Now, dawn was not far off.
On the rooftop of a building not far from the general hospital, two women with extremely seductive curves were watching the scene below.
"What are they doing? Can you tell, Ms. Yuko?"
Crouching, Mikoto Kiba lowered the binoculars in her hands and asked the woman beside her—Ms. Yuko, whose beauty could still shake her no matter how long she stared.
Even though Mikoto's looks and figure had been top-tier back at Misumi High, Ms. Yuko was on another level.
Not just her face—her body, her proportions, every curve was an almost absurd difference. Mikoto sometimes even suspected Ms. Yuko's bust size might be the largest in the world.
And yet, tonight she had noticed another woman who was not inferior to Ms. Yuko at all—beauty and figure both, easily able to go head-to-head with her.
It was the blonde woman driving the team they were tailing. She looked like a doctor.
"Could it be related to D99?"
Mikoto added that quickly.
"It's possible," Yuko said.
"Then the drug they're making—is it meant for D99? Or are they using D99 as a base to produce something more advanced?"
"No idea."
Yuko shrugged. There was no way she could know that much.
Still… was the drug really connected to D99? The suspicion was very strong.
After all, it was a bunch of students doing the work. In an environment like this, claiming they could produce a vaccine or anything similar was beyond ridiculous.
If anything, it was more likely they were mixing large quantities of medicine bottles together to brew some kind of highly toxic chemical weapon to deal with the Dead.
Hmm?
It looked like they had a finished product—but wasn't it way too little?
Just one small bottle, about the same size as the medicine vials from East Hospital.
Suddenly, Mikoto dropped flat.
"Ms. Yuko, he looked over—he saw me! I think he found us!"
Mikoto said it in disbelief, cold sweat breaking out on her face. It was night, and at this distance, he could see her?
"He probably noticed we were tailing them a long time ago. They didn't even pull the curtains. It's obvious they wanted us to watch their 'factory.'"
As she spoke, Yuko abruptly looked toward the hospital entrance, about a hundred meters away.
Something was happening.
A car rushed in.
It looked like civilians—and they had a little girl with them. Their daughter, probably. And the daughter… clearly wasn't right.
Now this was interesting.
From what Yuko could see, the unknown drug had just been produced. And judging by those people's reactions, they were obviously looking for a test subject.
So the newcomers might become the experiment.
…
Nervous—terrified of being chosen and becoming the unlucky one.
But at the same time, if the drug could grant safety in this apocalyptic world…
So, would someone regret not speaking up to Ms. Shizuka?
In this tense atmosphere—everyone watching the core of the group, waiting for his "verdict"—the roar of an engine suddenly shattered the silence.
"Saeko, Rei, you two stay here with everyone. Saya and Shizuka, you're coming out with me."
Kain issued the order immediately. He took the single dose of newly made drug and walked toward the outside.
Saya hurriedly grabbed a sheet of paper, lit it, and followed with Shizuka.
That paper had the key final mixing ratios printed on it. Once it burned, even if the others extracted all the same components again, they would be unable to produce the so-called Earth Elixir without those ratios.
And the final blending step would be performed by Shizuka.
Presumably, Shizuka had memorized it too. If she hadn't, Saya would tell her again.
When they reached the outpatient lobby, they saw a middle-aged man rushing in, cradling a little girl in his arms.
Sick?
"Doctor, please—save my daughter! She's going to die!"
He begged Shizuka in a choking, crying voice. Shizuka was wearing a white coat now, and in this place she really did look like a doctor.
Shizuka had been aiming for the medical profession to begin with, and had been dispatched to Saya's school as a temporary nurse by a university-affiliated hospital.
"O-Okay. Please lay her flat here."
As Shizuka reached to pull aside the little girl's coat, her hand was suddenly seized by someone else.
Before Shizuka could say anything, Saya also yanked her backward—because Saya had already realized the little girl might be in the process of turning.
If they weren't careful, she could attack.
Kain, who had grabbed Shizuka's arm, stepped forward himself and pulled the coat aside, revealing the child's limbs. Her exposed arm was almost the same sickly gray-white as the Dead.
More importantly, there was a wound on her arm. The veins around it were turning black, spreading at a visible pace.
It looked exactly like the mutation that followed a bite from the Dead.
The difference was that this child was slower, and the wound didn't look like a bite. It didn't look like claw marks either.
It looked more like she had been cut by something sharp by accident.
Most likely, the sharp object had been contaminated with a Dead's blood or bodily fluids, and that's how she was infected.
"Y-You—"
"Shut up."
Kain cut the man off first. The gun in his hand nearly got stuffed into the man's mouth as he moved to block him.
"You know what she's turning into."
"D-Don't hurt Alice. I-I'll take her away!"
The man dropped to his knees immediately.
"Right now, there's something that might save her. It depends on luck."
Kain said that, lowered his gun, and took out the vial of medicine.
He pulled the stopper, then fed the white, slightly viscous liquid directly into the little girl's lips.
Her father, kneeling beside her, stared with eyes full of desperate hope and fear.
"Please… please let it work."
Shizuka prayed for the child too, her gaze filled with sorrow and tenderness.
Please. Let it succeed, and let this child return to normal.
…Huh?
"It's working. Shizuka, be careful!"
Saya couldn't stop herself from blurting it out. The change was visible to the naked eye.
The gray, corpse-like pallor of the skin rapidly regained healthy color and blood warmth.
The blue-black veins returned to normal, gradually sinking back beneath the skin.
At the wound, black fluid seeped out—until what remained was red blood.
And the little girl's weak breathing and pained expression began to steady, returning to normal.
This Earth Elixir… it really worked against the virus that turned people into the Dead.
(End of Chapter)
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