"My head hurts so much. Some bad guy ambushed me with a sniper rifle."
Nashiro Yasuhisa looked aggrieved, tears pattering down her face.
"All right, all right. Don't cry." Huiqi stroked Nashiro's hair to comfort her.
"I want a reward..."
"You both get one, since you've worked so hard."
Half an hour later.
The enticing sounds that could tempt someone into sin finally stopped, and the two women accompanied Huiqi to the Underground Laboratory, thoroughly satisfied.
Huiqi and the two women put on their masks, went downstairs, and kicked the unconscious Nishiki Nishio awake.
"Ugh... this is..."
As Nishiki Nishio woke, he instinctively struggled, looking around in confusion.
Dim lighting, a cold, gloomy room, and three people standing before him.
"Have I... been kidnapped? Why can't I muster any strength... and why do my eyes hurt so much?"
Nishiki Nishio tried to use his kagune to break the ropes, but the appendage that had once moved as naturally as his arms now lay dormant. No matter how hard he tried, nothing happened.
"Stop resisting, or it'll hurt even more." Kuro found a pair of pliers in some corner, her voice carrying a sinister threat.
"Huh? Does that toy even work on ghouls?"
Snap!
"Aaaah!!!"
Nishiki Nishio's screams rang through the Underground Laboratory. Even Huiqi was startled by how decisively Kuro acted. Nishiki Nishio's finger rolled across the floor.
"Toys can hurt people too, you know. Now I'll ask, and you'll answer!"
"Where is Rize Kamishiro?"
Kuro and Nashiro took turns threatening Nishiki Nishio. From the start, Huiqi had instead become the unnecessary one.
"Rize Kamishiro? What's that?" Nishiki Nishio asked instinctively. He had no memory whatsoever of Rize Kamishiro.
"Playing dumb?"
Snap!
"Aah!!"
"I really don't know!"
Nishiki Nishio forced out an answer through the pain, his voice hoarse.
"You