While Sakura Koishin was still pointing back and forth in blank astonishment between Kirishika and the thing on the ground — a creature still flopping around energetically, and one that obviously did not belong to this era, a "prehistoric creature" —
Su Yuzu had already grabbed Sakura Mai and Soga Yura and fled the scene.
"Wait a second!!!"
"Yuzu-senpai, wait for me!!!" The little rabbit went bouncing after them. The little rabbit, who had been enjoying the show, wanted to catch up with the Yuzu-senpai who had abandoned her... only to have Sakura Koishin snag her by the collar at the back of her neck.
"Sa... Sa... Senior Sakura!?" As far as the outside world was concerned, Sakura Koishin was the woman who had successfully bedded — and thereby subdued — Tennouji Jurei, and as the strongest Healing-type Esper in the Tokyo metropolitan area at present, she really was every girl's idol.
But... at a moment this delicate and this obviously inappropriate, the little rabbit still felt that of the thirty-six stratagems, running was the best.
Except—
She had clearly overestimated herself.
Trying to run in front of Sakura Koishin, arguably the most physically dangerous Healing-type Esper in history, was more than a little difficult.
In an anime, the little rabbit's performance right now would have been drawn with her legs pinwheeling so fast they blurred into cartwheels, kicking up clouds of dust — while the upper half of her body, held by Sakura Koishin's grip on her collar, didn't budge an inch.
The little rabbit didn't get to hop even once.
"You're... that little girl from the Saotome family?" Sakura Koishin was busy inventing a justification.
She had grabbed Saotome Yukina's collar purely because she didn't want the girls leaving her alone with Kirishika.
One Kirishika was already more than enough trouble.
Sakura Koishin looked at the girl beside her, already crouched on the ground, poking that prehistoric creature over and over with one small outstretched hand — and then at the figure standing next to Kirishika, who looked like she'd been cast from the exact same mold, only swapped into a black dress. The "Seat of Evil."
Add one more of those... she might as well just off herself and be done with it.
Still—
Sakura Koishin's gaze lingered a little longer on the "Seat of Evil."
Little Yuzu seemed to have told her only that the girl in the white dress was Kirishika. So who was this girl in the black dress?
Surely not the "Seat of Evil."
Probably not.
Granted, the girl in the black silk dress felt more dangerous to Sakura Koishin — but the look in her eyes felt distinctly more innocent.
"It's like... it's like..."
"It's like Tsukiyomi Fuya."
The answer came to Sakura Koishin all at once.
That was it. In Sakura Koishin's eyes, the "Seat of Evil" was far safer than Kirishika — barely any different from Tsukiyomi Fuya, who had just been thoroughly bullied.
What Sakura Koishin probably never considered:
the reason the "Seat of Evil" wore such an innocent expression right now was purely that she, exactly like Tsukiyomi Fuya, had just been thoroughly bullied herself.
In truth... as the incarnation of the "Abyss Will," the "Seat of Evil" was vastly more dangerous than Kirishika.
Next to the "Seat of Evil," Kirishika could honestly be described as harmless to man and beast alike.
After all, the Kirishika standing here was only an empty shell.
And the "Seat of Evil," even after Su Yuzu had devoured the power of Catastrophe from her, was still a genuine Sixth Sequence Esper.
Merely a Sixth Sequence Esper with no future, one who could never grow stronger again unless granted a Blessing.
But... in this world.
In this world that the "Seat of Evil" had once already purified.
The Sixth Sequence counted as absolutely top-tier combat power.
"A rare opportunity."
"Truly, this is fate." Sakura Koishin racked her brain for excuses, while the little rabbit pinned by the collar could only watch helplessly as Yuzu-senpai carried Senior Sakura and Sister Soga Yura farther and farther away.
The little rabbit hadn't entirely grasped the mutual restraint between the seemingly harmless Sister Kirishika and Sakura Koishin. She even assumed Sakura Koishin was buying her own daughter a chance to be alone with Yuzu-senpai.
Damn it!!!
Calling in outside reinforcements, no less.
Senior Sakura was playing very dirty today.
"Tonight, let Auntie... no—"
"Let Sister give you some proper instruction."
"Trust Sister. Sister happens to be the strongest Healing-type Esper in the Tokyo metropolitan area."
"Little Yukina will benefit enormously."
The "Seat of Evil" raised her head.
Unlike the utterly guileless Kirishika, the "Seat of Evil" was more like Kirishika's dark side.
It was only that the "Seat of Evil" had just been thoroughly educated, inside and out, and was bound by Kirishika's constraints besides — so she was behaving herself, a little.
And, well... her legs. Her legs were still a bit weak.
She didn't dare get too bold.
The "Seat of Evil" studied Sakura Koishin. If one wanted to define Kirishika's power strictly, then behind that rule-type ability of total "Erasure," Kirishika ought to possess a formidable Healing-type ability as well.
Otherwise—
a "Seat of Evil" this powerful would never have been born after her death.
It was just that the ability in question had likewise been "Erased" by Kirishika's own power.
Which meant that now—
the strongest Healing-type Esper on this land should be herself.
But unlike the "Seat of Evil," Kirishika, still poking the eurypterid, had a head full of nothing but this strange-looking piece of seafood, which didn't seem nearly as tasty as it first appeared.
She looked up at Sakura Koishin. "This thing—"
"Is it better grilled?"
"Or... deep-fried as tempura?"
However rough-and-ready Sakura Koishin's mind might be, even she knew that something that looked exactly like a prehistoric creature reconstruction from a textbook was not that simple.
"That—"
"That is not food!!!"
"The scholars who study prehistoric creatures would cry if they heard you say that! They really would cry!"
"Forget the scholars — even Tsukiyomi would cry if she heard you."
"Oh..." Kirishika nodded, deflated. The "Seat of Evil," on the other hand, looked thoroughly contemptuous.
"Ignore her. Eat it if you want to eat it."
"I'll go catch you another one next time."
Thunk!
Kirishika brought her fist straight down on the "Seat of Evil's" head.
She had been about to say: no eating it!
What if Yuzu didn't catch it for us to eat? She'd haul you off and pun... punish you again, and you wouldn't be the only one who suffered for it.
And then Kirishika was clutching her own head, eyes brimming with tears.
How had she forgotten... it hurt exactly the same.
The "Seat of Evil" looked thoroughly disgruntled too.
The one who wants to eat it is you. The one who says we can't eat it is also you.
But... she rubbed the soft flesh of her own thigh, which still felt trembly and sore even now.
Never mind. Sometimes there was nothing wrong with backing down a little.
Meanwhile—
Su Yuzu, who had dragged Soga Yura and Sakura Mai all the way back to the dorm, stared at the prompt window in front of her, still catching her breath.
What was there to hesitate about?
An Operator delivered right to her door — and not a troublesome one like Kujou Katora had been, where the Recruit itself meant asking for disaster.
Why wouldn't she take it?
Besides... she'd even talked Kujou Katora around. What was left to be afraid of?
Su Yuzu tapped confirm.
[Ding ding ding ding ding ding!!!]
Completely unlike the seven-colored radiance of an ordinary Recruit... it was as if, in the pitch black of night, a dark seven-colored halo had suddenly bled outward, like the metallic sheen spreading across a sheet of metal.
[★★★★★★]
Dark golden vertical pupils opened in front of Su Yuzu.
[Ding—]
[Congratulations, you have unlocked a new achievement: Flowers Bloom in the Abyss.]
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