“Well… alright then…” Shigure looked at the two girls before her with a hint of suspicion. Though many questions still lingered, she chose not to press further, allowing the topic to settle for the moment.
“Um, Iori-san, Kujou-san, would you two like to come to the shrine for some tea?” Shion quickly interjected, eager to change the subject.
“I’d certainly like to,” Shigure replied, pulling out her phone to check the time. It wasn’t particularly early anymore. “I’m not just being polite, you know… The next time I visit, I really hope you’ll treat me well, Shion-san.”
As she spoke, Shigure clenched her fist and leaned slightly closer to Shion, her golden eyes reflecting the light of the setting sun as she gazed intently. “I’m… serious, you know?”
“Alright~” Shion, feeling a flicker of Shigure’s earnestness under her intense gaze, reached out and gently ruffled her hair.
Kujou Sakuya smoothed down her skirt and settled onto the steps leading to the shrine. Having just helped to rebuild the stall, she was quite out of breath. “I’ll sit for a bit first, then head back later. I’m so tired…”
“Then I’ll be off!” Shigure called out, turning to wave at Shion and Sakuya. After Shion had touched her hair, her mood had visibly brightened considerably.
Only once the blonde girl’s retreating figure had faded into the distance did Shion finally sit down beside Sakuya.
Sakuya turned her head, pressing her palms together. “Please, Shion-san, about this… don’t tell anyone!”
“Kujou-san, you haven’t been wearing any since that last incident, have you?!” Shion retorted, her face flushing.
“Ahhh! Stop talking about it!” Sakuya exclaimed, covering her face and clamping her thighs together, tightening her skirt. “Honestly, Shion-san, do you *have* to bring that up? I begged you not to tell anyone!”
“Iori-san has already gone home,” Shion said, reaching out to poke Sakuya’s cheek. “I didn’t say anything in front of anyone else, but… counting that first time we went into the haunted house together, this makes it the third time, doesn’t it?”
Sakuya shifted closer to Shion, her hands pressing down the hem of her skirt between her legs, holding it gently clamped to outline the curve of her thighs.
“Because dressing like this… is really just a little more comfortable!” Sakuya scratched her head, her right hand unconsciously twirling a strand of her hair. Clearly, her inner nervousness had reached a point where she had to twirl her hair to calm herself.
“Kujou-san…” Shion reached out again, poking Sakuya’s nose. “We’re girls, you know. What if someone sees? I’ve already seen it twice.”
“Oh, honestly! You’re so embarrassing, Shion-san! Besides, when it comes down to it, aren’t you the *only* one who’s actually seen it?!” Sakuya lightly punched Shion’s shoulder to express her displeasure.
“I’m starting to wonder if Kujou-san has some strange fetish,” Shion mused. “And that I’m the only one who’s seen it? I don’t believe that for a second.”
As she spoke, Shion took a moment to truly observe Sakuya. She was still the same girl with a long, black ponytail, her black-rimmed glasses further accentuating her round face and adding a touch of quiet, scholarly elegance to her still somewhat childish demeanor. Beneath her black-and-white autumn school uniform skirt, her slender legs met small, black leather shoes. She rested her head in her hand, her eyes filled with shyness.
In any case… it was difficult to imagine that beneath the white skirt of this adorable girl’s school uniform, in the “absolute territory” above, there was only a thin layer of fabric, the sole defense for her “secret garden.” And especially for Shion, this defense, it seemed, was effectively non-existent…
“Seriously, it’s just you! If I’m lying, may the gods curse me so I can never write another script!” Sakuya declared with a solemn, sky-pointing gesture. Had she not just helped repair the stall, she would surely have stood up and added something about being struck by lightning if she lied.
“Really?” A mischievous thought suddenly sparked in Shion’s mind. “Then, if I’m the only one who’s seen it, Kujou-san, would you let me see it again?”
Though Shion’s suggestion was clearly born of a sudden impulse, Sakuya’s face paled in alarm. She quickly clutched her skirt. “Hey, hey, hey, Shion-san, even if I’ve only shown it to you, don’t… don’t get any wild ideas!”
“Huh? What’s the big deal?” Shion pressed on with a wicked grin. “Didn’t Kujou-san say I was the only one who’d seen it?”
Hoshimori Shion, it seemed, had learned absolutely nothing from her last experience at Shigure’s house.
Thus, the only lesson humanity ever learns from history is that humanity never learns any lessons from history.
Sakuya, her face crimson, tightly clutched the skirt of her school uniform, pouting as she glared at Shion.
“How did I never realize before that Shion-san enjoys such lewd things?!” The bespectacled girl before her deliberately imbued her words with a hint of indignation.
Shion playfully stuck out her tongue. “Oh please, you talk as if anyone could guess that Class D’s literary girl is a perverted girl who doesn’t normally wear panties.”
“Ahhh! Shion-san, please, can you stop talking about it?!” Sakuya cried, reaching out to continuously thump Shion’s shoulder. “Honestly, Shion-san! You don’t have to keep bringing this up over and over!”
Shion reached out and poked Sakuya’s thigh, which wasn’t covered by her skirt.
It was soft, like a fluffy white cloth, as comfortable to poke as cotton.
“Shi-on-san…” Sakuya stared at Shion’s face, then suddenly reached out and pinched her cheek.
“Ow, ow, ow…” Shion gently patted Sakuya’s hand that was pinching her. “I get it, I was wrong… Stop pinching, stop pinching.”
“Shion-san, we’re outside the shrine right now, in broad daylight! You want to do lewd things to me in public, don’t you?!” Sakuya said, one hand still pinching Shion’s face while the other lightly thumped her head.
“I-I was just joking! Kujou-san, please stop pinching me!” Shion quickly pleaded for mercy.
Sakuya released her grip, smoothed down her skirt, and turned her head away, feigning anger.
“Honestly… at least find somewhere private…” Sakuya muttered softly.
“Kujou-san, what did you say?” Shion asked, having seemingly caught Sakuya’s mumbled words.
Sakuya turned back, her face still flushed, but her eyes seemed to glare at Shion as if ready to devour her. “I said, when Shion-san sets up her stall for the Autumn Festival, I want to help too!”
“Huh? But actually… we probably don’t need that many people…” Shion mumbled.
“I don’t care! Shion-san *has* to include me!”