Hearing Kazuma's words, Kirito frowned, a little puzzled. What was wrong with a clinic? Why did Kazuma have that expression?
But Keli immediately understood.
"Remember the location and the name. Tomorrow, we'll find a way to sneak in and take a look."
"Okay."
"Heaven clinic Affiliated Branch. It should be a branch of the Juntendo University clinic."
Kazuma wrote down the name and climbed down.
"Do we need to go? Isn't it enough to just tell the clinic they have a drug leak?"
Kirito still hadn't quite grasped the situation at this point.
"clinics have specialized ways to deal with drugs with strange functions, and if a drug had such side effects, it would have been known worldwide by now. So, the only possibility for such a situation is…"
Kazuma paused while explaining to Kirito.
Then, with great regret, he spoke his inner conjecture.
"First, this might be some Virus research, and their staff accidentally leaked it."
Keli directly interrupted Kazuma, stating the second possibility that Kazuma had also thought of.
"The second possibility is that they didn't have any leak incidents. This animal-mutating substance is normal excretion, normally entering the sewer, they just haven't discovered that these patients' excretions also have this function."
"This…"
Kirito was also a bit stunned when he heard this, then reacted by refuting it first.
"But if it's some secret biochemical Virus research, it wouldn't be chosen for Tokyo, would it? After all, if it leaked, those old men would suffer too…"
Then he stopped speaking there because he also understood.
"Yes, so, the most likely situation is.
Drug trials.
Of course, we don't know if their experimental subjects are animals or humans.
Keli's talk of patients is purely speculative; it's possible they're paid volunteers. But no matter which it is, it's unrealistic to let the government audit itself. At this point, our compassionate Mr. Keli will have to sneak in and see what's going on."
Kirito lowered his head, clenching his fists, as he listened to Kazuma.
"If it's human experimentation, it's unforgivable!"
"Oh, you always say those hot-blooded protagonist lines, huh? Alright, this old man is also motivated now. So, are you ready? Before tomorrow morning, let's have a big fight."
Kazuma handed Kirito a mask he had prepared in his bag and turned to look at the huge alligator corpse not far away.
At this moment, a group of rats were frantically gnawing at the flesh and blood on it.
"Don't let them eat it all. This hide is quite thick; maybe we can make some leather armor for ourselves."
Keli joked, raising his knife.
"Let's go!"
Kazuma called out and charged forward, mercilessly spraying pepper spray into the previous hole. Immediately, some oddly shaped young rats, whose fur hadn't fully grown in, squeaked and rushed out.
And upon discovering their nest under attack, those rats no longer cared about the alligator meat and pounced on the three.
"Tsk! I thought a lot had already been cleared out before; there must be hundreds of them now."
Kirito went up and pulled his twin curved blades from the alligator's face.
Actually, because Kirito's body and clothes would be transferred to Keli's side together, Kirito carrying the katana on his back meant he was using the katana as a secondary weapon.
As the light sources on the three flickered and their weapons constantly swung, a battle unknown to anyone, and destined not to be praised, but which they all felt necessary to do, began.
Kill, constantly kill, constantly die and revive, then retrieve weapons to kill.
They killed until rat heads rolled on the ground, until even the constant urge to kill that drove them felt weary, until even the hearts of the undying felt this endless battle was somewhat tormenting.
…
At five o'clock the next morning, the spring dawn spread over the land.
An old man by a park looked curiously at three teenagers whose clothes were tattered and who had clearly washed themselves completely with the park's faucet, walking out with instrument bags on their backs.
"I… I thought we'd have to fight until the end of the world…"
Actually, the intensity of last night's battle was far less than in New Township, but it was just too monotonous: constantly killing, constantly reviving on the spot, and then continuing to kill.
Before their eyes, there was nothing but blood, the pain of being bitten on their bodies, and the overwhelming stench.
Especially Kirito and Kazuma; last night, 80% of their time was spent fighting while injured.
Even knowing it was a battle with no risk of failure, the pain experienced by those personally involved was indescribable to outsiders.
Kazuma used the money he had in a tin box on his body, which hadn't been bitten by rats, to buy drinks for the other two from a vending machine.
The invincible Black Swordsman, as if burned out, leaned against the wall, clutching his bass bag with a hole in it, slumped casually by the roadside.
It was hard to even find a bench in this wretched place, Tokyo.
"Phew…"
Keli also let out a long sigh.
"We'll go home to get our cards later, then go shopping. We'll have lunch and then go to the clinic in the afternoon."
Keli looked at his tired teammates and decided to let everyone rest. He himself was actually enduring fatigue; even now, he felt like every breath was still filled with that mixture of fragrance and stench, making Keli want to cut off his olfactory system and grow a new one.
He slightly alleviated his weary state of mind, but there was no other way. In fact, because the other two had refreshed their status by dying, they weren't even sleepy.
The three headed back.
Early in the morning, Fengchuan Xiangzi left her home feeling a bit tired. Although she had stayed up late working yesterday, classes still had to continue. Although it was probably impossible for her family to afford the tuition for a noble school like Tsukinomori after their financial cutoff, she still had to try hard for Haneoka.
As Xiangzi left, she saw the three-person group returning, their clothes tattered and even their head coverings gone.
She tilted her head a little, puzzled. She remembered they had returned yesterday, didn't they? Could there be a second half to their performance? With their head coverings gone and clothes like this, the fans must be too crazy. Could it be that after playing, they went down to interact with fans, and their clothes were all pulled off by fans as souvenirs… This was too rock and roll!
However, she just nodded and quickened her pace. If she had enough time when she got to school, she would find a place to hide and check her phone to see if there were any part-time jobs nearby. She had asked at some places before, but they didn't hire underage part-timers, and Japan also had restrictions on student working hours, which bothered her a bit.
After this, she might only be able to consider working several unofficial jobs.
Meanwhile, Keli and the others, after tidying themselves up at home, took their bank cards and headed straight for that clinic. They decided to first observe the clinic's staff uniforms and structure before buying props.
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