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While Willow pretended to panic, Evil Eye gazed down at Boleite, tapping the foot of her cane impatiently against her shoe as she pretended not to recognize her—deciding that Boleite, a fellow scientist, would probably do the same, for much the same reasons, should she be confronted. The meeting between them had been an aberration, something Evil Eye was, in all her self-proclaimed wisdom, ill-equipped to explain to her fellows, and the light girl would probably be no more able to explain her own intentions if she were asked. Perhaps she had lied, and an old partner of hers had, in fact, fallen to darkness, or worse—and allowing Evil Eye to escape the City of Light had been her way of letting go of the past. It had been the only theory she was able to conjure up that made any sense of it. [color=firebrick][b][i]Aside from you and Shuuko, I'm the only one taking this seriously, Hizuki...[/i][/b][/color] her mind objected, though her lips would not speak the words.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sensation of a head on her shoulders—usually, a welcome sensation, but this was Willow. Her uncovered eye snapped to Willow's face, briefly ceasing its coordinated wandering along with the movements of the Mogall. While she could lecture the girl for hours on sunk cost fallacy and how it wasn't accidental that gacha game corporations sold their in-game currency in multiples of prime numbers, something else happened that caused her to breathe in sharply. The hand covering her eye dipped into her pocket and retrieved her cell phone. [color=firebrick][b]"Acid's been taken hostage, I'm tracking her. The GEMs are regrouping; we should too."[/b][/color] There was no time to waste, so Evil Eye spoke the message and let voice recognition do the work of putting it in the Detention Club's group chat while she flew toward the distant sound of exploding tires.

Only after the urgency of the moment would she realize that this meant Black Gate would also get the message. More importantly, if she were to switch priority and change course, she needed to get Willow off her back. [color=firebrick][b]"Cafe Red. That's where your phone thief is hiding,"[/b][/color] Evil Eye added as if it were an afterthought.

[hr]
Like an old adage about boiling a frog, the heat continued to rise at a rate that was gradual but still threatening. Thankfully, unlike the proverbial frog, the locals did eventually flee the scene before they would suffer much more than a painful sunburn. Diamond's distraction would succeed for only a short time before the popcorn machine and its generously packed product would be incinerated in the ensuing laser beam. The 13(but now 12)-Eyed-Titan did not give up the pursuit. If it wasn't quite the fastest thing Hibusa's roads had ever seen, it was accelerating to highway speeds faster than its size would suggest it were capable, and it rounded corners effortlessly. The "drone" eyes were also capable of firing mini-lasers, which they rained upon Diamond without mercy. Fortunately, they seemed to be about as accurate as cover fire, and did a better job of making the prospect of turning into a side alley a risky proposition than they did actually hitting her.

Mogall were filling the skies like birds fleeing the ground in anticipation of an earthquake. This included the bulk of them that had been hounding Black Gate, leaving only a few that remained. They gazed at each other as if questioning something, reflecting what remained of their master's indecision. Then, they turned in one direction, as if anticipating the arrival of someone, or some[i]thing[/i]. The number of eyes in the sky was a rare but unsettling sight. Anyone who'd lived in Hibusa a long time knew that this meant Evil Eye was sounding the alarm, even if they didn't know what it was for. For the Club, it was a cue to check their phones. For the odd light girl who'd decided not to leave the dark girls' territory, it was usually a sign to stay away—but with the GEMs in town? Kaeru would have a decision to make. Evil Eye had made hers; Mogall flocked about her in formation, shielding her with their bodies.