Yoshino was looking for Kiori and Chihiro for a certain matter.
However, she only found Chihiro, looking bored as she fiddled with her smartphone on a hospital bench.
As footsteps approached, Chihiro looked up.
"Oh, it's just you, Yoshino. Where's your sister and Kiori's niece?"
"Hiiro is with our parents. It seems Ai chan went somewhere with Erika chan."
"Went somewhere? Through this media encirclement?"
From Yoshino's perspective, it was much stranger that Chihiro was alone, but for now, she decided to answer her question.
"They can slip out however they want if they try, using those powers and stuff."
"Ah... right, they can use superpowers or magic or whatever. But where did they go using something like that?"
"It seems to be related to the Kaisei kyou. They figured out the location of a stronghold, so they're going to crush it."
Chihiro frowned.
"Crush it... meaning they're going to fight."
"Unless something drastic happens, they'll be fine. They fought against much scarier monsters, you know? I doubt they'd struggle that much against mere humans at this point."
"Even though I've seen it with my own eyes once, it still doesn't feel real that such a world exists..."
"If you're going to say that, isn't my being alive proof enough?"
"...I have no retort to that."
"By the way, why are you alone, Chihiro? Weren't you with Kiori the whole time?"
When Yoshino asked, Chihiro puffed out her cheeks.
"Did you guys fight?"
"No. Kiori was asked to do something by Erika chan, so she seems to be investigating something somewhere in the hospital."
"Why did she go out of her way to split up from you when you're both in the hospital?"
"She's borrowing the hospital's internet connection without permission, and she had someone from the Hiyami Group bring her a computer from somewhere, so it seems it's not something she can do openly."
"Why is she doing something like that again... wait, if she was asked by Erika chan..."
"It might be related to her going outside."
"If that's the case, she should have just relied on me or Marin chan. I wonder why it had to be Kiori."
"Who knows? I have no ideeeea."
Chihiro kicked her legs in boredom.
It seemed she was a little displeased about being left behind alone.
Seeing her acting like that, Yoshino smiled.
"Even after 6 years, you two are really as close as ever. Since everything around me has changed, watching you two makes me feel relieved."
"We were having a huge fight until very recently. Because of me."
"The fact that you can say it's your fault means you've completely made up, right?"
"Well, yes. But it was a really close call."
"You said you finally started dating recently... could my death have had something to do with it?"
"There's no proof I can clearly point to and say 'yes'. But somehow—there might have been an atmosphere of 'is it really okay for just the two of us to be happy?'"
"I'm sorry."
"Dead people shouldn't apologize. Well, I was the one who led the conversation in that direction, though. But what do I mean, 'dead people apologize'... I'm getting confused just saying it myself."
"Ahahaha."
Yoshino laughed so cheerfully it was hard to believe she was formerly a dead person.
Even Chihiro looked exasperated.
"The person herself is like this, honestly... Anyway, regarding that, it was the fault of us grown adults for being wishy-washy and not clearly defining our relationship."
"But meeting my family and friends again made me realize. My death had a much bigger impact on the people around me than I thought."
At this overly oblivious remark, Chihiro directed a deadpan stare at her.
"Obviously. You had a lot of friends."
"When I died, I was going through a period where I was crushed by my own powerlessness, so..."
"You just had a bad opponent. Well, from now on, make sure you face the people who love you head-on."
"I intend to."
The old Yoshino had a somewhat self-sacrificing aspect to her.
She was certainly a good person, but perhaps because of that, there was a certain precariousness about her—in Chihiro's observation, Hiiro growing up to have such a severe sister complex might have been because watching such a sister gave her a vague anxiety that she might 'go away somewhere'.
That same Yoshino had now clearly declared that she would live for specific people close to her.
It was a bigger change than Yoshino herself realized.
Chihiro felt it was a "good" change, and a smile naturally came to her lips.
But—then she suddenly remembered.
"Come to think of it, you seemed to be looking for Kiori, what did you need her for?"
Yoshino also seemed to remember upon being pointed out by Chihiro.
"Ah, right. I was actually looking for both of you, Chihiro and Kiori. The thing is, a friend from my college days came to visit."
"College days... that means..."
"Of course, it's someone you and Kiori know too. They heard I came back to life and came to confirm if it was true."
"Well, that makes sense."
Many people mourned Yoshino's death at a young age.
If she was resurrected, the surprise generated would be far beyond the previous sorrow.
"If that's the case, maybe I should just go alone?"
"I wonder if Kiori will make it before everyone leaves."
"If she doesn't, she doesn't."
"Hehe, you're sulking."
"I'm an adult, I don't sulk over things like that~"
Saying that while pouting her lips, Chihiro stood up.
Yoshino couldn't help but laugh, almost bursting out.
And just as the two of them were about to head to their friends—
"Ah, there she is. Chi-hiro."
Kiori ran up from behind and hugged Chihiro's body tightly.
Standing next to them, Yoshino witnessed the change in Chihiro's expression in real-time.
Her slightly displeased pout melted like heated chocolate the moment she felt Kiori's body heat, transforming into a smile with a sudden blush on her cheeks.
"You were surprisingly fast."
However, her voice feigned composure to the end.
Even though she wasn't hiding it well at all.
Her absolute smitten state was surely conveyed to Kiori, so was this just Chihiro's own sense of pride?
"I'd already been keeping tabs on the person Erika chan asked me to find. Thanks to that, I just had to look up their contact info, so it didn't take much time."
"Hmm..."
"Whose contact info was it?"
"The family of someone named Meiji Yoko. If they had come all the way to Hikarinomiya looking for her, she wanted to contact them directly and talk."
It was a name Yoshino also remembered hearing.
"Meiji... I think she was the school nurse."
"If she's a teacher, doesn't that mean she was a Kaisei kyou believer? Didn't she oppose Erika chan's group and die?"
Shaking her head, Yoshino denied Chihiro's words.
"It seems to be the opposite, actually. I heard she died on the first floor, though..."
"Did she leave some kind of message for her family? I wasn't told the reason why I was looking into it."
"Well, your work is done, right, Kiori? Then that's fine. We're keeping people waiting, let's hurry."
"Eh? Is someone waiting?"
"A friend from our college days heard Yoshino came back to life and came to visit."
Kiori unclasped her hugging arms and lined up next to Chihiro.
The two naturally intertwined their fingers.
Yoshino's cheeks warmed at their closeness, and the three of them walked side-by-side toward their friends.
◆◆◆
"This is Tornado Sting!"
A swirling force field was released from the spear Daichi thrust out.
The swarm of Blood Sheep approaching from the front was ripped to shreds, falling onto the wide hallway without even touching them.
But reinforcements arrived immediately.
This time, it seemed to be humans.
Appearing from the corner with guns in hand, they simultaneously fired at Erika and the others.
"Reflection Shield!"
Rea immediately stepped forward and deployed a barrier.
Every single fired bullet was repelled, striking the person who pulled the trigger as if playing in reverse.
The Kaisei kyou's private soldiers fell one after another.
Watching this scene, Erika called out to Rea.
"They're human opponents, are you okay?"
"As long as it's not someone I have a stronger emotional attachment to than my mother, I'm fine."
That reassuring reply, tinged with dark humor, sent a shiver down Erika's spine.
Ah, I really love her... she thought, as she threw Ricochet Daggers toward the third wave of enemies.
The five knives reflected off the walls and accelerated further.
Repeating this endlessly, they mercilessly sliced through both Blood Sheep and humans alike.
This was the Kaisei kyou's underground research facility.
The entrance was the elevator of a building that also housed regular businesses.
By pressing the buttons in a specific sequence, you could go to an underground floor that wasn't supposed to exist—a place that could be reached via an urban legend-like method.
Since they had boldly invaded straight through the front door, naturally Erika and the others were greeted by a hail of bullets and a swarm of Blood Sheep.
"I wondered what would happen when guns came out, but it seems there's no problem against that level of threat."
"If Ai and Mitsurugi san learn skills, will they be able to fight just as well?"
"I think so. There isn't much difference in level, want me to just raise your stats as a test?"
"Hmm..."
Stepping over corpses and moving forward, Ai groaned in thought.
Then Mitsurugi spoke up.
"If I raise my physical abilities too much, I feel like I won't be able to return to normal daily life."
"I think it's a bit late for that. Your body already became considerably lighter the moment you joined the party."
"That's true, but..."
"Ai thinks that if used conveniently, it might make living life easier."
"I understand that ulterior motive."
"It's unexpected to be called an ulterior motive. I, for one, am making life plans fully intending to utilize this power to the max. Right, Rea?"
"If it can make us happy, it's better to have it, right?"
Erika and Rea were positive about the supernatural abilities they were given.
Thanks to this power, they had been able to "change" so many things.
On the other hand, for Mitsurugi and Ai, it was still an "unknown" ability.
The feeling of resistance might just be a matter of getting used to it.
"You're very honest with your desires... I have to say, since I've already experienced this agility once, giving it up now is something to think about."
"I think it's fine to take whatever we can get. You too, Mitsurugi san and Ushizawa san."
"I guess..."
"Ai will think about it a little more."
Even though they were in the enemy's stronghold, they were quite laid-back.
But in reality, there was no force here capable of defeating Erika and her group.
If the piece of meat the Ikuna couple used had appeared, Erika might have been a little cautious, but currently, even that hadn't shown itself.
It seemed those two had obtained a considerable status within the Kaisei kyou purely because they were Yumemi's parents.
And simultaneously, it showed that those pieces of meat weren't mass-produced, and were quite valuable.
Eventually, the five of them arrived in front of a door larger than the rest.
They had been attacked several times along the way, but perhaps they had run out of believers and Blood Sheep, as the area had become completely silent.
"According to Gii, the laboratory is beyond here."
"If we go beyond here, we'll know the reason why we were specifically nominated."
"Probably."
Mitsurugi looked at Erika with half-closed eyes.
"For bringing us to such a dangerous place, your words and actions are awfully vague. You aren't plotting something, are you?"
"At this stage, there's no way Kuragane senpai would do something like that."
"That's right. Erika is super kind to her allies, you know?"
"Yes, I know very well that she shows no mercy to anyone who isn't 'family'."
"Ai would also like to know soon. Why Ai and the others were gathered."
"I don't want to raise your expectations only to let you down, so just wait a little longer. It's something you'll understand once you 'see' it."
Then, Erika reached out for the door.
But it didn't budge even when she pushed.
A device resembling a card reader was installed on the wall beside it.
It seemed it was designed so that only people with a card key could enter.
Erika lightly sliced through the heavy door, kicked the remains aside, and broke into the room.
Immediately, a man holding something like an iron pipe attacked Erika.
"Uwoooooh! I, I will protect the Goddess from monsters!"
Looking at his face, she was suddenly reminded of the Setaguchi father and son.
So her foot reflexively shot out.
Before the iron pipe could swing down, she kicked him in the stomach with the sole of her foot.
Wham! Setaguchi Tohru was blown away as if he had been hit by an artillery shell, slamming back-first into a capsule.
"Gah... gu, buh..."
Thick blood spilled from his mouth.
Had his internal organs been crushed?
"What's with that guy, a Kaisei kyou believer?"
"Probably an executive entrusted with this facility. According to Gii, his older brother was killed as a sacrifice, and his father is apparently a traitor."
"Erika, does that mean..."
"Just as you imagine, Rea. It's probably the second son of the Setaguchi family."
Unlike Ataru, he didn't have a refined air about him.
He probably wasn't the type to toy with women for fun like him.
However, she felt a sticky, "obsessive" vibe from his every movement.
As Erika walked toward the capsule at the back of the room—the one containing the floating Blood Sheep—the fallen Tohru raised his voice.
"Stop ittt...! Please, stop. Don't... take the Goddess away from me...!"
Bleeding from his mouth, he tried to crawl towards the capsule.
"Goddess, huh. Do you know who this is?"
"She is a Goddess. The Goddess who gave me power... status... the value of living..."
"Kuragane senpai, this guy probably isn't the type you can reason with."
"Yeah, I figured as much just now. Anyone who calls a human in this state a Goddess is out of their mind."
Erika gripped Dreamer and raised it overhead.
At this, Tohru desperately screamed.
"Please stop ittttt! I know, I know it's already over! The time left for the Blood Sheep is very short!"
"What do you mean?"
"The power given to Giraiguu sama... decreases the more it is used. guh, geh, therefore... that thing will stop functioning just by leaving it alone..."
"Ah, I see. Because the power Shimakawa Yuya gave it is finite."
"Why is my brother's name coming up there?!"
"Well, just watch."
"So at least let her have a natural death—please, stop, don't take the Goddess away from meeeee!"
Tohru's words didn't reach Erika's heart from the very beginning.
No, rather, precisely because they reached her, her emotions lost their temperature and froze.
If he was the very person who raised the Blood Sheep, then he was the root cause that made many people suffer.
And Erika swept the capsule with Dreamer, slicing the main body of the Blood Sheep along with the reinforced glass.
The sound of shattering and scattering glass echoed, and along with the liquid filling the inside, the severed pieces of meat spilled out.
"Aaah... aah, uwaaaaaaah...!"
Tohru lamented.
Rea and the others, who still couldn't read Erika's intentions.
And Erika herself crouched down in front of the pieces of meat fallen on the floor and held her hand over them.
"Resurrection."
"Wh—Why are you reviving it!"
Mitsurugi involuntarily raised her voice.
Meanwhile, Rea took out her own smartphone and looked at the screen.
Resurrection could only be used on party members.
In other words, Erika had used the Tame skill to add the Blood Sheep to the party.
And the name recorded in the party list was not "Blood Sheep"—
"Meiji Yoko... Meiji sensei?!"
It was the name of the school nurse, who was supposed to have died on the first floor.
When Rea uttered those words, everyone's gaze except Erika and Tohru's focused on her.
"What does this mean. Are you saying that monster is Meiji sensei?!"
"Why did she end up looking like that!"
"Could it be... Ai thinks she might have popped out of her body. But, but, the reason she's alive is..."
"To be honest, I don't really understand what state she's in either."
Through Resurrection, the pieces of meat returned to one piece again.
And as Erika used Healing, the Blood Sheep transformed into the figure of Meiji Yoko.
"Goddess..."
Tohru muttered softly.
Erika felt a flash of irritation internally, but since she intended to kill him later anyway, she decided to ignore it.
The problem was Yoko right in front of them.
Since she was naked, Erika took a uniform out of her smartphone and draped it over her body.
When Erika first saw the Blood Sheep, she felt a slight sense of déjà vu.
But she hadn't been able to figure out its true identity for a while.
That was to be expected; no matter how much it was Erika, there was no way she could immediately recall, 'This looks similar to a part of Yoko's internal organs that were dragged out of her body.'
Most likely, she had definitely died once.
No—there was a possibility that she had been alive in that state of having her internal organs dragged out, but it was already far from normal at that point.
After that, she was incorporated as a part of Shimakawa Yuya, and when the first floor collapsed, he probably let her survive.
However, as Kaigyo's Gangrene.
"Good morning, Sensei."
Erika called out with a tense expression.
Then Yoko's eyes opened, and she stared at her.
A few seconds of silence—and Yoko spoke.
"Am I seeing the continuation of a nightmare~?"
Erika let out a breath of relief.
At the same time, she was surprised at herself for having so much emotional attachment to Yoko.
Perhaps it was proof that with the nuisances erased from this world, she had gained some leeway in her heart.
"If it was a nightmare, it's over. You're on the outside of it, Sensei."
"...That's too poetic, I don't understand~."
Saying that, Yoko sat up.
While hiding her body with the handed uniform—she noticed the surrounding gazes, and her cheeks quickly reddened.
"Can I go change first~?"
"Please do."
Yoko backed away and disappeared behind the capsule.
Once she was out of sight, Daichi was the first to speak up.
"Sensei... s-she was alive?!"
"We did it, Erika!"
"Hmm..."
Yoko, who was supposed to be dead, had revived—it should be something to rejoice about, but Erika had a gloomy expression.
"Is there still some problem?"
"Sensei is alive, that alone is enough to make Ai happy."
"I think Sensei herself has probably realized it too, but—"
Premised on Yoko listening, Erika spoke.
"At the point she was incorporated into Shimakawa Yuya, Sensei was definitely dead. The reason she's alive like this now, I think, is because when the first floor was collapsing, Shimakawa Yuya regained his sanity and saved her."
"So it's the same as me."
"Yeah, but in your case, Shimakawa kun, you were saved by being physically shielded. But Sensei was different—she survived because the remaining power of the Kaigyo within Shimakawa Yuya was poured into her dead body."
"That means... basically, she's the same as a zombie."
Erika nodded deeply at Mitsurugi's words.
Hearing that, Ai gripped her skirt tightly, and Rea gulped audibly.
"That's why it was a gamble. By making her a party member using my Tame skill, I could revive her. Basically the same mechanism as Inoue san. But in Sensei's case, she's not 'something that reproduced a human', but the Kaigyo's Gangrene itself—"
"Meaning, the body of a monster~."
Yoko reappeared, having finished changing.
Wearing the tight-fitting uniform, she somehow exuded a suspicious aura.
"Couldn't you do something about the size~?"
"I hadn't thought as far ahead as you wearing it. So you realized it yourself, Sensei, that it's not a human body."
"Well, of course, seeing as I can do things like this."
Saying that, Yoko smoothly transformed her arm into a red tentacle—reminiscent of internal organs.
No, it was probably exactly the same as internal organs.
The smell of blood spread through the surroundings, and a thick, red liquid dripped down.
"...Hmm."
However, Yoko, who showed them that, had a somewhat unconvinced face for some reason.
"Are you dissatisfied with something?"
"Everyone is less scared than I thought~."
"Maybe because we've been looking at Gii."
"Because there's someone who can change her body more freely than you, Sensei."
"Besides, from the second floor onwards, it wasn't an easy enough place to get scared by just that."
"If anything, that slimy look of yours is cute, Sensei."
Faced with the rebuttals coming one after another, she was in a complex state of mind, unsure whether she should be depressed or happy.
At the same time, she learned that after she died, her students had faced even greater hardships.
"I've been listening to you guys talk for a while now, but we're already outside, aren't we~."
"Yeah. You don't remember anything up until you woke up here, do you, Sensei."
"The thing I remember most clearly is when I died. It hurt so much. But even after that, somehow... I remember that it was constantly painful."
Considering she didn't even have a brain to begin with, remembering even vaguely was something of a miracle.
"I thought I died relatively satisfied, but to think I'd end up living again in a form like this~."
"That just means Brother didn't want that."
"...Yuya kun, huh~."
Yoko narrowed her eyes, seemingly unconvinced.
Daichi spoke to her with even stronger emphasis.
"He must have felt that much gratitude."
"But I couldn't save him~."
"For facing the Kaisei kyou alone, you did great. I feel that even more now that I'm outside like this. Look at this facility, it makes me laugh that this is underneath Hikarinomiya City."
"They must be rich."
"With power and money, those guys did whatever they pleased. The moment you decided to try and protect us from that violence even a little, you were splendid, Sensei."
"It just doesn't feel real... that I was that kind of person."
Regardless of the process, Yoko couldn't save anyone.
That result wouldn't disappear.
The fact that Yuya tried to protect her might have brought a little salvation.
However, he wasn't the only student who fell victim.
What would Yoko think if she knew Gii was the empty shell of Nanase Asami?
Then, Rea spoke up.
"You keep talking about other people, Sensei, but what about yourself? Don't you think you don't want to die, that you want to be happy?"
"I am..."
"Thanks to surviving, Ai is super happy right now."
"I'm the same. In fact, more than before, I strongly feel that just being alive makes me happy."
Mitsurugi placed a hand on her chest and said proudly.
Then Yoko muttered sadly, "Family... huh."
"It's true there are people I'd be happy to see again. But I'm not human, am I. Both my body, and surely, my heart."
"That's just a matter of perspective!"
"Ai's precious person is in a state similar to yours, Sensei. But she's living normally as a person."
"No, it's not like that. It's like... an instinct... or something like that, I wonder if that's the right word."
She transformed her arm into a tentacle again.
Her gaze was directed at Tohru crawling on the ground.
"A Goddess... she really was a Goddess. Haha... as expected, a Goddess is beautiful in any form. Please... save me..."
"Something cold, unlike myself, is whispering to me, kill, kill, it says~."
And the temperature vanished from her eyes.
The tentacle lashed out like a whip, aiming for Tohru with a swish! that cut the air.
Then, Erika immediately wedged herself between them.
Careful not to damage the tentacle, she deflected it with a blunt strike, stopping the murder of Tohru.
"See, if someone doesn't stop me like that, I'll end up killing people~."
Yoko said sadly, letting the tentacle hang limply.
Rea and the others couldn't say anything.
Meanwhile, Erika stood in front of Tohru and—pierced his skull with Dreamer.
"Eh...?"
Yoko's expression, which had been feigning coldness, crumbled.
"Ah, um, that person..."
She seemed panicked that a person died right in front of her.
Even though she was trying to kill him herself just moments ago.
In response, Erika pulled the knife out with a wet slish, and told Yoko in her usual tone.
"You can't do that, Sensei. If this guy gets killed by you, he's the type to die satisfied."
As if killing a person was the most natural thing in the world.
And although Daichi, Mitsurugi, and Ai looked somewhat surprised, they didn't seem to feel any sense of wrongness in Erika's actions.
Rea was even smiling slightly.
Erika smirked inwardly.
The buildup up until now had created her current position.
Against the Kaisei kyou, even taking a human life couldn't be helped—thanks to that shared understanding, she felt as if the "mistake" and "regret" from when she first killed Shudou were fading away.
On top of that, she managed to shatter Yoko's mask, so it was killing two birds with one stone.
"The murderous intent you have, Sensei, isn't because you're a monster."
"But~"
"I think you vaguely remember what happened before you regained consciousness. This guy was cutting your body and regenerating it, using you as a weapon."
"Is... that so~?"
"And when you were being used as a weapon, you kept saying 'I'm lonely' and 'it hurts' the whole time."
"Did I say something like that..."
"That's your true feeling. You didn't want to die, Sensei, and the reason you felt satisfied at the end was just because you gave it a plausible reason and 'gave up'."
Saying that, Erika took out her smartphone and started operating it.
And once she finished preparing, she tossed it to Yoko.
"What's this~?"
"You hated being lonely. That's why you kept repeating that you were lonely. Even though you really wanted to see your family again."
The name displayed on the screen belonged to Yoko's mother.
It was something Kiori had looked up for her.
She had also told her, 'I have important news about your daughter, so please definitely answer if a call comes.'
Therefore, the video call dial tone cut off immediately.
Yoko's mother's face was displayed there.
On the other end, her daughter's figure should be shown as well.
[Y-Yoko, is that you?]
Her mother spoke to her anxiously.
Yoko was frozen, unable to say a word.
No matter how much she was a school nurse who resisted the Kaisei kyou, Meiji Yoko was also just a normal woman in her twenties.
[Is it really Yoko. Are you really, truly alive?!]
Her father's voice followed.
By that time, Yoko's tear ducts had long since loosened, and her lips were trembling.
[If you're alive, contact us sooner... seriously]
Finally, her brother's face was shown.
She hadn't seen him in over a year since leaving her parents' house, but it seemed he was so worried about Yoko that he abandoned his work and rushed to Hikarinomiya.
The extraordinary life she had been immersed in for a long time.
The idol of a splendid human being named Meiji Yoko, built up there.
It melted away in the face of the warmth of the ordinary daily life she hadn't felt in a long time.
"Mom... Dad... Big brother..."
Yoko collapsed to her knees and shed tears.
Not tears for someone else, but tears for herself.
"You're probably an exceptionally good person, Sensei, but you're not a particularly special human being. Stop saying things that make you sound like you're self-sacrificing, and I think it's perfectly fine to just be honestly happy that you're alive, in whatever form that may be."
At Erika's words, Yoko nodded repeatedly while wiping her tears with her palm.
She was terrified of dying.
There were more things she wanted to do in life.
It's true there were lives she couldn't save—but who in the world would blame Yoko for trying to save them?
Such a thing was merely her own remorse.
Therefore, if she herself wanted to live, Yoko could accept the current form of her life.
"You brought us along to help persuade her, didn't you."
Rea lined up next to Erika and gently bumped her shoulder against hers.
Following that, Mitsurugi said with slight dissatisfaction.
"If so, you should have just told us earlier."
"Now, now, I'm sure Kuragane senpai had her reasons."
Since it was already over, Erika decided to tell them everything.
"It wasn't confirmed that the Blood Sheep was Sensei. Besides, I didn't know if Sensei's consciousness would return like that. In the worst-case scenario, there was a possibility she would remain just a mindless monster even after being revived."
"...If you had told me beforehand and that was the result, Ai probably would have been pretty shocked."
"That's why I didn't say anything until the very end."
She was living a life different from Yoshino.
And her method of survival was closer to a Kaigyo Gangrene than hers.
For example, even if she used the Tame skill to revive a zombie, it would still just be a zombie.
It didn't mean the human from before they became a zombie would revive.
The fact that Yoko was able to maintain human form, regardless of her insides, like this—was probably because Shimakawa Yuya's prayers were embedded in it.
She was shedding tears profusely while continuing her conversation with her family.
Erika and the others watched the scene with warm eyes.
"A massive amount of sacrifices were produced, but when even one person is saved, it makes us feel saved too."
"I still can't forget the sight of Sensei when she died."
"Ai has even seen it in dreams."
"Maybe we won't have those anymore."
Just then, Erika's smartphone vibrated.
"It's from Hiyami san."
She received successive messages from Ruka, who was investigating Setaguchi's house.
[I safely recovered the data Setaguchi had.]
[There was also a roster of the financial and political figures connected to the Kaisei kyou, so I've already sent it to my Father, who is scheduled to hold a press conference.]
[It will probably be sent to various media outlets before the press conference, so I think it will spread rapidly this afternoon.]
Ruka's father's press conference should be starting soon.
If the information Setaguchi held is added to the information he originally had, the Kaisei kyou will likely take massive damage from which they can never recover socially.
Once that happens, all that's left is to physically crush them and it's over.
At least regarding the Japanese branch, that is.
[By the way, I found something like this]
This time, a message with an image was sent.
In it—was an image of solid gold bars piled up to the ceiling of a safe.
[It's probably Setaguchi's, or rather the Kaisei kyou's hidden assets. What should we do?]
Erika replied immediately.
[I'm taking all of it]
The current her was honest with her desires.
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