Chapter Thirty-Eight: What You Don’t Know Won’t Hurt You:

So much can happen in three days.

The shinigami held a board meeting that afternoon. Tatsumi booted up the projector.

“Viper’s Teeth,” he said. “They broke off from the triad in the early seventies and fled to Hong Kong. They mostly work in the medical field.” Tatsumi flipped to the next slide.

“The group has been on the blacklist since the 80’s.”

“Why is that?” Hisoka asked.

“They ran experiments on humans,” Watari explained.  “Deadly ones. I’ve been watching them for years.”

“Because of them, some people from Japan have gone missing. All evidence so far points back to Viper’s Teeth,” Tatsumi said. He flipped to the next slide.

“It’s come to our attention ten years ago they were working on Project Sunny. Are you familiar with the legend of the three thousand giants?”

“Yeah, they are locked away in hell or something like that,” Tsuzuki said.

“Correct,” Tatsumi said. “Ever since World War II, that barrier is falling apart. Descendants of the gods are struggling to keep the demons in the pit. This is where Project Sunny comes in.”

“It’s designed to keep the demons sealed in hell,” Konoe said. “However, there is one problem.”

“They’re using humans for this key,” Hisoka said.

“Yes,” Tatsumi said.

“What does this have to do with Kirika-chan?” Tsuzuki asked. The three men looked rather grim.

“What is it?” he asked. It didn’t take long for Tsuzuki to take a guess. “No…”

Watari took out the blood test results. “Her blood is suggesting it. Same with her father. Now, I’m not need to run more tests.”

“But what if she…?”

“We don’t know yet,” Tatsumi said. “I suspect that Viper’s Teeth will be after her.” Tsuzuki felt his stomach turn. Kirika-chan used in human experiments? No.

“Is there any way to reverse the effects?” he asked.

“We don’t know yet,” Watari said.

“And Daiyu? What do we do with her?” Tsuzuki asked. The men looked at the door. Despite not seeing outside, they knew she was there.

“The results haven’t come in yet,” Watari said. “We’ll have to contact her parents.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of…” Tsuzuki muttered.

“What was that?” Konoe asked. Tsuzuki buried his head in his hands.

“It’s complicated,” he said. It’s probably get even more so soon, he thought. Tatsumi cleared his throat.

“Either way,” he said. “Please be on your guard. I suspect the group will be looking for the baby next.”

“In the meantime,” Watari said. “I’ll keep looking up what I can.”

“Right,” Tsuzuki said. It didn’t take long for baby drama to take a backseat.