After the light faded from Pluto's eyes, Amemiya Hiroto felt a sense of disheartenment that he couldn't easily rid himself of.

In order to atone for destroying the 'Undead' without realizing that it had been one of the 101 reincarnated individuals, he had tried to save the members of the Eighth Guidance who had been saved by the Undead. Despite that, he had ended up killing the last remaining member with his own hands, even if it was to save the life of his own wife, Narumi.

And to make things worse, he had done so at the moment when Pluto had noticed the small life harbored inside Narumi's body and sacrificed herself to protect it.

I just ended up making the same mistake as I did with the Undead...

He had definitely made a mistake. This was the only thing he could think after how things had turned out; he felt an urge to let out a shout.

"... Let's at least burn their remains. I'm sure they would have wanted that," he said.

No matter what he did, time couldn't be reversed.

"You're right..." Narumi agreed as she closed Pluto's eyes. "I'm sorry that this is all we can do, even though we couldn't save the one who was important to you..."

"You might have forgotten this, but the United Nations have appealed for us to retrieve the bodies, so... alright. We just have to make it seem like we ran into unexpected resistance and couldn't retrieve the bodies, right?" said the 'Avalon' Rikudou Hijiri with a bitter smile, shrugging his shoulders. "But we should be prepared to face a lot of criticism. Everyone who is watching this through Angel right now is an accomplice."

This plan was one that had been created by the Bravers. As a result, they had succeeded in wiping out the Eighth Guidance, but the special forces of the various nations had also been almost completely exterminated, even if it had been a result of them making moves on their own.

And Amemiya Hiroto would be harshly blamed if the Eighth Guidance's corpses, the clues to death-attribute magic that the leaders and high officials of every nation so desperately wanted, could not be recovered.

"I don't mind that," Hiroto said.

He had prepared himself for that. A spell glowed in his hand. But before he could release it, news came through Angel from Iwao and the others who were keeping watch in the tunnel, telling him that circumstances had changed.

"Hiroto, Murakami and the others are here! They're saying some crazy stuff!"

"Some nonsense about them being undercover investigators!"

"Undercover investigators?" Hiroto replied. "You mean Murakami is...?!"

Through Angel, he could see Murakami, along with his three companions including Tsuchiya. They had finally shown themselves, holding identification papers from a federal state.

It was difficult to believe, but the identification papers looked genuine.

This is bad.

Hiroto didn't know how Murakami and his group had become undercover investigators for a federal nation, but he knew what they were here for. They were going to demand that the remains of Pluto and her companions be handed over.

If he let that happen, Pluto and her companions would lose their dignity. Not only that, tragic beings like the Undead and the Eighth Guidance would be created for the purpose of researching the death attribute.

Hiroto hastily began re-casting the spell that had been interrupted by the unexpected communications. "Hijiri, you take care of that boy's body –"

At that moment, the voice of the 'Venus' Tsuchiya Kanako, who shouldn't have been connected to Angel, came through.

"Okay, stop! If you damage Pluto and Enma's bodies any further, we'll arrest you for obstructing our search!"

"Wha –?! Why are you connected to Angel?!"

Hiroto looked at Narumi in surprise to see that she was wearing a surprised expression as well. But her surprise signified something different from Hiroto's.

"H-huh? Why did I leave her connected to Angel? Why did I think she was an ally...?"

Seeing Narumi in this dazed state, Hiroto instinctively realized what Kanako had done.

"Kuh, she used her ability!"

Hiroto groaned at the fact that he and his companions hadn't understood Kanako's ability, and in disappointment in himself for not realizing it. But even so, he tried to burn Pluto and Enma's bodies. However, Hijiri stopped him.

"Hijiri, why are you stopping me?!" Hiroto demanded.

"Hiroto, it's too late. Now that we've been seen by Tsuchiya, our excuses won't work. Or do you intend to be arrested for obstruction of investigation?"

"This isn't the federal state!"

"That's right; we're in a nation in the European Union. But do you think the European Union will cover for you? If you became a criminal, the Bravers could become disassembled. At best, the United Nations might send a new supervisor to take charge. I don't want that."

"That's... kuh!"

Hiroto tried to think of a way, using whatever abilities, magic, information and connections possible, to protect his Braver companions while not handing over Pluto and Enma's remains.

He couldn't trust the United Nations, which was ruled by the European Union and the federal state that had made Murakami's group into undercover investigators.

Kanako had already seen that Pluto and Enma were dead.

And every high government official and wealthy person in the world desired the death-attribute Mana that lingered in Pluto and Enma's corpses.

"... Shit."

Unable to find a way to fulfil both of his wishes, Hiroto chose to protect his living companions and the Bravers organization.

And then Murakami Junpei entered the room with a proud... or rather, bitter-looking expression, with Kanako behind him.

"What's the matter? Your face looks pretty pale considering you're the ones who chose to leave us," Hiroto said.

"It wasn't a complete victory for us, either. There were unexpected situations happening one after another, and we only narrowly came out victorious," Murakami replied.

Murakami hadn't exposed his identity as an undercover investigator to the Bravers because he'd wanted to. He had been left with no other choice; he had only done this because it was the final option he had been left with.

It would have been best if we'd managed to kill Pluto and retrieve the corpses without these guys noticing, or snatch the corpses after these guys killed them, but... I didn't think they'd sympathize with the Eighth Guidance and try to burn the corpses. Are they crazy? Don't they know how much those corpses are worth? Murakami thought bitterly as he pointed his chin towards the door, signaling for Hiroto and his companions to leave.

"Now then, we'll be collecting these. You guys go clean things up elsewhere," he told them.

"It'd be troublesome if you got in our way, you know!" said Kanako cheerfully.

Neither party wanted to look at each other's faces. Now that there was nothing more that could be done, Hiroto had no objections to leaving the room.

"... Before that, I want you to tell me something," Hiroto said. "Were you the one who set off a bomb in the Bravers headquarters and killed Izumi and Aran?"

He asked this question in the end. Previously, Kouya had investigated with Oracle and come up with the answer that the crime would have been impossible to commit with the abilities that Murakami and his nine companions possessed.

"Ah, that incident," Murakami said with a nod. He closed his eyes, as if reminiscing.

The truth was that it was indeed Murakami Junpei's doing.

Using a certain contact, he had received a hand grenade from the 'Gungnir' Kaidou Kanata, and using his Chronos ability, he had kept it for a long time, using his Chronos ability to delay the activation of Gungnir.

He had then thrown the hand grenade through the walls of the Bravers headquarters to kill his two targets.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but it wasn't us. It was the Eighth Guidance guys. I don't know what methods they used, though," Murakami said.

There was no reason for him to be honest and tell the truth.

"Is that true?" Hiroto asked.

Of course, he didn't simply believe Murakami's words immediately.

But Kanako gave him an ill-natured smile. "Do you have any proof or anything to use as a basis to doubt us?" she asked.

Hiroto let out a noise of frustration.

Both the 'Inspector' Shimada Izumi and the 'Laplace' Machida Aran, who possessed the Calculation ability, would have used their abilities in situations like this, but they were the ones who had fallen victim.

"Well, you'd just need to ask the Oracle once you return, wouldn't you?" Kanako continued.

Though Hiroto and his companions didn't know this yet, the 'Oracle' Endou Kouya had also already been killed.

"As long as we're here, we won't let you do as you please," Hiroto spat as he left the room, glaring bitterly at Murakami and Kanako.

Murakami and Kanako let out large sighs as he left.

"Does that person think that we're doing as we please?" Kanako said.

"We've got a lot of trouble ahead of us. Us villains have our own problems, you piece of shit," Murakami muttered.

The two of them began their work, starting with the retrieval of Pluto's corpse. If they didn't take it back with them, they would lose their statuses as undercover investigators, so this was necessary for them as well.

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

Within the day, Murakami and Kanako, as well as the surviving 'Aegis' Melissa and the 'Hecatoncheir' Doug, were at the federal nation's national department of defense... a building that was in the shape of a hexagon, commonly known as the Hexagon.

The headquarters of the intelligence agency that had employed them was located elsewhere, but beneath the Hexagon was a top-secret research facility, sheltering the few surviving researchers from the hidden laboratory that had originally discovered the death attribute.

That was why they had been summoned here, bringing the Eighth Guidance's corpses with them.

"Haah... everything's so serious here," Doug muttered.

"We're the ones who found employment at such a serious place," said Melissa.

"And I feel pretty depressed."

"We almost failed, after all. I hope they don't cut our rewards."

With the dissatisfied Doug and Melissa behind them, Murakami and Kanako headed into a place that was like a waiting room, led by some other employees.

Beneath the Hexagon, the corpses of Pluto and the others would be thoroughly examined and used for conducting research into the death attribute.

The corpses of Shade, Izanami, Isis, Baba Yaga and Ereshkigal had been impossible to recover, but through great effort, they had managed to collect the corpse of Enma as well as Jack o' Lantern's corpse, Ghost's corpse, Valkyrie's blood and Berserk's remaining fragments.

These would be analyzed, and inhumane research and experiments that Hiroto and his companions would want to avert their eyes from would be conducted here.

With the justification that this was for the benefit of the entire human race.

Murakami and his companions had experienced being in contact with the Eighth Guidance members over a long period of time while they were still alive, so they had been brought here to be questioned to aid the research as well.

"You think they'll come to interfere with us?" asked Doug. "If they do, I'll gladly fight them. I didn't get to go crazy last time."

"Doug, if you're talking about the Bravers, there's no way they'll come here. This is the national department of defense. Coming here would start a war. There's no way that Amemiya Hiroto, the good boy, would allow that," said Melissa.

"And thanks to Shade, he doesn't have the time for that, either," Kanako added.

The Bravers were currently being showered in criticism from the entire world. Thanks to the false information spread through the internet by the 'Oracle' Endou Kouya, whose body had been possessed by Shade, there was now a great fuss about him having been a devil worshipper, and him and the other Bravers having obtained their abilities by making contracts with the devil.

Unfortunately, the devil had never been confirmed to exist, Amemiya Hiroto and his companions had no way of proving that this wasn't true.

There was no way to prove that they hadn't signed a contract with a being whose existence hadn't been proven.

It literally was the 'Devil's Proof.'

TLN: 'Devil's Proof,' or 'probatio diabolica,' is a law term. The Devil's Proof is the logical dilemma that while evidence will prove the existence of something, the lack of evidence fails to disprove it.

There were all kinds of other rumors as well, such as that the Bravers had deliberately let the special forces soldiers of the nations perish, that Kaidou Kanata's evil deeds had been ordered byAmemiya Hiroto, that Amemiya himself had given the order to kill the 'Metamorph' Shihouin Mari because she had discovered the truth.

"Well, all of that is baseless nonsense. After a while, that information will become known to be the crazy words of the mad Oracle or fake information leaked by Shade. The suspicions surrounding the Bravers will clear, but the number of people who can't trust them will increase. Things turned out perfectly, didn't they?" Doug concluded.

"I see, so that's how it is... hey, can you not just appear out of nowhere and scare Sensei like that, Rikudou?" said Melissa.

Doug and Melissa looked in surprise at the fifth person in the room, the 'Avalon' Rikudou Hijiri.

But Hijiri was unperturbed by his presence being noticed; he gave Murakami a slight bow with a gentlemanly smile on his face. "It seems that you've managed to accomplish the minimum of what was requested, but it was quite the crude work, wasn't it?"

Indeed, it was the 'Avalon' Rikudou Hijiri, who was still a member of the Bravers. He was the mastermind behind Murakami's group.

He had persuaded the secluded individuals, Murakami Junpei and Tsuchiya Kanako, to betray the Bravers; he had planned things so that Murakami could obtain a hand grenade from Kaidou Kanata; he had arranged for Murakami's group to meet the top leaders of the intelligence agency of the federal nation whom he had brainwashed secretly beforehand; he had even had a hand in the kidnapping of the 'Gazer' Minuma Hitomi, who had been receiving treatment in a facility.

And it had also been him who had helped Shade kill Endou Kouya of the Bravers, without even Shade himself realizing it.

"It is our first job, after all," Murakami said.

"Everyone has a first job. But results are desired from professionals, even when it is a first job. Isn't that right?" Hijiri said.

"... That's true," Murakami muttered to his former student before falling into silence.

Their previous relationship on Earth was no longer valid here.

Hijiri had requested Murakami to do four things: Secure Pluto's corpse and hand it over to the federal state; dispose of Gazer, Marionette and Death Scythe before the mission was over; hand over any other body parts of the Eighth Guidance members that could be obtained; and erase any traces of what couldn't be collected.

The final part, the disposal, had been done by the Bravers of their own will, but all of the requests had been cleared.

However, three companions had been lost and the fact that they were now employed by the federal state had been revealed to Hiroto and his companions; if this was an exam, Murakami had just narrowly avoided a failing mark.

"But Hijiri, you were there as well! Couldn't you have helped us a little? Don't act like you're so important!" Doug said, lashing out at Hijiri.

"Doug, don't say such stupid things!"

Melissa and Kanako hastily tried to stop him.

"It's fine," Hijiri said, his smile not faltering at all. "He just misunderstands something. I... Rikudou Hijiri, was never there. The one who was there was her."

"Eh? What are you talking about, Rikudou-kun, you were with the Bravers the whole time – ?!" Kanako began.

Hijiri's appearance changed into that of a woman, right before the confused Kanako's eyes. Kanako and Murakami knew that woman well.

"The 'Metamorph' Shihouin Mari...?!"

"Yeah, don't call her by her name too much, though," said Shihouin Mari, who was supposed to have died in an explosion that occurred at her isolated cell. She was speaking with the exact same expression and tone, as if she had been taken over by Rikudou Hijiri himself. "I've carefully brainwashed her with magic and drugs, but it's not an ability, so it can't be called perfect. There might be sudden moments of noise, so be careful, just in case."

And then she transformed back into the 'Avalon' Rikudou Hijiri once more.

The one who was with the Bravers back then was not Rikudou Hijiri himself, but the 'Metamorph' Shihouin Mari, who had transformed into him.

Murakami felt astonishment and fear upon learning this fact, but at the same time, it made sense.

I did think it strange for the mastermind himself to go out there, but it was a double right from the start.

It had also likely been Hijiri who had pulled the strings behind Shihouin Mari being blown up. He had placed a different corpse there in her place, and brainwashed the real Mari to add her to his collection of pawns. Though this had been treated as the doing of the Eighth Guidance, the real culprit was among the Bravers, and this had occurred after Shimada Izumi and Machida Aran died.

It had probably been simple for Hijiri, as he was deeply trusted by Amemiya Hiroto.

That scrupulous mastermind gave a bitter smile as Murakami looked at him.

"... Ah, don't misunderstand. I'm not blaming you, nor am I reducing your rewards. This is just a little bit of idle talk," said Hijiri, who was even more of a villain than Murakami, through Mari who was apparently now no more than a relay device in the form of a person.

"W-what?" said Doug, seeming bewildered.

"Since you completed the minimum requirements of what I requested, I have no complaints. That's what I mean. You'll be paid the promised rewards, and you'll be employed in the intelligence agency with the treatment that you were promised. It will be difficult to have you treated like leaders right away, but I'll arrange for work to be sent your way so that you can build your achievements," said Hijiri, listing out favorable conditions one after another.

"Are you sure you can promise stuff like that?" Murakami asked.

"Of course. Despite my appearance, I'm controlling the intelligence agency of a superpower nation from the shadows, and nobody knows about it except for you four, you know? It's simple."

"Then I'm grateful, but..."

At that moment, an announcer's voice came in through speakers, calling for Murakami and his companions.

"It looks like it's time. Now then, I'll excuse myself," said Hijiri, transforming into a Hexagon employee as he left.

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

In an operating space, where the underground laboratory could be seen through a layer of reinforced glass, there were workers in lab coats