"Go on, back where you came from," Sparkle said, snapping her fingers. The Driver in the passenger seat instantly snapped awake.
His eyes gradually cleared, and the first thing he saw was Sparkle herself—the adorable, twin-tailed girl standing right outside the car, snapping her fingers.
Then the Driver glanced to his left. In the driver's seat sat the scar-faced man he'd seen earlier, Yamada Shinji. Shinji, who was actually one of Sparkle's clones and had been driving the whole way, had just unbuckled his seatbelt and was about to get out.
The scene seemed perfectly normal, right? But the driver reacted as if triggered by some hidden terror. With lightning speed, he unfastened his seatbelt, flung open the door, and leaped out, even faster than the clone in the driver's seat.
Screaming, the Driver sprinted away in a random direction.
The truth was... bored during the ride, Sparkle had spiced up the Driver's Illusionary Realm with a little drama.
In this fabricated scenario, Yamada Shinji rode normally until they reached their destination. But when the Driver demanded an exorbitant fare, Shinji's temper flared.
The two men began to argue, and the argument quickly escalated into a violent brawl. After exchanging blows, the Driver was knocked unconscious with a single punch. When he regained consciousness, he found himself back at the station entrance, but this time his passenger was a frail-looking woman.
The same script unfolded. Upon arriving at their destination and hearing the exorbitant fare, the woman immediately protested, feigning poverty. She claimed she had little money, that her child was sick and desperately needed medical care, and begged for a discount.
The Driver remained adamant about receiving the full fare. In response, the woman burst into tears. Through her sobs, she began tearing at her own hair, ripping off chunks of scalp. Blood streamed from her eyes, nose, ears, and mouth as she let out a harrowing scream:
"Why! Are you trying to drive me to my death?!"
With that, she lunged at the Driver.
When he regained consciousness yet again, he found himself once more at the station entrance. This time, his passengers were a pair of young twin sisters.
Having witnessed such bizarre events, the Driver wasn't foolish enough to pick up another passenger. He scrambled back into his car, slammed his foot on the accelerator, and sped away as fast as he could.
As the Driver sped away, he suddenly heard a strange noise from the back seat. He glanced back to see one of the twin girls swinging her legs, tilting her head, and giving him an irresistibly cute look.
Click.
Perhaps she had tilted her head too far, because suddenly it snapped off and rolled onto the floor.
"Aaaaaaaah!" Screaming, the Driver fumbled with his seatbelt, threw open the door, and leaped out of the moving car.
Sparkle had only intended to give the guy a good scare—to get some payback for all the people he'd swindled and teach him a lesson about ripping people off in the future.
But was this guy really such a coward? Could he not even handle this?
In any case, when the Driver regained consciousness, he realized he was no longer at the station. Looking around at the desolate wilderness, he knew this was hardly an improvement.
To make matters worse, there was an eerie-looking young girl and a burly man with a menacing glare.
"Aaaaaaaah!" Despite his slightly overweight physique, the Driver bolted away with the speed of a professional sprinter in a 100-meter dash.
"Ah, geez..." Sparkle watched the driver sprint away, a helpless expression on her face. "This place is really remote. If he keeps running around like that, he's going to get into serious trouble."
It was just a prank, after all. The driver was only trying to scam people out of a little extra money; he didn't deserve to die for it.
From the driver's perspective, he ran and ran in a straight line until he was nearly exhausted. Finally, he spotted a dense thicket of bushes ahead. Pushing through it, he saw his car again, and the young girl from before.
"Aaaaaah!" Another ear-splitting scream erupted as the driver whirled around and fled back the way he had come.
Though he believed he was running straight, Sparkle had subtly manipulated his senses. In reality, he was simply running in a circle.
Sure enough, before long, the driver completed another loop and found himself back at his car.
"Hi~" Sparkle greeted him with a smile. "Stop running. Just drive away."
"Ugh—" The driver's response was to roll his eyes back and collapse onto the ground.
Sparkle sighed. "..."
Fine. She summoned two clones to carry the unconscious man into his car, hoping he would regain his senses and act rationally when he woke up.
Lost in thought, Sparkle approached the distant research base. Even before she got close, she could see fully armed soldiers patrolling the perimeter. She even spotted someone without a gun, but with a long katana strapped to his back—likely an Evolver.
"For a research facility, this level of security is practically military-grade," she muttered to herself, tapping a rhythmic beat on her forehead mask with her index finger. With each step she took, another "Sparkle" materialized beside her.
By the time nearly a hundred identical girls casually strolled to the base's entrance, one would expect the soldiers to have noticed them from afar. Yet, even as the entire group stood before them, the guards continued their vigilant observation of the surroundings, acting as if they saw nothing unusual.
As one Sparkle passed a soldier, it transformed into a fully armed soldier with a gun. Another Sparkle entered the research base and, upon encountering a researcher in a white lab coat, morphed into a researcher itself.
Even more remarkably, when the Evolver with the knife rounded a corner, one Sparkle pulled him into an Illusionary Realm and dragged him away. The other Sparkle transformed into the Evolver's exact likeness and nonchalantly walked around the corner, continuing his patrol as if nothing had happened.
The infiltration was underway!
Meanwhile, inside the research base, an elderly man with thick glasses and a face deeply etched with wrinkles frantically urged, "Hurry, faster! Get all this stuff moved out now!"
His young assistant, also wearing glasses and carrying a large crate, slowly trudged out of the laboratory. After depositing the crate at the designated drop-off point outside, he rushed back inside to continue packing. Wiping sweat from his brow, he remarked, "Doctor, it's just a vague order. Is all this really necessary?"
"Just because some Outsider with unknown identity and abilities might be interested in the Dimensional Rift data, we're evacuating all our research from the city? Isn't that a bit of an overreaction?" the assistant asked.
"No, no, no, the Outsider isn't the real reason at all," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "She's just a little girl. What kind of trouble could she possibly stir up?"
"The key factor is White Eagle! This data is of paramount importance and must never fall into their hands. As long as we have it and continue our research, even if we lose this war, we might still have a chance to turn the tide in the future!"
"The Bureau of Anomalous Investigations' order for this evacuation is just a coincidence. Even without it, I was already planning to move all the data out soon and hide it away."
"I see..." the assistant said. "But I heard the Outsider infiltrated the research base and stood right in front of the Deputy Director without alerting anyone. That sounds pretty impressive, doesn't it?"
"So what? Regardless, she's just one person. How can she compare to the entire White Eagle organization?" The Doctor scoffed. "Now get back to work and stop dwelling on trivial matters!"
"Yes!" The assistant nodded and resumed his work. He hoisted another large crate and carried it out of the laboratory.
As soon as he stepped outside, he encountered two soldiers on guard duty. One of them held a walkie-talkie to his mouth. "Calling c1, calling c1. What's going on? I thought I heard a commotion upstairs earlier."
"c1 received, c1 received," replied the voice from the monitoring room. Nearly a hundred screens continuously surveilled every corner of the research base. On one of the monitors, Sparkle could be clearly seen dragging a soldier by the scruff of his neck across the floor.
Meanwhile, the soldier designated 'c1' had her legs propped up on the console, leaning back in her chair. She glanced at the screen and coolly reported into her walkie-talkie, "No anomalies detected, no anomalies detected!"
The scene shifted back to the assistant. He carried the crate into a warehouse-like area. Inside, beyond the piles of packed experimental equipment, the most striking sight was the rows of soldiers lying motionless on the floor like corpses.
As the assistant entered the warehouse, the box he was carrying obstructed his view of the floor, causing him to accidentally step on several soldiers lying there.
"Ouch—"
"Ugh~"
"Ah—"
Strange noises rippled through the air. Though trapped in the Illusionary Realm, the soldiers' bodies still reacted instinctively, twitching involuntarily under the assistant's feet.
Finally, disregarding the fragility of the equipment inside the box, the assistant carelessly tossed it into a corner of the warehouse, clapped his hands, and sighed, "Phew, done!"
As he exited the warehouse, he passed Sparkle, who was dragging a soldier toward the entrance.
"Heave-ho!" Sparkle dumped the soldier inside, whirled around, and trotted after the assistant, grinning widely. "Hey, that Doctor was so condescending earlier. Shouldn't we give him a proper scare?"
The assistant nodded eagerly. "Absolutely!"
Sparkle deliberately deepened her voice, mimicking the Doctor's condescending tone. "That Outsider is just one person—nothing to fear at all!"
The assistant chuckled. "Let's hope his jaw doesn't drop when he sees how many 'me' there are waiting for him."
Meanwhile, outside the research base, the real Sparkle wore a thoughtful expression. She remembered when Robin and Firefly had spoken face-to-face. Since both were her clones, it had felt like talking to herself in front of others—utterly mortifying and awkward.
But now, controlling her clones as they conversed, she felt none of that discomfort.
She manipulated them like puppets in a marionette show. Hidden behind the scenes, she guided the puppets on stage with strings extending from her ten fingers.
Would a puppeteer feel embarrassed while voicing their puppets during a performance? Clearly not.
As the assistant returned to the lab, the Sparkle clone bounced along beside him. But in the next instant, she tripped over her own feet, lost her balance, and slammed her head against the smooth wall with a loud bang.
Immediately afterward, Sparkle faceplanted onto the ground.
Outside the research base, the real Sparkle couldn't help but twitch her lips. This was due to her lack of mastery over her clone ability. She had released too many clones at once, and with each clone acting independently, occasional mishaps were inevitable.
In fact, it wasn't just that particular Sparkle who had fallen. Throughout the entire research base, all her clones combined had tripped over themselves and faceplanted at least twenty times already.
However, considering she had only acquired the Sparkle identity and this cloning ability a few days ago, she considered her rapid progress impressive. With more practice, she was confident she could eventually master it completely.
Ignoring the embarrassing clone sprawled nearby, the assistant hurried back to the lab entrance, feigning panic. "Something's wrong! Someone inexplicably collapsed in the warehouse! You need to check it out immediately!"
The two gate soldiers immediately adopted grave expressions and hurried off. As they rounded a corner, they noticed streaks of blood (likely nosebleeds) on the walls and floor. Exchanging glances, they quickened their pace.
Unbeknownst to them, shortly after their departure, two soldiers who looked exactly like them materialized at the gate, taking their places.
These new soldiers, along with the assistant, burst into the laboratory. Now it was their turn to look panicked as they urgently reported, "Doctor, it's bad! The Bureau of Anomalous Investigations warned us—that Outsider has found this place! Our perimeter security is already engaged with her!"
"We need to evacuate immediately, Doctor!"