After taking the contents of the box in for a few seconds, Yui looks up, frowning.

Yui: … What… What the hell is this?

Toi: We were alerted to the presence of a Witch at the lake, pretty much as soon as you left. But when we arrived, we found this. Whoever killed the Witch, didn’t even care about the Seed.

Anisa: … Almost as if the Seed wasn’t the point.

Toi: … C-Can I show her?

Anisa: Go ahead.

Toi: (with a sigh, she grabs a tablet computer from one of the mattresses and unlocks it, sliding and tapping on the screen until she finds the picture she was looking for) T-This girl was… Lying next to the crushed Grief Seed.

Anisa: Someone cut her Achilles tendons, then dragged her over to the lake and drowned her. We found water in her lungs.

Toi: They didn’t mean to kill her. They seemed to have operated explicitly to turn this girl into a Witch.

Yui: Whoever did this… fucking hell. They knew what they were doing… But what’s the point? Why go to that sorta trouble if they’re just gonna crush the Seed, anyway? Why not just crack the egg? Would be much faster…

Toi: Because that doesn’t give Kyubey the precious energy he needs.

Anisa: Which is why we think whoever did this is working for him.

Yui: Fuck, that’s right… it gets the energy from just the transition from Puella to Witch… God damn it…

Anisa: This isn’t the savagery of a Puella Malefica. This is… calculated cruelty. Utter despair delivered as efficiently as possible.

Toi: A professional.

Yui: I know this ain’t our kind. We don’t leave much of anything, no rhyme or reason. This was a calculated assassination… Do we know who the victim was?

Toi: (she winces, mournfully putting the tablet back where she found it)

Anisa: … Mirai Mizutani. One of Hikarizaka’s.

Yui: … I didn’t wanna see that kid killed. Sure, she was a pain, but we coulda… I could have… (she brings her fist down hard onto the floor)

Anisa: They’re inevitably going after Hikarizaka herself next.

Yui: Then that’s priority number one. We shore up the gym and make sure that nothin’ happens to Aoi. I’ll get Mei to stick around there. Maybe if I could figure out where the hell Hanako went off to…

Anisa: One more thing, Yui.

Yui: Hit me.

Anisa: There’s been too much going on lately for it all to be a coincidence. There might be more of Kyubey’s girls on the loose, and chances are likely they’ve been here for a long time. Trust no one.

Yui: … Including you? Or someone specific you’re referrin’ to?

Anisa: You already know I’m not to be trusted at this point.

Yui: About as far as I can throw ya, yeah. But I know you’re not lyin’ to me at least… But uh, one exception. I trust Alice with my life.

Toi: Sounds fair. Not much we should say to convince you otherwise.

Yui: How long d’we got before shit goes down?

Anisa: It’s already started.

Yui: … What, you think the shit Shiori’s up to?

Anisa: It’s too convenient to be a coincidence.

Yui: I’d call this insane except… her fucker of a father died the same day that Aoi nuked the Bureau HQ.

Anisa: Exactly.

Yui: Fuck… but like, Shiori wasn’t some sleeper agent. Just a dumbass with a band and a viral song. Then suddenly, she went all “Long Live the King” with a backdrop of the best damn lightshow for anyone fed up with the system… God damn, it’s adding up when I put it like that. But how the fuck did Shiori get caught up in a plot like this? It just ain’t like her.

Anisa: Kyubey must have noticed her potential.

Yui: She made a fucking contract?!

Anisa:  Isn’t it obvious? Those people she incited, they’re not doing as she pleases out of their own free will.

Yui: God damn it… god fucking damn it. I really need to get to Sis, kick her ass, and figure out what the fuck we do here. …We gotta keep Aoi safe, and my gym can be fortified and guarded. I gotta go after her though. Shiori… somethin’ ain’t right here. She even told me… fuck, she even told me that it might be the last time we see each other! God damn it!

Anisa: I’m sorry, Yui. We couldn’t save her.

Yui: No… No, it’s not too late. I have to go after Shiori. Has to be me. ‘Cause out of all of us that has power, I’m the only one that won’t use it to kill. …Sorry, Anisa. Shiori is mine. But I know you well enough to know there’s still more you wanna say. Right?

Anisa: Just… I hope you understand the nature of this crisis. You and yours’ve always been a nuisance to whichever threat you’ve faced. An obstacle. A useful pawn, at best. This time, you’re the target. Kyubey will not rest until you and all your friends are dead.

Yui: …I think I’m gonna take you seriously this time. Lookin’ at all this shit I was blind to while Aoi was doing her thing… and all while the fucking Oracle was out of goddamn town. And she knew… she fucking knew! I swear, if Cecilia’s a part of this…

Anisa: Like I said, a perfect storm.

Yui: I’m gonna kick Sis’s fucking ass. But like… ugh. No. Gotta stop an’ think here. Anisa, help me think, will ya?

Anisa: If you’d give me something to work with…?

Yui: I don’t trust Cecilia. At all. But I don’t wanna believe she’s behind all this. It doesn’t add up.

Anisa: What motive would she have to team up with Kyubey? If anything, she’s one of his main targets.

Yui: … Right. Right, ’cause she’s one of us, after all. And she’s pullin’ strings of her own. Just… not these strings.

Anisa: Kyubey knows what he’s up against. Remember, he was the one who granted her her powers to begin with. He probably knows them better than she herself does. Suffice to say, it’s not foolish to assume he’s devised of some way to dodge her vision.

Yui: … Somehow, I doubt that. Look, the Incubator called us “experiments” before, right? Or it did with Kae. The cat can dish out power, then see what we do with it. But you know as well as I do that human beings are dangerous things to give this kinda power to. And Kyubey is many things, but it’s trying to get that energy by any means necessary. Y’think that narrowmindedness wouldn’t bite it sometime? No… it’s probably more likely that Kyubey is scared of the Oracle. Hear me out. Have any of us seen the cat since Kae was taken down? Probably hoped that Aoi would go through with that Walpurgisnacht stuff, and that it’d just level the city and be done with the whole mess. Right?

Anisa: … Not necessarily. Remember, if you were Kyubey, wanted what he wanted, wouldn’t you want Hikarizaka herself taken out most of all?

Yui: Right. But she had a hell of a plan and weapon at her disposal. And a lot of really powerful enemies that Kyubey’d want taken out too.

Anisa: … Where are you going with this?

Yui: Whatever got Shiori like this, and whatever killed Mirai. This is… this’s gotta be the cat’s last ditch backup plan. It must’ve hoped that we’d all kill each other with Aoi’s shit, or at the very least, one side took the other out. But you’re alive, and so is Aoi. So, it’s gotta be gettin’ desperate here.

Anisa: I certainly hope so.

Yui: But ’cause I didn’t kill anyone… I think we stand a shot. If we can get everyone on the same page. Don’t trust anyone, you’re not wrong. But we can’t go around doubtin’ each other now either. We have to stand united, or we all go down together.

Anisa: … I sure hope that’s still possible after what Hikarizaka did.

Yui: It’s me we’re talkin’ about here. I mean, you let me in through the front door, after all. But that’s why I gotta find Hanako. I think if I can get through to her, I got a window to the rest of ’em.

Anisa: You’re welcome to try.

Yui: That’s what I do.