Volume 4, Sub.28

Volume 4, Sub.28

Kumokawa Maria and Saflee Opendays left the domed facility the medical room had been in and entered the white. Instead of feeling the cold stab into their skin, it felt more like a pain tearing through their skin.

“Ow,” said Saflee.

“What is it?”

“It’s something like a paper airplane. Is it supposed to be like the letter on an arrow that the Japanese ninja use? Toryahh!”

While Kumokawa frowned in confusion, Saflee tossed the paper airplane back in the direction it had come from.

Saflee looked up into the sky in annoyance and said, “Minus 20 degrees... How long can we last dressed like this?”

“Just think of it like being in a giant refrigerator. After about thirty minutes, we’ll pass out, and after an hour, our lives will be in danger.”

“So Kihara Enshuu can’t last long either?”

“If she has some kind of countermeasure, who knows how long she can last. Don’t forget that she is the one that set things up like this.”

The plant factories were not all that far away. The container-shaped plant factories had been piled up in a parking lot connected to the domed facility. It had no giant fixed cranes like at a port, so it mainly used truck-mounted cranes and forklifts.

It was easy to picture in one’s head, but the scale was overwhelming upon actually seeing it.

“There are hundreds of them.”

“I hate how I can’t even guess how many there are. This is gonna hurt my pride.”

“?”

“Kihara Enshuu is using ultraviolet rays to destroy the genetic information and turn this special mold into a biological weapon. But how many samples does she have? If she divided them into multiple containers and is performing the process in parallel, we need to destroy all of those. I would bet she did just that to have some insurance against failure.”

“So we don’t even know how many we have to destroy?” Saflee clicked her tongue in annoyance. “We may have to start thinking on the scale of destroying all of the containers.”

“Yeah, maybe so. If we just try to guess the correct containers, we would run out of time.”

Saflee had only been speaking out of self-derision, so she was surprised when Kumokawa actually took the idea seriously.

“No, no, no! There are hundreds of them! I don’t know how long it would take to create this biological weapon, but it would take a day or two to destroy all of them!!”

“I never said we had to crush them individually like empty cans.” Kumokawa Maria waved her index finger back and forth. “These plant factories run on electricity. The lights, air conditioning, and circulation of the nutrient liquid have to keep going 24/7. A car battery isn’t going to cut it. They must be drawing electrical power from an external source. Each and every one has to do that.”

When used on the battlefield, they likely had solar panels to generate power, but there was very little sunlight in that snowy area. They needed to be connected by cables.

“Then...”

“We have our answer. It looks like my pride can swell once more. If we destroy this external power source, the black lights emitting the ultraviolet rays will all stop! Kihara Enshuu will be unable to complete her biological weapon!!”

Kumokawa Maria looked around the area. To avoid disconnections due to the weight of the snow, there were no power lines supported by poles. The power cable must have run below ground.

Saflee clicked her tongue and said, “I guess this won’t be that easy. Should we head back underground?”

“No...”

Kumokawa Maria approached one of the plant factories in the pile. She carefully read what was written in the alphabet on the surface.

“The power unit takes 300 volts and 50 amps. That’s a fairly specialized current. It’s different from both Japan and Baggage City’s household power. Maybe it’s some kind of military format.”

“Don’t expect me to understand any numbers that have nothing to do with protein content.”

“It means the power can’t be used directly taken from the power lines. Most likely, there is a transformer facility somewhere around here. If we destroy that, all of the plant factories should stop running!!”

The girl in the maid uniform looked around the area and spotted an area surrounded by a fence in the white scenery. The area was about ten meters square. Inside, a few vending machine-like objects were lined up.

“That’s the transformer facility!!” shouted Kumokawa Maria.

At that same moment, the door to one of the containers at the surface was kicked open from the inside.

A girl with a smartphone, a 1seg television, and such devices hanging from her neck exited holding a can of black tea between her two hands.

“Yes, if you think a bit, that weakness is obvious,” she said in a troubled voice.

Saflee lightly grabbed Kumokawa Maria’s clothes.

“(Hey, since she came out of there, is that container...?)”

“(Whether it’s one of the correct ones or not, it’s still more definite if we destroy the transformers to stop all of them.)”

“So you get it. If you had just destroyed this one and felt satisfied with that, I would have won.” Kihara Enshuu shrank down and warmed herself with the can of tea. “But since you know how important the transformers are, I have to come out and counterattack.”

“I’d say we’re the ones counterattacking.”

“Yes, yes, that’s right. I understand, Amata-ojisan.”

Kihara Enshuu started speaking to someone else.

The smartphone and 1seg television around her neck displayed one strange graph after another.

“Now that things have gotten like this, I cannot avoid fighting!! Unfortunately, very, very unfortunately, that is what a Kihara must do! I must smash them to pieces!!”

Saflee clicked her tongue, dropped her center of gravity slightly, and took a ready stance.

“Here she comes! Are you ready to fight a monster!?”

“I’m so ready I have to correct you. She isn’t coming here. I’m headed for her!!”

The three clashed within the -20 degree blizzard.

Meanwhile, the countdown continued until the biological weapon left by Kihara Ransuu was ready.