A rush of wind whistled past Esnie's ear. She could feel it whipping across her cheek, almost cutting into her skin.
But her body moved faster than her senses. The instant the metal sphere passed her ear, Esnie twisted aside to dodge and lunged low toward the woman standing nearby.
As though she had anticipated Esnie's movements, Karin showed no alarm at her clearly inhuman speed. She merely sneered, and several mechanical eyes and machine guns emerged from the wall beside her, aiming at the charging Esnie.
A web of gunfire cut Esnie's charge short. Clearly, the girl was not yet capable of passing through such a dense barrage unscathed.
"Sixteen T20 Recoil Machine Guns have been installed here, and above you is the 3.5R information Surveillance System. My orders are to capture you alive. Of course, if that proves impossible, I'll have to eliminate the threat on the spot."
Karin spoke slowly, her measured tone making it sound as though she were explaining a very simple principle.
"If I were you, I wouldn't put up a futile struggle. When you know there's no way out, surrender is a wise choice."
The machine guns' muzzles trained on Esnie a short distance away, while the bullet marks on the floor proved that Karin's words were no empty threat.
Bullets that could leave such marks on a composite-metal floor would rob Esnie of her ability to fight back just as they would an ordinary person, no matter how far her physical abilities surpassed theirs.
After all, even the finest cybernetic bodies could not stop bullets like these.
"Finished?"
Yet the girl's response was nothing like Karin had expected.
The girl whom the gossipmongers of District 25 called the [Black Valkyrie] slowly straightened, abandoning her low stance. She drew the Thermal Sword from