Gently shaking Zero's chin.
Su Yuzu watched as Zero slightly raised her neck, resting her small head in her palm, and narrowed her eyes in enjoyment, looking somewhat cozy.
It was hard to imagine.
That such a girl was the Aberrant who had previously invaded Keigunen Private Academy.
The Aberrant girl who had launched attacks on the girls around her twice.
In the past two days, Su Yuzu had already asked Zero about those two attack incidents.
"Nyaa~ Nyaa~~" Thinking the King was going to blame her, Zero was so nervous she was about to cry.
Under Su Yuzu's repeated comforting, Zero finally whimpered and used the stylus to da-da-da-da write down the course of events on the writing board.
From the day she had memories, she had always been inside a special laboratory.
The laboratory was huge, and there were many strange people.
Some people treated her very well.
But some people treated her very badly.
Among them, the one who treated her the best was a nagging sister who was like an 'old auntie'.
Although that sister was always very long-winded.
But... that sister treated her truly well.
Before meeting Su Yuzu, the most delicious thing Zero had ever eaten was the apple that long-winded sister brought her.
She struggled somewhat to draw stick figures on the writing board.
Zero's daily life, which consisted only of blood draws, injections, taking medicine, and being experimented on, came to an abrupt halt more than half a month ago.
A group of strange people came to the laboratory.
They wore black and purple cloaks that completely concealed their appearances.
Even their voices were masked by special voice-changing devices, sounding like fingernails scratching against a blackboard.
Su Yuzu looked at the stick figures the girl drew.
Then... she froze.
Her expression gradually became grave.
Although the girl's stick figures were drawn very abstractly, there was one feature captured very carefully.
It was an eye.
On the black and purple cloak, a dark golden eye was depicted.
"Eye of Insight".
From the moment she heard the girl say 'half a month ago', Su Yuzu had faintly realized that this matter might be related to that bunch of bastards.
The "Eye of Insight" was not some small organization.
Their traces were all over the world.
The "Eye of Insight" that had been eradicated by the Fourth Action Division might have just been the tip of the iceberg revealed by that evil cult in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
After the people from the "Eye of Insight" cult came, Zero, who had always just been accepting experiments, got her first opportunity to go out and began her first invasion operation.
The mission target was... Su Yuzu.
"What is needed to create the most terrifying devil?"
"The most terrifying power?"
"The most evil ambition?"
"Or the most horrifying desire?"
"None of them—"
"All that is needed is a tragic past."
"Go..."
"Destroy that young lady of the Saotome family."
Even if the "Eye of Insight" cult and the researchers of that laboratory racked their brains, they probably never would have imagined.
Their 'elite' Aberrant.
The "Test Subject Zero" who existed as a slaughter weapon, was now... behaving obediently like a little cat on someone else's lap.
And she had completely exposed their declaration and plans.
Just as Su Yuzu had guessed.
The ultimate goal of the "Eye of Insight" and that "Epiphany Manufacture" laboratory was herself.
It was just that their goal wasn't to kill her.
But... to make her fall from grace and become an Aberrant.
And it wasn't to directly use that so-called [Trial Aberrant Activation Device - II] to fall and become an Aberrant.
Instead, it was to make her fall into the Edge of Aberration while in a state of extreme anger.
Su Yuzu bit her lip.
Actually, the [Operator System] was somewhat similar.
It was always pushing her towards the lineup of the 'Abyss'.
Things like "Sailing the Abyss", "Solitary Abyss Walker".
She was walking gradually closer to the Abyss.
Su Yuzu instinctively felt... that everything might be related to that monster hidden in her chest, that massive throne named "Throne of Evil Karma".
Unfortunately, the game did not have any plot related to the "Throne of Evil Karma".
The closest plot might be that former Seventh Sequence "Seat of Evil".
"Senpai?" A girl's nearly restrained voice sounded from the dormitory door.
It was Mihou Sakai.
"Wait a moment!" Su Yuzu shouted loudly.
Then she squatted down by the bedside.
She looked at Zero, who was lying prone on the edge of the bed.
"It's that girl who has arrived~" Gently touching the hair falling from Zero's face, Zero suddenly became tense all over.
Her tail stood up as if the fur had exploded.
The King had told her that whether she could stay by the King's side depended entirely on whether those girls she had hurt would forgive her.
Among them, the most critical one... was that girl she had converted into a 'companion'.
If she couldn't forgive her.
Then no matter how much the King liked her, her stay would need to be reconsidered.
Although... Su Yuzu was actually already certain.
Mihou Sakai would definitely forgive Zero.
Su Yuzu was as certain of this as she was of herself.
She believed in the girl's kindness and gentleness.
Although Mihou Sakai was excessively inferior-feeling, she was also a kind and gentle child; she didn't want others to endure the injuries she had suffered.
If not for herself.
If Mihou Sakai hadn't met the "Eye of Insight", she definitely would have become a hero.
Su Yuzu believed that the girl would definitely shine and glow.
"Aaaa——" Zero nodded her small head vigorously.
She would definitely try hard to think of a way to obtain that girl's understanding.
Su Yuzu looked at Zero's little expression, which seemed full of fighting spirit, and got up to open the door.
The girl carrying large and small bags stood nearly restrained behind the door.
After Su Yuzu left her home that day.
Mihou Sakai's mother had pulled Little Mihou Sakai into the bedroom for a private talk.
The content of the talk... was naturally Su Yuzu.
No matter how much Mihou Sakai flatly denied it, but... the way the girl became as shy as a fully ripe peach whenever Su Yuzu was mentioned silently explained everything.
It was useless to deny it any further.
Mihou Sakai admired... incomparably admired Su Yuzu.
But what Mihou Sakai hadn't expected was... Mother did not reprimand her for her choice.
On the contrary... after praising Su Yuzu, she scolded the girl for her lack of ambition, looking as if she hated iron for not becoming steel.
Mihou Sakai only then realized that Mother's goal in wanting to keep the Senpai there... was actually to urge her to 'seal the deal'.
The girl's soul suddenly received a massive shock.
Watching Mother nearly scolding her reproachfully, then urging her to be braver, Mihou Sakai suddenly became curious... about what exactly had happened between Father and Mother back then.
Carrying a pile of gifts, Mihou Sakai kept pumping herself up.
Be active.
Be active.
She firmly remembered Mother's words in her heart.
It was just that... a thousand, ten thousand words, all instantly misfired upon seeing Su Yuzu's smiling pretty face.
The girl opened her mouth, but in the end, said nothing.
The only thing she could manage was to push all the gifts prepared by Mother into Su Yuzu's hands.
"Se-se-se-senpai..." The girl originally hadn't been this nervous.
But after being educated by Mother, she found she couldn't quite face Su Yuzu directly instead.
Su Yuzu took the gifts.
She didn't decline.
Declining would undoubtedly be putting continued pressure on the girl.
She simply took the gifts, then pulled the girl into the room and closed the door.
"Asking Little Mihou to come this time... is actually because I have something to tell Little Mihou."
"Regarding that Aberrant who invaded the Academy last time..."
Mihou Sakai had already seen it.
The girl wearing a black kimono bathrobe... was kneeling on Su Yuzu's bed in a dogeza posture.
In front of that girl was a lit tablet computer.
The writing board app was open.
On it, written crookedly, were the words: "I am extremely sorry! Please, you must forgive me."
Mihou Sakai's pupils suddenly constricted.
Su Yuzu felt something was wrong upon seeing the girl's reaction.
Although... she had trusted in Little Mihou Sakai's kindness just as she trusted her own terrible luck from the start.
But... after being reborn, her luck seemed to have reversed as well.
If Little Mihou Sakai wasn't willing to forgive Zero, Su Yuzu really didn't have any solution.
It was just that... Mihou Sakai looked at that Aberrant girl with trembling.
Was she caring about her identity as an Aberrant?
No!!!
What she cared about was... why is this girl on the Senpai's bed!!!
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