Jiecheng Yuan had already decided that, no matter what, she wouldn’t do anything that crossed the line. There was no room for compromise on that. As far as she could, she wanted to protect Mizuno You from any harm.
Not that Mizuno You needed her protection, and she seemed more than happy to be “harmed.”
“Kill you? Heh heh heh! Don’t flatter yourself! We’re going to mess you up good!” The silver-haired girl, arms folded, turned from the side and delivered a classic villain line straight out of a game, complete with an evil grin. Then she swiftly turned to Jiecheng Yuan and asked, her face utterly innocent, “How are we supposed to mess her up?”
The whole act had fallen apart. Completely. And after she’d been acting so serious just a moment ago, too.
“S-so you two were in cahoots all along! What a despicable trick! Don’t think you can make me give up just by tying me up like this!” Mizuno You’s shoulders trembled as chains wrapped around her like a cocoon. She seemed to be suppressing her anger.
Anger? She was trembling with excitement! If Jiecheng Yuan hadn’t known Mizuno You’s character in the game, that icy expression might really have fooled her.
“She and I aren’t—” The silver-haired girl started to answer, but Jiecheng Yuan hurriedly cut her off. If the girl accidentally revealed anything about her to Mizuno You, all the trouble she’d gone to for this little performance would be for nothing.
“Girl, your fruit has yet to ripen. You’re not worth plucking.”
The chuunibyou level of that line made Jiecheng Yuan want to crawl into a hole, but to play the arrogant, enigmatic villain, she also had to give her opponent a dignified way out. That was the best she could come up with on short notice.
As soon as she said it, the eager look on Mizuno You’s face vanished. Even the silver-haired girl beside her gave Jiecheng Yuan a complicated look, as if to say, What kind of weird thing are you talking about?
It’d be a disaster if Mizuno You noticed the silver-haired girl’s bewildered look. Mizuno You might be a shamelessly willing participant, but she wasn’t stupid. If she started getting suspicious, they’d have a real problem.
Jiecheng Yuan stepped between them, turned to face the girl, and hid her face from Mizuno You as she frantically blinked, silently begging the other girl to play along.
“Why are you winking at me? Didn’t you just say you were going to mess her up good?” The silver-haired girl tilted her head, looking utterly confused.
Are you an idiot? You are an idiot, aren’t you?! If you weren’t going to play along, you didn’t have to sabotage me like that!
Jiecheng Yuan held back the urge to curse her out. This wasn’t the world she’d come from; she was a beautiful girl now and couldn’t just swear whenever she wanted. She forced down the anger rising in her chest and raced to think of something that could save this crumbling performance.
“Whatever you do to me, it won’t work!” At this awkward moment, the one who picked up the conversation was Mizuno You. “Even if you tie me up like a tortoise—”
“I’m not tying you up like a turtle or a crab!”
Not thinking things through had led Jiecheng Yuan to shoot down Mizuno You’s line without a moment’s hesitation.
It didn’t exactly fit the aloof, cryptic villain persona she’d just established, but she was still relieved she hadn’t let Mizuno You finish. She was also a little worried the girl might come out with something even more dangerous next.
She’d only transmigrated into a girl’s body. The stirrings in her heart wouldn’t change just because her body had.
Thank you, silver-haired girl whose name I don’t know. If the Binding Trap had tied Mizuno You up in a way everyone would enjoy, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to control myself.
“What kind of way is a crab supposed to be tied up…?” Mizuno You murmured to herself, swallowing as she repeated the words. She seemed rather eager. Then she composed her expression, turned icy again, and continued:
“Even if I’ve fallen into your hands, whether you [BEEP] me, or [BEEP] me, even if you [BEEP] me, I’ll never give in to you!”
A response? More like a deranged rant! I already interrupted her once, so why is she at it again? My brain automatically censored all those weird things she said!
And she just swallowed. She definitely swallowed, right?! This shamelessly willing girl is hinting at something, isn’t she?!
For the first time in her life, Jiecheng Yuan felt completely at a loss. Reading the same lines and hearing them voiced in the game was one thing. Hearing them spoken by a beautiful girl who’d been defeated and wrapped up like a dumpling was a whole different level of shock.
Before transmigrating, Jiecheng Yuan had only learned about this sort of thing from adult games. She was still at the armchair-theorist stage, with absolutely no hands-on experience.
Forget the terrifying things Mizuno You had brought up—even the nerve to rape her a little… No, she didn’t even have the nerve to poke her boobs.
Jiecheng Yuan stiffly turned her neck and looked to the silver-haired girl for help, hoping she’d notice how awkward this was and say or do something to get her out of it.
But the silver-haired girl’s reaction was several times more extreme. Her cheeks were so red they looked ready to start steaming. Her teeth chattered wildly, and her pupils, fixed on who knew what, shook violently without a moment’s rest. Her whole body was rigid as a board, and all she could manage was a string of “aba aba” sounds.
Her brain’s overloaded, huh? Looks like this sort of thing is still too much for her…
Wait, no! Wasn’t she a corrupted Magical Girl too? Shouldn’t corruption make people less innocent in this world?!
On one side, there was a righteous girl who was eager to offer herself up; on the other, a corrupted innocent whose brain had overloaded. With the two of them being this absurd, even Jiecheng Yuan, an utterly ordinary transmigrator, felt awkward standing between them.
What should she do when she felt awkward? Obviously, run. Was she supposed to wait for Mizuno You to break free of the chains?
Being quick to act had always been one of Jiecheng Yuan’s strengths. It might take her a long time to make up her mind, but once she decided to do something, her body was already moving.
Without a second thought, Jiecheng Yuan grabbed the silver-haired girl by the leg, hoisted her over her shoulder, and ran toward the thickest part of the crowd, leaving Mizuno You tied up like a dumpling behind.
Jiecheng Yuan didn’t really want to take the girl with her when she’d clearly been such a huge liability. But she couldn’t quite bring herself to leave her there, either. It’d be a headache if the girl said anything about her corruption, and there were still plenty of things she needed to ask her. However she looked at it, she had no reason not to take her along.
As Jiecheng Yuan ran, the girl’s thigh kept brushing against her face. Maybe it was the midsummer sun at noon, or maybe it was the girl’s burning body heat, but Jiecheng Yuan’s face started to feel hot too. Her stamina had clearly improved after transforming, yet for some reason, her breathing was growing heavier.
Jiecheng Yuan had a vague feeling she couldn’t keep going like this. She freed one hand and gave the girl a hard smack on the inner thigh.
“Stop spacing out! I’ll count down from three, then we’ll both transform back. Got it?!”
“Ah! Oh! Got it!” The girl finally reconnected her brain to her body.
“Three, two, one!”
Jiecheng Yuan counted down quickly and dispelled her transformation just before they reached the crowd. She also dropped the girl from her shoulder onto the ground.
Off to the side, a thin layer of ice appeared over the chains wrapped around Mizuno You. They shattered like biscuits, crumbled into powder, and scattered in the wind.
The blue-haired girl got up from the ground and dusted herself off. Her gaze remained fixed on the place where the two had disappeared as she complained, sounding a little sulky:
“Aww, come on. I thought we were finally going to have some real fun. Still, that Magical Girl was pretty interesting. Maybe she’ll give me even more fun in the future.”
“By the way, what kind of way is a crab supposed to be tied up?”
