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Last Embryo Volume 1 Chapter 1 Part 3

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

Editor: Weasalopes

Due to how unexpected this acceleration was, Homura hit his head against the headrest pretty hard, which angered him quite a bit, but right now he was willing to wait with voicing his complaints, because as angry as he was, it couldn’t be denied that he arrived just in the nick of time. Holding his pulsating head, he muttered a quick thank you and immediately went back to working on the management report.

Driving faster than was allowed by the speed limit, Tokuteru glanced back at Homura and said:

「Good grief, you realize that it has become a pattern now, right? Keep it up and you might just lose Milady’s affection.」

「Look who’s talking. Those cigarettes that you love so much, you buy them from the research expenses, don’t you? Don’t even try to hide it, I know you’ve been putting those really expensive, seven-star ones on the lab’s tab.」

「Those? That is nothing but my tip, kiddo, a tip, something that comes with the job. No client worth their salt would ever pay for the mercenary’s hiring fees alone. There always has to be something extra added to it.」

He shamelessly laughed the entire matter off. Tokuteru Mikado might have been the Canaria Family Home’s manager, but it was in name only. To tell you the truth, he is actually a freelance mercenary who travelled all across the world. As questionable as that title of his was, he was the one who found and secured the investors for the orphanage, so despite his slightly shady appearance he must have had a lot of friends in high places.

When they stopped at the red light, Homura looked outside the car’s window. Since it was the first day of the Golden Week, the usually crowded streets were also packed with lots of students in their casual clothes, setting them in stark contrast to the smartly dressed office workers who had to go to work even despite the national holiday.

「…. It has really been five years since then, huh?」

「What was that?」

「Nothing. For the time being, take me to the usual coffee shop, I will finish the report there.」

「Fine. By the way, Homura…」

Tokuteru gazed at Homura’s image in the car’s mirror, and after a bit of hesitation he asked him with a concerned voice that was highly unusual for him:

「Was there anything strange happening around you recently?」

「Huh?」

That was the second time someone asked him that question today, so he raised his brows in suspicion.

「Please define what exactly do you mean by strange.」

「Let’s see… it might sound stupid, but if I were to use an example… like, have you received any strange letters in mysterious ways? Like a letter falling from the sky at your feet in a completely closed room, but not closed like in all those 「no one goes in, no one goes out closed room murder mysteries」, just a normal room where no one would ever think of bringing you any letters when you have a perfectly normal, functioning mailbox outside your house gate, or perhaps a Calico Cat bearing the letter in its mouth and leaving it at your feet… that type of strange.」

「The hell are you going on about?」

Homura replied almost instantly, thinking that something might be seriously wrong with Tokuteru’s head. Maybe his brain finally started rotting from all those cigarettes he’s been smoking? When spoken by a fourteen years old girl like Ayato, such words could be dismissed as a cute prank or a silly joke, but when a fully grown man in his late 30’s was saying exactly the same words with a deadly-serious expression on his face, said joke lost all of its charm. Homura was about to ask him if that was something he set up together with Ayato to torment him, but he got interrupted before he could even open his mouth.

「Ugh, look, forget I said anything, okay? If nothing happened, then that’s well and good. Changing the subject, I plan to stay in the orphanage for about a week to see how the things are going in there, so I would appreciate it if you could help me tidy my room a bit.」

「…….」

He went on with that ever-serious tone of his. He might not look like it, but apparently he was really worried about those strange things happening around Homura or not. Well, it was to be expected. One way or the other, he is one of his guardians after all, so even if it sounded strangely out of place for him, maybe he should at least give it some thought?

He put aside the pile of documents that accumulated on his knees and opened up a laptop. After briefly skimming through a certain news website, he looked back and called out to him slowly.

「Old geezer Mikado.」

「What did I tell you about calling me an old geezer?! I am only 36 years old, so still ways away from being called a geezer!」

「Alright, alright, I get it, Mr. Mikado. While we are still on the subject of mysterious things happening… well, it might not be strictly related to what you were asking about, but did you know that currently, a natural phenomenon that should not have occurred is occurring in this world?」

「More details, please?」

「That phenomenon reported in the recent news: the gigantic typhoon that is now rampaging throughout South America.」

「Gigantic typhoon? The one that is supposed to be hitting Tokyo pretty soon? That one?」

「Yeah, that one. So, it turns out that on top of being unbelievably large in scale, that typhoon is apparently filled with all kinds of things that should be impossible from the scientific standpoint. It’s all written in the articles on this site, like this tidbit here, for example.」

Seeing that he apparently got Tokuteru’s attention, he began to read the contents of one of the articles out loud.

『After going north and crossing the Equator, heavily damaging some parts of Europe in doing so, the 24^th Typhoon that originated near the coastal waters of South America is now heading East through the territory of Southeast Asia without showing any signs of slowing down. The number of households damaged in its wake is estimated to be around 2 million and is expected to grow the further the typhoon travels. Initially known as Typhoon Nr. 24, it had been dubbed Typhoon Cimaron (TL Note: Cimaron is a collective name for four tropical cyclones that appeared in the northwestern Pacific Ocean in years 2001, 2006, 2013 and 2018. The name comes from the Philippines wild bull.) but due to its destructive nature and the threat it represents, it has been renamed to Taurus. According to the meteorologist’s estimations it is going to hit Tokyo Metropolitan Area in the first half of Golden Week. The citizens of Tokyo are advised to abstain from travelling to distant places and leaving their homes during that time as much as possible.』

Homura stopped reading there.

「As far as strange and mysterious happenings go, this is by far the biggest and the most discussed one right now. Well? How about that, Mr. Mikado? Is this close to what you had in mind?」

「Not at all, but thanks for the trivia about it I guess. What I don’t get is what makes that particular typhoon so special? Something about the route it travelled? Or perhaps its destructive power?」

「Are you being serious with me now? South America is on the southern hemisphere, while Europe is on the northern hemisphere. In other words, this absolute madlad of a typhoon did something that should never have happened: it crossed the Equator. By all known laws of nature, once a typhoon forms on one hemisphere, there is no way for it to cross over to the other.」

「There’s no way for something like that to happen? Are you absolutely sure?」

「100% absolutely sure.」

Homura replied momentarily and nodded his head like an expert who was well versed in the subject. Tokuteru just raised an eyebrow and looked at him doubtfully.

「Sorry to break it to you, but I am not what you would call a science person, so can you please explain it to me in a more understandable way, Professor Saigo?」

「Okay, I guess I could try to summarize in some nice and easy way. Just make sure to take notes, because this is going to be on the test next week. Ekhem…」

Clearing his throat, Homura prepared himself to start a noob-friendly explanation on the nature of the mystery of the Taurus Typhoon.