"Oh, Shiro-kun, I'm so glad to see you," old man Satoshi hadn't changed a bit since their last meeting. The same benevolent grin of lips wrinkled like dried fruit and the covetous squint of pale eyes. "I see you've finally finished with all that pointless politics and returned to something truly important?"
"I'm glad to see you too, Satoshi-san," Stas replied with a cold smile, realizing, to his surprise, that he was indeed happy to return to this place.
Yes, the man standing before him was the living embodiment of several deadly sins, and yes, given any fortunate opportunity, he would immediately try to dispose of or subjugate his younger colleague.
But none of this diminished his outstanding intellect and brilliant mind.
Considering how much Stas had to work with the natives who not only understood nothing but didn't even want to understand, communicating with Satoshi was like being in the cool shade after an incredibly stifling stint of swinging a prison pick in the scorching heat.
As for his potential malevolence... one simply had to not give the opponent a chance to strike.
The earthling was confident that, on the flip side, Takehiro himself acted in exactly the same manner, trusting Ordyntsev not one bit.
Such a perverse and ugly connection sometimes seemed much more valuable to Stanislav than some friendship. After all, both men took great pleasure in exploring the mysteries of the universe, yet not hiding at all how they felt about their opponent.
In a way, they were even more sincere than the best of friends could be.
It is said for good reason that in life, there is no one more devoted to you than your enemy.
"You don't like politics?" Ordyntsev raised an eyebrow as he set up a tripod next to a complex pedestal made of several different levels.
Each level only had a few interconnected elements, which were carefully shielded and protected.
Satoshi clearly did not waste time, significantly refining and enhancing the chaos containment system.
The research subject itself was not yet present; it was planned to be brought over later.
"Truly a worthless pursuit for those who have any insight into the workings of this world," the old man spat contemptuously in his own home. "Every creature in this world strives to eat, sleep, and copulate. And we, humans, despite what those monks might think, are no exception. And that's perfectly normal. It's just that here lies the main folly of most people."
"Really?" Ordyntsev was genuinely interested in what the seal master had to say.
"It's all about our fear," the master lectured, raising his finger, but then returned to tuning the array of seals, channeling measured doses of prana through them. "We always feel that what we have earned or achieved is insufficient, and that it could all suddenly come to an end, leaving us with nothing. This realization drives most people to consume more and more, remaining blind to the limit at which they could halt and begin to savor their achievements."
"An interesting theory, but if you think about it, old age serves as that 'limit.' It's what makes people retire."
"O-o-oh yeah," Satoshi drawled understandingly. "When you feel like a red-hot nail has been hammered into your tailbone, and every morning turns into a battle with pain, that's when you truly understand that your time has come."
"But it seems to have spared you, as we can see." Ordyntsev provocatively noted, finishing connecting the structure to the runic contour.
"I hope you live to my years to realize that senility is not to be laughed at," Satoshi let out an intermittent chuckle. "On the other hand, if our research is successful, you'll never know about that bitch."
"Does that upset you?"
"If I myself will become immortal and eternally young? Ha! I won't care then."
The master, about to say something else, anxiously began fiddling with a whole bunch of seals hanging around his neck.
"I sense someone has entered the city. Several very powerful beings... Yokai. Or rather, those of the reborn kind. Strength level," the old man hesitated, then widened his eyes slightly. "Very high. Were you expecting guests, Shiro-kun?"
"Honestly, no," Ordyntsev pondered, calculating something. "Can you tell what they look like?"
"No, they're under a cloaking technique."
"What about sending some sort of message?"
"Hmm, that's possible. I can write a few words, and my trusted man will pass them on. Do you have any ideas?"
"Write down, Satoshi-san."
*****
The situation was frankly rotten.
During all the days they spent together, while making their way to the Serpent's current residence, Minoru and Katsuya had not exchanged more than a few words. The Kumo contemptuously ignored her companion, while the Nure-onna herself was in a deep depression.
The latter was so devastating that Minoru hardly reacted to the words of her apprentice, who was trying with all her might to bring her back.
It didn't help that, in a few words, Minoru admitted that she was indeed directly to blame for everything that happened. More precisely, the cause was a powerful chaos artifact that she decided to study on her own.
When Kaede heard about this, she wanted to throw up her hands. She involuntarily remembered Shiro, who also almost became a victim of chaos.
The artifact itself was in no hurry, methodically pushing its tentacles into the Nure-onna's mind. In the end, it didn't take much time before Minoru began to summon her subordinates, indifferently handing them over to the clutches of chaos.
Then, like an avalanche, the converted yokai began to spread around, brainwashing the surrounding peasants, other yokai, and even samurai.
As far as Katsuya understood, chaos artifacts and even their small cults were still found in this world.
But none among them had ever been handed so many resources on a silver platter as the lamia had offered.
Thus, in grim silence, they made their way to the city, where one of the master of seals' houses was located. Fortunately, the Nure-onna had the ability to change her own body, so Minoru was indistinguishable from ordinary people, having acquired legs and greatly reduced in size.
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And although they were all under cloaking techniques, surprisingly, a man approached them and started looking around anxiously.
"A message for the three of you!" the messenger shouted nervously. Considering he clearly couldn't see them, his state was understandable.
"Is this a trap?" Katsuya raised an eyebrow, looking at the thoughtful Kaede.
"I don't think so." And before the Kumo could stop her, the girl stepped toward the man and snatched the scroll from his hands.
"All is well," smiled the Kuchisake-onna when she read what was written. "We're being invited as guests."
*****
"I don't like seal masters," grumbled the spider woman, suspiciously examining every surface. "With them, you can never be sure where the danger will come from..."
"Thank you for the compliment," the old man, having emerged from somewhere to the side, almost caused the nervous Kumo to attack him.
Kaede sighed heavily. Since Katsuya learned about the spread of chaos, she had been suspicious of almost every person they met on the way. It felt like if it were up to her, she would preemptively kill them all to guarantee that nothing would threaten their mission.
"To be honest, I'm astonished by your beauty," Satoshi slickly scanned the women's figures, skillfully ignoring Kaede herself, which slightly offended her. Apparently, remembering that she served Shiro, he did not consider her his equal. "I would be delighted to hear your names."
"That's a secret," the spider woman cut off, glaring disdainfully at the crafty old man, not at all distressed by such a blunt response. "We urgently need to meet with Shiro-san."
"He'll be here shortly. Oh, there he is," considering the number of seals around Satoshi, he didn't need to turn his head to know who emerged from around the corner.
Kaede quickly turned her gaze to the approaching Serpent and swallowed quietly.
Once again, she cursed this whole war and those who started it.
The surrounding people, looking at her master, saw a lot in him, but rarely anything good.
Cruelty, coldness, ruthlessness, and a web of intrigue – that's what most people perceived in her Shiro.
And yes, Kaede was not blind. All of the above was indeed present and sometimes took on such frightening proportions that even the Kuchisake-onna herself felt uneasy.
But if someone had managed to be with this man for longer, they would involuntarily realize that there was something else in the Serpent that would make them relate to him somewhat differently.
Shiro was too good at hiding his feelings and emotions to be "read," but Kaede knew that deep down, he was unhappy.
Why did she think so? Well, perhaps because as soon as the Serpent engaged in what he truly loved, those imperceptible to ordinary eye wrinkles smoothed out, and his back seemed to straighten, relieved from an invisible burden.
All these killings, battles, court intrigues, and establishing his authority as a warmaster were far from what he enjoyed.
Yes, he could be successful in them, but his only passion was science, and only in it did he truly open up and relax.
Looking at her master, she saw that right now, he was happy. It was all the sadder that she was about to spoil this state of his again.
"Kaede, what happened?" It took Shiro one look at them to frown, realizing that something was wrong. Involuntarily, Ordyntsev glanced toward the guest rooms where Kenta and his daughter were staying.
"Kaede, wait," Katsuya threw a hinting look at Satoshi, who was all ears.
'Minoru was nearly overtaken by chaos. We barely managed to snatch her from its clutches, after which we immediately ran here. Is this old man trustworthy?' Ordyntsev allowed Kaede's illusion to touch his mind.
The man's face immediately changed as he heard the news. Now, he looked at Minoru, standing aside, with a completely different gaze.
"Yes, you can tell," Stas nodded, ignoring the outraged expression on the Kumo's face. Satoshi, on his part, just cheekily winked at the spider woman. Takehiro's age clearly hadn't affected his "liveliness."
The story didn't take long, as they didn't know much to begin with.
If initially Satoshi was cheerful and playful, as soon as the first words fell, all his merriment quickly died.
Ordyntsev didn't look joyful either.
"Damn," he summed up the story briefly. "As if the World War wasn't enough, now the chaos cultists are ready to jump into this slaughter. What are your further plans?"
"Head to the mountains to meet the Great Spirits," Katsuya immediately said without a shadow of a doubt. "They must learn what's happening. And you, Shiro-san, must inform the top of your clan about the danger that has nested right under your noses."
"That's not so simple," the Serpent grimaced. He was absolutely sure that none of the warmasters would take his warning about chaos cultists seriously. Too many years - by human standards - had passed to retain many memories of its horrors. Moreover, any mentions of this evil element were diligently erased to prevent the emergence of new cultists.
Ironically, by fighting chaos, the inhabitants of this world only made it easier for future invasions.
Moreover, right now, the warmasters were preparing for the upcoming war, and in their eyes, it represented a much greater threat than a mere bunch of cultists.
"By the way, will all three of you go?" Stas asked a very important question.
"Yes," Katsuya nodded confidently.
"But wait," Kaede stirred, looking worriedly at her sensei. "If the mentor comes to them, she'll be killed!"
"So what?" Katsuya's simple question made Kaede petrify. "For any action, sooner or later, you have to pay. Yes, you can try to avoid punishment, but sometimes it only delays the inevitable."
"But that's wrong!" Kaede protested, looking pleadingly at her sensei. "It makes no sense. Mentor, why are you silent?!"
"Because I agree," the lamia whispered softly, not even looking at the horrified Kaede. "One has to pay for everything."
"That's all very interesting, but if the seals don't deceive me," Satoshi interrupted, having fiddled with a bunch of scrolls for the last couple of minutes. "Then right now, this yokai indeed has chaos in her."
The old man's finger unerringly pointed at Minoru, and the next second, things started to spin very, very fast.
From the floor rose a humming purple barrier, encircling Satoshi on all sides, while the master himself pulled out several seals, ready to use them at the slightest suspicion of an attack.
Stas himself, accelerating prana, leaped in the opposite direction, sticking to the wall and remaining there.
Kaede took a combat stance a little farther away.
The only one who remained standing was Minoru herself. She stood sadly, wrapped in glowing spider silk and surrounded by stone serpents with purple eyes, ready to pounce.
"Satoshi-san, what did you mean when you said she has chaos in her?" Ordyntsev inquired as politely as possible.
"Only that it's present in her," the old man smirked nastily. "I didn't say there was a lot of it."
"So there's no threat to her life? She's not a hidden spawn of chaos?"
"If we trust my recently developed method of measuring the level of chaos, then," Satoshi's pause made the Kumo's eye twitch noticeably. "No, she's just a yokai. The chaos infection is still insignificant."
"Nasty little human," Katsuya cursed, releasing the spider silk threads that harmlessly dissipated into the air.
"Sensei, forgive me," Kaede sniffled timidly, but Minoru just waved her off.
"But... She's your friend," Kaede tried to appeal to the Kumo again, but it was clear she was fighting a lost battle. It's hard to defend someone who has already resigned themselves to death.
The pleading look of dark eyes fell on the brooding Ordyntsev.
A timid idea was spinning on the edge of his consciousness, but Stanislav couldn't quite grasp it.
'We've researched a lot about how chaos affects various things, including living flesh. However, in all experiments, we used ordinary living beings. That is, there was the flesh of an ordinary person, a warmaster, and a magical beast. However, we still haven't tested a yokai's flesh...'
"I have another suggestion," Stas's words made everyone pay attention to him. "Right now, we're working on a technique to destroy chaos. We've had some success, but to speed up the work, we need test subjects from chaos-infected yokai. Minoru can bring us much more benefit as a test subject than senselessly perishing by order of your great ones."
"Master!" Kaede exclaimed indignantly. "How can you suggest such a thing?!"
"I don't know what you're thinking, warmaster," Katsuya snorted ironically. "But Minoru would never agree to such a thing..."
"I agree."
"What?!"
Stas ignored the others; his attention was fully captured by the piercing green eyes of the Nure-onna.
Right now, they were ablaze with too many strong emotions.
There was a whole plethora. Anger at herself and the person who dared to suggest something like this, contempt, grief, and pain from her own mistake.
This woman felt almost physical pain from what was happening in her heart.
Minoru looked at the silent Katsuya.
"I agree," the lamia repeated, looking straight into the Kumo's eyes.
"I will inform the great ones of your wish."
Having said this, the spider woman turned proudly and walked away.
"Go," Stas nodded to the lost Kaede. "We all don't have much time to waste."
A minute later, only three remained in the room.
The ancient spirit, her head held high in pride, and two scientists, their eyes greedily fixed on her body. But these eyes did not see a sentient being before them, nor even a dazzlingly beautiful woman, but merely a piece of flesh and the experiments it might serve.
'For any action, sooner or later, you have to pay,' Minoru mentally repeated, closing her eyes. 'And I've already delayed the payment for far too long. It's time to end this.'