The Mecha-Kai Species During Dimensional Travel

Xiu Er was unimpressed.

Under his surveillance of the nation's network, no matter where Kurumi moved, he could track her down in an instant.

And even if she directly fled deep into the mountains and forests, Xiu Er could still pinpoint her coordinates through the Codex of the Whispers.

Cough, getting off track.

Back to the topic at hand.

Miku Izayoi, due to certain past experiences, had developed an extreme aversion to men—to the point that, in her eyes, men were even more disgusting than cockroaches or other insects.

In the original work, Shido was forced to resort to crossdressing just to make contact with her because of her hostile attitude toward males.

But to be honest, Miku Izayoi's personality was set up to be quite vile.

That was why, back when Xiu Er was watching the series, he simply couldn't bring himself to like this character. Even if she improved somewhat after being won over by Shido later on, it didn't change his opinion.

However, Miku's Angel, in Xiu Er's view, was still quite useful.

Her Angel, the War Song Diva, could perform various pieces of music with different effects—some buffed her allies, while others dealt direct damage to enemies.

More importantly, it also had the ability to manipulate the minds of its listeners.

And Miku used this power to turn her female fans into toys for her own amusement.

Xiu Er currently stood outside the school gates, his appearance disguised using the Fake Demoness. Hiding his non-distinctive features before leaving home had become his daily routine.

Although Miku's location within the school had already been precisely pinpointed by Xiu Er, it was still a school.

He couldn't start a conflict with Miku on campus, surrounded by countless ordinary people.

Xiu Er's appearance was also noticed by the school's security guard. From the guard's perspective, this person wasn't a student here and was probably trying to come in for a visit.

After all, there was an idol singer on campus, and most of her fans were female. Maybe this kid was also here for that idol.

Most others who tried to enter gave the same reason.

But rules were rules—the school didn't allow outsiders to enter freely.

So, the guard walked up to Xiu Er.

"Excuse me, student, the school doesn't allow unrelated outsiders to enter. Please leave."

Xiu Er glanced at the guard.

He knew that this guard had been watching him ever since he arrived.

He just hadn't expected the guard to wait this long before warning him.

But he hadn't planned on directly entering the school to find Miku anyway—he'd already explained the reason earlier.

Too many ordinary people. If a fight broke out, Xiu Er wasn't cruel enough to harm innocent bystanders. Plus, Miku might control the students to use them as meat shields.

For Miku at this stage, she really might do something like that!

So, Xiu Er's choice was to ambush her on her way home from school.

Time fast-forwarded to the afternoon dismissal.

Miku Izayoi, as usual, waved goodbye to her cute and enthusiastic female fans.

After bidding each of them farewell, she set off on her way home.

Normally, she would have made it home without incident, but for some reason, Miku felt a strange sense of unease in her heart.

Her intuition told her that something bad was about to happen.

Miku was surprised at why she suddenly had this thought, but she still took it seriously.

She trusted her intuition completely.

So, as she walked, she carefully observed the passersby.

Turning a corner.

She saw a figure in a hooded cloak leaning against the wall, as if waiting for someone.

Although she couldn't see the person's face, the build and the blue-violet strands of hair spilling out from under the hood—too long to be contained—confirmed the person's gender for Miku.

She let out a small sigh of relief. As long as it wasn't a man.

She didn't bother wondering what this person was doing here.

No way—she had absolutely no mood to care about such things right now. The unease in her heart was growing stronger, and she had to admit she was starting to panic.

What could it be that made her intuition scream warnings like crazy?

What people feared most was often the unknown.

Then, as she walked past the girl, she got her answer...

"[Question]..." came a voice utterly devoid of emotion from the hooded girl. "You're Miku Izayoi, right?"

At that moment, alarm bells rang in Miku's heart as a powerful sense of crisis suddenly emerged.

"Wha—...!"

After all, she was merely someone who operated as an idol, with virtually no combat awareness; having usually faced ordinary people, it was only natural she would have little to no battle experience.

So, to Xiu Er, the opponent's shock had left her entire body full of openings.

Not giving her a chance to react, Xiu Er directly flashed in front of Miku, grabbed her by the neck, and slammed her toward the wall behind.

But Miku didn't hit the wall as expected; instead, she fell into a golden passage that had appeared on the wall at some unknown time.

Xiu Er also took the opportunity to charge headlong into it.

Scene shift—

When she emerged from the other end of the golden passage, Miku found that her surroundings had changed.

No longer the familiar road, no passersby in sight, and all around were abandoned buildings—this place seemed to be some deserted construction site.

And the person who had attacked her was now straddling her, gripping her neck.

Finding herself taken to an unfamiliar place, coupled with the pain of being slammed to the ground, the emotion called "fear" arose in Miku's heart.

She had no spare rationality to think about the abilities the other had displayed; all she knew was that she had to go all out now.

Pinned beneath the opponent, her strength was no match, and she couldn't break free.

So, she tried to speak to use her ability, because her power was activated through sound.

But the hand gripping her neck was as firm as a steel clamp; no matter how she struggled, she couldn't budge it in the slightest, and thus, she couldn't utter a single word.

"...Let... ugh..."

Feeling the hand around her neck gradually tightening, Miku no longer maintained her usual elegance.

Oh? Still able to speak?

Xiu Er noticed that the opponent could still make sounds. His mind had already calculated all the methods, and he acted without hesitation.

He extended his other hand, inserted his fingers into the opponent's mouth—gaping wide from lack of oxygen—and pressed down on her tongue.

"Mmph...!"

There. A tightened neck plus a pinned tongue—now Miku couldn't make any sound at all.

Because of the earlier attack, she was now covered in dust, her purple-silver hair stained with dirt, losing its former luster, and her beautiful face smeared with grime.

Unable to make a sound, Miku was reminded of past events, and as a result, tears uncontrollably streamed from her purple-silver eyes.

Pitifully, she now resembled a fragile woman being forced into unspeakable acts.

She had already manifested her Spirit Dress, but although being choked prevented her from using her voice for her ability, the use of spiritual power didn't require that.

Yet Xiu Er's suppression was so strong that Miku couldn't move beneath him, and even her struggles had sullied the magnificent Dress of Light with dust.

She could summon her Angel.

But what then?

The sound-based Angel, shaped like a massive pipe organ with a keyboard of light—the War Song Diva—materialized.

But with her voice sealed by Xiu Er, it could no longer serve any purpose.

Unable to speak for the moment, her fear and panic rendered her incapable of activating any ability effects, leaving her as nothing more than fish on a chopping block.

And this was exactly what Xiu Er had calculated before making contact with Miku—everything proceeded as smoothly as he had planned.

Of course, there were many backup plans, but given the current situation, they were completely unnecessary.

Miku's Angel was inherently more supportive in nature; facing Xiu Er and being caught off guard with a fatal opening, her swift defeat was only to be expected.

Driven by a strong survival instinct, Miku began clawing at Xiu Er.

But the opponent's body was like steel; she even felt her fingers were about to bleed, yet he remained completely unharmed.

Her incessant struggles, along with the commotion from summoning her Angel, knocked the hood off Xiu Er's head.

A face as delicate as a doll, bearing an expression devoid of any emotion, cold and indifferent, appeared before Miku's eyes.

Those inorganic golden eyes glowed with an eerie light.

The inhuman mechanical structure of his face made Miku realize that he was not human.

The shock in her eyes upon learning this truth was like the final straw that broke the camel's back.

Her spirit was on the verge of collapse.

Xiu Er no longer looked at Miku pinned beneath him; his grip was precisely controlled to the point where she couldn't make a sound but wouldn't be in mortal danger.

It wasn't like he wanted to kill her.

He had been troubled about how to get her to summon her Angel, but unexpectedly, Miku had cooperated so well.

Then, ignoring Miku, Xiu Er began analyzing the War Song Diva.

And so, the two remained in that position, with no change except that Miku's movements grew weaker and weaker.

In this abandoned construction site where no one ever comes, no one would ever know what happened inside.

Chapter 19 - Entrance Comes with a BGM

When Xiu Er finished her analysis and released Miku, she had no strength left.

Her vision was blurry, tears tracing several streaks down her face. Her cheeks were flushed red from lack of oxygen, her dress stained with dust, not a single clean spot on her body.

Miku lay limp on the ground, only the occasional rise and fall of her chest proving she was still alive.

Because of the oxygen deprivation, Miku's mind was now in a dazed, hazy state—like a broken doll, with only her survival instinct forcing her to greedily gulp down the long-missed air.

Seeing her in such a miserable state, anyone who didn't know better would think some thug had done something unspeakable to her.

Given Miku's condition, she probably wouldn't regain consciousness anytime soon.

So Xiu Er let go of her neck, took out a tissue, and wiped the saliva off his fingers. The Mecha-Kai species' body was resistant to everything except dirt—if it got stained, he'd have to clean it.

As for what to do with Miku now, Xiu Er chose to leave her here and ignore her.

There was no need to worry. First, according to Xiu Er's calculations, Miku would regain consciousness soon.

Second, this place was chosen by Xiu Er from the start. When he first set his target on Miku Izayoi, he had already investigated every location in her area.

After multiple rounds of screening, this completely deserted construction site was one of the several areas Xiu Er selected.

Furthermore, Xiu Er had already taken control of the surveillance cameras and various spirit detection devices in these selected areas.

So here, no matter what he did to Miku, it wouldn't be discovered. Even when Miku summoned her Angel earlier, no one would know.

Naturally, there was no chance of anyone finding her body and taking advantage.