Yukino Yukinoshita barely reacted anymore. This was just how her sister was; she'd gotten used to it.
As for what her sister's words actually meant? Ignoring them was enough. Just ignore it, and everything would be fine.
There was no real meaning to them anyway.
Getting too angry served no purpose whatsoever.
It would only bring more trouble and worry down on herself.
Letting Lin Ye teach her sister a proper lesson—that was enough. Not that she hadn't wondered whether she should step in and handle it herself, but in the end… after some thought, Yukino Yukinoshita decided against it.
She knew she was still far too soft-hearted inside. Faced with her sister's pleading, she'd always relent and give in.
"See, Lin-kun, even Yukino has no objections, so… you'd better seize this chance, this one-in-a-lifetime chance," Haruno said, giggling again. No matter how strange the mood in the room turned, she could always take it in stride, always show that outgoing, sunny side of herself.
But none of that could change the outcome. None of it could change the fate awaiting her.
"Yukinoshita, are you going back to class next, or staying here?"
"…"
Yukino Yukinoshita thought it over, but the moment she was about to speak, Haruno beat her to it. "I'll head back to class. Since Lin-kun wants me to go back to class, of course I'll go. I'll be a good student who studies hard and does nothing else—"
Never mind how believable Haruno's words were—the simple fact that she wanted to leave made it flatly impossible.
How could Lin Ye ever allow Haruno to leave!?
"I wasn't asking you."
"But I'm a Yukinoshita too!"
"I'll stay here. No class today. Or better yet… let's leave school altogether!" Yukino Yukinoshita said.
This was the Service Club, in the club building—cheap and secluded, and at this hour there was hardly anyone around. But certain acts could still draw attention, stir up a commotion.
So if Lin Ye truly meant to punish her, wasn't it better to leave school for somewhere quiet?
Her apartment would work. A hotel would work.
In short, somewhere private was far, far more suitable than here.
Haruno's expression shifted.
Away from Sobu High, her situation would only get worse.
Here, there were the students and teachers of Sobu High to consider, which gave Lin Ye reason for restraint. But somewhere else—that would be dreadful. She'd fare no better at all.
Haruno's gaze flicked toward this little sister of hers.
Her most, most, most beloved sister now wished nothing more than to see her viciously tormented and punished by Lin Ye.
It seemed her recent behavior really had left her sister thoroughly displeased.
With things having come to this, Haruno had no choice but to accept it.
"Lin-kun, let's just stay at Sobu High!"
"Going somewhere else really isn't appropriate."
"Isn't it nice, us being here together?"
"There's absolutely no need to go anywhere else," Haruno said, one line after another.
And this was exactly what turned Lin Ye's lukewarm notion of leaving Sobu High into a real urge to go out.
The harder Haruno refused, the more Lin Ye wanted to shatter her wishes.
Whatever Haruno wanted—crush it. That was Lin Ye's guiding principle for dealing with Haruno.
"Fine. Send a message to Shizuka Hiratsuka-sensei. We're leaving here," Lin Ye decided.
Yukino nodded at once and sent the message.
Haruno froze.
"I'm not going. I absolutely will not go," she said, planning to plant herself here shamelessly.
"I don't mind hypnotizing you and making you follow me obediently."
Haruno's eyelid twitched.
Hypnosis!?
There was no countering it.
How did this guy have so many superpowers—and every single one of them the powers of a hentai protagonist.
At one point Haruno had wondered whether Lin Ye had come straight out of some hentai lead role.
Since Lin Ye had put it that way, Haruno was out of options. Rather than be hypnotized and dragged off, better to go along honestly. A good, obedient girl would surely be treated gently, wouldn't she?
She thought it with a bitter smile.
"Hiratsuka-sensei says understood," came the quick reply to Yukino Yukinoshita.
She knew Shizuka Hiratsuka wouldn't refuse. And even if she did, it wouldn't matter—even if Yukino deliberately skipped class, the school wouldn't say a word about it.
"Let's go!" Lin Ye said to Haruno.
Haruno rose obediently, and the three of them walked out of the Service Club one after another.
Meanwhile, in the Life Guidance Office, Shizuka Hiratsuka set the message down in front of Meguri Shiromeguri. "They're about to leave Sobu High. What do you think will happen after that?"
Meguri Shiromeguri stayed silent.
This matter clearly wasn't over.
In a private setting… Meguri Shiromeguri guessed that Sis Haruno and Lin Ye had reached some kind of agreement.
And what would that agreement be about?
Money?
If it was money, that wouldn't be so bad. But if it was something else, then the situation was dire.
"Meguri, I really don't want anything irreversible to happen," Shizuka Hiratsuka said, patting Meguri Shiromeguri on the shoulder, her tone weighty and earnest.
She truly had no idea what had happened between Lin Ye and Haruno. She wanted to intervene, but had no footing to stand on.
And so, above all, she needed intelligence. She needed information.
She'd sent a query to Yukinoshita as well, but Yukino Yukinoshita hadn't replied—which meant Yukino Yukinoshita had no wish to disclose the specifics of the matter.
These students, every one of them, gave her a splitting headache.
"I—Sensei, I'll make a phone call," Meguri said.
Hearing that, Shizuka Hiratsuka agreed instantly.
She knew Meguri Shiromeguri was wavering. A little more effort, a little more fuel on the fire, and Meguri Shiromeguri would spill the truth.
Ah, Shizuka Hiratsuka felt a pang.
She'd coaxed and pressed for ages, tried every carrot and stick—and still it hadn't been as useful as a single message from Yukino Yukinoshita.
"Um… Sensei, could you step out for a bit?" Meguri Shiromeguri asked, a little awkwardly.
Shizuka Hiratsuka: ???
She felt frozen out, singled out.
"There's no need to keep this from me."
"Then I'll go out," Meguri said, and with that she stood at once and set off for the restroom.
Shizuka Hiratsuka stood rooted in place.
She couldn't decide whether it was better to follow or not.
"No, I have to go," she muttered. So what if she got caught!?
Having made up her mind, Shizuka Hiratsuka acted. She watched Meguri Shiromeguri enter the restroom, deliberately lingered a few seconds, then went in after her.
She tilted her head and strained to listen, hoping for a good result.
Meguri Shiromeguri dialed Haruno's number.
It was Lin Ye who answered—still in Haruno's body at the moment. "What is it?"
"Sis Haruno, you're leaving Sobu High with Student Lin Ye—what for?"
"To pay a price."
"Uh…"
Meguri Shiromeguri stopped short, her chest tightening at once. "That, he—he knows about us…"
"It's fine, don't worry. I'll handle it. All right, I'm hanging up now."
"Sis Haruno, Sis Haruno—"
Meguri Shiromeguri called out several times, but got no response, and the call was cut off soon after.
She stared at the phone in her hand, wanting to say something, yet not pressing the call button.
Being hung up on meant they didn't want her involved.
But the more it was like that, the less at ease she felt. Meguri Shiromeguri wanted to do something.
Vacant-eyed, she walked out of the restroom and saw Shizuka Hiratsuka.
Shizuka Hiratsuka, in her white coat now, looked utterly at leisure.
"Hiratsuka-sensei."
"Did Haruno say anything?"
She'd only caught half of it, muddled and hazy, but even so she could tell Haruno had given Meguri Shiromeguri nothing useful.
"Nothing."
"Right now I need you to tell me what's going on. Otherwise, if something serious happens, there won't even be room left for regret," Shizuka Hiratsuka warned.
But Meguri Shiromeguri stayed unwilling to speak, and Shizuka Hiratsuka grew furious—not even this, she wouldn't say.
If it really came to someone dying, then…
"Lin Ye is a student of our school after all. No matter what, nothing should happen to him. We all know what kind of person Haruno is—she wouldn't do anything too extreme. But what if, what if she did!?"
Yet those words made Meguri Shiromeguri's expression shift slightly, a certain thought, a certain conviction hardening all the more.
"Sensei, Sis Haruno can resolve this properly. Don't worry about it, please—rest easy!"
Telling Shizuka Hiratsuka to rest easy, while she herself would set it aside for now.
Compared to how easily she herself might be threatened, Sis Haruno surely had a way to handle it. She trusted Sis Haruno's strength and capability—there was no way she'd be so easily threatened by Lin Ye into giving in, much less into making some enormous sacrifice.
As Sis Haruno's junior, all she had to do was trust Sis Haruno and wait for the good news that was surely coming.
"You…"
Shizuka Hiratsuka could have died of anger.
She'd waited full of confidence for Meguri Shiromeguri to open up so she could step in and fix things—and in the end Meguri Shiromeguri simply refused to talk, wearing a face that said she'd say nothing.
How could Shizuka Hiratsuka not be angry?
But in this situation, even anger seemed useless.
Things were as they were. She could no longer change them.
"You'll regret this, Meguri Shiromeguri. I promise you'll regret it."
"Sensei, please believe in Sis Haruno. She can handle it the right way."
"Heh…"
That woman. Lin Ye was probably in for a bad end.
So Shizuka Hiratsuka dialed Haruno's number too.
The call wasn't cut off—it rang, waiting. Before long, it connected.
"Haruno, tell me where you're planning to go?" Shizuka Hiratsuka asked directly, even knowing she wouldn't get the answer she wanted.
"Sensei, don't worry about things on our end," Lin Ye said.
"You take my student away without permission, tell me nothing, and expect me to relax? You must be joking."
"I'm hanging up."
"Haruno—"
"Beep, beep, beep…"
The call was cut off outright.
Shizuka Hiratsuka felt Haruno's rejection.
Angry. Deeply angry.
It was the first time Shizuka Hiratsuka had experienced such coldness from Haruno—this posture of refusal, the first time she'd ever tasted it.
Listening from the side, Meguri Shiromeguri caught the absolute confidence in Sis Haruno's words, and she was reassured, set at ease. Sis Haruno would surely handle it properly; there was no chance of any problem at all.
All she needed was to wait for the good news.
Meguri Shiromeguri said her goodbyes to Shizuka Hiratsuka.
"Meguri," Shizuka Hiratsuka called out once more to keep her before she left—but in the end she still got no response from Meguri Shiromeguri.
Meguri Shiromeguri's resolve held firm; she still refused to say a thing.
In the end, Shizuka Hiratsuka could only give up.
"Fine. If something goes wrong, don't come begging me, and don't come telling me I should've been told sooner." Shizuka Hiratsuka threw out the line and left.
To her, it was a genuine case of being furious at someone for refusing to help themselves.
What good did keeping her in the dark do?
Only by knowing the whole story could she resolve the problem the right way, rather than leaving it to fester untouched.
Shizuka Hiratsuka truly didn't believe Haruno could resolve this problem properly.
Meguri Shiromeguri watched Shizuka Hiratsuka walk away. In truth, she had wavered earlier, thinking of telling Shizuka Hiratsuka—she did trust in Shizuka Hiratsuka's abilities. But she'd kept turning over how to inform Shizuka Hiratsuka while still keeping the most crucial information secret.
And she'd decided it was impossible. Merely withholding the key information would only invite more questioning from Shizuka Hiratsuka. Either say nothing, or say everything.
"I believe in Sis Haruno. There's no way anything will go wrong," Meguri Shiromeguri told herself at last, borrowing a little confidence.
She returned to her classroom, but her mind was elsewhere, her eyes drifting again and again to her phone, waiting for a call that might come.
As for Lin Ye and the two Yukinoshita sisters, the three of them were in no hurry.
Because the Body Swap hadn't ended yet, Lin Ye couldn't begin the punishment right away.
Near noon, at Haruno's suggestion, the three of them went for lunch.
Ramen. Tonkotsu ramen.
Haruno ate with obvious relish, without the slightest sign of pressure.
Yukino was impressed by her sister's composure—at the very least, if she were in her sister's position, there'd be absolutely no way she could eat so calmly. Of course, she understood that her sister had simply resigned herself to fate.
Lin Ye ate slowly.
After a good while, the three of them finished their lunch one by one.
"Hey, what's the plan next?" Haruno asked.
As long as their bodies didn't swap back, she was safe for now. Escape? She'd already given up on that. There was no getting away—no chance of slipping out of Lin Ye's clutches.
Lin Ye looked to Yukino.
Yukino thought for a moment and named a place. "Chiba Park, then."
Lin Ye recalled the Strange event he and Mai had run into at Chiba Park before.
"What is it, Lin-kun?" Yukino asked.
Lin Ye shook his head. They'd go take a stroll in the park first, to pass the time.
The three of them set off on foot.
What Lin Ye was still preoccupied with now was the drawback of his superpower.
The timing really wasn't fixed at all.
Surely it wouldn't take a whole day, would it?
Thinking that, Lin Ye had already come within sight of the entrance to Chiba Park.
The noon sun was bright, and beneath the brilliant light the park's green trees swayed in the wind, rustling faintly, the fresh scent of nature drifting through the air.
The three of them strolled along the tree-lined path.
At this hour, quite a few older folks were out walking too.
About half an hour later, Lin Ye suddenly felt a fleeting sensation of weightlessness, and his field of vision changed.
Feeling the familiar touch of his own body return to him, he knew he was back in his own body.
And the girl with the black shoulder-length hair came to a halt as well.
Though she'd braced herself for it, when the moment of returning to her own body actually came, Haruno still panicked.
The punishment was right at hand now. She was probably done for next.
The black shoulder-length-haired girl felt the enormous pressure of the punishment to come.
She trembled.
…
…
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