She let go of Kujou Katora's little finger.
Su Yuzu took the call, her expression grave.
She put out a hand, motioning for Kujou Katora to sit.
But Su Yuzu, wholly absorbed in her call with Soga Yura, never noticed that there was nowhere nearby to sit at all.
To Kujou Katora, the girl's gesture could only mean one thing...
Clutching the paper bag of spicy chicken wings Su Yuzu had handed her, Kujou Katora pressed her knees together, eyes brimming, and sank down into a squat, inch by trembling inch.
Exactly like a pet that had heard its master's word and crouched to await orders.
Kujou Katora's outfit was rather unusual.
Her boots didn't match. One was a thigh-high that came up over the knee, the other an ordinary tall boot.
The shorter one was manageable.
Squatting all the way down in the over-the-knee boot, however, was quite another matter.
So the woman's posture looked like pure torment. Knees knocking together, unable to sink the rest of the way, she resembled nothing so much as someone bashfully holding a horse stance, and it was even harder to bear than that.
On top of which, the left thigh, the leg in the shorter boot, was bound with an I-shaped strap harness, which made holding that half-squat more punishing still.
Even Kujou Katora, a Third Sequence of the special body-enhancement type, felt a faint edge of misery creeping in. Her legs quivered, knees bumping together again and again.
If she hadn't happened to be a blood manipulation Esper, her toes would probably have gone numb from the pinched circulation, prickling as though stuck with needles.
But... the sight of the woman biting her lip and enduring it made her all the more endearing.
Or rather, it stirred certain urges.
On the phone-
Soga Yura had brought Su Yuzu some decidedly unwelcome news.
That afternoon, Su Yuzu had forwarded Soga Yura everything she had obtained: the files on the accusation against her, the files on Tsukimisato Somehana, and the material concerning Asaba Maki.
Along with sharing the files, she had asked Soga Yura to leverage the Soga family's influence and look into Tsukimisato Somehana and whatever powers stood behind her.
And then-
Soga Yura had turned up a thread worth pulling.
Twelve years ago, Tsukimisato Somehana had been the director of Laboratory K-142, which belonged to "Epiphany Manufacture."
Not long after, she was transferred to Laboratory K-423, the facility that later suffered the incident which wiped out very nearly everyone in it. The same facility where, one after the other, Zero and the Leviathan's daughter had been born.
Mm. Twelve years ago.
Both Su Yuzu and Soga Yura were exquisitely sensitive to that particular year.
Because that was when Su Yuzu's "first awakening," the real one, had taken place.
At the same time-
Soga Yura had also uncovered another rather interesting thing.
Twelve years ago-
After Su Yuzu's first awakening, thanks to Kirishika's help and the bargain struck with her, Soga Yura had succeeded in bringing Su Yuzu back from the Edge of Aberration.
But Su Yuzu's condition at the time had still been dire, her mind badly unstable.
And Soga Yura had taken from her a considerable portion of her memories of that outburst.
Using the Holy Relic, [Live. Guardian of the Fate Twins], for the very first time, Soga Yura could never quite rein in her own affection and clinging fondness for Yuzu, and mental storms erupted again and again.
Soga Iori and Soga Ishikawa Irube, having only just crushed the rebellion, chose to send Su Yuzu and Soga Yura for examination at an institution they trusted at the time.
And that institution... was Laboratory K-142, a facility under "Epiphany Manufacture," belonging to its Guardian faction.
The person in charge of that laboratory back then... was none other than Tsukimisato Somehana.
In other words-
Twelve years ago, Tsukimisato Somehana had already met Su Yuzu.
And what was more... from that point onward, she had almost certainly already noticed the abnormality in Su Yuzu.
She had earned the title of "Fate Trifler" fairly.
Perhaps even then... Laboratory K-142 had already ceased to be part of "Epiphany Manufacture's" Guardian faction.
Tsukimisato Somehana had obtained from Su Yuzu the "Human Factors" that belonged to Su Yuzu alone.
After that she left Laboratory K-142 and went to Laboratory K-423, far from the Tokyo metropolitan area, far from the Soga clan's line of sight.
And there... she had launched the project named "Fate."
The little cat, which was to say Zero, had been born of it.
Laboratory K-142?
The place where Asaba Maki was right now?
And also... the place where Su Yuzu had been given her physical all those years ago?
A whole tangle of threads snapped into alignment inside Su Yuzu's head.
The institution the Investigation Bureau had commissioned to give her a comprehensive physical was almost certainly Laboratory K-142.
And the purpose of that examination probably had nothing to do with confirming or refuting the accusation against her.
It was the same as twelve years ago-
They wanted to extract from her body the Human Factors that belonged to Su Yuzu, that belonged to this era's "Throne."
Su Yuzu's face turned cold.
She was thankful she had refused Sister Jingjing.
And Tsukimisato Somehana's furtive maneuvering left her disgusted and seething.
What exactly was Tsukimisato Somehana trying to do?
Repeat what she had done twelve years ago and manufacture another Zero?
What was the true purpose behind all that painstaking scheming to obtain her Human Factors?
Su Yuzu thought back to "Tsukimisato," to the red fluid injected into the little cat's neck, the fluid that had driven her to evolve into the form of a "Pseudo Throne."
They... were not content with manufacturing a "Pseudo Throne."
Did they mean to use her, study her, and produce a genuine one, a ninth "Throne"?
A faint suspicion was already taking shape in Su Yuzu's mind.
The Investigation Bureau's accusation against her, or to put it more precisely-
Tsukimisato Somehana's accusation against her, was not leverage to squeeze the Soga family, nor some chess match between a radical-faction "Epiphany Manufacture" laboratory and the Soga clan. Quite the opposite.
From beginning to end, their goal may have been nothing more than getting her to Laboratory K-142 for one more comprehensive physical.
They had wrapped an entire batch of dumplings just to have an excuse for that one little dish of vinegar.
Su Yuzu trusted her own instincts absolutely. She always had.
And so... she laid out every one of her suspicions for Soga Yura.
"So this is about acquiring Yuzu's Factors?"
"I understand." On the other end of the line, Soga Yura nodded softly. "As for the Investigation Bureau's demand for a comprehensive physical, Yuzu, just refuse it outright."
"The rest... leave the maneuvering to me."
"They're very confident."
"Confident that the Soga clan without Lord Father is a tiger with neither claws nor fangs."
"But..."
"I will make them understand."
"Whether this tiger's claws and fangs are still sharp."
"Yuzu..."
"Take care of yourself."
Su Yuzu hung up the phone and looked down at Kujou Katora, still squatting there in front of her.
The woman's legs were shaking, her tear-filled eyes fixed on her.
"Nngh..."
"I can't... hold it any longer..."
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