( Yuuki's POV )
After the festival, we were traveling to the next station, and everyone was well rested, well some had had a little too much to drink the day before, but that wasn't too much of a problem.
We were very close to our most important stop, the Kongoukaku, where the leader of all the stations, the shogun, was, and there I knew that other kinds of problems were going to arise, but I put that aside for the moment.
We had to go through a couple more stations before reaching our destination, and when that place was in sight, the atmosphere was noisier than usual, another train had entered the station before us, and the station's inhabitants were celebrating its arrival with enthusiasm.
As we got off our train I looked at the back of the man with long pink hair who was standing in front of the others as if he were leading a parade.
Mumei: Anii-sama!
The Kabaneri girl, Mumei, who was with us called out to the man in a familiar manner, Ikoma followed behind her and when the guy turned around at the call, we exchanged glances, he started analyzing me, but I already had him figured out with a glance he had the aura of a weasel, a cleaner one than the ones I've encountered before, but a weasel nonetheless.
I felt killing intent behind me coming from my maid Sakuya, but I didn't worry about it.
Yuuki: Who that guy?
Ayame: That guy? He's Biba, the leader of the Hunters, the best Kabane elimination team, they have retaken many stations from the Kabanes, and he is also the son of the shogun.
With that new information, I told Ayame to go to the meeting with the station managers while I went to have a private conversation with my maid and the other woman we had extracted from a hive, Rumiko.
Yuuki: Sakuya, can you tell me what happened back there?
Sakuya: I'm sorry my emotions got out of control, master.
Yuuki: That's fine, but you wouldn't do that without a reason, could you talk about it?
Sakuya: After seeing that man, I recovered some of my memories, Rumiko and I were part of his group of hunters, and he was also the one who turned us into hives.
Yuuki: and how can he do that?
Sakuya: He has a good researcher specialized in Kabanes, he developed two injections, one that accelerates the evolution of a female Kabaneri to a hive and another that reverses the process, Biba is the kind of person who will use anything and anyone to accomplish his goal, if he isn't already working with the Crimson Ravens, they will contact him soon.
Yuuki: I see then I have a mission for you, Sakuya I want you to spy on Biba, confirm your suspicions.
Sakuya: understood master.
Yuuki: and you Rumiko-
Rumiko: You want me to bag that researcher, right?
Yuuki: correct.
Rumiko: Consider it done, boss, although he might get a few dents along the way.
Yuuki: As long as he's alive, that's fine.
I hadn't talked much with the girl we had rescued, but unlike Sakuya, she had a fiery attitude that matched her red hair.
After giving my maids their missions I tried to catch up with Ayame at the meeting with the station representatives but I was stopped at the door, they were very polite in their way of treating me because we were now a well-known group now, they didn't want to anger me but they also didn't want us to continue on our way to the Kongoukaku.
The paranoia seemed to get worse the higher up in command you went, but they were right to be wary of me, the people in power now are leading the world to its downfall, and they must be removed, but of course, they are not going to accept that easily.
Biba was being treated in a similar way, being denied passage to the Kongoukaku and as they had no other form of transport other than trains he needed to force his way through, I decided to wait to see what his next move would be, I was sitting on the station wall when I saw a small group of those hunters getting off Biba's train on some kinds of one-wheeled motorcycles.
I teleported in the path of one of the hunters, I was floating slightly above the ground, and when he passed by me, I grabbed him by the neck, and his motorcycle flipped several meters in front of him.
Hunter: Hurg what the heck, who are you?
Yuuki: I've got you by the neck, I'm asking the questions here, where were you going in such a hurry?
Hunter: You're not going to get anything from me!
The hunter quickly took something out of his pocket, a small white bag that he placed against his chest, and when he pulled the cord that was coming out of it, a small explosion put a hole in his heart.
'It seems we are dealing with a very devout group.'
I looked at the newly created corpse, then at the overturned motorcycle, and then I decided to take it for a spin, I followed the rest of the hunters from a safe distance, and when they stopped in the middle of nowhere, I watched them from high ground.
They met a hooded man and they started talking, that looked like a business transaction and then some portals opened behind the hooded guy and a group of red-skinned BETAs came out, Kanzashi had confirmed that those were Manderium tank-class BETA, I could feel some power coming from the hooded man but he wasn't a world traveler, he was probably someone like Krauser, with a replica divine pearl inside him.
After that small demonstration, the hooded man climbed onto one of the hunters' motorcycles, and they returned to their train, I was going to return too, but before that, I received a message from Matsu.
Matsu: [ Yuuki; Biba and their people are leaving the station.]
Yuuki: Seriously, before they were making things difficult for us, what changed?
Matsu: [ The station managers were killed... by Sakuya.]
Well, it seems she decided to investigate Biba by being as close to him as possible.
Matsu: [ Do you want me to try to contact her?]
Yuuki: No, let her work, I trust her, we have other priorities, I just confirmed that Biba's group is working with a world traveler.
Matsu: [ what's the plan? ]
Yuuki: We'll leave the station too, but take the long way around, I don't want them to think we're following them.