Chapter 097: Can't Drink! Can't Drink! Really Can't Drink! That's Not Panacea, But...

How long had night fallen?

You could tell by checking the current time.

"Does eating take this long?"

Shizuka Marikawa, who had also come over, murmured in confusion.

They had been eating for several hours now—the food must have gone completely cold, right?

Ah wait, he could eat quite a lot, so perhaps Saeko Busujima was still working hard to prepare more food for him.

"Of course it doesn't take this long."

The person answering was Shizuka's best friend, who was also the real owner of the Humvee—a purple-haired, capable woman with bronze-colored skin.

Her name was Rika Minami, a sniper and patrol leader of the first squad of the Prefectural Police Special Assault Team (S.A.T).

She had also been brought over this afternoon with Mr. Ejie's help.

Actually, they had made contact yesterday, but Rika still needed to maintain stability where she was stationed.

"Then what are they doing?"

"What are they doing? You'll know when we get there."

Rika said this with a somewhat playful tone.

Shizuka, this little airhead, was still as naive as an innocent girl who hadn't grown up—she couldn't guess what might be happening inside.

Under normal circumstances, Rika shouldn't go disturb them with Shizuka, as it would probably annoy them.

Correction—not probably, but definitely would displease them with their interruption.

However, they had received contact about an emergency situation that required troubling him.

"Mm-hmm, we'll know when we get there—"

Shizuka Marikawa answered with a bright smile.

Then—

"So tired."

How many floors had they climbed? Shizuka's legs were weak and could barely support her body.

Really, even though this high-end apartment building had unused rooms on lower floors, why specifically choose such a high floor for a candlelight dinner?

Since the elevator couldn't be used, climbing stairs was really suffering.

The purpose was probably to avoid being disturbed, Shizuka thought resentfully.

"Just two more floors to go."

"Ah? Almost there? That's great!"

"Mm."

Rika also sighed inwardly.

This meant Shizuka's shock was coming soon.

As a good girlfriend, how could she not see that Shizuka had subtle feelings for that Mr. Ejie?

In the blink of an eye, they arrived at the room's entrance.

From the corner of her eye, Rika also looked toward the staircase in the other direction, where a group of people were hiding—they had secretly followed up.

Knock on the door!

Knock knock—

In such a quiet environment, it was so loud, drowning out the faint sounds coming from inside.

It seemed that because of this knocking, the sounds inside paused slightly, but only slightly.

"Mr. Ejie, could we meet for a moment? There's an emergency situation here that requires your help."

After saying this, Rika didn't say anything more and just waited.

Click, the door opened, and a young man who looked several years younger than Rika came into her view.

The moment his displeased gaze looked over, Rika's hair stood on end for an instant, feeling like she was being stared at by the grim reaper.

This gaze seemed to have actual weight, pressing down on her heavily, making her body feel like it was about to collapse.

At this moment, being in such close contact with him, she realized his true terror.

"What is it?"

"There's a freighter fully loaded with chemical products where dead bodies have also broken out, and the chaos has caused a fire. It's now heating the storage tanks, and if it can't be cooled down, there might be a massive explosion that would contaminate all of Tokonosu City."

"Coordinates."

Rika gave him the discovered coordinates, and this man immediately left without hesitation.

"Um, be careful, Mr. Ejie—"

After Shizuka Marikawa expressed her concern, his figure disappeared from view.

Looking toward the still-open door, she also saw Saeko Busujima.

"Teacher, you look very tired. You must be tired from climbing stairs. Come in and sit down to rest."

"Alright."

Shizuka Marikawa accepted and walked in. She wanted to lie down properly in a chair and rest her somewhat numb legs.

When she walked inside, she saw Saeko Busujima's attire clearly and her eyes widened slightly.

Because there was no electricity and only candlelight, she hadn't been able to see very clearly from outside.

After coming in, she saw that Busujima seemed to be wearing only an apron, and it was wrinkled too.

Wrong—she was also wearing two socks, but they were also somewhat torn.

Walking to the living room, she also passed through the dining room and saw the remains of the dinner that hadn't been cleaned up yet. The entire table was filled with plates that looked like they had been eaten clean.

After entering the living room, it was also quite empty, but there was still a sofa where she could lie down and rest, massaging her thighs.

Oh right, she was a bit thirsty. Looking at a teapot on top, Shizuka Marikawa didn't hesitate to pick it up and somewhat inelegantly put the spout directly to her lips and poured.

There was definitely something inside, as she could feel there was something in it.

"Wait..."

Saeko Busujima's voice stopped abruptly—she was a step too late.

The reason she wanted to stop her was because what was inside looked almost identical to Panacea, but it wasn't Panacea.

It was some special substance she had extracted and put inside, wanting to add some atmosphere.

As a result, as soon as Teacher Shizuka came in and got thirsty, she directly picked it up and started enjoying it.

Saeko Busujima wouldn't be too embarrassed—though a little—but her appearance was an open declaration of something.

By the way, shouldn't she have noticed something was wrong the moment she came into contact with it?

Saeko Busujima watched this confused teacher's throat moving with some bewilderment.

The woman who had also followed in, the teacher's friend, was initially stunned, then after realizing it wasn't Panacea, she was also dumbfounded.

This Miss Rika seemed to realize what it was.

"Hmm? Something seems off," the silly teacher finally reacted.

"What's wrong? I'm thirsty too, let me have a sip."

Accompanied by this voice, a girl with twin tails came forward and took the teapot from the teacher's hands, also using it.

This again left Saeko Busujima dumbfounded.

From the situation, Saya Takagi also couldn't see clearly what it was. From her angle of entry, it really wasn't easy to observe.

Suddenly, a gust of wind came in, extinguishing all the candles. The wind must have blown in through the unclosed door.

Saeko Busujima indeed hadn't closed it because she had noticed Saya Takagi and the others.

"What is this? Is it drinkable?"

Saya Takagi, who had taken a sip, felt it was strange and said so.

"Can't it be drunk?"

The confused speaker was Miss Mikoto Kiba.

"It can be, and it's quite a rare thing. Miss Mikoto should try it too. Don't be too greedy and use it all up—leave some to share with others."

Saeko Busujima suddenly answered with malicious intent.

With her response, Mikoto Kiba took it from Saya Takagi's hands.

"Hmm, this feels strange."

"Want some?"

Mikoto also handed it to Rei Miyamoto, who also started using it.

After taking a sip, either because she wasn't used to it or felt there wasn't much left, she handed it to another person—that was Miss Yuko Sagiri.

Regarding this person, Saeko Busujima had heard of her family, as they were also a famous swordsmanship family.

After this person also tasted a bit, Saeko Busujima could tell from her expression that she seemed to have recognized it.

It wasn't too surprising that she recognized it, because this person was also a doctor on the surface, unlike Teacher Shizuka who was still an intern in some sense. She was a real doctor, a famous surgeon at Mochizuki Hospital.

"Miss Rika, have some too."

"No need, thank you."

"Don't be polite. This is something even rarer than Panacea."

"I'm not being polite."

Obviously, Miss Yuko Sagiri didn't want to let Miss Rika off the hook.

Since everyone was suffering, how could she cleanly get away with it?

...

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