Restless.
Yukino Yukinoshita had always known that her sister Haruno was never the type to sit still.
The moment she received the call from Lin Ye, she'd understood that Lin Ye and her sister had swapped bodies yet again. She'd tried to reach Haruno at once, but couldn't get through, her sister simply refused to answer.
She'd assumed Haruno was still dodging Lin Ye, hiding somewhere to keep from being caught.
But instead, her sister had used Lin Ye's body to walk right into Sobu High and go on attending classes.
She'd thought Haruno only wanted to tease her a little, to find some amusement. But of course, she'd been naive. A woman as full of wicked whims as her sister could never be counted on to behave herself.
How could she ever be satisfied with merely bullying her own sister?
No, she'd already seized the chance to set her sights on other girls.
Yukino had gone to such lengths to smooth over the whole affair with Miura Yumiko, and now, in a single day, her sister had handed her an enormous "surprise," washing away every bit of her earlier effort in one stroke.
Angry.
Yukino Yukinoshita was furious right now.
"Sister."
Yukino Yukinoshita ground the word out through clenched teeth, that simple form of address carrying the full weight of the resentment churning inside her.
For her own part, she would rather her sister torment her than have all her earlier effort ruined.
The mere thought of Miura Yumiko's mockery to come left Yukino Yukinoshita deeply unsettled, a scene where she'd be jeered at without even the standing to argue back. She truly couldn't bear it, truly couldn't bear it.
"What is it, Yukino? Calling me so sweetly, do you want to know what happened between me and Student Miura?"
She only watched with a smile, not a trace of restraint or apology about her.
The sight stoked the fierce discomfort in Yukino Yukinoshita even further.
"Sister, did you think about the consequences?"
"No."
Haruno's answer was so blunt that for a moment Yukino Yukinoshita wondered whether her ears had deceived her.
A woman as meticulous and calculating as you, and you did this without weighing the consequences at all?
"It came on so suddenly, so out of nowhere," Haruno said, brushing off her clothes with a helpless air. "I woke up and I was a boy again. Naturally I wanted to savor the whole experience and feeling of being a boy one more time."
"This is something you've never gotten to experience, Yukino. You wouldn't understand."
No, I do understand.
She too had possessed Lin Ye's body, if only for a brief while.
Back then, she had indeed been full of urges about certain things, but she'd rationally reined it all in and let none of it wander further.
How could she ever, like her sister, truly lay hands on a girl to satisfy her own assorted desires?
Yukino Yukinoshita honestly hadn't imagined Haruno could go mad to this degree.
"Oh, from Yukino's reaction, it seems Yukino understands too! Ohh, right, Yukino must have swapped with Lin-kun. How nice! I wonder what it felt like for Yukino to use Lin-kun's body!"
Yukino Yukinoshita kept silent, but her eyelid twitched.
And that only confirmed Haruno's guess. She'd guessed right, she'd known Yukino and Lin Ye must have gone through a Body Swap.
Yukino would never ask for it on her own, but Lin Ye would surely want to try it, to experiment.
To occupy the body of the girl you love and do all sorts of things with it, wasn't that only natural?
Even if Lin Ye had already taken plenty of liberties with Yukino, there was still a vast difference between the two.
Haruno was certain Lin Ye would have done it, and Yukino's expression proved he already had.
"I'm so envious! I wonder what Lin-kun did while using your body, Yukino!"
Haruno stroked her own cheek. "It must have been this… and that sort of thing, it must have been so joyful and delightful! Boo hoo, I… as the elder sister… I'm so envious!"
Her tone dripped with envy.
But all that rose in Yukino Yukinoshita was an ever sharper revulsion.
"Sister, what did you do to Miura Yumiko?"
She asked it directly, wearing an utterly serious look, pressing Haruno for a precise answer.
But Haruno wasn't about to play along with what Yukino wanted.
"Want to know? Sure! Beg me. If you beg me, I'll tell you."
She raised a hand to touch her little sister's delicate chin, only for Yukino to slap it away.
"Don't push it too far."
"You're the one who hit me, Yukino. How am I the one pushing it?"
Facing this sister of hers, Yukino always came up just a touch short in presence.
No match for her sister, forever losing to her sister, falling short of her sister, that impression was carved deep into Yukino's mind.
"Speak, or face the consequences yourself."
"Oh, Yukino's learned to make threats now?"
A threat from her little sister, Haruno didn't take it to heart in the slightest.
"Lin-kun has already prepared a punishment for you."
That one sentence sent a jolt through Haruno, prickling her all over.
She grew worried.
Because a threat coming from Lin Ye carried real weight, and that unknown punishment left her without any confidence at all.
Consider all of Lin Ye's many skills and unknown abilities, how might he punish her? She truly had no idea whatsoever.
"Yukino, you promised you'd help me."
"Mm."
"Then…"
"I'll put in a word for you once. A single sentence."
Helping, yet not helping.
A pretense of help.
That meaning had already surfaced in Haruno's mind.
Haruno grasped her sister's attitude.
A trap, how infuriating.
She hadn't expected her sister to be much use, but for her to be no use at all still stung.
Of course, more importantly, she'd never truly intended to hide the matter between her and Miura Yumiko.
What would be the point of keeping it hidden all the way?
She wanted to tell it after all, wanted Yukino to know.
"Fine then! I'll tell you."
Haruno shrugged and went on, "For your sake, Miura Yumiko made quite the sacrifice."
Why for her sake?
Hearing her sister say it a second time, Yukino finally fixed her focus on that point.
"She believes you and I reached some kind of agreement, that you agreed to certain conditions of mine for her sake. And to protect you from being bullied by me any longer, she resolved to sacrifice herself."
As Haruno spoke on, the curve tugging at the corner of her mouth grew ever more pronounced.
Her eyes stayed fixed on her sister, waiting for an amusing reaction.
And just as she'd hoped, a shift finally showed on her sister's face.
This expression, how amusing! How delightful!
The feeling inside her swelled all the stronger.
"Not bad at all. Miura Yumiko really is… quite the friend to you."
"She's not my friend."
That left Haruno stunned.
Not a friend, yet she'd go this far for Yukino?
Haruno had genuinely assumed Miura Yumiko and Yukino had become friends recently, or at least had some kind of friendship, for her to sacrifice herself to this degree.
"I haven't yet agreed to become her friend."
It was the truth.
But even as she said it, Yukino had precious little conviction behind the words.
She felt she owed Miura Yumiko something.
She hadn't even accepted Miura Yumiko's request for friendship, had never struck any deal with her sister, had done nothing for Miura Yumiko, and yet this blonde had made a sacrifice for her sake, agreeing to her sister's every unreasonable demand.
Though, in essence, this was the result of Miura Yumiko's misunderstanding and of her sister, the true instigator.
Still, she felt it was connected to her all the same, that she bore some measure of responsibility.
That was Yukino's thinking.
"Ohh, now this really is a surprise! Not even your friend, yet willing to sacrifice herself for you to this degree, willing to be bullied by me. This… could it be she swings both ways and actually likes you, Yukino?"
Haruno spoke half in jest.
"Please don't talk nonsense, Sister. Answer me, what did you do to her?"
She feared her sister had grown vicious enough to take the final step.
Though, in the span of a single morning, there hadn't been enough time for her sister to go that far, yet who could say for certain?
Maybe her sister really had done it, only in a very, very short window.
"You tell me."
Haruno kept up the suspense, saying nothing outright.
"Please tell me the specifics."
Yukino didn't want to be misled, and she reckoned the odds of her sister misleading her ran high.
So she insisted on pressing further, demanding a straight answer.
"I did everything that ought to be done."
But Haruno still gave no details.
"Sister."
Yukino prompted.
"How could I possibly bring myself to tell you about that sort of thing, Yukino! In any case, today I'm very satisfied, very happy, very pleased. If you really want to know, Yukino, then go ask Miura Yumiko."
Haruno gave a sly little laugh. "If you ask her, Yukino, she'll probably still tell you. Student Miura treasures you a great deal."
But.
For Yukino, she truly had little face left to go before Miura Yumiko now.
Besides, the fine details she didn't actually want to know. She only wanted to know whether that final step had been taken.
If it truly had, she'd be lost and afraid, with no idea what she was supposed to do.
"Sister, you'll pay the price for what you did today."
"Mm, I will. Lin-kun is sure to take fierce revenge on me. But I'll definitely beg for mercy. Mm, when the time comes I'll wear black stockings to beg, and plead with Lin-kun to forgive me."
Speechless.
Yukino gained a fresh appreciation for her sister's shamelessness.
Still, she knew Lin Ye wouldn't accept it. If Lin Ye could accept it, her sister would long since have become his bed-warming maid, rather than getting nowhere even now.
She was well aware her sister had long wanted to crawl into Lin Ye's bed, only to be refused by him every time.
"I won't say one extra word for you."
"How cruel! I'm your sister, you know!"
"You still know you're my sister? If you knew it, you wouldn't have done something like this."
At the very least, her sister's treatment of Miura Yumiko had begun to shift her own attitude toward Miura Yumiko.
She even found herself wanting to make it up to Miura Yumiko by accepting her request.
But she knew this stemmed more from sympathy and a sense of compensation toward Miura Yumiko than from a heartfelt, genuine wish to become her friend.
There was a shortcoming in that, and instinctively she hesitated over the very idea.
"Two different matters, two different matters, hahaha…"
Haruno laughed.
Haruno lay back on the bed for a short rest, while Yukino sat off to the side with no intention of leaving whatsoever.
"Yukino, you're still not going back to class? Haven't you already learned everything you wanted to know?"
She had learned essentially none of it.
"I'm going to keep an eye on you."
Worried she'd stir up trouble?
"I won't! I promised you I won't act up, I won't go bully Student Miura anymore."
She could go bully other girls instead.
Sobu High had so many pretty girls, more than she could ever get through bullying.
Yukino Yukinoshita shot her a cold glance.
As if she couldn't catch the hidden meaning in her sister's words.
Don't bully Miura Yumiko, so bully someone else.
Someone like President Meguri Shiromeguri, or Iroha Isshiki, and beyond that, so long as her sister had the nerve, she could do this and that, daring even to lay hands on Shizuka Hiratsuka.
At that thought, Yukino Yukinoshita's face burned, and a wave of dread welled up in her.
If Haruno really went and bullied Shizuka-sensei, and if it actually came to pass, there would be no way for Lin Ye to remain at Sobu High.
Even with the Yukinoshita family connections keeping Lin Ye from being expelled by Sobu High, Lin Ye himself would very likely choose not to stay there.
And so, Yukino Yukinoshita decided such a situation could never be allowed.
"Sister, I'm telling you this in all seriousness."
Yukino spoke up, her tone grave and earnest.
Haruno humored her and heard her out.
In the end, she said fine.
"Relax, I haven't gone mad enough for that. If I truly made it impossible for Lin-kun to stay at Sobu High, I couldn't withstand his fury."
For all that she was dancing on the firing line right now, she at least wouldn't push Lin Ye into an outright rage.
She reckoned it wasn't much of a problem.
"Remember it."
"Yes, yes, yes, I remember. Just set your mind at ease!"
Haruno nodded again and again. "Now hurry back to class!"
"I'm going to watch you."
Yukino still had no plans to leave.
"Yukino, you… don't want to let me leave? Is it… Lin-kun's coming?"
Something struck Haruno all at once, and she sprang to her feet in a flash.
If Lin Ye came, she'd have to run, she didn't want to stay here for one more second.
Even though Lin Ye was using her body, those unfathomable, ghostly abilities of his were nothing she could hope to handle.
"Since you're afraid of Lin Ye, why bother doing something like this?"
"That's different. You're going too far, Yukino, actually notifying Lin-kun to come."
"This is to stop you from acting up again."
"Heh, no more love, no more love, Yukino doesn't even love me anymore."
Yukino paid no mind, but she planted herself in front of her sister, her stance already saying it all, she meant to keep her sister from any thought of leaving before Lin Ye arrived.
"Move aside."
But Yukino had not the slightest intention of moving.
"Yukino, move aside."
But the girl with long black hair stood rooted where she was, not budging in the least.
"This… then don't blame me."
With that, Haruno made her move.
Yukino resisted, but before sheer, overwhelming strength she had not the slightest room to fight back.
Knowing her little sister would surely cling on, Haruno pinned her down onto the bed, bound Yukino's wrists together with a strip torn from a towel, and stuffed another towel into her sister's mouth.
"Mmph mmph…"
Yukino glared in fury.
"Don't blame me."
Looking at her sister in this state, Haruno was in rather good spirits.
Next, all she had to do was slip away.
But the instant Haruno turned around, she caught sight of a figure at the doorway.
Someone had come to the infirmary.
…
…
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