Dark Moon
A sudden spray of water erupted around the trembling Invisible Blade.
The surging cascade shoved me backward and I toppled over. I scrambled back to my feet at once—but she had already put distance between us. Wrapping herself in the waterproof tarp that had covered the machinery, she prepared to vault through the window frame. In her hands she gripped a ninjato and a fox mask.
My mistake. Complete carelessness.
Both her hands were in my field of view the whole time, and she'd been so obedient until now that I thought she was fully broken. Had she been faking submission while she waited for her body to recover?
I clicked my tongue and steeled myself for a fight. The situation was… bad. Unlike her, who had focused entirely on recovery, I had been burning mana nonstop creating and manipulating tentacles. On top of that, I had climaxed so many times I had lost count, and my body was exhausted. My condition was at rock bottom.
Still, I couldn't show weakness with an enemy in front of me.
Invisible Blade glared at me as if she wanted me dead. The serious look in her eyes was undercut by the ridiculous sight of her lower half still quivering, her pussy squirting slick fluids in messy spurts.
"Just you wait. I will pay you back for this. Mark my words."
The ninja left that third-rate villain line hanging in the air and fled through the window. Her tarp-wrapped figure receded in an instant and vanished. I approached the window slowly. In my current state, chasing her was impossible.
Traces of the fluids she had left behind still clung to the window frame.
She used ninjutsu again without forming hand seals.
Ninjas don't have an astral body the way mages do. She hadn't centered her techniques on an astral core.
If it were simple silent casting, there's no way I would have missed the buildup. Ninjas form hand seals in the first place for the sake of stealth.
I flexed my fingers this way and that.
The basic concept behind hand seals is runic characters. You form runes with your hands and fingers to substitute for spell formulas. The advantages and disadvantages are clear-cut. The upside is that you can conceal mana wavelengths and trigger magic in complete secrecy. The downside is that magic cast through hand seals has limited flexibility.
Another downside: hand seals require practice.
My fingers won't move the way I want them to. Even a simple 1-Class spell would take time if I tried to fire it off with seals.
I knew how to form the seals in my head. The problem was that these damned fingers refused to obey.
How did Invisible Blade manage her ninjutsu… Ah.
A moment's thought and it clicked.
Her tongue.
Invisible Blade's tongue was longer than a normal person's and absurdly flexible.
She formed the seals with her tongue. If you can express a spell formula with your tongue, it isn't completely impossible.
For me, though, it was out of the question.
My tongue was neither as long as hers nor as flexible.
I could always install a mechanical tongue with tech, but… that would defeat the entire purpose. Ordinary machines have no mana sensitivity. Even if one did, being a machine would impose hard limits.
I'll have to give up on that method. Hand seals, though… I might need them someday. Maybe I should practice whenever I have free time.
I had uncovered Invisible Blade's secret. A flicker of satisfaction—then I belatedly realized I had another problem to worry about. Her revenge.
…She won't come after me for pure revenge right away, but… I have no idea when she might strike from behind. First things first—I should sink half the money from this job into security.
I needed to tell Yuria as well. Living with me made her a potential target for Invisible Blade too. If she decided to leave me over this… I would respect that.
When the moment actually comes… will I be able to let her go without clinging?
I couldn't say for certain.
I gathered my scattered clothes, dressed, and left the factory behind—smeared with every kind of fluid imaginable.
After resting at home through the next day, I headed to the X Manpower Agency. The job had been a success, so my steps were unhurried.
Rose was at her desk as always, staring down her monitor. But her right arm had changed.
Her previous mechanical arm—or rather, mechanical sleeve—had been so crude in design you half-expected it to reek of oil.
Now her right arm was sleek silver, futuristic in design.
"You're here. How's the body?"
"Not bad."
"You got paid, right?"
"It hit my account the moment the job wrapped."
"Client's loaded. And they're satisfied with you. It wasn't a perfect job, but in the end the client took no losses."
"An extra thirty million credits showed up."
"Bonus from the client. Think of it as a tip. Rare, but it happens."
"Because of Invisible Blade, I take it?"
"Bingo. When she double-crossed them, they suddenly had cash to spare… and they liked that you tracked her down. Even if you didn't catch her."
Rose filled me in on what had happened that day.
While I chased the female ninja, the group that hit the casino had smashed the building to pieces and vanished.
"Black mages, most likely. Everyone in the basement is dead. Looks like they'd planted machines in their hearts from the start. When the machines blew… Look, just so we're clear—it wasn't because of you."
"Obviously it wasn't my fault."
"Anyway, this job's over. You don't need to worry about it."
"Over, huh…"
It wasn't over.
Invisible Blade had her sights on my throat.
"You're fretting about Invisible Blade, aren't you?"
"…The job didn't end clean. I made an enemy of an assassin with that kind of skill. My neck starts feeling cold after dark."
I had already told Yuria about the situation. She didn't seem particularly concerned. If anything, she was more worried about my stamina. That whole day she fed me nothing but foods supposed to be good for virility—then wrung me dry again that night.
"Ah, you don't need to worry about that."
"Hm? Something happen to Invisible Blade?"
A furious client putting out a hit and having her killed. A perfectly plausible scenario spun through my mind.
"Something did. First, the broker who funneled her jobs cut her loose immediately. From a broker's perspective, that was the only move. The second you cover for Invisible Blade, your career is finished. She's a rookie—no reason to go to the mat for her. Who knows if something like this happens again?"
"…So the female ninja and her broker are on the outs. And?"
"Acrotechs cleaned it up. You know Acrotechs?"
"How could I not? They're a fairly well-known company in Neo London. Specialize in magitech engineering and mechanization, supply the military too."
I had learned about them naturally while digging into magitech.
"Turns out Invisible Blade has ties to Acrotechs. They provide her with gear, she feeds them combat data—some kind of trade relationship? I suspect it's more than that, but I don't have the details."
"…"
My gaze drifted to her right arm.
The mechanical arm remade in that futuristic design. I didn't have an expert's eye for machines, so I couldn't judge precisely—but I could tell it was high-end.
"Hehe. It's an Acrotechs arm. Tons of functions. Get this—it can even do this."
Rose grinned like an idiot and stretched her mechanical hand toward a document. The papers, more than two meters away, rose into the air of their own accord and flew into her mechanical grip. Telekinesis.
"It's got other features, but this one's the real convenience. I don't even have to get up to grab paperwork anymore. The onboard processor handles simple telekinesis for me, so it barely even tires me out."
She clearly loved the thing. Leave her alone and she would talk about it for hours.
"So Acrotechs gave it to you. What's the catch?"
"…I'm managing Invisible Blade now."
"Didn't expect you to take on a problem child like that."
"Managing her is going to be a pain, but her skills are too good to waste. She was a newbie, and everyone screws up once, right? More importantly, she's connected to Acrotechs. Having a line to a major corporation isn't a bad thing."
"And if she takes another double contract?"
"Then it's over. No second chances."
Rose smiled a cold little smile.
She was no soft touch. Her network was influential enough to nudge the council, even if only a little. Acrotechs had probably half-guessed who Rose really was when they asked her to take Invisible Blade on.
"That woman has a serious grudge against you. Not the ordinary kind, either. What the hell did you do to her?"
"…"
"Don't want to say, fine. She won't be coming for your head. She will try to make your life miserable, though… that's on you to handle."
"I will."
Just knowing I didn't have to put her down was a relief.
"That hundred thirty million you just pulled in. What are you spending it on? First real payday, isn't it?"
"Already spent it. Bought a factory. I've got less than ten million credits left."
"What kind of factory?"
"Food plant. Planning to manufacture and sell instant Korean food. Chicken alone has its limits."
"Korean food? Cuisine from the ancient nation of Great Korea?"
"Nailed it."
"…Hmm. Well, good luck with that."
Rose waved me off with an expression that said she expected nothing whatsoever. She clearly thought the business would flop.
I exchanged a brief goodbye with Rose and left the office.
Great Korea is pretty alien to Neo London's citizens, true.
But just watch.
I would succeed. I would make damn sure of it.
…The problem is I need more money.
Keeping the factory running cost money. Retrofitting it cost money. There were other issues too—taxes, licensing, the works.
Everyone knows Neo London's bureaucrats are corrupt. Grease the right palms and I should be able to produce and sell food within a year.
That would take hundreds of millions more in credits.
At the rate Yuyu Chicken is pulling in revenue, expanding the factory would take years.
Fortunately, I had combat ability.
After succeeding on this job, high-paying named contracts would start coming in.
I need money. Magic research costs money. Expanding the business costs money.
Invest everything I earn. In myself. In the business.
Keep growing like that and someday I would be a heavyweight in this city. No—I would make myself one.
I clenched my fist tight.
The Battle Mage Project.
That project was finished. Its director, Instructor Vinous, had been beheaded and frozen.
But I didn't consider my revenge complete.
The ones I wanted dead sat higher than Vinous.
Vinous alone could never have run a project of that scale. The real people in charge are further up the chain.
And another responsible party.
Alpha Tier Pharmaceuticals.
The Freesel Kingdom's military and a global megacorp.
I was still far too small to take them on.
Those bastards need to suffer every bit as much as I did.
My revenge was not over.
Dreaming of payback, I was winding through the crooked alleys of X-district when someone stepped into my path.
A sleek silver cyber-suit wrapped her entire body. Full breasts, a seductive curve of hips and thighs. Dark brown hair pulled tight into a ponytail, and a Japanese-style fox mask.
Invisible Blade.
I confirmed a barrier was up around us, then asked her,
"Rose told me our business was finished…. What do you want?"
"You really don't know? That thing you shoved up my ass—take it out. Right now."
"Ah."