"What can I say — I am a genius, after all. This is just what a genius does in her downtime."
Call her fat, and she'll start panting for emphasis.
As far as Geno was concerned, in the field of pure shamelessness, Twiggy's skill level was no longer beneath his own.
"Sssh — ow~~~"
The thought had barely finished circling around inside his head when a flash of pain shot up from his foot — courtesy of Twiggy's heel.
Watching the look on Geno's face — the classic since when did you learn to read minds expression — Twiggy fired back, none too kindly.
"Mind-reading? Please. One look at your face and it's obvious you're saying nasty things about me! You're sleeping on the couch tonight!"
"Huh?! Come on, no!"
Setting Geno's little domestic sitcom aside for the moment.
Over on the other side, Number 11 and Trigger were getting ready to set off for the nearest Scott Outpost to pull in some help.
"I want to help too."
Anby, who had been silently watching everyone debate the intel, spoke up to declare that she was throwing her hat in as well.
Number 11 fixed Anby with an extremely cold stare, but didn't actually say anything — which counted as tacit approval.
Seeing that everyone now had something to do, Geno — refusing to be outdone — announced that he could pitch in too.
At the very least, helping his sister-in-law and his junior sister-in-law solve their problem might just be his ticket out of being banished to that rock-hard couch.
"In that case, Geno — why don't you help us pin down where the target's gone. Crete Hollow basically counts as your old stomping grounds, after all."
Belle nabbed Geno-the-pack-mule with all the naturalness in the world. Nobody else had any objections, and they each scattered off to their own tasks.
Geno, left behind at the video store, first put in a call to the studio and asked Fairy — still busy back there debugging — to swing back over for a bit.
Then, after watching that pair of big blue eyeballs busy themselves all over his screen with the prep work for a while, he set off with Eous — currently being possessed by Belle — in tow.
"You know, why do I feel like I've been making trips into the Hollow every other day lately? I literally just got out of the Hollow, but it kind of feels like I never actually left."
Geno took in the streets that he'd long since become familiar with but still couldn't fully identify, and quietly fired off a complaint.
"That's how Agents are. All they have to do is pour themselves heart and soul into the fight against the Ethereal. We Proxies have a whole lot more to juggle."
Watching Eous standing there with her tiny arms folded, looking all dead-serious, Geno couldn't begin to hide the contempt in his eyes.
Was that you doing the work? Wasn't that Fairy diligently grinding away?
Ever since your database got wiped, do you have even a damn clue how much actual work you've personally done?
But these particular thoughts he just let rattle around inside his own head — he was only griping, after all. Belle herself, as a Proxy, was genuinely a top-tier talent.
She wouldn't have been able to turn the previous Phaethon account into a legend of the Proxy world otherwise.
"Watch fewer weird video channels. You've got the time, spend it figuring out how to scrape together Fairy's electricity bill."
"Hmph~ r^Y"
Eous planted her tiny hands on her hips. From those vividly animated micro-expressions alone, Geno could already picture Belle behind the scenes, puffing her cheeks out and fuming.
"Alright, alright — business first. Lead the way, Lord Phaethon~"
As the saying goes, children need coaxing and dogs need a good walk — you've gotta get the other party in a good mood first, then they'll get the job done.
Belle didn't sweat the small stuff, and quickly led him on a run all over the Hollow.
Before long, Fairy — working from the recording's signal frequency that Trigger had provided earlier — had pinpointed the source of the signal.
[Master, based on the available information, the probability that this is the signal origin is 95.27%.]
"Good. So it should be right around here somewhere. But — looks like there's nobody around at all?"
Eous put one tiny hand up to shade her brow, scanning the surroundings carefully — and finding precisely nothing.
"Let me have a look."
Geno spoke, then closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he had already shifted into Ether Vision.
It didn't take long for him to find a few faint traces.
"Got it. The traces are weak, but there's still some Ether energy residue."
However — the traces that remained were only enough for a single person, which suggested that the signal Trigger and the others had intercepted was a covert communication.
"So how about it — can you track which direction the other party left in?"
Eous asked. When it came to tracking, Geno's ability was even more useful than Fairy's.
"Pretty much. But the traces are too faint — there's a real chance they'll get masked by some Ethereal signatures."
The thing the Hollow was never in short supply of was the Ethereal. If a bit more time went by, he couldn't guarantee he'd still be able to locate the other party.
As things stood, all they could do was take it one step at a time.
"Let's start by looking around. Even if the other guy turns out to be some hard-bitten murderer-type, I'm confident I can grab you and bolt."
Geno thumped his chest in guarantee.
His combat strength plus Eous's navigation — making it out was, frankly, a sure thing.
"In that case, let's go take a look first."
Decision made, the two of them immediately set off, following the traces Geno had picked up.
Along the way they ran into a few waves of Ethereal, but mercifully none of them were on much of a scale, and the traces remained un-masked.
But after walking a bit further, Geno noticed that something felt off.
"Why do I get the feeling these traces are like… being deliberately laid out for us?"
The words had barely left his mouth when Geno's ears twitched. A strange noise reached his mind, and on pure reflex, sensing something was wrong, Geno scooped up Eous and dove for cover off to one side.
"WAAAAAGH! What is happening?"
Eous, tucked under Geno's arm, slammed her eyes shut in panic. When she opened them again, the thing she saw caused Belle's actual mouth, back behind the scenes, to drop into a perfect 'O' shape.
"Th-this — !"
In front of the two of them — out of nowhere — had appeared a huge swarm of mechanical scrap-iron contraptions.
The overwhelming majority were ramshackle hodgepodges, kit-bashed together from a mess of mismatched parts.
But mixed in among this swarm of Auto-Mechs were several types that Geno found extremely familiar.
"[Terrorbird]? Old friend. Didn't expect to bump into one of you here."
The Terrorbird, as a military protection-type Auto-Mech, was, you might say, one of the more venerable veterans of the breed.
So much so that you could find Terrorbird wreckage and parts in just about every Hollow, in greater or lesser quantities.
Because of that, the Terrorbirds in the hands of the vast majority of the Rebels had all been heavily modified.
But the one in front of Geno was different — its paintwork and outer shell were brand new. This was the genuine, factory-spec article.
Sure, it was still an older model — but these intact-chassis Terrorbirds were in better shape than the cast-offs the military had abandoned back in their Silver Base.
But where had the Rebels gotten hold of them?
Thinking about it, Geno realised the things this particular mole had been up to over the years were absolutely not a small affair.
"Looks like underneath this colossus called New Eridu, there are vermin and scumbags absolutely everywhere."
At that thought, Geno narrowed his eyes, set Eous down behind him, told her to take cover somewhere safe, and then drew out his longsword — ready to put these new-model Terrorbirds through their paces.
Except — before he could even make a move, from behind the cluster of Terrorbirds, out walked an even bigger figure.
____
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