She rose from the bathwater, languid and unhurried.
Su Yuzu watched Kujou Iruka.
The white steam curling up through the hot spring bath was, all things considered, rather badly timed.
All Su Yuzu could do was watch the beaded water slide down along Kujou Iruka's face. The woman's waist was slender, her long legs straight and firm.
To her eyes, the drifting white steam grew steadily more transparent.
Kujou Iruka stretched slowly, and every line of her was lovely.
Unlike Su Yuzu, who looked like the subject of some Shame Play scenario, Kujou Iruka did not mind displaying all of that loveliness in front of her.
In fact... she seemed to think it was only right.
Of course Su Yuzu ought to be staring at her, gaze practically nailed in place, unable to look away at all.
Kujou Iruka seemed to have no sense of shame whatsoever.
Of course—
Only seemed.
It was simply that by the time Kujou Iruka felt any shame, Su Yuzu had already fainted dead away.
When Su Yuzu had bitten down on Kujou Iruka's wing, Iruka had been so humiliated and furious that she'd wanted to pin the girl to the ceiling with a single arrow.
The black wings shook themselves open, cutting off Su Yuzu's view.
That, Su Yuzu had to criticize.
She still treated her like an outsider.
Within the black feathers, a pale white arm held a wide peaked cap.
Kujou Iruka slowly settled the military-style peaked cap onto her head, and the trench coat she wore draped over her shoulders like a cloak slid down into place.
It was different from the outfit she'd worn when she took Su Yuzu around the night market.
This time... Kujou Iruka had changed into something quite formal — an honor-guard dress tunic and a short skirt.
Boots over the knee.
And a little different from last time, too.
On one side Kujou Iruka's pale leg was bare, absolute territory on full display; on the other... a black stocking that vanished up under the hem of her skirt.
Kujou Iruka seemed rather fond of this crisp, dashing style.
Sometimes Su Yuzu had to marvel at how easily high-ranking Aberrants handled Catastrophe Crystals.
To ordinary people, or even to standard Espers, Catastrophe Crystals were poison. In their hands, they were as easy to play with as toys.
"This—"
Su Yuzu suddenly thought of the Kujou Iruka from the game's story, the one who wandered around wearing almost nothing but a pair of over-the-knee stockings.
She knew perfectly well that was most likely a design choice by the game itself.
Its main purpose being to remind Su Yuzu: we are, after all, an eroge, so could you show us a little respect and stop trying to speedrun us?
'Even when you're bullying girls, all you think about is the fastest route.'
'Come on, look~'
'Isn't this Kujou Iruka delicious?'
'Isn't she fun to pick on?'
'Wouldn't it be nice to haul her back into the Home system and set her out as a piece of furniture?'
She knew all that—
But it never stopped Su Yuzu, whenever she felt like talking trash about Kujou Iruka, from inventing all sorts of strange fetishes for her.
Apart from the [Godmother's Laurel], which Kujou Iruka simply could not pry loose — it clung to Su Yuzu as though it intended to squat there forever — even the [Immaculate Pure Land] fastened around Su Yuzu's ankle had been taken off her by Kujou Iruka.
Wearing nothing but a far-too-short yukata robe, Su Yuzu hobbled along behind Kujou Iruka, deeper into the woods.
Su Yuzu had always been on the soft and delicate side.
Her constitution wasn't as pampered as Soga Yura's, granted.
But it wasn't rugged enough to walk barefoot across open ground either.
Without the protection of the [Immaculate Pure Land], the moment a pebble jabbed into the sole of her foot, her leg nearly gave out and dropped her flat on the ground.
Yet for Aberrants like Kujou Iruka and Lian, the fact that they had managed to keep even a few articles of clothing intact was already no small feat.
And after Su Yuzu fainted, she had somehow forced both Kujou Iruka and Lian out of their Aberrant forms without either of them understanding how.
Lian's small, soft toes pressed together.
The wooden clogs conjured from Catastrophe Crystals knocked lightly against each other with a clear, crisp sound.
She didn't dare take them off and give them to Su Yuzu, who at the moment was nothing more than an ordinary human girl.
The silent-type Aberrant girl gently took hold of Su Yuzu's arm to steady her.
She didn't say a single word.
But Su Yuzu could faintly sense it: Lian was toying with the idea of scooping her up in both arms and simply carrying her to their destination.
That would be far too yuri, far too shameful.
Though on the way here, she had very likely been carried exactly like that by Lian.
But back then she'd been unconscious. Now that she was perfectly fine... how could she possibly go along with it?
Su Yuzu limped onward, every step an effort.
The silent-type Aberrant girl supported her, and at the same time swept aside the thorns, the loose stones, and whatever else might have hurt a girl's bare legs and feet.
Kujou Iruka watched Lian with a very odd look on her face.
In twenty years, she had never once seen Lian take the initiative.
In Kujou Iruka's eyes, Lian was like an oversized doll with little capacity for thought — obedient, well-behaved, diligently executing every order given to her.
And yet this same Lian, who for twenty years at her side had been a block of wood incapable of conversation...
How was it that on her very first day around Su Yuzu, she'd figured out how to reach over and help someone up?
Faintly... Kujou Iruka felt something familiar stir — the same feeling she'd had the first time she saw Kujou Katora going as docile as a big dog in front of Su Yuzu, pining after her day and night, practically ready to move into Keigunen Private Academy. That feeling of having strayed into the Green Green Grasslands.
Meanwhile—
The harder the girl tried to ignore what was underfoot, the more her tender, hypersensitive soles kept reporting it: that pebble grinding into the arch of her foot, that aching soreness that wouldn't let her straighten her leg.
Painful, and pleasurable at once, you might say.
Fortunately, the walk wasn't long.
Su Yuzu soon found herself back in Kujou Iruka's territory.
Aberrants didn't have much capacity for thought.
They could only carry out very simple orders.
Asking them to build a house was, for them, nothing short of abuse.
So, since Kujou Iruka had personally leveled the Japanese-style house she'd gone to such trouble to repair, she and Su Yuzu had no choice but to cross to the other side, to the plainer, humbler room that belonged to Lian.
The room still looked like it contained nothing at all besides tatami.
Compared with the house where Su Yuzu had been held before, it had exactly one addition: a single low table.
"Could I have my phone back..."
"I just want to tell Sister I'm safe." Kneeling formally in front of Kujou Iruka, Su Yuzu wheedled in a small, coaxing voice.
All she could do was hope Kujou Iruka wasn't the type to hold a grudge.
Clearly—
Even if Kujou Iruka wasn't the grudge-holding type, she had just watched a subordinate who'd followed her for twenty years — one who had never taken initiative even once, a lump of wood—
—crack open like a sealed gourd on her very first day with Su Yuzu. Even a heart as vast as the sea would have that sea churning into vinegar.
"Of course..."
"—NOT!!!"
____
________________________________________
💖 Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 10 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter to warm your hearts.
🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.
👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉