Gurgle—Kill Me!

"Is Miss Su going to the hospital to see Lord Kujo?"

"Or would you rather wait for Lord Kujo to return?"

Seeing Su Youzi's stunned expression, the young female police superintendent standing quietly outside her door asked softly.

Toward the maiden before her, who always looked so languid, the woman now felt nothing but endless admiration.

That day... Lord Kujo had knelt before Su Youzi with a humiliated look on her face, and that shameful cry had nearly made the woman's jaw drop.

Most terrifying of all... Lord Kujo had not settled the score afterward.

When she instructed them to investigate the "Eye of Insight," whenever Su Youzi was mentioned... Lord Kujo would also look conflicted, as if she had finally drawn a breath only to let it out again at once.

"This is too strange."

So strange that... it was almost as if Lord Kujo had been 'Tamed' by the maiden before her.

Right—

"Tamed."

She repeated the description in her heart, then quickly shook her head and drove that terrifying thought from her mind.

"Too strange."

Completely unaware that the Miss Inspector before her, who looked stern and serious, was thinking such bizarre things, Su Youzi pondered Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi's situation.

Whether by common sense or by the plot, Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi, who had fallen into corruption and become a Second Sequence Altered User, should have had no hope of being saved.

Yet... the Miss Inspector before her said that she was the victim of an attack.

And she was still receiving treatment at the hospital.

That left Su Youzi in a strange state of confusion.

She was confused, but also somewhat relieved—

Relieved that Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi had not completely fallen into corruption and become something inhuman.

Otherwise, she would have felt guilty.

"Let's go take a look at the hospital." She smiled at the young female police superintendent before her.

No matter how she thought about it, she wanted to see how Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi was doing.

And while she was there... she could also go 'collect' today's "Combat Record" from Kozakai.

"Yes." The young female police superintendent nodded lightly.

Then, inadvertently, she noticed the torn curtains in Su Youzi's room.

Hiss—

Before Lord Kujo and Miss Youzi had gone to the movies yesterday, those curtains had still been perfectly fine.

In an instant, the young female police superintendent's mind filled in many wonderful... no, terrible scenes.

She looked at Su Youzi. "Miss Youzi..."

"Hm?" Su Youzi tilted her head.

"Would you like us to replace the curtains for you?"

"Rest assured, we are quite skilled at restoring scenes... ah, no, tidying up homes."

As part of the Investigation Department, the Fourth Action Department often handled matters such as restoring a battle scene after a fight with an Altered User to how it had looked before the battle.

"Ah..." Su Youzi revealed a delighted expression and sincerely clasped her hands together. "Then I'll leave it to you, Older Sister."

Wonderful. She would save a lot of money.

Thump, thump—

As she gazed into the maiden's crimson eyes.

For a moment, the young female police superintendent seemed to understand... why her superior always looked as though she wanted to speak but held herself back whenever Su Youzi was mentioned.

"No... it was my superior who caused you trouble."

"?¿?" A row of question marks suddenly appeared above Su Youzi's head.

She looked at the young woman's apologetic expression, clearly the result of imagining far too much.

Had this woman imagined something way too inappropriate?

This was not some weird 'battle' scene, hey!!!

Third floor of the Shiritsu Megumi Garden Academy hospital.

A somewhat cramped yet exceptionally tidy room.

The air was filled with the distinctive scent of hospital disinfectant.

Sunlight filtered in through the blinds.

Passing through the vigorous leaves of the potted plant by the windowsill, it scattered warm patches of light across the maiden's snow-white sheets.

Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi lay curled on her side in bed, her beautiful crimson eyes staring blankly at the leaves of the potted plant.

The sounds outside the ward were noisy, but... they seemed to have nothing to do with her.

The maiden's absent-minded appearance made her look like an exquisite doll.

She had been discovered by passersby beside the stretch of road where the incident had occurred.

At the time... she had looked as miserable as a drowned rat freshly pulled from the water. Her body had almost completely lost its warmth, while her breathing and heartbeat had been so weak that she seemed dead.

But fortunately—

The hospital at Private Huiqun Garden Academy was one of the few academy hospitals equipped with "Medical Units" and emergency treatment pods.

Though a single "Medical Unit" cost as much as ten years of salary for a veteran teacher like Unohana Chiyo.

As long as someone still had one breath left, however, a "Medical Unit" could pull them back from death's door.

Besides, to the Soga Family... a "Medical Unit" was not considered expensive.

Outside the ward, Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi's Father was confronting Kujo Ryuko.

Only then did Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi learn that the short-haired, crimson-eyed woman beside Su Youzi.

Was not some bodyguard or guard sent by the Soga Main Family to protect Su Youzi.

She was... something far more terrifying, one of the Empire's hunting hounds—

Kujo Ryuko, special Senior Superintendent of the Investigation Department's Fourth Action Division.

That infamous madwoman.

She was far more frightening than any guard from the Soga Main Family.

Just thinking about how she had nearly defied Kujo Ryuko sent a chill down Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi's spine.

She lightly bit her lip.

Just yesterday, she had thought that by making herself suffer from cold, hunger, and illness, she could make Father feel even a little remorseful, a little guilty.

And then she could secretly wag her little tail in her heart, feeling the tiniest bit victorious.

But... when she had truly faced death, survived the disaster, and seen Father looking as though much of his hair had turned gray overnight.

Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi instead felt boundless guilt well up in her heart.

She... should not have thrown a Young Lady's tantrum.

She should not have disobeyed Father and provoked Su Youzi.

The moment that name came up, the girl's body curled in on itself, and a trace of terror and... shame surfaced in her shrinking crimson eyes.

Huddled beneath the covers, she gently pulled open her collar.

Inside her clothes... a thin line of blood glimmered faintly red across the girl's milky-white skin.

It extended from where her collarbones met all the way down beneath her lower abdomen.

That thin line of light, along with her long hair, which had somehow shed its dye and returned to its beautiful black color, both reminded Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi.

That nightmare she had experienced last night... had not been a mere dream.

It was something that had already happened.

She really had fallen into corruption... been contaminated... and become an Altered User.

And she was even a hopeless Second Sequence Altered User.

Yet... compared to her corruption itself, what made Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi tremble even more was what had happened afterward.

Su Youzi, naked... seated upon the Black Throne, had given her that devilish smile.

"I'm hungry."

She had been utterly powerless to resist... as the thorns spreading out behind Su Youzi pinned down her ankles and wrists.

She could only watch helplessly as Su Youzi smiled, embraced her... and ate the Anomalous Crystals from her body, one bite... at a time.

Who was the Altered User here?!

Fear and shame spread through her heart at once. Just recalling it made Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi tremble, her legs shaking as if she were on the verge of collapse.

And yet... as the Altered nightmare in that dream, she had not even possessed the ability to faint. She had even been able to perceive every detail of the dream with absolute clarity from every angle and through every sense.

In the end, Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi could only stare blankly at the sky and allow those crimson eyes to burn themselves into her heart.

Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi swore.

She never wanted to see Su Youzi again for the rest of her life.

From now on... no matter what, she would stay far, far away from Su Youzi.

Just then—

Creak... the ward door opened.

Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi heard Father's voice. "Kiyomi... look who came to see you."

Nearly overwhelmed by embarrassment, Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi hurriedly pressed her collar shut and turned her head.

She saw a maiden in a short dress standing gracefully in the sunlight.

The girl's short hair was playful, and her crimson eyes seemed to possess a soul-stealing magic.

She radiated a charm that had nothing to do with gender.

But... she was Su Youzi.

"Gurk..." Just seeing Su Youzi's smile, identical to the one in the dream, made Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi feel as though she were about to break apart.

A mournful whimper squeezed out of her throat.

"Kill me!"