[Guardian of Domination (50%)].
Whether it was the format of the favorability-rank-up reward [Blood Manipulation (5%)] from the Guardian, or... the name "Domination."
It all seemed to be declaring the same thing without words.
This was Soga Toyura's favorability-rank-up reward.
This was... Soga Toyura's protection of her.
But—
That woman...
She staggered out of the bath, without even drying the droplets of water from her body.
She pulled a bath towel around herself, and Su Youzi covered her forehead in pain.
In her memories... that woman had finally grasped her hand.
When had it been?
When she was six?
Or seven?
A stabbing pain shot through her head.
Her memories in this regard were a complete blank.
Her childhood memories.
There were many blank fragments in Su Youzi's memories.
But... they were completely different from ordinary "Mental Manipulation."
Under normal "Mental Manipulation," it was impossible to actively recall anything without stimulation from an object or another person.
Recalling something would not cause a stabbing pain in her head, either.
She would only feel lost.
There was an indistinct voice in her heart, telling her and hinting at... the "answer."
The answer given by Soga Toyura.
Su Youzi actually understood.
Her symptoms were more like a kind of "sequela."
The sequelae of failing at "Mental Manipulation."
In her memories, that woman had always abused her ability without restraint.
To her,
the value of everyone's existence was merely that of a tool in her hands.
The value of a tool depended entirely on whether it was useful.
Clearly—
Someone as useless as herself, who could not be subjected to "Mental Manipulation,"
must have been the most difficult kind of tool to use.
But... wasn't her protection something that woman had given her?
How had it even protected her from herself?
With a bitter smile, Su Youzi tried to amuse herself.
She reached toward the pink-and-blue night-light.
Then, just as her fingertip touched the night-light's switch, Su Youzi suddenly remembered something else—
When... had she started being afraid of the dark?
Before transmigrating, she had even walked alone along a long mountain road late at night.
But after transmigrating... whenever she found herself in darkness, she always felt as though every hair on her body was standing on end.
Cold sweat seeped from her palms.
Her head buzzed, and she could clearly hear her heart pounding inside her chest.
She felt as if she were deep inside the belly of a gigantic monster.
Just like... the gluttonous monster in her chest when she used the "Combat Record," a monster that could never be satisfied and held nothing but endless emptiness.
Her fingertip hesitated over the night-light's switch, but in the end, she did not press it.
The girls' dormitory sank into darkness.
Her crimson eyes opened in the dark. Su Youzi curled up in the corner of the bed, as though guarding against that invisible monster.
Yet... her right hand remained outstretched, reaching into the darkness.
It was as if she were grasping an invisible hand.
Holding that invisible hand, Su Youzi slowly closed her eyes.
"Don't be afraid—" It sounded like her own voice.
"I'm here."
"..."
"Youzi..."
"Youzi!!!"
"..."
The girl walking along the nighttime street suddenly stopped.
She furrowed her brows and tilted her ear slightly, as though listening to a distant sob.
"Don't be afraid—"
A gentle voice emerged from between her cold lips with all her strength.
"From now on..."
"I'll be here."
She reached out, as if grasping an invisible hand.
"I'll... always be here..."
Meanwhile—
Long after Su Youzi and that Third Sequence Ability User had entered the dormitory,
the orange-haired girl finally managed to... shakily prop herself up.
She was... very hungry.
Her thin school uniform could not withstand the cold wind of the early spring night at all.
Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi, merely an ordinary Mental Ability User, experienced this feeling of hunger and cold for the first time.
Shivering... the girl did not return directly to the dormitory.
There was something more important in her mind.
She wanted to go home—
To go home and ask why her father had roared in anger that morning.
She already knew... Su Youzi might not simply be an abandoned pawn.
How could an Ability User of the Third Sequence be assigned by the Soga Family's main branch to protect an abandoned pawn?
But... she still could not accept it.
The grievance in her heart was practically overflowing.
Even though she had been the one to provoke Su Youzi... she had immediately followed her instincts and admitted defeat.
She had even... even had her clothes slashed open by Su Youzi in front of everyone, making such a spectacle of herself.
She was still completely naked beneath her clothes, yet she had not thrown a tantrum or acted like a Young Lady.
Why was her father still so furious?
It was as if he did not care about her in the slightest.
After bowing to apologize to Su Youzi, the grievance in the girl's heart had long since spread through her. A mist filled her equally crimson eyes, and her nose felt sore.
She hailed a taxi.
Shivering... she hunched her shoulders and sat in the back seat.
The girl indulged in a little childish sulking.
Like many little girls,
she senselessly... hurt herself by letting herself go hungry and cold, merely so that when her father saw her, he would feel even the slightest~ slightest bit of guilt.
Even if she had to pay a greater price for it.
A fever, sickness.
Things that were unbearably painful for a Mental Ability User.
But—
As long as she could see her father become nervous and worried over her fever brought on by hunger and cold, she would have already won.
However... as she sat in the back seat of the taxi, watching the scenery flash past outside,
Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi suddenly sensed that something was wrong.
Light burst from her crimson eyes as she looked at the driver in the rearview mirror.
Then she saw an eye on the driver's chest.
A... black-and-purple eye.
"Who are you?"
"Where are you taking me?" The Young Lady unleashed her full force of presence.
"Miss Kiyomi." The driver raised his head and met the girl's eyes in the rearview mirror.
"Do you resent Su Youzi?"
"Hate her?"
"Do you want revenge against her?"
"We can grant you power."
"Power originating from this world's beginning, power capable of glimpsing the truth of this world."
"Hah?" Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi sneered. "Who do you think I am?"
"I'm the Young Lady of the Soga Family."
"Even if... I'm only from the branch family," she silently added.
"Even if I wanted revenge against Su Youzi, I wouldn't need help from a bunch of rats like you."
Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi understood.
The help offered by such shady people could never be anything good.
She did not want to end up like the villainous Young Lady in a novel, manipulated as someone else's pawn and ultimately reduced to a miserable state.
At worst, she simply would not provoke Su Youzi anymore.
As long as she stayed far away from those sisters, she could still live her life as a Young Lady.
However... the girl's words, "rats," seemed to strike the man's sore spot. "That's no longer up to you."
He stomped on the accelerator and began speeding up.
The orange taxi raced through the night.
Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi activated her ability.
"It's useless... Miss Kiyomi, we prepared for this long ago..." The man in the hat sneered through the rearview mirror. "What!?"
An invisible mental wave spread outward.
"Remember this—"
"My ability isn't something as ordinary as 'Mental Interference.'"
"It's..." Area-wide Mental Interference.
Although it could not compare with that woman's Mental Manipulation, she looked at the wireless earphones in the man's ears.
How could ordinary Technology Department equipment possibly block her?
He was not Su Youzi.
Even now... Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi still did not understand how Su Youzi had blocked her Mental Interference.
Screech—
The sound of tires scraping against the road tore through the night.
The orange taxi smashed through the guardrail and plunged straight toward the sea amid the man's fanaticism... and Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi's horrified gaze.
"Let the 'Eye of Insight'..."
"Drive fate forward!!!"
He spread his arms and shouted.
Black gears... rotated within the cramped space of the taxi.
Fear seized the girl's heart.
"I..."
"I don't want to die."
Before you continue