Clenching my jaw against the pain, I stifled an anguished gasp but couldn’t help wheezing a little as I stood up on the wrecked balcony.

I could only think of one reason why the countdown had been trimmed by ten minutes.

Looking northward in the direction of the Promenade, I saw smoke trailing out of its stern as it drifted leisurely toward the tall tower with thin branch-like arms reaching up for the sky.

Ah…so that’s why.

The time penalty was probably for shooting at the Promenade.

Shaking my head slowly, I softly cursed Arnval under my breath.

That bastard didn’t tell me.

However, there was a possible silver lining to all this. If the time penalty had been imposed, then perhaps the floating observation platform had suffered significant damage and docking at the tower was its only option now. And that meant—

It’s not going anywhere. I won’t have to chase it down!

I glanced down at the Punisher in my right hand.

Time to reload.

Swapping out the empty magazine for a fully loaded one, I remembered the mangled Punisher. It lay several feet away, with about a third of its barrel missing.

However, I suspected the magazine was only half empty, a fact proven when I retrieved the weapon and then queried its A.I.

To my surprise, the Assisting Intelligence was functional, but I was shocked to hear it report the rifle was ready for combat.

Its capacity was compromised and aiming was for naught, but it could still prove lethal at point blank range.

I admired the rifle’s willingness to fight, though I wondered if it was telling me this so that I wouldn’t leave it behind.

Was I anthropomorphizing the Punisher?

Truth be told, even if crippled, I wasn’t going to abandon it, and it still had over forty rounds in its magazine. That had to be worth something.

Handing the weapon over to an armature that tucked it snug against my right shoulder blade, I gave Miss Ponytail a final cursory look, verified she was as dead as a door nail, yet reluctantly turned my back to her. And as I kicked at the balcony’s window-wall where multiple bullet hits had softened it, I couldn’t lay my troubled feelings to rest.

Miss Ponytail had endured more than sixty hits from bullets travelling at hyper-sonic speed. Granted, some of those had only grazed her, but many more had penetrated deep into her body. Both the Argus System and I were certain of that. So why was she brought down by a couple of perfectly placed shots through her neck? Had I disrupted the connection between the Meister and the avatar’s body?

I needed to know more about their weaknesses, something Arnval had conveniently avoided teaching me. All that useless shooting around, the pointless paint-bullet training with the maids, was nothing more than a distraction.

And thinking back on it all was distracting me right now.

Abruptly angry at Arnval and the Sanreals, I delivered an all mighty kick into the window-wall, and shattered a section large enough for me to step through with room to spare. However, before jumping into the room beyond the smashed windows, I was gripped by a sudden thought that made my heart jump in fright, and the tiny hairs on the nape of my neck stiffen.

What if she’s not the only one?

Half turning around to look behind me, I stared at Miss Ponytail’s dead mechanical body, then fearfully then swept my gaze over the building across the street.

What if there are more of her?

I searched the roofline, and then sensed the Argus System focus its ‘eyes’ on the vista in front of me. Without warning, my field-of-vision expanded so dramatically that I could see everything with perfect clarity, as though my peripheral vision and field-of-vision had become one.

Oh gods—

It was overwhelming, more than Mirai’s mind could handle, and I quickly squeezed my eyes shut.

*No—too much! It’s too much!

I heard the Argus System reply. Rather than with words, it seemed to transmit its understanding through emotions.

I risked opening my eyes and saw that my field-of-vision, already wider than humanly possible, had been restored to what was normal for Mirai. Yet I also sensed that my peripheral vision was marginally clearer. Despite this, I wasn’t overwhelmed by what I was seeing, and my chest and shoulders heaved as I exhaled loudly in relief.

*That’s better. Much better.

Again, I sensed that the Argus System understood me, but I was baffled by why it was communicating with me this way. Previously, it had spoken into my mind, so why was it sending its understanding as a stream of emotions. Was it trialing different means of interacting with me? Was it searching for the most efficient way to talk to me? Or was it trying to integrate with me, intending to make the bond between us seamless?

As the questions crossed my mind, I sensed a sheepish response from the Argus System, almost as though it was sorry for its actions.

I shook my head sharply in response.

“No. It’s fine. We both have a lot learn about each other.”

Yes, that seemed to be true.

All of this was more or less a trial run for the Argus System and I.

Ghost hadn’t known what I would face, but he’d anticipated it would be a challenge involving combat – something fit for a Gun Princess – and so he’d gifted me with the Argus System.

I promised to thank him for it later, while resolving to master his gift.

Before then I needed to finish what I’d started, and to do that I had to get to the tower, then board the Promenade before the countdown reached zero.

I’d gone through this much pain for Erina.

I wasn’t about to let it go to waste.

After all, I was going to take it out on her when the time was right.