Holding the chocolate cream crepe in both hands, Kujou Katora hadn't taken a single bite.
She just sat there stiffly, watching the girl across from her nibble at the edge of her own crepe in small, delicate bites.
For one instant a strange thought surfaced in Kujou Katora's head—something along the lines of: what would it feel like if Miss Yuzu weren't biting a crepe at all, but biting her instead?
"Doesn't Raptor like it?" Su Yuzu looked up.
In the sunlight, the corners of the girl's lips had an almost crystalline shine to them.
"N-no… that's not it…" Kujou Katora answered in a rush.
How could she possibly not like it?
As long as it came from Miss Yuzu—from Master Yuzu—it didn't matter what it was, she would declare her delight with her whole heart.
Even a whipping would have been fine.
"Then can Raptor let me have a taste?"
"Yes… of course." The words scraped out of her throat almost beyond her control, strained, sounding like a surrender.
Kujou Katora meant to break the crepe in her hands in two.
But… her head was a fog. She had no idea what she had done. No idea what she had said.
In the end she pushed the crepe forward in both hands, holding it out in front of Su Yuzu. "Miss Yuzu…"
Su Yuzu looked at Kujou Katora.
The corners of the girl's lips curved upward.
Under Kujou Katora's wide, dazed stare, Su Yuzu set her own crepe down with her left hand, tucked the loose strands of hair back behind her ear, leaned in slightly, and took a soft bite from the crepe Kujou Katora was holding out to her.
The muscles in Kujou Katora's thighs pulled taut.
She could hardly have put into words what she felt in that moment, but this much she could say: watching Miss Yuzu sweep back her hair and bend down to take that light bite from the crepe in her own hands sent a strange, giddy joy through her that far surpassed any Blessing Lady Fate had ever cast down.
Compared to pleasure that was purely of the senses, Kujou Katora preferred this—joy that belonged to the spirit.
Su Yuzu had only eaten a little.
"Well then~"
"Does Raptor want to try mine?" Su Yuzu nudged the plate at her elbow across the table toward Kujou Katora.
Kujou Katora stared at the plate the girl had pushed over.
Something was turning over in her head, though what it was, even she couldn't say.
It was a simple interaction, nothing more—and yet in Kujou Katora's eyes it turned into a commendation.
It turned into a lesson in discipline.
"She just… pushed the plate over…"
[So that's what Miss Yuzu meant all along?]
"She wants me to be like a pet…"
[The shame—]
"But—"
"But…"
"I'll be good."
Under Su Yuzu's faintly startled gaze, Kujou Katora lowered her head and licked softly at the edge of the cream, exactly the way a pet takes its food.
Kujou Katora's ears had gone scarlet, the lobes burning hot enough to scald.
What she craved… really was Miss Yuzu's bullying.
Body and mind shivered with the thrill of it.
And then came the shame, the guilt, because this forbidden thing—this nameless excitement that should never have risen in her at all—had risen anyway.
And then… she was more excited still.
The woman lifted her eyes, cream still clinging to her lips.
Nothing remained in those crimson eyes of the savage edge that belonged to The Empire's Hound. Kujou Katora's eyes swam with mist, blurred and glistening.
As for Su Yuzu—she had no idea what elaborate fantasies Kujou Katora's head had spun out of a simple instruction.
But… that didn't stop her from understanding what was happening.
Or from rewarding Kujou Katora for it.
Su Yuzu reached out, took a napkin, and gently wiped Kujou Katora's soft lips, smearing the cream across them and then wiping them clean.
"Raptor's such a good girl~~~"
It was the kind of praise that would have struck anyone else as wildly out of place—the sort you'd use to soothe a pet, or a small child.
As if the one sitting across from Su Yuzu weren't Kujou Katora at all, but some big cat or big dog that happened to answer to the same name.
Praise that amounted to an insult—and it left Kujou Katora so steeped in shame that her whole body seemed to spark alight.
"Miss Yuzu is so mean, so mean, so mean…"
But—
"So wonderful, so wonderful, so wonderful…"
Her body shook in that humiliated tremor until she felt she might ascend to heaven.
And just then…
Tap—
Whoever the footsteps belonged to had done everything possible to tread lightly, but strung as tight as they both were, Kujou Katora and Su Yuzu heard them without the slightest difficulty.
The two of them turned their heads at almost the same instant.
Miss Hayabusa stood there, awkward and utterly done with living, the despair in her eyes reading like a tribute to the bonus, two years hence, that had already evaporated.
For reasons no one could explain… Miss Hayabusa always managed to turn up in the worst possible place at the worst possible time.
Kujou Katora looked at the abruptly materialized Miss Hayabusa and felt her entire being coming apart at the seams.
In the old days she would have glared back with murder in her stare, wearing the look of someone about to gouge the eyeballs right out of their sockets, roaring that next month's wages were gone! And the month after that too!
But now…
Trembling as though she might shake herself to pieces, Kujou Katora looked to the girl in front of her.
"Sister Hayabusa is here~"
"I bought one for Sister Hayabusa too."
"Sit down, sit down—"
Miss Hayabusa turned a lifeless stare on her own superior, and all Kujou Katora could do was glare back, burning with shame and anger, then signal for her to do exactly as Miss Yuzu wished.
Miss Hayabusa sat down beside Su Yuzu like a woman lowering herself onto a bed of needles.
Su Yuzu went back to her crepe, unhurried.
She'd hardly eaten anything that morning.
She had bought so many crepes and apple pies, and somehow almost all of them had ended up in the stomachs of Kirishika and Kirikashi.
And Su Yuzu hadn't had the heart to fight two girls who had 'never seen the world' for them.
"Isn't Raptor going to eat?"
"Ah…"
"Yes!" Kujou Katora bowed her head with painstaking care, cradling her own crepe, staring at the mark Su Yuzu had left in it—a mark like a declaration of ownership. As if she herself had been claimed in exactly the same way.
She took a careful little bite.
Watching her superior behave with such impossible meekness, Miss Hayabusa was left with nothing but a bottomless sigh.
Su Yuzu finished her own portion at a leisurely pace, dabbed at her lips, then looked at Kujou Katora across from her and Miss Hayabusa at her side.
"Sister Raptor~" In front of Miss Hayabusa, Su Yuzu was careful to let Kujou Katora keep her dignity. "Is your visit to Keigunen this time… about the accusations against me?"
The moment business was mentioned, Kujou Katora's expression turned grave and serious.
"Yes—"
"The accusations leveled at you this time are anything but ordinary."
"Behind this Event…"
"…stands 'Epiphany Manufacture.'"
"Miss Yuzu, have you ever heard—"
"—the name Tsukimisato Somehana?"
[Ding—]
[Part.0 - Fate Trifler: Phase One mission complete.]
[Congratulations, you have obtained your reward: Third Sequence Promotion Emblem.]
[…]
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