A moment later, an armed helicopter hovered over the district, the roar of its propellers tearing through the previously dead silence.
Shichigami Rin sat inside the cabin, her gaze fixed on the tablet in her hand, which displayed surveillance footage from the Correction Bureau's isolation cells.
Her brows were tightly furrowed, and her fingertips tapped unconsciously on the edge of the screen, as if she was trying to make sense of the chaotic images.
"Kosaka Wakamo... Is she involved too?"
She murmured in a low voice, a hint of barely concealed anxiety in her tone.
On the screen, a group of delinquents, armed with various weapons, swept through cell after cell like a swarm of locusts, freeing their imprisoned companions.
Immediately after, the scene switched to an isolation cell sealed by multiple iron doors. One iron door was forcibly blown open by several C4 explosives, its debris scattered across the floor.
Then the scene shifted again. A group of Correction Bureau students, armed with standard equipment, fearfully aimed their weapons at the figure emerging from the isolation cell, shouting, "Stop! Don't come any closer!!"
However, the footage flickered again, and when it recovered, all ten-plus students were on the ground, completely defenseless. At the very end of the footage, a figure provocatively looked directly at the surveillance camera, as if silently declaring that she didn't care about these people at all.
This student was Kosaka Wakamo, the "Calamity Fox," listed as one of the "Seven Prisoners" in the Federal Student Council's records.
She was once a student of Hyakki Yagyō United Academy, sentenced to suspension and sent to the Correction Bureau for committing an irreparable major crime. She was a constant headache for the Federal Student Council.
"I hope they don't run into this guy..." Shichigami Rin muttered to herself, then shook her head. "But then again, why is she escaping this time?... Never mind."
She quickly gave up on speculating, as trying to understand Kosaka Wakamo's thought process was undoubtedly futile.
According to intelligence, Kosaka Wakamo's mental state was extremely unstable, and no one could truly understand her motives and objectives.
She frequently caused large-scale destruction and launched terrorist attacks indiscriminately, even suddenly attacking people during interrogations.
The Federal Student Council had tried countless times to extract information from her about the mysterious partner behind the Seven Prisoners—the "Smiling Professor"—but without exception, all attempts ended in failure.
"To deal with her, unless high-level combatants like Sorasaki Hina come, otherwise with just three people..."
Shichigami Rin's brows furrowed even deeper, and her fingers unconsciously tightened around the edge of the tablet.
—
At the same time, in a certain building.
Qian Qi, guided by the sound, successfully entered this magnificent and grand building. The building was in a power outage, and all the windows were sealed with metal plates, preventing sunlight from entering. The interior was as dark as a haunted house. If not for the night vision function of his goggles, Qian Qi estimated he would be fumbling in the dark like a blind man.
"But... they said to come here to find something, but what exactly am I supposed to find?" Qian Qi looked at the enormous space inside the building, like a labyrinthine shopping mall, and couldn't help but rub his forehead, feeling a headache coming on.
At this moment, he was like a headless fly, searching aimlessly within the vast Shale Building for something he didn't even know what it was. This aimless search made him feel vaguely irritated.
He searched room by room, and before long, he found an unusually spacious room that looked like an office area.
"Damn it, can't you riddle-tellers just tell me clearly what I'm supposed to find? This isn't something I wouldn't understand if you told me!!" Qian Qi grumbled inwardly. Just as he looked at the expansive office area, troubled about where to start his search—
Tap, tap.
A crisp sound of footsteps came, accompanied by a girl's charming yet somewhat helpless voice: "Oh dear—although I thought I should quickly destroy that thing, in such a large place, even I... don't know where to start looking."
—Someone's here?!
Qian Qi, hearing the footsteps, was slightly startled and instinctively wanted to speak out to attract the other party's attention. However, he suddenly realized something, and the words that were about to escape his lips were forcefully swallowed back. Alarm bells immediately rang in his heart.
—Wait a minute, destroy? Destroy what? Who exactly is this person...? Qian Qi was full of questions, but seeing the footsteps gradually approaching, he quickly looked left and right, swiftly pulled open a cabinet that was likely for hanging clothes, and ungracefully squeezed himself inside. He then secretly opened a crack to observe the situation outside.
Inside the quiet office area, only the peculiar footsteps grew clearer.
A moment later, a beautiful figure walked into the room. Through the crack in the cabinet door, Qian Qi clearly saw the newcomer's appearance.
It was a slender girl, wearing a kimono-style uniform modified from a sailor suit, with long black hair softly draped over her shoulders. Behind her, a fluffy fox tail swayed gently with her steps, and a cute bow was tied on her tail. The girl carried an old bolt-action rifle on her shoulder, a bayonet already attached to the muzzle, its design resembling the "Type 38 Arisaka" commonly seen in historical dramas.
At this moment, the girl stood still, looking around through the fox mask on her face, her fox ears on top of her head wiggling slightly, revealing her inner agitation.
—Who is she? But then again... Qian Qi secretly observed the suddenly appearing girl. Taking advantage of the dark environment inside the building, he finally noticed that there seemed to be a very peculiar object on the girl's head.
—What is that??
Qian Qi narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing it carefully. On the girl's head, there was a circle composed of five protruding spikes, with a unique sakura-patterned halo encased in the center of the circle. Moreover, this halo would move with the girl's head, appearing exceptionally novel.
—It moves? But then again, the few children I saw before also seemed to have halos?
—But then again, there are even beast-eared girls here? What exactly is going on in this place?
"Hmm—"
Just then, the girl—Kosaka Wakamo—let out a long, drawn-out sound, as if expressing her impatience. Her patience finally ran out, and with a whoosh, she took the weapon from her shoulder and cradled it in her arms.
"It's hard to find... Well, never mind, I'm going to destroy this place anyway, so why not just~"
Her tone was light and casual, as if discussing a perfectly ordinary matter. However, Qian Qi detected a hint of danger in her voice.
The next moment, Kosaka Wakamo, without any hesitation, casually pulled the trigger of her beloved Arisaka Type 99 rifle, launching an indiscriminate attack on everything in the office area.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
—
—