Deep underground in Tengu City, in Ratatoskr's underground facility.
Corresponding to the airship stationed in the sky above Tengu City, this was Ratatoskr's secret base located within the city itself. There were several similar facilities in other areas of Tengu City, primarily prepared to handle various unexpected situations.
After Shido rescued Natsumi, Kotori quickly transferred the unconscious Natsumi to this facility. Otherwise, keeping a Spirit with full power who also harbored clear hostility towards them inside the Fraxinus could risk the ship crashing if they weren't careful.
Shortly after finishing her physical examination with Reine, Yutsuki received a text from Shido—[Natsumi had just regained consciousness.]
After teleporting back to the surface, Yutsuki first went to a designated convenience store. Following a Ratatoskr staff mber disguised as a cashier, she snuck underground.
Entering the underground facility and following the map at the entrance, Yutsuki soon walked into a room that looked very similar to the bridge of the Fraxinus.
There, Yutsuki saw Shido and Kotori.
"Yutsuki, is your examination over? Are you okay?"
Noticing Yutsuki's arrival, Shido greeted her and asked with concern.
"Yeah, Reine-san said there's no problem. More importantly, what happened to you guys?"
Seeing Kotori and Shido with red scratch marks all over their faces, looking like they had been attacked by an angry stray cat, Yutsuki couldn't help but ask in confusion.
"Haha, actually..."
Awkwardly rubbing his scratch-covered cheek, Shido smiled bitterly and explained what had happened.
When Shido arrived at the underground facility, he saw Kotori's face covered in scratches.
Then, after Kotori repeatedly warned him to be careful, Shido walked into Natsumi's room.
The mont she saw Shido, Natsumi acted like a startled cat. Before Shido could even finish his greeting, she threw everything she could grab—furniture, plushies—at him. After a long commotion, out of ammo and energy, Natsumi retreated under the covers, only exposing her two eyes to peek at Shido.
Although she was still very guarded against Shido, they could finally talk.
Through their conversation, Shido learned that the reason Natsumi attacked them was indeed because her true appearance had been seen. Just as Yutsuki had guessed, the girl had an incredibly exaggerated inferiority complex about her looks. As soon as the conversation started, before Shido even said anything, she started putting herself down.
For a long ti, Natsumi had wanted to interact with others using her true face, but without exception, she was always ignored.
It was exactly this that caused Natsumi's twisted personality and her state of extre lack of confidence.
Although Shido kept trying to show goodwill, Natsumi kept twisting it into a deceptive trap to make her lower her guard. After a bout of self-deprecation, denial, and questioning, Natsumi went into a berserk mode, successfully making Shido the second victim after Kotori of her frantic scratching.
"Pfft—Hahaha!"
Hearing this, Yutsuki couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"This isn't a laughing matter, Yutsuki-nee..."
Kotori looked at Yutsuki with dissatisfied eyes.
"Sorry, sorry~ So? How is Natsumi's physical condition right now?"
Waving her hand to apologize, Yutsuki cald her laughter and asked Kotori.
"We've already checked her injuries, nothing major. However, because of her inferiority complex where she constantly puts herself down, we can't have a normal conversation with her right now."
Kotori sighed and answered Yutsuki's question. Then, Kotori held up one finger.
"One day. A little over a day at most. According to Reine's judgnt, Natsumi has temporarily lost her Angel's power due to spirit power exhaustion and weakness from blood loss. Probably by tomorrow night, Natsumi will recover enough to use her Angel freely."
By then, no matter how sturdy the walls were, they'd be no different from paper to Natsumi. If Natsumi wanted to escape, Kotori simply wouldn't be able to keep her locked up.
"One day, huh..."
Shido frowned slightly, resting his chin on his right hand, deep in thought.
Honestly, with Natsumi's current state, even if he successfully sealed her Spirit power, living with her true appearance without being able to maintain that older-sister form would undoubtedly be very difficult. If that inferiority complex wasn't resolved, even a tiny, insignificant accident could cause a backflow of Spirit power.
Although ti was tight, resolving Natsumi's inferiority complex was a higher priority than figuring out how to seal her Spirit power.
"But speaking of which, Yutsuki-nee, what's up with your outfit?"
Seeing Yutsuki wearing a hospital gown, Kotori asked in confusion.
"Ah, this. Because my original clothes got torn to shreds in the battle with Ellen and the others earlier. Reine-san said she'd prepare so clothes and send them over later, so until then, I'm just making do with these clothes from the infirmary."
"Well, that's fine. But Yutsuki-nee... you didn't walk all the way here from the airship wearing just that, did you?"
Kotori looked at her with a weird expression.
"Yeah."
Yutsuki nodded. Hearing this, Kotori couldn't help but rub her forehead and let out a long sigh.
"I have to say, Yutsuki-nee, you're a bit too casual. Have so self awareness as a girl. How about dressing up a little once in a while?"
"Ahaha..."
To Kotori's suggestion, Yutsuki could only respond with an awkward, bitter smile.
Dressing up, huh...
Listening to Yutsuki and Kotori's conversation, Shido suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and an idea ford in his head.
"Yutsuki, Kotori, I have an idea..."
Shido briefly and concisely explained his idea to the two of them.
"I see... It's definitely worth a try."
"Mhm... Although it feels a bit like treating the symptoms rather than the root cause, for now, it's the most effective thod."
After thinking for a mont, both Yutsuki and Kotori nodded, agreeing with Shido's plan.
______________________________-
October 27th, Friday.
In the morning, Natsumi was lured out of bed by the sll of food in the room. Then, she saw a steaming hot breakfast laid out on a table ford from the wall.
After making sure there was nothing weird inside, Natsumi carefully put the food in her mouth.
"Damn it... it's delicious..."
Natsumi mumbled, feeling sowhat unwilling to admit it.
The taste of the bacon and the richness of the eggs spread perfectly in her mouth, making Natsumi's expression relax without her realizing it.
Don't let your guard down, Natsumi!
Shaking her head vigorously, Natsumi warned herself warily.
This might be so way for Itsuka Shido to take revenge on her. After all, considering the pranks she had pulled on him before, there was no way Itsuka Shido would do anything that benefited her. Maybe he was waiting to fatten her up before slaughtering and eating her. If that was the case, giving her such good food made perfect sense.
"I won't let you get your way."
Natsumi thought secretly.
Her wounds had healed by the ti she regained consciousness; all that was left was the weakness from blood loss. Probably by tonight, she would recover enough to use Haniel. Then she would escape under the cover of night.
"But... how did such severe wounds heal so quickly..."
Touching her perfectly smooth lower abdon, Natsumi looked confused.
Because of severe blood loss, Natsumi's consciousness was already a bit hazy back then. In her vague mory, she only rembered Itsuka Shido coming over and using white flas on her. Then, when she woke up, the large, deep puncture wound was gone.
Although her reason told her she was saved by Itsuka Shido, her inferiority complex cultivated over the years made Natsumi unable to believe that anyone would show pure kindness to soone as ugly as her, let alone soone she had teased so ruthlessly.
"Anyway, I need to get out of here as soon as possible."
Natsumi shook her head, pushing these troubling thoughts aside for now. To escape sooner, she needed to recover her stamina as much as possible. After deciding this, Natsumi swallowed the rest of the food in one bite.
However, right at that mont, the door to the room suddenly opened.
Several people quickly walked into the room and surrounded Natsumi.
"Eh...!?"
Looking at the people surrounding her, Natsumi couldn't help but let out a panicked cry.
Shido and Kotori. There was also Tohka and Yoshino, whom Natsumi had chosen as suspect candidates, and—
Ryougi Yutsuki.
Seeing the beautiful girl with long brown hair in front of her, Natsumi's face instantly turned pale.
Kotori, Tohka, and Yoshino went without saying. Their natural beauty made them the kind of people Natsumi always hated. But towards Ryougi Yutsuki, Natsumi's feelings leaned more towards fear than hatred for her looks.
Whether it was her initial disguise as Shido going to school, the suspect guessing ga afterward, or her pranks to torture Shido—pretty much all of them failed because of this girl.
Seeing her, Natsumi felt a chilling sensation of being completely seen through.
Huh—feels like I've been specially targeted from the very beginning.
Seeing Natsumi's obvious fearful gaze directed specifically at her, Yutsuki couldn't help but think with a bitter smile.
"What... exactly are you guys trying to do?"
Seeing the massive sack and ropes they were holding, Natsumi's voice couldn't help but tremble.
"Grab her—"
Without any nonsense, Kotori gave the order. Everyone rushed forward, tied Natsumi up securely, and put her in the sack.
Nani? What happened? What's happening?
Tied up inside the sack, Natsumi's mind instantly fell into chaos.
"So, Kotori. What do we do next?"
"Mhm, Tohka, just carry her over this way."
"Umu, I got it!"
In her dark vision, Natsumi could only tell from their conversation that she was being carried by Tohka toward so place.
Where was she being taken? Natsumi's brain couldn't help but conjure up the worst-case scenarios. Maybe when she was let out, she would be placed on an operating table, and demons in green scrubs would point scalpels at her, cutting out all her healthy organs to sell for money.
(Even though she's too ugly to look at, her organs should still fetch so profit.)
The image of the brown-haired girl's insidious, malicious smile floated into her mind. Natsumi's heart instantly plunged into an icy abyss.
"No! No! My organs have lots of problems, they wouldn't sell for much! Let out, help !"
After violently struggling the whole way, Natsumi was finally brought to the destination.
Freed from the sack and gradually adapting to the surrounding light, Natsumi looked around nervously.
Contrary to Natsumi's expectations, there was no cold operating table, nor were there demonic surgeons in green scrubs. Instead, it was a room with warm lighting, containing only a single bed and exuding a faint fragrance.
"Welco—to the one day limited beauty salon (Miku Salon)."
In front of Natsumi, a girl wearing a nurse outfit-Izayoi Miku smiled brightly. However, her full chest, showing off her presence without hiding it, made Natsumi unable to feel any goodwill towards her.
However, that wasn't the main point to care about right now.
"What is this...?"
Natsumi said blankly. She didn't understand at all what Itsuka Shido was doing to her.
"As you can see, this is a beauty salon, nothing more."
To the confused Natsumi, Yutsuki shrugged lightly.
"Well, explaining too much will probably just make you interpret it in a bad way. It's better to just let you experience what we're going to do. Miku, I leave the rest to you."
"Yes~ honey~."
Hearing Yutsuki's words, Miku's eyes instantly lit up, and she responded cheerfully.
"Your na is Natsumi-chan, right? Nice to et you."
Watching Miku inching closer, Natsumi felt an unprecedented sense of crisis.
"Wait, why are you suddenly taking off my clothes?! And why are you drooling? Don't co near , you cow tits! Stay away from !!"
"It's going to be okay, Natsumi-chan~ My technique is very good. Now, I'm going to slowly and gently pamper you, you'll feel good in no ti."
"Eek—what is this... no... this feeling... stop... noooooooo!"
I am so sorry, Natsumi.
Walking out of the Miku Salon, hearing Natsumi's screams from the other side of the door... Feeling a sense of guilt like throwing a sheep into a den of wolves, Yutsuki silently apologized to Natsumi in her heart.
And so, Natsumi's grand makeover plan—officially began.
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