The research into magic had been abruptly shelved after the accidental incident with Megumin. The awkward atmosphere between her and Jhin lasted less than an hour or two before they were back to their usual rhythm of bickering and trading barbs.
Whether either of them had truly gotten over it, of course, was something only they themselves knew.
"Open up."
"Ahh~"
Having taken over toothbrushing duty, Jhin dutifully attended to Pecorine's teeth every single morning. The two of them had grown considerably closer through this daily ritual — nothing that stood out dramatically on the surface, but the rest of the group had definitely noticed how much more they talked to each other.
Kyaru came to the bedroom to check in. "Pecorine, your hand injury's pretty much healed by now, right?"
"Mm, Kokkoro said she'd take the bandages off for me tomorrow. Finally — I can touch food with both hands again."
"You seemed like you were eating just fine all this time. Though I'll admit Megumin and Kokkoro looked a little frantic at mealtimes trying to keep up with you."
"Oh, I'm always happy when there's food to eat. But being fed by someone else the whole time just made me feel... off. Like I couldn't relax."
Kyaru raised an eyebrow. She thought back to how Pecorine's appetite had actually increased after the injury. "I couldn't tell you were uncomfortable at all, honestly. Oh — speaking of which, you should've had Jhin feed you. He can eat just as much as you can. Two foodies like that probably have some kind of unspoken synchronicity going on."
"Jhin feeding me?" Pecorine recalled the morning toothbrushing session, and her cheeks flushed faintly pink. She nodded. "That... could actually work. We've been talking a lot about cooking lately. We have more in common than I expected."
"Oh!" Kyaru's cat tail flicked lightly. "What else have you two been talking about besides food?" — that was the real question she'd come here to ask. After spending so long at the Gourmet Edifice, she had finally begun her own intelligence-gathering operation.
"Besides that... let me think."
How much of their conversation could possibly be about food that everything else takes this long to recall.
Kyaru had half-resigned herself to walking away empty-handed — but Pecorine came through with at least a small morsel of useful information.
"Jhin asked me why I never go back to visit my parents."
"Right, I heard Landosol isn't the final destination of your journey. Why don't you go home for a visit?"
"Home is just too far away, so I keep in touch with them through letters."
"Ah... same as me, then.." Kyaru murmured.
Your home is nowhere near far away — you literally live in Landosol. Though... judging by the look on her face, she's clearly not planning to go back to the palace anytime soon.
Not exactly vital intelligence, but it was something. For a first probe, that counted as a decent result.
Kyaru's tail swayed behind her in a more leisurely arc, and a small, barely-there smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "Has Jhin asked you to draw out your Void weapon recently?"
"No, he hasn't."
"Isn't he working on developing some kind of original ancient spell? I thought he wanted to use a Void weapon as a reference."
"He said the wound on my body still hasn't healed, and drawing out the Void weapon would put extra strain on me, so he held off."
"What a thoughtful bastard with a terrible personality." Kyaru muttered the curse under her breath.
Pecorine tilted her head, baffled by the sudden outburst. "Jhin's a good person, though. Did he do something to you?"
At that, Kyaru's irritation came flooding back all at once. She had absolutely no idea what conditions Megumin had been promised — but somehow that scheming girl had, without any warning whatsoever, pinned Kyaru down on the sofa while shouting things like, "Jhin, hurry up and grope her, Kyaru is really strong!"
What followed was Kyaru being dragged, against her will, into having her Void drawn out. The instant she felt something reach into her innermost self, she'd been so terrified she thought Jhin was probing her identity as a spy — her heart had literally stopped for several seconds.
Kyaru proceeded to vent the full extent of her grievances to Pecorine, accusing Megumin and Jhin of conspiring against her, colluding in villainy, extracting her Void weapon without her consent — and declaring that she would absolutely never help either of them use [Mana Touch] to channel magic ever again.
"Heh heh~"
"What are you giggling about?" Her venting interrupted by laughter, Kyaru's brow furrowed deeply, her words thick with indignation. "Don't tell me you think what those two did to me was funny?"
Pecorine shook her head quickly, waving her cotton-swab-shaped bandaged hands for emphasis. "I'm not laughing at you! I just think... it's nice that Kyaru is finally getting along so well with everyone."
Getting along well with them?
Kyaru blinked, looking almost as though she couldn't believe what she'd just heard.
But she thought about it — if it had been a stranger trying to pin her down on a sofa and do something like that, they'd have been blasted to dust by her magic long before they ever had the chance to stand there clapping and celebrating.
But surely that kind of thing doesn't count as being close...
She thought of the stray cats she'd been feeding back in Landosol. How they'd sometimes scuffle with each other, sometimes square off in standoffs, and sometimes act like total strangers, off in their own little worlds.
Kyaru had never had friends. She'd only ever used the behavior of those cats as a reference point for gauging the distance between herself and the people at the Gourmet Edifice.
Maybe this is just what it looks like when cats happen to tussle. Nothing between us has really changed. Pecorine's just reading too much into it.
Her fangs bit lightly at her lower lip. Some emotion — she couldn't tell whether it was regret or relief — flickered through her and was gone. The small satisfaction she'd felt at gathering information was scattered by that exchange, leaving behind only a hollow emptiness that slowly filled with a vague, creeping confusion.
"Kyaru, are you okay?"
"Hm? It's nothing. I was just thinking about how to keep Megumin from pulling something like that again."
"Ha, honestly? Instead of trying to guard against her, I think it'd be more effective to go straight to Jhin and tell him that he's not allowed to forcibly draw out your Void weapon without your permission."
"You think that would actually work?" Kyaru was deeply skeptical. Those two shared a wavelength for mischief and nothing else — would they really stop their "evil deeds" over one simple sentence?
"Just humor me and give it a try. Jhin will absolutely respect what you say — he's a gentleman about that kind of thing." Pecorine raised one bandaged hand out of habit to give a thumbs-up, then realized she couldn't pull it off, and switched to raising both arms overhead instead. The sheer energy radiating off her made it genuinely hard to believe her hands were still injured at all.
"Fine. But if it doesn't work, don't come crying to me when I come to make your life miserable."
"Of course! Bring it on!"
There was a knock at the door, and Jhin stepped into Pecorine's bedroom. "Oh — Kyaru, you're in here too."
"What do you want. And let me be clear upfront — from now on, you are not allowed to draw out my Void weapon without my permission!" Kyaru crossed both arms protectively over her chest, treating Jhin with the same wariness one might reserve for a known predator.
"Understood. I'll ask for your consent next time."
"...It actually worked?!" Kyaru muttered under her breath, then collected herself. "So what did you come here for?"
"Let's all go out for yakiniku!"
____
👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Uchiha Reborn in Jujutsu Kaisen: The System Thinks I'm in Konoha, but I'm Not
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