The moment that the puppet was no longer able to fight back, it just lay there completely subdued.
That was when it no longer served any further purpose.
It had been sacrificed to buy time for the others.
It may have been lost, but there had been no loss of life.
The soul that had inhabited that puppet no longer resided within it.
It moved back to the other puppet that had already gotten much further away at around the time that the range limitations had been reached to maintain control over both of them at the same time.
If one puppet went beyond that point, then the other would become unable to move and would fall down as if its strings had been cut.
It would be nothing more than an empty shell and a lifeless puppet without a puppet master to control it.
Tiffany had been trying her best to hone her Quirk ever since she was a young child.
She had done her best to push herself to her limitations each time to test herself and to surpass her limits.
Each time she did that, she felt that she had been able to unlock a small portion of her potential a little at a time.
Her range of control over the surrounding puppets or toys around her gradually improved as she could control them more expertly, and her range of control expanded.
As she kept pushing herself, she had learned how to control larger forms and more of them at the same time.
She had started with things that were quite small and increased the number of them over time until she could control a single larger form.
That had gradually improved until she could control two puppets at the same time, which were made of various mechanical parts while inhabiting one herself.
The current situation made it slightly less of a strain on her since she only had to focus on controlling one while inhabiting the other.
Since she was not straining herself to control more than one at such a time, she was able to push herself further to maintain her control over the fleeing puppet beyond the usual range that she could maintain if she had to focus on more than one.
Her focus may have been split by her task to slow down the thugs, but she managed to keep the puppet moving despite it already reaching the edge of her range of control.
The moment that she felt her control slipping, she concentrated harder to keep her control a little longer and to push a little further.
It was quite taxing for her at such a time, but once she was completely immobile, she no longer needed to continue with her present need to maintain what she had been doing.
The puppet went limp as if the life had left it in that moment, leaving the confused thugs wondering what had happened to it.
They had already guessed that the puppet was some form of machine, but they did not have the time to investigate further due to their present situation.
There could be some value in bringing it back to their boss, so they tried to avoid damaging it completely in a way that would destroy the core pieces of it.
Perhaps there would be some worth in studying it for the sake of creating something similar to be used for their own goals.
They panicked upon seeing it become lifeless as they thought that they had broken it, resulting in it shutting down completely.
That had caused them to pause as they feared they would be reprimanded for damaging something so valuable and perhaps vital to their future expansion.
That brief hesitation left them reacting too slowly to give chase again to catch up to those running away.
The distance that had been shortened had grown greatly during the time that had passed since they were being held back by the puppet.
Those who were running away had already been too far off in the distance to keep track of them, as they were small dots that were about to disappear if they took their eyes off them for a single moment.
The moment that those figures turned around a corner was when they really did lose sight of them.
They wanted to chase those who got away, but they hesitated over whether they should do that.
If they pursued in such a large number, then they would not be able to avoid being seen.
They would be moving outside of their territory, so it could be seen as an act of aggression toward their rivals, who had ownership over that area and had claimed it as their turf.
If they entered such a large number, then it could lead to a turf war.
If they were not permitted to proceed like that, then it would not be good for them the moment that someone with authority in their gang heard about it.
The moment that the underlings overstepped and did something the higher-ups did not want, there would usually be examples to be set so that people did not go around acting recklessly without being given a clear order.
As the figures were getting away, the remaining puppet had already been taken over as the soul of Tiffany resided within it.
She sighed as she looked back over her shoulder, the moment that she saw her fallen puppet being captured and completely subdued. 'A sacrifice had to be made. This is not too bad. It can be replaced. A life would not be so easy to replace.'
She turned her head forward as she kept running along with Gasser, while a little later, Springer joined up with them.
They were able to escape the territory of the gang, but they still did not feel completely safe, so they kept moving until they did not feel like they were being pursued any further and that nobody had been looking their way.