...
Kurano Kiriha watched Saiki's back, hesitated for a moment, then still chased after him.
[Persistent, huh.]
"Karama, Korama—stop him!"
Kurano Kiriha jumped in front of Saiki and ordered the two clay dolls.
"Yes, Big Sis!"
"Alright, you—stop right there."
Though the two clay dolls stood blocking him looking full of confidence on the surface, they were terrified inside.
But because it was Big Sis's order, they had to carry it out. Gathering their courage, they stood firm and spoke.
"No matter what, you can't take another step forward."
"Yeah! If you want to pass, you'll have to step over our bodies…"
Before the two clay dolls could finish,
"Boom!!"
Saiki stepped on their heads and walked right over. The two clay dolls were smashed flat into the ground, unable to move.
Karama: "Why did you have to run your mouth?"
Korama: …
[Yare yare, youth is great—you fall asleep the moment you hit the ground.]
Saiki looked at Kurano Kiriha, who still had the courage to block his path, and teased,
[What, you want to try too?]
"Gulp."
Kurano Kiriha swallowed hard: "That's right—you really can't go. Calm down first. I'll investigate this properly. Just wait a bit."
[I refuse.]
Kurano Kiriha: "Then step over my body!"
Kurano Kiriha [No way he'd actually step on a beautiful girl like me, right? Mm!]
"Boom."
Saiki stepped on Kurano Kiriha's head and walked straight over.
...
In the end, after Kurano Kiriha's pleas and persuasion, Saiki agreed to let her come along.
"We're here. This is the radicals' base. You're just going to walk right in like that?"
Kurano Kiriha turned back to Saiki.
Saiki saw the scene ahead—many masked people in kimonos standing guard.
[Let me think.]
If possible, Saiki didn't want to cause too much commotion.
"Don't you have some ability to shrink down to ant size? I could sneak you in that way."
[That would be too much hassle. But you reminded me of something.]
Kurano Kiriha ¯_(⍤o⍤)_/¯ [He can really shrink to ant size?]
[Yeah. We'll go in like this. I'll stay invisible and follow right beside you.]
"Invisible?"
Kurano Kiriha watched as Saiki slowly turned transparent and then completely disappeared.
"That's amazing—you really can turn invisible. So right now, no one can touch you?"
Kurano Kiriha reached out and waved her hand where Saiki had been invisible, but didn't touch anything.
Because Saiki had dodged.
[Stop flailing around. If you touch me, the invisibility breaks. I'll just follow behind you like this. Lead the way in.]
"Oh oh!"
Kurano Kiriha pulled her hand back and walked forward seriously.
"Commander-sama."
The guards at the door saw it was Kurano Kiriha and bowed in greeting.
Kurano Kiriha waved to interrupt.
"No need to mind me. I'm here to investigate something. Where's that guy Chi?"
The guards exchanged glances, then bowed and said: "Lord Chi is in a meeting. If you need to see him, we can go notify him."
"No need. I'll go find him myself."
Kurano Kiriha walked straight in. Seeing the meeting place, she turned and headed toward the laboratory instead.
"Are you still following beside me?"
Kurano Kiriha whispered.
[Yeah, still right here.]
"If we go straight to Chi and ask him to bring us to the lab, even if he was making those dangerous weapons, he'd probably hide them first. So better to go in directly! We should try to find them before the meeting ends…"
[Yeah… that's better.]
Kurano Kiriha opened the lab door and walked in. Inside were all kinds of mechanical guns, clay dolls, ship compartments…
Saiki also became visible again.
The two began searching, but before they could finish one round, footsteps came from outside the door.
Kurano Kiriha turned to Saiki: "Quick—hide!"
[I just dropped invisibility. Can't reactivate it immediately.]
Kurano Kiriha reached out, grabbed Saiki, and dragged him to a cabinet. Ignoring his objections, she stuffed him inside.
Then the door opened right after.
A black-haired, middle-parted, grim-faced middle-aged man entered with a few followers.
Shiromaru Chi: "Commander-sama, I wonder what brings you here unannounced?"
"I heard rumors that you're building some destructive weapons here, planning to invade the surface world on your own. I'm here to investigate."
Kurano Kiriha responded directly, staring intently at Shiromaru Chi without blinking.
Shiromaru Chi [Where did this girl hear about this?]
One of Shiromaru Chi's followers whispered something in his ear, then
"Haha, rumors are just rumors. But if Commander-sama wants to search, go ahead!"
"But I'll be watching you check every single thing. If you don't find anything, Commander-sama—please don't come doubting me over trivial matters like this again."
Kurano Kiriha saw how calm Shiromaru Chi was and couldn't help but wonder if she'd made a mistake somewhere, but she still continued the search.
After going through everything, nothing unusual turned up.
"Well, Commander-sama? Didn't find anything, did you?"
Kurano Kiriha frowned tightly: "I need to look again."
"In that case, Commander-sama, keep looking. I'll wait outside. If you still don't find anything, don't come back."
Shiromaru Chi turned and left with his followers.
After watching Shiromaru Chi leave, Kurano Kiriha opened the cabinet.
Saiki stepped out.
"Kusuo, we didn't find any of those weapons you mentioned. Did you make a mistake?"
Saiki brushed dust off himself, glanced around from the corner of his eye, looked toward the door, then knocked on the back of the cabinet he'd hidden in.
[Who said there wasn't? There's a passage right behind this cabinet.]
Kurano Kiriha looked at the cabinet in front of her—no matter how she examined it, it looked like an ordinary old cabinet.
In movie plots, cabinets like this were usually entrances to secret passages.
Kurano Kiriha punched the back of the cabinet with her braced hand.
A magic circle popped out and repelled her fist.
"As expected! Karama, Korama—neutralize the formation!"
"Yes, Big Sis!"
The two dolls flew out from behind Kurano Kiriha. They released continuous electric currents from their heads, striking the cabinet.