From Cygnus they had identified their way to Scorpius, and then from Scorpius on to Centaurus.
Deneb, Albireo, Delta Scorpii...
The woman's voice beside her ear was gentle and soft.
In an unhurried tone, she slowly recited the many names of the stars filling the sky, along with their apparent magnitudes.
Su Yuzu unconsciously gripped the handle, feeling that the woman's voice was like a string of bewitching notes that, bit by bit, brick by brick, dismantled the walls around her heart.
Against the soft murmuring in her ear, Su Yuzu truly had no way to resist.
"Yuzu?"
Tsukiyomi Fuya gazed at the profile of the girl before her—obedient, bashful, wearing an endearing expression like a helpless little rabbit.
The girl's beautiful crimson eyes seemed to shimmer with rippling spring water.
Gazing into the girl's eyes, Tsukiyomi Fuya even felt... that she really did have just the tiniest urge to transform into the wolf of the moonlit night.
However——
Even if she did transform into the wolf of the moonlit night, the girl probably wouldn't resist.
Truly an easy girl to deceive.
Grasping the wrist of the hand that held the handle, Tsukiyomi Fuya bit by bit pried the girl's hand off of it.
A little damp.
It was a thin sheen of sweat seeping from her palm.
It seemed the girl was still nervous inside.
Looking at Su Yuzu before her, Tsukiyomi Fuya couldn't help but sigh inwardly. Honestly... such an adorable girl—if she didn't have the slightest bit of caution, however would she manage to protect herself?
"Sen...pai?" That slightly softened voice truly stirred up the urge in Tsukiyomi Fuya's heart to tease the girl.
Su Yuzu was conflicted too.
She couldn't quite make out just what sort of woman Tsukiyomi Fuya was.
But... an older sister who would appear in the Limited Pool, and who was furthermore her Sister's teacher, surely wouldn't be the kind of person to stab her in the back.
And besides... why, even at this point...
Had she still not triggered Tsukiyomi Fuya's Recruitment?
Was this Recruitment system really scientific?
"It's already very late——"
"Yuzu, just rest here with me." Clasping the girl's soft little hand, Tsukiyomi Fuya looked at Su Yuzu.
Su Yuzu's hand unconsciously gripped Tsukiyomi Fuya's hand back.
"Okay..."
Su Yuzu had absolutely no reason to refuse.
On the contrary, it was Tsukiyomi Fuya who became conflicted instead.
Sensing the fresh, sweet fragrance drifting from the girl before her, she began to worry on the girl's behalf.
To refuse at this moment would be the very best chance to escape her "evil clutches."
In this world there are always beasts in human clothing, scum in refined disguise, who put on a hypocritical air of modesty and deference and won't make their move so directly.
This was the perfect time to flee.
But... Yuzu?
She had still been resisting before, yet after giving up that resistance, she had actually agreed so obediently?
Tsukiyomi Fuya had, in fact, heard a few things about Su Yuzu and Soga Yura.
A girl who wasn't favored by Soga Yura, who wasn't valued by the Soga clan.
Always trying so hard to mend the relationship between herself and Soga Yura and the like... a situation that had only seemed to improve a little recently.
The girl's image in Tsukiyomi Fuya's mind had gradually become that of a pitiful creature who was easy to bully... even somewhat meekly resigned to whatever came her way.
If she were to threaten the girl with Soga Yura's graduation——
"Yuzu-chan... you wouldn't want your Sister to be unable to graduate smoothly, now would you~"
The girl would probably just start sobbing and let her do as she pleased.
Gently releasing the girl's hand, Tsukiyomi Fuya brewed another cup of hot milk and pushed it in front of Su Yuzu.
Watching Su Yuzu drink down the milk—cautiously, and yet without much resistance—her expression suddenly turned very serious.
"Yuzu——"
"Eh?" Looking at Tsukiyomi Fuya's grave demeanor, Su Yuzu suddenly felt that the atmosphere inside the observatory, which had already grown nearly tender and romantic, had abruptly shifted—the mood seemed a little off again.
"Has Yuzu never once thought———"
"What if I had put drugs in the milk—what would you do then?" Tsukiyomi Fuya looked at the girl with a headache.
"Eh!?" Su Yuzu suddenly caught a whiff of something amiss.
"Yuzu——" Tsukiyomi Fuya said earnestly, "If you're too naive... you'll suffer dearly out in the world."
"Wha-wha-what!?" Su Yuzu suddenly sensed that behind Tsukiyomi Fuya's earlier strange behavior there might be reasons that would leave her not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
"I let Yuzu into the observatory."
"And Yuzu just walked right in?" Tsukiyomi Fuya looked at the girl, admonishing her gently. "What if I were a bad person?"
"What if... I wanted to do something terrible to Yuzu?"
Su Yuzu looked at Tsukiyomi Fuya.
For some reason her heart suddenly felt a little disappointed, and... she felt she might have figured out the reason why the Recruitment hadn't been triggered.
Although she really wanted to say——
That even if Tsukiyomi Fuya-senpai wanted to do something bad to her, it would be fine; she really wouldn't mind.
But Su Yuzu understood that such words absolutely could not be spoken aloud.
"But..."
"If Tsukiyomi-senpai wanted to do something to me... I wouldn't be able to resist anyway, would I?"
"Senpai is a Fifth Sequence Esper..."
Tsukiyomi Fuya looked at the girl with a headache. "Just because you can't resist means you don't need to be on guard?"
"What if a bad person of the same level as Yuzu wanted to deceive you?"
"Would Yuzu still obediently follow them off to some unfamiliar place?"
"Someone of the same level... couldn't beat me." Su Yuzu suddenly took on a slightly sly look. "And besides..."
"I trust Tsukiyomi-senpai."
"..." Tsukiyomi Fuya was suddenly at a loss for words. "This is only the first time we've met—how does Yuzu know I'm not the kind of villain who's all gold and jade on the outside but rotten cotton within?"
"If..."
"I'm saying if—if I really were a bad person who wanted to gobble Yuzu up."
"If I'd slipped drugs into the milk, wouldn't Yuzu have lost the most precious thing she has?"
"Tsukiyomi-senpai wouldn't do that——" Su Yuzu answered with certainty. "Tsukiyomi-senpai... is someone my Sister approves of."
"So I trust Tsukiyomi-senpai too."
Su Yuzu obviously couldn't very well say that she also wanted to Recruit Tsukiyomi Fuya.
This whole thing... this whole thing was a case of two people rushing toward each other, only to end up on the wrong road.
"I can feel Senpai's gentleness and patience."
"...."
"I'm only saying if..." Tsukiyomi Fuya felt more and more that the girl was far too quick to casually trust others.
"I can tell good people from bad ones."
"And besides... if it's Tsukiyomi-senpai..." Su Yuzu looked at the woman before her, her smile suddenly seeming both shy and cunning.
Thump, thump——
Looking at the girl's smiling, curved brows and eyes, Tsukiyomi Fuya suddenly felt as if she were gazing at a heart-bewitching little sprite, and in an instant the balance between offense and defense seemed to undergo a subtle little shift.
"It's... it's already very late——"
"Yuzu had best rest early."
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