TLN*: This refers to Stingy Jack/Drunk Jack/Flaky Jack/Jack of the Lantern, an Irish mythical character associated with Halloween. The jack-o'-lantern may be derived from this character. See Wikipedia for more information.

However, his teleportation destination could only be beside members of the Eighth Guidance or those who were seriously ill in unconscious states, with not long left to live.

However, he was also able to teleport with the patients, and then return them to the place they originally were.

He had just done that, bringing a terminally ill baby here before returning it.

"That was the last? But I wanted to gather a little more 'death.'"

Pluto. By stealing the 'death' and vitality of others, she could heal those who were on the verge of death and push the cost of this act on another person's vitality.

The truth was that most of the philanthropic work conducted by the Eighth Guidance, as well as the medical treatment that gained them funds from its sponsors, was done through this power of Pluto's.

"Still, you're horrible. Did you forget that I said that I'll be using it later so you shouldn't suck up so much?" complained the man who was supposed to be dead as he got up. And then he moved his neck and shoulders around and made clicking noises, as if checking the condition of his body. "Ah, my body's so stiff. The black assassin that I was in before, the one who used to be a marine, was in much better condition."

"I'm sorry, 'Shade,'" said Pluto. "That one is white and has bad eyes, so I didn't think you'd like him anyway."

"His eyes? I don't think they're that bad, but... these glasses are just for show, huh. They're a prop for his disguise."

The assassin... or rather, Shade, who had possessed the assassin's corpse, put his glasses down on the poolside table.

Shade had once been 'protected' by the Bravers and then later accommodated at a laboratory, where he was turned into a life-form consisting of a mind without a body, similar to a spirit. He was capable of possessing very freshly-deceased corpses and use their bodies as his own.

Pluto let out a disinterested noise.

"You don't seem very interested," said Shade. "So, what you said just now is an excuse after all?"

"More importantly, what about the other people here?" asked Jack. "Did you kill them properly? Jack is curious."

"Yeah, Berserk and Baba Yaga worked hard," said Shade. "Valkyrie was happy, too. I suppose she'll be staying inside with Isis for a while?"

This mansion that included a pool did not, in fact, belong to the Eighth Guidance; it was the property of a boss of a certain criminal organization. This boss, whose organization was known to be a militant organization, had tried to seize Pluto's power, so Pluto and her allies had retaliated.

"Jack thinks that he should have stayed satisfied with paying money and having his illness cured by Pluto," said Jack.

"It's because of that greed that he was running a criminal organization," said Pluto.

"That's a narrow way of looking at it, Pluto," said Shade. "After all, we're a criminal organization, too."

"In that case, it's not a narrow way of looking at it, it's the truth," said Pluto. "We're greedy, after all."

The objective of the Eighth Guidance... was to die.

After living hellish lives in the laboratory, they had been saved by codename: 'Undead'... Amamiya Hiroto, who had gone on to become Vandalieu. Everything the Eighth Guidance did was to act in accordance with his will.

But Pluto and her companions had only been in direct contact with the 'Undead' for a few minutes, and they hadn't even exchanged any words. They had simply been saved; their wounds had been healed, their missing limbs restored and even the side-effects of the experiments had been removed to some extent, and then they had been set free. During all of this, the Mana surrounding the 'Undead' had flowed into them, fusing with them and becoming a part of them. That was all.

From these few actions, Pluto and her companions had guessed the will of the 'Undead,' combining even their own desires and delusions with it to produce what was the compass guiding their actions.

They had attacked death-attribute magic research facilities so that there wouldn't be any more victims like themselves.

The reason they were so thoroughly selective about their targets was because the 'Undead' had limited its victims to those that it had desired revenge upon.

They targeted the Bravers because they had treated the 'Undead' as a monstrosity and disposed of it arbitrarily.

And finally, they would die.

They would die and go to the same place as the 'Undead.' That was their wish.

Pluto and her companions had no idea what kind of intentions the 'Undead' had when it saved them. They didn't know whether it had felt sympathy for them, felt some kind of sense of justice or whether it had intended to use them as pawns afterwards; they didn't know anything.

The reason that Pluto and her companions were offering everything they had to the 'Undead' that had already been destroyed despite this was because for them, there was no higher being than the 'Undead.'

None of the members of the Eighth Guidance had any blood-related family members. They were all orphans and children who had been sold, gathered at the laboratory for the purpose of carrying out research into death-attribute magic.

As guinea pigs, they had suffered cruel experiments, been assigned numbers and isolated in cage-like rooms. They felt grief over the changes that their bodies had been forced to undergo. No matter how much fear they felt or how much they begged for mercy, they could only listen to the footsteps of those who would ruin them.

After the annihilation of the 'Undead,' they had been unable to do anything, and the Bravers had sent them to international organizations to be protected. Yes, protected.

They had been managed by numbers, separated from their companions that they were now aware that they had, locked up in cage-like rooms and had their bodies tampered with by researchers who repeatedly said, "This is all to help cure you," as if these words were some kind of incantation.

And it was only because of the Mana that the 'Undead' had given them that they had been able to escape this new hell.

Justice was never applied in relation to Pluto and her companions; only unrelated people were punished and unrelated people were saved.

But love was only ever poured elsewhere; no hope shone for them. Despite that, despair was always lurking nearby.

Despite them being exploited for humanity's sake, they hadn't been included as members of humanity.

It was as if they were foreign objects in this world, wasn't it?

The sole exception was the 'Undead.' Even if him rescuing Pluto and her companions had been a foolish act in the literal sense of the word*, it was the greatest sign of love that they had ever received.

TLN*: Literally, the word for "foolish" here means "no love for others," so it would also be interpreted as "indifferent."

If they could become closer to such a being, even death would be bliss... no, death was the only bliss.

"But we can't simply die," said Pluto. "Because that would mean throwing away the lives that person gave us. So let's fight as much as we can and kill the Bravers who killed him."

"That's why we accepted Murakami and the others as well, isn't it? Jack hates them all except Gazer," said Jack.

As Jack said, the reason they had welcomed Murakami and the other former Bravers into the Eighth Guidance was in order to fan the flames of hostility between them and Amemiya Hiroto'sremaining Bravers.

There wasn't anything happening behind the scenes; it wasn't a complicated, large-scale conspiracy. There was nothing of the sort.

This was just the Eighth Guidance's plan to drag as many down with them as possible.

"Jack and Gazer get along well, you know," said Shade. "What will we do? Are we going to spare her?"

Gazer hadn't been directly involved in the incident with the 'Undead,' and though she had essentially been in a half-dead state, Pluto had even gone as far as to regenerate her dead brain cells. Shade thought it possible that Pluto wouldn't mind sparing her.

Considering that she was suicidal, even if they let her go, it was likely that she would go and hang herself or cut her own wrists.

But Jack shook his head. "Jack doesn't want to. Jack wants to take her with us; that person will definitely like her, too. He'll forgive us."

It seemed that Jack wanted to take her with them because they got along well.

"I see, then let's take her with us," said Pluto. "But you have to tell her properly that she mustn't commit suicide until then."

"Yeah, alright! Jack will tell her not to cut her wrists anymore!" said Jack.

Jack had said that the last time as well... Incidentally, Gazer had made her tenth suicide attempt yesterday. Pluto and her companions were actually impressed that she hadn't died for real yet.

"Has Enma confirmed that the one who died is the real boss and not a double?" asked Pluto.

"He has," said Shade. "It's the real one, he said. The double died in a struggle three months ago."

"I see. Then shall we go back? After we choose a souvenir for Ereshkigal* who's been waiting for us," said Pluto.

TLN*: In Mesopotamian mythology, Ereshkigal was the goddess of Irkalla, the land of the dead or underworld.

"Maybe the dry-cured ham that was in the fridge will do?" Jack suggested.

--------------------------------------

The final day that the Eighth Guidance desired was drawing closer.

"When that time comes, we'll definitely know if that dream was just a dream or something that will come true. Ah, I'm looking forward to it," said Pluto.