Chapter 141: Headshot~

Sista was always so quiet and reserved, so Clara couldn’t pinpoint her position. Yet, that confident swing landed right on the stainless steel bowl atop Sista’s head.

The girl’s head buzzed, and she let out muffled, “Ah-woo, ah-woo,” sounds. For a child barely a year old, that blow might have been too much.

Clara, blindfolded, couldn’t see what was happening, but Nyx was able to tell her the situation.

[Sista looks like you’ve knocked her silly.]

“Huh?!”

[But don’t move yet. Since you locked onto someone’s head, you should know where the watermelon is now.]

So that’s how it is.

On both sides of Sista’s head were the watermelons. If she moved around now and changed the position of the knife, it would actually be harder to figure out where Sista’s head was.

Better to go for a two-strike combo right now!

Bang, bang—

Two clean strikes hit the watermelons dead on, bursting them open with a loud crack.

Clara heard applause from around her, and Okada Dharma exclaimed in excitement:

“Excellent! Though Pure White Storm was sacrificed, Miss Clara has split two watermelons! Will the heroes be all eliminated first, or will Clara finish off the watermelons first?!”

So, on either side of those two watermelons must be the heads of two of the others?

That’s probably how they were arranged.

[?melon?melon White melon?melon]

Thinking this, Clara slipped off her sandals, her tender, uncalloused feet digging a little pit in the sand.

She said, “Could you all keep talking, help me locate you?”

“Clara-chan, I’m on your left… Oh, wait, for you it’s the right! Right side!”

Emerald Echo always talked the most, and her voice was loud. Clara moved two steps to the right, estimating the position of the watermelon, but nearly hit her own foot with the next swing—an empty strike.

“There’s no melon by your head?!”

“Uh, I don’t know either.”

Four watermelons, four heads.

Even if Clara got the distance right, there was bound to be at least one head without a melon next to it—not to mention she could miscalculate and just swing into empty air.

So, was Emerald Echo all the way on the right?

That would make the order: [melon?melon?melon White melon Green]

Then Clara could only move to the left again.

Barefoot, she felt the sand, now cooler in the evening, and found the little pit she’d made before. From that, she judged she was back in front of Pure White Storm.

Such a clever trick wasn’t exactly cheating.

Clara continued shifting to the left, measuring the distance, circling around the predicted spot for Scarlet Star’s head, and then—

“Ha!” Clang—

“Clara, little sister, you hit my head~”

Though struck as well, Scarlet Star acted as if nothing had happened. On the contrary, Clara’s grip was tingling from the recoil.

Well, his head was full of muscle, after all.

“Huh?”

Only now did Okada Dharma reveal:

“Miss Clara, we never actually said the arrangement was one watermelon per head, right? You just assumed that, didn’t you?”

“Wow, that’s so unfair!”

Tricking her with the rules themselves?

Could it be—

Clara slashed diagonally again.

Bang—

So the spot she’d intentionally avoided before was actually the watermelon?

Now, the situation should be: [?? Scarlet Melon Melon White Melon Melon].

But now, with only one big watermelon left, and only two possible spots remaining.

If Azure Cavalier spoke up, she could pinpoint which was the melon and which the head.

“Miss Clara, I’m over here.”

Azure Cavalier’s voice gave Clara confidence. “Ha, this is the final blow!”

She raised the wooden sword high, swinging it down with the intent to cleave in two, the tip cutting the air with a whistling sound, sure to split the last watermelon—

Clang—

“Why?!”

Unable to play along any longer, Clara tore off her blindfold in frustration.

And right in front of her was still Emerald Echo?!

So, the voice guiding her to the right just now—

It was actually a watermelon?!

So, was the correct order

[Blue Green Scarlet Melon Melon White Melon Melon]?

From start to finish, she had hardly guessed any right. Clara couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

Yet Emerald Echo, buried in the sand, stuck out her head.

“忍忍! I’m a ninja, using a little ninjutsu is only normal, right?”

Using a holographic projection to speak, hiding the position of a watermelon, and throwing off Clara’s judgment.

Was her head that tough, too?

Clara had swung with all her might, and she’d been completely fine.

“No, that was a hologram too, wasn’t it?”

“Correct!”

The Emerald Echo in front of her vanished, and the real one crawled out from a sand pile nearby.

“But there’s no prize~”

“That’s cheating!!”

She could use holograms even without an exoskeleton?

And how could a hologram have substance?

But those questions didn’t matter anymore.

Unable to hold back, Clara grabbed her wooden sword and gave Emerald Echo’s head a few solid knocks.

Tch, men are all the same!

Clara let out a classic frustrated sound.

In the end, only good-hearted, guileless Sista ended up hurt.

“Sorry, Sista.”

The watermelon-smashing game was over.

Everyone sat by the beach, watching the simulated sunset on the dome while eating watermelon. Clara, feeling guilty after turning Emerald Echo into a Buddha, went to find Sista and sincerely apologized.

“I trusted my own judgment too much.”

“It was just a game, and I’m fine now.”

Instead, it was Sista who comforted Clara.

Clara reached out with a little tentacle and touched the bump on Sista’s head—it was hot, hardly what you’d call ‘fine’.

“Clara! Oh, there you are!”

Fran walked over.

Perhaps feeling chilly, she had put her white coat back on, though she was still wearing her swimsuit underneath.

“About that cave you mentioned, the resort’s security has already gone in.”

“So? Was there anything inside?” Clara pressed.

“Nothing at all—no supplies, no Moon Rabbits, just bloodstains everywhere. After you left, those Moon Rabbits must have moved on… I can’t believe those rabbits have such intelligence. What is Fourth Calamity trying to do? Develop a new race?”

Clara recalled the group of rabbits she’d seen in the cave.

She asked, “Where could they have moved to?”

What’s really under this island? Could it collapse?

“Security is still searching, but I doubt they’ll find anything~”

Fran clearly didn’t have much faith in the security staff. She added, “But I had them bring back some blood samples for analysis, at least to figure out if those things were eating fish or… something else.”

“Something else…”

Clara remembered the footage BB-0027 had shown her, and quickly looked toward the sunshade—but

“Huh?!”

The white plastic bag was gone.

“Fran, have you seen a white plastic bag around here?”

“What’s up? Was there something important inside?”

…

Picking up trash on the beach—if she wanted it back, she’d better hurry before it was disposed of…

Fran, mid-sentence, smacked her own forehead.

“The Pollution Treatment Center! For those Moon Rabbits who don’t mind filth, that place must be a treasure trove, right?”

But Clara couldn’t shake the feeling—

Those rabbits really did have a strong odor.

“Huh? What plastic bag? Oh, I kind of remember—it was covered by my clothes just a moment ago. It was right over there.”

“…It’s very important, and very expensive. Do you know where it went?”

[Careless.]

Clara had nothing to say to that, but Fran said,

“It probably got tossed when the trash was picked up. I saw a sanitation robot come by the beach just now—whoa!”