She had been sent to prison by Su Yuzu's own hand.
Even the business she once owned, "Tsukimisato," had been indirectly leveled by Su Yuzu.
And yet Tsukimisato Somehana didn't seem to hold the slightest grudge against Su Yuzu, or any other negative feeling for that matter.
While Su Yuzu was watching the girls ride the roller coaster, Tsukimisato Somehana had even struck up a conversation with her.
During the purge of the radical faction of "Epiphany Manufacture," she had confessed everything in exchange for leniency and worked to atone for her crimes.
She had handed over mountains of evidence on evil organizations — the radical "Epiphany Manufacture" faction, the "Eye of Insight" sect, and others like them.
She had given up the coordinates of no small number of the radical faction's hidden laboratories.
On top of that, there wasn't much in the way of actual crime attached to Tsukimisato Somehana herself.
Apart from offering Aberrants a certain degree of shelter at "Tsukimisato," she had scarcely broken a law.
The way "Tsukimisato" operated may have been dark, but no evidence of any crime could be found.
Even the duels held there at intervals — the serving girls of "Tsukimisato" against Aberrants — had been experimental procedures commissioned by the radical "Epiphany Manufacture" organization.
And throughout it all, Tsukimisato Somehana had made active use of her position as the true power behind "Tsukimisato."
Girls who suffered grave wounds were, almost without exception, given prompt and aggressive treatment the moment they were injured.
Along with a sum of compensation large enough, for them, to change the Fate of an entire family.
According to the experiment reports the Investigation Bureau had turned up—
When the injuries were severe, Tsukimisato Somehana had even paid out of her own pocket to use "Medical Units" to treat and care for the badly wounded girls, and had raised their compensation higher still.
Opposing camps aside, this woman was, unexpectedly, a decent person.
"My sentence turned out fairly well."
"Other than the community service every week—"
"—the only restriction left is that I'm not allowed to leave Guanzheng District."
"It's a nuisance sometimes."
"The flower shop I like happens to be just outside Guanzheng District. Tsukimisato... never mind. Tsukimisato doesn't need me to run it anymore either."
The battle between Su Yuzu and Dai Ling had all but destroyed the whole of "Tsukimisato."
That enormous crater wasn't going to be filled in anytime soon. For now, the restoration plan for "Tsukimisato" was to flood it into a lake and turn the old cherry blossom bathhouse into a bathhouse on the water.
"If you don't mind—"
"—I could always go buy a bouquet for you." It cost her nothing more than the effort of lifting a hand.
In a game, even with a character from a hostile faction, if she was pretty enough or sultry enough, Su Yuzu never minded grinding a little Favorability now and then.
What if it turned into a Recruit?
What if a situation came up later where she happened to need her?
And pretty and sultry — Tsukimisato Somehana embodied both to the fullest.
"There's no need for that." Tsukimisato Somehana shrugged and passed a loaded water gun to another customer who had come up to rent one.
"If I don't cut the flowers myself, then flowers someone else was troubled into buying aren't worth admiring."
"Although—" Tsukimisato Somehana looked at Su Yuzu.
"Are you this..." She hesitated over the word. "...friendly with every woman?"
Su Yuzu only tilted the corner of her lips. "No—"
"I only show Favor to targets with value."
"Of course—"
"—good looks are a form of value too."
Even Tsukimisato Somehana faltered for a moment, light rippling across those gray-blue eyes.
The girl at the counter had been watching the exchange between Su Yuzu and Tsukimisato Somehana with careful attention, her gaze fixed the entire time on Su Yuzu.
The instant the water gun was in her hands, she bolted like a startled fawn.
With ears as sharp as theirs, both Su Yuzu and Tsukimisato Somehana caught every word of the girl's excited whispering to her companion once she'd fled far enough.
"That's Yuzu—"
"That's Miss Yuzu!"
"How can you be sure that's Miss Yuzu and not Yura-senpai?"
Then both pairs of eyes dropped to Su Yuzu's chest. "Okay—"
"—it's definitely Miss Yuzu."
"You really are the popular type." The gray-blue eyes slid off the two girls, and Tsukimisato Somehana looked at the Su Yuzu standing in front of her, steering the conversation elsewhere.
"Still, play the field too much—"
"—and be careful your boat doesn't capsize."
"Girls are always greedy. If you ever run into the kind who wants to keep her lover all to herself..."
"...watch out that it doesn't turn into a tragedy."
The tone was perfectly bland, and yet what Su Yuzu heard coming out of Tsukimisato Somehana's mouth was a generous helping of pure gloating.
This woman... she actually enjoyed that sort of thing?
Today was the weekend. A day of rest.
Hostile camps or not, a brief peace had been struck between Su Yuzu and Tsukimisato Somehana.
"By the way—"
"—what'll it be?" Tsukimisato Somehana laid out the water guns along the rental counter, and once Su Yuzu had picked the one that looked like it threw the widest spray, Somehana fished a set of water balloons out from under the cabinet.
"Water balloons made by a Hydrokinetic."
"One touch and they burst."
"Four to a set. Consider them a gift from me."
"Oh, right—" Something seemed to occur to her, and Tsukimisato Somehana offered Su Yuzu a reminder. "If a skirt gets soaked, there's a pavilion up ahead."
"A Hydrokinetic there provides a simple drying service. Twenty a go."
"Don't worry—"
"—she's a woman. And a woman with perfectly normal tastes."
"A wet skirt makes it awfully easy to catch a chill. And the Soga family's Eldest Young Lady doesn't seem to have much of a constitution either, does she?"
Su Yuzu was wearing hot pants and a T-shirt today.
The ones Tsukimisato Somehana was referring to were, naturally, the girls who would shortly be on the receiving end of Su Yuzu's water balloons.
The sight of soaked skirts might well be worth looking at.
But if anyone caught a chill, that really would be no good.
It hadn't occurred to Su Yuzu that Tsukimisato Somehana of all people would think to warn her about that.
Still... either?
Su Yuzu's thoughts leapt to that girl from the other day, the one in the wheelchair who had dared to come to her side entirely alone—
Shingai Hitomi.
Her constitution was even frailer than Soga Yura's.
That little "either" in Tsukimisato Somehana's sentence was almost certainly because of her.
Well then... as payback for all that gloating, Su Yuzu took the water gun and the balloons from her hands.
"This greedy girl Somehana-senpai mentioned..."
"...would that be Shingai Hitomi?"
"She doesn't seem nearly as greedy as Somehana-senpai makes her out to be."
"On the contrary—"
"—she's rather cute. And very easy to make blush."
Pop—
One of the water balloons in Tsukimisato Somehana's hand burst on the spot.
The look she turned on Su Yuzu went twisted and strange — though not, as Su Yuzu had expected, with the simmering anger of someone whose own Eldest Young Lady had just been slighted. Quite the opposite—
Tsukimisato Somehana's face was steeped in an oddness that defied description.
"I wish the two of you every happiness—"
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