The spacious monitoring centre should have been cool, but Tabane found it stiflingly hot.
The reason, naturally, was the people surrounding her from all sides.
At the front, Ania curled her lips, revealing her sharp canines with an expression that suggested she wouldn't hesitate to take a bite if provoked:
"Be honest, did you secretly tamper with the equipment again to cause trouble?"
Compared to Ania, Lacus on the right held a bottle of medicine with a smiling face, yet her gaze was unexpectedly sharp and dangerous.
"Doctor, I believe I said not to take any action before my arrival. I did emphasise the word 'any', didn't I?"
In contrast to these two, Natsuki Minamiya, blocking the rear, merely stood there fanning herself, but her teasing, spectator-like expression was what infuriated Tabane Shinonono the most.
Of course, compared to these three girls, Luo Shu, standing on the left, was the most dangerous one.
As for the reason...
Lacus on the right dipped a cotton swab into the iodine solution in her hand and gently dabbed it on Tabane Shinonono's forehead.
"Ouch, that hurts!!"
As the wound on her forehead was touched, Tabane Shinonono couldn't help but cry out in pain, tears welling up uncontrollably in the corners of her eyes.
The large, swollen bump on her forehead, though darkened by the iodine, couldn't conceal its vivid redness.
Only one person was capable of injuring Tabane Shinonono's cell-enhanced body and preventing the wound from healing promptly—the man on the left who appeared to be doing nothing, yet had done everything.
Thinking of this, Tabane Shinonono felt particularly aggrieved:
"I'd already surrendered, so why did you still punch me?"
"And that Witch of the Void behind me actually froze space to stop me from escaping. That's just too much!!"
"A spur-of-the-moment idea, so I gave it a try," Natsuki Minamiya said casually. She had indeed been contemplating how to counter Mukuro Hoshimiya's spatial teleportation ability, and when she saw Tabane Shinonono trying to flee, she acted.
As for the seamless coordination with Luo Shu, Natsuki Minamiya wouldn't admit to it.
Meanwhile, as the central figure of the accusation...
Luo Shu merely shook his right hand and said nonchalantly:
"Ah, that? I just wanted to test how it felt. Is that not allowed...?"
"...Fine." Tabane Shinonono puffed out her cheeks, looking as furious as a hamster.
Without any reservation, she plopped down onto the cold metal floor, placing the laptop that had fallen nearby onto her lap.
Seeing her like this, Lacus could only sigh helplessly and crouched down to continue applying medicine to her unfinished wound:
"Before Luo Shu and I came to Copernicus, you'd already tested Mukuro, hadn't you?"
Tabane Shinonono puffed her cheeks and remained silent. At this moment, Luo Shu tilted his head slightly, glanced at her, and calmly said:
"Your sister—I just looked for her. Didn't find her."
"Forgiven." Tabane Shinonono immediately curled her lips into a smile.
Then, stroking her chin thoughtfully, she mused: "My instruments couldn't locate her, and Luo Shu couldn't trace her using mystic side methods either. It seems my adorable little sister isn't in this world right now."
Though still worried, Tabane Shinonono had no choice but to give up in the face of such distance from the world.
"How annoying, this so-called Abyss."
As she spoke, Tabane pressed a key on the laptop before her.
With a click, the sleek black notebook began to transform, reassembling in Luo Shu's eyes into a massive wristband and three oval devices resembling cameras.
Tabane arranged the three camera-like devices in a triangular formation on the ground and slipped the wristband onto her hand.
"Neural system linked! Host connection successful! Alright, projecting the footage now!"
With Tabane's lively voice, the three devices emitted beams of blue light, forming an equilateral triangle one metre in length, hovering half a metre above the ground.
Within the triangle, an image materialised.
On the screen, Mukuro Hoshimiya—dressed in a pink-purple qipao yet wearing ancient Western knight boots, an incongruous yet exquisitely beautiful sight—raised a massive key-shaped staff, making an unlocking gesture towards the camera from afar.
Accompanied by the sound of a door closing, which was supposed to be impossible in the vacuum of space, the screen instantly turned pitch black.
Once the footage ended, Tabane stretched and turned to Luo Shu.
"Well, that's the footage the drone sent back half a day ago."
"The drone used was a modified GINN—Capture GINN."
The black screen now displayed a schematic of a pink mechanical figure.
Its design was roughly based on the classic Gundam grunt model, the GINN, with its hands modified into capture nets and a metal cage.
"The cage is made of Ninnium alloy, strong enough to withstand the raw materials of a nuclear fusion reactor. The net is a specialised Nim-Type 2 alloy rope. I tested it—an Abyss creature rated Rank A couldn't break free from either."
As Tabane spoke, the screen displayed a creature with a cobalt-blue body and limbs resembling those of a Nile crocodile.
The poor creature was strapped to a massive lab table, its body marked with obvious dissection and suturing scars.
Clearly, this was the life form comparable to a Rank A she had mentioned.
"Neither of those devices worked?" Lacus frowned as she asked.
Meanwhile, Luo Shu thought for a moment before inquiring,
"She escaped using a door-opening ability, didn't she?"
"Bingo!"
Tabane snapped her fingers, and the screen now displayed footage of Mukuro curled up inside the metal cage as it was being transported, followed by her awakening.
Upon opening her eyes, Mukuro summoned the key-shaped staff with a wave of her hand, effortlessly unlocking the cage. After stepping out, she pointed at the pink GINN from a distance.
Instantly, the GINN—still attempting to recapture her—froze in a standby state.
"That's the gist of it~"
Tabane clasped her hands behind her head.
"Since I was a bit curious about what Spirits were like, I secretly modified a GINN and sent it out with the strongest cage currently available to capture one."
"The initial results were promising. That Spirit seemed to be sleeping soundly in space, getting sent into the birdcage without any feedback. But when she woke up, she effortlessly broke through my birdcage and directly silenced the GINN."
"I originally planned to retrieve the GINN to examine the data and figure out what ability she used."
"But now it seems she was using that peculiar power Luo Shu mentioned, something akin to the Concept of Sealing."
Tabane Shinonono couldn't help but sigh at this point:
"How unfair. This power resembling world rules completely disregards logic, warping the laws governing matter and energy."
Though calling it unfair, her eyes sparkled with excitement as if seeing a new toy:
"Thanks to her and you, Luo Shu, I've already made progress on modifying the second-generation IS... cough cough"
Tabane abruptly stopped mid-sentence, realising her slip-up, and quickly shut her mouth.
Unfortunately, Lacus was applying medicine nearby and overheard everything she shouldn't have.
Instantly, Tabane found herself facing an exquisitely beautiful yet terrifyingly dangerous expression:
"Doctor... Didn't I explicitly forbid developing that thing?"