Chapter 132: Handover

I am not especially suited to negotiations.

Even so, no one else had been involved in this job, so I had no choice but to explain it myself.

For guards, I chose four units with high offensive power: Tiger Unit, Monkey Unit, Dog Unit, and Boar Unit.

I let my weight sink into the sofa. It seemed to have cost a decent amount, and the comfort was suitably decent.

As I had once before, I placed my automatic pistol on the table in front of me. As I had once before, I sat facing the Tooth leader, Mr. A.B., in the camp’s reception room.

“This is the mastermind behind the incident.”

As I spoke, I jerked my chin toward the “stuffed animal” sitting on the floor.

Maybe there was a growler inside it, because even though no one was touching it, the “stuffed animal” kept making little noises like “aaah” and “uuuh.” Its eyes were dead too. If a small child saw it in the dark, it would absolutely become a cursed “stuffed animal” and leave lifelong trauma.

“First, I’ll tell you this: good work, Dog. You pulled the winner.”

“…Meaning?”

“Aye. What my people found was a holding site—a place where they temporarily kept the ones they’d abducted.”

He praised me for having a good nose.

“Thank you, Papa.”

“I’ll shut you up, idiot.”

I shrugged and reached for the glass on the table. Watching the condensation darken the cork coaster, I took a sip and wet my lips.

“The number you protected, plus the number we protected. For now, that total should be everyone who made it through safely… How does it look?”

“It’s a little higher than the number of victims we’ve confirmed on our side, but that’s probably because our own confirmation hasn’t caught up yet. And yours?”

“We haven’t had anything resembling proper damage reports, so I can’t really say…”

People no one cared enough to miss.

The words were ugly, but those were probably the kinds of places this “stuffed animal” had taken from.

“…Dog. I wanted to ask him about that, you know?”

“What a coincidence. So did I.”

“…Then why is he like this?”

“It seems breaking his spirit immediately beforehand worked a little too well…”

I gave him a vague smile.

To Bulging Eyes, Mr. 《S》 had apparently been his emotional support.

While preparing to withdraw, we searched the facility in more detail and found several cold-sleep units that had contents but had stopped functioning. They were what remained of Bulging Eyes’s colleagues.

Bulging Eyes himself had gone to sleep, crossed a hundred years, and tried to rise again—only to find that his colleagues were already gone. In that situation, the hope he clung to was 《S》, their greatest masterpiece.

There was plenty of my own guesswork in that, but that was probably the shape of it.

I was not especially interested.

The problem was that the moment it turned out I was not that, Bulging Eyes’s heart broke.

His heart was already broken, so breaking his heart again had no effect.

I had failed to notice that.

It sounds like an excuse, but…I do not often interrogate people with drugs.

It was not that I had no experience at all, but more often I used methods that asked the flesh.

Because of that shallow experience, Snake Unit and I overdid it.

We failed to notice that he had already snapped and tried even harder to snap him further.

The result was him, sitting on the floor with his legs thrown out like a teddy bear.

“…As a public example, he’s borderline useless.”

“Blood and screaming make the pain easier to understand.”

At Mr. A.B.’s mutter, I nodded. I understood.

“You want him?”

“No. Not really.”

“Then I’ll take him.”

“Please do.”

And just like that, in an extremely sloppy fashion, the fate of the “stuffed animal” was decided.

Well.

That was how these things went.

Neither I, who had said I did not want him, nor Mr. A.B., who had decided to take him, had any interest left in that thing.

He might have held useful information. I was curious about the true aim behind this incident too. But if none of that could be drawn out of him—at least not now—then he had no value.

“…”

“…”

And so.

That was why neither Mr. A.B. nor I stood up yet.

“…There were some interesting people outside.”

“Were there? I didn’t notice.”

“You’ve got a good nose, but bad eyes, Dog. Missing a bunch like that, wearing those helmets and hooked up to cables?”

“That’s strange. If they were that conspicuous, I don’t think I would have missed them… Mm. Yes. I’m certain there was no one like that between the entrance and this room.”

They might be in Akito’s garage.

They might be.

But it would be strange for you to know that, wouldn’t it?

“…Fine. Time is precious, so let’s stop this, Dog.”

I’ll be blunt, said Mr. A.B.

Apparently, the little farce was over.

Personally, I would have liked to keep this empty conversation going a little longer.

“Hand them over.”

“…Why?”

“That’s your side’s technology, isn’t it? I’ve never seen it before. That alone makes it a threat. But more than that, those things can probably be used on Tooths. On us.”

A flat assertion.

Hearing it, I thought, Well, yes. Probably.

He had seen through it.

In that case, there was no point hiding it. I emptied the tea in my glass and took one deep breath.

“…Biological modification. Not at the genetic level. Apparently, it’s something done after birth.”

Since there was no longer any meaning in hiding it, I took the stick-shaped data drive from my pocket and tossed it over.

“Success rate is below ten percent. Human or Tooth, apparently that much doesn’t change.”

“…Casualties?”

“Sixteen on your side. One success. …Ah, no need to worry. He’s waiting with the others like a normal person.”

Hidden information number two.

I also revealed the victim count we had already found.

Bulging Eyes had already operated on the abductees, trying to turn them into psychics.

If he could make a Welsh Corgi Pembroke Thunderbolt, then he could make a Homo sapiens sapiens Thunderbolt. And if so, naturally, he could make a Homo sapiens Tooth Thunderbolt too.

That was what it meant.

“…Why were the dogs and cats altered from the genetic stage, while humans and Tooths were done after?”

“I’m not a specialist, so I can’t say.”

“I see. Then—”

A sharp tingle ran across the back of my neck, like my skin had started to burn.

Killing intent, hot enough to scorch.

He did not take a stance. He only shifted forward on the sofa, sitting shallow and leaning in.

That alone put me inside his distance.

“…”

Troubling.

No matter what I did now, I would never make it in time. Before I could do anything, I would be dead.

Nothing for it.

I gave up.

I did not reach for the gun. I gave no orders to the Monoz. At most, I leaned back with as much insolence as I could manage.

“Why did you keep this quiet?”

“It’s an operation with a success rate below ten percent. Causing more casualties through human experimentation would be idiotic, so I intended to bury it in the dark.”

I gave him a loose, silly smile.

Pointless.

“Don’t dress it up, dumb dog.”

His words stabbed.

I clicked my tongue once, then answered in a hard voice of my own.

“…Because I knew you’d demand the successful specimen, you old bastard.”

“That one is fine, isn’t it? He isn’t one of yours. Don’t stretch the range of what you protect too far. Hand him over.”

“No. He’s a victim, pure and simple. I have no intention of making him dance to our convenience any more than he already has.”

“He’s practically a vegetable, isn’t he? That’s called effective use. Besides, what do you plan to do with them? There were some at the holding site too. The reports are coming in. Take those helmets off, and they die. What do you intend to do with unstable things like that? Keep them?”

“I’ll kill them as human beings.”

“…Then—”

I slammed both feet hard against the floor, cutting off his words. Matching Mr. A.B.’s forward lean, I leaned in too.

We shot forward and glared at each other over the table.

“Don’t say what comes next. Don’t disappoint me, Tooth.”

Headbutt.

I had tried to make it look good, driving my forehead in with the words, but pathetically enough, I lost cleanly and split my skin. Warmth slid wetly down my face.

It smelled of rusted iron.

“…”

“…”

How long did we stay like that?

One more drop fell into the red puddle on the table and sent ripples through it.

“—”

Mr. A.B. muttered something under his breath, then sank back deep into the sofa as if he had lost patience first.

“Fine, Dog. That will do. The data is enough. Do what you like with them.”

“…Much obliged.”

I sat back down too.

When I touched my forehead, my hand came away red. It did not hurt, but the bleeding was showy. Annoying. I wanted to wrap this up and get it treated.

“Now then. Last, let’s talk about your reward, Dog. No. Hm. If I say it like my daughter’s husband would… Touji-kun, was it?”

Reward?

I frowned at the word, then remembered the earlier conversation as he continued.

“…I’ll take her without hesitation, and I don’t accept returns.”

That girl.

“Aye, fine, fine. Take her. You can have her. You’re no vessel for a king, nor even for a general, but as a soldier you’re beyond standard, and as a warrior you pass. I’ll give her to you. I’ll give her to you… I will, but there’s a condition. Send one of your sons over to my side.”

“…Hard to agree to that. What do you want? The name? The blood? The technique?”

If it’s the name, do as you please. Prepare some child on your side and have him call himself my son.

If it’s the technique, I’ll give you that. I don’t know whether he’ll amount to anything, but I’ll teach him.

But blood—blood was harder to hand over.

Selling the future of a child I had not even made was, as expected, a little much. But of course, what he wanted was—

“Blood.”

“…Of course.”

That was, as expected, impossible—no, not impossible.

I just disliked it.

So there was only one thing I could say.

“I refuse.”

“As a father too, then… passable.”

He clicked his tongue loudly.

But that was all.

The job was over. Mr. A.B. stood, gave orders to his subordinates, and withdrew.

“…”

I was tired.

Extremely tired.

But I could not shake the feeling that the latter half of the negotiation had been triggered by something I had said before.

Did he not need the biological modification technology all that badly from the start?

That was what I thought. It felt like I had been conveniently used as a test.

A perfect case of reaping what I had sown.

I hung my head.

When I did, the smell of rust currently coming from me dripped onto the floor.

“Ah. Sorry.”

Dog Unit wiped it up, then turned a look on me that seemed to say, don’t make a mess.