Chapter 7: Dr. Fran

Such “accidents” weren’t limited to the Operating Room.

Amidst the shrill alarms, through the frosted glass windows facing the corridor, the entire Modification Department had plunged into darkness and chaos. Outside the Operating Room came the sounds of battle, gunfire, wailing, roaring, and even the deafening booms of explosions and heavy objects toppling over.

The situation was already out of control.

And the source of this disaster was none other than Fran plugging the data cable into the Drive.

This was a man-made catastrophe.

“So, your Modification Department’s most advanced firewall was poked through like a piece of paper?”

“…Ehehe?”

The culprit tapped her head and stuck out her tongue, putting on an innocent “Oops~ I caused trouble!” expression, but this was no trivial prank.

“Dr. Fran, please untie me first.”

Squire was still strapped to the operating table with bandages, so she couldn’t even scold her properly.

But the computer controlling the operating table had already gone black and was emitting smoke.

“Aiya~ That might be a bit tricky. Looks like I’ll have to use some force!”

Fran pulled out that dangerous electric drill again, her expression oddly excited.

“…Wait, what are you going to do?”

Squire sensed danger.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be very careful freeing you! I promise!”

The drill’s motor whirred to life.

“Wait!”

If she drilled through the bandages, she’d definitely get hurt herself.

Realizing just how unreliable this girl genius was, Squire lowered her head and asked the Drive at her waist.

“Nyx, what exactly happened? Was this your doing?”

[Negative. Nyx only performed minimal access, but this facility’s hardware is too outdated and obsolete to handle Nyx’s data flow.]

Perhaps it was her imagination, but that cold voice even sounded a bit aggrieved.

“…”

Squire was left speechless.

The Modification Department was one of Naitemel’s core branches; there was no way it was technologically backward. It could only mean that the Nyx Drive was simply too advanced.

Had a technological chasm already formed between World Tree Technology and Naitemel?

Yet, such an advanced Drive couldn’t even disengage her transformation due to a malfunction. Squire suspected that even if she handed it over to the Technical Department, no one would be able to figure out what was going on.

“Then do you have a way to get me off this table?”

[Weapon Generation in progress… Blade… Complete.]

A small silver-white knife appeared in midair, but it didn’t look very formidable.

“Weapon Generation? Just how does that work? Is that how your current body appeared too? This Drive doesn’t even seem like it belongs to this era!”

Astonished and confused, Fran still took the knife.

She began sawing through the bandages binding Squire, but the knife wasn’t very sharp, and the bandages themselves were tough, making it a struggle to cut through.

“What’s going on outside now?” Squire asked.

Fran replied, “Probably because the system lost control? The Mutants under modification seem to have escaped from their wards… Sounds like they’re fighting with Security Robots out there.”

That was her guess based on the commotion outside, but it was likely accurate.

“…Is it really okay?”

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing major! The Security Robots are super reliable!”

No sooner had Fran finished speaking than there was a dull thud—something had slammed into the frosted glass of the Operating Room.

Even frosted glass, if you got close enough, could give a blurry view of what was outside.

Startled, Squire asked in a trembling voice:

“Dr. Fran… The thing that just hit the window… wasn’t that a Security Robot?”

“Uh, n-no problem! The Operating Room is really sturdy, we’re totally safe in here!”

The very next moment, the frosted glass suddenly shattered.

A Security Robot, built like a muscle-bound hunk, was flung into the corner of the Operating Room like a ragdoll. It struggled for a moment, but quickly fell silent.

And then, a far more terrifying figure appeared outside the window.

It was a mountain gorilla Mutant, sporting a necktie and slicked-back hair, eyes glowing red, exhaling hot, heavy breaths. It was clearly in the very state Fran had mentioned earlier—driven entirely by animal instinct, all reason lost.

“Damn! Kid, just keep your mouth shut!”

Fran was hopelessly unreliable. In her panic, Squire even dropped the “Doctor” from her address.

She might be a scientist, but Squire seriously suspected Fran had some kind of unscientific mystical power; otherwise, how could someone jinx things this badly?

“How is this my fault?!”

Fran protested indignantly, but her hands kept working at the bandages.

“Forget about me! Just run!”

Squire finally managed to free her arms, but her waist, abdomen, and legs were still bound to the table. In this situation, she was doomed to become a punching bag—at the very least, Fran had to escape.

“This damn knife is so dull! Look, it’s just a table knife! It’s not even as good as my drill!”

Cursing, Fran fearlessly threw the little knife at the gorilla Mutant, then pulled out her oddly-shaped white pistol from her waist and fired three quick shots.

“Sleep tight! Monster!”

It sounded like some ultimate weapon, but it didn’t even pierce the Mutant’s fur.

Squire squinted—were those bullets actually…

Tiny injection syringes.

They caused no harm, but the gorilla Mutant’s attention was now fixed on Fran.

“Hey! If you’ve got the guts, come chase me!”

Fran shouted provocatively as she burst through the Operating Room door and fled.

The mountain gorilla Mutant wasn’t very bright. Enraged by the taunt, it charged after Fran without hesitation.

Squire realized she was buying time for her to escape.

But Fran wasn’t even a Mutant…

“If this keeps up, she’ll die!”

[Analyzing power gap. Dr. Fran’s survival rate: less than 1%.]

“Even I can tell that without any calculations! Give me the staff!”

[Weapon Generation in progress… Ink-Stained Staff… Complete.]

Nyx’s voice echoed in Squire’s mind, and the black, white, and gray squid-shaped Ink-Stained Staff appeared once more.

Now that her hands were free, she could use the length of the staff as leverage—combined with her Magic Girl strength, maybe she could break the bandages…

But these operating tables were built for Mutants, and the bandages were unbelievably tough. Even for a Magic Girl, breaking free wasn’t easy. Squire grew ever more anxious.

“Faster, I have to…”

Scientists in the Modification Department were just ordinary people.

Against a rampaging Mutant, Fran wouldn’t last long. She might be an unreliable brat, but Squire didn’t want to see her die right in front of her.

[This feeling…]

Nyx’s voice sounded again.

But this time, it was more like muttering to itself. Squire couldn’t quite catch it.

“Huh? What did you say?”

[Data upgrade. Ink-Stained Staff: Upgraded Mode… Complete.]

Suddenly, the staff trapped under the bandages grew longer and thicker, and the force of its expansion ripped the tightly wound bandages apart.

The Ink-Stained Staff now looked less like a wand and more like a witch’s flying broomstick, hovering in the air without any outside support—but instead of bristles, it was covered in slippery squid tentacles.

“Whoa, now this thing looks powerful!”

Freed from the operating table, Squire didn’t hesitate to straddle the Ink-Stained Staff.

Then, as black magical energy spurted from the tentacles behind her, Squire shot out of the Operating Room like a bullet, racing down the corridor at high speed.

“Whoaaa!!”

Ahead was the back of the rampaging gorilla Mutant.

In front of it, she could just make out a corner of a White Lab Coat.

“Dr. Fran!”

Seeing the raised fist about to come down, Squire leaned low over the Ink-Stained Staff, accelerating even further…

But she still couldn’t make it in time.

“No!”

The descending fist was accompanied by a crisp, cracking sound…

Wait, crisp?

As she shot over the gorilla Mutant’s head, Squire realized that the smashed “head” was actually…

Another Security Robot, dressed up in Fran’s discarded White Lab Coat as a decoy.

As for Fran herself, she was already further down the hall, running for her life and waving back.

“Oh! Big guy! Give me a lift!”

“Stay right there!”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Squire skimmed low and scooped Fran up off the floor.

Fran sat sideways on the Ink-Stained Staff, and to keep her balance, she naturally put her slender hands on Squire’s shoulders, her thumbs pressing lightly, feeling the sharp curve of her collarbones.

Squire was still wearing nothing but the thin hospital gown.

So, close physical contact was unavoidable—but this time…

Fran wasn’t about to let go again.

“That scared me to death! How could you be so reckless?”

Squire’s anxious scolding only earned her a giggle from Fran.

“Well, this accident was my fault, right? I couldn’t let you die before me, could I?”

“Still laughing! Idiot!”

Squire cursed, then realized it didn’t sound right, so she changed it: “Brat!”

“That gorilla’s still behind us, don’t let your guard down yet~”

Squire glanced back—the furious gorilla Mutant was charging after them like a bulldozer.

It wasn’t that the Mutant was any faster, but that the overloaded Ink-Stained Staff had slowed down a lot…

“Turn right at the fork ahead, there’s a Safety Room!”

Because Mutants under modification sometimes broke out, having Safety Rooms on standby was absolutely necessary.

They drifted through the turn and stopped in front of the Safety Room door, letting Fran use her staff card to open it.

Just then, the rampaging gorilla squeezed into the narrow corridor behind them.

“Hurry inside!”

They ducked into the Safety Room and slammed the door shut, both exhaling in relief.

“Phew…”

Now, all they had to do was wait for the Security Department to deal with the gorilla.

Fran was still holding onto Squire’s neck.

Fran didn’t seem to mind, but Squire squirmed awkwardly in embarrassment.

“Dr. Fran, sorry about that.”

Of course Fran understood why she was apologizing.

“It’s fine, big guy~ We’re both girls, aren’t we? Besides, you saved my life this time—if you want me to pay you back with my body, I’m game~”

That joke only made Squire more embarrassed.

“Please don’t joke about that…”

“If my big guy stays this cute, I wouldn’t mind taking it seriously, you know?”

“…” Squire frowned.

“Haha, your reactions are just too funny!”

Relaxed at last, the two of them sat together on the bench in the Safety Room, leaning against each other. Fran even wrapped an arm around Squire’s neck, letting it rest casually on her shoulder.

“Still, it’s a relief we got away from that thing!”

No sooner had she spoken than—

Thud—

Thud—

Heavy pounding echoed from the other side of the Safety Room door. The gorilla outside was hammering at the thick door with its fists, making the whole room shake.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, that thing’s still not giving up?”

Fran covered her ears and shouted, “It’s fine! The Safety Room door is super sturdy! That gorilla will never get in~”

But right then, cracks began to appear in the wall around the doorframe.

“Dr. Fran! Please, just stop talking already!”