…My acting is terrible.
Yukina stared at herself in the photo, her cheeks slightly warm.
She knew her movements might have looked strange, but she hadn’t expected them to look this strange.
It was as if she had been trying to body-slam an iron bucket.
There was zero sense of realism, and her expression wasn’t natural at all.
Why did Ningning show me this photo?
Could it be… that she’s already noticed something?
Yukina quietly lifted her eyes and glanced at the blue raccoon dog.
“Pfft pfft pfft.”
Ningning was covering her mouth, laughing in that cheap, cheeky way, her tail spinning behind her like a propeller.
“A flat-ground fall. It was actually a flat-ground fall, pfft pfft~ That’s just too cute~! I thought you could only see scenes like this in cartoons. Could it be that little Yukina’s character setting is actually natural airhead?”
“…You’re the natural airhead.”
Yukina flipped the photo over.
She didn’t want to see her own embarrassing face any longer.
Being mocked was unpleasant, but Ningning didn’t seem to have noticed anything. That was still good.
Just in case, she should get rid of this photo.
“This one, I’m confiscating.” Yukina folded the photo in half.
“Yaaah—!”
The moment the photo was folded, Ningning let out a tragic scream.
Her tail stiffened for a second as if she herself had been snapped in two.
“Stop! This is my masterpiece! I haven’t even had time to back it up yet!”
“Protest denied.”
“Tyranny! This is tyranny! Little Yukina, you tyrant!”
“Yes, yes, yes, I’m a tyrant. Keep making noise and I’ll sue you for violating portrait rights.”
“Ugh! Actually using magic… no, legal attacks against me. What a despicable pink-haired succubus!”
Ningning stomped in place, her entire face written with grievance.
Yukina couldn’t be bothered to continue the conversation.
She unzipped her schoolbag and prepared to stuff the photo inside, ready to end the topic.
Yet her movements stopped.
The photo pinched between her fingertips was about to fall into the bag when her gaze accidentally swept across the edge of the photo. There, there was a streak of white.
A very blurry white, as if the camera had accidentally focused on the wrong background.
It was Mashiro.
Even though it was only half a blurred face, Yukina could still tell that in the moment she had fallen, a trace of worry had appeared on Mashiro’s face.
So at that time… you were worried about me?
Yukina stared at that hazy streak of white in the photo.
Her heart felt as if something had gently squeezed it.
Her fingertip lightly brushed across the surface of the photo.
All she could feel now was the cold, smooth texture of the photographic paper.
—Click.
The sound of the shutter violently yanked Yukina’s consciousness back.
She lifted her head and came face-to-face with the camera lens Ningning was holding up.
The round glass reflected her front face.
“…Why are you taking my picture.”
Yukina subconsciously raised a hand to block the lens.
“Hmm, how should I put it.”
Ningning lowered the camera, tilted her head, pressed her index finger against her cheek, and turned her raccoon dog ears forward.
“I just felt that little Yukina’s expression just now was a little delicious!”
“…Don’t you only like photographing beautiful girls?” Yukina frowned. “I’m not one.”
Ningning didn’t answer immediately. Instead she lowered her head, pressed a button, looked at the photo on the camera screen, then lifted her head again and looked Yukina up and down.
“Mm, true. Right now maybe you’re not.”
She paused.
Her tail began to sway lightly, and a mysterious smile appeared at the corner of her mouth, little fangs faintly visible.
“But later on, that might not be the case.”
“…What do you mean.”
“Secret~”
Ningning hung the camera back around her neck, turned around, and hopped and skipped ahead, her tail swinging with no particular rhythm.
“Let’s go already, let’s go! It’s all little Yukina’s fault for dragging things out. We’re almost going to be late for school!”
“You’re clearly the one who was messing around.”
“Walk faster, short-legged loli succubus!”
“…Who are you calling a short-legged loli.”
“Whoever walks slow is the one I’m talking about~”
Yukina pressed her lips together and helplessly quickened her pace, catching up to that hopping light-blue figure.
The two of them continued bickering as they advanced along the road leading to the academy.
Before they realized it, they had already reached the school gate.
The iron fence glowed a dull gray-white under the sunlight, cutting the shadows on the ground into pieces.
Crowds surged in from all directions, converging in front of the gate into a flowing river.
Students of various races passed by in twos and threes.
Yukina and Ningning mixed into the stream of people.
The morning breeze swept across the pavement, carrying the whistle sounds from the distant sports field and driving away a bit of the summer stuffiness.
However.
Yukina seemed to notice something. Her footsteps gradually slowed.
At the end of her line of sight, at the boundary of the lush green tree shade, stood a figure.
A jet-black parasol tilted slightly.
The shadow cast by the umbrella’s edge covered the upper body, leaving only the slender calves beneath the skirt hem, wrapped in thin black stockings, visible.
That figure stood at the edge of the tree shade.
One hand gripped the umbrella handle; the other subconsciously clutched the edge of the skirt, fingertips tightening slightly, then loosening again.
A brown leather shoe stepped half a pace out of the shadow, but quickly retreated back.
She was hesitating, like a small animal trapped in a rapid current, unsure whether she should leave the small patch of land under her feet.
A light breeze brushed past the treetops, lifting one corner of the umbrella’s edge.
Inside the shadow, a strand of silver-white hair refracted a dazzling white light and gently floated up.
It was Mashiro.
Yukina’s breathing briefly stalled.
She had imagined many scenarios for their next meeting.
For example, in the tin shack, the way it had been for the past two months—she would push open the door, and Mashiro would be sitting on the vaulting box, looking up at her as always.
Or at a corner of the corridor, both of them not watching where they were going and accidentally bumping into each other.
Or at the classroom door, just as she was about to walk in, Mashiro would happen to walk out.
In short, she had thought of many possibilities and prepared an opening line for every kind of encounter.
She just hadn’t expected that it would be in front of the school gate, in the middle of the coming and going students, with Ningning still chattering noisily by her side, that she would meet Mashiro.
Thump, thump.
Her heartbeat suddenly became very loud.
Yukina hugged the schoolbag in her arms tightly, her fingertips sinking into the gaps in the fabric.
What should she do now? Should she walk over? Or pretend she hadn’t seen her?
Approaching Mashiro here was definitely not the best choice, yet for some reason, looking at that somewhat blurred figure under the tree shade, Yukina vaguely felt… that if she didn’t walk forward right now, she might never be able to approach her again.
Go.
Yukina took a deep breath and stepped forward.
She slightly bent her body.
Her petite frame squeezed through the crowd.
Fabric rubbed against fabric.
The surrounding sounds grew more and more blurred, as if separated by a layer of water.
In her field of vision, only that figure standing under the tree shade remained, along with the strand of silver-white hair that appeared and disappeared under the umbrella’s edge.
Closer.
Closer still.
Close enough to see the worn traces that existed on the edge of the black parasol exclusive to bloodsuckers.
Close enough to clearly see the fingers tightly gripping the umbrella handle trembling slightly.
Thud.
Passing through the crowd, Yukina’s small leather shoes landed on the other side of the tree shade.
The warm summer wind brushed past again.
The leaves overhead rustled.
The spots of light under the tree shade swayed back and forth.
Yukina finally saw that face clearly.
It really was Mashiro.
But.
She looked… as if she was about to break.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.