"Haah… haah…"
The knees that had braced themselves upward slowly sank back down, though they still seemed to twist and knock against each other.
Tsukiyomi Fuya's pale violet eyes spread wide and blank, focus drifting somewhere past the ceiling. She stared upward with a kind of mournful pity.
It felt as though what the girl had devoured wasn't the Catastrophe Crystals in her body, but her very soul.
"Finally…"
"Finally…"
"Haah… haah…"
Tsukiyomi Fuya panted softly. Her left hand, which had been pushing and kneading at the girl's head, fell away limp and hung beside her ear.
She had never known time to stretch out so long.
Not even that night, when she'd woken to find Little Yuzu wrapped around her waist, asleep in her arms, had time managed to drag the way it just had.
Her scattered gaze gathered itself back together bit by bit, and Tsukiyomi Fuya saw Yuzu leaning over her.
"Nn…" A small, pitiful whimper escaped the woman before she could stop it.
But—
She could feel it too: her condition now was better than before by an immeasurable margin. Even if… she was a little weak.
Even if the process… had its ups and downs.
The enormous volume of Calamity Aura inside her had been drawn out.
If, earlier, Tsukiyomi Fuya had taken a bleak view of her own odds, certain she'd never last until the head of the Sakura family arrived to save her—
Then now… she was absolutely certain she could hold on until the Sakura family head got here.
In fact, if the girl did that a few more times, Tsukiyomi Fuya suspected she wouldn't need the Sakura family head at all.
Although… if Little Yuzu really did do that.
Tsukiyomi Fuya suspected she might depart this world first.
The cause of death simply having nothing whatsoever to do with Aberration or Catastrophe Crystals.
Her vision sharpened by degrees, and she looked at Little Yuzu leaning over her with worry written all over her face.
Complexion, aura — by every sign, Little Yuzu really did seem untouched by the Calamity Aura.
If anything, the girl's cheeks looked more radiant than before.
Flushed pink, as though dusted with rouge and a fine sheen of sweat beneath lowered brows and a hidden smile.
And those crimson eyes, already so bright and clear, now glimmered until they seemed ready to spill over like spring water.
Tsukiyomi Fuya found she couldn't pull her gaze away.
But at the same time—
She realized just how great a risk Little Yuzu had taken, exposing the secret that she could eat Catastrophe Crystals, all to save her.
Tsukiyomi Fuya even scanned the room on reflex, checking the ward for cameras or any other monitoring device.
Thankfully… there were none.
Something warm stirred in her.
The fondness born from her earlier guess that the girl meant to die alongside her hadn't faded once she learned Yuzu had no death wish. It had only deepened, settling thicker.
"Yu… Yuzu…" At some point, without noticing, Tsukiyomi Fuya's way of addressing Su Yuzu had shifted from the almost Doting "Little Yuzu" to something more equal.
She wanted to ask Yuzu to fetch her a towel or something.
But… Tsukiyomi Fuya noticed then that the girl's expression hadn't relaxed at all.
"Yu… zu?" She looked at the girl still bent over her, face grave.
Su Yuzu was still tense.
Never mind that Tsukiyomi-senpai looked far better, that her heartbeat had eased back toward normal.
In truth… the Catastrophe power inside Tsukiyomi Fuya hadn't been cleanly Erased.
The Catastrophe power of Aberrants affected an Esper in a very particular way.
It wasn't like diluting a drug with water.
Quite the opposite — powers that should share the same origin acted on an Esper more like a catalyst.
A mere trace of residue was all the "Seat of Evil" needed to stage a comeback inside Tsukiyomi-senpai's body.
And right now… the only thing that could apparently solve that problem, the "Seat of Evil" itself, had been devoured clean by Su Yuzu over half an hour ago.
The reason Su Yuzu had stopped wasn't what Tsukiyomi Fuya had said about not being able to take any more.
It was that… Tsukiyomi Fuya's body was about to give out.
Keep drawing at this rate, and the Catastrophe power still wouldn't be finished off — Tsukiyomi Fuya would be wrung dry by Yuzu first.
Of course—
Tsukiyomi Fuya's current state was already good enough to hold out until Sakura Koishin came racing over by car in the dead of night.
Good enough, even, for her to make it back to the city center.
But… having taken the first bite, how could Su Yuzu tolerate the matter ending anywhere but here, with her?
How could she tolerate Tsukiyomi-senpai suffering another night, or several more nights?
And besides… it had taken so much just to get this chance to treat Tsukiyomi-senpai alone. Whether another chance like it would ever come was anyone's guess.
Eyes lowered, Su Yuzu turned the problem over.
The simplest solution, obviously, was to replenish Tsukiyomi-senpai's power at the same time she drew the Catastrophe power out.
And the best way to replenish power…
Su Yuzu swiped open her Material Inventory and looked at the two "Ten-Pull Search Vouchers."
All she had to do was Recruit Tsukiyomi-senpai, then feed her the "Advanced Combat Records" she'd just obtained. That perfectly pure Blessing power would replenish Tsukiyomi-senpai while shoving a huge mass of contaminated Calamity Aura right up to Su Yuzu's mouth in an instant.
As for… whether Tsukiyomi-senpai could take it.
Not being able to take it beat not being able to survive it.
Su Yuzu pressed her palms together in prayer, then opened Tsukiyomi Fuya's recruitment pool.
But… how did the saying go?
The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.
The first "Ten-Pull Search Voucher" didn't even summon a rainbow shooting star.
Of the only two Operators it Recruited, one was the Healing-type Senpai who had taken the lethal-dose syringe out of Su Yuzu's hand.
The second "Ten-Pull Search Voucher" did summon a rainbow shooting star.
But this time… it wasn't merely a matter of getting the wrong pull.
Su Yuzu stared at the thing in front of her: a bizarre creature thrashing about in a spray of seawater like seafood freshly hauled out of the ocean, something like a sea scorpion, with enormous claws and walking legs.
She had absolutely no idea how something that looked more like an ingredient had ended up in her search pool.
Generally speaking… when something this strange showed up, there was definitely a rightful owner somewhere who wanted it.
If Su Yuzu ever found out who this was meant for, she would definitely…
Outside the ward, Kirishika — who had been sitting there in a blank staring contest with the "Seat of Evil" — felt a sudden, subtle chill crawl up her spine.
[What do I do…]
Looking down at Tsukiyomi-senpai beneath her, who had inexplicably slipped into some state of Shame, Su Yuzu weighed her options.
This time… even after getting this intimate with Tsukiyomi-senpai.
There'd been no lucky Recruit trigger, nothing like when she'd Recruited Sister Mai.
Should she just wait for her esteemed future mother-in-law to show up and save the situation?
But something in Su Yuzu refused to accept that.
And then. And then—
Her eyes fell on a certain item in her Material Inventory, and she sank into deep thought.
Under Tsukiyomi Fuya's stunned, flustered stare, the girl rolled over and sat down astride her legs.
"Just like I said before—"
"The rest of Senpai's life belongs to me now, okay?"
Since neither fishing the pool nor Public Recruitment would land her the Recruit, she'd just have to take her by force.
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