Going by age, Tennoji Jurei had to be no younger than her forties — past the age of doubts, as the saying went.
And yet... the woman somehow looked even younger than Sakura Renxin, lacking the lush, voluptuous charm uniquely Sakura Renxin's, her unrestrained air making her seem of an age with Sakura Mai.
But... but!!!
The moment Tennoji Jurei spoke of having Su Yuzu try to draw the sword, Su Yuzu still felt a powerful... overwhelming pressure that belonged only to an elder.
Su Yuzu turned, almost uneasily, to look at the Sakura Mai beside her.
The Knight Princess — always fearless, always wearing a face of leisurely composure no matter what difficult, formidable enemy she faced — now had a hint of embarrassment in her expression as well.
Clearly——
Sakura Mai had likely known for some time that Tennoji Jurei wanted Sister Yuzu to draw the sword; she had simply... whether out of bashfulness, or for some other reason entirely, never quite dared to bring it up with Yuzu.
The two of them met each other's eyes. Sakura Mai — whom Su Yuzu had practically stamped in her mind with the label "dashing," the very embodiment of "cool big sister" — looked as though those jade-green eyes were on the verge of brimming over into rippling water.
The girl's earlobes were a vivid scarlet.
Only Soga Yura, who hadn't yet pieced together exactly what was going on, watched the exchange between her own Yuzu and her own roommate with a faintly bewildered expression.
[It's just drawing a sword, why is Yuzu being like...]
Then, all at once, Soga Yura's expression froze too — the smile on the girl's face gradually drained away.
[Hold on...]
[Wait, wait just a minute!?]
Clearly, Soga Yura had also realized where the problem lay.
If her memory served, the Sword of Erasure embedded in Sakura Mai's body — the place from which it had to be drawn — was located at... "What kind of old-school Crystal Palace anime setup is this!!!"
"By all rights, shouldn't a sword like that be lodged in me — the legitimate main heroine?"
[Damn it!!!]
Soga Yura looked as though she were about to fall apart entirely, but... in front of Tennoji Jurei and Sakura Renxin, there really wasn't much she could do to intervene.
After all, it wasn't as though they were really going to make Yuzu and Sakura Mai sign some sort of marriage certificate — they were just... just having Yuzu try to draw a sword.
What's more... Soga Yura couldn't beat them in a fight, and besides... they were her elders.
"Do we really have to draw it?" Su Yuzu glanced hesitantly at Tennoji Jurei and Sakura Renxin.
Sakura Renxin, draped languidly across Tennoji Jurei like a cat, for once let a serious look come into her face. She nodded lightly. "There are certain things... we'd like to confirm."
"If we only had Mai draw the sword out herself, and then watched whether Sister Yuzu——" Sakura Renxin broke off halfway through, alluringly tilting her head up to glance at Tennoji Jurei. Seeing the woman's faintly sighing expression, she revised her phrasing. "——and then watched whether Little Yuzu could wield it, the results would still come out a bit uneven."
"Take Little Yura's 'Domination,' for example — that ought to have a certain effect on 'Holy Relics' as well."
"But drawing the sword is something else entirely."
Sakura Renxin's expression, as she looked at Su Yuzu, was heavy with meaning. "Drawing the sword..."
"...can confirm a great many things for us."
Seeing that there was no way to wriggle out of it, Su Yuzu glanced at Sakura Renxin and Tennoji Jurei — and then at... at her side: Sakura Mai, so mortified that steam looked about to start rising from the top of her head, earlobes a vivid scarlet; and Soga Yura, wearing the most weepy, put-upon expression imaginable. "Then... does it have to be here?"
"Little Yuzu turns out to be such a stickler for ceremony?" Sakura Renxin's incorrigible, flighty true nature was finally showing through. "We can move it to Mai's bedroom, if you'd like~"
"But we'd still be present, of course."
"After all, there are certain details... that one really has to witness with one's own eyes to confirm~"
"And Mai's room is rather far away, you know..."
"All right." Su Yuzu already understood what Sakura Renxin and Tennoji Jurei meant.
It seemed... there really was no escaping this.
With a light, reassuring squeeze of Soga Yura's hand, Su Yuzu turned her gaze toward Sakura Mai.
The Knight Princess, wearing for once a face full of bashfulness, had pressed her thin lips into a tight, hard line.
In front of two girls and two women, the Knight Princess, hands trembling, lightly parted the front of her robe just a little.
Although she hadn't drawn it open completely, it was... already enough for Su Yuzu to see the Knight Princess's nearly perfect lines and exquisitely fine collarbone.
Soga Yura's cheeks were practically puffing up.
She had perfectly reasonable grounds to suspect that the true purpose of Sakura Renxin and Tennoji Jurei had nothing whatsoever to do with testing the Sword of Erasure.
They were just trying to help Mai snatch away her very own Yuzu!
"C... come on..." Sakura Mai drew in a deep breath, tilted her head to the side in evident mortification, then in one swift motion tugged her robe open down nearly to her ribs.
What Su Yuzu saw were a few thin loops of... bandages, roughly the same as the ones in Sakura Mai's preview character-pool standing illustration from back when she'd first rolled her.
Only this time, perhaps for Yuzu's convenience...
...the bandages had been wound considerably fewer times.
"So..." Su Yuzu looked at Sakura Mai. "How do I draw it...?"
Sakura Mai's legs nearly gave out beneath her from sheer overwhelming bashfulness, her whole frame on the verge of swaying. The Knight Princess, on the brink of evolving into a steam princess, glanced at Su Yuzu — the skin along the girl's neck flushed with a faint blood-red tint of shame.
"Your hand... put it here."
Obediently, Su Yuzu did as she was told.
"Imagine a sword, right here."
"The one Yuzu drew once before."
"The most savage..."
"The most wicked..."
"The cursed sword that sought to erase all things."
Looking at Sakura Mai, earlobes by now nearly red through, Su Yuzu had to admit — yes... it really was rather savage.
She called to mind the sword she had once drawn out herself.
Su Yuzu's hand, incredibly, sank down right into Sakura Mai's chest.
She stumbled, nearly thrusting half her arm in and tumbling forward into Sakura Mai.
That subtle, peculiar sensation... was actually rather warm.
"Mm—" Sakura Mai bit down hard on her lower lip.
Su Yuzu's hand reached out a little further, and closed around the hilt of the Sword of Erasure.
The very instant her fingers closed around the Sword of Erasure's hilt, Su Yuzu began to feel her vitality and stamina being siphoned away in an unbroken stream.
"Try drawing the sword." Sakura Renxin stepped forward, her hand coming to rest upon Yuzu's shoulder, sakura-pink petals dancing in the air about her as she replenished the vitality and stamina being unceasingly drained from Yuzu.
Sakura Renxin's healing ability was wholly unlike that of an ordinary Healing-type Esper.
Her capacity for healing actual wounds was rather poor — but she excelled at restoring stamina and spirit.
All Su Yuzu could say was... it was rather a shame that Sister Mai hadn't inherited this particular gift of Sakura Renxin's.
With her grip firm on the Sword of Erasure's hilt, Su Yuzu gave it a tentative pull — and the Sword of Erasure shifted, just slightly.
"Mm..." Sakura Mai gave her lower lip a light bite.
The radiant flame of the Sword of Erasure flickered, swallowing and exhaling. And then... Su Yuzu slowly let her hand fall away.
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