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Crunch.
Anna Yanami somehow produced a bag of cucumber-flavored chips from who-knows-where and started munching away.
"Come to think of it, I've never met your little sister, Blake… Hey, here—try some. Cucumber chips are so good!"
"They're basically a calorie bomb. Don't start eating chips first thing in the morning." Blake took the bag anyway and popped one into his mouth. "It's the weekend soon. If you come over, you might get to meet her."
Anna's eyes lit up. "Hey, is your sister cute?"
"Yeah."
Blake nodded without hesitation.
Personality aside, Sagiri was undeniably adorable.
"And are you two close?" Anna pressed.
Blake paused for a couple seconds, then shook his head.
"Not really. She stays locked in her room all the time. Sometimes we don't even get to talk."
Yesterday had been an exception. And exceptions didn't last. Before long, she'd probably go right back to how she was.
"Leave it to me!" Anna finished off the chips, raised a thumb, and flashed a bright smile, her blue eyes sparkling. "I'm great at taking care of people!"
"You seem oddly interested in Sagiri," Blake said, raising a brow.
"Ahaha…"
Anna slipped away in a blur, her skirt fluttering behind her.
"Well, she's your little sister, of course I care! Anyway, it's the weekend tomorrow—I'll come over."
Siscon tendencies must be corrected!
In this world, aside from childhood friends, everyone else is basically a sneaky cat trying to steal what's yours. Little sisters included!
The morning flew by.
At lunch break, Blake grabbed his bento and left the classroom, planning to eat outside.
There hadn't been any "fateful encounters" written in the Losing Heroine Diary today, so Anna didn't follow him. She stayed behind, freeloading snacks as usual. Apparently, the way she ate was so cute that girls kept feeding her.
After a quick stop at the restroom, Blake was heading up to the rooftop when his phone buzzed.
He pulled it out. It was a message from Goko Ruri.
"...Blake, do you have time right now?"
"I was just about to go eat on the rooftop."
"Then I'll come find you there."
"See you."
He didn't know what Kuroneko wanted, but helping purify magic power earned him universal EXP. Only an idiot would refuse.
Blake put his phone away and headed to the rooftop, sitting on an empty bench in the corner.
Not long after, a pale girl with long black hair in a hime cut walked over.
"Good afternoon, Blake."
Ruri hugged her bento box and greeted him softly.
"Afternoon." Blake glanced at her curiously. "Side effects already?"
"No. Everything's been normal since yesterday…"
She shook her head gently and sat beside him, legs together, placing her bento on her knees.
Blake's gaze drifted downward without thinking.
She was wearing black over-the-knee socks today. The dark color made her already slender legs look even more delicate. Paired with her pink bento box, the contrast was… unexpectedly nice.
"First, I wanted to thank you," Ruri said, pulling out a can of coffee. "This is the offering I promised yesterday. It relieves fatigue and boosts study efficiency."
Blake: "…"
No matter how fancy you make it sound, it's just coffee.
"I'll take it, then." It wasn't anything expensive, so he accepted it and casually handed her a carton of milk. "Here."
"Huh?"
Ruri looked up at him, confused. The little beauty mark beneath her eye looked especially cute in the sunlight.
"I told you yesterday—my ability gets stronger by helping witches," Blake explained. "Purifying your magic helped me too. This is my return gift."
"…Then I suppose I'll reluctantly accept this tribute."
After a brief hesitation, she reached out and took the milk, her cheeks faintly red.
"There's something else." Ruri leaned in closer, lowering her voice. "This morning, as I left home, I heard the echo of fate."
Blake looked at her, speechless, catching a faint whiff of her subtle fragrance.
"Which anime is that setting from this time?"
"Anyway," she continued, dropping the chuunibyou tone for now, "I saw a flyer at the intersection. A woman posted it—her contracted beast is missing."
Blake blinked.
So much for "contracted beast." It was just a lost pet cat.
"I want to ask you to come with me and search for it."
"Using your ability too much will bring the side effects back faster," Blake reminded her.
"I know." Her eyes sparkled. With other students around, she instinctively leaned closer and whispered, "But it's a super valuable orange cat!"
"…Oh?"
Blake set down his chopsticks.
Now that had his attention.
"The owner said on the flyer that anyone who finds the missing 'contracted beast' will get a reward of 200,000 yen." Ruri didn't even try to hide the gleam in her eyes. "I can communicate with cats. I can even mobilize strays to help search… but if I overuse my ability, I'll grow a weird tail again. So I want you to come with me."
"If that happens, please purify my magic immediately."
"As for the reward, we split it fifty-fifty."
Blake chewed and swallowed the sausage in his mouth, then looked at the girl beside him.
"For a normal high schooler, 200,000 yen was a huge sum. And from what he remembered, Ruri's family wasn't exactly well-off. No wonder she didn't want to miss this chance.
"Half is too much…"
In truth, he wouldn't be doing much. Finding the cat relied entirely on her, and purifying magic cost him nothing—in fact, it benefited him. Taking half felt undeserved.
"No. It has to be fifty-fifty." Ruri shook her head firmly. Her purple eyes, brightened by contacts, shimmered like gemstones in the sunlight. "So many partnerships fall apart because of unfair distribution."
"During break, I looked it up online. There are lost-cat notices everywhere… Look."
She pulled out her phone and leaned right up against him, ignoring personal space, swiping the screen with her slender finger.
"In Kyoto, someone once offered a million yen reward for their lost contracted beast!"
When she said "million," her pupils practically turned into yen symbols.
Even Blake was a little surprised—but thinking about it, it made sense.
These days, fewer people were getting married or having kids, while pet ownership kept rising. People needed emotional connections. If they didn't find it in relationships, they found it in pets. So when a pet went missing, owners would go to great lengths to get them back. For someone with money, a million-yen reward wasn't that strange.
"I want to form an eternal partner contract with you, Blake—not just a temporary arrangement." Ruri straightened up, looking at him expectantly. "If we come across suitable bounty requests in the future, we can work together to find lost contracted beasts… That's why it has to be an even split. Only then can the team last."
"An eternal contract…"
Blake quickly caught on.
"You want to team up for life, don't you?"
"F-for life…?"
Ruri blinked, and her face flushed bright red in an instant. She hurriedly lowered her head, staring at her toes.
(If… if the side effects can't ever be cured… then I really won't be able to leave Blake for the rest of my life, will I?)
"....."