Asakura came to the back kitchen, his eyes narrowing.
If it were an ordinary person, it would be difficult to find the source of the abnormal noise here.
After all, the Rabbit House was originally a shop similar to a family restaurant. The back kitchen is a fairly large room. Although it has now been revamped by Asakura into a dessert shop, he did not change the layout of the room. The back kitchen still occupies a considerable area, and there are still many tools used for cooking inside. There is also a huge preparation table in the middle of the room—the complexity of the "terrain" can be seen from this.
But Asakura is different. Even without the snakes acting as his eyes, he carries the passive thermal imaging vision from the Curse [Snake], which allows him to clearly capture those special little things.
So, he quickly had a harvest.
"This really is..."
Asakura looked at the "thing" he had caught, unable to help but feel a bit surprised.
That was a Yanami.
To be precise, it was a three-heads-tall Yanami with a height of about ten centimeters.
Even now, having been picked up by the collar by Asakura, the little fellow was still indignantly waving her short little hands, trying to break free from Asakura's clutches.
"Why are you here?" Asakura asked her.
But the pocket-sized Yanami did not answer, only struggling blindly.
Can this fellow not communicate? Asakura looked at the other party in confusion, feeling that this little Yanami completely lacked the rationality of a normal person and was more like an animal acting on instinct.
He could sense that she carried magical power.
There was no doubt that this Yanami was an individual created by her original body through the effect of the Curse [Crowd].
To think that after mastering a Curse, she only ran to this kind of place to steal food? In a sense, this truly fit his stereotype of Yanami.
However, Yanami's four meals today should have already been eaten to the full. Could it be that she still wants to use a clone to steal more?
Asakura felt a subtle sense of unease.
He took out his phone and pulled up Yanami's contact information. After thinking for a moment, he ultimately did not call, as it was already quite late.
He took out his phone and pulled up Yanami's contact information. After thinking for a moment, he ultimately did not call, as it was already quite late.
Asakura simply pulled out a chopstick from the cupboard next to him. After turning it into a small snake, he signaled it to crawl into the sewer to run over to Yanami's house through Tokyo's crisscrossing underground water system to check the situation.
As for the pocket-sized Yanami, Asakura casually stuffed her into his pocket, intending to check the situation tomorrow before returning her to the real Yanami.
After the pocket-sized Yanami struggled for a while, she realized that she truly seemed to have no way of escaping Asakura's capture. Finally, she could only dejectedly pretend to be a proper little doll, letting him handle her as he pleased.
When walking out of the back kitchen, Asakura saw Kitagawa Marin peeking out half a head from the edge of a sofa not far away, her amber eyes staring at him piercingly in the night.
"What's wrong?" Asakura asked with a bit of a laugh: "Is there a need to be so sneaky?"
"Did you catch the thing inside?" the girl asked in a low voice.
"It was nothing." Asakura replied with a relaxed tone: "Don't worry too much. You should hurry up and sleep, otherwise you won't be able to get up in the morning. Didn't you say you still have to go to school?"
"Oh..."
The girl's half-face retracted behind the sofa very obediently.
Only then did Asakura nod in satisfaction and quickly walked upstairs.
After returning to his room, Asakura took out the pocket-sized Yanami and examined her carefully for a moment.
He originally thought that Yanami's Curse [Crowd] was just simple clones, but now it seemed that her Curse also had quite a few impressive uses.
Placing the pocket-sized Yanami on the bedside table, Asakura intended to have a good night's sleep. After all, Kitagawa Marin wasn't the only one who had to go to school tomorrow—the little fellow had been warned by Asakura almost face-to-face. Currently in a state of shock, she could be said to be quite obedient. Even if asked to pretend to be a real doll, she would stay there motionless without the slightest deviation.
"I feel like so many things happened today... I can finally have a good rest..."
Just as Asakura was in a daze between half-asleep and half-awake, he suddenly felt a jolt and woke up, feeling that someone was approaching.
After a little while, a sound of nearly imperceptible footsteps came from the doorway.
Asakura squinted toward the door, only to see Kitagawa Marin holding a pillow.
"That... Asakura-kun, are you already asleep?"
"Not yet. Is something the matter, Kitagawa?"
Asakura asked.
"Actually, it's nothing urgent, it's just that sleeping alone in a pitch-black shop always gives me a creepy feeling. I just can't sleep well..."
Kitagawa Marin said distressingly.
"Well, I suppose I can understand that."
It was actually much the same as school. Everything is so familiar when staying in school during the day, but once night falls and the students have all gone home, the campus is covered in a layer of night. The school mysteriously becomes much more foreign. There are many ghost stories in the world like the 'Seven Great Wonders,' which lead to schools even becoming popular spots for courage test assemblies at night because of this.
"So what you mean is?" Asakura looked toward the girl.
"If you don't mind, I hope I can set up a floor bed in your room..."
Kitagawa Marin said in a low voice.
"Why not go to Kawaragi's side to set up the floor bed? Although her room is a bit narrower than mine, it would be better if it's all girls, right?" Asakura asked.
"I—I did think that way at first, but looking at Momoka-姉's (older sister) state, what if she suddenly vomits or something while I'm half-asleep and sprays me? That would be too terrible..."
"Beautiful girls don't vomit."
"What kind of view is that? Like the idol fans from a long time ago who thought 'idols don't go to the bathroom'... It's the same logic as being sprayed in the face with a rainbow."
Kitagawa Marin cautiously peered at Asakura's expression—unfortunately, the latter's face looked completely dazed from sleep, making it impossible to tell what he was actually thinking—she couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy, asking in a pitifully low voice: "That... Is it really no good?"
Asakura rubbed his face, looking somewhat guiltily at the three-heads-tall Yanami on the table.
Although he was inclined to refuse, considering his employee's mental health—after all, her staying behind today was also to take care of Momoka, which was entirely out of kindness—he couldn't be too excessive.
So after thinking for a moment, he still nodded.
"I don't mind, but have you really thought it through? After all, I am a young man in the prime of his youth."
"Yeah, actually I quite trust Asakura-kun." The girl revealed a shallow smile: "Although Ichiji-senpai often says her older sister is a tsundere, I think Asakura-kun, who always keeps bad and slightly flippant words on his lips, is the true hidden-edition tsundere. Clearly always helping others, yet talking about yourself as if you're some kind of bad person..."