Chapter 75

SUB.23 “That wasn’t enough at all.” Enshuu was counting something on her fingers. Her clothes were drenched in garbage fluid and blood splatters. The smartphone and one-seg TV continued to display one complicated graph after another. “Yep. Yeah, you’re right. I’m sorry, Uncle Amata. Yeah. A Kihara would have worn a raincoat or something in that situation. Since this wasn’t something that happened all of a sudden. We predicted Auntie Byouri would try to ambush us.” Anyone who happened to see the graphs wouldn’t have a clue what she was actually doing. At a glance, she seemed to be having a conversation with someone, but that wasn’t correct. She was simply receiving inspiration. And when that inspiration reached her mind, she would convert it into language in the form of talking to herself, deciding that anyone calling themselves a Kihara would act in a certain way. She plodded down the underground passage. The heating efficiency of Baggage City had dropped dramatically, probably because the waste treatment plant’s burnable garbage facilities had been destroyed. Even Enshuu was shivering despite being indoors. If the city was left like this for a few days, it would freeze over. But this wasn’t enough. The innumerable graphs gave her intense inspiration. They appealed to her. “Yeah, you’re right. This isn’t very Kihara-like, Uncle Amata.” It wasn’t about efficiency. It wasn’t about rationality. “This is a really obvious strategy. Anyone can imagine how it ends. It’s not very Kihara!” She traveled through the underground passages until entering a high-rise resort hotel. Security was already gone, so she walked through the lobby and took the elevator up. After reaching the highest floor, she opened a door with a destroyed lock and found the remnants of a battlefield. This was where Ransuu Kihara and Utgardaloki had fought. Piles of paper were scattered everywhere. Even now, the two combatants in question were lying on the floor. It pained Enshuu to leave Ransuu here—he was a Kihara just like her. But she had to prioritize acting like a Kihara. That said, the thing she did wasn’t all that severe. She reached into her clothes and brought out a test tube, then popped off the rubber cap. Then she poured in a white powder—similar to the sticks of sugar one got for coffee—and used a pot in the large suite to heat up water and poured that in, too. When she gave the tube a shake, the contents began to grow opaque as the hot water flowed through it. The fluid hardened into a jellylike consistency. This was something you could buy at the supermarket. It was just agar. But agar could be used for things other than eating. It was a perfect culture medium for nurturing microorganisms like viruses and bacteria. “…I think I’ll have it in about thirty minutes.” Leaving off the rubber cap, Enshuu poured the solution into a coffee cup and set it down. With her hands free, she started making something else in a different cup—but this time, it was just instant coffee. Enshuu sought a mold that could drift through the air. This was exactly what Ransuu had used to distribute chemical substances. Enshuu was trying to capture the mold in the agar, then culture it on her own to make it into a tool for herself. However… “Yeah, you’re right, Uncle Amata.” She grasped the cup with both hands and took little sips of the black fluid; she couldn’t handle hot liquids very well. And then she waited for the right time. “If I cause a violent change in the mold’s genetic code, it’ll turn into a biological weapon that can destroy all of Baggage City.” Weapons always had more than one use. This was how the Kiharas created nightmares—through ever more heinous ideas.