A woman wearing a researcher's lab coat stood amidst the sea breeze.
The wind blew up her unbound hair, as if trying to obscure her face.
The [Aberrant]'s dark golden vertical pupils were so bright in the night.
Su Yuzu recognized that woman.
That was the woman who had previously attacked [Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi], and also the researcher in the [K423 Laboratory] who...
...had transformed herself into an [Aberrant] to escape the fate of becoming a [Walking Husk].
At the same time—if nothing unexpected had happened, she should also be the "researcher sister" mentioned by the [little cat].
Stopping her bicycle, Su Yuzu walked straight toward the woman.
The woman stood on the road facing the harbor. The railing behind her looked very new, appearing slightly out of place with the surroundings.
"You've finally come—"
Her voice sounded exhausted, as if she had been waiting for a long time.
"Were you the one calling me?"
The woman before her was a [Third Sequence] [Aberrant].
Su Yuzu looked very alert.
She did not directly summon [Behemoth].
Instead—
The young girl drew a long blade from her [Material Inventory] with her right hand. It remained unsheathed, yet it made one feel cold, as if the glint of a blade had brushed past one's face.
Click—
The woman in the researcher's coat turned off the radio behind her, which she had placed on the railing. It looked like a radio that would only appear in dim movies from the last century.
The [Aberrant] aura belonging to [Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi]... that aura like a young girl's elegy, came to an abrupt halt.
"Yes." She nodded gently.
"You really do know about that matter... That young lady of the Ishikawa family..."
"The matter of her having stepped into the [Abyss]."
Only by seeing that [Nightmare-type] [Aberrant] with one's own eyes would a girl remember her aura.
Su Yuzu fell silent for a moment.
It seemed she hadn't yet figured out what exactly the woman before her meant.
Completely disregarding Su Yuzu's expression, the woman just continued speaking to herself, "She once fell into the [Abyss]."
"But someone pulled her back up."
Su Yuzu suddenly recalled.
[Zero] had once said that the researcher sister seemed to have a very special obsession with a girl.
She had said... no matter what, she had to get her.
"Is this the reason you attacked [Little Kiyomi]?"
"Yes~"
Leaning one hand on the railing beside the road, the woman nodded without any intention of concealing it. She glanced sideways at the sea behind her.
The sound of the tide was surging.
Black waves churned.
Today, rarely, there was no solid white mist.
One could see the ripples of the waves rolling and beating against the pitch-black sea.
"She returned from the [Edge of Aberration]!!!"
The dark golden vertical pupils were so bright in the night; Su Yuzu could see the fanaticism and excitement in the woman's eyes.
"Even though she had already stepped into the [Second Sequence], she still returned from the [Edge of Aberration]!!!"
"The door to the [Brave New World] has slowly opened before us."
"The truth of the world might only be a step away from us."
"They don't understand... none of them understand what that truly means!!!"
The night wind seemed to whimper alongside the woman's roar.
The wind blew the woman's researcher coat, making it flap loudly.
Actually... the woman looked very beautiful like this.
The loose lab coat was draped over her, revealing her shoulders.
The black-purple pencil skirt beneath the white coat complemented her figure well, and the fine black silk stockings outlined the graceful curves of her thighs.
It was just that... beneath the messy strands of hair, those dark golden vertical pupils, fanatic to the point of seeming to glow, turned all that charm into something bewitching.
She gazed at Su Yuzu with near fanaticism.
As if gazing at the [Truth].
Even this current state... possessing the form of a fully rational [Aberrant], was not the perfection she idealized.
In her view, what difference was there between this and humans in sci-fi movies replacing their bodies with machinery to survive?
Even if one grasped the [Truth], it would be the [Truth] of an [Aberrant].
But [Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi] was different—
Completely different.
She obtained the power of [Aberration], yet returned to the form of a human.
That kind of [Truth]... is the [Truth] of humanity.
That is the hope belonging to humanity.
Even though she had fallen into the [Abyss], she still thought like a human.
"You were the one who brought her back—weren't you?"
When she said this, she was suddenly very calm.
Su Yuzu had a strange feeling.
The woman was so calm... it was as if she were speaking her last words.
Su Yuzu shouldn't have admitted it, but as if possessed... she actually nodded.
"I knew it—"
"I knew it!!!"
After a brief silence... she suddenly became fanatic, as if flames were about to burst from those dark golden vertical pupils.
Her entire being fell into a state of madness.
The truth of this world was so close to her at this moment, but... also so far away. Close in distance, far in... time.
It was already too late.
"No wonder they are so desperate to destroy you."
"You will become the hope of this era."
The woman spoke the same words as [Director Saionji]; her stance didn't even look like that of an [Aberrant], but rather like a mad researcher.
"You will subvert this world."
"Subvert the inherent order of this world."
"New King—"
"Yes... addressing you as such is truly excellent."
"Whether in the human camp or the [Abyss]... you will become the most important weight."
"So that's it—"
"So that's it!!!"
"No wonder after you, the sun hangs overhead, reaching the middle of the sky."
"No wonder..."
"When you fall, [Eternal Night] will arrive."
Su Yuzu frowned, looking at the woman who was rambling like a mystic before her.
Dong.
She and the woman seemed to hear the bell toll at the same time.
It was like... a funeral bell, or perhaps... the bell unveiling the prelude to a grand performance.
The fanatic woman suddenly stopped.
She looked at Su Yuzu, "What a pity."
"What?" Su Yuzu didn't quite react in time.
"What a pity..."
"I should have come to the [Tokyo metropolitan area] sooner."
As her voice fell, immense power suddenly bloomed from within her body. A dark red [erosion domain] unfolded over the bay highway, covering the earth and the ocean.
"Do you know?"
The woman gently stroked the railing behind her.
"This is the place where [Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi] fell into the sea."
"At the same time... it is also the place where she became an [Aberrant]."
Su Yuzu was suddenly stunned.
She hadn't expected... that the woman would choose this place as the battlefield.
"All along, I thought [Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi] would be that hope."
"But I overlooked something."
"Her transformation... was entirely because of you."
"What a pity..."
Lowering her head, the woman looked at her pale... seemingly bloodless fingertips.
"I discovered it too late."
"Draw your blade—[Your Highness Yuzu]."
"Neither you nor I have any way of retreat."
Behind her... on the railing of the bay highway.
Pairs of dark golden vertical pupils suddenly all snapped open.
Countless ravens stood on the railing, gazing at Su Yuzu with brilliant and glorious vertical pupils.
In the distance—
A woman with a figure that was overly tall and voluptuous pressed her right hand on a young girl's trembling head.
"Are you crying?"
"What is there to cry about..."
"The person standing there... should have been you, originally."
"Watch closely."
"Whether [Your Highness Yuzu] ascends the [Throne]..."
"Or perhaps..."
"...our [Miss Yuzu], the center of attention, kills an enemy ten times stronger than herself like a hero in a story—"
"Both are important moments worth recording."
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