Sullenly, she sat in the plain Japanese-style room.
Su Yuzu looked at the girl in front of her.
Sweat streamed down Su Yuzu's body and had long since soaked through the silk slip she wore.
It wasn't as if she'd been bullied so badly that she'd faint dead away and sleep through the racket going on outside.
Almost at the very moment Kujou Iruka spread her wings and slipped into that elegant, seductive evening gown… Su Yuzu had woken from her nightmare.
Mm.
The nightmare.
In it, she was bound to a strange interrogation chair while a horned demon sitting behind her breathed against her ear without pause, brushing her earlobe.
Even now, the memory made Su Yuzu want to shiver.
The woman in the torturer's uniform had gradually taken on a clearer face in the dream, until she became Kujou Iruka, the corners of her lips curled upward.
Inside the cramped Japanese-style room, the air itself seemed to carry the floral scent that rose from the girl's body in a mist of steaming sweat.
Dark golden vertical pupils were fixed on Su Yuzu without letting go.
"I'm sorry… Lady Yuzu—" Lian stood guard over the room's only exit. "Lady Kujou said…"
"Under no circumstances are you to leave this place."
Both Lian and Su Yuzu could feel how fierce the fighting outside was.
The Seventh Sequence. Kujou Iruka, an existence like a god descended to earth.
The Sixth Sequence Esper with the greatest destructive power—
Tsukiyomi Fuya, calling down the falling stars.
Su Yuzu closed her eyes—
She could practically feel the riotous aura within Kujou Iruka's erosion domain. The laws of the world were being twisted and shattered, again and again, by this ultimate battle.
For now, Kujou Iruka still held the upper hand.
The calm, stable erosion domain around them was proof enough.
Even surrounded by the team that had come to rescue Su Yuzu, Kujou Iruka had power to spare.
And yet all of it seemed to have nothing to do with her and Lian.
This little house standing amid the ruins felt cut off from the world.
The girl in the ink-black yukata knelt formally in front of the room's only exit, pinning Su Yuzu here as firmly as a nail.
Su Yuzu didn't much want to provoke Lian.
After all, Lian was a newly recruited Operator of her own.
Besides, she was Fifth Sequence, with a Talent and an Inherent Ability, [Fate Stripping] and [Godslayer], that both looked like trouble to cross.
If she really did push the girl too far, it was hard to say whether she'd end up bullying Lian or Lian would end up straddling and pinning her down.
Su Yuzu drew in her soft, white feet.
As an aftereffect of being held and tormented in Kujou Iruka's arms, her legs were still so weak that she couldn't even curl her toes.
She had been "tormented and bullied" all night.
And Lian, off to one side, had spent the whole night "suppressing and charging up."
With the balance tipped like that, Su Yuzu, already the weaker party, couldn't afford to make any rash moves.
"I just want to take a bath." Su Yuzu tugged at the hem of her lace slip, soaked through with sweat. She sat right in front of Lian, bent at the waist, hands pressed together in a pleading pose as she begged the girl.
In Kujou Iruka's embrace, she'd been stripped almost bare.
All that remained was the lace camisole slip, the very last line of defense.
Soaked with sweat, the silk was already sheer as air, and with the girl tugging at it like that… when Su Yuzu bent forward, even a silent-type like Lian involuntarily hunched over… and shifted her gaze elsewhere.
Too sinful.
It was truly… far too sinful.
The girl, already under the influence of the "Hand of Paradox," could barely keep her back straight.
Was Su Yuzu doing it on purpose?
Yes, but… not quite.
Perhaps even Su Yuzu herself had no idea how devastating she was at this moment.
But still—
Watching the silent-type Aberrant girl's eyes dart and dodge, helpless to stay on her, Su Yuzu knew—
Her battle plan was a roaring success.
Hands still pressed together in front of her, Su Yuzu even shuffled closer to Lian.
The silent girl who was supposed to be guarding the door actually shrank back, instinctively, as the girl came creeping toward her on her knees.
Lady Yuzu… she's so close…
That scent, so good it's almost too much…
The scent that had been steaming and spreading through the whole room… it feels like it all rushed at me at once.
The Aberrant girl's Dark golden vertical pupils shimmered with a watery gleam, flickering unsteadily, the pupils trembling faintly.
Lady Yuzu…
Her dodging gaze landed on the bend of Su Yuzu's kneeling legs.
For a girl facing Su Yuzu head-on, the faint curves there seemed to leave nowhere to hide.
S-so… so…
Like Kujou Iruka, this girl was an Aberrant too, and she had no resistance at all against the shifting emotions of Shame that Su Yuzu showed.
It was seductive past all reason.
What's more, Lian had been "bent" by Su Yuzu.
[Ding—]
[Seduction: Lian's Favorability +1.]
[Favorability increase reward obtained: the wooden hairpin the girl has been longing for.]
[The wooden hairpin Lian saw while sneaking into a human town with Kujou Iruka. It seems to stir memories of her past.]
[After Kujou Iruka stole it, she seems to have been planning to give it to her subordinate as a gift someday.]
Su Yuzu could already picture it: the silent girl following Kujou Iruka into town, saying nothing when she spotted something she liked, and Kujou Iruka, who saw right through her feelings, noticing and snatching it for her.
Only… stole it?
Well, at least she hadn't robbed it outright. How considerate.
Looking at the wooden hairpin that had appeared in her Material Inventory, Su Yuzu thought it looked just like the one Unohana Chiyo wore, the kind reserved for elegant, mature women.
After a moment's thought, Su Yuzu simply fished a Favorability Gift for Unohana Chiyo out of her Material Inventory.
"Lian~~~" Su Yuzu could feel that the girl's gaze seemed unable to look away.
Only… she couldn't tell whether Lian was staring at the hairpin in Su Yuzu's hand, or at the person holding it.
"Please… please, Lady Yuzu, don't put me in a difficult position!!!" The Aberrant girl's expression looked like it was about to crack.
Su Yuzu simply pressed right up against her.
As long as she didn't try to force her way out, Su Yuzu had no need to worry that Lian would tangle her up and pin her to the tatami like Kujou Iruka had.
"Didn't that wretch Kujou Iruka say… 'Give Miss Yuzu whatever she asks for, as far as possible'?"
"It's only a bath."
"If Lian doesn't trust me, you can watch me the whole time."
Su Yuzu was practically pressed down on top of the girl.
Once she stepped out of this house, out of this house reinforced by the power of Kujou Iruka's "Garan," then wouldn't it be a case of birds soaring through the endless sky and fish leaping in the boundless sea?
And once she was out of the house, how far could the battlefield possibly be?
"But… but…"
Su Yuzu could already sense that Lian was about to give in.
Right at that moment—
"Yuzu-senpai!!!"
"Sister Yuzu… Sis…?"
The door of Kujou Iruka's house was suddenly flung open.
Mihou Sakai and Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi stood there, utterly stunned, staring at Su Yuzu, who looked for all the world like she was about to pin the Aberrant girl to the tatami and "bully" her.
"Sorry! We're so sorry to interrupt!!!"
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