Bokue arrived at Nagisa's front door.
When he pushed it open, the apartment was already bright and orderly. Nagisa had clearly woken early—breakfast was finished, the dishes were washed, and the dining area looked untouched. She sat at the table scrolling through her phone as if she'd been waiting for a cue.
The moment she heard the door, she set her phone down and looked up.
Her face lit instantly.
"Ah! Onii-sama's here~"
"Morning, Nagisa."
Bokue stepped inside, kicked off his shoes in the entryway, and walked toward her.
Nagisa popped up from her chair and padded across the floor with quick tap-tap-tap steps. When she reached him, she hugged him with enthusiasm, laughing softly as if she'd been holding that energy in all morning.
"I waited, but you came earlier than I expected…" She blinked up at him, playful. "Ah, I get it. You're excited too, right? Because we're visiting Mom today."
Bokue lifted a hand and flicked her nose gently.
"The weather's bad," he said. "So we're leaving now. Once we're done today, you and Avrora won't have to share one body anymore."
"Mm-hm~"
Nagisa didn't seem discouraged by his refusal to bite the bait. If anything, her smile widened.
"And that means Onii-sama gets two Blood Partners…"
She paused, as if suddenly remembering something important.
"Oh—there's one more thing."
"What is it?"
Nagisa's expression turned bright and mischievous, like she was about to deliver a "fun fact" that was definitely not fun.
"Avrora-chan doesn't come out often," she said, "but she understands everything that happens to me. She's aware the whole time."
Bokue's eyebrow twitched.
Nagisa leaned closer, eyes sparkling.
"In other words… whatever Onii-sama does to Nagisa…" Her voice softened into a whisper. "…Avrora-chan experiences too~"
She rose onto her toes and pulled slightly at Bokue's shoulders, guiding his head down just enough to speak close to his ear.
"So Avrora-chan has basically been 'trained' by Onii-sama for a long time already," she murmured sweetly. "Doesn't that make you even more excited?"
Bokue sighed and swatted her lightly on the back of the thigh—more warning than punishment.
"Enough. We're leaving. If we wait, we'll get caught in the rain."
"Hehe~ You're just embarrassed," Nagisa said, grinning like a devil—because she was one.
Then she did something even weirder: she clenched her fists and waved them at the air with mock seriousness.
"Dark clouds! Disperse! No rain today!"
"Alright," Bokue said flatly, pinching her cheeks. "Let's go."
He crouched, lifted her in one smooth motion, and—
They vanished.
--
They reappeared inside MAR's medical research facility on Itogami Island.
Because it was the weekend, the place felt hollow. The corridors were silent, the lights steady, the air-conditioning a soft hum with no footsteps to compete with it.
Even if someone had been around, it still wouldn't have mattered. The whole island was effectively Bokue's territory—asking people to step aside was more a formality than a request.
Bokue released Nagisa and scanned the hall.
"I've never been here," he admitted. "Do you know where your mom works?"
"Naturally!" Nagisa said, instantly cheerful again. "Follow Nagisa-guide~"
As if she'd been waiting all her life for the role, she flashed a victory sign beside her cheek with an exaggerated, cute expression—then took the lead down the corridor.
❁❁❁❁
Mimori was alone in her director's office, seated behind her desk with a monitor full of reports and charts.
But her eyes weren't really reading.
Her gaze was unfocused, as if her mind had drifted somewhere else entirely.
Under the desk, a pair of women's sandals sat neatly—out of place in a professional office, except MAR didn't have strict dress rules, and Mimori didn't commute like normal employees.
She lived here.
She'd long since claimed the attached VIP suite—originally meant for high-priority patients—renovated it into a private residence, and made the building her territory. Unless she felt like visiting her daughters, she could go weeks without leaving.
So the sandals weren't the strange part.
The strange part was her posture.
Mimori leaned back in her chair like someone who had given up on dignity for comfort: shoulders slouched, knees bent, feet braced against the desk edge—half recline, half collapse.
Around her, the floor was… messy. Not "spilled coffee" messy.
More like "someone has been having a difficult week" messy.
"Mm…"
Mimori exhaled a long, trembling sigh—half relief, half surrender—as if she'd been trying to push down stress for days and finally stopped resisting.
It had been almost a full week.
Six days, to be exact.
Ever since last Sunday morning, when she'd gone home and—against her better judgment—found her thoughts catching on that embrace with Bokue. Not the politeness of it. Not the teasing.
The overwhelming closeness of it.
And once her mind latched onto that memory, she couldn't fully shake it. Not at work. Not at night. Not even during routine paperwork.
More than once, she'd stared at a document and realized she hadn't processed a single word, because her brain had wandered into the same humiliating loop.
She told herself she needed self-control.
<><><><><>
~ 70 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon
https://p-atreon.com/dragonnx
(Just remove the hyphen to access Patreon normally.)