She watched as Tsukiyomi Fuya wrapped herself up in her blanket.
Besides the pink, plump cat-paw-pad pattern on the white blanket that brimmed over with a girlish air, there was also a fluffy little tail.
Beneath the blanket, the lines of the woman's calves were lovely.
This moment might just be the best opportunity to touch Tsukiyomi Fuya.
With a bit of luck... perhaps, just like that girl with the lovely name, the one called Asagiri Sachi, the Recruitment would be completed in the very instant of contact.
But Su Yuzu didn't.
She bowed with a touch of reverence toward Tsukiyomi Fuya and took her leave.
Su Yuzu, at certain times, harbored some strange contradiction—or rather... a sense of ritual.
On one hand... she knew this world was built upon the same worldview as the eroge she'd played before her rebirth—so much so that... even some of the characters were exactly identical.
Sometimes, listening to that familiar mechanical woman beside her ear, she would even fall into an illusion of toying with life as if it were a game.
On the other hand... she could genuinely, palpably feel the realness of everyone around her.
Their fondness for her, their trust in her, the little rabbit's willfulness, Mihou Sakai's timidity and self-doubt, the little cat's heavy Dependency on her...
That was why she had never once used a single 「Combat Records」 on Yamabuki Nanako, who looked far too criminally tempting.
As for girls like Asagiri Sachi, who'd been recruited by chance.
She had no intention of constantly disturbing their lives either.
Of course——
This had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the girl was only three-star... her looks, though pretty and refined, were definitely nothing outstanding—dropped into an exquisitely produced anime she'd probably be a passerby with no screen time, fit only to die on cue during the tearjerker moments and twist the knife a little.
It really, truly, had nothing to do with that.
Fine—maybe a teeny-tiny bit.
It was just that, compared to the Tsukiyomi Fuya before her... From the moment this woman had appeared out of that exquisitely designed Limited Pool. From the moment Su Yuzu had seen the woman on the character art, who seemed to hover in midair above a full moon, looking down upon her aloof and indifferent like a deity——
Su Yuzu had already felt that the threads of Fate had been drawn taut between the two of them.
She couldn't escape.
Even though Tsukiyomi Fuya hadn't appeared in the game's first-chapter storyline.
Even in the Bad End where the Tokyo metropolitan area fell, Tsukiyomi Fuya had never shown up.
But Su Yuzu understood—with her power... in this absurd, dead-end world, she could not escape.
She was destined to shine as brilliantly as the stars.
Or else... to flicker like a shooting star, and then fall.
The name of Tsukiyomi Fuya, in life or in death, was certain to leave behind a bold, vivid stroke.
In that case... why not let her circle and shine around herself, becoming one of the most dazzling stars in the dim, barren sky behind the 「Throne」.
Su Yuzu and Soga Yura softened their footsteps, doing all they could not to disturb the rest of the woman drowsy after her all-nighter, and carefully got off the bus.
The stern-faced big-sister driver had long been waiting below for the girls.
Upon seeing the girls' empty hands, the stern woman knit her brows slightly. "Where's your luggage?"
She was beginning to get a headache over the girls' overly casual attitude.
Even just heading out for an excursion, one ought to bring at least a few emergency supplies.
What's more, this operation of theirs might be very long, and might also be very dangerous.
Materials were something that absolutely had to be secured.
"This operation is not some ordinary academic exchange activity."
"Danger could be encountered at any moment."
"You can't count on your families to get ready and airdrop you supplies only once you're so hungry you'd eat toothpaste."
Su Yuzu understood the woman's good intentions.
"It's like this..." Su Yuzu explained to the woman. Compared to the romantic yet equally lackadaisical Tsukiyomi Fuya, the serious, stern big-sister driver before her had far more of the decisive, vigorous bearing of someone in charge of a major operation.
Su Yuzu drew a bottle of water out of her Material Inventory and handed it to the big sister before her, who looked a little parched.
"My 「Holy Relic」 has the ability of spatial storage."
"Big sister... and everyone's supplies are all stored inside my 「Holy Relic」."
The woman took the water from Yuzu's hand, knitting her brows as she looked at this girl before her—whose looks were nearly identical to Soga Yura, that dazzling tomorrow's-star of the academy, but with short hair, and at the same time... in certain respects looked more like an older sister.
"So that's how it is."
"But even so, I still recommend each of you carry some emergency supplies on your person."
"And another thing..." Her gaze suddenly turned fierce, killing intent bursting forth from her body, as if she meant to intimidate the girls before her.
"The 「Holy Relic」 is a very precious thing."
"Miss Soga, please don't go casually telling others that you possess something so precious in the future."
It was just that... what left her rather frustrated was this.
The killing intent she'd honed by wading through mountains of corpses and seas of blood seemed utterly useless before the girls in front of her.
Never mind Soga Yura, who was like a mental-type queen, or Sakura Mai, who'd been forged from childhood in the sword intent of Tennoji Jurei—even that soft, adorable-looking big-breasted girl didn't react in the slightest.
Only that ordinary P.E. teacher from Keigunen Private Academy suddenly knit her brows.
But her expression wasn't fear.
Rather... it was impatience.
Those cherry-red eyes, which under the sunlight took on a faintly unusual hue, upon sensing the killing intent suddenly revealed a kind of instinctive impatience.
Like a drowsy lioness... suddenly noticing the little kitten next door playing with her own cubs.
No threat at all, but the little milk-kittens were mewing and yowling something fierce.
Mm... it was exactly that sort of feeling.
The woman was suddenly very frustrated.
"I understand!" Thankfully, Su Yuzu was good about giving the woman face and an out; she merely smiled, "I just trust you, big sister, trust your teacher, and trust that you're a good person, that's all."
After Su Yuzu's voice fell, she suddenly noticed that in the woman's eyes, besides frustration... there was suddenly a touch more of... desolation?
[Big sister is a good person!]
The woman felt bitter inside.
She'd been single since the womb for over forty years... For an Esper, this age was still very young. As long as one didn't die in an accident... though because of the high accidental-death rate among Espers, their average lifespan was even shorter than that of commoners.
But still!
As an Esper with an official post, her future was still quite promising.
She'd been single for so many years that—forget boys—she'd hardly even held a girl's hand more than a couple of times.
She'd originally figured that although she'd always been single, as long as she never started anything, that whole "good-person card" thing could never possibly latch onto her.
But... she'd never imagined that, in the end, she was still too young.
Su Yuzu looked at the woman before her, who'd suddenly turned ashen, and knew she'd ultimately said the wrong thing after all.
Sure enough... everyone has their own odd little weak spots.
"It's all right!"
"You're so good-looking, big sister, and your strength is formidable too—you'll definitely meet someone worthy of your affection!" Su Yuzu grabbed the hand of the ashen-faced woman.
[Ding——] The wicked mechanical woman sounded beside Su Yuzu's ear.
[An Operator available for Recruitment has been detected.]
[Recruit?]
[…]
Su Yuzu's encouraging smile suddenly stiffened along with it.
"I..."
"My adorable self said you could meet someone worthy of your affection, big sister... but I never said that person was meeee!!!"
[And besides, such a precious Recruitment opportunity...] Su Yuzu looked tearfully at the silhouette of Tsukiyomi Fuya curled up resting beside her seat inside the school bus.
[If I go back now and cop a feel of Tsukiyomi-senpai... is there still time!!!]
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