Everyone but Tsukimisato Somehana — the Investigation Bureau's director, the prosecutor — wore an ugly expression as Su Yuzu let their accusations fall unchallenged, with all the air of a girl who had given up on even pretending to care.
Everyone in the room knew what this really was: a power game between "Epiphany Manufacture" and an old, entrenched force like the Soga clan.
How could Su Yuzu be an Aberrant.
How could Su Yuzu be allowed to be an Aberrant.
Su Yuzu, daughter of Soga Retsu, Overlord of the Sixth Sequence — she could not possibly be an Aberrant, and she must not be one.
Even if… she truly was.
Su Yuzu had never once made a point of it, but the fact remained: she was a beneficiary of the Soga name.
"Defendant Su Yuzu…"
"This is the Procuratorate. I would ask that you — that you treat these proceedings with the seriousness they deserve."
The prosecutor could only wipe the cold sweat from her forehead, grateful that, internet age or not, this public prosecution had been closed to outsiders and was not being livestreamed.
Otherwise… the girl's very first sentence would have been enough to throw them all into disarray.
"But I am being serious—"
"Big Sister Prosecutor."
Su Yuzu only smiled, her eyes fixed on Tsukimisato Somehana where she sat. "I really was involved in quite a few Aberrant attack cases."
"And I really have sheltered Aberrants."
"Hasn't Big Sister Prosecutor seen that footage that was all over the internet a while back?"
"The Aberrant in the white dress — her name is Feng Ke."
"She's under observation at the Soga clan's hospital right now."
"She likes chocolate-flavored things."
"Because bitterness is the only taste she can still make out."
"There's also a specially bred apple, sour and astringent, cultivated for exactly the sense of taste Aberrants lose. A pity we don't have the technology to grow that crop ourselves."
As though this trial had nothing whatsoever to do with her.
Su Yuzu's lips curled — the look of a girl who had come purely to watch the show.
The Procuratorate had gone dead silent. Only the girl's clear, ringing voice remained.
The Investigation Bureau's director and the prosecutor wore expressions each uglier than the last.
They had anticipated any number of scenarios.
They had weighed whether to uphold 'justice' and 'order,' or to work toward some sort of balance between "Epiphany Manufacture" and the Soga clan.
What they had never anticipated was that Su Yuzu would simply let the whole thing rot.
Yes, yes, yes, you're absolutely right, I really am in league with Aberrants — that was her attitude, the amused detachment of a spectator.
Did she truly not understand what that meant?
This trial was a contest between the radical faction of "Epiphany Manufacture" and the Soga clan.
Beyond acquiring Su Yuzu's "Factors," it was supposed to be a game in which both sides traded interests behind the curtain and jockeyed for position.
Supposed to be.
No one had expected Su Yuzu to nod and confess outright.
She had torn the curtain down and laid herself bare on the table to be judged.
Nobody wanted that.
Not even "Epiphany Manufacture" itself.
Su Yuzu turned her smile toward Tsukimisato Somehana.
Once she understood that Tsukimisato Somehana's goal was simply to obtain the Factors she carried as this era's "Throne," there was nothing left to be afraid of.
The only danger worth fearing is the danger you can't see.
And now that she knew what Tsukimisato Somehana wanted… the ones who ought to worry about her actually being convicted were them.
Did they want an open break with her?
Did they want an open break with the Soga family?
That loathsome father of hers hadn't sent word home in a very, very long time.
But he was, beyond any doubt, an Overlord of the Sixth Sequence.
How many people in the Tokyo metropolitan area could survive his anger?
The newly risen Sixth Sequence powerhouse, Tsukiyomi Fuya-senpai?
She happened to be rather close with Tsukiyomi-senpai.
And besides… on what grounds would Imperial Capital University move against her, against the Soga clan, for the Investigation Bureau's sake?
Soga Yura was the proudest student of Imperial Capital University's current class.
And she herself would be enrolling there after graduation.
Who else, then?
The old head of the Sakura family?
Or the Sakura family's Frenzied Sword Princess.
That would be even more absurd.
Did "Epiphany Manufacture" have someone of that same tier?
Perhaps.
Otherwise they wouldn't be looking quite so pleased with themselves.
All this smugness came down to one thing: that old wretch hadn't set foot at home in a good ten years.
But the Soga family had a new enforcer now.
Two crepes as a reward, two "Combat Records" as a threat — and the Seat of Hunger… no, the Sixth Sequence "Seat of Evil" would be more than delighted to serve Su Yuzu.
"Miss Soga, please, be serious!" The prosecutor's eyes darted to Soga Yura, seated behind Su Yuzu.
In that moment she wanted nothing more than for Soga Yura to step in and say that her 'young' Little Sister didn't know any better, that she was only running her mouth.
But Soga Yura had lowered her head and started playing with her phone.
Whatever Yuzu wanted to do, Soga Yura would stand behind her.
Even if it meant making an enemy of the world.
With that last hope of having Soga Yura 'rein in' Su Yuzu gone, misery settled over the prosecutor's face. She could only steady her voice. "Miss Soga, please believe me — the Investigation Bureau would never condemn an innocent person."
Su Yuzu's smile only grew brighter.
The prosecutor turned to the Investigation Bureau's director instead. The man, well past middle age, mopped the cold sweat from his brow and passed his pleading look on to Tsukimisato Somehana beside them.
In "Epiphany Manufacture"'s seat, the woman had heaped her ample, good-for-nothing curves across the tabletop and propped her cheek on her right hand, watching Su Yuzu with a smile of her own.
Su Yuzu's raised smile filled her gray-blue eyes.
The trial had no choice but to proceed.
There were two charges against Su Yuzu.
The first: that she had colluded with and sheltered Aberrants.
The second: that she herself stood at the brink of collapse and might plunge into the Abyss at any moment.
The Soga clan had refused the Investigation Bureau's demand for a comprehensive physical examination of Su Yuzu, but Su Yuzu had nonetheless been examined at Keigunen Private Academy, at Imperial Capital University, and at Little Kiyomi's family hospital.
The reports were lawful and valid.
They showed that Su Yuzu's mental state was stable, that her body carried no discernible Calamity Aura, that her circulatory system contained no Catastrophe Crystals, and that there were no signs of erosion or infection. She could be formally certified as carrying no risk of Aberration.
The prosecutor's and the director's heartbeats both steadied considerably.
They did not belong to "Epiphany Manufacture."
They were only grasshoppers strung onto the same rope.
Since Su Yuzu carried no risk of Aberration, the remaining charge became far easier to manage.
Sheltering and colluding with Aberrants was the easiest accusation to build a case out of — and also the easiest to dissolve.
And just as they let that breath out—
Tsukimisato Somehana rang the bell for attention. "We still have evidence. And a witness."
Kujou Katora, standing attendance behind Su Yuzu, fixed Tsukimisato Somehana with a distinctly dangerous stare in the same instant. Tsukimisato Somehana returned it without a flicker, offering Kujou Katora a serene, contemptuous smile.
Neither Su Yuzu nor Soga Yura was surprised by who took the stand. It was the "Raven" that Su Yuzu had once dragged back out of the Edge of Aberration — Asaba Maki.
"Our witness can testify…"
"that Su Yuzu is bound by countless threads to the Aberrant-worshipping cult known as the "Eye of Insight.""
"That she has, on more than one occasion, sheltered a great many Aberrants."
"Is that so?" The judge looked at Asaba Maki, who sat with her head bowed, wearing the shackles used to confine high-tier Espers. "The witness may give her statement."
Asaba Maki raised her head.
She looked at Su Yuzu.
Terror and longing spread through her eyes at once, in perfect step.
Su Yuzu had become something terrible and desperately desired to her, like a demon out of some ancient scripture.
She wanted to run—
But her body had already remembered. Firmly. Irrevocably. It remembered what it was to have Su Yuzu devour every last one of her Catastrophe Crystals, mouthful by mouthful.
What had been swallowed down was not only the Catastrophe Crystals. It was her soul.
Her world seemed to have stopped forever on that day, and everything after it was hollow.
No matter how she searched, she could never wring so much as a sliver of pleasure out of herself again.
Her will and her reason had stopped belonging to her that day.
Every threshold had been raised to a height she could never hope to reach on her own.
Beneath her ribs—
there was nothing at all.
"Is that so?" She repeated the prosecutor's question to herself.
She looked at the prosecutor. She looked at the Investigation Bureau's director, mopping the sweat from his bald head with a handkerchief. She looked at Tsukimisato Somehana, seated not far ahead of her. And she looked at that girl who was like a demon.
"It is not," Asaba Maki said, head lowered.
"I can attest that Miss Su Yuzu is an outstanding student, excellent in both conduct and academics, always willing to help others, selfless in everything she gives."
"When I was under a Catastrophe Beast's control and about to lay waste to the city, Su Yuzu stepped forward with no regard for her own safety, nor for the gulf in strength between herself and the Catastrophe Beast."
"When I was in danger during the period of that Catastrophe Beast's control, Miss Su Yuzu still chose to step forward, and used her own back to shield me from the fireball the Catastrophe Beast spat out."
"And furthermore—"
"During the battle, Miss Su Yuzu worked to draw the Catastrophe Beast away from the urban districts. For that, she gave up any number of perfect openings."
The tone was flat, without a single rise or fall. Anyone listening could tell she was talking absolute nonsense.
Stepped forward?
Su Yuzu had simply had the wheel of Fate roll straight over her face.
Selfless sacrifice?
Even now, when Asaba Maki recalled being carried back from the Edge of Aberration by Su Yuzu, her legs shook like leaves.
Of everyone whose Catastrophe Crystals Su Yuzu had eaten, she — a mere researcher — had the frailest constitution of them all.
As for working to reduce the damage the Aberrant caused?
It hadn't been deliberate on Su Yuzu's part, granted, but the footage of her fight with that Aberrant had blown up across the internet at the time.
That rain of Fire had also destroyed a major stretch of highway inside the city.
And yet the many people seated in this room were only too pleased to hear Asaba Maki spout exactly this kind of nonsense.
Asaba Maki kept her head down.
She never once looked again at the woman who held her life and death in her hands.
"I'm sorry—"
"I told you from the very beginning…"
"Everything I am no longer belongs to me."
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