However, now that the elf race had run into Hachiman, Iris really had found the most suitable track for her to show off her social skills.
What "pure elves who revere nature and peace and are absolutely faithful in love". Bullshit!
"Mm, let's go help Gabriel and Vignette. It looks like they can't freely use their power. If they accidentally run into those evil forces hostile to magical girls, that'd be troublesome too."
Ignoring Ursula's disdainful look, Iris gestured to Kaede, then hurried off with Lala, Aegis, and Ursula in the direction of Gabriel, Vignette, and Raphael.
"Mm."
Kaede nodded, exchanged a glance with Suzu, and transformed together.
A dazzling flash of light and their soft, crystal-like fair skin was instantly covered by magical girl dresses in red and black, and blue and white.
Collars appeared on their slender necks, silver chains wrapping around their bodies.
Their full, smooth, fair legs were wrapped respectively in black-to-red gradient stockings and pure white flawless stockings.
In each of their hands appeared a scythe as tall as a person. The styles and colors differed slightly, but both looked incomparably sharp and cool.
"Tsubaki, we're heading out. Keep an eye on Hachiman."
Kaede finished transforming in an instant, reminded Rurikawa Tsubaki, then immediately stepped forward in black-red thick-heeled short boots, carrying the ferocious-looking giant scythe, and followed Iris with Suzu.
Even if she didn't really understand what this outfit had to do with magical girls, this kind of grim reaper-style weapon looked way stronger than magical girls who used wands.
"Be careful on the way."
Rurikawa Tsubaki watched Kaede and Suzu off until their figures disappeared from sight, then turned her head and looked around the suddenly much quieter family restaurant, letting out a long breath.
With Iris and Kaede gone, she was now the one in charge here.
Though whether they were here or not, she was still one of the ones who would take the most hits.
"Haruno-san, I'll ask again. Are you sure about tonight?"
Thinking about how to properly serve her good friend's boyfriend tonight, Rurikawa Tsubaki suddenly looked toward Yukinoshita Haruno at their table.
"If it's any later, Hachiman will probably come in carrying Touka-san and Sakura together. Will you be okay with being with Touka-san and the others for the first time?"
As the vice president of the Service Club, Yukinoshita Haruno was rather special.
Although she had been given the position of vice president by Hachiman and could sit at the same table managing the club, she had never truly undergone Hachiman's development training to become a magical girl. If she really wore the bell collar that couldn't turn off shared sensation, she definitely wouldn't be able to handle it, just like Shinomiya Kaguya and the others.
So among them, Yukinoshita Haruno was the only one who couldn't even wear the shared-sense collar and chat with it activated. Instead, she had to rely on the youth version shared-sense ribbon just to endure it. She was originally someone who should have been sitting at the same table as the girls from Komachi's school.
But now, Yukinoshita Haruno wanted to make a change.
"Mm… no problem. I… I won't regret it…"
Hearing that, Yukinoshita Haruno looked at Tohsaka Rin, the black-haired twin-tailed girl beside Momo and Nana who had given up struggling. Listening to the voice of Tohsaka Touka gradually approaching from the direction of the main living room, her breathing grew a little uneven, her flushed cheeks getting hotter.
The Tohsaka family's Touka, Sakura, Rin, and then the childhood friend twins, the elf princess sisters, the Ichinose big family, the three sisters of the Amaki family, the six sisters of the Kiriya family, and so on.
'This president really does like sister groups.'
Although she had already vaguely guessed why she was so easily appointed vice president of the Service Club, at this point she no longer had the patience to proceed slowly like before.
If she didn't become a magical girl soon, she might not even qualify to watch from the sidelines anymore.
Not just her, but Yukino as well.
Although their landlord Asou Miyuri was running a "wives circle," scheming over their daughters, with people like Nishikino Mizuki, Minami Hiyoko, Takanashi Ouka, Takamine Kasumi and others in that circle.
Logically, her mother should have joined that circle too, soaking in hot springs with Asou Miyuri and the others, using her network to gain some initiative there, and in turn help stabilize her vice president position.
Even if the Yukinoshita family wasn't that strong and her mother's network couldn't compare to those major families, they had still managed to connect with some allies.
Of course, the most important point was that she and her mother weren't the president's preferred "sister group." Whether her mother joined the wives circle or not wouldn't change her current situation, where she was almost unable to even get a seat at the table as vice president.
If she wanted to change the Yukinoshita family's position in this fiercely competitive Service Club, relying on herself alone was probably far from enough, even if she became a magical girl…
'Mother… little Yukino…'
Just thinking about how she not only had to offer herself to Hachiman, but might even have to personally send her younger sister Yukinoshita Yukino to him, Yukinoshita Haruno took a deep breath. Her bright red face suddenly buried into her arms as she collapsed onto the table, her body trembling faintly in distress.
If only the Yukinoshita family could have set up an idol agency too. But now it was a bit too late. The Rurikawa family and the mermaid princess Mero had already divided things up almost completely. With the Yukinoshita family's strength, they simply couldn't get involved.
———
[Late at Night, the Yukinoshita Residence]
While Yukinoshita Haruno was working hard in the Service Club for the family's future, someone else in the Yukinoshita household couldn't sleep either.
"Sigh!"
Her smooth, waterfall-like long hair spread across the pillow.
Her snow-white skin looked delicate and translucent, and from beneath the thin nightdress extended a pair of slender, fair legs.
After tossing and turning for a long time and still unable to fall asleep, Yukinoshita Yukino slowly opened her eyes, staring at the indistinct ceiling as she let out a quiet sigh.
After entering high school, she had moved out and lived alone in a luxury apartment.
But for the past two days, she had come back home to stay.
Not only because a teacher from school would soon come for a home visit, but also because her mother had told her to come back and reflect.
Reflect on why, after being in the Service Club for so long, she had made no obvious progress with the elf princess or Hachiman.
She didn't even have particularly close relationships with the other members, and recently she often stayed alone in the Service Club after school.
Even though she was the vice president of the Service Club and the second member to join it.
Yet she had learned about magical girls later than even her sister Haruno.
These were all things Yukinoshita Yukino needed to reflect on.
Indeed, Sobu High was no longer just Chiba's top-ranked school.
The demi-human alliance and visitors from other worlds had gathered here because of Hachiman. Countless financial conglomerates were eyeing the various connections within the school.
Among them, the most critical Service Club and Service Club organization had Yukinoshita Yukino and Yukinoshita Haruno both as vice presidents.
Originally, one sister handling outside matters and one handling inside matters, if used properly, they could have used this opportunity to raise the Yukinoshita family several levels, maybe even higher.
However, they had played a perfectly good hand terribly.
Even Ichinose Ayano, who once had a love-brained crush on a teacher, had actively seized the opportunity with Hachiman.
Rurikawa Tsubaki, whose family had already fallen into decline and was nearly forced into selling herself, relied on her good friend Kaede's connection to successfully rise up, gaining both love and career. Every day at school, people brought all kinds of benefits to the Rurikawa household.
Meanwhile, the Yukinoshita family, also local to Chiba and having contacted Hachiman early on, still showed no obvious progress.
Her older sister Haruno had only recently become vice president of the Service Club, and the head of the family, Yukinoshita Kiyuki, had only just started connecting with allies, so it was normal that they hadn't produced clear results yet.
But the younger sister Yukinoshita Yukino had long since joined the Service Club. Some members had even been recruited personally by her together with Hachiman after resolving their requests.
With looks, temperament, and ability no worse than Ichinose Ayano or Rurikawa Tsubaki, even surpassing them in everything except figure, if Yukinoshita Yukino still couldn't produce results, then the problem had to lie in her mindset.
However, although these matters weighed heavily on her and couldn't be resolved, they weren't enough to keep her awake the whole night.
What truly kept her from sleeping was something she had discovered earlier tonight while talking with her mother, a pile of pink wristbands her mother possessed.
"The exclusive benefits of the Service Club…"
Yukinoshita Yukino sat up on the bed, turned on the bedside lamp, and fixed her gaze on a pink wristband on the nightstand.
This special wristband, said to be a member identifier for the Service Club, with functions like automatic charging, networking, basic protection, automatic distress calls, and so on, she had seen on other members.
However, the identical wristbands worn by Hayase Saki, Sakurase Shino, and the others, along with their collars, were black.
She had long noticed that Hayase Saki, Sakurase Shino, Narahashi Miki and the others had an unusual relationship with Hachiman. But this kind of thing was like the "raising a handsome guy" request from Shirazaki Yuna and the other three gyaru girls.
It was all mutual consent. Even if she wanted to interfere, she couldn't.
If someone went straight back home, was she supposed to follow them there to stop them?
Moreover, it wasn't just Hayase Saki and the others. Hachiman also got along very well with the elf princess Iris and the others, their relationship far from ordinary.
So as long as Hachiman didn't do anything that disrupted discipline right in front of her in the Service Club, she wouldn't interfere.
But she hadn't expected that this seemingly ordinary wristband actually had a remote experience function.
Nor had she expected that her mother and the others, after joining the Service Club, had also obtained these pink exclusive wristbands.
Just how many allies had her mother given these wristbands to?
Yukinoshita Yukino picked up the pink wristband with a serious expression, examining it carefully under the soft warm light, worry filling her heart.
She had only learned tonight that her mother possessed these pink wristbands. She didn't know how many her mother and sister had obtained from the Service Club, nor how many remained.
She only knew that today her mother had gone to the Tohsaka household and discussed Touka's marriage with Tohsaka's aunt.
Besides the Tohsaka family, her mother had also visited several of the Yukinoshita family's allies.
Aunt Mira, Aunt Kasumi, Aunt Kyoka, Aunt Reina, Aunt Manami.
To be precise, not all of these people were allies of the Yukinoshita family. Some were wealthy and well-connected, while others were simply old acquaintances of her mother, now working in fields they liked.
But now, knowing that the pink wristbands were the same kind of black-tech device as the black ones worn by Hayase Saki and the others, a bold suspicion arose in her mind.
Was her mother, because she herself hadn't produced results, choosing to drag her friends into this to help her sister?
Because she remembered that her mother's friends in that wives circle all had very beautiful daughters.
Otherwise, why would her mother, knowing the pink wristbands had a special remote shared-sense mode, still use them to rope in her friends?
It felt a bit outrageous to her. No matter how good the relationship was, you couldn't gamble with someone else's daughter's happiness.
Although it was unlikely this wouldn't be explained beforehand, and it would definitely be discovered afterward, not explaining it in advance would harm their relationship, which didn't align with the Yukinoshita family's strategy of building more alliances.
But if it was explained clearly… she really didn't know how her mother had said it to those aunts.
Thinking that she might very well see Aunt Mira, Aunt Reina and their daughters at Sobu High in the future, or even see them in the Service Club, Yukinoshita Yukino let out another quiet sigh.
She really wanted to complain about her mother's actions.
If her own daughter couldn't produce results, then sacrifice her friends' daughters?
This version of her mother felt unfamiliar. Could it be that the stakes were so high that even her usually strict mother had compromised some of her principles, trying to pull her friends' daughters into this as well?
But Yukinoshita Yukino also knew that most of the responsibility for her mother's actions lay with her.
Now that young ladies had already started appearing at Sobu High through early admission, and more would transfer in from other places in the future, the Yukinoshita family's advantage was about to disappear entirely.
In the end, it was because she hadn't done well enough that her mother had to run around making arrangements in advance.
Rurikawa Tsubaki was enough on her own. Ichinose Ayano at most just pulled along peers of her generation.
But she not only couldn't help her sister stabilize her vice president position in the Service Club, she had even dragged her mother into having to act personally.
Thinking of Rurikawa Tsubaki and Ichinose Ayano, who both had unusual relationships with Hachiman, Yukinoshita Yukino couldn't help biting her lip hard, then stood up with the pink wristband and walked out of her room.
Tap! Tap!
Her light footsteps sounded especially clear in the quiet midnight as she slowly came to the door of her mother Yukinoshita Kiyuki's room.
The Yukinoshita family ran a construction company, so their residence was naturally built to the highest standards in every aspect.
Standing at the door, Yukinoshita Yukino couldn't tell from the lighting whether the person inside was asleep, nor could she hear any sound from within.
However, after a full day of running around contacting allies, her mother, already exhausted, was naturally asleep.
Yukinoshita Yukino stood quietly at the door, holding the pink wristband. Under the soft warm light of the corridor, she stared at its many hidden buttons, her fingertips brushing over them one by one.
According to the usage instructions from her sister and the others, once this pink wristband was worn, it couldn't be easily removed unless replaced with another model. Many special functions could be experienced with just a light press on its hidden buttons.
Basic defense in dangerous situations, networking to identify nearby members, automatically calling nearby members for support…
Although her sister and mother both wore this wristband, her sister didn't seem to approve of her wearing one, so she hadn't. As a result, she still didn't fully understand how powerful the benefits of this Service Club wristband were.
"Mm?"
After a long while, finally making up her mind, Yukinoshita Yukino slowly raised her slender fair wrist and put on the pink wristband.
However, after putting it on, she paused slightly.
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