Therestina mocks Mikoto who has seen the dark side of Academy City which she told her the last time they meet. When Mikoto refuses to leave until she gets information to save Febri, Therestina reveals that Febri is an artificial human called a Chemicaloid and her creators were going to show her for the Academic Assembly. As Mikoto relays this to the others, also informing them about the severity of Febri's condition, Mitsuko, Kinoho and Maaya help Kazari identify the man after Febri as Haruki Aritomi, a long time winner of the Academic Assembly. Kazari's investigations discover that Aritomi and other student geniuses formed the STUDY Corporation, and bought a factory which they suspect is where Febri and her lollipops were made. Mikoto heads to the factory where she discovers ITEM fighting against mechs sent by STUDY, which she learns the capsules insides the mechs are controlling them via a form of psychokinesis. After ITEM leaves, Mikoto infiltrates the factory and finds Shinobu. Shinobu admits she taught Febri Mikoto's name so she would be protected by her and gives Mikoto the data to make more neutralizer lollipops. However, Aritomi arrives, revealing the data she has is fake as he suspected Shinobu was a traitor. Aritomi orders Shinobu to inject Mikoto with a tranquilizer if she wants the real neutralizer data which Mikoto allows. However, Aritomi breaks his word and destroys the data, revealing Febri is just a spare to his true project, Janie.