A plan to restrain a Herrscher? A plan to protect the citizens?
Was she talking about Godfather's evil scheme?
Herrscher... it sounded like something related to law. Did it mean someone targeting judicial authorities?
But if they were attacking the justice system, how would that protect the citizens?
Kosma frowned in confusion. Naturally, he had no idea what Vill-V meant by "restraining a Herrscher" or "protecting the citizens." But as Shadow ★ Shine, he wouldn't back down now—losing momentum in front of a Godfather cadre would only let her lead him by the nose.
He was a hero. Seeing through an evil villain's scheme was only natural!
With a flick of his cape, the small Kosma crossed his arms and declared, "That's right. A hero of the night knows—no darkness can escape the radiance of Shadow ★ Shine!"
Bound tightly and unable to move, Vill-V looked like a villain whose evil plan had been exposed by a hero, and began to speak with theatrical seriousness.
"Cursed Shadow ★ Shine... your intelligence is truly infuriating."
"You even know that I am a knight from another world, here to defeat the evil Herrscher..."
"Hmph. But unfortunately, Shadow ★ Shine... do you think capturing me will stop my plan?"
"Everything is already proceeding according to my will. Even without me, you cannot stop what is coming!"
Slowly, Vill-V began revealing the concept of the Fourth Honkai Eruption to Kosma.
"A source of sin known as the 'Herrscher of Wind' will soon descend. This land will face a disaster known as the Wind Eruption."
"Tornadoes will destroy parking lots. Monsters will run rampant. Zombies will roam..."
"To prepare, I have allowed prisoners who can still redeem themselves to teach the citizens how to respond to the Wind Eruption. As for scum like Godfather, they've been sent straight to the battlefield."
"And those who require some punishment—but not execution—are tasked with constructing a special prison known as a 'great penitentiary' for the Herrscher of Wind..."
"Even if all of this has been seen through by you—Shadow ★ Shine—it's already too late. Disaster prevention knowledge has already spread. The citizens understand what's coming. What are you going to do—wipe their memories?"
Vill-V revealed a flamboyant smile. "And you, hero of the night, Shadow ★ Shine—all you can do is stand by and watch. There's nothing you can do anymore! Ahahaha! Ahahahahaha—!"
"???"
Was this big sister... a chuunibyou too?
Cool...
Kosma wasn't fooled by Vill-V's villainous theatrics. He could easily "decode" chuunibyou speech and grasp its core meaning.
While he enjoyed playing the game of hero and villain, he cared far more about the safety of the people he protected. He would never let role-playing distract him from the importance or urgency of information.
Kosma was not a reckless or foolish child. On the contrary, he was intelligent, quick-thinking, and highly observant. His thought process was extremely meticulous.
It was precisely this keen insight that allowed him to clearly distinguish between justice and evil, avoiding harm to innocents or wrongful accusations. And it was this same careful reasoning that enabled him to analyze intelligence, using wisdom and tools to combat true threats.
That was why he was regarded as a hero of the night. Otherwise, the townspeople would have long since despised him. After all, if a hero cannot distinguish between good and evil, how are they any different from a thug?
With this judgment, Kosma realized that Vill-V was not inherently evil. She was simply a slightly eccentric, chuunibyou big sister.
He also realized that the situation was completely different from what he had expected. The woman in front of him was not one of Godfather's subordinates—rather, she was someone acting against him.
And she seemed to have an important plan she needed to convey.
Faced with Vill-V's over-the-top villain ranting, Kosma maintained a cool pose, leaning against the low wall at the edge of the rooftop as he tried to piece together the information into a coherent picture.
"In other words, you've already subdued the evil Godfather using hypnosis, and now a real large-scale disaster is about to occur?"
Vill-V shifted slightly, trying to ease the discomfort from being tightly bound. "That's right. This world has been rotten from the very beginning. What I've done is merely make use of its darker side. Justice is nothing but an excuse for the weak. True power belongs to those capable of wielding it!"
I see... so this big sister has been trying to gather manpower to deal with the disaster. No wonder those prisoners were acting so strangely before.
"That's troublesome... If what you're saying is true, I don't have the equipment to handle a large-scale disaster."
"Heh heh heh... Shadow ★ Shine, you cannot defeat the Herrscher of Wind. She exists on a completely different level from me. With a mere flick of her finger, you would be reduced to dust."
Vill-V continued speaking in the tone of a defeated villain still ranting. She was clearly enjoying the performance.
"Heh heh heh... I suggest you run—"
Kosma clapped his hands in agreement. "You're right. I need to hurry back and evacuate the residents of El Paso Town before the storm disaster begins!"
With that, he pushed off and leapt down from the rooftop, leaving behind Vill-V—who had just entered a state of joyful role-playing flow and was now thoroughly unsatisfied.
"Hey! Wait—are you seriously just leaving like that?!"
"I'm not done playing yet! Come back, Shadow ★ Shine!"
She had expected the night hero to fire back at her—but instead, he ran off in an instant.
As expected, a child's logic was beyond the understanding of ordinary people. The generation gap was truly terrifying. She was only seven years older than him.
Well, regardless of Kosma, Vill-V had never expected him to become her assistant anyway.
With a slight shake of her body, the fiber restraints of the tortoise-shell binding loosened and fell away. She flexed her wrists, which had gone slightly numb from being bound. Who knew where Kosma had learned such binding techniques... he was practically criminal.
Although a cute girl being tied up like that might be visually appealing, experiencing it firsthand was far from pleasant.
Or was it that American-style anime only had this one type of binding? Or perhaps it was just the malice of the two-dimensional world?
Of course, this wasn't really Kosma's fault. The binding program designed by his adoptive father within the Daybreak device only included tortoise-shell binding...
But this dark piece of history would now be carried by Kosma...
In the future, when Vill-V chatted with other Flame-Chasers about her first meeting with Kosma:
"So, when Kosma and I first met, he taught me some rather... interesting techniques. Then, while I wasn't paying attention, he tried to knock me out with electricity—and finally, he tied me up in a tortoise-shell binding and hung me out on the rooftop like some kind of display..."
Kosma's reputation—completely shattered...