In the afternoon, the weather was clear and sunny.
The doorbell rang.
Asakura stood at the entrance of the Gotō household, carrying a gift bag.
The first stage of the journey had already been over for a while, but due to various reasons, Asakura had never found the time to come and visit the Gotō family.
Even though he had made Hitori nearly unable to get out of bed the night before the trip ended, he had ended up leaving her cast aside for so long after returning home; thinking about it this way, it truly carried a bit of a scumbag feel.
Considering what his future in-laws might think of him, before setting off on another trip, Asakura still brought along a gift to pay a visit.
"Who is it~" A somewhat tender and cute voice came from inside the door.
"It's me," Asakura replied.
"It's the 'It's me, it's me' fraud!" The little one's voice was filled with vigilance.
"Why does Futari know such a difficult term?! No, no, no, it's me, Asakura Takuma."
"Rabbit Dango!"
"I didn't bring Rabbit Dango today."
"There's~ no one~ home~ dayo~"
"But I brought other desserts."
"Welcome, Onii-chan!"
Futari opened the door, her face, which still carried a bit of baby fat, covered in a bright, sunny smile.
Jimihen wagged his tail and ran out the door, circling around Asakura.
What a total sycophant.
"Even though it feels a bit wrong for me to say so, don't just open the door for anyone just because of a few desserts."
Asakura gently tapped the little one's head.
"I know~" The little one covered her head, speaking with a chuckle: "It's only because it's Onii-chan that I opened the door for you~ If anyone else comes, no matter what they bring, I won't open it!"
"That's more like it."
Asakura patted her little head affectionately, then handed the gift bag in his hand to the little one.
"What is it?"
Futari asked curiously.
"Yōkan."
"Ugh..."
The little one showed an expression of distaste.
"Don't worry, this is a special rabbit yōkan made by Rabbit House~" Asakura guaranteed her: "If you think it's just like ordinary yōkan, you are dead wrong!"
"Really!" Expectant light instantly lit up in Futari's eyes.
"Of course it's true."
Asakura had eaten ordinary yōkan before. Contrary to its name, this thing didn't have a single bit of connection to sheep; it was just a red-bean-flavored pastry, and according to Asakura's palate, it was slightly too sweet, making it hard to call truly delicious.
However, just like the various health supplements carried along when visiting relatives and friends during holidays, they might not eat it, but you cannot fail to give it.
Regardless of whether it tasted good or not, at least over here in Japan, yōkan was a fairly common souvenir gift.
So Asakura had simply let the house-elves modify the yōkan according to his own taste—specifically by slightly reducing the sugar content, while blending different colors according to varying ratios of red bean, chestnut powder, icing, and agar, creating a rabbit pattern inside the yōkan to give it a property similar to konpeitō, where the rabbit pattern could still be seen every time it was sliced.
"That's so rude of you, Futari, at least let the guest come inside the house first before talking!"
At this time, Mrs. Gotō also arrived at the entryway, waving to Asakura: "Sorry about that, Asakura-kun, please come in quickly."
The little one ran back into the house happily with the gift bag balanced on her head, accompanied by Jimihen.
And Asakura also walked into the house under Gotō Michiyo's greeting.
"Huh?"
While changing his shoes at the entryway, Asakura discovered that the slippers Gotō Michiyo brought out for him were not the same ones from last time.
"The ones used for Asakura-kun before were all 'for guests,' but this pair is a brand-new pair 'for family.'" Gotō Michiyo noticed the look of confusion on Asakura's face, and explained to him triumphantly: "I specifically picked them out for you, Asakura-kun~"
"Is that so..."
Asakura felt a bit of warmth in his heart over how easily Gotō Michiyo and the others accepted him as "family."
At the same time, that pair of slippers—which looked like a cricket that had its internal organs completely hollowed out no matter how one looked at it—also made Asakura understand exactly where Hitori's strange taste was inherited from. The casual clothes bought for Hitori and Futari were completely normal, so why did this kind of bad taste manifest in these obscure little details...
Although it wasn't his first time here, one still had to be mindful of basic etiquette in someone else's home. Asakura followed closely behind Gotō Michiyo and arrived in the living room: "Where is Hitori?"
"If it's Big Sister, she is still roleplaying as a bagworm!" Futari replied.
"A bagworm?"
"Yeah, it feels like she just took a huge pile of clothes, covered herself with them, and has been shrinking inside the closet refusing to come out."
"Isn't she hot?"
"I think that's missing the point..."
Futari muttered.
Asakura smiled.
He could roughly guess Hitori's current situation: simply put, it was only after the child returned home that she finally snapped out of it. The more she thought about what happened before, the more embarrassed she became, until she ultimately consumed herself with internal friction to the point where she didn't even dare to step out of the house.
Though it's not like she particularly enjoyed going out in the past anyway.
"Tea."
Gotō Michiyo placed a cup of steaming hot green tea in front of Asakura, then sat down across from him, looking at him with a beaming smile.
"Is something wrong?"
Asakura couldn't help but feel a bit restless.
"It's nothing. It just depends on your attitude whether I decide if our family eats red bean rice today or not."
"If you don't mind for dinner, you don't have to save a portion for me and Hitori."
Asakura did not respond to the other party's probing, but simply spoke as if nothing out of the ordinary were happening.
"Oh."
Gotō Michiyo let out a meaningful sound: "It seems that regardless of whether red bean rice was needed before, eating it today shouldn't be an issue at all."
Facing his future mother-in-law's teasing, Asakura sipped his tea noisily with a thick skin.
"Wow~ There's a rabbit!"
Before Gotō Michiyo could probe further, Futari, who had torn open the packaging of the yōkan, suddenly looked at the pattern on it and cried out in pleasant surprise.
"Oh my, there really is one." Gotō Michiyo also looked at the special yōkan made by Rabbit House with a bit of curiosity.
"How interesting, just like konpeitō!"
After slicing off a piece of yōkan with the plastic cake knife included in the packaging, Futari looked at the rabbit pattern that remained clearly visible on it and said happily.
Then she took a large bite of the sliced yōkan, her eyes narrowing cutely due to the sweetness spreading across the tip of her tongue.
"Delicious!"
Jimihen wagged his tail and looked at his little master, his mouth watering so much it was about to drop.
"Don't eat it all by yourself, go call your sister down to eat together." Gotō Michiyo tapped her younger daughter's forehead.
"Aum..." Futari looked at the yōkan in her hand with reluctance.
"Never mind, let Futari keep eating. I'll just go call Hitori."
Asakura put down his teacup. Drinking steaming hot green tea in the middle of summer was indeed strange after all. He stood up and spoke, taking action before getting permission.
"Then I'll trouble you." Gotō Michiyo looked at her second daughter, who had happily started eating the yōkan again, and couldn't help but rest her chin on her hand, revealing a somewhat helpless smile.
Asakura walked through the hallway with familiar ease, went up the stairs to the second floor, and then arrived at Hitori's room.
Opening the door, a blast of cold air hit him squarely in the face. It looked like the air conditioner in the room was running a bit too forcefully.
What met his eyes next was a giant bagworm.
The young girl, who was wearing loungewear, was somehow wrapped entirely in clothes, looking just like a colorful silkworm cocoon as she continuously writhed with all her might on the tatami mat.
"Is that you, Mom... h-help~... help me untie this... ugh, I can't get it open no matter what..."
Is this what people call déjà vu?
Asakura let out a sigh, walked over to the girl's side, and with a swift, decisive movement, quickly rescued her from the tangled mess of clothes (Asakura even spotted a pair of underwear inside, though they looked as if they hadn't been worn yet).
"I'm finally out..." The girl let out a sigh of relief, and just as she turned her head wanting to say something to her mother, she saw Asakura flashing her a grin.
"Surprise~"
"..."
Asakura thought the girl would scream like last time, but this time Hitori remained completely expressionless, totally motionless.
Asakura waved his hand in front of her face before confirming her state.
"She actually fainted with her eyes wide open..."
He let out a sigh and looked around the girl's room, which seemed to be even messier compared to last time.
It was evident that during this period, the girl probably hadn't been in the right frame of mind to tidy up her room at all.
And so Asakura rolled up his sleeves—even though the T-shirt he was wearing didn't have any sleeves—and began helping the girl clean up her room.
By the time Hitori's drifting consciousness finally returned to her body, the very first thing she saw was Asakura, who was meticulously and neatly folding her underwear with absolute respect.
"Ah-wa-wa-wa..."
Instantly, the girl made a sound that resembled a broken radio.
"Oh? It looks like you're finally awake, Hitori."
Asakura was given quite a start by her erratic behavior, and only then did he greet the girl.
"Ugh, why is it that every single time Asakura-kun comes over, he always sees me at my absolute worst..."
The girl fell to her knees, speaking in deep distress as if she wanted to crawl straight into the cracks of the tatami mats.
"Hitori." Asakura's voice became steady and powerful, deep and full of charm.
"..."
The girl raised her head to look at Asakura, and without knowing what crossed her mind, her face blushed completely red all at once.
Asakura began to draw closer to the girl.
The girl's body started to tremble slightly out of sheer nervousness.
However, she didn't dodge away; she simply stood right where she was, like a Hana-chan waiting to be picked.
And so Asakura spoke.
"Isn't the way you're addressing me a bit off?"
Huh? Bringing this up in this kind of atmosphere? Are you serious?
The girl cried out inside her mind.
However, given her timid and socially anxious nature, she simply couldn't bring herself to actually voice this complaint out loud.
"Kuma-kun..." And so, she called out again in an incredibly soft, bashful voice.
"7 points." Asakura stroked his chin.
"So strict?! What's the grading criteria?"
"Mainly love."
"Ugh..." The girl slumped her head in dejection.
"As a side note, the maximum score is five points."
"Exceeding the maximum score?!"
"Because doesn't Hitori like me super much?"
"...Occasionally I really envy Kuma-kun's confidence... if only a bit of it could be shared with me." The girl muttered in a low voice.
"Huh, could it be that I'm just flattering myself, and Hitori doesn't actually like me?" Asakura looked completely astonished.
"Ugh..." The expressions on the girl's face kept shifting rapidly. It was clear she really wanted to say she liked him, but her current personality version simply didn't support that feature, making it look as though a software and hardware conflict was taking place.
"Is that so? Hitori doesn't like me, huh. It seems I overestimated myself. Sorry, Gotō-san..." Asakura said with a look of disappointment.
"No-no-no..."
"No?"
"N-No, that's not true at all!" Hitori finally broke through the limitations of her base code and hugged Asakura tightly. "I-If I didn't like you... I definitely wouldn't do this kind of thing... right?"
"That's great. I like Hitori too," Asakura also embraced the girl. "Because your figure is really nice, and you're so soft and comfortable to hold."
"Huh?!"
Is it my physical body that you're targeting?!
The ahoge (?) sprouting from the side of the girl's head kept swaying back and forth uncontrollably.
"And your face is very pretty too."
"Ah... ah-re?"
Even though it was a compliment, why did it feel impossible to feel happy about it at all?
"You get shy so easily, and you're absolutely adorable when I tease you. I love that!"
"Is... is that really considered a compliment?"
"You get lonely so easily, too. If I ignore you for even a moment, you look up at me with those big, wet puppy-dog eyes. I love that!"
"That really doesn't feel like a compliment at all?!"
"And I also absolutely love those little gasps you make—the ones with that slightly teary catch in your voice—when we reach that moment of 'super-fusion'..."
"A-a-aah! That's enough! Don't say another word!"
The girl began to squirm in Asakura's arms.
"Kuma-kun... you're so mean."
"Sorry. It's just that you're so incredibly cute, Hitori—whether you're here in my arms, or..." Asakura said with a beaming smile, showing absolutely no intention of denying his own mischievous nature.
"Kuma-kun... you're enjoying this way too much. In your eyes, is our relationship just... you know... 'banging'... 'banging'... 'banging'...?"
"It's a pre-marital adjustment period," Asakura declared firmly.
"It feels like we skipped a whole bunch of steps?!"
"Getting used to each other is really important."
"W-Well, while that's certainly true... why is it that when you say it, Kuma-kun... it takes on this weird sort of double meaning...?"
The girl first mumbled softly to herself, then asked with a touch of curiosity: "Kuma-kun... did you come here for something specific?"
"Do I really need a specific reason just to hang out with my girlfriend?"
Asakura looked at her with amusement. "If anything, once a couple makes things official, they're usually supposed to be practically glued to each other. Or are you saying, Hitori, that you think I'd only ever come around to see you when I actually have some business to attend to?"
"S-Sorry..." The young girl felt genuinely apologetic for having misunderstood Asakura.
"Although... I actually do have something I need to talk to you about," Asakura added immediately.
"..." The girl puffed out her cheeks in annoyance.
Acting as if he hadn't noticed the girl's displeasure at all, Asakura pulled a flyer out of his pocket.
"What's this?" Hitori looked at the flyer curiously. "...A Fireworks Festival?"
"Yep. I actually only found out about it yesterday when I saw the fireworks going off, but apparently, this festival runs for three whole days," Asakura said, smiling as he extended an invitation to the girl: "I was wondering—does Miss Gotō happen to have the time to come to the fireworks festival with me?"