The lounge next door to the strategy conference room.
Kujou Katora, a Senior Superintendent of the Investigation Bureau's Fourth Action Division, had been pinned to the table by a pack of girls.
The former "Blue-Faced Asura", who had once struck terror into countless people, looked utterly mortified and helpless now.
She had just swallowed a Combat Records entry with a satisfaction bonus. Her soft skin had barely been "peeled" out of her black full-body stockings before she was forced down onto the icy lounge table.
Katora's waist arched up on instinct.
Then… it was pressed back down.
After a faint shudder, those sharp, fearsome crimson eyes of "Miss Hound" stared blankly and soundlessly at the ceiling, looking as if they'd melted into jelly.
Katora was a Rakshasa to everyone except Su Yuzu, yet here she was, rarely showing such a thoroughly bullied, helpless face.
It couldn't be helped—
Whether it was Soga Yura, who usually kept her distance, or Saotome Yukina, who blushed so easily, or Mihou Sakai, who was so prone to self-doubt, or someone as dignified as Senior Tsukiyomi Fuya…
When Su Yuzu was in trouble and the only lead was right in front of them, none of them could keep up their reserve.
A mere "Empire's Hound"?
The consequences of "offending" Kujou Katora had all been tossed to the back of their minds.
That they hadn't stripped her bare on the spot probably already counted as restraint.
Besides… of everyone present, who would Katora even dare take revenge on?
Even Mihou Sakai, with her crippling self-doubt, had been nurtured and Fed with care by Su Yuzu, nine to five, clocking in every single day, tirelessly.
It was fair to say that behind every inch of Mihou Sakai's progress stood Su Yuzu's effort.
As for resistance… among the main force holding Katora down,
both Mihou Sakai and Sakura Mai were genuine body-enhancement Espers.
The Saintess, who looked "frail", hadn't joined the fray.
The only one Katora could possibly have shaken off… seemed to be Soga Yura, who really was frail.
But… one look at that pretty face, identical to Miss Yuzu's, and the urge to resist died before it could even rise.
Biting her lip, Katora watched the anxious girls reach to strip her right then and there.
"Wai… wait a second!!!"
The girls stopped. Pairs of eyes in every color stared straight at the persecuted Katora.
Inside the lounge—
Hayabusa, the only one who wasn't a proper member of the Su Yuzu support club, watched her superior with a gloating look.
Everyone in the lounge held a position of real power.
They also knew where to draw the line.
Hayabusa had no need to worry about Lady Kujou coming to any real harm.
She'd been the one on the receiving end year after year.
Now, at last, it was her turn to watch Lady Kujou get bullied.
And what's more~
it was a completely different kind of bullying from what Miss Yuzu did.
What's so fun about watching Lady Kujou get bullied by Miss Yuzu~? As a single dog, Hayabusa just felt like she'd had her mouth stuffed with dog food.
Pinned down by the shoulders and belly, Katora glared at Hayabusa's "hideous" expression. Other than furiously cursing in her head, "Your pay is docked!" "Your bonus is gone!" "Your performance rating, too!!!", she seemed powerless to do anything but accept the "bullying".
This kind of shame was not good at all.
It was nothing like being bullied by Miss Yuzu, where the more ashamed she was, the happier she was, and the happier she was, the more ashamed she felt for being happy about such a shameful thing, and so the vicious cycle repeated.
Katora used to think she simply liked being bullied, that the wicked Miss Yuzu had her wrapped around her finger.
Now it seemed… she only liked being bullied by Miss Yuzu.
She liked Miss Yuzu.
She hoped Miss Yuzu would like her too, just like… she liked dogs.
After accepting all this, the shame that spread through her from admitting her strange tastes gave Katora back a little of the feeling of being bullied by Miss Yuzu.
"Wait a second!!!" the wretched Katora cried out in a weak voice.
Pairs of eyes in different colors fixed on her.
"I…" Katora looked at Soga Yura.
"I…" Katora looked at Tsukiyomi Fuya.
"I'll do it myself!!!"
The girls let go.
Finally free, Katora wanted nothing more than to pounce on Hayabusa, but clearly… the girls would probably think she was trying to run and pin her to the table again.
All she could do was shout at Hayabusa, "What are you looking at!!!"
"Your pay is docked!!!"
Then she wrapped her arms around her chest and crouched on the floor.
She looked around at the eyes that seemed to be staring at her without blinking, and her hands, gripping the bandages at her chest, froze right there.
E-even if she liked Shame Play this much.
Even if everyone here was a girl.
They still couldn't just watch her like this.
Only then did the girls turn away one after another, backs to Katora.
Since her pay was docked anyway, Hayabusa turned around last.
Rustle, rustle… the faint sound of bandages being unwound.
Katora crouched there, curled up completely on the floor.
The front of her combat suit was short to begin with.
Back when she wore the full-body black stockings, it already looked like some kind of lewd play, like a character leaping out of an age-restricted game.
After Su Yuzu swapped the stockings away, it had turned straight into a Shame Play storyline.
One after another, the girls turned around and eagerly snatched up the bandages, which seemed to carry the soft scent of Katora's body.
The tips of Katora's ears grew redder and redder.
Watching those "villains" still glancing toward her shorts, she was so ashamed she wished she could evaporate off the face of the earth.
"Miss Yuzu…
is so mean."
"Way too mean!"
"Seriously, way too mean!!!"
If anyone but Katora had been bullied like this, they'd probably have fainted from shame by now.
She shook her head hard, hugging herself. "There's nothing left…"
"Really, there's nothing left."
Just then, a loose, oversized top dropped over Katora's shoulders.
She looked up. It was Hayabusa.
In just a tank top that bared her shoulders, arms and belly, Hayabusa looked far more athletic than the usual image of the frail desk clerk.
In a very, very small voice, Katora mumbled a thank-you. Under Hayabusa's resigned gaze, she squeezed into the crowd examining the roll of bandages.
Only… Sakura Mai, rubbing the bandage's material between her fingers, looked more and more strange.
She was sure of it: this was definitely something from the Sakura Dojo.
Sister Yuzu… couldn't really have… that kind of vice, could she?
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