At Work

Pressed for time, Hastur orders an immediate withdrawal for himself and his crew, though he warns Mantisian that the hunt will resume whenever they cross paths again. Once the exosuit wearers vanish, Mantisian sheds his combat form and turns his attention to rousing the badly hurt Okarun.

Across town at Moe Moe Kikoho, a colleague reminds Momo that her shift has dragged past nine, so she gears up to slip out before Reiko Kashima manifests at ten. The exits seal shut instead, and every customer and server in the cafe morphs into copies of a single alien that closes in on her.

Momo holds her own against the duplicates until they neutralize her psychic ability and pin her down. Marveling at how much energy the planet holds, the clones declare that Earth will let them assemble a flawless suit, leading Momo to guess they are tied to the Serpo. One of them confirms that the Serpo's intel on her is accurate, all of it owed to Bamora, who steered the suited aliens straight to her group, a revelation that stuns her. As the clone readies a Serpo dissection instrument, an actual Serpo bursts in to reclaim the stolen property and knocks the attacker aside.

The chapter belongs to the Space Globalists Arc within the Kintama Hunt Saga and is collected in the tenth volume. It runs twenty pages and first appeared on November 22, 2022. Bamora's role in betraying the group is delivered as a sudden gut punch, reframing earlier events.