Zero — made from a ten-year-old template of Yuzu's "factor" — was an Aberrant manufactured in her image?
Soga Yura found that... genuinely difficult to accept.
That insufferable little cat — the one who had stolen her place, who got to snuggle up against her Yuzu every single night and fall asleep tangled together with her — had actually been engineered as a weapon, built from Yuzu's own template.
Of course —
Beyond all that messy emotional tangle, there was one other very important point that had Soga Yura deeply unsettled.
Why had Yuzu's "factor" been leaked in the first place?
How had people from "Epiphany Manufacture" — or "Eye of Insight" — managed to take notice of Yuzu over a decade ago?
A deep, gnawing unease took root in Soga Yura's chest.
By all logic... no one should ever have noticed Yuzu at all.
She had gone to such lengths to keep Yuzu from standing out — had even resorted to tearing Yuzu's own reputation apart to do it.
"If I'm not mistaken, the laboratories under the Soga clan's umbrella are all either affiliated with 'Epiphany Manufacture,' or have maintained long-standing partnerships with them."
"That's correct," Soga Yura said, and gave a small nod.
Though the main Soga family had been whittled down to just Soga Yura, Su Yuzu, their father Soga Retsu, and their grandfather living out his retirement back at the old family home — the Soga clan's business holdings spread across virtually every industry.
Among them was the cutting-edge technology sector, which Soga Yura prized above all else.
She had once harbored a quiet hope: that Yuzu would go her entire life without ever awakening an ability.
Even without awakening, the power of the Technology Division and the power of Holy Relics alone could make Yuzu invincibly strong — strong enough to protect herself.
And so Soga Yura had invested in Keigunen Private Academy's Technology Division laboratory. Had invested in Imperial Capital University's Technology Division laboratory.
Even the outpost base where Su Yuzu had previously been stationed — it too, as it turned out, had Soga clan equity behind it.
And when it came to any collaboration with a laboratory, "Epiphany Manufacture" was a gate you simply could not bypass.
"Epiphany Manufacture" wasn't merely a coalition of a few elite laboratories — they were the definers and frontrunners of the Technology Division industry as a whole.
The patents, the agreements, even the conceptual-level armaments, philosophies, and bodies of knowledge that countless cutting-edge institutes and laboratories depended upon — all of it flowed back to the name "Epiphany Manufacture."
They had written the rules of the Technology Division's game.
"It seems we've found the source of Yuzu's 'factor' leak," Yamabuki Nanako continued, advancing through the data.
But the troubled look on Soga Yura's face refused to lift. "But... why?"
"What?" Yamabuki Nanako looked up.
Even standing on a stool, the researcher in her child-like form was still a fraction shorter than Soga Yura, and had to tilt her head up ever so slightly.
Not that it bothered her anymore. She had long since made her peace with it.
"Why... back then — why were 'Eye of Insight' and 'Epiphany Manufacture'... already watching Yuzu?"
Soga Yura was absolutely certain: Yuzu's very first awakening could not have been detected by anyone.
So then — how had "Epiphany Manufacture" and "Eye of Insight" come to notice Yuzu at all?
"That's a fair point —" Soga Yura's question drew furrowed brows from all of Yuzu's teachers.
The awakening of a rule-type ability user was anomalous. One might even say it followed no discernible pattern whatsoever.
The previous rule-type ability user — Saint Michael, the Saintess of the Holy Royal Court — had possessed the ability of Word of Command, and alongside it, a Sixth Sequence Sun ability.
And yet some rule-type ability users looked, for all intents and purposes, like perfectly ordinary people with no abilities at all.
Like the pure white girl in the white dress from the story of the Seat of Evil.
When she wasn't using the ability of Erasure, she was utterly indistinguishable from a normal person.
The one and only consistent pattern among rule-type ability users was this: in any given era, only one could exist at a time.
The emergence of a new rule-type ability user invariably signaled the passing of the one before.
So before Su Yuzu had even awakened... how had "Epiphany Manufacture" and "Eye of Insight" foreseen her?
It was Su Yuzu herself — the one who had seen the story play out in the game — who was wholly unsurprised by all of this.
"Because of the eye. The eye that reads fate."
"What?"
"There's a saying within the 'Eye of Insight' sect —" Su Yuzu called up the memory of what the Eye of Insight cultist — the one who had fused himself into a Chimera Amalgam — had said.
And alongside his words, fragments drifted up from some far and distant recollection.
"Let the 'Eye of Insight'"
"guide the hand of fate."
"Just as the prophecy left behind by that witch who clawed her way up from the famished dead of hell..."
"The 'Eye of Insight' can peer into fate itself."
A hush fell over the gathered Espers.
For them, this was hardly some outlandish rumor beyond all belief.
Yamabuki Nanako, however, stood with her hands on her hips, and the researcher in her child-like form made it perfectly clear she had absolutely no faith in things like prophecies or fate.
"More likely they've gotten hold of some method for detecting rule-type ability users that we simply haven't discovered yet."
"From that point on, they already had their eyes on Su Yuzu."
"That said — none of that is the critical issue right now —"
"What matters right now is... what does that Fourth Sequence Aberrant from 'Eye of Insight' intend to do with Zero after summoning her away?"
"No one does something pointless at a time like this."
"Is it purely to use Zero as a hostage against us?"
"She's just an Aberrant..." Yamabuki Nanako looked up, caught the grave expressions on both Soga Yura's and Su Yuzu's faces, and reconsidered. "Right, fine, you two would absolutely be held hostage."
"But I don't think this is as simple as a hostage situation."
"An Aberrant that's been a planted asset for twelve years... using her as nothing more than a bargaining chip would be profoundly stupid."
"What matters most right now..."
"Is finding out what they're after."
"Finding out where they are."
"And — their operative is a Fourth Sequence Aberrant. Can you two find any outside help? The kind that can actually go toe-to-toe with that?"
"Someone who can actually win?"
Because of the great battle seventeen years ago, Fourth Sequence and above Espers within the Tokyo metropolitan area were now vanishingly rare.
"If I'm not mistaken, your joint coming-of-age ceremony is five days from now."
"Where's Soga Retsu?"
"If he were here, he'd kick a measly Fourth Sequence around like a football."
Su Yuzu's expression abruptly darkened.
And Soga Yura... shook her head quietly. "Father..."
"Has not yet returned from the Abyss Battlefield."
The Abyss Battlefield — a place that could only be reached by crossing through the Abyss itself. Legend had it that it was the home base of the Catastrophe Beasts.
"What is that man even doing!?" Yamabuki Nanako yanked at her own hair. "Just how many years has he been stuck on the Abyss Battlefield now."
"Are you two even sure he's still alive?"
"Yes," Soga Yura replied softly, with a small nod.
"What about the president of Imperial Capital University, then?"
"What about Sakura Renxin? What about Tennoji Jurei?" Yamabuki Nanako looked between Soga Yura and Saionji Sagara.
"Don't tell me that when it actually counts, not a single one of these people is going to be any use. Because then you've got absolutely nothing to throw at a Fourth Sequence Aberrant."
"I —" Unohana Chiyo, who had been silent until now, started to speak.
"If you don't want to die young, go be your PE teacher in peace," Yamabuki Nanako said, sorely tempted to plant her foot straight into the woman's knee.
"There's no need to worry so much," Soga Yura said, head lowered, her gaze falling to the hem of Yuzu's skirt beside her — and something in her eyes hardened into quiet resolve.
"It's only a Fourth Sequence..."
"It's nowhere near that troublesome."
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