She stared at Su Yuzu — who had appeared out of nowhere — with a blank, bewildered look.
The Aberrant woman's eyes, disguised as a dark muddy brown, were clouded with that same incomprehension.
How... how could this be?
She hadn't expected it. Hadn't even remotely considered it — that she would encounter Su Yuzu here.
No —
More precisely: that she would encounter Su Yuzu today, before the full moon.
This wasn't supposed to happen... there was no reason for it...
The "Fate" as mapped out by the [Eye of Insight] contained absolutely nothing of this scene.
Just as with those scattered, fragmented images in Su Yuzu's own memory.
Dai Ling — once a senior figure within the [Eye of Insight] sect, who had used an Aberrant Activation Device to cast herself into the Abyss — was one who could glimpse what was called "Fate."
Or to put it more precisely: the Fate that the [Eye of Insight] had recorded, and that it had set into motion.
The [Seat of Karma] would eventually reveal its true form.
A jet-black Throne standing atop countless Tokyo skyscrapers, a pillar of crimson light spearing upward like it could pierce the heavens, and a girl gazing down with contemptuous eyes upon the entire city — and perhaps the entire world — as it tumbled into the Abyss and shattered apart.
Long, long before — all of it, every last piece.
Every image the [Eye of Insight] had recorded had come to pass, one by one.
The Throne descending.
Authority stirring for the first time within the underground drainage system.
Kasumigaura... that ashen domain that seemed to leach every color from the world.
The script was proceeding exactly as the [Eye of Insight] had written it, step by step toward its climax.
Tomorrow night —
Su Yuzu would stand here, and with a mighty sweep of her blade, cleave Dai Ling's body apart.
Her blood... would serve as the steps to ascend the Throne.
The entire world would remember that moment — the final mark on the clock before the end of civilization.
And so, before her life withered away, Dai Ling had allowed herself this rare indulgence.
She had created the Walking Husks, intending to savor one last little game of cat and mouse.
Aberrants could not feel joy.
The only thing that could amuse them... was the despair, the pain, and the screaming of humans.
"But."
"Why?"
Dai Ling couldn't understand why Su Yuzu had appeared here at this wrong moment.
She suddenly felt uneasy. Disoriented.
"HRAAAGH——!!" The Walking Husk spread its arms — muscle fibers standing out in sharp relief — and let out a roar at Su Yuzu.
Brow furrowed, Su Yuzu caught the stench of rot clinging to the creature without any possibility of escape.
The Walking Husk's murky dark-golden vertical pupils locked onto Su Yuzu. Its whole body tensed — muscles rippling, contracting — and then it lunged at her with ferocious speed.
"W— watch out——" From behind Su Yuzu, the girl huddled at the base of the cherry tree let out a feeble, desperate warning.
Su Yuzu drew her blade with her right hand.
Drew the long sword from her Material Inventory.
By now... Su Yuzu had gradually learned how to mask herself.
So from anyone else's perspective, it looked as though the girl had simply drawn that long, slender blade from beneath her billowing skirt.
It was a three-star fine-quality Tang sword.
The best blade Su Yuzu owned had snapped in her hands during the battle that killed "Leviathan."
The girl's heartbeat surged.
Her heart was pounding like something had gone mad inside her chest, like it was trying to smash its way out through her ribs.
In that single instant, Su Yuzu's physical capabilities had already been pushed to their limit through [Blood Manipulation].
Unlike Kujou Katora, who manipulated blood directly as a weapon in combat —
Su Yuzu preferred to pour that power into strengthening her own body, forcing her posture to shift mid-fight and pulling off techniques that looked like they flatly defied the laws of physics.
The blade's edge cleaved through the Walking Husk's chest wall with near-instant precision, shredding the creature's heart.
More so than the brain —
The true fatal point of these walking corpses was always the heart.
Thick black blood sprayed out, spattering across the ground.
Yet the girl's pale, fair thighs remained immaculate and unblemished — under the effect of [Blood Manipulation] and [Immaculate Pure Land], Su Yuzu didn't have to worry about a single drop of that foul-smelling filth touching her.
Behind Su Yuzu... the girl's eyes went wide.
She stared at that young woman — who looked for all the world like a goddess descending from the heavens — as she cleanly and effortlessly cut down the monster that had nearly killed her.
She looked so... so young.
And so beautiful...
"How are your injuries?" Right hand still gripping her blade.
Dai Ling was standing in another direction within the cherry grove — if she wanted, she could attack Su Yuzu in the very next second.
And yet Su Yuzu turned back to look at the girl as though she didn't care in the slightest.
Though... the taut, coiled tension of the girl's thighs told a different story. She wasn't quite as reckless as she appeared.
She was already poised to roll, ready at any moment to grab the girl and bolt.
"It... it's not a serious injury." The voice was faint and trembling. The girl pressed her hand to her chest, assessing.
Two or three ribs broken, probably.
No sharp pain in the torso... the ribs were just fractured, hadn't pierced any organs.
Compared to dying outright... it really wasn't serious.
She looked up at Su Yuzu's beautiful face — and her expression suddenly went blank.
Only then did Su Yuzu realize.
That girl... was the very same girl who had been massaging Aunt Sakura's feet earlier that day.
Just as Sakura Renxin had said.
If... if she hadn't been chased out by Sakura Mai earlier, she probably never would have ended up in a situation like this.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Dai Ling was gradually pulling herself back from the dazed bewilderment of having her Fate overturned.
She raised her head and looked up at the full moon in the sky.
The night of the full moon hadn't arrived yet... but tonight's moon was already perfectly round.
The "Gathering" was scheduled for tomorrow night.
And so, at this moment... there was practically no one in the cherry grove.
It was slightly different from what the [Eye of Insight] had foretold — Su Yuzu ascending the Throne while the eyes of the world were upon her.
"Should I wait?"
"Wait until tomorrow night."
She asked herself the question in her heart.
And then the smile on her face grew wild and unhinged.
Why wait at all?!
The doctrine said — "Let the Eye of Insight drive Fate forward!"
Since "Fate" was already standing right here at the threshold — why wait?!
The Fate glimpsed by the [Eye of Insight] was never a perfect, seamless match with the world — there were always a few deviations here and there.
It said... the moment Su Yuzu ascended the Throne should be witnessed by the world.
Well, what era did they think they were living in... being "witnessed by the world" didn't have to mean a live audience.
A livestream worked just fine.
What a pity, though —
Feng Ke had been captured.
Ordinary technology tended to get a bit fuzzy inside an erosion domain.
But she didn't necessarily need an erosion domain.
It was just that Su Yuzu...
Dai Ling hadn't even finished the thought in her mind when she heard it — the sound of a girl gasping for breath as though she were on the verge of tears.
Soga Yura was bracing herself against a cherry tree, doubled over, dry-heaving.
She really had been running as fast as she possibly could.
Dai Ling's expression suddenly turned grave.
She extended her hand. The earth began to tremble.
In the courtyard outside the cherry grove, Sakura Renxin — soaking in the hot spring pool — watched the ripples spreading endlessly across the surface of the water.
The water churned and swirled, the pool heaving with waves.
Sakura Mai had burst out the moment she received the message and was already gone.
Sakura Renxin was just getting up to follow when she suddenly stopped where she stood.
She turned back slowly.
At some point — without a single sound — a girl in a plain white dress, bare feet, had appeared silently in the center of the pool behind her.
The steam of the hot spring coiled thickly around her, and the girl's dress had long since gone soaking wet, clinging to her body.
Every hair on Sakura Renxin's body stood on end.
She looked at that childlike young girl. She looked at those pitch-black eyes.
For a single moment, she felt as though she were staring directly into the Abyss.
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