Although she had encountered SEGA employees in the lobby, Kitasan Black hadn't yet realized the severity of the situation.
Everyone in the entire hotel, from top to bottom—including staff and guests, aside from their family of three—was either a Satomi family servant or a SEGA employee. All of them were under Satono Diamond's command.
By the time Kitasan Black realized this, it was already too late.
The next day, Kitasan Black really had no excuse to refuse accompanying her mother to the beach. So she could only brave the scorching sun and go out with her family. As she walked, she really wished she had Teio-senpai's ability to control sunlight—then she could just point and redirect the sunlight somewhere else.
But even Teio-senpai herself didn't seem to know she had this ability. She often insisted that the so-called glowing phenomenon was just a psychological illusion, not something that actually happened. Yet from other senpai's memories, Kitasan Black had clearly seen the shocking moment when Teio-senpai controlled the sunlight.
Arriving at the beach, the conditions here were actually much better than Kitasan Black had imagined. Perhaps it was because there were quite a few vendors nearby, but the beach wasn't as bad as she had feared. There wasn't garbage everywhere, and while there were indeed many people, the area was large enough that it didn't feel crowded.
"It actually looks pretty nice."
"Yes, it does."
Both her mother and father expressed satisfaction with the conditions here.
Next, Kitasan Black and her mother went to the changing rooms on the other side to change into swimsuits and apply sunscreen. When they came out to the beach, Kitasan Black's instinctual memories suddenly recalled Rice Shower-senpai's special training experience.
This place made her want to run.
Kitasan Black thought it was probably because running on sand was more difficult than elsewhere, which created a greater desire to conquer it. Especially since she possessed memories of her senpai who had already overcome this terrain, her body was getting a bit restless. But this mild impulse wasn't enough to influence her anymore.
Refusing her mother's decision to forcibly drag her into the water, Kitasan Black lay alone under a beach umbrella on a mat, taking on the role of watching over their belongings while letting her parents go off to play.
Just when Kitasan Black thought she could relax like this until it was time to leave, she had barely closed her eyes to rest for a short while when she heard a familiar voice—one that carried both excitement and surprise.
But because of this voice, Kitasan Black felt a chill despite the scorching weather.
"Kitasan-san?"
Satono Diamond appeared before Kitasan Black, acting as if this was a chance encounter. Her tone was carefully crafted, and although she felt her preparations were perfect, she had already prepared excuses in advance for how to cover things up in case Kitasan Black became suspicious.
But the moment Kitasan Black opened her eyes and saw this young lady, her usually lazy brain instantly went into overdrive. Even though Satono Diamond's setup was nearly flawless with few apparent gaps, she immediately confirmed that this was a trap laid by this young lady.
Mother's sudden burst of luck, a hotel advertisement that would never appear in a supermarket raffle, and the SEGA employee I saw yesterday... This whole thing was definitely arranged by you.
Kitasan Black already had her answer, but she didn't show it immediately.
Because at this point, revealing that she had seen through this young lady's scheme would serve no practical purpose.
Now that she had already fallen into the trap, exposing the truth wouldn't help her situation at all—it would only reveal her own capabilities to this young lady.
The more critical the moment, the calmer she needed to think.
For now, she would observe and see what this Diamond-ojou-sama was trying to do.
Kitasan Black still didn't understand why Satono Diamond would do something like this.
Even if the Satomi family was incredibly wealthy, there was no need to spend so much to scheme against her.
Besides, she didn't think this was an internal Satomi family decision—it was probably just Satono Diamond's personal choice. The situation hadn't deteriorated to a point she couldn't handle.
Although she managed to control her emotions in time, Kitasan Black's mood was inevitably affected.
Satono Diamond hadn't noticed this yet. She was putting on an act, saying, "What a coincidence! I didn't expect you to be vacationing here too, Kitasan-san. Are you here with Uncle Kitakami and the others?"
Nice acting, but did you forget? This is my area of expertise.
Satono Diamond's acting wasn't problematic—she could probably work as an actress without any issues.
Her expression and tone showed barely any gaps.
But Kitasan Black still saw through Satono Diamond's disguise at a glance.
Without exposing her, Kitasan Black responded to her words: "Mm."
No need to be nervous.
First, figure out what this young lady's real objective was.
Kitasan Black looked at her with indifferent eyes.
She just needed to act the same as she did at school—showing a somewhat distant and wary attitude.
"I came here with employees from my father's company. I just arrived today. I didn't expect to be lucky enough to run into you, Kitasan-san."
Kitasan Black said, "What a coincidence."
Guess whether I believe this coincidence or not.
Furthermore, from the moment you chose to use a hotel of this caliber for your plan, it was already a fatal flaw.
The Satomi family's young lady probably had no idea what a commoner's vacation spot actually looked like.
A hotel ticket of this caliber could never appear in an ordinary supermarket raffle.
If she hadn't sensed anything wrong, she would have just felt puzzled at most. But from the moment you, the mastermind, appeared in person, that puzzle would be magnified into a serious problem that exposed you as the mastermind.
Still too naive, ojou-sama.
But what right did she have to mock the other's inexperience when she herself had fallen for the trap?
Thinking this, Kitasan Black's mood soured.
Her current thoughts were all hindsight, because even though this young lady's scheme had quite a few holes, the important thing wasn't that—it was that she had already fallen into the trap.
The one currently at a disadvantage was herself. She couldn't forget that just because she had discovered a bit of the truth.
Right now, she was the one on the back foot.
"Don't you want to go into the water, Kitasan-san?"
Satono Diamond approached with familiarity and sat down near Kitasan Black.
Her movements were a bit stiff, but she overcame that.
Kitasan Black's eyes were dim. What was this girl trying to do?
"I'm not interested. Besides, someone needs to watch our things here."
"I see."
Satono Diamond sat hugging her knees, face turned to the side as she looked at Kitasan Black.
That joy coming from the heart—even Kitasan Black could sense it.
Though Kitasan Black interpreted it as merely the composure of someone whose scheme had succeeded.
You must be quite pleased with yourself right now, since I've already fallen into your trap.
Kitasan Black's mood was serious.
The only reason she could think of for why this young lady would do this was that agreement from before.
The agreement to keep each other's secrets—an agreement that was essentially mutual threats.
Are you trying to get the recording file back from me?
That was probably it.
That was why this young lady had gone to such lengths to get her to come out, even spending enormous sums of money to set up this elaborate scheme.
As expected.
This kind of threat would backfire against someone like Satono Diamond, an ojou-sama with maxed-out execution ability.
But at the time, she had no other choice.
If she hadn't used deception to threaten Satono Diamond, she would have become the one being threatened one-sidedly.
From the beginning, she had been in a weak position. Kitasan Black didn't think her struggle had been wrong.
The only thing she hadn't anticipated was that this young lady would already know how to use these methods at her age.
My hotel room has probably already been searched by now. And my phone in the safe deposit box is probably the same.
Kitasan Black had no doubt that Satono Diamond could do these things.
After all, this place was almost certainly within Satomi family territory.
In that case...
You were in such a hurry to appear before me, even risking that I might see through you—is it because you didn't find what you were looking for? Well, of course not, because that thing never existed in the first place.
She didn't actually have any real recording file.
So no matter what Satono Diamond did, it would all be in vain.
But this young lady might not think so. She might assume the file had been transferred somewhere else. Thinking about it that way, her hometown might already have Satomi family agents infiltrating it.
So this was the consequence of opposing an ojou-sama from a major financial conglomerate.
Kitasan Black felt a chill down her spine.
Her senpai had no experience dealing with this kind of situation, meaning from here on she was on her own.
Confess to Satono Diamond that she actually had no recording, and beg for her magnanimous forgiveness?
No, that wouldn't work. That would be like placing her fate in the other person's hands.
She didn't dare imagine what would happen if she did that.
Not only would she fail to escape Satono Diamond's grasp, she might end up even worse off than [Kita-chan].
[Kita-chan] at least got to be treated as a friend.
If she dared confess, she would probably become this young lady's slave.
Absolutely not!
What is Kitasan-san thinking about right now?
Satono Diamond had no idea that her image in Kitasan Black's mind had transformed into that of a villainess. She was just enjoying this feeling of being close to Kitasan Black.
She hadn't noticed it when she was at school.
But after returning home for this vacation, she suddenly felt uncomfortable.
Because the person who had always been by her side throughout this semester was no longer there.
Although she did feel some fear toward Kitasan Black, wasn't that also a form of admiration?
Fear of Kitasan Black's strength, yet at the same time unable to resist wanting to get closer to someone so powerful.
All living beings were like this—instinctively drawn to more perfect, more powerful members of their species.
Especially when that individual was around the same age.
Satono Diamond's thoughts were actually quite simple: she just wanted to have a good relationship with Kitasan Black.
Not the neither-close-nor-distant relationship of keeping each other's secrets, but a closer, friendlier relationship.
This plan of hers seemed elaborate, but it was really just to create an opportunity to spend time with Kitasan Black up close. After all, no matter how she tried to invite her, she couldn't get Kitasan Black to come out.
That was why she had done this.
But obviously, the pragmatic Kitasan Black didn't think this way at all.
She couldn't possibly believe that Satono Diamond had done all this just to become friends with her. Who would go to such lengths just to make friends? If she knew the truth, she would find it terrifying in a different way.
"Aren't you going out to play?"
Unable to bear Satono Diamond staying by her side, Kitasan Black spoke up.
She had thought that after Satono Diamond sat down, she would soon bring up the matter of the recording.
But who would have expected that after sitting down, the other girl just kept staring at her without getting to the point?
She couldn't bring it up herself, so she could only hint that she wanted the other person to leave.
Satono Diamond naturally picked up on Kitasan Black's intention to make her leave.
But that wouldn't do. Unless Kitasan Black actually told her to go, she wouldn't acknowledge mere hints—even if she understood them perfectly, she would deliberately pretend not to.
"Because I came on behalf of Father, I can't really play together with everyone else. After all, everyone around me are adults, and I'm the only child. So it's really wonderful that I happened to run into you here, Kitasan-san. I feel like today must be my lucky day."
...
But today is definitely my unlucky day.
Kitasan Black felt psychological torment. If she weren't holding down her tail, it would definitely be trembling uncontrollably by now. The worst thing about being an uma musume was this—the movements of ears and tail were completely involuntary. The moment her mood fluctuated, these two places would react instinctively.
To truly control this, she would have to be like McQueen-senpai and achieve genuine inner stillness.
But how could something like that be achieved just because you wanted it?
Even McQueen-senpai had only managed it later on—she couldn't do it at first either.
Kitasan Black was silent for a good while.
Then she suddenly realized that she didn't actually need to show this kind of attitude toward Satono Diamond.
Because on the surface, it appeared that she was the one with the upper hand.
Although in reality she was at a disadvantage, this young lady apparently didn't know that.
That meant she could afford to be more assertive.
So she tentatively asked, "How long are you planning to stay here?"
"...Am I not allowed to stay here? Does Kitasan-san really hate being around me that much?"
Satono Diamond's voice clearly conveyed disappointment, along with another emotion that Kitasan Black couldn't quite identify—an emotion that made her feel uneasy.
Almost instinctively, she replied immediately: "That's not it."
"..."
Satono Diamond's mood lifted again.
Kitasan Black's mood continued to plummet.
How long was this stalemate going to last?
Dad, Mom, hurry back already!
Now she could only hope for external forces to break the deadlock.
Just as Kitasan Black was hoping for this, an external force beyond her imagination appeared.
"Diamond, so this is where you were. Huh? Kitasan-san, why are you here too?"
Satono Crown suddenly arrived under the surprised gazes of both girls.
Satono Diamond frowned slightly. She hadn't told Crown about this plan.
Kitasan Black felt like everything was falling apart. Why did she have to run into these two goddesses even during vacation?
"Crown, did you need something from me?"
Satono Diamond asked Crown.
What she actually wanted to ask was: Crown, how did you know about this place?
Crown smiled and answered, "Because I wanted to find you to go swimming together, Diamond."
She gave Kitasan Black a reassuring look. Although she didn't know what Diamond was trying to do, she felt that Diamond using the Satomi family's power like this was going too far. So she had actually come to help Kitasan Black.
Of course, she was also genuinely worried that her cute little sister might be heading down a criminal path.
...
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