Resolution

A young woman clad in a maid dress—commonly known as an apron dress—leapt onto the bridge where Shinosuke stood, holding combat knives in both hands.

"Wha—? M-Maid...?!"

A sensor unit was visible on the side of her head, her expression unreadable.

A combat-ready doll.

Shinosuke instinctively recognized her as a doll, but there was no time to think further.

Shinosuke pulled the trigger of the pistol.

Bang! The first shot missed to the right.

Bang! The second shot hit the doll's left temporal sensor unit.

Bang! The third shot struck the same spot, completely destroying the left temporal sensor unit.

Essentially, a doll's weak point is its sensor unit; if either the left or right sensor unit is destroyed, it will temporarily cease functioning.

The duration of functional shutdown ranges from several seconds to up to several minutes, but for military dolls, even a temporary shutdown lasting several seconds during combat would be fatal.

To prevent this, sensor units are typically equipped with bullet-resistant covers to reduce the risk of damage. However, the sensor unit of the doll that attacked Shinnosuke lacked such a cover, allowing Shinnosuke to destroy it with his gunfire.

However, the doll's movement was too fast.

At the moment Shinnosuke destroyed the sensor unit with his gunfire, the combat knife held in the doll's hand was mere inches from slicing Shinnosuke's neck—far beyond what his reflexes could avoid.

The doll's balance faltered due to the shock of gunfire and the circuit disruption from the damaged sensor unit, causing the knife's tip to slice through Shinnosuke's shoulder and chest instead of his neck.

Blood gushed from the wound.

"This... this is bad..."

Overcome by massive blood loss, his strength drained, he collapsed to the ground.

Several minutes later, Velvet arrived with her subordinates, entering the bridge where Fubuki was located.

"Wow, this is quite a gruesome sight," she remarked.

On the bridge lay a maid-suited doll, motionless, and a man in a black captain's uniform, face-down on the floor.

The floor around the fallen man was a sea of blood.

"Miss, there are no other crew members in sight," reported one of her subordinates.

Velvet, hearing the report, looked down at the unconscious Shinosuke with a satisfied expression.

"I heard you'd offloaded the rest of the crew, but you really managed to run this ship with just the doll and yourself. Impressive, really."

No damage was visible when inspecting the bridge.

The man must have been swiftly taken down by the doll equipped with a combat knife capable of slicing through steel.

"I'll gladly take the ship. Now, let me have a look at the face of the man who dared to fight me on equal terms..."

Approaching the face-down Shinosuke, Velvet leans in to peer at his face.

At that moment, Velvet's eye on her forehead opens.

"…!"

(No, I mustn't get any closer like this.)

Too late—just as he tried to leap back, it was already too late.

Shinnosuke, who had been lying down, grabbed Velvet by the collar and pulled her down, twisting her arms behind her back and pressing a gun barrel against her head.

"Miss!?"

Shhhhk! Bap! Bap!

Just before Velvet's henchmen could react, the sound of a blaster firing echoed through the bridge, and four blaster rifles were instantly severed from their hands.

Stay still! If you don't comply, no warning—headshot without mercy.

Marks stands at the entrance of the bridge.

The sight of him, wielding a blaster with half his head damaged and only one arm, was not just frightening—it was unnerving.

They couldn't possibly stand a chance against a military doll, especially after losing their weapons.

The space pirates surrendered without resistance and were restrained by Marks.

"Fufu, so you all pretended to be dead? Even my abilities couldn't see through it. I was completely fooled."

Velvet chuckles bitterly, restrained by Shinosuke.

"I wasn't pretending to be dead. I just lay down to conserve my strength after getting injured by the doll thrown at me. I was simply waiting for you all to arrive. You're the one who mistakenly assumed I was dead."

"I was only temporarily offline for system recovery. To begin with, pretending to be dead... that was never something I was supposed to do."

While listening to Marks' words, Shinnosuke gently lowered the restrained Velvet onto the floor and stood up.

The wound across his shoulder and chest had already stopped bleeding.

Thanks to the emergency hemostatic gel Shinnosuke had been carrying.

Shinnosuke and Marks seated the five captured Velvet members at the edge of the bridge, as it seemed the confrontation between Velvet and Shinnosuke had reached its conclusion.

...Zun!

Fubuki felt a jolt.

"Master, we've been forcefully boarded on the port side!"

"What? Another tactic?"

Shinnosuke checked the monitor.

"Wait... Pirates Killer?"

The vessel currently docked to Fubuki was Zanny's Pirates Killer.

A secure communication request from the Shield Ship appeared on the monitor.

Having left his post to deal with Velvet and the battle with the dolls had caused the glass monitor to fly off, so he hadn't noticed.

『Shield Ship to Fubuki. Shinnosuke, respond! Zanny is coming to assist. Hold on, somehow!』

Since Fubuki had been docked with Black Rose II and communications had been severed, it seemed Zanny had made a forced docking.

"Fubuki, shield ship. This is... "

"Shinnosuke! You're okay!?"

Before Shinnosuke could explain the situation to Dagu, Zanny burst into the bridge, clad in a makeshift armor suit and holding a blister rifle.

There was no strategy to speak of in close-quarters combat aboard the ship—this was a reckless, utterly chaotic breach.

"…Wait, huh? Is it already over?"

Zanny lowered his rifle in surprise upon seeing the bridge where Velvet and the others had been restrained.