"..."
Vill-V wasn't as strong as Lin, but she wasn't a frail shut-in either. Magic performances and inventive research required significant physical and mental stamina. She was more than capable of restraining a Lin who was unable to leverage his strength.
In that moment, Lin realized he had been tricked again—and by such a simple ruse.
"Let me go." Lin tried to break free, but Vill-V clearly wouldn't give him the chance, her leg pressing against his joints to prevent a sudden burst of movement.
"Mmph..." Vill-V looked at Lin with her cute, dazed expression, scanning him from top to bottom. She quickly confirmed her target and chuckled softly. "Lin, do you think I caught you just to let you go?"
"..."
Did this mean pleading for mercy was useless?
"Don't worry, don't worry. It'll be over soon."
Vill-V easily unfastened the buckle of Lin helmet. With a flick of her finger, she slid the helmet up.
As she raised it halfway and saw Lin fair neck, a thought occurred to her. She used her free hand to pull an index-finger-sized rectangular object from her pocket and pressed it against Lin joined hands.
Click.
With a soft sound, the object transformed into a pair of handcuffs, firmly locking his hands together.
"This is a byproduct from when the 'other me' was developing the transformation mechanism for the Divine Keys. Usually, it exists in a portable form, and when needed, it turns into an appropriate shape."
Lin sincerely hoped she would use these technologies for righteous purposes rather than for attacking her own people.
With her hands now free, Vill-V found things much easier. She removed Lin helmet, admiring his face for a moment as if it were a work of art. Then, she wrapped her arms around his head, pressing her cheek against his, rubbing against him like a cat against a leg.
Lin remained motionless. He felt that if he interrupted Vill-V "whim" at this moment, things might take a turn for the worse.
However, what he didn't know was that Vill-V was actually squinting her eyes to observe the hair at the back of his head. Her fingers brushed over his cheeks and forehead, quietly plucking a small tuft of hair. Then, while performing these intimate actions, she unobtrusively observed other parts of Lin body.
Seeing that the ends of those hairs were already stained silver-white, as if "corroded," thoughts flashed rapidly through her eyes.
Meanwhile, Lin could only see the smooth nape of Vill-V neck bobbing in front of him. He had no sensation, so he could only judge what she was doing through sight and sound. However, she appeared to be touching and sniffing him quite normally.
But the scene soon spiraled out of control. Vill-V hands moved from his head to his upper body, reaching directly into his collar.
Lin watched silently as the "small bulge" beneath his collar moved downward.
"...Vill-V."
"Mm-hmm?"
"That's enough."
"What do you mean 'enough'?" Vill-V asked with feigned confusion. "You can't feel it anyway, right?"
"..."
Lin now understood the general methods of a deceiver. That innocent tone and appearance often caused people to lower their guard—sharing commonalities with a magician, as both were fundamentally "tricking people."
"It's okay if you really can't hold back; I'll take it all."
"..."
Back, chest, abdomen... Vill-V calm gaze swept over every part of Lin body. Her hand lingered specifically over his heart for a moment. After sensing a normal heartbeat, she finally withdrew her hand from his clothes.
Just when Lin thought it was over, Vill-V crouched down right in front of him. Her steady gaze landed on...
Lin instantly felt a wave of cold dread.
"Wait."
Faster than Lin could speak, Vill-V gripped both sides of his pants and pulled them down.
Whoosh!
Lin couldn't feel temperature, but he finally understood what it felt like to have a sudden chill between his legs.
...
"My, I didn't expect her to usually look so weak but act even more direct than me." Vill-V... or rather, the Vill-V with the engineer's talent, stood before the black-faced Lin and scratched the back of her head indifferently. "However, the two of us are Vill-V, but we aren't the same person. If you want to settle scores with her, don't come to me."
They were the same person when convenient, but separate individuals when it was time to settle accounts. Lin had to admire how Vill-V could utilize her split personality trait for her own convenience.
"In any case, I'll be staying in Mu for a long time. I'll be coming back to the Tenth Branch often."
Thank God—just don't let her come.
Vill-V waved her toolbox at Lin, then turned to walk out the door.
At the entrance, she suddenly remembered something and ran back to Lin side. Standing on her tiptoes, her soft lips left a mark on his cheek.
"Hehe."
Then, without waiting for Lin to say anything more, she laughed and flew off like the wind.
Lin turned to look at his reflection in the glass. The shape, position, and size of that lip print...
He finally knew who had done it on the ship that day.
"Get married."
Ato appeared behind him at some unknown point, resting a hand on his shoulder.
"..."
...
After walking some distance from the branch, Vill-V pace slowed. She lowered the brim of her hat, taking in the surroundings like a detective. She then ducked into a deserted alley and reached an empty corner.
Crouching to open her toolbox, Vill-V took a beaker from among her magic props and dropped the hair she had taken from Lin into it. She then opened a bottle sealed with precision instruments and poured out a sky-blue liquid to fill the beaker.
Honkai energy can usually be detected by standard measuring devices, but if the energy contained is too sparse to be measured by instruments, there is another more accurate but more troublesome method.
Much like using pH paper to measure acidity, Honkai energy can be detected through a similar process.
After observing some subtle anomalies from the conscious world, Vill-V had wanted to obtain some hair from Lin. However, because others were always present, she had no opportunity. On the return ship, she had tried to go to his room at night, but there were more people there than she had expected. She could only steal an article of his personal clothing to see if there were any tissues left behind for testing.
In the end, she had to personally come to retrieve a standard sample.
Vill-V swirled the liquid in the cup and held it up to the light. She tilted her head back, observing the fluid.
After about thirty seconds, both the liquid and the hair changed.
The originally sky-blue liquid darkened, turning toward a pinkish-purple, while the silver-white on Lin hair instantly covered the entire strand upon being stimulated.
Vill-V stared intently at the beaker; the change inside was clear as day. After watching it happen, she silently packed the items away again.
An extremely minute amount of Honkai energy, yet under stimulation, it would mutate and corrode other areas.
Lin had already been injected with the Honkai Sickness serum; he should not be infected again. But what was this persistent Honkai energy on his hair?