Bonus chapter from review!
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Seeing Miyauchi Hikage arrive as promised, a happy expression appeared on Shiina Mashiro's face.
Right now, Shiina Mahiru had not yet returned from school, or perhaps she was out buying ingredients for tonight's dinner.
At the moment, Shiina Mashiro was the only one at home.
"Are you okay at home by yourself?" Miyauchi Hikage looked around. Shiina Mashiro's self-care ability was quite worrisome.
Shiina Mashiro nodded, then took out the manga in her hand, indicating that she had been reading manga at home all day and was almost halfway through the ones they had bought yesterday.
And when she saw that Miyauchi Hikage was also carrying a bag of delicious-looking snacks, her gaze was involuntarily drawn to them.
"This is baumkuchen. It should be something you like to eat, so I bought some for you," he said. If Shiina Mashiro were to think about it, she should be able to understand that what he meant was "the 'her' in the original work likes to eat this."
But Shiina Mashiro wouldn't think that much.
She took the bag of baumkuchen and, without a word, began to savor it with delight.
With just the first bite, her eyes seemed to turn into the shape of stars. She had completely fallen in love with the texture of the baumkuchen.
It wasn't until she had finished more than half of the bag, to the point where Miyauchi Hikari on the side felt that eating so much at once would be too rich, that she blinked and asked Miyauchi Hikage again for the name of the cake.
"Baumkuchen." After learning the name of this cake again, Shiina Mashiro nodded seriously and even wrote these characters down on a piece of paper, as if to remind herself to remember it.
Now Miyauchi Hikari was convinced.
Her little brother's level in charming girls seemed to be much higher than she had imagined.
He clearly knew that Shiina Mashiro had never eaten baumkuchen before, so how did he guess her preference so accurately?
Miyauchi Hikage, on the other hand, seeing that Shiina Mashiro was planning to continue eating the entire bag of baumkuchen, stepped in and took the bag away, handing it to Miyauchi Hikari behind him.
She really is the genuine Shiina Mashiro, with a mysterious obsession with "baumkuchen."
If he didn't stop her, she would probably eat baumkuchen as her main meal for a month.
"Hikari, take this bag of baumkuchen and put it in the fridge first. You can have some too if you want."
"After Mahiru-san comes back, please remind her to limit the amount of baumkuchen Mashiro eats every day, lest she only eats baumkuchen and ends up with malnutrition."
He wasn't worried that she would get fat from eating baumkuchen every day.
After all, with ripple breathing, as long as she could maintain the practice, maintaining her figure was a rather easy matter.
But ripple breathing also needed to absorb nutrients. If the nutrition was insufficient, it would naturally also affect the improvement of her Hamon.
Shiina Mashiro was the person with the best talent for ripple breathing among the girls with diaries he had seen so far.
He was still thinking of teaching this girl, who was the first to discover his identity, into a generation's Hamon master.
Naturally, he also had to manage some aspects of her life.
And hearing Miyauchi Hikage's words, a rare trace of grievance appeared in Shiina Mashiro's expression, as if she felt that she had just found such a delicious thing, only to be restricted. It would have been better not to let her know about such a delicious thing at all.
Seeing the expression on her face, Miyauchi Hikari, who had originally wanted to sneak a few pieces of baumkuchen, felt a little embarrassed. She stood there holding the bag, thinking that maybe she should just let her continue to eat a little more.
Anyway, she had money now. At worst, she could just go out and buy some other delicious things later.
No matter how delicious a cake is, can it be more delicious than meat?
This was Miyauchi Hikari's most simple thought.
Miyauchi Hikage, on the other hand, gave his older sister a look, signaling for her to go out so he could talk to Shiina Mashiro alone.
Miyauchi Hikari, who had just received her allowance from her little brother, was now in a position where she couldn't refuse.
Although she still wanted to stay on the side and eavesdrop on some gossip, she couldn't. Who could be blamed when Miyauchi Hikage held her economic lifeline?
"Then you'd better not bully Mashiro while I'm gone. If you really do something to her, I'll tell Mom and Dad," Miyauchi Hikari reminded her little brother with a straight face.
Seeing that her little brother had already rolled his eyes at her, she tactfully left the room with that small bag of baumkuchen, leaving a space for the two of them to chat alone.
If it were an ordinary girl, she might be a little nervous in a room alone with a boy.
But was Shiina Mashiro an ordinary girl?
For people she trusted, she was the type who could let them change her clothes on the second day of knowing them.
So at this moment, she didn't feel any special atmosphere at all, just stared at Miyauchi Hikage with some resentment, as if she wanted him to bring the baumkuchen back.
"If you really like to eat it, I'll buy some for you next time I come over. What I said just now wasn't that you can't eat it anymore, just that you have to eat a little less. If you eat any more, you probably won't be able to eat dinner tonight."
"If you can't eat dinner, Shiina Mahiru, who made a table full of food for you, will also be sad."
Hearing these words, which were like coaxing a child, Shiina Mashiro touched her stomach.
It seemed she had indeed eaten quite a few pieces of baumkuchen just now and was already feeling a little full.
Thinking of her cousin Mahiru's care for her these past few days at her home.
If she couldn't eat her food, she would indeed be a little sad.
And so she maintained the rhythm of ripple breathing, trying to speed up the digestion of the baumkuchen she had just eaten and convert it into her ripple energy.
Miyauchi Hikage also gave her guidance from the side.
Unlike Jerry's method, which required a "beating" to teach, Miyauchi Hikage's one-on-one guidance was obviously much more detailed.
Shiina Mashiro indeed had good talent. Basically, after only being told once, she could promptly adjust her breathing rhythm.
"Your ripple talent is not bad. I'll write some more breathing rhythms for you later. You can try to practice them yourself."
As Miyauchi Hikage said this, he of course also reminded Shiina Mashiro a few things, telling her that if she went to study at Toyogasaki in the future, she should not pass these breathing rhythms on to others.
"Even for those girls who have a diary like you, you'd better not teach these things to them, lest you expose the fact that you know me."
To this, Shiina Mashiro's eyes looked a little puzzled, as if she didn't understand why Miyauchi Hikage, who had already been discovered by her, still had to hide his identity in front of the other girls.