The journey went extremely smoothly, and they did not encounter any unexpected situations. Shirou also gained an entirely new understanding of the Chi Xiao in his hands.
At the very least, under the current circumstances, it could completely be treated like an ordinary projected weapon.
Of course, that referred to infusing it with mana for reinforcement, transformation, and Broken Phantasm usage.
Still, the same conclusion remained. Unless absolutely necessary, he probably would not deliberately use it. The cost-effectiveness difference was simply too great.
"You have been touching it the entire trip. Is Chen's Chi Xiao really that amazing?"
After the vehicle entered a certain range, the communication device inside the car successfully established contact with Rhodes Island. The remaining part of the journey no longer required constant vigilance, as Rhodes Island would dispatch drones to assist with security.
After all, they were collaborators, and this operation was being handled with greater caution than usual, so Rhodes Island naturally placed a higher level of importance on it.
Now that things had quieted down, Exusiai finally had the time and energy to tease Shirou.
Originally, Shirou was supposed to be responsible for watching for danger along the road. Instead, the moment he got into the vehicle, he kept touching Chi Xiao while it continuously emitted light. Eventually, Texas drove him into the back seat and replaced him with Exusiai.
Mainly because she needed to take over Shirou's surveillance duties. At first, Shirou still remembered to occasionally check the surroundings, but later he became completely absorbed in the sword.
Although nobody really understood what he was doing, it was probably something important.
Thus, the person in the passenger seat changed from someone whose hands glowed to someone whose halo glowed.
Compared to Shirou's constantly flickering light, however, Exusiai's halo was much steadier. At the very least, it did not flash enough to make Texas's eyes hurt.
"Hm?"
After spending the entire trip researching the sword, Shirou felt a slight headache forming from continuously using mana. A short rest would probably solve it.
Still, he did not immediately understand what Exusiai meant.
What exactly did she mean by Chief Chen's Chi Xiao being amazing?
Why did that sentence sound somewhat strange?
"Cough cough... What I meant was, Shirou, did you finish figuring out Chi Xiao? You have been touching it for ages."
Realizing she had accidentally spoken her thoughts out loud, Exusiai awkwardly coughed twice before correcting herself.
Luckily, Shirou was somewhat out of it right now. Otherwise, the Chi Xiao in his hands might already have left its sheath.
Although Exusiai had once tried to understand Chi Xiao, learn about Chi Xiao, and even touched it herself a few times, she definitely had no intention of personally experiencing Chi Xiao's blade.
Just imagining it already sounded painful.
"More or less, I guess? Though I can probably only use it a few times. After all, this is an accidental creation."
Not paying much attention to what Exusiai's earlier sentence actually meant, Shirou answered honestly.
"I see."
Exusiai felt somewhat disappointed by that, mainly because this was Chief Chen's weapon.
Just imagining Penguin Logistics members waving Chi Xiao around in front of Chen felt extremely amusing.
Unfortunately, Shirou would never give them such an opportunity. Besides, if Chief Chen ever saw it, she would definitely tell Shirou about it, and in the end the ones getting beaten up would still be them.
So those fantasies could only remain inside their imaginations.
Still, it was only a slight disappointment. She did not have any deeper thoughts beyond that.
"Yeah. I just did not expect the analysis to go even more smoothly than I imagined. Originally, I thought I would have to rush to finish it in time, but it ended up being solved within a few hours."
As he nodded, Shirou secured Chi Xiao back into its sheath and prepared to place it beside his feet.
The reason he said all of this was because he felt somewhat guilty about dumping all the work during the drive onto Exusiai.
"It is fine, it is fine. You were busy with your own work anyway! Look at the croissant over there. She slept so hard that drool is practically coming out. People like that are the real worst! We should make her carry all the luggage later!"
Hearing Shirou's words, Exusiai waved her hand dismissively while redirecting all her firepower toward Croissant, who had apparently been asleep for who knew how long.
Texas was driving, Exusiai was keeping watch, Shirou was busy touching his sword, and Sora was responsible for passing drinks around and feeding everyone.
Everyone inside the vehicle more or less had something to do.
Everyone except Croissant, who had somehow fallen asleep at some point and was even snoring now.
As a result, Exusiai's proposal received unanimous approval. Everyone agreed to leave the task of unloading the luggage entirely to Croissant later.
"Achoo!"
Completely unaware in her sleep that her teammates had already assigned a mountain of work to her, Croissant merely sneezed before grabbing at her coat and curling further inside it.
"Pfft... honestly."
Seeing Croissant like that, Sora laughed softly while helping pull the slipping coat back over her properly.
"Then let her sleep a little longer. She is going to be very busy later."
Keeping her eyes fixed on the road ahead, Texas spoke calmly.
Although she had not seen the scene directly, she could more or less guess what had happened from the sounds alone.
She was not a bad person either. Letting Croissant rest a bit more now would give her extra energy to work later, right?
Shirou: "..."
Everyone somehow felt a little more scheming than before. It was probably just his imagination, right?
Based on their usual personalities, they normally would have tried to prank Croissant directly... although, thinking about it, this did count as a prank too. Besides, she really had slept through the entire journey, so it made sense to find something for her to do.
Still, Shirou himself had not really accomplished much during the trip either, so he decided he would help carry luggage together with her later.
Otherwise, she would definitely start letting out tragic cries while moving everything, and he really did not want to endure the concerned gazes from Rhodes Island's other operators.
Unfortunately, Shirou's plans sounded much nicer in theory than reality allowed.
The moment Penguin Logistics' vehicle drove into Rhodes Island and parked, before there was even enough time to wake Croissant up, Shirou was already carried away by a crowd of medical operators.
"Eh? Wait! What is happening?"
Suddenly being grabbed by a group of people in white coats, Shirou was visibly stunned.
"We need to borrow you for a bit. The research has made progress, and we need your help."
Unfortunately, the doctors did not answer Shirou's question directly. Instead, several of them simply lifted him up and carried him away.
"..."
The strange looks from people along the way made Shirou want to hit someone, but everyone carrying him was a doctor, so he could not exactly start attacking them.
In the end, he could only project a coat and pull it over his head.
Out of sight, out of mind. As long as he could not see them, everything was fine.
Besides, if his head was covered, nobody would recognize him.
Holding onto this ostrich-like mentality, Shirou completely gave up and allowed the doctors to carry him while running.
They had just said that the research required his help, so they probably needed his blood.
And likely the freshly drawn kind at that.
"Just endure it for a little while. They already made progress several days ago. They have been waiting for today for a very long time!"
Noticing Shirou's unusual silence, one of the doctors carrying him tried to comfort him.
"...Gavial, why are you joining in on this too?"
Hearing the familiar voice, Shirou slightly lifted one corner of the coat and looked at the doctor speaking.
She was one of the few doctors in the entire medical department whom he actually recognized.
The reason was similar to Ansel's case. Both had distinctive qualities that left a strong impression on him.
Though the reasons themselves were somewhat questionable.
Calling Gavial a medical operator felt strange because her physical abilities clearly surpassed many other people. It was impossible to treat her as an ordinary doctor.
"Because they asked me for help, of course! I happened to be free, so I came over to lend a hand!"
Hearing Shirou's question, Gavial answered cheerfully.
"I can walk by myself, you know?"
Shirou felt somewhat helpless hearing that response.
Helping out was one thing, but was there really a need to go this far?
"Hmm... Think of it as a ceremony to show how important you are to us?"
After thinking for a moment, Gavial gave a rather bizarre answer.
She herself had merely been free and dragged over to provide extra manpower. She was basically just here for the excitement.
Still, she more or less understood Shirou's relationship with the medical department. After all, he frequently visited the department before, constantly chatting away while bringing plenty of delicious food.
A great many medical operators liked Shirou very much.
He could fight, cook full meals and desserts, and most importantly, he could also be researched.
All of those advantages combined made Shirou an enormous celebrity within the medical department.
Unfortunately, Gavial herself was not particularly skilled in that field. What she specialized in was emergency treatment on the battlefield.
"...? Forget it. As long as you are happy. Doctor Kal'tsit knows about this, right?"
Shirou was filled with confusion at that explanation.
But in the end, he chose to stop thinking about it and simply let them do as they pleased.
He could not sense any malice, and he trusted Rhodes Island a great deal, so whatever.
Still, he felt the need to remind them that they should probably report this to Kal'tsit first. Otherwise, once she found out, she might tie the entire group to the deck.
He had heard that many people in the medical department were frequent visitors to Rhodes Island's deck.
Was this some kind of disciplinary academy or something?
"Cough cough... Anyway, just bear with it, Shirou! We are almost there!"
After hearing Shirou mention Kal'tsit, the group's speed noticeably slowed for a moment before rapidly accelerating again.
At that instant, Shirou realized something.
These people were doomed.
Thinking about that, Shirou felt exhausted and lowered the coat from his head, allowing them to continue carrying him.
That said, one thing had to be acknowledged.
As expected of doctors, they were extremely steady when carrying patients.
After arriving at the medical department, Shirou was finally put down and guided into a chair.
Placed before him was a blood-drawing machine and Warfarin.
"Come on! Just ten tubes will do!"
Seeing Warfarin holding a syringe with an excited expression, Shirou blinked once before immediately firing a suction-cup arrow straight at her head.
"Ten tubes? Are you trying to drain me dry?"
Narrowing his eyes, Shirou showed absolutely no intention of holding back.
Ever since learning that Warfarin had designs on his blood, Shirou had been granted permission to retaliate.
That permission had been personally authorized by Kal'tsit, allowing him to fight back directly under special circumstances.
If Warfarin had said three or five tubes, Shirou would not have reacted so strongly.
But ten tubes was genuinely excessive.
If that much blood was drawn, he would probably need at least two days just to partially recover. In a worse case, it might even affect this entire operation.
"Cough cough... I was joking. One tube is enough."
The suction-cup arrow remained stuck to Warfarin's head, its fletching swaying back and forth above her.
The scene looked ridiculous, but she did not care at all. Her entire focus was on drawing Shirou's blood as quickly as possible.
"Did you make some kind of breakthrough?"
Looking at her behavior, Shirou eventually dispelled the mana from the suction-cup arrow and extended his arm while asking the question.
"We made a bit of progress. The only thing missing now is your blood."
While operating the equipment in her hands, Warfarin answered casually.
"Are you planning to turn it into an inhibitor?"
After thinking for a moment, Shirou recalled that Rhodes Island's research into his blood was supposedly aimed toward developing a new type of inhibitor.
After all, once separated from his body for a period of time, his blood seemed to lose its ability to treat Oripathy.
Even he himself did not fully understand the exact reason. It was probably related to mana somehow.
"Yeah. If all the data is accurate, we can create an inhibitor that is even more effective than the ones currently on the market."
Knowing Shirou might not understand overly technical explanations, Warfarin deliberately explained things in the simplest way possible.
"I see. That is really wonderful."
Warfarin had not spoken in a complicated way, so Shirou understood her meaning almost immediately.
To him, this result was genuinely good.
His blood could help these doctors who wanted to treat the infected, and those doctors could then go on to help infected people.
It was a positive cycle.
"...Yeah. It really is wonderful."
Hearing Shirou's words, Warfarin responded softly before silently continuing the blood draw.
She could roughly guess what Shirou was thinking.
But there was one thing she did not mention.
Mass-producing this kind of inhibitor would be impossible.
After all, the raw material required his blood. Even if they drew blood from Shirou three times a day, it still would not be enough to supply all of Rhodes Island.
At most, it could only be used for emergencies.
If the future Shirou envisioned truly came to pass, then perhaps it would only become possible in a far more distant future.
A very distant future. A very naive dream.
Still, Warfarin did not dislike it, nor did she have any intention of shattering it.
After drawing a single tube of blood, several medical operators carried it away, leaving Warfarin behind to conduct a basic physical examination on Shirou. Only after confirming there were no issues would she allow him to leave.
After all, this blood draw had been done behind Doctor Kal'tsit's back. If something happened to Shirou because of it, that would be a disaster.
She had thoroughly checked him both before and after the procedure. Absolutely nothing would go wrong.
And she had not drawn much blood either. Saying ten tubes earlier had merely been intended to scare him.
Shirou still had operations to participate in afterward, so there was no way she would actually take that much blood.
Warfarin still understood the importance of moderation in situations like this.
"This is...? Your body's data feels somewhat strange. Compared to the last set of results, the deviation is rather large. Though it is all developing in a positive direction."
Looking at the test results, Warfarin frowned at first before loading Shirou's previous data onto her terminal for comparison. Only then did she relax slightly.
"So that means there is no problem?"
Seeing her frown earlier had genuinely worried Shirou a little, so he was relieved that she had not found anything wrong.
"There is no problem, but I will send this data to Kal'tsit. She will need to review it personally before we know more. You can go now. Remember to eat more foods that replenish blood."
After speaking, Warfarin waved her hand, shooing Shirou out of the room.
It was not because she intended to discard him after using him.
Rather, if she allowed him to remain there any longer, she feared she might lose control and draw several more tubes of blood.
To avoid unlocking the achievement of being tied up on the deck by Shirou, she chose to chase him away instead.
Besides, the research lab was still waiting for her. Without her there, those precious blood samples might end up wasted.