Naoki rose from Tenka's lap pillow. He didn't say thank you—it wasn't needed between them now.
The more often a word is spoken, the more it loses its true meaning. For Naoki, concrete actions were the best way to show his attitude and appreciation rather than just strings of beautiful but often empty words.
So, he opened both small plastic bags. From each, he took a strand of hair—dark green and bright orange.
He looked at them for a moment, and for the first time since obtaining «Pandemonium», a psychological barrier emerged.
Swallowing a stranger's hair felt far more disgusting than obtaining Tenka's DNA through an intoxicating kiss.
"..."
The perceptive Tenka immediately caught his hesitation.
"What's wrong, Naoki-kun? Is there a problem?" She smiled thinly, then offered a suggestion that was both brilliant and shocking. "For others, copying through hair might be the only way. But because they're my subordinates, I have a more pleasant method for you."
Before Naoki could ask, Tenka had already explained her plan calmly as if planning a lunch menu.
"I'll put a light sleeping pill in Yachiho's and Sahara's drinks. After they fall asleep, you can come and take their DNA through a kiss while they're unconscious. That will be easier and not disgusting, right?"
"..."
Naoki fell silent for a moment, processing that somewhat extreme proposal.
(Wow... Tenka is too generous, isn't she? Allowing me to kiss her subordinates while they're sleeping? Doesn't she get jealous at all?)
Nevertheless, his heart couldn't deny that the method was far more appealing than swallowing hair. He decided to make sure first.
"Is that really okay with you, Tenka? I'll be kissing other women, even if only for the purpose of taking DNA."
Tenka just nodded, her expression remaining calm and confident. "No problem. I know your purpose, and I trust you. It's just a method to obtain power. I'm not jealous of practical things like this."
Seeing Tenka's firmness, Naoki's last doubts vanished. Besides, he indeed wasn't someone too bound by propriety norms or narrow morality from the start.
If there was an easier and more pleasant path, why not?
"In that case, let's use your plan." Naoki said, a small smile appearing on his lips.
"Good. I'll contact you through the special communicator once everything is ready." Tenka reminded. "Make sure you don't leave Mato until then. The signal network between Mato and the real world isn't connected; communicators can only be used inside this dimension."
"I understand."
After that agreement, it was time to part temporarily. But before leaving, their desire once again couldn't be contained. They embraced each other, kissing again with full passion.
Tenka wrapped her hands around Naoki's neck, while Naoki's hands smoothly slipped into Tenka's uniform, unbuttoning her bra, and directly squeezing her plump and supple breasts. Tenka's small moans were swallowed in their kiss.
They almost got carried away and started another round of sex in the middle of the Mato desert, but Naoki, with remaining self-control, managed to pull away. They parted with gasping breaths.
With flushed cheeks, Tenka tidied her messy bra and uniform, readjusting the position of her breasts in her clothes. She then kissed Naoki's cheek gently, before finally getting into the jeep and driving back to the Sixth Unit headquarters, leaving Naoki alone in the middle of the barren landscape.
Back alone, Naoki thought about how to spend his free time before Tenka's plan was ready.
Suddenly, he remembered something forgotten.
"Oh, right! I almost forgot about the original protagonist! Let's see what Yuuki's situation is like right now."
Since there was nothing else more interesting, he decided to watch live action.
*SRING!*
So, Naoki activated «Pandemonium» once again, accessing the already-copied «Ame-no-Mitori». With one concentration, he teleported toward where he suspected the Seventh Unit was located.
«Ame-no-Mitori» had an effective radius of about 50 kilometers for locations he knew or could imagine. Because he forgot to ask Tenka for the exact coordinates of the Seventh Unit headquarters, Naoki had to teleport several times, moving from one high point to another, before finally finding it.
He arrived in front of a large Japanese-style building that looked like an inn, which was the Seventh Unit headquarters. The building was located across an elegant wooden bridge, surrounded by Mato scenery that was slightly 'greener' than other areas.
Of course, he immediately activated Spatial Reflection, creating a light distortion around him, making him difficult to detect by direct vision and sensors so he wouldn't be discovered.
"So this is the Seventh Unit headquarters, huh." He muttered softly. "It looks more normal than I imagined. More like a traditional inn than military barracks."
"According to Tenka, the barrier here was built by the Onmyou Agency based on Mato's Yin and Yang principles."
Even for Naoki who was a Reincarnator, knowledge about this Onmyou Agency was very limited. In the manga he read up to the last chapter, this organization wasn't much explored.
What the public knew was that the Onmyou Agency was a special organization that focused on Mato and Shuuki Research, working behind the scenes to support the Anti-Demon Corps.
However, there was one secret piece of information about the Onmyou Agency that Naoki knew: they conducted human experiments!
At some point, some women who ate Peaches began mutating into Humanoid Shuuki because of their uncontrolled powers. The Onmyou Agency then captured them and made them subjects of cruel and inhumane experiments.
As a former State Intelligence Agency personnel, Naoki had seen firsthand and documented several human experiments conducted by countries or dark organizations. He knew how inhumane and barbaric such experiments were. Even devils might nod acknowledging their cruelty.
"Yamashiro Ren..."
"Undoubtedly she knows all this. In fact, not just her, every woman who has served as Supreme Commander of the Anti-Demon Corps must know the Onmyou Agency's barbarity. But they chose to remain silent. That means... they approve of it, or at least consider it an inevitable 'necessity'."
"Once half my «Pandemonium» slots are filled, there's no harm in 'visiting' the Onmyou Agency. Just to look around... or maybe, take something useful."
Naoki admitted he wasn't a good person in the conventional sense. If not, he wouldn't have so easily agreed to the despicable method Tenka proposed earlier. But on the other hand, he also didn't completely discard his humanity.
Knowing there was moral degradation and suffering, having the ability to do something, but choosing to close his eyes and pretend not to see? For Naoki, that was no different from being an accomplice to perpetrators of crimes.
"Enough." He said to himself, driving away thoughts that were becoming complicated. "Think about that later. Do everything step by step."
With focus restored, Naoki directed his «Ame-no-Mitori». Easily, he created a small undetected portal, stepping through the Seventh Unit headquarters barrier without triggering alarms or revealing his presence, ready to observe this world's protagonist from behind the shadows.