A brass emblem shaped like a pair of overlapping wings.
Faint scuff marks were still just visible along its edges.
[Third Sequence Promotion Emblem].
Su Yuzu wanted to throw her arms around Kujou Katora and kiss her right then and there.
The Fate Trifler's reward, obtained just like that, with almost no effort at all.
Nice work, my little tigger.
Su Yuzu read through the description of the [Third Sequence Promotion Emblem] in her asset panel.
[Third Sequence Promotion Emblem: A material for promotion to the Third Sequence. A promotion performed using this emblem can never fail.]
In the game it had been nothing more than a common consumable.
Something you could farm off the weekly dungeons without breaking a sweat.
In reality, though, it had become a rarity — a thing that only came within reach now that Su Yuzu herself was jammed at the Third Sequence.
In truth, she didn't need the [Third Sequence Promotion Emblem] to break through. She could have managed that easily enough on her own.
She had, after all, stockpiled more than forty "Advanced Combat Records."
Once she set foot in the Third Sequence, she could tear straight up to Level.31, maybe Level.32, and leave Sakura Mai behind.
As more and more "Combat Record Production Princesses" fell into Su Yuzu's hands, the girls' rate of promotion kept pace with their climbing levels rather than lagging behind — even the little rabbit, whom Su Yuzu had forcibly Fed "Advanced Combat Records," had been sitting in the Second Sequence for ages now.
A whole flock ascending together like that. The sheer picture of it was horrifying.
And the price? Nothing but one trifling Blessing a day.
But… Su Yuzu herself was still stuck outside the gate of the Third Sequence.
She had waited for this promotion emblem far, far too long.
Mihou Sakai and Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi, both returned from the Edge of Aberration, needed this emblem to break the shackles holding them.
To come back to the normal world.
Su Yuzu had once made Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi a promise.
That Lady Fate would surely take pity on her.
And Su Yuzu… was that "Lady Fate."
Lady Fate's pity was, in the end, nothing other than Su Yuzu's own.
Su Yuzu would get that "Promotion Emblem" for Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi.
[Ding—]
The familiar voice of the mechanical woman sounded at Su Yuzu's ear once more.
[Part.1 - Hand of the Fate Trifler.]
[You have successfully learned the Fate Trifler's true name. Don't let your guard down — the game between you and the Fate Trifler has only just begun.]
[The Fate Trifler has already launched her first wave of attacks.]
[Neutralize it.]
[Only then will you be qualified to stand against her.]
[Mission Objective: Neutralize the Fate Trifler's first wave of attacks.]
[Mission Reward: Ten-Pull Search Voucher.]
[…]
Su Yuzu's fingers closed tight around the promotion emblem, the edges of those overlapping wings pressing into her palm until it ached.
The girl's silence led Kujou Katora to assume she was straining to recall exactly who Tsukimisato Somehana was.
She took the tablet from Miss Hayabusa's hands.
Kujou Katora had prepared a file on Tsukimisato Somehana well in advance.
"I wonder whether Miss Yuzu still has any memory of 'Tsukimisato.'" Kujou Katora unlocked the tablet and opened the file she'd readied.
A photograph of a woman in a Japanese-style yukata filled Su Yuzu's vision.
She looked like a thoroughly dashing sort of woman.
A yukata isn't a garment that shows off a figure, and yet hers refused to stay hidden: the loose front of the robe was stretched taut and full, and one glance was enough to plant a subtle urge in Su Yuzu to bury her face against that chest.
Beyond that magnificent bosom, her complexion was a healthy wheat-gold — a shade rarely seen among the girls around Su Yuzu.
Her gray-blue eyes seemed capable of speech, smiling out past the edge of the screen. Those gray-blue eyes… they made Su Yuzu think of a leopard, or some other big cat, brimming with a charm that bordered on feral.
"Tsukimisato Somehana is the owner of 'Tsukimisato.'"
"She was also, once, the chief administrator of the 'Epiphany Manufacture' K-60 Laboratory, the K-142 Laboratory, and…" Kujou Katora's brows drew together, and her voice faltered for a beat. "…and the K-423 Laboratory."
Su Yuzu understood why she had paused.
She remembered that K-423 Laboratory.
The one on the shore of Lake Kasumigaura — the lab that had once cooperated with the "Eye of Insight," and that the "Eye of Insight" had then offered up as a sacrifice.
It was also… the lab that had produced Zero.
The lab where Raven — Asaba Maki — had once served.
Su Yuzu and Kujou Katora had gone to explore it. Miss Hayabusa had come within inches of dying there, and the trip had triggered the side quest "The Girl Whose Song Was Broken."
And it was there that Su Yuzu had met Leviathan.
And… awakened.
Su Yuzu studied the woman on the screen, the corners of those lips seemingly lifted in a smile.
If anyone claimed this woman had nothing to do with Zero's "birth," nothing to do with Leviathan's appearance, Su Yuzu would never believe a word of it.
And most crucial of all… last time—
At "Tsukimisato," Zero had been snatched away by Aberrants.
Su Yuzu had fought her decisive battle against Dai Ling there.
And… it was there that the little cat had been forcibly awakened into a Pseudo Throne.
If all of that had nothing to do with this woman, Su Yuzu wasn't buying it for a second.
"Fate Trifler."
A fitting title after all.
If the followers of the "Eye of Insight" were those who had seen through Fate—
then this woman… behind every one of the Events Su Yuzu had lived through, her shadow seemed to be there, along with the hand that plucked the threads of Fate.
Tsukimisato Somehana was the one who had borrowed the power of the "Eye of Insight" and used it to usurp Fate itself.
And perhaps—
More than that.
Su Yuzu committed to memory the labs Tsukimisato Somehana had worked in, deciding to ask Soga Yura about them once she got back, to see whether any of the names rang a bell.
Whether their shadow lay behind the Aberrant attack event of more than a decade ago.
"She's the one who put the Director of the Investigation Bureau up to filing charges against Miss Yuzu." Kujou Katora showed Su Yuzu the pitifully thin file they had on Tsukimisato Somehana.
"Word is…"
"she still holds a crucial piece of evidence to use against Miss Yuzu."
Su Yuzu swiped through the screen, working to memorize everything they had on Tsukimisato Somehana.
"Miss Yuzu can keep the tablet. We've backed the files up anyway, and the unlock code is Miss Yuzu's birthday."
"Lady Kujou!!!" Miss Hayabusa nearly shot out of her seat.
That piece of office equipment had been bought with her wages!!!
Except… one sidelong glance from Kujou Katora and Miss Hayabusa wilted where she sat.
She looked at the puzzled gaze Su Yuzu had turned on her, then at the distinctly threatening one from her direct superior.
Miss Hayabusa surrendered on every front.
All she could do was gaze at Su Yuzu and whimper, "It's… it's nothing…"
"It's just that these crepes are too good."
Her wages… converted into dessert, just like that.
"Ughhh…" Miss Hayabusa tore a savage bite out of her crepe and shouted in a voice on the edge of tears, "They're SO GOOD!!!"
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