“Last floor…” Katja stopped on top of the stairs, caught her breath, and took a look around. Lot of shoppers out relatively early into the day. Windows from the ceiling served as a source of lighting for the whole mall. “Alright. She has to be here somewhere…”

  Unless she wasn’t here already. This whole investigation started from a theory and a picture she posted online. A picture that wasn’t necessarily taken today.

  Perhaps she jumped to conclusions too early…

  “No… Better safe than sorry.” Katja muttered while running. “If there’s any chance to prevent lives from being lost, it’s my duty to follow through.”

  Running all over like a madwoman actually helped her. People turned to look at her, and she got to clearly see their faces. After getting so many looks, she should have gotten used to it, but Katja suddenly felt the urge to look behind.

  “What…” There was a set of eyes behind a pillar. The purple eyes of a brown-haired girl were fixed on her. A piercing gaze attached to an unreadable, blank expression. Katja was stunned for a moment when their eyes met, then the girl pulled back behind the pillar. “W- wait!”

  Katja broke into a sprint in the opposite direction. She rushed for the pillar while moving through the crowd, cutting through much closer than before. “It’s you!”

  Katja ran around the pillar, but the girl was already far away. She started running as soon as Katja spotted her and escaped into a nearby store. Katja was lucky she was much faster and saw her before she could hide. “Stop running!”

  Katja gave chase and quickly caught up. The girl looked over her shoulder, and it confirmed Katja’s suspicions. It’s her. It’s Ayumu. But Ayumu didn’t stop. She weaved between the aisles and mannequins, trying to shake off Katja.

  “There! I got you cornered now!” But the chase didn’t last long. Ayumu caused to a corner of the store and finally turned to face Katja, panting.

  “Tsk… Why the hell did you follow me? Hah… hah… Didn’t you realize I was avoiding you?” Ayumu shot an annoyed look at her, but Katja remained unfazed.

  Katja stood a few steps away from Ayumu with her legs bent, ready to react to anything she could do. “So? You’re the one behind it all, aren’t you? It’s time you fess up.”

  “Behind what? I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She scoffed while looking down on her. “Are you sure you did get the wrong person?”

  All their evidence was circumstantial. There was reason to hesitate and consider that they might have been wrong, but not with her attitude… Took her a second, but Katja was able to stand firm. “No… You’re the one… Don’t play dumb. All the signs point toward you. We know everything you’ve done.”

  “We? Who’s we? Ahahahahaahaha!” The pitch of her voice increased, and she spread her arms. “Are you a cop or something?”

  “No, but… With people like you, I guess you can think of me that way. You’re the one who made all those monsters, aren’t you?”

  “…” Ayumu glared. “You really are familiar with them… And what are you gonna do, huh? How did you even find out anyway?”

  Ayumu found the situation amusing. Did she not understand her position? “From the things you used to make the monsters. I happen to have some very clever comrades. Now, mind telling me how you were doing that? Why were you targeting the House and my friends?”

  “The what? The House?” One was confused by the name, the other by the reaction. “I’m not really sure what you’re talking about or why you’re worried about that, but right now, I think you should worry about yourself.”

  Ayumu grinned, and her hair suddenly turned pink. Bubblegum pink. From the top to the bottom to the two ends tied with small ribbons that flowed down to her shoulders.

  “What?” Katja suddenly noticed it. She was surrounded. The mannequins were all gone, and life-sized puppets gathered around her. They looked like soldiers made of wood. Nutcracker soldiers. A whole army of them. “Monsters?! When did you…?!”

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  One of the soldiers raised his right arm while holding a saber. “Get her!” Hearing Ayumu, the monster stiffly charged forward and slashed at the ground in front of Katja.

  “We’re doing this… huh?” Katja stared for a second, then instantly drew her sword. And…

  *Ping…*

  Her sword broke the wooden puppet’s saber in half. She wasn’t done yet, and with her next move, she opened a gash in his chest. “It’s my duty to defeat you all! Bring it on!”

  Blood shot out from the cut of the monster, which was supposed to be made out of wood. Katja stared, and the civilians nearby watched in horror and confusion.

  *Thud…* When the puppet hit the floor, screams spread rapidly all around. Everyone started running. The bloody monster lay on the ground, and after glowing, it returned to being a normal mannequin.

  “I didn’t want to start a panic, but… with fewer people around, I can now do this!” Katja charged the next soldier, the next, and the next, until the initial encirclement had fallen. She swung her sword freely, knowing she wouldn’t be seen anymore.

  “Pfft! A sword?” While Katja was busy, she and Ayumu had switched positions. Ayumu was now the one with her back to the entrance of the store. “I knew you were able to fight off monsters somehow, but I didn’t expect you’d be fighting with a sword… Don’t you have any better weapons?”

  Ayumu looked at her with a grin on her face. Even though the initial wave was gone, Ayumu had dozens and dozens of puppets behind her. A number that only seemed to go up.

  “If this is the best you can do, my sword is more than enough!”

  The next wave of puppets charged forward with sabers in hand, and Katja met them all head-on. She crossed swords with one after the other, quickly cutting them down afterwards.

  Step by step she pushed Ayumu back. Outside of the store… To a more open, less cluttered area.

  “Okay… That’s absurd… There’s no way you can actually fight all those off on your own. You can’t be a normal person… Did you get a special ability from the other world too?”

  “The other world?” Two soldiers attacked from each side, and Katja took them out. “What are you talking about?”

  “Huh? The other world… You know, the one you can get to through the portals.” While Katja was busy, a handful of soldiers were running behind Ayumu’s frontline, bringing more mannequins to her. With a touch, the inanimate mannequins glowed and transformed in front of Katja’s eyes. “Weren’t you familiar with monsters? You certainly seem used to fighting… Don’t tell me you don’t know…”

  “You’re the one who doesn’t know what you’re talking about!” She paused every time she swung her sword. “The portals are dangerous to just be around… If you so much as touch them, you die.”

  “Is that so? Why am I still alive then?” The frontline was getting thinner, and Ayumu got worried. “You’re not stopping, are you? How about this?”

  The next mannequin she touched transformed like normal, but instead of a saber, he held something different between his stiff fingers. A stick grenade.

  “Explosives? Are you crazy?!” Katja’s eyes widened as the soldier raised his arm and threw. “Dammit!”

  She couldn’t just dodge… If she did, she would still get caught in the blast. In a split second, she knew what she had to do. She adjusted her legs, and… “Ha!” With a kick, the grenade flew upwards and hit the ceiling.

  *BOOOOOOOOM!* The ceiling glass shattered, and the whole building shook. A piece of the roof to which the windows were connected broke off and fell. Instantly crushing the monster that threw the grenade.

  “Ahahahaha… Another stunt… You really do have some kind of supernatural power…”

  “Just surrender! It’s only a matter of time until you run out of puppets!” There was a sea of blood at her feet at this point. The fallen soldiers turned back to mannequins only to end up getting covered in the blood of their comrades. A hellish scene if they were people.

  Katja could almost see the end. Just a little more, and the fight would be over. But none of that mattered to Ayumu. “Run out?” She stepped close to the fallen soldiers distant from Katja and crouched. “What do you mean?”

  The blood-soaked mannequin she touched came back to life like new. He stood up straight, saber in hand, ready to die again in another charge.

  “Guhh… Why? Why are you doing this? What do you gain from creating all these monsters?!”

  Ayumu rested her chin on her hands while crouched, giving Katja an annoyed look. “Excuse me? I’m pretty sure you’re the one who chased me down while swinging a sword around.”

  That may be the story for today, but not what she meant. Katja wanted to say that, but she was getting tired from all the fighting.

  “It’s really annoying how you still haven’t given up… I didn’t want to do something like this, but…” The next soldier she raised had yet another weapon.

  “What?” Katja looked in the direction of Ayumu’s voice and saw a soldier aiming at her. “A musket?”

  *Bang!*

  He shot! Now’s the time! I have to deflect it! Katja gathered all her strength and tried to move her sword, but she was too slow.

  No way…

  This really is my limit…

  “Is this the floor? Are you sure, Narumi?” The mall had gone completely silent while we searched for the source of the explosion. All the customers ran outside in a panic, and security shut down all the entrances, which we appreciated.

  Despite being security, their job was only to deal with annoyances and the occasional thief, so they ran as soon as the explosion happened too. They remained outside, out of danger, using securing the perimeter as an excuse to not put themselves in danger. At this point, the PSF has probably been called, and it’s just us in here until they arrive.

  And given how much they like dumping their work on us, I’m sure they’ll take their sweet time once they know we’re already here…

  “Didn’t you see the hole in the ceiling? It’s here. And Katja’s probably there!”

  But I’m glad they won’t get here in time. If it was any other monster, I might be annoyed, but Ayumu… We’re the ones who should deal with her… It just feels right.

  “Why haven’t we found her yet? Was the hole that far away?”

  “We should be there once we turn that corner… Just run!” Our cross-mall race was about to come to an end when…

  *Bang!*

  “A gunshot!?”

  “This is bad…” A nervous and worried expression appeared on Narumi’s face.

  “Wa- was that Katja shooting?”

  “No… It’s a different sound… I’m not sure if she even brought her gun… She’s really insistent on using nothing but her sword…”

  “She’s in trouble then…”

  “You have no idea…” Narumi looked me in the eyes, then started sprinting. Let’s go! “Iroha… Could you deflect a bullet with your sword? Now that you’ve got the power of your Matching Weapon?”

  “Huh? I haven’t tried it, but… I think so…” The Matching Weapon was a decent boost, but I might have even been able to do it just with the VISS Driver.

  “I can too… So does Hecate. But not Katja… “You know how she says she can’t train? If you ask her, she’ll tell you training has no purpose for her, because she has reached her limit. Because of who she is, she believes there are hard limits to her abilities, and that’s one of them. Bullets are…”

  We finally turned the corner and found Katja. “Too fast for her…”

  But we were too late…