“My friends, I love TS girls.”

“My friends, TS girls are my favorite.”

“I love TS girls who can switch at will, like lanterns flicking from red to blue.”

“I love TS girls who switch on a schedule, like tides turning under a patient moon.”

“I love TS girls who can’t switch back, like a bridge burned behind dawn.”

“I love TS girls who slowly slip into femininity, like snow melting into spring water.”

“Anime, manga, games, novels, real life…”

“I love every TS girl in this wide world!”

“—Hold up, Ling Yi? Why are you glitching out too? Did senior year grind you into madness?”

Yekase tried to shake Ling Yi off her leg. But Ling Yi was who she was—a dual-class agent in Mind Energy and Flash Energy. Even after both had leveled up, her purity still pressed on Yekase like a steady mountain. With Jiang Bailu, Yekase had held back, afraid to hurt her. Now, it wasn’t restraint—it was simply impossible to break free.

“I love the way a TS girl first slips into a skirt, shame and expectation glowing like dawn.”

“I’m delighted when she has to take a fake girl’s name to hide herself, like a mask of silk.”

“I’m thrilled when a friend catches her, and she flashes a deeply feminine look, like a petal trembling.”

“I love battle-story TS girls who cast off their past for new life and friends, like shedding armor under sunrise.”

“I love slice-of-life TS girls who fix old misunderstandings and close the gap, like a bridge laid in rain.”

“After trying on outfits, her heart grows light as a kite, yet for pride she acts cold. At night she sneaks a mirror, moonlit and breathless—that’s irresistible.”

“She faints from nosebleed while bathing with girls—so old-school it’s charming, like a slapstick drumbeat.”

“She’s become a girl, yet shows a coolness she never had as a boy—the true flavor of TS, like steel under silk…”

“Ahhhh—!”

Yekase cried out, pain cutting like a lightning fork, and forced a stop to Ling Yi’s once-in-a-century episode. She grabbed Ling Yi’s head, lifted it, and locked eyes.

“That’s enough! I get it—you really love TS!”

She pictured Ling Yi’s room, that whole wall of TS and femboy works. An identity exposed would lead to this; she’d expected it. Honestly, the fact Ling Yi held it together till now was impressive.

“Mm-hmm. Since the Doctor won’t date me no matter what, let’s skip that step and go straight to kissing.”

“Were you even listening to me?”

“I passed my campus exam. I’m a freshman at Ivalice State University.”

“Oh. Congrats, then…”

So that’s why she showed up now—

“I want a reward! A kiss! I want a kiss!”

“—Who are you even?! Where did you hide the pure Ling Yi?!”

Yekase fought for a while. Finally she stacked force like stones and pried Ling Yi off her thigh and butt. She grabbed her shoulders and pushed her to arm’s length—

“Doctor…”

So this is all it’ll be, Ling Yi thought, like confessing after exams. She’d scraped up courage she never needed even against strong foes—eighteen years’ worth—and it still only led here.

She didn’t dislike Jiang Bailu. She even thought they fit. Jiang and the Doctor from half a year ago felt so alike. In the lab, they’d built a quiet trust like frost on glass.

But… Ling Yi still wanted to try.

Use graduation as an excuse, and try.

She feared if she kept pretending to be fine, she’d truly become fine—and drift like a leaf gone numb.

Yekase saw her look. Her hands paused. Then, reckless as a smashed pot, she said:

“What’s with those eyes? What’s with those tears? Ugh, you want a kiss, right? Fine, I’ll give you one.”

Ling Yi’s lips met a warm and soft touch.

A shy, shallow kiss without skill or mood, yet it stretched longer than all the hours they’d fought side by side.

It went on and on. When Yekase’s lungs started to give and she tried to pull back, Ling Yi’s arms looped her neck.

“—Mmph?!”

Air vanished; suffocation rose like deep water.

Yekase patted Ling Yi’s back, but the girl who had finally seized her coveted treasure didn’t budge.

Roles flipped.

The kiss lasted five full minutes.

Mind Energy boosts the body like a high base stat. Flash Energy grows step by step. In that span, Yekase blacked out twice… or three times?

She lost count. Her brain turned hazy from the repeated lack of oxygen, like fog muffling bells.

“Ha… ha—mm…”

Ling Yi studied the mist in Yekase’s eyes and their unfocused drift—just from being air-starved. Her thumb grazed the blush on Yekase’s cheek and asked:

“Is this how Sister Bailu tricked you into bed?”

“N-no…”

“Liar. Looking like this, even I could…”

Yet Ling Yi’s hand only roamed Yekase’s defenseless thigh, savoring the evolution Flash Energy had nourished, that perfect mix of soft and springy, like ripe fruit.

“…Let’s stop here.”

She let go of Yekase’s body.

But her gaze stayed, bold like sunlight, and licked from head to toe this creature who now, for some reason, breathed lazy allure—the sort squeezed out by a sealed box’s pressure.

She looked at the soul trapped in a girl’s body.

Not a warped altruist.

Not a monster wearing normal skin.

Lost, mistaken, carried by currents, afraid of tangled feelings and fleeing them—but at heart, someone who acts from the purest kindness: the simple wish to help after she’s fed, like a warm bowl set on a neighbor’s doorstep.

Just someone who moves forward by her own will.

So Ling Yi smiled, gentle as rain.

“I see. This isn’t love.”

“…?”

What did that mean—giving up, or seeing through? Yekase tilted her head, curious like a sparrow.

“I always thought love was when two people felt it, confessed to confirm, and through mutual giving and understanding, two unrelated tracks merged into one new line.”

“That… isn’t wrong—”

She really was our one honest-to-goodness youth, wasn’t she? Dreaming in clean blueprint lines. If it were Jiang Bailu, Yekase would probably be passed out from touch by now.

“But I’m thinking… if we only walk side by side, can’t there be any number of tracks?”

“…Huh???”

Wait! That’s not what a pure youth thinks!

Jiang Bailu, you carnivorous, delightful menace—look what you’ve done! You turned a pure girl whose dream was to be a hero into this. Near vermilion, you turn red; near ink, you turn dark—live and uncut.

“Is it not allowed? Next time you and Sister Bailu do this and that, I’m joining.”

She said strange words in the same pleading tone she’d only used once back when she begged for a new form. Wet, aggressive eyes locked on from below, and what could Yekase say? Ling Yi was an adult now.

“Suit yourself…”

Neither of them noticed, deep in Ling Yi’s eyes—where red and blue blended—a vertical reptile slit had already overlaid, like a blade drawn down the iris.

……

……

Later, Yekase saw the news that Jiang Bailu had gone to Labyrinth City alone.

…Did she not know Yekase had connections there too?

Yekase called Labyrinth City, asked what was going on, and explained things. Labyrinth City immediately arranged for a most senior vampire to teach Jiang Bailu—payment being Yekase recounting her experience in the Tungus Cosmic Bubble.

That payment was basically symbolic. So Yekase let Ling Yi listen in, and told them both about the Galactic Federation for an entire afternoon.

Her tone was calm and faraway, like distant starlight. She spoke of a world that was truly another.

Labyrinth City just found it entertaining. Ling Yi heard a sadness like a tide that once surged but now had ebbed, leaving shallow marks on sand—Yekase had mourned their ending.

When she finished, Yekase asked for their take.

“Survival matters most. Those fragile lifeforms are beyond reason,” said Labyrinth City.

“When you tell stories, you sound eternally girly. It’s cute,” said Ling Yi.

“I asked about the story, not me.”

“The story? Mm, it was moving.”

“So perfunctory!”

With the talk out in the open, Ling Yi dropped her old habit of dodging feelings and began to praise Yekase’s cuteness head-on, wearing a smile with a hint of coy, like peach blossom.

Like a child suddenly grown, that kind of feeling.

Yekase started to worry about when Ivaris came back. How would she explain that this wasn’t a harem, but… a not-so-pure, yet mostly pure, party-member kind of bond?

Right, right—she needed to confirm one more thing.

She pulled Ling Yi aside and whispered, “So, how do you see me and Bailu now?”

“Mm… I want to watch over you two from the sidelines.”

“And what about you?”

“Me? Being able to kiss the Doctor is enough.”

Such a low ask!—No, be grateful—No, what even is this?

Yekase forced a smile. She didn’t know what to call this, but… it should count as pure, right?

Maybe she could bluff Ivaris. If not, she’d make the culprit, Jiang Bailu, duel her.

To meet blade to blade and bare your heart—that was the idea.

Though neither of them used blades.

But in the weave of lasers and force fields, she believed they could find Ling Yi’s clarity too…

She talked herself into believing it.