"Little kouhai, you wouldn't want the fact that you draw doujinshi getting out to little Shiina-chan, now would you?"
Haruno felt rather like the kichiku male lead from one of the doujinshi Mio drew.
"If you mean Mashiro—she already knows I draw that stuff. If you want to go tell her, senpai, then by all means."
"Hm?"
Haruno arched an eyebrow, then studied Mio's expression carefully. Once she was certain there wasn't the slightest sign of a lie, she couldn't help feeling a little surprised.
If it were her, she'd absolutely never let the people around her find out. Getting outed as a doujinshi artist was social suicide, plain and simple. It seemed she'd underestimated the relationship between Mio and Shiina Mashiro.
"Oh—senpai, can I use one of the favors you owe me to cancel out this piece of leverage?"
"Nope. Where's the fun in that? The favors I owe you—whenever you've decided what you want, just tell me, and as long as I can do it, I will. As for this little bit of leverage I've got on you... how about we just count it as a favor you owe me?"
"I... guess that works. Just the one, though. And no weird requests."
"In that case—my request is to turn the one favor you owe me into three. How's that?"
"You're exploiting a bug here?!"
Of course Haruno knew Mio would never agree to something like that; she'd only tossed it out offhand. Her real aim was what came next. "Oh, by the way—my little kouhai can trade one favor she owes me for one I'll owe her. The kind with no limit on how many times."
"That, I can actually consider."
Sure, Haruno still owed her two favors—but only two. Once they were used up, getting Haruno to play along with her tasks again wouldn't be nearly so simple.
But now, with Haruno's promise in hand, she basically wouldn't have to worry about Haruno-related tasks anymore.
Of course, there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world. Mio could only hope Haruno wouldn't come up with some bizarre request.
Soon, having made a full loop of the inn, the two of them ended up right back at the door to Mio's room.
After swiping the keycard and pushing the door open, Mio looked over at Haruno. She didn't say anything, but the unspoken question—do you want to come sit inside?—was clear enough.
"Nah, I won't come in."
Just as Haruno was about to turn and leave, she seemed to remember something. She pointed at the room diagonally across the hall. "Little kouhai, my room is right over there. Come by and visit when you've got time~"
"I will."
Once Haruno had gone, Mio headed back into her own room.
There was Shiina Mashiro, still sprawled across the bed, fast asleep—she hadn't even noticed Mio come in.
Mio walked over to the bedside, reached out, and pinched Mashiro's little nose. "Wake up, you lazy piglet~" she said softly.
"Mngh."
Mashiro's eyebrows twitched a few times, then she slowly opened her eyes. The instant she saw Mio, she wrapped her arms around her, like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Caught completely off guard, Mio toppled right onto Mashiro.
She didn't struggle, though—she just let herself enjoy the brief, lovely moment.
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Evening, seven o'clock.
Dinnertime had arrived.
Mio tugged Shiina Mashiro out of the room and over to the door of Sengoku Chihiro's room, then knocked.
After a good long while, just as Mio was starting to think the two inside still hadn't woken up, the door abruptly opened.
Sengoku Chihiro appeared in Mio's view, reeking of alcohol.
Clutching her groggy, swimming head, Chihiro said, "Mio? What's up?"
"Just wanted to ask if you and Shizuka-sensei feel like grabbing dinner together. Seriously, though—exactly how much did you two drink?"
"I can't even remember."
All Chihiro remembered was Haruno taking the two of them on, one against two, and drinking them both flat.
Haruno was always going on about how she never got drunk, but neither Hiratsuka Shizuka nor Sengoku Chihiro had taken it to heart—until that afternoon, when Chihiro finally learned firsthand what "a thousand cups and still sober" really meant.
She'd even started to suspect Haruno was just one of those people who physically couldn't get drunk no matter how much they put away.
Reeling her scattered thoughts back in, Chihiro rubbed her stomach. "Give me a second—I'll go back in and get Shizuka up too."
With Haruno around, even if she wanted to engineer an opening for her cousin, Haruno would probably just butt right in. So this time Chihiro didn't turn down Mio's invitation.
After another little while, Chihiro and Hiratsuka Shizuka finally emerged from their room.
By then, Yukinoshita Haruno had already materialized at Mio's side.
Looking at the somewhat bedraggled state of the two of them, Haruno said with a sweet little smile, "My, the two of you look a bit out of sorts. Could it be you've had a touch too much to drink?"
"Tch. Don't get cocky too soon. Sooner or later we'll drink you under the table."
The moment Chihiro's tough talk left her mouth, she felt the weight of Mio's kindly gaze.
"How many times have I said it? Drinking's fine, but don't overdo it—it's bad for you. You and Shizuka-sensei have already put away plenty these past few days, haven't you? No more today."
"I know, I know."
Faced with Mio going off on them, Chihiro and Hiratsuka Shizuka very wisely played mute, in perfect unspoken sync.
Because, deep down, they kind of felt it too—they really had been drinking a bit much these last few days.
Every single day it was either drinking or soaking in the hot spring; the whole trip had left them feeling pretty sluggish.
But there wasn't much to be done about it. Sometimes the two of them would get to chatting, and the conversation would drift onto something painful—and at moments like that, they obviously needed a little alcohol to soothe their wounded hearts.
The group came to the dining hall and sat down. Mio looked at the two listless women. "In the state you two are in, are you really going to be okay heading out tomorrow?"
"There's definitely a problem—so we've decided to stay here tomorrow too and leave the day after," Chihiro drawled.
Conveniently, she could use the extra time to give her cousin a proper assist.
She'd dragged Haruno off to drink in the first place precisely to make an opening for her cousin—who knew Haruno would turn out to be some kind of monster and drink them all into the ground.
And her cousin had spent that precious time... sleeping.
Granted, sleeping next to Mio.
Still, it left her more than a little exasperated.
Equally exasperated at this moment was Mio herself.
Haruno sat on her left, Shiina Mashiro on her right.
At first the two of them had both, without coordinating, edged toward her—but maybe after realizing that got them nowhere, they'd switched tactics and started tugging her toward their own sides instead.
Mio clutched her yukata tight. "Stop pulling, both of you! Any more and my yukata's going to fall right off!"
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