'What exactly happened?'
After hanging up the phone, Shuichi Akai rushed straight to the church where Howard was stationed. He was someone who listened to advice from seasoned veterans, so Howard's sheer, uncharacteristic urgency deeply bothered him. Even though he was physically and mentally exhausted from his night in Innsmouth, he had to find out the reason behind the panic.
Upon arriving at the church, he saw the junior monks hurrying about anxiously because of Howard's emotional outburst. He also saw Howard's extremely tired, yet deeply embarrassed and terrified face.
"Howard, what's wrong…"
"Before you came in, did you hear a bell toll? Were you feeling unnaturally sleepy? Did you hear any strange sounds, like waves?" Howard interrupted, his eyes wide and bloodshot.
Akai could sense Howard's incredibly tense and worried state of mind—so much so that the questions he asked seemed utterly incoherent. A bell tolling? Feeling sleepy? Strange sounds?
"What exactly are you trying to say?" Akai asked, narrowing his eyes.
"…Come with me."
Howard didn't explain. These things couldn't be explained with mere secular words. Only by experiencing it firsthand could one understand the terrifying truth. So he ignored the skeptical look in Akai's eyes that seemed to regard him as a fraud or a man suffering a mental breakdown.
He knew. Highly intelligent, analytical people like Shuichi Akai often had a certain ingrained "prejudice" against religion and the supernatural. Howard used to not care. But now, he wished he could press the heads of all the stubborn unbelievers against the Bible and force-feed them a bellyful of the truth!
They arrived at the private prayer room.
Under Akai's questioning gaze, Howard unhesitatingly forced the elite investigator into the center seat and shoved a heavy leather Bible into his hands.
"I'll read a line, and you repeat it," Howard commanded, his voice trembling but stern.
"…Father, I am here to gather actionable intelligence, not attend a mass."
"Mr. Akai, the intelligence is in here."
"..."
Akai finally gave in. Although they weren't in the same direct chain of command, if you really wanted to compare their respective ranks and seniority within the Bureau, Howard's position was technically comparable to Akai's direct superior.
"Our Father, who art in heaven..." Howard began.
"..."
Oh well. Unable to figure out the older agent's specific intentions, Akai could only sigh and repeat the prayer as requested, feeling comically ridiculous. He wasn't a pure American citizen, nor was he a religious believer in the slightest. His earnest prayer felt entirely hollow.
"...Our Father, who art in heaven..." Akai repeated.
Whoosh—!
Waves. An abyssal eeriness. A suffocating strangeness. Pure, mental torture.
Cold sweat instantly beaded on Akai's forehead. A freezing chill violently ran down his spine, paralyzing his muscles. He suddenly looked up at Howard, who was gripping his own Bible with white knuckles. At this moment, Akai felt this old man was incredibly unfathomable.
"Continue!" Howard barked.
"..."
His lips trembled as he tried to utter the rest of the prayer. Akai had a thousand analytical questions he wanted to ask. But his mind was so violently jolted and blanked by the oppressive, oceanic pressure crushing his soul that he had no capacity left to think logically.
His mind was a jumbled, terrified mess. Only one clear thought remained in the Silver Bullet's head:
'Something terrible is about to happen...'
Suginami Ward: The Minazuki Estate
'What major incident could possibly happen?' Seiran scoffed amusedly at Akai's distant, panicked deduction.
So many people die in the US every single day; what was wrong with him causing a minor, supernatural incident?
Think about it logically. The US is a massive immigrant nation. Its core population is staggering, and it still absorbs countless undocumented immigrants every day. But the official population figures the US publicly displays never change much. So, where did the extra people go? Many secular things simply can't withstand close scrutiny.
Since the US government itself didn't overly prioritize the safety of its hidden margins, Seiran naturally didn't have many ethical concerns about using it as a testing ground. As long as the death toll didn't immediately exceed the country's recovery limits, it was fine. Sustainable, long-term development still needed careful consideration, after all.
Anyway, the Black Organization was already there, perfectly positioned to take the blame for Seiran's experiments. They were such good, efficient troublemakers; it would be a total waste not to make the absolute most of them.
Speaking of waste…
Touko Yotsuya—the beautiful widow who was initially "kidnapped" in a panic but was now completely free-spirited and uninhibited—had long since lost any interest in returning home.
This place was simply too good!
Her husband had died years ago, and her entire family's survival had depended solely on her shoulders. Now, she didn't have to carry that burden. Her new man wasn't just impossibly good in bed; he was clearly a very important, incredibly wealthy figure. All of her household expenses and Miko's future were effortlessly taken care of by him. Nobody knew how hard she, as a single woman, had worked to support her family in the dark. Having a handsome, powerful man suddenly step in to support her—wasn't that every struggling widow's dream come true?
And Touko's deeply pent-up desire, repressed for years, was an irresistible tsunami once she finally opened the floodgates.
She could spend an entire day in bed with Seiran!
The next day, when Seiran tried to switch partners in the estate, she still stubbornly wouldn't let him leave. She could spend another entire day with Seiran!
The third day, another entire day!
The fourth day, still a whole day, damn it!
The intensity was so reversed that Seiran briefly couldn't tell who was actually being ravished.
This aggressive intensity left the blonde, twin-tailed Eriri completely dumbfounded.
'No. At least leave a little for me…!' Eriri thought, pouting outside the bedroom door.
Those who knew the truth understood that Touko was simply craving the intimacy she had missed for years. Those who didn't know the truth simply thought Eriri had tragically fallen out of favor… She had even bought a special pair of white stockings today just for him!
And she couldn't even continue drawing her new doujinshi. She had originally plotted it as a forced, dominant encounter. Now she realized the widow had been the ultimate bait. A truly skilled hunter often disguises herself as the helpless prey.
Therefore, Eriri completely lost the motivation to continue sketching. She couldn't possibly draw a romantic doujinshi about an omnipotent God like Seiran being "forced" by a desperate housewife... She was absolutely certain that if she dared to draw and publish it, she would become a permanent laughingstock in her mother Sayuri's eyes tomorrow.
'That kind of intensity would break me anyway...' Eriri thought with a shiver.
Thinking of the terrifying feeling of her brain almost turning to absolute mush from overstimulation just a few days ago, Eriri quickly stopped her jealousy. She felt like she wanted to... cough. That kind of overwhelming intensity really frightened her. Her petite body clearly couldn't handle it, so naturally, she would just end up making an ahegao face, and Sayuri would ruthlessly draw her into the doujinshi on the spot as blackmail. That would be an indelible stain on Eriri's proud reputation.
Scratching her blonde head, Eriri and Sayuri eventually went downstairs, looking as if they had been temporarily dethroned by the widow.
Sayuri didn't seem to care as much. She knew that Seiran was just indulging in the sheer novelty of Touko for now, and later, she and Eriri would still have to work together to handle his stamina. Securing their "rice bowls" was extremely tempting... But Eriri always felt like she was somehow getting the short end of the stick.
At the same time...
Even more panicked by the shifting dynamic was the brilliant lawyer, Eri Kisaki.
She had already sensed something was wrong with the balance of power. Yukinoshita didn't seem nearly as distressed or marginalized as she had been a few days ago. However, after pondering the politics for a long time, Eri finally sighed and decided to do absolutely nothing for now.
Less is more; more action means more mistakes.
The Yukinoshita family had fallen into the trap of overreaching before. Eri couldn't afford to make the same arrogant mistake as them. The power of past mistakes in this household was quite frightening.
The Master Bedroom
'I see…'
Seiran relaxed a bit against the headboard and affectionately hugged Touko. Her petite, delicate body was extremely charming, completely at odds with her ravenous appetite.
Seiran was quite pleased with Touko's performance. Let it be the other way around for a change. After all, it wasn't unacceptable to be pampered by a pretty, female rogue.
With his immediate desires satisfied, Seiran's mind returned to business.
He seamlessly deployed the next phase of his grand plan directly to the rotting town of Innsmouth in the United States.
The zombie factor from the Apocalypse protocol.
Of course, the viral spread had strict, localized limitations applied to it. Seiran didn't want to create a chaotic situation where zombies were spreading all over the world to end civilization just yet…
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