Although accidentally snapping a couple of ribs during CPR didn't really seem like anything all that strange.
But fortunately, Sakura Mai, who could just barely count as a body-enhancement Esper, wasn't quite that fragile.
It's just that... compared to the dull, aching soreness in her chest, what the girl cared about more at this moment was something entirely different.
She subconsciously stroked her lips.
Between them, it seemed there still lingered a faint, sweet, crisp scent.
[Ding——]
[Heart-throb: Sakura Mai Favorability +1.]
[Sakura Mai Favorability: 59 (Favor) → 59 (Favor).]
[Favorability increase reward obtained: Bamboo Sword of the Tennoji Dojo.]
[…]
Kneeling on the deck and having recovered just the tiniest bit, Sakura Mai looked at the legs of the girl standing before her, and in that instant the atmosphere on the deck seemed to turn rather strange.
A silent Sakura Mai.
A silent Su Yuzu.
A silent... meme sticker—ah, no, it was Soga Yura.
And the little rabbit, whose gaze kept darting back and forth between 'Yuzu-senpai,' 'Sister Yura,' and 'Senior Sakura.'
The ahoge atop the little rabbit's head swayed to and fro.
"Damn it! Senpai's CPR technique looked so practiced—I wonder who she practiced on."
Only the little rabbit's thoughts had drifted off to the far horizon.
"Yuzu... let's have a Healing-type teacher check on Sakura's condition." It wasn't until Tsukiyomi Fuya spoke up that the eerie—even bizarre—atmosphere on the deck eased up just a little.
"Okay." Su Yuzu scrambled to her feet, then subconsciously wiped the corner of her mouth as well.
At the corner of her lips there seemed to linger a bit of... something very sweet... the scent of banksia rose blossoms.
Sitting on the ground, Sakura Mai noticed the girl's movement, and those beautiful emerald eyes of hers shimmered right along with it.
Her toes seemed about to curl tight from Shame, gripping hard at the soles of her feet, and even her arches arched up uncontrollably, bending into a pretty crescent-moon shape.
Sitting there on the ground, the girl's knees knocked lightly together, and she hugged her thighs with both hands as though she wanted to bury her head between her knees.
Su Yuzu looked at Sakura Mai.
The combat suits that Imperial Capital University prepared for the girls were all custom-tailored combat suits, hugging the body perfectly—the kind where it was even a bit difficult to pad anything in to touch up one's figure.
Even... right down to the foot webbing.
Because of the soft, special material, the girl's arches—curled and arched from her bashfulness—were laid completely bare beneath Su Yuzu's gaze.
"Sister Mai is... embarrassed?"
An amusing feeling actually welled up in Su Yuzu's heart.
Among all the six-star Operators Su Yuzu had Recruited, only Sakura Mai's Favorability was still locked at 59 points (Favor), and the color of that Favorability had all along been the same innocent red as the little rabbit's.
But forget the little rabbit—even the Favorability of Lyudmila, that suffering Saintess, had gone up.
Sakura Mai, who had always been full of Doting toward Su Yuzu, occasionally devious though she was, was somehow still stuck right here.
Su Yuzu hadn't even managed to wring the Favorability reward ability out of Sakura Mai.
But right now... watching the dashing big sister's arches curl up from Shame and her feet clench tight, Su Yuzu suddenly felt that the breakthrough... was perhaps already very near.
After the examination confirmed that Sakura Mai seemed to be fine, and that no ribs had actually been snapped by the nervous Yuzu, Sakura Mai and Su Yuzu returned to the changing room to change clothes.
Although the changing room on the ship wasn't large, it did have separate, independent partitions and shower heads.
Some of the little schemes in the girl's heart could only come to nothing.
Still... because the changing room wasn't large, Su Yuzu could still clearly hear the sound of a zipper being drawn open in the compartment next door.
Having pulled her zipper open, Sakura Mai lowered her head to look at the bruise on her chest.
She couldn't tell whether it had been left when the girl drew the sword... or when the girl performed CPR on her.
But... Sakura Mai could feel that after all the girl's fussing about, the rampaging Sword of Erasure—as if it had been replenished with the Yuzu element—had quieted down once again.
"Sister Mai..." She suddenly heard the girl next door speak, cautious, her voice sounding almost frightened.
"Hm?" Sakura Mai hummed softly.
"Sister Mai... are you still angry?"
Sakura Mai froze for a moment; her emerald eyes seemed to reflect the pitiful sight of the girl next door leaning cautiously against the wall, afraid that she was angry, then fearfully venturing her question.
[Angry?]
Sakura Mai pressed one hand to her chest.
It seemed she wasn't.
In fact, deep down, she even seemed a little happy.
"A-actually... for me... it was also..."
Sakura Mai heard the girl's hesitant, stammering voice.
Was it the first time for Yuzu too?
The corners of Sakura Mai's lips seemed to curve up all on their own, and her mood brightened in an instant.
Next door——
Su Yuzu, who had already swiftly stripped off her combat suit, halted midway through her sentence.
Was it the first time for herself, too?
It seemed... it wasn't.
Last time——
When Lyudmila was about to pass the power of the 'Word of Command' over to her, she seemed to have already lost her...
Eh?
So the biggest winner was actually Lyudmila?
It seemed... that wasn't it either.
Su Yuzu suddenly felt everything go dark before her eyes; the world seemed to shatter and plummet away, and beneath her feet became endless darkness.
Long, long ago... it seemed... someone had once held her just like this.
At that time... when she was crying, despairing, falling into the Abyss, and then being pulled back up by her, she had already sworn an oath.
To walk through eternity together with her.
Looking at it this way—looking at it this way,
one should say this was her own first time taking the initiative.
Sakura Mai obviously would never understand the girl's mind so full of thoughts; she merely lightly touched her own lower lip.
"Not at all~"
"How could I possibly still be angry?"
"From the very beginning..."
"I was never once angry at Sister Yuzu, you know."
Her combat suit dropped to the floor, the sound of splashing water rang out, and Sakura Mai rinsed the seawater from her body.
Because of the earlier burning of the Sword of Erasure, sword-shaped salt stains had even crystallized upon her chest.
And of all things... these salt stains happened to be very close to the bruise.
Not wanting to worry her cute little sister by touching the bruise in front of her—or rather... not wanting to embarrass herself by letting out a soft, tender sound in front of her cute little sister—Sakura Mai could only rinse herself off with great care.
But accidents are always unavoidable.
"Nngh—" Sakura Mai still let out a low, involuntary whimper.
"Sister Mai!??" She could hear the tension in the girl's voice.
Her emerald eyes brimming with rippling, misty light, Sakura Mai bit her lip and changed the subject.
"Sister Yuzu..."
"Why were you able to draw the Sword of Erasure?"
Dun dun dun!
Sakura Mai had tossed out the fatal question.
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