He hoisted the massive cannon on his right arm, Dark Energy pooling at the muzzle like ink in water, then it blasted out like a thunderhead splitting.

Tang Coco moved first in feeling—ice-steady, annoyed—then in motion. She dipped her shoulder like a fish cutting reeds. The energy shell scraped past her cheek like a cold blade, streaked on, hit the field, and vanished like smoke in wind.

She surged in close like a gust up a canyon, one hand on the sword. The blade rose like a cold crescent and severed his right arm in a spray like black rain.

He roared, a wounded beast in a cave. He swung his left like a falling trunk to smash her flat, but blue particles flared from the ports of her Armor like fireflies. She flickered behind him like a ghost on water and cut again; his left arm thumped down like dead wood.

She snapped a kick at the back of his knee, a hammer to a knotted root. It held, stubborn as rock.

Tsk. The irritation came first, dry as dust. Then she dropped low and spun. A two-stage roundhouse, her leg thrusters hissing like twin comets, hammered in. He buckled at last, a pillar cracking in a quake, and dropped to his knees.

“So easy… you were sold here to die,” she said, standing before him like frost before dawn.

“Rrr… rrr…” he snarled, breath grinding like gravel. Dark Energy in his chest churned like a stormy sea.

“Again?” Her voice cooled like shade. She knew that swell—self-detonation. Her left forearm unfolded; Armor plates bloomed like a steel lotus into a hand-cannon. She leveled it at his chest. A blue line lanced through the black surge like lightning through cloud. He fell, a tree felled clean.

She stared at the corpse, thoughts knotting like roots in dark soil, the silence heavy as rain.

“Alarm. Dark Energy will impact Skyeye in four seconds,” Marilyn called from behind, voice crisp like glass.

“Emergency evasion!” Tang Coco snapped. The white Mech spat particles like sleet, skidding left. Too late by a heartbeat. A black column tore one wing like a storm shearing a gull.

“Marilyn, log every Dark Energy signal. Skyeye, cancel satellite mode, clear the atmosphere, and stand by in near space,” she ordered, voice a blade in the cold.

“Understood…” Marilyn answered, guiding the Mech up like a needle stitching through cloud, racing for the thin blue edge.

“So… we’ve been spotted,” Tang Coco murmured, gaze sweeping the ruins like ash over snow. She shook her head, a leaf in wind, then shed the Mech. She pulled her phone like a card from a deck and dialed.

“Hello?” Her voice reached first, steady as a line.

“Coco! What happened? Is that you?” Ningxin’s voice rushed in, anxious as rain on glass.

“Uh… breathe,” Tang Coco said, a dry laugh like gravel.

“Something this big and you want me calm?!”

“Uh…”

“Send your people to Yiyi’s villa district,” she said at last, practical as steel. “It needs a cleanup. I’ll have Marilyn stoke a bigger fire, keep civilians away. Hurry.”

“Huh?”

“I’m coming right now!” Ningxin said, the words sprinting like shoes on stone.

Tang Coco cut the line and dialed again.

“Xin…” Her tone softened, a warm lamp in fog.

“Coco, are you okay?” Gu Xin’s worry came like a tight drum.

“I’m fine. How’s Muyan?”

“She’s really worried about you… you’re sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine~ tell her to relax,” Tang Coco said with a smile you could hear, a ribbon in the air.

“Coco… I know I can’t stop you,” Gu Xin said, earnest as a sunrise. “But if you need us, say it. You’re not who you were. You’re a girl now… don’t force what shouldn’t be forced.”

“Alright~ I got it~” She sighed, a wind through chimes.

“Also, call Yiyi. After school, send her straight to Xiaoxiao’s. Her house… looks unlivable,” she added, wincing like biting frost.

“What? What happened?!”

“Relax, relax~ ask Ningxin for the details,” Tang Coco said, voice light as a leaf.

“And you? Why not tell Yiyi yourself?”

“I’m… going to find a few people,” she said, eyes cooling like steel in water.

She ended the call, pocketed the phone like a stone. “Lulu, wait here for Ningxin to secure the scene. Then go to Xin and help her look after Muyan.”

“Understood. Host, please be careful,” Marilyn replied, tone flat as a calm pond.

“Relax. I’m in top form,” Tang Coco said, confidence burning like a blue flame. “I have to see who dared to plant people near Ye Yiyi’s home.”

She switched into a blue air-combat Mech, optical camo washing over her like clear water. Then she speared into the sky like an arrow. Her course pointed straight at the Ninghai City International Wharf.

Across town, Ningxin moved fast, swift as a siren. Within minutes, more than ten fire engines, ambulances, and police cars flooded the Jinxiu Garden villas like a tide. They looked ordinary on the skin, but inside were Abnormals seeded by the Imperial Walk Club. Fire and police sealed the blast zone like a ring of steel, keeping civilians out as if against a flood.

Among the vehicles, a blue sports car slid aside like a darting fish. Ningxin stepped out and ran toward the blast center, her thoughts a tangle like vines. On the call earlier, she hadn’t asked one thing: who was “Marilyn”? Why had she never heard the name?

She pushed through a belt of black smoke like night fog and saw a white-haired little girl perched on a relatively intact slab, playing a shard of glass like a shard of ice.

“Uh… are you Marilyn?” Ningxin asked, drawing near like a cautious cat.

“Yup. You’re Sister Ning, right? I’ll leave this to you~ I’m heading out~” Marilyn chirped, sweet as candy, sealing Ningxin’s guess.

“W-wait… where are you going—”

“Hold up~” another voice purred, soft as velvet.

“Little sister, where are you going~?” From the smoke drifted five women, figures and faces as fine as Huaguo porcelain. The speaker was the one in the middle, brown wavy hair spilling like river weed, moving toward Marilyn with a smile like a thorned rose.

“Rose! She’s… my friend!” Ningxin called, gaze tightening, a knot of old strings at the sight of the five.

Six days earlier, the wind had shifted. Minister Zhao, stationed at the Imperial Walk Club, couldn’t pry Tang Coco’s whereabouts from Ningxin. He pulled a squad from headquarters—five women known as the Flower Unit. Flowers in name, thorns in practice; each code-named for a bloom. Their captain was this “Rose.” They weren’t the strongest storm, but they knew where a woman’s armor was thin, and they were sent to handle tricky female Abnormals. That was the Flower Unit’s perfume and poison.

As for Ningxin and the Flower Unit, the threads were knotted and old. She had once been one of them. The original seven had trained under Huaguo’s hush, a garden behind high walls. Then a mission turned cruel. The member closest to Ningxin died to friendly fire, a petal cut by its own thorns. Only they knew the details. After that, Ningxin left the garden and came to Ninghai, carrying rain in her sleeves.

“Oh~ another friend,” Rose said, lips curling like a crescent.

Ningxin met Rose’s look, her mood heavy as a slate roof. She’d been dodging her these days under the pretext of work. Today’s blast blew that cover off; Minister Zhao had sent Rose to shadow her.

A young man sprinted up, breath fogging like winter. “Captain Ning, we found a body up ahead. Please take a look.”

“Secure the scene. I’m coming,” Ningxin said, frown set like a drawn bow.

“Little sister… you’re an Abnormal, right? Big sister has a few questions,” Rose cooed, crouching to Marilyn with a smile like a silk veil.

“No. Move. I’ve got things to do,” Marilyn shot back, voice sharp as ice.

“Wow, so fierce. And if we don’t move~?” Rose widened her eyes, playful as a cat with claws hidden.

“Tch. You asked for it.” Marilyn’s laugh was cold as iron. Two clots of particles bloomed in her palms like twin sparks. She tossed them skyward. They collided like fireworks, burst, and split into four torrents. The particles took shape in air, hardening into four identical black Mechs like ravens landing.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. They hit around her, kicking up dust like a brown wave. Four cannons swung as one and sighted the five women, muzzles yawning like wolves.

“Marilyn! Don’t!” Ningxin shouted, fear breaking like a branch. If Marilyn fired, the storm would change.

“Summoning type? Little sister, you’re amazing~” Rose smiled on, unruffled as silk in still air.

“Clear a path. Or I’ll cut one,” Marilyn said, frost in her tone. Blue particles gathered at four barrels like electric rain.

“Wait, Marilyn!” Ningxin called, but Marilyn didn’t look back. With no choice, Ningxin turned to Rose. “Mengying, I’ll explain when we get back,” she said, the plea thin as a reed.

Rose—Mengying—looked at Ningxin. The smile folded away like a fan. She thought a beat, then stepped aside like a shadow.

“Hmph.” Marilyn snorted, disdain a flicked sleeve, and left like wind slipping down an alley.

“Ahh…” Ningxin sighed, long as a winter night.

“Xiaoxin~ I’ll listen. Slowly,” Rose whispered at her ear, breath warm as tea.

Together they walked toward the corpse, footsteps soft on ash.

“What’s this? A variant human?” asked the short-haired woman in the unit, voice crisp as a snapped stem. Her code name was Jasmine.

Ningxin said nothing, thoughts circling like crows. “Have it taken back,” she told the man beside her, words clipped like cut thread.

“Yes!” He ran off, boots drumming like rain.

Ningxin turned and left, coat flaring like a wing.

“Hey, hey!? Xiaoxin—wait for me~” Rose chased, laughter trailing like perfume.

“The captain still can’t let Ningxin go…” another woman murmured, helpless as a shrug.

“No helping it. There was more under that storm… without the misunderstanding…” a third began, voice fading like mist.

At Ninghai City airport, a luxury private jet kissed down like a white swan on a lake. A line of black Buicks rolled up like beetles. The cabin door opened. A beautiful figure descended, guarded by a dozen bodyguards like spears, each step slow and sure, moonlight on stone.