Being together with someone you have feelings for—even just blow-drying each other's hair felt like something you could linger over for a very, very long time.
Su Yuzu breathed in the banksia rose fragrance that rushed to the tip of her nose, feeling as though she had leaped headlong into the springtime sunshine.
In front of her, the occasionally scheming Knight Princess sat on the sofa, unusually docile, head lowered, both hands resting obediently on her knees—looking exactly like a well-behaved little girl letting her big sister do as she pleased.
Seeing Sister Mai like this, Su Yuzu suddenly burst out laughing with a pfft.
Sakura Mai, sitting in front of the girl, shrank her shoulders even further. She pressed her right hand to her chest, feeling as though the sword-shaped brand there had begun to burn.
And yet, even now, Su Yuzu still hadn't quite figured out what exactly the deal was with Sister Mai's Favorability Gift.
Before, everything had been fairly normal.
But this yuzu tea... Su Yuzu looked at the empty can in her Material Inventory.
Tell her there was nothing fishy about this thing—that, Su Yuzu simply refused to believe.
The two of them, each harboring their own secret schemes, walked out of the changing room side by side—just like a couple deeply in love who had yet to confess and lay everything bare to one another.
Both of their heads, without any prior agreement, turned to gaze off to the sides, then slowly swiveled back—wanting to steal a glance at the girl beside them—only to, in perfect unspoken sync... the very instant their eyes met, snap back to their own sides again at the same time, as if jolted by electricity.
Su Yuzu and Sakura Mai pushed open the door of the changing room.
And then both of them jumped in fright at the very same moment.
A girl like a ghost stood in the doorway without a trace of presence, her air of deep, brooding resentment so heavy that Su Yuzu almost felt she'd wandered onto the wrong film set.
"Si... Sister?"
"Yura?"
The near-perfect unison of their two voices only made Soga Yura's resentment sink deeper still.
Sakura Mai and Su Yuzu never in their wildest imaginations would have guessed that while they were horsing around inside the changing room, the heat between them rising, a bitter, deeply-wronged vengeful spirit had been standing right at the changing room door the whole time.
Soga Yura shot Sakura Mai a resentful glare.
Guard against fire, guard against thieves, guard against your best friend.
This girl was absolutely up to something with her Yuzu.
[I should have known.]
[I should have known this long ago...]
Ever since the time this girl secretly took advantage of her low spirits and, at the movie theater, slipped who-knows-what love potion onto Yuzu, then came back grinning like a fool and said to her, "Your Little Sister... is really cute?"
She should have known right then!
Soga Yura's air of deep resentment made Sakura Mai instinctively shrink her neck, and she even had the illusion that the girl would pounce on her the very next second, like a dog guarding its food, and take a big bite out of her.
Seeing the atmosphere grow stranger and stranger, Su Yuzu hurriedly threw herself in to break the deadlock.
Beaming, Su Yuzu wrapped her arms around Soga Yura's arm, all but embedding it into her embrace as she cooed coquettishly at her, "Sister, what brings you here~~~"
Soga Yura had, at first, been utterly delighted.
It had been such a very, very long time since she'd felt Yuzu act spoiled toward her like this, like a child begging to be doted on.
Yuzu had grown up—become independent, become strong.
Sometimes... she was even more formidable than Soga Yura herself, more assertive and more forceful.
Though... though Soga Yura didn't really mind, she supposed.
As long as it was Yuzu, then no matter what, it was all good.
But sometimes, Soga Yura still wished that she could be the one taking the initiative—that she would be the one to protect Yuzu, the one to tease Yuzu.
And not... the other way around.
But—
The moment she realized the reason Yuzu was being all soft and clingy with her was because she'd just been getting intimate with Sakura Mai, Soga Yura suddenly felt like her whole self was about to fall apart.
All that was missing was a great big "Aggrieved Victim" sign planted behind her, proclaiming her grievance for all to see.
Soga Yura shot Sakura Mai an even more resentful glare.
[Even a rabbit doesn't eat the grass by its own burrow!]
[Sakura Mai!!!]
[You're my roommate! You're my best friend! You're my one and only friend!!!]
[How could you...]
[How could you possibly...]
Just then, the pitter-patter of a girl's footsteps came from the corridor. The little rabbit, bracing herself against the corner of the wall, poked her head out and gazed rather adorably in Soga Yura's direction. "Lady Yura..."
"Have Senpai and Senior Sakura finished changing?"
"Ms. Tsukiyomi asked me to tell you... the fish is almost done grilling."
At that moment, Saotome Yukina also caught sight of Sakura Mai standing before Soga Yura, as well as Yuzu-senpai clinging to Soga Yura's arm as delicately as a little bird nestling against its keeper.
Saotome Yukina's eyes seemed to light up all at once.
The little rabbit came bouncing and skipping over toward the girls at a trot. "Yuzu-senpai, have you finished changing already~"
It was as if the little rabbit's eyes now held no one but Yuzu.
Crushed to death—
Soga Yura's fist clenched tight enough to crush.
How could she have forgotten?
Rabbits... didn't all abstain from the grass by their own burrows either.
The little rabbit gazed at Yuzu.
Yuzu-senpai, having changed back into her school-uniform skirt, looked so pretty; and earlier, Yuzu-senpai in that one-piece, leather-like combat suit had looked so pretty too.
Whichever one it was... to her, both looked so very pretty.
Struggling to suppress the Sword Intent of the Sword of Erasure, Sakura Mai looked toward Soga Yura and offered a peacemaking remark. "Yura came... to let us know it's time to eat?"
"That's—right—" Soga Yura ground it out through gritted teeth, aggrieved.
Oh, poor pitiful Soga Yura, able only to stand outside the changing room, watching her Little Sister and her best friend bare themselves honestly to each other, snuggling up to blow-dry each other's hair, crying and carrying on together—so very pitiful.
The little rabbit, too, had clearly sensed that something was off about the mood of the scene.
Although she also wanted to cling to Senpai's arm the way Su Yuzu was clinging to Soga Yura's.
But... the little rabbit could still read the situation, at least a little.
"Ms... Ms. Tsukiyomi and the others hauled in a huge catch again!"
"There're big prawns and crabs, and spotted fish too..."
"And the main course is that whole—well, half of that... electric one Senpai brought back! It's such a feast!"
"Sister Yura, Yuzu-senpai, Senior Sakura, hurry and go! If you're late, there might be nothing left at all!"
The little rabbit looked at Soga Yura earnestly.
Sakura Mai, too, wore an unusually docile expression.
And Su Yuzu, all the more so, hugged Soga Yura's arm and gave it a gentle shake.
Soga Yura suddenly felt that she was the very center of the world.
Watching Yuzu act so coquettishly toward her, her heart instantly seemed to melt.
"Yuzu..."
"Um..."
"Shall we go?"
"Sister, you're not angry anymore~?" Su Yuzu rose slightly onto her tiptoes, then rested her chin on Soga Yura's shoulder.
"F-fine! Fine! I'm not angry anymore!" Soga Yura had absolutely no resistance whatsoever against Yuzu.
Meanwhile—
The seabed.
A school of fish in every dazzling color, spiraling upward in a helical arc, suddenly scattered apart.
Slender, snow-white legs strode forward; someone seemed to be strolling along the ocean floor.
She picked up the half-eaten grilled fish that Sakura Mai had left behind on the seabed, wrinkled her little nose down there, then cautiously took a bite near the tail.
"Not tasty..."
"And poisonous, too."
"Eh—" She looked at the... other big fish trembling before her.
"Could you help me catch a..."
"a eurypterid?"
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