Leaving the deck, Su Yuzu leaned against the corridor wall—she did not head to the lounge.
Sister Mai had just said she was going to the lounge to rest for a bit. Su Yuzu lowered her brows and eyes, exhaling a burning breath as she took stock of her current state.
If she went to the lounge now and ran straight into Sister Mai, she might just trigger some subtle plotline.
Granted... seizing this opportunity, she could break through in one go the Favorability of Sakura Mai that had been stuck for so long: the 59 (Favor) threshold.
But... Su Yuzu didn't really want to do something like that.
She preferred the vibe of things coming together naturally.
Of course—
an occasional change of taste wasn't out of the question, but not right now.
Su Yuzu looked a little unsteady as she... slowly made her way toward the changing room.
There were three ways to deal with the poison in her body.
One was an antidote.
But in the current situation, Su Yuzu passed on the antidote outright.
To say in front of Tsukiyomi-senpai... that she'd been struck by this sort of... this kind of poison, and in the end even need Tsukiyomi-senpai to volunteer to help her resolve it—just thinking about such a thing made Su Yuzu feel utterly humiliated.
And besides—
she hadn't even recruited Tsukiyomi-senpai yet.
It was possible she could recruit Tsukiyomi-senpai directly through this event. But... in something that could directly determine who came out on top, Su Yuzu would absolutely never allow herself to be the passive party.
So then—
it seemed only two paths remained.
Secretly finding someone to help her.
Whether it was the little rabbit, or Teacher Unohana Chiyo... or Sister Mai, none of them seemed to pose any problem.
They might hesitate, but they would surely never refuse.
It was just that Su Yuzu didn't really want to do that.
There were many reasons.
She didn't want them to possibly... see her in such an embarrassing, blubbering, humiliated state; she didn't want to trouble them over something like this; she didn't want... to treat them as tools, but rather wanted a more harmonious... equal relationship.
So then... it seemed the only path left was to handle it herself.
Mihou Sakai was ecstatic.
But how could Su Yuzu ever possibly bow down to Fate!
Even the "Eye of Insight" had been trampled beneath her feet.
Su Yuzu decided to go to the changing room and take a cold shower to cool her head.
Wasn't it just like in those anime?
The heroine who's been struck by some strange poison, caught in the act by another heroine, pink bubbles already rising up, the enchanting atmosphere maxed out, and just when you think something strange is about to happen—splat—
she gets tossed by the other into the cold-water bath.
Then the scene cuts to the moon streaking across the night sky, time jumping straight to the next day, and the bashful heroine, who clearly hadn't done anything at all, in the end whimpers, "I don't need you to take responsibility."
Su Yuzu pushed open the door to the changing room.
And then... she froze on the spot.
The patter of falling water came from within the changing room—there was actually someone inside.
In that moment, Su Yuzu felt like she was about to fall apart entirely.
The way things were developing seemed to have completely blindsided her.
Th-there's someone in the changing room?!
Su Yuzu felt that Fate had played an enormous joke on her.
What if, when she showered in the cold water later, she still couldn't control herself—wouldn't that... wouldn't that mean the vicious pranks she'd once played on Lyudmila and the others would finally come rebounding back onto herself?
[Damn it—]
Su Yuzu suddenly felt the deep malice Lady Fate held toward her.
Could it be that, because of that transfer of power from Saint Michael, some "born-to-be-bullied" fate had been passed along to her too?
At Keigunen Private Academy, without the company of the little rabbit, Lyudmila—who could only sit alone in the crepe shop and order a plate of strawberry cream crepes—suddenly sneezed, sensing a deep, deep malice.
But Su Yuzu quickly realized that things weren't as simple as she'd imagined.
In the common area of the changing room... there lingered a faint scent familiar to Su Yuzu... a familiar, banksia-rose-like fragrance.
So clingy.
Sister... Mai?
Su Yuzu looked at the stalls of the bathing area.
Behind the frosted glass of one stall, a human figure could faintly be made out.
At the same time... through the completely transparent portion at the bottom, one could see the lithe, perfect lines of a girl's calves.
The person in the changing room was none other than Sakura Mai.
Su Yuzu suddenly felt the enormous joke Fate had played on her.
She had avoided the lounge precisely to steer clear of Sister Mai, and the result was... Sister Mai had gone and shown up here herself.
On [Operator Development], the pink bubbles around Su Yuzu's Q-version chibi grew ever thicker.
The pattering water inside the changing room suddenly stopped.
Sakura Mai let the icy droplets slide across her shoulders as she turned her head back, somewhat dazed and puzzled.
Though the frosted glass blocked her line of sight, letting her only faintly sense that someone was standing there.
But the cursed sword ceaselessly stirring and clamoring within her chest, along with Sakura Mai's keen instincts as a swordsman, still told her... just who the person standing there was.
Sakura Mai suddenly panicked.
It was precisely to flee Sister Yuzu, to flee the Sword of Erasure's craving for Sister Yuzu, that she had hidden away in the cabin.
She had originally meant to sleep for a while in the lounge, but found she couldn't sleep at all.
The cursed sword shrieked wildly, boiling over.
Crave, crave, crave!
Want, want, want!
Left with no choice, Sakura Mai could only flee, as if in escape, into the changing room, showering herself in cold water again and again in an attempt to cool the Sword of Erasure down.
But... it seemed to be in vain.
Still, no matter what, Sakura Mai did not want to hurt Sister Yuzu.
Control it! Control it!
Sakura Mai used every ounce of strength to hold back her hand that wanted to yank the door open, striving not to let herself—or that cursed sword—make a single sound.
She turned the showerhead back on.
Listening to the rustling of changing clothes outside, listening to the girl's slow, gentle footsteps, listening to the patter of water spraying from the stall next door.
Her mind raced at breakneck speed.
Next door... was where Sakura Mai had been earlier.
The door... was broken.
Torn apart by Yuzu.
Yuzu... was too close.
So close that the Sword of Erasure was about to howl its way out.
Sakura Mai fought with all her might to suppress the Sword of Erasure, and then... a faint, pale golden hue suddenly began to brew within her emerald eyes.
The struggling expression on the girl's face vanished.
"How troublesome..."
Sakura Mai—or rather,
the Sword of Erasure—pushed the door open, just like that.
[The door's broken?]
[Perfect.]
She pulled open the door of the stall next door.
[Devour, devour, devour—]
[Sweet, so sweet—]
The Sword of Erasure looked at the girl in the stall next door, and then... froze on the spot.
The girl's expression didn't seem to hold the panic that she—or rather, her host—had imagined.
On the contrary—
the girl's expression was brimming with a kind of... illusion that made the Sword of Erasure wonder "who is the prey, and who is the hunter."
In an instant, the world seemed to turn utterly black.
Endless black thorny vines grew wild within the cramped shower stall.
The girl was clearly just standing there, yet it was as if she presided upon a Throne.
"Wait..."
"Hold on!!!" The will of the Sword of Erasure finally sensed a trace of something ominous; even as it spun around to flee, it tried to return control of the body to Sakura Mai.
"I'm done playing!!!"
"I'm not playing anymore!"
"Don't run—" In a hoarse voice, Su Yuzu seized the hand of Sakura Mai—or rather... of the will of the Sword of Erasure.
"Guh!!!"
The coiling black vines drew the glass door shut.
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