After Shingai Hitomi came up, Tsukimisato Somehana's face didn't turn nearly as furious as Su Yuzu had expected.
On the contrary—
After a whole bout of twisting, the line Tsukimisato Somehana finally forced out was, "I wish you two happiness."
Which left Su Yuzu genuinely unsure how to keep the conversation going.
That family member Shingai Hitomi had mentioned, the one she was tangled up in a lawsuit with — wasn't that supposed to be Tsukimisato Somehana?
Or was Tsukimisato Somehana not part of the Shingai family at all?
No, that didn't fit either.
Her reaction made it obvious she knew Shingai Hitomi, and what's more… the two of them were probably rather close.
So, Su Yuzu guessed, it was something about Shingai Hitomi's particular qualities that made Tsukimisato Somehana feel that Shingai Hitomi being ruined by her wasn't such a bad ending after all?
Su Yuzu suddenly wanted to keep a lot more distance from Shingai Hitomi.
That girl… might be even more trouble than she'd imagined.
Not dangerous—
Just… trouble.
And if there was one thing Su Yuzu hated, it was trouble.
"Sorry. Let me get you a new set," Tsukimisato Somehana said, looking down at the water balloon she'd crushed without noticing, and moved to fetch another.
But — Su Yuzu glanced toward the roller coaster.
Sister and the others were about to come plunging down.
"Never mind, don't bother—"
Su Yuzu waved the offer away with a nod of thanks and headed straight for the open viewing ground.
There was hardly anyone there.
No one except a shameless father and the daughter he'd brought along.
The wave thrown up by the coaster's plunge came down hard on that patch of ground — but that also made it the most exclusive "sniping" position in the park.
Sister and Senior Mai.
The little rabbit and Little Mihou.
"Seat of Evil" and Kirishika.
Three water balloons. Just enough.
And soon—
Su Yuzu heard her own Sister's thoroughly undignified shriek.
For all the authority she carried as the Soga clan's real power-holder, in certain other respects Soga Yura was every bit as timid as she'd been as a child.
Soga Yura had squeezed Sakura Mai's hand white at the knuckles.
And down below, grinning wickedly, hefting a water balloon in one palm, stood Su Yuzu.
Sakura Mai thought she finally understood why Sister Yuzu hadn't ridden the coaster with them.
"Yura," Sakura Mai tugged at her hand and nodded toward the spectator ground.
On that stretch of open pavement, where only a little girl and Su Yuzu stood, Su Yuzu was impossible for Soga Yura to miss.
"Yuzu!!!" One of Soga Yura's hands still clung, trembling, to the safety bar, but her left hand — the one that had been crushing Sakura Mai's — was already waving happily.
The next second—
Soga Yura watched a pale blue water balloon leave Su Yuzu's hand, trace a lovely arc through the air, and smack her square in the forehead.
Sakura Mai was just gearing up to gloat.
And then the pale blue balloon expanded.
A colossal sphere of water nearly ten meters across bloomed over the front car of the coaster.
A stream of bubbles came burbling up out of it.
"Oh my, my, my—"
"Miss Yuzu drew the grand prize," Tsukimisato Somehana said, stretching lazily behind the stall that rented out water guns and balloons.
Watching the faintly you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me look Su Yuzu threw back over her shoulder, she let a delighted smile spread across her face.
"Honestly…"
"Pretending to be expressionless really is too hard for me."
"Though holding back a laugh is harder still."
Su Yuzu remembered Tsukimisato Somehana's file.
Tsukimisato Somehana—
Level.31 — Hydrokinetic.
Before Su Yuzu could settle accounts with her, the great wave kicked up by the coaster was already sweeping toward her.
And thanks to that enormous water balloon she'd thrown—
this particular wave carried a truly generous volume of water.
Su Yuzu looked at the little girl her shameless father had left standing out in the open. So it was true: when there was danger, a father was a child's most reliable guardian; when there wasn't, the father's very existence was the danger.
Unfolding "Immaculate Pure Land" to its widest in a single instant, Su Yuzu planted herself in front of the girl.
Under that starry-eyed gaze, Su Yuzu steeled herself and walked toward the coaster's exit, where a Soga Yura on the verge of bullied tears was waiting for her.
"That big sister is so cool…"
"Right? Right?"
"Yuzu-hime is unbelievably cool!" The girl who had "just happened to be passing by" during Su Yuzu and Tsukimisato Somehana's chat was already busy recruiting a new convert.
The Event ended with Su Yuzu riding the coaster one more time on her own, so that Soga Yura and the rest could pelt her to their hearts' content.
She could easily have deployed "Immaculate Pure Land" and blocked every water bomb the girls threw at her.
But then where would the fun be?
When Su Yuzu stepped out of the coaster exit, soaked from head to toe, her pale thighs caught the sunlight with that vivid, glossy sheen you'd see on over-rendered skin in an ero-game.
Soga Yura found she couldn't drag her eyes away.
The little rabbit and Sakai Miho were clearly no better off.
Only "Seat of Evil" and Kirishika were still gazing longingly at the ice cream cart being wheeled through the park.
Soga Yura held out a towel.
The little rabbit swallowed audibly. "S-Senpai…"
"Let me dry you off."
The little rabbit was a Healing-type Hydrokinetic.
Something as simple as manipulating moisture was well within her reach.
Su Yuzu looked at Soga Yura and the others, who were in no better shape than she was.
The outline of a black camisole strap showed faintly through the shoulder of Soga Yura's top, and as for "Seat of Evil" and Kirishika — girls' skirts were sheer to begin with, and soaked through they clung from behind, tracing out every line.
"There's supposed to be staff in the pavilion up ahead who handle professional drying."
"Let's go over there instead."
"Saotome Yukina, save all your energy for playing."
"No whining about being tired later, all right?"
The little rabbit nodded, a little disappointed.
Sometimes… she wished Senpai would say no whining about being tired under rather different circumstances.
Sure enough—
Exactly as Su Yuzu had predicted, the person handling the drying inside the pavilion was Tsukimisato Somehana.
The moment Soga Yura saw her, her face turned distinctly hostile.
"This woman—"
"What is she doing here!?"
"It's only community service… nothing to worry about," Su Yuzu said, tightening her grip on Soga Yura's hand.
Soga Yura wrinkled her nose.
Since Su Yuzu was drenched too, Soga Yura caught no trace of the evidence that Tsukimisato Somehana had once been in very close contact with her.
"So you've got that kind of nasty sense of humor as well?" Su Yuzu said, studying her.
She meant burying a "bomb" inside an ordinary water balloon.
"That was the special prize," Tsukimisato Somehana replied evenly. "Miss Soga simply got lucky."
One snap of her fingers, and every soaked skirt in the group was dry.
Su Yuzu gave her a long, searching look.
There was a dangerous scent coming off this woman's power.
If drying clothes was that effortless for Tsukimisato Somehana, then… what if the target were a human being?
Her strength didn't match the report the Investigation Bureau had filed at all.
Catching the wariness that had risen in Su Yuzu's face, Tsukimisato Somehana's playful manner stalled for a moment, then slowly cooled into something distant.
She looked at Su Yuzu the way one might look at something else entirely. "What a clever girl you are."
"Does Miss Soga know?"
"I'm…"
"not any sort of radical."
"What!?" Su Yuzu's head snapped up. Tsukimisato Somehana had lifted one foot back and was rubbing at the shackle around her ankle.
Clack—
The electronic shackles dropped to the floor.
"I hope you have a pleasant weekend."
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