"Even... even if Director Saionji said that Senpai should take care of her..."
"There was no need to let her live with Senpai..."
The girl, looking slightly aggrieved, stared at the Aberrant girl curled up on Su Yuzu's bed.
Senpai's bedding had been ravaged into a twisted mess, and there wasn't even a second quilt. Mihou Sakai could even hallucinate the scene late at night... that Aberrant girl hugging Senpai, or perhaps directly wrapping around Senpai's waist and shrinking into her embrace to sleep.
On the bed, Zero knelt cautiously by Su Yuzu's hand. She was trying hard to curl up her body, her thighs pressing down on her feet, striving to minimize her surface area to appear as petite as possible. Da-da-da-da, she continued writing on the tablet.
The girl held up the tablet with both hands to block her own face. On the screen was a crookedly written 'Sorry'.
Su Yuzu stroked Zero's hair. Her expression as she looked at Mihou Sakai also seemed a bit between laughter and tears.
Su Yuzu had anticipated many situations. For example, the girl might accept Zero's apology frankly; or perhaps the girl would find it hard to accept, but due to the kindness in her heart, eventually accept Zero's apology; or even... what to do if the girl didn't accept it.
But Su Yuzu absolutely never expected that Mihou Sakai's focus would actually be on why Zero appeared on her bed.
What a peculiar train of thought. However... it seemed not bad.
It was better than the girl brooding over Zero's existence.
"I haven't been staying in the dorm these past few days." Gently stroking Zero's hair, the Aberrant girl arched her back like a cat, sinking her waist down.
The bionic tail, which looked like a real cat tail, gently swept against Su Yuzu's arm.
Mihou Sakai breathed a light sigh of relief.
So... Director Saionji only temporarily let Senpai take on the role of 'owner', and had arranged for Senpai to stay elsewhere. She really thought Senpai had been living with this... Aberrant girl for the past few days.
"I've been staying at Ms. Unohana Chiyo's place these past few days."
Mihou Sakai's train of thought hadn't even finished running its course when she froze directly on the spot.
Eh... Ehhh?!
The dangerous existence suddenly changed from one cat-like Aberrant girl into two. And... Mihou Sakai recalled Unohana Chiyo's mature and glamorous appearance.
No matter how she thought about it, she felt the threat over there seemed even greater. The girl began to feel a bit of annoyance at why she hadn't accepted her Mother's help.
The warm golden sunlight shone into the room through the white sheer curtains. The girl sat obediently on Su Yuzu's left hand side. And on Su Yuzu's right hand side was Zero, obediently prostrating her body, gently swaying her tail like a real cat.
A warm and harmonious picture filled the room.
Mihou Sakai lowered her head. The girl's right hand held the fingertips of her left index finger, her gaze involuntarily drooping downwards.
Actually... how could she not care? That was, after all, the guy who had almost destroyed her life.
She had almost... lost the opportunity to train by Senpai's side, to return home and act spoiled with her Mother, and to hug her obedient and cute sister.
But... if she showed that she cared, Senpai would definitely feel it was difficult to handle, right? Senpai was such a gentle girl. She was almost equally gentle to everyone. If she said she cared, Senpai, caught in the middle, would certainly be very distressed.
Mihou Sakai didn't want to distress Senpai.
Moreover... she glanced at the Aberrant girl shrinking on the other side of Su Yuzu. After concealing those dark golden vertical pupils, Zero looked no different from an ordinary girl.
The heavy shackles on her wrists and ankles even gave one the feeling that the girl was engaging in some shameful Play.
Mihou Sakai, who had once fallen into the Abyss, felt she could understand that despair of falling into the Abyss better than anyone.
It was so quiet. Quiet enough that... it seemed as if she was the only person left in the world. Endless loneliness would involuntarily assault the heart, crushing all resilience.
After falling into the Edge of Aberration, one already stood on the opposite side of humanity... on the opposite side of all relatives and friends.
What's more... Senpai also said that she was a man-made Abyss. From the day she was born, she had already been in the Abyss.
When she fell into the Abyss herself, Senpai reached out a hand to her. Then... what about her? She could only endure alone in the Abyss, licking that loneliness.
Su Yuzu was right. Mihou Sakai was a girl who was excessively insecure, but also excessively kind.
The girl stood up, then squatted down in front of Zero. She looked at the nervous expression with which the Aberrant girl looked at her.
Then, she extended her hand.
"I am Mihou Sakai~"
"Let's treat this as our first meeting. Please take care of me."
"Nyaaa!!!" The little cat's eyes opened wide, and then da-da-da-da, she wrote her name—or perhaps her serial number—on the tablet.
'Zero'.
'Number Zero'.
*
Clack clack clack—
Slender boot heels stepped on the floor, the girl's legs stretching into graceful arcs.
Saionji Sagara looked at the pair of scarlet eyes slowly emerging from the darkness in front of her. A girl dressed in an outfit bordering on a fetishistic combat suit slowly walked out from the shadows.
She was already standing under the laboratory lights, but that dainty little face still remained in the shadows. Only those scarlet eyes were eye-catching.
There was clearly a bright and beautiful smile hanging on the girl's face. Yet... as soon as one's gaze made contact with the girl's scarlet eyes, one would immediately feel as if falling into an ice cave, wishing to get as far away from her as possible immediately.
"Raptor..."
"Long time no see, Teacher." She bowed respectfully to Saionji Sagara.
Saionji Sagara's gaze fell upon the collar on the girl's neck. The dark red leather collar was almost conspicuous on the girl's snow-white, slender neck, but... it unexpectedly fitted Kujou Katora's temperament.
"I heard... another Aberrant appeared at Keigunen Private Academy?" A smile rose on the girl's face, the flavor of madness emerging bit by bit within that smile.
"Your academy's defensive fortifications are really full of holes."
"That can't be helped." Saionji Sagara sighed lightly. "This is, after all, just an ordinary private high school."
"Pfft—"
"Ordinary." Kujou Katora almost laughed out loud. Saionji Sagara spoke seriously, so she listened seriously. An ordinary high school couldn't afford to keep Ms. Unohana.
"That Aberrant was hit by my God-Hunting Arrow." Saionji Sagara looked at Kujou Katora.
Kujou Katora's smile vanished instantly. "Tch."
She knew the power of Saionji Sagara's God-Hunting Arrow. At the very least... Kujou Katora felt she couldn't withstand it herself.
She had originally thought there would be prey for her to exercise her muscles and bones with. As a result... she was just here to clean up the mess again.
If it were before, Kujou Katora would have already quit and thrown all the work to Hayabusa. But now it was different. In Keigunen, it was completely different.
The girl's fingertips gently touched the collar on her neck. She could go find Yuzu to play again.
'Yuzu...'
'Soft... fragrant Yuzu...'
Saionji Sagara looked at Kujou Katora. She hadn't lied; that Aberrant girl had indeed been hit by her God-Hunting Arrow. But she hadn't hit her vitals.
Moreover, she had indeed received treatment.
"However, we did investigate and find some things."
"That Aberrant was not conceived from the Abyss, nor was she born from a human becoming corrupted and falling into the Edge of Aberration..."
"Hah?" Kujou Katora suddenly froze. "Do those things have a third way of being born?"
"Perhaps not in the past." Saionji Sagara nodded gently. "But now, there certainly is."
"She is a man-made Aberrant."
In the darkness, the girl's scarlet eyes seemed to light up. "Man-made!!?"
"How dare they!"
The appearance of an Aberrant signifies catastrophe. Every appearance of a Sixth Sequence Abyss-level Aberrant is an encroachment on the remaining territories of humanity.
Under these circumstances... there were actually people actively manufacturing Aberrants?
How dare they.
"There is nothing they don't dare to do." Saionji Sagara handed the file in her hand to Kujou Katora. "This is part of the data we've compiled."
On the file, that line of letters was eye-catching.
[Epiphany] —
'Epiphany Manufacture'.
'Epiphany Manufacture' did not have any symbol. They believed that the words 'Epiphany Manufacture' alone were enough to represent knowledge, represent quality, represent everything.
The girl's scarlet eyes looked at that line of letters.
There was work to be done.
________________________________________
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