Early the next morning, Takumi slipped out from the pile of bodies.
"Mmm… how did I end up this depraved? I even corrupted Asia."
He muttered to himself while looking at Asia's peaceful sleeping face.
That tiny flicker of guilt vanished almost instantly.
While eating the breakfast Maria had made, Takumi remembered that he was still on break today.
"In that case, this is a good chance to look into a few things."
The Shikon Jewel, the mystery of Yukino's Snow Woman bloodline, the matter with Rikka Sakuragawa, and the matter with Megumi Kato.
Those were the four things currently on his list.
"None of them are urgent. I can take my time."
"And for all of them, Kotoko would be the best person to ask for help."
Muttering to himself, Takumi headed out the door.
Compared to the influence he now had in the Underworld, his power on the human side was still far too small.
He simply didn't have enough people available.
The Ghost Shadow Army was fine for combat and scouting, but for something like building an intelligence network, they were clearly lacking.
And thanks to yesterday's post-battle party, Yubelluna and the others weren't getting out of bed anytime soon either.
So if he wanted people sent out to investigate, his first choice was obviously still Kotoko.
The yokai under her command were the best candidates.
"Haa… I already gave Yubelluna that many Servant Pieces."
"Once she's summoned a proper batch of followers, I won't need to keep bothering other people."
As he said that, Takumi pulled out his phone and called Kotoko Iwanaga.
Kotoko was in the middle of handling her school transfer when she saw Takumi's name pop up, and immediately picked up.
"My darling, calling me this urgently—are you that desperate to take the final step into adulthood?"
The moment the call connected, her teasing voice came through.
Takumi's face went blank.
"Kotoko, if you keep saying things like that, I'm seriously going to stop holding back."
The instant it sounded like he might mean it, Kotoko chickened out.
"At least let me train up first. Something oversized like yours is way too much for me right now, okay?"
"So, what exactly did you call about?"
She hurriedly changed the subject.
Mostly, Kotoko just liked running her mouth. If it came to the real thing, she still wasn't confident.
She wanted to take it step by step. If she jumped straight to the end, she felt like she'd break.
Hearing the panic in her voice, Takumi didn't keep threatening her.
She really hadn't prepared herself mentally yet, and he was willing to wait.
He then told her about the Shikon Jewel and the Snow Woman bloodline.
"So that thing that drove yokai berserk before is called a Shikon Jewel shard."
"I'm already having yokai investigate it."
"As for the Higurashi Shrine you mentioned, I'll redirect some yokai to look into it."
"But that Snow Woman bloodline thing… that's genuinely bizarre."
"I've never heard of Snow Women being able to mix bloodlines with humans like that."
"Their bodies may resemble humans, but they're an all-female race. It's impossible for them to reproduce with women."
"And the way they reproduce is usually parthenogenesis—they directly replicate themselves and create young offspring that way."
"So a human carrying mixed Snow Woman blood… that's just unbelievable."
If anyone other than Takumi had told her this, Kotoko would've assumed they were joking.
Takumi hesitated, then asked carefully, "Then… is it possible there are male Snow Women?"
The moment he said that, Kotoko completely lost it.
"Hahaha~~ No way."
"Darling, think about it—why do you think they're called Snow Women?"
"If there really were male Snow Women, they'd be called Snow Men, not Snow Women."
"..."
Listening to her crack up on the other end, Takumi looked down at himself with a strange expression.
At this point, he was probably the only male Snow Woman in existence.
After all, he'd copied and fused the Snow Woman bloodline into himself.
But that part only made up a tiny fraction of his overall makeup.
"Haa… just send me the location of a Snow Woman habitat. I'll go check it myself."
"Fine. The nearest Snow Woman habitat is… here."
Kotoko promptly sent over a coordinate. The marked point was the closest snowy mountain range in the area.
"A few hundred kilometers away. That's not too far."
"But if Kotoko is right and Snow Women are an all-female race, then their connection to the Yukinoshita family may not be as deep as I thought."
Takumi let out a long breath.
The problem might not actually lie with the Snow Woman race itself.
Still, now that he was this close, he had to go take a look.
At the very least, it was a race made up entirely of women, and Takumi definitely had thoughts about bringing them under his control.
But before that—Takumi looked around and noticed the women passing by were all staring at him.
Mature women, younger girls—hell, even men were looking at him with burning eyes.
"Damn. Freya's Authority boosted my charm way too much."
Scalp tingling, Takumi immediately layered a weak cognition barrier over himself.
Any supernatural being with magic power would still be able to see through it.
But for ordinary people, he'd be effectively invisible.
Once he did that, the people crowding around him reluctantly drifted away.
Even if they couldn't see him anymore, their instincts still told them something here was drawing them in.
If Takumi wanted to, he could probably grab a random woman off the street right now, and there was a ninety-nine percent chance she'd agree to go home with him.
"There's a reason Freya likes pretending to be Syr and living as a normal girl."
"If I had people staring at me nonstop every day, I'd get sick of them too."
Just as Takumi was about to fly off toward the snowy mountains, two girls walking toward him caught his attention.
They looked around his age, both with curvy, well-developed bodies.
One had chestnut hair tied into twin tails.
The other had short blue hair with a streak of green at the front.
Both were fresh-faced and pretty, but there was a sharp, dangerous edge to them too.
A crucifix hung at each of their chests, and both wore white cloaks over black, glossy bodysuits that hugged every curve and showed off their hot figures in merciless detail.
Their waist-to-hip ratios were exquisite. Just one look told him they were top-tier.
If Takumi didn't have X-ray vision, he wouldn't have been able to judge that through all those layers.
The moment he noticed them, they noticed him too.
For a second, all three of them locked eyes, and that electric feeling passed between them.
After a few seconds of stunned silence, the chestnut-haired girl lit up with delight.
"Ah~~ It's Takumi-kun!!"
"Huh?"
Hearing Irina Shidou call out his name so suddenly, Takumi searched his memory.
It didn't take long for him to place her.
When they were very young, Irina had once stayed in the Hero Village for a while.
Back then, she'd followed him around and played with him all the time.
At night, they'd even play "doctor," kissing each other and all.
...
For every 50 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.