Her soul nearly leapt straight out of her body.
Su Yuzu had known it. If Kujou Iruka was willing to let her off the hook, nothing good could possibly be behind it.
She looked again, more carefully this time, and found that the girl standing in the lobby of the Assault Department dormitory was Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi.
Only then did the weight pressing on Su Yuzu's chest lift, if only a fraction.
"Thank goodness…" The girl's voice went soft with relief.
Thank goodness it wasn't Soga Yura.
Well, of course it wasn't.
At this hour, in the Assault Department dorms of Keigunen Private Academy.
The only person who would turn up here was Little Kiyomi.
Thank goodness, thank goodness.
If Soga Yura had taken it into her head to come see her in the dead of night, and walked in on Kujou Iruka bullying her—
the whole of Keigunen Private Academy would probably have been torn apart by Soga Yura and Kujou Iruka together.
And then… she'd have handed over one more piece of leverage on herself.
"Thank goodness what?" Kujou Iruka watched her.
"N-nothing?" Su Yuzu shook her head hard.
Kujou Iruka glanced back at Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi, still rooted where she stood. She studied those crimson eyes — practically the signature mark of the Soga clan — and a smile bloomed across her face.
In Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi's eyes, though, that smile carried an entirely different meaning: the sneer of a winner aimed at the one who had lost.
Hidden in her sleeves, Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi's small fists clenched tight.
S-so what. Big deal.
That woman smiled as though Kiyomi were terribly, terribly fond of Su Yuzu.
As if she'd ever like her.
Every last piece of misfortune in her life had come from that girl.
Even now… running from the center of her chest all the way down past her navel… that vertical mark, red as a brand, showed no sign of fading.
It spelled out without a single word the fact that she had once fallen and become an Aberrant, and that Su Yuzu had hauled her back by force.
Using… using that method.
Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi glared at Kujou Iruka without blinking.
Of all the girls who circled around Su Yuzu, this one had the most insufferable stare.
In that woman's eyes, Kiyomi might as well have been a weed underfoot.
"Kiyomi—" Su Yuzu looked over, genuinely afraid that something was about to break out between the two of them.
Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi wasn't like the other girls.
She had already fallen once into the domain of the Aberrants, and Su Yuzu truly dreaded the thought of her going down that road a second time.
And then… she'd have to drag her back all over again.
The last time she brought Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi back, the girl had looked so frail, so wretched.
It took a very, very long time before she walked out from under that shadow.
Through all of it, Su Yuzu had been careful — gentle, even — every time she fed her "Combat Records" to build her strength back up.
If it happened again, Su Yuzu had no idea what would come of it.
She threw Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi a quick greeting and then — rare for her — seized Kujou Iruka by the arm, trying to steer a wide path around the girl.
Kujou Iruka's eyes, mocking and contemptuous.
Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi's eyes, fixed in a hard, unblinking glare.
For the whole length of that shoulder-to-shoulder pass, neither of them looked away.
Kiyomi watched that lewd wretch of a woman being towed out of the dorm, and she remembered the look on Su Yuzu's face, the one that had almost seemed to be pleading with her.
Any other day, Su Yuzu pleading for anything would have sent Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi swelling up so full of herself she'd have floated off the floor.
But today was different.
Today was not the same at all.
She watched Su Yuzu haul that pale-purple-haired woman away, and her teeth itched with resentment.
That jerk… she's taking that woman off to some hotel, isn't she.
It has to be that.
Getting her kicks out of bullying girls, day after day after day.
Sooner or later she'd run into someone she couldn't handle, and then she'd be the one bullied until she cried.
Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi kicked the floor in a temper, and couldn't work out why she was this angry in the first place.
It's just… it's just that jinx, Su Yuzu.
She'd be delighted to keep her distance! The farther the better.
Damn it, damn it, damn it!
The girl's crimson eyes, tinged faintly with orange, had gone limp and miserable, tears swimming across them.
Was she in that much of a hurry?
One greeting, and then she'd fled like she was running from a fire.
Outside the dorm building, Su Yuzu — still towing Kujou Iruka along — glanced back at the demon lord behind her and felt the soles of her feet go weak.
But there was nothing else she could have done.
If she'd left Kujou Iruka standing there squaring off against Kiyomi, there was no telling what would have happened.
Next time… next time she'd apologize to Kiyomi properly.
"That your little sister?" Kujou Iruka glanced back toward Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi with open interest.
Because of Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi, she let the matter of being dragged off by the girl slide.
Of course—
she wasn't going to forget about it.
When the time came, she'd collect the interest owed to her, bit by bit, down to the last.
"Yeah…"
"A distant relative… a distant little sister."
"There's an Aberrant scent on her—" Kujou Iruka read the air around Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi. "Nightmare?"
"How interesting."
"She fell into the Edge of Aberration once." Seeing that there was no hiding it, Su Yuzu answered honestly.
Still… Su Yuzu found herself staring at Kujou Iruka in mild disbelief.
She had actually sensed it.
"She fell into the Edge of Aberration!?" Now it was Kujou Iruka's turn to be caught off guard.
She could read that girl's strength clean and clear: Second Sequence, pressing right up against the Third.
That made things very interesting indeed.
Anyone who fell into the Edge of Aberration and still made it back out was, without exception, a First Sequence fledgling.
And once they returned from the Edge of Aberration, their future was sealed. So… how had she broken through?
On top of that, she was attending classes at Keigunen Private Academy like any ordinary student.
The academy hadn't even asked her to withdraw.
Su Yuzu obviously couldn't say that Little Kiyomi had already been Second Sequence when she brought her back.
Nor that, to push her strength higher, Su Yuzu had labored away every single day, sparing no effort whatsoever in feeding her "Combat Records."
But… was she really about to bring up the Goddess of Fate's Blessing in front of Kujou Iruka?
Thinking back on why Kujou Iruka had fallen into the Edge of Aberration in the first place, Su Yuzu had the distinct sense that she was skipping back and forth across a minefield.
This wasn't like teasing the other girls.
Tease another girl and the worst that came of it was a few days of being ignored and a bit of extra coaxing.
Skip back and forth across Kujou Iruka's minefield… and she probably wouldn't be getting out of bed tomorrow.
But… apart from telling the truth, Su Yuzu genuinely couldn't come up with anything else to say.
"Kiyomi…"
"Kiyomi is a lucky child."
"After she came back, she received the Goddess of Fate's Blessing. Just the once."
Su Yuzu felt Kujou Iruka's gaze sharpen in an instant.
She threw her arms around Kujou Iruka's arm in a panic, the same way the little rabbit clung to her, hugging it so tightly she might have been trying to press it into her own chest.
"Alright, alright—"
"Sister Iruka… let's go out and have some fun."
She shoved and steered Kujou Iruka along, desperate to get clear of the dormitory grounds.
Behind the two of them, Soga Ishikawa Kiyomi watched the way Su Yuzu was clinging to Kujou Iruka's arm, and her mouth pulled down even further.
Wretch!!!
Su Yuzu is a great big wretch!!!
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