Mutagen

Day 213 - 9:32 AM - Registration and Management Bureau, Shibaura Institute of Technology Junior and Senior High School, Toyosu, Koto City, Tokyo

Due to Mitsui Ren using her ability, the circle of spectators grew wider. However, it also caused more people to gather after noticing the ongoing commotion in front of the Registration and Management Building.

Of course, no one tried to get too close. The Black Lotus was well known as the current leader of the Kachidoki Area. As such, it was no news to many people, especially [Ability Holders], that Mitsui Ren's ability was to release a poisonous scent from her body. Furthermore, she was a master of blade arts despite her age of only twenty-five. She was also known to be on par with 8th-dan Kendo practitioners, and she could have gotten the same title if not for the fact that her young age did not fit the requirements for higher Kendo titles.

And, although unconfirmed, there was a rumor that Mitsui Ren hailed from an ancient family that was still active behind the scenes of the Japanese Government. The only thing known on the surface was that Mitsui Ren was the granddaughter of a successful businessman.

Unfortunately, Mitsui Ren's past and current status made her subject to the antagonistic actions of many people. For example, the leader of Blood Lion Troupe would not hesitate to offend her in front of everyone. It was pretty much what was happening at this moment. All due to envy and other conflicts, the groups had.

The leader of the Blood Lion Troupe, Mane, used this opportunity to provoke Ren as he tried to buy off the rumored [Sylph]. He knew she could not use her ability close to her allies and innocent people while he could overpower her in terms of raw strength.

However, the owner of the [Sylph] interfered, causing the situation to shift. It was clear that Mane was in a bit of a fickle this time.

But then, a man came out of the building's front door. His body was huge, and describing him as a bear was reasonable. He even had to lower his body as he passed through the door that should be able to fit even the taller people from the west.

"You should leave it there, Mitsui-sama," The huge man's deep voice entered everyone's ears, making them turn in his direction. "The military might get involved if this continued further and put civilians in danger."

***

"Whoa, huge..."

Emika could not help but say as she saw the bear-like man. Nonetheless, no one in Mark's group disagreed with her.

"Tsk." Ren clicked her tongue. "If you are going to interfere, why wait until now?"

As Ren said those words, the scent around her changed, and the foggy visage of the scent she had released before slowly vanished. Just like how she could release poison around her, she could neutralize it. The only problem was that she could only neutralize poison lingering in the air. If a person got poisoned by Ren, they could only wait until it lost efficacy on its own.

Ren's poison was not really lethal in small amounts. It was a poison that could make people dizzy. However, large amounts of it could lead to euphoria and hallucinations. Since the poison would go straight to the victim's brain, the detoxification would not work after the victim was already affected.

The scary thing about Ren's poison was the hallucination. It entirely depended on the victim's mind, which could result in safe events like the victim falling asleep to worst events like the victim going berserk. And if the people in the vicinity fell victim to large amounts of this poison, this area might immediately turn into a battlefield.

The bear-like man did not reply to Ren's words. Instead, he turned to stare at the annoying man emotionlessly.

"What the f*ck are you looking at?" Mane snarled at the bear-like man before turning to his female companion. "Tsk, we're leaving."

Mane and Asami walked away from the entrance and passed by Mark's group. Of course, the annoying man had a smirk on his face as he tried to give Mei another indecent stare.

Unfortunately, it ended with only a try.

The annoying man's eyes widened along with everyone's when Mark pulled a gun straight at the annoying man's forehead.

"One more stare. I'll drill a hole in your head."

Mark's voice entered everyone's ears. It was a voice that lacked emotion. A voice ready to take someone's life.

Of course, this surprised the members of Black Lotus. It was the complete opposite of Mark's display so far. When Mark was interacting with them, he appeared to be a bit detached, but he looked like nothing else but a man trying to protect his family. Right now? He appeared to be a man with no sign of empathy for anyone else's life.

"Newcomer, put your gun down," The bear-like man said with a frown. "You should not brand your group's arrival here with blood. The children are also watching."

Mark turned to the bear. His eyes were void of emotion. It was when Mark slowly put his arm down, to everyone's relief, especially Mane, who was at the end of the gun. After all, he might be powerful, but the gun was basically touching his forehead.

BANG!

Everyone's heart jumped. Some people immediately ducked by reflex. Mane jumped back in fear, even knocking Asami to the ground.

On the ground, a smoking bullet hole could be seen. Mark fired the gun on the pavement, fortunately. Nevertheless, it was more than enough to make people have a heart attack.

"You..."

The bear-like man glared at Mark. However, Mark scoffed at it and spoke.

"I'll repeat a few of Ren-san's words. If you're going to interfere, why wait? It's that bastard who you should be stopping from asking to die."

The bear-like man turned to Mane, who was already gripping his own gun.

"LEAVE!"

The annoying man froze as he removed his hand from the gun on his waist. He turned around to leave. But, of course, he tried to retaliate as he spat at Mark and turned around to leave.

However, everyone watched as Mane's saliva stopped mid-air before spraying all over his red-tinted hair with a strong gust of the wind.

Mane froze on his steps once again, touching the liquid dripping from his head, and smelled it.

"F*******************CK!"

Mane roared as he rushed off, leaving Asami behind. Of course, with the humiliation her partner received, there was no way Asami would want to stay. She stood up and followed Mane, ignoring the fact that she seemed to have sprained her right ankle when she fell.

Further adding salt to the insult, muffled laughter could be heard in the background, making the annoying man shake in anger as he left.

Many people witnessed the scene. And sure enough, many of them were happy to see the man humiliated like this.

"Wow... You're actually something, aren't you?"

Ren said to Mark, amazed by his display. She did not care if his previous display was just a facade and was just more than happy to have some retaliation against that annoying man.

"Is everyone alright?"

A voice entered everyone's ears. It was Tadashi, finally returning after parking the vehicle.

"Why are you only back just now?"

Mako complained to Tadashi.

"You know the parking is on the other side of the highway, right? It's quite some distance away."

Tadashi shrugged.

Mark paid attention to Tadashi. The guy was clearly lying. He was already here long ago, just blending with the crowd and ready to ambush the enemies if things went wrong.

"Just enter already if you have business here," The bear-like man spoke, interrupting the group. "Stop blocking the pathway."

"And you people," The bear turned to the gallery. "The show is over. Disperse!"

Everyone became quiet and went on their ways. The audience dispersed, except those who initially were here for Mark's group. Well, for Amihan, to be specific.

"Let's go."

Ren led the group into the building, feeling refreshed. She just glanced at the bear and passed through the door.

On the other hand, the bear watched them silently as they entered.

"Who is that huge guy?"

Emika asked, whispering at Mako.

"No one knows his name. Everyone calls him Okii-san since he's huge, and he doesn't really bother correcting anyone. He's the one stopping troublemakers in this area. His job is pretty much what he did just now. Just think of him as the Registration and Management Bureau's guard dog."

"More like a guard bear."

Mark chimed him, choking everyone in the Black Lotus. They were forcefully stopping themselves from laughing in front of the so-called guard bear.

The group walked into the lobby of the building. It was quite a large building, and the first floor had a few reception desks.

"Mitsui-sama," A female receptionist behind the nearby desk greeted Ren respectfully. "Looks like your group encountered some annoyance outside."

"Tell me about it," Ren shrugged. "That lion bastard just won't stop bothering us."

"But it looked like he got taught a lesson this time. It's a pity I can't leave my post and watch," The receptionist smiled. "Just be careful since that man might scheme something to get revenge."

"As if I'm afraid of him."

Ren smugly declared.

"Then, what is your business here today?"

The receptionist asked.

"These guys," Ren said, pointing at Mark's group and passing a few papers. "Newcomers to register. And there's the initial information. Only two of them can speak Japanese, so use those as a reference to make it easy to record."

"I see they are foreigners. Stranded tourists, maybe? Mitsui-sama came prepared, thankfully. It's really hard to personally record information from foreigners."

The receptionist had a relieved face seeing that she only had to check on the information given by Ren. There was no way that Mark's group was the only foreigners here, given that Japan had many tourists yearly, especially during holidays when the outbreak started. And since they were recording information from all people living here, it must have been quite a hassle. Not everyone here was proficient in English, after all. And for those that could, their work would have been hectic at that time.

Without further ado, the receptionist began working. They had working computers where they stored information. Mark's group was also asked to provide signatures and fingerprints, both digital and on a document. Their photos were also taken.

And when the registration was done, they were asked to wait in the waiting area. Apparently, they were being issued identification cards.

Sitting in the waiting area, Mark spoke.

"It's nice they're not asking for birth certificates, official IDs, and stuff. No one had the time to gather those things when everyone was trying to eat you."

"That's true," Ren replied. "That's why they don't ask for those things anymore. Here, everyone is free to live a new life. You can even give fake information, and it would not matter much. Well, it's unless you created some trouble and got caught faking it, of course."

"So, you can give fake information. But it's still not okay, right?"

Mark asked, receiving an immediate answer from Ren.

"Right. Fraud is a crime, after all. It's not like anyone can get caught if there's no evidence. This rule mostly applied to well-known people, especially notorious criminals. If your face was on TV for a crime in the past, someone is bound to recognize you."

Ren then turned to Mark and asked.

"Who are you, really? You made yourself appear to be some regular survivor. But your actions earlier... You're more than just a survivor, right? Your bloodlust earlier, that's not something you acquire just by killing the [Infected]."

Then, Ren turned to the members of Mark's group, looking at them strangely.

"And these girls... They didn't even flinch when you fired that gun. Everyone had a normal reaction earlier, aside from your group."

Mark shrugged. Because of that annoying guy earlier, the facade was now exposed.

"You're asking that now? You're not afraid we're going to suddenly attack after being exposed?"

"No?" Ren smirked. "I don't think you guys are bad people, especially when you didn't hesitate to drop the act when your wife was being harassed."

"I don't care what you guys are," Ren added. "As long as you're not a threat to my people or the Reclaimed City, my arms are open to welcome your group."

Mark glanced at Ren before looking back at the reception.

"Don't worry," Mark replied. "I treat others how they treat us. The Black Lotus had been nice, so there's no reason for me to become a threat to your people. Besides, it's not like we had some bad agenda here. We just want to have a decent place to stay other than a ruined building in the middle of nowhere."

Ren had some more things to say. However, the reception had called for Mark's group to give their identification cards. She could only stop here, for now, understanding there was no chance these people would join the Black Lotus.

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