Dolls Are Creepy Things

Just as she had promised, Qian Huanyue raised her left hand and summoned her Angel.

"Seraph of Thousand Blades."

The Angel took the form of a sword again.

"I don't know where we need to go, but if we keep moving through this place, we might find that Quasi-Spirit, the Puppeteer." Qian Huanyue smiled and held out both hands.

"Come on, take my hands."

"Okay!" Hii Hibiki clasped Qian Huanyue's hand.

"Oh? Is this a new rule?" Kurumi asked, though she reached out without hesitation. "I don't remember us having to hold hands before."

"There are still so many places we haven't visited." Qian Huanyue smiled. "We may be doing this rather often from now on, so hold tight, ladies."

Qian Huanyue opened a rift in space and pulled Kurumi and Hibiki through with her.

In an instant, the scene before their eyes changed.

Qian Huanyue held the side of her hand against her forehead and peered into the distance. "Looks like this isn't the place either."

It was still empty ahead—

Oh, wait.

Qian Huanyue spotted something human-shaped. It clearly wasn't alive, yet it looked like an ordinary girl. Somehow, that made it all the more unsettling.

Was it a doll?

"Is that one of them, Hibiki?" Qian Huanyue asked, pointing at it.

"That's a doll controlled by the Puppeteer," Hii Hibiki confirmed. Surprise crossed her face, and she lowered her voice warily. "They still have their memories from when they were alive, as well as their Nameless Angels.

"But they're completely under the Puppeteer's control. The moment they become dolls, they're loyal to her and no one else."

As Hii Hibiki finished speaking, the doll girl seemed to notice them. She charged with obvious hostility and summoned a scythe-shaped Nameless Angel.

More doll girls emerged from the shadows and behind piles of props. Their movements were stiff at first, but quickly grew fluid as they summoned the Nameless Angels they had possessed in life.

They looked ready to fight as a team.

Kurumi fired a test shot. It punched a hole the size of a head through a doll's chest. The Soul Crystal on her body broke, and she promptly collapsed.

Qian Huanyue couldn't help letting out a snort of laughter. "So weak—"

They'd looked so formidable, but were they just paper tigers?

She summoned only a few flying swords of different shapes. Before Hii Hibiki's stunned eyes, their blades cut the dolls to pieces without the slightest effort.

"Seraph of Thousand Blades."

The scene before them changed again.

Qian Huanyue watched another group of doll girls approach, amused and curious. "There are so many," she exclaimed in genuine wonder.

"Does the Puppeteer like winning through sheer numbers?" Qian Huanyue tilted her head with a mischievous smile. "Then let's see whose numbers are greater."

She snapped her fingers lightly, looking supremely confident.

"Go."

Several swords appeared in the air, matching the dolls in number. Before the dolls could use their abilities, the blades blasted them all to pieces. Hii Hibiki stared, dumbfounded.

"Seraph of Thousand Blades."

Qian Huanyue wiped imaginary sweat from her cheek, her expression going blank.

By now, they had destroyed at least a thousand dolls.

Was the Puppeteer's ability really this nasty?

"Well," Kurumi said, looking unusually exasperated. She lightly touched the barrel of her gun to the bangs on her right.

"Does Miss Puppeteer have no ideas beyond throwing bodies at us? Even I'm starting to find this a little... tedious."

Hii Hibiki had gone from nervous to shocked to awestruck. By now, she was almost numb.

"Maybe... she's just trying to wear down our stamina and Spiritual Power?" Hii Hibiki guessed uncertainly.

"Wear down our stamina?" Qian Huanyue checked the Spiritual Power still surging inside her. If anything, using her Angel so often had made it flow more freely. Her expression turned hard to read.

"Hmm... how do I put this? I don't feel a thing."

Against a Quasi-Spirit, a swarm of this size would undoubtedly drain her Spiritual Power and stamina.

But Qian Huanyue was, without question, a Spirit.

If the goal had been to wear down her mood, though, that Quasi-Spirit had succeeded.

Qian Huanyue grew thoroughly exasperated and waved a hand.

"Still, each time we teleport, we rule out another wrong place. We should be getting closer."

"Is she going to keep making dolls without ever tiring? That's some stamina."

"..." Hii Hibiki fell silent, her face stiffening. She seemed unsure how to say it.

"Oh..." Kurumi, who had learned part of the truth through the Tenth Bullet, fell silent too.

"...These dolls are made from dead Quasi-Spirits."

The truth Kurumi spoke so softly froze what had been a relatively lighthearted mood.

"..."

The smile faded from Qian Huanyue's face. Shock flashed through her violet eyes. A few seconds later, fierce anger rose in its place.

When Qian Huanyue killed the mages who attacked her, she ended their lives in a single blow. She never made them suffer more than necessary.

The sheer number of dolls was... deeply disturbing.

If Huanyue could still take all this lightly, she would have to be either remarkably carefree or downright heartless.

"Ugh—" Qian Huanyue pressed a hand to her forehead.

Calm down. Calm down!

"I'm done playing hide-and-seek with someone who toys with the dead." Qian Huanyue's voice had grown calm, but she was plainly unhappy.

In Huanyue's imagination, she was a Spirit, far stronger than anyone here. She would rescue Hii Hibiki's friend as easily as if she were playing a game, then ask her to show her around the Neighboring World.

But it hadn't taken long for that rosy picture to crack.

Was life really this hard for Quasi-Spirits?

Gah!

That Puppeteer was downright sinister!!

What a nasty trick.

Seeing the ground covered in doll fragments, Kurumi thoughtfully activated the City of Devouring Time.

Pale arms reached out of the red-and-black shadows and dragged the fragments inside.

Hii Hibiki couldn't help shivering at the horrifying sight.

"Thanks, Kurumi."

"Oh, it was nothing." Kurumi elegantly put away her flintlock, and the shadows beneath her skirt slowly settled. Noticing how pale Hii Hibiki looked, she gave her a teasing smile. "Did that frighten you, Miss Hibiki? Sometimes, being swallowed whole is a mercy."

Hii Hibiki flinched instinctively, then shook her head hard. "No... It's just my first time seeing something like that so close up..."

As she thanked her dear friend, Huanyue rested a hand on Hii Hibiki's head and smoothed down her stray tuft of hair. A gentle smile curved her lips. This was the sort of smile Huanyue did best.

"It's all right, it's all right. San-san is a super-kind Spirit. She'd never kill an innocent person."

The smile on her lips as she said it was especially warm, its sincerity enough to put anyone at ease.

Hii Hibiki looked up at Qian Huanyue's gentle face, so close to hers. Feeling the warmth of her hand on her head, she gradually lost the timid fear the eerie scene had stirred in her.

"I wasn't scared of Kurumi," Hii Hibiki said quickly, shaking her head. "I just... haven't seen anything on this scale before."

"Is that so? Haha—" Qian Huanyue laughed heartily. "Then we'll make sure you get a good look in a moment. Right, San-san?"

"Oh, Huanyue-chan, you'll make me blush with praise like that." Kurumi rested the barrel of her gun lightly against her chin. The shadows curled in elegant arcs around her feet before shrinking back to normal.