The girl tucked in her arms.
Su Yuzu lowered her head and looked at Saotome Yukina's burning ear tips—even redder than the earlier Lyudmila's, or even Saint Michael's.
Her mood suddenly turned quite delightful.
The arm cradling the girl drew in just a little tighter, too.
"Ngh." The girl in her arms squeezed out an almost piteous, sorrowful whimper.
The little face pressed so tightly into the crook of Su Yuzu's neck heated up from sheer excessive shame, to the point that Su Yuzu even felt as though her own collarbone were about to be baked warm by the girl.
Behind Su Yuzu, Lyudmila, kneading at her long skirt and shuffling along step by step, looked at her own bullied roommate and wanted to speak up.
But... wasn't her own present plight no different from a clay Bodhisattva crossing the river—scarcely able to save herself?
In the end, all Lyudmila could do was choose to hug her own schoolbag and Saotome Yukina's schoolbag tightly, softening her footsteps as much as possible as she followed behind Su Yuzu.
After leaving the lobby on the first floor of the Healing-type academic building, the world seemed to instantly grow clamorous.
The little rabbit, who only moments ago had been pitifully sobbing and begging Su Yuzu for mercy, all at once seemed to lose every ounce of her ability to speak.
She could only desperately try to bury her face in senpai's embrace.
The girl's frail shoulders hunched up, her arms clutching Su Yuzu for dear life, her whole body seeming to want to wind itself around Su Yuzu.
And Su Yuzu... still wickedly cradled the girl, jostling her whole body upward with a little bounce. "Eep."
The little rabbit's hands clenched tight.
In truth, Su Yuzu wasn't doing it entirely on purpose.
It was just that... to carry the little rabbit on foot from the Healing-type academic building all the way to the commercial street was still quite a distance.
If she held the girl in an improper posture, it would simply be too tiring.
And besides~ Su Yuzu lowered her head and gazed at the adorable ear tip peeking out from amid the girl's snow-white hair—its very ends faintly tinged with a snow-blue hue.
Su Yuzu hadn't originally intended to bully the little rabbit this much~
The punishment Su Yuzu had originally had in mind was merely to carry the little rabbit out of the Healing-type academic building in an intimidating manner, then switch to a more normal and convenient posture, like a princess carry, and carry the little rabbit for a stroll around the commercial street.
But... Su Yuzu felt the way the girl wound herself so tightly around her, even her little head seeming to want to burrow into her embrace.
Even though she knew perfectly well that this was a fairly normal 'stress response' from the little rabbit, who was prone to embarrassment to begin with.
But still... 'the little rabbit looks like she rather enjoys being held by me like this~'
'Then I'll just carry her like this.'
In any case, for Su Yuzu—who had borrowed Mihou Sakai's [Perfect Execution] and borrowed a quarter of Kujou Katora's power—carrying such a light, soft girl this little distance was purely a matter of enjoyment, nothing more.
Honestly... Su Yuzu deliberately blew a soft breath against the little rabbit's ear, as if teasing the girl.
The girl's shoulder blades trembled, all but hunching up.
But the little rabbit still suppressed her pitiful whimpering, bashfully burying her head in the crook of Su Yuzu's neck, refusing to spare so much as a glance at the road—or a glance at... those classmates, senpai, kouhai, and even teachers watching her, as well as... a passing Director.
"Yuzu~~~" Saionji Sagara, out for a post-meal stroll, watched Su Yuzu walking through the campus carrying Saotome Yukina.
She had originally meant to say something like "mind how this looks."
But... thinking of how, the day after tomorrow, Yuzu would be going with Saotome Yukina to take part in the academic exchange event with Imperial Capital University.
It was perfectly normal for the girls to break in their coordination a little in advance, to get used to it—in case something came up on the ever-changing battlefield where Su Yuzu would need to relocate while carrying Student Saotome.
Saionji Sagara even intended to give Yuzu some pointers on how to strap a Healing-type Esper to her body without hindering her own movements.
However, looking at the trembling shoulders and hair of the girl in Su Yuzu's arms, she ultimately gave up on the idea of offering guidance.
The little rabbit was practically about to cry in Su Yuzu's arms.
How could there be a Director here too.
In the distance, Miss Hayabusa—who, having learned that Su Yuzu was to take part in Imperial Capital University's overseas investigation activity, had come over intending to ask about the situation—gazed with a face full of hesitation at Su Yuzu, who was carrying that only daughter of the Saotome family.
She began to ponder whether or not she ought to step forward now.
And... whether she had offended some deity or other.
Otherwise, why was it that, like the Boss, matters of obtaining Blessings never seemed to include her share.
Yet whenever there was some awkward scene to be walked in on, some Shame Play going on... every single time, she always seemed to be right there at the scene.
Fortunately, seeing how delicate the situation was—and harboring complicated feelings toward the Investigation Bureau's Fourth Action Division—Director Saionji took the initiative to step forward and greet them.
It could be counted as temporarily defusing Miss Hayabusa's awkwardness.
As for... why only temporarily.
It was probably because, just as Miss Hayabusa was watching Miss Yuzu and that Saintess of the 「Holy Royal Court」 walk off into the distance, she happened to catch the little rabbit—so mortified she was about to cry—lifting her head.
Those pair of shame-and-indignation-filled water-blue eyes happened to meet Miss Hayabusa's gaze for an instant.
"Superintendent Hayabusa?" Director Saionji waved a hand toward the Miss Superintendent before her, and Hayabusa only felt a bitterness at the corners of her mouth.
On the other side, Su Yuzu hugged the little rabbit tighter.
The whole way, one could hear the girl's low cries of alarm, and presently those cries of alarm all turned into a sound almost like admiration.
"Is that... the first-year kouhai Saotome and Yuzu-hime!?"
"Ooooh!!!"
"Wah... so envious."
"But Student Saotome's figure is amazing too... even from the side you can see how... ample it is."
"She's even outdoing Yuzu-hime."
"...."
The little rabbit clung to Su Yuzu, all but about to cry.
No matter how much the little rabbit wanted to bury her little face in senpai's embrace, in a place where no one could see.
But——
In the entire Healing-type division of Keigunen Private Academy, girls with the white-hair attribute could be counted on one's fingers.
And girls who had a connection to Su Yuzu were fewer still.
On top of that... with Lyudmila—the celebrity figure who followed at Su Yuzu's side and was the little rabbit's roommate—right there, plus the little rabbit's downright iconic hair color, snow-white at the tips yet faintly tinged with a lovely pink-blue, it was awfully hard for anyone to mistake her identity.
The girls' voices weren't loud, but for the little rabbit it was already more than enough to serve as an execution.
By the time Su Yuzu carried the little rabbit to the commercial street and the familiar crepe shop.
The little rabbit only felt as though she were about to melt right into Yuzu-senpai's embrace.
The girl's whimpering at this moment could no longer be described as "about to cry." That feeling of sorrowful frailty was simply... simply like a super-enhanced version of that pre-dawn when Lady Fate suddenly dropped two Blessings in a row.
Only, last time the one being bullied was her strength; this time the one being bullied was... her spirit.
Having finally escaped Su Yuzu's clutches, the little rabbit shrank into the corner of her seat, glaring at Su Yuzu almost with shame and indignation.
"Angry, are we~" Su Yuzu coaxed the little rabbit just like coaxing a small child.
The little rabbit only puffed out her cheeks like a hamster.
Honestly speaking... was she angry?
Not really.
Thinking of the little rabbit's Favorability Gift—though it might be a gift that the future little rabbit would like, it also gave a rough idea of... a bit of the little rabbit's true nature.
To get angry over just this little bit of bullying—for Saotome Yukina, that~ wouldn't quite go that far.
But after a girl has been bullied, she always has to put on a bit of a show, doesn't she.
Yet... Su Yuzu looked as though she had absolutely no intention of playing by the usual rules.
"Looks like you really are angry."
"I'll carry Yukina right back, then."
Saotome Yukina's water-blue eyes went wide all at once.
Wh... what what what!!!
Is this what senpai's apology is like!?
Seeing Su Yuzu putting on the very posture of being about to scoop her up again just like before, the little rabbit panicked at once.
She instinctively tried to draw in her legs, but her ankle had already been seized in the hand of the senpai before her.
"I'm not!"
"I'm not angry!"
"I'm really not... I'm really not..."
"It was my fault!"
But Su Yuzu seemed to have no intention whatsoever of playing by the usual script; gripping the girl's ankle, she inched closer little by little.
"Oh~"
"Yukina was in the wrong?"
"Then..."
"Tell senpai, Yukina..."
"where exactly Yukina went wrong~"
The little rabbit stared blankly at Su Yuzu, her mouth crumpling as she nearly burst into tears.
Bully... senpai...
Bully.
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