The masked feast is over. He has already left except for a man in a tuxedo with a bird mask and Taiichi Frost, the chief executive of the kitchen sink, on a pregnant woman. Only the two of them were facing each other at the round table, having a conversation.
"I hear Kitinsink has a contract with the government for pregnant women. Mr. Yukooka destroyed the mustard engine, not the government, but the pregnant woman who gave her the right to sell to Kitin Sink, does that take the form of selling to the government the paranormal weapon she made with Kitin Sink?"
Says the man with the bird mask, pouring wine with his own hand into the glass.
"She was alienated from the government, and she didn't have to go through her in-laws. Of course, the government will also know that one end of the cause that broke the mustard engine is in Junko Yukioka. That's why I'm not stupid enough to incriminate Ms. Yukioka."
"You think you can't even get the government out?
When I hear Frost Root's words, a slight sound of surprise mixes with the voice of the bird-faced man.
"If you put a balance on maintaining decency and questioning the crime department, you can pretend not to see it. Originally, that facility was created by Miss Yukioka, and I've made enough contributions to the state. If you want a replacement for the facility itself, you will build it again. You could have signed a pregnant woman to a kitchen sink."
Frost root that answers pale.
"We, the Formalin-Pickled President, in a different way from you, are also making money for Mr. Yukioka. It's not just about offering such spectacles, it's often about offering technologies that go beyond common sense. But I didn't know she existed so far."
The man in the bird mask was a top executive of the formalin-pickled president, an organization that provides a variety of illegal pleasures to the favored rich.
Unlike Frost Root, he's just revealing his position, not even his name. But Frost Root had roughly guessed who it was, and I don't consider that disrespectful. It is honest that there is not much interest because the genre as a criminal organization is too different.
As a kitchen sink for pregnant women, I just wanted to see the performance of the recruit weapon made by Junko, but the president pickled the formalin on it and sold the weapon's announcement as a spectacle. Of course Junko gets that amount of money. I'm not talking about what I would have agreed to.
Frost Root, however, accepted this even though he had not decided to introduce new weapons. If Junko has a profit, he was prepared to lend it to me. It can also be used as a card in the unlikely event that this recruit weapon is not worthy of handling, or if there is a defect later.
"It's one of the living legends in the back street. It's something we don't want to turn around on our enemies. Yet those who enmity her persist. If you think from her, you don't see them as enemies."
"It's a convenient pawn to use as an experimental bench."
To Frost Root's words, the bird-faced man smiled back like that, but Frost Root didn't. The laughter of a bird-faced man was taken over by a laugh in another sense, wondering if he was a man who couldn't do a single loving laugh of a social dictionary.
"I have one question."
The masked man asks.
"I was looking at that kid named Takero Kanamachi, and I thought, is there no such thing as an increase in the production of soldiers close to immortality? Yukioka said it would be easier to make it there."
"Yeah, you can't do that."
Frost root answers instantly in a rugged tone.
"If you are offered a convenient product that works well for me, such as an immortal soldier, you can increase your business. I want consumables like Battle Creature and this one to spin quickly and be crushed."
"I see. I guess so if I were in a position to do business. If it's from the war side, it's not the same again."
To Frost Root's words, the man in the bird mask seemed convinced.
"It's time for me to excuse myself. See you when you get a chance."
Frost Root rises and says a greeting of unsatisfactory goodbye.
"I wonder if I have a chance. We operate in darkness with each other, but the fields are too different. We don't seem to have a chance to interact with each other."
The frost root leg stopped as the bird-faced man told him to sit down.
"If there's anything to do with it, Miss Yukioka will probably be involved again."
In a pale tone, Frost Root left the room this time.
One, the man left in the room takes the mask. No, instead of the mask, the skin on the face and hair were peeled off and showed. I wasn't just covering my face with a mask. The lower face was also a disguise. The man, who was thought to be elderly, was the owner of a neat look, no matter what he saw in his early twenties.
Yayumi had long lost consciousness. When I returned to consciousness, it was as if I could not recognize what was happening now. The world was engulfed in darkness, with no sound, not even the feel of its own body. I suspected that I had already died and become a spirit.
I don't remember in the first place. We were to surrender to Junko Suzuoka, and all of that went on to talk about letting her return to state guardianship again at her mouth, and then - I don't remember what happened.
I think of my beloved Changko's face. Will she be safe? Junko is talking about keeping the star coal sorcerer alive as much as possible, but he also said that there are actually dead people out there. There is no guarantee that Changko will be safe.
With the awakening of consciousness, the memory gradually comes back to life. At the request of Junko, all the surviving magicians went to the Yukooka Institute to accompany her experiment.
He gave me life support, but it's not very reassuring. But before the survival and restoration of the clan, we must be prepared for any sacrifice.
It brings back more memories. Yayumi and the others were put to bed, each injected, and fell asleep.
What surprised me before that was that there was a room in the lab with dozens of beds lined up sloppily. What exactly is it used for?
There was no sign of Changko among those who were told to survive. The others are missing or dead. Yayumi can only rely on Junko to confirm Changko's life and death.
A humiliation that breaks into resentful enemies and keeps their heads bowed. What a miserable thing to lose. But the history of the star charcoal curse was just as gloomy itself. Compared to past misery, tragedies in one's own generation and so on are known. We must reward the spirits of our ancestors by crawling again.
"Oh, you look awake."
I heard Junko. But weird. Very uncomfortable with my voice until before I fell asleep.
"Do-o? How do you feel?"
I can't get back to you for some reason even if I want to answer. There is no infinite physical feeling. The surroundings are surrounded by darkness. I feel like I've been asleep for quite a while.
"As promised, I've spoken to the government. If you ask Paranormal Defense to reappoint the star charcoal curse people, don't worry."
To Junko's words, Ayumi ecstatic. I really wanted to say thank you for forgetting my position as an enemy, but somehow I don't have a voice.
After joy, fierce anxiety strikes. My body is clearly strange. What the hell was the experiment Junko was talking about? Does that mean I've already been turned into an experimental bench?
He also said that it would be possible to combine the responsibilities of state guardianship, but what would that be?
"Now, how can I help you?"
The light shined with the words of Junko. It feels as if he was suddenly thrown out of the dark into a bright space.
I tried to close my eyes reflexively to the glare, but I couldn't. For some reason, I can't close my eyelids no matter how. No, that's where Ayumi noticed. I don't have a lid myself.
I intuited that my body would be something terrible. As my eyes get used to the light, I see bubbles floating around me. Even more visible over the glass, the smile of a girl with red eyes in white.
"Hmm, would you like to see what it's like? Then I'll show you."
Junko leaves and brings a big mirror from somewhere.
What was reflected in the mirror was the loss of the exfoliated brain, spinal cord, eyes, some guts, and everything else - myself - floating in a container like a large test tube.
Yayumi tried to scream, couldn't. There are no vocal cords anymore. But her spirit was certainly screaming.
Fear of being made to look only minimal to live, of everything else being taken, just being left with only consciousness and intelligence in the flesh, and still being kept alive - no, that's not all. Ahyumi understood beyond that.
I am left only in the state of a vessel containing spirits. A technique similar to this is found in the spell of star coal. The so-called art of raw spiritualization. That's the depths I went to when I crushed the mustard engine.
"Heh, you're the only one with boulders. I think I know what you mean."
Junko, sitting in a chair and looking at an EEG, turns his face to a container containing Ayumi and grins with a sneer and a languid grin - that usual grin.
"But you're not the only one. Don't worry, the people in your clan made you look good."
Junko stood up and rotated the container containing Ayumi. Seeing the sight spread beyond it, Yayumi's heart screamed even more.
Just like myself, there are dozens of containers like test tubes in which the brain, the spinal cord, and some of those left in the gut alone are placed. However, unlike Yayumi, they didn't even have eyes. There was no doubt that what was inside would be the survival of the Star Charcoal Flow spell.
"Everyone except you, they've already seen it. There are a few things similar to your technique, aren't there? Secrets that continue to inflict pain and manufacture and extract living spirits to cause powerful paranormal phenomena. No, it's really great. Though I have lived for over a thousand years, I have only seen the use of such thorough human suffering and the use of the technique I have studied. So I thought it would be a shame to destroy you like this, so I blended your technique with mine. You know what a dream band is, right? It's the one where you can flush electromagnetic waves directly into your brain, show hallucinations, and have a virtuous experience as you wish. I'm going to use that, and I'm going to have you guys experience virtual torture, so with that pain, I'm going to have you become a very fine living spirit. With that power, it's the dimension of having future spiritual defense fulfilled. A very nice extraction for each other, isn't it? Oh, I also left it immortal, so I'm going to have you act as the honorable head of national defense on a semi-permanent basis without going to the underworld or reincarnating. - Are you happy?
Yayumi screamed for the third time without being heard. Her brain was dominated by more profound despair than anything else in the world. Even if the Star Charcoal Flow spell has the art of living spiritualization, there is no such thing as the art of immortality. Spirits and meat were only disposable consumables.
But with this combination, I understood that I was ruled by a curse that I could never escape. Until the end of this world, we were cast into hell, which will last forever.
"Well, that's why I'm not trying. Oh, this is getting in the way, so I'm going to cut it."
When Junko moved the mouse and clicked, Yayumi's vision closed to darkness.
The eyeballs connected to the brain were severed from the brain and slowly sank into the bottom of the container through the fluid.