“You didn’t hear what I said, did you?”

“No,” Kyousuke admitted.

“We don’t know exactly what he’s after,” Arashi repeated what she had said when her subordinate spaced out, “but we know he’s planning to destroy the city and use it for his own means. Whether he wants to start from scratch, rebuild it as his own kingdom, or leave it as rubble, we don’t know. But he already set off a bomb in the far northern district, and we can only imagine he’s making an even bigger one to wipe us out. He must be stopped and put behind bars.”

“Behind bars?” Kyousuke scoffed in disbelief and looked up at Arashi, who was so tall from where he sat that it was a bit uncomfortable for his neck. “That lunatic? You think we’ll be safe from him if he’s locked up? He’s built bombs and a killer robot, and you think he won’t be able to find a way to break out of prison?”

“The good news is that he didn’t make those things himself.”

“Wait, really?”

“He has a scientist working for him,” Arashi added. “If we take out that scientist, he has little means of escaping or destroying us. At that point, he’s just a man.”

“Well, that’s good to know,” Kyousuke said aloud. But internally, Kyousuke refused to accept anything less than Crimson’s death by his own hands. After he came out of his vengeful reverie, Kyousuke noticed something strange about his chief’s plan. “Wait, if Crimson is nothing without his scientist, then why the hell do we need Ice? If we’re gonna break in, we might as well just nab the scientist instead, right?”

Arashi backed up so that Kyousuke didn’t have to crane his neck and shook her head. “The lab is a high security area, full of booby traps. But worst of all, if we don’t bring Ice to our side before attempting that… Needless to say, Ice will kill us with ease if we try.”

“Hm, that’s a good point,” Kyousuke said, feeling a bit defeated. “But how the hell do we acquire this killing machine without it killing us?”

“Ice takes orders directly from Crimson,” Arashi explained, “so we need to act when Crimson isn’t around.”

“But he’s glued to that thing,” Kyousuke said with a cringe. “He fucks it day and night.”

“Except for when he’s a sleep,” Arashi points out.

“Wait, the thing doesn’t sleep with him?” Kyousuke made a very exaggerated face of confusion and surprise that showed that there was still life in him yet.

“It probably does lay down with him after their sexual activities to recharge, but…” Arashi paused to click to the next screen of the slide, which was a screenshot taken from a surveillance camera in the city, early in the morning. “An android doesn’t really need to sleep. He wakes up much earlier than his master and leaves the house before the sun rises. He’s been seen out of the castle on Tuesdays, buying groceries.”

“Groceries?” Kyousuke reacted as though this was bizarre, wondering why a robot would have to eat.

“For his master, obviously,” Arashi rolled her eyes at her subordinate’s stupidity. “Even an evil mastermind needs to eat.”

“Right.” Kyousuke blushed in embarrassment.

“He’s programmed to buy groceries at that same time each week,” Arashi said, with a hopeful note to her voice, “which means, we know how to catch him alone, when Crimson can’t order him to attack us.” She stood stiffly like a soldier and looked Kyousuke straight in the eye. “Tuesday, 5:00 A.M, we will catch this android and reprogram him.”

Kyousuke looked her straight in the eye with a determined look on his face and said “got it.” Although, he had no intention to obey orders. He was going to slash that disgusting thing to shreds.