Shiba Heavy Industries was the largest weapons manufacturer in this world.
At that moment, inside a room in one of the company's mansions...
Click!
A slightly dazzling white flash accompanied the sound.
"Okay!"
Miori Shiba nodded in satisfaction as she examined the photograph on her camera.
In the picture, she was smiling brilliantly, while Kisara Tendō had been forcibly posed beside her with a thoroughly miserable expression.
Under normal circumstances, Kisara would never have cooperated. She would have resisted with everything she had.
The only reason she was allowing Miori to move her around like a doll was that she had passed out halfway through their return journey.
Mr. Kain had immediately stopped collecting samples, summoned an aircraft from seemingly nowhere, and flown them back.
Since he was unfamiliar with the area, Miori had directed him to one of her family's facilities and summoned Kisara's regular physician to treat her.
She had taken the photograph so she could send it to the other two members of the Tendō Civil Security Agency, letting them know Kisara was safe and that there was no need to worry.
Message sent.
After putting away her camera, Miori turned toward the other person in the room.
"Mr. Kain, would you be willing to sell that aircraft?"
His aircraft was nothing like the one Kisara had used.
If Kisara's model could be described as the civilian version, his was a genuine military aircraft.
The only reason Kisara's aircraft had been shot down this time was that someone had tampered with the special metal it was transporting.
A signal transmitter had been hidden inside the cargo, allowing her enemies to lock onto the aircraft and shoot it down.
Yes, they had attacked it with a heavy sniper rifle.
The shot damaged its optical camouflage, after which flying Gastrea continued attacking it until it finally crashed.
Her coincidental encounter with those airborne Gastrea had not been a coincidence at all. Someone had known her route in advance.
They were still investigating the mastermind, but Miori was certain someone within her company had been bribed and had leaked her movements.
Unfortunately, by the time she returned, the traitor had already been silenced.
"Sure."
"Huh?"
Miori stared blankly at Kain, surprised by his straightforward answer.
"What are your conditions?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.
There had to be a condition. It couldn't possibly be that simple.
"Find out roughly how many Cursed Children currently exist in this world. I also want detailed information about every region and where they're distributed."
Kain stated his condition.
He did not need their approximate number to determine the size of the dimensional gateway he would have to open.
A passage with a volume of roughly one hundred cubed meters would already be more than sufficient.
At present, the oldest Cursed Children were only ten years old.
If the average ten-year-old's body was generously rounded up to occupy 0.1 cubic meters of space, then a gateway of that size could accommodate the passage of ten million children.
Opening it would cost only one hundred energy coins. After that, maintaining it would cost another ten coins per hour.
The real difficulty would be gathering ten million children in a single place.
This world's existing capabilities made that nearly impossible. Worse, society here was deeply diseased, and most people feared and despised the Cursed Children.
Because of that, Kain would need to bring transport aircraft from another world. Doing so would require opening another passage and spending additional energy coins.
Once the children had been gathered, he would leave this world and reopen the gateway from another one.
Of course, there probably weren't ten million Cursed Children left. Their current population was more likely around one million.
In any case, Kain still had more than sixteen hundred energy coins, which should be enough to complete the evacuation.
The reason he had so few left was that he had spent over a thousand in Asseylum's world. His expenses there had been roughly the same as in Lacus's world.
The five warships alone had cost five hundred coins to transport. Bringing over all the other miscellaneous equipment had consumed nearly three hundred more.
Then there was the cost of keeping the warships in that world.
They had remained there until the Martian Knights were completely suppressed, and the accumulated maintenance cost had approached a thousand coins.
Even so, the expenditure had been worthwhile. He had obtained several extremely useful technologies in return.
"All right."
Miori accepted without hesitation, although his condition had caught her completely off guard.
He appeared to have designs on the Cursed Children, which left her feeling somewhat uneasy.
However, even if she refused to investigate, she had no way to stop someone with his capabilities from doing whatever he wanted.
It would be better to assist him. That way, she could learn his true intentions as soon as possible and respond accordingly.
"Um, may I ask something? Does that panacea have any side effects?"
"There shouldn't be any. We haven't discovered any so far."
Kain understood why she was asking.
Before losing consciousness, Kisara had specifically instructed Miori not to let Kain give her the panacea under any circumstances.
Miori herself had already taken the medicine Kisara had given her. Seeing Kisara refuse it so adamantly naturally made her suspect there might be something wrong with it.
As for why Kisara refused both the panacea and the advanced medical equipment Kain had brought, he had a theory.
In Black Bullet, Kisara had lost kidney function after a Gastrea attack.
Given her family's resources and her own capabilities, obtaining a healthy kidney transplant would not have been difficult.
However, Kisara had refused and chosen to rely on artificial kidneys instead.
That meant she still needed regular dialysis.
The reason she refused a normal kidney transplant was likely the same reason she rejected the panacea and Kain's advanced medical technology. If her damaged kidneys were healed, she would lose the pain she used to constantly remind herself that she lived for revenge.
Her parents had been killed in that Gastrea attack.
She needed revenge.
During this latest incident, Kisara had pushed herself through an intense battle against the Gastrea, placing too much strain on her artificial kidneys. Her body had finally reached its limit, causing her to collapse on the way back.
She was now lying on the bed in front of them, connected to a dialysis machine.
"Then why doesn't Kisara want to take the panacea?"
Miori appeared merely curious, but she had already formed a few theories.
Some people refused to remove scars from their bodies because the wounds served as reminders of something they could never allow themselves to forget.
Still, a theory was only a theory. Mr. Kain might know the truth, so she decided to probe him.
"If you want to know that badly, ask her yourself now that she's awake."
"On second thought, never mind."
Miori turned toward Kisara, who had already opened her eyes, and winked at her.
"Oh, right, Kisara. Lady Seitenshi is holding some kind of meeting tomorrow. She asked me to pass the message along. Apparently, she intends to hire people to recover something, and practically every Civil Security Agency in the Tokyo Area has been summoned. Does that remind you of anything?"
Miori watched Kisara's expression as she asked the question with a smile. Judging by the change on her face, she really did know something.
"Oh? Has the story finally begun?"
Kisara smiled.
She hadn't expected the plot to proceed normally after she joined the Super-Dimensional Channel and learned about this world's future.
She could have taken any number of actions based on that knowledge, producing a butterfly effect that prevented the event from ever occurring.
On second thought, however, it wasn't that surprising.
The incident had been deliberately engineered, which made it nearly inevitable.
That old man wanted to prevent Lady Seitenshi from passing the New Gastrea Law, so he would naturally arrange something like this.
"The story has begun? What do you mean?"
"Nothing."
Kisara refused to explain. Instead, she switched off the dialysis machine and removed the tubes.
"You idiot! You're only halfway through your dialysis!"
"That's enough. Mr. Kain, let's go."
As she spoke, Kisara forced her muscles to remain perfectly steady, refusing to reveal even the slightest abnormality that might allow that woman to notice something was wrong.
In truth, she had only regained consciousness because Kain had awakened her. Her condition had already reached a dangerously critical point. Even walking would be difficult.
"Mr. Kain, I'm having some trouble moving. Could you please carry me back? I need to prepare for tomorrow."
Faced with her request, Kain walked over and turned his back toward her.
"Um... I didn't mean on your back."
Kisara did seem weak, but her insistence on being carried in his arms left Kain slightly puzzled.
Still, he didn't think much of it. He simply turned around and lifted her into a princess carry.
Surely this would be fine.
Her body was much lighter than he had expected.
Despite her slender, seemingly fragile frame, Black Bullet described Kisara as possessing extraordinary strength. She was even stronger than an Initiator, and the sword technique she had created could unleash supersonic slashes.
According to the original description, she had even fought a Stage IV Gastrea.
One of the people responsible for her parents' deaths was her older half brother. When her blade struck him, he still had enough time to speak for several moments before his body finally registered the slash and burst apart.
"Why are you following us?"
"What's wrong with coming along for a free meal?"
Miori had known Kisara for years. She could vaguely sense that preparing for tomorrow wasn't the true reason her friend was in such a hurry to leave.
Something about her behavior was strange.
It almost seemed as though she was afraid of being touched.
Was she hiding something on her body and worried Miori would discover it?
If she had known, she would have taken the opportunity to feel around when Kisara was unconscious.
Still, it wasn't too late.
"Ah!"
Pretending to lose her balance, Miori stepped on the hem of her own kimono and pitched forward.
She really did step on it to make the fall convincing, allowing herself to lose control and crash into Kisara, sandwiching her between Miori and Kain.
Miori deliberately pressed herself firmly against her friend.
The instant they collided, she noticed Kisara's expression stiffen, then change dramatically.
What was that?
Wait...
Did she just wet herself?
"Hahahaha!"
Miori burst into laughter. Even though her own clothes had gotten caught in the accident, she couldn't stop laughing.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]