…Shortly before the SOS was sent to Yuugo and the others, the carriages where the combat miko and Yui were sitting ran through an empty road.
The carriages, split in two, advanced at a slow pace, surrounded by the students selected by Ramy who looked around with caution.
The situation being what it was meant that the mood was heavy in the carriages. Yui felt discouraged as she held her brother’s sword, and Raiha spoke to her.
“…I’m sorry. It’s my fault you were involved…”
“N-no. Don’t worry about me…”
Raiha’s apology included not just this situation, but also what happened five years prior.
She had not told her yet, but… She was thinking about how she was the one who took her father and her vision, and she tormented herself over it a lot.
Yui could see souls, so she was aware of the strong guilt inside Raiha, but did not know what caused it.
It made sense for her to never even suspect the person in front of her was the mad loong who attacked them, and it could be said she was better off not knowing.
She figured Raiha simply had something to do with what prompted her to be separated from her brother, and felt there was something behind this move, when suddenly the carriage stopped.
“Oh…? Why did we stop here?”
“Is there trouble…?”
Raiha and Yui were confused about why they stopped in the middle of the road.
There was magic placed on the windows to make it so the interior was not visible from the outside, like tinted windows, but when they looked outside, they saw nothing unusual.
Raiha looked at Koumaru, who was in the carriage to watch them under the guise of being an attendant, but he remained silent and showed no intention of doing anything.
“Hum, Mister Sakai…? Why did we stop here…?”
“Why… Because we have arrived at our destination.”
“Eh…?”
Raiha was not expecting this answer, but even as she looked outside, she could not figure out what he meant by that.
She saw rock face and many trees, but nothing that looked like a hideout… And as she thought about this, the door opened and Ramy peeked inside.
“Hum, Mister Sakai? Why have we stopped here?”
It seemed Ramy was just as confused.
Koumaru extended his right arm to stop her, and spoke while slowly turning his neck towards her.
“Thank you for your services, but they are no longer required.”
“Ah…? Gabeh!?”
Ramy looked on with confusion, and saw a bright red flame being fired from the palm pointed at her.
The next second, it hit her stomach, causing her to fold forward and be blown away, hitting the rock face and staying there.
“M-Mister Sakai!? What are you…!?”
“Fufu, fufufufufufu…!!”
Asked Raiha, baffled by his sudden actions, but Koumaru did nothing but giggle madly.
She knew something was off, but then she heard the voices of the students acting as their escort outside.
“M-monster armor beasts! There are monster armor beasts!!”
Yui was surprised to hear this, and when she used her soul wave to investigate, she felt a very large number of evil presences closing in to surround the carriage.
Not only that, but they were very similar to the gigantrose that attacked the hospital the previous day.
That new type of monster armor beast gave Yuugo and the others a lot of trouble, but why was it there, in large numbers no less?
Yui could not process this confusion on top of confusion, but Koumaru spoke while continuing to laugh quietly.
“…The truth is, Raiha, that I was one of the people in that laboratory studying your half loong body. Of course, you had no idea, because we all hid our faces.”
“…!?”
Koumaru’s voice sent a chill down her spine.
There was madness, greed, and ill will packed inside it, and he continued while looking straight at her.
“The top secret job of sending you combat miko to a safe place… Did not exist. It was all a lie. All a lie concocted by me. And it took a lot of time…!!”
“Did you…!?”
She started connecting the dots.
Why did the new monster armor beast gigantrose appear there at that time the previous day? If Koumaru knew what Raiha really was, why did he have Yuugo, Ryuuga’s partner, look after the combat miko?
And who changed the elementary school students’ field trip to the insectary, despite knowing security would be sloppy and the combat miko would be there?
The culprits of the incidents around them… The siblings in the insectary, Black Veil, the man who placed the gigantrose in the hospital… Raiha finally understood who gave them all the power to become monster armor beasts.
It was all done by the man in front of her… All to set up a trap to lead to this situation.
“Why did you…!?”
“My goal… Is quite simple. I want the weapons with loong power you all have. And…”
Koumaru responded to Raiha with a mad smile, and pointed at her.
He looked at her like she was prey, and stated his biggest goal with pleasure in his voice.
“Raiha Utsusemi… I want you, one of the few half loong people.”
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