Sakura Mai had heard that some girls had a strange compulsion to steal things.
It was a psychiatric disorder, a kind of impulse-control disorder.
And if the stolen items happened to be girls' underwear… the situation only got stranger and worse.
Still, Sakura Mai believed that adorable Sister Yuzu had no such bizarre vice.
In that case, this roll of her own bandages, passed along from Sister Yuzu's hands…
…only one explanation seemed left.
Last time at the bay, after she had assaulted Sister Yuzu, the "poor" and "helpless" Sister Yuzu must have been "miserably" cleaning up the scene all alone, and had taken the perpetrator's "evidence of guilt" with her.
At that thought—
Sakura Mai's expression abruptly turned strange and twisted.
She pictured Sister Yuzu dragging her sore, weak legs around to tidy up the "crime scene." Her heart softened at the sight, and then another thought struck her…
Sister Yuzu had been keeping this thing hidden all along in her spatial Holy Relic.
Tucked away safe and sound.
Until now, when the situation finally forced her to take it out.
This bandage, which had once been wrapped around her own body, which Sister Yuzu had hidden away out of "resentment" or perhaps "embarrassment," had just been taken off Superintendent Kujou, still warm. And now a whole crowd was gawking at it, passing it around, even… fighting over it.
In the lounge—
one more person had just died a social death.
"Yuzu is definitely in danger right now!!!" Soga Yura clutched the bandage, looking like she might burst into tears.
"What?" Sakura Mai leaned in, forcing herself to stay calm. She looked at Soga Yura, not quite following.
Hadn't Sister Yuzu written on the bandage that she was fine for the time being?
That she'd asked Soga Yura not to worry?
Soga Yura gripped the bandage and showed the girls the writing Yuzu had left on it.
In the crowd, Tsukiyomi Fuya shot her student a puzzled glance.
Why did Little Sakura's body temperature seem to have shot up all of a sudden?
Even her heartbeat was thumping faster and faster.
Was there some secret hidden in the message Little Yuzu had sent back, something only she and Little Sakura knew?
Or was it something else entirely?
Under Teacher Tsukiyomi Fuya's gaze, Sakura Mai felt like she was falling apart even more.
She hurriedly pressed Soga Yura to explain why she was claiming Sister Yuzu's situation was so dire.
Soga Yura stretched the bandage out flat.
Sakura Mai stared at the increasingly familiar bandage, her mind a jumble of mixed feelings, her expression growing more and more peculiar.
"Look!!!" Soga Yura pointed, wronged and pouting, at Yuzu's elegant, graceful handwriting.
"This is all Yuzu wrote about worrying over me!!!" Soga Yura pointed at a stretch that took up nearly half the bandage's writing space.
"And this is all she wrote asking after Superintendent Kujou!!!" She pointed at half of the remaining half.
"But!!!"
"The part praising that wretch is this long!!!" Soga Yura jabbed at the last bit of writing, which was less than a quarter of the whole, her cheeks puffing out as if about to burst.
Then Soga Yura cautiously glanced at Kujou Katora, who somehow looked even more sultry and dashing with the coat draped over her shoulders. "Superintendent Kujou… you won't mind if I curse your sister…"
Before Soga Yura could even finish, Kujou Katora cut her off coldly.
"She's not my sister."
"And… she really is a wretch."
"Ha… Ha-choo!!!" Kujou Iruka, sitting on a rooftop watching Su Yuzu, suddenly sneezed.
She propped her chin on her right hand, elbow resting on her knee, and her expression turned oddly serene. "Katora must be missing Sister~~~"
For some reason, Soga Yura and Sakura Mai both felt as though they were seeing, in Kujou Iruka and Kujou Katora, a glimpse of the strange relationship that Soga Yura and Su Yuzu once had.
Then again… there was probably a difference.
After all, Kujou Iruka had already fallen into the Abyss and been corrupted into an Aberrant.
Between her and Kujou Katora, they were now complete strangers.
Unless the miracle of the Seat of Evil could happen one more time.
Could the Seventh Sequence "Seat of Garan" really return to the human camp?
But if it was Sister Yuzu we were talking about, it actually seemed possible.
Sister Yuzu was a woman who could create miracles.
Beyond that… as she watched Soga Yura gesturing, a thin film of cold sweat broke out on Sakura Mai's forehead.
She suspected there was something wrong with Soga Yura's sense of space… no, with her math.
Sister Yuzu had clearly shown her so much concern!!!
This was a "letter" relayed through Kujou Katora, and still half of the lines were about Soga Yura.
What more did she want!!!
"And besides…"
"And besides…"
"This is the evidence of guilt I left behind myself, and Sister Yuzu didn't mention me in even a single word!!!"
But—
Sakura Mai still understood that Soga Yura had a point.
For Sister Yuzu to spend so much ink praising Kujou Iruka, there was only one possible explanation.
Sister Yuzu had written those words under Kujou Iruka's watch.
Sister Yuzu might be safe for the moment, but she was certainly not doing well.
They had to rescue her as soon as possible.
-
-
-
Meanwhile—
In a cabin at the foot of the Mountain, some distance from the Tokyo metropolitan area, Su Yuzu watched the "live broadcast" of Kujou Katora being bullied in front of everyone, and suddenly regretted not being there in person.
The Shame on the little Q-version chibi Kujou Katora's face as she was teased was vivid enough, but an expression like that was naturally far more satisfying to see live.
Su Yuzu's hand, which had been resting on the Material Inventory, ready to put Kujou Katora's bodysuit and black stockings back on her, quietly withdrew.
Letting her skin breathe for a while wasn't bad either~
As for going commando or whatever… Miss Katora had surely gotten used to it by now… ah, no, she'd get used to it sooner or later~
Then she saw the Q-version chibi of Lian racing back along the road.
A tiny dashing face, speed lines streaming behind it.
It even came with the Aberrants' signature black smoke effect.
The adorable expression on Lian's chibi made her smile.
The Aberrant girl looked as inorganic as a doll, yet sometimes she was surprisingly endearing.
Su Yuzu put away her pen and sat up straight, dutiful as could be.
Thump—
The door was pushed open.
Lian, still in her taciturn-girl form, appeared in the doorway holding a very cute black-and-white maid outfit… though one that probably didn't suit Su Yuzu very well.
Su Yuzu stared at the maid outfit in Lian's arms.
Somehow she had a feeling that if you cut this taciturn girl open, she wouldn't turn out to be black inside, would she?
"Lian?"
There was no way Su Yuzu could ask Lian to go find her another set of clothes.
She was half tempted to just pull one straight out of her Material Inventory.
Then again, Kujou Iruka probably already knew about the Material Inventory.
"Do I… really have to wear this?" Su Yuzu looked at the maid dress Lian had brought back.
And you could say Lian didn't understand… but the maid outfit the Aberrant girl had brought back came with stockings, garter straps, a collar, and an apron, all prepared.
The taciturn Aberrant girl simply thrust the maid outfit toward Su Yuzu, leaving no room whatsoever for refusal.
Su Yuzu gritted her teeth. Fine, she'd wear it!
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