In fact, this was the second time Dr. Newton had encountered an assassination attempt.
The assassin from the first attempt had also been the pink-haired assassin standing before her now—
By that calculation, Sakura could already be considered an old acquaintance of Dr. Newton's, although every time Newton saw her, her heart still skipped half a beat.
That incident had to be traced back to the time Teacher Vill-V tricked her into going boating in the park with Kevin and Mei...
...
One month earlier, Central Forest Park on the Mu Continent.
A Victorian-style yacht slowly cruised across the center of the artificial lake.
"Why is such a huge yacht packed with high-tech equipment being powered by human labor?!"
Dr. Newton complained on behalf of the pitiful human engine—Kevin.
At this moment, Kevin was running away on a treadmill inside the yacht's gym.
Although the yacht generated power through human exercise, Vill-V had given Kevin plenty of choices.
Because she did not know what kind of exercise-powered generator Kevin preferred, she had simply built an entire gym and let him choose whichever machine he liked.
Vill-V's original plan had been to give Mei and Kevin a romantic atmosphere—a little park paddle boat powered by pedaling with their legs. Just imagining it sounded romantic.
But during the design process, Magician felt that arrangement lacked novelty and would not be surprising enough, so it gradually evolved into the gym they had now.
A mobile gym yacht truly was not something an ordinary person could design.
Dr. Mei, who was sitting off to one side fishing, watched Dr. Newton splash the water with her hand and scare away her fish. She sighed and explained, "This was all Miss Vill-V's design. You're familiar with her design style."
Besides, Vill-V had said she wanted ultimate romance... In that case, what kind of ultimate romance involved stuffing the third wheel Dr. Newton into the scene?
Oh, so this was literally talking romance to a cow. They were no longer even treating Newton like a person, were they?
Dr. Mei could hardly say such things to Dr. Newton, and besides, Dr. Mei had never intended to pursue romance with Kevin in the first place.
She glanced at the nearby sign reading "No Fishing with Explosives" and continued, "Never mind whether we could even rent another yacht. We don't even know whether someone might have tampered with it and planted a bomb. The bait has already been cast. If the angler carelessly ends up feeding the fish herself, wouldn't that be far too careless?"
The small boat rocked gently across the lake. Under the sunlight, faint ripples shimmered across the water, while a soft breeze carried the fresh scent of the lake, making the atmosphere pleasantly comfortable.
In an environment like this, listening to the sound of the water and feeling the breeze brush past made it very easy to drift off to sleep. Dr. Newton was no exception.
Just then, a cold white glint flashing through the rippling water dazzled her eyes.
A sharp katana pierced through the side of the boat and sliced the paddling Dr. Newton cleanly in half.
The assassin had already arrived, but she had not chosen to attack from a distance with a sniper rifle. Instead, she had remained hidden beneath the water the entire time, lying patiently in wait!
Dr. Newton's upper body fell into the lake with a splash.
Poor Dr. Newton became fish food.
Fortunately, that was not the real Dr. Newton but a Quartz Crystal Oscillation Newton Paddling Doll created by Vill-V.
It was powered by light and capable of operating for long periods of time. Every paddling motion occurred at an exact interval of once every three seconds, making it an excellent outdoor timekeeping assistant.
At the same time, it could emit Newton's voice, making everyone believe Newton was dutifully doing her share of the work and paddling.
The real Dr. Newton, meanwhile, was still sleeping soundly in complete ignorance, utterly unaware of the approaching danger.
All of Newton's earlier dialogue had been prerecorded, with Dr. Mei improvising around it to create a sense of realism.
"Normally, even when out on an excursion, a MOTH department head would have an armed security unit stationed nearby. A long-range sniper attack would easily be discovered by the guards. If the shot missed, there would be no second chance to get close."
"You gave up on sniping and chose a cold weapon instead. It seems you have great confidence in your own skill, but you've still underestimated how thoroughly we've prepared."
The instant Dr. Mei saw the Newton doll being cut down, she activated the cable snares installed nearby. They wrapped around the katana before Sakura could pull away, trapping the weapon and preventing her from withdrawing it.
The assassin beneath the boat tried tugging several times, only to find the katana completely immovable, as though she were trying to pull King Arthur's sword from the stone.
Immediately afterward, the infrasound vibration devices arranged around the yacht began to hum, violently churning the water around the small boat into turbulent waves.
The nearby fish were caught in the attack and soon floated to the surface belly-up, playing dead.
Sakura, submerged beneath the water, suffered the full force of the infrasound attack. Her internal organs felt as though they had been thrown into a washing machine and violently churned around.
Sakura let out a muffled grunt but did not lose consciousness. Instead, she immediately bit down hard on the tip of her tongue. With a sharp crack, she swung her weapon and snapped the blade of the katana, attempting to flee the infrasound's effective range.
Naturally, Dr. Mei had no intention of letting the assassin escape so easily. This trap had been designed specifically for Sakura. If they let her escape now, capturing someone as cautious as her again in the future would be extremely difficult.
With another press of a button, the yacht fired out a metal fishing net, attempting to capture the attacking assassin.
The net closed quickly, but Sakura's slash was even faster. She swung the broken blade, generating enough pressure underwater to create a cavitation blade that directly obstructed the net from closing. Sakura seized the opportunity to escape through its opening.
In truth, the output of the infrasound vibration device could be increased even further. At its first rated power setting, it could shake an elephant to death, but because Vill-V was worried that the delicate Sakura might suffer permanent injuries if the power was too high, she had limited the rated output to a level capable of knocking an adult unconscious.
Judging by how Sakura could still nimbly escape Vill-V's other arrangements, however, Sakura's constitution was nowhere near as delicate as they had imagined. She was at least two or three times stronger than an ordinary adult.
"Come out, Sakura. You can't escape."
The air fell silent for a brief moment.
Dr. Mei waited calmly for Sakura's next move.
Pop.
A black grappling hook burst through the surface of the water and instantly latched onto the yacht's side.
Splash.
A pink-and-blue figure burst from beneath the water. Holding a broken blade in one hand, she stepped across the water and charged straight toward Dr. Mei aboard the yacht with the speed of a cheetah.
Escaping was impossible. No matter how quickly Sakura could swim through the water, she could never outrun a yacht.
Of course, Sakura could never have dreamed that the yacht was actually powered by Kevin's legs and was not particularly fast at all.
Romance could not be allowed to end too quickly.
Bang!
A silver-white metal baseball bat swung toward the wrist of Sakura's right arm, the one holding the broken blade. Sakura immediately pulled back and avoided the ferocious strike.
"That's far enough."
Kevin held the gleaming metal baseball bat in his hands, positioning it diagonally between Dr. Mei and Sakura.
Going out on a lake without a weapon but bringing a metal baseball bat instead was perfectly reasonable.
If Vill-V had been here, she definitely would have given Kevin full marks for this perfectly timed heroic rescue.
When it came to being the cool guy, Kevin was still the one to watch.