Tsuki Tsuki Vol 1 Chapter 3

Chapter 03: Not a slave, but a maid!

—-Today, it had been 6 days since Luna cried for the first time.

“It’s been a while since I went out shopping with Brother~”

And with her right hand around my arm, her left hand was clutching Luna’s arm. Nazuna walked in a pleased mood. Somehow we looked like parents with a child.

I really wished she would ask her friends for that.

Aww, I was afraid I’d get dragged along for a swimsuit election again this year. What a pain.

When I shifted my gaze towards the voice, Luna was looking around the area with sparkling eyes. She looked curiously at the general store, electronics store and bookstore. Judging by this, she should be even more surprised when I show her the game centre on the third floor or the movie theatre on the fourth floor.

As today’s leader, Nazuna lightly pulled on Luna’s arm and headed for the elevators.

Geez. Its charm comes from hiding it, not from fully exposing it. Let me announce at this point that underwear is supposed to be worn properly.

Taking such a Luna with us, we went into the elevator.

Looking out of the glass elevator, Luna raised her voice in fascination.

“…You’re like a kid, Miss.”

“Huh? I’m gonna eat ya, wraar.”

“Okay, I’ll take a look at the underwear with Luna-san, so wait here, Brother.”

When I said that to Nazuna in front of the underwear store,

Gentleman, failure.

Sure, I was interested in what kind of underwear Luna would choose. My curiosity about her brassiere size had no limits. It seemed Nazuna had seen through my plans.

I turned around and left the underwear store behind me.

“….Mh?”

“Oh, it’s Elni.”

“….What’s she doing?”

“Miss, you want an ice?”

When I took a closer look, it was the same brat that made fun of Luna in the elevator. When Elni energetically nodded with a “Yeah”, the brat mockingly answered.

What a cruel brat.

“N- Not like I wanted it anyway! I.. I don’t want an ice-cream. Not at all, you hear!”

With a “Hmm~”, the brat made a mean smile and continued to eat his ice-cream flaunting it in front of her.

I could no longer watch this. Please stop it! Don’t bully this girl!

“Gyaaah!”

“Huh? I’m gonna eat ya, wraar.”

“Uwaaah! A monsterrr!”

“Hey, who are you calling a monster. Have you forgotten the generous me already? It’s me, sexy Shinobu-san, loved by everyone!”

Elni looked at me with a puzzled look. She was totally doing that on purpose.

Shinomun got angry. I wouldn’t treat her to any ice now and turned away. Upon seeing that Elni showed me her palm with a “Wait a moment” and hurriedly went somewhere else.

As I waited for Elni in that moment—-suddenly my cell phone rang.

It was too early for Nazuna. They must still be choosing underwear…With that in mind I peeked at the display and it showed an unknown 11-digit number.

Tilting my head while wondering who it could be, I answered the call.

I could hear a somewhat bossy girl’s voice.

I retorted.

“Mh? How do you know my cell phone number? Let me guess, you’re a stalker!”

“Th- That’s too embarrassing.”

“It’s fine. You won’t lose anything. Tell me.”

“W- Wow! Now that’s serious. Very serious!”

“Okay! I’m coming over now!”

“Don’t be so cold….I want to eat ice-cream.”

“Yahoo~”

Oh, I see. I remembered that I told her my cell phone number before. When I looked at Elni, she proudly showed me her cell phone while grinning.

She bought a cell phone for that, huh.

I asked what was on my mind.

Elni answered with a serious expression.

“More importantly, Shinobu. It’s a cell phone! Amazing, isn’t it?”

“Okay, Shinobu, save my number. Look, I already saved yours! The saleswoman showed me how, so I’ve nearly mastered all the functions already!”

She seemed to be in a good mood. It’s impressive that she managed to fill out the contract, but I’m better off not saying that aloud.

“Vanilla, chocolate and strawberry!”

I thought about telling her to have a little reservation, but seeing her smile made me lose all the will to complain. Just like she wanted, I bought her three scoops of ice-cream: vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, while I looked at my cell phone.

“Mh? Shinobu, why are you saving my number under ‘Mad Dog’? A codename isn’t something you use so casually.”

“Oh, it’s good.”

“….An indirect kiss. *blush*”

Ignoring her again, I operated her cell phone and brought up the profile menu. I confirmed her mail address and saved it into my own cell phone. Surely, Elni as a beginner with cell phones wouldn’t have understood if I told her about infrared transmission. Giving the cell phone back to her I said,

“Yay~ A mail. It’s my first.”

“Shinobu, what kind of mail will you send? An eloquent greeting? Or could it be a confession of love? Anything is fine, but nothing obscene please. It would just arouse me.”

“Yo, jackal here.”

“Pantheress here.”

“P- Pantheress? Wh- Who are you? And what happened to Nazucat?”

“What the!”

“Oh god!”

“Th- That’s horrible!”

“We’ve got trouble on our hands.”

Elni tilted her head, puzzled. I dramatically said.

After saying what I’d wanted to say, I felt satisfied and nodded once. Then I said “Until next time” and left Elni, who still had her head tilted.

“Whoops”

Near the entrance of the game centre, stood a beauty with straight, long black hair—-It was Gogyou-san. Seems like she took a day off from her ambushes, since she wasn’t carrying her bamboo sword with her. In exchange she was holding a handbag now. And she wore a skirt. Casual clothes. Wonderful.

The boys all had dyed hair, pierced ears and frivolous looks. I wondered if Gogyou-san liked boys like that.

Could it be that she was being hit on?

“Hey, you’re alone, right? Let’s play together. We won’t bore you.”

“C’mon, let’s go. I know a good spot.”

The boys continued with vulgar smiles.

“We’ll treat you, so don’t let us down, okay?”

By the way, the one who wouldn’t shut up about “tits, tits” was me. I had just lined up beside the persistent guys and tried to join in naturally….but the boys noticed me and gave me fierce glares.

“Who are you? You know her?”

“N- Nanjou-kun?”

“…Hey, don’t expose my name so suddenly. I’ll be in trouble now when something happens.”

The worst case would be that it ends up in a fight, but using your fist for something like this isn’t worth it. The best solution was if we could resolve this by talking, but—- there was something I had to do before that. I protectively stood before Gogyou-san and shouted with my fists raised towards the guys.

Yeah, I always wanted to do this at least once. Shinomun made his entrance. While acting all cool, I faced Gogyou-san and asked “Are you alright, Miss?”, when

“Be gone.”

With these words from the boys, I got pushed on my chest, shoulder and back in quick succession and inadvertently lost my balance.

Just when I thought “not good”, it was already too late.

But instead of the expected pain, I felt a warm and soft sensation over my whole body.

“N- Na- Nan- Nanjou-kun?”

It appeared that I had dived headlong into Gogyou-san’s chest.

It was a really wonderful situation, but I wouldn’t have the time to enjoy it.

I slowly got off Gogyou-san and tried to smile with a cold sweat.

Still bright red, Gogyou-san’s eyes welled up with tears and she started to shake.

Raising a loud voice that I’d never heard before at school, she pushed me away with both hands. No, she wasn’t simply pushing me away. It felt more like a blow.

I jumped backwards to mitigate the damage, but it was still quite powerful. Gogyou-san must’ve performed her twin palm strike by reflex. It was quite impressive how she could bring out her warrior side automatically. Actually, a twin palm strike when she’s in the kendo club? Maybe she learned more martial arts than just kendo?

I could see the three guys from earlier, running away with pale faces. You don’t see people flying through the air all that often. They must have noticed that the girl they’d tried to hit on wasn’t a cat, but a tigress.

When she saw me standing up, she quickly turned around and went away.

Aww, now I had done it. Even if it was by accident, I did something unforgivable. I had to take responsibility. But I wouldn’t apologise.

I ended up dawdling without planning to.

I made an excuse over the phone that I wouldn’t even believe myself and mixed in some English into it.

An unexpectedly grumpy answer.
That’s why I unconsciously mimicked a scene from a certain crimson character and shouted “Idiot!”, then hung up. I thought Nazuna might get the references…. but I hurried anyway. I got the feeling that someone was shouting “Ah, h- hey, wait, Nanjou-kun” behind me, but I ignored it. I had to hurry.

“Here, this is for you, Luna-san.”

After buying underwear and clothes for Luna, we were looking around in a general store, but Nazuna claimed “Wait a moment” and when she got back she said that sentence. The mug Nazuna handed over to Luna had a dog design printed on it. It was a mug from an animal print series that Nazuna liked.

“Thank you.”

And I, with a stupid face and a running nose, watched over these two— It was just too pathetic. This little girl, who was younger than me and was in her mandatory education that allowed no part-time jobs, gave a present, yet I, who was called the gentleman in the neighbourhood, didn’t do anything. I couldn’t ignore this.

“Really? Brother, I want that.”

“Luna, I’ll buy you something too. What about a super-alloy? It’s cool.”

“I… I want that plush toy.”

“By the way, which plush toy do you want?”

Luna changed her target after observing Nazuna’s expression.

I shrugged my shoulders and went to the game centre. The place where Gogyou-san was being hit on moments ago. Reminds me, what was Gogyou-san doing at the game centre?

“Here I go!”

“Yes!”

“I got it. Once more.”

For some reason, the image of the mad dog Elni floated into my head. The Elni in my head was holding an ice-cream in her left hand and had her right hand lifted over her head while shouting “Gwar”.

I copied that and shouted. To my surprise, I got another plush toy. A cool look. Blue fur. And the cigarette in his hands turned out to be a chocolate cigarette on closer inspection.

“Yes!”

That’s the one Luna wanted. When I handed the wolf to her, she made a happy smile. It was a really cool wolf. It was just like me.

Luna said while hugging the wolf against her big breasts. Ohh, how insightful.

“Yes.”

“Meeow!”

Left with no other choice, I continued to play the crane game to get the cat that Nazuna wanted. But halfway through I got sick of it, so I let Luna take over. Maybe it was beginner’s luck, but Luna got the cat with sunglasses that Nazuna wanted on her first try.

“So, what should I buy you, Luna?”

“E- Ehm, I already got the Mr. Wolf….”

I threatened Luna by lightly pinching her soft cheeks, that were like marshmallows.

Luna shyly asked and with the plush toy still on my head, I nodded firmly. Doing so made the plush toy fall from my head, diving into Luna’s breasts and headbutting the wolf plush toy.

Nazuna added a weird voice for the wolf, then hugged onto both the wolf and the dog saying “I’ll hold onto them”. Seeing that, Luna giggled and with a “Okay then” she walked out, pullingme by my hand. There wasn’t really any reason to hold my hand, but since Luna looked so happy, I let it slide. But really, Luna’s hand was so small. And so soft. What’s more, so warm.— Shit, I was somehow getting excited. My heart raced. While pretending to be calm, inside I was all flustered with “Shinomun is so embarrassed”. But when we reached our destination and Luna said “I want this”, the shock was just too great, to the point that my mind went all blank.

To put it harshly: It’s a dog collar. One designed for humans with certain ‘interests’.

Still, quite the punk fashion. Too different from my image of her.

While shuddering, I bought the punk choker that the Queen desired.

“Luna-sama?”

“U- Uhm, then I have a favour to ask, Shinobu-san.”

I answered lightly shaking and averting my gaze, then Luna-sama turned red and issued me her order.

“Please do something like that on your own, Luna-sama.”

“Please acquire the help of the idiotic Nazuna for this task.”

I looked at the direction Luna was pointing at. Totally unaware of the pinch her brother was in, my idiotic sister was trying out some silk hats while still hugging the plush toys.

When I shifted my gaze back, Luna was giving me a passionate stare.

Luna said, affectionately, while looking at me with upturned eyes.

But when I thought about it, instead of putting it on someone, this was way better. If Luna were to tell me “Put it on me!” with a serious expression, I would shudder! Nazuna would shudder. And so would you.

Ohh, what a sexy pose.

I was agitated. Thanks to Nazuna’s spoiled nature, I thought I had developed a decent resistance to girls. I believed it to be on the same level as drying Nazuna’s hair when she’d just come out of the bath…. but it was completely different.

“Mmh…”

“D- Don’t make any weird noises. Or else I’m also going to join in.”

“Meh, endure this little bit of tickling, will ya.”

Every time my hands touched her neck or ears,

Luna was trying to hold back her voice like I told her, but that was even more erotic for some reason. Every time that alluring voice escaped through her light pink lips, my heart couldn’t help but skip a beat. Her flushed cheeks and cloudy eyes made her even more sexy. Erotic Luna.

“Thank you, Shinobu-san.”

Mh? Slave?

Luna’s eyes were trembling in a lack of self-esteem.

“O- Ouch! It hurts! Sh- Shinobu-san, you chopped me!”

“….I am shocked.”

“You don’t really need to be slave to stay with me.”

“Not all relationships involve a slave. So stop calling yourself a slave. …A- At least say you’re a maid. A maid. Yes, a housemaid. A long, dark blue skirt and a white hair ribbon. Also black garter belt stockings. That’s the best. It will also be on the test.”

When I turned around in surprise, Luna was hugging my left arm. And not saying anything, she looked up at me and just smiled.

Yeah, I was glad. Really glad, but this situation was a bit exciting for Shinomun.

I forgot myself for a while due to the feeling of her breasts.

With the two of them still hugging my arms, we looked at a pet store, music store and so on, when guys around me, who I didn’t know, accused me of “two-timing”, but I paid it no mind.

That’s why I thought that such a day off wasn’t too bad.

Why was I so sluggish on Monday, the end of the weekend?

“Meow~”

“What’s with you. You went to bed late last night?”

“You know, I was studying very hard until 1am last night.”

“Eh? Y- You studied!? And until 1am!?”

So her aim was the anime. Well, that was more like her.

I see. She watched the anime so she could talk about it with her friend Mii-chan. She should have just recorded it and watched it in the morning instead of forcing herself to stay awake.

“Then pat my head~”

“When I helped you with your homework on Saturday, you said ‘I’m too tired from the department store, so I’ll do the rest myself tomorrow.’ right? And then you just got Luna to help you with it? You were studying deep into the night on Sunday? What’s going on here, Nazuna-kun?”

“O- Oh noes! Nazucat was so sleepy she made a mistake!”

Geez, what a troubling Nazucat. But it seemed she finished all of her homework, so I will forgive her.

“—-Okay, Nazuna-kun. Your judgement is….”

“Hey!”

“Wawah!”

“Sorry. Are you okay?”

She clearly just wanted to sleep on my back. Nazuna extended both her arms, all spoiled.

Geez, there was a limit to how spoiled she could act. Half jokingly, I hit Nazuna’s head lightly. Then Nazuna looked at me surprised and suddenly started to tear up.

“N- No, why are you suddenly starting to cry? It wasn’t that painful, was it?”

It appeared that I hurt her feelings. Nazucat really was a handful.

“That’s no problem once I get serious.”

“It’s not.”

“It IS dangerous. Cars are lethal weapons that move around. You’re being targeted, you know?”

“…You were once hit by a car, weren’t you?”

“Give it a rest already.”

I let out a sigh and extended my hand towards Nazuna’s head.

Unconscious and in mortal danger.

When I patted her head a bit stronger, she mumbled.

“Okay.”

Aww, I got a headache.

“Being dumb is no flaw. It’s a peculiarity.”

I sighed when Nazuna mumbled again.

Man, if she got it, she should just say so from the beginning.

“Like this it won’t be dangerous.”

“I’m fine with that.”

If we had held hands like this back then too, Nazuna wouldn’t have gotten into an accident. Pondering about that, I looked at Nazuna’s small hand, when

Suddenly Nazuna said that.

“Really?”

“…Because I’m weak.”

Even my gramps, who was always fooling around, told me “You want to take over the doujo like that? Give it up.” with a serious expression.

No goal. No fighting spirit. No ambition. Martial arts won’t be mastered like that. Just stop at a level sufficient for self-defence. When my gramps told me that, I was in shock. That’s why I had once before stopped training at my gramps’ doujo.

One won’t really become strong like that.

Spitting blood, broken bones, countless defeats. I trained and trained and trained. I blindly went on. Stimulated by an unregulated agitation, I went on.

“You have gotten strong.”

I still remembered quite clearly how I hated my weak self for not being able to do anything when Nazuna was hit by a car. I also remember that I vowed to protect Nazuna the next time after she recovered.

Was it really just for Nazuna?

Maybe I had forgotten something important?

“…Brother, what’s up?”

Whoops. Not good. Being so gloomy early in the morning wasn’t good.

“Combine – Shinomundog!”

“I do”
While thinking I would give it as a present to the Mad Dog Elni next time we met, I walked to school like always with a dog plush toy on my head and holding Nazuna’s hand.

4th period ended and it was lunch break now. A happy lunch time, but… I was troubled.

Sitting oppositely to me, Asada asked me, all worried.

Yeah. I had been feeling her gaze all morning.

“Maybe I can be of help?”

“Can’t be helped. If you insist so much, then I will have to take you up on your offer. Listen.”

“Don’t fall for me.”

Asada said something disgusting.

“Asada, listen. Actually, there was an accident….I ended up putting my head into Gogyou-san’s breasts.”

“Say that again, bastard!”

“Are you bragging? You’re bragging to me? Say that’s it!”

Like he requested, I nodded arrogantly, which caused Asada to get even more agitated.

“Shut up. I’ll give you my spinach, so let me off the hook.”

Asada’s mood was fixed with spinach.

“….What? You want to make up with a present? That’s just cowardly.”

“Asada, I’ll give you my fried egg that you like so much. What do you say?”

“You know, despite her looks, Gogyou-san really likes animals. I heard she loves dogs.”

“Mhm. Dogs, huh. Well, no other choice. I’ll hand you over to her next time.”

A Shiba dog was also a dog. I had no idea what kind of complex Asada had, but Gogyou-san surely would’ve rejected such a stupid dog anyway.

“I don’t need a small fry like you to tell me.”

When I replied “Disgusting!” at the meandering Asada, I also thought that.

So I was waiting for a chance to apologise to her during lunch break. But the popular Gogyou-san was always accompanied by someone, so there wasn’t really a chance to.

I was worrying over what to do, when it was suddenly after school already.

I mumbled some excuses and stood up from my chair, when

Suddenly I was called from behind. I was so surprised that I nearly jumped up.

Wh- What now. I wasn’t prepared for this at all.

I took a deep breath to calm myself, then turned around.

Gogyou-san didn’t appear angry at all, but just talked to me with her dignified eyes, like usual.

Even though I thought that she wasn’t really angry, I didn’t let down my guard. I behaved humbly.

I asked her with a smile, while having a cold sweat on the inside. Gogyou-san stared at me, then said.

Gogyou-san had a quite serious expression.

Or was that her own way of insulting me? I guess she was angry after all? You already look like a criminal, so I guess you’re running around night after night committing crimes. I was sure that was what Gogyou-san wanted to say….I was quite hurt.

“Ehh? W- Wait, no. I wasn’t insulting you. It’s not like that. I told you before, didn’t I? That I could feel a bad presence from you.”

“No. I said no!”

“What I want to say is that the bad presence coming from you has gotten even stronger. So I was worried….”

“Nanjou-kun. Are you sure you didn’t do anything bad? Gogyou-san’s got a strong spiritual sense. What she says is usually right. Just recently Yanase-san from class 3, who had a series of bad luck, consulted Gogyou-san, when she said ‘You’re possessed by an evil spirit”—”

“No! She properly exorcised it! Because she knows how to! So, listen to her properly!”

The moment she did that, her big breasts swayed, but compared to Luna’s melon breasts, these were two cute things. In my mind I dryly commented “She still has a long way to go”.

I took my eyes off Minami and nodded half believing, half doubting.

“…Who do you think you are? Give it a rest or I’ll spank your butt.”

“St- Stop that! If you do that, I’ll fall for you~”

What a weird girl. I shifted my gaze back to Gogyou-san.

“…To tell you the truth, it’s quite bad. That’s why I was worried. Nanjou-kun, did something strange happen to you lately?”

“If I had to name something, it would be that I can also become Shinomundog now.”

“Sh- Shinomundog?”

“Combine- Shinomundog! I’m a dog! I’m strong! I’m cool! Wuff!”

I didn’t know why, but Gogyou-san suddenly replied with a “Wuff”. And she smiled nicely. A face of an innocent child. I grabbed the dog on my head and moved it to the right, whereupon Gogyou-san also followed it to the right. Then when I moved it to the left, she also moved left. When I moved it upwards, she stretched her back. And when I moved it down, Gogyou-san bent down.

“How mean of you to throw it. Poor dog. What if it were to get hurt!”

“Then, you keep it, Gogyou-san.”

Gogyou-san’s eyes were sparkling. I had intended to give it to Elni, but I’ll give it to Gogyou-san as an apology. She seemed to like it.

“Of course. I’ll think of one.”

“Thank you, really. I couldn’t get it last time, so I had given up on it.”

“Could it be, that was the reason you were at the crane game two days ago?”

For some reason she turned red and looked down.

“…U- Uhm, I’m sorry. I thought it would be okay not to bring it up and when you talked to me like usual, I ended up taking advantage of you…. I’m really sorry for back then.”

For some reason, the victim, who had her breasts dived into, was apologising.

I was also pathetic for being somewhat happy in my heart when I had my head in her breasts.

“I can’t do that. I mean, you were trying to help me.”

“Uhh, sorry. Did it hurt?”

“No, I was fine. Don’t worry.”

“Of course not. Who do you take me for? Don’t look down on the great me just because you went to the national kendo tournament, Missy.”

“…Say, can I ask something?”

“So you knew that I’m doing kendo?”

When I nodded, Gogyou-san made a bashful expression.

“Mh? I mean, it was scary, right?”

I knew she was scared. I heard from Asada about Gogyou-san’s heroic tale of rescuing girls from persistent flirts, but rescuing a girl from getting hit on and getting hit on yourself are two completely different things. To be extreme, the mental pressure is as different as seeing a sex-offender and getting attacked by a sex-offender.

With my back to Gogyou-san, who was patting the dog plush toy on the head, I said.

“Ah, yeah. Thanks. You’re really kind, Nanjou-kun.”

“Everyone says you’re a scary person, a devil or an ogre, but I’m not scared, since you’re kind.”

Actually, I was being called an devil and ogre by my classmates?

“Man, I’m leaving. You go to your kendo club or whatever. Also, you can attack the students in the hallway while shouting ‘Gotcha!’.”

“So you say, but you’re always running around with a real sword, ain’t you?”

“Ehh? Y- You even know that I have a sword in there?”

Actually, there was really a real sword in there!? I hoped she was joking, but thinking that she has her own circumstances, I decided not to ask about it.

“Ah, wait, Nanjou-kun. Let’s go part of the way together.”

“What name should I give it?”

Seemed she was really pleased about it. Gogyou-san had a happy expression.

Maybe mimicking me, Gogyou-san also stopped and stared closely at the dog plush toy. We both stood in the hallway and were trying to think of a name with all our might. When we decided on “Hayato”, I parted from Gogyou-san.

The bad presence Gogyou-san mentioned, what was it?

As I lowered my head, Elni’s ring came into view.

Don’t tell me this ring was cursed?

I better ask Elni when I meet her next time.

“I’m home”

On my way back, I had stopped by a bookstore and bought a novel, but that wasn’t all.

Don’t tell me the bats were somehow related to the “bad presences” Gogyou-san was speaking of— Fighting them with that in mind, I won over them and went home, but it’d gotten really late.

“Shinobu-san, welcome home.”

“I will take your bag.”

I was showing off with broken Japanese.

With futile resistance, my bag was taken away by Luna.

When I made suspicious moves with my hands,

Suddenly I received an attack to my stomach. I was kicked. I bumped into the wall.

Damn. Like always, she had approached me without making any noise.

“How are you going to take responsibility, Luna!”

Luna got uneasy.

“I don’t want to be told that by you. Don’t you find it cruel to kick your dear son that just came home? What part of you is a mother, damn it.”

If Luna hadn’t come to my rescue, I’d would’ve screamed loudly due to the great pain.

“That’s just an act. An act, you hear. Actually, you can be angry, Luna-chan. The idiot said ‘Today I’ll come home early, yay~ I’ll pay with Luna, yay~’, but he didn’t come home at all. You were waiting for him all the time.”

“Y- Yeah, Shinobu-san was busy. On the way home he was attacked by bats and fought a fight to the death. It’s true.”

“You believe me, right Luna?”

“….Bats.”

“…Eh? You don’t believe me either?”

“…Shinomun is going to his room.”

“Just leave him be. Actually, he can drop dead.”

“Luna-chan, you look cute even when you’re angry.”

I could hear Luna’s and my pleased mother’s voice from behind, as I headed to my room.

When I got back to my room, I took out the novel I bought earlier from the bag that I had snatched back from Luna. I was going to soothe my broken heart by reading. I looked down at the book.

It was the newest release of my favourite series. The previous volume came out six month ago and now a new volume had finally came out. I was full of anticipation.

It had been six month since I read it.

You might want to keep your favourite novels in once place. That was my thought too. But since I had so many books it was a pain to order them.

I pulled books out of my bookshelf and looked for the book in question…When I found a pure black book in the back of the shelf. Wondering what it was, I pulled it out, but it had no title.

It was omitting an ominous aura and was really standing out from the other books.

I picked it up and skimmed through it. On a page written in English, there were illustrations of magic formations and grotesque pictures of humans and animals used for sacrifices.

What’s more, I remembered how I deciphered the English with a dictionary, so that I could call forth a devil. But why had I wanted to call a devil to begin with?

Red blood. A younger me crying. A smile. An extended hand. A head being patted. Warmth. A crying girl. A younger me crying. A cat plush toy—The image fragments were flashing in my head and the pain got worse.

Probably because I’d let go of the book.

“…Better put it back.”

Wondering what that all was about, my pulse rose a few beats, whereupon

Suddenly a knock on my door. I winced in surprise.

“Eh? E- Ehm, it is me.”
I could hear Luna’s voice from beyond the door. “Uhm, are you angry about earlier? I was n

Chapter end