After receiving permission, the silver-haired girl entered the facility, which had been built in little more than a day.
It was the first time since becoming Seitenshi that she had needed someone else's permission to enter a place.
She felt no resentment over it.
Being Seitenshi did not make her superior to everyone else, nor did she believe it entitled her to special treatment.
She was, however, desperately anxious. The situation had taken a turn for the worse.
The masked man named Hiruko Kagetane had ultimately gotten his hands on the Legacy of the Seven Stars first.
As things stood, the Civil Security officers who had accepted the commission had almost no chance of taking it back from him.
He was simply too powerful!
But there was still one source of hope: the Tendo Civil Security Agency.
To most people, the company looked like a bunch of children playing pretend.
After all, there wasn't a single adult among its members. It consisted of its president and a Civil Security officer whose rank was somewhere below one hundred and ten thousand.
Yet yesterday morning's meeting had revealed just how frightening that obscure little agency really was.
Leaving aside the terrifying abilities of the mysterious man they had recruited from who knew where, Seitenshi had never imagined that Tendo Kisara, who attended the same elite girls' school as her, would also be so extraordinarily powerful.
Yesterday's attack had eventually drawn Kisara into the fighting. The strength she revealed was terrifying, and she hadn't hesitated in the slightest to kill.
Now Seitenshi could only pin her hopes on the agency's president and the man whose relationship with her remained unclear.
Those two should be able to stop Kagetane.
Once inside the facility, she finally met Kisara and immediately explained the situation.
"Please, President Tendo."
Having explained why she had come, she bent at the waist in a deep, ninety-degree bow.
"You didn't need to come all the way here to tell me. I was going to deal with it anyway. I attended yesterday's meeting and stayed until the end, didn't I? That means I accepted the job. I'll see it through."
Despite her words, Kisara showed no sign of preparing to leave.
She looked perfectly relaxed.
"President Tendo, this is an emergency. Could you please act as quickly as possible?"
The speaker was the female secretary beside Seitenshi.
Kisara more or less knew her. She also attended Miwa Girls' Academy and served as something between Seitenshi's attendant and personal maid. Kisara couldn't remember her surname, but her given name was Kiyomi.
"What good would rushing out do? Do you know where that masked man is?"
"No, but we've narrowed down the general area."
"The general area? If you can't give me an exact location, I could end up going there for nothing. Besides, we have a traitor passing information to him. He'll probably move before we even arrive."
Seitenshi's expression changed.
"President Tendo, are you saying there's someone on our side working with him?"
"What else would I mean? Don't tell me you only just realized."
Faced with Kisara's biting sarcasm, Seitenshi could only give a strained smile.
"I've considered the possibility, but I haven't been able to identify anyone."
"Of course you haven't. The biggest traitor of all is right beside you."
There was a mocking edge to Kisara's voice.
Seitenshi's expression shifted again, and she turned to her attendant.
The young woman went pale and began to panic.
"N-no! It isn't me! Lady Seitenshi, she's making things up!"
"I wasn't talking about you. Why are you panicking? The biggest traitor is that damned old man."
Kisara had no intention of dragging this out. She all but named him outright.
"T-Tendo Kikunojo? How could that possibly be true? It can't be!"
Seitenshi couldn't believe it.
To her, this was simply a malicious accusation born of Kisara's hatred for her grandfather.
Of course, she wasn't naive enough to believe Kikunojo was a good man. She knew the Tendo family's rise to power had involved plenty of bloodshed and dirty dealings.
But governing the Tokyo Area required the Tendo family's influence. More than that, it required someone as capable as Kikunojo.
Without his assistance, the Tokyo Area would descend into chaos.
Besides, she didn't believe he would go so far as to do something that endangered the entire region.
"Believe whatever you want. Just stop telling me what to do. I have my own plans."
Kisara's impatient response only deepened the gloom on Seitenshi's face.
Then Seitenshi looked at someone else.
Suddenly gritting her teeth, she stood and walked over to him.
"Mr. Kain, could you help us? I'm willing to pay any price to protect the Tokyo Area."
"Even becoming his personal plaything?"
Kisara's pointed interruption made Seitenshi's expression stiffen.
Her attendant shot Kisara an angry glare.
"What's wrong? Can't answer? If you don't mean it, don't casually offer to pay any price."
Now that Kain was here to back her up, Kisara no longer felt any need to exchange empty pleasantries with these people. She could speak her mind, including mocking this Seitenshi who never seemed to learn.
Yes, Seitenshi was a good person.
But in an age like this, her naive, idealistic approach to everything made Kisara sick.
Suddenly, someone hurried into the room.
She had eyes for only one person, and she went straight to him with an intensity that made it seem as though she might devour him.
Apparently, the doctor had made another major discovery.
"What did you find this time?"
The man she had cornered, Kain, already had some idea why the doctor was staring at him with such feverish interest.
Before leaving the laboratory, he had left her a sample of his blood.
If she could really develop the Panacea, or even something close to it, then the rewards of coming to this world would be extraordinary.
"What did I find? I found that we don't need to look for people in vegetative states anymore. The slime that perfectly reproduces human genetic information is standing right in front of me."
Sumire smiled as she spoke.
"Doctor, are you saying he has the Gastrea virus we need? The one that has copied only human genetic information?"
Miori, who had remained silent until now, couldn't help asking.
That would mean Mr. Kain might be the only person in the world who would never mutate into a Gastrea.
"No. He doesn't carry the Gastrea virus. He himself is a more advanced 'slime,' one whose original form is human. Anything that tries to infect him would be assimilated by him instead. He wouldn't take on the form of another species. His genes already possess shape-memory properties. If we..."
She launched into an excited explanation, once again drowning everyone in technical terminology.
Miori couldn't follow the details, but she understood one thing.
They might be able to create a cure for the Gastrea virus using his serum.
"President! President!"
A voice filled with shock and terror interrupted the doctor.
One of Kisara's employees came rushing in, drenched in sweat and holding a phone.
Seeing the fear and despair on his face, Kisara seemed to realize what had happened. Her expression changed.
"It's a Stage V! Scorpio will make landfall at Tokyo Bay in one hour!"
It was news that could drive anyone to despair.
(End of Chapter)
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