Chapter 210: Coins Blast Out a 50-Meter Red Line (Patreon)

The next second, the two of them dashed out into the courtyard.

He flicked a coin high into the air.

Lightning flashed beneath her feet.

With a spinning back kick, he smashed the coin dead-on.

BOOM—

First, a ring of electric light burst outward.

Then the coin, grinding violently against the air, went red-hot across its entire surface in an instant.

A moment later, a red line a full fifty meters long streaked straight across the night-darkened garden.

Natsuka stood there, completely frozen.

"Holy crap..."

"I believe it now."

"Conan really might be able to kick a soccer ball across half a city and blast a Star out of the sky while he's at it."

Makise Kurisu looked a little dazed herself.

Of course she knew her ability was absurd. But she clearly hadn't expected it to be convenient to this degree.

A few seconds later, her eyes lit up with a startling intensity.

"The combat boots form still isn't perfect."

"If I changed it into gloves, wouldn't that be more convenient?"

Gloves.

Coin.

Mental charging.

A very familiar image popped into Natsuka's head.

Are you trying to be Misaka Mikoto?

Kurisu Mikoto???

While he was still reeling, Makise Kurisu had already worked herself up so much she was practically bouncing.

"Captain!"

"That big Magic Stone you brought back this time is a really good one, isn't it?"

"Give it to me!"

"I swear I'll make you an even better weapon this time!"

"Um..."

Just as Assistant-kun was buzzing with excitement, a voice as flat as plain water came from the side.

Megumi Kato stood there with her bag on her back, her dead-fish eyes unchanged. Half a lock of her bangs was gone, and one shoulder strap had been cut clean through.

"Excuse me, please."

"Don't play with such dangerous things inside the house."

"I almost died just now, you know."

Natsuka turned, saw her, and scratched his head in embarrassment.

"Sorry."

"I really didn't see you there."

"Mou."

"Your adorable team member was working so diligently, even putting in overtime."

"And you just casually forgot about me."

Megumi's expression stayed calm, and her tone barely rose or fell.

But precisely because it was so calm, that faint trace of displeasure felt all the more real.

She set her bag on the ground and started fiddling with the scorched end of her bangs.

Only then did Natsuka notice the bag in her hands, and he asked, puzzled, "Didn't I already give you a 4D Pocket?"

"So what's this bag?"

Megumi thought about it, and her eyes curved slightly.

"Ah~"

"Mr. Shadow asked me to deliver this."

"I had a feeling whatever's inside isn't anything decent."

"So I didn't dare put it straight into the storeroom."

That piqued Natsuka's interest. He tore the package open, and inside was an emerald-green glass jewel.

Within the jewel, a creature like a tiny fish-person fetus lay curled up in slumber, its shape eerie and revolting.

The moment Natsuka's fingers touched the surface of the jewel, the fetus's eyes snapped open.

Two eyeballs fixed squarely on him.

"Holy—!"

"Don't scare me like that!"

Natsuka flinched hard, backpedaled two steps, and instinctively shoved Kurisu behind him.

But the fetus in the jewel only gave him one look.

Then it slowly closed its eyes again, as if it had mistaken him for someone else, and sank back into sleep.

"It's okay."

"It's still a baby. It isn't fully developed, so it can't crawl out."

Megumi added this from the side, perfectly calm.

Only then did Natsuka lean back in and study the thing with a frown.

"Why would Shadow send this thing over..."

Makise Kurisu blinked. She didn't pay much attention to what the other players had been up to lately.

"What is it?"

Natsuka drew a breath, his tone noticeably more serious.

"A Corrupted Spirit embryo jewel."

"Once it absorbs enough nutrients, it can parasitize a monster."

"After that, it evolves into a Sprite in female form."

"Then it keeps devouring more Magic Stones, and finally evolves into a Sprite avatar."

Kurisu thought it over after hearing that.

"Sounds a bit like the Parasyte specimens you sent me before."

"...Parasytes?"

Natsuka froze.

"Those things are still alive?"

His assistant nodded.

"Alive."

"I keep them in a sealed glass apparatus, and a robotic arm feeds them on a timer."

"So you're basically protecting an endangered species?"

"Barely, I guess."

The two exchanged a look, and the atmosphere in the workshop turned strange.

Natsuka stared at the jewel for a while, then thought of the Parasytes, and a pile of ominous ideas sprang up in his head.

"Hey..."

"What would happen if you let a Parasyte parasitize a Demi Spirit?"

Kurisu just stared at him blankly and shook her head, making it clear she wanted no part in imagining it.

Megumi tugged at the hem of Natsuka's clothes.

"That's too dangerous."

"Letting that sort of thing parasitize that sort of monster."

"If it goes wrong even once, the Ordinary World could break."

But Natsuka was still stroking his chin, seriously letting his thoughts run wild.

"I'm wondering whether a Parasyte could become my summoned beast."

"If it's a juvenile, I should be able to summon it easily."

"Add magic restraints on top of that."

"And if I raised that parasitic embryo jewel from infancy, would there be a chance to set it straight?"

"Parasytes themselves have no concept of good and evil."

"Eating people's brains is just survival instinct."

"Maybe, like Migi, a bit of threats and bribes could eventually make us friends..."

Crazy ideas kept bursting out of his head, one after another.

The next second, Makise Kurisu smacked him on the back of the head.

It didn't hurt.

But it was deeply insulting.

"Hey, what was that for?"

Kurisu looked at him with an earnestness he had never seen from her before.

"Look through history. Many of those who believed themselves wise ended up dying by their own wisdom."

"It's practically the gods' ultimatum to those who defy them."

"Time machines."

"The 'What-If Phone Booth' that might someday be born."

"As a researcher, you have to keep at least a basic sense of awe toward things like that."

"What comes after technology swells beyond control..."

"I've already learned more than enough from my father."

She looked at Natsuka and said, word by word:

"Natsuka."

"You're not a mad scientist."

"Don't lose yourself in the little bit of power in front of you."

The air went quiet all at once.

Natsuka stayed silent for more than ten seconds, and slowly his expression settled.

At last, he set the jewel steadily back on the table.

"You're right."

"I really did get carried away just now."

"And of all things, it's something I might actually be capable of pulling off."

"I let it go to my head."

Ryuu's enhancement.

The new gear Kurisu had built.

All of it had left him with the illusion that he could already stand firmly in the DanMachi world, without him even noticing.

And so, without realizing it, even the way he looked at enemies had grown dismissive.

Just then, a soft red glow lit up on his right arm.

Pinocchio's petite, flame-wrapped figure slowly appeared.

She drifted close and gently nuzzled Natsuka's cheek.

Her movement was tender, as though she were glad he had kept hold of his heart.

"You're saying..."

"A Corrupted Spirit is still a Sprite at the end of the day."

"And you don't want me experimenting on Sprites, right?"

Pinocchio nodded.

In that instant, Natsuka understood a great deal.

Pinocchio herself was someone who had once been used for experiments and was finally saved by him.

If he now started thinking of using other Sprites for parasitism tests, then even if the target was only a Demi Spirit, Pinocchio would probably be disappointed.

"Sorry..."

Pinocchio nuzzled him once more, then turned into a wisp of firelight and sank back into his arm.

Looking at the jewel on the table, Natsuka finally found a new direction.

"From here on, the goal becomes finding a way to use the jewel as a medium to summon the souls of Sprites devoured by deep-level monsters."

Of course, that was a matter for later.

As for now:

"Let's go."

"I'll take you to meet Agasa Hakase."

*

Sakura City, Beika Town, 2-chome.

The Natsuka residence.

The time was eleven thirty in the morning.

Natsuka took out his phone and sent his home address to Makise Kurisu.

Half an hour later, the doorbell rang.

He opened the door and found Makise Kurisu standing stiffly on the doorstep in her familiar white lab coat, dragging a suitcase behind her.

"...What's this?"

Natsuka's gaze fell on the suitcase, and he blanked for a moment.

Kurisu pushed past him and walked in, looking around as she pleased.

"I just flew in from America."

"And I don't have anywhere to stay for now."

Natsuka helped her lift the suitcase, his look turning subtle.

"So you're planning to freeload at my place?"

Kurisu arched a brow.

"Not welcome?"

"Of course you are."

Natsuka shrugged.

"I'm hardly ever home anyway."

"Pick any room you like."

"Oh, right. If you need anything, ask Sayu."

"She should be back in the evening. She's the JK housekeeper I hired."

Kurisu shot him a sidelong glance.

"Hmph. Men."

Natsuka shot right back.

"Hmph. Women."

After trading snide remarks, the mood somehow turned a lot friendlier.

Once he'd helped her tidy up her room, Natsuka took her next door to visit Agasa Hakase.

Sure enough, when Agasa Hakase saw Makise Kurisu, his eyes narrowed into crescents.

"Oh my, oh my."

"Isn't this Dr. Makise, the one making such waves in academia lately?"

"What brings you to this humble little corner?"

Natsuka introduced her with a smile from the side.

"Agasa Hakase, she's my assistant."

"She came specially to exchange some academic ideas with you."

"Think of it as learning from each other and making progress together."

The moment he finished, Kurisu lifted her foot and stomped on his instep.

Agasa Hakase patted his sparse hair, belly out, grinning happily.

"Not at all, you flatter me, you flatter me."

"Please, come in, come in."

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Agasa Hakase led Makise Kurisu on a tour of his "inventions."

For instance, scissors that make a snip sound all by themselves.

For instance, a drone that could fly to an altitude of ten thousand kilometers and, incidentally, break flight records.

For instance, a stand-alone device that could carry a person through the air.

For instance, a mascot robot named Goemon that reports hot-spring data.

And of course, there was the set of six gadgets everyone knows by heart: the Conan's six signature gadgets.

But aside from those, most of the remaining inventions looked like useless gag props.

Watching from the side, Natsuka rolled his dead-fish eyes.

"Agasa Hakase."

"I know a mad scientist."

"I have a feeling you two are going to have a lot in common."

*

Meanwhile, at the Beika branch of Yotsubishi Bank, Megumi Kato pushed open the door and walked in with the cheque Natsuka had given her.

She had taken the day off specially.

Of course, it was also possible nobody had even noticed whether she'd shown up at school.

Because of the timeline's disarray, cross-region transfers of large sums were now extremely troublesome.

Some places even still used retro things like passbooks.

None of that was a big problem for Megumi.

Still, ten thousand in funds was no small amount, so she had to come to the bank and handle it in person.

She quietly stood at the back of the queue, holding her number ticket.

In front of her was a little boy in a blue suit and shorts with a red bow tie at his chest.

Ahead of him was a girl whose hair stuck up like horns.

And ahead of her was a mustached man loudly declaring that one day he would fill his passbook to the last page.

Megumi didn't mind. She just waited quietly.

But once the mustached man finished his business, the female teller behind the window suddenly seemed to be in a terrible hurry, glancing down at the clock again and again.

After the little boy in the suit asked her a couple of questions, she actually slapped a "Closed for lunch" sign on the counter and walked away.

"Um..."

"I wanted to make a transfer..."

Megumi spoke softly.

But the teller acted as though she hadn't heard a thing. She didn't even look back as she hurried off.

Megumi stood where she was, her cheeks puffing out slightly.

She watched in silence for two seconds.

Then she quietly committed the woman's name to memory.

Masami Hirota.

Very well.

This was the first person who had ever ignored her without her actively triggering her vanishing-presence skill.

She would remember this grudge.

The kind that wouldn't be settled with fewer than three apologies.

Well, okay.

Actually, Megumi wasn't all that angry.

Really, only a tiny bit.

It definitely wasn't because it was right around mealtime and the teller had ditched her to go eat.

Definitely not.

It was just...

Who should she ask to handle her business now?

She had to get back to school before lunch break ended to attend class.

As she hesitated, a well-dressed middle-aged man in a suit happened to walk past.

He looked like the bank manager.

He first noticed Megumi clutching her number ticket, and his brow furrowed slightly.

Then he glanced at the empty counter.

Then he looked up at the time.

Eleven fifty.

Excellent.

Skipping out ten minutes early, was she?

That one would have to be hauled in later.

The manager was already tallying up the offense in his head, yet his face quickly put on a friendly smile as he walked up to Megumi and apologized.

"I'm very sorry, miss."

"What business can I help you with today?"

Megumi nodded and took the cheque out of her pocket.

"I'd like to have this cheque verified first, and then cash it."

The manager took it, and the moment his eyes swept across it, his expression changed visibly.

The bank issued differently styled cheques to clients of different tiers.

And the one in Megumi's hand was a custom type that only someone with a very high reserve balance could receive.

In other words...

This was a major client.

And an absurdly young one at that.

The manager's attitude instantly grew a few degrees more deferential.

"My apologies, miss."

"Please follow me through the VIP channel."

"We'll take care of this for you right away."

Meanwhile, in the lobby, a bored elementary school detective had noticed the scene too.

Conan stared at Megumi's retreating back and blinked.

"Huh?"

"That older girl looks like a high schooler. Why would she have so much money?"

Still, the question only lingered in his mind for a moment.

More than that, Masami Hirota's unusual behavior clearly bothered him.

Because that woman had always been so kind and friendly.

So why had she suddenly turned like this today?

With that thought, Conan slowly strolled toward the bank's exit.

*

At the same time.

Outside the bank's side entrance, a fully armored cash-transport truck was parked.

Several men in bank employee uniforms were making a handover with the armed guards escorting the shipment.

The guards kept their weapons ready and patrolled back and forth warily, tacitly allowing these "employees" to carry the cash boxes off the truck.