Chapter 105: Yuuka Gnashes Her Teeth
On the outskirts of the Human Village stood a small, solitary hut.
Inside, at the dining table, Keine Kamishirasawa enthusiastically served dishes to her four guests. The atmosphere was warm and harmonious as she chatted idly with Haruto.
The other three, however—Kaguya, Mokou, and Youmu—looked particularly awkward.
Youmu kept her head down, eating in complete silence. She had assumed this would be a casual meal at some restaurant, never expecting to be brought to someone's private home to be fed for free. What made it even more mortifying was that their hostess had no idea they were coming.
Kaguya sat quietly, her posture the very picture of elegance, but her movements were unnaturally stiff.
Mokou was much the same. Though she had suspected Haruto might drop by, she never imagined Kaguya and Youmu would be with him.
The three of them ate their way through the meal in a state of unusual discomfort.
Haruto and Keine, however, remained completely oblivious to the subtle tension in the air, both still eating with great relish.
After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Keine told the four to rest in their rooms while she went to grade the day's exam papers.
The moment the door closed behind her, Haruto seized the opportunity. He pulled Youmu into his arms, settling her snugly between his legs.
Youmu's face instantly flushed a deep crimson. The subtle, knowing gazes from the other two women made her duck her head even lower, wishing she could bury her face in her chest. The tips of her ears burned a delicate shade of pink.
Gradually, with Keine gone, Kaguya and Mokou reverted to their usual dynamic.
"You were acting pretty obedient just now, weren't you, you turkey?" Kaguya began, her tone laced with provocation. She then feigned surprise. "Oh, that's right, this is her home, isn't it? Could it be you're afraid your dear Keine will headbutt you? No way, no way."
"I'm still better than some fake-prim princess," Mokou immediately shot back. "Weren't you putting on quite the convincing act yourself? That's not how you usually carry on."
"That's called etiquette. Etiquette—do you understand the concept?"
"Etiquette my ass!"
Before the words had even finished echoing, Mokou had already thrown a fiery side punch.
Kaguya didn't back down an inch, and the two were soon grappling with one another. As the scuffle escalated, their movements growing more and more fierce, Youmu couldn't help but lean back against Haruto and whisper.
"Haruto-sama... Princess Kaguya and the others... is this really okay?"
"Mm... you're right, this really isn't good," Haruto murmured, hesitating for a moment before gently raising his hand. A shimmering distortion rippled through the air as a boundary of pure power enveloped the entire room.
He nodded in satisfaction. "There. This way, the room won't get dirty, and Keine won't have to clean up later."
Youmu's eye twitched. 'Haruto-sama, is that really the most important issue right now?'
Late into the night, Haruto and the others finally bid their farewells and left. Kaguya returned to Eientei, and Youmu made her way back to Hakugyokurou.
But the instant she pushed open the door, she was met with the sight of Yuyuko's cherry-blossom-colored eyes, filled with a theatrical sense of grievance.
"I'm going to starve to death! I'm going to starve to death, Youmu!" she wailed dramatically.
Instead of heading straight back to the Yakumo residence, Haruto took a detour to the Sunflower Field. He wanted to check on the ghost seeds he had planted and see how Marisa's training was progressing.
'Huh? Still at it?'
From a great distance, he could already hear the percussive sounds of their exchange—a chorus of "Ora! Ora! Ora!" punctuated by the sickeningly wet thud of fists meeting flesh.
Of course, the "exchange" was a fiction.
The fists meeting flesh, however, was very real. It was, in its entirety, the sound of Marisa taking a one-sided beating.
Judging from Kazami Yuuka's expression, she seemed to be in a rather good mood.
"Haruto! Wuwuwu!" The moment Marisa spotted him, she scrambled over, tears welling in her eyes as she began to complain. "You have no idea! She—she—"
"I know."
"No, you don't! Sister Yuuka is too brutal! She—"
"I really do know," Haruto said, nodding with grim certainty.
"—her fists even have special effects! And she auto-heals! And—"
"I know all of it!"
As Marisa recounted her suffering, Haruto felt the phantom pains of his own "training" resurface. A deep, sorrowful ache bloomed in his chest, born from shared trauma.
"Could it be... you were also...?" Marisa sensed a kindred spirit in Haruto's pained expression. Seeing a fellow victim, she immediately stepped forward to hug him so they could cry together.
Kazami Yuuka watched the two, who now held an inexplicable grudge against her, and rubbed her forehead with a helpless sigh. 'Weren't they the ones who came to me asking for help with training?'If Haruto could hear her thoughts, he would have undoubtedly retorted at the top of his lungs:'What kind of decent person thinks "training" means beating someone up for fun! And while laughing so brutally, too!'
Haruto patted Marisa's shoulder, offering what comfort he could. "Although the process is a bit tough, the results of the training should be good, right? You should be able to feel that you've gotten a lot stronger."
Marisa sniffled and nodded. After just half a day of this hell, despite being physically and mentally exhausted, and despite the terrifying ordeal itself, the effect was surprisingly potent. In just a few hours, she had made more progress than she had in a month of training alone.
"So, keep it up, girl." Haruto patted her shoulder with solemn gravity, then walked over to Kazami Yuuka's side and nudged her with his elbow. "Sister Yuuka, how's it going? Have those flowers grown yet?"
The moment the words left his mouth, Kazami Yuuka's face stiffened. The faint, pleasant curve of her lips instantly flattened into a severe line.
Haruto keenly sensed that something was wrong. His heart skipped a beat. 'Did I say something I shouldn't have? Or... is it about the flowers?''Impossible,' he thought.'Doesn't Yuuka-nee love flowers more than anything? I gave her rare seeds she's never seen before. In theory, she should be in a great mood. So why this reaction...?'
Just as Haruto was muttering to himself, Kazami Yuuka silently turned and gestured for him to follow.
Haruto gathered his thoughts and, with a curious Marisa peeking from behind him, followed Yuuka deep into the flower field, toward a small, secluded cabin.
Here, a row of dark purple flowers surrounded the area. Each one stood half a person tall, but... when Haruto got a clear look at the "fruits" of his labor, his eyelids began to twitch violently. He instantly understood why Yuuka's reaction had been so strange.
These flowers were just too ugly.
Never mind the bizarre coloration—the center of each bloom was a cheeky, fully-formed human face.
Haruto had considered that, since they were grown from ghost seeds, they might not be particularly beautiful. But the sight before him wasn't just "not good-looking"—it was creatively, deeply ugly. They formed the starkest, most jarring contrast imaginable with the tall, elegant sunflowers surrounding them.
To give such a creepy thing to Kazami Yuuka and ask her to help grow it... the fact that she hadn't immediately turned him into flower fertilizer on the spot was a proof of her fondness for him.
"Pfft..."
Although Marisa had heard Haruto mention his "secret cabin" in the Sunflower Field, she never expected its aesthetic to be so... outstanding. Her delicate face flushed red, and after a moment of struggling to contain herself, she couldn't hold back any longer. She burst into laughter, collapsing to the ground and clutching her stomach as she pounded the earth.
"This—this is the secret cabin you said was guaranteed to have taste? Indeed... indeed the taste is a little too special, hahaha!"
Haruto wasn't completely without hope yet. He felt that everything possessed its own unique beauty—perhaps these flowers were just lacking in conventional appearance.
He cautiously approached one of the Ghost Flowers, stopping about two meters away.
The Ghost Flower seemed to sense his presence. It suddenly twisted its stalk-like body toward him, winked one of its petal-eyelids, and made a grotesque face. Then, in a strained, wheedling voice, it cooed, "Customer~ Come a little closer... I'll show you a big treasure."
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