Listening to the sound of the tour bus fading away, Fran raised her hand and poked at Clara’s forehead, poking as she spoke:
“Clara dear~ you’re a little too impatient, aren’t you! Deliberately letting it slip like that… If Miss Rabi really were the mole, she wouldn’t be so easily fooled, you know?”
“Ah-ow, ah-ow.”
Clara opened her mouth and shut her eyes as she was poked.
Just now, she’d thought her bait was perfect.
“Miss Clara, anything that comes out of our mouths, those of the Fourth Calamity will always doubt it. But if they discover it themselves, then they’ll truly believe it’s the truth.”
“Ugh, e-even Sistah…”
Even Sistah, her little angel who always took her side, said so. Clara pressed her faintly aching chest, wanting to cry but with no tears.
Fran summarized, “In short, your thoughtless move turned a ‘brilliant plan’ into a ‘worst move,’ and now we’ve got even more to worry about.”
No one would ever fully accept an opponent’s statement, but the situation just now made it impossible to stop her, and they could only watch as Clara made her own clever but foolish move.
“Mmm—”
Feeling the pressure from everyone’s gaze, Clara closed her eyes in distress.
“Alright now~”
Unable to bear it, Lucia helped change the topic.
“So, so what do we do with these half-dead bunnies?”
“First, we treat them, then use them for research. Would be a waste to let such ready-made specimens go unused!”
Fran looked at the rabbits in the cage, rubbing her hands together, and for some reason, even licked her lips.
Clara hurriedly warned, “Eh? Don’t you dare kill them!”
As long as the Moon Rabbit Combat Units could “return as kings,” maybe they could be persuaded. But before that, they had to be kept alive.
After all, these Moon Rabbits kind of counted as her own little underlings now.
“Hmph, you really care about these Moon Rabbits, huh?”
Fran snorted.
“Then let’s feed them first and take them to the infirmary to patch up their wounds.”
Clara squatted by the cage, making eye contact with the weak rabbits through the bars.
Last night, they’d still been lively, but now they were on the brink of death.
Pitiful to look at.
But at least they’d survived the night; next, they needed to be properly settled.
“Fran, these Moon Rabbits aren’t dumb. In some ways, they’re actually quite clever… Do you have any way to get them to understand what we want, to comprehend our words?”
If they could communicate, so much would be easier.
“That’s simple. Leave it to me, just need to modify them a bit~”
Fran promised offhandedly, but then changed her tune:
“But, it might be tricky in this resort. Not enough equipment. It’d be like asking me to perform brain surgery with a watermelon knife—sure, I could do it, but would you dare go under the knife?”
That was a terrifying analogy. Of course Clara shook her head.
“We have to return to Central City… So for now, someone needs to keep an eye on them.”
“Are you worried they’ll escape, Senpai? Then let me take care of them for now!”
Lucia volunteered, but Clara wasn’t too sure.
With those rabbits’ teeth, this cage was about as fragile as a cookie.
“I know how tough they are.”
But Lucia just put her hands on her hips and declared confidently:
“Don’t worry! If I build the cage, they’ll never get out!”
Now that they’d decided to use “Azure Cavalry” as an undercover agent to sow distrust within the enemy, their next task was simple.
Gather more intel. Then disguise themselves as if delivered by Azure Cavalry.
Of course, the Moon Rabbit Combat Unit needed to keep a close eye on Azure Cavalry, to use him as a bridge to reach the Mother Body.
But the main body couldn’t help with this, and the Moon Rabbits had just been captured.
So for now, there really wasn’t much they could do.
To avoid being picked off one by one, everyone had to stay in the hangar. Even meals at the resort had to be in groups, and communication had to be constant.
Red Flame Star and Verdant Echo were live-streaming their patrols in the rainforest near the hangar.
Lucia was tinkering with some small invention using materials from the hangar.
Clara sat alone at the hangar doors, “spacing out” as she gazed at the distant, reddish sea. But her eyes were unfocused, as if her soul had left her body.
In truth, it was because most of her mind was transferred to another body, so her main self here seemed a bit dazed, not even reacting to Fran’s teasing.
“Miss Clara…”
With her exoskeleton charging and not out on patrol, Sistah came over to her side.
Seeing Clara unresponsive, she bent down, pinched a soft bit of Clara’s cheek, and pulled gently.
“Miss Clara.”
“Huh? Oh!”
Clara snapped back, rubbing the cheek that had bounced back after being tugged.
“Sistah, do you have a question?”
Sistah sat down beside Clara, keeping her company as they looked out at the sea.
She also casually grabbed a small tentacle, playing with it in her palm.
“Earlier, I seemed to have a difference of opinion with you… Do you want to save the Moon Rabbit species out of sympathy?”
This girl actually cared about things like that?
Her mind was more delicate than expected, though it didn’t show on her face.
“No, I don’t feel sympathy for Moon Rabbits as the lunar cockroaches they are. Letting them spread unchecked would only be disastrous…
To be precise, I want to make them harmless.”
“Harmless?”
“They were designed as living weapons. The Fourth Calamity’s purpose in improving the Moon Rabbits was clear—to send them as biological weapons into target stations, relying on their stealth and rapid breeding to destroy the entire ecosystem in a short time.”
So far, this improved breed of Moon Rabbit had been very successful as a bioweapon.
“Feeling simple pity for such a species would only make things worse… But if we can fundamentally change their ecology, control their numbers, reduce breeding impulses, improve their intelligence and quality—maybe we could change their fate as a species.”
“Is that even possible?”
“It is.”
Clara answered with firm conviction.
“What I saw in the rabbit hole gave me hope. These rabbits are smarter than I imagined. If more Moon Rabbits could break free from the Mother Body’s control, maybe…”
Clara fished the virus injector Fran had given her out of her pocket.
If it came to it, that virus would be the final trump card.
“Sistah, in a sense, you and those Moon Rabbits are pretty similar… Oh, I’m not insulting you, of course.”
Moon Rabbits were like cockroaches.
Saying someone was like a Moon Rabbit never sounded like a compliment.
“Me?”
But now, Sistah could understand what Clara meant.
She was a designed hero; the Moon Rabbits were designed weapons. Both were walking paths set by others…
“Do you remember our previous agreement?”
Clara asked.
Sistah thought for a moment.
“You mean, wearing a dress once we get back to Central City?”
Don’t give up on this novel.