"Haaah..."
Exusiai let out a long, satisfied breath. The food on the table was gone.
"Just leave the dishes. I'll wash them later."
Yu Yachen folded her hands on the table, resting her chin on them.
"Want to stay a while?"
"Ah, can I?"
"Of course. I don't have anything important this afternoon."
"Uh, Miss Yu... there's something I've been wanting to talk to you about, but I don't know if I should ask..."
Exusiai sat up straight at the table, her expression suddenly hesitant.
"Go ahead."
"It's about that mission you commissioned me and Texas for... To be honest, I've been hesitating about whether to help you. Even though you're doing this out of necessity... Officer Ch'en will be really hurt by it, won't she?"
Saying you're going to... die in front of her... that's just too heavy.
The reason Exusiai and Texas trusted Yu Yachen so much went back to their first meeting.
The slums were Lungmen's breeding ground for crime. Far more than the city proper, this was where criminal gangs took root.
The first time they met, Exusiai and Texas had been driving a delivery route through the area.
The tires crunched over the pitted, puddle-filled road. Exusiai leaned halfway out the window. "Texas! Smell of blood, ten o'clock—whoa!"
Texas slammed on the brakes. The two of them found an alley entrance littered with the bodies of several gang members. Blood was flowing down the gutter in a dark red stream.
The place looked like it had just seen a vicious fight. Not far away, a white-haired woman was dragging a gang member's body by the ankle, dumping it on a trash heap.
The woman seemed to notice the van. Her pale cyan eyes swept over them, like a predator assessing prey.
"This one..."
Texas got out of the driver's seat. She narrowed her eyes, her hand moving from her Pocky to the hilt of her Originium sword.
A dangerous element? Now that she's seen us, we might be targeted. Maybe it's better to just...
"Wait, wait!"
Exusiai suddenly hopped out of the passenger seat, her shoes splashing in a muddy puddle. She waved at the white-haired woman.
"Hey, big sister! Need help taking out the trash? Penguin Logistics takes special orders, you know~"
Apparently not expecting this reaction, Yu Yachen paused. She then said, her face blank, "Your price?"
"It's free!" Exusiai's cheerful voice echoed in the alley. "You just have to tell me why you killed them."
Penguin Logistics's intelligence network was top-notch. She recognized these gang members. They were a group of drug smugglers who had just arrived in Lungmen.
"..."
"No special reason. They pissed me off, and I've been feeling a little stressed lately. So I dealt with them."
The white-haired woman shook her head, speaking casually.
"All by yourself? Amazing!"
Exusiai clapped in admiration.
"Hey, miss~ ever consider working for Penguin Logistics? Our boss would definitely value someone like you. Plus, we have pizza parties every week."
"Penguin Logistics? Sorry, I have a normal job."
Completely blindsided by Exusiai's offer, Yu Yachen suddenly let out a helpless laugh.
And that's how the three of them met.
At first, Exusiai thought Yu Yachen was some cold-blooded killer. But after spending time with her, she realized that wasn't it.
"Texas, don't you think she's cool?"
Exusiai had said one day, leaning on a table.
"Cool in what way?" Texas retorted.
If she meant her face, then yes, it was cool enough to charm even a psycho like Lappland.
But to Texas, she just felt dangerous.
"Her face is cool."
"True."
"Ahem, but really, don't you think she's actually... kind of nice?"
Exusiai cleared her throat.
"I passed a fish ball shop the other day, and the owner was getting hassled by some thugs. She stepped in and drove them off."
"That's probably because she knows the owner," Texas replied.
I think his name was Jaye.
"And! And! The other day, it was raining when I got off work, and I saw her. I watched her from far away... she was holding her umbrella over a little black kitten abandoned in a cardboard box! She even moved the box to a place where it could stay dry... although, she didn't adopt it."
"But I feel like... she's not a bad person at heart."
Exusiai nodded to herself.
"You can't possibly tell that from just those two things," Texas said, exasperated.
"It's a feeling. I've always been one to trust my gut."
The more time they spent together, the more Exusiai felt this was true.
"Anyway, if you do that... won't Officer Ch'en be really sad?"
"Why would you think that?" Yu Yachen asked, puzzled.
Exusiai replied, "I heard you and Officer Ch'en were high school classmates, and really close. You two obviously had a falling out. But since you were so close... I just think, wouldn't it be better to sit down and talk it out?"
The Sankta woman regretted it as soon as she said it.
"Uh... although, that uptight Officer Ch'en probably wouldn't tolerate this kind of illegal activity."
Texas was a former assassin, and Exusiai didn't really mind Yu Yachen killing bad guys. But Ch'en Huijie was a different story.
"Where did you hear that Officer Ch'en and I were 'really close'?"
Yu Yachen was confused.
"From those two guys watching you downstairs, of course," Exusiai replied innocently.
...How could you possibly hear them from that far away?
A drop of cold sweat ran down Yu Yachen's temple.
"Ah, well, forget it. If it bothers you, Miss Yu, just pretend I didn't say anything."
Just as Exusiai was shaking her head, about to drop the subject, Yu Yachen placed a hand on her shoulder.
"No, you're right. I... I really should talk to her."
"In the end, this plan... it is a bit extreme. My thinking was too radical. There must be another way."
She said with a smile.
[Host, you just spoil her. (╬)]
"Eh? Really?"
"Mhm. You've given me a lot to think about."
Ignoring the system's complaint, Yu Yachen adopted a thoughtful expression.
After all, she now had Killer Queen's [Third Bomb]. What she originally needed others to do, she could now do all by herself.
-------
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