Chapter 54: The Girl With A Katana

Cyanide climbed the stairs to the second floor of the school cautiously, knife in one hand and gun in the other. This was his most used fighting style—simple yet effective. It was passed down to him from his now-dead teacher, Anthrax. Cyanide liked it for its simplicity and ease of use—the gun could cover long ranges, while the knife was good for close-range combat. Both were light and small, allowing Cyanide to make full use of his strongest property: agility.

Silently, he ascended the staircase, like a phantom in the dark. He was nothing more than a shadow, and made not a sound. He had trained so that even his breathing was impossible to hear to the normal human ear, not to mention his footsteps with the passive skill [Fleeting Footsteps].

Soon, he arrived at the top of the staircase, and peeked through the windows embedded within the double steel doors. There, about a couple feet away, was the metal door that led to the central control room. But… like any good assassin, he wanted to scout the place out before making any moves.

'Radar.'

Closing his eyes, he activated his [Radar] skill with a mere thought, and scanned the area for any hostiles.

And just as expected, he found one…

'No… not just one. There's… another?'

Cyanide's brow twitched a bit as he found another energy signal a little bit in front of the control center's door, which was just barely outside of his field of view from where he was right now.

'Another mutant…?' He inferred, but the thought was quickly cut off as he spotted something in the corner of the stairwell he was in, grotesque and terrifying.

It was… a doll.

"…!" Cyanide immediately backed away and kept his gaze focused on the doll, mainly because he didn't know what it was capable of. It certainly had not been here when he had came up the stairs, so how did it get here now, without him even noticing…?

The doll appeared to take on the shape of a little girl, and had half of its tiny body covered by the shadows. The other half was normal, but the half covered in shadows was… repulsive.

The entire left side of the doll was mangled. The cloth was torn off, revealing not stuffed cotton inside but horrid machinery. Wires, metal, and a constant red eye stared out at Cyanide, as if stalking him.

And quite frankly, Cyanide didn't like being stalked, so he stabbed the doll with his knife, thinking that would silence it.

But then-

BOOM!

"Tch-!"

Cyanide barely noticed in time as the doll suddenly exploded, demolishing the knife with it. Thankfully, Cyanide had spares, and simply pulled out another one from his inventory.

The noise, however, was enough to attract the other energy signature Cyanide had detected earlier, and the metal double doors of the stairwell were kicked open.

"Who's there?!" She demanded, holding her katana out as if pointing at the air and darting her eyes around in search of the perpetrator of the explosion.

However… unfortunately for her, Cyanide was already invisible, and standing behind her at this very moment, presence completely hidden and unseen.

'… Another player?' He thought, smiling wryly. 'How interesting…'

But suddenly-

"—!"

The girl swung around with her katana and slashed behind her, taking Cyanide by surprise. Had he been a second slower, he would've been cut in half.

"I know you're there!" The girl shouted, keeping her hand steady and mind focused. "Come out!"

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'… Hm.'

After some debate, Cyanide decided to leave her be and temporarily retreat, watching from the shadows a safe distance away. Was he scared of her? No, naturally not. He was surprised she could detect him behind her, but that wasn't why he was waiting. He was merely doing this because of the other hostile signature in the building, within that control room. Engaging in battle now wasn't wise—not when there was a third party stalking them.

"…" The katana-wielding girl fell silent as she surveyed her surroundings, and after being unable to sense Cyanide any longer, she let out a deep breath.

'… Was that just a hallucination?' She thought to herself, then shook her head. 'No, it couldn't be… that explosion… or was it merely a distraction from the mutant…? My Radar isn't getting any pings any longer either…'

"… Hm."

Deciding to put that thought away for now, she turned her attention back to the control room in front of her where the mutant was, and closed her eyes. She held her katana upright in front of her face, pointed towards the ceiling, and began building up white energy around her body and sword.

Suddenly, her eyes snapped back open, and she swung her katana forward.

"By my blade — Vorpal Edge!"

A crescent-shaped blast of energy shot out of her weapon and struck the metal door, destroying it instantly and knocking it over. When the dust cleared, however, the girl's eyes widened slightly.

"A… little girl…?"

There, looking terrified and frightened, was a tiny girl sitting on a rotating chair, having just barely avoided being crushed underneath the blown-in metal door. There were tears in her eyes and sweat on her forehead, and her entire body was practically trembling with fear.

"H-Hrm… a-ah…" She whimpered like a sad puppy without any place to go, and looked at the taller girl with fear in her eyes.

"W-Woah, hey, don't cry…" The taller girl hurriedly said awkwardly, at a loss for what to do. "I thought you were an enemy, I didn't mean to…"

"H-Hngh…!" The tiny girl yelped slightly as the taller girl took a step into the room, and the latter quickly shook her head and put on the warmest smile she could muster

"I won't hurt you. Just calm down, okay? Let's get you out of this room… you must be so hungry and thirsty without anything to eat or drink… and after that, you can tell me how you ended up in this place…"

She slid her katana back into her sheath as a sign of friendliness, then picked up the tiny, defenseless girl by the armpits and lifted her onto her own back, who held on tightly in response.

Doing this, the tall girl was reminded of her past, and smiled sadly.

"Now… I know a place with some food. Just hang on for a bit longer, oka-"

PEW!

Suddenly, a bullet whizzed past her temple… and struck the little girl directly in the forehead. Deadeye.

"G-G-Grah…" The little girl made a mechanical noise that should not have belonged to a tiny child and fell off of the taller girl's back, collapsing to the ground.

"…!" The taller girl gasped as she spun around and saw the wires hidden beneath that realistic, rich skin, one that could've passed for a real human. In the dead child's hand held a sharp screwdriver, something the tall girl hadn't even noticed earlier.

"W-What…"

Suddenly, she heard the sound of a door closing, and she immediately whipped her head around as the tiny mutant's body turned into white shards of light.

"H-Hey, wait!" She called out, knowing the person who just closed that door was the same one who shot the bullet earlier—and saved her.

"… Idiot," Cyanide muttered with a chuckle, smoke still rising from his gun.

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