Chapter 350: Six Years Ago
If he had known earlier that merely doing something sexual could activate Time Jump, then Sakurai Saki definitely would have held himself back — especially after having to restrain himself all day because of Itsuki's "meat buns."
But unexpectedly, in the end, he lost control in front of Miku.
"Regret! In short, extreme regret."
In Kyoto, in some small park, Sakurai Saki lowered his head and looked at his current body.
It would've been fine if it was just time travel, but they didn't even let him bring along his original body.
The sky above looked like it was about to rain, dark and heavy; if he didn't find shelter soon, he'd probably get soaked like a drowned rat.
Sakurai Saki turned his head, looking at the only support he had right now.
"Shinobu, what do you think?"
"My Master, you are the Master, aren't you? Why are you asking me what I think?"
The two stared at each other intently.
"Jealous?" Saki asked.
Shinobu: （￣^￣）凸
"Hmph, who knows who it was that once said he would be my eternal support, and what happened in the end, huh, you damn rotten man! After forming a contract with me, you've been flirting with other girls all the time." Shinobu puffed her cheeks, her cute little face full of dissatisfaction.
"Idiot! Fool! Perverted sex maniac!" Shinobu scolded several times in a row.
But when paired with that adorable little face, it only made people want to kiss her a few times.
"Sorry. But I'm not as bad as you say, am I?" Sakurai Saki shamelessly replied.
Doing those things with a girlfriend — isn't that perfectly normal? After all, he's just an ordinary man.
"What about that tsundere girl then…"
"Tsundere girl?"
You mean Nino, huh?
"That's right, you just keep on, over and over again… having sex with other girls." Shinobu said, blushing, "Pervert!"
After scolding him, she realized Sakurai showed no reaction at all, so she continued——
"And because of what you did with that quiet girl, we got sent here in the first place!" Shinobu pointed toward a nearby billboard: "July 13th, 2015! It's six years ago now! We've time-traveled — if we can't find a way back, we'll be stuck here forever!"
"Don't worry, it's fine." Sakurai Saki smiled.
It's just time-space travel, that's all.
He had gone through this kind of otherworldly journey countless times already.
Shinobu stood up from the bench, then grabbed Sakurai Saki by the collar, shaking him hard as she said:
"This is really serious, my Master, you don't understand anything at all!"
⁽⁽(੭ꐦ •̀Д•́ )੭*⁾⁾(¬_¬)
To prove she wasn't wrong, Shinobu let go of him, cupped her hands like a megaphone, and shouted toward the people walking in the park not far away:
"Everyone!! There's a pervert over here!!!!"
A blonde little girl shouting like that looked pretty cute… wait a sec!
"What the hell are you saying?!"
Sakurai Saki was about to cover her mouth, but then he realized — the people over there had absolutely no reaction at all, even the kids playing in the sand didn't move.
…Huh?
At that moment, Sakurai Saki finally realized how serious the situation was.
He had felt something strange from the start.
After all — with his current shota-level charm for women, the fact that not a single onee-san had come up to talk to him was already illogical in itself.
Sakurai Saki asked curiously, "What's going on?"
With her hands on her hips, Shinobu confidently replied: "Kaka~ we've traveled to the real timeline six years ago — this isn't a parallel world."
"To avoid creating a time paradox, that's why we can't interact with other people."
Hearing that, Sakurai Saki nodded.
In other words, his current situation was similar to Nino's back then?
No, not quite — at least he could still touch other things.
"So what should we do now?" Sakurai Saki rested his chin on his hand, observing the surroundings.
After disappearing from Miku's arms, he suddenly appeared in this area.
Was there some kind of connection between the two events?
They say that even Tang Sanzang had to go through eighty-one tribulations on his journey for the scriptures — so his own ordeal surely wouldn't be any easier.
"This isn't your ability?" Shinobu glanced at him.
"As far as I understand, this kind of ability usually deactivates itself after a few days. When that happens, we can return." Sakurai Saki speculated.
Was this what they called "depending on the path"? No, more accurately, it was personal experience.
Using intuition to make a judgment, completely relying on previous experiences, probably wasn't a good idea — but if he abandoned intuition and used pure logic, he wouldn't get a better conclusion either.
Did he have to actively trigger the ability again several more times?
Sorry, things were already a mess; no need to make it more complicated.
"Kaka~ you really are an unreliable man." Shinobu said in a cheerful tone:
"Hmm~ but that's fine too. If we can't return, then just stay with me in this gap of time forever."
Shinobu: (˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵)
"..." Sakurai Saki looked down at his small body and said nothing.
"With that small body of yours right now, you really do look like you suit me." Shinobu lifted his chin.
Then slowly leaned down to kiss him.
When the kiss was only halfway through, she pulled away from his lips and moved down to his neck.
The next second, the two vampire fangs slowly appeared and sank deep into his skin.
"Gulp~"
The sound of swallowing echoed beside his ear.
Sakurai Saki held Shinobu in his arms, gently caressing her back.
A few minutes later—
The people around them had gradually thinned out.
"It's about to rain." he reminded her.
They needed to find shelter.
Shinobu released him, lightly licked her lips — on that cute face now appeared a kind of allure completely different from her innocent look.
"So delicious… your blood truly deserves to be called a delicacy."
Sakurai Saki gave her a slight glare: "Thanks for the compliment."
At that moment, a few raindrops fell on their heads.
"What should we do now?"
"Over there!" Shinobu pointed toward a nearby playground.
A small mushroom-shaped house meant for children to crawl inside.
Hearing that, Sakurai Saki took her hand, and the two of them went inside together.
This rain probably wouldn't last too long, and the mushroom house had only one entrance, which was enough to keep them dry.
Outside, the rain grew heavier and heavier.
Summer rain often comes quickly and goes quickly — but this time seemed to be an exception.
Listening to the rain falling outside, Sakurai Saki looked through the narrow opening of the door, watching the curtain of rain.
People outside wore raincoats, carried transparent umbrellas, and some without anything just ran through the downpour with their heads down.
"It's a bit cold, huh."
Sakurai Saki spoke up just to make conversation.
In truth, he wasn't cold at all — after all, it was summer, and the temperature was still high.
Shinobu quietly sat in his lap.
The two curled up together, sharing warmth through their bodies.
(っ˶ ˘ ᵕ˘)ˆᵕ ˆ˶ς)
"I heard that in cold places, there's a way to keep warm where men and women take off all their clothes and then Icha—"
Sakurai:(≖⩊≖)
Shinobu: (≖_≖ )
"Lolicon!" Shinobu headbutted his chin from below.
"Hey, I wasn't even finished talking yet!" Sakurai Saki said helplessly.
He was just bored and trying to tell something funny to lighten the mood.
"Look, why is there a child out there standing in the rain?" Shinobu suddenly pointed to the roadside.
"Umu… that hat and that white dress, that face…"
Sakurai Saki blinked as he spoke.
Wait, why does that look so familiar?
As he was thinking, that little girl ran straight toward the mushroom house where the two of them were hiding.
It seemed like she was also planning to take shelter from the rain here.
"Hey, My Master! Isn't that the meat bun girl when she was little?"
The moment Shinobu mentioned it, Sakurai Saki immediately reacted.
But… was that really Itsuki?
After all, the five sisters looked identical — as children, they probably weren't any different from one another.
Whatever, even if she really was one of the Nakano quintuplets, she shouldn't be able to see them now anyway.
Just as he thought that—
Sakurai Saki suddenly realized that he and the girl who looked a lot like Itsuki… were looking straight into each other's eyes.
"?"
The little girl… seemed to be able to see him?
...