Past the double glass isolation doors, the air inside the hospital hung heavy with that disinfectant smell unique to hospitals.
Just like last time, Su Yuzu walked up to the visitation request counter with three superintendents from the Investigation Bureau in tow, meaning to see Asaba Maki.
Instead... she got news that didn't surprise Yuzu much at all.
Asaba Maki wasn't here anymore.
Su Yuzu asked the nurse where Asaba Maki had gone, and when she had left.
The nurse behind the desk looked thoroughly cornered, caught between duty and courtesy.
This was no ordinary hospital.
This was the Tokyo Metropolitan Investigation Bureau's Second Affiliated Hospital.
The nurse understood perfectly well that a fair number of the patients here had highly unusual identities.
Which naturally included the Asaba Maki this girl was asking about.
By appearance and by every test they ran, Miss Asaba Maki looked completely, thoroughly ordinary.
And yet the watch kept over her was the highest-grade custodial care in the entire hospital.
The shackles on her were manufactured by "Epiphany Manufacture" — restraints that could effortlessly bind a Third Sequence Esper, or even an Aberrant.
That woman was far more dangerous than she looked. Far more important, too.
The girl standing in front of the counter was cute to an almost unfair degree, tempting enough that the nurse half wanted to hand over every secret she owned.
But... professional ethics held. The nurse kept Asaba Maki's secret.
"Sorry about that~ little bride."
"There are some things Sister just can't tell you."
Su Yuzu only glanced back over her shoulder.
Under that glance, Hayabusa and the young superintendent both moved to step forward at once, each taking a stride toward the counter.
The nurse looked at the two superintendents, at the uniforms cut in slightly different styles.
And then... she looked at the other woman standing behind that cute little sister, dressed in something bizarre and frankly a little indecent.
This girl... seemed to have some connection to the Investigation Bureau after all.
The nurse explained toward Yuzu, "Without the relevant documentation, I'm afraid I have no way to pull up Miss Asaba Maki's transfer and custodial care records either."
Hayabusa and the young superintendent exchanged a look.
Both of them reached to produce their credentials, the motion almost perfectly in sync.
But before either of them could, Kujou Katora was already standing at the counter.
She braced both hands on its edge and looked at the nurse in front of her.
On the side Su Yuzu couldn't see, a small, savage smile curled up across Kujou Katora's face.
Instinct told the nurse something was very wrong.
Luckily, after a round of Taming at Su Yuzu's hands, Kujou Katora no longer conducted herself with quite the same lawless, do-as-she-pleased streak as before.
She would only threaten her a little. Just a little.
She was standing squarely in the sunlight, and still Kujou Katora's lovely face lay entirely gathered into shadow.
Crimson eyes blinked once.
"I am Kujou Katora."
Kujou Katora's voice came out gentle, languid, indulgent — and yet the nurse couldn't feel a single degree of warmth in it.
The air conditioning in the hospital lobby had to be set too low.
The draft off it cut straight through to her bones.
"Kujou... Katora," the nurse murmured before she could stop herself, the syllables shaking.
"Investigation Bureau—"
"—Fourth Action Division. Senior Superintendent." Kujou Katora laid out her identity one word at a time, and the nurse felt as though she'd dropped straight into an ice pit.
She had heard that demon's name before.
The crimson demon.
The Empire's Hound.
The... Little Sister of the Abyss that descended on Calamity Day.
"Now, then—"
"Would you tell Miss Yuzu where Miss Asaba Maki... was transferred to?"
Kujou Katora regarded the nurse coldly.
"O-of course I can!!!"
The Investigation Bureau's Fourth Action Division was nothing like an ordinary department.
They might sound like a subdivision under the Investigation Bureau, but in practice they ranked equal to it.
If a superintendent of the Investigation Bureau wanted to pull records, they had to present the proper procedures and paperwork.
But the Fourth Action Division was different. Completely different.
They were the razor pointed at Aberrants.
On any mission touching Aberrants, their immunity covering every action they took was frankly terrifying in scope.
The nurse pulled up the file with trembling fingers — and then she watched the Investigation Bureau's Fourth Action Division executioner, the demon whose name was said to hush crying children, turn utterly docile in front of that little bride.
Even to a passerby, the look on Kujou Katora's face was that of a child who had volunteered for a task, finished it well, and now waited to be praised in front of a parent. Or else... A strange thought surfaced in the nurse's mind.
A pet hoping for a reward in front of its master.
She clattered away at the keyboard. Terrifying, absolutely terrifying... why would a thought like that ever occur to her?
And Su Yuzu, faced with a Kujou Katora whose entire expression begged for credit, only smiled... and opened [Operator Development], bestowing Kujou Katora's share of favor for the day.
In all the days before this, Kujou Katora had gone numb to it — Lady Fate's favor, as routine as punching a time card at work.
She'd settled into a distinct sort of go-ahead-and-do-what-you-want, I'm-done-cooperating slump.
But... but in front of Miss Yuzu, Kujou Katora still felt herself coming apart like a tower of blocks.
She staggered, on the verge of pitching to the floor.
Su Yuzu caught her with thoughtful care, taking in the way Kujou Katora's knees had knocked together, and accepted the printed transfer notice from the nurse's hand.
Nothing on it was concealed in the slightest.
Asaba Maki had been taken away by Tsukimisato Somehana.
She had been taken to the K-142 Laboratory.
Another laboratory once under Asaba Maki's charge — and sitting right inside the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Only, as Su Yuzu looked at the lab's designation, it struck her as strangely familiar.
"Yuzu~ Yuzu~~ Yuzu~~~"
"My dear... Yuzu-hime."
Through the surveillance feed, the woman watched Su Yuzu poring over that notice, her gray-blue eyes brimming with anticipation. "So what will you do next~"
In the hospital lobby — beep, beep, beep, beep.
The police-issue device on the young superintendent standing behind Su Yuzu suddenly chimed with an alert.
The young superintendent lowered her head and read the message.
And then—
She looked up at Su Yuzu. "Miss Soga."
"What is it?" Su Yuzu turned back toward her.
"The Investigation Bureau would like to give you a full physical examination."
"We hope we can have your cooperation."
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