Once the residual sour sting in her mouth finally faded, and the grand chime announced the official opening of the museum, Vera shook off her irritation. It was time to get to work. Her immediate priority was tracking down her chaotic operational assets: Roxanne and Ellen.
"Seriously, where did those two wander off to?" Vera muttered, executing a sharp sweep of the assembling crowd. She gritted her teeth, her internal monologue burning with resentment. *Damn that Kanna.
Utilizing Eri as psychological bait to corner me... I am absolutely filing that away for a counter-strike later.*
Realizing manual tracking would be a logistical waste of time in the growing crowd, she tapped into her psychic reserves. *Let's take the path of least resistance,* she thought, initiating a direct telepathic handshake with Roxanne, who was currently completely distracted, playing with her Kirlia near the central plaza's water feature.
「Roxanne. The deployment window is active. Report your current coordinates,」 Vera's voice echoed sharply inside Roxanne's mind.
Rayne, momentarily locked in Roxanne's hyperactive mental wavelength, transmitted a prompt reply:
「I'm right by the main fountain, letting Kirlia check out the water vectors!」
「Terminate the recreation phase and get over here immediately,」
Vera commanded.
「Fine, fine! But where exactly is 'here'?」 Roxanne projected back with her typical, unbothered cheerfulness.
「The primary entrance of the museum. I'm initiating the secondary ping for Ellen now. Move it.」
「On my way!」
With the first link closed, Vera redirected her telepathic broadcast, locking onto Ellen's mental signature.
「Ellen. Converge on the museum facade immediately. The operation is live.」
Across the courtyard, Ellen was deeply engaged in a quiet conversation with Natsu. The sudden telepathic intrusion made her posture stiffen slightly.
「Give me a moment, Vera. I'm currently occupied with Natsu.」
Vera's mental projection practically scoffed.
*「Wait, seriously? You're passing time with him right now? Look, I don't care about your social schedule. Break contact and report to my position. Now.」*
*「Understood,」* Ellen replied internally, her mental tone dropping into a thoroughly lethargic register. She broke the psychic link and turned back to Natsu, forcing a polite, apologetic smile. "My apologies, Natsu. An urgent matter requires my immediate attention. I suppose our discussion will have to wait. I hope we can cross paths again later."
"No worries," Natsu replied, offering a calm, understanding nod. "Good luck with your business."
Turning away, Ellen sent a final telepathic confirmation to Vera:
「You're still anchored at the initial coordinates, correct?」
Without waiting for a vocal response, Ellen gathered her energy and executed a precise short-range teleportation. The air displaced with a sharp *pop* as she materialized directly beside Vera. Coincidentally, Roxanne had just sprinted up from the opposite side of the plaza, her Kirlia floating gracefully in her wake.
"Excellent. Now that the cell is assembled, let's map out the operational parameters for liberating that canvas," Vera said, her voice dropping into a low, confidential whisper.
She leaned against a stone pillar, resting her chin in her hand as her expression hardened into pure tactical focus.
"According to the intelligence I scraped, the target masterpiece is securely staged on the third floor. Locating it won't be an issue since it's the focal point of the entire exhibition. However, local security density will be at its peak. We need to isolate the perfect temporal window to execute the breach."
Ellen crossed her arms, her analytical gaze shifting toward the open museum doors. "A breach during the opening hours is statistically inefficient. The physical density of the civilian crowd will create too many unpredictable variables. We should run a delayed clock. If we hold our positions until roughly 22:00, the visitor volume will hit zero, leaving the security grid isolated. That's our strike window."
Vera nodded slowly, processing the logic, before turning her head. "What's your assessment, Roxanne?"
"Logically, the timeline fits," Rayne replied, speaking for Roxanne's current thoughts, though her expression suddenly shifted. A strange, uncharacteristic shadow crossed her face. "But... I have a highly acute premonition. The local probability threads are tangling severely around that specific hour."
Vera's eyebrows knit together. "Can you run a dynamic prediction script on it?"
"I'll attempt a localized scan," Roxanne murmured.
Closing her eyes, she pulled her cognitive focus away from the present, forcing her consciousness to breach the temporal barrier and look exactly into the 22:00 timeline. Inside her mind's eye, the future unfolded in flashes of chaotic, high-contrast imagery.
*The museum infrastructure completely collapsing in a localized detonation... high-tier artifacts being extracted by unknown actors... multiple casualties... unexplained structural disappearances...*
Roxanne's eyes snapped open, a look of profound realization on her face. "The entire facility is scheduled to explode tonight. A massive artifact heist will trigger a multi-sector crisis, leading to casualties and missing persons. Wait, if a third-party faction compromises the security grid to steal the artifacts, the guard rotation will be completely displaced. Extracting our target canvas will actually be significantly easier under the cover of their chaos."
Vera and Ellen stood entirely frozen, the sheer weight of the prophecy hanging heavily in the air.
*Are you kidding me?* Vera screamed internally, her mind spiraling into profound frustration. *A full-scale terrorist assault on the exact night of our deployment? Why is my operational luck consistently this abysmal?*
Ellen's internal thoughts were dripping with pure, unadulterated sarcasm. *Fantastic. Absolutely brilliant. I still haven't decrypted the methodology to restore my original identity parameters, and now there's a non-zero probability that I'll get blown to pieces before midnight.*
"Alright! No use dwelling on the future when the doors are open!" Roxanne chirped, her hyperactive demeanor returning instantly. She grabbed Vera and Ellen by their hands, flashing a brilliant, radiant smile as she practically dragged them across the threshold. "Let's go check out the museum!" Kirlia floated happily alongside them, entirely matching her trainer's manic energy.
The moment they entered the grand exhibition hall, Roxanne's eyes locked onto a specific display. In front of Dr. Miles' *Summertime* canvas stood two girls with stark white hair. One was proudly wearing an oversized mage hat, while the other possessed an eerie, unsettling aura that looked like it had been pulled directly from a classic horror film. Roxanne recognized them instantly.
Releasing her grip on Ellen and Vera, Roxanne bolted across the polished marble floor. "Senior Eri! Senior Kanna!" she squealed, skidding to a halt right behind them.
Kanna, who had been quietly keeping watch while Eri analyzed the brushwork, flinched slightly at the sudden auditory assault. She turned her sharp orange eyes downward.
"Oh. Roxanne. I didn't anticipate encountering your energy signature here."
"Hehe, of course I'm here!" Roxanne beamed, her smile stretching from ear to ear.
Kanna tilted her head, her analytical gaze narrowing. "The academy parameters explicitly stated that this exhibition was restricted to third-year students and above. What is your authorization for being on-site?"
Roxanne simply giggled and pointed a thumb back toward the entrance, where Vera and Ellen were currently frozen in place, desperately trying to look like ordinary art enthusiasts inspecting a nearby landscape painting.
*Oh, you have got to be kidding me. Why is she of all people standing right there?* Vera panicked internally. Her core temperature dropped, and a slight tremor ran through her limbs. She tried to carefully track Kanna's position from the corner of her eye, but the white-haired girl vanished from her line of sight.
A cold shiver hit Vera's left shoulder. She snapped her head around to find Kanna standing a mere two inches away, staring blankly at her. Vera instinctively recoiled, taking several frantic steps backward to re-establish her personal space.
Kanna maintained an unreadable, deadpan stare, locking eyes with Vera. "So. You're the one acting as Roxanne's operational handler today."
"Y-Yeah... what of it?" Vera stammered, her voice betraying her internal panic before she managed to stabilize her posture.
"Acceptable," Kanna noted, turning her back with complete nonchalance. "At the very least, she has a competent supervisor to keep her erratic tendencies in check."
Reaching into her uniform pocket, Kanna pulled out a small, brightly wrapped piece of candy and held it out. "Do you want one?"
Vera's eyes narrowed instantly, her defensive instincts flaring. "Not a chance! I am absolutely not falling for one of your psychological traps twice in one day!"
Kanna didn't argue. She calmly unpeeled the wrapper, popped the confection into her own mouth, and began to chew.
Vera blinked, her defensive posture faltering as she watched her rival swallow the sweet.
"Wait... it was actually just a normal piece of candy?"
Kanna looked back over her shoulder, a faint, mocking glint in her eyes. "We have maintained a competitive data log on each other for an extended period, Vera. I am entirely privy to your psychological behavioral patterns. Baiting your reactions is an incredibly low-effort calculation for me."
The absolute condescension in Kanna's voice snapped Vera's remaining thread of patience. Veins practically popped on her forehead as she balled her hands into tight fists, taking a wild step forward to physically strike her rival—only for Eri and Ellen to instantly lunge forward, catching her by the arms and pinning her shoulders back.
"See?" Kanna remarked, completely unfazed as she watched the struggle. "Predictable and easily manipulated."
"You arrogant, short-statured Esper!" Vera roared, thrashing wildly against Eri and Ellen's combined grip as she tried to break free. "You literal anti-social gremlin! You've never integrated into society, and clearly, your height parameters have permanently stopped growing!"
The insult hit Kanna like a physical projectile. Her posture stiffened slightly, and a subtle twitch deflated her calm demeanor, but she fiercely maintained her cold, unbothered facial matrix, refusing to let her rival see the damage.
Meanwhile, Roxanne watched the chaotic display unfold, her head tilting as she processed the room. "Wait a minute... Senior Eri is here, and senior Kanna is here," she murmured, tapping her chin before realization struck. "Where is senior Z? Isn't his coordinate usually tethered to you guys?"
Kanna cleared her throat, adjusting her posture as she answered, "He stated an intent to ascend to the third floor a short while ago, accompanied by an associate."
The moment the words left Kanna's mouth, the ambient noise of the gallery seemed to fade for the three conspirators. Roxanne, Ellen, and Vera shared an instantaneous, horrifying realization.
The third floor. The exact location of the target canvas. The exact zone destined for a catastrophic explosion.
*This mission just became exponentially more complicated,* they all thought in unison.