"Please make sure she becomes a normal girl."
Recalling Lacus's earnest advice before leaving, Luo Shu felt his jaw twitch in pain.
Sitting at the front of the speedboat next to Kirika Tachibana at the helm, Kisara asked with concern:
"Luo Shu, are you feeling unwell?"
Kirika, still grinning from ear to ear, chuckled:
"Little girl, I'd advise against asking too many questions."
"The more you ask, the more uncomfortable this guy gets."
"Shut it, you."
Luo Shu shot Kirika an annoyed glare before turning to Kisara's worried face with resignation:
"Don't worry, I'm fine. Just feeling a bit frustrated, that's all."
"Oh..." Though still visibly concerned, Kisara reluctantly averted her gaze when told not to worry, not wanting to trouble Luo Shu further.
Seeing Kisara like this, Luo Shu felt a sense of helplessness inside.
He couldn't possibly blame this girl who'd been filled with inappropriate knowledge by him and was essentially a victim, could he?
'But my reputation...' Luo Shu could already imagine the teasing looks he'd get from Chisato Nishikigi and the others later.
At this moment, Kirika Tachibana, who was piloting the speedboat, glanced at the dazzling searchlights set up along the riverbank under the night sky and said without turning her head:
"Alright, enough moping. We've still got work to do."
Luo Shu, leaning back in his seat, replied without looking up: "I need to take some time off."
"How long are you planning to take off?" Kirika asked curiously.
"Until the day my branch office is built," Luo Shu said lifelessly.
"Get lost."
Kirika laughed and swore, then docked the speedboat at the temporary pier and stood up directly:
"Don't forget you still owe me something."
"What thing?"
Luo Shu lazily raised an eyebrow at this:
"Aside from the post-mission celebration and my transfer paperwork, there shouldn't be anything else, right? Don't tell me I have to handle the Chiba lockdown aftermath too?"
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
Kirika jumped onto the makeshift pier made of scaffolding, reaching out to help Kisara, only to find the girl effortlessly leaping up from the speedboat.
Seeing this, she shrugged helplessly and turned back to Luo Shu:
"Don't forget about that prefectural assemblyman's family we encountered earlier?"
"Ah, Yukinoshita."
Luo Shu responded in an utterly flat tone:
"The Yukinoshita recruitment job. I thought since I've already switched departments, you wouldn't make me do it anymore."
"What are you thinking?"
Kirika rolled her eyes, waved at Mika, who was using car headlights as searchlights on the riverside gravel, then said irritably:
"You think I'd let complete rookies like that onto SDS frontlines?"
"I don't want to see my subordinates' corpses lying before me."
Luo Shu gave Kirika a dead-fish stare: "If complete rookies can't go frontline, then what was I?"
Hadn't he been a complete rookie when Kirika recruited him and sent him straight to the frontlines?
So you knew this wasn't the right way to do things!
"You were an exception."
Kirika showed no embarrassment whatsoever, even speaking with complete confidence:
"Originally, I recruited you because of your strong mental energy, suitable for regularly recharging sealed artefacts in the underground vault to save the Tokyo branch's resource expenditure, while doubling as a user for certain special Abyss Artefacts."
"Who would have thought the first time I strong-armed someone, I'd get severely warned by Lacus?"
"You've no idea how harsh that pink sweetheart was just now - she might as well have outright said she'd kick me out if I did it again."
"Serves you right."
Luo Shu rolled his eyes.
Now that he was technically Kirika's equal in rank, he could afford to be less polite:
"With that half-threatening recruitment method of yours, if it had been you instead of Chisato and Takina taking me on missions, you know I'd have been ready to screw you over anytime?"
"I know."
Kirika didn't even bother denying it:
"With abilities like yours that can even heal Kisara's injuries, I'd believe everyone in Japan could die before you did."
At this point, Kirika couldn't help but complain:
"You're quite the one for hiding things. Being a Wind Adept, having strong mental power—it was all a front. Your strongest ability is actually this life-saving one."
"But then again, with your personality, I doubt this is the full extent of your abilities, is it?"
Luo Shu didn't even bother responding to the woman. He trusted Lacus, someone familiar, enough to reveal a fraction of his abilities, but this woman? Not a chance...
Seeing Luo Shu refuse to answer, Kirika Tachibana didn't seem bothered and instead said:
"In summary, after recruiting the Yukinoshita family, we'll definitely need to offer them a position in the SDS."
"And compared to my frontline department, your direct oversight unit, which is primarily tasked with monitoring, is clearly safer and more suitable for newcomers to adapt."
Luo Shu rolled his eyes at this: "Just say outright that you don't want to train newcomers, especially ones without any special qualities."
Kirika Tachibana scoffed disdainfully:
"Since you understand, hurry up and come ashore. Surely you're not planning to visit the Yukinoshita household in the middle of the night? Heh, visiting a home with three women at such an hour – think you can handle that?"
Luo Shu ignored her, lazily glancing up at the night sky instead:
"If we drive over now, it'll be 8 or 9 pm by the time we arrive. Can't I at least rest for the night?"
His gaze shifted to Kisara standing on the temporary dock. The immediate priority was instilling some basic common sense into this foolish demon.
Kirika calmly produced her cigarette case and lighter:
"Of course, you can rest. But if we delay any longer, the Onmyou Agency might make contact first."
"Contact? The Yukinoshitas?" Luo Shu finally caught on. "Why would the Onmyou Agency...?"
Kirika smirked derisively:
"Who do you think are the local factions cooperating with official authorities to lock down Chiba?"
Luo Shu's eyes flickered with understanding.
...
Under the night sky, Chiba Municipal Hospital.
Ding-dong!
The chime sounded at the VIP ward's door.
Yukino Yukinoshita, who'd been peeling an apple for her father, immediately set down the knife and fruit before moving to answer.
Upon opening the door, Yukino stared in surprise at the black-haired high school girl in sailor uniform before her:
"May I help you?"