"Tatsuki-kun's back!" Miura Yumiko's shout jerked the newly returned Tatsuki to attention.
"You all noticed I vanished?"
"Yeah, Tatsuki-kun—you just blinked out of sight." Yui waved her hands to show how fast it was.
"How long was I gone?" Tatsuki frowned.
"Two minutes thirty-seven seconds," Megumi replied without hesitation—she had kept count.
It really had been barely two-plus minutes.
Yukino stepped in front of him. "Did something happen?"
"No."
Something had, of course, but he couldn't explain: this jump had involved no time-freeze. It must have worked like Silver Wolf's hop to Jarilo-VI—meaning Kaori Miyazono lived in his own Earth. That had surprised him.
"Hey—your cookies?" Marin's sharp eyes noticed his hands were empty.
"I gave them to someone with a sweet tooth."
He offered Yui an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Yui."
"It's fine," she shook her head. "If you want more I can bake them anytime."
…
During class Tatsuki reopened the group chat and saw White Blood Cell's report.
White Blood Cell: "All body functions fully restored!!"
Nami: "Must've been Tatsuki-kun's doing."
Kisara Tendo: "Details?"
White Blood Cell: "I'm not sure. Right at collapse, a golden energy flooded the body—every cell revived, all germs erased."
Emilia: "So Tatsuki-san healed the host organism."
Tatsuki: "Yes."
Shinobu Kocho: "You didn't appear inside the body, then?"
Tatsuki: "No. I arrived in a hospital and cured the patient directly."
March 7th: "So no need to fear weird portal accidents, good!"
Tatsuki: "I also strengthened her body; your cell squad should feel stronger now."
White Blood Cell: "No wonder—I can wipe any bacteria in a flash."
Silver Wolf: "So the host is human?"
Tatsuki: "A human, and from my own world, too."
Hai Xiaomei: "What a coincidence."
Bronya: "Platelet, any changes your side?"
Platelet: "Nope, nothing."
Bronya: "You two must belong to different organisms."
Platelet: "Aww… that's a shame."
…
"Class, hold for a moment."
The teacher's lecture was cut short as Shizuka Hiratsuka entered with a tall girl whose violet-black hair brushed her waist.
"This is our new transfer student: Benio Adashino."
…
On the roof.
"Why transfer here?" Tatsuki asked—of course meaning Benio. She had been placed in his class.
"Chief Onmyouji Arima Tsuchimikado ordered me to inform you that within three days he will visit you in person with the Twelve Guardians," she said, eyes complicated.
The elders had confirmed it: the curse known as Kegare had truly vanished; only Chinu remained. Every Onmyouji had been shaken. Benio's lifelong goal had been to find the Basara who killed her parents and take revenge, but if every impurity was gone, then the Basara Kamui…
"Lord Tatsuki, have you ever seen a Basara called Kamui?" she asked, summoning her courage.
"Kamui? Saw him—killed him," Tatsuki replied lightly.
Benio fell silent, lost—her target erased. What is left for me?
"I've got your message. If there's nothing else, I'm heading back." Tatsuki left her on the roof.
…
Stairwell.
He brushed past elegant black-stockings. Utaha Kasumigaoka glanced back, curiosity glinting. Reaching the roof, she found bewildered Benio and—in true novelist fashion—assumed a confession gone wrong. Ah, the taste of bittersweet love… inspiring.
…
After dinner.
"All right, Tatsuki-kun, I'm turning in." Fresh from the bath, Kanae called from the hall.
"'Kay." Tatsuki lounged on the couch with Cocolia watching TV—or rather, she watched; he luxuriated in her soft lap pillow. Looking up past her breast, he asked, "Ever think of visiting Jarilo-VI again?"
"…Yes," Cocolia murmured after a pause. "I miss Bronya."
She missed her most of all.
"Then we'll go. We can check whether Bronya's rocking her Supreme Guardian duties." Apocalypse points were plentiful; a 1 000-point jump was pocket change.
"Thank you… Tatsuki-kun." A warm smile curved her lips.
"Thank me? After all, what are we?" he grinned mischievously.
Sensing his wandering hand, Cocolia's smile turned sly. She undid his zipper and slowly bent forward—
"!"
Being pampered this maternally was a first. In Cocolia's profoundly motherly care, Tatsuki had to admit… it felt pretty darn good.
…
Because he was hopelessly bored, Tatsuki ended up playing adult games with Cocolia in the living-room.
"Tatsu-kun—found you!" The front door banged open.
Eriri stepped inside, shut it, crossed the entryway, and spotted the pair clacking away on the couch.
"…"
Her lip twitched; a throbbing vein popped on her forehead.
"You're doing that in the living-room? Don't you have beds upstairs?"
Perhaps because they'd been caught, Cocolia moved even harder. Tatsuki never even looked away from the her. "Kanae's asleep. What are you doing up? Go back to bed."
"Hmph, no! I'm watching TV here." She stalked over and plopped down on the backrest behind them.
"…Seriously?" Tatsuki shot Cocolia a helpless glance.
Cocolia's focus never wavered—what mattered, the match or Eriri? Her thin reply came between gritted teeth: "Kee-eep going…"
If she didn't care, a man whose moral lines were written in chalk cared even less.
Eriri, of course, forgot the television at once; her big watery eyes drilled into their bodies. Maybe that pressure sharpened Tatsuki's reflexes—he liked to claim that when he played, no one else even deserved second place.
"Mmh…" The mood pulled Eriri in. Using her small hands, she started playing by herself.
"Meow?" Haru, curled in the cozy cat-bed Yukino had crafted, was jolted awake.
She poked his head out and saw Tatsuki and two familiar humans hammering their bodies. One girl's skills clearly lagged; her body kept getting juggled by Tatsuki's.
Meow? (She doesn't get angry being beaten that badly?)
Well—maybe she was just bad, or maybe this was how humans had fun.
She yawned, turned a sleepy circle, and dozed off again.
Tatsuki felt Eriri's play tighten up behind him—his eyelid twitched. She really is improving; half my own tricks came from her back in the day. She'd been one of his earliest gaming tutors. Still, he kept his full concentration on Cocolia.
"Mmh!" Ending approached. Cocolia lost her last stock; Tatsuki was seconds from victory when Eriri suddenly blurted, "Tatsu-kun, I want a midnight snack!"
She yanked his arm and opened her mouth—clearly expecting him to supply the snack.
"…Eriri. Classic."
…
She comforted herself, but after devouring her snack she tossed Tatsuki a triumphant smirk, twin-tails swishing as she skipped back to her room.
Left alone, Tatsuki and Cocolia traded wry looks—what even was that sequence? Whatever; they'd already had plenty of exercise. Whether she ate again hardly mattered. With a snap he cast a full-body cleanse on her, then scooped her into his arms. No way they were sleeping on the couch.
As they passed Abe-no-Seimei and Chinu's room, two heads poked through the cracked door.
"What are you staring at?" Tatsuki growled.
Chinu looked him up and down, gaze lingering far too low; Seimei clapped both hands over her face yet peeked through her fingers, fooling no one.
"Lights out—sleep," he muttered, then shut their door.
The two women shared a look.
Seimei whispered, "Could… that really fit?"
Chinu flashed a wicked grin. "Ask Master and see."
She jabbed Seimei's waist; a jolt of tingling energy raced through the Onmyouji, and she collapsed to the floor with a squeak. Chinu eyed her finger in mock surprise—strongest Onmyouji in a millennium, felled by a single poke?
…
Kanae was wide-awake—no hope of sleeping with Tatsuki so energised. She slid aside to make room. He laid Cocolia beneath the covers and was ready to crawl in himself when the group chat pinged: Saeko Busujima had tagged him.
Saeko: "Tatsuki? Tatsuki-kun, do you have a moment?"
Tatsuki: "What happened?"
Saeko: "I just heard from Rika—the brass want to launch nuclear weapons to wipe out the dead."
Gasps filled the chat.
Ainz: "Nuclear bombs?!"
March 7th: "What's a nuke?"
Silver Wolf: "You ride the Astral Express and don't know? …Fine. A nuke is an old-school weapon of mass destruction. It releases the energy of a fission or fusion reaction in an instant—huge blast, massive casualties. The fallout showers the area in deadly radiation; normal folks can't live there afterward. Of course, our corporation can scrub radiation easily now, so nukes are passé for us."
March 7th: "But in Saeko's world?"
Silver Wolf: "No data."
Saeko: "In my world it's the most terrifying weapon we possess. The strike zone is our city."
Bronya: "That places Saeko in extreme danger."
Saeko: "So I'm begging Tatsuki-kun to help."
Private channel
Saeko: "Tatsuki-kun, please save us—I'm willing to give anything."
Tatsuki: "Don't worry; I'm on my way."
It sounded urgent. He opened a jump request.
[Ding! Tatsuki is requesting world-jump permission from Saeko Busujima]
[Permission granted]
[Transfer tunnel opening]
A golden flash clothed his bare torso in casual wear; a shimmering wormhole blossomed beside the bed.
Kanae sat up. "Tatsuki-kun, another world trip?"
"Just helping a friend." He kissed Kanae and Cocolia goodnight, turned, and stepped into the portal.
...
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