"May I ask a question?"
"Does a rich young lady like you actually lick the lid when drinking yogurt?"
On the rooftop in the afternoon, Kasumigaoka Utaha curled up on a bench, holding a novel. Sen Getsusa sat nearby, munching on a huge burger, with a bottle of yogurt held between her legs.
Kasumigaoka Utaha came from a wealthy family and could tell the other's status at a glance, hence the tease.
"Lick the lid?" Sen Getsusa blinked: "I usually throw the yogurt away and only lick the lid."
The crimson pupils opened the book, covering her chin, her eyes scanning the girl's face. "Here, you got some on your mouth."
Sen Getsusa puffed out her cheeks like a little squirrel, burying her head in the burger. There was some white sauce on the corner of her mouth. When Kasumigaoka Utaha reached out her finger—Sen Getsusa happened to stick out her tongue.
They met at the corner of the mouth.
"Where's your little sidekick?"
After brushing it off inconspicuously, Kasumigaoka Utaha nonchalantly hid her finger back in the book.
"Oh, Yuno?" Sen Getsusa chewed her burger: "She has some business with a teacher today."
Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't care where Yuno Gasai had gone.
"It's rare to see you two apart..."
Sen Getsusa nodded.
"That Child..." Kasumigaoka's mature voice held a hint of playfulness: "She's very dependent on you."
Sen Getsusa ate with her head down and didn't answer.
Kasumigaoka Utaha stared at Sen Getsusa's ear and changed her posture—leaning against the girl's body, her breath falling on the other's cheek as she spoke.
"Sha-chan, I haven't repaid you yet since you saved me."
"Eh, Senpai, don't make it sound so serious." Sen Getsusa crumpled the wrapping paper in her hand and said casually, "Just buy me a bottle of yogurt and let me lick the lid."
"Like a puppy drinking water?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha looked at Sen Getsusa strangely. In her sight, the girl's upturned lips were bright red—Sen Getsusa acting like a puppy drinking water... that should be quite interesting, right?
The aspiring writer imagined the scene and suddenly blushed a little.
"Besides the yogurt lid, is there anything else?"
Sen Getsusa glanced at Kasumigaoka Utaha and saw through her in a second: "Why do I feel like you're making dirty jokes, Senpai? The fishy smell in your words is overflowing..."
Kasumigaoka Utaha squinted and smiled, her face half-hidden by the book.
Sure enough, being a year older, the conversation speed is different.
Sen Getsusa took out a tissue to wipe her mouth and crumpled it up: "Is Senpai here every day at noon?"
The topic shifted. Kasumigaoka Utaha stretched lazily, the faint light outlining her good figure: "I'm here every day. Tsukisa can come find me anytime, anywhere."
"By the way, Kasumiko-sensei's novel is about to be published."
Sen Getsusa was surprised: "So fast?"
A certain person with procrastination didn't realize that in this World, most events progressed at this speed.
"Fast?" Kasumigaoka Utaha shook her head: "It's thanks to your help. Kasumiko said the editor is very optimistic about this book."
"Not at all, Kasumiko was a very talented writer to begin with."
Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't think so, but there was no need to dwell on such matters.
—Being praised is still quite a pleasant thing.
She actually wanted to talk to Sen Getsusa about the 'Ritualist' matter today; after 'buying' that detailed information, the girl immediately thought of Sen Getsusa.
Is she aware of these things?
I can tell her everything, absolutely everything.
But then she thought that the other party should belong to the order side, while she herself had joined a Chaos Society that sold Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards... if she told her, she would be hated, right?
Kasumigaoka Utaha gazed at the other girl.
Long black hair spread across the girl's back like a black silk fan, with strands of hair tucked behind her ears. Her light-colored short-sleeved shirt and skirt fluttered in the breeze.
Her waist and back were held very straight as she stared blankly at the clouds in the sky by herself.
Like a sprite that didn't belong to this World, she was sometimes ethereal and elegant, diffusing a faint scent of fir; and sometimes vivid and lively, exuding the rich, bewitching scent of dahlias.
For a long time, Kasumigaoka Utaha had been certain of her orientation; although she wasn't opposed to it, she was also certain that she was definitely not a 'Utaha-hime'.
But after meeting Sen Getsusa, this solid stone of certainty began to be covered in cracks... there was always something about the girl that faintly attracted her.
Like mythical creatures in some fantasy story, like dragons and spirits, they naturally attracted those Mortals to surround them like moths to a flame, and then, they would do nothing—
Just accompanying the deity they longed for, quietly waiting for their bodies to grow old.
While the eternally young creature would only gain an extra memory named 'the past'.
This feeling was very strange.
"Ahem." Kasumigaoka Utaha suffered a rare loss of composure.
"Tsukisa, about the Ritualist..."
"Ritualist?"
Sen Getsusa blinked, and the moment the other spoke, the purple curtain unfolded—
[Energy Level: Lv0 · 'Contactee']
Hmm, no problem... "How did Senior know the name 'Ritualist'?"
"Eh?" Kasumigaoka Utaha replied in surprise: "Didn't Tsukisa say it herself that day?"
"I said it?" Sen Getsusa thought about it but really couldn't remember clearly.
"Tsukisa said it herself," Kasumigaoka Utaha repeated strangely. "What Tsukisa said about order... you don't remember?"
Sen Getsusa brushed her wind-blown hair behind her ear. "Eh, order?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha's eyes were full of a desire for knowledge.
"It's order and Chaos." Sen Getsusa tapped her chin. "Ritualists are divided into two, probably... hostile to each other."
"What about Tsukisa?" Kasumigaoka Utaha asked cautiously. "Is Tsukisa on the side of order?"
Sen Getsusa turned her head, a bit confused.
"I guess so?"
"Guess?"
Sen Getsusa chuckled. "I'm probably in the middle; for both, I tend towards the center."
The Equilibrium... Sect?
Kasumigaoka Utaha nodded thoughtfully. "In that case, what does Tsukisa think of Chaos?"
Asking cautiously, she didn't notice the nervousness in her own voice.
"Chaos, huh."
Sen Getsusa rolled the wrapping paper ball in her hand, her tone casual. "As long as they don't come to disturb my life."
Is that so?
"That day..."
"That day was because they were buzzing around in front of me like flies. Besides, didn't I save Senior?"
Seemingly seeing Kasumigaoka Utaha's doubt, Sen Getsusa grinned with a bizarre expression.
"As long as they don't disturb the people and life I care about, I don't want to bother with them. Whether it's order or Chaos, they're both very boring."
Despite the cold words, Kasumigaoka Utaha wasn't surprised at all. She even felt that the other girl briefly mentioning them was already a reward and a gift to those Ritualists.
A creature not belonging to the human World maintaining an attitude of cold observation towards good and evil—there was nothing wrong with that.
Kasumigaoka Utaha quietly raised a finger that had been hidden in her book for a long time and pressed it... against her own lips.
Sen Getsusa...
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