"Zuke-nii, does this mean...?"
Seeing the "Arrow" in Zuke's hand pointing straight at her, Matou Sakura couldn't help but ask.
Her voice trembled slightly, clearly showing her excitement—though she wasn't excited about gaining a new ability. The reason for her excitement was that this would bring her closer to Zuke.
After all, Zuke definitely possessed that ability called a "Stand" that he mentioned. If she also had a Stand, wouldn't that give her common ground with Zuke?
Although Matou Sakura had been pursuing the goal of summoning Zuke and trying to research a method to keep Zuke in the present world, she still felt somewhat inferior deep down.
After all, Zuke was so powerful, while she was just an ordinary magus. The gap in their strength was too great, making her not dare to hope for a more intimate relationship with Zuke.
But if she had that "Stand" ability, she could at least get a step closer to Zuke, right? Even if the gap remained large, that would be enough to satisfy her.
"That's right, it seems you do possess Stand potential."
Zuke nodded. Although he hadn't given the feather to Matou Sakura intending to use her as an experiment, this had inadvertently provided Zuke with a new line of thinking.
Seeing Matou Sakura staring at the "Arrow" in his hand with an eager expression, Zuke smiled and said:
"How about it? Want to try? If you're pierced by this 'Arrow,' you'll gain a Stand... though you might also fall unconscious for a while."
Just like how Fubuki fell unconscious for an entire day after being pierced by the "Arrow," Matou Sakura might also fall unconscious for a period after being pierced before gaining her Stand.
In fact, among the Stand users in the Kiryuu Group, quite a few had fallen unconscious after being pierced by the "Arrow," awakening their Stands only after some time had passed.
Moreover, the duration of unconsciousness varied—some, like Hirose Koichi, woke up after about ten minutes, but others took much longer, remaining unconscious for several days before waking.
At the time, Kiryuu even suspected that person had become a vegetable—fortunately, that person eventually woke up and awakened a decent Stand ability.
However, Zuke wasn't very interested in those people from the Kiryuu Group, so he hadn't paid much attention to this matter—but it was still necessary to give Matou Sakura a warning.
"No... no problem, I'm ready!"
However, Matou Sakura didn't seem to care about this at all. She looked at Zuke seriously and quickly said.
Since Zuke appeared here, the Medusa she had sent out earlier had probably been captured by Zuke.
Although Matou Sakura still had her Command Seals and could feel her connection with Medusa, confirming that Medusa hadn't died, in terms of results, there was essentially no difference.
Since there was no hope for the Holy Grail War anyway, she might as well try out the "Stand" ability that Zuke mentioned—maybe she could awaken some useful ability.
"Since you've said so..."
Zuke was actually quite curious whether someone who "acquired" Stand potential later would have anything special about their Stand awakening.
Since Matou Sakura herself had agreed, Zuke didn't hesitate any longer. With a flick of his finger, the "Arrow" in his hand pierced straight into Matou Sakura's shoulder.
"...!"
Because Zuke's movement was so fast, Matou Sakura didn't realize at first that the "Arrow" had pierced her shoulder. Only when pain came from her shoulder did she react.
She couldn't help but let out a slight cry of pain, but she still gritted her teeth and endured without crying out. Instead, she turned her head to look at the "Arrow" embedded in her shoulder.
Soon, the wound on her shoulder began to heal automatically, and the "Arrow" embedded in the wound was pushed out by the healing muscle tissue, falling to the ground without any further reaction.
Although this "Arrow" would automatically target people with Stand potential, it wouldn't react to those who had already awakened their Stands.
The fact that this "Arrow" no longer reacted to Matou Sakura meant that she had successfully awakened her Stand.
"This way, I can get closer to Zuke..."
Matou Sakura felt the new power seemingly being born within her body, her chest filled with excitement, seemingly preparing to say something to Zuke.
However, before she could finish speaking, she felt her mind go fuzzy, then her feet wobbled, and she fell toward Zuke's direction.
Zuke reached out and caught Matou Sakura, looking at her face—as expected, she had lost consciousness, falling unconscious just like Fubuki had when awakening her Stand.
When he had first awakened Stands for others, they hadn't experienced this kind of unconsciousness, but recently, both times he had awakened Stands for others, they had both fallen unconscious.
How strange.
"Looks like nothing serious, she's just simply asleep."
Zuke ran his hands over Matou Sakura's body—he wasn't taking advantage of her unconscious state to be a pervert; he was just checking Matou Sakura's physical condition.
Majin Buu's psychic abilities were very useful. Checking the body was just the most basic application. Zuke was using this ability to confirm whether there were any abnormalities in various parts of Matou Sakura's body.
If there were abnormalities, he could fix them on the spot.
However, after the examination, Zuke confirmed that Matou Sakura's condition was no different from being asleep, so there wasn't much to worry about.
But he couldn't just leave her here like this.
Zuke looked at this guest room—there wasn't anything strange in it, but it wouldn't be good to just leave Matou Sakura alone in the guest room unattended.
After all, according to the information from the Kiryuu Group, among the Stand users, some had remained unconscious for several days before waking up.
What if Matou Sakura also remained unconscious for several days before waking? Leaving her alone in the guest room wouldn't be very appropriate, would it?
After thinking about it, he could only pick up Matou Sakura as well and take her back to Reines's base, having Reines help take care of her.
Or he could have Reines's Volumen Hydrargyrum maid—Trimmau—help take care of her.
Actually, Zuke had also considered whether to bring Matou Sakura back to his own home and have the maids there take care of her.
But on second thought, if he brought Matou Sakura back to his own home, it would mean taking her to another world, and her connection with Medusa might be severed.
Without Matou Sakura's magical energy supply, Medusa would likely disappear—Zuke naturally wanted to avoid this situation.
He could only hope that when Reines saw him bringing the unconscious Matou Sakura back, she wouldn't take him for some kidnapper of unconscious girls.
To be continued...