In truth, they had only wanted Raphiel to use the advantages they themselves lacked to complete the punishment game. They were not forcing her to do anything more intimate. Yet unexpectedly, Raphiel had taken the initiative herself, and had even become so absorbed in it that they did not need to urge her along at all.
The way Raphiel was acting now... she was not already thinking about how to get revenge later, was she?
Last night, in order to escape, Raphiel had even considered dragging Satanichia and the other angels and demons down with her and offering them to Hachiman. Now that she was being pinned down and forced to accept punishment by them, it would only be natural for her to retaliate later.
Still, everyone here already had a deeply complicated relationship with Hachiman. They could not exactly leave Raphiel alone outside of it all.
With Raphiel around, someone with a better figure than theirs and capable of doing even more things, perhaps Iris would let them off more often in the future.
Though originally, they were supposedly trying to save Hachiman and stop him from falling into depravity...
"Good morning, Hachiman-nii~"
"Onii-chan, ohhh—"
Pretending they had just woken up, Shion and Komachi came downstairs, intending to greet Hachiman and the others in the living room.
However, the moment they saw the girls gathered around Hachiman, they immediately had no idea what to say anymore.
Their brother, Hachiman, sat in the middle of the sofa with Lala, the alien princess, and his childhood friend Kaede tucked into either side of him.
The petite and pure elf princess Iris sat on Hachiman's lap, while the silver-haired angel with a white halo above her head knelt on the floor with her hands clasped together in prayer.
The dignified dragon clan chief Ursula leaned at the side together with her younger sister Suzu, occasionally switching places with Lala and Kaede. Even the angel Gabriel and the demon Vignette could only stand in front of the sofa, unable to squeeze in.
Seeing that no one in the living room paid any attention to their arrival at all, Komachi and Shion both flushed red and awkwardly looked away before quietly moving over to Gabriel and Vignette.
"Uh..."
"Well..."
The four exchanged glances. After a brief awkward silence, they tacitly turned red together and crowded into the kitchen to make a proper breakfast, deliberately ignoring the living room scenery that would come fully into view the moment they turned around.
They had clearly spent the entire night playing hide-and-seek until dawn, continuously developing magical girl talents and training to improve magical girl strength, yet now they still would not settle down again and again and again.
If they did not all know perfectly well how absurdly strong Hachiman was, they might already have rushed over to stop Iris, Ursula, Kaede and Suzu, Lala, and the others from bullying him.
Raphiel continued praying on her own while Komachi, Shion, Gabriel, and Vignette hid in the kitchen and quickly prepared a simple breakfast.
Once breakfast was ready, Hachiman finally came over to the table together with Lala, Raphiel, Iris, Ursula, and the others.
Yukari, the long black-haired snow woman who had played with them last night, had also been invited over by Komachi for breakfast.
"Onii-sama~ Good morning~"
Dressed in a plain white kimono, her long jet-black hair spilling past her waist and over her shoulders, Yukari sat down beside Komachi. Looking at Hachiman, who still seemed endlessly energetic and practically embodied the ideal husband sought by the snow woman race, she revealed a teasing smile on her cool, delicate face. As she greeted him, she also winked at Komachi.
However, there were simply too many terrifyingly important people present. She herself was only an ordinary young snow woman. Seeing Komachi flush red and become too embarrassed to speak, Yukari quickly restrained her usual lazy, carefree demeanor and stopped teasing Komachi further with her voice.
"Eat first, Yukari. From now on, you can call me 'Onii-chan' like Shion and Mio do. If you want to come over and play, just come whenever you like."
Sitting at the head of the table, Hachiman had naturally noticed Yukari teasing Komachi. Still, everyone present already understood Yukari's personality and circumstances well enough, so he had no intention of commenting on it. He merely gave a brief reminder before temporarily leaving Yukari and Komachi alone.
The day Shion joined their household, he had already said it, whatever Komachi had, Shion would have as well. Equal treatment meant equal treatment.
Previously, Shion had been teased plenty by Komachi.
Now it was Komachi's turn.
"Okay~ Thank you, Onii-sama~ I'm digging in~"
Yukari blinked at Hachiman's serious expression and immediately pressed her hands together, replying in the same playful, spoiled tone she had used last night.
Although he had not explicitly said he was accepting her as a younger sister, it sounded more like he was simply allowing her to visit the Hikigaya house whenever she wanted, rather than live there like Shion and the others. And she had already called him "onii-sama" many times last night anyway.
Still, merely being allowed to freely come and go from the house was already an incredibly close relationship.
An elf princess, a dragon clan chief, a mermaid princess, a demon princess, an alien princess... Among the people who could casually enter and leave the Hikigaya household, any one of them stood on the same level as the princesses among their yokai race, or even above them.
Originally, she had thought that coming down from the mountains into the city with everyone else would simply mean freeloading for a while.
Who would have thought she would end up dragged into a gathering filled with people this important?
So what was her current situation equivalent to now?
The younger sister acknowledged by a feudal lord?
Though that did not feel entirely accurate either. It was just that Onii-sama had not occupied territory of his own. If he truly wanted to, who knew how many people would kneel before him with their followers in tow?
As Yukari happily ate breakfast, she looked around at the girls seated nearby. Seeing that none of them seemed to mind her calling him "onii-sama", some even smiling at her, she could not help secretly glancing beneath the table toward Hachiman across from her.
Slowly, she lowered the delicate feet hidden within her white tabi socks, which had begun twitching restlessly. The hem of her kimono once more covered her smooth, pale calves, and her heart filled with regret.
The books she read had explained what to do in situations like this.
Stories about snow women falling in love with humans. Stories about yokai seducing humans.
But those books did not seem very realistic after all.
The human was not lusting after her at all.
Instead, she was the one craving this human, 'Onii-sama...'
Last night, Yukari had stepped into an unknown world she had never personally experienced before. The interest she had long suppressed had surged violently upward. Now, sitting beneath the table and smelling that mouthwatering scent again, she could not help burying her head and eating several more bites of breakfast while silently deciding that she absolutely needed to come to the Hikigaya household more often and play with Komachi and the others again.
Naruse Mio, Naruse Maria, and Shion exchanged glances upon seeing this, and all approved of their new companion.
'This Yukari seems... extremely capable...'
In the future, perhaps their little younger-sister faction could flourish just like the other groups.
"Lala, how are you planning to arrange things for Momo and Nana?"
As Hachiman wrapped Iris's golden hair around the halo above Raphiel's head, he looked toward Lala beside him. Only after kissing her flushed, alluring face again, after she had finally released him in satisfaction, did he ask about her two younger sisters.
"Huh? Momo and Nana?"
Like Kaede and the others, Lala had been making up for last night's lost time during breakfast. She had only just felt that she had absorbed enough Hachiman energy when she heard his question, leaving her staring blankly at him.
"I'm asking whether Momo and Nana are going to school or not. And if they are, whether they'll go to Komachi's school or ours."
Hachiman pinched Lala's soft, elastic cheeks. Seeing her utterly confused expression, clearly having never even considered what to do with Momo and Nana today, he helplessly explained further.
Normally no one stayed home anyway. Unless Momo and Nana simply did not want to attend school, it was obviously better for them to go with everyone else.
Besides, going to school did not mean they actually had to stay there all day. They could skip class whenever they wanted and come find him instead.
Though admittedly, he himself skipped class every day at school too. Either he was in the restroom, sports storage room, or swimming pool helping troubled girls, or he was being summoned to the student guidance office to drink tea while enduring round after round of lectures from young female teachers.
"Hmm! Komachi's school sounds fine. Since they chose it themselves, let them go there," Lala blinked and casually shook her head.
It was not that she did not care about her sisters.
But although Momo and Nana had suffered under the palace curriculum, there honestly was not much on Earth worth studying for them anyway. So whichever school they attended made little difference.
She and Iris attended Sobu High to stay with Hachiman and make friends with the girls around him.
But Momo and Nana had not yet completed the palace curriculum. No matter how much they thought ahead now, their mother would drag them back eventually.
Hehe! She was already engaged to Hachiman, no longer a child in her mother's eyes. Staying on Earth with Hachiman was completely fine.
"Mmm... Komachi's school isn't a bad idea. Quite a few factions have been planning to infiltrate the school to approach Komachi lately. If Nana and Momo are there too, we can all relax a little more."
Iris climbed out from beneath the table and sat between Lala and Ursula, calmly fixing her disheveled golden hair. Seeing them still discussing such a minor issue, she covered her mouth and chuckled softly in agreement.
They had already investigated how Momo and Nana had appeared here in the first place.
Lala's two younger sisters were surprisingly clever. After running away from home and arriving on Earth, they had concealed their identities and inserted themselves into Komachi's school transfer list under the aliases "Belia Momo" and "Aster Nana."
If they had not been discovered, they probably would have approached Komachi first before trying something with the president while everyone else was absent.
Unfortunately for them, Raphiel had happened to catch them while they were gathering intelligence. Before they could do anything in secret, they had already ended up on the dining table.
Still, this worked out well enough. They happened to need people at Komachi's school anyway.
Naruse Mio, Naruse Maria, and Yukari all attended Sobu High now. At home, only Shion could accompany Komachi to school.
Although the black-haired Shion was obedient and well-behaved beneath her cold exterior, her enthusiasm only showed itself in front of the president. Around outsiders, she remained aloof and was not particularly good at socializing.
If Momo and Nana helped too, then any bait those factions sent to approach Komachi would probably all be swallowed whole by them.
"What about you, Komachi? What do you think?"
Hachiman glanced at Kaede beside him. Seeing no sign that she intended to speak, he turned toward Komachi instead.
Most of the household was unfamiliar with Lala's younger sisters and could not really contribute to the discussion. They simply ate breakfast quietly while occasionally sneaking glances at Raphiel, who was still praying devoutly.
But Komachi's opinion definitely needed to be asked.
"Uh... I don't mind... but will Momo and Nana actually listen to us? After what we did to them last night."
Seeing Hachiman finally look over, Komachi let out a helpless sigh inwardly while wearing an awkward, shy smile.
She did not particularly care if two more alien princesses transferred into her school.
At this point, magical girls already existed there. The transfer list also contained countless young ladies, exorcists, demi-humans, and other students with unusual identities. Adding alien princesses on top of that merely made it resemble a miniature Sobu High.
Still, once she thought about developing magical girl talent and the shortcut method for increasing magical girl strength.
She felt that maybe they really did need to establish a Service Club branch at her school for Onii-chan.
"If they don't behave, send them straight back home. You can't spoil younger sisters who ran away from home."
Lala said mercilessly of Momo and Nana despite completely forgetting that she herself had also run away from home.
After arriving on Earth, they had not contacted her at all. Instead, they had secretly hacked into her defenses and tried to pull something behind the scenes. Receiving a little punishment was only appropriate.
"Then we'll arrange for them to attend Komachi's school first. If they don't want to later, we can switch."
With Momo and Nana's transfer arrangements decided, Hachiman stopped discussing the matter and finally began enjoying the breakfast Gabriel and Vignette had specially prepared for him.
"Haaah!"
Only once breakfast at the Hikigaya household officially ended did Hachiman finally lean back comfortably in his chair.
But the moment he saw Yukari stand up together with Shion to clean up the dishes, he immediately pulled her into his arms again.
"Mm... we should wash the dishes first. Once that's done, we'll change clothes and head to school."
Watching Yukari get trapped in Hachiman's embrace, baring her little fangs in protest only to have her tiny pink tongue pinched instead, Shion's face instantly turned red. Lowering her head in panic, she hurried back into the kitchen with the dishes alongside the equally black-haired Komachi.
The petite and adorable succubus Naruse Maria, meanwhile, possessed an almost unexpected enthusiasm. Her eyes lit up at the sight, and she immediately dragged along Naruse Mio, who was still struggling over whether she should go to the kitchen or crawl beneath the table instead, before gleefully pouncing onto Hachiman together.
"We agreed on half an hour. Do you people have some kind of misunderstanding about what 'half an hour' means?"
Raphiel, whose breathing was still uneven, appeared beside Gabriel. Seeing Hachiman continuing to spread his radiance without pause, she subconsciously swallowed again before realizing something was wrong with herself and angrily turned toward Gabriel and Vignette in embarrassment.
Cooking, eating, chatting, how had that been only half an hour?
Even if she had already experienced how special Hachiman was, this was still her first time.
She was not like Vignette and Gabriel, who had already gotten somewhat used to it. She had spent nearly an entire hour under everyone's gaze. It had been mortifying.
"Oh, I forgot to mention it. When I told you that, there really was only half an hour left before school. But we have teleportation, remember? We can teleport directly there, so we can leave later."
Seeing Raphiel's ears and neck flushed scarlet as she struggled to maintain composure, Gabriel smiled brightly and casually explained, as though only now remembering the detail she had forgotten to mention.
"Surely you knew that already, Raphiel? You're always secretly watching us eat at Hachiman's house."
"..."
Hearing Gabriel place obvious emphasis on the word "eat," Raphiel could only fall speechless.
Who would be so bored that they kept track every day of how long they spent eating?
Wait. She actually had kept track. She even knew Gabriel and Vignette were not exactly harmonious about it either. If one took a bite, the other insisted on taking one too. Neither would accept getting less.
She just had not expected herself to become the victim.
Would the three of them have to take turns from now on too?
Or would those two simply bully her into eating even more?
"Raphiel, I already prepared everyone's lunchboxes in the kitchen. They aren't very elaborate because of the time limit... but do you want me to bring you a little more?"
Seeing Raphiel unconsciously lick clean the corner of her mouth as though still unsatisfied, Vignette hesitated before asking softly.
At the time, she really had been angry and had joined Gabriel in pinning Raphiel down.
But now that she had calmed down, she was starting to feel they had gone a bit too far.
Even if Raphiel avoiding responsibility had been wrong, she had never actually forced them to do anything. They were the ones who had truly forced Raphiel.
After what they had done, Raphiel would definitely be plotting revenge later, right?
"No need. I'm full already. I just might need to rest a little once we get to school."
Raphiel waved her hand, buttoned up her white shirt, and smoothed the wrinkles across the front of it. But once her hand reached her lower stomach, her expression turned slightly strange, and she could not help glancing once more in Hachiman's direction.
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