A loud shout, edged with what sounded like tears.
The students nearby turned to stare, expressions strange.
But… once they saw that the kouhai/Senpai sitting there was Su Yuzu, understanding settled over them and they turned back around, only sneaking the occasional glance afterward.
Listening to Miss Hayabusa's whimpering, Su Yuzu worked out exactly what had happened.
It was nothing more than the matter of Miss Hayabusa's salary.
If she'd guessed right… the tablet in her hands most likely belonged to Miss Hayabusa.
Miss Hayabusa's pay was high, but what actually reached her hands was always a good deal less.
Kujou Katora was forever docking Miss Hayabusa's wages for one reason or another.
A tablet bought with Miss Hayabusa's own salary, handed straight over to Su Yuzu by Kujou Katora — no wonder it hurt.
Still… it wasn't as if Kujou Katora shortchanged Miss Hayabusa out of spite.
The mountain of Technology Division equipment Miss Hayabusa carried was far more expensive than the black Camilla Composite Silk bodystocking Kujou Katora wore — well beyond anything Miss Hayabusa's ordinary salary could ever cover.
All of it was gear Kujou Katora had bought, decided didn't 'feel right in the hand,' and then shoved onto Miss Hayabusa.
Su Yuzu had no intention of puncturing the delicate unspoken arrangement between Miss Hayabusa and Kujou Katora. She just propped her chin on both hands and watched Miss Hayabusa tear into the crepes in huge, vengeful mouthfuls.
"Is it really that good?"
Miss Hayabusa looked at that 'innocent' little face of hers. She knew perfectly well the girl was probably doing it on purpose, and still all she could do was nod hard. "It's amazing!!!"
"Then…"
"One more order for Sister Hayabusa, please~" Su Yuzu said with a smile, waving down the vendor.
One serving of crepes in exchange for a tablet had just become two servings of crepes in exchange for a tablet.
Not much of a difference, when you got down to it — but all Miss Hayabusa could do was whimper and keep biting down, hard, mouthful after mouthful.
Su Yuzu went back to leafing through the files on Tsukimisato Somehana.
Then… one of the photographs caught her attention.
It was Tsukimisato Somehana, captured from a surveillance camera's angle.
Inside a transparent elevator, the sharp, dashing woman in leather jacket and leather pants had tilted her head up, seemingly looking straight toward the camera.
The footage was crystal clear.
The woman in the frame was almost offensively eye-catching.
The leather jacket clung tight to her upper body, the zipper drawn only halfway, and her magnificent chest could hardly be contained — as though the zip might burst open at any second and let everything spill free.
Su Yuzu studied the woman's gray-blue eyes in the still.
And it all came back to her at once.
She had seen a transparent elevator like that before.
She had seen Tsukimisato Somehana before, too.
At the Tokyo Metropolitan Investigation Bureau's Second Affiliated Hospital.
The place where they held Asaba Maki — the Raven who had returned from the Edge of Aberration, the one Su Yuzu had eaten everything from.
Su Yuzu had gone there once to visit Asaba Maki, and it was during that visit… that she'd run into Tsukimisato Somehana.
A flash of insight went off in Su Yuzu's head.
Was it back then?
Even back then… had Tsukimisato Somehana's scheming hand already been reaching toward her?
In that case… could the evidence Tsukimisato Somehana meant to accuse her with be Asaba Maki herself!?
The more Su Yuzu thought about it, the more possible it seemed.
The more she thought about it, the better every piece fit.
This was nothing at all like Sakai Miho's situation, or Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi's.
Asaba Maki had only ever been a researcher at the Laboratory.
Yes, after falling into the Abyss her strength had climbed to the terrifying Third Sequence — but Asaba Maki's power… had come entirely from those Ravens.
Once Su Yuzu ate every last one of them, Asaba Maki reverted completely into an ordinary human being.
In fact… when the prompt appeared asking whether to Recruit Asaba Maki, Su Yuzu had willfully tapped No.
For all practical purposes, Asaba Maki would remain an ordinary person for the rest of her life.
But—
She still had her memories.
Su Yuzu thought back to the implanted memory module inside Feng Ke.
The principle behind that module was to exploit the peculiar way an Aberrant stored memory, copying — even extracting — images directly out of an Aberrant's brain.
Which was why, even under the interference of an erosion domain, Feng Ke could still 'photograph' remarkably high-definition images.
And… judging by the examination report from Auntie Soga Ishikawa Asumi, even someone who had reverted to an ordinary human still had a certain chance of having images pulled out with a memory module.
It was only out of worry and care for Feng Ke
that Auntie Asumi had banned her from using that ability at all.
But… the "Epiphany Manufacture" was hardly an organization of gentle, pious souls.
Part of the Epiphany Manufacture devoted itself to changing the world through the power of the Technology Division, hoping that with that power more people could break free of the limits of ability, that the world could become a better place, one where no one had to live in fear of Aberrants and Catastrophe Beasts.
Even… that utterly broken, bug-like item, the "Medical Unit," had been developed by their hands alone.
But… the Epiphany Manufacture also housed a crowd who would stop at absolutely nothing for the advancement of the Technology Division.
The Black Gears the "Eye of Insight" used, the ones that reverse-converted an Esper into an Aberrant — those "Aberrant Activation Devices" — were their creation.
If Tsukimisato Somehana belonged to that crowd, or rather—
if she was one of their leading figures.
Then forcibly extracting memories out of Asaba Maki was hardly impossible.
Or… Su Yuzu thought of another possibility, every bit as bad.
Asaba Maki, serving as living witness and physical evidence both, working hand in hand with Tsukimisato Somehana to accuse her.
"I've got it—"
"I've got it!!!" Su Yuzu seized Kujou Katora's hand.
The girl's grip was strong enough that it actually stung a little.
But… how wonderful…
A Master Yuzu this 'rough' was wonderful too.
She even found herself wishing Miss Yuzu… that Master Yuzu would be rougher still.
"Miss Yuzu… what have you got?" Kujou Katora asked, watching her.
"I know what the evidence Tsukimisato Somehana plans to accuse me with might be." Su Yuzu's eyes blazed as she pointed at the photo, the one where Tsukimisato Somehana seemed to be looking up at the camera.
"This photo…"
"In this photo, Tsukimisato Somehana isn't looking up at the camera at all."
"The only reason it looks that way is that the lens of the surveillance camera happened to be very close to whatever she was actually staring at."
"Wh… at…?" Kujou Katora clearly wasn't following.
"The elevator in the photo," Su Yuzu explained, "is in the Tokyo Metropolitan Investigation Bureau's Second Affiliated Hospital."
"The elevators in that hospital are unusual — semi-transparent cylinders."
"Through the glass you can see the bright sunlight outside, and the other elevator descending right alongside it."
Listening to Su Yuzu's explanation, for some reason… Kujou Katora's mind veered off toward certain very shameful, very dangerous… games.
"When Tsukimisato Somehana went to that hospital… I happened to be there as well."
"More than that — I saw her from inside an elevator."
Kujou Katora understood at once what Su Yuzu was getting at.
Su Yuzu tried enlarging the photo. Bigger, bigger, bigger still.
She looked at Tsukimisato Somehana's eyes.
At the slender pair of girl's legs reflected inside them.
"The person she was looking at—"
"was me."
"Me, finished visiting Asaba Maki and about to leave… me."
"Damn her!!!" Kujou Katora slammed a fist down on the table.
"This bastard actually dared to peek up Miss Yuzu's skirt."
"I… I haven't even looked."
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