Layers of Mystery

Just as Shu was about to ask Sora some questions, Bronya spoke up. "Shu, Sora doesn't remember anything."

Shu closed his mouth and turned to Bronya.

"She told me everything," Bronya said, shaking her head. "But one thing's for sure… Sora wasn't in ARC City on December 1st."

Not in ARC City? She arrived at the Nest on the third day after the disaster, and Little Tian disappeared on the seventh… And Robot Mark II was still with Sora at that time.

"Adam, are there any photos of the outside world taken after the disaster?" Shu asked, his eyes lighting up as he looked at the photos on the whiteboard.

Adam thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No. Sora's Robot Mark II should have had daily recordings, but… everything was gone. Like it had been wiped clean…"

"Is that… normal?" Shu asked, an eyebrow twitching.

Adam, Lyle, and Sora shook their heads in unison. "Robot Mark II wasn't even damaged. There's no way it would lose its memory!"

Things were getting increasingly strange. So, someone had deliberately deleted the data? But who? Natasha? Did she know what was happening outside and erase the data to keep it from the children?

Or…

Shu shook his head, pushing aside the complex web of possibilities and focusing on the most straightforward explanation. The central issue wasn't Little Tian, but Sora's Robot Mark II.

Sora wasn't in ARC City when the Honkai Eruption occurred, yet she appeared later. If her memory loss was caused by the Honkai, was the missing data from Robot Mark II also a result of the Honkai?

Or did Sora delete it herself? But Adam said there wasn't a single frame of footage from the outside world, meaning the data must have been deleted the moment Sora entered the Nest…

But she was already within Adam and Lyle's sight then. She couldn't have deleted it without them noticing, unless she did it secretly…

Shu glanced at Sora, observing her for a few seconds, then looked away. No, the confusion and disorientation in her eyes were too genuine to be faked. She was truly amnesiac.

If it wasn't Sora, then it had to be Natasha…

Shu paused, then looked at the bandages on Sora's arm and eye.

"Sora, were these bandages… always there?"

Sora blinked, looking down at her arm, as if trying to remember. Shu sensed her confusion and growing frustration.

Finally, she shook her head. "No… I don't think so…"

Not always there? Natasha… or the man in the infirmary?

Lyle had mentioned that children Natasha brought back didn't reappear until the following day. And before that… there was the "infirmary" stage.

So, the infirmary was the key? According to the first whiteboard, Natasha kept many deformed children there. If Robot Mark II had captured images of them, it would make sense for Natasha to delete the data.

As for why all the data was gone, either Natasha wanted to be thorough, or there was so much to hide that it was easier to erase everything.

But one question remained…

"Why was Robot Mark II left outside?" Shu asked Adam, his voice serious.

Adam and Lyle gulped. While Shu had been lost in thought, they had felt a subtle pressure emanating from him. It had made Adam hesitant to continue his explanation. Now, with Shu's direct question, the pressure intensified.

"It was Lyle!" Adam immediately betrayed his friend, speaking rapidly under Lyle's betrayed glare.

"We initially thought Little Tian was in the… demon infirmary. But one night, we saw an old man carrying small children out of the Nest, so we thought he might be…"

"Taking Little Tian, and perhaps the other… different children, away from the Nest?" Shu finished Adam's sentence. "So Lyle picked the lock and sent Robot Mark II out?"

Lyle nodded silently.

Shu sighed, rubbing his forehead, looking at the three children with a mixture of exasperation and grudging admiration. He had thought they were just unusually observant, but they were also surprisingly bold and resourceful.

They knew about the dangers outside, yet they still dared to pick the lock and send Robot Mark II out without Natasha's knowledge…

He suspected Robot Mark II was their scout. If it had reported back that there were no monsters outside, these kids might have actually tried to escape!

But this was valuable new information… The old man was carrying deformed children away from the Nest…

Shu narrowed his eyes, considering a grim possibility. Was he disposing of bodies? Were the deformed children dying, or did the infirmary hold a darker secret?

A nighttime visit to the infirmary was now a necessity. He needed to see those children, confirm whether the old man was still there, and find out who the man in the white lab coat was.

Adam's explanation was winding down. The rest of the notes mostly detailed Little Tian's relationship with the group and speculated about his emotional state…

Wait a minute… Shu spotted a disturbing phrase. Disturbing, especially in the context of the Honkai.

"Adam, Lyle," he asked carefully, his gaze fixed on the words buried among the other observations. "Can you tell me… why Little Tian… hated adults so much?"

Kiana, Mei, and Bronya, following Shu's gaze, straightened up, their attention now focused on the same words.

"Tell me… how much did he hate them…" Shu paused, then quoted the exact phrase:

"…to wish for all the adults in the world to disappear?"