With the young female superintendent gone, the teachers from the PE department took one look at Unohana Chiyo holding Su Yuzu in her arms, and not one of them wanted to be a third wheel.
They barely said a word.
They only reminded Unohana Chiyo to inform Director Saionji about Su Yuzu's situation as soon as possible, and then they all went their separate ways.
Which left only her and Su Yuzu in Unohana Chiyo's office.
Su Yuzu was still held in that same position, Unohana Chiyo's arms locked around her waist from behind, pinning down her shoulders.
Su Yuzu watched the young female superintendent's retreating back, then... shifted her arm and gave Unohana Chiyo's waist a light nudge with her elbow.
Unohana Chiyo didn't seem to register it. Her chin rested on Su Yuzu's shoulder as she gazed blankly down at the girl, as though she still hadn't worked out what she was getting at.
"Teacher Chiyo..." Su Yuzu squirmed a little, tilting her head to the side.
From this angle, Su Yuzu had a perfect view of the straight bridge of Teacher Chiyo's nose, of cheeks tinged faintly pink from being so close to her, of lips soft and glistening.
One thing about that was rather interesting.
Simply being this close was enough to raise a charming little flush on Teacher Chiyo's face.
And yet... the "Advanced Combat Records", which even Senior Tsukiyomi Fuya could barely withstand, had only made the woman look a shade more bewitching than usual.
Her tolerance for the Combat Records.
Unohana Chiyo could apparently take even more than Mihou Sakai.
Perhaps... that was simply because Teacher Chiyo had once belonged to the Death Squad, and her endurance was monstrous.
It surely couldn't be that even the "Advanced Combat Records" wasn't enough to leave Teacher Chiyo satisfied.
A terrible possibility drifted through Su Yuzu's mind.
That would be a bit too horrifying.
The girl gave another gentle squirm in her arms, and only then did Unohana Chiyo grasp what Su Yuzu meant.
"When...?"
She couldn't even remember when she had gathered Yuzu into her arms.
"S-sorry!" In a flustered rush she released the hand around Su Yuzu's waist and tried to take a small step back, forgetting that the lounge chair sat right behind her.
Her calf struck the lounge chair.
For someone like Unohana Chiyo, who could not be classified as a body-enhancement type Esper yet far outstripped every body-enhancement type Esper, keeping her balance anywhere, at any moment, should have been no challenge whatsoever.
Not to mention... that lounge chair wasn't particularly sturdy.
Had it truly stood in her way, it was the sort of thing that would shatter at a single touch.
But in front of Yuzu, something happened to Unohana Chiyo that she could not explain, and even balance, a thing that should have been carved into her instincts, deserted her.
Unohana Chiyo went toppling backward onto the lounge chair.
"Eh!!!" Su Yuzu reached out on reflex and caught at her.
The next second... Unohana Chiyo, sprawled across the lounge chair, was looking down at the girl lying against her chest, at shoulders that seemed to be trembling ever so faintly.
Her right hand hovered in midair, with nowhere to go, until at last... slowly, so very slowly... she laid it on the girl's back.
Su Yuzu braced her right hand against Unohana Chiyo's chest and tried to push herself up, but... she wobbled, unable to summon any strength, and her shoulders were caught in Unohana Chiyo's arm again.
If their positions had been reversed just then, Su Yuzu would have pulled the struggling Unohana Chiyo straight down into her embrace and made it clear that if Teacher Chiyo had something to say~ she was more than welcome to say it right there.
But... Unohana Chiyo was different.
She wasn't a wicked creature like Su Yuzu.
Unohana Chiyo lifted her hands to help Su Yuzu sit up, and then, catching the faintly sulky, wounded look on the girl's face, she realized at last what a 'foolish thing' she had just done.
She was the one being taken advantage of here.
And still Unohana Chiyo was the one shrinking and stammering as if she were the guilty party.
She was never like this in front of anyone else.
In her colleagues' eyes, Teacher Chiyo was mild and gentle, always smiling, her lovely peach-blossom eyes curving into the most charming shape.
But in truth, Teacher Chiyo was a woman who acted with absolute resolve.
Only in front of Yuzu... only ever in front of Yuzu...
Unohana Chiyo didn't understand what had come over her.
Everything, all of it—
Ever since the day Su Yuzu extended the "Hand of Paradox" toward her, it seemed everything had changed.
It was several minutes before the two of them were properly seated again.
Unohana Chiyo's right hand clenched and opened, clenched and opened.
She looked at the disordered front of Su Yuzu's uniform and wanted to straighten it for the girl, but didn't dare reach out.
As for Su Yuzu... she was looking at Teacher Chiyo's Favorability, still stubbornly stuck at 59, while quietly accepting yet another Favorability Gift.
A leather garter strap.
A short-handled weapon could be tucked into it during combat.
It could also... grant teammates bonus attack speed in combat.
"I'm sorry." Unohana Chiyo lowered her head in apology to Su Yuzu.
"Teacher Chiyo... why are you apologizing?" The sly little smile in the girl's eyes gave Unohana Chiyo the dizzying sense that she had been seen through, weighed, and understood completely.
"Earlier... when that Superintendent came." Unohana Chiyo wasn't apologizing for the charged little farce that had just played out between them.
Su Yuzu propped her chin in both hands.
"You mean when Sister Jingjing wanted to take me back to the Investigation Bureau?" A smile spread across Su Yuzu's face. "Teacher Chiyo was so cool back there!"
"Especially when Teacher Chiyo said~"
"The Tokyo metropolitan area is not the Investigation Bureau's Tokyo metropolitan area!"
"It's not a place where the Investigation Bureau can do as it pleases just because it's waving around a scrap of paper~ When you said that, it was seriously so cool!"
That look in the girl's eyes, bright with something like admiration.
Unohana Chiyo could see perfectly well that Little Yuzu was only saying it to please her, and satisfaction still welled up in her all the same.
"It was simply Director Saionji's instruction," she said, forcing an even tone.
"I was actually worried Little Yuzu might think I'd overstepped..."
"Never!" Su Yuzu looked straight at her. "Teacher Chiyo must have had her own reasons."
At the girl's iron-clad certainty, the words died on Unohana Chiyo's parted lips.
She drew a deep breath, as if to settle something inside her.
In ancient times, Little Yuzu would surely have been one of those beguiling creatures who topple kingdoms and ruin nations.
And the kind who wouldn't even spare the women.
She gathered her thoughts. "About Little Yuzu using Saint Michael's power to intercept the Seat of Evil..."
"Imperial Capital University already filed a report with the authorities."
"There is no possibility of you being charged over something like that."
"Little Yuzu may not have noticed, but every single battle you've fought, Keigunen Private Academy has filed the proper paperwork for."
"And besides... Little Yuzu's standing is a rather sensitive matter."
Su Yuzu was, after all, the most doted-on Little Sister of the person who actually held power in the Soga clan today.
"There's even less chance they'd simply descend in a swarm and announce they were taking Little Yuzu away."
"So the Investigation Bureau coming here is absolutely not about settling old scores. Someone wants to use Yuzu to make an issue of something."
"And Miss Superintendent's parting words made that clear enough, didn't they."
"The net of heaven is vast, its mesh is wide, and yet nothing slips through..."
"Someone has already submitted evidence to the Investigation Bureau."
"Someone—"
She had no idea how Little Yuzu had sle— had persuaded that Superintendent of the Investigation Bureau.
But it was obvious enough—
Her words had been telling Su Yuzu one thing.
There was a fish... a big fish... and it had risen to the surface.
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