Molting Ceremony

The Sakura Contract Formation bulged like a festering skin in the moonlight. When Elvira poured the last tube of her own blood into the center of the formation, the snipers lying in ambush on the trees coughed collectively—the blood mist mixed with fluorescent powder was sticking to their scopes along the night wind.

"Old trick," she shouted into the air, "When I was a kid, you put Veritaserum in my ice cream, but now you're targeting asthma patients as mercenaries?"

Selina's laughter came from the darkness, wrapped in the mechanical noise of a voice changer: "Your welcome ceremony is too shabby, sister."

Lila suddenly gasped in the headset: "Don't look up! The one on the rooftop--"

Neon bullets tore through the night sky. Elvira rolled into the center of the cherry petal storm of the formation, and the stones shattered by the bullets splashed into the shape of a crying baby.

(Deep in the cellar, the captured remnants of the party twitched and spit out black feathers. Lila picked up one with tweezers and found a microfilm embedded in the feather tube - the baby room surveillance showed Selena tying the sleeping Lila's hands and feet into a bow with the umbilical cord.)

The petals of the contract suddenly wrapped around Elvira, branding blood vessel-like golden lines on her skin. A holographic mural appeared on the ground: two baby girls were touching their fingers in the incubator, their umbilical cords twisted into DNA spirals, with laboratory access cards tied to the ends.

"Peeping Tom syndrome?" Elvira raised her middle finger at the mural. "This is better than the poster above your bed."

Selena's phantom emerged from the mural, her braid brushing Elvira's throat: "Mom always says my hair is beautiful, do you know why?"

The skin that the hair tip touched instantly ulcerated. When Elvira leaned back, she caught a glimpse of the cold light of metal in the braid - the access card was cast into a hair ornament and hidden in it.

"Because it's made from your hair," Phantom chuckled, "Every time I cut your hair it's like killing you."

Lucas's residual soul condensed into a translucent wolf shape at the edge of the formation. Elvira deliberately crushed the cherry blossoms at the center of the formation, provoking him to pounce on Selina's phantom. The moment the wolf's fangs tore at her braids, the entire formation began to collapse.

"Stupid dog!" Phantom threw out a dagger and pierced Wolf Shadow's throat, "You're still a licker even after you die!"

Elvira took the opportunity to throw out the twisted thread and entangle her braids: "When your hair brushes against my steel knife--"

The twisted wire tightened. The moment the braid broke, the lab alarm rang throughout the city. Selina's real scream came from somewhere, and Lila's earphones simultaneously exploded with a piercing sound - it was the reverse playback of their common first cry on the baby monitor.

When the key was inserted into the gate of the backup power station, Elvira saw breast milk oozing out of the keyhole. Behind the door was Selena's childhood "playroom", with the walls covered with Lila's hair specimens at different ages, each with a medical record tied to it:

7A Hair Drug Resistance Test #43

It is recommended to increase the frequency of electric shock

Lucas's residual soul suddenly materialized and knocked her away. Selina's real body's scalpel flew past his left rib, and the cut wolf hair fell to the ground and turned into ashes.

"The ghost is still there!" Selina's true form finally appeared, with a noticeable lack of a braid on her left temple. "You guys are only going to use my creations to retaliate against me?"

Elvira waved the access card key: "After all, you are the best at getting yourself into trouble."

The remnant wolf shadow suddenly pounced on Selina, and at the moment when his canine teeth choked her throat, Elvira saw the contract pattern condensed from magma on his chest reorganizing - it was a signal for help.

The melee tore the floor of the playroom apart, revealing the dusty nursing room below. In the incubator lay a baby specimen with a key-shaped broken-tooth comb stuck in its chest. Selina suddenly went crazy and pushed everyone aside and rushed over.

"It's mine!" She smashed the incubator glass. "It's the first one my mother gave me—"

Elvira stepped on her back and inserted the access card key into the specimen's skull: "Give my regards to our mother."

The specimen's eye sockets emitted red light, and the entire building began to secrete corrosive amniotic fluid. The remnant wolf shook its head at Elvira before melting - Lucas's usual "quick retreat" action.

The moment Lila dragged Elvira into the ventilation duct, she caught a glimpse of Selena grabbing the baby specimen in the amniotic fluid, and the remaining keys in her braids were vaporizing.

Postscript: The pain of losing scales

Three days later, Lila found a melted fragment of a neon sign while cleaning up the battlefield:

Feather Salon

☑ Wolf hair trimming

☑ Lanugo Seal

☑ Parricide

Elvira soaked Selena's broken braids in formalin. Late at night, the glass jar would ooze the sound of a baby crying, and Lucas's ghost began to appear on full-moon nights, with a half-melted access card hanging around his neck.

His lips were always fixed on an unfinished word, which was always evaporated by the morning light the next night.