The little rabbit kept marveling to herself—Senpai and Senior Sakura had really had such fun together earlier—
and amid musings of that sort.
The girls returned to the lounge.
There was one small episode along the way: the girls' luggage, including Teacher Unohana Chiyo's, was all inside Su Yuzu's Material Inventory.
Su Yuzu had to hand it over to them piece by piece.
Fortunately—
Soga Yura's stamina was truly abysmal.
And whether or not it was Su Yuzu's imagination, she felt that after reaching the Fourth Sequence, Soga Yura's stamina had somehow gotten even worse.
Or rather... her senses had grown too keen.
There was plenty of time.
Senior Tsukiyomi Fuya had long since brewed the black tea and was waiting for the girls in the lounge.
It was much as they had guessed.
Not long after the mermaids began hunting the fishing boats, the research vessel moored at the temporary dock also came under attack from the mermaids.
But this wasn't because the research vessel had encroached on the mermaids' territory.
It was because... the researcher who had first observed a mermaid's form, and who had met a mermaid's eyes through the lens, had a brand planted in his mental domain by the mermaid.
That mermaid's beautiful flick of the tail wasn't meant to hunt Su Yuzu and the others.
It was because she had caught the scent of her prey's coordinates.
She had sensed the lustful aura of a human left charmed.
Though the King had bound them, keeping them from freely hunting and killing the fishermen who went out to sea,
she had also written a special exception into that binding.
That is: once someone gazed upon them, trying to spy on the situation beneath the water, they were free to attack.
The brand the mermaid had left within that researcher's mental domain was extremely peculiar.
Even the ship's medical equipment had no way to erase it.
Fortunately... for this mission they had brought the girls along.
As an absolute anomaly among mental-type Espers, Soga Yura slipped with ease into the researcher's mental domain.
And smoothly erased that mermaid's charm brand.
If it hadn't been erased, not only would the mermaids have kept sensing their location—the researcher himself would have instinctively yearned for the sea, yearned for the water.
In the end, amid that unrelenting temptation, he would have thrown himself into the sea and become a midnight snack for the mermaids.
So then—
Next came the crux of the Event.
All the extraneous personnel were made to leave the lounge; even Akiyama Yo and the little rabbit tactfully withdrew.
Only Tsukiyomi Fuya, Unohana Chiyo, Sakura Mai, Su Yuzu, and Soga Yura remained inside.
Tsukiyomi Fuya stretched lazily, the woman's figure graceful and slender.
The girls before her had all just come back from bathing, their hair damp and fragrant, wrapped in a gorgeous floral scent.
The scene in the room looked less like some important meeting and more like the afternoon tea of noble young ladies catching their breath after a wicked little game.
"Yuzu said earlier... that the Catastrophe Domain which broke open little Yura's domain..."
"came from the 'Seat of Evil'?"
Tsukiyomi Fuya was silent for a moment, then looked gravely at Su Yuzu.
This was no laughing matter.
The "Seat of Evil" was one of the strongest beings in human history.
In fact... you could drop the "one of."
She had been a Seventh Sequence Esper of the thousand-year battlefield.
Legend has it that, on the verge of falling into the Edge of Aberration, she chose to embrace her lover... to walk into the sea together, and chose death.
If the "Seat of Evil" had not died—
and had instead fallen to become an Aberrant.
Then she would be the strongest Aberrant in history—more terrifying and more dangerous even than Kujou Iruka.
Infinitely close to the Eighth Sequence, that strongest being who had never appeared, who existed only in legend.
People all say she knew... that once she fell into the Edge of Aberration, perhaps no one would ever be able to stop her again.
The world itself might be destroyed because of her.
So she could only choose death.
The "Seat of Evil" was the most dangerous mechanism in the world at that time.
The only key capable of restraining this mechanism was her lover, the Godmother of the Holy Royal Court—
Kirishika.
The rule-type ability user of that era.
A rule-type ability user with the power to erase every anomaly.
But rumor had it that Kirishika herself possessed no power at all; her constitution was even frailer than an ordinary person's.
So... if Kirishika wanted to stop the "Seat of Evil,"
she could only do so before the "Seat of Evil" fell.
Listening to Tsukiyomi Fuya's account, Su Yuzu suddenly thought of the movie she had watched with Kujou Katora.
The film's finale was exactly this—the "Seat of Evil" about to plunge into the Edge of Aberration.
By then, Kirishika no longer had the time to erase the anomaly from her lover's body.
What's more... once erased, it would mean her lover would lose all her power.
In such a perilous situation, losing power was all but equivalent to death.
And a pointless death at that.
In the end... after cutting down every invading enemy.
The sobbing girl stripped off her wedding gown and, bare-skinned, slipped into the armor of the "Seat of Evil," holding that frail body tight against her.
The heavy armor carried them both, buried together into the pitch-black, endless ocean.
It was a wedding, and it was an ending.
"Yes—"
Su Yuzu recalled the next expansion pack, [Sunken Throne].
A lonely figure wandering within the steel Throne on the seabed lifted its head... cold Dark golden vertical pupils gazing upward.
Then she thought of the girl who, ten years ago, had helped her Sister bring her back from the Edge of Aberration—
Kirishika...
Su Yuzu didn't think this was any coincidence.
The power to draw her back from the Edge of Aberration—across the whole history of this world, it seemed only that near-legendary Kirishika could have managed it.
"It's not just that the 'Seat of Evil' may not have died."
"In fact..."
"Even Kirishika may not have died," Su Yuzu's expression was just as grave. "Or rather... may not have faded away."
"Yuzu!!!" Soga Yura tensed on reflex.
For Soga Yura, the name "Kirishika" was a taboo word that truly should never be spoken.
It should have been a secret belonging only to her and Yuzu.
"Relax..." Su Yuzu tightened her grip on Soga Yura's hand, signaling her not to be so on edge.
Some things... really didn't need to be hidden so carefully.
She trusted Teacher Unohana Chiyo, trusted Sister Mai, trusted... Senior Tsukiyomi Fuya.
"I once received help from 'Kirishika.'"
"Right here in this bay."
"But I can't be sure... whether the Kirishika of that time was human, or had already become some other kind of form."
"The truth is, my Sister and I came back here this time with exactly that purpose... We wanted to see Kirishika again, wanted to... ask about some things that happened in the past."
"There's just one thing I think I can be fairly certain of..."
"She—"
"Or perhaps they—"
"have returned."
—
The white tide drew back in layer upon layer.
The girl sat on the black reef, dipping only her calves into the seawater, kicking at it without a care.
She sat on the reef gazing out at the sea, her long black hair lifted by the sea breeze, her form looking pure and beautiful.
And in the bottom of the boundless, deepest abyss.
The black steel crown was crumbling apart.
Among the steel... a faint sound arose; beneath the deepest abyss that had lain still for far, far too long, a heavy clang of metal suddenly rang out once more.
Just as the girl had said—
"She—"
"They—"
"have returned."
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