A certain distance from Evaneheim on the side of a travelling path…

 

I take a deep breath while stretching myself inside my sleeping bag. A quick yawn escapes my throat as I open my eyes and look around. Judging by the faint trace of light making it through the thin material of my tent, I’m pretty sure that it’s a very early hour, barely after dawn or somewhere close, most likely. As usual, my body knows its routine well and wakes up by itself at the proper time.

Warming my shoulders as I sit up, I reach to the side and grab my glasses, tossing them onto my nose and hooking the curved ends behind my ears. I give my head a little shake to check if they are still working and they are, as amusing and amazing as it is.

Usually, simple glasses such as these would be a pain in very active environments and would either require a durable string attached to the temple tips or be completely replaced by contact lenses. Thankfully, people of this world are very resourceful with their magic and various interesting minerals so I don’t really have to worry about it.

And, with the help of the King’s artificers, they had quickly fixed me an almost exact same pair as my normal ones but with an extremely neat feature. The nose pads are made of some weird, reactive, adhesive metal, which when supplied with mana, firmly attaches to almost any surface, and yes, that includes the skin.

Therefore, no matter how much I shake my head, my glasses remain on my face like it's their life mission. Honestly, I don’t even need the temples to go over my ears and could literally wear them without like those round spectacles often shown in fancy steampunk movies and TV shows. But, that feels a little weird with the normal glasses so I opted in to keep the entire package.

Nevertheless, it is time to get up and follow the schedule. I climb out of my sleeping bag and quickly dress up, leaving my belts, pouches, and cape behind for now. The same goes for my bow and quiver, they remain hidden in my storage ring given to us by the King.

Giving the inside of the tent one more glance, I turn towards the closed entrance and part the curtains to peek outside. Just as I’ve guessed, the sky is just slowly getting illuminated by the rising sun. There’s at least an hour or two before we get the true morning and the surrounding forest is still bathed in a somewhat shady, dim light.

Noticing the cracking of firewood, I turn my gaze to the small campfire slowly dying out after an entire night. A single figure sits next to it in a meditative position with their eyes closed and hands joined together. Even though their eyes are closed, I have no doubt that they are much more aware of our surroundings than even I am, considering their situation.

Since I’ve definitely been spotted already, I walk up to Shino without trying to hide my steps in hopes of not disturbing her concentration. She opens her amethyst eyes and glances up at me with a gentle smile.

“Good morning, Paul-san. You are up early. But, it’s not like that’s something new.”

“Yeah. It’s just the usual. Thanks for taking two shifts. Who would have expected Kamil to get food poisoning out of the blue? Even after Nat healed him up, he didn’t look the best.” I nod at her to return the greeting. “You can get back and catch some more sleep before everyone wakes up for us to depart. I’ll keep an eye on the camp while warming up.”

“Are you sure? You know that I wouldn’t mind taking even the entire night by myself now and then, so this much doesn’t really make that big of a difference.”

“You still can enjoy a good rest even if you tire much slower after receiving Alastair’s help. There’s no need to stay here unless you really want to, of course,” I answer while looking around.

“Alright. Thank you, Paul-san. Have fun with your exercises.”

I extend my hand to her and Shino gets up after grabbing it. She dusts off her clothes, gives me a nice smile, and heads towards her tent, soon disappearing behind the parted sheets. Taking a deep breath of fresh, morning air, I move past the campfire and start stretching, making sure to switch my position after each rep to keep my eyes on every direction just in case.

So far, since our very arrival in this world, I’ve been able to keep up my usual training schedule almost without any major interruptions. Of course, there were certain emergencies or special periods where that wasn’t possible, but I’ve never broken my streak of remaining in shape for a longer time.

Simple morning exercises have always been a great way to wake up completely for me and get my brain running properly. The world is usually still quiet at that time, the temperature isn't too high, and there are fewer concerns and issues to deal with while everyone is still sleeping.

After finishing my stretches and warm-ups, I jump into the slightly heavier exercises. It still isn’t anything too heavy considering our location and situation, but a bunch of slow push-ups, crunches, planks, sit-ups and other simple activities are plenty enough to retain a good form and condition.

Done with those, I push myself off the ground and start to jog around the camp in circles. If previous exercises are the best way of waking my brain up, the slow, evenly-paced run helps focus my thoughts after getting a grasp on them. There is just something about this rhythmic and simple action of moving your legs and breathing that makes it very comfortable to think about things.

And, the first thing I usually think about in the morning is my Status.

It’s been a while since we advanced, at least we as the guys of this group, but I’m pretty confident that our next Tier is just behind the corner. Shino and Marcia received a little boost and help with that, making our party much stronger as a result, but it’s not like we are falling off that much.

Obviously, considering their circumstances, we won’t really be able to compete in terms of progress. Yet, Natalie is also Tier 3 already, most likely thanks to the fact that she keeps weaving her magic and abilities into literally everything we do. Her music makes our travels much faster and more comfortable, her healing and other rejuvenation techniques restore our fatigue regularly, and she still throws in a lot of offensive spells into the mix whenever we stumble on an encounter.

I’m quite happy with my own growth. My actives and passives keep going up the more I use my bow and the abilities connected to it. Recently, they have experienced quite the spike too, thanks to some coaching I received from one of Alastair’s friends. Her name is Filue if I remember correctly.

I’m still not sure how it started but I guess that brief shooting competition sparked our slightly more complex cooperation. It just felt right to practise with someone sharing your passion and who is actually knowledgeable about what they are doing and possesses not small amounts of experience in that field. Then, things just escalated by themselves.

Filue was kind enough to suggest sharing with me the techniques and teachings she learned in her home settlement. She was a hunter, and her Class is actually exactly that, so her abilities focus more on tracking and efficiently taking down her game, but a lot of small nuances and general practices can be useful in every kind of archery.

Therefore, we spent a lot of time in the underground training chambers together each time our party visited Alastair’s establishment. It isn’t really my kind of place and I only tagged along initially but he certainly is doing pretty well, and I’m glad I went with everyone. The only issue would be all the beautiful girls who keep acting more than friendly with me all the time.

Of course, I don’t mean it in a bad way. It’s just that I decided long ago not to partake in such activities with anyone else than the love of my life. Completely no offence to all those pretty and nice ladies. I’m sure we would have a lot of fun together and they are certainly trying to look after me, but I’m not going to change my mind. 

It might seem stupid considering that we are now in a completely different world but a man needs to stick to his own rules. I’ve always kept my word and I’m certainly going to continue seeing through my oath. My future partner might not care about it in the slightest, if I ever find one, but this belief is what allows me to stay in check. If I ever break that one vow, there’s no doubt I would start breaking the others.

After finishing my one-hour jog, I take a moment to regulate my breathing and move slightly aside from the camp, still having its entirety perfectly in my sight. Summoning my bow and quiver from my storage ring, I equip both and start my regular shooting exercises, picking a few trees at various distances. With my Farsight, I can not only easily see the very cracks in their bark but accurately judge how far exactly each of them is.

In any way, we spent so much time together with Filue that I actually managed to learn her archery technique from her. She was quite impressed and surprised, saying that it’s something almost unheard of amongst Humans since it would certainly require the person to open themselves completely, bypassing the racial barriers. Not many Humans would think of themselves as Dark Elves, having issues achieving that mentality.

Well, we don’t really have such prejudices so I guess it’s a bit easier for us. And, I’ve always been taught that the ability to adapt is the most important one no matter your environment and goal. The faster you can accustom yourself to the situation you have found yourself in, the easier time you will have going forward, possibly avoiding making critical mistakes which could end with serious consequences.

My own shooting, and effectiveness in general, experienced a big improvement after I combined Filue’s style with my own. And I’m pretty sure she gained some understanding and insight from our little competitions and practice bouts too. I certainly reached the peak of what I could do with just the methods passed onto us by our Human trainers brought in by the King so a fresh perspective was great.

One by one, I send arrow after arrow right into the middle of my picked targets. Releasing twelve arrows in a row, I pause for a moment and repeat the motion after they return to my quiver, courtesy of another useful enchantment. Each next volley is faster than the previous one. Arrows keep sinking into the tough bark until I reach my best speed, launching the sharp projectiles seemingly almost without a moment of rest between the shots.

It’s not a technique I have many occasions to use as most of my actual arsenal consists of very powerful-hitting spells and abilities. Still, it’s not the greatest idea to let them out on some poor trees, even if they look durable. At least a dozen of them would be blown into bits with just a simple Arcane Shot, not to mention Draconic Sharpshooter Arts. Plus, falling timber would definitely wake everyone up.

And, that’s not yet necessary. I still have about thirty minutes for my training before Natalie wakes up. She is usually the second one to get out of her tent or bedroom, followed by Shino. Kamil and Marcia are often too tired after their nightly activities to wake up by themselves. Though, she’s also grown much more vigorous just like Shino so it’s mostly him who has a hard time keeping up now.

Shortly before these thirty minutes pass, I wrap my practice up and head back to the middle of the camp. Everyone is going to start breakfast as soon as they get up so I liven it up a little and bring the flames back, setting the kettle over them to prepare some coffee. 

And, as expected, Natalie leaves her tent just a few minutes later.

“Morning,” she throws at me quietly, stretching her arms towards the now much more blue sky. “Had a good night?”

“Yeah. That song you play when we rest is something else. I can’t believe how easy it is to fall asleep after it takes effect and how beneficial that sleep is, no matter how long.”

“I agree. It’s so nice that I can’t start a night without it anymore. I’m a little afraid I got addicted.”

I smile at her while pouring her a cup. “Out of all things you could get addicted to, I think you ended up with the least troublesome and unhealthy thing. Are there any side effects to it even?” I ask curiously.

“None that I’m aware of.” She shakes her head, accepting the mug of hot liquid. “So far, it’s been only beneficial. I hope it stays like that. It will be extremely hard to stop playing that tune before going to bed. Anyway, how is your practice?”

“Good. Thanks. And I hope so too. These are the best nights in my life.”

Some noise captures our attention and we catch Shino leaving her own shelter with a big yawn. Her eyes find Natalie and a beautiful smile paints her face. She quickly trots to us and sits down next to her best friend, giving Nat a warm hug.

“Good morning, Natalie-san. Ready to reach our destination?”

“I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to face more of those monsters, especially after what we have learned from Alastair,” Natalie replies with a sigh.

“Don’t worry. I won’t let them lay a single finger on you. We are growing so much stronger bit by bit. The basic grunts don’t even stand a chance of coming close to us. We did very well in that big fight where we split up to handle the three generals,” Shino reassures her.

“Well, you certainly seem to be growing extremely fast. Especially your stats,” our party’s Bard replies with a tiny smile, which makes the Samurai girl blush.

“Ummmm… Natalie-san…”

“Yeah?”

“What do you think… about Sensei?” Shino asks a little shyly.

Natalie raises a brow at her while Shino’s cheeks turn even rosier. I smile a little to myself while shaking my head when they aren’t looking my way.

She really doesn’t know, does she?

Not hearing an immediate answer, Shino continues while fidgeting in her seat. “You know… Ummm… You would be much safer if… you got stronger too…”

The golden-haired musician sighs softly, making her Japanese friend giggle nervously. “He is very kind and nice. Often goes out of his way to help people, never refusing to aid them after being asked. He is fun to talk to, at least judging by what we know from back then. He certainly has quite good looks. Like, I’m sure he’s somewhat handsome, yeah, but…”

“It’s okay, Natalie-san. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be pushy or anything, I just…”

Before Shino finishes, Natalie places a hand on her shoulder and squeezes it with a tender smile.

“I know. You don’t realise how happy I am that you worry about me so much. You don’t need to apologise when you are only trying to think of a quite simple way for me to be safer even without you around.”

Shino giggles once more, trying to look at her best friend properly. “It might be simple for me since I’ve always been… in love with Sensei… but I know that you weren’t really into such things back on Earth. I’m still sorry about it.”

I catch a little grimace showing up on Natalie’s face for a fraction of a second before her usual, calm expression returns. It doesn’t seem like Shino noticed with how embarrassed she currently is. I can only shake my head again. It’s up to Natalie if she ever chooses to reveal that part. I’m pretty sure she still thinks that no one knows, but it really was hard not to notice back on Earth, and it isn’t any different here either.

“It’s alright. I appreciate your concern so let’s end the apologies. You never know when to stop after throwing yourself into a long chain of apologising.”

They smile at each other and then look up at me. Shino lets out another sweet giggle.

“Sorry, Paul-san. It must be awkward hearing us talk about a guy like that,” she apologises again, this time to me.

I shrug my shoulders and sit down opposite them. “I don’t mind. Since both of you are up now and the others should be following soon, I’ll get a read on the map again to see how far we are.”

They turn back to each other and start chatting casually while I do exactly as I said. Bringing out the map given to us by the King’s intelligence department, I set it down on my lap and check our last marked position. Our destination, the village of New Solina, is naturally also highlighted, including all the important landmarks and other points of interest between these two points.

I spent quite some time with the King’s men studying the surrounding area to the tiniest detail. The terrain, the infrastructure, the common monsters and beasts, and even the more rare and unusual events and reports. It’s extremely important to gather as much information as you can when heading into battle. Not taking advantage of all those elements is anything but smart.

According to my calculations, there’s still a day of travel between us and our target. But, that’s considering the usual travelling speed, so that’s the worst-case scenario. With Natalie’s enchanted music which relieves the horses, we should be able to cover that distance in less than half of that time. In case something serious happens, we should be able to push our steeds enough to reach it in a few hours.

New Solina is called a village but it’s more like a town from what I’ve gathered. They even have solid walls protecting the settlement and many buildings are made of stone bricks instead of wood. There’s a prominent salt mine next to it so that resource just keeps coming during the excavation. Though, it’s definitely closed right now due to the threat of Abyssals. As far as I know, they haven’t taken over the mines and the local garrison fends them off valiantly.

The assault came from the east so that’s where the supposed portal should be located. First, just like the last time, we will secure the village by getting rid of any nearby monsters, discuss things with the local authorities, and hopefully fight our way into the place of the rift to close it without many unexpected things taking place. I would rather no one disappear to another realm again.

Considering the intel the King’s men were able to gather, we shouldn’t worry about running into anything bigger than a single chieftain or something like that. There were no sightings of any more powerful Abyssals during the main raid or amongst the monsters laying siege to the town. Even if there are more, Shino and Marcia are now our trump cards. The former has already been a force to be reckoned with even before getting together with Alastair. 

I’m afraid she will one day accidentally wipe out half of a city with how much of a buff she received from him. It’s a little disappointing that she doesn’t have access to the temporary one anymore but we couldn’t just drag him around with us when he has so many responsibilities now.

Taking one more look at the map and my own notes, I fold it back and hide it in the storage ring. While I was deep in my thoughts, it seems that Princess Vanessa joined the duo for some morning coffee and a casual chat. I usually don’t tune out my surroundings like that, but with all of them right in front of me, I don’t have to worry about anything getting a drop on us. Shino would definitely sense the danger much earlier than I can.

“Alright. After Kamil and Marcia join us, we’ll get some breakfast going and move out. If you can keep up your tune for about eight or so hours, Nat, we can get to our destination before it gets dark,” I begin and everyone turns to me.

“It shouldn’t be an issue. If you need me to, I could push it a little further even,” Natalie answers with a confident nod.

“Let’s save your strength for an emergency. Arriving in New Solina before dusk is our current goal. It will be easier to sneak in or fight our way inside if necessary.”

“If worse comes to worst, I can clean the monsters up, Paul-san! I’m full of energy and can go all out!” Shino gives me a proud smile too.

“It looks like the two-hour nap was quite beneficial, wasn’t it?” I show her a small smile in response.

“Very.” She giggles and her cheeks suddenly become tinged with a trace of rosiness. “I’m all buffed up for the next three days.”

“What?” I furrow my brows at her. “Didn’t you need Alastair’s help to achieve that?”

Shino turns even redder and glances slightly away. “Since we are this close to the village… I figured out that it wouldn’t take us more than a day to get there… So I asked Sensei if he had a moment… And we met… something like in my dreams but more real…”

I stare at her in mild confusion, trying to pick up the details there and figure out how that would help while Shino starts twirling a lock of her jet-black hair.

“To sum it up, Sensei can summon me into a special place that’s part of him… And we noticed that… If we do that there… The buffs actually carry over… Since it’s our souls that get together…” she explains, trying to look at me but clearly having issues with it. “So… I wasn’t really sleepy after you suggested that I take a nap… And instead spent that time with Sensei… So that I can be stronger for the upcoming encounter… And now my stats have increased for three days like they normally would if we met in real life…”

After listening to her entire explanation, I cock my head back in understanding. “Damn. Does that mean that you can pretty much get that buff from him whenever you want?”

“Yes…” She nods timidly. “Oh, also, I think Marcia-san might still be there… But she should be finished in a moment…” 

Even more crimson covers her cheeks as Shino’s eyes wander around as if trying to look for something.

“That's extremely good news,” Vanessa joins in. “Not just because you can easily utilise Alastair’s abilities but also because you can just meet up with him whenever you feel like it, right?”

“That’s correct, Vanessa-san. I was super happy to learn about it. Previously, only Sensei’s Succubus friend could do that but now anyone who is… deeply connected with him can do that.”

Just as she finishes speaking, we hear the rustle of material again and Marcia steps out of her and Kamil’s tent, spreading her arms up and to the sides.

“Hello world!” she exclaims with a wide, almost ecstatic smile.

“You seem quite energetic,” I comment as she walks closer.

“Nice dreams do that to a girl.” She winks at me. “Would you like to hear the details?”

“Thanks but I’ll choose to decline. I have a rough idea about their contents.”

“Rough sounds right.” She laughs heartily and sits down next to Natalie. “Let’s prepare the feast before our prince charming wakes up.”

We do exactly that and start breakfast. Kamil joins us ten minutes later while we are in the middle of eating and we share a meal all together. I explain our plan for the day in the meanwhile and no one raises any objections about it. After finishing breakfast, we pack up, tidy the camp place, and jump on our horses. Natalie starts her travelling music and we depart.

The travel proceeds peacefully. We talk about various things while on the horses. It’s still pretty apparent that Shino tries her best to pull Vanessa into a conversation to keep the princess from thinking too much about her recent discoveries and general family situation, and how she views herself very negatively now. 

But, Vanessa is looking much better than she initially was after returning to us, so I guess it is working to some extent. Shino isn’t really aware of it but she’s an extremely social and likeable person. It’s easy to make friends with her and people are often captivated by how charming and adorable she is while interacting with them. It’s no real surprise that Alastair took a liking to her. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen her being hit on a bunch of times at school, though it never really bothered her since she’s set her mind on someone quite early.

Natalie decides to assume a slightly more powerful rhythm after consulting it with me and we move forward a little bit faster than I had first assumed. She wants to practice the control of her magic-imbued music and this is a perfect situation for that. With Shino and Marcia all buffed up, we can let her push herself a little bit more without our team suffering from it too much if she ends up more tired than usual.

After five hours, I spot the abandoned shack which has been marked on the map, announcing that we are nearing our destination. Everyone tenses up a bit after I inform them about it. We are slowly entering the enemy’s territory so we’ll need to be vigilant of any potential ambushes or groups of stray Abyssals.

Since there’s a sizable hill slightly on the side of our main path, I suggest we move there and scout the surroundings from above before we move close to the village. Everyone agrees and Shino leads us towards it while Marcia covers our backs.

Our new vantage point gives us a nice view of the town of New Solina and the roads connected to it from all four cardinal directions. Nothing seems wrong at first sight. The village doesn’t seem to be under attack. But, using my Farsight, I’m able to spot individual Abyssals hanging around its borders, some grouped up too. As the reports stated, the main threat seems to have passed but it’s still not safe to leave or enter the town.

We choose not to waste time and continue forward. Soon, we stumble on the first monsters. Their numbers aren’t great so we don’t even need to get off our horses to take down the occasional humanoids or beasts of dark, onyx skin. I skewer most of them with my arrows while Natalie uses some simple water and earth spells to kill the rest.

Reaching the gate, we ride into a slightly bigger number of enemies but still very spread out. Since we don’t think that New Solina is in immediate danger, we decide to first get in touch with the authorities and then purge the nearby creatures wandering by the walls. To assure that the gates are opened for us, Vanessa uses her own magic to raise tall and thick walls of mud around us and we kill off the few Abyssals that end up on our side.

“If you can hear me, we came here on the King’s orders to aid us in your predicament! We have secured safe passage with Earth Magic! Open the gates and let us in!” I shout to the sky and Natalie amplifies my voice in the direction of the watchtowers.

We wait for about a minute without an answer. Then, the gates begin to open and we make sure that nothing slips past us as we quickly move through the tight gap created by the two massive wings of reinforced wood, just wide enough for our horses to pass. These people are minimising the risk as much as they can.

A man looking like a typical guard covered in simple metal armour fitted with a hauberk to eliminate the gaps between his pauldrons, chestplate, and chausses, approaches us.

“Just six of you? We kind of expected an army.” He scratches his head while glancing at us.

“Trust me, half of this team can easily level the entire town each on their own in less than an hour,” I respond while looking around. “May we be led to the people responsible for the garrison here?”

The man eyes us up suspiciously, perhaps not entirely buying that part about the town, but he grunts in a decently affirmative fashion and asks us to follow him. First, he shows us to the stables so that we can let our horses rest after the journey and then we move through the streets towards what looks like a small fortress in the very centre.

It’s not that hard to notice the tension in the people’s eyes as we pass by various residents. They aren’t in a state of panic but they certainly don’t sleep comfortably knowing that there are monsters right on the other side of their defences. There seem to be a few adventurers here who must have gotten locked in when the Abyssals first attacked, not wanting to risk heading out before the current issue has been taken care of.

We reach the fortress of dark stone and enter the sizable keep. Our guide leads us through a few dimly lit hallways until we end up in front of big wooden double doors. He pushes them inside and we enter a spacious hall with a round table in the middle. There seems to be a map spread out on it. A bunch of people stand around it or hang out in various parts of the chamber. 

“What is this?” a woman asks, raising her gaze from the paper.

“Apologies, Officer, but you instructed us to let you know the instant the kingdom sends reinforcements,” the guard answers her with a respectful salute. “These people claim to have been sent by the King.”

“Only six?” She frowns at him.

“They claim to be powerful enough to make this town become nothing more than history in less than an hour. Each of them alone.”

“What kind of reinforcements introduce themselves with threats?” The officer then turns to us.

I sigh internally. It’s always like this when going through a middleman. Before things escalate further, I step forward.

“Greetings, Officer. My name is Paul and I’m the leader of this party. It was never our intention to threaten anyone. Your subordinate said that you expected an army instead of a small group so I tried my best to visualise our fighting power to him with the simplest comparison. If you would prefer a more elaborate one, then I can inform you that we have felled many Abyssals of chieftain rank before.”

The woman scans me with her gaze for a few moments before standing up. She walks around the round table and finally shows up in front of us in all her unobstructed glory. The most eye-catching aspect is certainly her military-themed uniform of dark emerald colour. She even wears a peak cap of the same shade with a badge clearly resembling a few designs we’ve seen at the castle in the royal capital.

With that attire, her being called an officer isn’t that surprising, honestly.

Regardless of her uniform, she has long, straight, black hair running down her back, crystal blue eyes, a sharp but clearly feminine face, and a very apparent figure, which is barely contained by the tight material. Her chest isn’t large but just big enough to be quite a sight. She seems to be about half a head shorter than me.

“Chieftains, you say? What unit do you belong to?” she asks after stopping in front of us.

“None, Madam. We are our own unit, the summoned Heroes,” I explain.

A few gasps and murmurs break out but she silences the others by raising her hand.

“I guess I could understand the lack of a bigger company if what you are saying is true. Can you prove yourselves?”

I take off the fingerless glove covering my left hand and turn its back towards her, letting my Hero sigil show up.

“Neat trick but I don’t think this will be enough. How can we know that it isn’t fake?” She crosses her arms under her chest.

I sigh softly and glance over my shoulder. “Shino, would you mind?”

The Samurai girl gives me a happy smile and lowers her posture, taking a drawing stance with her hand on the hilt of her katana. She closes her eyes and I’m pretty sure everyone can feel the ungodly amount of mana being condensed around her body as a few people in the room shiver.

After about three seconds, Shino’s eyes shoot open, flashing with an intense violet glow, and she disappears with a loud thump. A strong gust of wind causes everyone’s clothes to flutter and I notice her standing on the other side of the chamber, still in a lowered posture and her weapon extended to the side.

With well-trained movements, she sheathes her katana with a melodic click and smiles our way.

“Will this be enough to prove ourselves?” I ask.

The officer opens her mouth to respond but a distressed scream interrupts her. One by one, all the people in the room begin noticing extremely shallow cuts in their clothing. But, it’s not two or three, no, each of them is now a walking display of modern fashion with a dense net of slits all over every single piece of their uniforms or armour. Not even the woman has been spared, which she realises after checking herself over. There’s no doubt that Shino could have turned them into sashimi if only she wanted, instead of switching up everyone’s fashion instead.

The officer woman looks our way again with an unexpected smile. “Alright. Let’s talk.”