This was the Tokyo Area's most famous luxury hotel, and right now, the one staying on its top floor was Sogen Saitake—President of the Osaka Area.
After humanity lost the war against the Gastrea, Japan was left with only five political Areas: Tokyo, Sapporo, Sendai, Osaka, and Hakata. The leader of the Tokyo Area was Seitenshi, and the leader of the Osaka Area was Sogen Saitake.
In his capacity as President of the Osaka Area, he had come to the Tokyo Area for an unofficial visit… choosing, very deliberately, the moment Seitenshi's aide, Tendō Kikunojo, was away visiting China and Russia and not in Tokyo.
Tendō Kikunojo had once told Seitenshi that among Japan's five leaders, Sogen Saitake was without a doubt the most dangerous—and the most ambitious. That was why whenever Seitenshi met Sogen Saitake, Tendō Kikunojo was always present…
Except this time.
Worried something might happen, Seitenshi asked Satomi Rentaro to serve as her bodyguard and attend the meeting with her. Satomi Rentaro was Tendō Kikunojo's adopted son and disciple. Tendō Kikunojo had once said that Rentaro might grow into an excellent politician someday—until a great many things happened, and Rentaro fled the Tendō family together with Tendō Kisara.
At noon today, Sogen Saitake had already finished the first unofficial talk with Seitenshi and returned to the hotel where he was staying temporarily. Now it was evening.
If he had to describe that meeting, there was only one word for it:
Disastrous.
When a naïve idealist meets a dangerous ambitious man, there isn't a single point they can agree on.
Still, that scene was exactly what Sogen Saitake had expected. What he hadn't expected was for Seitenshi to bring Satomi Rentaro along.
Thinking back on the other man's every move, Sogen Saitake's expression darkened.
"That brat… he's just as irritating as that old man who carves Buddha statues. Figures they're master and disciple."
Then a contact request popped up, drawing a slight glance from him. After a moment of silence, he accepted.
"…The mission failed?"
His fingers tapped the tabletop in a steady rhythm. The storm cloud between his brows sank even lower. "Explain it to me. What do you mean, the mission failed? Didn't you say you sent out four mechanized super soldiers this time? What the hell were they doing?"
Yes. Aside from being President of the Osaka Area, Sogen Saitake was also a member of the Goshoukai—and one of its highest-ranking executives.
Goshoukai executives all bore a pentagram tattoo adorned with feathers. One wing meant the lowest rank. Five wings meant the highest authority. And on Sogen Saitake's body was a five-winged pentagram.
"I don't want to hear your excuses. You swore up and down those super soldiers were absolutely unbeatable, and that's why I came here personally to draw their attention."
"...Even though the first attempt on Seitenshi failed, something this big should've been enough to keep their focus here for a while. And I'm not even talking about anyone else—Satomi Rentaro is definitely already suspicious that I'm the one behind it. He just doesn't have solid proof."
Sogen Saitake had never planned on reaching any kind of consensus in a talk with Seitenshi. From the very start, his plan had been to assassinate her. Unlike the other Areas, Seitenshi was less a "president" to the Tokyo Area and more a symbol. From the first Seitenshi to the current third Seitenshi, the Tokyo Area's leader had always been the Seitenshi.
So with Seitenshi having no heir, the moment she died, Tokyo would descend into chaos. It would make it easier for Sogen Saitake to seize the Tokyo Area later—and it would also keep the Tokyo Area from having the bandwidth to pay attention to the Goshoukai's capture operation targeting Nursery Rhyme and Scorpio.
To ensure this assassination plan succeeded, Sogen Saitake had even spent a fortune to hire a powerful Initiator with an IP Rank of 98 to carry out the mission… and yet, the first assassination attempt today had failed.
Because Satomi Rentaro interfered.
Even so, the failure had at least achieved the goal of drawing attention…
And now, after all that, he was being told the capture plan had failed too.
How could he not be furious?
But then, all at once, the rising heat inside him froze solid.
"A new type of Gastrea Virus that can maintain a humanoid form and some rationality? And a flute that can control rats and rat-type Gastrea? The flute was brought back by the surviving mechanized super soldier?"
Sogen Saitake could feel his heartbeat spike.
Both Satomi Rentaro and Tendō Kikunojo had called Sogen Saitake Japan's greatest warmonger. In a world where even survival was difficult for humanity, Sogen Saitake still obsessed over starting wars. The Osaka Area had long since ceased to satisfy his ambition—what he craved was to become king of the world.
That was why he understood better than anyone the strategic value of the new Gastrea Virus and that flute the liaison was describing.
"…I need a more detailed record." Sogen Saitake could barely contain the excitement surging in his chest as he pushed back his chair and stood. "Tell me where you are. I'm coming to you right now."
He couldn't wait even a second longer. He just wanted to see that miraculous flute immediately.
With enough mechanized super soldiers, ruling the world really would be easy—but even someone like Sogen Saitake, who knew nothing about research, understood how horrifying the costs in money, resources, and time would be. And mechanized super soldiers with self-awareness were also harder to control.
Now, though, a method that seemed better—more efficient—was right in front of him.
"A way to control the Gastrea… I'm going to get it, no matter what!"
...
Humans were always busy, never given a moment of peace.
Some were busy surviving. Some were busy chasing status. Some were busy hurting others.
And Nursery Rhyme was busy saving lolis.
Her avatar traveled all over the world every day, bringing back those "Cursed Children" who had it bad—who were unhappy, who were bullied—back to Paradise.
Almost all the unwanted and homeless "Cursed Children" were already in Paradise. The ones remaining were mostly Initiators—Initiators under ISO supervision, the ones partnered with Civil Security as their combat pairs.
Some Initiators didn't want to leave their Promoter's side. Like Satomi Rentaro's partner, Aihara Enju—and Tina Sprout, who had joined their Civil Security company not long ago.
Tina, formerly an IP Rank 98, had once accepted Sogen Saitake's commission to assassinate Seitenshi. She had been defeated by Satomi Rentaro and then won over, and in the end joined the Tendō Civil Security Corporation. She was now, effectively, Tendō Kisara's Initiator. Nursery Rhyme had encountered several cases like this around the world—Initiators who refused to leave their Promoters—and she didn't go against their wishes by forcibly taking them away.
ISO had received reports long ago about Initiators vanishing for no reason, but those idiots who'd sat in high positions for too long had stopped using their brains. They didn't care. To them, Initiators were consumables to be discarded after use. If they ran short, they could just catch more. Besides, every day there were countless Initiators dying in battles against the Gastrea—or dying at the hands of their own people. "Missing" didn't sound unusual at all.
But as time passed, more and more Initiators disappeared without explanation. Eventually, even the "Cursed Children" ISO was still raising began to vanish from training institutions as if by magic, and only then did they finally panic.
Later still, Civil Security officers who couldn't go to the front lines due to a lack of Initiators went straight to ISO and demanded that ISO assign them new Initiators—yet they never got an answer…
Because even ISO had no spare Initiators left.
In the past, they only had to wander around the Outer Area of other cities for a few laps to snatch several "Cursed Children." But now they couldn't. Those children had vanished as if they'd evaporated into thin air.
Nursery Rhyme didn't care what kind of terror ISO insiders and the upper echelons of various countries had fallen into. All she knew was that ordinary people on the streets seemed to be in pretty good spirits.
Because it had been a long time since they'd seen "red-eyed monsters" causing trouble.
In Japan, there was even a huge organization that was extremely hostile toward "Cursed Children," called the Japan Pure Blood Society. One hundred thousand people in Japan were members of it. If "Cursed Children" disappearing made anyone happiest, it was probably them, right?
But none of that had anything to do with Nursery Rhyme.
Political headlines, public opinion trends, schemes and power plays—she wouldn't understand even if someone explained it to her. After all, right now she was just a child.
"Three apple puff pastries, please!"
Nursery Rhyme stepped out of a dessert shop, the clerk calling behind her, "Please come again!"
After becoming like this, she'd found herself unable to resist the temptation of sweets—and also incredibly, incredibly, incredibly averse to bitter flavors… though she hadn't liked bitterness to begin with.
She remembered when she was little and got sick, spending two months in the hospital. Every day meant medicine and injections. The injections were painful and scary, but compared to them, the bitterness of medicine was even worse. So whenever her mom asked whether she wanted shots or medicine, she always chose the shots without hesitation.
Even though it usually ended up being shots and medicine together—double the suffering…
Because of that, she later became extremely sensitive to the smell of medicine and disinfectant. Those smells always dragged her back to those two months of misery.
"People always say, 'An apple a day keeps Nightingale away'… but I don't really like eating apples." Nursery Rhyme glanced at the apple puff pastry in her hand, smiling with innocent sincerity as she spoke to herself. "But if it's apple pie, it should work about the same as an apple, right? And it tastes better than apples."
Apples really were a strange fruit. As long as there was any other fruit to eat, you never thought of eating an apple.
Choosing a bench near a fountain, Nursery Rhyme got ready to enjoy the pastries she'd just bought.
The blazing sun hung high overhead. Even with the world reduced to this, the sun still rose in the east and set in the west. On a scorching day like this, spots near fountains were always more popular—the "splash-splash" of running water gave people the illusion that it was cooler.
On a tall building not far away, there was a large display screen. On it, a female reporter was insulting "Cursed Children" with every ugly word she could find. Along the bottom, a line of text scrolled past:
"EVIL RED EYES! THEY COULD TURN INTO GASTREA AT ANY MOMENT IN THE STREET!"
"Good thing the kids won't come here. They only pretend to be strong on the outside, but inside they're still sensitive and fragile. If they saw something like this, who knows what would happen…"
Nursery Rhyme lost interest in the news on the screen after a single glance and went on eating her snack. Then a question surfaced in her mind.
"There shouldn't be many 'Cursed Children' left in the Tokyo Area anymore… so why does the malice in the air feel even more restless than before?"
And… there was also the feeling that destruction was drawing near.
"Hm? That's…"
Having just finished one apple pastry, Nursery Rhyme spotted two familiar figures in the distance.
Satomi Rentaro and Tina.
This time, Nursery Rhyme hadn't gone out of her way to find them. She'd just been wandering aimlessly—she had many avatars, after all, and someone always got a chance to slack off now and then.
So this really was a genuine street encounter.
She walked up and greeted them.
"Good morning! Rentaro-oniichan, and Tina too."
"Huh? Nursery Rhyme?" Seeing her, Satomi Rentaro looked a little surprised, then corrected her. "Wait—this isn't 'good morning,' is it? It's already afternoon. School's been out for a while."
Satomi Rentaro worked as a Civil Security officer while also being a student, and today was a school day. Clearly, he'd just gotten out of class.
"Huh? Is it?" Nursery Rhyme tilted her head in confusion, frowning slightly. "Mm… maybe it's because I just got back from America and I haven't adjusted for the time difference yet."
"America?"
Satomi Rentaro froze for a moment. What was Nursery Rhyme doing in America?
But thinking about it, she looked obviously foreign. Going to America didn't seem surprising at all. If anything, her staying in Japan all this time would be the strange part.
"Ooh… it's Nursery Rhyme, good morning… did you eat breakfast? If you didn't, we can go eat together. Food over here is a bit better than in America… Even though Onii-chan's house only has bean sprouts, Enju and I still eat happily even with just bean sprouts…"
Tina narrowed her eyes, looking very much like she hadn't woken up at all. She was completely out of it, and Nursery Rhyme couldn't help thinking of herself back in high school, getting drowsy in class and earning a—Noxian Guillotine—from the teacher.
Tina was an owl-type Initiator, so she was always sleepy during the day and hyper at night. The nighttime environment also suited her better for fighting.
With a weary look, Satomi Rentaro said, "Tina, look around. We're not at home—we're outside, okay…? And it's already afternoon."
"Hu-eh?" Tina half-opened a pair of lifeless eyes and murmured hazily, "But… Mr. Sun only just came up…"
"That's the west. The sun didn't just come up—it's about to set."
"Ah… then, see you tomorrow, Mr. Sun…"
Tina was so tired she was talking nonsense.
Seeing that, Nursery Rhyme handed one of the apple pastries to Tina.
"If you eat something, you'll probably feel more awake."
"…Thanks." Tina accepted it blankly and whispered her thanks.
"You're welcome." Nursery Rhyme smiled with guileless warmth, holding the last apple pastry in her hands. "Sharing your favorite treat with an important friend is a magical kind of magic that makes it taste even better, you know~"