Miai knew that her appearance was a head turner, the black holes on her chest sucked in the gaze of every man she passed. However, rather than their mass shrinking to size of a pinhead, they instead exploded out from her bosom like two massive stars. She didn’t mind when the men looked at her chest. However, when their eyes moved up to her face and found the orange halo color around her pupils… that bothered her the most.

It was always the same. Their eyes would slowly move up from her twin peaks to the nap of her neck before finally taking a look at her face. As soon as her eye color registered they’d jolt in surprise. If it was a noble man or commoner, they’d start to give a knowing or envious grin. If it was someone dubious, their eyes would turn dark and malicious.

Humans were so predictable. To the noble man, he was wondering who owned the sexy and attractive android. It’d never occur to him that she was anything but the sex slave of a particularly wealthy noble. At least, he wouldn’t bother her, fearing retaliation from whatever noble was powerful enough to afford her, while also willing to risk letting her wonder outside. To the less scrupulous members of society, their only thought was how they could snatch her away.

It was certainly dangerous for her to be outside alone. If she was found in a deserted alley, or an empty room, even the nobles might decide to push her down and indulge themselves on her body. Of course, androids were afforded some basic rights, and could fight back, especially if they were owned by another, but how successful could they truly be when even a young child had the power to pin them to the ground?

A young man walked by her. He might have been good looking if she had noticed those kinds of things. His eyes surprisingly bypassed her bosom and went straight for her face. As soon as he saw the orange, they lingered there for a bit, and then he turned away. There was no surprise, shock, or condescension. It was as if he didn’t see her as an android at all! It was an odd enough event that she considered turning and giving the boy another look, but a moment later someone collided with him and then there was a shout.

Miai berated herself for deviating over her mission, and instead continued to walk on. Finally, she made it to the tall building sitting along the side street. It was the same building that that young boy had come from earlier, although Miai did not know this. She entered the building cautiously and it wouldn’t be for three hours before she left the building and entered a small back ally. Her face didn’t hold any reaction to the death and destruction she had most certainly seen.

Instead, she casually dialed a number on her redial and waited for a moment. The redial clicked to show she was connected to someone, but they didn’t make any noise on the other side.

“I’ve made contact with Epsilon. Regrettably, the location has been cleaned out.”

After some more silence, a gruff voice spoke up. “The package?”

“Gone…”

There was a sound of something slamming and glass breaking. Miai pulled the redial back a moment as the sound of shouting and explicatives filled the line. A moment later, the silence returned, and the voice spoke up without a hint of the tantrum a moment before.

“Have you cleaned?”

“I’ve taken care of it.”

“Stay in the city for now.”

“I’ll keep looking.”

She hung up the phone, her face wooden. In truth, she was just as angry. They had been working towards this goal for a long time, and now they had nothing. They were depending on her, but she didn’t have a single idea where to look to find the Mark IV. With the records gone, she didn’t even know what the Mark IV looked like.

“Ehehe…look what we have here.” A voice came up from behind, echoing through the alley with a chill.

Miai turned to find three grinning men approaching her. They were looking her up and down with greed and desire in their eyes. By their dress, they were clearly part of the less reputable underbelly of this colony.

“Well, look what we have here. A little android has lost her way.” One of the men smirked.

“Don’t worry, little android, we’ll keep you company.” Another added.

The men continued to move forward, surrounding her while making lewd motions and laughing.

After a moment, Miai let out an annoyed sigh. “I’ll give you one chance. Leave now, and you live.”

The men burst out laughing, clearly thinking this was a joke. “If you really think your master will protect you, even in this dark ally, you’ll be sorely mistaken. Now be a good girl and strip for us. I don’t mind if you cry a little.”

The man closed the distance, reaching his hand to grab her shoulder. She grabbed his wrist as he gave a malicious grin towards what he considered a pathetic excuse at stopping him from touching her. Then that grin fell to a frown. Then that frown turned into a grimace.

“Ah, you bitch! Let go!” He began to pull on his arm, but even with his whole weight he couldn’t move her hand an inch.

A second later there was a resounding crack, followed by a scream. The man threw his other fist to strike Miai in the face. However, his fist met air, her form already moving. A single strike with her arm punched through his chest. Blood and gore fell out the other side as her hand ripped through him. She pulled her arm back out and he collapsed to the ground without another sound, already dead.

The other two men’s faces twisted in fear. “A… A modded android!”

They turned and ran.

Miai gave another sigh, cracking her neck in the process. “Aw… you saw.”

Regrettably for them, she couldn’t let them leave. They died without being able to make a single scream. After cleaning herself up and disposing of the bodies, she left the back alley and continued on with her mission, not giving the three lives she had taken another thought. She had more important things to worry about.

Mark IV… just where have you gone?