Raven was, naturally, unaware that Saeko Kageyama was fantasizing about him. If he had known, he'd likely be startled. After all, not long ago, the two had been trying to kill each other, with absolutely no mercy in their attacks. The shift in attitude was incredibly fast.
In truth, this was due to Saeko developing a dependency on Raven, the Amazon Origin, after becoming an Amazon. Given that he was also male, this attraction was even stronger, making it easy for her to become infatuated. Adding to this was Saeko's existing interest in Raven, which was only suppressed by Murakami's orders to engage him. This led to the current situation—a floodgate that had burst open and couldn't be controlled.
On the other side, Raven returned to the café shortly after parting ways with Murakami and the others. Yuka immediately ran over to embrace him, clinging to him tightly.
"Mr. Raven, you were out for so long! Why didn't you even call?" Yuka complained playfully. "How is Mr. Kiba now?" she quickly asked.
"Oh, him? He should be fine from now on," Raven replied. He briefly summarized the results of his negotiation with Smart Brain.
After listening, Yuka was delighted. She hugged Raven's arm and said, "Then hurry and turn me into an Amazon too! I'm ready!" She hadn't expected Raven to keep this secret from her. She had no attachment to being an Orphnoch; she felt that becoming Raven's own kind would be the happiest thing in the world.
"Not yet. I need to observe Saeko Kageyama for a while longer first," Raven said, shaking his head. Until he was absolutely sure, he wasn't going to risk Yuka's safety lightly.
"Fine…" Yuka pouted in disappointment. She knew that once Raven decided something, no amount of talking would change it. In any case, there was no rush. Being with him was enough.
Meanwhile, at the Kikuchi family's Western-style laundry shop, Keitaro and Takumi had brought the unconscious Yuji Kiba back earlier that day.
"Takumi, what's the deal with those Smart Brain people? Are they really involved with the Orphnochs?" Keitaro still found it hard to believe. It seemed preposterous that such a massive corporation could secretly be the puppet master behind the attacks by the Kaijin.
"If nothing else works, we should notify the police. Let the Metropolitan Police Department investigate the Smart Brain Group," Keitaro suggested urgently.
"That's probably all we can do," Takumi agreed. He had no better ideas. The power gap between him and the Orphnochs sent by Smart Brain was simply too vast. He honestly didn't know where they kept coming from, each one more terrifying than the last. The shock from Kitazaki had yet to wear off.
And Raven's allegiance didn't seem to be completely aligned with theirs right now. Thinking about it, they couldn't count on him to fight alongside them.
So, that same evening, Keitaro and Takumi wrote an anonymous tip and mailed it to the police station that had recently been heavily involved in the missing persons cases.
A few days later, the letter was received by Detective Sawamura, the young officer who had previously been in charge of the missing female basketball student case. Due to pressure from above and a lack of leads, they had temporarily suspended the investigation into that case.
"The Smart Brain Group?"
Detective Sawamura was stunned by the contents of the letter. The claims written inside were simply too bizarre. What the heck is an Orphnoch? Were the missing people attacked by these "Orphnochs"? And were these human-attacking monsters connected to Smart Brain, the most influential technology company in the city?
"Senior… Senior!"
For some reason, even though the letter's contents were completely absurd, he found himself willing to believe it. He felt it was the most reasonable explanation for the bewildering series of missing persons cases. Detective Sawamura was greatly energized. He immediately rushed into the office and found Detective Soeno, his senior partner on the case.
"Senior, I believe this letter may be the key to solving all these mysteries!" Sawamura said seriously.
The older detective took the letter and read it for a long moment. He finally replied, "This is the Smart Brain Group we're talking about…"
After a long period of hesitation, he said with renewed determination: "Forget it, I'm in. Let's start by discreetly looking into the company's history and past records."
"That's great, Senior!"
Sawamura was thrilled to have Soeno's agreement. After all, the higher-ups had already told them to stop wasting police resources on the missing basketball student case, and he had been extremely frustrated about it.
———————
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to my patreon ——— patreon(.)com/JuanFiction [remove the parentheses ( )]
There are over 100 advance chapters available for you!