Don't go, Seele.
Bronya dreamed again of the night Seele left.
No matter what she did, she couldn't stop Seele from leaving.
It was just that today's dream was a little different. Seele still left —
but instead of entering the Sea of Quanta,
she threw herself into a man's arms.
It was a blond man wearing white goggles. Bronya knew him. He was that bastard who'd broken into the orphanage.
But Seele had thrown herself into that bastard's arms, and his greasy hands were wandering across her body.
Seele's eyes were unfocused, her cheeks flushed red.
Seele, push him away already!!! Bronya shouted.
But Seele looked as if she were enjoying it. No matter how Bronya shouted, Seele didn't react at all.
Her heart hurt so much.
Even though Bronya's emotional circuits were damaged, she still felt fear — fear of losing Seele — and right now there was nothing she could do.
She could only watch that blond man keep toying with Seele.
No, Seele...
A choked sound, and the dream shattered. Bronya opened her eyes.
So it had only been a dream. Bronya let out a breath of relief. Her Seele hadn't been defiled by dirty hands.
But just as she relaxed, an ill-timed voice came from beside her.
"Awake?" The voice was gentle. Hearing it, Bronya's mind immediately produced the image of some warm, dependable man.
But very quickly, she remembered who that voice belonged to.
It was the blond man in the goggles.
Bronya turned her head. She discovered that her body couldn't move at all. She'd been tied up in an extremely humiliating position.
It was a binding pattern she unfortunately recognized — the kind that only tightened the harder she struggled, with knots that rubbed against different parts of her body.
When Bronya tore her gaze away from herself, she saw the blond man sitting by the bed.
Unlike the first time they'd met, the man wasn't wearing goggles now, revealing a handsome face.
But what did the man being handsome have to do with her? Not a ripple.
What she did realize was that she might be in danger, because beside her head there seemed to be a bag lying tipped over.
Some of the things inside had spilled out, and Bronya saw what was in it.
Those were strange little boxes.
There were fifteen of them in all.
But Bronya wasn't like Otto, a boy who didn't know much about anything. Bronya knew what those were for.
They served to protect the healthy nightlife between lovers.
Bronya's eyes widened slightly. For this sort of thing to be placed right by her head, the intended use was obvious.
The blond man wanted to use all of them on her.
Unexpectedly, he was actually a man who paid attention to safety.
No expression showed on her face. She could accept this outcome. Since childhood she'd been trained into an assassin, so naturally she knew the price of a failed assassination.
The first time she'd failed, she hadn't succeeded in assassinating Cocolia, and the result was that she became Cocolia's daughter.
And now this was her second failed assassination. Then it looked like this blond man wanted her to become his woman.
No, maybe just a plaything.
So should she bite off her tongue and kill herself? But that would only add pain. It wasn't an effective way to die.
Bronya thought rapidly. Or maybe she could play along with this man first, let him infiltrate her defenses.
Then when he relaxed his guard, she could assassinate him.
But against a man whose head wasn't even afraid of bullets, could she really kill him with her bare hands?
Project Bunny wasn't suited to assassination. It was only suited to suppressive fire. In close combat, she'd definitely be the one at a disadvantage.
One step at a time. Bronya let out a breath. She didn't know what had become of the others from the orphanage either. She kept her hips raised without changing posture, even arched her waist more, deliberately making herself look more appealing.
She chose to start by playing compliant with this man, then wait for a chance.
It was just that... there were fifteen whole boxes.
Even though she'd never gone through anything like this, Bronya felt that she might die.
At that moment, she shook her head in self-mockery. Sure enough, dreams and reality were opposites.
In the dream, it had been Seele throwing herself into this man's arms. In reality, it was she herself who'd fallen into this man's hands. It was just that Seele wasn't here to watch her suffer.
"You're called Bronya, right?"
Otto said this as he looked at Bronya's profile. It was very cute, and that made him look a few extra times.
As for Bronya's raised hips, he didn't look there, because if he looked too long, he'd get that strange feeling again, and even feel an urge to smack them.
If he tucked Bronya against his hip and spanked her there, it'd be like playing the bongos. Probably pretty rhythmic, too.
"Mm." Hearing her own name, Bronya wasn't surprised, because a premeditated attack would naturally have gathered information on targets like them.
She answered Otto. She was going to act extremely compliant.
"Actually—" Otto thought about how he should close the distance with Bronya, then said, "I haven't seen the sea either."
*Like hell I haven't!*
After saying it out loud, Otto wanted to slap himself. He could speak perfectly normally when talking with Void Archives and the others, so why did he start awkwardly forcing conversation the moment he was dealing with someone else?
But after thinking about it, Otto realized he really actually had never seen the sea.
Bronya lay there with her hips raised, a little suspicious. Why was this man still not getting down to business? From the look of it, he wanted to chat with her.
And looking more carefully, her clothes were still perfectly intact, not damaged in the slightest. Even the stockings had been put back onto her legs.
So was this the kind of man who liked to build feelings first? The sort who didn't like things blunt and rough?
As for the possibility that this man had no interest in her at all — that option didn't exist. She'd already been tied up like this. If someone said he wasn't interested, who would believe it?
"Then I can go see the sea with you."
So he wanted to play this kind of fake-feelings game. To gain Otto's trust, Bronya followed along with his line.
It was just that... seeing the sea.
Bronya thought of certain things, and a trace of memory showed in her eyes.
"Alright, then." Hearing Bronya's reply, Otto said, "Then when the time comes, the three of us will go see the sea together."
Three? Bronya felt a little puzzled by that number.
"When the time comes, we'll find some beautiful place. Me, you, and... Seele. The three of us will go see the sea together."
"After all, you and little sister Seele made that promise."
The word "Seele" hit her chest like a hammer. She turned her head and looked at Otto's eyes. There was a smiling look in them.
"You... how do you know!?"
Bronya asked in disbelief. The promise to go see the sea was something only she and Seele knew. Even Rozaliya or Cocolia didn't know about it.
It worked.
Seele, it seemed, was very important to Bronya.
Looking at Bronya like this, Otto showed an amused smile, like he was savoring it.
"Because I'm someone important to little sister Seele too."