"Utena, the cognition barrier on you hasn't disappeared. It's just that your cognition barrier doesn't work on me."
Seeing Suzune Rione covering her mouth and face with both hands, her body losing support, Hachiman hurriedly tightened his hold on her. Holding Suzune Rione securely with both arms, he steadied himself for a moment, then took the initiative to walk toward Hiiragi Utena.
"You didn't seriously think that someone who's on such good terms with Iris and the others is just an ordinary person, did you?"
"S-so that's how it is… yeah… I guess that makes sense…"
The three stood facing one another. In the dim forest, the breeze rustled the leaves with a soft patter. The silver bracelet and chain on Suzune Rione's wrist swayed with the wind, chiming faintly.
Hiiragi Utena stared blankly at Hachiman, who held Suzune Rione without changing expression and walked toward her step by step. Her not-very-good-at-studying brain buzzed as it slowly tried to process things.
Honestly, just the fact that the Service Club could gather so many beautiful top students from Sobu High was enough to show that Hachiman-nii was not an ordinary person.
What was more, Hachiman had such close relationships with the Elf Princesses, whose identities and status were incredibly lofty. Even that energetic pink-haired big sister Lala with the strange tail claimed to be an alien princess and said she was Hachiman's fiancée.
What she never expected was that the gentle, approachable Hachiman-, who was so considerate and caring toward them, would be like this in private, in private.
Facing this kind of awkward situation for the first time, with no way to escape, Hiiragi Utena had no idea where to look.
She lowered her head and counted the damp clumps of soil on the ground for a while. When she realized that neither Hachiman nor Suzune Rione was speaking, she could no longer hold back her anxiety. Uneasily, she raised her head and asked the thing she was most worried about.
"Th-then, Hachiman-nii… can you help me keep this a secret? Can you not expose my identity? I didn't choose to do this myself, it's just, it's just…"
Compared to the embarrassment of stumbling upon Hachiman secretly meeting a Goddess Angel, what worried her more right now was how to deal with the fact that Hachiman knew about her identity as a female executive of an evil organization.
Venalita had only coerced her into fighting magical girls. She had not told her to go after innocent civilians like Hachiman.
Of course, she had never thought about going after Hachiman-nii in the first place.
Komachi had actually talked to her, someone with no friends, introduced her to Shion, Haruka, and the others, and even invited her to come over and play at their house.
How could she repay kindness with betrayal and turn against Komachi's brother Hachiman?
But since she could not attack Hachiman, she had to worry about him revealing her identity.
Now Venalita was nowhere to be seen. If she was hiding in the shadows observing her reaction, and saw her tell Hachiman about being threatened, then immediately exposed her information online, she would be in serious trouble.
"I believe you're a good kid, Utena. You must have your own hardships to end up like this."
Seeing Hiiragi Utena take the initiative to speak, Hachiman released one hand so Suzune Rione could hook her arm around his neck. He picked up the empty silver bracelet from the other end of the chain on Suzune Rione's wrist and held it out to Hiiragi Utena.
"If you don't want to say it, I won't force you. But Utena, you have to put this on."
"This is?"
Hiiragi Utena blankly accepted the silver bracelet engraved with mysterious patterns, beautiful and enigmatic, then looked at Suzune Rione, who was wearing an identical bracelet. She did not understand why Hachiman was giving her this.
The silver bracelet was very pretty, but it looked like part of a pair, and not something you would normally wear.
"This bracelet is called a Sympathy Bracelet. When both parties wear it, they can experience each other's sensations as if they were their own. Sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, even the extremely subtle sensations inside the body will all be faithfully reflected in each other."
Hachiman explained the effect of the silver Sympathy bracelet while looking at Hiiragi Utena in her evil executive outfit.
"I'm willing to believe that you won't leak our information, Utena. But Rione is a Goddess Angel. She won't trust someone who's joined an evil organization."
"So you need to wear this bracelet, and let Rione and me record a video together, to make sure you won't reveal Rione's situation."
Suzune Rione bit her lower lip tightly without saying a word. She just stared at Hiiragi Utena in her evil attire and nodded vigorously up and down.
If Hiiragi Utena, an evil organization villain, was worried about her own identity being exposed, then she naturally had the same concern.
Although she was a Goddess Angel sent from the Divine Realm to the human world, with no family or friends who could be used as leverage, even a Goddess Angel could not fight nonstop day and night. In the human world, she also needed an identity to hide herself.
Hearing Hachiman say he chose to trust Hiiragi Utena and believed she was a good child, she had just been about to say that they could not simply let Hiiragi Utena go like this.
After leaving, Hiiragi Utena might immediately bring a bunch of evil forces to surround her and Hachiman.
Unexpectedly, Hachiman seemed to hear her thoughts. He directly proposed that Hiiragi Utena put on the Sympathy bracelet and let them record a video before she could leave.
Although she herself had only just learned about this Sympathy bracelet, she had asked Hachiman to help her collect desire energy. No matter what conditions he set, she would accept them.
And Hachiman had not proposed anything excessive, only that she wear this silver bracelet. Naturally, she would not refuse, nor did she even ask what it was.
Still, at this moment, she felt that Hiiragi Utena really did need to wear the Sympathy bracelet.
As long as Hiiragi Utena wore it and was recorded like her, experiencing the same thing she did, then she would not have to worry about Hiiragi Utena leaking what happened here with her and Hachiman.
"Wear this bracelet? That means… o-okay!"
After hearing about the effect of the Sympathy bracelet, and realizing that Hachiman wanted her to wear it and be recorded, Hiiragi Utena shuddered. She wanted to ask him to change the condition.
But seeing Suzune Rione staring at her without any intention of letting her off, she could only accept this condition for mutually keeping secrets, her face scrunched in misery.
The moment the silver bracelet was fastened around her slender, pale wrist, Hiiragi Utena's legs went weak. She could not hold onto her short whip, and she collapsed to her knees.
'Th-this is…'
'How is this Goddess Angel even able to endure this?'
Hiiragi Utena barely supported herself on the ground with both hands. Her brain felt overheated, her vision swam and blurred, unable to focus. She could only sense something dripping continuously from the back of her neck. She instinctively pressed her lips together.
Feeling the power contained within those lips, Hiiragi Utena raised her head to look at Hachiman and Suzune Rione, swallowing hard, unsure whether it was from discomfort or desire.
Without experiencing it firsthand, she could not possibly know what kind of trial Suzune Rione was enduring right now.
No wonder this Goddess Angel named Rione spoke a couple of sentences at first and then stopped speaking entirely.
It was not that Rione was aloof or unwilling to speak, nor that she did not want to talk to someone from an evil organization. It was that at this moment, Rione simply could not speak at all.
Hachiman reached out and gently patted Hiiragi Utena's little head as her whole body trembled and she bit her lip tightly, softly soothing her agitated emotions.
Although in the original work Suzune Rione's performance was pretty weak, like a helpless saint who was easily deceived and exploited because of her kindness, she was still a Goddess Angel who represented holiness and justice.
In a sense, Suzune Rione was also a magical girl, and a very veteran one at that. The worldview was just different, and the form it took was different.
Now even Suzune Rione was almost at her limit, let alone Hiiragi Utena, who was still very inexperienced and had not yet become the evil organization's Maple Syrup Supreme Commander.
But it was not a big problem. Hiiragi Utena was no longer an ordinary person either, so her tolerance was not that low. He could just give her some tonics later to help her recover.
Ding-ling-ling!
Hearing the phone ringtone, Hachiman took out the vibrating phone from Suzune Rione, glanced at the name displayed, thought for a moment, then asked Suzune Rione, whose eyes were hazy.
"Rione, do you want to answer it?"
"It's Yuuri's call. Answer it, answer it… but Hikigaya-kun, wait a bit first, let me!"
Hearing her phone ring helped Suzune Rione regain a little clarity. She turned to look at her phone and saw that the caller was Maijima Yuuri, the junior Goddess Angel she had awakened. After biting her lip and hesitating for a moment, she still decided to answer.
Calling this late had to mean something urgent.
If Maijima Yuuri was in danger, she could not just ignore it.
She wanted to catch her breath and wait a moment before answering, but Hachiman immediately pressed the answer button and held the phone to her ear.
"Yu-Yuuri?"
———
"Th-this should be enough… I've collected more than enough."
Suzune Rione did not know how she finished the call with Maijima Yuuri, nor did she know how long she had been collecting desire energy.
She only knew that after she hurriedly hung up on Maijima Yuuri, Hachiman stopped holding back and fully indulged her need to collect desire energy.
Hiiragi Utena had not adapted at first and had slumped on the ground without moving, but after getting used to the Sympathy bracelet, she instead became very proactive, lifting her head eagerly to help Hachiman increase the pace.
She understood this clearly, even though she had no direct contact with Hiiragi Utena.
Because the effect of the Sympathy bracelet was mutual… Hiiragi Utena could feel her nervous emotions, and she could feel Hiiragi Utena's puffed cheeks.
Suzune Rione leaned back against the thick tree trunk, breathing lightly. She raised a hand to wipe away the tears that had spilled uncontrollably from the corners of her eyes earlier, then lowered her head to pull her clothes back into place and straighten them, returning to the cold, emotionless appearance of the Goddess Angel Sacred Luje.
Only after finishing did Suzune Rione turn her head to look at Hiiragi Utena beside her, who was still doing the final wrap-up work.
At this moment, Hiiragi Utena was no longer dressed as a queen-like evil executive. Instead, she wore a black-and-white maid outfit. The cinched apron and white skirt's lace hem barely covered her pale thighs, while white garter stockings tightly wrapped her long, straight legs.
"Um… Hachiman-nii…"
Hiiragi Utena pressed her white-stockinged legs into the damp, soft ground. She released Hachiman, slowly straightened up, and looked at him with pleading eyes as he rested with his eyes half-closed.
According to maid logic, after she and the Goddess Angel beside her had served for so long, Hachiman should be very satisfied by now.
But seeing that Hachiman still did not look weakened at all, the inexperienced her fell into confusion again.
"Mm, that's enough. Utena, put this camera into your storage space," Hachiman let out a soft breath, raised his hand to pat Hiiragi Utena's head, and handed the small handheld camera to her.
The black-and-white maid outfit Hiiragi Utena was wearing was the reward from the earlier Rurikawa Tsubaki character quest.
Anyone who wore this maid outfit would automatically master maid skills such as cooking, tea ceremony, housework, financial management, driving, combat, spatial magic, serving their master, and so on.
However, the spatial magic that came with this maid outfit was not combat magic, but storage-type magic.
He could summon this maid outfit at any time, and the person wearing it could use the storage space freely. It did not have much special use in combat. On top of that, once it was taken off, the knowledge would be forgotten again. Normally, there was no particular need for maid services, so he rarely took it out.
Only for sudden situations like just now would he take it out so Hiiragi Utena could master the techniques.
Mm… Suzune Rione did not need to master it. He was holding her close and teaching her personally. There was no need to change into a black-and-white maid outfit. Wearing the Goddess Angel battle outfit was better.
"Okay, Hachiman-nii."
Blushing, Hiiragi Utena put the camera that contained her unspeakable dark history from tonight into the storage space attached to the maid outfit.
She desperately wanted to destroy the video in the camera, but if it were that easy to destroy, she would not have had to kneel on the ground for so long.
If she destroyed that video, Hachiman would definitely demand that she record even more embarrassing videos.
Although after experiencing things together with Suzune Rione, she did not actually hate this kind of thing.
Hiiragi Utena stole a glance at Hachiman's handsome face. Seeing that he really had no intention of continuing, she felt relieved, yet also vaguely disappointed.
Just as Venalita had said, she was an utterly ordinary girl with no charm at all.
Even after transforming into a female executive of an evil organization and wearing that kind of outfit, it was the same. Hachiman had even specifically made her wear the more covered black-and-white maid outfit to record the video, probably just to reassure the Goddess Angel that she would not leak secrets…
["Quest progress: Justice Will Prevail (magical girl victories 1/100)"]
Hearing the system's quest progress notification, Hachiman felt speechless. His actions just now had been judged by the system as him helping a magical girl defeat an evil organization once?
This standard of judgment made him involuntarily think of certain special ways of fighting.
Magical girls and evil organizations fighting all day was not good. It would be better to be more harmonious and compete in other ways.
But those things could wait. Right now, he wanted to deal with the Goddess Angel.
One side winning a hundred times, both sides together making two hundred times. When you thought about it carefully, that was quite a lot. And magical girls and evil organizations were not just one or two people.
Hachiman stood up, pulled Hiiragi Utena, who was secretly licking the corner of her lips, up from the ground, and asked Suzune Rione, who had already rested a bit.
"Are you sure you've collected enough desire energy now, and it's time to go summon a demon to save your helper?"
During the process of collecting desire energy, Suzune Rione had intermittently explained the details of tonight's situation to him.
To save the helper whose brain had been contaminated, Suzune Rione needed to summon a demon from the demon realm to create an antidote. If she tried to forcibly purify them, the helper would die on the spot.
For her, the only solution at the moment was to collect desire energy and have that bald, receding-hairline man who had sided with the demons summon a demon from the demon realm.
But she was not sure exactly how much desire energy was needed.
"It should be enough… I probably can't collect any more desire energy in a short time."
Suzune Rione looked at the desire energy in her hand, which had condensed into a pink-purple crystal. The semi-transparent crystal emitted a strange light that easily bewitched the heart.
The crystal did not look large, but once the desire energy inside erupted, it would affect many people, enough to make tens of thousands lose their reason.
Normally, pure desire energy would not have such a big impact. But the vast majority of it had been collected from her own body, with only a very small part from Hiiragi Utena. Desire energy collected from a Goddess Angel was of a higher grade, and ordinary humans had no resistance to it at all.
Originally, she had wanted to collect desire energy from Hachiman. But Hachiman's body contained only incomparably pure and vast life energy, without the slightest impurity.
No matter how she tried to provoke the desires buried deep in his heart, even enduring her own embarrassment to face him directly and actuallyly wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him, there was still no desire energy born from Hachiman, only increasingly pure and powerful life energy pouring out.
This was something she had never anticipated at the start.
Still, in terms of results, with Hachiman's full support, she had collected a large amount of desire energy.
Now she did not know whether this desire energy originating from herself as a Goddess Angel would be enough to summon a powerful demon from the demon realm. But since she could not collect any from Hachiman, what else could she do?
She could not exactly go find other girls to help her. Who would even help her like that?
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