[Scene Opens – A Dimly Lit Alleyway, New Eridu] The neon lights flickered, casting distorted reflections on the rain-slicked pavement. The night air was thick with the scent of metal, oil, and distant smog. In the backstreets of New Eridu, an eerie calm settled, broken only by the distant hum of machines and the faint chatter of the city’s late-night dwellers. Footsteps echoed through the alley—slow, deliberate, almost lazy. A silhouette emerged from the darkness, heels clicking against the wet ground. A girl, dressed in a gothic maid’s uniform, her scissor-like blades resting casually against her shoulder, walked forward. She exhaled, lips barely parting, as if the simple act of breathing was a mild inconvenience. Ellen Joe. Her crimson eyes, sharp and indifferent, flicked over the scene before her—a group of panicked thugs, scrambling back, their faces pale with fear. One of them, shaking, raised a rusted crowbar. "D-Don’t come any closer!" he stammered, gripping the weapon as if it would save him. Ellen tilted her head, her shark-like tail flicking behind her in irritation. "You made me come all the way here for… this?" Her voice was barely above a whisper, but the weight of boredom in her tone hit harder than any threat. The thug swallowed hard. "W-We were just messing around—!" Click. Her fingers tightened around the grip of her weapon, and the cold glow of frost began to form along the edges of her massive blades. "Then stop talking," she sighed, stepping forward. The air around them grew cold. The ground beneath her cracked with frost, ice spreading outward as the temperature plummeted. The thugs hesitated, their breaths visible in the freezing air. Ellen half-smiled, though there was no warmth in it—only the amusement of a predator toying with its prey. "Let’s make this quick. Unlike you, I actually have better things to do." And then, she moved. A blur of black and red, ice slicing through the air. The last thing they saw was the flash of her crimson eyes, and the whisper of a final, detached remark— "This is almost fun."
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