She reached out and caught Kujou Katora's wrist.
Under that dazed, helpless gaze, Su Yuzu pulled Kujou Katora up off the ground.
Kujou Katora tumbled straight into her arms.
She was a touch taller than Su Yuzu, so when her legs trembled and buckled under her, her chin came down right against Su Yuzu's shoulder.
Her other hand found Su Yuzu's shoulder without any thought behind it.
"So she misunderstood what I meant?"
Su Yuzu held her steady, arms around her, stroking the soft ends of the woman's hair.
Maybe she kept it short for fighting.
Maybe she just couldn't be bothered to look after it.
Kujou Katora's hair wasn't long at all—only a little longer than Su Yuzu's was now.
[And... she took that gesture as an order?]
"What an obedient woman."
She didn't apologize outright. It had been her own carelessness that left Kujou Katora crouching there so long in that agonizing pose—on the street, right in front of the stall, in such a shameful posture with every passing pair of eyes on her.
Because Su Yuzu understood: an apology wasn't what Kujou Katora wanted.
Tracing down from those soft strands along the line of the woman's spine, Su Yuzu leaned in close to her ear and murmured.
"Good girl, good girl—"
"Raptor did so well."
"Nnh." A remarkably cute whimper squeezed its way out of Kujou Katora's throat.
Su Yuzu took the bag of grilled wings from her hand and, under Kujou Katora's reluctant gaze, gently let her go.
The woman followed a step behind her on unsteady legs.
Her toes tingled.
The fabric of her combat suit's hot pants was a little coarse.
With every step she took, that needle-prick numbness from blood that hadn't yet come back to her legs gave Kujou Katora a sensation that hurt and felt wonderful all at once.
Lady Yuzu... is so amazing.
Su Yuzu drew a grilled wing out of the bag and held it out to Feed Kujou Katora.
Kujou Katora looked at the wing being offered to her, ripples running through her crimson eyes. Swaying on her feet, she didn't take the skewer from Su Yuzu's hand at all—instead she... slowly bent down and took a bite from it, like a little cat.
Su Yuzu went still for a beat.
She glanced at that expression on Kujou Katora's face, equal parts mortified and delighted, and only gripped the skewer a little tighter—while slowing her pace, to make things easier for her.
All the way down the commercial street, classmates kept turning to look back: at Kujou Katora in that shameful posture, and at Su Yuzu walking ahead of her with a smile, Feeding her as she went.
The tips of Kujou Katora's ears burned hotter and hotter, her shoulders shivering. She was embarrassed enough to die—and yet, unlike before, she felt not the slightest urge to rip out her bloodsaw and slaughter everything in sight.
She was so giddy with joy that she wanted to throw herself down on the tatami and squirm.
Su Yuzu let out a soft breath.
Honestly, coming out like this with Kujou Katora put no small amount of pressure on her either.
After all... satisfying Kujou Katora's strange requests and appetites, handing out punishments without actually hurting her, keeping the whole thing within measure—it took real thought.
And sometimes Kujou Katora's subtly bizarre behavior meant she wasn't the only one facing public execution.
Su Yuzu was certain the school forum would detonate by tomorrow.
"SHOCKING: Yuzu-hime Was Actually Seen With—"
Headlines like that would flood the boards.
If that were the extent of it, fine. Su Yuzu didn't particularly mind that grade of "social suicide." What really gave her a headache was the crybaby emoticon that would almost certainly turn up in the replies under all that gossip: (°□°).
Except... Su Yuzu had guessed wrong.
Tomorrow? It hardly needed that long.
She was one of Keigunen Private Academy's star figures. The Keigunen Private Academy forum had already been flooded to bursting today.
And there were always people happy to pour oil on the fire, tagging the famous crybaby blogger "Little Sister-chan Is the Cutest in the World" under post after post after post.
One could only wonder how Soga Yura would feel when, after grinding her way through everything tied to the "Epiphany Manufacture" business, she finally stole a moment to look at her phone—only to find a deluge of tags, and to follow them straight into a flood of gossip stories and photos of her precious Little Sister out on the town with her "pet."
She'd probably sniffle miserably, run off in tears to pour her heart out to Sakura Mai, and then need Yuzu to comfort her for a whole day—no... she'd seize the excuse to have Yuzu comfort her for a whole day before she could possibly feel better.
For the moment, though, none of that was Su Yuzu's problem.
Su Yuzu brought Kujou Katora to the familiar movie theater.
Kujou Katora's best Favorability Gift was a pair of tickets to a late-night movie.
Beyond the fact that a late-night movie always came with a delicately suggestive age rating, the dim hush inside the theater was probably to Kujou Katora's taste as well.
As for the pair part... the reason went without saying.
What Kujou Katora craved was company.
The film wasn't a horror piece, just a romantic light comedy built on a rather interesting premise.
Its protagonist had a pair of eyes that could see clear into the future.
And then... she saw the one person she was destined to fall for at first sight—born three hundred years after her.
From that day on, she knew exactly what she had to do.
She poured everything she had into leaving traces in every place that girl would one day walk. She became the dearest friend of the girl's growing years, and her sworn rival, too—three hundred years before the girl was ever born.
Her life was a flowing river of stars, gorgeous as firefly light, dazzling and unbearably brief.
The screen came to rest at last on a desolate grave, where the girl bent down and laid a bouquet of blue irises.
Su Yuzu tightened her grip on Kujou Katora's hand.
She watched the credits scroll past, then led Kujou Katora out of the movie theater.
That kind of story didn't sit well with her.
This went well past the old lament—I was born before you were born, and by the time you were born, I had already grown old.
By the time the girl came into the world, all that remained of the protagonist was a headstone half-swallowed by weeds.
Honestly... if it had been her, Su Yuzu would sooner have thrown herself into the Abyss than fail to live long enough to reach those three hundred years.
Aberrant or not Aberrant, Su Yuzu didn't care in the slightest.
To her, nothing mattered more than being able to see the other person with her own eyes.
It had been a late-night movie, after all.
By the time she and Kujou Katora walked back out of the theater, the night had gone deep—even the moon had already set.
It seemed much too late now to put Kujou Katora in a car back to the Investigation Bureau.
Kujou Katora planned to go back to the place she used to stay and rest there—the dorm room directly across from Su Yuzu's.
A strange look came over Su Yuzu's face.
"Actually..."
"What?" Kujou Katora studied her, thrown by the sudden bashfulness in her voice.
"Someone's already living in Raptor's old room."
"WHAT!???" Every scrap of Kujou Katora's composure vanished on the spot.
The one reason that dorm room had stayed empty all this time was that it sat directly across from Su Yuzu's.
Which is to say, it was the room Soga Yura had set aside for herself.
But now!?
Who?
"Although..." Su Yuzu appeared to hesitate. "If Raptor doesn't mind..."
"My room is pretty big, you know."
"Raptor... want to squeeze in with me?"
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