chapter05 · 132-ep132

Episode 125: The True Threat

"Hah... hah... Damn it... Damn it all!"

In a secret underground space beneath an old-fashioned building in a certain regional city—

Yoko Inukai, exhausted and down on her knees, spat curses as she slammed her fist against the floor.

After Karin Yamada broadcast the Inukai Group's secrets to the entire world and utterly thwarted every attempt to destroy the evidence, Yoko Inukai and her closest subordinates had evaded the police and somehow succeeded in vanishing without a trace.

But their escape had by no means been easy, and it had demanded a considerable amount of effort.

Before fleeing, she'd needed to completely erase classified information showing her homeland's involvement, and she'd expended quite a bit of power shaking the Tokyo police while moving between her home and secret hideouts.

Escaping would have been much easier if she could have moved from "Yoko Inukai's body" into another one... but while mental parasitism was a powerful and convenient ability, activating it required extensive preparation. Karin Yamada's attack had been far too sudden to leave time for anything like that, resulting in this escape by the skin of her teeth. Honestly, even standing back up was nearly beyond her now.

Fortunately, neither she nor any of her closest subordinates, all of whom possessed large amounts of vital information, had been captured. The hidden dungeon's mechanism could also be deactivated remotely, so there was no risk of anyone discovering it was artificial... But between their current battered state and the loss of their funding source and research base, calling this a devastating blow would be an understatement. Under ordinary circumstances, it would have been no surprise for them to give up on everything.

But—

"Not yet...! I'll find some way to rebuild from here...! All of you, place yourselves under my command immediately...!"

Yoko Inukai issued the order with the eyes of a wounded beast to those who had welcomed her faction into the secret underground space.

"First, I'll discard the wanted body of 'Yoko Inukai' and take over another convenient major corporation...! Begin making preparations at once!"

Yoko Inukai and her subordinates had fled to one of the secret hideouts owned by a separate unit of the Japan branch of the invasion sabotage force she commanded. To prevent one person's blunder from leading to mass arrests, the sabotage force was divided into several highly independent teams, structured almost as though they were competing for achievements. This organization belonged to the woman ranked No. 2 beneath Yoko—'that woman.'

But no matter how independent the individual teams were, Yoko Inukai, as the branch chief overseeing the invasion sabotage force in Japan, still possessed absolute authority. In emergencies, she had the right to disregard that independence and issue orders—and now was precisely the time to exercise it.

The company No. 2 had seized through mental parasitism was smaller than Inukai Industries, and its available funding and research facilities were paltry compared to what the Inukai Group had built up. Even so, it was enough to function as a fallback. Thus, as the absolute ruler of everyone present, Yoko ordered her subordinates to begin preparing her comeback. Maintaining her position as branch chief... might be impossible, but at the very least, she needed to rebuild quickly enough to avoid being purged.

However—

"...? What are you doing? Get moving already."

Yoko Inukai frowned suspiciously.

Not only No. 2's subordinates, but even Yoko's own direct subordinates who had fled here with her remained still, uncomfortable expressions on their faces.

"There's no point. Everyone has already been informed that you no longer possess that authority."

"Hah...?"

Yoko Inukai turned toward the voice... and found a woman in a lab coat who looked only in her twenties standing there before she'd even noticed.

The body's name was Shinobu Nekoyashiki. She was No. 2 herself, the owner of this secret hideout.

Yoko had always found this subordinate insufferable.

She constantly looked as though she were mocking everyone around her, and her attitude toward her superior was abysmal. Now those eyes openly looked down upon Yoko, drained of power and crawling on the floor, nearly making her shout in fury.

No—more importantly, what had she just said?

"What are you talking about? Yes, my failure was enormous, but considering everything I've accomplished until now, there's no way they'd strip me of my authority the very next day without—"

"Here. This is the proof."

"Hah? ...Wha!?"

Yoko Inukai's eyes flew open.

A crest had appeared on the back of Shinobu Nekoyashiki's hand—the mark signifying the branch chief of the invasion sabotage force's Japan branch. Yoko hurriedly channeled mana into the back of her own hand... but nothing appeared there.

At some point, the woman before her had stolen her position as branch chief.

"What is going on...!?"

Yoko Inukai's stunned voice escaped her.

No, as she'd just said herself, even without thinking calmly, her catastrophic failure more than justified stripping her of the branch-chief position... But even so, immediately appointing this insufferable woman as her replacement made no sense.

Nekoyashiki might have been No. 2, but that ranking came from recognition of her dungeon research in the past. After going years without producing results, there was no way she could suddenly become branch chief. It would have been far more natural to transfer in a branch chief producing results overseas and put them in charge of Japan. And in that case, there should have been a lengthy dispute over which branch chief would take responsibility for Japan.

Yoko had planned to use the time while she retained command authority to somehow rebuild her organization, reckless though the attempt might be.

And yet—

"That's impossible! Demoting me is one thing, but appointing a replacement this quickly... and appointing YOU, of all people!"

This was Nekoyashiki they were talking about.

Yoko seriously suspected she'd used the skills that once earned her the title of genius magical engineer, despite her years-long slump, to somehow forge the branch chief's crest.

Shinobu Nekoyashiki gave a delighted giggle from the bottom of her heart.

"Well, you see... When I reported 'this' to our superiors just as you made your little blunder... they immediately decided to promote me to branch chief in charge of Japan."

Fwump.

A stack of papers was tossed in front of Yoko Inukai as though Nekoyashiki were feeding a stray dog.

It was unbelievably disrespectful. But—

"Hah...!?"

The instant some of the content compiled in that stack caught the corner of her eye, Yoko Inukai snatched it up and began reading.

The 'research results' documented there were simply that unbelievable.

"Wh-what is the meaning of this...!? Even if it isn't enough to enter the final stage immediately, wouldn't these let us move the plan to invade the world forward by over ten years!? They'd let us skip right past the stage of these petty schemes and covert operations! No, more than that—with this technology, we might even have been able to crush Karin Yamada right away...!?"

It made no sense.

This woman was undeniably a genius of magical technology. Among her many contributions to the invasion plan, Nekoyashiki had even discovered the simplified method of 'awakening explorers' unique skills' that Yoko and the others now used as a matter of course.

But 'this' was far too extraordinary even for her.

Yoko could scarcely believe Nekoyashiki had produced several results like these with equipment and funding inferior to Inukai Industries, never mind their homeland's national-scale research facilities. She genuinely suspected the data had been falsified.

More unbelievable than anything else, however, was—

"Why didn't you report this immediately!? There's no way you just conveniently reached these research results yesterday or today! With these, we probably could've crushed Karin Yamada, and we could've avoided the worst-case scenario of the hidden dungeon being discovered—"

"Because if I'd reported them without thinking, you would've stolen the credit, wouldn't you?"

"...!?"

Yoko Inukai was so stunned by the bluntly stated reason that she lost her words.

"Organizations really are awful, aren't they? Receiving research funding is nice, but the people who rise to the top aren't the ones who produce the best results. Even people with merely passable achievements can make it up there if they're efficient and know how to play the game. I'm simply terrible at that sort of intellectual maneuvering. Just terrible."

Shinobu Nekoyashiki continued in an exasperated tone.

"So before formally reporting my research results, I spent years waiting for a good opportunity to drag you down... but even I was surprised when something as convenient as a natural disaster came along."

"N-no way... Then the reason it looked like you hadn't produced any results for years was...!?"

"Tell me, do you know why things ended this way, Inukai-san?"

Looking down upon Yoko, whose voice had gone hoarse at her subordinate's confession, Shinobu Nekoyashiki smiled sadistically.

"In every possible sense, you don't have what it takes to be a boss. That's why a subordinate trips you up at the critical moment... and why you end up humiliating yourself like this. Well, I'm terrible at managing organizations too, so I'm hardly one to talk."

Shinobu Nekoyashiki wore the relieved expression of someone who had finally said what she'd wanted to say for years.

"But please don't worry. As the newly appointed branch chief, I'll use my new technology to take care of every problem you spent soooo long failing to solve. I'd be delighted if you could relax and enjoy your fall from grace."

She sneered at Yoko, flaunting both the crest proving her position as branch chief and her overwhelming research results.

"You..."

Yoko Inukai's whole body began trembling violently.

"You wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch!"

With a roar, she lunged at the woman who had spent years waiting for the opportunity to usurp her and had indirectly driven her to ruin.

But—DOGON!

"Gah!?"

As though gravity had suddenly intensified around her alone, Yoko Inukai was slammed into the floor.

Already exhausted, she took the powerful attack and immediately stopped moving.

"Honestly, disposing of someone in the body of a wanted criminal would be best... but forcing a mental transfer against the host's will is troublesome. Perhaps I'll keep her alive and imprisoned as payback for everything she's done until now."

As the new branch chief, Nekoyashiki ordered her subordinates to restrain Yoko, then once again laughed at the pitiful state of the superior she'd always hated.

"Ahaha. This really does feel wonderful. I ought to thank Karin Yamada for giving me the opportunity to crush that eyesore of a boss. That said..."

Shinobu Nekoyashiki's eyes narrowed sharply.

"My plan was to bring down Yoko Inukai while preserving the Inukai Group as a useful source of funding. There's no question these research results will convince our homeland of Raviristan to provide all kinds of support... but this is still an enormous blow. The mere fact that the hidden dungeon's existence leaked is also extremely troublesome, even if no one currently knows it was man-made... And either way, she's a target for elimination. I'll have to give Karin Yamada a very thorough 'thank-you.'"

Shinobu Nekoyashiki smiled, elation at the chance to unveil her research on a grand scale mixing with murderous intent toward Karin.

"Well then... let's get started immediately, shall we? The scheme that will serve as our first step toward taking this world—and lure Karin Yamada to the very deepest reaches of the abyss so we can crush her. A large-scale dungeon collapse."

And so she swiftly set in motion a plan that would plunge the world into chaos.

――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

And so, that ran rather long, but it seems Inukai Industries was actually in the Black Shell position, desu wa ne...

And while I'm saying things in advance, there is a possibility that Yoko Inukai-sama and Nekoyashiki-sama, despite their incredibly hostile relationship, will eventually become friends(?) desu wa.

※And I'm sorry. I originally planned to include a forum segment too, but the character count became outrageous, so I've split it up, desu wa. Next time will be a forum episode, and the episode after that will begin a new arc focused on Karin ojou-sama again, desu no.