After another night of intense yet straightforward 'communication', time skipped forward to the next day.
Morning. As usual, it was 7:20 AM. At the dining table in the living room, one human and one cat girl sat side-by-side.
Today's breakfast was steak pasta with fried eggs.
Although he was born and raised in Kyoto, and his family was a millennia-old, renowned Onmyoji house famous throughout the Kansai region and even all of Japan, Hanakain Fubuki's dietary habits leaned towards the more eclectic.
Compared to traditional Japanese cuisine (washoku), Hanakain Fubuki preferred Western and Chinese food.
If asked why, his answer was simple: traditional Japanese food is bland, not tasty.
"Slurp~ Why do we have to get up so early again today?" Slurping up a large mouthful of tomato pasta with sleepy eyes, Kuroka complained softly, leaning half her body against the boy beside her as if still asleep.
Oh wait, not 'as if' – she simply wasn't fully awake.
After all, Hanakain Fubuki's original plan last night was to reheat dinner after their bath, connect the newly bought TV and game console, play for a bit, and then head to bed around a reasonable hour.
However, seeing this, a certain cat-eared girl started acting restless again. Disregarding the lingering fatigue from their earlier activities in the bathroom, she snuggled up, persistently blocking his view and preventing him from playing properly.
Naturally, she reaped what she sowed. Hanakain Fubuki immediately initiated 'conquest mode', launching a high-intensity campaign that lasted from evening well into the early morning, only stopping when the 'server' completely crashed.
Adding the time for another bath afterwards, it was nearly two in the morning by the time they actually got to bed.
Sleep at 2 AM, wake at 7 AM – King Yama approves of my stamina.JPG
"Can't be helped. School starts at eight," Hanakain Fubuki replied, showing absolutely no trace of drowsiness on his face.
"School, hmph... School, huh." Kuroka side-eyed him, pouting with lips stained by tomato sauce.
Although she constantly grumbled about Hanakain Fubuki insisting on going to 'that stupid school', deep down, she actually understood the situation.
Namely – eighty percent of their current income came from a certain Lady Rias. Each job from her paid well, involved little hassle, and had clear goals. There were no endless revisions, no impossible demands like 'make it black, but colorful', and certainly no random excuses to dock pay. She was practically the perfect client.
In contrast, although Hanakain Fubuki also took jobs from the forum website set up by Jujutsu High, most people there were just paranormal enthusiasts. For them, Browse the forum was purely for entertainment; very few actually posted requests for help, and even fewer posted proper bounties.
Of course, the most significant reason was that her dear little sister was currently serving under Rias Gremory as a peerage devil.
Although all signs indicated that this Lady Rias wasn't the type to boss her peerage devils around arrogantly, considering the dangerous nature of many missions Hana had undertaken since partnering with her, Kuroka still felt it was better to have someone keeping an eye on things.
While going herself would be the best option, well... her foolish little sister probably didn't want to see her anyway.
At least, not yet.
Lost in thought, Kuroka's eating slowed to a halt. Her gaze lowered, silently staring blankly at the steak and pasta on her plate.
Just then, the boy's voice, muffled from eating noodles, reached her ear.
"You okay? Fell asleep while eating?"
"Wha-... No, of course not!" Startled that her lapse had been so easily noticed, the cat girl snapped back to reality. Flustered and annoyed, her cheeks flushed slightly as she lifted her leg under the table and stepped on his foot with her smooth, soft one. "I was just thinking, Hana, isn't your school having the weekend off in a couple of days? Do you want to go somewhere together?"
"Oh, the weekend? Haven't thought about it yet." Hanakain Fubuki swallowed his food and shook his head.
As mentioned before, unless one aimed for a top university in Japan, the academic pressure on high school students was relatively light. The two-day weekend provided ample time to go out and make the most of their youth.
However, Hanakain Fubuki preferred staying home over going out.
After all, home had food, drinks, air conditioning, and game consoles. In contrast, if you wanted to find a toilet outside, you often had to fish out your phone and follow GPS directions just to find one.
"Haven't thought about it, huh..." Kuroka tapped her lip with her index finger, thinking, then her eyes suddenly lit up. "Then how about we go to Kyoto? Big sister has never been to Kyoto before! Besides, isn't Hana's hometown in Kyoto? We can treat it as visiting family and seeing your parents~"
"No way. You could suggest Hokkaido and I might consider it, but forget Kyoto," Hanakain Fubuki refused point-blank.
"Why?"
"Can you imagine being surrounded by all your aunts and female relatives, pointing fingers and scrutinizing you? And even worse, some people your own age talk exactly like those gossipy relatives."
"Er... Can't say I can." Kuroka tried for a moment, then decisively gave up. She didn't have aunts and hordes of female relatives. As expected, one cannot imagine what one doesn't know; even a cat couldn't do it.
"Besides, my mom sent me a message a few days ago saying she needs to go back to the Hero Village for a couple of days, so she won't be in Kyoto during this time anyway," Hanakain Fubuki shrugged.
"And besides..." His voice trailed off abruptly, as if a subtle memory had surfaced. He let out a soft "Ah."
Noticing the change, the cat girl beside him immediately leaned closer, her eyes scanning him suspiciously up and down before speaking slowly.
"Why did you stop talking? Thinking about another woman?"
"Ah... If you insist on putting it that way, I guess." Hanakain Fubuki pushed the thought aside and went back to eating. "It's still about that Jujutsu Association matter from yesterday. They'll probably contact me again in the next day or two, so it's hard to say if I'll be free this weekend."
"Oh~ Are you sure you're not just hung up on that senpai?"
"Why would I necessarily be hung up on that senpai... Besides, isn't that Jujutsu Association constantly going through all that trouble to seal Sukuna's fingers? I could just destroy them all one by one, solving the problem permanently. It's unlikely they'd just ignore that possibility, right? Maybe I can even use this chance to score a hefty sum from the Jujutsu Association and achieve financial freedom directly... Hmm, thinking about it that way, it actually sounds pretty good."
"Hmph..." Kuroka remained skeptical. "But Hana, if you just work and stay cooped up at home all the time, you won't have any friends, you know?"
"Who says? I had plenty of friends when I was a kid." Tilting his head back, Hanakain Fubuki poured the last bit of pasta from his plate into his mouth. He casually stood up from the table, carried his empty plate and cutlery to the kitchen sink, then turned and headed straight for the entranceway.
"Alright, I'm heading out. See you tonight."
"Uh, tonight... see you?"
The entire process happened so quickly that by the time the cat girl at the table reacted, the boy had already changed his shoes and left through the door.
Argh! What does he mean, 'had plenty of friends when I was a kid'?!
At times like this, he's supposed to say, 'It's okay, as long as I have you, that's enough!' Does he think she actually wants him to have lots of 'friends'?!
So infuriating!
...
Meanwhile, Hanakain Fubuki had just gone downstairs and exited the Chapter 15: Childhood friends, laapartment building. As he stepped onto the sidewalk outside, he heard a girl's startled cry right behind him.
"Ah!"
It was immediately followed by the feeling of a light collision.
When Hanakain Fubuki turned around, a white wimple fluttered down like a butterfly in his field of vision.
And sitting sprawled on the ground was a blonde... nun?
__________________________________________________________
Greetings, my dear clients of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor! 👋
I have some updates for you! I noticed another translator is also working on this current fanfic, So idecide start bringing you a brand new translation project starting next week!
BUT don't you worry! I'm definitely NOT stopping this current translation. 😉 In fact, I plan to add something special right here – those spicy lemon scenes (18+) featuring some favorite characters that I felt were missing! They'll be added directly into this version as we go.
Want to be the very first to read the new translation? You can get early access by supporting me on Patreon! Your support there helps make all these translations possible. ❤️
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The exciting new project launching there (with early access for Patrons!) is:
✨ Frieren in Elden Ring ✨