Colonel Usanyi-chan ran almost by reflex.

Before her lay a grotesque mysterious being, and Bearion was about to destroy it with a single blow of all his might. The moment Bearion called the mysterious being “Haruka,” she realized what was about to happen.

「Please wait, Bearion-sama!!」

The meteor-like fist came to a dead stop just centimeters in front of Colonel Usanyi-chan. The wind released from the fist made her hair and bunny ears flutter.

A weaker mysterious being would have fainted just from the force of that punch. Even Colonel Usanyi-chan’s face was a bit stiff.

「Hiiih……!」

「Hey, what are you doing, Usanyi? It’s dangerous to just stand there like that.」

「W-With all due respect, I’d like to inform! Our mission is to rescue our compatriots who have been captured in the ‘Village.’ I believe, perhaps foolishly, that harming them would be in direct contradiction to our mission!」

It wasn’t meant to harm. Bearion’s fist from earlier had clearly been filled with murderous intent.

Usanyi doesn’t understand Bearion’s true intentions. Hadn’t he come to rescue his loved ones, even at the risk of entering enemy territory?

「That’s why I tried to “save” her.」

Bearion said he would save her. Colonel Usanyi-chan is not one to not understand what that means at this point.

In other words, Bearion had intended to kill “Haruka” from the very beginning.

But Bearion right now was not the usual emotional “Ojiki” he was. It’s as if he was gnawing at his own heart with his sharp fangs, killing it.

Colonel Usanyi-chan herself had never seen Bearion looking like this before.

「It may be presumptuous of me to say this, but it seems that Bearion-sama himself does not wish for that to happen. Let’s rescue her for now…」

As if to interrupt her, Bearion bent his large body and met Colonel Usanyi-chan’s gaze. His bear-like face came right in front of her, and Colonel Usanyi-chan instinctively braced herself.

「……!?」

Bearion spoke to such Colonel Usanyi-chan.

「Usanyi. Humans, are they scary?」

Glancing around, she saw employees lying here and there who had fainted after being hit by Bearion’s energy. Although she didn’t understand the purpose of the question, Colonel Usanyi-chan answered.

「No, fragile humans are no threat to me.」

「……I see. You see, I am scared.」

Who would have thought that such words would come out of the mouth of Bearion, Hundred Beasts King? Ignoring Colonel Usanyi-chan, who couldn’t believe her ears, Bearion continued.

「Humans can do anything for themselves and their families. But, you know. It also mean that they can do anything to anyone who aren’t themselves or their family.」

「I’m sorry. I don’t understand what you’re saying, Bearion-sama.」

Bearion gently patted Colonel Usanyi-chan on the head, then with the same hand he stroked the nose of the dinosaur lying in front of him.

「Usanyi. This “Haruka”. She was a lizard mysterious being.」

「A lizard…… you say……?」

Even if she were told that, it’s hard to believe. No matter how you look at it, this is a dinosaur boasting a body size of nearly twenty meters.

What happened for a lizard to turn into a Tyrannosaurus?

「With all due respect, Bearion-sama. That’s impossible. The size is too different.」

「They do the impossible, they do it, that’s the “scary” thing about humans.」

Bearion’s hands trembled as he stroked the dinosaur, clenching into fists.

「becoming like this, then she’s no longer a “mysterious being”」

………………

…………

……

Meanwhile, in a room upstairs, a man who appeared to be a researcher was tied to a chair and muttering with his head bowed.

「Believe me… At first, We really were trying to create a paradise for mysterious beings…」

All around him were researchers who were similarly bound. But every single one of them had their eyes rolled up and were twitching violently.

It was Mayuzumi Kirika, who was assigned by Rintaro to “interrogate” him.

「I knew that you were doing research on mysterious being cells, but I never expected it to be this extensive.」

Kirika said this with a look of genuine boredom on her face, and pressed the stun gun against the bound researcher.

「They sure are impressive. The result is human experiments using mysterious being cells. Research into hybrid species (chimeras), then? They’re really enthusiastic about their research, it makes me sick.」

「Wait a minute, in the end this is just research to save humanity from mysterious being cells…」

「Save them? Isn’t it “use them”? You tried to tame the mysterious being cells and create a biological weapon that humans could control. At least, that’s what I understand from reading this document?」

The stun gun crackled mercilessly, scattering blue sparks. The screams of the researchers echoed throughout the small room.

「Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiih!! Haa, Haa…… I, if we talk, you’ll understand… We’re here for medical purposes only…」

「Oya, that’s not what you said earlier. Wasn’t your goal to create a paradise for mysterious beings?」

The stun gun went off once more. This was no longer an interrogation, just torture.　

But no matter how much the researcher pleaded, Kirika had no intention of slacking off. To Kirika, nothing took higher priority than the mission entrusted to her by Rintaro.

「I bet you were blinded by greed. If there were so many samples in front of you, of course you would want to get your hands on them. Ethical issues aside, research on mysterious being cells can bring in money.」

「So what!!」

The researcher, who had been receiving unilateral criticism up until then, began to sway almost to the point of falling off his chair, his hair flying.

「E-Every country is doing it! Mysterious being cells are still an unexplored field, a modern gold mine, so to speak. Japan can’t afford to be the only one to fall behind! Mogooh!?」

A hard, black stun gun was thrust into the mouth of the researcher, who was yelling in defiance.

The researcher pleaded with tears in his eyes, if an electric current were to be applied in that place, it would be life-threatening.

「S- Stohp……」

「Haven’t the mysterious beings you’ve been researching on repeatedly said the same thing to you? Please answer “Yes” or “No.”」

「……Yhess」

「Then it can’t be helped.」

Bachibachibachibachibachibachi! ! ! ! !

A shockwave strong enough to burn through his brain exploded inside the researcher’s mouth. Like the other researchers, his eyes rolled back, lost control and urinated, then collapsed and stopped moving.

「Now, how should I explain this to Senpai?」

Kirika had top-secret documents regarding research into mysterious being cells in her hands. She obtained them by interrogating the researchers.

It also contained the name of Mayuzumi Kirika, a girl who had been raised in the research and development lab.

But that’s something she’s well aware of.

What’s more important is the name of another person engraved there. No, it was the name of two people.

“Samejima Asaka”

“Samejima Saya”

Kirika rolled up the document and put them in her inner jacket pocket.

---

<222: Hundred Beasts King Attacks
224: Kuriyama Rintaro VS Samejima Asaka>