The olive-green jeep convoy moved forward along the winding highway.
Even though the straight-line distance from Sylvia's experimental park to Lake Kasumigaura was barely sixty kilometers, it took the convoy close to three hours to arrive.
The roads had been in disrepair for years.
Giant trees, thick enough to require several people to encircle, frequently collapsed by the roadside, blocking the way.
Under the 'magic' of the Catastrophe aura, it took only seventeen years for young saplings, originally the thickness of a rice bowl, to grow into towering giants that would usually take centuries to mature.
The only proof of the brevity of these years was the suddenly sparse growth rings on the fallen stumps.
However, fortunately—
Although trees had fallen and blocked the path, Su Yuzu and her group did not encounter any more attacks by Walking Husks.
Actually, it was just like in the game.
Under normal circumstances, Walking Husks would not appear during the day.
But it was quite subtle... Sun Espers like Saint Michael or Lyudmila did not have any extra damage bonus against those walking corpses.
Sitting on a tree stump, Su Yuzu watched Kujou Katora, who was wielding a blood-colored chainsaw to clear the giant trees from the road, and discussed this matter with Hayabusa.
That tree had collapsed and happened to crush an unlucky deer to death.
With blood available to use, Kujou Katora's efficiency in clearing roadblocks was much faster than those combat team members who generally only possessed the First Sequence.
Kujou Katora looked resentfully at Hayabusa, who was sitting together with her Miss Yuzu.
In her heart, she had already begun to think about how to continue exploiting this guy's salary.
But... when she turned and saw Su Yuzu making a 'fighting' fist-pump gesture towards her, Kujou Katora suddenly felt as if her whole body was filled with motivation.
The buzzing sound of the chainsaw roared across the wilderness.
"Actually, that is easy to understand." Sitting beside Su Yuzu, Hayabusa's knees touched together, only her lower legs swaying gently, ankles knocking against each other.
"Although those Walking Husks have had their life force drained dry..."
"Like walking skeletons..."
"They are not skeletons after all. Even if withered, they rely on tendons to exert force and drive the bones to move."
"If they were truly roasted dry by the sun..."
"They would probably only be able to stand stiffly somewhere like dried mummies, waiting for time to weather them away."
"So... at this very moment." Su Yuzu looked around at the green vegetation of varying heights on both sides of the road and the towering dense forest.
"There are also pairs of eyes watching covetously from the dense forest, right?"
"Probably." Hayabusa also looked towards the dense forest. "Those Walking Husks have been drained of everything."
"The Abyss looks down on them, merely regarding them as sugarcane from which life force is to be extracted."
"Once squeezed dry, they are discarded anywhere."
"They can only wander the earth like homeless evil spirits, waiting for an opportunity to bite off flesh and blood. Yet it is not for eating, but merely to use fresh blood to moisten their throats."
"Although... it is just futile."
"Sister Hayabusa... has a very deep understanding of those Walking Husks." Su Yuzu smiled jokingly.
"Pao Ding has a very deep understanding of oxen." Contrary to Su Yuzu's expectations, she heard a Chinese name with quite perfect pronunciation from Hayabusa's mouth.
"Apologies... I seem to have mentioned something Yuzu doesn't understand."
"No... I understand very well." Su Yuzu replied in another language.
Just having sawed through the giant tree blocking the road, Kujou Katora, prepared to shout at the driver hooking up with her Miss Yuzu to drive, watched the tacit understanding and flirtatious glances between the two. She suddenly wanted to thoroughly drill Hayabusa in martial arts.
But... in front of Yuzu, she couldn't get angry for no reason.
She could only stare wide-eyed and signal to Hayabusa with her gaze: 'Your salary for the month after next is gone!!!'
Hayabusa revealed a helpless expression in reply: 'You calculated wrong again.'
'The salary for the month after next was deducted long ago.'
Pushing aside the giant tree blocking the way, the olive-green jeep convoy continued forward.
Only... inside the dense forest.
In the direction Su Yuzu and Hayabusa had just been gazing.
Dark golden vertical pupils slowly lit up. A staggering figure walked to the position where Su Yuzu had just been sitting.
A withered nose sniffed carefully at the fragrance left behind by the girl.
Then it roared towards the sky, "Roar!!!"
Startling a flock of flying birds.
From a distance, Su Yuzu and the others could already see the shimmering waves of the distant lake under the near-noon sunlight.
The destination was already very close.
The so-called Lake Kasumigaura did not simply refer to a single lake.
Rather, it was a general term for a body of water.
Among them... the largest lake was located in the west, and that specific lake could also be referred to independently as Kasumigaura.
There... was precisely where the data indicated the other laboratory was located.
Su Yuzu's nerves were already pulled taut.
She reminded Kujou Katora.
She felt a rather ominous premonition.
They couldn't slowly drive into someone's base and ask for an inspection like they did previously with Sylvia's experimental park.
That would be no different from walking into an ambush themselves.
Even if they couldn't launch a direct assault before having evidence, but...
Before Su Yuzu could finish speaking, she saw that perverse, wicked smile rise on the corner of Kujou Katora's mouth.
"Kujou... Senpai?"
"No need to be so worried, Miss Yuzu." Driving the car, Hayabusa stole a glance at Su Yuzu in the rearview mirror.
Miss Yuzu was indeed the kind of girl who was 'so obedient and kind it was cute'.
"Are you thinking of us as a bit too law-abiding?"
"We are the Investigation Bureau's Fourth Action Division."
"The Empire's Hounds, the mad dogs detested by everyone." Miss Hayabusa's exquisite thin lips also curled upward.
Only then did Su Yuzu suddenly react... to what the Investigation Bureau's Fourth Action Division truly represented.
They were a Death Squad.
And also lunatics.
They were completely independent of the Investigation Bureau, and even maintained absolute independence within the Empire.
Because... their goal from beginning to end was only one thing: Aberrants.
Anyone who might be related to Aberrants could be directly arrested by them, or even tortured.
Their fierce reputation was well-known externally.
Kujou Katora's obedience in front of Su Yuzu, and Miss Hayabusa's polite manners in front of Su Yuzu, had made Su Yuzu forget the Fourth Action Division's past notoriety for a time.
They simply didn't need a reason.
They only needed suspicion to make everyone in that laboratory come out to accept interrogation.
If there was any non-compliance, they would just directly attack.
It fit perfectly with Kujou Katora's wish.
"Lady Kujou was so restrained at Keigunen only because that was Keigunen."
"That laboratory... does not have Director Saionji."
"Does not have Unohana Chiyo."
"Does not have... You."
From a distance, a complex of buildings in a light blue tone, situated by the lakeside, had already appeared in Su Yuzu's field of vision.
It was clearly daytime.
Yet that place made Su Yuzu feel an inexplicable gloominess.
And behind Su Yuzu's convoy, pairs of dark golden vertical pupils lit up in the darkness.
Sharp claws sliced open the trees, pushing down towering trees to block the path they came from.
The Walking Husks, which should have had no will, methodically cut off Su Yuzu and her group's escape route.
"Roar!!!"
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