episode_0058

Two splendidly dressed foxes, wagging their glossy tails, approached with light steps down the hallways of this extremely shabby Junk Palace.

They were still in highly revealing outfits like fishnet stockings and micro hotpants, but instead of the padding they wore last time, they now wore modified kimonos made of expensive-looking material.

It was similar to a polyethylene transparent haori, an outfit that indicated their affiliation with the Neo Shinsengumi.

Given that the K.I.T.S.U.N.E lettering, hidden among the cherry blossom patterns on the sleeves, announced their affiliation, it seems they’ve chosen this as their uniform.

“Heehee~ What do you think, Jun? I picked it out carefully, isn’t it cute~”

Yuki, showing it off by twirling around as if telling me to look closely, rushed past Luna and practically body-slammed herself into my arms.

Burying her face in my chest, Yuki’s fluttering white ears tickled my neck a few times before she lifted her face again, sporting a playful smile.

“Oh, the design turned out well. And this looks like a pretty expensive material, did you even get outfits for the others with this?”

“Hijikata said it’s best not to spare expenses on uniforms, so we had them made with Level III protective fiber, and now we have to tighten our belts because of it.”

Kana, who approached after Yuki, also wrapped her arms around my waist and clung to me.

Clinging naturally to both sides, the two rubbed against me as if trying to transfer their scent, and I somehow felt imbued with a sweet, fruity fragrance.

Even though I had met them once in Japantown about two weeks ago, Yuki and Kana were launching a physical assault so intense it was as if we hadn’t met in years, to an almost burdensome degree.

“But what brings you here?”

“Mmm~ An uncle I know asked if I wanted to see a concert and gave me a ticket code~”

Yuki rubbed her head against my chest, while Kana wrapped her tail around my leg, tickling me like a brush with its swaying tip.

“Hoo…”

Luna, who had been separated from me, looked with chilly eyes at the sisters showering me with affection.

Though her eyes, blazing with fury, seemed to be directed at me too…

“You two… Would you mind getting away from Jun now?”

Her direct anger was aimed at Yuki and Kana.

Normally, considering Rune’s Bar’s standing in this industry, Luna, as its leader, wielded an authority that even the bosses of most large gangs couldn’t disrespect, but these two were ignoring Luna’s expressions…

“Hmph… You’re Luna Anthony Taylor, aren’t you?”

“But what does our flirting with Jun have to do with you?”

They know…

Although they had recently achieved rapid growth in Japantown, Yuki and Kana, who were still only leading a small organization, didn’t back down at all from the seething Luna, and merely offered relaxed smiles.

The atmosphere feels strange somehow. Is this going to turn into a fight?

[Buddhism expresses this with the word karma.]

‘…Be quiet.’

“For mere fledglings, they’re quite impudent, aren’t they?”

“Hmph~ Of course, we’re grateful that you took our request. Thanks to that, K.I.T.S.U.N.E was able to establish a solid foundation. Besides…”

Yuki’s soft fingers interlaced with mine effortlessly, and despite Luna’s fierce glare, she raised her chin as if she didn’t care, revealing her choker.

“Because you even introduced us to our Master like this♥”

“These dog-like whores…”

“Shouldn’t you choose your words more carefully? We’ve only ever swayed our hips for Jun, so to call us whores…”

At Kana’s provocative remark, sparks flew from Luna’s eyes, and her hand moved towards her thigh holster at a speed I couldn’t even properly react to.

“Luna!”

A large-caliber revolver, capable of easily blowing off a person’s head, was holstered there, so I was terrified and tried to stop Luna, but *halt!* Luna was the one who stopped first, before I could even reach her.

Her hand stopped at a position where she could grab the grip at any moment, and her eyes trembled as if she were desperately holding back.

“Ha… haha… Right. I shouldn’t get angry over something like this. I’ll endure it. Huhu… Hahahaha..! This is amusing.”

‘Her eyes don’t look amused at all…’

Even if Yuki and Kana cooperated, their skills weren’t something to be ignored anywhere, but against Luna, a true heavyweight whom even I, aided by real-time updated combat support systems and Kerberos, would struggle to defeat, they wouldn’t have lasted for a moment.

They would have definitely died.

As that worst-case future didn’t come to pass, I broke out in a cold sweat and, though it was still early, heaved a sigh of relief.

Luna flashed a sweet, practiced business smile, as if her attempt to draw something sinister just now had never happened.

“Right. You two are the bosses of K.I.T.S.U.N.E, Shirokitsune Yuki and Kurokitsune Kana, right? It would be my loss to get angry at a friend’s ‘pets’.”

“…” “…”

At the word ‘pets’, which Luna emphasized, this time Yuki and Kana’s eyes narrowed.

Of course, it was a position they had volunteered for themselves, and they even seemed to enjoy being called that by me, but perhaps they found it unpleasant to be called that by others.

Their atmosphere also sharpened, but Luna snorted as if she found it rather cute, pushed them aside, and pulled me as if hurrying me along.

“Will you two leave now? Unlike you two who just came to enjoy a concert, Jun and I have work to do, just the two of us.”

Unlike before, she pressed her body completely against me, the soft pressure of her breasts firmly pushing into me.

At the feeling of my face naturally softening at the breasts worth tens of thousands of credits, Luna, with a triumphant expression, turned around and waved her hand as if telling them to scram.

Yuki and Kana bit their lips as if resentful, sending me glances that pleaded for help, but from the perspective of someone who had come to complete a request, it was difficult to respond to those gazes.

“We’re not interested in the concert anymore, so let’s go to your place and hang out right after this is over.”

“That’s fine, but… Luna, wouldn’t it be better if we all got along?”

“Hmph.”

All I could do was passively soothe and appease Luna.

I had thought about meeting familiar faces in an unexpected place and exchanging greetings, but who knew they would snarl at each other like this?

I thought it would be fine since when I show them sex videos, they always grumble a little at first but then watch it well, but it seems I was mistaken.

*Slap!* *Slap!* *Slap!* As I was being led by Luna and walking, along with the sound of flip-flop sandals hitting the concrete floor from behind, Kana, who had run up from behind, grabbed my other arm.

“Hey! I told you we were working! Are my words a joke?!”

“Hmph. I know that mercenaries don’t work so professionally as to block all outside interference anyway.”

“And speaking of which, if we’re Jun’s pets, then we can help out as we please, can’t we?”

Yuki, puffing out her chest proudly as if she had found a way to counterattack, looked down at Luna, and Luna’s face soured.

“Since this is Jun’s work, after all, we won’t ask for any share of the reward.”

“Instead, will you hang out with us too when it’s over?”

“What kind of outrageous…”

At the sudden declaration of an uninvited mission participation, Luna looked dumbfounded.

I didn’t want the two of them to get hurt if I got involved needlessly, so I tried to refuse.

“I appreciate the thought, but this is a job our team contracted for…”

However, my gaze was momentarily captured by a giant silhouette emerging from the hallway corner behind Yuki and Kana.

A towering height that seemed to graze the ceiling, a torso so thick that all three of them clinging to me, and I, could fit inside.

Most strikingly, a deep, thick black fur and sharp, rough claws sprouted from a hand protruding from the sleeve, which even a deeply pulled-down raincoat couldn’t hide.

When I looked at him, he also looked at me.

A short, cropped hairstyle, and a gray stubble covering his mouth area, as if he didn’t groom it well.

“Wait, over there, Juwolde… Ugh!”

I instinctively sprang forward, sending Luna and the fox sisters behind me to protect them, and grabbed the shotgun from my chest.

However, the man, who appeared to be in his 40s, reacted to my speed, and the next moment *crack!* my vision flickered as I bounced between the floor and ceiling, flying for over nearly 10 meters.

‘Kerberos startup.’

[Confirmed.]

From the wound on my face, slashed in three long lines by claws, bright red blood gushed out, obscuring my vision, but I could at least tell that he was rushing towards me.

With the auxiliary computations of Martina, who had returned as the super-AI in my head, Kerberos began to activate, and with intense electrical signals stimulating my entire muscular system, the floor I landed on, breaking my fall, fractured into a circular pattern.

A fist imbued with overwhelming monstrous strength, capable of disintegrating muscles.

I blinked, and in the momentarily cleared vision as some blood washed away from my eyeballs, I saw a bear-like man bringing down his front paw as if to split my head open.

‘Combat support system, activate.’

Based on the momentary vision I had, and the airflow and sound waves felt through my eardrums, the recalculated projected attack trajectory was clearly visible even with my eyes closed.

My left hand swung sideways to open his guard, and I lunged a step forward, escaping the trajectory of his downward strike, then plunged my clenched fist into him.

Along with the intense pain of muscles tearing and scattering fiber by fiber, I felt soft muscles rupture under my fist, and the sensation of physical force transmitting to his internal organs.

“Gagkh…!!!”

The man made a startled sound, and *boom!* he flew back, shattering the floor.

Feeling a throbbing pain in my arm, I immediately leaped down towards the man who had crashed into the floor below.

–“Wait..!” –“Stop!”

I heard Yuki and Kana shouting something from above, and footsteps approaching in addition, but I decided to leave that to Luna, and focused on decisively restraining this man.

Before my feet even touched the ground, the man recovered his stance and unleashed a heavy kick.

As I raised my arm to guard, along with the sensation of bones shattering, I was slammed into the wall, and the shoddily finished wall crumbled into dust.

Pushed back, I immediately leaped up, grabbed a chunk of concrete clinging to a rebar, tore it off, and swung it like a hammer.

*Crack!* The superhuman strength gained through the Potential Ware tore off the tightly entangled reinforced concrete with a *creak*, turning it into a 38.7kg hammer, allowing me to throw its fragments at the bear-man.

“What kind of strength…!”

The man made a bewildered sound, and struggled to block the flying reinforced concrete.

The fact that he could block such a huge rock thrown at that speed made it clear that his strength and durability were astonishing.

In the ensuing offense and defense, we exchanged punches and kicks.

A slugfest where we battered each other’s vital points, hoping for the other to fall, and the one with stronger malice and grit would win.

*Thump!* *Thump!* *Thump!*

To the sound of the amplifier’s song shaking the hallway, the sounds of two people’s impacts were added.