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The perspective shifts to the Hanakain household.
After returning home so late, the young man was inevitably subjected to an embrace and an intense session of cooing and cuddling.
When the young man washed his face, wiped away all the drool left by a certain cat-eared girl, and stepped out of the bathroom, Kuroka had already set the dinner on the table in the living room.
"Alright, dinner time, dinner time~"
She hummed a little tune as she sat down at the table, turning her head and beckoning Hanakain Reiji, who had just emerged from the bathroom, to come and sit next to her. The two fluffy cat tails beneath the hem of her kimono flicked back and forth in small movements, showing she was in a very good mood.
It was as if she wasn't the one who had gone ballistic upon entering the door, furiously sniffing the young man's body only to find the fresh scent of an unfamiliar woman, leading to her biting and gnawing him all over.
One can only say that cats are indeed like this. Like dogs, they love to mark their territory with their scent.
Though it was also a little strange.
She clearly didn't want her sister to discover her scent, so every morning before Hanakain Reiji left, she would use magic to clear the scent that had lingered on him all night. Yet, every evening when he returned, she would become displeased upon smelling other women's scents on him, only feeling happy once she had covered it up with her own scent again.
And then, she would have to clean it off with magic again the next morning...
It was very much like the feeling of students in schools with strict regulations who can only wear uniforms during the day, so even if they buy new clothes, they can only change into them after school, just to look pretty for a few hours at home.
But Hanakain Reiji didn't mind. After all, it wasn't his trouble; as long as the cat girl herself was happy, that was all that mattered.
"Hoo-hoo-hoo~"
Just as Hanakain Reiji sat down, Kuroka, who was sitting next to him, couldn't resist snuggling up, brazenly settling herself onto his lap.
Hanakain Reiji didn't even move during the entire process, but the cat-eared girl easily climbed up, thanks to the natural flexibility of a feline.
She even held a large, gravy-soaked piece of beef brisket in her mouth, using her upper and lower front teeth to hold it out to the young man.
"Hmm?"
No words were needed; her intention was quite clear: she wanted him to take it mouth-to-mouth.
Hanakain Reiji fell silent: "..."
Fine, I'll indulge her.
After a moment's thought, the young man lowered his head, ready to take the meat.
But Kuroka was faster. The instant he opened his mouth, she thrust forward and deftly tore the brisket into two roughly equal small pieces.
One piece for each of them.
"...How is it? Delicious?"
With her demand satisfied, the cat-eared girl licked her lips contentedly.
Hanakain Reiji was still chewing: "It's alright, but you sucked all the gravy out. It doesn't have much flavor left."
"Want another piece?"
"Maybe not. Let's just eat dinner first..."
"A pity."
Despite saying they should just eat, Kuroka did not get off the young man's lap. She continued to monopolize her exclusive spot. Whenever Hanakain Reiji happened to pick up a dish she wanted, she would lower her head and snatch the food right off his chopsticks with a bite.
In return, however, she would occasionally turn to feed him food she had picked up.
Sometimes with chopsticks, sometimes with her mouth.
Sometimes I really feel like buying four dining chairs was a huge waste. Just one would be enough... Hanakain Reiji couldn't help but complain internally while eating.
The cat-eared girl's voice came from below.
"So, how was your time with my little sister at school today?"
"Hmm? It was alright..." Hanakain Reiji swallowed his food and replied.
Kuroka's little sister was, naturally, Koneko Toujou, whose real name was Shirone. Kuroka had told him about this a long time ago.
"'Alright' means what?"
The cat-eared girl in his arms pouted, turning around and using her chopsticks to stuff a handful of enoki mushrooms from the beef brisket soup into the young man's mouth.
"Didn't big sister here tell you to pay more attention to Shirone at school? Did you just spend the whole day sleeping with the other big-chested girls?"
Sleeping... that word came out.
Hanakain Reiji tapped her lightly on the top of her head with the end of his chopsticks, speechless.
"What are you thinking? Besides, Koneko and I aren't even in the same grade. Running over to her grade level would make me look suspicious. Plus, she's not a kindergarten kid; she doesn't need someone to check if she ate lunch properly."
"What does that matter~" Kuroka seemed indifferent. "Didn't big sister tell you? I'd wholeheartedly approve if you and Shirone did that together, Oho?"
"...Are you sure that's not just your perverse pleasure, Kuroka?"
"Perverse pleasure? How could it be?"
The cat-eared girl failed to immediately grasp what perverse pleasure meant. After thinking for a moment, she let out an "Oh."
"Are you referring to what big sister mentioned before—the idea of suddenly appearing and joining in when you and Shirone are doing that? Well... that can't be helped, because Shirone keeps avoiding me. I read in a book that if sisters experience certain things together, it's easier for them to reconcile~"
"I don't think the 'certain things' mentioned in the book meant that kind of thing..." Hanakain Reiji felt the urge to massage his forehead. "Let's just not talk about these weird things."
"You're right~" Surprisingly, Kuroka was very obedient and didn't pursue the topic further, merely licking her lips seductively. "After all, we can shower after dinner, and then we can... Hmph-Hmph~"
As she said this, the girl suddenly seemed to recall something and brought up another topic.
"Speaking of which, has that girl from the Sorcerer Association contacted you again?"
"No, I haven't received any messages since."
Hanakain Reiji put down his utensils, took his phone out of his clothes, and checked the forum private messages and text message pages.
Indeed, there were no new notifications.
Hmm...
Kuroka tilted her head, looked closely, and after confirming there were no follow-up messages, she shrugged.
"Alright, if there aren't any, then there aren't any. Eat, eat~ After dinner, we'll Doo-doo hard!"
Almost the instant the girl's joyous voice fell, an emergency push notification from a news app dropped down from the top of the phone screen.
[Today at 5:39 PM, at a private residence in the Chūō Ward of Tokyo, Metropolitan Police Department officers discovered the male corpse of a man suspected to have been brutally slaughtered by cultists. All citizens are urged to exercise extreme caution at home and not to leave doors or windows open for long periods. If any suspicious individuals are spotted, please contact the police immediately...]
The rest was largely formulaic nonsense.
Hanakain Reiji's attention was focused on the first half.
Based on the description, the tragic homeowner discovered in the house was likely where he took down the killer priest today.
But why was there only one body? Didn't he twist the killer priest's head off and leave it on the table?
Surely, even with how lackluster the Japanese police are, they couldn't miscount the number of bodies...
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