Following the kind directions of a helpful passerby, we didn't take long to find Shun out on the main street.
From the shadows, I observed her as she walked forward with her head hung low, looking deeply downcast and in a gloomy mood.
"Sensei, do you really not want to try my cheese operation?"
Holding the suspicious cartoon mouse headpiece in her hands, Saya made her final reluctant push.
"Or should we skip ahead to my second plan, the trap operation, which is placing a sleep gas trap on Shun's likely path... gugh, as for the final suppression operation of forcibly administering the medicine with overwhelming force, that's only for when there's absolutely no other choice..."
I looked at her with some confusion and asked a somewhat concerned question.
"When did you come up with all these plans?"
Hearing that, Saya proudly planted her hands on her hips and burst into laughter.
"Wahahaha! So you noticed! That's right! These are pre-planned contingencies I secretly prepared long ago in case Nezusuke tried to escape from the new medicine experiment!"
"Chuu chuu?"
Hearing that, Nezusuke poked its head out of Saya's pocket, looking blankly at me with a somewhat pitiful expression.
I glanced at the pair, then hesitated for a moment.
"…I think you should treat her a little better. Anyway, I'll go first. Make sure you hide properly. No matter what happens, don't come out unless I signal you."
"Hey, got it, got it. If it fails, definitely use my plan next time! For the sake of testing the effi… ah, no, I mean, for helping Shun return to normal as quickly as possible!"
This girl just wants to test whether her ideas actually work.
Anyway, I took a brief moment to prepare myself mentally, then stepped out from behind the wall, lightened my footsteps, and approached a few steps to her side before calling out.
"Shun, wait a moment."
Shun's movements and expression froze. She looked up.
"Sen-sensei…!?"
Then, just as Saya and I feared, her first reaction upon seeing me was to turn and run.
But since I had already shown myself here, I had of course prepared a countermeasure.
In the next moment, the flow of time in my eyes felt as though it had stretched several times longer.
With a light tap of my toe against the ground, my body was propelled forward as if pushed by some force, shooting out like an arrow released from its bow.
Then I crashed heavily to the ground with a dull thud.
Shun, who had just started to move, instinctively turned back, and saw me struggling to get up from the ground in a miserable state, eyebrows tightly furrowed, sucking in sharp breaths, and breaking out in a cold sweat, clearly looking injured.
"Sensei!?"
She cried out and immediately forgot about running, rushing over to support me.
"Aghh... I'm fine…" I replied through the pain. "I just twisted my ankle…"
The authority of Tsurugi's enhanced agility had been repurposed, through my otherwise fragile body that could not properly handle it, into this rather unusual use.
A simple staged fall might have been enough to fool Shun, but as expected, only a real, properly painful injury could ensure she would not see through it.
I truly did not expect I would end up using something like this just to gain a student's sympathy.
Still, this time it could only be called an emergency measure. I sincerely hoped there would never be a need for anything like this again.
Because it really did hurt…
"Sensei! What happened to you!?"
"I'm okay. Shun—"
However, at that moment, Saya, who I had told to wait for the right moment, saw me take a heavy fall and suddenly rushed over while shouting, disrupting my plan.
Seeing a third person appear, Shun was startled.
"Huh!? Where did Saya come from…?"
I hurriedly said, "Shun, wait, please listen to me and Saya first…"
But Shun's reaction was extremely intense.
"No! Sensei definitely wants to team up with Saya to force me to drink the antidote and turn back! Was that fall also a fake injury to trick me? I trusted you so much…!"
So the level of trust still wasn't enough at all!
At the moment Shun was about to turn and run again, I had no better option and could only weakly argue.
"Have you ever seen a fake fall that looks this real?"
Although I also did not deny that I had indeed done it on purpose.
I had originally only hoped to delay her for one or two seconds, but unexpectedly, Shun actually stopped again and turned back, as if she had changed her mind and no longer intended to flee.
As expected, Shun had already fallen deeply for me beyond salvation… ah?
In my confusion, I was suddenly lifted up around the waist by a small black-haired girl who looked no older than eight or nine, more than two heads shorter than me.
Then she ran forward with incredible speed, actually carrying me while sprinting, faster even than Saya, who quickly switched to a skateboard upon seeing this.
Activating Wakamo's authority, I could clearly see the shocked expression on the mouse-eared girl's face at that moment.
Then, switching to Serina's authority, I heard a voice carried by the wind.
"Eight years old!? That's what you call eight years old?!"
I also wanted to ask that question.
But one thing was already certain.
Saya's final suppression operation probably had no feasibility against Shun from the very beginning.
In any case, while being carried in a princess hold, I tried to communicate with Shun, but she ignored me completely while continuing to run at full speed. Only after Saya had clearly fallen far behind did Shun finally slow down, taking only a few breaths before recovering completely without any sign of fatigue.
"…Shun, can you put me down now?"
"Ah, Sensei, sorry… no, I refuse to apologize. This is Sensei's fault. Anyway, Sensei definitely wanted me to drink the antidote, right? I hate you for trying to force me to do things I don't want to do."
Even while puffing her cheeks and saying such words, Shun still obediently supported me.
I felt a little regretful that I had not turned on voice recording on my phone in advance.
Looking around, I realized we had arrived at a quiet place, perfect for a serious conversation, so I asked in confusion.
"Why are you so unwilling to drink the antidote? Shun, if you don't turn back soon, it might lead to irreversible consequences."
"That doesn't matter. Don't you understand, Sensei?"
Shun complained in a tone I could not fully understand.
"My skin gets all dry and rough, I get out of breath after just a little running, and my shoulders are always sore… this grown-up body is basically a burden."
I won't comment on the skin issue for now, but the latter two… isn't that just because little Shun is incredibly energetic by comparison!? And the shoulder pain is clearly due to something else entirely!?
"Anyway, absolutely!" Shun shouted emotionally. "I refuse to return to my ori—"
"A dispute between the two of you here. What is the reason?"
A calm female voice suddenly interrupted Shun.
"If it is possible, I would appreciate an explanation."