Chapter 420 Two Sides
“It’s truly terrifying…”
On the deck of the cruise ship’s top floor, a young girl in a black robe wandered leisurely through the corridor, still exclaiming with a hint of shock at what she had seen before.
Actually, when Igarashi Aya had introduced the specific mission to Kazumi earlier, the girl had already made some guesses about this so-called deep-sea prison. After all, she had transmigrated from a previous life where the entertainment industry was highly developed, and there weren’t too few related film and television works.
However, what Kazumi hadn’t expected was that this underwater prison, where important targets were held, was built directly within a constantly erupting underwater volcano. Moreover, judging by the size shown in the video, it was clearly not the large prison the girl had imagined.
This was enough to lead to a terrifying conjecture: the purpose of building such a special prison was merely to confine and imprison a single person.
“The person that even Hamano Tsukasa at his peak couldn’t kill and had to seal away, is this the foundation of [Shadow]?”
Nodding thoughtfully, Kazumi wasn’t too surprised by this conclusion. After all, [Shadow], as the most wicked villain organization in Neon, had even severely injured Hamano Tsukasa, forcing him into semi-retirement. Although they were also forced to go underground, it was enough to show how powerful a villain organization they originally were.
“But why choose this time? Is it because Hamano Tsukasa has gotten old and other association heroes can’t fill this combat power gap? Or is it because the side effects of Masashi Sakuraba’s capabilities have been completely eliminated?”
Gazing at the undulating sea, Kazumi couldn’t help but offer a few guesses, but quickly negated them herself.
“None of it makes sense. Although Hamano Tsukasa’s abilities are damaged and he has retreated to the second line, he is still active in hero activities. Recently, there haven’t been any major changes in the combat power of other frontline heroes, so this timing is not special.”
“According to [Shell], Masashi Sakuraba is not an executive primarily focused on combat. Even if his abilities are fully restored, the impact on the overall battle situation will be very small.”
“Hiss— I still don’t have enough information.”
Shaking her head, the girl casually took out a few Corpse Crows from her embrace and threw them out, saying helplessly.
For such an organization-level major event, there were too few things Kazumi could change. She didn’t even have complete information, let alone deduce the real details.
“Hey! Miss [Coffin]! You came up too.”
From the other end of the deck, a short-haired young man, who seemed to have noticed Kazumi, flew over on a giant dragonfly while busy with something.
“Yeah, Little Insect, can I call you that?”
Kazumi nodded and asked, sweeping her gaze over the giant, somewhat disgusting six-winged dragonfly beneath him.
“Eh, sure, sure, that’s what everyone calls me.”
The little insect was a bit taken aback by Kazumi’s interruption. He touched his head sheepishly, showing a bright smile in response, and then asked Kazumi again.
“So, Miss [Coffin], what brings you up here?”
“No, no. It was a bit boring down there, and I have some perceptual means, so I came up to help you guys.”
Shrugging her shoulders, Kazumi replied truthfully.
Although she was quite shocked when she first saw the underwater volcanic prison, after the shock subsided, she became bored. After all, it was still quite a distance from the seabed, and it was a bit boring to stay in the conference room watching the submarine navigate. Not to mention, she didn’t know almost anyone else inside.
“Oh, oh, those black little birds are your abilities! That’s great, we’re a bit short-handed, thank you, thank you.”
“Yeah, but where are your group’s peripheral members?”
Kazumi nodded, sent out a few more Corpse Crows that landed in the shadows of the ship, and looked at the little insect in front of her with some confusion. After all, perceptual early warning, designing traps, and similar tasks should logically be handled by the peripheral low-level soldiers, right?
“Peripheral members? Oh, you mean the subordinates of other executives? But our boss has pretty strict standards for recruiting people. Basically, everyone on the ship right now is…” “Little Insect! I’m done here.”
Waving her hand apologetically, as the little insect was about to explain in detail to Kazumi, a shout came from the other side. A woman in a purple long dress stood with her hands on her hips, looking this way, with a ball of turbid energy emanating outside the cruise ship.
“Coming!”
“Sorry, we still have traps that haven’t been placed. I’ll head over first. Feel free to find me anytime if you need anything.”
With a slightly apologetic nod to Kazumi, the little insect grabbed the dragonfly’s antennae and took to the air, flying towards the distance, leaving Kazumi alone, hearing the half-sentence drifting from afar.
Kazumi didn’t mind the other’s somewhat rash personality as she watched the little insect fly away. She lowered her head to look at the greenish energy condensed in her hand and muttered to herself with some excitement.
“Why not, try that?”
…
On the other side, in the intern dormitory of the Taho Agency.
A sturdy blond young man sat seriously in front of a worn-out small table, scratching his head as he compared a book to a few small pieces of paper on his right. Not far away was a small transparent glass bottle, which had already been partially filled with crookedly folded colorful paper cranes.
“Hey, Sato, are you really not going out with us later? The agency has given us half a day off today, and you’re still folding paper cranes here? Let’s go together, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll help you fold them later tonight!”
At the dormitory entrance, several neatly dressed young boys looked at the boy intently folding paper. The leader couldn’t help but ask Sato Shinichi.
“Mhm, I’m not going. If you want to come back for dinner, we can eat together later.”
Sato Shinichi turned around, nodded, and naturally refused their offer, his azure eyes full of determination.
“Alright, we should be eating in the Nakaku district. We’ll bring you some late-night snacks later, so eat less dinner.”
Seeing that Sato Shinichi had made up his mind, the others didn’t insist further. After informing him that they would bring him late-night snacks, they bustled out of the door.
“Hoo—”
Seeing that his roommates had left, Sato Shinichi also let out a sigh of relief. He took out his phone, compared it with the image, and continued fiddling with the paper cranes in front of him.
The blue paper quickly changed shape in the boy’s hands, finally becoming a somewhat irregular paper crane. Just as Sato Shinichi was about to fold the crane’s head to complete the work, a sharp lightning snake suddenly shot out from the nearby power strip, passed through the boy’s hands, and hit the desktop.
The paper crane in his hand turned into charred debris, but Sato Shinichi made no unnecessary movements, directly turning his gaze to the desktop. As the smoke dispersed, the characters that appeared before the boy made his solemn expression even more surprised.
He reached out and directly wiped away the row of characters, then picked up the glass bottle from the corner of the table and put it into the drawer. Taking a deep breath, his muscles swelled up as if inflated, and he pulled open the door and walked outside.
