(⊙⊙) The Chairman Was Especially Good at Solving Problems
"Huh?"
|˙˙)
Annie had just come out of the research institute and hadn't decided where to go next when she spotted Mulan, the robot, wandering near her palace ship.
"Hehe..."
(`)~
Surprised, she rubbed her hands together and crept over, sneaking up on Mulan with a smug grin. She was going to give her a good scare.
"..."
Unfortunately, before she could put her plan into action, she had barely made it up behind Mulan when the robot suddenly turned around, expressionless. She stared at Annie with those black eyes, blinking as if puzzled by her behavior.
"Haha!"
(*^▽^*)
"Hey, Sister Mulan!"
(▽)
Seeing that, Annie sheepishly lowered the hand she'd raised to give Mulan's silicone imitation butt a good smack. Then she hurriedly changed the subject, pretending to be calm as she asked:
"Why are you pacing around here?"
(′ o′)
"Did you come looking for me?"
Annie had naturally assumed that Mulan was pacing around because she wanted to talk to her. Otherwise, she would have gone out to kill daemons like she used to, vanishing for days on end.
"Looking for you?"
To Annie's surprise, Mulan paused in a very humanlike way, then immediately denied it.
"No."
"I just wanted to go to the Command Center and get permission to leave."
"But they turned me down again."
That was right. The female robot hadn't come looking for Annie at all. She'd wanted to apply for permission to leave at the Command Center, but her application had been rejected once again. Since the Command Center at the mining base was right beside the beautiful palace ship Little White, Annie had mistaken her pacing for waiting outside her home.
"Oh, I see!"
Mulan's explanation suddenly jogged Annie's memory.
She remembered