She gave Su Yuzu one long, searching look.
The remarkably tall maid of Shingai Hitomi's household bowed to Su Yuzu with grave, perfect formality and offered her thanks.
After handing over the Shingai family's card, the tall maid wheeled Shingai Hitomi out of the restaurant.
Watching that girl's retreating back, Su Yuzu was left with a strange, oddly delicate feeling.
Those words... were those really the last thing that girl had wanted to say to her?
Tap, tap—
Soga Yura, having already settled the bill, came to stand beside Su Yuzu, her gaze fixed on the direction Shingai Hitomi had gone.
"That girl..."
"She's dangerous."
"I know," Su Yuzu said with a small nod.
From the very first glance, Su Yuzu had caught the faint scent of danger clinging to Shingai Hitomi.
And Su Yuzu had always trusted her instincts.
"She may look exactly like the Yuzu of the past — no abilities at all..."
"But—"
"The existence called Shingai Hitomi is no simple thing."
Soga Yura went on explaining. "The Shingai family is an extremely old house.
"Many, many years ago, the Soga family already had dealings with them.
"They control the underground trade markets of the Tokyo metropolitan area.
"Plenty of organizations like the Night Owl Group... the ones sheltering them from behind the curtain are the Shingai family."
"Actually..." Tennouji Jurei, who had drifted to Su Yuzu's side at some point, had heard Soga Yura as well. "Places like the 'Tsukimisato' that Little Yuzu visited before."
At the mention of the "Tsukimisato," Tennouji Jurei's serene, unbothered gaze took another lazy pass over Sakura Koishin.
Sakura Koishin was already getting the vague, sinking sense that she would not be seeing tomorrow's sun.
By the time she was allowed to catch her breath... the bright moon would likely be hanging high overhead.
But—
Sakura Koishin rallied again in no time at all.
Damn it!!!
It was high time to prove to this wretch exactly who ruled the Sakura family, and why little Mai's surname was Sakura.
Paying no attention at all to Sakura Koishin's fired-up posturing, Tennouji Jurei simply continued explaining to Su Yuzu, "Only with the Shingai family's tacit approval—
"—can a red-light bathhouse like the 'Tsukimisato' keep its doors open without incident.
"In other words—"
"Her ties to the 'Epiphany Manufacture' run deep," said Su Yuzu, who had already caught Tennouji Jurei's meaning.
"That Shingai Hitomi..."
"Maybe she didn't wander in here by chance at all."
"She knew I'd be here... knew that I was Su Yuzu..."
"She knew today was the day Tsukimisato Somehana pressed charges against me. That's why she came all this way."
"Sister got it out of her—"
"—that someone in her family had a court case today, which is why she came from the Shingai estate into the city, here to the Public Prosecutors Office."
"And this family member of hers... could that even be Tsukimisato Somehana?"
Su Yuzu followed the thread of Soga Yura's and Tennouji Jurei's words to its conclusion.
"Then..."
"What was she after?" Su Yuzu turned it over in her mind.
"Just to get a look at me?"
"Or was there some other purpose?"
Su Yuzu combed carefully through her status panel and her log, confirming that Shingai Hitomi had taken nothing from her.
No strange new status had been added to her panel either.
"I'm certain of it. She didn't pull anything on me."
"So what does she actually want?"
"That's for Yuzu to figure out herself." Tennouji Jurei only ruffled Su Yuzu's hair, admiring and doting all at once.
She was nothing at all like a big-sister type such as Soga Iori.
Tennouji Jurei was genuinely the sort of gorgeous woman who gave off a fatherly air.
No wonder Sister Mai had grown up so serious, so earnest and dignified, even with someone as unreliable as Honored Aunt Sakura around.
Sometimes Su Yuzu felt a small, aching envy.
She truly did envy Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi and Sakura Mai — in the matter of, well... parents.
As a transmigrator, Su Yuzu had laid eyes on her mother only once. All she remembered was that her mother had seemed a beautiful woman, elegant, and very gentle.
She remembered that day too — Father weeping, hysterical to the point of despair.
So Su Yuzu bore no resentment toward Soga Retsu.
She even understood that Soga Retsu cared deeply about her and Soga Yura.
It was only that... she and Sister probably looked too much like Mother.
Far too much.
So much so that Soga Retsu had no idea how to face her and Soga Yura at all.
"About Shingai Hitomi..." Tennouji Jurei seemed to sense the girl's darkening mood, and stroked her hair, gentle and doting.
"I do happen to know a little."
"She's the Eldest Young Lady of the Shingai family.
"She only came down from seclusion a dozen or so years ago to take the reins of the Shingai family's affairs."
"A dozen years ago!?" Su Yuzu was thrown for a moment — then it clicked, why Shingai Hitomi had made such a pointed thing, on her way out, of calling her a little bride.
The woman had to be well into her twenties at the very least.
Damn it, she's an old auntie.
But... you'd never guess it. You'd never guess it in a thousand years.
"Shingai Hitomi's methods are shrewd — and decisive, and vicious."
"Under her direction, the Shingai family's power has almost doubled in barely more than a decade."
"Still..." Tennouji Jurei smiled. "The good news is—
"Shingai Hitomi may keep close company with the 'Epiphany Manufacture,'
"but the branch of the 'Epiphany Manufacture' the Shingai family is tied to happens to be a rather conservative preservationist faction.
"After Shingai Hitomi came onto the scene, the 'Epiphany Manufacture' also rolled out a flood of affordable — even outright cheap — assistive Technology Division equipment: gear that lets the disabled stand again, that gives back sight, that gives back hearing."
"Some say all that Technology Division equipment was designed under Shingai Hitomi's own hand."
"All so that more people who've been toyed with and tormented by Fate, the way she was, might be spared the suffering she endured."
"She sounds like a good person," Su Yuzu said with a sudden little smile.
"Perhaps." Tennouji Jurei gave a shrug. "The world isn't always black and white, after all.
"Someone who is a good person to Yuzu—"
"—might be a nightmare to somebody else."
Su Yuzu nodded to show she understood.
"True, true." It was rare for Sakura Koishin to see her own Jurei take such a liking to anyone, so she nodded along in agreement.
Tennouji Jurei shot her a flat, exasperated look. "Who exactly do you think I was talking about!"
"Eh!?" Sakura Koishin went stiff. "Me?"
"Jurei was talking about me!?"
"Damn it!!!"
"Now I'm going to be heartbroken."
Across the dining hall... a good many girls watched the interaction between Tennouji Jurei and Sakura Koishin in silence.
Then those complicated, envious gazes settled on Su Yuzu.
"So... envious."
"I want it too—"
"I want... something."
"Something forbidden. Something we're not supposed to want."
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