"Ann? Ann, is that you?"
"Alright, we're linked! Yugo, can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear. Exactly what I’d expect from one of your devices."
"So you were safe after all. Not that I was worried for a second, of course."
"Good to hear your voice, Marcos. Since Ryuga’s there, tell him Yui-chan is safe too."
"I can hear you, Yugo. Thank you for the concern. But honestly, shouldn't you be more worried about your own skin right now?"
"Heh, fair point... Sorry. Could you fill me in on what's happening out there? I need every scrap of intel I can get."
Once they confirmed the communication link was stable, Anhel relayed every piece of information they had gathered to Yugo.
She explained that the massive blossom atop the roof was the root of the crisis, that the Security Force was paralyzed by the creature's Explose traits, and that the second monster fused into the hybrid was a Kraken. Listening to her report, Yugo muttered as the pieces clicked into place.
"A Kraken? So it’s a giant squid. That explains why my strikes felt so off."
He nodded to himself, finally understanding that the strange, squishy resistance he felt was due to the creature's cephalopod nature. He recalled a monster from a hero show in his old life—a squid-themed creature that absorbed the impact of every blow. As he was lost in thought, a startled Anhel threw a question back at him.
"What do you mean, 'felt off'...? Yugo, did you actually fight that enormous flower!?"
"No, I was in a fight, but it wasn't against the big one—"
Yugo proceeded to brief the group outside on the events unfolding within the hospital.
The group, including Jinba, listened intently to the vital report on the interior's status, mentally organizing the facts.
"In other words, that flower appeared without any warning? If that’s the case..."
"Nine times out of ten, this thing was planted. But is it really possible to manufacture a Magic Armor Beast?"
"At the very least, we’ve seen multiple cases recently where humans have been forcibly transformed into Magic Armor Beasts. If that's possible, then creating an artificial one from scratch shouldn't be out of the question."
According to the doctors and nurses on staff, there hadn't been a single omen or warning sign before the catastrophe. It was far more logical to assume someone had smuggled a dormant Magic Armor Beast into the hospital and triggered its rapid growth.
Just as the conversation reached that conclusion, Yugo spoke up as if a memory had suddenly jolted him.
"Wait, that's it! Right before the monster showed up, I saw a guy bolt out of the hospital like his life depended on it!"
"Ah...! The man who bumped into me...!!"
Raiha remembered him clearly—the man who had slammed into her while she was trying to find Yugo, only to sprint away without a word. Looking back, the Magic Armor Beast had manifested almost immediately afterward. He had likely planted the seed of the giant flower on the roof and attempted to clear the blast radius before it fully matured. His frantic behavior made perfect sense if he were trying to avoid being caught in his own trap.
"That suspicious man is a lead worth following. I’ll divert some men to track him down."
"Are you sure? He’s probably miles away by now."
"No, criminals of this sort almost always linger to watch the panic. Especially someone bold enough to personally plant the seeds of a disaster at the scene."
Jinba reasoned that a culprit who went to the trouble of setting the stage manually would want to witness the performance from a front-row seat. As Jinba continued his profiling, concluding the perpetrator was likely a thrill-seeker, the discussion shifted back to the escape plan.
"For now, I've gathered the survivors in the first floor waiting room. We’re close enough to the exit to walk out... but the doors are completely overgrown with briars."
"It doesn't sound like a coincidence. It seems to have sealed the exits with surgical precision to keep everyone trapped inside."
"And then it sends humanoid minions in to hunt the survivors... It clearly possesses a degree of tactical intelligence."
"So this is its territory, and we're just the prey dropped into its nest? That isn't funny at all."
Trapped inside a hospital that had been transformed into a Magic Armor Beast's hunting ground, Yugo let out a bitter groan. He desperately racked his brain, trying to remember a similar episode from his favorite shows and how the characters had escaped, while his comrades outside continued to debate.
"If we make a move without a plan, those Explose bombs will all go off at once. One massive chain reaction."
"Given that this specimen is incomparably larger than a standard Explose, the yield of those bombs must be catastrophic..."
"But we can't just sit here! If more of those humanoid plants Yugo fought keep showing up, he won't be able to protect everyone forever!"
"If only... if only we could find a way to clear those bombs, we'd have a fighting chance...!"
Ideally, they would capture the culprit and force him to reveal how to neutralize the flower, but they couldn't count on things going that smoothly. Jinba gritted his teeth; the priority had to be the evacuation of the civilians, and the Magic Power Bomb Fruits were the primary obstacle to any rescue attempt. It was then that Raiha spoke up.