Chapter 49: Momo's Peculiar Condition.
....
Momo tried several times to reach out and turn off the Auto-Jumper-Kun, but every attempt ended in failure. The speed at which the jump rope swung was far too fast, leaving zero gaps for her to touch the power switch.
Kihara, who was standing nearby, rushed forward to press the switch for her. In a split second, the rope slammed to a halt mid-air, only to instantly stretch out like a long noodle.
Transforming like a hunting python, it wrapped around Momo and Kihara ring by ring, then suddenly snapped tight, binding the two firmly together.
Their bodies pressed flush against each other. Such intimate contact with Kihara made Momo flush red in an instant. What was even more fatal was that the greatest weakness of a Devilukean—her tail—was caught straight inside his mouth.
"Tail... not the tail..."
A sweet, desperate gasp escaped her lips like a bucket of gasoline poured over a flame, nearly igniting the fire in Kihara's chest.
He hadn't intentionally sucked on Momo's heart-shaped tail. The Auto-Jumper-Kun had simply bound them tightly from head to toe, so her tail—which had stood erect from the shock—was naturally trapped along with them, resting directly against his mouth.
If he didn't hold her tail in his mouth, he would be choked by the soft tail blocking his nostrils and become unable to breathe.
That being said, Momo truly lived up to her reputation as a girl who constantly dealt with various flowers and plants; her tail radiated a distinct, sweet floral fragrance.
Savoring it closely, the surface of her springy tail even seemed to secrete a subtle, sweet liquid—whether it was sweat or something else.
Kihara accidentally got carried away tasting it, as the flavor brought back childhood memories of picking deep red and pink morning-glory flowers out in the wild. Back then, he used to pluck the blossoms from their stems, popping them into his mouth to suck out the sweet nectar inside.
Only after growing up did he learn those were foxglove flowers, though he rarely ran into them anymore.
"Big sister... ah... please hurry... untangle... this invention..."
"I'm working on it, hang in there!" Lala, drenched in sweat, was conducting emergency repairs, her multi-tool moving in a blur of motion.
Momo had never imagined in her wildest dreams that her tail would be sucked on by Kihara like this. What was more, she couldn't feel a single dirty or malicious thought behind his actions; he was simply using the tip of her tail like a straw, attempting to draw something out of it.
'What on earth is he taking my tail for?!'
A warm, moist breath enveloped her sensitive tail. It was a sensation completely different from the numb, helpless feeling she got when grabbing tails with Nana during their bickering as kids. A strange, unknown delight surged deep into her heart, tempting her to sink right into it.
The pale skin exposed on her body flushed a deep pink, her purple eyes misted over with a layer of water, and heavy drops of sweat rolled down her collar with her heavy gasps. Her slender thighs were squeezed with plump indentations by the jump rope.
If Kihara hadn't been supporting her from behind, she would have collapsed onto the ground long ago from sheer limb weakness.
Seeing her younger sister turning bright red from being constricted, gasping for air with her eyes almost rolling back, Kihara maintained a completely deadpan face like a salted fish washed ashore by the tide, his cheeks puffing as he tried to breathe.
Lala had no choice but to give up on the idea of repairs, using brute force to forcibly rip out the Auto-Jumper-Kun's power core.
As the rope binding the two loosened, Momo leaned limply against Kihara, her tail popping out of his mouth with a soft pop.
"Momo, your face is so red. Are you okay?"
Meeting his dark eyes—pure to the point of lacking even a shred of impure thoughts—Momo didn't even know how to begin complaining to him. Rolling her watery eyes, she shot him a faint glare. "Brother-in-law, please carry me back to my room so I can rest for a bit. I'm exhausted."
"Leave it to me."
After lying in her bedroom until she regained a bit of strength, Momo forced her body up and walked toward the bathroom. Tossing her sweat-soaked clothes and underwear into the laundry basket, she took a quick shower.
During the bath, she paid special attention to the tip of her tail. Yet no matter how thoroughly she washed it, she still felt as if the warmth of Kihara's mouth lingered upon it, as if tiny electrical currents were continuously spreading from that spot throughout her entire body.
"Phew—calm down... It was just an accident, it's no big deal..."
Sorting out her feelings, Momo put on fresh clothes and walked downstairs.
In the living room, Lala was repairing and improving the Auto-Jumper-Kun under Nana's strict supervision. Nana held a piece of paper in her hand, crossing off each line item with a pen as soon as an inspection was completed.
Anna Yanami still hadn't recovered her strength, lying on the couch with a rumbling stomach, her lifeless eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.
Given this unexpected accident, the trio's weight-loss plan ultimately shifted to having Kihara and Ibuki Suika act as outside assistance, taking turns swinging a three-meter-long rope to help them jump rope the old-fashioned way.
Even if the Auto-Jumper-Kun was fixed, no one dared to use it ever again.
During the incident, Nana and Anna Yanami had been sitting in the living room, clearly hearing Momo's intermittent, agonized, and muffled moans. They had zero desire to personally experience the suffering she had just gone through.
...
"B-Brother-in-law, good morning."
"Mmhmm, morning."
After exchanging a simple greeting, Momo kept her head down and walked toward the restroom.
Nana sniffed out something slightly off from their seemingly routine dialogue. If she remembered correctly, her younger sister used to act like a sunflower chasing after the sun whenever Kihara was around.
She used to love showing off her elegant, well-behaved side to him.
Yet starting from who-knows-when, she had suddenly become deeply unnatural in front of him. While she could still speak to him normally, she would quickly bring the topic to an end and try every possible way to leave.
Only when everyone was gathered together would that subtle sense of tension on her vanish.
'Strange... Did they get into a fight over something and didn't want big sister and me to worry, which is why she's acting so weird?'
Nana thought about it from her own perspective; whenever she fought with Momo, her behavior was pretty similar to this.
Before she could proactively go ask her sister what was going on, Momo approached her first.
"Nana... do you think... it might be better if we move out?"
"Huh? What kind of nonsense are you talking about?"
For a moment, Nana wondered if Momo had eaten something bad. Otherwise, why would she suddenly entertain the thought of moving out?
"Tell me the reason first."
"It's just... sigh... this matter is pretty complicated... I don't really know how to explain it... How about... you just pretend I never mentioned it."
Seeing her hesitant, conflicted expression—looking like she wanted to talk but couldn't—Nana's temper flared up instantly. Grabbing her wrist, she dragged her straight toward Kihara's bedroom. "Isn't it just a fight? You and I have fought countless times! Why do you have to go to such an extreme over a fight with brother-in-law? Just go lay everything out clearly with him!"
"I didn't get into a fight with him!"
"Hmm?" Nana stopped in her tracks, turning her head back with a suspicious glare.
"You're not lying to me, are you?"
"Definitely not."
"My intuition tells me you're not lying, so what on earth happened between you and him?"
"Nothing happened. This is my own personal issue, it has nothing to do with brother-in-law."
Hearing that, Nana narrowed her eyes. Her intuition told her that Momo's last sentence was half-true and half-false.
'Which half is the true part—the first half or the second half?'
She felt it was necessary to team up with Anna Yanami to conduct a proper investigation.
....
Thank you for reading.