Listen

"The autopsy results are in. The cause of death was an autopsy."

Coming from the tough-as-nails Noguchi Yuji, that joke felt profoundly out of place.

Kuroki Niizumi gave Noguchi Yuji a look that asked, Are you all right? Has your brain given out from exhaustion?

"That was from Nakajima in the forensic department. She was furious and told me to pass it on to you exactly as she'd said it." Noguchi Yuji explained without expression, making it clear that he hadn't been joking but relaying someone else's angry words.

Then he handed Kuroki Niizumi the detailed report.

Kuroki Niizumi paused as she took it, then opened it. Surprisingly, the report hadn't been typed up on a computer; it was handwritten. The handwriting was neat, yet the fury of the person who'd filled it out seemed to show between the lines.

Ignoring that emotion, she carefully read through the contents. Only after going over them several times did she set the report on the desk and think it over by herself.

Noguchi Yuji sat down, took the report, and began reading it too, commenting on the relevant details as he went.

"Things can easily go wrong during a live autopsy, especially with Holy Infant Members who have [High-Density Skin]. But I've dealt with Nakajima quite a bit, so if we need to do something like this again, we should find someone else. I remember some people in the labs are very good at it." Noguchi Yuji tried to ease Kuroki Niizumi's burden in his own way.

Kuroki Niizumi smiled, though it was a little forced. "There's no need to comfort me. I was prepared for this. What disappointed me was the autopsy result."

Because of his work, Noguchi Yuji often had to search through mountains of files for clues. Over time, he'd become adept at picking out keywords from documents and could skim through material at a glance. He quickly found the summary.

"After the abdominal cavity was opened, skin strength gradually declined. The subject's superpower was completely lost within ten seconds, leaving them no different from an ordinary person. All physiological functions rapidly deteriorated, and they ultimately died of heart failure. No abnormalities were found in the remaining areas examined."

The result was deeply disappointing.

It showed that the direction the investigation team had initially focused on was wrong.

The Holy Son Pill wasn't a tangible energy source. Instead, it seemed to belong more to the supernatural side of things. Otherwise, there was no way to explain how superpowered individuals seemed to acquire their abilities out of thin air.

Routine tests of their blood, urine, and other samples had already revealed no mysterious, unknown energy, and various scans had shown nothing extra inside their bodies.

In the end, Kuroki Niizumi had been the one to fully support this live autopsy. The subject was one of only two people they'd arrested who had taken the Holy Son Pill—a housewife. But now that they'd gotten this result, there was no way it would satisfy the people upstairs.

After all, there were plenty of voices among the higher-ups calling for cooperation. Dissecting a Holy Infant Society member who'd received a blessing was undoubtedly a slap in the Society's face, and it would only create obstacles to future cooperation.

Kuroki Niizumi scoffed at the idea. As a representative of the hardliners, she'd reviewed every casualty report since the investigation team was established. If dissecting one member amounted to sabotaging cooperation, then the endless lists of casualties showed that the Holy Infant Society had never intended to cooperate in the first place.

Rather than cling to such a fanciful dream, they should prepare for battle. The principle she believed in was that dignity was always won through strength; begging would get them nothing.

"The conglomerates have been making plenty of moves, and they have a lot of people on our side too, so we have limited manpower to keep them under surveillance. But from what we can tell, there's very little chance they've made contact with Nakai Hayato." Their stance toward the conglomerates was to cooperate while staying wary. At least, that was what the three people who currently held actual control of the investigation team thought.

"We have to keep them under surveillance. You know how those people are. They've never had any real principles. They go wherever the benefits lead."

Kuroki Niizumi forced herself to perk up as she looked at Noguchi Yuji, who showed no sign of leaving. Their recent interactions had taught her a great deal about this "ace detective," and she knew that someone who disliked wasting time wouldn't come all this way just to deliver a report.

"Go on. I hope it's good news."

"It is, more or less." Noguchi Yuji nodded. "We found the boy with the persecution complex."

"Oh, that really is good news. How are you planning to train him to fight for us?" Kuroki Niizumi perked up. It was one of the few pieces of good news she'd heard in recent days.

"He awakened an ability that might let him turn his body into gas. He tried to save his mother, but the opening she left was spotted by William, who happened to be there. After they talked it over, he agreed to cooperate with us for now."

Noguchi Yuji's tone didn't change much, but Kuroki could still hear the surprise in it.

If the earlier enhancement of the body and physical strength could still be explained by science, this had completely gone beyond anything they understood as science.

At least, it had surpassed the limits of current scientific knowledge.

Kuroki didn't know whether to look happy or bitter.

A bumper crop!

Just sitting at home, and superpowers came falling from the sky.

She'd thought herself lucky when the stray cat that had escaped the city last time mutated and developed a new ability. But in less than a day, the son of that core Society member—the housewife—had mutated and developed a new ability too.

Shiraishi Wataru called the stray cat One-Eye. It was the one who'd helped him get where he was today.

The new ability was called [Listen]. It let him hear the sounds made by all kinds of living creatures within a ten-kilometer radius and understand the general intent behind their communications.

It was a great ability. From now on, it would belong exclusively to him and One-Eye.

What's more, the range he could hear included not only the ten-kilometer radius around himself, but also the ten-kilometer radius around anyone he was bonded with.

All he had to do was focus, and he could hear all sorts of overlapping sounds.

"Oh, God! I shall overcome the trials of this world and await your return."

"I'm so hungry. What should I eat later?"

"The first draft still seems better. Sigh, let them revise it another ten times or so. I'll put in the effort and review it again."

"Bro, you smell so good. (﹃)"

"Hey, what are you doing~"

At first, it was like hundreds of loudspeakers were blasting his eardrums. It took him a while to get used to it and figure out how to lower the volume, locate the sounds, filter by species, and filter by content.

He'd added Holy Infant and his own name to the list of keywords to watch for. Whenever someone within his hearing range said either one, he could start listening in on them and make a rough guess at who they were based on their location.

If anyone talked behind his back in the future, he could secretly keep tabs on them.

Then there was his other ability, one of the only two four-character abilities Shiraishi Wataru had so far.

[Void Walk]