How did this happen?

How did the hunter manage to reach us so quickly?

Even if he had received information about our escape, this speed was simply impossible.

Could he have found us because of the train we used to track down the Foreign Entity? That would explain the speed.

...But now wasn’t the time to be thinking about that.

The hunter’s burning, intense gaze as he held me down was terrifying. Did he really want to catch me and do something to me that badly? His eyes, blazing with fiery determination, were overwhelming!

Wait, weren’t we supposed to be strangers now? Why had he suddenly chased me down like this?!

"Tanton!"

Agarta’s shocked voice called out my name. She clearly hadn’t expected the hunter to arrive here so fast either.

"Hunter, let go of him…!"

"Do you think I’d just let him go?"

What the hell was wrong with this guy?! The Foreign Entity hasn’t even been taken down yet!

The way he was holding me down was so overpowering that I couldn’t even speak properly.

And then, as if in response to our incomplete efforts, the Foreign Entity we were fighting began to change.

The hair that Asti had cut off started to grow back rapidly.

"What the...!"

Hunter’s voice rang out just as the situation was already unfolding.

The Foreign Entity’s hair extended and wrapped around us, separating me, the hunter, and the rest of the group.

Was it trying to gain an advantage by splitting us up?

"...A Foreign Entity."

Had Hunter noticed this and ignored it, or had he been too distracted by me to realize what was happening?

Now, the look in Hunter’s eyes took on a new intensity, though it felt like it was too late.

Suddenly, hair-like whips lashed out from every direction, pounding our bodies.

"Ugh...!"

Without the enhanced strength from the Foreign Entities’ power, I wouldn’t have been able to withstand the force. The hunter, too, was crouching slightly under the blows, but then, enraged, he drew a dagger and sliced through the approaching strands of hair.

"Damn creature, I’ll kill you right now."

Hunter’s eyes returned to their usual sharpness.

As his blade cut through the hair, the eerie sound of the hair vibrating, almost like a scream, echoed around us.

I thought we had an opening for an attack, but then—

Thud.

"...What?"

I felt something wrap around my waist. When I looked down, I saw that the hair had coiled around me.

Oh.

I wasn’t the only one who had found an opening.

"Ahhh!"

My entire body was suddenly yanked toward the Foreign Entity, and before I knew it, I was face to face with it.

The face, which looked like a peaceful woman to my eyes, was smiling at me. But the gaping mouth, wide open as if it were about to devour me whole, confirmed that it was indeed a Foreign Entity.

"Ah! This is terrifying! What is this?!"

If Super Coward Mode had censored this much, just how grotesque was the original?! Even this version was horrifying enough to me.

I tried to free myself, but I was already tightly wrapped up and couldn’t move. I thought about summoning the wings of the Dragon, but they refused to emerge from my back.

"...Of course, the duration ran out at the worst possible time..."

Unable to resist, I found myself halfway inside the Foreign Entity’s mouth.

But oddly, it seemed like it couldn’t kill me either. My body felt pressure, but not pain. It was more like being stuck between two walls.

There was just one problem.

...My clothes were slowly melting, leaving me stuck in the sturdy but soft costume underneath. The feeling of the warm material against my skin proved that the outer layers were dissolving.

"Ugh, this is disgusting."

I struggled, but without the power of the Foreign Entities, I was just a slightly stronger human. Even with the strength I’d gained from the Interrogator’s body, I hadn’t had enough time to accumulate significant power.

How long would I have to endure this?

Even though Super Coward Mode was making the inside of the creature seem bright and soft, the mere knowledge of where I was made the situation nauseating.

My head began to feel light.

"...Don’t move."

I heard the hunter’s voice.

There was a faint sound of a gun being cocked—he was preparing to fire his shotgun.

Was he really planning to shoot, even with me here?

Was I going to die like this?

Despite my worries, I realized there was nothing I could do in this situation.

I had no choice but to trust him.

I had to believe that the look in his eyes earlier, which seemed to show a reluctance to harm me, was genuine.

As I thought that, I could hear the sound of cracking whips getting closer. The hunter was approaching.

When I heard his footsteps directly beside me—

Bang! Bang!

Two gunshots rang out, and I saw the Foreign Entity’s body explode from within.

At the same time, a wave of liquid surged toward my face.

"Wha-?!"

Naturally, since I was still stuck in the creature’s mouth, there was no way to avoid it. I was hit full-on by the liquid and thrown out.

As I tumbled out, I saw the hunter standing close to the Foreign Entity, unable to avoid being hit by the liquid as well.

Splat!

I landed on the ground and quickly got to my feet, just in time to see the hunter drenched head to toe in the liquid.

The sticky fluid began to melt the hunter’s clothes.

The only fortunate thing was that it was just the two of us here. If Asti or Agarta had been around, they would have had to witness something pretty unsightly.

Forgetting that this was my chance to finally see the hunter’s face, I stood there, tense, watching him closely.

As the clothes melted away, revealing the hunter underneath...

"...What the hell."

All I could do was mutter in shock.

Because...

There, where I had expected to see a muscular chest, was something I never could have imagined—a full, feminine figure. The rough, masculine physique I had envisioned was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the hunter had a narrow waist and curves where they shouldn’t have been.

Wait a second.

Am I seeing this right?

Could this be some kind of Foreign Entity infection?

Or... could it be?

Could the legendary "Foreign Entity Hunter," who everyone called the greatest hunter, actually be a woman?

Was my casual joke turning into reality?

There was no denying what was right in front of me, so I had to accept it.

The hunter’s face, which had always been hidden, was now fully revealed. Though her expression was cool and composed, her flushed cheeks gave away her embarrassment as she looked down at me.

"Um... so..."

I felt like I needed to say something, but before I could, the hunter rushed at me and pinned me to the ground again.

"Ugh!"

Now that I knew she was a woman, I was even more aware of how incredibly strong she was. How could someone with such a perfectly lean body possess this kind of monstrous strength?

As that thought crossed my mind, I couldn’t help but notice the two soft forms moving in front of me.

The inappropriate scene made me blush and swallow nervously.

P-please, have some modesty...!

"...So, this is how it ends, Raydan Tanton."

Her voice, now clearly feminine but still low in tone, was muffled by the scarf wrapped around her neck.

All this time, her clothing and the coverings on her face had been designed to hide the fact that she was a woman.

"Well, since things have come to this, there’s no point in hiding it anymore."

As she spoke, her eyes filled with a strange intensity as she held me down.

"You’ve been appearing in my dreams, over and over again. Every time I had a nightmare, you were there, at the very end. On the day I swore never to see you again, you showed up in my dream, comforting me at the end, and it’s been haunting me ever since."

C-comforting her?

Wait a minute. Could it be?

Was the woman I consoled while collecting unconscious beings like Nutrièce actually the hunter?

Suddenly, all the pieces started to fall into place.

Her strange sensitivity.

Her awkwardness with physical contact.

And, above all, the time when she overpowered me so fiercely when I tried to hit her in the chest.

If she were a man, her reactions wouldn’t have made sense, but if she were a woman, they were perfectly understandable.

"And recently, I realized what this tormenting feeling was. It seems I need you, Raydan Tanton. That’s why I’ve decided, by any means necessary, to fix that rotten ideology of yours. I know you probably didn’t mean to throw me into that weird space, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized—your way of thinking has to change."

Her face, now noticeably flushed.

The slow, deliberate movements of her body.

All of this made me understand exactly what kind of look she was giving me.

And the moment I realized it...

I knew I had to get out of here, no matter what.