Chika had lent her that book, and it has proven enlightening. It seemed despite all of Hinum's just general strangeness, she was surprisingly good at understanding, if not people, then how groups of people behaved. Part of it seemed a bit mean-spirited at first, but the more Vert read, the more it started to make a twisted degree of sense.

  Like the idea that making people feel safe was almost as important as them actually being safe. Even more funny how Hinum pointed out that a lot of things that publicly made people feel like they were safe often undermined their real safety. Which weirdly, made its own amount of unintuitive sense. This resulted in her sister trying to fulfill the image and feeling of safety while at the same time, trying to avoid undercutting that safety with needless showboating, as she had called it.

  It left Vert with an almost humorous mental image. But also a bit of a sad one. She was learning a lot about how Hinum thought and how she handled stress. The fact Hinum had handled these past three years was both increasingly not a surprise, and a large one. On one hand, Hinum had plenty of ideas. Hardly any of them were original, largely inspired by people from her home, but that wasn't a problem. If a solution worked, then it worked, and only a fool would judge otherwise.

  In short, what Vert was trying to say was that she shouldn't have been surprised that the announcement of return had not been a small affair, either.

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  Vert still didn't have a good grasp on Green Sister yet. One regret among many. Chika had told her the difference was not much at the end of the day. And while Vert knew that Chika wouldn't lie to her, it was also very hard to reconcile the sight that she currently saw with Hinum's normal behavior.

  The sight of Hinum wearing a dress was a shocker on its own. Compared to the ones she wore as Green Heart, the one on Green Sister was much more modest. The dress left her arms and part of her shoulders exposed, along with her neck. The dress itself nearly went down to just above her ankles, revealing heels that once again, looked out of place. The mixture of whites and greens was soothing, the dress itself being an almost emerald, with the top being a pure white.

  But compounding just how strange it was to see Hinum, or well, Green Sister in a dress was her behavior. She was not an extrovert by any meaning of the term. Hinum would reather be with a book, or just with a small group of people. But right now? She flitted from person to person, almost like a small insect. There was by all accounts a refinement to her. An ease by which she moved across the room. Talking with various different people. Vert could see the mental gears turning in Hinum's mind with every interaction, knowing not just what to say, but how to say it.

  It was practiced. Hinum had learned to pull of an almost, warm friendly persona, cloaking herself in it. She spoke with media, taking questions with ease, showing that she was someone that could be approached. That nobody would have to worry about asking her tough questions. Because she would be willing to answer those difficult questions. How Hinum had even gotten to that point of just, being able to do that?

  It felt as if Vert had been gone a whole lot longer than just a few years. And that though almost aged her on the spot.

  Still, it wasn't perfect. Part of what made it work so well is that Hinum? Cared. It wasn't entirely fake. She was able to succeed because she started at a point of wanting to make things better. That she had a plan. She just needed to sell people on the fact. But it was clear even to Vert just how quickly Leanbox came first as far as Hinum was concerned.

  It made Vert's heart swell up with pride. Hinum really had done her best for the people of Leanbox, and it wasn't even because Hinum felt pragmatic. It was out of genuine care that Hinum tried her best and did everything in her power. Of course, trying her best included this, which was giving Vert a headache by this point. Vert knew that she didn't need a party, much less a big one.

  But she also could tell Hinum's reasoning. It wasn't entirely for her. It was for Leanbox as a whole. The ASIC had started by attacking Leanbox's people in a violent attack, then capturing their Goddess. Yes, Hinum stepped up to fill in the position and did so well. But as far as Vert could tell? Hinum saw that as inflicting a crippling wound that, if left untreated, would eventually see Leanbox collapse. She gave several reasons. Morale, the fact that things likely wouldn't get better, slowly declining faith putting them on a timer, a lack of unity that their sisters had made it difficult to coordinate a counteroffensive.

  The last one made Vert chuckle. It showed that Hinum had been too busy to pull up a history book and read through it. The four of them used to fight a lot throughout history. The past century? Abnormal, by their standards. But they had learned their lesson about fighting one another. Violently, anyway. There were still plenty of fun ways to mess with one another. But they kept it at that these days.

  Odds were that things weren't going to go back to how they were anytime soon. But it was clear that on that one front, Hinum really didn't know her history. And Vert planned on keeping it that way. Her very pragmatic sister would be disappointed in Vert if Hinum ever found out the truth about the situation at hand.

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  I hate parties. I really hate parties. If I could get away with banning the assignane, head-splitting concept, I would. The problem was that jubilant celebration had its own social purposes. A lot of different things had a wide number of important functions, even if I didn't like them sometimes. Much of social interaction came down to a 'can you act as human tests', and at the end of the day, celebrating an important event was one of those.

  Especially the return of a captured Goddess. That was never going to small, even if I would like it to be that way. But since I wasn't going to get what I wanted anyway, I swung big. Go for the fences. Basically make the affair a national holiday. Celebrations and time off work for a whole lot of people.

  And it worked. I didn't even need to look at the Share count to know that I felt stronger. Because I was stronger. Getting our sister's back was proving to be the shot in the arm that I thought it would be. Their capture marked a turning of fortune in a lot of people's eyes. Yes, the ASIC was causing problems before, but most people had faith that the Goddesses would be able to handle the problem. Them getting captured? Yeah, it was impossible for anyone to spin that as going according to any plan. Using going into the ASIC's heartland and coming back with our sisters in tow?

  Another shift. If we managed to do that, then the ASIC had to be weaker than when the Goddesses were captured, which was likely the logic going on behind the scenes.

  It was dumb logic, and I could see it biting us in the ass. It was a sign that normalcy had returned. Even if the ASIC was still a threat that needed to be dealt with. I wasn't going to lie, because I knew the type of social unrest and problems that could come from people thinking that a crisis was over and that everything was back to normal when it clearly wasn't, and might never be, could cause.

  Hell, we'd only fought Magic once so far, a showing that displayed perfectly why our sisters lost. Yes, Judge was dead, and he was one of their bigger guns and frankly, having that thorn removed from my ass, and Leanbox as a whole was a great feeling. Cutting down on the bosses of the ASIC had always been a goal of mine. But Trick kept his distance, Brave was actually smart, and Judge was a unit, and Magik kept to herself unless poked.

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  But Judge was dead. I didn't want to make that announcement. Yes, it would get good for morale, especially in Leanbox, the nation that had to deal with his shit the most. Or it could just be me being petty about the pain he put me through. That, and I didn't want to find myself in the position of his demise being greatly exaggerated. I don't care if I saw him blow up. I was going to keep my guard up on that front.

  I just had a feeling that announcing that was going to find some way to bite me firmly on the ass. Why? I had no clue. But I was going to listen to that gut feeling. Sometimes it'd been wrong before. But it was best to err on the side of caution. Especially as I had no idea if Magik or Arfoire in general had any resurrection BS up their sleeves. I hoped they didn't, but at the same time, I didn't want to take that risk. Because that was not going to be great for morale.

  And morale was just as important as it had ever been. Still, for the first time, things had swung back in our favor. It wasn't going to be easy, as such things never were, but we had a fighting chance now. And it was a chance I didn't intend to waste. Histore's plan required Shares to be bolstered even further, and I agreed with that sentiment.

  When it came to how I had options. I was going to have to check the grapevine for information. Despite my best efforts, we weren't able to get everything. While most of the ASIC's manufacturing had gone up in smoke within Leanbox's borders, there were still pockets, squirreled away in isolated regions with very loyal people working at them.

  The rescue of our sisters may not have reached their ears. But it also could have. If there was anything that could cause desertions, causing information to leak to our ears, then it was that. Well, leaking Judge's demise would also be a heavy blow, but until I was certain that he wasn't coming back, then that information was under lock and key.

  Stretching, I swung my feet off the bed, letting my toes dig into the carpet, my stomach letting out a grumble of protest.

  Fine, fine. First food, then see if any reports on the location of those last factories are crossing my desk. It was time we finally got rid of the last of them. Once we found out their location, of course.

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  "That, is a lot of deserters," I looked up from the report. I scarcely could believe what I was looking at. I figured there would be a handful. Maybe a dozen or so at most. Enough to at least pin down the location of the factories, or at least get us into the general area. Scouting from the air wasn't as effective in some areas due to the tree cover. The ASIC could get annoyingly smart when they were forced into a corner.

  Like a lot of other things in this world. A cornered rat is a rat that tends to fight the hardest, after all.

  But several dozen deserters? Sure, they were spread out enough that it wasn't enough to disable or shut down a location just with all of them leaving, far from it. But some of those factories were at least hamstrung, if not outright crippled.

  "Correct," Cave nodded, reviewing the maps in her usual stoic manner. "They've given us the coordinates for their bases as well. Scouting has successfully confirmed the presence of the factories."

  I could always count on Cave to have her ducks in a row. She was always very capable, and this was another choice of her ordering that I would have planned on. Yes, the information is well and good, but verifying that it was accurate information was how you avoided falling into traps.

  I was not going to have my own operation bite me in the ass like that without proper scouting.

  "It's a bit surprising that they were able to make it so quickly," I admit, looking at the map. These factories were isolated. Calling the regions the boonies would drastically overstating things. It wasn't a surprise how I didn't find them, as they were far out there even without them being in a heavily forested region. That's just how far out of the way they were.

  Logistically, supporting the factories had to be a pain in the ass. No surprise that the ASIC relied so much on smuggling because getting material and goods to and from the place had to be a nightmare.

  "It's partially luck," Cave admitted, knowing how I felt about luck in these types of situations. Luck was not something I particularly liked. Yeah, things could be a coincidence, but I didn't like going to that right out the gate. The fact they were found honestly meant there were some interesting implications. The simple solution was that it was, in fact, pure luck. "Running into scouts would do that."

  Worse? That the ASIC had knowledge of patrol paths, either just from simple observation, or there being a leak. The severity of this could run the range of infiltration of local command structures, and they had eyes and ears high up in our ranks. The fact that this problem seemed to be localized suggested the prior and would be something I would have to look into.

  I was going to have someone look into that. Ideally, it was luck, but I hadn't lasted as long as I had by trusting things to be up to luck.

  "The surprise is that they heard, and were able to head out, then establish contact. In, what? Less than twenty-four hours?" I asked, giving Cave a look. The ASIC wasn't going to let the Goddesses being back just, slip out. Those in charge had to be trying to pay such information close to their chest. Not that it would do them much good within Leanbox's settled and urban areas. Even small villages would be difficult, given the information network that had existed for ages before I got here.

  But for places that isolated? It was easy enough to make sure no information that you didn't want around to reach others. Nothing in, nothing out. Like how Japanese soldiers could be found for decades after World War 2, completely unaware that Japan had surrendered. Yes, it was somewhat different, as those ended up being completely closed off, as islands to boot. It was hard to get any more isolated than a tiny island in the Pacific. But they were pretty damn close.

  "You think there is something else going on?" Cave's voice was flat, but I could tell that she was at least curious.

  "There are many things. Information shouldn't have reached that far, unless it leaked beyond whoever is in charge there was able to keep things under wraps. The fact these people were able to find our patrol groups is a sign that they've either grown accustomed to the movements in the region, or worse, we have a leak," I said as Cave nodded. If it was simply a matter of acclimation, then changing the patrol routes was an easy solution to the problem. The bigger problem was if there was a leak. "It could be a trap. Or it could be a sign that things at these factories have spiraled out of control."

  Maybe this was wishful thinking on my part, but I don't think it was impossible. I'd have to review the reports again, to see if any breakdown or chaos was mentioned. But if there was? These factories were isolated. Jobs there were likely given to people very loyal to the ASIC, to ensure that their location didn't reach our ears. Meaning that the workforce was likely people who nearly completely believed ASIC's whole deal. Fanatically so. If the information of Green Heart, Vert's, freedom reached their ears?

  Then they would likely lose it. When I called the ASIC a cult, I wasn't kidding. Rather than reflect, these people would double down, and react violently when reality refused to conform with their expectations.

  "There is one way to find out."