Asakura poked the white ermine slumped on the table.
The ermine promptly burst and turned into many small snakes slithering everywhere.
He raised his head, looking at Gokou Ruri with a "give it a try" look in his eyes.
The girl immediately turned solemn, glaring at those small snakes with an expression that looked like she was "using a lot of strength..." even her face starting to turn red from holding her breath.
Gradually, those snakes began to undergo changes.
A small portion turned into kitten-sized and puppy-sized shapes, another portion simply turned fluffy while still retaining the appearance of snakes, and the remaining small portion was somewhere in between, having grown forelimbs or hindlimbs that couldn't be considered healthy, reminding Asakura of tadpoles currently metamorphosing into green frogs.
As if she had held her breath to the limit, the girl suddenly exhaled heavily, leaning her body back slightly against the soft cushion of the booth.
"No, I don't know why, but trying to transform further based on the foundation of a snake is much more difficult..." she said while panting a few times.
Asakura rubbed his chin, which was starting to grow some stubble, looking at the little creatures on the table thoughtfully.
The mini kittens and puppies were spinning happily on the table, and the fluffy snakes looked somewhat lazy, but more or less still moving; only those half-changed ones were mostly sprawled on the table or simply turned over with their bellies up, motionless, looking like they had given up and were thinking "why don't you just let me die".
He originally thought the Curse [Beast] would be a complete upgrade over the Curse [Cat], but now it seemed that wasn't quite the case.
While the range of transformations that could be chosen had increased, the priority of the curse itself seemed to have decreased—when Gokou Ruri first mastered the Curse [Cat], Asakura had done similar practice with her, and the result of that final practice was that she could keep nesting them infinitely until one side's magic power was exhausted.
He glanced at the girl who was staring blankly at the black tea the white ermine had drunk from, then he took the sugar and milk from the side of the table, poured them all at once into his own cup of tea that he hadn't drunk much of, stirred it casually with a teaspoon, and pushed it in front of the girl.
"If it's only to this extent, it can't really be considered 'invincible in the world', right?" Asakura said.
Gokou Ruri hesitated for a moment, but still picked up the teacup and took a light sip. Then, whether she was choked by the lethal amount of sugar or stimulated by the taste of Kawaragi's handmade black tea that still couldn't be covered up despite this, she furrowed her brows and immediately set down the teacup.
It seemed that milk and sugar alone were not enough to combat Kawaragi Momoka's handmade black tea.
Immediately following that, she said unhurriedly: "My previous Curse [Cat] could control cats, and Takuma-senpai's Curse [Snake] can control snakes, so my current Curse [Beast] can naturally control beast-types".
"Oh?" Asakura first responded subconsciously, and only then did he seem to realize something, looking at the girl with a somewhat incredulous expression.
"That's right." Gokou Ruri revealed a sweet yet dangerous smile like a demoness: "Theoretically speaking, humans also belong to 'beasts'..."
Saying this, she picked up the teacup again and drank the tea elegantly (or perhaps just putting on airs), but as a result, her face changed color again and she coughed twice, her little tongue sticking out repeatedly as she puffed air. Then she looked at Asakura, who was amused by her appearance, and as if to vent her frustration, she used the teaspoon to stir that black tea vigorously.
"Try using it on me..." Asakura said to the somewhat disheveled girl.
"Wh-What?" The girl was startled and stopped her movements, allowing the poor teacup to escape a disaster.
"Don't worry, I won't have any estrangement because you possess this kind of power..." Asakura propped his cheek with one hand and said with a smile.
"I... I wasn't worried!" Perhaps because her inner thoughts were hit by Asakura, the girl even forgot her self-designation of 'Wagahai'.
She was clearly so nervous she even forgot how bad the black tea she just drank tasted, only subconsciously using the tea to cover her emotions.
But even so, she still hadn't planned to hide this extremely dangerous power, dangerous for an average person, from him.
Was it because she had been lonely for too long that when she met someone who could understand her and show even a tiny bit of kindness, she couldn't help but pour her heart out to them?
After understanding this point, Asakura's heart couldn't help but be filled with tenderness for Gokou Ruri.
"Let's just say it's like that. Anyway, let's first determine the strength of this ability of yours..." Asakura opened his arms with a look of total commitment: "Fire at me!"
"...I won't be responsible for whatever happens." Gokou Ruri sighed, pointing the teaspoon in her hand at Asakura like she was holding a wand, and said in a low voice: "[Kura]."
Asakura remained motionless.
"Takuma-senpai?" the girl called out softly.
Asakura remained motionless.
"Did it really succeed?" Gokou Ruri's expression was somewhat surprised. She originally thought Asakura should be able to resist it, or at least block her curse.
She examined Asakura's appearance carefully, and suddenly a shy yet cunning smile appeared on her face.
"This is just a test, mm, a test!"
After muttering to herself as if to encourage herself, the girl then said to Asakura: "Takuma-senpai! Please... rub my head".
Because he couldn't reach while sitting, Asakura stood up, reached out, and gently rubbed the girl's head.
The worried expression on the girl's face was instantly replaced by happiness, and she couldn't even help but let out a small sigh: "Wow..."
"If it's only to this extent, I would do it even without a curse, you know..." Asakura said.
"Taku-Taku-Takuma-senpai?! You weren't controlled?"
The girl jumped to the side in the booth like a cat with its fur standing on end, looking at Asakura incredulously with an expression full of surprise and shame.
"You probably haven't used this on others, right?" Asakura asked back.
"Hmph, although human moral justice is just vanity to me, I still have my own dignity." As if to cover up her own embarrassment, the girl immediately restored that tone full of chuunibyou flavor.
"To put it simply, the Curse [Beast] is theoretically effective on humans..." Asakura said.
"Theoretically?" The girl was puzzled.
"Yeah, but do you know the difference between humans and general beasts in mysticism?" Asakura asked.
"Something like the soul? I remember there are also sayings about astral bodies and such..." the girl thought hard.
"You can ignore those complex concepts. You can roughly understand it as humans having 'reason,' so they are different from general beasts..." Asakura explained: "If your Curse [Beast] is used on those whose hearts are empty and who are completely dominated by instinct or emotion, it should be able to control the other party to a certain extent. But in other words, as long as a person has enough reason and a firm enough heart, they can avoid your curse, because in that situation, a 'person' has been separated from the general category of 'beast' and become an independent existence".
In fact, Asakura was completely unaffected by the girl's curse. Not to mention that the Curse [Scale] permanently residing on him wasn't triggered, even Asakura's own perception only sensed a negligible... impact on his own soul? No, rather than an impact, it felt more like a ripple.
His heart was without a wave, and he even wanted to laugh.