"Weak creatures always love staring up at the sky from the bottom of a well and telling themselves they understand the world. That is the tragedy of weakness. Humans most of all — the moment they gain a scrap of power, they lose the ability to see the world clearly."
Yuuka advanced on her, step by step, her voice perfectly calm, as if she were speaking to no one at all.
That sense of being brushed aside as beneath notice lit a spark of anger in Esdeath's chest — but not a flicker of it reached her face.
The more dangerous things got, the calmer she had to be.
Even with the gap between them laid this bare, she hadn't given up.
Because she still had one last card to play.
Slowly, keeping the motion as imperceptible as she could, she began gathering every ounce of strength left in her body.
She wanted to catch her opponent off guard.
What she failed to catch, in that same moment, was the mocking little curl at the corner of Yuuka's lips.
Yuuka's steps didn't slow.
When she was just three or four paces away—
"Mahapadma!"
Esdeath's roar tore loose, and in the instant before anyone could so much as blink, an endless cold erupted outward and swallowed the world whole.
In that moment, everything froze.
The wind died. The clouds hung motionless.
Esdeath alone could still move — even Yuuka, standing right in front of her, was sheathed in ice and locked in place.
"Hah... hah... hah..."
Esdeath gasped, one knee driven into the ground, sweat streaming off her.
This was her final, hidden trump card.
Mahapadma could freeze anything and everything, but the cost in stamina was enormous.
Already badly wounded, she'd nearly collapsed the instant she unleashed it — and only sheer willpower kept her on her feet.
Between ragged breaths, a smile slowly spread across her face.
She'd won!
In a world where everything had frozen solid, she was the only queen
An ice blade formed in her hand as she staggered upright, her eyes settling on Yuuka, brimming with killing intent and satisfaction.
"Ugly as it was... in the end, I still won."
With that, she stepped forward, meaning to close in on Yuuka.
But what came next stopped her cold.
Before she could take even a single step, the ice encasing Yuuka began to tremble.
In moments the trembling swelled, rolling like waves rising across the sea.
Crack. Crack...
Fissures raced across the ice.
Bang!
The ice around Yuuka blew apart, and she stepped lightly out from where she'd stood, a faint, mocking smile on her lips as she looked at Esdeath.
"This ice of yours isn't even as cold as Cirno's."
The words landed light as air.
Esdeath's throat worked, and the ice blade slipped quietly from her hand.
There was no suspense left now.
She'd given everything she had, and she hadn't so much as scratched Yuuka.
Struggling further would mean nothing.
Crack... Bang!
Mahapadma's frozen world shattered.
The world snapped back to normal — the wind picked up again, the clouds drifted on.
"I lost," Esdeath said, her expression bitter.
"A little late to start facing reality," Yuuka replied, her face blank.
The instant the words left her, the ground beneath Esdeath's feet split open.
Two thick vines burst up and lashed around her, and before she could even struggle they hauled her down, forcing her whole body flat to the earth like a dog at Yuuka's feet.
"Before I turn you into fertilizer for my flowers, cry and scream properly for me."
Yuuka set her foot on Esdeath's head, grinding her face into the dirt until she couldn't lift it an inch.
Calm and graceful as she was in front of Kamisaka Yuto, the title of Flower Tyrant had never once been an exaggeration.
It was a name youkai had feared for hundreds — even thousands — of years, a title bestowed on her by youkai themselves.
To the Yuuka who carried it, slaughter and bloodshed were as ordinary as the air.
Creak. Creak...
Her foot bore down harder and harder.
Esdeath, pinned to the ground, couldn't be seen from the front — but it wasn't hard to imagine the look on her face was anything but pleasant.
"Yuuka!"
A voice rang out behind them, Yuuka turned her head a fraction and glanced back.
It was Reimu, who'd chased after them.
...
The restaurant.
Only a few minutes had passed since Yuuka and Esdeath left, and everyone inside was still buzzing about what had happened.
Yakumo Yukari wore a faint smile, her face all mischief and amusement.
Yuto shot her a glance and let out a small breath, but said nothing. For now, he'd take her at her word that everything would turn out fine.
"Ah... that time again. I should get going." Utaha, seated near the wall, checked the clock and immediately looked put out.
Normally she'd never leave the restaurant after so short a visit.
But ever since her parents got back from their business trip, she had to be home by eight every night.
For her, it was thoroughly aggravating — and yet there was nothing to be done.
She couldn't bring herself to pick a fight with her parents over something this small.
Hearing her, Yuto glanced at the time himself without thinking, and a smile tugged at his mouth.
He understood the girl's little "predicament" well enough.
"All right. Get home safe."
At that, Utaha's brows knit and she leaned a touch closer to him, plainly dissatisfied. "Why aren't you even going to try and make me stay today, Yuto-kun?"
"Would it change anything if I did?" Yuto asked, with a helpless, amused smile.
"...No. But it'd at least make me feel a little better."
"Honestly, you're hopeless, Kasumigaoka-san. Can you not get through the day without someone paying attention to you?" Yuto spread his hands and pitched his voice into deliberate boredom.
Irritation flickered across Utaha's face, but she didn't let it out — she swallowed it instead.
"Hmph~"
A light snort, and she turned and left.
Yuto shook his head with a small smile and started clearing away her dishes. B
ehind him, Ainz and Rimuru were murmuring to each other.
"You know, I'm starting to feel like there are more and more girls circling around the Boss," Rimuru whispered.
"You're only noticing that now? I clocked it ages ago," Ainz whispered back.
"Ohhh! As expected of Ainz!"
"It's nothing, really. Hmhm~"
As Yuto gathered up the bowls and chopsticks, he suddenly felt as if someone behind him was watching.
He turned around — but all he found was a perfectly ordinary scene: everyone busy with their own thing, talking, eating, laughing.
No one was looking his way at all.
'Strange,' he thought.
Just his imagination, maybe? He didn't dwell on it, and carried the dishes back into the kitchen.
The moment he started washing up, Ainz and Rimuru traded a look and quietly let out a breath.
Thank goodness they'd kept it natural just now — they'd nearly been caught!
Right then, the restaurant door opened.
Yuuka, Esdeath, and Reimu were back.
Yuto looked over at the three of them from the kitchen and let out a quiet breath of relief.
Good — it seemed nothing major had happened and Esdeath's clothes were only a little dirty.
...
Once she was back, Esdeath had little to say.
She went straight to Yuto to make her goodbyes.
He blinked, caught slightly off guard, and his eyes flicked toward Yuuka.
She sat quietly nearby, her face was calm, as if none of what had just unfolded had anything to do with her.
Her fingers cradled a teacup. She sipped from it and paid no attention at all to whatever passed between Yuto and Esdeath.
Under his gaze, Esdeath drew a slow breath.
Her clothes were torn here and there, though she'd hidden the damage well.
She was a proud woman.
After losing, she found it hard to linger and pretend nothing had happened.
To her, strength was the only truth, and the defeated had no right to resent anyone.
But victory and defeat carried their own honor and shame, and right now she was the one who had lost — too ashamed to sit calmly across from Yuuka.
Leave, grow stronger, come back to challenge her again: that was the path that suited Esdeath best.
Yuto was quiet for a moment. Then he nodded.
"Next time I come back, I still won't give up."
She left the words hanging and turned toward the door.
Her long blue hair drifted behind her, swaying with every step, and each sway seemed to scatter faint starlight through the air.
Yuuka set her teacup down without a sound.
Her expression never changed. She still looked as though Esdeath had never existed.
She knew perfectly well, of course, that the second half of Esdeath's parting words had been meant for her.
But so what?
A challenge, maybe — yet from someone so far beneath her that it hardly counted as one.
Yuto watched Esdeath's back.
For a moment his mind wandered, and then something surfaced.
"Esdeath — your necklace!"
He caught her just before she reached the door, reaching under the counter to lift the necklace free.
Esdeath stopped and turned.
Her ice-blue eyes met his, calm and certain, and the faint curve of her lips lent her a beauty that was almost cold enough to sting.
"No, Yuto. That necklace is already yours. Sooner or later, it will become proof that you belong to me."
She said it in that bold sweeping way of hers, then walked out without a backward glance.
The door swung shut with a bang and she was gone.
Yuto held the necklace a moment longer and let out a quiet sigh.
He tucked it back under the counter and turned his eyes to Yuuka. He was honestly curious about what had passed between the two of them.
"What exactly happened earlier?"
Yuuka took a calm sip of tea.
"We only had a simple talk," she said, her expression perfectly flat.
At the phrase, Reimu's smile went stiff at one corner.
A simple talk.
If she'd arrived a little later, Esdeath would very likely be dead.
Reimu kept the running commentary safely inside her own head, and the faint smile stayed on her face.
Yuto looked at Yuuka. He didn't believe for a second that it had only been a talk.
His gaze slid over to Reimu.
She tensed on instinct.
"That's right. Only a simple talk." She smiled as she said it.
His eyes narrowed. They stayed on her a long moment, long enough that her nerves began to fray — and then he sighed softly and looked away.
Only then did Reimu breathe easier.
Yuto didn't buy their story.
If it had really been nothing more than talk, how had Esdeath's clothes ended up torn and dirty? Still, he had no intention of pressing it.
Neither of them meant to tell him the truth, and as long as Esdeath and Yuuka had both walked away fine, that was enough.
Yuuka picked up the flower cake on her plate, ready to go on eating. But it had gone cold.
"Flower cake doesn't taste good once it cools," Yuto said. "I'll make you a fresh one."
Yuuka paused.
The corner of her mouth curved, so faintly it might have been a trick of the light, and then smoothed back into calm.
She gave a small nod. "Sorry for the trouble."
"It's fine."
Yuto carried the old flower cake into the kitchen.
A single bite was already missing from it. He threw it out, washed the plate, dried his hands, and set about making her a new one.
From her usual seat at the counter, Yuuka watched him work.
Her hand shifted slightly in her lap — a small movement that no one noticed.
She had long since grown used to watching him like this while she waited.
It had always been the same.
That had never changed.
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