Thanks, I'm on Terra, and I'm a Parasite

The woman with short, choppy white hair stood barefoot on the beach.

Moonlight made everything around her gleam, as though draping her in a silvery-white veil, making her seem sacred and noble...

She bent down, scooped up a handful of seawater, and splashed it over her face, washing away the Seaborn blood from her cheeks and the corners of her mouth. Then she gave Dario and Laurentina a gentle smile.

Along with those gentle eyes, like blue moons.

Her exquisite face looked as though it had stepped out of a plaster sculpture. With those traces of seawater on it, Dario felt as if his heart had skipped half a beat. (Physically.)

He had never seen such a... perfect woman...

Like a false doll.

Yet so... beautiful.

"Good evening, Mr. Inquisitor. Your wounds haven't healed yet, have they? And after that sprint just now, are you really all right?"

The nun looked at him with concern and asked in a warm, approachable tone.

"Huh? So you really weren't pretending to be injured? And you still ran that fast? Just as I thought, Inquisitors are all a bunch of obsessives..."

"Good evening, beautiful lady. What should I call you? A bounty hunter? An Abyssal Hunter? Or perhaps... a nun."

Dario had noticed her clothing. It was in the style of the Church of the Deep.

"A nun... Don't worry, it was merely a disguise to reassure those lost civilians."

"But if you want to call me that, I don't mind. After all, if I had to put it that way, I suppose I'm one of those people who believes gods exist."

Zuo Jian stepped forward and stood beside Laurentina.

"...You were the one who dealt with the Seaborn?"

"Yes. I couldn't exactly let them crawl onto the shore as they pleased."

"Is that so? Is that so..."

Dario kept staring at the woman before him. That face was practically stealing his mind away. Damn it, was this some kind of Originium Arts?

No...

He bit through his tongue, trying to force himself awake.

"What's wrong? You seem rather pale. Do you need me to help you receive treatment?"

Zuo Jian stepped closer. Her gentle face and concerned tone made Dario feel that today's conversation had to end here.

He could clearly sense Originium Arts, but why did it feel as though something had affected him?

"My apologies, ma'am. I can leave on my own, but if possible, I hope we can have a formal discussion tomorrow regarding the Church and intelligence on Saltwind City."

The moment she heard the word "intelligence," Zuo Jian's eyes lit up. She immediately leaned in close to Dario, her interest plainly apparent.

He completely lost his composure and hurriedly said that he still had

important business to attend to before rushing away.

Leaving behind Zuo Jian and Laurentina, both somewhat disappointed.

"What a shame. I thought I might be able to pry some useful information out of him."

"Phew, Laurentina, are you all right? Earlier, I think I heard you call out to me..."

The nun looked slightly disappointed, then turned to look at Laurentina.

But the next moment, a hand landed directly on her shoulder. Zuo Jian turned around and saw Laurentina pressed against her back, looking at her with icy eyes.

"Zuo Jian, are you that happy to have a body that can move freely?"

"...Huh?"

"No, what brought that on all of a sudden?"

Laurentina's gaze turned even colder.

"Hah. Looks like you're quite pleased with your own aesthetic sense. Right, with that naturally approachable personality paired with that face you sculpted, and also..."

Her gaze dropped to the considerable rise and fall of the other's chest.

"Huh? It's just that a female appearance makes it easier to gain favor and trust from others. What are you—"

"...All right, all right. It seems you don't like this appearance very much. If I'd known, I should've used a male appearance..."

"A male appearance..."

Laurentina froze, then suddenly remembered how gentle Zuo Jian had been toward her at first, as well as the way she'd used her body to comfort Anita.

Turning into... a man?

"That won't do either!!!"

"No, Laurentina, what exactly are you talking about..."

"Come back! Zuo Jian, come back to my side! You're not allowed to stay outside! Now! Right this instant! Immediately!"

An inexplicable sense of crisis drove Laurentina to say something almost willful.

But... she had no right to restrain Zuo Jian as she pleased, did she?

But, but... no matter what, she didn't want...

The nun's body became like a dull puppet, capable only of obeying simple commands.

[I really don't know what to do with you. And besides, you're not a child, are you? I was only gone for a little while and you...]

"..."

Zuo Jian trailed off midway. Then she saw Laurentina, as if realizing her own loss of composure, wanting to apologize for her willful demand but not knowing how to begin.

[I won't leave.]

"Huh?"

Laurentina froze. She felt the ribbons at the hem of her skirt rise, then gently stroke her head.

[I told you, no matter what happens, I won't leave.]

"Really?"

[Sigh, really.]

"Really, really, really?"

[Really ×3.]

"...Then you're not allowed to casually use other bodies either! Like this one... If you have to use one, it must only be when necessary!"

[But I still have to talk to Dario tomorrow and gather intelligence.]

"Am I not enough for you, Zuo Jian?"

But before Zuo Jian could answer, Laurentina seemed to struggle with herself. She took a deep breath and continued.

"Then, then just that one time tomorrow!"

[Fine. Just once.]

Zuo Jian answered indulgently.

What was wrong with this child today?

Also, did she really hate the face Zuo Jian had sculpted onto that body?

It had clearly been the work Zuo Jian was most satisfied with.

Forget it. Laurentina didn't like it, so maybe the problem was Zuo Jian's.

That was what Zuo Jian thought.

Compatriots

After comforting Laurentina and seeing her return to her usual cheerfully humming self, Zuo Jian let out a sigh.

But then again...

What had she just done at the shoreline?

Zuo Jian paused, suddenly realizing that her memories of how she had dealt with the Seaborn crawling ashore were extremely hazy.

She vaguely remembered... seeming to have eaten something that smelled fishy...

And she had seemed rather happy about it too... Wait.

Fishy?

Seaborn?

Wait, why would she be interested in that thing?

Zuo Jian didn't remember ever having any particular fondness for fish or seafood. On the contrary, she even felt somewhat resistant toward certain shellfish.

But... what could the Seaborn possibly have that interested her, or rather, this body?

It had been the same at the beginning. That brief loss of control might not have been because of Laurentina at all. More likely, it had been the Seaborn part within her that triggered Zuo Jian's predatory instinct...

After thinking for a while, Zuo Jian could only conclude that this was likely the instinctive hostility she displayed toward the Seaborn, a life-form similarly capable of assimilation and spread, after transforming her own form of life.

Perhaps it was simply that rivals hated each other more?

However, the judgments above were merely conservative guesses Zuo Jian had made as an outsider based on the limited information available to her.

At this moment, her understanding of the Seaborn, a life-form left behind by Terra's pre-civilization, was merely the tip of the iceberg...

Naturally, she could not see the whole picture, just as even everything Laurentina knew about the Seaborn was so scarce and superficial.

If luck was on her side, Zuo Jian might remain unaware for a very long time of what genetic sequence within the Seaborn had stirred her desire.

Time rewound several minutes.

Back to when that scarlet nun had been greedily consuming the gifts of the deep sea.

Desire born of instinct had been released, and primitive pheromones began to radiate from her entire body.

The desire to hunt and devour.

It was pure instinct and malice, aimed solely at a particular special genetic sequence.

Zuo Jian's will was strong enough to suppress the spread of that impulse, but the pure malice born of instinct in that single instant was enough to make a certain race feel instinctive dread and lingering fear.

To the Seaborn, this malice did not actually have much effect, because... in the end, it was aimed only at some hidden part within them, not at the Seaborn themselves.

So the question was, what race was this instinct directed toward?

..

Ursus, Chernobog. Core City district.

Time: fifteen minutes before Zuo Jian regained consciousness.

"...?"

Amaya paused and took out a specially made glass vial wrapped in layer after layer of cloth from her clothes.

Inside was a semi-solid scarlet liquid.

It was blood taken from a certain special hunter.

Naturally, she could not hand over all such a precious sample to someone for research.

Even if she hoped the other party could make some discovery or breakthrough, she would not place all her hopes on this alone.

The Ursus Empire's attainments in biology were not actually low. Amaya knew that the Empire's research institutes could combine fragments of demons with human bodies and create the incomparably terrifying Imperial Blades.

And as it happened, among those researchers, she knew one of them.

The last portion of blood, she intended to give to...

"?"