The Infinite World of Weapon Girls

Xia Shi clearly observed that the four tampered sushi pieces were swallowed whole by her in no time.

"Hey, where's Tina...? Hasn't she come back yet?" Xia Shi blinked, asking knowingly.

"Hmph, Tina isn't fun at all now that she's regained her power..." Tina muttered under her breath, then took a big sip of her cold drink, stretched out her arm, and brought two more plates of sushi to herself.

"Oh, right... this meal is on you guys, right?"

Tina stuffed half a piece of sushi into her mouth and was chewing when she suddenly looked up at Xia Shi.

"Of course we're treating (yeah right)." Xia Shi nodded, also appearing to be enjoying the meal, carefully tasting the cod sushi on his plate with his fork.

Upon hearing this, Tina stood up from her chair, moved all the remaining sushi on the table in front of her, and said, "Then please ask Xia Shi to order a few more pizzas or takoyaki for me."

*Smack!*

Xia Shi slammed her hand on the table and stood up. Tina also reflexively looked at her, staring at her ever-changing expression, and asked, "...Is it not allowed?"

This owl is really pushing its luck... or does it just think it's easy to bully? Oh well, it's not my money anyway.

Xia Shi quickly calmed himself down and forced a smile: "Of course... I'll go order it for you right now."

Xia Shi left her room and walked along the corridor toward the front desk. Since it was her first time in such a high-end restaurant, she was unaware that there was a call service function.

Xia Shi didn't actually go to order food; instead, he stopped in front of a row of freezers against the wall.

Specifically, Xia Shi stopped in front of the second-to-last large freezer, which was two meters tall. He turned around, hesitated for a moment, and slowly opened the refrigerator door.

She saw a girl leaning against the corner of the large freezer swiftly hide her half-finished fruit juice behind her back, staring at her with innocent, wide eyes.

"Ahhh~" Xia Shi covered his mouth and chuckled, "We've found a thief who's been stealing drinks."

As soon as he finished speaking, his mouth was covered.

Tina quickly got up and pushed the half-finished drink in front of her, stuffing the straw into her cherry lips.

"Now you're an accomplice too, so you're not allowed to say anything," the girl Tina said seriously.

Xia Shi gently pinched the straw and took a sip. After a brief silence, he raised his eyes and said, "Tina, the plan was a success."

The plan to 'steamed oyster slices with owls (so easy to fool)'.

Because of trust, there was no need for further confirmation. The young girl Tina simply hummed in agreement and turned to leave: "I'm leaving."

"Leaving" means returning to the Holy Emperor's home. Having experienced quite a few things, Xia Shi no longer felt sympathy for Tina's plight and followed without a word.

The two went downstairs to the front desk in the lobby.

Tina returned the room key to the cashier.

"That'll be 24,400 yen in total, young lady. Would you like to pay by card or cash?" The burly middle-aged man at the cashier smiled broadly.

“There’s still someone in room 258. She’ll pay the bill when she’s done eating,” Tina said calmly.

The cashier's expression changed instantly, because this method of evading payment was not uncommon. He frowned and said in a slightly cold voice, "...How can you guarantee that person will definitely pay?"

Tina waved her hand, conjured a photo, placed it on the cash register, and pushed it over.

The cashier picked up the photo that had flown to the edge of the table—it was of a cute blonde girl, disheveled in her pajamas, sleepy, and adorable.

……

As the two left the restaurant, Xia Shi kept tilting his head, desperately asking with curiosity, "Tina, who was that in the photo just now... could it be Tina?"

"It's Tina."

"And another thing, what did that man mean by making that face while holding the photo and saying it was worth 100,000?"

"I don't know."

The first floor was quite crowded, with a constant flow of people. The main entrance was right in front of them. They were walking hand in hand, but Xia Shi suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" Tina turned her head in confusion.

“I can sense the presence of the cursed child nearby…” Xia Shi murmured with his eyes closed.

Because of their unique physical constitution, the cursed children can sense each other's presence in some mysterious way.

“Not Tina,” Xia Shi added softly, then opened his eyes, looked towards a window on the first floor of the restaurant, and exclaimed abruptly, “…There!”

The girl followed her gaze: a two-seater by the window, where a little girl with long silver hair was sitting quietly. Her long hair and patched clothes were dirty, only her face was clean.

Moreover, her eyes were wrapped in white cloth; she was a pitiful blind girl.

Tina remembered that the blind girl in the animation went blind because her birth mother hated her red eyes and filled them with lead.

"..." Tina was a little surprised.

Because her attire was completely out of place in this 'high-class restaurant'... coupled with her status as a cursed child, she would be refused service in an ordinary restaurant.

"Let's go take a look." The girl took Xia Shi's hand and walked towards the blind girl.

……

"Big brother, I can hear it's very lively here, it must be a very high-end place, right?"

The blind girl felt extremely reserved and cautious after being suddenly helped chase away bad guys by a kind and gentle guy who also took her to dinner. She asked questions in a very soft voice.

Her voice was very soft and melodious, just like her singing voice (in the animation).

"You're overthinking it. It's just a third-rate little restaurant. It's only crowded and lively because it's cheap."

The young man knew the reason for her restraint, and since she couldn't see it anyway, he launched into a tirade, belittling Paradise Lost as a third-rate restaurant, hoping to make her feel more at ease.

Pushing a steaming bowl of beef jerky noodles in front of the girl and placing a pair of chopsticks in her small hands, the young man said softly, "I've already put the sweet sauce in for you. You must be starving. Why don't you try some?"

"Thank you."

The little girl took the chopsticks with one hand and groped for the bowl on the table with the other, because she could only start eating if she knew where the bowl was.

Suddenly, he grasped her clumsy, groping little hand and guided it to slowly rest on the edge of the large bowl.

"When Mingming was begging on the overpass, some people who hated the cursed child even maliciously threw the pull tabs of soda cans into her begging tray as if they were coins, just to make fun of her."

...This kind of thoughtfulness and care is something the cursed child could never hope for.

"Thank you so much!" the girl said again, expressing her gratitude quickly. "Big brother, aren't you going to eat some?"

"It's already eight o'clock, I've already eaten."

"So, why did you bring me here to eat, big brother? Oh, right, my little sister is still hungry. I'd like to take some back with me, is that okay?"

"I've already bought your sister's dinner... and the dinner for the Cursed Children in your outer district." The young man glanced at his watch and continued, "...It should arrive around now."

"So, Xiaoyi, please feel free to eat," he urged with a warm, sunny smile.

Suddenly, a voice interrupted.

"So it was you."

"..." Wu Teng was stunned. He turned around and stammered, "Ah, Tina, what a coincidence."

"Are you kidnapping young girls?"

Wu Teng pointed at Qian Shouxia, who was running to the blind girl's side asking her all sorts of questions, and retorted, "Let's be clear, aren't you also abducting someone?"

“I didn’t call this kidnapping,” Tina said calmly, thinking to herself, because she herself had almost been kidnapped.

"This isn't fair! Why is letting me go considered kidnapping?!"

"J isn't with you?" Tina changed the subject, getting to the point.

Wu Teng's expression turned serious: "J is up to something big, he's NTR'ing Rentaro."

The young girl, Tina, frowned slightly: "So depraved that you could even harm Yeonju?!"

Wu Teng's lips twitched: "Why did you think of Enju first? Of course, not Tendo Kisara, but... Shiba Miori!"

"Then it has nothing to do with me," Tina asked again. "What are you doing? Slacking off like J? I was counting on you guys to do the main storyline."

"Let the megalith collapse if it wants to." Mentioning the main plot, Wu Teng rubbed his temples and said dejectedly, "Anyway, I feel that the BOSS 'Aldebaran' who will appear next in the story is definitely not the biggest threat."

"...Compared to Scorpio, Aldebaran in Phase IV is only threatening because it uses 'pheromones' to command Gastrea. With the combined strength of the three of us and the Tokyo military organization, we are not a threat at all. Instead of that, we should explore the hidden mission."

"A hidden mission?" The girl stared at him with a knowing look.

"Yes, J and I are playing a grand game!"

Wu Teng smiled mysteriously and continued, "The East Outer District where Elder Matsuzaki is, the North Outer District where the red-haired girl I rescued last time is, the South Outer District where the blind girl is, and finally the West Outer District… In a few days, I will gather all the cursed children in the Tokyo Outer District and send them to a paradise that belongs only to the cursed children—Ward 44. Oh, Tina might not know about Ward 44…"

"How do you know about District 44?!" Tina suddenly exclaimed.

"You actually knew?!" The girl's reaction surprised Wu Teng as well. "...That's exactly what I was going to ask you!"

"Hey, it's better if everyone knows, then it saves me the trouble of explaining." Wu Teng became serious again and began to reminisce:

"...Learning about Sector 44 was also by chance. I still can't forget that scene. A seemingly ordinary pair of police officers encountered three Stage II Gastrea in the outer area. The Initiator, in order to save her partner, was bitten by a Gastrea and became severely infected, turning into a Gastrea herself. Just when the Promoter was about to die, J and I, arriving late, killed all the pests, including the Gastrea that the Initiator had turned into..."

“They actually… killed him…” the girl murmured.

Wu Teng stared at the ceiling, squinting, as if wracked with pain from reminiscing. He smiled bitterly, "If it were you, wouldn't you kill him...? There's really no choice in this kind of situation. What I didn't expect was that after that facilitator smiled and thanked us, he chose to lie on top of the Gastrea corpse that the Initiator had turned into and shoot himself... Damn it, how can there be police officers like this, facilitators like this in this world? I almost cried at the time..."

"It's that passage that Asako Sakakida once described to Tina~"

"...Later, a strange map was found on that guy's body. It was a map that was completely incomprehensible even when complete, with only the number 44 marked in the corner. Later, J, holding this map, unexpectedly encountered Sima Weizhi. It turned out that 'Sima Heavy Industries,' which Sima Weizhi was associated with, was a participant in the construction of District 44."

“But I learned it from the Holy Emperor,” the girl added. “The Tokyo government and Sima Heavy Industries may both be involved.”

"Who cares? We'll find out in a few days. Sima Weizhi is willing to provide as much assistance as possible for those cursed children... including the true coordinates of District 44."

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After leaving the Lost Paradise Restaurant, Xia Shi and the other person strolled along the street, intending to walk all the way back to the Holy Residence.

Because the young girl Tina looked preoccupied, Xia Shi obediently followed behind her without saying a word.

...Beyond the anime, the plot constantly reveals the true nature of Area 44.

How is this related to the main storyline of "preventing the Tokyo mass extinction"?

Most importantly—despite the lack of any hints, J-Uncle and Wu Teng's true purpose, the hidden mission, is to save the cursed children of the Tokyo area, which is their primary goal, right?

...

...