His throat felt as though it were being strangled by a pair of invisible hands.
The researcher in charge of the armored survey probe stared at the screen.
Those horrifying, inhuman Dark golden vertical pupils seemed to be gazing at him through the lens, and in his ears rose a bewitching song, making him unable to help himself, wanting—wanting to slowly step forward.
And then—
Smack!!
A crisp sound.
Another researcher on the survey ship slapped him across the face. "Snap out of it!!!"
Only then did he realize what had just happened.
Since ancient times there had been legends that alluring mermaids dwelt within the sea mist.
They were beautiful fish-tailed sea maidens, their upper halves plump, round, and fair-skinned, while their lower halves were savage fish tails.
In the fog they would lean against the reefs, exposing their upper bodies, luring sailors with their bewitching, seductive songs. When a vessel struck the reefs and shattered to pieces, the feast of these mermaids would begin.
They could gorge themselves to their hearts' content.
In an instant he seemed to understand so many things.
No wonder the academy had insisted on choosing its combat members from among mental-type Espers, or from students like Miss Sakura who possessed a certain resistance to mental-type attacks.
Because the academy had long anticipated it—mental attacks in the sea were numerous, and even more dangerous.
He put on the precious mental-attack-resistant headphones and watched as that mythical creature on the screen pulled away from the armored survey probe's lens. It revealed its gorgeous, enchanting figure completely before the camera.
A mermaid in the form of a "Beast" naturally could not be like the ones in children's storybooks, covering themselves with starfish or seashells.
Most of them left their bodies bared.
What's more... a piece of trivia—a starfish's mouth is located directly beneath its central disc, that is, at the point where all of the starfish's ambulacral grooves converge.
It was just that—
In his heart there still lingered an ominous premonition.
"Zzzt, zzzt, zzzt—" On the fishing boat, the researcher's voice came through the comm device beside Akiyama Yo. "We've discovered a 'Beast' in the sea!!!"
The girls gathered around Akiyama Yo, watching the mottled image displayed on that advanced screen.
The Catastrophe aura would cause massive interference to all forms of technological equipment.
To capture footage, one typically needed armored cables connecting the devices to relay the communication signals.
But even so, the image remained so mottled that it looked like a backward relic from the last century.
That was why, when "Wind · Fire · Mountain · Zero" once broadcast footage through Feng Ke's eyes and memories, so many people had cried out in disbelief, some even thinking it was special effects and a script.
After all, that had been a fully unfolded Catastrophe Domain.
In the footage, the mermaid's figure was enchanting and seductive as she closely trailed the school of fish drawn in by the fishing boat's pillar of light. The researcher reminded the girls, "When you look at that mermaid, please be sure to pay attention."
"Even from mere image data alone, she seems to possess the ability to charm those who watch her."
"I think I already understand why those fishing boats went out to fish at night without incident, yet when the Investigation Bureau's survey ships went out to sea, they ran into trouble..."
Su Yuzu looked at the mermaid's graceful figure, and she thought she understood too.
The fishermen were only fishing.
Their overly dull senses left them unable to detect the danger in the sea. Even if a mermaid lay crouched beside their boat, as long as they didn't provoke the mermaid, as long as they didn't gaze at the mermaid, they would not be bewitched by her.
The Investigation Bureau's people were entirely different.
They, just like this group of theirs, would attempt to survey exactly what was happening beneath the surface of the sea, and exactly what lay there.
The moment they gazed upon the mermaid's figure, the hunt had already begun.
Faintly... a rather unpleasant premonition unexpectedly rose in Su Yuzu's heart as well.
"Have the probe stop advancing."
"Magnify the view." Tsukiyomi Fuya calmly directed the survey ship.
The fishing boat continued forward, cleaving through the waves.
The bright pillar of light swept across the sea's surface, splitting the seawater and the black night apart with a single stroke.
Su Yuzu stood quietly beside the railing, gazing out beneath the seawater. She could vaguely sense that the mermaid, that "Beast"... was right there.
And what's more—
There were many more.
"Sister?" Su Yuzu turned her head to look at Soga Yura, who not long ago had still been sulking.
Soga Yura's bright crimson eyes seemed to glow in the night, shimmering with radiance.
Expressionless, the girl faced the sea breeze, gazing without blinking into the distance, toward where the sea met the sky beneath the night.
Su Yuzu could feel Soga Yura's mental domain slowly, silently unfolding.
Since those "Beasts" possessed the ability to bewitch others, it meant that they were also like Nightmare-type Aberrants—"Beasts" that possessed a certain degree of mental-type ability.
To rashly sweep over them with mental abilities might only provoke them into going berserk, launching an almost frenzied assault.
Although senior Tsukiyomi Fuya was aboard to hold the fort.
But... since this operation was training arranged by the academy for the girls, then naturally it would be better not to let Tsukiyomi Fuya make a move.
Su Yuzu and Soga Yura were trying, as much as possible, to resolve all of this themselves.
And... that was on the premise of not using the power of Yuzu's "Throne."
But fortunately—
Soga Yura's ability—or rather, Soga Yura's own strength and precise control ability—stood above all mental-type abilities, and she herself was already a supremely powerful Esper who had reached the Fourth Sequence.
The soundless, traceless mental ripples infiltrated the seawater, and then... Soga Yura's expression suddenly turned very ugly.
"So many..."
At the same moment Soga Yura revealed her grim expression, within the half-enclosed cockpit, the screen beside Akiyama Yo gradually displayed more of the picture.
A swirling school of fish, and... surrounding that school, one after another after another, gracefully undulating mermaids.
Their forms were full yet slender, and upon their jagged fish tails glimmered a savage faint light, like blades.
Almost exactly identical to that one mermaid Su Yuzu had seen in her memory.
The girls aboard the boat suddenly all lowered their voices in spite of themselves.
They were hunting in a pack.
The good news was... that group of mermaids was currently only hunting the school of fish.
The bad news was... this encirclement happened to also enclose them.
Soga Yura's mental power swept across the sea. "Seventeen of them..."
Her voice was clearly somewhat heavy. "Twelve Third Sequence 'Beasts'..."
"Four Second Sequence infants."
"And one leader-class that has nearly reached the Fourth Sequence."
Soga Yura pondered the odds of wiping out these mermaids relying on just herself and Yuzu.
What, you say Sakura Mai?
That girl had been bullied by Yuzu until she couldn't even stand steady—what combat power did she have left?
Soga Yura, who understood Yuzu's wickedness through and through... had actually, long ago, seen through some of the essential truths.
How could her own Yuzu possibly be a girl content to submit beneath another?
Perhaps in the beginning it had been Sakura Mai taking the initiative, but afterward... who ended up pinning whom was anyone's guess.
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