Chapter 43: Ibuki Suika: Things Only Adults Can Do.
....
Ever since Kihara brought two oddly dressed lolis who looked like they were roleplaying back home, the living room fell so quiet that only the sound of breathing remained.
Lala stopped tinkering with her gadgets, Anna Yanami set down her snacks, and even Momo and Nana stopped their hushed whispering. All eyes were locked onto Kihara, whose left and right arms were occupied by Ibuki Suika and Flandre Scarlet.
Kihara maintained a perfectly straight face.
"Let me introduce them. The one on the left is Ibuki Suika, and the one on the right is Flandre. They are... friends I made abroad."
Anna Yanami gave him a deadpan look.
"Kihara-kun, do we look like the kind of girls who would fall for such a flimsy excuse?"
Before Kihara could reply, Lala scratched her head with a sheepish chuckle. "So he was just joking..."
In her innocence, she had actually believed the cover story and was getting ready to stand up to brew tea for them.
"Fine, I'll tell you the truth. Suika is an Oni, and Flan is a vampire. They are both yokai who live in the same place as Sanae."
Anna instinctively wanted to argue, but remembering that three alien princesses were already sitting right in front of her, two yokai popping out of nowhere didn't seem all that hard to accept.
"Big Brother, Flan is hungry!"
"I'm going to cook dinner right now. Be a good girl and wait in the living room, okay?"
"Mmhmm!"
Flandre trotted over to the couch, sitting down neatly while kicking her small feet back and forth with joy. Her sweet, well-behaved appearance made her look just like an exquisite, oversized porcelain doll.
Kihara's milk was currently her absolute favorite dessert. Since there were too many girls present right now, she didn't want to share her favorite treat with anyone else. She planned to bring it up to him later when the two of them were alone.
'Come to think of it... Big Brother doesn't seem to know that the True Ancestor and I swapped consciousnesses. I'll explain everything to him later. If she could eat it, I definitely can too!'
Unlike Flandre, who sat quietly, Ibuki Suika wandered around the ground floor out of sheer curiosity. Many things in this world felt completely fresh to her, and some items were even more advanced than the gadgets made by the Kappa back in Gensokyo.
On the other side, Lala, unable to suppress her curiosity, shuffled over to Flandre's side.
"Um... Miss Flandre, the wings on your back are completely different from the vampires in TV shows. Why is that?"
"Because Flan thinks these look way cooler! They make me look much more majestic than Big Sister, so I made them like this!"
"You have a big sister too? Why didn't she come along with you?"
"Hmm... Flan is the advance scout! After hanging out with Big Brother over here for a while, I'll head back, tell Big Sister all about this place, and then she'll come over!"
Lala's eyes sparkled with excitement as her hands gestured in the air. "Since you're a vampire, can you turn into a bat and vanish with a poof like in the TV shows?"
"Flan can't do that, but Big Sister can."
Failing to show off her majesty in front of an Earthling she just met made Flandre feel a little down, but she quickly perked back up.
"However, I can do something that Big Sister can't do at all!"
"What is it?!"
"Watch this! Forbidden Fruit: Four of a Kind!"
As a flash of colorful light swept past, Flandre's gentle aura instantly shifted. The smirk on her face gave Lala a strong sense of deja vu—she looked just like her own younger sister, Momo, when she was up to no good.
Anna, who had been watching the scene unfold from the side, muttered under her breath, "Aside from glowing, nothing else really changed. She's not a fake vampire, is she?"
"If you want to know whether Flan is a real vampire, how about letting me take a quick bite of your fresh blood?"
The moment she said those words, the sharp fangs inside Flandre's mouth grew long and slender. She flashed a wicked grin, snapping her jaw twice at Anna in a mocking bite. Her crimson eyes locked onto her like a predator sizing up prey, scaring Anna into stumbling back several steps in panic.
"M-My blood doesn't taste good at all!"
"Hehehe~"
Letting out a mocking laugh, the dark-hearted Flandre retracted her gaze. The ability that normally split her into four clones back in Gensokyo had been reduced to a personality swap under the restrictions of this world.
Furthermore, whenever she tried to channel her other powers, a strong sense of spatial repulsion surged around her, as if the entire world and the very air itself were filled with hostility toward her. It was clearly a "ban warning" coming straight from the world's will.
As the smartest among Flandre's personalities, she understood that if she wanted to secure a chance to be alone with Kihara, her current state was far too eye-catching. She needed to divert the attention of Lala and the others.
Without hesitation, she shifted the topic over to Ibuki Suika, who was tapping away near the television.
"Suika, didn't you say you wanted to play with Big Brother for several nights straight after coming over? Why didn't you tell him just now?"
Sure enough, those words immediately dragged the girls' attention onto Suika. Even Lala, who was attempting to touch Flandre's crystal wings, paused her movements to wait for her answer.
"There's no rush for that. It's not like Kihara-bro is going to run away anyway."
As an Oni who had lived for countless years, Suika saw through Flandre's petty trick instantly. However, she didn't mind in the slightest, because that was indeed her actual plan.
Anna asked cautiously, "Miss Ibuki, what exactly are you planning to play all night with the blockhead?"
"You want to know?"
"Mmhmm!"
Glancing around the living room, Suika realized that every girl except Flandre was staring directly at her. After sighing inwardly about how Kihara was truly blessed with girls, her lips curled into a suggestive, teasing smile.
"Naturally, we'll be doing things that only adults can do. As for what specific things... do I really need to spell it out for you?"
"HUH!?" Three cries of shock rang out at the exact same time.
In the next second, Anna and Momo rushed up to stand in front of her, while Nana dashed straight into the kitchen. Dragging out Kihara—who was wearing an apron, holding a spatula, and looking thoroughly bewildered—Nana yelled at him with a red face:
"To lay your hands on a child this small... Brother-in-law, I completely misjudged you!"
"????"
"Nana, what on earth are you talking about?"
"You know very well what you did in your own heart!"
"AHAHAHAHA!! Kihara-bro, the girls in your house are so much fun! A tiny bit of teasing and they swallow the bait completely!"
Hearing Suika's hearty, boisterous laughter, Nana finally realized she had been played. Her flushed face turned beet-red with embarrassment. Looking down at the tips of her shoes, she fidgeted awkwardly,
completely at a loss for how to face him.
Fortunately, Kihara wasn't angry. He merely shot a helpless glance at Suika. "Don't tease them too much. I'm still cooking. If the food burns, you're eating that portion yourself."
With that, he turned and walked back into the kitchen.
Facing the glaring eyes of Momo's group, Suika explained with a grin, "I was talking about drinking alcohol! In human rules, isn't that something you can only do after becoming an adult?"
Anna retorted in frustration, "Neither you nor the blockhead are old enough to drink alcohol, right?"
"I've lived for several thousand years at the very least, so of course I can drink! As for Kihara-bro, whether he drinks or not isn't important. What matters is that I need him by my side while I drink."
Instantly, a vivid image flared inside the girls' minds: Suika pouring liquor over Kihara's body and taking wild gulps.
They shouted in unison: "That is even less allowed!"
....
Thank you for reading.