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"Didn't I tell you before that I was going to collect souls in this world? All of this was my doing."
The moment Benimaru heard that, every doubt he had dissolved instantly.
If Kaito did it, then of course there was nothing strange about it. In their hearts, Kaito was simply omnipotent.
"Alright, get up. How is the search for the Cursed Children across the city coming along?"
Benimaru rose quickly and gave his report.
"Currently, all the Cursed Children in the outer districts have been found and are being looked after by Shizu and her group."
"The city area is still being swept. We estimate another half a day to finish."
"Also, a considerable number of the Cursed Children have disabilities of varying severity. Treatment will likely have to wait until we return to town."
Kaito nodded, taking it all in. After a moment's thought, he asked:
"What about the Cursed Children who were with the Civil Security officers?"
"Most of them surrendered after their officers were killed. A small number are still resisting."
"Find some of the Cursed Children to talk to the ones who are holding out. If they still won't come around..."
Kaito paused briefly before finishing:
"Handle it as you see fit."
"Alright. I'm going to take a look around the city. Go get back to it."
"Yes, sir!"
Whoosh...
Benimaru vanished the instant he received his orders.
Kaito swept the city with his divine sense, and something caught his attention. A moment later, he too disappeared from where he stood.
"Mmm mmm… What happened to this city? Why is it so quiet all of a sudden?"
A small girl with golden hair, wearing pajamas, shuffled along the roadside pushing a bicycle, her face heavy with sleep. Anyone watching her swaying figure would have been half-convinced she was about to topple over at any second.
"Well, well. Why is such a cute little girl walking all alone out here? Aren't you worried about running into bad people?"
The girl tilted her round, soft face upward toward the voice.
She looked at the young man with the teasing smile and replied in a perfectly even tone:
"I already did."
Kaito stared at her with a puzzled expression.
"You already did what?"
"Ran into a bad person."
The girl, looking thoroughly unbothered and half asleep, pointed directly at Kaito and gave a small, certain nod of her head.
"Uh… Hahahahaha! You really are something else, you know that?"
Looking at the girl whose head kept dipping like she might fall asleep mid-sentence, Kaito couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Since arriving in this world, Kaito had actually been carrying a quiet, invisible weight.
He always acted like nothing in this world touched him, like he did whatever he wanted without a care. But the truth was that just two or three months ago, he had been nothing but a shut-in living a lazy, idle life. It was impossible for someone like that to suddenly kill so many people without it leaving any mark on him at all.
The girl's series of completely deadpan reactions seemed to scatter the gloom that had been sitting at the bottom of his chest, lifting his mood considerably.
'That's why lolis are the treasures of the world. They really can heal a person.'
"I'm not something else. I'm trying to find my way home."
"You look like you can barely make it down the street. Besides, something big just happened in this city. Did you really not notice?"
The girl tilted her head and looked at him with a perfectly blank, adorable expression.
"I was so sleepy walking that I fell asleep on the road. When I woke up, the city was just very quiet."
Kaito stared at her.
"You fell asleep on the side of the road?"
"Mm. It was cool and comfortable."
"You really have no fear of bad people at all."
Even knowing that the girl in front of him was permanently half-asleep by nature, he hadn't expected her to just drop off on a roadside in broad daylight.
"Tina, even if you're a Cursed Child and a mechanised soldier, isn't it a bit much to be this unguarded?"
The moment Kaito said her name, every trace of sleepiness vanished from Tina Sprout's face. Her soft, round features went sharp and alert.
"Who are you? How do you know my identity?"
Kaito waved a hand at her.
"Relax. I don't mean you any harm."
Tina puffed out her cheeks slightly.
"Really?"
"Really."
"Oh."
And just like that, she settled right back into her drowsy daze. Kaito looked at her, completely baffled.
"You trusted that a bit fast, didn't you?"
"I can feel that you really don't have any ill will toward me."
With that, Tina produced a caffeine tablet from somewhere and popped it into her mouth. As it dissolved, the colour in her face improved noticeably.
"So, is there something you need from me?"
She raised her round face and looked at him.
"Nothing serious. I just plan to take you with me."
Tina immediately clasped both hands to her chest and said softly:
"You really are a bad person… H-hentai!"
'Why does every girl I meet call me a pervert?! Am I really some kind of…'
'Impossible! Absolutely impossible! I'm a fan of older women!'
"Aren't you here to assassinate Seitenshi? There are fewer than two thousand adults still alive in this city right now. Everyone else is dead."
A flicker of genuine shock crossed Tina's eyes. Kaito knew her purpose for coming here. But what stunned her even more was the scale of what he was saying had happened.
"How am I supposed to believe that?"
"Simple. Come with me and I'll show you what the city centre looks like. Try not to be too scared."
Kaito stepped over to Tina's side, took her small hand, and disappeared from the spot in an instant. The bicycle she'd been pushing was the only thing left behind.
Whoosh...
"This… you brought us to the city centre in an instant. Who exactly are you?"
It felt to Tina as though she had only blinked before finding herself somewhere completely different.
"Don't just stand there. Take a look."
Tina looked in the direction Kaito pointed, and her body went still. Her eyes fixed blankly on what lay before her.
Stretching out ahead of them were vast fields of bodies lying on the ground. No blood. No wounds that showed. Everyone looked as though they had simply fallen asleep where they stood.
It was exactly that which made it so horrifying.
Feeling the faint trembling of the small hand beside him, Kaito reached out and rested his palm gently on top of her head.
"It's alright. It's all over now. You won't be in any danger, but you need to come with me."
"To be more precise, all the Cursed Children need to come with me."
The warmth above her head drew Tina back to herself. She heard his words, then looked up at him with an expressionless face and said quietly:
"Mmm… You really are a hentai. Not letting a single one get away."
"Hey! How can you just slander someone's character like that out of nowhere…"
"I'm doing all of this for…"