The destination of the Imperial Capital University school bus convoy was a remote coast in the heartland of Tokyo.
This place was sparsely inhabited; it was already at the edge of the region shrouded by Saint Michael's fallen radiance.
Drive just a little further along the road, and you might well run into Aberrants, or Catastrophe Beasts.
At the same time——
This was also one of the directions from which, by the analysis of numerous scholars and experts... that 「The Abyss of Eternal Smiles」 might launch her assault.
Yet Su Yuzu, who had lived through the game's plot and the World Boss interception battle, understood.
Though Kujou Iruka had already fallen into the Abyss, she remained proud.
She had not chosen the relatively weaker rear where Saint Michael's fallen radiance was thin. On the contrary——
The direction she chose to attack was... the very place where, back then, she had fought her decisive battle against Saint Michael.
The land where the sun rises, the strongest edge of Saint Michael's fallen radiance.
It was just that none of those matters had anything to do with what Su Yuzu and the others were here to investigate now.
Even so... Su Yuzu gazed at the environment before her.
Under the near-noon sunlight, the seawater was ebbing.
The retreating black seawater left behind fine white foam, and the concrete pier—abandoned who knew how many years ago—was half-submerged in the water. Su Yuzu simply found the tidal flat before her familiar.
It was as if... not long ago, in the memories shared between herself and Soga Yura, she had seen this very tidal flat, this abandoned concrete pier and these reefs.
Only, the neat rows upon rows of concrete piles in her memory had already been cast into a pier.
And then that pier had been abandoned, eroded by wind and sun, leaving behind this jagged, snaggle-toothed appearance it had today.
Su Yuzu glanced at Soga Yura.
Soga Yura's gaze, as she looked out over the bay, was very silent.
Even more—Su Yuzu understood that Soga Yura's purpose in wanting to bring her here was not truly to investigate why the holy radiance that Saint Michael had left behind had been torn apart.
Or rather——
That was not the main thing Soga Yura wished to learn.
It was merely that, while searching for that girl from back then—searching for the girl who had granted the young Soga Yura limitless power, signed a contract with the child Soga Yura, and exchanged a Holy Relic with her—she would, in passing, look into the so-called truth.
Su Yuzu even understood, in her heart... that the true reason the power of the holy radiance Saint Michael left behind was declining was her own repeated Development of Lyudmila, which had weakened the connection between Saint Michael and the power she had left behind.
After gradually losing its anchor point, the latent radiance power Saint Michael had left behind was slowly dissipating.
And then... it just so happened to run into an unreasonable creature like herself.
A new 「Throne」.
Su Yuzu had already discussed it with Saint Michael.
After Saint Michael passed that 「Saint's Blessing」 over to her through that angel's kiss, the rate at which her remaining power dissipated would slow dramatically, and... it would no longer be affected by Su Yuzu's Development of Lyudmila.
Because the fulcrum anchoring this power had already shifted from Lyudmila to Yuzu.
Of course, Su Yuzu couldn't be foolish enough to tell everyone that Lyudmila was the 'seed' left behind by that Saintess of old.
The reason the holy radiance Saint Michael had left behind was continually declining was also because she herself had been defiling that Saintess all along.
A shameful secret like this was best left known only to Heaven and Earth, to Su Yuzu and to Lyudmila, plus... it was already enough for Tennoji Jurei—the senpai who had helped Su Yuzu investigate Lyudmila—to know just a tiny little bit.
Although... the one losing face probably wasn't Su Yuzu.
But back to the main point——
What's more, the goal that drove Soga Yura to bring Su Yuzu here wasn't for Saint Michael's sake either.
Su Yuzu was even less likely to expose her own 'villain persona.'
The white-and-orange school bus slowly came to a stop.
Su Yuzu gently nudged awake the little rabbit beside her. "We're here."
Only then did the little rabbit, lost in a Yuzu-flavored dream, come dazedly back to her senses.
"We're here~?" Under Soga Yura's teeth-gritting stare, that detestable little rabbit once again squirmed and nuzzled against her Yuzu's arm.
For a moment, an almost twisted displeasure rose in Yura's heart.
[So what if they're big!]
[Teacher Tsukiyomi's aren't any smaller than yours either!]
The rustling sounds of the girls getting ready to disembark did not rouse Tsukiyomi Fuya, who was leaning against the side of her seat in a light nap.
Su Yuzu looked at Tsukiyomi Fuya.
Even though she was the professor in charge of the operation, the sight of the woman dozing on her side somehow made Su Yuzu feel as though she, too, had relaxed right along with her.
An operation like this was really no big deal.
Besides... Su Yuzu stared at the woman's slender neck.
In the sunlight, Tsukiyomi Fuya's figure was so lovely; her skin was so lustrous it seemed almost to give off a faint glow, looking warm and soft, the subtle sheen gliding across her skin tracing out beautiful lines.
"Should I wake Tsukiyomi-senpai?" Su Yuzu murmured beside Soga Yura's ear.
The weak spots of the two sisters seemed astonishingly identical.
The killer move that was utterly devastating to Su Yuzu would only be even more potent against Soga Yura.
With just that one whisper from Su Yuzu, Soga Yura's legs nearly went weak.
Tsukiyomi... senpai?
Soga Yura had, in fact, already caught the scent of danger.
"Go on——" she nonetheless egged Su Yuzu on.
Normally she would never, no matter what, have let her own Yuzu be the one to do this.
After all... Teacher Tsukiyomi was so good-looking, with such a great figure, and such a gentle personality too... whenever Soga Yura's thoughts turned to the woman, all she seemed able to think of were good points.
And those good points were nothing but threats, brimming over.
But——
She looked at the detestable rabbit clinging cloyingly to Su Yuzu's other arm.
Because of Saotome Yukina, Soga Yura made a decision she would regret for a long time to come.
Su Yuzu let go of the little rabbit's hand and Soga Yura's hand.
She stepped forward in small, careful steps, opened her palm and waved it before Tsukiyomi Fuya. "Tsukiyomi-senpai?"
The crisp, cool fragrance on the girl's body made Tsukiyomi Fuya open her eyes drowsily.
"Little... Yura?"
She hadn't slept a wink all last night.
Getting up this early wasn't because she'd risen early—it was simply that she hadn't gone to sleep yet.
That was why she'd been sleeping so sweetly, propped against her arm.
But then, in the next instant... Tsukiyomi Fuya looked at the girl before her, who seemed veiled in beautiful interplays of light beneath the sun, her chest piled up into eye-catching, deep cleavage by her cautious, careful movements.
Tsukiyomi Fuya realized... the girl before her was not the student from the elective course she taught.
But rather another, also very adorable girl.
"We're already here?"
"Yes." Su Yuzu looked at the woman before her.
"You all set up the camp."
"Let me..."
"Let me catch just a little more shut-eye." Tsukiyomi Fuya had only come along as a bodyguard in the first place.
She had no particular interest in the sea.
"Alright." Su Yuzu watched the woman draw her neck in again and grow drowsy, thought for a moment, then took a blanket out of her Material Inventory and draped it over Tsukiyomi Fuya.
Tsukiyomi Fuya did not refuse.
The adorable junior's care held no malice whatsoever; she had no reason to reject it.
Besides...
It smelled rather nice, too.
Like the day before yesterday's dinner, the thumb-lime that had been squeezed out as a garnish over the cream ice cream.
Very sour.
And also quite sweet.
Inexplicably, it made one feel pleased.
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