Her consciousness seemed about to be stripped away by that exquisite softness.
Su Yuzu stared blankly at the sky reflected in the eyepiece before her, yet her consciousness had long since soared off to somewhere far beyond the highest heavens.
By all rights, she was a magnificent rival, an even match for the little rabbit.
But... Tsukiyomi Fuya and the little rabbit were two utterly different styles.
The little rabbit preferred to cling to Su Yuzu, burying Su Yuzu's arm into her own embrace, gazing at her with eyes bright as a leaping fawn and full of expectation, the ahoge on her forehead swaying merrily as she leaned her little head over.
Tsukiyomi Fuya, on the other hand... the woman was almost like a dazzling star.
When you raised your eyes, she was there.
Radiating her nearly boundless charm.
Even in a situation like this, she still kept a slight, subtle distance from Su Yuzu.
In that small space between them, a rich, cloyingly sweet floral fragrance fermented.
It was like... gardenia.
So rich it was almost corrosive.
If the two of them were to switch places.
Su Yuzu would probably have already pulled Tsukiyomi Fuya into her own embrace.
But... it was only because of Tsukiyomi Fuya's instructional movements and her far-too-lovely figure that Su Yuzu could feel even a tiny... a tiny bit of warm softness.
Tsukiyomi Fuya sensed the girl in her arms, whose body seemed about to go taut.
Su Yuzu was the kind of vigorous, agile girl.
After all, she was a monster who, without relying on any "ability," could earn an "Excellent" in Keigunen Private Academy's rather demanding mixed martial arts course.
Even in a swimsuit, no obvious muscle lines could be seen on her.
But... when you reached out to touch and gently knead, you could clearly feel the elasticity of the muscle beneath the girl's skin.
So the way the girl's body tensed up was quite obvious to Tsukiyomi Fuya.
[Yuzu...]
[Are you nervous?]
The pale-purple eyes blinked.
Tsukiyomi Fuya pondered.
Was it because such overly expensive equipment was right there in front of her, so... that was why she felt nervous?
Or perhaps it wasn't that.
Tsukiyomi Fuya glanced down at her own nightgown.
She felt she might have understood.
Tsukiyomi Fuya was not like the little rabbit—who, though some of her personality quirks were a bit wild, was essentially the type you could even call a little white rabbit.
Nor was she like Ms. Unohana—or rather Unohana Chiyo—who had burned her life and everything else upon the battlefield, so that after coming back she was somewhat dull to all else, even... the type who was a little too easy to bully.
Although she was single, and quite a shut-in.
She did not lack for pursuers.
Her life experience and her looks both meant that, had she been even a little more clumsy, she might by now be saddled with the label of "married woman," long since carried off by someone.
But evidently—
she had not been.
The corners of her lips curving up into a slight, subtle arc, Tsukiyomi Fuya gazed at the slender, fair nape beneath the hair of the girl in her arms.
[Yuzu.]
[Seems unexpectedly... innocent.]
[A girl this innocent is bound to suffer a great loss.]
Unexpectedly——
Tsukiyomi Fuya seemed to have formed a slight, subtle misunderstanding.
Thinking it over carefully, indeed—the girl seemed quite easy to coax and deceive.
She had only mentioned it lightly, and the girl had followed her into the observatory.
"Honestly..."
[Such an innocent girl.]
"She'll suffer greatly out in society."
"A girl out in the world must always keep her guard up."
[So simply, just like that, she'd followed her into the observatory. In the face of an absolute gap in strength. If she had wanted to do something to her, the girl wouldn't have had the slightest ability to resist.]
[Bad people with ill intentions come in any gender and any appearance.]
"A rose that looks beautiful and proper might well be growing atop the bones of its victims—it is precisely because it has drawn up their nutrients that it can bloom so gorgeously."
To be so utterly unguarded toward someone she'd only just met for the first time——
Tsukiyomi Fuya was truly worried.
Compared to Soga Yura, the Little Sister who didn't need to shoulder the responsibilities and burdens of the Soga clan was, just as expected, far too innocent.
And Soga Yura couldn't always be there to protect her.
Sensing the taut muscles of the girl's waist, Tsukiyomi Fuya decided to give the girl a little lesson from experience.
Her hand came to rest on the girl's waist.
Tsukiyomi Fuya could feel the girl's body give an obvious shiver.
Su Yuzu, for her part, was quite dazed too.
Wh-wh-what... what's going on here?
Breathing in the fragrance that rushed into her nose, gazing at the sky full of stars within the eyepiece's field of view, she felt that the very atmosphere of the room seemed somehow off.
It seemed little white flowers were blooming, one after another.
And right beside me!?
"Yuzu..."
"There's no need to be so nervous." Tsukiyomi Fuya soothed the girl in her arms.
But she could clearly feel the girl's body grow even tauter, her spirit seeming to become even more tense.
[Even like this, she still has no thought of resisting?]
[Such a meek, submissive girl...]
Amid her worry, Tsukiyomi Fuya actually felt a faint trace of... pleasure.
After all, the girl in her arms truly was adorable.
That faint, light scent on her, like a citrus fruit, was fresh and delightful too.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have come to like the blanket the girl had given her so much.
Tsukiyomi Fuya had no idea at all that Su Yuzu's nervousness was not because she feared this senpai who seemed to be harboring strange thoughts.
But rather... she was dazed.
Subtly... there was a strange sense of dislocation.
It was like the big bad wolf coming up to the little white lamb with knife sharpened and ready, only to discover that this little white lamb was also preparing to make a hearty meal out of it—that strange sense of dislocation.
Tsukiyomi Fuya hugged the girl a little tighter.
Completely different from the alluring fragrance that had brewed in the small space between them before, this time... Su Yuzu could clearly feel the transgression in Tsukiyomi Fuya's movements, and... her pleasure.
"The summer night sky is actually quite splendid." Tsukiyomi Fuya leaned in close to the girl's ear, adjusting the position of the eyepiece, forcing Su Yuzu to bend her waist down just a little more in order to see into it.
"Look..."
"The brightest one up there in the night sky is..."
"V-Vega." By some odd twist of fate, Tsukiyomi Fuya had happened to strike right at Su Yuzu's weak spot, and the girl's voice sounded a little soft and faint.
Sensing the feeling that the girl in her arms seemed to have "given up resisting," Tsukiyomi Fuya's mood suddenly turned melancholy.
"Isn't it more brilliant to look this way than for Yuzu to look directly with her own eyes?"
"Mm."
"Let's go a little to the south..." Tsukiyomi Fuya lowered the eyepiece a touch more. "That one... is Altair."
"And at the same time, look to the northeast of Vega——"
"Imagine an equilateral triangle—do you see it? That star." Tsukiyomi Fuya gazed at the girl's profile and earlobe.
"Yuzu... do you know what star that is?"
"Deneb." Had Su Yuzu already recruited Tsukiyomi Fuya, by now she would probably already be handing over a Favorability Gift.
But... she had not.
Still, this feeling wasn't bad either.
Su Yuzu felt a faint, damp sweat seeping out of her palms.
At the same time——
In the capsule-like little room, a pair of crimson eyes stared blankly at the ceiling.
Can't sleep... can't sleep.
Wuu, wuu, wuu.
She just couldn't fall asleep.
____
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