Pale moonlight fell across the bluestone path.
Time and weather had coaxed green moss along the edges of the stones, and petals from the early-blooming cherry trees drifted down in a slow, wandering fall. On either side of the path the early sakura blossomed in such abundance it looked like pink snow.
Su Yuzu and Soga Yura walked side by side, shoulder to shoulder.
Set aside the identity — or rather, the disguise — of «Tsukimisato» as a pleasure bathhouse, and the scenery here was genuinely worth admiring.
Soga Yura stole a sidelong glance at the girl beside her.
She couldn't help letting her imagination wander... a girl in a light Japanese-style bathrobe, bare feet slipped into wooden geta, clacking happily along ahead of her.
Beneath the robe's too-short hem, the girl's legs traced a beautifully pale line — dazzling when they moved.
And at the end... the girl would tumble down into the lush green grass and fallen cherry petals, looking up at her with that half-shy, half-flustered expression.
The robe, nearly torn open by the running, would rise and fall with every breath.
A petal would drift down and catch in her hair.
It was a very pleasant daydream — right up until she couldn't help thinking: there was no possible way she could outrun Yuzu.
By any reasonable logic, the one who'd end up flat on the ground would be herself.
The image in her mind flipped completely.
Now she was lying in the grass, limbs useless, with nowhere to go — and before her was the girl's upward-curving smile, a snow of cherry-pink petals, and... clear, cold moonlight.
Just as Soga Yura's cheeks were growing steadily warmer —
Thud!!
A dull, heavy sound. Like a sack of rags thrown against packed earth.
The early cherry grove was suddenly lashed by a violent gust, flower-laden branches thrashing and scattering in the wind — like a storm made of pink snow.
Jolted back to reality, Soga Yura and Su Yuzu looked at each other.
Both of them caught it at the same instant — that nauseating, rotten stench bleeding into the air.
Cherry blossoms already had a delicate, gentle fragrance. That putrid smell woven through the swirling petals was impossible to miss for either of them.
The foul odor drifted past the tips of their noses.
"Walking Husks——" Su Yuzu, with her greater experience fighting them, understood in almost the same breath.
Sakura Renxin had told them — the center of «Tsukimisato» was a coliseum.
Without a word exchanged, Su Yuzu and Soga Yura broke into a run straight toward the heart of the cherry grove.
A girl in a black bathrobe stepped out to block the bluestone path.
She bowed respectfully toward them. "I'm terribly sorry... esteemed guests."
"«Sakura Fall» is temporarily closed to outside visitors this evening..."
«Sakura Fall» was one of the public-facing names for the central grounds of «Tsukimisato».
Chasing each other and playing in a rain of falling petals — there was something poetic about it. Wild, even.
And of course, Soga Yura was hardly alone in thinking so.
But if outsiders barged in while the fun was at its height, the fun would come to a very abrupt end.
So «Tsukimisato» also offered private bookings.
Had it truly been a private booking, Soga Yura and Su Yuzu wouldn't have thought much of it — but the wind that had blown through was unmistakably laced with the rotting stench of Walking Husks, and a thick, iron smell of blood.
Soga Yura merely looked at the greeter girl once.
Almost instantly, the light drained from the girl's eyes. She stood there, blank and docile, and made no move to stop Su Yuzu and Soga Yura as they swept past her.
In the face of Soga Yura's utterly overwhelming power, the girl had no capacity to resist — she was completely under Domination before she could even think to try.
Sakura Renxin had warned them.
Try not to use your abilities.
Because while «Hanami» could conceal the girls' appearances and mask the fluctuations of their mental power, it could not conceal their actual abilities.
Every person's ability had its own unique signature.
Even two people both possessing Psychokinesis could be worlds apart — one could barely bend a spoon, while another was... devastatingly powerful, like some kind of ultimate lady-killer.
The Aberrant might notice something was off.
But... given the situation right now, it hardly mattered.
"There's beast-fighting inside." Soga Yura had swept through the greeter's memories, and now turned to Su Yuzu.
Su Yuzu's expression turned grave.
Girl versus girl — if that was all it was, she and Soga Yura would probably have kept walking. It wasn't their business.
But... against Walking Husks?
Her mind went back to what she'd seen in Chiba — those things with their clouded eyes and withered, hollowed-out bodies, shambling forward like something had been drained from them entirely.
Su Yuzu and Soga Yura needed to see for themselves.
What kind of degenerate filth had a taste this vile.
Su Yuzu had a feeling.
She would meet that Aberrant here.
Charging in recklessly and tipping off the enemy was, objectively, not the smart play.
But Su Yuzu had never been the type to second-guess herself about things like that.
Besides — today, behind their backs, they had a Fifth Sequence to call on.
She quickly typed out a message to Sakura Mai.
Letting her know there might be a fight soon, and that if necessary, she could contact Kujou Katora directly to close the net.
And then Su Yuzu and Soga Yura plunged straight into the cherry grove.
Soga Yura's pace was slow.
Only a little faster than an ordinary girl's.
If Sakura Mai were here, she could have carried Soga Yura on her back without a second thought.
But Su Yuzu couldn't.
Su Yuzu must not.
The moment the two of them touched, the mental storm would erupt instantly. And then Soga Yura's protection would begin to erode, layer by layer, and Su Yuzu would be exposed to the world.
"Yuzu... Yuzu, go ahead——" Bent double, hands braced on her knees and gasping for breath, Soga Yura looked over at the girl beside her, who appeared to merely be out for a casual stroll.
Soga Yura could feel it —
The beast-fighting grounds were only a few hundred meters away.
At that distance... even if that Fourth Sequence Aberrant tried to do something, she could absolutely reach them before anything happened.
More importantly... in those eyes dyed a clear, luminous blue, the reflection of something distant had appeared.
That girl looked like she was on the verge of breaking.
Su Yuzu gave a single nod to show she understood.
And then the girl in her bathrobe vanished from Soga Yura's sight like a cannonball — the wind roared through the branches, sending them into a frenzied shudder, and somewhere within the rushing gale came the faint, wretched sound of a girl's broken sobbing.
Only then did Soga Yura fully grasp just how wide the physical gulf between herself and Yuzu had grown.
Even if she pushed herself to the absolute limit... she probably still couldn't satisfy Yuzu.
Strange. What on earth was she thinking.
The breathless girl steadied herself against a nearby tree trunk, pushed herself upright, and broke back into a jog.
Meanwhile —
Inside the cherry grove, Su Yuzu had already spotted her — the girl curled at the base of a thick cherry tree, her miserable, broken whimpers barely audible, the bathrobe around her abdomen soaked completely through with blood.
One glance, and Su Yuzu felt as though she could already see exactly what had just happened.
The poor, helpless girl had been struck through her defenses by a Walking Husk's blow and flung into the air — only to slam into the tree trunk and slide slowly down.
Clank. Clank.
The rattle of chains.
A pair of dark golden vertical pupils, nearly clouded over, appeared before Su Yuzu's eyes.
But... what drew Su Yuzu's attention even more was what stood behind those dark golden vertical pupils.
A woman's silhouette — tall, full-figured to an almost excessive degree.
Su Yuzu felt not the faintest trace of fear. She was practically laughing.
"Long time no see."
"'Mountain.'"
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