[Forced Corruption and Depravity?]
Su Yuzu studied Lian's character attribute panel.
She knew perfectly well that, given Kujou Iruka's pride and temperament back then, the most that had probably happened was this: after capturing Lian, Kujou Iruka had pinned her down and poured an excessive amount of Catastrophe power into her.
Forcibly converting Lian into an Aberrant.
And yet, reading the description on that attribute panel, Su Yuzu caught the unmistakable scent of a juicy CG.
"There ought to be a doujin for this."
I want to see the big sister get all snuggly.
I want to watch the big sister bully a cute, silent-type girl.
Of course—
Su Yuzu was only joking.
After all… instead of watching Kujou Iruka bully a cute, silent-type girl, why wouldn't Su Yuzu just do it herself?
What Su Yuzu actually cared about more… was Lian's past as an "Anti-Aberrant Weapon" raised by The Empire.
[Godslayer].
[Fate Stripping].
No matter how you looked at them, those were not ordinary attributes.
Lian's appearance had to have been a killing move.
And quite possibly a killing move meant for a "Throne."
The Empire had once believed that deploying Lian would be enough to sweep Kujou Iruka away. What it never anticipated was that the "Anti-Aberrant Weapon" it had painstakingly raised would end up as somebody else's hot weapon instead… oh~
And now it was her own hot weapon.
Honestly, it was almost comical.
As for why Lian never showed up in the game's "Kujou Iruka Interception Battle"—
Su Yuzu looked over Lian's history.
Maybe Lian had remembered her mission as an "Anti-Aberrant Weapon" and put a blade into Kujou Iruka at the critical moment.
Which would explain why, at the start of the "Kujou Iruka Interception Battle," Kujou Iruka only displayed Sixth Sequence strength.
It was only after all three uses of "Garan" were spent and she entered her burst state that she climbed back to the Seventh Sequence.
Before the battle even began—
she had already been righteously stabbed in the back.
Or perhaps… Kujou Iruka simply knew.
No matter how hard the Tokyo metropolitan area forces pushed their own burst state — wielding Kujou Katora, wielding the past she had buried, wielding the "damaged music box" her adjutant had left behind, whittling down her combat strength through her emotions—
binding her hand and foot—
there was never the slightest chance of truly making her stay.
Kujou Iruka wanted to keep Lian hidden, saving her to meet a far greater calamity.
Still… the thought was only a thought.
What could a greater calamity possibly be?
Was there anything in this world that was a greater calamity than Kujou Iruka herself?
She was the Seventh Sequence, the "Seat of Garan."
For more than twenty years she had prowled the edges of the city, the Empress of the Abyss no one dared lay a hand on.
Was it the Ninth Throne, the one the prophecy said would be liberated?
"Eternal Night approaches."
"From this moment the sun shall never rise again, there shall be no more dawn, and the world shall meet its end."
By rights, Kujou Iruka should have been delighted to watch the ants beneath her notice be wiped out.
Su Yuzu didn't dwell on it any further.
She simply buried the whole tangle of thoughts away… and turned instead to the fact that Lian shared the exact same name as Ms. Unohana's cat.
Twenty years ago—
she might well have been Ms. Unohana Chiyo's comrade-in-arms.
A Death Squad soldier.
An Anti-Aberrant Weapon.
It made perfect sense that the two of them had been close.
Seen from that angle… Ms. Unohana Chiyo's strange attitude toward that elderly calico made sense.
So did the sight of her sitting out in the courtyard now and then in a revealing, tantalizing nightgown, watching the stars and the moon with that cat, wrapped in such lonely, desolate quiet.
In that war twenty years ago to intercept Kujou Iruka—
Ms. Unohana had been wounded to the brink of death.
And when she woke… she discovered that her most important companion had vanished from the battlefield.
She searched every inch of that battlefield.
Day after day. Year after year.
In the end, all she found among the ruins, among the broken bricks and shattered tiles, was a shivering little calico kitten that had no business being there at all.
And so—
Ms. Unohana finally gave up the search.
She named the kitten Lian, in memory of the comrade she had lost.
That's right—
Su Yuzu had guessed long ago that the battlefield where Ms. Unohana Chiyo once fought was the battlefield against Kujou Iruka.
After all, back when Director Saionji Sagara and Yamabuki Nanako had wanted to test her Rule power, the Catastrophe Crystal they brought out was a single long, pitch-black feather.
The look on Teacher Chiyo's face as she gazed at that feather had been complicated and heavy.
It was only that Unohana Chiyo hid her feelings very well.
Now that Su Yuzu set them side by side, she could tell almost instantly: that feather and Kujou Iruka's feathers were virtually identical.
And putting that together… with what Director Saionji had said.
It was that feather that had shattered Ms. Unohana Chiyo's future.
Then Su Yuzu thought back to her stay at Ms. Unohana's house — the days of temporarily "living together," of clinging to her every single night to sleep with her in the "physical" sense — and the tiny details she had noticed.
Ms. Unohana Chiyo had once been Death Squad, and yet her hands were pale and soft, as though they had never once gripped a blade.
And there were those cherry-red eyes of hers, faintly mismatched in shade because they had been repaired and restored.
More and more small fragments fitted themselves together in front of Su Yuzu like the pieces of a puzzle.
Oh, right—
There was also what Honored Aunt Sakura had said when she made the long, arduous journey out of bed and rushed to the bay to save Senior Tsukiyomi Fuya: she had once seen a wound much like the one the "Seat of Evil's" power had punched through Senior Tsukiyomi Fuya's shoulder.
The person who took that wound had to wreck nearly half her body just to cling to life.
The price was that her power regressed, and it might never recover for the rest of her life.
But—
for that person… perhaps it even counted as a blessing.
What kind of person loses their power and calls it a blessing?
What surfaced in Su Yuzu's thoughts was Ms. Unohana Chiyo's smile — the gentle smile of a beautiful woman.
"Death Squad."
For a Death Squad soldier, losing the strength to fight.
Being cast aside by The Empire.
Having no choice but to return to the city and settle into a quiet retirement — perhaps that really could count as a blessing.
Su Yuzu stroked Lian's head, exactly the way she used to stroke that calico bobtail's head back at Ms. Unohana Chiyo's house.
Lian caught Su Yuzu's hand and set it back down.
For some reason… compared with all the sliding and tapping Su Yuzu had done earlier, touching the places on a girl that were most definitely off-limits—
Lian hated being petted on the head far more.
Su Yuzu looked at the girl in front of her, who seemed no older than seventeen or eighteen — perhaps even younger and softer than that — and suddenly smiled.
Once, she had been Ms. Unohana's partner.
Now she was this adorable little silent-type girl.
While Ms. Unohana Chiyo, carved and polished by the years, had long since become a mature, ravishing, utterly alluring woman.
When Lian stood beside Ms. Unohana once more—
the picture would probably be very interesting~
And if, at that exact moment, she slipped a "Combat Records" into both Lian and Ms. Unohana Chiyo at once.
Watching the silent-type girl squirm and endure, toes pressed together, forced to pretend nothing at all was happening in front of her old comrade.
Watching Ms. Unohana Chiyo swallow that "Combat Records" like a veteran, fully aware of her former partner's predicament, and do nothing but shoot Su Yuzu a glare that was half coquettish, half scolding.
That would be… absolutely fantastic.
Su Yuzu braced a hand on Lian's shoulder and tried to stand.
But… she had clearly overestimated her condition.
The floor was slick. Her legs were jelly.
Before she could get upright, Su Yuzu toppled straight into the silent girl.
Dark golden vertical pupils went wide, watching all that girlish loveliness come rushing at her face.
Today really was a day full of lovely things.
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