Inside the ability-user academy classroom.
Two people were sitting side by side.
“Yuri, you need to concentrate.”
Even though it carried a scolding tone, the voice was gentle.
Yuri pressed one hand firmly against the warm, fuzzy feeling swelling in her chest, smiled bashfully, and lowered her head over the notebook Mari was pointing at.
A cool winter scent wafted from the seat beside her.
Yuri liked everything about the person called Mari.
With all her heart.
The #1 Hero, Jo Mari.
That was why Yuri had a secret that must never be discovered.
***
“Stop right there, Pink Witch!”
Mari’s voice echoed across the night sky of the downtown city, tinged with blue dawn light.
The woman standing lightly at the edge of the building’s rooftop slowly turned around.
The hem of her black gothic dress and black lace umbrella fluttered pleasantly in the night wind, and her brilliant pink bob, which couldn’t be hidden even by the ornate lace eyepatch, sparkled beneath the moonlight.
“If you were me, Unnie, would you stop?”
Yuri raised the corners of her lips and smiled brightly.
The S-rank villain ‘Pink Witch,’ who threw the city into an uproar every evening. That was Yuri’s other name.
An S-rank hero who pursued her every night, for her and her alone.
As Yuri lightly hopped between buildings, Mari too kicked off the rooftop floor and chased closely behind her.
“Kyaa, Unnie is too fast.”
Yuri placed both hands on her cheeks, let out a scream, and swung the umbrella hanging on her forearm toward the sky.
At that moment, pink powder resembling cherry blossom petals scattered like a blizzard through the night air in every direction.
The sparkle, which appeared nothing but pretty and crystalline, was an ability that tightly bound its target the moment it touched them.
“No! Don’t use your ability!”
Mari shouted urgently and tried to leap up to avoid the sparkling glitter.
But the dazzling powder spreading through the night sky enveloped Mari's legs in an instant like a swamp.
Her body, which had been about to soar into the air, was caught by the rooftop floor as if collapsing.
“Ah, pretty. Our unnie flapping around like that is cute, too.”
Having secured a safe distance on the opposite building’s rooftop, Yuri hummed a tune and quickly took out her phone from her dress pocket.
With practiced motions, she pulled the zoom to its maximum, and Mari's face—trapped in pink glitter, furrowing her brows in confusion as she looked up—filled the lens.
Even through the static-filled screen, only she was visible in Yuri's eyes.
Click, click.
A bell-like shutter sound rang out in succession. Yuri checked the result on the screen and pouted her lips slightly.
“Hmm, since it’s night, there’s noise so the image quality isn’t very good… But I can still make out at least Unnie’s eye shape.”
So what if the photo was a bit blurry and shaky.
If she could capture to her heart’s content in her eyes and in her photos that lovely unnie running toward her and gasping for breath because of her, that was enough.
“Unnie!”
She hopped over to Mari, who was looking down quietly.
“Don’t come near.”
“I don’t want to.”
A voice pushing her away indifferently, as always.
Yuri took one step closer and carefully smoothed down her wrinkled suit blazer sleeve, straightening each wrinkle.
Mari’s two hands were free enough to strike her away at any moment.
But she quietly looked down at the hand fiddling with her sleeve and stood stiff and still.
At that obedient appearance, like a gentle puppy, a smile naturally bloomed.
Yuri let go of the sleeve and smiled brightly back at her.
As her pink eyes curved into crescents, Mari subtly averted her gaze and tugged at the end of the sleeve where the hand had just touched. Tug, tug.
She slowly wrapped her other hand around the back of the hand that Yuri had brushed against.
“Stop touching me.”
“It just brushed past you.”
Seeing Mari’s lightly flushed face, a beaming smile escaped her.
Saying not to touch when she hadn’t even avoided it.
Unnie is surprisingly cute, after all.
“I have to go home now, Unnie. See you next time.”
Though it wasn’t next time, but tomorrow at the academy.
Yuri glanced once at Mari’s face and tapped the ground with the end of the black umbrella she held. Tap.
Soon, black liquid gurgled up from beneath her feet and tried to engulf her body.
Before her vision was completely swallowed by darkness, Mari’s voice reached her, muttering in disbelief.
“You really do whatever you want.”