>

To tell the truth, Iris did feel a little bad for her. But this was an emergency. Really, she was saving the planet, so surely the Estashionian government would forgive her. But Iris made a mental note to introduce Pleates to her father later anyway... just in case they didn’t.

Their conversation, however, was interrupted by a violent shaking that rocked the whole facility.

“What? Did they attack us?” Satsuki asked.

“Maybe, but why?” Hibiki asked in turn.

Shirley’s goal was to take over the storage facility, not destroy it. But the rumbling continued.

“Kyah!”

“Harissa!”

Tsumiki grabbed Harissa before she could fall over, but...

“Wait! Kyah!”

The floor shook again, and she lost her balance.

“Are you okay?”

Suzuran grabbed them both and sat them on the floor.

“Th-Thanks.”

“Thank you.”

“It was nothing. But I don’t understand what they’re doing. Why...”

Suzuran looked up at the ceiling of the main computer room just as it collapsed.

“Watch out!” Iris yelled as she leaped to protect the closest person from the falling debris, but...

“...?”

Nothing fell down.

Iris looked up at the ceiling, wondering what was going on.

“...What is that? Is it alive?”

“It merged with the ceiling... No, the facility itself?”

Pale flesh studded with red blood vessels had appeared and fused with the shattered ceiling. It was like watching one creature devour another. The flesh greedily ate at the ceiling, the monitors, the control boards—everything it touched.

But it passed right by the girls. All it absorbed was the facility itself. Harissa touched one of the fleshy tentacles, but even when she shrieked, it just passed by.

“Merging...? Unifying... the facility? Not good!”

Hibiki seemed to realize something and tried to race out of the room, but the doors had been absorbed already. She couldn’t open them.

“Damn it! Iris, help me break this door!”

“Huh? What? Hibiki, what’s going on?”

“It’s probably trying to merge with the entire building. When she took over the computer systems, she wasn’t able to get the energy because we’d physically cut the cables. But if this thing gets to the basement and fuses the severed cables...!”

Hibiki didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence. She was interrupted by the awful sound of ripping flesh. It was coming from Pleates.

“Agyahh...!”

She was tearing into her own neck with her exquisitely decorated nails like she was trying to rip it open.

“Agh! Aah! Aah!”

“Stop her!”

Iris quickly grabbed Pleates by the wrists to stop her from hurting herself. But then she started to bang her head against the walls and floors, sending blood everywhere.

“What’s going on?!” someone screamed.

“Tch!”

Hibiki took off her jacket, tore part of it off, and shoved it into Pleates’s mouth so she couldn’t bite her own tongue off. She then used the rest of the jacket to bind her wrists.

“It’s the amplifier.”

“What?”

“Remember what Rekka said? Shirley can use the master chip to control anybody who has a chip in their brain... This is how she intends to get her revenge on the grown-ups of this planet.”

And based on Pleates’s condition, she’d been restricted from using most of her strength. She was being toyed with so that her death would be as slow and painful as possible.

“Isn’t there something we can do?!”

Hibiki fell silent.

Harissa and Satsuki saw to patching up Pleates’s wounds, but what happened to her was probably happening all over Estashion.

Iris took out her phone. It was a special model that could connect to Rekka no matter where in the universe he was. But it wasn’t working right now.

“Why...?”

She realized it immediately. He still hadn’t left warp. He was still on his way to Estashion.

Iris tried again. It still didn’t work.

“Answer the phone...”

Again. She heard meaningless static.

“Answer... Rekka...”

Again. Still nothing. And then again...

“Answer... Answer me... Please, Rekka!”

Boop!

“Hey, I made it.”

“Rekka...” She said the name of the boy on the other end of the phone, her voice filled with tears. “Rekka... Rekka... Rekka! Help us!”

“I’m on it!”