Itsuki looked surprised as he stopped in front of the cat-carrying sorceress.
“What are you?”
A more appropriate reaction might have been nicer, but in any case that is what he said.
“I am—”
Yuki paused.
“—an alien sorceress.”
Looking at the cat, Itsuki replied:
“Is that so?”
“It is.”
Yuki also looked at the cat.
“What do you want with me?”
“You have a hidden power, which I am after.”
“And what if I say it’s too much trouble?”
“I will have you, even if I must use force.”
“What kind of force do you mean?”
“This.”
Yuki waved the Star Ring Inferno. Immediately, a thunderbolt leaped from the star atop the wand.
“Look out!”
A bunny girl tackled Itsuki from the side, and the two toppled over, limbs tangled. The thunderbolt went wide, splitting a telephone pole.
Itsuki was collapsed atop Bunny Mikuru—a deeply infuriating sight. For some reason, Yuki did not press her attack.
Perhaps it was that Mikuru seemed to be stunned after hitting her head in the fall. Itsuki shook her by the shoulders, and she seemed to come around.
“Owww…”
Mikuru stood as she rubbed her head, then pointed resolutely at Yuki, then called out.
“I won’t let you do as you please!”
Yuki looked first at Mikuru, then expressionlessly at the whiskers of the cat on her shoulder, before returning her gaze to the battle waitress and speaking quietly.
“I will retreat for the time being, but this will not happen again. Use what time is left to you to prepare your gravestone, for next time I shall show you no mercy,” said Yuki as she turned to leave, although there was no reason for her to show Mikuru any mercy now either.
Itsuki spoke.
“Who are you?”
“Huh—?” said Mikuru, who was suddenly tense after having begun to look relieved. “Um, er… I’m just a passing bunny girl! Never mind me! Um, good-bye!”
She ran off after Yuki.
“Whoever could she be?” said Itsuki, eyes gazing pointlessly into the distance as the camera panned just as pointlessly up at the white clouds in the sky.
The next round of “Mikuru versus Yuki” took place by a pond.
It went without saying that the details regarding why they had come to this particular place were entirely omitted. Apparently some things happened, and their conflict had been reignited, or whatever.
“I-I-I’m not going to back down, e-e-evil alien Yuki! L-leave Earth at once! Um… I’m sorry…”
“It is you who should disappear from this time period. He belongs to us. He has value to us. Though he has not realized his own power, it is critical. We will use that power to invade Earth.”
“I w-w-won’t let that happen! Not on my l-l-life!”
“Very well. I will take that life.”
Yuki did not have her cat with her this time. Instead, she had three other companions, who from their uniforms appeared to be high school students—an energetic-looking girl and two puzzled boys.
Mikuru seemed to know the long-haired girl, at least.
“Oh, um, Tsuruya! Not… not you too! Come b-back to your senses!”
“How am I supposed to come to any senses at all with you dressed like that?”
Tsuruya replied immediately, her acting slipping for just a moment. She curled her lip maliciously and continued.
“Sorry, Mikuru. I don’t want to do this, but I’m being controlled. Sorry, really!”
“Eek!”
“Now prepare yourself!”
Tsuruya and the two others approached Mikuru in an entirely nonthreatening fashion.
Behind them, Yuki waved her wand as though giving commands. Whether it was psychic emissions or electromagnetic radiation, something seemed to be emanating from the wand and robbing Tsuruya and the two others of their volition, turning them into puppets to be controlled.
Yuki Nagato was a force to be reckoned with. Such a cowardly attack! How could Mikuru fight back against this? Mikuru, whatever shall you do?
“Eek! Eeeee—!”
Nothing, apparently.
The pitiful girl found herself grabbed by the arms and legs by Tsuruya and the two boys and tossed into the brackish green water of the pond. One of the boys—the more clownish-looking one—seemed to stumble, and he took a dive from the edge of the pond as well. Not that it mattered. He’d probably haul himself out.
Evidently the pond was deep enough that Mikuru’s feet didn’t reach the bottom. Panicked, she beat at the water frantically, but in her urgency she was hardly making any progress at all. Before long, she’d be fish food. She couldn’t swim—or at least, she’d been told she couldn’t swim, so all she could do was flail in the water. Mikuru Asahina was in a pinch.
But there was someone who could save our heroine.
“What happened?”
Along came the dashing, gallant Itsuki Koizumi to the rescue. Kneeling down at the edge of the pond, he extended his hand to the convincingly drowning Mikuru in a manner that can only be described as “comic-book-like.”
“Grab hold—but be careful. Don’t pull me in with you.”
Just where had Itsuki been all this time? The pond was surrounded by flat ground—there was nowhere to hide, and yet from his timing, he must have been watching all along. Even more strangely, the wand-waving Yuki, along with her three zombified flunkies, had disappeared. She had been on the cusp of victory—where had she gone?
“Are you all right?”
“… Oooh… So cold…”
After being dragged out by Itsuki, Mikuru coughed, crawling on all fours.
“What were you doing in a place like that?” asked Itsuki.
Mikuru did not immediately answer, simply staring blankly at him, but eventually she seemed to remember her line.
“Um, uh… some bad people, they… um…”
A voice sounded from offscreen, and Mikuru suddenly moaned and collapsed. Yes, the script says she faints.
“Get a hold of yourself!”
Itsuki tried to pick up Mikuru, but she went limp in his arms.
Normally at times like these, you would think the person in Itsuki’s role would call an ambulance or get help from a bystander, but Itsuki—that cad!—just lifted Mikuru onto his back and started walking off somewhere. Just where in the hell are you taking that beautiful, helpless girl? you might want to call out, but his stride did not waver.
He walked off, as purposefully as though he himself was being remotely controlled by mind-altering waves.
But to where?
To a house, it turned out. His.
Despite the omission of scene-setting details, based on the spacious, traditional-style bedroom Itsuki laid Mikuru down in, we can infer that his house is a large one indeed, and built in the Japanese style.
Notably, Itsuki had committed the outrage of carrying the now-T-shirt-clad Mikuru in his arms, and Mikuru looked unavoidably as though she had just bathed.
As it’s quite impossible to imagine just how an unconscious person is supposed to be able to bathe themselves, doubts cannot help but surface in one’s mind about what else this scoundrel may have done to her while his hands were washing her body, and such doubts would immediately turn to rage, which in turn might become murderous intent—and there’s that murderous intent, right on schedule.
Itsuki should be less worried about Yuki and more worried about how he’s going to protect himself from half the school’s student population.
Taking an unconscious, half-drowned girl to his own bedroom was crime enough, but to give her a bath transcended mere criminality and was a fundamentally evil act, and there could be no complaint upon the summary execution of the person—Itsuki—responsible. Please, someone punish this man.
In any case, Itsuki placed Mikuru on a futon that had suddenly appeared, then sat down cross-legged beside her. He folded his arms and appeared to be deep in thought. But I’d wager he wasn’t thinking a damned thing. Any takers?