"Again?" Has someone died before your very eyes before?
Jane had meant to ask just that, but saying something like that out loud would really be a bit tone-deaf to the mood.
Fortunately, Geno spoke up and laid it all out himself.
"Yeah. About a year or so ago, someone died right in front of me, but for certain reasons I couldn't save him. And not long after that, another person faded away before my eyes too."
What Geno spoke of was that Hollow Investigator who had been dealt with by the Silver Squad back when he'd first awakened in this world.
Though Geno hadn't known that person, he still grieved over a life he'd been unable to save — which was why he'd given the man's body a proper burial. And the one after that... or rather, not a person at all.
That Ethereal went by the name Thanatos — in life, a pitiful girl whose codename had been A423.
Her death made Geno realize once again that this world was far, far more cruel than the world he'd once lived in. So cruel that the passing of a single innocent life could even be crowned with cheers.
And yet this world was also so beautiful — beautiful enough that people would stop at nothing to protect it.
"After that, I made up my mind. I'll do everything in my power to save every single person I come across who's worth saving. I want to put a happy smile on everyone's face."
Geno clenched his fist, his eyes brimming with resolve.
He was just a bit naive, but he was by no means some bleeding-heart saint — there was a limit to what he could do.
So long as one is human, one has one's own likes and biases; between people he knew well and people who were nothing to him, Geno would inevitably lean toward the former.
"Is that so. For a moment there, I don't know whether to call you naive or just full of grand, empty platitudes."
Jane's feelings were rather complicated. To think this world actually held a soft-hearted do-gooder like this. In a world so deeply ravaged by Hollow disasters, people would more or less harbor some absurd notions.
But compared to Geno, those people were small fry next to a true marvel.
"I've heard that from others too."
Geno shrugged. Twiggy and the others had once said the very same thing.
But this motion tugged at his own wound, instantly setting him grimacing and baring his teeth.
Seeing this, Jane found it a little funny.
Here was a naive fellow — naive to a downright ridiculous degree — and yet somehow impossible to dislike.
Perhaps it was because, deep down in her own heart, the kind of person she longed for was exactly someone like this...
But no matter what, that road was Geno's, and other people's — it was not Jane's.
Jane, too, would make this world better and better. In her own way.
"Found them."
A call came from the distance. Geno looked toward the source of the voice, and saw Twiggy, bringing Trigger and Yanagi Tsukishiro along, running toward where the two of them were.
At the sight of them, Geno's heart gradually settled back to calm, returning to its everyday state.
"Yo! Did the investigation go smoothly?"
"Yo my foot! How'd you get hurt this badly?!"
Twiggy came charging up to Geno's side in a frantic huff and slammed a fist straight down on him.
This idiot — why does he always make people worry so?!
"Owww! I'm an injured man! How can you be so rough with me?!"
Geno complained, rubbing his head, but looking at Twiggy's worried expression, the flare of temper in his chest vanished in an instant like smoke.
"All right, all right, I'll be more careful next time. There was a good reason for it this time."
"There's going to be a next time?!"
Twiggy glared with those lovely big eyes of hers, her gaze blazing like fire, enough to make Geno a little scared.
"There won't be a next time, I promise!"
Having gotten a satisfactory answer, Twiggy's face finally softened a touch, and then she looked over at Jane, who sat to one side, likewise gravely wounded and wrapped in bandages.
"And this would be the famous Miss 'Anonymous,' I take it?"
Anonymous — Jane's online handle. Geno had earlier told Twiggy and the others about matters concerning Jane.
"It seems this would be the rising new star of the Ether scientific world, Miss Twiggy? And those few over there are colleagues from the Defense Force — oh? Even Anti-Air Section Six has been roused? I'm truly flattered."
Jane's expression and bearing were all affectation, as though she were the mastermind behind the whole affair. Not a trace remained of the gentle manner in which she'd been chatting freely with Geno just moments ago.
And this display left the three who'd been named feeling a bit put out.
"You sure know a lot. Looks like certain rats really have dug their holes deep enough."
"Not at all, you flatter me."
Faced with Twiggy's sarcasm, Jane merely responded with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.
Now that was more like it. For people like them, in the intelligence and undercover line of work, this kind of attitude was the norm. Cases like Geno and those two were, after all, the minority.
"All right, enough of that for now. The two of us are still injured, so let's get out of here first. Oh, and remember to bring that corpse along."
As he spoke, Geno pointed at the corpse of the Beast Fiend soldier whose head Trigger had blown open with a single shot earlier.
That corpse had a bowl-sized hole blasted open in its skull, beaten beyond all recognition, utterly impossible to make out what it had looked like in life.
But the Beast-Fiend-ified portions of muscle still twitched ceaselessly, like beef freshly butchered, rather than dissolving into a puddle of thick fluid like the Beast Fiends Geno had encountered before.
"Oho? More new material? Perfect — help me bag him up."
Seeing yet more new research material fall into her hands, Twiggy's eyes lit up, and she fished a square, blocky object out of the pocket of her military uniform.
She then spread it open and tossed it to Trigger — this was, of all things, a simple body bag?!
"You... why would you carry something like this on you?"
"Just in case. If certain people end up dead, you can just bag them up right away."
Somehow it felt like she was taking a veiled jab at certain someones, but Trigger had no proof.
And so he just blankly carried out the order Twiggy had given, and bagged up the corpse.
Watching Trigger get to work, Geno only then realized that this group seemed to be a few people short.
"Where are Number 11 and Anby? Eous is nowhere to be seen either."
"It's a long story. Let's talk once we're back."
Though a little curious, since Twiggy had put it that way, Geno could only follow along and leave the Hollow together with everyone else — his stamina had pretty much recovered by now.
Because of her excessive blood loss, Jane was carried on Yanagi Tsukishiro's back, while Trigger, for his part, carried that corpse.
After the whole group left the Hollow, they didn't head back to Sixth Street; instead they drove off, making straight for Twiggy's laboratory.
A familiar scene appeared before the group, while the two who'd never been here gazed at all the various instruments and the jars and bottles in the lab, their faces full of curiosity.
"Let me look — it should be around here. Found it."
Twiggy rummaged ceaselessly through the test-tube rack, then dug out two vials of green solution, motioning for Jane and Geno to drink them down.
"Is this stuff safe to drink?"
"Drink it or don't, suit yourself. Trigger, just help me get the new material over to the bench on that side — Number Five and Number Six will deal with it later."
Just as Twiggy said, she set the two test tubes down, then directed Trigger to place the thing in the designated spot.
Seeing this, Geno said no more, picked up one of the vials, popped the stopper, and poured it straight into his mouth.
Seeing Geno take the lead, Jane followed his example and drained the vial of its medicine entirely.
After finishing, she even smacked her lips. "Apple flavored?"
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