The streetlights stretched their shadows long. Yui contentedly rubbed her round, full belly, looking like a well-fed kitten, her usual aloofness softening quite a bit.
Natsuhi looked at her and felt her heart melting. How could such a cute creature exist? Recalling the look on her face when they first met, Natsuhi felt incredibly happy.
Walking down the quiet street towards the apartment, Yui suddenly spoke, her tone carrying a feigned, casual seriousness: "Of course, I won't eat or stay here for free."
She turned her head slightly to avoid Natsuhi's gaze. "Laundry, cleaning, cooking... I can do all of these."
Her voice trailed off as if she remembered something, dropping lower. A faint, imperceptible blush spread across her fair cheeks in the night. She twisted the hem of her shirt unconsciously, adding in a voice barely audible in her throat: "If... if you have any other... special needs... th-that's not impossible either..."
Natsuhi ⊙_⊙: "..." The air seemed to freeze for a moment.
[What did this girl just say?] Natsuhi stopped in her tracks. "Pfft—cough! Cough, cough, cough..."
She nearly choked on her own saliva, coughing violently until her whole face turned red. Looking at Yui as if she were a monster, her tone was filled with disbelief: "Hey! What kind of image do you have of me?! A pervert who kidnaps underage girls?! Or some scum who'll eat anything?!"
Was she the type to mess around like that? She was so angry she nearly jumped up, feeling that her reputation as a "Guardian of Pure Love" had been sullied like never before.
"Didn't I make it clear before? I just want to help you! Not for this! I really don't understand what goes on in the heads of young girls these days."
Thinking of the intimate actions between Nikaido and Wada Saki earlier, Natsuhi was a bit confused. Isn't she a girl now? Why does it feel no different from her past life?
Natsuhi emphasized sanctimoniously: "Put away those dangerous thoughts! Just honestly sleep, eat, and go to school!"
"Really? Not even a little bit?"
"Well, that's what I say, but it's not like I don't have any thoughts at all..."
...With that regretful murmur, the air became stifling once again. Natsuhi's expression froze, and she fell silent————
[No, what am I saying!]
[I can't help it, I'm a man, isn't it normal to like women? I just don't have the equipment for the crime anymore, it doesn't mean changing bodies would change my kinks too.]
"Hmph! I knew I wasn't wrong about you. On the train earlier, you kept staring at that big sister's chest, and even after getting off, you looked half-dead. How dirty!"
[Oh no———!] Was it that obvious? Natsuhi hadn't even realized it herself; this was truly embarrassing.
Seeing Yui guarding her chest with a very vigilant look, Natsuhi felt like dying. The glorious image she had worked so hard to build was completely ruined. She had wanted to slowly infiltrate the enemy's ranks, but had she alerted them instead...? This wouldn't do at all!
For the sake of her future happy life, she had to make up for it! Driven by this obsession, Natsuhi suddenly raised her hands in surrender, forcing a righteous expression onto her face in an attempt to turn the tide:
"I admit! I do... appreciate the charm of mature women! But that is based on the perspective of art and beauty! It is a pure admiration for the 'aesthetics of the human form'!"
In that instant, Natsuhi ran through almost every lofty, artistic, elegant, and philosophical experience of her life, but her voice cracked from urgency:
"It's like... like admiring the Venus de Milo! Admiring Da Vinci's Mona Lisa! It is a noble respect for 'perfect curves' and 'gentle temperament' that transcends gender! It has absolutely nothing to do with any dirty thoughts!"
The more she spoke, the more she felt she had found the truth, her tone even carrying a hint of tragic heroism: "I am helping you purely out of a sense of justice! And the original intention of protecting all the beautiful things in the world! How could you think of me as so filthy! I'm so heartbroken."
Yui watched her exaggerated performance with an expressionless face. She finally saw this person's true colors.
"Oh—" With a drawn-out, indifferent tone, a hint of playfulness appeared in Yui's ice-blue eyes. "So, you drooling over that 'Venus' big sister was also paying tribute to art?"
[You saw that too?!]
[It's over, what do I do? Say I was hungry then? Wanted to eat?]
[That feels even worse!]
"Th-that is..." Natsuhi choked instantly, her face turning bright red. Finally, she shouted in self-abandonment, "That is... that is a natural reaction of the body! It has nothing to do with my noble soul!"
She gave up. She wasn't going to pretend anymore. Her body was too honest; the saliva had flowed out without her brain's control. Believe it or not...
"Hmph, perverts certainly have plenty of excuses." Yui snorted coldly, but her hand guarding her chest dropped unconsciously.
She found Natsuhi's frantic, jumping-up-and-down attempts to maintain her 'glorious image' inexplicably funny. [Mo~ what a fool.]
She turned around and walked towards the apartment building, feigning indifference, leaving only one sentence behind: "Let's go, fool. If you keep standing here in the cold wind, that 'noble soul' of yours is going to catch a cold."
Natsuhi watched her back, let out a long sigh, and wiped the cold sweat from her forehead. "That was close... I guess I managed to muddle through."
Although she wasn't confident about that herself. Natsuhi hurriedly trotted to catch up, still asking, worriedly, "I'm serious, you really mustn't misunderstand."
"As for that—it depends on your performance from here on out." Giving an ambiguous answer, Natsuhi couldn't guess what Yui was thinking at that moment, but the slight curve of the girl's lips betrayed everything. Too bad Natsuhi couldn't see it...
[Hehe, it's a good thing she's not completely indifferent, at least now I know what to do.]