Bathed in light shining through the window, Yukina slowly awoke.
“Uuu…”
The first thing she saw wasn’t her own room—and yet the ceiling felt familiar to her. She was enveloped by an oddly comfortable scent. She was confused, wondering if she was still dreaming, for Yukina had awoken in the apartment that was the Akatsuki residence. She was in a cluttered study used by a male schoolboy. In other words, Yukina was lying in Kojou’s bed.
“Ahhh, Yukina, are you awake? Good morning! You all right? Do your wounds hurt any?”
Perhaps sensing Yukina had awoken, Nagisa opened the door without knocking and entered the room. She must have been making breakfast. It didn’t seem as if she was wearing an apron over her uniform for show.
“Nagisa…why am I…?”
Yukina put a hand to her forehead as she asked. Yukina remembered fighting Kojou and the others at Keystone Gate’s lowest stratum and taking a mental attack from the black Beast Vassal, but she couldn’t remember anything else.
She’d plotted to sink Itogami Island and had even tried to kill Kojou—she couldn’t comprehend any reason why someone like her had been sleeping in Kojou’s bed.
Nagisa, though, looked back at the bewildered Yukina with mild amusement.
“Since you asked why, Yuu brought you, Kojou, and the rest back here in the middle of the night. Your upperclassman or superior or whoever was with you, the triple-braided older girl.”
“Eh…?”
“I mean, wow…I was so surprised. They told me you fainted in the middle of a fight with Shizuri. Your clothes were all a wreck and you had such a bump on your head… I wanted to have Mimori take a look at it but she was, like, that’s barely an injury, she’ll be just fine and stuff. Ah, Mimori took your upperclassman to the hospital, though. Mimori was really ticked off about her forcing herself to move when she was hurt that bad to begin with.”
“I-is that so…”
Sitting on the bed, Yukina nodded vaguely, overwhelmed by Nagisa’s verbal barrage.
The upperclassman who was brought to the hospital must have been Koyomi Shizuka. Participating in combat despite her injuries really must have put a great deal of strain on her body.
She was glad that a doctor as capable as Mimori Akatsuki had been the one to examine Koyomi—or maybe she should have thanked Kojou for bringing them home so that Mimori could do so.
“Ah, these are your clothes, Yukina. I washed and ironed them for you.”
Nagisa dropped the clothes she clutched against her chest at the foot of Yukina’s bed. It was then that Yukina realized she was wearing Nagisa’s pajamas. When she looked closer, she saw that her entire body was covered in brand-new compresses and adhesive bandages. Mimori had probably done that, too.
“So why were you and Shizuri fighting anyway? It’s because of Kojou, right?”
“Er…that’s, ahhh…”
The question posed in such an innocent tone made Yukina go uhhh, hesitating to reply. The situation made it really hard to tell Nagisa she had been stopped while trying to sink Itogami Island.
Showing consideration for Yukina being caught red-handed, Nagisa giggled and smiled with amusement.
“Well, fine. If you can’t say it with me around, just talk to him and settle it between yourselves quick. I’m going to Keystone Gate so see you.”
“Keystone Gate?”
“Yeah, Asagi called me over.”
Later, waved Nagisa, leaving the room. Finally, Yukina heard the patter of steps as Nagisa headed out the front door. Yukina was still sitting at the edge of the bed, listening to that sound in a complete daze.
She was overcome for another two to three minutes before she finally regained her senses.
Snowdrift Wolf hadn’t been left inside the room. To Kojou and the others, Yukina was clearly an enemy—someone who’d tried to destroy Itogami Island on the government of Japan’s orders. Of course they’d disarmed her.
The issue was, why had Kojou brought Yukina into his own home, then? Furthermore, she wasn’t restrained or even under guard. She knew that Koyomi had been brought to the hospital, but she didn’t know how Yukari or Natsuki was being treated. She had no grasp of the situation whatsoever.
“…”
Yukina sighed a little and put a hand on the buttons of her pajamas. She wasn’t going to solve anything staying in the room by her lonesome. She figured it’d be best to leave the room and gather information.
Stripping off the pajamas borrowed from Nagisa, she put her hands on her freshly washed uniform. She was a little thrown off that even her underwear had been washed. Right after Yukina picked up her bra—
Fwaaa, yawned a relaxed voice with a creak of the sofa.
Yukina, half-naked, lifted her head, only then realizing that the door to her room was still open.
She could see the Akatsuki residence living room straight ahead. On the sofa at the center of it rested Kojou, stretching his back. Looking like he’d just woken up himself, he noticed Yukina standing still, blinking his eyes with a mystified look. For a while, Yukina and Kojou looked at each other like that.
“Eh…?”
“Ah?”
After a brief silence, Yukina and Kojou let out their voices at virtually the same moment.
Apparently, because he had lent the wounded Yukina his own bed, Kojou had slept on the living room sofa, upon which he was just now waking up. Remembering that Nagisa had said just earlier to settle it between themselves, she apparently meant Kojou was right there in the apartment.
“H-Himeragi?”
“Y-yes…er! How long are you going to look at me like that?!”
Yukina covered her breasts with the underwear she’d just grabbed and objected in a shrieking voice.
Kojou swiftly averted his eyes.
“Er, wait, Himeragi. I was just waking up; you were the one suddenly standing there naked, right?!”
“I was in the middle of changing! I never imagined senpai would be here, and besides—”
“I get it already! Sorry! I’ll turn this way so change clothes quick…er, shit, tissues! I need tissues…!”
Pressing both hands over his nose, Kojou let out a muffled yelp. Apparently his nose started bleeding from arousal. It was something you’d never expect from the mightiest of vampirekind.
✦ ✦ ✦
