"Teacher Vill-V, you found Seele. Seele is very happy."
Although Seele's tone was extraordinarily cheerful, her smile looked perfectly healthy, and even the butterfly hair ornament atop her head bobbed up and down.
Yet all anyone could sense from her eyes was bone-chilling coldness.
This had already gone beyond mere yandere behavior. This was... death itself.
"Seele" continued in a tone that sounded almost like she was helplessly indulging them.
"But your answer was wrong... So goodbye, Teacher Vill-V."
"Or rather... goodbye forever..."
Seele pulled an enormous scythe from the void and swung it.
"Die, Teacher Vill-V—"
Bone-chilling death surged out from beyond the doorway and engulfed everyone.
The cold lasted only an instant. There was no pain, only stillness, serenity, and emptiness.
Before pure "death," every weapon Vill-V carried lost all meaning.
Nothing could stop life from withering away.
Death had arrived.
...
"Death is the destination of all things. From the moment the universe was born, it had already died."
...
It felt as though a very long time had passed.
And yet it also felt as though only a single day had gone by.
"The current time is 7:00 AM on January 26, 2417 CE. The weather is clear and excellent for overtime work."
"Barcelona remained peaceful and tranquil yesterday, with zero criminal incidents."
"Teacher Vill-V—"
"Teacher Vill-V..."
"Mmm~"
Vill-V's voice still carried the laziness of someone who had only just awakened. She rubbed her sleepy eyes. "I'm fine, See... Oh, it's you, Bronya. I'm just a little tired."
"Trackers, go buy a bottle of MOCCA."
"Thanks, Bronya~"
"You're welcome. Trackers did all the work."
Beep-beep. Trackers displayed a smiling face.
Pardo returned with a completely empty sack and sighed dejectedly. "Sigh... Vill-V, we didn't find any suspicious targets."
I keep feeling this weird sense of déjà vu. Is it just my imagination?
While Vill-V hesitated, Bronya complained, "Pardo, you're the suspicious target. The regional surveillance network kept triggering alarms everywhere you went just now."
Clearly, Pardo had absolutely no experience dealing with surveillance cameras. If Dusk Street had possessed that many cameras, public security there would never have been so terrible in the first place.
At the very least, few people would willingly commit crimes openly beneath surveillance cameras.
Even if they had nothing to fear, they would still worry about leaving others evidence to use against them.
Pardo looked shocked. "Huh?! Then aren't we in danger?!"
"Don't worry. Bronya already disabled all the regional alarms."
"Phew, that's good. Bronya, you're amazing!" After learning that she had not caused a major disaster, Pardo patted her chest in relief. Then, as though she had suddenly thought of something, her eyes lit up. Rubbing her chin, she said to Bronya, "Come to think of it, hacking is really useful. Bronya, when you have time, let's pull off something big together!"
"Okay. Let's pull off something big!" Bronya answered with exceptional decisiveness.
Bronie would never refuse or miss out on an adventure.
Although she was a homebody, that was only because ordinary little incidents simply could not interest her.
"Bronya~" Vill-V hugged Bronya's little head from behind. "What did I tell you~?"
"Teacher Vill-V told Bronya to get along well with Sister Pardo." Bronya answered with absolutely no guilt despite having no argument whatsoever.
Pardo chimed in, "Exactly, exactly. Being accomplices can strengthen friendship too. How did that saying go again? Accomplices have the closest relationship in the world."
"Wow, you've already made crime the premise! Don't run, Pardo! Let me twist your head too!"
"Ahh~ No way! Why does Bronya get a hug, but when it's my turn, you want to twist my head?!"
Vill-V playfully chased after Pardo.
The next moment.
One of Heliopolis Life Sciences' omnipresent projected advertisements suddenly popped up directly in front of Vill-V's face.
"System analysis indicates that negative-ion water is more beneficial to your health."
"What the heck?! Whoa—I'm going down!"
Caught completely off guard while running, Vill-V suddenly lost her view of the road ahead, stumbled, and fell.
That was the tragedy of being athletically hopeless. Tripping on flat ground was practically routine for her.
Fortunately, Vill-V had long prepared anti-fall equipment—the all-purpose puppet-suit central device. It protected Vill-V's delicate body, at least preventing her from scraping open her knees.
Pardo stopped, planted her hands on her hips, and wore an expression that plainly said, Hmph, you can't fool little Pardo anymore.
"Hmph! Vill-V, you've tricked me this way too many times already. I know you're definitely trying to lure me over so you can twist my head again."
Just then, a maglev car on the road suddenly went out of control and hurtled toward Pardo.
Pardo's attention was still fixed on Vill-V, and she did not notice the runaway maglev car behind her at all.
Thud!
The maglev car slammed straight into Pardo and knocked her into a ventilation duct.
"Pardo!"
Everyone tried to rescue her, but at that exact moment, the high-pressure pipeline suddenly ignited explosively.
BOOM!
Scalding steam at temperatures exceeding a thousand degrees blocked everyone's path.
Pardo disappeared beneath the boiling black steam.
"Oh no! Little Pardo!"
"Aaaaaah—"
The soap-bubble protective device Vill-V had given her activated around Pardo's body. But because of that, the pressure suddenly had something to push against, and the terrifying force launched Pardo into the sky.
"Aaaaaah—"
Pardo plummeted back down from midair.
Plop.
Pardo landed on the sloping glass roof of a sunroom.
Pop!
The soap bubble burst under pressure, and Pardo rolled down the glass canopy until she came tumbling back in front of Vill-V and the others.
"Owww... What's going on?"
Pardo herself was unharmed. She was merely a little dizzy.
She scratched her head, still somewhat unclear on what had just happened. "En... enemy attack! Quick, run!"
Pardo grabbed the sack that had been blasted into something resembling a little skirt and prepared to flee, only for Vill-V to seize her by the scruff of fate.
"Don't leave, Pardo. It's safe here."
"You're fine now, but we... seem to be in trouble."
The consequence of Pardo's brief flight was that every Heliopolis Life Sciences drone in the surrounding area had turned its attention toward them.
Beep-beep. "Unlicensed aerospace activity detected within this airspace."
Beep-beep. "Identity authentication failed. Subjects classified as illegal entrants."
"Calling Mobile Response Unit..."
The Time District of Dusk City was still under strict control. Pardo's illegal aerospace activity immediately triggered a yellow alert across the entire district.
And because Pardo and the others had not yet seized the Identity Authentication Data or Security Clearance managed by the "Company," every one of them appeared in the robots' systems as an unregistered person.
The yellow alert immediately escalated into a Level-One Red Alert and was transmitted through the dedicated network all the way to the intercity firewall.
Even hacker Bronie could not rapidly intercept and shut down an alarm of this level.
That also meant Vill-V and the others had been forced out of the shadows and into the open.
Just as Pardo's jinx had predicted, the enemy really was coming.
But Vill-V was not particularly worried about that, because the sight of little Pardo tumbling down the slope had stirred a memory from Vill-V's past...
Although it was difficult to say whether that was truly the past.