Unfortunately, I wasn't able to recover chapter 254, since it was deleted from the Raw — we'll have to move forward without it.
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Tsushima Kagami felt as though he were standing at the edge of a cliff.
Behind him yawned a bottomless abyss; before him stood a she-beast in human form.
And as for himself… regrettably…
he was no longer any kind of saint who could sit unmoved with a beauty in his lap.
Yukinoshita Shizuku's fingers had already undone the second button of his shirt.
Her fingertips grazed the skin below his collarbone, half by accident and half by design, carrying a chill that was somehow perfectly measured.
Her breathing had grown heavier than before, warm and spilling against the side of his neck.
Tsushima Kagami could smell the scent of body wash mingling with that faint fragrance unique to her.
Cool and clear, and yet laced with a sweetness that quickened the pulse.
"Wait a second."
Tsushima Kagami caught hold of her hand.
Yukinoshita Shizuku's movements stilled.
She tilted her head up slightly, her eyes strikingly bright in the dim light.
Not shy and hesitant the way she usually was.
Those eyes held only a desire so open it made his heart lurch.
"What is it?"
Her voice lingered softly beside Tsushima Kagami's ear.
Tsushima Kagami drew a deep breath, forcing his brain to travel back up from his lower half to his upper half.
"That balcony you just mentioned."
"Mm."
"You were serious?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku cocked her head, as if genuinely mulling over the question.
Then she nodded.
"Serious."
Tsushima Kagami felt his blood pressure climb another notch.
"When did you turn into this?"
There was a note of anguished grief in his tone as he asked.
Like a hardworking gardener discovering that the flower he'd so carefully raised had suddenly sprouted the fangs of a man-eating plant.
Yukinoshita Shizuku thought about it, the corner of her mouth curving upward.
"Probably the night before last, when you pinned me against the bathroom door."
"Or maybe it was last night, on the dining table."
"Or then again, it could have been—"
"All right, all right."
Tsushima Kagami hastily cut her off.
If she kept going, he figured he could forget about drawing anything tonight.
No, wait—he couldn't draw anymore anyway.
He was still gripping the pencil in his hand, but the tip had long since frozen a couple of centimeters above the paper.
On the page there was only a single crooked, wandering line, as if mocking how utterly scattered his mind was in this moment.
Watching his flustered state, Yukinoshita Shizuku finally burst out laughing.
The smile began at the corner of her mouth and spread all the way up to the corners of her eyes and brows.
Then she bent forward, both hands braced on the armrests of Tsushima Kagami's chair.
Sealing him entirely inside the seat.
Her long hair tumbled down, forming a curtain on either side of Tsushima Kagami's cheeks.
Shutting the two of them away in this tiny little space.
"So."
She leaned in a little closer.
"Do you want to give it a try?"
Tsushima Kagami looked at the face mere inches from his own.
A face he'd looked at countless times.
In the classroom, in the hallway, on the walk home after school.
In the moment of waking at dawn.
In the shadows of them walking side by side under the streetlamps late at night.
But now, the expression on that face was one he'd never seen before.
Like a cat that had finally bared its claws.
Elegant, languid, and carrying a certain dangerous allure.
Tsushima Kagami was silent for a moment.
Then he set the pencil down on the desk.
"Turn off the lights."
His voice came out calmer than he'd expected.
Yukinoshita Shizuku's eyes lit up.
She darted over to the sofa and switched off the living room lights.
Then she slowly felt her way back into Tsushima Kagami's arms.
The living room sank into darkness.
Only the moonlight slipping through the gap in the curtains drew a thin, long silver line across the floor.
The dark sharpened every other sense.
Tsushima Kagami could hear the sound of Yukinoshita Shizuku's breathing.
Could feel the warmth of her body.
Could smell her scent.
Then came a soft rustling.
The undone buttons of his shirt slipping loose one by one.
And then the garment being slowly peeled away by a pair of tender, smooth hands.
The sound of fabric brushing over skin was strikingly clear in the darkness.
"This way."
Tsushima Kagami rose to his feet and took her hand.
The two of them, one leading and one following, groped through the dark toward the sliding door to the balcony.
Their footsteps were light.
Like two cats prowling through the night.
The moonlight grew brighter and brighter.
The glass of the sliding door reflected the silver-white glow, like an enormous mirror standing against the wall.
Tsushima Kagami slid one panel of the door open.
The balcony wasn't large—just wide enough for two people to stand shoulder to shoulder.
The railing was made of aluminum alloy, roughly chest-high.
Outside lay the courtyard of the complex, the streetlamps mostly dark by now.
In the distance a few apartment buildings had scattered windows still lit, like a handful of stars left over in the night sky.
Yukinoshita Shizuku stood barefoot on the cold tiles of the balcony.
The hem of her shirt lifted in the wind, baring her pale thighs.
Tsushima Kagami stood behind her.
He reached out and pressed down on her shoulders.
Yukinoshita Shizuku's body gave a faint shiver.
Not from the cold.
It was because the heat of his fingers was too high, searing into the bare skin of her shoulders like a branding iron.
"We agreed."
Tsushima Kagami's voice sounded by her ear, pitched very low.
"Just this once."
Yukinoshita Shizuku didn't answer.
She turned around to face him.
The moonlight fell across her face from the side, tracing the outline of her profile in a silver-white edge.
Her eyes were bright even in the shadow.
She reached out and hooked her arms around Tsushima Kagami's neck.
"Liar."
She said softly.
"You said that last time too."
"And didn't you enjoy it plenty in the end?"
Tsushima Kagami opened his mouth and found he really had nothing to counter with.
Tsushima Kagami thought back to the appetizer of that night—the warm, moist touch of Yukinoshita Shizuku's lips and tongue, the tight clasp of her.
And how, at the very end, he'd driven himself roughly to the deepest point and she'd swallowed it down.
And then that succubus-like sight of her smiling up at him and sticking out her tongue.
Tsushima Kagami felt both satisfied and guiltily, achingly tender.
He kept thinking a thing like that just once was enough.
But…
he couldn't withstand the way Yukinoshita Shizuku always tempted the terrible demon out from within him.
Breaking his own promise, time after time.
Even though he'd promised—
he still… still indulged Shizuku in doing this sort of thing…
The time before last—that is, three nights ago—it had been the same.
The time before that—two nights ago—the same as well.
A man's promises about this kind of thing are probably about as reliable as a manga artist saying, "I'll definitely turn in my manuscript on time this week."
He genuinely believes it when he says it.
And when he can't do it, he genuinely can't.
Yukinoshita Shizuku rose onto her toes and kissed his lips.
Like a feather settling onto the surface of water.
Then slowly deepening.
Carrying a tenderness that stole the breath.
Tsushima Kagami's hand slid from her shoulder down to her waist.
His other hand braced against the sliding door glass behind him, the icy touch traveling up from his palm.
A stark contrast to the burning heat in his chest.
The night wind blew past.
The clothes rack on the balcony gave a faint clink of metal.
From somewhere far off came the cry of a cat, then silence again.
Yukinoshita Shizuku's kisses left his lips, trailing down along his jaw.
Tsushima Kagami tipped his head back, the back of his skull resting against the cold glass.
He kept his eyes open, gazing up at the deep blue night sky.
No stars.
Only a single crescent moon hanging at the edge of the sky, like someone had slit a cut into the night with a fingernail.
"Shizuku."
Tsushima Kagami spoke up suddenly, his voice a little hoarse, with a few notes of suppressed groaning.
"Mm?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku answered vaguely, her lips still pressed near his collarbone, not leaving.
"Women really are made of water after all."
"…What are you talking about?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku's movements paused, then she lifted her head to look at him.
In the moonlight her face finally showed a hint of flush.
"What I just felt when you took my hand and guided it."
"Your little panties right now are like a hot towel you could wring water out of."
The moment Yukinoshita Shizuku heard that, she buried her face into his chest.
"Stop talking…"
Her voice was muffled against his shirt, trembling with mortified fury.
Tsushima Kagami looked down at the reddened tips of her ears, and the corner of his mouth finally curled up.
So she still gets embarrassed after all.
And here he'd thought this woman had truly evolved into some kind of ultimate life-form.
"So all that stuff you said just now about the balcony—"
"Don't bring it up again!"
"This—"
"It's way too perverted."
"And it's too much of a thrill—if some kind of accident happened it wouldn't be good."
Tsushima Kagami inexplicably recalled a story he'd once scrolled past online, before his rebirth, about people looking for a thrill.
Not only had they gone at it on the balcony, they'd gone at it right on the railing.
And in the end, once they'd finished, the two of them ascended to heaven together.
Except the direction of their ascension was downward, toward the floor below.
In one stroke they became the talk of the whole complex and the whole internet.
Truly a cautionary tale, a lesson for those who come after.
Yukinoshita Shizuku's fist thumped lightly against his chest.
With about as much force as scratching an itch.
Tsushima Kagami laughed out loud.
He reached out and gathered Yukinoshita Shizuku entirely into his arms.
His chin rested on the top of her head, and he could feel her hair rubbing against his skin, soft and ticklish.
"Shizuku."
"Mm."
"The moon really is round and white tonight."
"Who worries about the moon at a time like this."
"Then how about I worry about here instead."
As he spoke, Tsushima Kagami's hand slipped in under Yukinoshita Shizuku's nightclothes.
Sliding up along the smooth, sleek plane of her belly.
Yukinoshita Shizuku's breathing started to quicken.
She buried her face against his chest, her voice a small whimper.
"Should we go back to the bedroom?"
"Eh?"
"With a moon this lovely, why would we go back to the bedroom?"
"Shizuku, you really have no appreciation for the mood."
"Honestly—you know exactly what I mean!"
Yukinoshita Shizuku's fist thumped lightly against Tsushima Kagami's shoulder again.
Tsushima Kagami pulled Yukinoshita Shizuku a little tighter into his embrace.
Then something occurred to Tsushima Kagami.
A wicked grin spread across his face.
One arm circling Yukinoshita Shizuku in his arms, his other hand slid slowly from behind her down toward her backside.
Then, from under the hem of her shirt at the small of her back, it slowly slipped inside again.
When he once more touched the pure cotton panties, soaked like a wet towel—
he pinched them lightly between two fingers.
He could already feel the brimming juices instantly drenching his fingertips.
In that instant Yukinoshita Shizuku's body went as though its skeleton had been drawn out of it.
Her legs lost all strength to support her.
Her spine seemed to melt away as well.
She slumped soft and boneless into his arms.
Her whole body somehow heavier than before.
"Awfully wet, aren't you."
"Just as expected of Shizuku."
"Truly one to live up to her name—your mother really didn't choose it wrong."
Tsushima Kagami's hand never stopped moving, teasing words spilling out of him.
These past few days he'd been slow on the uptake, and so Shizuku had ended up taking the lead.
Thinking back on it now, he'd been far too passive.
So Tsushima Kagami had been considering when he ought to reclaim the initiative.
And this woman had barely gone a single daytime before she couldn't hold back again.
In that case, sorry about this.
You walked right into the line of fire yourself.
"Didn't think you'd be this soaked so soon after your bath."
"It's not from the bath."
A faint voice came suddenly from within his arms—Yukinoshita Shizuku's.
"What?"
Tsushima Kagami acted as though he hadn't caught it, wanting to make her confirm it again.
"It's not from the bath!"
Yukinoshita Shizuku repeated it once more.
Then she buried herself even deeper into Tsushima Kagami's embrace.
Her legs clamped tight around his suddenly stilled hand.
Then she began to squirm slowly, coyly.
"On the way home together with Kagami, I was wet the whole time…"
"During class at school, just thinking about Kagami I was already wet…"
"Waking up early this morning and seeing Kagami's sleeping face, I was completely soaked…"
Having said it, Yukinoshita Shizuku suddenly lifted her head.
Looking openly at the now-stunned Tsushima Kagami.
Tsushima Kagami met that frank, utterly unconcealed gaze.
And a wave of heat flared up in his lower belly.
In that moment Tsushima Kagami had only one thought.
My drill is the one that can pierce the heavens!
This woman… how had she gotten so good at this.
If this were still two armies locked in battle—
then after those three lines, he'd probably already be flipping his banner, laying down his armor, and surrendering with all due ceremony.
Right then, Tsushima Kagami felt the waistband of his trousers being slowly drawn down.
Yukinoshita Shizuku, gazing up at him, suddenly smiled.
Then she gathered the long hair spilling over her shoulders and made a gesture of binding it behind her back with both hands.
And was just preparing to slowly crouch down.
Tsushima Kagami immediately stopped Yukinoshita Shizuku's move.
"Is something wrong?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku looked up at Tsushima Kagami with a bright little smile.
"Uh, this."
"Here's not really a good spot…"
Besides, he was still under the debuff state from Yukinoshita Shizuku's combo of spells just now.
One slip of self-control and he'd surrender in no time.
It seemed this wench had been scheming this for quite a while.
These past few days, to take care of him, Tsushima Kagami had been holding back with great care, never daring to use his full strength.
Not to mention there was still his cheat skill: [My Little Brother Is Invincible Under Heaven].
It seemed he'd let her get so cocky she thought she'd already seized the initiative.
Tonight he'd have to let her see what real technique was!
"Then shall we go back to the room?"
"Okay."
Tsushima Kagami finished speaking.
In one motion he scooped Yukinoshita Shizuku up into a princess carry.
And walked from the balcony into the living room.
He nudged the sliding door shut with his foot and drew the curtains closed.
Yukinoshita Shizuku sweetly looped both arms around Tsushima Kagami's neck.
And buried her head against Tsushima Kagami's chest.
The two of them skirted around the dining table.
The manga draft from earlier still lay spread across it.
The pencil rested above the paper, its tip a little blunt now.
And that long line, drawn out under the disturbance, lay quietly on the page.
Like a road with no end.
The living room sank back into darkness.
Leaving only the tick-tock of the clock on the wall, and the two of them, their breathing intertwined.
"Are you going to keep drawing?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku's voice came out of the dark.
"Draw my ass!"
"Can't draw anything tonight."
Tsushima Kagami told it to her straight.
"Then…"
"Is it still the bedroom?"
"The bedroom, yeah."
"Your bedroom, or mine."
"Mine, I think."
Yukinoshita Shizuku said softly.
Hand in hand, the two of them walked into the bedroom.
The door closed gently behind them.
With a click.
Inside the room.
Tsushima Kagami and Yukinoshita Shizuku faced each other, bared and honest.
After a spell of kissing, Yukinoshita Shizuku lay down, taking Tsushima Kagami's hand and slowly drawing him down over her.
"This time I'm not going to go easy on you."
"Don't go crying again later, all right."
"I'm going to reshape Shizuku completely into my own shape!"
Tsushima Kagami looked at Yukinoshita Shizuku and said it as if teasing.
Hearing this, Yukinoshita Shizuku cupped Tsushima Kagami's cheeks in both hands.
And smiled tenderly.
"I've been your shape all along, Kagami!"
Tsushima Kagami felt his reason blown clean through in an instant by that one line of Yukinoshita Shizuku's.
Big head and little head alike had their reason flooded away by the surge of blood pouring into them.
All that remained was the raw instinct to pierce right through the other's armor!
Screw it! Even my buddy's standing at attention now!
Today—today was going to be one hell of a climactic battle!
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