Hunting

"I want to go watch a movie with Youzi."

She pressed the stiff paper ticket hidden against her chest.

Aside from personally killing her sister after she had fallen into the Anomaly Abyss, Kujo Ryuko had seemingly never felt such a powerful desire before.

A movie theater late at night.

A screening room with only the two of them.

Dim... flickering projector light.

And... a girl watching the screen intently, even more captivating than the movie itself.

The forbidden... humiliating experience of kneeling before Miss Youzi and imitating a puppy had sent shudders through her.

So, by contrast, the girl's gentleness and intimacy now brought her that much more pleasure and delight.

Her heart trembled.

She looked forward to the girl's next act of tenderness.

And looked forward even more to... the girl's next humiliation of her.

"But—"

"Someone as gentle as Youzi would probably find it difficult to humiliate me again."

"Strange... Why am I having such strange thoughts?"

"Why do these thoughts make me feel as if I'm becoming strange too?"

She raised her chin high and put on a cold expression.

Kujo Ryuko worked hard to conceal herself in front of Su Youzi.

But compared with the Kujo Ryuko of their first meeting—who had worn a gentle, soft smile, yet whose crimson eyes and manic grin made people feel as though they had fallen into an icy abyss—

The Kujo Ryuko of now... looked more like a large cat waiting for its owner to rub the base of its tail.

The girl's fragrance was like a poison that corroded the heart.

Even she herself had barely noticed it.

She didn't know when it had happened... but she had long since fallen into it.

Compared with the girl's gentleness, perhaps Kujo Ryuko's heart concealed an even deeper and more "cherished" desire.

Subconsciously—

At the bottom of her crimson eyes, she had even begun thinking about how to "anger" Miss Youzi without making Miss Youzi hate her.

"Kujo Ryuko doesn't like people."

"She likes dogs."

"Dogs are obedient."

"People aren't."

"But..."

"Miss Youzi is an exception."

By the time they returned from the training hall, it was already afternoon.

Kujo Ryuko had only dozed for a short while before her adjutant—the young female police captain known as Hayabusa—woke her.

Tonight—

They had a very important mission.

She glanced back at the dormitory windows.

Looking at the extinguished lights in Su Youzi's room and the faint glow of the pink-and-blue night-light, Kujo Ryuko turned around without hesitation.

A smile returned to her face.

A soft, gentle smile that made people feel as though they had fallen into an icy abyss.

Hayabusa had already investigated the source of that "Manifest Manufacturing" earpiece.

They had more or less located the hiding place of the Eye of Insight cult as well.

Just as Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi had mentioned before, they were "rats."

These lunatics had actually hidden right under the Investigation Department's nose.

Their hideout was not some desolate ruin on the outskirts of the city, steeped in Calamity Aura, but... the enormous Underground Drainage System beneath the harbor.

They were rats in every sense of the word.

She removed the Investigation Department's Fourth Action Division combat uniform, whose symbolism was far too obvious.

The only things that could represent the girl's identity... were those crimson eyes and the black stockings clinging tightly to her body.

Late at night—

Kujo Ryuko and Hayabusa strolled along the harbor embankment.

To be honest... she was rather reluctant to part with these "rats."

After all... they were the ones who had given her a legitimate opportunity to return to Private Huiqun Garden Academy and move into the Assault Department Dormitory.

After slaughtering these rats... she would once again have to embark on the path of pursuing Altered Users.

By then, she wouldn't be able to wish Miss Youzi good night every day before going to sleep.

Kujo Ryuko gazed at the pitch-black sea.

Dense White Mist hung over its surface.

Ever since the Calamity descended seven hundred years ago... that White Mist, saturated with intense Calamity Aura, had continued drifting across the sea at night.

It had made nighttime navigation extraordinarily difficult.

The open ocean—

Had become a realm humanity could scarcely set foot in.

Kujo Ryuko nimbly jumped down the sloping embankment. Behind her, Hayabusa slid down at an angle.

The enormous sewer entrance was deep and dark, like a monster in the night waiting to devour people.

In the darkness... the burly men of the Investigation Department's Fourth Action Division appeared in neat formation.

They began sealing off the area.

The Fourth Action Division's method of operation was actually very simple.

Kujo Ryuko handled the killing.

Hayabusa handled reconnaissance and... at critical moments, restrained Kujo Ryuko when she lost control.

As for those burly men—

Most of the time, they were responsible only for sealing off the area, catching anyone who slipped through, and... cleaning up afterward.

Tap, tap, tap... The crisp sound of the girl's high heels striking the slightly damp concrete echoed through the vast sewer.

A black-and-purple light flared to life.

It was a totem shaped like an eye.

Over the past few days... Kujo Ryuko had seen countless totems like it.

A gaunt, skeletal figure emerged from the shadows, its body overflowing with dense Anomalous Aura.

Compared with the girl's suggestive Anomalous state—

The gaunt man before Kujo Ryuko could probably only be called simple "corruption."

The next second... a hideous black-and-red beast pounced from the shadows, clamped down on the back of the man's neck, and violently shook its head.

The smile at the corners of Kujo Ryuko's lips widened.

The hand that had been pressing against the stiff paper ticket at her chest dropped. She slightly bent forward and accelerated into a dive, reaching her right hand toward the torn, mangled body. The man's blood gushed into her hand like a spring.

Bzzz—

The sound of a chainsaw chain being pulled.

A long, slender Blood Saw nearly as tall as a girl took shape in her hand.

Hayabusa simply followed quietly behind Kujo Ryuko.

She kept an eye on the time.

The hunt had begun—

Lord Kujo should still be able to make it in time for her date with Miss Youzi.