"The street is so quiet. Hardly anyone around."
After the car arrived at her residence, Cocolia stepped out and looked at the empty street with a sigh.
This time returning from MEI Company, she hadn't brought any attendants with her, driving back to her residence alone.
But Cocolia knew that even without a security team watching over her at all times, she was now safer than ever before.
In all four directions around her, Titan mechs as large as small buildings lay concealed in quantum stealth, monitoring the situation around her at all times.
With these Titan mechs protecting her, her security team had become unnecessary. Having them nearby might even hinder the mechs' performance.
Casually sweeping her gaze across the street, Cocolia prepared to go home.
And at this moment, faint footsteps drifted from the distance, standing out starkly in the silence of the street.
"Tap. Tap. Tap."
Every hair on Cocolia's body stood on end, her whole person like a startled cat.
An enormous sense of crisis surged in her heart. The last time she had felt this way was during a chance encounter with a Siberian golden chinchilla at age six.
This was... the feeling of death!
She looked toward the end of the street and discovered a figure in a windcoat walking toward her.
At first glance they were still at the far end of the road, but within a few breaths they were already not far ahead of her.
Only then could Cocolia make out their appearance.
She held a long blade in one hand, the other pressing down on a hood. Wispy strands of pink hair peeked out from the hood's edge, swaying gently in the wind.
Although wrapped in a windcoat, she was clearly female.
In a different setting, it might have made for a poetic scene, but right now, Cocolia only felt disaster bearing down on her.
"How can they be here so quickly?"
Moving from the end of the street to her side in mere seconds—a speed that could no longer be called human.
What made Cocolia even more despairing was that her eyes could barely track the other's movements.
One moment she was still wondering why the other was moving so fast, and the next she found the blade was already nearly upon her.
"I'm finished!" Cocolia cried out in her heart.
Just as she was about to meet her end, the Titan mechs concealed around her reacted first.
Iron-forged fists wrapped in terrifying force slammed directly into the assassin.
"Boom!"
The violent explosion and shockwave pushed Cocolia backward, and Titan mechs surrounded her on all sides.
When the smoke and dust settled, no corpse of the assassin could be seen on the ground—once again confirming the theorem that where there's smoke, there's no injury.
However, although they hadn't defeated the assassin, they had successfully driven her back.
Through the gaps in the Titan mechs' encirclement, Cocolia saw the one who had come to kill her on the street.
At this moment, her hood had been blown back by the wind, revealing waist-length pink hair cascading like a waterfall. But a black mask covered her face, hiding her features.
It was Sakura, sent by Lucius to participate in the performance.
Cocolia first looked at the imposing Titan mechs around her, then looked at Sakura, who appeared frail and delicate, as if a gust of wind might knock her over.
"Numbers against few, steel against flesh. Even if her physical constitution is exceptional, she shouldn't be a match for me, right?"
With this thought, Cocolia felt more confident.
So after feeling she had the advantage, Cocolia left two mechs to guard her safety, then ordered the remaining mechs to eliminate Sakura.
"By any measure, the advantage is mine."
After Cocolia issued the command, the mechs surged toward Sakura with ground-shaking steps, their momentum terrifying.
And then they flew off in all directions just as quickly.
Sakura's own strength was formidable to begin with, and with stigmata loaded, she could casually slash out blade arcs dozens of meters long, cutting the flying mechs apart like slicing vegetables.
As the person in question, Cocolia once again felt life persecuting her.
She saw Sakura standing amidst a field of mech wreckage, looking toward her, and felt as if a death star was shining above her head.
Looking at the mere two Titan mechs remaining by her side, the sense of security that had just risen in her heart vanished without a trace once more, and her expression turned bitter again.
And just as her mood hit rock bottom, the battlefield changed once more.
A column of brilliant light fell from the distance, accurately sending Sakura flying.
Had she not deployed a Honkai energy shield at the critical moment, that blow might have erased her entirely.
However, Cocolia felt that this sneak attack must have dealt significant damage to her. The pink-haired assassin who had nearly taken her life glanced at her once, then retreated into the distance.
Cocolia breathed a sigh of relief, a surge of joy at surviving a catastrophe welling in her heart.
And at this moment, the one who had just unleashed that column of light emerged.
Cocolia saw a petite figure descend from the sky, the mech behind her standing guard like a loyal sentinel.
It was yesterday's girl—the mech-operating girl suspected of being one of Poison Pupa's biological weapons who had come to assassinate her!
Watching her approach, for some reason, Cocolia felt a sense of warmth in her heart.
"Was it you... who saved me?"
The moment this question left her lips, Cocolia felt every hair on her body stand on end again.
Only when Bronya descended from the sky did she see that this girl's face was constantly contorting—one moment calm, one moment struggling—as if two personalities were fighting for dominance.
"Run... away!"
The girl's milky voice reached Cocolia's ears.
The mech arm behind her extended and effortlessly pierced through the two remaining Titan mechs by Cocolia's side.
In an instant, the situation reversed once again.
In the moment of crisis, Cocolia's warrior instincts activated. She pulled the handgun from her waist and pulled the trigger at the Bronya before her.
Gunshots rang out one after another, bullets flying toward the girl.
But Cocolia immediately found that before the bullets could reach her, they were frozen by an invisible force field.
"It's over."
Such was the thought that rose in Cocolia's heart, just as her body was seized by the mech's massive hand.
Tremendous pressure transmitted from the mech's fingers, making every bone in Cocolia's body cry out.
Her consciousness began to blur. In a daze, she saw the children playing and laughing at the orphanage far away in Siberia.
Cocolia felt that this time, she was most likely truly going to die.
Having realized death was approaching, she found that she had little fear left in her heart.
Looking at the girl before her, struggling and trying to resist the commands coming from her own body, Cocolia suddenly thought of the children at the orphanage far away in Siberia.
Each one of them had a tragic past, and the girl before her was essentially no different from them.
Cocolia looked at Bronya, her face twisted in pain as she continually suppressed the killing intent. Cocolia's voice was as gentle as a mother's as she asked:
"Bronya—I remember that's what you called yourself last time. Is that your name?"
"Vanguard... a very fitting name for a Slav. But your appearance makes you look more like a little bunny."
Cocolia tried using her one remaining good arm to prop herself up and move, but found she could barely summon any strength, so she simply gave up.
She raised the gun in her hand and found there was one bullet left.
Remembering the invisible force field that had appeared around Bronya earlier, she knew that this one bullet was impossible to use to kill this girl.
And by now... she couldn't bring herself to do it anyway.
So, since death was already inevitable, why not do something more meaningful?
Cocolia set the handgun aside and used her one remaining arm to take out the pendant Bronya had lost.
She opened it and saw that woman who bore nine parts of resemblance to herself, apparently called Alexandra.
"Your mother?"
"You do look remarkably like me. If it were possible... I would want to become your mother too."
Cocolia sighed, snapped the pendant shut, tossed it away to one side, then picked up the handgun and aimed it at her own head.
Rather than letting this poor girl suffer afterward from having taken her life, it was better to deliver this bullet to herself personally.
"Bronya, remember—the fault is not yours. You need not blame yourself."
"No... you can't...!!!"
Bronya struggled, the blood in her eyes flowing down her cheeks, impossible to tell if tears were mixed in.
"You are a good child." Cocolia's heart was utterly calm. Before pulling the trigger she offered a final blessing: "May you... never shed tears again."
Then her finger tensed, ready to pull the trigger.
"Bang!"
A great sound came—but it wasn't the sound of her gun firing. It was the sound of the mech behind Bronya crashing to the ground.
Cocolia stared in astonishment as the mech, after falling, began to convulse abruptly and quickly dissolved into particles of light, disappearing.
She watched as the girl named Bronya descended slowly from the air and sank powerlessly to her knees on the ground. The ferocity was gone from her face, replaced by complete calm.
But in contrast, blood gushed from her eyes like a fountain, dripping down her cheeks.
At the same time, a scorched smell like burning electronics drifted from her body.
Bronya stared at her with hollow eyes. Her voice still carried that milky tone, but had lost the coldness from before.
"Bro, I think I'm kind of dying..."
"Bronya! What did you do?!" Cocolia vaguely sensed that Bronya had paid an enormous price to avoid killing her.
Bronya returned a sweet smile and answered:
"I overloaded and burned out the chip in my brain. This way, you're safe now."
"From now on, Bronya... will never shed tears again..."
Thud!
Bronya collapsed powerlessly to the ground, seemingly devoid of life.
Leaving only Cocolia crying out loud in place.
But Cocolia, her heart filled with remorse, pain, and helplessness, didn't notice.
Outside the range of her vision, Bronya—who appeared to have already lost all signs of life—gave a peace sign in the direction of the Titan wreckage.
Hehe... just as planned.
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