When Su Yuzu stepped out of the Prosecutor's Office, the weather outside was perfect — clear and bright.
Su Yuzu stretched, thoroughly at ease.
Ever since the girl superintendent had shown up at Keigunen Private Academy to inform her that the Investigation Bureau had indicted her, a thorn had been lodged somewhere inside Su Yuzu.
It wasn't bad enough to cost her sleep or appetite... but it had left her uncomfortable all the same.
Even when she was toying with the Saintess, something had always felt a little off, a little unsatisfying.
Walking behind Su Yuzu, shoulder to shoulder with the little rabbit, Lyudmila sneezed out of nowhere. She looked at the lovely line of the girl's back as she stretched, and for reasons she couldn't explain, her legs went a little weak.
"It must be because of that strange thing I said inside the Prosecutor's Office."
The pure, innocent Saintess had no idea that this had nothing whatsoever to do with her.
It was purely that a certain wicked-hearted someone had her on her mind again.
But... she was also studying those flawless, graceful lines of Su Yuzu's.
When the girl stretched, you could just catch a hint of a curve peeking out from under her arm.
Ever since she'd obtained "Perfect Execution" from Sakai Miho, Su Yuzu's figure seemed to have drifted further and further away from Soga Yura's.
It wasn't exactly making a run at the little rabbit's league, or Senpai Tsukiyomi Fuya's, but set against Soga Yura, she could still take on several Soga Yuras... or several tens of thousands of them.
After all~
Zero times anything is still zero.
In any case... now that the whole indictment affair had finally drawn to a close, the nerves Su Yuzu so rarely let go taut could finally unwind.
She was a law-abiding citizen, thank you very much.
Getting indicted for no earthly reason was bound to weigh on a person.
It was just... bathed in the warm afternoon sun, Su Yuzu was only halfway through her stretch when she sensed that something, somewhere, was a hundred-million-teensy bit off.
Slowly... bit by bit... Su Yuzu turned her head.
The first person she saw was Soga Yura, trailing behind her with a beaming smile.
Beside Soga Yura stood the one who had always played the part of "guardian" to both Soga Yura and Su Yuzu in the Soga household — the big-sisterly head maid of the Soga family, Soga Iori.
A little behind Soga Yura and off to her left was Sakura Mai, holding on to that bright, easy smile of hers.
Flanking Sakura Mai on one side, wearing an expression of perfect unruffled calm — yet in truth the strongest individual currently known in the Tokyo metropolitan area — was the Sword Princess of Frenzied Assault, Tennouji Jurei.
On Sakura Mai's other side stood the hardest-hitting healer in recorded history.
Sakura Koishin winked at Su Yuzu, laying on the full smoldering-eyes routine — and then Su Yuzu watched the perfectly unruffled Tennouji Jurei gently take Sakura Koishin's hand.
The seemingly flirtatious Honored Aunt went meek in an instant.
A faint sheen of cold sweat rose on Su Yuzu's forehead.
This was more terrifying than standing trial inside the Prosecutor's Office.
By now... Su Yuzu had a dawning sense of exactly what was about to happen.
Sure enough—
Further back stood the illustrious Senior Superintendent of the Fourth Action Division — Su Yuzu's dog, Kujou Katora — along with Hayabusa, who might well inherit the duty of playing the persecuted victim now that Soga Yura had vacated the role.
And, far off, a whole crowd of the Fourth Action Division's burly men, kicked aside by Kujou Katora, reduced to pinching handkerchiefs between thick fingers with brimming eyes, waving them and wishing their boss all the happiness in the world.
The Investigation Bureau's Miss Superintendent could likewise only hover at a distance on the other side.
After all... the way she saw it, she was the one who had brought the news of Su Yuzu's indictment in the first place.
She was genuinely glad Su Yuzu had come through it, but... she didn't have the nerve to walk over just then.
The little rabbit and Lyudmila stood off on the other side.
Standing with the contingent from Keigunen Private Academy.
Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi, her small face set cold, watched Su Yuzu with cautious care.
Behind her stood Soga Ishikawa Irube, a man even more strapping than those burly men of the Investigation Bureau's Fourth Action Division.
Auntie Asumi stood in the patch of shade Soga Ishikawa Irube had so carefully arranged for her, gazing at Su Yuzu with dignified composure.
But Su Yuzu had the nagging feeling that a "facial cleanser" — a palm applied straight to the face — might come flying at her at any second.
Unfortunately... given the extremely special and dangerous status of Aberrants,
neither the little cat nor Feng Ke had been brought along.
Even so, the cold sweat kept seeping from Su Yuzu's forehead.
She could feel exactly where the danger lay.
She wanted to bolt.
At the edge of the Private Keigunen "Su Yuzu cheering squad", Ms. Unohana Chiyo stood quietly, the very picture of a warm, gentle beauty.
And the one chatting with Ms. Unohana Chiyo was none other than the other top-tier combat force in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Tsukiyomi Fuya.
After all that time recuperating, Tsukiyomi Fuya's injuries had essentially healed.
It was just... the moment those pale purple eyes, dazzling as gemstones in the sunlight, turned toward Su Yuzu, they softened into something gentle, affectionate, and utterly obedient.
Tsukiyomi Fuya's Favorability had long since climbed to seventy.
And it was a seventy of the sort labeled "Submission".
Merely recalling how Su Yuzu had carried her back from the brink of the Abyss made Tsukiyomi Fuya's expression, and her faintly tipsy-looking cheeks, turn so endearing that anyone would want to steal a kiss.
Director Saionji, buried in work as always, had come to the Prosecutor's Office too, without a word to anyone.
Saionji Sagara defended her own students more fiercely than anyone alive; how could she tolerate one of them being treated unjustly?
She had even come prepared to announce, today, right here, that Su Yuzu was this era's "rule-type ability user".
And the l0li-figured researcher Yamabuki Nanako, impatience written all over her face, after discussing who knew what with Tsukimisato Somehana, shoved both hands into the pockets of her lab coat and tried to drag Director Saionji and Unohana Chiyo away.
More and more cold sweat beaded on Su Yuzu's forehead.
So far... every girl and every big sister still looked perfectly harmonious.
But Su Yuzu could already sense what kind of hellish tableau this place would unfold into once the matter of her indictment was behind her.
A bloodbath.
This was the most terrifying romantic bloodbath in existence!!!
Apart from the little cat and Feng Ke, who as Aberrants weren't the contending type to begin with, every girl and every big sister she had ever dropped a "Combat Records" on seemed to be gathered right here.
She even spotted girls she'd used "Combat Records" on only a single time standing in her own cheering squad.
She turned her head stiffly, ready to run.
And at that exact moment... Sakai Miho — an ice cream in each hand, coaxing Kirishika with one and the "Seat of Evil" with the other, like a big sister minding a pair of small children — caught sight of Su Yuzu and lit up.
"Senpai!!!"
The girl's delighted cry seemed to set off some horrifying chemical reaction.
Despair sank all the way through Su Yuzu. This... this was hell!!!
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