo Gitsune toyed with her sleek black hair, eyeing the teenager standing to her left with amusement. His deliberately mature makeup couldn't disguise his youth.
"If you're confident enough to attack this place, you're more than welcome." Luo Shu kept one hand in his pocket, speaking with relaxed ease. "As long as you don't mind being preserved as a specimen in the basement."
"Oh?" Hagoromo Gitsune arched an eyebrow slightly. Even that subtle movement carried astonishing allure through her fox-like, slender eyes. "Are you certain you'd only make me a specimen?"
Luo Shu faltered momentarily under the implication, his expression flickering before regaining clarity. "Trying to stir my desires? That's crossing the line."
"That darkness was already overflowing from your heart. I merely brushed against it." Hagoromo Gitsune glanced down at her black sailor uniform and thigh-high stockings, striking a pose. "Tch. To have such darkness provoked by this outfit... humans will always be humans."
With a sigh, Luo Shu led her toward the elevator. "It's just that JK skirts without safety shorts are rare these days."
"Hmm?" Hagoromo Gitsune tilted her head, examining her own miniskirt before exchanging a glance with Kyokotsu.
"Sister, safety shorts are..." Kyokotsu scurried over to whisper an explanation, her cheeks flushing pink during the hushed exchange.
"Oh?" Hagoromo Gitsune looked genuinely surprised after the briefing. "This era's humans dress outrageously bold, yet insist on covering the crucial bits?"
During her last incarnation in the Edo period, women wore nothing beneath their heavy kimono layers - faces powdered white, not an inch of skin exposed. Yet now, with bare limbs and microskirts everywhere, modern girls insisted on safety shorts?
"How twisted human hearts remain~"
"Let's not blame human nature for this one." Luo Shu pressed the third-floor button. After the doors opened, he began security protocols for the Hidden Management Zone.
Soon, the descending elevator brought them underground. The doors slid open to reveal a vast hall stretching before Hagoromo Gitsune and Kyokotsu.
Guarding the entrance to the Hidden Management Zone stood six towering Gundams. The mechanical behemoths radiated brutalist aesthetics through their metallic frames. Hagoromo Gitsune paused, frowning at the dangerous energy emanating from their weaponry.
"Modern puppet constructs?" She categorised the Gundams through her own understanding.
Stepping forward, Luo Shu reassured her: "Relax. Given the darkness in my heart, if I wanted to ambush you, it'd be on some love hotel bed, not here."
"Y-you insolent cur! How dare you defile sister with such words!" Kyokotsu's face burned crimson at the mention of love hotels, her muttered curses barely audible.
However, her vocabulary for insults was too limited, and Kyokotsu could only manage to mutter words like "madman" under her breath.
Compared to Kyokotsu, Hagoromo Gitsune actually let out a light chuckle upon hearing Luo Shu's bold admission of his thoughts:
"Having the courage to admit your inner thoughts is commendable, but please refrain from using me as the subject of your imagination."
"After all, I am already a mother."
"Isn't that even better?" Luo Shu responded as he walked towards the control panel.
"???"
Hagoromo Gitsune froze for a moment before giving Luo Shu a peculiar look.
Beside them, Kyokotsu was utterly dumbfounded, her entire worldview seemingly collapsing.
After a pause, Hagoromo Gitsune watched as Luo Shu opened the Hidden Management Zone and admitted frankly:
"I concede that I underestimated the darkness in your heart."
Though Hagoromo Gitsune couldn't even remember what her husband looked like, she did recall having a child.
By modern standards, she should be considered a single mother?
And this man actually had designs on someone like her? Did he have some unsavoury preferences?
"It was just a joke." Luo Shu spread his hands, his expression unruffled.
As he spoke, a faint tremor emanated from the massive gate.
The doors of the Hidden Management Zone slowly swung open...
But compared to the unknown dangers beyond those doors, Hagoromo Gitsune found herself more concerned about Luo Shu himself.
Before their collaboration, there had been no issues between them. But now, she genuinely worried Luo Shu might do something to her.
After all, this man truly had both the capability and the motivation to do such things.
Hagoro Gitsune suddenly felt a twinge of regret about their partnership. She was genuinely concerned that after reuniting with her child, Luo Shu might say something like "You should call me Daddy" to them.
The mere thought made her shudder.
"Alright, what I prepared for you is inside."
Luo Shu spoke while leading the way.
Hagoromo Gitsune hesitated briefly before finally following. Seeing her move, Kyokotsu opened her mouth as if to stop her, but ultimately could only trail behind in small steps.
Entering the vast Hidden Management Zone, Hagoromo Gitsune looked around the empty space with some surprise, puzzled that the area, rumoured to seal numerous Abyss Artefacts, could be so barren.
"Don't bother looking. This place is an overlapping space—think of it like a honeycomb."
Luo Shu chuckled from ahead:
"What we're standing in now is just one empty cell of that honeycomb."
Understanding flashed in Hagoromo Gitsune's eyes.
A controlled overlapping space?
One had to admit the SDS lived up to its reputation as a transnational organisation, using such rare spatial constructs to seal Abyss Artefacts.
Seeing Hagoromo Gitsune taken in by his explanation, Luo Shu felt a flicker of amusement.
The best disguise was to place what needed hiding in plain sight.
The Divine Kingdom was exactly that.
Rather than concealing the Divine Kingdom and leaving it unused, presenting it openly as a sealing ground for Abyss Artefacts actually worked to Luo Shu's advantage.
On one hand, it allowed Luo Shu to borrow the Divine Kingdom's power. On the other hand, it directed visitors' vigilance towards the Abyss Artefacts rather than the truth that this was a realm of a god.
Such a subtle discrepancy, if overlooked, could cost an enemy their life.
Before long, Luo Shu came to a halt and said, "We're here."
Hearing this, Hagoromo Gitsune followed Luo Shu's gaze and looked ahead, immediately spotting the genderless, faceless figure floating inside a cylindrical pod—the faceless body.
Observing this, Hagoromo Gitsune narrowed her eyes:
"Is this the vessel you've prepared for me?"