**Chapter 549: The Girl Who Finally Returned Home**
She’s back.
The old, worn door was slowly pushed open. The girl, dressed in a gray coat, leisurely walked in from outside, her convenience store bag casually draped over the shoe rack. Kazumi first unzipped her coat, then bent down to take off her shoes and changed into a pair of comfortable home slippers, stepping into a home that felt like it hadn’t been visited in a long time.
She raised her head to look at the dimly lit ceiling light, feeling a little anxious. It was just an evening’s work, but it seemed like she had experienced things that had taken several months to unfold. The sudden return to this comfortable and safe home gave her the illusion that everything had ended, and all she needed to do was rest well.
“Hu————”
She lightly slapped her cheek, pushing away the unrealistic fantasies from her mind. Kazumi understood that, for the current her, time was the most important thing. She picked up the convenience store bag nearby, locked the door without looking back, and walked towards the bedroom.
“Cough———cough cough cough cough!”
In front of the pure black desk in her bedroom, the petite girl began to cough violently. On the table lay a barely burned cigarette butt and a mass of notes that had been hastily scribbled with the words, “Why is this so difficult to smoke?”
While muttering a helpless complaint about the bitter and choking taste she just experienced, Kazumi hurriedly cleaned up the mess on the desk. At that moment, “Little Black” emerged from her abdomen, opening its slender mouth to swallow all the trash she threw at it.
Then Kazumi stood up, reached for the opened cigarette box from the convenience store bag, and discarded it into Little Black’s mouth. Additionally, she retrieved a pre-prepared lollipop, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth.
The sweet strawberry flavor filled her nose, diluting the bitterness from the burning tobacco. Kazumi turned toward the nearby window, gently opened it to dissipate the pungent smell in the room caused by the smoke.
“What a tangled mess.”
The fresh air crept in with a slight chill, clearing away the overwhelming odors in the room and calming the girl’s previously chaotic mood a little.
At this moment, Kazumi felt disoriented.
The impact and information from just one day, or rather, the events of this evening were too overwhelming, even for Kazumi. It was troubling for her, as she had made an unconventional choice to buy a pack of cigarettes from the convenience store to regain her calmness.
Originally, this habit had been one of the few inexpensive ways to relax for someone who had one foot in society in her previous life. However, for now, not only did her body’s condition diminish the calming effect of tobacco, but it also made it feel like a burning stick in her mouth, offering nothing but choking grief and foul stench.
“Not touching drugs is better; it’s for the best.” Sighing, Kazumi realized she had been a little desperate in her attempt to find relief. Simply put, the calming effect of her transformed body was a significantly stronger version of what tobacco could offer. Relying on this old bad habit from her previous life, she merely wished to alleviate the overwhelming pressure within her, realizing that even with her new abilities, she was still overwhelmed.
The evening breeze chilled her feelings of agitation. The girl bit down on the lollipop, reducing the once round candy into a sweeter, chewier mass. Kazumi closed the window and walked back to the desk, flipping open another page of her notebook. With her lollipop in her mouth, her gaze shifted to the array of items she had neatly arranged in front of her.
These were Kazumi’s harvest for the day—one was a standard USB drive that looked like any other, and the other was a jet-black test tube containing a crystal filled with dark blue energy.
“Things left by Dad and Mom…”
Kazumi’s gaze lingered on the USB drive and the test tube. From her previous conversations with the leader of Kuromon, she had a rough idea of the items’ significance. Ultimately, whether regarding the contents of the USB or the test tube with its ability-erasing effects, their sentimental value outweighed their practical significance for Kazumi. Yet, she could not tear her thoughts away from the items before her. Memories buried deep inside her heart seemed to burst forth like a door that had suddenly been opened.
“How silly and excessive. I thought I was planning something for others and ended up putting myself in this situation.”
Rubbing her aching eyes, Kazumi helplessly voiced her thoughts, unsure if she was speaking to herself or someone else. Shaking her head, she forcibly halted the memories swirling in her mind. She shut the box with determination, casting her gaze toward the USB drive beside her.
“There’s no computer at home to play this on. I can’t even view this kind of data at an internet café. Or maybe I could borrow a computer for a bit? With his resources, he definitely has a notebook—no, that won’t do either. It looks like I’ll have to spend my money to buy a new one.”
At that moment, Kazumi felt a little overwhelmed. As the leader of Kuromon, he likely didn’t expect that this girl, who had mixed so much in the organization, would be a struggling, bare-minimum civilian in reality, without even a single computer to her name.
But this didn’t have to be seen as bad news for Kazumi. To be honest, she understood that if she opened the contents of the USB drive now and saw her parents’ faces and listened to their words, she would probably lose all motivation to do anything that evening.
It would be better to save it for later. After all, Kazumi had already come this far. Forcing her to give up her abilities entirely was impossible, even if there were more critical matters awaiting her.
“This…”
After getting her emotions in check, Kazumi finally pushed the test tube and USB drive to one side of the desk, leaving behind a bare, cold crystal quietly sitting on the tabletop.
The dark blue chilling energy rippled within the crystal. Just the energy she could sense was greater than all the chilling crystals she had previously collected combined.
“Is it any wonder that he’s the Great General? It’s not just the ability; even the cleverness behind this plan is a bit overwhelming.”
Reflecting on their earlier conversations in the underground base, Kazumi’s previous gentleness turned momentarily cold. She picked up the pen in her right hand and wrote heavily onto the page of her notebook.
