The three tidied up and left.
Tatsuki still had the last doujin in hand, unsure whether he should put it away.
They had barely reached the door when a curious voice called out to him.
"Tatsuki-kun?"
Tatsuki turned his head. "Utaha?"
The one calling to him was the black-haired senpai, Kasumigaoka Utaha.
"You came to the doujin event too?" Kasumigaoka walked up to him with interest.
Tatsuki lifted the book in his hand. "To sell books."
"To sell books?"
Kasumigaoka's eyes lit up. She thought Tatsuki had started creating again.
Those things Tatsuki had said to her before—she still couldn't wrap her head around them. It's his work, but he says it isn't his work. She'd mulled it over for a long time and still had no answer.
Soon, she calmed herself. There's no way Tatsuki would need to sell a light novel at a doujin event. Any imprint would publish him easily.
With that doubt in mind, Kasumigaoka tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and asked, "Could you let me see what it is?"
Tatsuki: "…"
He glanced at the book in his hand.
"This… might not be a good idea."
Kasumigaoka lowered her gaze and said in a quiet tone, "Tatsuki-kun, did you forget how we used to share our work? Can't we exchange pieces like before?"
"…"
Tatsuki really wanted to say this had nothing to do with exchanging work.
"!!!"
Eriri squeezed Tatsuki's hand hard.
He could read it in her eyes—hungry.
Tatsuki nodded, set the book into Kasumigaoka's hand, and said, "I'm taking my girlfriend to eat. See you."
His free hand then laced fingers with Sayuri, and he led the two of them to find a restaurant.
It was already noon; eating out once in a while sounded nice.
"Girlfriend?"
A question mark popped above Kasumigaoka's head.
She saw Tatsuki walking away, holding hands with two women—both petite—and the key detail: he was interlacing fingers with both.
"Wasn't his girlfriend Benio Adashino?"
If she remembered right, she'd just seen Tatsuki kissing Benio a couple of days ago. Then who were these two?
Kasumigaoka fell into confusion. Don't tell me Tatsuki is actually a two-timer… or worse?
After a brief, stormy silence in her head, she looked down at the book in her hand.
The cover looked like a bishoujo comic.
She opened it on instinct.
She had barely turned a few pages—
"Ah!" Kasumigaoka yelped.
Instantly, surrounding heads turned toward her.
"!!!"
Realizing she'd drawn too much attention, she clapped a hand over her mouth, shut the book, stuffed it in her bag, lowered her head, and hurried away.
…
"Who was that just now?" In a restaurant, Eriri sat on Tatsuki's right, happily being fed by him while she asked.
"Kasumigaoka Utaha, a third-year senpai at our school."
"Oh."
Eriri gave a simple "oh" and didn't ask more.
In the past, she might have dug for every last detail. Now, she trusted Tatsuki more.
Seeing this, Sayuri was delighted—Eriri already understood how to be a good wife.
The three of them were just eating and chatting as usual…
Then Eriri glanced around furtively.
"My chopsticks fell!"
Under Sayuri and Tatsuki's puzzled gazes, Eriri ducked under the table to pick up her chopsticks.
"…"
Sayuri's mouth twitched. She rubbed her temples hard. What made Eriri this scatterbrained today?
Tatsuki didn't want their meal disturbed, so he simply created a fresh private space.
…
Eriri's appetite was no joke.
They spent five hours on that meal.
Her belly was so full she could barely walk. Even Sayuri, who'd started out without much appetite, had been tempted into eating more by Eriri's gusto. Now both of them were too stuffed to move.
He'd originally planned to stroll with them afterward, but that was clearly not happening.
Tatsuki could only use spatial transfer to send them home.
He had just placed them in their bedroom when the two flopped onto the bed and fell asleep instantly.
Just as he was about to head back to his own place, an unexpected call came in.
"Ms. Hiratsuka?"
A call from Shizuka Hiratsuka at this hour?
He answered.
"Tatsuki?"
"It's me. What's up at this time?"
"Uh… I think I've run into something weird again!"
"…Another ghoul or something?"
If he remembered correctly, Shizuka had only dealt with a ghoul not long ago.
"No, this is different. Can you come over first?"
"On my way."
The moment he hung up—
"What—"
"Wah!"
Sitting on the sofa, Shizuka Hiratsuka almost threw her phone.
Because Tatsuki had appeared right in front of her.
"How are you this fast?" She stared in disbelief. She'd literally just ended the call, and he was here the next second.
Tatsuki gave her a sidelong look. "A man should never be called quick."
Then: "Spatial transfer. Look it up."
"…"
She pretended not to hear the first line and grumbled at the second, "With a power like yours, delivering takeout would make a killing."
Tatsuki didn't deny it—courier work would be busted with this.
He glanced around. Looked like Shizuka's bedroom—fairly neat. Just one question:
Where's the anomaly?
He shot her a look. "Enough banter. What's going on? You don't seem urgent—I thought you were in danger."
He didn't mean anything by it, but she heard something else: that he'd rushed here because he was worried about her.
Shizuka's earlobes warmed. Being cared about by a man—outside of family—was a first.
Too dangerous. He's my student!
She hurriedly pushed the thought away and got to the point. "This is the anomaly."
She pulled a red tin box from a cloth drawstring bag on the bed and handed it to Tatsuki.
"A box?" he said, taking it.
"Not the box itself. I locked the abnormal thing inside because I was afraid it would get out," Shizuka explained quickly.
"Oh?"
Tatsuki grew more curious. What kind of anomaly isn't dangerous and could be contained by a normal person?
Click.
He pressed lightly, lifted the lid—
Inside lay a sheet of white paper. On it, a picture.
A black-and-white sketch of a young woman outlined in crisp lines: single side-pony, a summer dress.
Below the portrait was a string of English letters: "Cassandra."
As Tatsuki stared in puzzlement, the sketched woman on the paper turned her head, as if looking at him?
Shizuka rubbed her forehead, looking troubled. "That's the anomaly I found—a portrait on paper that can move."
She was not exaggerating.
Right now, the line-drawn woman was even waving hello.
"Hoh."
This was a first for Tatsuki as well—something this bizarre.
....
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