"I'll leave it to you, then."
Geno gave Anby's shoulder a pat, entrusting her with his trust, and set off after the direction Twiggy had fled.
Watching Geno's retreating back, Anby's eyes held a trace of anticipation almost too faint to notice.
"I will bring her back. No matter what."
Something shifted in Anby's eyes then. The Anby standing here was no longer just the burger-obsessed member of the Cunning Hares - she was once again the strongest fighter the Silver Squad had ever known.
"Anby, designation Number Zero, requesting permission to engage."
"Quit posing! Any slower and these guys are gonna be on us!"
Watching Anby still striking poses like she was in a movie, Billy could only sigh in exasperation.
What kind of timing was this for posturing?! The Rebel Soldiers were already stirring, ready to move!
Luckily, the instant the Rebel Soldiers made their move, the mysterious threat hidden in the shadows burst out and cut them down.
The Rebel Soldier captain seethed with fury but had no good countermeasure, forced to watch helplessly as Geno and Twiggy slipped away, and Nicole and the others darted around right under his nose.
At the same time, something nagged at him - why did this thing only strike at his own men, while sparing the ones on the other side?
Either way, the standoff hadn't changed one bit.
And at this very moment, a well-equipped team was closing in on the battlefield.
"Captain, we're detecting a high-energy Ether reading up ahead. We suspect it's a high-risk Ethereal."
A Sheriff stared at the device in his hands as it blared warning after warning, signaling an Ethereal presence somewhere ahead.
Hearing the report, Zhu Yuan frowned. Something this dangerous, lurking inside the Ballet Twins Building? That was not good news.
The whole way here, Zhu Yuan's team hadn't run into a single threat - Geno's group had already cleared every Ethereal off the route ahead of them.
Even so, engaging a high-threat Ethereal here might tip their hand - and if that let Perlman slip away, then...
"Let me handle it."
Hoshimi Miyabi stepped forward, resting her hand on the Tailless at her waist.
With her taking point, the strike would be quickest and quietest - without question the best choice.
Zhu Yuan understood as much, so she yielded her position to Miyabi, watching the road ahead and waiting quietly for Miyabi's performance.
Miyabi held her breath and steadied her focus, eyes locked ahead, ready to strike the instant her target appeared.
One strike should finish it, she told herself.
At last, the target came into view - but just as she drew the Tailless from its sheath, she caught sight of the newcomer's face and froze.
"Twiggy?!"
It was indeed Twiggy - though she was in bad shape. Ether Corruption spread across her body, and her whole bearing was nothing like her usual sharp, level-headed self. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused as her legs carried her forward at an unbelievable speed, straight toward Miyabi.
The shock of such an unexpected sight made Miyabi hesitate for half a second - and in that half second, Twiggy had already swept past them, vanishing off into the distance.
"Captain, that was..."
The others snapped back to their senses too. That must have been the high-risk individual the scanner had flagged - but she'd been moving so fast that most of them hadn't gotten a clear look. Still, judging by the fleeting glimpse they'd caught, she hadn't looked like an Ethereal at all.
"Miyabi, what's going on?"
Zhu Yuan was at a loss - not just over why the woman had looked so strange, but also over why Miyabi hadn't struck.
Miyabi, for her part, was equally baffled. Naturally a bit spacey to begin with, she now looked downright adorable in her confusion.
"Was she... doing some kind of training exercise?"
"No matter how you look at it, that's not what that was."
Zhu Yuan was speechless. Her old classmate was wonderful in every way - except that sometimes her train of thought was simply impossible to follow.
But then again, maybe that was exactly why she'd become a Void Hunter at such a young age.
"Um, Captain, it looks like there's another one up ahead."
The Sheriff under her command stared at the still-flashing red dot on his device, and continued relaying the intel to the two of them.
"So this one's the real main event, then. Twiggy was probably being chased out by it."
Just in case, Zhu Yuan raised her Suppressor K22 as well, ready to back Miyabi up at a moment's notice.
And going by Twiggy's state just now, it seemed entirely possible that being chased by this thing was exactly what had left her that way.
Neither of them had even recognized her!
"Let's see just what kind of thing this is!"
Zhu Yuan, resolute and stern, aimed down the path Twiggy had come from, ready to give whatever came next a proper welcome.
Before long, footsteps sounded. Zhu Yuan, braced and ready, watched the path ahead - then pulled the trigger.
Muzzle flash blazed in an instant - three masterworks of military engineering unleashing all the light they were built for.
Boom!
"Ow! (ΩΩ)!"
After firing, Zhu Yuan had figured that even if the shot didn't drop the thing on the spot, it would at least deal massive damage.
But past the initial blast, she caught what sounded like someone crying out in pain - and a strange thought crossed her mind.
That... couldn't actually be a person, could it?
Clinging to that bizarre suspicion, Zhu Yuan stared, full of doubt, at the figure not far off.
Soon enough, another familiar figure stepped out of the smoke.
"Who's got no manners, littering like that?! Ow~~ my head!"
Geno emerged slowly, clutching his head, leaving Zhu Yuan blinking in disbelief.
Zhu Yuan reflexively hid the Suppressor K22 behind her back, pretending nothing had happened at all.
Miyabi, meanwhile, remained her usual scatterbrained self.
"Geno? What are you doing here? Are you training too?"
At Miyabi's words, a huge question mark practically lit up over Geno's head. Confused as he was, though, that wasn't the priority right now.
"What training?! Sorry, I don't have time for this right now!"
Geno wasn't in the mood to trade pleasantries. He hurried off in the direction Twiggy had gone, and in the blink of an eye, he too vanished from the two women's sight.
"...What in the world is going on?"
"No idea. But it looks like we've got our own work cut out for us."
Miyabi answered Zhu Yuan first, then turned to press onward.
Zhu Yuan hesitated. Were they really just going to leave Twiggy and Geno to it?
"It's fine. Those two are strong. And they're reliable."
That was the conclusion Miyabi had drawn from her brief encounters with the pair before. And right now, whatever was going on with them, it definitely wasn't something Miyabi needed to worry about.
"More importantly, the people up ahead need our help more."
____
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