I am only one world away from Yukinoshita.

Chapter 10, Section 232: Budding

The perspective shifted so quickly that Yukinoshita couldn't react in time. The sudden dizziness made her involuntarily let go of the documents she was holding, which scattered all over the floor.

"Tachibana?"

Hikigaya looked at Kiyoyori, who was clearly out of sorts, with a puzzled expression.

Yukinoshita suddenly realized what was happening, and squatted down to pick up the scattered documents again. "The Holy Grail Exploration?"

The title, prominently displayed, was printed in black ink in the center of white paper, exuding a faint smell of ink, with a line of smaller text beside it—

Tachibana Kiyori.

Did she write this script herself?

After quickly flipping through the manuscript, I noticed that next to the printed text were handwritten annotations in different colors. The characters were sharp and strong, neither neat nor sloppy, quite different from the handwriting of most girls of this age.

Although handwriting reflects one's personality, Kiyoyori's handwriting is more honest than she is herself.

Yukino sighed softly in her heart.

Could this person have mistakenly handed over their own copy of the script?

Yukino instinctively reached for her own body, which should have been standing by the podium. However, the classroom had become somewhat restless because of Sagami's words earlier. Some people who were not there voluntarily even used the excuse of helping with class activities to abandon their work and run away.

This situation was unexpected, and the culprit...

The thought of Haruno gave Yukino an unbearable headache, but unexpectedly she saw Kiyoyori holding Haruno's hand with her own body.

Her breath caught in her throat, and Yukinoshita stood frozen in place, watching the two people in the distance gradually approaching. An indescribable anger welled up in her heart.

Is he angry that someone has taken it upon themselves to act in a way that is inconsistent with their role?

Or perhaps, it's because they're angry and so close to each other?

Without further hesitation, Yukinoshita, clutching the documents in her hand, strode forward and pulled Kiyori, who was still silently confronting Haruno, out of the classroom.

Completely unaware of the teasing yet forlorn gaze upon him from behind.

The two walked down the corridor in an odd manner, encountering many students along the way. They couldn't help but receive astonished stares, since in their eyes, it was a first-year student they had never seen before dragging the famous Yukinoshita down the corridor with ease. Moreover, judging from their expressions, the first-year student's face was so dark it was almost smoking, while Yukinoshita, who was being dragged, looked completely bewildered.

Completely bewildered, Kiyoshiro was led from the bustling corridor to the almost deserted outside the teaching building by Yukinoshita. The two stood under the old awning of the corridor, which conveniently blocked the intense sunlight.

However, the strong winds, mixed with hail, blowing from the direction beneath the snow were a bit too much for Kiyoyori to bear.

"senior?"

The chilling storm intensified in the silence, and to prevent this awkward and terrible atmosphere from escalating into an even more dire situation, Kiyoshi chose to break the silence first.

Yukinoshita remained with her back to Kiyori, giving him no chance to see her expression.

The silhouette hidden in the shadows evoked a sense of desolation for some reason, even though it was my own body.

“Tachibana-kun,” Yukinoshita’s sudden voice made Kiyoyori tense up, “did you pick up the wrong script?”

"what?"

Kiyoshi, who was still thinking about how his actions had offended the other party, had no idea how the topic would turn and was unable to react for a moment.

“The script,” Yukinoshita turned around and pointed to the stack of manuscript papers with her finger, “this has a lot of your own annotations on it, so it shouldn’t be the version we’re submitting, right?”

Stunned, Kiyoyori took the manuscript from Yukinoshita's hand. As soon as she opened it, she realized that she had indeed taken the wrong thing. However, she did not expect that the other party had only brought her all the way here just to talk about these things.

"Senior...is this all you're saying?"

Yukino pursed her lips and crossed her arms. "Is there anything else you'd like to say, Tachibana-san?"

what--

Kiyoshita belatedly realized that Yukinoshita might be concerned about what he had said to Haruno using her body earlier. After all, the other party was Yukinoshita Haruno, and if he wasn't careful, she would see through his act.

After being dragged along the way, Kiyoyori calmed down and realized that his outrageous remarks to Haruno were a prime example of a lack of self-awareness.

She seems to have caused trouble for Yukino...

Kiyoshiro scratched his face sheepishly with his fingers and gave an awkward smile, while Yukinoshita across from him made no attempt to hide her complicated feelings by showing the same expression on her face.

"I was just provoked by that guy Yang Nai, and I couldn't hold back..."

As always, Haruno manages to hit Kiyoyori's sore spot.

“'Yang Nai', 'that guy'?”

Yukinoshita squinted, looking at Kiyoyori with a scrutinizing expression.

She couldn't quite describe her inner thoughts. An indescribable bitterness was quietly spreading within her. She wanted to press her hand against her chest, but Qinglai stood in front of her, as if something wanted to break free of its cage, as if something was roaring, howling, and destroying her already shattered heart. That empty feeling returned, as if a whole piece had been gouged out by sharp claws, leaving only a pool of bloody marks.

Kiyoyori, of course, realized his rudeness. "Ah, no—"

It is clearly inappropriate to address someone in this way in front of their sister. Even if Yukinoshita has some grievances against Haruno, Kiyori has no right to overstep his bounds.

Perhaps, just like Haruno, Yukinoshita would also secretly care for her older sister without the other person noticing.

However, Qinglai couldn't find a more suitable address for the moment, so he could only stammer an explanation.

Unable to stand it any longer, Yukino interrupted, "Your sister provoked you, and then what?"

Kiyoshiro truthfully told the other party what had happened, and inadvertently defused Yukinoshita's inexplicable anger.

“Hmm…” Yukinoshita put her index finger to her lips and pondered quietly. “It’s alright. I wanted to make this cultural festival a success anyway. It has nothing to do with whether my sister will show up or not. It’s just that it will be a little more troublesome if she is there than if she isn’t. Since she is willing to help, let her do it.”

"But I don't think her motives were so pure."

But judging from the fact that she instigated Sagami to say those words, Haruno must have had other plans.

Yukinoshita couldn't have been unaware of this. "The decision was made by Sagami-kun; I'm just the vice president."

But in my opinion, Sagami's position as president is now merely nominal...

Kiyori thought for a moment but still didn't say it aloud, "Sagamami-senpai really thinks she's a queen."

This constitutional monarchy system is indeed quite self-evident.

But Yukino misunderstood, saying, "This doesn't prevent us from having the same goal."

P.S.: I hope I can pull Venti tomorrow, even though I only did one 10-pull. Yes, I'm dreaming. Railgun is over. I hope we won't be apart for too long. Next month I'll be living on Is the Order a Rabbit?.

Chapter 11 Reina's Unexpected Boldness

"So, after you went there, did you find anything?"

"What...?"

Kiyoshi was drawing something on a cardboard with paint while looking up at Reina, who was standing in the center of the classroom directing the logistics team.

"Ah, it's black..."

"abnormal!"

Reina casually crumpled the personnel arrangement sheet that she had been holding between her fingers into a ball and accurately threw it at Kiyoyori's face, but she did not show any shyness or try to cover herself up.

Hit, Kiyora lowered her head again and continued her "masterpiece".

"Reina is surprisingly bold... I've never seen this style before, ah—"

The back of his head was attacked again.

"This is all Reina's fault for not changing into her gym clothes, okay? This isn't an invitation—ugh!?"

Kiyoshi nimbly ducked low to avoid the devastating blow from his childhood friend's soul.

Kiyotomi, who was almost buried in the still-wet paint on the painting, made a gesture of surrender, "I surrender, I surrender."

Today, the brass band had no activities for the first time in a long time. On one hand, it was because of the cultural festival, and everyone had assigned tasks in class activities. On the other hand, the Kanto Competition had just ended, and Takigaki believed that practice should also be balanced.

Kiyoshi, who had already finished the script, only needed to supervise rehearsals in his spare time. However, Reina seemed to disapprove of having someone loitering around in the class, so she conscripted Kiyoshi from the performance club to work in the logistics club painting large props.

They claimed that Kiyoshi's painting skills were excellent.

Looking at the large stack of props waiting to be colored, Kiyoshi couldn't help but sigh and scratched his chin with the hand still holding the pen.

“That’s awful,” Reina kicked Kiyoyori’s thigh with her toe. “Changing the subject. You know perfectly well what I’m talking about.”

Kiyoyori's smirk turned into a helpless, bitter smile, and he let out a soft sigh. "Since when has Reina started caring about things other than playing the wind instrument?"

“Of course I care,” Reina said, taking out a wet wipe, squatting down and gently wiping away the blue paint that had accidentally gotten on Kiyoyori’s lips. “Because it’s Kiyoyori.”

It must be said that Reina's excessively beautiful face and purple eyes possessed an unusual allure, even her words seemed imbued with a touch of magic, causing even Kiyoyori, who had faced this face for over a decade, to momentarily lose his senses. But—

"What's with this really cool line?" Kiyoyori asked, letting Reina rub her skin with a wet wipe. "Speaking of which, Reina probably switched the script, didn't she?!"

"Have we been exposed...?"

Reina withdrew her hand, rested her face on her hands, and showed no remorse whatsoever.

"Really..." Kiyoyori instinctively reached for his finger to press the bridge of his nose, but then suddenly remembered that his hands were still covered in paint, so he stopped himself. "What is Reina thinking?"

“Of course it’s to create an opportunity for Kiyoyori,” Reina replied matter-of-factly. “Don’t you care?”

"What do you care about?"

As if resisting the topic with his body language, Kiyoshi lowered his head, pretending to be focused on the painting work at hand.

"Yukino Yukinoshita-senpai from the second year."

Kiyoshi's hand trembled, and the white paint representing the clouds drew a glaring line across the blue paint that served as the sky background.

"What are you saying?"

Feigning composure, he used his paintbrush to outline a large patch of white paint and placed it on his palette. Then, with steady movements, he transformed the originally appropriately sized white cloud into a huge blob.

"No? Every time Kiyotaka passes by that classroom, he can't help but look inside."

Reina picked up a small fan from the side and gently fanned the paint, then took out a prop with only an outline from behind her.

"Then I might not necessarily be looking at that Yukinoshita-senpai, right?"