Infected… Those three syllables made Talulah's breathing hitch again.
Alina noticed the gloom that passed over Talulah's expression and could only sigh in her heart.
That was Talulah's own lived experience—her sin.
Alina had no right to forgive her on behalf of the innocent people. All she could do was shoulder that sin together with Talulah.
"It's great that you're both settling in. It won't be long before I move house—I hope you've steeled yourselves to go back out and face reality."
Seeing that the two were doing fine, Tatsuki had basically achieved his goal.
He was about to leave when Talulah suddenly reached out and caught his sleeve.
"Mm?" Tatsuki looked back.
"…Thank you for saving Alina."
"Why are you suddenly thanking me now?"
"..."
Tatsuki chuckled, meeting her eyes. "Don't tell me you forgot—Alina's my little fawn now."
"Eep!" Alina's cheeks went poppy-red in an instant.
That special memory floated up in her mind—the feeling of their lips and tongues pressing together…
Tatsuki had originally thought Talulah would grit her teeth at that. To his surprise, Talulah only nodded once.
"Oh?"
Her reaction actually surprised him, so he couldn't help glancing at Alina.
Flustered, Alina rubbed her burning cheeks. "Um, I think Mr. Tatsuki might have misunderstood. Me and Talulah don't have… that kind of relationship."
As she spoke, her head drooped lower and lower, and her voice got softer and softer. "Girls and girls… that kind of thing is impossible."
"I see. Then that's just perfect," Tatsuki laughed.
No relationship meant he had an even clearer field.
Talulah already understood her fate—there was no leaving the path that led back to Tatsuki.
As a sinner, she accepted that fate.
So long as Alina was still alive… at the very least, still alive.
Listening to Alina's earlier advice, she stepped forward and took the initiative to kiss Tatsuki.
Her sudden move stunned him for a second—but once he snapped out of it, he launched a swift counterattack.
He absolutely wasn't going to let his little dragon pin him down.
A few minutes later, under Alina's shy gaze, the victor of that bout of lip-combat was, unsurprisingly, Tatsuki.
He couldn't help praising Talulah. "You're bold. Now I'm really looking forward to the day I get to be a dragon rider."
After lightly brushing his thumb over Talulah's moist lips, Tatsuki left the Chaos Domain.
"Ta-Talulah, just now you…?" Alina hesitated. She didn't remember ever advising Talulah quite that far.
She did know what fate awaited both of them, and she had been gently nudging Talulah along…
But how had things jumped ahead this fast?
Talulah pressed her own damp-red lips together and said solemnly, "Alina, I'll protect your purity."
If Tatsuki had heard that, he would've been even more dumbfounded.
So that was what Talulah had in mind!
...
Leaving the Chaos Domain, it happened to be the end of the big recess.
Everyone went back to their classrooms.
The next period was Homeroom Teacher Shizuka Hiratsuka's class.
The moment she walked in, her eyes zeroed straight in on Tatsuki.
What had happened yesterday weighed on her heavily. She'd tossed and turned all night, barely sleeping at all.
What she got in return for the look she gave him was Tatsuki's polite, natural smile.
"!!!"
She jerked her gaze away, forcing herself to ignore the pins-and-needles crawling over her whole body as she started the lesson.
...
Riiing!
The bell finally rang for the end of class.
Shizuka let out a long breath. For the first time ever, she felt like a single period had been that agonizingly long.
After a moment's hesitation, she left a line behind:
"Tatsuki, come to the office with me."
Behind Tatsuki, Kato Megumi blinked, her intuition confirmed. So the feeling she'd had during class wasn't wrong. She'd been picking up on Hiratsuka-sensei's gaze over and over again.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't directed at her, of course—it was aimed at the boy sitting right in front of her: Tatsuki.
"Tatsuki-kun, everything okay?" she asked before Tatsuki stood up.
"Just a small thing, don't worry about it."
With that, Tatsuki followed right on Shizuka's heels out of the classroom.
...
In the staff room, Tatsuki stood in front of Shizuka.
She sat in her chair looking completely at a loss, unable even to put her feelings into words.
It wasn't just the shame she felt in front of Tatsuki—there were other teachers around them, too. How was she supposed to bring any of this up?
Seeing her difficulty at a glance, Tatsuki quietly sealed off the space around them.
"Shizuka-sensei, just say what you want. They can't hear us."
"Huh?"
His sudden line made her jump.
She looked around—sure enough, it seemed like no one was paying them any attention.
Suspicious, Shizuka frowned. "You used your superpowers again?"
"Yup. So go ahead, Shizuka-sensei. You want to talk about what happened yesterday, right?"
"Cough, cough cough cough!"
Tatsuki's straight-to-the-point question had her coughing like she'd choked on a cigarette she wasn't even smoking.
Face burning red, she lifted her head. "Cough… Tatsuki, what happened yesterday was an accident…"
Just mentioning it made her want to crawl into a hole.
"I get it."
Tatsuki's expression turned very meaningful. "You're almost at the age where a woman is in her prime, after all—and you've never experienced, you know, the whole man-and-woman thing."
"You—!"
If someone else had said that, Shizuka would absolutely have blown her top.
But with Tatsuki, she couldn't even argue.
This guy had not only personally witnessed her disastrous blind date, he'd also personally caught her masturbating.
There was eyewitness testimony and physical evidence—what was she supposed to refute it with?
Still, Tatsuki was curious about one thing. "By the way, Shizuka-sensei, that book you were holding that day was my friend's doujin… you weren't maybe…"
"Teachers who secretly fantasize about their students are in the wrong! As a teacher, I apologize!"
Before he even finished the sentence, Shizuka bowled right over him with a bow of apology and a full confession.
"Uh…"
Tatsuki froze. He'd just wanted to tease her a little, not shake a full confession loose.
She really was adorable, this Shizuka-sensei.
Her thoughts were in complete chaos. Shame, guilt, and the mortification of having her secret laid bare all tangled together into one big knot.
"Cough." Putting on a show of seriousness, Tatsuki coughed twice, then patted her slumped shoulder. "Shizuka-sensei, I understand your frustrations."
"Next time, instead of fantasizing alone, you can come talk to me if you need to. Here's my card."
Like some host at a host club, Tatsuki flourished a paper business card out of nowhere and pressed it into her hand.
Then he turned and left, leaving behind a dramatically dashing silhouette.
He really had just been joking, giving Shizuka-sensei a way to save face.
What he didn't know was—in the middle of her scrambled thoughts, Shizuka was staring blankly at the card.
Images from that doujin flickered in her mind and new ideas she couldn't suppress began to sprout.
...
Time slipped by, and the weekend arrived.
The week had been almost too peaceful.
Aside from the usual ghosts and monsters, nothing unusual had shown up at all.
Life in the chat group was calm as well.
Outside of spending every day in the Supernatural Research Club lovey-dovey with Yui and the others, Tatsuki just did the things he liked and knocked out some training on the side.
During that stretch, Eriri's progress could only be called sky-rocketing.
Worth mentioning, too, was that Yumiko had come to him of her own accord, wanting to become stronger—apparently seeing Yui's strength had made her envious.
Looking over the club that was rapidly turning into his future harem circle, Tatsuki decided to teach Yumiko the Six Styles and Haki.
The results weren't exactly extraordinary—but at the very least, it gave her a visible hope of catching up with Yui.
Well… hope. Probably.
What Yumiko didn't know was that she'd already been targeted by a carnivorous scumbag named Tatsuki.
....
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