Taming SSR And UR RANK Superwomen-Chapter 73 — Hierarchies

She fought in three directions at the same time.

With a sword in her hand and whips in the air and portals on the ground and along the walls of the dirt mounds, creating angles of attack that had no fixed logic and were therefore difficult to anticipate.

But she was exhausted.

That was visible too. Her movements were still precise, but the intervals between them were growing longer.

The sword weighed more than it had at the beginning, or at least that was what the way her shoulders carried it suggested. Her feet found the ground with less certainty.

Freja waited.

She did not attack when she could have attacked. She observed Inori’s rhythm, the pattern of her portals, the moment when her attention focused on Evelyne and the moment when it split toward Seraphine. She waited until she found the interval she was looking for.

Then her three tentacles shot forward at the same time.

Two of them caught Inori’s arms and restrained them before she could open a portal to redirect them. The third coiled around her waist and lifted her off the ground.

The shadow sword dissolved.

Without Inori’s concentration sustaining it, the energy dispersed and the whips that formed it fell like smoke.

Inori tried to open portals. She opened two before Evelyne arrived and struck her right forearm with the prosthetic, not with full force but with enough to interrupt the movement she needed to aim. The portal opened on the ground beneath them, and the whip that came out of it didn’t hit anyone.

Seraphine arrived from the front.

Her boot connected with Inori’s side with a strike that was not meant to be elegant but effective. Inori exhaled sharply, and her body bent over the point of impact as much as Freja’s tentacles allowed.

Freja threw her to the ground.

Inori hit the dirt on her side. She rolled. Her skirt tore against the gravel, the fabric giving way in a long rip that exposed her white underwear, clean against the contrast of dirt and the dried blood at her mouth. Her breasts remained exposed, pressing against the cold ground when she ended face down.

She stayed still.

Her whips emerged one last time, slow, without direction, dragging along the ground like something that functioned more on muscle memory than will. Then they stopped.

Inori did not get up.

The silence of the construction zone settled over the four of them.

Freja lowered her tentacles. Seraphine brushed the dirt from her hands. Evelyne looked at Inori’s body on the ground with the same expression she used for everything.

Ashley landed behind them.

Her feet touched the ground without a sound, and she walked forward until she stood beside them, looking at Inori with her arms crossed.

"You won."

A pause.

"It took you too long."

The three of them looked at her.

"You can’t afford to be that slow." Her tone was not harsh, but neither was it soft. It was the tone of someone who says something because it is true and because it matters. "Inori was exhausted before you even reached this area. With that level of fatigue, you should have finished her in half the time."

Freja opened her mouth.

Ashley looked at her.

Freja closed her mouth.

"We’ll work on it later." Ashley turned her head slightly to the side.

Behind them, footsteps on the dirt were calm and steady.

Thomas walked forward with his hands in his pockets, looking at Inori Himiko lying on the ground, exposing her white panties and her bare chest. Her mouth stained with blood.

Inori let out a gasp.

It was not voluntary. It was the kind of sound that comes out when the body no longer has the energy to contain it, when pain surpasses the ability to maintain composure.

She lay face down on the dirt, with Freja’s tentacles wrapped around her torso, her arms, and her legs, immobilizing her with a firmness that left no room to move.

Her breathing was irregular. Uneven.

"Why...?"

Her voice came out fractured. It was not the tone of someone demanding an answer, but of someone who genuinely did not understand.

"Why are you doing this to me?" She lifted her head from the ground with effort, dirt stuck to her cheek and dried blood at the corner of her mouth. Her golden eyes were wet. "How can you be so cruel... to your own?"

The silence that followed was not uncomfortable. It was simply silence.

Evelyne crouched down and adjusted the mechanism of her prosthetic with the disinterested tone of someone doing something routine while speaking.

"Accept it as soon as you can."

She did not look at her.

"Once you were targeted by this individual, there is nothing left to be done." She finished adjusting the mechanism and straightened up. "It’s better to stop prolonging the torture and accept it."

Inori looked at her.

Tears fell without her making any effort to stop them, not out of desperation but exhaustion, the kind of crying that has no drama because there is no energy left for it.

"I can’t believe..." Her voice trembled. "I can’t believe how cruel you’re being by saying that."

A few meters away, Lucía clicked her tongue.

Her arms were crossed, and her eyes were fixed on the scene with an expression of contained anger, the kind that does not explode because the one feeling it knows that exploding would serve no purpose.

Beside her, Selene looked at her with something closer to concern, her hands together in front of her and her eyes moving between Inori and the ground.

"We’re supposed to be on the same team." Inori’s voice broke on the last word. She looked at Freja, at Seraphine, at Evelyne. "Why are you betraying me like this?"

Freja slapped her.

It was not a strong blow, but neither was it soft. It was the kind of slap meant to interrupt, to cut something off before it kept growing.

"Stop saying stupid things."

Her voice held no cruelty but no compassion either. It was direct in the same way someone is direct when saying something they consider obvious.

"We don’t even respect each other." Her tentacles tightened their hold on Inori’s body without her consciously ordering it, a reflex. "Hierarchies exist. To determine who has the strongest power. To determine who has the best appearance. To determine who occupies what place on what list." A pause. "Among women, there is no such thing as the same team. There never was. And there never will be."

Inori closed her eyes.

"Please." Her voice was a thread. "Please, let me go."

Freja slapped her two more times, quick, one after the other.

"Accept the contract." Her tone did not change. "That’s the point of this. So accept it and we’ll end this."

Inori did not respond.

Freja waited.

A few steps away, Ashley approached Thomas with a movement that did not draw the group’s attention. She spoke in a low voice, just enough for him to hear.

"Can we talk for a moment in private?"

Thomas looked at her briefly and nodded. They moved a few steps away from the group, toward the side of the construction area where the light was dimmer and the noise from Inori came muffled.

Ashley looked at him directly.

"Is it right to do this?"

It was not an accusation. It was a genuine question, the kind asked by someone who wants to understand before forming an opinion.

Thomas took a moment.

"For now, yes." He put his hands in his pockets. "Inori exceeds my Domestication rank. That means the process has to be voluntary. I can’t force it."

Ashley analyzed that in silence. Her eyes briefly moved toward where Inori was and then returned to him.

"So that’s why you’re doing this. So she accepts voluntarily."

"Yes." A pause. "But I don’t enjoy the process either."

He said it without dramatics, like a fact.

"Until I find a way to Domesticate them in their sleep, I have to resort to this. It’s what there is for now."

Ashley frowned slightly.

"When will that be?"

"The best method I discovered was when we went to the Abyss." Thomas looked at the ground for a moment. "I’d have to spend time there. Kill monsters. Rank up."

Ashley processed that.

"Was it then?" She looked at him. "When your mother had your heroines put on a demonstration in the Abyss?"

Thomas nodded.

"Um..."

Both of them turned their heads.

Selene was a few steps away, with one hand raised at shoulder height in a timid gesture and her eyes moving between the two with the expression of someone unsure whether interrupting had been a good idea.

"Excuse me."

"It’s a private conversation." Ashley’s voice was firm, without hostility but without room for interpretation.

"It’s fine." Thomas interrupted calmly. "Selene can be part of any conversation."

Ashley looked at Thomas for a second. Then she stepped slightly aside, opening the space between them so Selene could approach.

Selene walked forward in short steps.

"I don’t know if it’s wise to share this now." She took her phone out of her pocket and held it in front of her without showing it yet, as if deciding until the last moment. "But it felt important."

She looked at them.

"I saw on the news that the police are heading here. They saw you fighting in the street."

Ashley stepped closer to her. She left no space between them, leaning slightly toward the phone to look at the screen. Selene did not move, but her shoulders lifted a centimeter.

On the screen, a live broadcast showed a street Thomas recognized. Police units were moving in formation, and a reporter was speaking in front of the camera with the building in the background.

Ashley watched the broadcast for three seconds.

"They’re tracking you down."

"The broadcast is delayed by twenty minutes," Selene said. "So they should be very close."

Thomas exhaled slowly and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand.

"Where do we take Inori?" He looked toward where Freja was still holding her. "It doesn’t seem like she wants to be Domesticated here."

"My university is impossible." Ashley did not hesitate. "Don’t even think about it."

Thomas nodded. He raised his voice enough for it to reach the group.

"Seraphine."

Seraphine turned her head. She walked toward him with steady steps while the rest of the group followed her with their eyes without moving.

She stopped in front of him.

"Master."

"Is there space in Catherine’s mansion to keep Inori locked up for a while? Until we can Domesticate her."

Seraphine did not take long to respond.

"Yes." Her expression did not change. "There is a very large basement. There is also a silent room."

A brief pause.

"Catherine used it as a torture chamber for her maids."

Thomas looked at her for a moment.

"Take her there. Tie her up well." He turned toward the group. "I’ll go later."