While Kisuke and Sona were having their banter, they were interrupted when someone suddenly went behind Kisuke and wrapped their arms around his neck, "I heard that Aika has already opened the path. When are you going, nyaa?" Kuroka softly whispered into his ears.
Kisuke thought about it while rubbing his chin, "...Hmmm, maybe around this week? I have to do some preparations before going."
Kuroka's arms tightened around Kisuke's neck, "Hmmm~ Then who're you bringing with you? I want to introduce myself."
Kisuke froze and shuddered and began sweating nervously. He tried to break free from her clutches, but her arms wouldn't budge, "...Er... I don't think I'd bring anyone.", Kisuke replied while shouting internally, 'You're the last person I'd bring! You and your sister! You uncontrollable cats!'
Even though he was thinking of bringing Riveria with him, he couldn't answer her honestly. Not right now, at least.
And when Kisuke saw that Koneko was looking at him feverishly, wanting the same thing, his mind raced to find a way to escape this situation.
Thankfully, before he took action, a cold aura descended on everyone and especially focused on Kuroka, making her freeze in place. Before anyone could notice it, Medusa was already standing behind the black Nekoshou while bringing her glacial glare down on her, "Kuroka... I believe we'd already talked about this before."
Kuroka slowly let go of Kisuke and turned around with a nervous expression, "B-but this is a different issue, isn't it?"
Kisuke, on the other hand, used this chance to get away, "Alright, I'm going home and preparing for now. Be careful around Indra, okay? If one of you gets in danger because of him, I'll discard everything and go cave his skull in."
After finishing his sentence, his Teleportation Magic instantly initiated, and he was gone a second later. However, his lighthearted words weren't so lighthearted for those who heard him, "Let's make everyone's safety the top priority, okay?" Sona muttered after a few seconds of silence.
Everyone in the room nodded in unison. Regardless of whether Kisuke could really cave in Indra's skull, it'd be a catastrophe if the two were to clash.
In fact, this is the reason why those close to Kisuke were relatively safe. Although Indra was interested in fighting Kisuke, he really didn't want to deal with what he thought was a crackhead when his attention should be on Shiva. Despite the fact that this slows down his plans significantly, he'd rather go slowly than trade blows with someone who would just flip the entire table that his carefully placed pieces are on.
Indra's close aides thought that he was just exaggerating, but the things he could see couldn't be easily understood by those around him. Right now, both Shiva and Indra had the same train of thought as Yhwach when he invaded the Soul Society. If they didn't have a clear way of eliminating or, at least, holding back the 'Special Individuals', they won't easily make a move.
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.
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Back at his store, the moment Kisuke reappeared from his Teleportation Magic, Riveria also came out from the kitchen while wearing a white apron over her casual attire, "You're early. I thought you'd stay the night there."
As soon as he saw her, a passing thought went through Kisuke's head, 'These days, whenever I come home, they're always in aprons.'
"Not when Kuroka and Koneko are around. They came to a decision and I respected that, but their Nekoshou instincts are much stronger than normal Youkais. Although they're trying to control themselves, it's really hard to go against things that are hardwired into their heads unless they discard their physical bodies. The best I could do to help them is to avoid them."
'So much consideration for being horn-... I mean sexual desire.' She wanted to say, but held back because she knew that was only going to backfire on her, 'This is bad... I'm getting too used to their language.'
She also wanted to ask if Kisuke was not worried that they'd suddenly take it out on other men, but she already knew of their loyalty, and even just asking that was very disrespectful to both Kuroka and Koneko, 'This is really bad... Even this world's literature and entertainment drama are affecting me. I need to watch some animal videos and wholesome shows to cleanse my soul later.'
Kisuke saw that Riveria is enduring something and asked, "What's wrong? Are you hurting anywhere?"
Riveria immediately shook her head and said, "It's nothing. I just remembered something unpleasant. Clean yourself up. Dinner is almost ready."
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.
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Since Riveria wasn't allowed to touch anything Magic related for the duration she was in Kisuke's house, she busied herself with television and her smartphone, browsing and learning various things, including questionable topics and other stuff, "Riveria, I'll be going out for a bit."
Busy on her late-night drama show, Riveria just waved her hand goodbye without turning around, "Strawberry ice cream for me."
"Anything else?"
"Hmmm... Right. We ran out of milk and soy sauce."
"Got it."
The husband and wife-like exchange ended and Kisuke teleported to his Mars base and went straight to the deepest and most secure part of it, 'Alright. For today's outing objective: Stealing the Evie's wormhole protocol and technology.'
Entering the room, rows of glass tubes filled with translucent green liquid and a 3-centimeter diameter black ball in the middle of it greeted him. Kisuke momentarily checked their condition before going deeper into the room where a metallic pod that could contain a person was located.
Kisuke then pressed a button on the top of the pod and its top part opened, revealing a cozy cushion where one could comfortably lie down on it.
Kisuke removed all of his clothing before entering the pod and closing it. A few seconds later, runes and circuits expanded outwards and reached the numerous glass tubes. Soon, the runes converged on one of the glass tubes and the black ball inside it suddenly started squirming around before it took the form of what could only be called a 'Nendoroid' in Kisuke's image.
As soon as it stopped forming, the green liquid immediately drained itself and the glass tube was lifted the moment the 10-centimeter tall 'Kisuke' opened his eyes.
Kisuke hurriedly examined his new body and found some discomfort and tried to fix it by letting his Magic Power flow, '...It seems that everything is in place. Good.' he thought while doing some stretching.
The real identity of those black balls is Kisuke's newly developed Gigai through the research of Lilith's flesh and blood. However, he was already contemplating if he should still call it a Gigai since it doesn't just mimic the user's appearance but also allows the flow of power, making the user capable of using their abilities.
Of course, everything in the room was just prototypes and Kisuke had been testing it by inserting a very small piece of his own soul into them.
But unlike normal researchers that do their tests in a confined and controlled room, Kisuke would rather see its limits by going outside.
After a few minutes of adjustments, Chibi Kisuke teleported out and reappeared in a metallic room. The first thing entering his senses was the synthetic-like voice of the silicon-based lifeforms, [The next batch of Energy Cores is arriving within fifteen minutes. Prepare for its inspection and distribution.]
[Yes, sir!]
While hiding himself, Kisuke checked the surroundings and was able to confirm where he is, 'the 7th section of Andreas. Good. Their jamming system didn't erase my mark. And it looks like I'm just in time.'
What Aika and the rest were fearing was true. For some time already, Kisuke had been secretly invading the Evie's ship. But today, Kisuke won't just be settling on stealing some data on a ship on the frontlines.
Making his way to a certain part of the ship, Kisuke saw a room with a giant circular device in it and it soon gathered an enormous amount of Magic Power that had been purified through specific means. A few seconds later, the space in the middle of the device twisted before the light went through it and revealed the other side.
Carefully hiding his figure and riding the torrent of Magic Power to avoid detection, Kisuke leaped through eh wormhole, 'Maybe a should plant a few bombs in there?'