The pharmacy owner was an aging, middle-aged fellow, a cigarette clamped in his mouth as he read his newspaper — not looking the slightest bit invested in actually running his own shop.
And in point of fact, that was exactly the case — beyond the two of them, the entire store didn't have a single customer in it.
"Same as usual — one emergency loadout."
"No problem. By the way — the higher-ups gave us new instructions."
"Oh?"
Jane Doe took the gear from the pharmacy owner's hands, narrowed her eyes, then turned her head and shot a sidelong glance at Geno — who was still busy taking in the surroundings — before turning back to the owner.
"Pulling the Defense Force into this too — is it really alright for Public Security to be sticking its hands in?"
"Well, they're brother departments at the end of the day, and this case counts as a special exception. Military and police, one big happy family, right?"
The pharmacy owner shrugged and said it with utter indifference, then went straight back to reading his newspaper — as if there were some kind of buried treasure on those pages.
"As for any more detailed stuff, you can have a look yourself. Either way, none of it has anything to do with a retired old codger like me."
"Heh. Let's just call it that."
With that, Jane Doe gathered up her things, motioned to Geno, and led him out of the place.
For the stretch of time after this, she was going to need to get herself a solid spell of rest.
"Alright then — for the time being, you're free to do as you please, Mister Geno."
"Hm? Just letting me go like that? Weren't you saying earlier that you needed my help?"
Geno hadn't quite expected Jane Doe to come out with a line like that — back when they'd been climbing out of the Hollow, that hadn't exactly been her tune.
"Plans never quite keep up with the changes — don't you worry, though, we'll be seeing each other again soon enough. When the time comes~ we'll spend some good quality time together~"
As she said it, Jane Doe even tossed Geno a flirtatious wink. And then, in the blink of an eye, she had vanished around the corner — leaving Geno standing alone in place, somewhat at a loss for what to do with himself.
"Nonsensical woman."
Geno muttered out a couple of complaints, then found himself a spot with no one around, shifted back into his original form, and got ready to head back to Sixth Street to find Eous.
Meanwhile, on the other side — Jane Doe, who as far as Geno's field of view was concerned had already left, was at this very moment tucked away in a corner, watching Geno's departing figure without taking her eyes off him.
"Heh. Cooperate fully with the other party's actions, hm? Now that's interesting~ Looks like, in the eyes of those crafty, calculating old foxes, this 'Mister Designer' is a hell of a lot more important than I thought he was."
Jane Doe flipped through the slip of paper in her hand — the intel that had been tucked inside the gear the pharmacy owner had passed her.
All it said was something to the effect of: 'Cooperate fully with the other party's actions.'
Honestly speaking — for a rat lurking in the shadows like her, this was a frankly unbelievable sort of directive. But the higher-ups had still gone ahead and given it.
"Things are getting more and more interesting, hmhm~"
Scott Outpost.
Trigger and Number 11 walked slowly out through the outpost's front gate — they had already gotten in touch with Roland, the person in charge here.
And the moment they stepped out of the outpost, Anby's figure appeared right in front of them.
"How'd it go?"
"Roland's agreed to dispatch reinforcements once the target is located. Anything beyond that, though, is going to have to fall on the Proxy and the others."
Roland had been more than willing to offer help to his fellow personnel — however, the Scott Outpost was, at the end of the day, one of the key checkpoints in the defense against Hollow Zero.
Which meant that while he could dispatch reinforcements at the critical moment, when it came to operations like search and reconnaissance, he was somewhat hamstrung.
Trigger and Number 11 expressed their understanding — at the very least, once they had gathered intel on the Rebels, they wouldn't have to suffer the misery of being short-handed and lacking in firepower support.
"Speaking of which — this getup of yours, this is..."
Trigger looked at the freshly re-outfitted Anby, an unexpected look flickering across her face.
That uniform — it felt as though she'd seen it somewhere before...
"I hadn't expected that you'd still kept that uniform."
For Trigger, the most she had was a vague sense of familiarity — but for Number 11, it was rock-solid, intimate recognition.
The military uniform Anby was wearing right now was, in fact, the official squad uniform of the Silver Squad from back in the day.
And the one Anby was wearing — that was the exclusive cut reserved only for the Captain. Beyond the richer color scheme, it also came with an additional neckerchief.
"Putting on this uniform — it feels like being transported back to the past. Like the power slumbering inside my body is reawakening right alongside it."
Anby closed her eyes and placed her hand to her chest, looking for all the world as if she were genuinely sensing some kind of dormant power.
"Speaking from any standpoint of universal rationality — a single piece of clothing does not possess that sort of power."
Trigger silently fired off the snark from off to one side — somehow getting the distinct feeling that what Anby had just said sounded exactly like a line straight out of some movie or other.
The sort of line that could only ever fool a kid.
"Is that so?"
Number 11, at her side, took it entirely at face value, her eyes going wide as she stared at Trigger.
Trigger pressed a palm to her forehead — she'd just about forgotten that this person, in certain respects, wasn't all that different from a kid herself.
"Think whatever you want — that's not the point here anyway. We should be heading back to regroup with the Proxy and the others now."
And just as Trigger was saying that, the phone at her waist gave a ring.
Brrng brrng~~
"Hm? It's the Proxy calling — uh-oh, something's gone down over on their end!"
Hearing Trigger say that, Anby and Number 11 immediately snapped into serious mode.
The three of them hurriedly piled into the car and tore off in the direction of Sixth Street.
Half an hour later, Number 11 shoved open the front door of Random Play.
"Belle! Are you guys alright?! ...Huh?"
She had assumed she'd be walking in on someone wounded, or some kind of incident having broken out — only the very moment she stepped inside, what she saw was the Wise-and-Belle sibling pair, plus Geno, currently gathered around a table eating hot pot.
Even with Number 11's iron military discipline, she couldn't quite hold her composure for this one.
"What — what is this situation? Didn't somebody just say something had gone down? Who exactly had a problem?"
Number 11 was still trying to make sense of the situation, and Trigger and Anby walking in behind her wound up in the exact same state of dumbfounded confusion.
"Ah, sorry about that. There really was a problem at first, but this guy Geno came back on his own, and it just so happened to be right at dinnertime, so..."
The instant Belle caught sight of Number 11, she suddenly remembered that she had sent them a distress message earlier.
But because Geno, after parting ways with Jane Doe, had only just then realized he hadn't eaten yet — he'd gone and bought a whole pile of hot pot ingredients on the way back, fully intending to dig into hot pot together with Belle and the others.
And in the very moment right after Belle had sent the message, Geno had walked right in and derailed her train of thought completely.
After that, all she'd been thinking about was offering some solace to the five-viscera temple that was her stomach — naturally, nothing else had managed to stay in her head.
"How about… you all just calm down a bit and have some hot pot first? We can eat and talk this through at the same time?"
Seeing the atmosphere getting a touch awkward, Geno spoke up to try to muddy the waters.
But Number 11 showed not the slightest sign of relenting — and just as Belle was about to try to say something else, Anby and Trigger, beside her, made their move first.
"If it's no trouble — bring out a few extra sets of bowls and chopsticks, please."
"The fact that we're freeloading a meal here — don't go telling Nicole."
If Nicole ever found out that they'd snuck off to eat without bringing her along, that next month's paycheck of hers was probably going to be in serious jeopardy yet again.
Although — that paycheck had been hanging by a thread to begin with, anyway.
"You two... alright, fine, I'll let this one slide for now. But next time, if there's another incident of falsely reporting a military situation like this — straight to a court-martial!"
Having found herself a face-saving way out, Number 11, too, sat down, and the whole group fell into a warm, convivial round of digging into the hot pot.
At the same time, Belle and Geno also laid out, for the rest of them to hear, everything that had gone down inside the Hollow.
____
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