"That old hag discovered you!" Upon hearing this, Fujino hurriedly crouched down, took Little Fujino's hand, and carefully examined Little Fujino's body.
"Big Sister, I'm fine," Little Fujino said with a faint smile on her face. Seeing her Big Sister so concerned about her made Little Fujino very happy.
"Good thing you're okay." Fujino released Little Fujino's hand and rubbed her cheeks. "In the future, if you run into that old hag, just open the Shadow Domain and leave. Don't get entangled with her, understand?"
"Mhm." Little Fujino nodded obediently, but then asked, "Big Sister, that Big Sister Kaltsit doesn't look old. Why do you call her an old hag?"
"You don't need to know about that," Fujino said seriously. "In the future, if you see that Kaltsit, just stay far away and don't approach her."
Although she didn't know why her Big Sister would say that about that cold Big Sister, based on the principle that whatever Big Sister says is right, Little Fujino nodded obediently and said:
Only then was Fujino satisfied, and she kissed Little Fujino's cheek lightly.
"Go play with Sister Ptilopsis, she should be resting right now."
"I know."
Little Fujino answered with a smile and then ran off.
Watching little Fujino hurry away, Fujino sighed helplessly: "She really is still a child, but that's fine."
Little Fujino's appearance was an accident. When she first arrived in the Arknights world, Fujino had a sudden thought: she possessed time abilities, and she had also copied Kurumi's Zafkiel ability. Could she summon her from a previous timeline?
Because of the unique nature of only existing in the "present," Fujino wasn't sure about this. After all, that future version of her from the Date A Live world was only created after she obtained the time gem and exploited certain loopholes; after completing the task of delivering the message, she was killed by the uniqueness of her own "present" existence.
Out of curiosity, Fujino tried summoning her past self, and naturally, it failed. The uniqueness of existing only in the "present" made it impossible for Fujino to summon her past, but that was when an accident occurred.
Unable to summon her past self, Fujino didn't give up. Instead, she pushed her own time backwards, attempting to break through the uniqueness of her "present" to summon her past self.
The final result was hard to determine. Fujino had indeed summoned a version of her, or perhaps the real Fujino—the Asagami Fujino that Fujino had replaced, the one belonging to the Type-Moon World.
Regarding this situation, Fujino asked the system why she had summoned the Asagami Fujino from before she was replaced.
The system's reply was as follows.
Because she only exists in the "present," she cannot summon her past self. However, this little Fujino is different. The Asagami Fujino before being replaced did indeed exist, but she did not possess the uniqueness of existing only in the "present," so she could be summoned. However, because she was a replaced character, she was separated upon being summoned, becoming an independent existence.
Simply put, there are two Asagami Fujino. One is her after replacing Asagami Fujino—her current self—and the other is the Asagami Fujino from before she was replaced. Little Fujino's existence became a separate entity due to the power of time and various factors.
In a sense, she can be considered Fujino's younger sister, and Fujino is her older sister.
With the thought that when little Fujino grows up, they could play an alternative version of "self-cest," Fujino happily cast herself as little Fujino's older sister. After some smooth-talking, little Fujino became Fujino's younger sister.
Fujino took great care of this younger sister; after all, she could be considered another version of herself. Plus, she had always liked Asagami Fujino. Now, not only was she Asagami Fujino herself, but she also had an extra loli version of Asagami Fujino—truly double the happiness.
Sitting in her chair, Fujino pondered her younger sister's trip to Rhodes Island.
Since her younger sister had been discovered by Kaltsit, Kaltsit would likely come to Umbrella to investigate the situation before long.
That person is also a troublesome one.
"Come to think of it, the time for that person to wake from hibernation is almost here." Fujino looked out the window, her gaze passing through the clouds to look at a distant place.
"Adam, heh, if you knew that everything you've done was all in vain, I wonder what kind of expressions you'd have then."
Watching the outside with amusement, Fujino gave a cold smile, then stood up and left her office.
There were some matters that needed to be addressed before departing for Kjerag tomorrow.
Meanwhile, in Columbia, inside a Rhine Lab experimental base.
The pristine white floor had been stained red with bright blood, and machines destroyed by bullets were still sparking.
In the vast laboratory, countless corpses lay in pools of blood. A pitch-black vortex covered the blood-stained laboratory, and pale hands emerged from the black vortex, pulling the corpses one by one into the abyss-like swirl.
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