I don't want to be an elf!

Louisa couldn't help but look at the alarm clock on her desk. The second hand was ticking at a normal rate, one tick per second.

But it is precisely because of this that it seems so unusual.

Louisa's "Little Women" ability allows her to extend the flow of time to one-eighth when she is alone in a secluded room, meaning that the second hand should only tick once every eight seconds.

But she did not stop using her supernatural abilities.

So... that means...

Someone broke into her room!

It happened without her noticing!

Realizing this, Louisa's breathing became rapid, and her pupils contracted with fear.

Her neck seemed to freeze, and she stiffly turned her head, only to see a stunningly beautiful girl standing quietly behind her, dressed in a long black and red dress.

Overwhelmed by fear, she stood up in a panic.

The chair was knocked to the ground in the panic, making a jarring sound that drowned out Louisa's rapidly beating heart.

Her mind was in chaos, a jumble of thoughts tangled into a complex ball of yarn, making it impossible for her to think.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Louisa."

Kurumi Tokisaki stood still, smiling like a friend, and asked without any hostility, "Are you surprised to see me here?"

surprise?

That was certainly surprising.

As a fully mechanized superhuman, the white whale is equipped with state-of-the-art radar, which can detect any aircraft or flying creature that gets close.

Even if radar cannot detect them, another superhuman on the white whale, responsible for aerial combat, can use his superpower to observe all flying creatures around them.

However, Kurumi Tokisaki still boarded the White Whale.

No traps or alarms were triggered; it was like taking a walk in my own home.

"Where are Mr. Mark and Mr. Herman?"

Forcibly suppressing her fear, Louisa asked, "What did you do to them?"

"You mean the little boy on duty at the gunner's post and that middle-aged gentleman? If so, they're already asleep."

"Is that so... It seems I'm next."

Louisa reached into her pocket, the pistol Fitzgerald had given her for self-defense providing a small measure of security: "But I won't give up."

Seeing the girl trapped in a life-or-death situation, whose inner fear was about to overflow, yet who still put on a brave face, Tokisaki Kurumi's smile couldn't help but widen a few more times.

Like a cat with its wild instincts still intact, cornering a mouse and watching its prey fight to the death, it can't help but want to tease it.

"What can a superhuman with no fighting ability do in this situation?" Kurumi Tokisaki asked with interest. "Even if you can hold a pistol, do you really have the courage to kill?"

"If it's for self-preservation and to avenge Mr. Mark and Mr. Herman."

Louisa released the safety latch and pointed the gun at Kurumi Tokisaki, who was not far away: "If you take one more step closer, I really will shoot."

"Is that so? Perhaps I underestimated you."

Kurumi Tokisaki glanced at her with a hint of surprise. Although the girl was indeed trembling with fear, the determination in her eyes showed that she was indeed determined to take other people's lives.

This is true.

After all, he was the strategist who came up with such a cruel plan as the burning of Yokohama in the original work. Even if he looks as docile and timid as a rabbit, he is not a coward at heart.

However, the smile on Tokisaki Kurumi's lips did not disappear; instead, it became even more delighted.

"Leaving aside whether your trembling, slender arms could even aim properly, even if you were prepared to kill..."

As soon as Kurumi Tokisaki finished speaking, another identical voice rang out from behind Louisa.

So close, so alluring and seductive, yet it froze her body from the inside out.

A soft whisper, accompanied by warm, moist breath, reached Louisa's ears from behind.

Which version of me are you planning to kill this time?

Chapter 89 A Combination in Name Only

One...two...three...

The clones emerged from the shadows of the girl's boudoir.

With a chilling smile, her silvery laughter mingled in the air, accompanying Louisa's heartbeat, playing a symphony of nightmares.

An overwhelming fear gripped Louisa's heart; she stood rooted to the spot, feeling utterly unable to control any part of her body.

Behind her, the warmth of her clone seeped through her thin clothes, but it only made her feel colder.

The clone standing behind her gently placed its hand on Louisa's arm, like a parent seeing their child waving a dangerous toy, guiding her to slowly lower the arm that was holding the gun and take the gun away from her hand.

Throughout the entire ordeal, Louisa offered no resistance whatsoever.

Because it doesn't make any sense.

Resistance is meant to fight for a chance of survival, but in such a dangerous situation, any resistance is foolish and meaningless.

"It seems you admit defeat."

Kurumi Tokisaki took the pistol from her clone, played with it for a few moments, and tossed it into the shadows: "Miss Louisa, you don't need to be ashamed of surrendering without resistance. It's the right choice made by a smart person."

"..."

"But don't worry, I won't kill anyone easily. If you can obey me, I can guarantee that you will go home unharmed."

"..."

"Miss Louisa?"

"..."

"Alright, stop sticking so close to Miss Louisa. Can't you see she's terrified?"

Upon hearing the original body's command, Louisa's clone, which was clinging to the ground, took a step back and shrugged innocently.

Without anyone helping her, Louisa's knees buckled and she collapsed to the ground.

When the clone got close to her, she was completely stunned, like prey being coiled up by a python and not daring to move. The more she struggled, the tighter the coil would become.

After that, Kurumi Tokisaki waited for several more minutes before Louisa, whose mind had been petrified, regained some of her senses.

"You...aren't you going to kill me?" Louisa asked, her voice trembling.

“As I just said, as long as you are willing to listen to me and do what I ask you to do, I will not kill you,” Kurumi Tokisaki replied with a smile. “After all, I prefer peaceful negotiation unless I have no other choice.”

“Peaceful negotiations?” Louisa forced back her fear. “You mean the Destruction Group that hunts down our members?”

"Oh, darling, it seems you haven't quite recovered yet."

Kurumi Tokisaki bent down, pinched Louisa's fair chin, looked directly into her eyes and said, "You seem to have forgotten that the first person to break the peace was your group's assassin, wasn't it?"

"..."

"Hehe, is there anything else you'd like to say?"

"No, no more."

"Very well, Miss Louisa, would you be willing to cooperate with me?"

“I didn’t have a choice,” Louisa took a deep breath. “What do you want to know?”

"The positions of Lucy Maud Montgomery, John Steinbeck, and Howard Phillips Lovecraft."

So far, Kurumi Tokisaki has taken down most of the eleven ability users in the group.

The first to be given away was James, who had "a year of life" for free, followed by Edward, who had "the black cat of Morgue Street" for free.

Then came Nathaniel (the Scarlet Letter) and Margaret (the Floating Scroll), whom it took some effort to defeat.

Next were Mark, the gunner [Huck Finn & Tom Soyle], who stayed behind at the White Whale, and Herman, the steward [White Whale].

The last one is Louisa, now known as Little Women.

In summary, both teams of superhumans—the four sent by the syndicate to deal with the Port Mafia and the three who remained atop the White Whale—have been defeated.

All that's left are the three ability users sent to deal with the Armed Detective Agency, and the group's chairman.

Originally, the three ability users in charge of the Armed Detective Agency could have been eliminated, but because Louisa reacted quickly, after her own Edward was killed, she gave the order to gather the remaining forces, which meant that when Kurumi Tokisaki arrived at the location of the three ability users, they had already disappeared.

However, at that time, Nathaniel (the Scarlet Letter) and Margaret (the Floating Thread) were fighting Ryunosuke Akutagawa. The two were tied down and couldn't leave. Then, the army of clones arrived and joined the battle. With an overwhelming numerical advantage, even Nathaniel and Margaret, who were excellent at killing, could only hold out for a short time before being defeated.

As for Ryunosuke Akutagawa, he also received news of Kurumi Tokisaki's betrayal of the Port Mafia. Therefore, after Kurumi Tokisaki's clone appeared, he not only did not continue to attack, but instead fought alongside the two ability users of the group.

But this is all in vain.

The three of them eliminated more than thirty clones in total before being defeated by the clones themselves.

The White Whale was such a large supernatural creation that it could not be hidden. Louisa never expected that Kurumi Tokisaki would be able to infiltrate the White Whale so easily, which directly led to the elimination of the three supernatural beings on the White Whale.

However, being eliminated or resolved here does not mean being killed, but simply being defeated.

Apart from James, who was unlucky enough to encounter Koyo Ozaki, the other ability users who were defeated by Kurumi Tokisaki were all knocked unconscious and thrown into the shadow dimension. Although they lost their ability to move, they did not die.

Ultimately, Tokisaki Kurumi wasn't a bloodthirsty person to begin with, and there weren't many truly heinous individuals in her group. Killing them all wouldn't fit her character.

Moreover, keeping them will serve other purposes later.

However, Louisa was unaware of this; she believed that everyone captured by Kurumi Tokisaki had been killed.

It was precisely because Louisa feared that the rampaging Kurumi Tokisaki would continue to devour the remaining power of the group that she ordered them to lay low for the time being.

However, now the entire White Whale Command Center has been wiped out.

What do you want me to do?

"First, tell me where the last three members of the group are hiding."

"You want me to betray my teammates? No way!"

"Of course, if you're not going to tell me, I can use the Tenth Bullet to read your memories," Kurumi Tokisaki said with a half-smile. "You should know more or less about my abilities, right? I don't want to waste my time, so could you please cooperate?"

Upon hearing this, Louisa, who had been somewhat excited, immediately quieted down.

Yes, the information she obtained about Kurumi Tokisaki from the House of the Dead did indeed contain a description of the Tenth Bullet's abilities.