Dragging the prey that had been cleaved into two halves, she surfaced.
Compared to slicing the electric ray in two with a single stroke, the more strenuous part was actually figuring out how to haul it up.
It was clearly Yuzu who had drawn the Sword of Erasure, and the one bearing the Sword of Erasure's side effects should have been Su Yuzu too.
But... Sakura Mai was acting as though she were the one enduring the side effects.
The girl's shapely legs, clad in flippers, kicked and trembled faintly.
Her heart rate, which the diving equipment showed should have slowed during the dive, was pounding away wildly instead—dangerously so, even.
Ever since Yuzu had tried to draw it once last time, the Sword of Erasure seemed to have developed a bit of a problem.
In her daze, she felt that the inheritance had already taken place.
Yet she herself hadn't been drawn out.
This time, after finally being pulled free by the 'inheritor', it had only made a single swing before being shoved right back in.
And it had been shoved back into the arms of its previous host, no less.
As an evil relic, the Sword of Erasure seemed a little displeased.
Sakura Mai wanted to help Yuzu lift the other half of the electric ray's body, but the girl was suddenly overcome by a wave of dizziness before her eyes.
She only heard the tense cries of her companions and teacher by her ears, and then immediately lost consciousness.
The small severed half of the electric ray's fleshy wing slipped from Sakura Mai's hands, swaying as it tumbled down into the multicolored school of fish that spiraled upward in a helix.
The school swarmed over, and among them Su Yuzu even caught a glimpse of something with an even thicker Calamity Aura... a strange squid that seemed draped in a heavy exoskeleton.
She paid no mind to what would become of the other half of the prey.
For Su Yuzu, Sakura Mai was obviously the more important one.
Gripping the electric ray's long, narrow tail-spine in one hand, Su Yuzu kicked her legs and wrapped her other arm around Sakura Mai's slender waist.
Su Yuzu saw bubbles streaming continuously out from beneath Sakura Mai's mask.
Sakura Mai seemed to have already lost consciousness.
In [Operator Development], a sword-shaped flame burned upon the chest of Sakura Mai's little figure, its scorching light-flames even drying up the seawater and leaving salt stains behind.
Su Yuzu had already realized... Sister Mai's abnormal state seemed to be the result of her own reckless drawing of the Sword of Erasure.
Fortunately... aboard the ship, once Tsukiyomi Fuya noticed that a battle had broken out, she had already dispatched two teachers into the water to receive Yuzu and the others.
She didn't dare surface too quickly.
After handing the spoils over to Teacher Akiyama Yo, Su Yuzu ascended with her arm around Sakura Mai's slender waist.
Sakura Mai was actually a few years older than both Yuzu and Soga Yura.
She had only enrolled after finishing her training in her family's inherited swordsmanship.
By nature she was a bit older than the other girls in her grade.
So when she met Soga Yura, a grade-skipping student, she looked after her like a big sister caring for a little sister.
That was why... at the academy, though the brilliance of Third Sequence Sakura Mai was eye-catching, she always liked to yield the center of the spotlight to the younger Soga Yura, who had a strong chance of breaking through to the Third Sequence before coming of age.
Back when she was recruiting Sakura Mai, Su Yuzu had been quite covetous of the dashing big sister's fit, powerful, slender waist.
Except for that first meeting... when she had rather eagerly buried herself in Sakura Mai's embrace and hugged the big sister's waist to her heart's content, after that Su Yuzu had rarely embraced Sakura Mai again.
Sakura Mai always liked to save more room, more time, for Soga Yura.
Even though... she liked Yuzu very much too.
The normal sort—the kind of affection a big sister feels for a cute little sister.
Su Yuzu carried Sakura Mai up onto the deck.
The little cat (Zero) hurriedly crowded over, pale-blue water-light gathering between the little cat's palms and pushing toward Sakura Mai.
In truth, Sakura Mai had already gradually recovered from her dizziness.
The main cause of her vertigo had been the adverse reaction to the Sword of Erasure, which triggered a cerebral vascular spasm that in turn caused the dizziness.
Su Yuzu undid the clasp of the diving mask, yanked Sakura Mai's mask off in one motion, then tore off her own.
The intense sunlight made Sakura Mai's pupils reflexively contract.
After slowly surfacing and breathing in the fresh air, she had already eased considerably.
But Su Yuzu couldn't care less about any of that.
She didn't even give Sakura Mai a chance to react or to signal that she was fine—in her panic, she had already begun CPR.
"Yu—"
Sakura Mai nearly had the wind knocked clean out of her.
The soreness from where the girl had just forcibly gripped her scabbard and wrenched the sword out hadn't even faded yet.
And already Yuzu had begun chest compressions.
Sakura Mai pitifully coughed up a mouthful of seawater.
And yet, in that brief span of time, Su Yuzu had already tilted Sakura Mai's head back and lifted her chin.
Sakura Mai suddenly felt something ominous—or rather... something far too subtle.
The next second, Yuzu had already pinched Sakura Mai's nostrils shut.
Sakura Mai only felt the sun being blotted out by a shadow.
A fresh, sweet citrus scent—faintly still carrying a trace of the salty tang of seawater—had already been breathed into her chest.
"Mmh——"
From the very moment Yuzu performed the head-tilt-chin-lift maneuver, Sakura Mai had known things had gone wrong.
She reflexively struggled.
But... how could Sakura Mai, who had only just clawed back a sliver of her senses from the dizziness, possibly hold down Su Yuzu—who possessed a host of enhancement abilities and whose physique ranked among the superior class even when set beside body-enhancement Espers of the same tier?
Sakura Mai's palm stretched out almost spasmodically, before finally coming to rest, powerless, on the back of Yuzu's neck.
Su Yuzu looked up at Sakura Mai, who seemed to have already passed out, and grew even more panicked.
Before she had awakened the system, she'd had no friends to speak of.
The only one she cherished in her heart was Soga Yura.
It was only after the system brought her into contact with the little cat (Zero), with Mihou Sakai, and with Kujou Katora that some of the resentments in Su Yuzu's heart slowly began to change.
Or rather—
the shackles of disdain were slowly loosened.
Su Yuzu valued every one of the girls.
Behind the two of them, Soga Yura watched Yuzu with a dazed, foolish gaze, her mouth pursed as though she might burst into tears the very next second.
She... she also understood that Yuzu was worried about Sakura Mai.
But... but she just couldn't help feeling jealous.
Sakura Mai, cradled in Su Yuzu's arms, also stared blankly up at the sky, her face vacant, savoring that sweet, cool air brimming in her mouth and lungs.
[My... my first kiss.]
[It's gone.]
An inexplicable dejection welled up in her heart.
And after the dejection, there seemed to be just the tiniest flicker of delight.
But right now, the most crucial thing was...
"Senpai..."
"Senpai, that's about enough." The little cat (Zero) crouched down and tugged at Su Yuzu's sleeve.
Su Yuzu stopped.
"Wah—" Sakura Mai suddenly heaved a gasping breath.
The next second, Su Yuzu clung to Sakura Mai for dear life.
"Broken," Sakura Mai moaned in a low, mournful voice.
"My ribs..."
"My ribs are broken!"
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