"That humanity had wrecked the environment badly enough to bring this down on itself."
"All of it wrong."
Her voice dropped, anger and disgust surfacing together. She pulled deep on the cigarette and let out a thick cloud that swallowed her face, hiding whatever was on it.
"The Gastrea Virus didn't come from glaciers. It didn't fall out of the sky. It isn't nature's work at all. Someone made it."
The spoon stopped halfway to his mouth. Everything casual about him drained away, and he looked at her, searching for any hint that this was a joke.
He found only the weight behind her eyes, and the anger.
"Yes. Exactly what you're thinking. No accident, no natural disaster. A deliberate scheme."
Her voice shook, emotion running past the point where she could contain it. Her fingers clenched around the cigarette until the knuckles went white.
"Human experiments caused it. And it started in Nanase Village."
"So someone was running secret experiments there, the Gastrea Virus leaked by mistake, and it spread until it consumed the world and started the war between us and the Gastrea?"
He gathered himself, brought the spoon up again, and kept his voice level as he picked up her thread.
"Yes."
She gave a small nod, the words heavy coming out. "You could say the war between humanity and the Gastrea officially began with that experiment in Nanase Village."
"Then what does this legacy of Nanase Village have to do with summoning a Stage 5 Gastrea?"
His brows drew together. Curiosity had its hooks in him now, and he wanted to know what that legacy was hiding.
"I don't know. I'm guessing."
She shook her head, uncertainty threading through it, and exhaled another stream of smoke. Her eyes lost focus.
"My guess is that whatever those relics are, the most primitive form of the Gastrea Virus clings to them. That original strain would be irresistible to a Stage 5 Gastrea. That's why one would come to take it."
"Though that's only my guess. Other explanations are possible. There's still a great deal about the Nanase Village experiments I've never managed to piece together."
More smoke drifted up around her, and her expression emptied further, revulsion and helplessness bleeding into her voice.
"Ever since I stumbled onto the truth, it's made me sick."
"The test subjects were ordinary citizens. People with families, with dreams, no different from us. The Higher-ups and the politicians treated them like laboratory equipment. Moved them around, spent them, threw them away."
"And their greed and their selfishness set off a catastrophe that reached every corner of the planet. Countless people lost their homes, their families, everything, and were left with nothing but suffering."
"Those men care about their power and their profits. Whether ordinary people live or die never enters into it. It's sickening."
"And during my time running the New Human Creation Plan, the same thing happened over and over. Lives treated as disposable. People used as material."
"I watched innocent children dragged away and put through cruel procedures. I watched them writhe. I watched them die, or turn into something that was neither human nor anything else."
"So after all of it, I left. I wasn't going to keep swimming in the same filth as those people, wasn't going to take part in something that vile with my own hands, wasn't going to watch more innocents get destroyed."
He ate slowly while she talked, and the amusement had gone out of his face. Something more tangled sat behind his eyes. He studied her, all that grief and pain written plain, said nothing for a moment, then broke it. "Come to think of it, everything you eat and drink and use comes from the government. From the same Higher-ups and politicians you despise. Wonder if that counts as swimming in the filth."
"You could just not talk, you know."
Two drags in and she'd been derailed. She rolled her eyes and crushed the cigarette out in the ice cream carton, resignation all over her voice.
The man had a genius for picking exactly the wrong thread to pull. She'd been laying out her pain, and he'd punctured the whole thing with a single sentence, leaving her caught somewhere between irritated and amused.
"I was worried you were getting weighed down. Thought I'd cheer you up."
He smiled, sly about it. "Besides, the strong should look after the weak. I'm this powerful, so comforting you is only right."
"Has anyone ever told you that you sound like you're begging to be punched when you talk like that?"
She looked at that insufferable expression and rolled her eyes again, disdain in her tone without any real anger behind it.
"Hey now. Young, handsome, kind enough to sit here and keep you company, and you're still not happy?" He furrowed his brow in mock injury, teasing. "You're a difficult woman, Miss Muroto."
"Don't start."
She shot him a sour look, dug another cigarette out of her pocket, lit it, and drew slowly. The weight came back into her voice.
"What are you planning to do about the Cursed Children?"
Her eyes went to him, worry in them, no confidence in her tone at all.
"You know it won't be as simple as you're making it sound. The Higher-ups and the politicians will never sign off on you settling those children somewhere. They'll obstruct you at every turn and invent problems for you."
"At minimum, you and Seitenshi agreeing between yourselves won't be enough to make it happen."
"Remember what I asked you before?"
Something conspiratorial entered his voice, and a slow smile spread across his face.
"I asked whether, if someone could carry the Gastrea Virus without any side effects, without being eroded, without ever turning into a Gastrea, you could work out a way to save the Cursed Children."
"Of course I remember. I said that as long as such a person existed, I was confident I could find a cure for those girls."
The drag went down wrong and she choked on it, coughing hard before she lifted her head. Her eyes went wide, disbelief on every line of her face.
"Don't tell me you've found them. Or... that it's you?"
"Not yet."
He shook his head, but a confident smile pulled at his mouth and certainty sat behind his eyes.
"I don't think it's far off, though. It won't be long before I find someone like that. And when I do, I'll leave the cure to you, Miss Muroto."
He turned back toward the room, stretching hugely, voice going lazy.
"Anyway, it's late. Time to sleep. I'm taking Aii to the 39th Area tomorrow, can't be up all night."
"Hey, hey, hey, you don't get to walk off without explaining that!"
The bathroom door opened. Betty and Aii came out in matching cute bathrobes, hair dripping, towels working over their heads, grinning.
"Ugh, what's that awful smell? Cigarettes!" Betty wrinkled her small nose, catching the smoke clinging to him instantly. She stopped, planted her hands on her hips, and fixed him with a stern look. "Satoru Gojo, have you been smoking? Smoking underage is against the law! I'm telling Seitenshi!"
"Wasn't me, it was Miss Muroto. Look, there's a cigarette butt out on the balcony."
He waved both hands, all innocence, pointing toward the balcony and dumping the whole thing on her.
Betty followed the gesture and locked eyes with Sumire.
Looking at the girl's severe little face, then at the picture of blamelessness beside her, Sumire pressed her lips together and let out a quiet laugh.
"Right, well. I'm off to shower. Goodnight, Betty. Goodnight, Aii."
She left without a backward glance, heading straight for Rentaro's room and abandoning him to the interrogation.
The night passed quietly.
Dawn came pale at the window, the faintest wash of white on the horizon, a cool breeze slipping through the glass.
Everyone was up early. They washed, then ate a simple breakfast together, warm and unhurried.
Afterward they went their separate ways.
Rentaro and Kisara headed for the government conference venue, off to learn the specifics about the legacy of Nanase Village and the Stage 4 Gastrea. Gojo took Betty and Aii and climbed into the delivery car they'd arranged, pointed toward the 39th Area.
They'd brought far more this time. The trunk and the back seat were packed nearly solid.
Clean clothes. Food of every kind. Books the children could read. Household supplies and medicine.
Anything the kids down in that sewer might conceivably need, he'd tried to bring, so their lives might be a little less miserable.
"Aii, don't be nervous when we get there."
He glanced back from the driver's seat, cheerful, hoping the lightness would take the edge off meeting a strange place full of strangers.
"The children there are just like you. They're good people. You'll find friends of your own once you're settled in. And if you don't, that's fine too. Being friends with me and Betty isn't so bad. We'll take care of you."
"Mm!"
She nodded hard, beaming, not a trace of nerves in her. Only curiosity and something eager, and she turned that grin toward him.
"Aii thinks being friends with the nice big brother is already enough!"
She wasn't nervous in the slightest.
She'd lived on her own a long time, wandering the streets since she was small, meeting every kind of person there was, good and bad. Unfamiliar places had stopped frightening her years ago, and she'd learned how to keep herself safe.
She wasn't the sort of child who froze up around strangers. She was bright and brave, and what waited ahead had her looking forward to it.
Betty reached over and folded a small hand around hers, her smile going soft. "Don't worry, Aii. I'll introduce you to everyone when we get there. They'll all like you."
Aii turned toward her and nodded again, her grin widening.
The drive went smoothly, and before long they reached yesterday's spot and pulled over.
They climbed out and split the work, unloading the trunk and back seat piece by piece onto the roadside, then hauled the whole pile toward the sewer entrance.
Maybe they'd heard footsteps, or maybe someone had been watching the entrance all along. By the time they reached it the children had already gathered, faces bright with excitement.
Elder Matsuzaki came up slowly on his cane, kindness in his smile, gratitude plain in his eyes.
His return brought out an enormous warmth from all of them, and every child came forward to greet him.
"Mr. Gojo, you came back!"
"Mr. Gojo, you brought so much stuff!"
"Thank you, Mr. Gojo!"
Their voices rang out clear and small, full of delight, and they crowded around him with something close to worship in their faces.
"Elder Matsuzaki, this child's name is Aika. Everyone can call her Aii."
He drew her forward with a smile, bringing her to stand in front of the old man, his voice gentle as he made the introduction.