Thump thump—
Her heart leapt and quickened.
Tsukiyomi Fuya gazed at the girl before her—at her brows and eyes that curved into a lovely arc with her smile, at that sly, cunning smile of hers that seemed bashful yet somehow let slip the craftiness peculiar to young girls.
She felt a little flustered.
"It's... it's already quite late."
"Yuzu..."
"You'd better get some rest soon."
She was running away.
Deep inside, Tsukiyomi Fuya even had the feeling that she was fleeing in disarray.
But——
It wasn't that Tsukiyomi Fuya was fleeing in a panic because the girl had suddenly turned sly.
The sly girl with her eyes crinkled in a smile had a charm all her own, one that was thoroughly endearing.
Tsukiyomi Fuya could catch the flower-like aura of youth brimming off the girl, utterly different from an "old woman" like herself.
She didn't find it disagreeable at all—in fact she rather liked it, and even found it reassuring.
A girl with a bit of cunning at least wouldn't be deceived by bad people out in the world.
But... Tsukiyomi Fuya looked at Su Yuzu's smile.
And that was precisely what showed——
that the girl who had just gone tense in her arms, then slowly let her body go soft, had wordlessly given her approval.
Though it wasn't an invitation———
it was, nonetheless, a coy half-refusal that beckoned all the same.
Just like... a faerie.
This fleeing in disarray was not because Tsukiyomi Fuya was actually less composed than she appeared on the surface, that beneath her bewitching beauty hid a pure-white, tender heart.
Over the long years of growing up and pursuing her studies, she had seen much.
Toward pretty, adorable girls, Tsukiyomi Fuya naturally felt an instinctive fondness and tenderness, but~ that was all it ever amounted to.
Compared to the complexity of the human heart, she cherished the field of stars far more.
Still, compared to her other pursuers, this girl's starting position was already very high.
It seemed she had only to reach out her hand to touch the vault of heaven.
It was just that... to one degree or another, Tsukiyomi Fuya felt somewhat at a loss inside.
The stars told her——
"The girl before you may be unexpectedly dangerous."
Running away is shameful, but useful.
She understood that a young girl like Yuzu could indeed be easily drawn to someone good-looking.
Tsukiyomi Fuya... also flattered herself that she was "reasonably good-looking."
And her figure was "all right" too.
She was proud.
Otherwise she wouldn't have chosen a nightgown this heart-stirring—one that, when she held the girl in her arms, made even Yuzu's heart race a little.
Tsukiyomi Fuya was confident, and she liked to please herself.
Her thoughts swirled in chaos within her.
She analyzed the present situation.
Just now, when she had pulled down the eyepiece and pressed Yuzu into lowering her waist, bending her body to nestle obediently in her arms, it was indeed possible that the "suspension bridge effect," or even "Stockholm syndrome," had taken hold.
Making Yuzu, who stood in the weaker position, subconsciously cling to her as though by sheer stress-response, held tight in her grasp.
Even now... Tsukiyomi Fuya still hadn't realized where the problem lay.
Or rather... she hadn't realized that the girl before her was not as pure and gentle as she imagined.
The stars had told her the girl was "dangerous."
But they hadn't told her why the girl was dangerous.
Tsukiyomi Fuya still subconsciously assumed that the "weaker," pitiful and adorable Yuzu was merely a sour, crisp, old-fashioned little "yuzu."
That if she reached out and plucked it, her mouth would surely be left puckering from the sourness.
But she had never considered——
that she herself was the most dazzling star in the night sky, while the girl before her... was, in truth, the very hand reaching out to caress that night and pluck it down.
Su Yuzu glanced around in every direction.
"Yuzu?"
"What are you looking for?" Tsukiyomi Fuya followed the girl's gaze and looked out.
"Tsukiyomi-senpai said... I'd rest here." Su Yuzu's voice sounded ever so obedient, yet it made Tsukiyomi Fuya's expression turn grave along with it.
[Here!??]
[Rest?]
What she'd said earlier had only been to instruct the girl, to tell her that whenever she was out and about she must be careful and guard against bad people.
But looking at the girl before her, at those crimson eyes that seemed so expectant, flickering with an adorable, earnest light, Tsukiyomi Fuya suddenly found herself at a loss for how to tactfully refuse and send the girl back to the capsule dormitory.
She watched where the girl's gaze wandered.
Yuzu's gaze always lingered on the little ornaments inside the observatory—those that looked interesting and blended into the surroundings, or rather——
the little trinkets that together composed the unique atmosphere of this place.
A wind chime shaped like the constellation Orion.
A totem depicting Shamanism's worship of the stars.
Warm lamps hung on the walls, brimming with starlight like goblets... everywhere the girl's gaze came to rest were ornaments Tsukiyomi Fuya had gathered over her long travels in the past.
Watching the girl's adorable, star-bright gaze, she suddenly felt she had no way to refuse any request the girl might make.
"I can just sleep on the sofa." Su Yuzu had already set her sights on the sofa.
"That won't do!" Tsukiyomi Fuya answered reflexively.
Sleeping on the sofa would be even worse than sleeping in the capsule dormitory.
But... when she saw the girl look straight at her because of that refusal, Tsukiyomi Fuya suddenly felt a headache coming on again.
Even with the cutting-edge technology of "Epiphany Manufacture" applied to spatial utilization—
the observatory, which existed as a sort of mobile base vehicle, still had very limited interior space. Once a great deal of research equipment had been packed inside, there wasn't much room left. On top of that, Tsukiyomi Fuya had never once imagined anyone besides herself would live here... To put it simply——
there was only one very cramped bedroom inside the observatory.
Only a single bed.
A bed... that she herself had slept in, surrounded by her own little belongings.
But the words were already out, and looking at the girl's earnest gaze, Tsukiyomi Fuya could ultimately only choose to "concede defeat."
"Anyway... anyway, I already slept during the day."
[And I don't need to sleep at night either.]
"Yuzu... come with me."
She led Yuzu up to the second floor.
Su Yuzu looked at the room before her, where even the wallpaper bore the pattern of a starry sky, and as she breathed in the sweet, cloying fragrance of flower-nectar drifting through the air, she already understood whom this room belonged to.
"I'll go fetch another set of bedding."
"If I remember correctly... there should still be a spare."
"No need——" Su Yuzu caught hold of Tsukiyomi Fuya's hand.
Tsukiyomi Fuya suddenly felt her scalp prickle.
The way things were unfolding and trending seemed more and more beyond control.
She watched the girl obediently burrow into her bedding, and after a spell of rustling, the open-front nightgown was passed out from beneath the covers by the girl's hand.
Tsukiyomi Fuya took the nightgown from the girl's hand, gripping the soft fabric, and as she looked at the girl's bare neckline, a thousand thoughts flashed through her mind in an instant.
She could only stiffly unfold the nightgown and hang it up for the girl.
"Good... goodnight——"
"Rest early, Yuzu."
"If anything comes up, come down and call me." Tsukiyomi Fuya got ready to switch off the light.
"Wait a moment!"
"Yuzu... is there something else?" Tsukiyomi Fuya looked at the girl curled up in her bedding before her, like an adorable little animal.
Su Yuzu sniffed at the sweet, cloying fragrance between the covers.
In what looked to Tsukiyomi Fuya like her watery, limpid eyes, a pitiful expression surfaced.
"Senpai..."
"You don't have to turn off the light."
"I... I'm afraid of the dark."
Tsukiyomi Fuya took a deep breath, doing her utmost not to betray a single sign of it.
The stars told her that what the girl had said came straight from the heart.
It wasn't at all a deliberate show of frailty—Su Yuzu truly did possess the attribute of being afraid of the dark.
"An afraid-of-the-dark attribute?"
[So... cute.]
[That Shame-filled look of hers is so cute too.]
Her maternal love overflowed, gushing out like floodwaters.
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