She wasn't even married, and already she had a Little Yuzu.
She'd nearly skipped a step and gone straight to being a wet nurse.
Bracing herself on Lian's shoulders as she got up, Su Yuzu felt a bashful flush spread across her face.
Thank goodness the person she'd knocked flat underneath her was Lian, who came with the silent-type attribute.
If it had been anyone else, Su Yuzu would probably be shopping for a whole new world to live in.
Although… looking at that blank, wordless face of hers.
Lian would never do anything outrageous, but she also seemed to come with a never-gets-embarrassed attribute.
Even if Su Yuzu stood in front of her bare as the day she was born, Lian wouldn't turn her head aside out of modesty or anything else. She'd just go on staring straight at Su Yuzu as though nothing at all were happening.
That was a real problem.
Granted, a girl with an attribute like that could probably unlock all sorts of strange and interesting scenarios.
But when the one standing there squirming was herself, nothing about it felt strange or interesting anymore.
It took some doing to get off Lian's lap.
And then Su Yuzu discovered another awkward little problem.
She didn't have a thing to her name right now.
Not even a bathrobe to cover herself with.
This was the Aberrants' domain.
This hot spring had long since become a place where the Aberrant girls came to rest.
Bathrobes and such seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever for Aberrants.
Low Sequence Aberrants were sheathed head to toe in that black, silk-like material.
They had no use at all for a robe.
Besides, Kujou Iruka would never let them set foot in here.
As for high Sequence Aberrants like Lian, they had long since gained the ability to summon or dismiss their armaments at will.
Bathrobes, or clothes in general, were just as useless to them.
Even Kujou Iruka, back in the day, had needed nothing more than a spread of her wings for a one-touch outfit change, that formidable Aberrant power conjuring a military-style uniform directly onto her body.
Watching Kujou Iruka smile at her with narrowed eyes, a hint of threat buried in that gaze, Su Yuzu stood there and abruptly noticed there was a draft — and that the draft was distinctly chilly.
All Su Yuzu could do was crouch at the edge of the spring, hugging her knees.
The water barely covered the girl's calves, and Kujou Iruka had a perfectly clear view of the lines of her shoulders and spine.
Su Yuzu wanted to edge back just a little further… far enough for the water to reach her shoulders again, the way it had before.
But—
She met those dangerous dark golden vertical pupils.
Right before she'd blacked out, she had turned around and bitten Kujou Iruka.
However satisfying that bite had felt at the time, that was exactly how mortified Su Yuzu looked now.
She could only force her shoulders down and pull her knees in tighter.
Shrinking the amount of herself above the waterline as much as she possibly could.
Although… that left her back feeling cold, with the breeze practically licking at the small of her waist.
Kujou Iruka said nothing, but that expression of hers… she was plainly delighted beyond measure by the girl's flustered little pose.
She watched Su Yuzu—
Little Yuzu really had misunderstood her.
As if she were the sort to hold a grudge.
She was the most, most, most generous, most magnanimous creature alive.
She would absolutely, absolutely never do something like hauling a girl straight out of the hot spring.
And she certainly wouldn't string that girl up on a wooden post to dry.
Nor was she taking any pleasure or satisfaction from Su Yuzu's predicament.
Of course not~~~
A scrap of embarrassment this small — who could that possibly fill up?
Ahem—
What Kujou Iruka meant was, as if she were that petty, that unscrupulous.
At most, she would simply lend a helping hand whenever Su Yuzu tried to scoot backwards.
Kujou Iruka thought the smudges on Su Yuzu's face still hadn't been washed off properly.
The girl would have to come into Big Sister's arms and let her wipe them clean.
Faced with Kujou Iruka's threat, Su Yuzu could less afford than ever to let her find out about the "Material Inventory."
So she huddled in on herself, trembling, the very picture of a girl whose shame had detonated and who was one breath away from tears.
Kujou Iruka, who had sat up straight at some point, watched her.
Su Yuzu's acting really was exquisite. Even if Soga Yura had been standing here, she'd probably have believed the girl was genuinely dying of embarrassment.
But Kujou Iruka was an Aberrant.
An Aberrant that fed on human fear and human collapse.
The girl's shame was a delectable dessert to her, but… after that brief, delicious indulgence,
Kujou Iruka realized her dessert supply had been cut off.
As if Su Yuzu were the kind of girl who stayed embarrassed for long.
Forced into a passive position, she much preferred to turn on her opponent and wait for the chance to strike back.
Still, Kujou Iruka looked at the girl curled up there so pitifully, performing her shame.
The thought that the girl was putting on a show to please her—
That, unexpectedly, felt rather good too.
Although the Kujou Iruka of old would have walked over by now, ground the girl beneath her heel, and drunk in the spread of a helpless creature's terror.
If dessert was unavailable, there was nothing wrong with going straight to the main course.
Unfortunately, things weren't what they used to be.
Kujou Iruka had already been touched by Su Yuzu's "Hand of Paradox," and that influence sank deeper with every bit of contact between them.
All Su Yuzu could do was tip her head up slightly and watch Lian step out of the spring.
Black shadows wound their way around that pale white figure.
The familiar black Japanese-style bathrobe settled over the girl, leaving a pair of long, slender, pale legs on display.
At last, Lian brought Su Yuzu back a robe in the same style.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Su Yuzu changed with her back to Kujou Iruka.
Behind her, Kujou Iruka had already sprawled into a thoroughly pleased recline.
Su Yuzu could only curse her silently.
"What do you get out of bullying me, besides a moment's amusement!"
"Your Little Sister is in my hands, tame as a pet of mine."
"Your subordinates are in my hands now too!"
"One of these days… I'm going to pin you down on the tatami as well, and swipe the 'Combat Records' over you again and again."
"And then you'll learn what Purgatory really means."
Of course—
The script might just as easily flip, with Kujou Iruka thrilled out of her mind: 'Really? Isn't that heaven?'
If the sideless kimono from before had been cut to Kujou Iruka's size — a little loose on Su Yuzu, but perfectly wearable—
then this bathrobe was cut to Lian's.
A robe that was short to begin with, and its owner, Lian, stood half a head shorter than Su Yuzu even at full height.
The hem barely made it partway down her thighs.
Su Yuzu could only count herself lucky… at least Lian, petite as she looked, didn't have Soga Yura's ramrod-straight build.
The robe was on the short side, but she could just about wear it.
Barefoot, stepping gingerly over the slick pebbles, Su Yuzu turned back to look at Kujou Iruka.
"We—"
"need to talk."
"Sure~" Kujou Iruka didn't refuse.
Right in front of Su Yuzu, she rose without a trace of self-consciousness.
Her long, pale purple hair clung wetly to her body, and for a moment Su Yuzu genuinely had no idea where to aim her eyes.
"We~"
"need to talk."
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