[Dominator's Aegis (50%)].
Whether it was the format, which mirrored the favorability reward from Kujou Katora, [Blood Manipulation (5%)], or... the name 'Dominator' itself.
It all seemed to be a silent declaration.
This was the favorability promotion reward from Soga Yura.
This was... Soga Yura's aegis for her.
But—
That person...
Staggering to her feet, she rose from the bath, not even bothering to wipe the water droplets from her skin.
Su Yuzu grabbed a bath towel and threw it over her shoulders, clutching her forehead in pain.
In her memory... when was the last time that person had held her hand?
When she was six?
Or seven?
A piercing pain shot through her head.
This part of her memory was a complete blank.
Her childhood.
There were many blank fragments in Su Yuzu's memory.
But... it was completely different from normal [Mind Control].
With normal [Mind Control], unless stimulated by an object or another person, it was impossible to actively recall anything.
Nor would one feel a piercing headache when trying to remember.
There would only be a sense of bewilderment.
A faint voice in one's heart would tell them, suggest to them... the 'answer' to the question.
The answer Soga Yura had provided.
Su Yuzu actually understood.
Her symptoms were more like 'side effects.'
The side effects of a failed [Mind Control].
In her memory, that person always used her ability recklessly, without any regard.
To her.
The value of everyone's existence was merely as a tool in her hands.
The value was determined entirely by how useful the tool was.
Clearly—
Being both useless and immune to [Mind Control].
I must be the most difficult type of tool to use.
It's just... wasn't this aegis her gift to me?
Why did it end up protecting me even from her?
With a bitter smile, Su Yuzu tried to amuse herself.
She reached her hand toward the pink and blue nightlight.
Then, just as her fingertips touched the switch, another thought suddenly occurred to Su Yuzu—
Since when... did I become afraid of the dark?
Before I transmigrated, I clearly remember walking alone on a long mountain road late at night.
But after transmigrating... whenever I'm engulfed in darkness, I always feel as if every hair on my body is standing on end.
Cold sweat seeped from her palms.
Her head buzzed, and she could clearly hear the pounding of her heart in her chest.
It felt as if she were deep inside the belly of a giant monster.
Just like... when using [Combat Records], that gluttonous monster inside her chest that could never be satisfied, leaving only an endless void.
Her fingertips hesitated as they touched the nightlight's switch, and in the end, she didn't press it.
The girl's dormitory plunged into darkness.
Her crimson eyes opened in the dark. Su Yuzu curled up in the corner of the bed, as if on guard against that invisible monster.
But... her right hand was stretched out, reaching into the darkness.
As if she were grasping an unseen hand.
Clutching that invisible hand, Su Yuzu slowly closed her eyes.
"Don't be afraid—" It sounded like her own voice.
"I'm here."
"..."
"Yuzu..."
"Yuzu!!!"
"..."
The girl walking the streets at night suddenly stopped.
She furrowed her brow and tilted her head slightly, as if listening to a distant, sobbing voice.
"Don't be afraid—"
A gentle voice escaped her cold lips, uttered with all her might.
"From now on..."
"I will be here."
She extended her hand, as if she had grasped an invisible one.
"I will... always be..."
-
-
-
Meanwhile—
Long after Su Yuzu and that Third Sequence Esper had entered the dormitory.
The orange-haired girl shakily... managed to push herself up.
Her stomach... was so hungry.
And her thin school uniform offered no protection against the cold wind of an early spring night.
As a common mental-type Esper, this was the first time Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi had ever felt so hungry and cold.
Shivering... the girl didn't go straight back to her dorm.
In her mind, there was something more important.
She wanted to go home—
To go home and ask her father the reason for his furious outburst this morning.
She already knew... Su Yuzu was perhaps not just a simple castaway.
How could a castaway be worthy of having a Third Sequence Esper from the main Soga family sent to protect her?
But... she was still unwilling to accept it.
The sense of grievance inside her was about to overflow.
Even if she had wrongly provoked Su Yuzu... she had followed her instincts and immediately backed down.
She was even... even publicly humiliated, her clothes cut open by Su Yuzu, causing such a huge scene.
She was still commando right now, and yet she hadn't thrown a tantrum or acted like a spoiled young lady.
Why was Father still so angry?
It was as if he didn't have a shred of concern for her.
After bowing and apologizing to Su Yuzu, the grievance in the girl's heart had long since welled up. A layer of mist filled her equally crimson eyes, and her nose stung.
She hailed a taxi.
Shivering... she sat huddled in the back seat.
The girl was throwing a bit of a tantrum.
Like many little girls.
For no reason at all... she was hurting herself by suffering from the cold and hunger, just so that when her father saw her, he would feel a tiny, tiny bit of guilt.
Even if she would have to pay a greater price for it.
Fever, illness.
Things that were incredibly uncomfortable for a mental-type Esper.
But—
As long as she could see her father's tense and anxious expression because she was sick from hunger and cold, she would have already won.
However... sitting in the back of the taxi, watching the scenery flash by outside the window.
Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi suddenly sensed that something was wrong.
Her crimson eyes glowed as she looked at the driver in the car's rearview mirror.
Then, she saw the eye on the man's chest.
A... black and purple eye.
"Who are you?"
"Where are you taking me?" She unleashed her full young lady aura.
"Miss Kiyomi." The driver lifted his head to meet the girl's gaze in the mirror.
"Do you resent Su Yuzu?"
"Do you hate her?"
"Do you want revenge on her?"
"We can grant you power, you know."
"Power that originates from the very beginning of this world, power that can glimpse this world's truth."
"Ha?" Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi sneered, "Who do you think I am?"
"I am a young lady of the Soga family."
`Even if... it's just a branch family,` she added silently in her heart.
"Even if I wanted revenge on Su Yuzu, I wouldn't need help from a bunch of rats like you."
Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi understood.
Help offered by shady characters like this would definitely not be a good thing.
She had no desire to be like a villainess from a novel, used as a pawn by others, only to end up in a miserable state.
At worst, she would just stop provoking Su Yuzu.
By staying far away from those two sisters, she could still live her life as a young lady.
However... the girl's words 'bunch of rats' seemed to strike a nerve with the man. "That's no longer up to you."
He slammed on the accelerator and began to speed up.
The orange taxi raced through the night.
Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi activated her ability.
"It's useless... Miss Kiyomi, we've already prepared..." the man in the hat sneered from the rearview mirror. "What!?"
An invisible mental wave rippled out.
"Remember this—"
"My ability isn't just [Mental Interference]."
"It's... [Wide-Area Mental Interference]."
Although it couldn't compare to that person's Mind Control, but... she looked at the wireless earpiece in the man's ear.
You think some common Technology Division equipment can stop me? Impossible.
He wasn't Su Yuzu.
Even now... Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi didn't understand how Su Yuzu had blocked her Mental Interference.
Screech—
The sound of tires screeching against the road tore through the night.
The orange taxi smashed through the guardrail and, under the man's fanatical... and Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi's terrified gaze, plunged straight into the sea.
"Let the [Eye of Insight]..."
"...drive the wheels of fate!!!"
He spread his arms and shouted.
Black gears... spun within the cramped space of the taxi.
Fear seized the girl's heart.
"I..."
"...don't want to die."
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