The corner of her eye twitched.
Su Yuzu found herself staring into Kujou Iruka's beautiful dark golden eyes — eyes that somehow looked… almost sulky.
No matter how she turned it over, Su Yuzu would never have guessed that words that plaintive could come out of Kujou Iruka's mouth.
She ran the timing back in her head.
A few hours ago would have been right around when classes normally let out at Keigunen Private Academy.
As the Eldest Young Lady of the once-glorious Kujou family, Kujou Iruka had of course attended Keigunen Private Academy herself. She knew perfectly well when the school day ended.
Which meant Kujou Iruka had timed the whole thing — slipped into the Tokyo metropolitan area, slipped into Keigunen Private Academy, and then sat waiting in Su Yuzu's dorm room for her.
Su Yuzu could even picture it: Kujou Iruka pacing the room, bored out of her skull, fiddling with all of Su Yuzu's little toys… though, naturally—
Any toy Su Yuzu was willing to leave out in the open in her dorm instead of stashing it away in her Material Inventory was definitely a respectable toy.
Or perhaps she had simply sat in a chair like a queen, legs crossed, waiting.
Holding a pose like that for hours on end… that would have been pretty bizarre in its own right.
Just like that, the towering, majestic image of Kujou Iruka in Su Yuzu's head lost most of its majesty — turning a little goofy, even a little cute.
Pinning her in place, Kujou Iruka clearly caught the shift in the girl's gaze.
Her lips closed on Su Yuzu's ear, almost a bite.
"What exactly are you thinking about?"
"N-nothing!!!" Su Yuzu's voice shot up before she could stop it. Her hands, with nowhere else to go, clutched at Kujou Iruka's wings.
"B-but…" Su Yuzu mumbled her protest in the smallest voice she owned.
"Today's the weekend."
"There aren't any classes."
Kujou Iruka's eyes narrowed, dangerously.
Light spilled from them and licked upward at the corners, like a pair of flames curling into tails.
She knew the girl had a point.
Wanting to unwind on the weekend was simply human nature.
Back in her own school days, she had spent weekends outside the city hunting down a few Walking Husks or Aberrants to relax and enjoy herself.
What Kujou Iruka refused to admit was that she had gone so long without any contact with humans that she had forgotten weekends existed at all.
So she settled for pinching Su Yuzu's cheek instead. "Good girls shouldn't be out this late…"
"It's dangerous out there."
Su Yuzu was very nearly in tears.
In her current position she couldn't even stand properly — only the toes of one foot still touched the floor.
Kujou Iruka said that with a straight face. Did she feel no shame whatsoever!
Did she really have no idea what counted as dangerous for Su Yuzu right now!!!
She should have spent the night at little Mihou Sakai's place, looking after little Mihou Sakai.
Of course… it stayed a thought and nothing more.
If she hadn't come home all night, and Kujou Iruka had gotten tired of waiting — Su Yuzu didn't dare imagine what she would have done.
Besides… with Kujou Iruka holding an absolute advantage in raw force, resisting wasn't an option either.
"It's only relaxing once in a while, isn't it…" Su Yuzu pushed for maximum softness and helplessness.
All she could tell herself was that fortunes turn. Thirty years on the east bank of the river, thirty years on the west!
Never sneer at a girl for being soft.
Although, thinking it through properly — if things really did turn out that way, the line of people coming to collect their debts from her was going to be uncomfortably long.
Kujou Iruka watched the pitiful, adorable creature in front of her with undisguised delight.
"True enough~"
"I'm only relaxing too."
The string stretched taut inside Su Yuzu came within a hair of snapping.
Relaxing!?
Relaxing by using her!?
And yet there was nothing she could do about it.
So she thought, viciously: fine. Call it a day off, and Kujou Iruka has come to give her a massage.
"Sister Iruka is right."
All the while, she was frantically adding entries to Kujou Iruka's page in her mental black book.
"You had better never, ever let me Recruit you—"
"Because if I do… I'll teach you the meaning of hell!"
Kujou Iruka studied the expression on the girl's face — wronged, wilted, entirely out of options, sparking back to life only when Iruka murmured against her ear.
Her enjoyment meter was pegged at maximum.
"All right—"
"Since you're so fond of relaxing."
"Then come take a stroll around the Tokyo metropolitan area with me."
"What!!!" Su Yuzu nearly jumped.
Except, wedged into the corner by Kujou Iruka, she couldn't even manage that.
Kujou Iruka looked at her.
She was well aware the girl had gone out with that pack of friends first thing in the morning and had only come dragging back at this hour.
And then promptly become the pitiful plaything in Iruka's hands.
What she needed most right now was probably a bath and a solid night's sleep.
But—
Why should Iruka care?
She had waited for this girl for hours.
If Su Yuzu wouldn't relax with her—
then she would simply have to be played with instead.
Clearly—
Su Yuzu understood the hopelessness of her situation just as well.
With Kujou Iruka holding absolute physical dominance, she had no room to resist whatsoever.
"Fine…" Su Yuzu's voice came out thoroughly wilted.
"But first let me… find my pants."
Kujou Iruka released her.
She watched Su Yuzu grope around in the darkness — at one point catching hold of Iruka's own ankle — and refrained from remarking that going out exactly as she was wouldn't be a problem either.
That really would have turned into Shame Play.
When it came to bullying, Kujou Iruka's treatment of Su Yuzu still didn't hold a candle to how Su Yuzu bullied Kujou Katora.
Still… Kujou Iruka watched the girl fumbling blindly about.
An awakened "Throne," and she couldn't even see through a little darkness?
She drew her domain back in, and then — click.
The lights came on.
Su Yuzu shuddered. With the lights on… her Shame level only climbed higher.
She fixed her clothes as fast as she possibly could.
And then, the instant she raised her head, she froze where she stood.
She simply stared at Kujou Iruka.
Features close to Kujou Katora's, yet far more wicked, far more bewitching. With the lights on, those dark golden vertical pupils no longer stung the eye.
Dewy pink lips seemed to glisten under the lamplight.
Pale violet hair fell all the way to her ankles.
Smooth, with just the faintest suggestion of a loose wave.
Set against it was Kujou Iruka's skin, pale to an unnatural degree, and the few scraps of silk she wore.
By the established rule that the stronger an Aberrant grows, the fewer Catastrophe Crystals remain on their body—
Kujou Iruka, of the Seventh Sequence.
Aside from those few strips of silk covering what mattered, all she wore was an over-the-knee stocking on her right leg and a pair of absurdly slender high heels.
Su Yuzu often thought that high-Sequence Aberrants weren't nearly as lovely or as moving as little Kiyomi's goldfish dress had been back then.
But… with Kujou Iruka actually standing there in front of her, Su Yuzu still couldn't drag her eyes away.
And when she thought about how it had been this big sister murmuring against her ear a moment ago — well, getting bullied… seemed… like not much of a problem at all.
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