Saiya and Nagato boarded the bus, and we continued the uncomfortable, boring journey once again.
"Nice work, Senior Saiya and Sir Nagato," Kitetsu said happily.
I repeat, this guy is just too humble for someone with his appearance.
"Thanks, Kitetsu. It was a Grade D Nephilim after all, so there's nothing much about it. You guys fought some during the exam, right?" Saiya asked.
"Yes, we did, but it couldn't compare to how you guys handled them."
"Haha, thanks anyway," Saiya chuckled awkwardly. She moved her gaze to me and stared with a prideful look.
What's her deal? What point is she trying to prove, that she's better than me? Well, obviously, you don't have to prove that. My physical capability is miles below yours.
A fucking one!
Or wait—maybe she's just trying to show off. I don't know, but whatever she's doing, it's disgusting.
After a few minutes, we finally arrived at the site. The reservoir was located underground, surrounded by industrial buildings and a construction site. The buildings looked old and withered; most of the metal structures had started to rust away.
We got off the bus and began the strategy meeting.
"We'll be mixing squads and going in pairs together with Squad Six..." Captain Leonard stated.
As he spoke, the other squad joined the meeting. They consisted of five girls, including their captain, who was a woman—the complete opposite of our squad. Among them was Ko Hinetsu, the annoying petite girl who dusted my dignity.
'I think I'm liking Squad Six.'
"As I said, we will be going in pairs to carry out this mission. One team will stay behind and guard the buses. Another team will go underground with the repair equipment and the engineers. Lastly, there will be a patrol team to scan the area while repairs are happening. There might be Nephilims lurking around, given their recent activities. We don't know everything they're capable of, so—let's split into teams."
Leonard gave the young lady a nod, and she took over.
"We will be splitting into three teams of four members each. One of my teammates and I will be on the standby team," she said, wrapping her arm around Hinetsu's neck.
With that, we began pairing up. Captain Leonard, Kitetsu, and two other girls from Squad Six were on the team going underground. Nagato, Haruchi, Hinetsu, and Squad Six's captain were on standby. Saiya, two other girls, and I were on the patrol team.
Talk about lucky—being paired with two girls. If only Saiya wasn't among us, this could've been the best day of my life.
As we were about to take our positions, the team of engineers came into sight. They walked up to Leonard and the other lady.
"Erm, Sir Leonard?"
"What's the matter?"
"We just checked the surroundings of the reservoir and discovered that the tunnels leading to the underground tanks have been flooded..."
"Hmm, okay, so that means you can't get to the water storage tanks," Leonard stated.
"Yes, and we also discovered the problem. One of the tanks is damaged. To repair it, we'll need to flush out the water in the tanks and the tunnels."
"That's possible, right?" the lady asked.
"Very possible, but we have to get to the control room first, and it's located within the area..."
One of the engineers opened a small map of the area.
"...and it's located here!" He pointed to the location on the map.
"It's not far, just west of here?" Leonard asked.
"Yes."
"Then that means we'll follow some of the engineers to the control room to flush out the water."
"Yes, that's the only possible way."
The plan changed, but not entirely. Captain Leonard and Kitetsu decided to follow two of the five engineers to flush out both the leaked water and the stored water.
As they carried on with their new task, we started our patrol.
We ventured deeper into the district. Rusted metal, collapsed buildings, and more were scattered around. In rare cases, we saw the decayed bodies of dead Nephilims.
As we journeyed, a familiar smell hit me—something I had smelled before, but I couldn't recall where. I continued alongside Saiya, checking buildings just in case.
"Hey Ryuma, how did you find the fight against those Nephilims back then?" she asked, her hand on her nose for some reason.
I get that the environment is tense, and it's awkward moving in silence, but to ask me that question in particular? It's... how should I put it... not right.
"Nothing special, just like you said—they were Grade D Nephilims."
I didn't need to see her face to know she was annoyed.
Again, I caught a whiff of that bad smell. What is that? It's too familiar.
I decided to follow the trace of the smell.
Saiya must have noticed it too, or maybe she had been smelling it from the moment we entered the site. She had her nose covered the whole time.
I entered a building that looked like a storage house, where the stench hit me hard. The storage house had an exit on the other side, so I followed it. Saiya was still tracing behind me.
I stepped outside, and then it dawned—the smell I had forgotten about during my time inside the walls. It was the smell of a corpse.
There, in front of us, lay a body with no head. It was a woman. From the looks of it, the head had been blown away, leaving only traces of blood and flesh scattered everywhere.
At first glance, I knew this wasn't the work of any ordinary Nephilim hungry for human flesh.