The black robed person

On a sunny day inside the dormitory where Ayame was resting.

Kouro was seen sitting on the seiza in front of Ayame, who was glaring at him with a mixture of anger and embarrassment while rubbing the ear that Kouro had blown out.

Kouro's face had fresh red slap marks on both cheeks that were very obvious, but since both slap marks were absent, he spoke innocently to Ayame.

"Why did you hit me, Ayame? When we were kids, you always blew my ears if I got angry, didn't you? Isn't it unfair of you to hit me when I blow your ear now?"

"That's different! Back then, we were kids, but now we're adults!"

After their brief banter, some hurried footsteps could be heard coming from outside towards the room, then the door of the room was forcibly opened by Theresa who was followed by Sakura and Higokumaru who were behind Sakura.

"Kouro, are you okay!?" Theresa shouted, but then fell silent when she and the others saw Kouro sitting in seiza in front of Ayame who looked embarrassed.

Realizing that the situation felt a little strange, they turned to look at Kouro and after seeing the red slap marks on his face, as if understanding something, they then turned to Ayame.

Ayame felt a little embarrassed at being stared at, and just as she wanted to explain, Sakura interrupted in a sympathetic tone.

"You don't need to explain, we understand." Looking at Sakura, Ayame felt that Sakura really understood her, she then talked to the others, leaving Kouro in the corner, still sitting in seiza.

Kouro who was neglected on the side, looked at them while thinking, 'Didn't they fight with each other before? Why are they acting like close friends now?

Feeling clueless, he shook his head, 'Women are hard to understand.'

__

A few moments later.

Ayame looked at Theresa and the other two, she took a deep breath before lowering her head and bowing in a 90° position, "Thank you for saving me."

Seeing Ayame bow her head in thanks.

Theresa shook her head and pointed towards Higokumaru who was floating beside Sakura, "If you want to thank someone, thank Higokumaru-chan, she's the one who purified your Herrscher power."

"Hehehe." Higokumaru just laughed shyly while scratching her head.

Ayame then raised her head and cast her gaze over them once and said, "You may already know my name from Kouro, but let me introduce myself properly, my name is Akimitsu Ayame, you may call me Ayame like Kouro."

Focusing his gaze on Ayame who had just finished introducing herself, Kouro paused for a moment before asking.

"Ayame, if I may know, how did you turn into a Pseudo-Herrscher? Ah, if you don't want to say, that's fine."

Ayame shook her head before turning her back to them and lowering her clothes slightly to show them her back.

"This!?"

Their eyes widened at the sight of the strangely shaped stigmata tattooed on Ayame's back, but that was not the cause of their reaction, it was because there was another stigma on her back, besides, the stigmata seemed to merge with Ayame's previous stigmata.

"You have two stigmata? What else is mutated!?" Theresa exclaimed in shock.

Higokumaru and Sakura were silent, but Kouro didn't quite understand the situation so she asked, "Is there a problem Theresa-san?"

"Of course! As far as I know, people who have natural stigmata will only have one, but now Ayame has two stigmata, let alone that it's mutated."

"Wow, that's amazing..."

Ayame was silent for a moment before she lowered her clothes and turned to look at them.

"I don't really remember how I turned into Herrscher, the only thing I remember is the day before all the chaos (Third Eruption) happened. In the afternoon, I who was on my way back to the dormitory met an unknown woman wearing a black robe. "

"She didn't say anything, she just stuck her hand out at me, and when I wanted to scream, a purple-colored light filled my vision and after that, I passed out?"

"After waking up, I found myself still in my own room, I stood up to check my surroundings, but didn't find anything strange, it was as if the woman in the black robe didn't exist at all."

"From then on, my temper became unstable, I became irritable over small things and the culmination was the chaos that occurred at Senba Academy." Ayame added.

"When I saw my classmate biting the person next to her, I wanted to help her, but at that time, I felt a pain in my back like it was on fire, then purple lines started forming on my hands and then I fell down again."

"But my consciousness was still there and I could vaguely see what was happening from an observer's point of view, like seeing everything from a third-person perspective."

"I saw 'me' stab Kouro in the chest, I saw 'me' fight against your group, I saw everything from the observer's point of view."

"But after Higokumaru-chan touched my forehead, I could feel my consciousness returning to my body gradually until I could fully control my body again."

Kouro listened to Ayame's story from beginning to end before finally thinking out loud, he said in surprise.

"If that's the case, then the extra stigmata on your back..."

Ayame nodded in agreement, "Yes, it belongs to that consciousness you call Pseudo-Herrscher."

Kouro was very surprised, many questions arose in his mind, 'Who is that black-robed woman? What is her purpose? Why did that woman choose Ayame? Is this just a coincidence?

They all didn't realize that Sakura and Higokumaru's faces turned cold upon hearing the black-robed woman, their cold expressions only briefly before returning to normal.

Sakura then decided to ask, "Do you guys know the striking features of the black-robed woman, the most striking, I mean."

Ayame searched through her memories before speaking, "The most striking thing about the black-robed woman is her short stature, coupled with her pale green hair that I don't understand why she doesn't hide it at all."

Hearing Ayame's answer, Sakura and Higokumaru were finally convinced that the black-robed woman was someone they knew, but they didn't say so and just kept quiet after asking that.

Theresa also seemed to be thinking before she said, "The purpose of the black-robed woman might be you or rather the Stigmata on your back, Ayame. And judging from the previous flow of events, you could have turned into Herrscher, though it was mostly because of that woman."

She then looked at Ayame and said, "You'd better join our organization to keep yourself safe."

Theresa began to tell Ayame about the 'independent' organization St. Freya Academy, unlike before, Theresa was not rejected and even Ayame without hesitation accepted Theresa's invitation.

(E/D: They are not truly independent as Otto still provides resources, albeit in small amounts, to St. Freya, they even have a mole student working with/for Otto in their school).

Well, Ayame only accepted Theresa's proposal in haste because Kouro was also part of St. Freya Academy.

After that, the four of them chatted for the next 2 hours.

Theresa and Kouro took the other 3 people to where they docked the Helios airship.

Before boarding the Helios plane, Theresa offered Sakura and Higokumaru a ride, but they still refused.

"Then, goodbye Sakura, Higokumaru, hopefully we can meet again someday." Kouro said as he extended his hand to shake hands.

Sakura looked at Kouro's outstretched hand for a moment before taking it and saying, "Let fate decide."

After saying goodbye, Kouro and the others then entered Helios.

Sakura and Higokumaru looked at the plane that began to fly into the sky and slowly accelerated, they both continued to look at the Helios until the plane was no longer visible.

Higokumaru's smile disappeared, replaced with a cold expression.

"I didn't expect that person would still carry out the Project, and in desperation, even chose to use an ordinary girl with natural Stigmata to serve as a guinea pig. Hahh, fortunately, I've locked down that person's location."

Sakura looked at Higokumaru's face without the slightest surprise at her sudden change of expression, she simply asked with her usual tone and expression.

"You mean that person?"

With the same cold expression, Higokumaru said in a low voice, "Yes, that person is Dr. Mobius."