Maelstrom made the barest of a ‘tch’ at that. It was regrettable, but understandable that organizations like Laughing Coffin wouldn’t exist in the modern era, especially when detectives could solve mysteries in the span of a one-hour television show. Then again, even if she did get caught, how were they going to punish her? Forced labor camps? Prison? She was made of metals, not flesh, and she could just shut herself down if she had to. But it was within her programming to be unable to pull off something like that, and thus, Maelstrom was in a pathetic rut of inaction. It would be hard for Shinkis to find assassins, and it’d be hard for Shinkis to kill humans.

It didn’t help that Maelstrom could see that the girl wasn’t paying attention as well. She was probably one of those side character-esque girls then, the type that are moderately smart, but due to a lack of hot-blooded will, would probably only have one episode where they shined, or would serve only to contribute to a small point in the show. The smallest of shrugs followed, as this unknown brunette stated the obvious. Yeah. She’ll get shut down before another creeper otaku picked her up. Maybe she’ll get eaten by a dog, if she was lucky. Maybe she’ll be dissected and turned into new Shinkis. Thus was the circle of Shinki lives, unless they were disposed of in an unenvironmentally friendly manner. She looked into the eyes of the girl once more, getting into a cross-legged sitting manner.

A girl of inconsequential importance would be fine too, and it seemed that she was heading to a place of restoration as well. Good. Maybe she’ll buy a new Shinki while she was at it, and Maelstrom will be able to convert herself a faithful minion on her blood-stained path to vengeance. She smiled, in a way that was like a cartoon villain, putting the synthetic materials in her face to full use, for maximum antagonistic effect.

The Angel Slayer stopped smiling.

What was it that swordsmen said in this situation?

Ah, yes.

Kneeling on one knee on the girl’s palm, Maelstrom said, her head bowed and one hand over her left-side breast, “Thank you. I am in your debt, young lady.”

She might be planning the death of a carbon-based lifeform, but Maelstrom decided that she should at least gain some redemption points in the form of being nice to her soon-to-be landlady.