Upon hearing Sakayanagi Arisu's answer — reluctant, but forced into submission for the sake of her goal — the smile on Shikime Natsu's face deepened a fraction.
He narrowed those pale golden eyes slightly, watching the silver-haired girl in the maid outfit before him with an expression that hovered somewhere between a smirk and a smile, and asked once more to confirm.
"Sakayanagi-san — are you absolutely sure... this is entirely of your own free will?"
"After all, this is no small sum. If Sakayanagi-san is being coerced in any way, I really would feel terribly guilty."
He said the words "terribly guilty" — yet his face was the picture of ease and amusement, that playful smile never leaving his lips. If anyone genuinely believed he felt guilty, they'd be delusional.
Sakayanagi Arisu drew a slow breath, forcibly suppressing the urge to hit him, and curved her lips into an elegant — if ever so slightly stiff — arc.
"Of course," she replied.
"A deal is a deal. I always honour my promises."
"You needn't worry on that account, Shiki-san."
"Good."
Natsu gave a satisfied nod and leaned back in his chair, settling comfortably against the backrest.
"In that case... please go ahead and transfer the points first, Sakayanagi-san."
Upon hearing this, Sakayanagi's brow creased almost imperceptibly — but in the end, she didn't refuse.
She drew out her white phone from her pocket and, with practiced ease, transferred every last personal point she had stored on it directly to Shikime Natsu. Her balance hit zero.
In Sakayanagi Arisu's estimation, Shikime Natsu was precisely the type of person who wouldn't release the eagle until he'd spotted the rabbit — who wouldn't let go until he had the money in hand.
He was famously generous with other girls — rumour had it he regularly treated various girls to outings and bought them pretty gifts.
And yet...
When it came to her — and only her — Sakayanagi Arisu had never once seen Shikime Natsu be generous. Not a single time.
Never mind gifts. He had the audacity to go even further — actively draining her personal points. Three thousand points for a single glass of milk, for instance.
And then...
Sakayanagi watched the look of satisfaction that spread across Natsu's face as he checked his phone screen — and a thought crept into her mind, one that made her even angrier.
The personal points that Shikime Natsu used day in and day out to pamper those other girls — to buy them gifts, to treat them to meals — a fair number of those points came from her, didn't they? From her, the perennial fool who kept handing him money.
The moment that thought took shape — the image of her hard-earned points being spent on other girls by Natsu — the emotions churning inside Sakayanagi Arisu grew impossibly complicated.
It was a feeling she couldn't quite put into words. She had most certainly been taken advantage of — but it was something even worse than simply being taken advantage of. Even Sakayanagi Arisu, for once, couldn't find the right adjective to describe her situation.
Natsu glanced at his phone, confirmed that the full transfer had arrived, then looked up at the thoroughly dejected Sakayanagi and offered a cheerful compliment.
"I didn't realise Sakayanagi-san had such impressive savings."
"I must say — Sakayanagi-san really is extraordinarily generous."
Faced with this insufferable praise — praise from the very person who had just taken everything — Sakayanagi merely shot him a cold sidelong glance and said nothing.
All she wanted now was for this to be over as quickly as possible. To get the treatment she'd come for.
However — after pocketing his phone, Shikime Natsu did not immediately get to work as Sakayanagi had expected.
Instead, he stood up, rolled his neck a little to work out the stiffness from the massage he'd just been enjoying, and then turned to Sakayanagi with a polite smile.
"Well then."
"Since the points have been received and the massage has been enjoyed —"
"— thank you very much for your hospitality today, Sakayanagi-san."
And with that, he actually turned on his heel and walked towards the entrance, every movement suggesting he was about to walk straight out the door.
"..."
Sakayanagi Arisu stood frozen.
Her mind went completely blank.
Wait...
This isn't right.
By any normal chain of logic — Shikime Natsu had already taken all her personal points, and had already enjoyed her maid service...
So shouldn't he be treating her now? Starting her treatment?
How — how was this man planning to just pocket the money, enjoy the service, and then waltz straight out the door?!
This was...
This was a straight-up con! A complete and utter swindle!
It was definitely a swindle.
For Sakayanagi Arisu — a girl who had always believed herself to be in command of every situation — what was unfolding before her eyes was more painful than if someone had simply stabbed her. A surge of humiliation and fury flooded through her, so overwhelming that her body trembled.
"W-wait — wait a moment!"
Sakayanagi spun around and called out to Natsu, who was nearly at the door.
"Hold on!"
The voice that produced those words — normally so composed and graceful — now carried the unmistakable grind of someone speaking through clenched teeth, and beneath it, a barely detectable flicker of panic.
Shikime Natsu stopped. He turned around and looked at her with an expression of mild confusion.
"What's the matter, Sakayanagi-san?"
"Is there something else?"
Looking at that perfectly innocent face, Sakayanagi felt her blood pressure spike.
"This isn't right!" she said.
She drew a measured breath and forced her fury down, her voice razor-sharp.
"Shiki-san — are you seriously planning to just leave like this?"
"You took every single one of my points, made me serve you as a maid — and now you're going to walk out without doing anything?"
"That's completely —"
But before she could finish.
Natsu interrupted her with a mildly puzzled tilt of his head, speaking in a tone of absolute matter-of-factness.
"But..."
"Didn't Sakayanagi-san give all of that to me of her own free will?"
"When I asked earlier whether you were willing, you answered quite decisively, as I recall."
"And besides —"
He spread his hands, a teasing smile curving his lips.
"I just finished praising Sakayanagi-san for being so generous. Between friends, gifting a few points to each other, treating each other every now and then — isn't that perfectly normal?"
"Also — I never agreed this was a transaction, you know~"
Upon hearing that.
Sakayanagi Arisu felt herself about to explode.
So — when Natsu had earlier said he wanted her personal points, he hadn't been hinting at a deal at all. He had genuinely just intended to take them for free?!
This man — he had been setting a trap from the very beginning.
He had exploited her habitual way of thinking. He had exploited her desperate longing for good health. He had manoeuvred her — step by deliberate step — into becoming a fool who handed over money and performed services entirely of her own accord.
"Shikime Natsu!"
Sakayanagi's voice went cold. Those violet eyes seemed to burn with two small flames of fury as they locked onto the detestable man before her. She didn't even bother with "Shiki-san" anymore.
"Don't you think — what you're doing is going too far?"
"Too far?"
Natsu blinked, still wearing that unhurried, unbothered expression.
"Not particularly, no."
"Besides — Sakayanagi-san looked quite happy when she agreed to everything just now."
"What's this? The points have been transferred, the service has been completed... and now you want to take it back?"
"Sakayanagi-san... that really doesn't seem like the conduct befitting a genius, does it?"
Every sentence.
Every word.
Each one landed like a precisely aimed blade, cutting directly into the places Sakayanagi cared about most.
Grievance.
An unprecedented sense of grievance surged through her.
She had already cast aside every last shred of her pride. She had already lowered herself this far...
And still she was being toyed with like this?
No matter what she did — no matter how she played it — she was always, always ending up on the receiving end of this man's torment.
Without her noticing, a thin film of moisture had begun to gather in those lovely violet eyes.
The rims of her eyes had gone faintly pink. She looked genuinely, deeply wronged — on the verge of tears at any moment.
She stopped trying to rebut him. Stopped trying to out-argue him with logic.
Because she had realised — in the face of Shikime Natsu's brand of shameless roguery, all reason was utterly powerless.
And so, Sakayanagi Arisu lifted her chin slightly and spoke.
"Shiki-san..."
"Is it... really so entertaining to bully someone as... frail as me...?"
"Is this... really fun for you?"
In this moment, Sakayanagi Arisu was no longer the genius girl perched high above everyone else. She was simply an ordinary girl — wronged and hurting.
Upon hearing those words.
The curve at the corner of Natsu's mouth softened — just slightly.
He looked at the girl before him, her eyes glistening, her expression heartrendingly pitiful, and something inside him quietly stirred.
Sakayanagi Arisu... was actually calling herself "frail" now?
Of all things.
The Sakayanagi Arisu he knew had always proclaimed herself a genius. She'd regarded the people around her as ordinary mortals, too far beneath her to warrant association. She had always placed herself at the apex, looking down upon the world — and even though her body was sickly and frail, her spirit had forever been that of a queen gazing down from on high.
And now.
In front of Shikime Natsu, she had willingly lowered her head and called herself "frail."
This was... remarkably rare.
Unprecedented, even — a genuine first.
Sakayanagi said nothing more. She simply watched him with those slightly misty, glistening eyes — stubborn and wronged all at once.
That look in her eyes...
"...Hah."
Natsu let out a quiet internal sigh.
He smiled, and chose to stop teasing Sakayanagi Arisu.
After all...
Everything had its limits. If he kept pushing like this, he might genuinely make this proud, fiercely self-respecting beauty cry.
And if he actually made her cry right here... comforting her afterwards would be a far greater headache.
Natsu thought to himself that he really was too soft-hearted.
And so.
He walked back to the bedside and gestured toward the bed, speaking to the still-frozen, dejected Sakayanagi.
"Alright, I'll stop teasing you."
"Sakayanagi-san, go ahead and take off that maid outfit."
"Change into a towel, then lie face-down on the bed."
At those words, Sakayanagi's rigid posture gave a faint tremor.
She looked up at him, disbelief written across her face.
Only after confirming that Natsu was being perfectly serious did her expression ease — just a little.
That tidal wave of grievance that had been on the verge of breaking free finally began to recede.
Even so... the delicate flush still lingered on her cheeks, and her chest was still rising and falling with visible agitation. She hadn't fully calmed down.
Perhaps... she really had come close to crying.
This time.
Sakayanagi Arisu did not say a single word more.
She was terrified that if she opened her mouth — if she let one more dissatisfied word slip, or wore even a hint of defiance — she would hand this ill-natured man yet another excuse to torment her further.
In silence, she turned away, picked up the large white towel she'd prepared earlier, and walked into the bathroom.
A short while later.
She emerged, having efficiently changed out of the layered, somewhat cumbersome maid outfit.
When she stepped back out.
She was wrapped in nothing but a pristine white bath towel.
Her snow-pale skin gleamed with a soft luminescence under the room's light — refined collarbones, slender shoulders, and a pair of legs rendered extraordinarily fair and tender by years of minimal physical activity.
She didn't attempt to tease Natsu this time — none of her usual "I wonder if you've been looking forward to this" remarks.
Because...
A lesson learned is a lesson earned.
If she actually teased him right now, this man might genuinely refuse to treat her out of spite — and then all the humiliation she'd suffered tonight would have been for absolutely nothing.
Looking at the currently well-behaved, quiet Sakayanagi Arisu before him, Shikime Natsu gave a small nod of approval.
"Go ahead and lie down."
Sakayanagi obediently climbed onto the bed and settled face-down, burying her face in the pillow, leaving only the round curve of the back of her head and the elegant line of her neck exposed.
Natsu came forward and sat on the edge of the bed.
Even through the towel, he could feel the tension coiled in the girl's body.
"Relax," he said quietly.
Then he reached out and, with practiced ease, undid the knot holding the towel in place at her back.
As the towel slowly parted.
Sakayanagi's back was revealed to Shikime Natsu without reservation.
Like the finest white jade — flawless, warm, and impossibly smooth.
The line of her spine was graceful and flowing. Slender from years of illness, yes — but that very fragility lent her a refined, delicate beauty that stirred something protective in whoever beheld it. An instinct to cradle such a thing gently in one's palms.
Natsu's hands settled lightly against her skin.
The warmth of his touch made Sakayanagi's body instinctively flinch.
"Bear with it. It might ache a little at first," he murmured in warning.
Then the massage began.
Each press, each kneading motion found its mark with precision — homing in on every point in her body where illness and fatigue had accumulated over the years.
A current of warmth flowed from Natsu's fingertips, pouring ceaselessly into Sakayanagi's body.
The sensation started as a mild, spreading ache — then gave way to something indescribable: a deep, spreading numbness, laced through with heat.
"Mmh..."
Sakayanagi couldn't suppress a small, barely audible sound.
The nerves that had been wound so tight by anger and wounded pride — they dissolved in this moment, fully and completely.
The heaviness that had pressed down on her body for years, the constant undercurrent of exhaustion and powerlessness that had been her lifelong companion — all of it seemed to scatter and unravel beneath the press of Natsu's fingertips.
And it wasn't just physical relief.
Even the frustration that had been piling up inside her — the resentment and displeasure toward Natsu himself — was swept away by that current of warmth, fading until it was nothing.
In its place.
A serenity she had never felt before. A deep, quiet contentment.
She lay with her eyes closed, absorbing the warmth of those hands at her back, and a thought drifted through her mind — unbidden, unguarded: if only this could go on forever.
The massage lasted close to half an hour.
When Natsu's hands finally lifted from her back.
Sakayanagi Arisu felt — to her own surprise — a small, hollow pang of loss. As if she wasn't quite ready for it to end.
"That's it."
His voice reached her ears and drew her back from that hazy, half-dreaming state.
"After this session —"
"Sakayanagi-san's body should give her no trouble for the next two months."
"You'll be able to run, jump — like any healthy person. No need for the cane, and no more strain on your heart."
Sakayanagi, still lying face-down on the bed, gave a small nod at that.
After all, sitting up in her current state would likely expose quite a bit — and Natsu, that insufferable man, hadn't bothered to retie the towel for her. Of course he hadn't.
Not that Sakayanagi said a word about it. The last thing she needed was to antagonise him again and land herself back in an unfavourable position.
The moment Natsu's hands had left her, she had already begun to feel it — that buoyant, almost weightless lightness spreading through her body. The strong, steady rhythm of her heart. The ease of each breath, deep and unobstructed. It felt, for lack of a better word, like being reborn.
"Thank you."
Sakayanagi Arisu offered those words of thanks to Shikime Natsu — and meant them.
She paused, then hesitated — but ultimately couldn't stop herself from asking.
"Shiki-san..."
"If — hypothetically speaking —"
"Is it possible to cure my condition completely?"
Two months of good health was a precious thing. She knew that.
But what she wanted was permanent health — not a two-month trial membership.
Natsu turned to look at her. A slow, meaningful smile spread across his face.
"It's certainly possible."
"However..."
He left the sentence unfinished.
And simply looked at her.
But.
Sakayanagi Arisu was not the sort of person who needed something spelled out for her.
"However" — however.
The current Sakayanagi Arisu had nothing she could offer Shikime Natsu in return. Nothing that would satisfy him.
The personal points?
No — those had been nothing more than the entry fee for two months of health.
To achieve a permanent cure for an ailment that had baffled modern medicine entirely...
The price could not be measured in money.
Even though, so long as Natsu was nearby, she could receive treatment at any time.
But — as long as that health did not belong to her body permanently and unconditionally... for Sakayanagi Arisu, it would always be a sword hanging over her head. A torment.
"Well, it's getting late," Natsu said, checking the time.
"I should head back."
"Tomorrow — don't forget to board the bus."
"If you're late and miss the luxury trip, that would be a terrible waste."
With that, he lingered no further. He opened the door and walked out of Sakayanagi's dormitory room.
The door clicked shut behind him.
Silence reclaimed the room.
Sakayanagi Arisu slowly sat up, unwound the towel, and sat on the edge of the bed, staring in a mild daze at the closed door.
It was only when Natsu mentioned tomorrow's bus that it had snapped her back to her senses.
Right...
Mashima had already announced it in class.
There would, without doubt, be some manner of examination embedded within this luxury trip.
And in a special exam that concerned the entire class, if she — a member of Class A — were to become a liability because of her health, dragging the class down or causing trouble for everyone... that was absolutely unacceptable.
And Natsu, as the leader who intended to lead Class A to victory again and again, would certainly not want to see that happen.
So...
Even if she hadn't transferred him anything today. Even if she hadn't put on the maid outfit. Even if she hadn't humbled herself and begged him...
For the sake of winning the special exam — for the sake of avoiding complications —
Natsu would have come to treat her on his own initiative anyway.
The moment that thought landed.
The corner of Sakayanagi Arisu's mouth gave an involuntary twitch.
Meaning...
Everything she'd done tonight — serving as his maid, handing over every last point she had — had been entirely unnecessary?!
She had been completely, utterly played by this man. Swindled clean.
"Shikime Natsu... you absolute bastard!"
Sakayanagi ground the words out through clenched teeth, screaming them in the privacy of her own mind.
But...
When she once again felt that fullness of vitality coursing through her body — when she recalled the intoxicating skill of Natsu's hands during the massage...
And the two months of healthy living ahead of her.
The fury in Sakayanagi Arisu's heart — somehow — dissipated again.
"...Fine."
She exhaled softly.
Whatever the process had cost her in humiliation — at least the result was good.
As long as she had a healthy body, the points, and every indignity she'd endured tonight in this room, were things she need not dwell on.
If parting with 200,000-odd personal points bought her two months of health — that was worth it.
Sakayanagi stood, and took a few tentative steps around the room.
She even bounced lightly on her feet.
The sensation of moving freely — of her body actually obeying her — sent a flutter of involuntary delight through her. The corners of her mouth curved upward before she could stop them.
Though...
That delight lasted only a moment.
The instant she remembered it was only two months...
A glimmer of longing and discontent flickered through the girl's eyes.
Two months was far, far too short for someone like her.
What she wanted was permanent health.
And the key to that...
Was held entirely in Shikime Natsu's hands.
"So then..."
Sakayanagi drifted to the window and gazed up at the bright, flawless moon hanging in the night sky.
Unbidden, the image surfaced in her mind — Natsu, with his three girlfriends. The way he was with them.
Gentle. Attentive. Indulgent...
A manner utterly unlike how he treated her.
If...
If she could become someone in that position...
A flash of something faintly dangerous passed through those violet eyes.
If conventional methods weren't working...
If money and transactions weren't working...
Then...
It seemed she would have to take a rather different kind of action.
Sakayanagi Arisu was not a woman who shied away from any means necessary. And beyond that — Natsu's differential treatment of her rankled deeply. When it came to how long they had known each other, she was no later to the scene than any of his three girlfriends — and yet he treated her so entirely differently. That simply would not do.
She was going to change the way Shikime Natsu treated her.
One way or another.
____
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