A girl brandished the bloodsaw in her hand as if tireless.
Before Kujou Katora, the corrupted 'Walking Husks' of the Eye of Insight cult were nothing more than deadwood.
That's right—
Walking Husks.
Completely different from fallen Aberrants.
These were the products of Eye of Insight cultists who, in their pursuit of aberration, had failed. The Investigation Bureau referred to them with disgust as 'Walking Husks'.
They were merely walking corpses.
Their lives had long since withered away.
There was no value in even trying to save them.
The strongest of these Walking Husks barely fell into the First Sequence category, and even then, they were beasts with no skill... no abilities... possessing only the strength and agility of the First Sequence.
Perhaps an ordinary Second Sequence Esper would have struggled against a siege from this swarm of Walking Husks.
But, the one brandishing a bloodsaw underground at this very moment... was the Third Sequence Esper and 'The Empire's Hound,' Kujou Katora.
Moreover, she was a Blood Manipulation Esper who, with the help of her Hound of Blood, feared sieges the least.
Only... her scarlet eyes scanned the vast space within the sewer.
A flicker of unease rose in Kujou Katora's heart.
Up until now,
she hadn't encountered a single sane member of the Eye of Insight cult.
Other than the eye-shaped totems that glowed with a faint black-purple light in the darkness, Kujou Katora couldn't even find any other trace of the Eye of Insight cult.
"Did I come to the wrong place?"
Such a doubt suddenly surfaced in her mind.
Thump, thump—
Her heart was accelerating. Unease.
As a Blood Manipulation Esper, Kujou Katora could perceive the sound of a heartbeat more easily than any other Esper.
She swung her bloodsaw, slicing apart a Walking Husk that pounced at her.
The Hound of Blood extended its vicious claws and fangs from the shadows, madly tearing at the grievously wounded Walking Husk on the ground.
She gently raised her left hand.
Touching her heart.
Beneath the soft fabric... the hard paper ticket was actually a bit uncomfortable, pressing against the girl's softest spot.
But... it was precisely that discomfort that constantly reminded Kujou Katora.
The gift Miss Yuzu had given her was right there.
After she dealt with the Walking Husks and the Eye of Insight cult in this underground drainage system, she would go see a movie with Miss Yuzu.
The young female superintendent following closely behind Kujou Katora watched her superior's figure with a hint of astonishment in her eyes.
Although Kujou Katora's current posture as she swung the bloodsaw could already be described as frenzied,
but... to be honest,
Hayabusa had never seen her superior so 'restrained'.
If this were the past, her superior would have likely charged into the deepest part of the Walking Husks' lair with her bloodsaw long ago.
Was it... Miss Yuzu?
Did Miss Yuzu change her superior?
It didn't seem like a bad thing.
She sawed the last attacking Walking Husk in half.
All that remained in the vast sewer space was the sound of the girl's increasingly excited breathing, the crunching and chewing of the Hound of Blood tearing at the Husks, and the humming buzz of the bloodsaw.
Kujou Katora stopped all movement.
Holding her breath, the bloodsaw slowly stopped spinning.
She raised a hand, and the ferocious beast that had been noisily tearing at the Husk also ceased its chewing, bolting into the deepest part of the darkness.
"Yuzu definitely wouldn't like it here."
"She doesn't like the dark."
With her left hand pressed to her heart, this thought subconsciously formed in Kujou Katora's mind.
It was strange... in such a dangerous place, the first thing she thought of was that gentle, mischievous girl who had caught her fingertips.
She carefully tucked that strange thought away in the bottom of her heart, just like how she had tucked away the movie ticket.
Kujou Katora listened to the faint sound of wind in the air.
Now she could finally hear it clearly... that wasn't the sound of wind from the underground drainage system at all.
It was breathing—
The breathing of a massive... terrifying... monster.
The Hound of Blood that had just bolted into the deepest darkness finally brought Kujou Katora a view of what lay there.
In the deepest part of the underground drainage system, Aberrant Crystals glowing with a black-purple light were everywhere.
Beautiful crystal clusters shimmered in the dim light, emitting a dangerous yet alluring black-purple glow.
And in the center of those crystal clusters... a man entwined in tentacles was sleeping peacefully.
Embedded in his chest, arms, and back were black gears and more of the same black-purple crystal clusters.
Kujou Katora suddenly understood what was going on with that swarm of Walking Husks.
They had actually succeeded.
It was common knowledge... in this eroge-like world, only young women could fall and become Aberrants.
Most others, after being contaminated by the aura of Catastrophe, could only mutate into existences similar to Walking Husks.
But... Kujou Katora looked at the tentacled monster in the crystal cluster.
The Eye of Insight... they had actually done it.
Its life form was completely different from that of an Aberrant.
This thing... was an existence somewhere between a Walking Husk and a Catastrophe Beast.
It was even stronger than she was.
Those Walking Husks weren't failures of aberration at all, but rather... corpses whose life force had been drained by that tentacled monster.
"Ahhh..." the girl panted excitedly.
Her legs were trembling with excitement, her knees nearly knocking together.
That feeling of excitement... was second only to the strange sensation that bloomed in her heart when she knelt in humiliation before Miss Yuzu. And... to the slaps that bitch Lady Fate gave her every time she saw Miss Yuzu.
She was completely fired up.
"Blood Veil!!!"
Her blood surged as she revved the bloodsaw.
Kujou Katora unleashed her frenzied aura without restraint.
As if sensing the girl's provocation, a pair of dark gold, vertical pupils slowly opened in the darkness.
-
-
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The night wind blew.
The dark, heavy sky looked as if it was about to collapse. Dark clouds gathered and rolled, obscuring the moonlight and cloaking the earth in shadow.
A fine drizzle fell from the sky, drawing long, thin white lines in the girl's vision before splashing with a shattered sound on the sea's surface.
In the pitch-black night, a frail-looking girl stood atop an office building near the harbor.
She held no umbrella.
But the moment the falling raindrops were about to touch the girl's hair, they seemed to hit some invisible barrier and shatter, splashing away as water droplets.
In the continuous rain, combat operatives from the Investigation Bureau's Fourth Action Division moved in silence.
They cordoned off the scene and dispersed all uninvolved personnel.
This was to prevent the potential upcoming battle from being witnessed by ordinary citizens, or from them getting caught in the crossfire.
Having dealt with the Eye of Insight cult many times before, they knew they were a group of lunatics.
Utter lunatics.
This was different from facing a First Sequence Aberrant like Mihou Sakai.
When dealing with these madmen, not an ounce of humanitarianism was necessary.
Yet... as if by some strange, unspoken agreement,
the combat personnel of the Fourth Action Division all tacitly ignored the office building where the girl stood.
The girl standing on the rooftop quietly watched it all.
Her crimson eyes lifted, gazing out toward the harbor's deep and dark sea surface.
A thick white fog was roiling over the water.
Perhaps it was an illusion, but the white fog, thick with the aura of Catastrophe, seemed to churn as if it were alive.
As if a hazy octopus hidden within the mist were slowly extending its tentacles toward the land.
She stared at the harbor's deep, dark, and massive drainage outlet.
Her gaze was like a torch.
It seemed she could see everything happening inside the sewer space.
"Mindless brute..."
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