World's First Demon Lord 92 Bluffs and Returns

May 11, 2:30 pm, Tokyo, Japan

"Thank you for visiting!" said the cheery store attendant, bowing as Sakura left, shopping bag in hand. As soon as she was out on the sidewalk, Sakura immediately took out her purchase: a burner phone.

If Sakura was counting right, this was the fourth time she had to buy a new phone. Technically, she didn't have to, but she wanted to be safe.

After all, she was planning on calling Jason directly.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Michi when she told him the plan.

Sakura had just finished apologizing to Ayai, and she and Michi were going over how to get Bunta back. She had been pacing around the bedroom while Michi sat in the seat beside the bed, legs and arms crossed.

"It's the only way I can think of," she said honestly. She looked at Michi with a pained expression. "I know this doesn't leave much for you to do-"

"No, I understand," said Michi waving it away. "I've got a skillset, but you only need me for the first part. I get it."

"You've already done more than I ever planned for you," admitted Sakura. "Honestly, I didn't think you'd want to stay around after the whole...lab invasion thing."

"And miss out on all this drama?" Michi scoffed. "Do you even know me?"

Sakura smiled again as she ripped the phone out of its casing, remembering Michi's words. She had been honest when she told him that there wasn't anything for him to do in her plan to save Bunta.

But that didn't mean he was useless, nor that he didn't have a place in their team. In fact, without Michi, Sakura was certain that she would have not been able to make it out of half the situations she had found herself in.

He kept her going, with his jokes and cheeriness, and for that, Sakura was eternally grateful.

She dropped the box the phone came in into the trash as she walked past it, and opened the back of the phone to insert the SIM. Still walking, she booted up the phone, then took out and flipped open her actual phone.

Sakura copied over Jason's number. She had managed to get it back when she had been tracking the detective's phone.

Without wasting another second, she dialed the number.

Jason answered on the fourth ring.

"You have my chimera, I presume," said Jason immediately. His slick, deep voice instantly irritated Sakura, but she held it in.

"The chimera might have something to say about that," Sakura managed to reply smoothly. "They didn't seem all that into the idea of humans."

Jason laughed.

"Your boy Bunta for the chimera then," said Jason. "Tokyo Tower. One hour."

Immediately, the line went dead. Sakura looked at the phone, surprised. She had expected him to keep her on the line, maybe try to track her location or something. Apparently he didn't feel the need.

Well, it wasn't like he was wrong. This fact only annoyed Sakura more.

She took in a deep breath, then calmly threw the burner phone in the trash. Still walking, she rifled through her shopping bag.

It seemed Jason had the uncanny ability to do and say the exact thing that would get under Sakura's skin. She was sure that he was doing this on purpose, thinking that he was putting her off her game by getting into her head or something.

That was the thing about people like Jason. They always thought they were more important than they actually were.

Sakura smiled as she put on a new pair of sunglasses.

And that was their weakness. With that in mind, Sakura began to execute her plan.

May 11, 3:01 pm, Tokyo, Japan

Despite the brightness of the day, there was a hint of gloom above the city due to the number of clouds in the sky. Although they were mostly white and fluffy, the sheer number of them blocking out the sky made the buildings feel more drab and boring as a result.

It was the afternoon, about an hour before clock out for a lot of places. In that sense, the woman was quite an unusual sight.

She was dressed professionally, in a white blouse and gray pencil skirt and short, black heels which clicked on the ground as she walked. She was by no means ugly either, despite her face being pressed into what seemed like a permanent frown. The few people she bumped into blinked in surprise, entranced by the angry beauty they had briefly come in contact with.

Yet, for some reason, despite all her memorable marks, she seemed to go by the city unnoticed. She finally escaped the public eye once she entered a building with a group of other office workers.

And promptly disappeared.

Not that anyone noticed. The receptionist of the building smiled at the group of office workers coming back in, then buzzed them through the door leading to the offices behind. Not a single one of them noticed another person slipping in along with them.

This was obviously Sakura, and the building was obviously Neurix labs.

She had disguised herself as an office worker. Michi had hastily modified Ai's officewear to fit Sakura, and the rest had been illusion.

Of course, she hadn't yet figured out how to make herself invisible at will. Instead she had simply made herself look like a bug scuttling on the floor. A very fast bug, that moved way too quickly, but it was better than nothing.

The reason Sakura had changed into the clothes alongside using illusion was to fool the cameras. Despite the growth of her power, she still could not fool cameras with her illusions, although she was starting to feel like she could if she figured out the knack for it.

Still, this was not the time to experiment. She had a job to do, and a time limit.

Sakura almost felt like she was returning home as she slipped past the Neurix doors once more. This was her third time back, and hopefully her last. The plan was to get in, get Bunta, and get out before she was noticed. She was eighty per cent sure that Bunta was being held in the same area Michi had been, and so headed there first.

She walked calmly and confidently, making sure to keep an eye on her surroundings. She was also eighty per cent sure that she would not be caught. After all, they expected her to be at Tokyo Tower, being tricked into trading the monster for some fake Bunta. Not here, looking for the real Bunta.

She had half an hour of time before Jason realized what she was up to. More than enough time.

So why did she feel like she was walking into a trap?

Her heart was thumping hard, threatening to give her away. Sure, she was invisible to anyone but cameras right now, but no one would look twice at a professional looking office woman in an office building.

For some reason, telling herself that didn't stop the sweat from beading across her forehead.

Sakura shook off her uneasiness, walking deeper into the lab. She took the familiar stairs down, passing by a couple of labcoats.

It was at that point that Sakura realized that it was the familiarity that was tripping her up. She was so used to running for her life in these halls, that simply being back here was triggering this automatic response.

At least, that's what she hoped was happening.

She reached the basement floor and made her way to the back. Past the storage room full of monsters, down the hall, and after two lefts. The first door on the right.

The freezer room. The last time she was here, she had been in a hurry, trying to get Michi out.

God, she hoped Bunta was here so she could get out as soon as possible.

With trembling hands, she opened the door.

Creeeeeeaaak...

Sakura frowned. She didn't remember the door being so...old...the last time she was here. Of course, she had been in a rush but...

Urgh. Whatever. She just wanted to get out already.

She stepped into the freezer room, once again greeted by freezing air. She didn't bother with the light; she just wanted to get this over with. She undid her illusion so that Bunta would be able to see her, then used her phone as a flashlight to light the way up to the industrial freezer.

She knew that there were shelves upon shelves of foodstuffs in here. Sakura suddenly wondered why a lab would need so much food.

"Probably to keep the monsters fed," she muttered to herself. Then frowned.

That couldn't be right. All the monsters were in suspended animation, being fed through tubed and weird osmosis liquid.

So what was all the food for.

She pondered this as she reached the industrial freezer, stopping in front of it. For a moment, she glanced back at the open door. She needed to be quick, unless someone walked by and saw the door open.

Holding her phone awkwardly, Sakura heaved as she pulled the door open.

"Well, well, well," said a very familiar, slick voice. "Weren't you supposed to meet your friend at Tokyo Tower?"

Sakura's eyes widened, refusing to believe what they saw. Her heart stopped as a shiver went up her spine.

She heard the door to the room slam shut, and the light buzz on. She looked back to find the room crawling with men in black, all pointing guns at her.

Of all the things she had expected...

She slowly turned back to the freezer, where the man was waiting for her.

Jason grinned, spreading his arms wide.

"Trespassing again, Watanabe?" he tutted. "Looks like we need to have a talk."

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Chapter end