After Sophie, Aoi, and Shiho left to get their ice creams, Senzo was looking at Yugiri, who was greedily devouring her ice cream like her life depended on it, without a care for the other person who was left in the room.
Kaoru looked around awkwardly trying to find a good moment to start a conversation, but her hands kept fidgeting with the hem of her uniform. Seeing Senzo smile like that after casually manhandling her, she felt rather conflicted.
"Um."
Was the only thing that came out of her mouth, and she was hoping that Senzo would hear it, but alas, it wasn't that easy.
Senzo was warmly looking over Yugiri whose face was covered in ice cream, but she had a silly smile on her face and was loving the treat.
"Is it that good?" Senzo asked with a sigh.
"Yesh!" Yugiri exclaimed as ice cream splattered everywhere.
"You need to be a little more mindful of your manners, you know. But for today you can do what you want," Senzo said with a wry smile.
That's when he turned around and looked straight at Kaoru, who looked miserable, trying to get his attention but not wanting to overstep her boundaries and anger him.
"Just spit it out already; it's painful looking at you like that."
"Ah!"
Caught off guard, Kaoru almost stumbled over air, but she straightened her posture quickly and puffed her nonexistent chest out proudly.
"Took you long enough," She muttered before taking a seat at the table with a serious expression on her face.
"I assume you know about the prediction, right?" she asked, clasping her hands together in front of her.
"Yeah, I have heard about it even though I don't know all the details," Senzo casually replied, placing Yugiri on his lap.
Kaoru heaved a sigh of relief; that helped a lot. Even if he didn't know any of its contents, just knowing about the prediction was a big step forward.
"So the reason why Minamoto and Babel are trying to capture Hyoubu and Pandra is because of this prediction that Babel's precognitive section made."
"Oh? Now you got me interested. Do tell me more," Senzo said, his earlier nonchalance gone, but he was still patting Yugiri's head lovingly.
"Ahem, so according to the precognitive section, the Catastrophe will sink," Kaoru said staring Senzo straight in the eye.
Even though he had given his word that he would stay here and not interfere, it was a different story if the whole Catastrophe and everyone who was still onboard was in danger, and she knew that better than anyone.
After all, if Shiho and Aoi were in danger on a ship that she knew would sink, she wouldn't hesitate a second to break every promise she has made to enemies.
And the moment those words left her mouth, she felt the relaxed atmosphere shift slightly, but that was even more terrifying in her eyes; someone who could control his own powers this proficiently even when facing a dire crisis was perhaps even more dangerous than Hyoubu himself.
"Just to be sure, I will ask this, but how accurate are those predictions?"
Now even Yugiri was paying attention to the conversation; after all, her friends and everyone the captain had saved were on that ship.
She grabbed hold of Senzo's sleeve tightly while tears started forming at the edges of her eyes; her earlier joy of devouring that ice cream was now completely gone.
"I can't say that it has a hundred percent accuracy in its prediction, but it is very accurate most of the time. So please stay away from the Catastrophe and let Minamoto and the others protect it," she proposed.
"Is that why they're so desperate to capture Hyoubu and the others?" Senzo asked, while trying to calm the panicking little girl on his lap.
"Yes."
"While that sounds good, I don't think I can do that. After all, like this it sounds like you want me to just desert them." Senzo countered that his eyebrows were twitching, but he kept it all inside and stayed calm.
"But..." And right as she wanted to counter, Sophie, Aoi and Shiho returned.
The two girls had massive smiles on their faces as they were both holding massive ice creams like Yugiri, and Sophie was smiling broadly.
"Let's go explore the city now," She said, clapping her hands.
But right after she said that, she felt the tense atmosphere surrounding her, with Senzo trying to calm down a sniffling Yugiri and Kaoru tightly clasping her hands together, glaring at Senzo.
"What's going on?"
Turning her head a little sideways, Sophie was trying to figure out what was going on, but nothing came to mind.
What could have possibly happened for the atmosphere to get this tense and Yugiri to become so distraught?
"Don't worry about it, let's go," Senzo casually said and just like that the luxurious room vanished and they were standing in the middle of the busy city once more.
But the moment the room disappeared, Kaoru took off without warning; she flew straight up and rushed toward the sea at full speed.
"What!?"
Kaoru!""
Aoi and Shiho were completely caught off guard, and just as they were also about to take off, they felt the space around them become solid.
"!?!"
Alarmed, they stared at the only one capable of that among the three and just as they wanted to ask what the hell was going on, Senzo opened his mouth.
"Just let her be, and stay here. You two should just relax and sit this one out. After everything is over, you can ask Kaoru everything you want to know, understand?" Senzo was trying to sound as firm as possible while still not ordering them.
"I will now loosen the space around you two, but the moment I see any strange movements, I will trap you two until everything is over."
All the two girls could do was hold back their curiosity and obey Senzo's command; after all, without Kaoru here, they stood no chance against him.
With a sigh, Senzo released the restrictions he put around them slowly, first their heads, then their upper bodies, and finally their lower bodies.
The two girls staggered a little bit but quickly regained their balance and glared at Senzo hatefully, but they didn't do anything that could be seen as trying to escape.
Instead, they walked forward, stomping their feet to show their displeasure.
"Haaah, what a pain," Senzo muttered, rubbing his temples.
"Would you please explain what the hell is going on?!" Sophie demanded while trying to make sure the girls couldn't hear them.
But Senzo had already expected something like that and had sealed all sound from leaking out the moment the girls started stomping forward.
"It's a bit of a long story, but to give you the gist, apparently there's a prediction made that the Catastrophe will sink, and that's why Babel is trying to capture Hyoubu and the others."
"What!?"