"Hey, hey! Can we stop for a bit? I'm already tired from flying."
In the air, Izayoi Miku used her sickeningly sweet voice, accompanied by teary eyes, to speak to Yutsuki.
Feeling the beguiling voice mixed with reiryouku echoing in her ears, Yutsuki consciously used Ratziel to emit reiryouku of an opposing wavelength to cancel it out. Without changing her expression, she said:
"Can you put so effort into your lies, Miku? You consud the least energy in the battle just now. Besides, it's clearly the Yamais who are carrying you as you fly. What are you complaining about? Be a good girl and keep moving forward. Otherwise..."
Saying so, as if putting on a show of force, Yutsuki shook Ratziel in her hand, which was flashing with bluew hite electricity.
The mont she thought Yutsuki might do another "Oops, it went off by accident, sorry~", the corners of Miku's eyes twitched slightly, and she obediently, albeit unhappily, led the Yamais and the others forward.
"Hey hey, Yutsuki, Onee-sama is already feeling very tired. What does it matter if we rest for a bit?"
"Protest. It doesn't matter if we take a short break. It would be bad if Onee-sama's body gets exhausted."
"That's right. Giving Onee-sama so ti to rest is no big deal~ Yutsuki-chan."
"L-Let's take a break..."
However, regarding this, the Spirits who were still under Miku's control by the side were quite opinionated. They stopped flying and stood up for Miku against Yutsuki.
"I say, you guys..."
Looking at her close friends, who she usually spent her days with, acting abandoning friendship for love, Yutsuki showed a sowhat helpless expression and sighed, as if giving up.
"Then you guys rest here for a bit, consider it recovering your used reiryouku. But I have to go ahead. Rember to follow later."
However, Miku, who got Yutsuki's nod of approval, beca unhappy.
Why won't you listen to my requests, but you listen to what other people say!??
"Because they are my friends, and you... are not."
As if guessing Miku's inner thoughts, Yutsuki replied flatly. No longer relying on the Yamais' wind power, lightning surged beneath her feet. After a few leaps, she vanished into the dark night.
This single sentence pierced deeply into the depths of Miku's soul.
"Proposal. Since we're going to rest, Yuzuru just happened to see a nice open-air cafe."
"...Let's go."
"Eh? But Onee-sama... aren't you tired..."
Kaguya said with so confusion.
"It's fine. I feel much better now." After forcing a smile in response to Kaguya, she drove the reiryouku in her body and chased in Yutsuki's direction.
With the help of the wind-controlling Yamai sisters, Miku's movent speed was clearly much faster than Yutsuki's. Very quickly, Miku saw Yutsuki's figure in the dark night.
"What's wrong? Weren't you going to rest?"
Noticing the people chasing behind her, Yutsuki said with a deeply aningful smile.
"I don't need to!"
Miku said with an icy face.
"Is that so..." Shrugging slightly, Yutsuki said, "That works out perfectly. After all, I don't have that much free ti to humor the young lady's selfishness either. Yamai, if you would please."
"Kuku, leave it to . With and Yuzuru's power, adding one more person is just the effort of adding a single feather."
"Nod. This level is absolutely no problem."
Without Miku's orders, the Yamais, who originally had a good relationship with Yutsuki, readily manipulated the fierce winds and carried Yutsuki up.
Miku didn't say another word; she just silently followed behind Yutsuki.
It was exactly right. Izayoi Miku herself knew very well that she was just being selfish.
Even though she knew it was impossible, she kept struggling like a child who refused to admit defeat, trying to use her singing voice to make Ryougi Yutsuki her own.
However, all she got in return were barbed words. That originally free-spirited and humorous butler, Yutsuki, never belonged to her from the very beginning.
—The bonds between comrades were much stronger than the shackles created by her singing voice.
Yutsuki was continuously using barbed words to emphasize what Itsuka Shido wanted to convey to her, which was also the truth she had always refused to admit.
"Ryougi Yutsuki, why do you help Itsuka Shido?"
Carrying so confusion and incomprehension, Miku tossed out the doubt in her heart.
Actually, from an opponent's perspective, Miku understood Yutsuki's hardships even more.
At the Tenou Festival, under the absolutely disadvantageous situation where Miku used all sorts of rule-breaking thods, she fought fair and square, successfully turned the tables, and won the contest against Miku.
Escaping from her domain of control, lurking by her side to lower her guard, while secretly helping Shido non-stop.
But in reality, the pressure she had to endure during all this went without saying.
From the back of the girl in the black trench coat, one could faintly see her exhaustion, but her steps didn't show the slightest hesitation.
"That Itsuka Shido can disregard his own life to save that Tohka, right? Then he must like Tohka. So why do you choose to continuously support him? What is Itsuka Shido to you?"
Regarding Miku's questions, Yutsuki raised her eyebrows slightly. Then, she chuckled and said, "Tohka is also an important friend of mine. Saving a friend is a matter of course, right? As for Shido... he's the one who gave a place to belong—an important family mber."
A gentle smile appeared on Yutsuki's face, one that Miku had never seen before. "Shouldn't family mbers rely on each other?"
"I'm so envious... of the bonds between you. So strong, so dazzling."
Hearing Yutsuki's proud expression, Miku muttered to herself in a low voice.
"If you truly think so, we wouldn't have any objections to you joining us... Or rather, that was our goal from the very beginning."
"Impossible!" Miku shook her head. A fragile expression appeared on her face as she said, "Unlike you, I don't have such strong power and a strong heart like yours, nor do I have the resolve to work this hard for others... And I certainly don't have the courage to accept and believe in others."
"Don't you have your singing voice? Everyone has their own strengths. You don't have to force yourself to compare with others. Since you feel that human bonds need so kind of rope to maintain them, then use that singing voice of yours to make us accept you."
"But hasn't my singing voice been rejected by Yutsuki-san?"
"Uh..."
Then, there was another silence.
"Yutsuki, you know, right... my past."
This question... actually, when Yutsuki called out 'Yoimachi Tsukino', a stage na she herself had almost forgotten, the answer was already out. But Miku wanted Yutsuki to say it herself.
"If you're talking about a super promising rising star whose reputation was ruined by a bunch of fabricated scandals because she refused the unwritten rules [casting couch/shady deals], there's a whole pile of that in the history of the entertainnt industry."
Yutsuki sighed and said plainly, "If you want to hear comforting words, go pour your heart out to Shido. Although both the producers who wanted to enforce the unwritten rules and the fans who betrayed the idol are equally despicable, and the victim is completely innocent... unfortunately, I won't pity you. Because the world is cruel to begin with, and there are tons of people whose experiences are far worse than yours. It's not that God hasn't blessed you; it's that he doesn't have the ti to bother with you at all."
"That's true... But... other than my singing voice... I have nothing..."
Hearing Yutsuki's words, Miku, who should have flown into a rage, whispered with a sowhat sad smile.
"However, your singing voice is indeed very beautiful. This is sothing I have to admit." Fiddling with her brown hair, after a mont of silence, Yutsuki slowly opened her mouth, "If you sang not with this voice carrying impurities, but with your true singing voice. Becoming your fan, listening to you until the very end from beneath the stage no matter what happens... I wouldn't really hate that."
"...Yutsuki....."
Hearing Yutsuki's answer, Miku covered her mouth with her hands. At the corners of her eyes, tears of emotion flowed out.
In response, Yutsuki showed an incredibly bright smile.
"Of course, this would only happen on the condition that you sing better than . No matter what, Miku, you lost~ the singing contest!"
In that mont, ti seed to freeze.
(Huh? Did I accidentally say sothing unnecessary just now? Could it be! Did the rivalry towards Miku born from my possessiveness over Shiori make unconsciously lose my cool, resulting in blurting out the lines in my head without thinking?! Impossible! Impossible! Impossible! To think that I, who have always been known for being calm and rational, would make such a mistake!?)
Yutsuki, who had flipped countless tables in her ntal world, looked at the girl in front of her with twitching eyes.
Miku's originally moved expression froze just like that. Her body trembled non-stop, and tears of grievance began to fill her eyes.
"Um? Miku-san, sothing bad must have possessed just now (Author: "(Guilty conscience)..."). Believe , that sentence just now was definitely not a taunt. Wait, wait, wait a minute! Calm down. Σ( ° △ °|||)︴"
"—As expected, I hate humans the most after all!"
—Smack!
At this ti, in the night past midnight, the faint moonlight shone on the silent and lifeless streets, giving off an eerie silence.
A dark and windy night, perfect for murder and arson... Okay, I admit I got sidetracked, please don't hit .
"Is Tohka... right here?"
Shido looked around and asked in a low voice.
This was a corner of the office district in east of Tengu City. Because of the ti, only a few tall buildings had their lights on, giving off a strange pressure.
"Mhm. These are all DEM-related facilities. Office buildings, experintal facilities, and agencies are all here. If Tohka-san was captured by DEM, it's very logical for her to be locked up here."
Kurumi looked at the scenery before her and smiled faintly.
"All of them are..."
Looking at the countless towering skyscrapers in front of him, Shido realized anew just what kind of difficult hurdle he was going to face. He couldn't help but gulp, press his hand against his chest, and take a deep breath.
Although he wished he could run right over and rescue Tohka from DEM's evil clutches imdiately, in reality, charging in recklessly without a plan would never solve the problem. Only by staying calm could he search for a breakthrough.
This was the style Yutsuki always stuck to.
Then, before doing so, Shido also had a question he had to ask Yutsuki.
"Yutsuki, what exactly is that slap mark on your face?"
"Leftover from swatting a mosquito, don't worry about it."
Yutsuki said without changing her expression.
"Eh? But the size of that slap mark has so subtle differences from yours..."
"It's your imagination."
"..."
Seeing that Yutsuki didn't intend to answer, Shido couldn't press the issue. He turned to Izayoi Miku and bowed deeply to thank her.
"Miku, thank you for coming to help save Tohka..."
"Hah? What are you misunderstanding! I have no intention of fulfilling your promise or that idiot Yutsuki's orders. I only ca here to add the cute Tohka-san and this Kurumi-san to my precious collection, and then dominate all the cute girls in the world, and wipe out all n entirely, building my own ideal utopia. You and Yutsuki should just hurry up and get killed by the enemy, gang-beep, engage in beep, get tortured beep, do all sorts of beep, and then turn to ashes and fall into the eighteenth level of hell, never to be reincarnated! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot—!"
"Ara, this Miku-san's ambitions are truly grand..."
Kurumi, seeing that she had also beco a hunting target, expressed that she was a little bit scared.
An awkward cold sweat broke out on Shido's face. He asked Yutsuki beside him in a low voice.
"Um, Yutsuki... Is Miku's sharp tongue even more venomous than before? And why did she curse you out too? What happened between you two?"
"It's fine. You can just understand her as a new breed of tsundere."
Ignoring Shido's utterly bewildered face, Yutsuki, while feeling the slight stinging sensation on her cheek, pressed Shido's shoulder and said solemnly.
"All the conditions are ripe. Saving Tohka, conquering Miku. I leave everything to you, Shido!"
"Why do I feel like you're just tossing the ss to ..."
"...It's your imagination →_→"
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