Friday night.
Sato sent the manuscript for volume fourteen of Hero Throne to Machida Sonoko, then went to idle around in the old work group chat from before the websites merged.
"Ding ding!"
Suddenly, a new message arrived.
Oh?
Sato stopped petting the cat in his arms and placed the already chubby Vanilla onto the desk. The cat lazily stretched and rolled around on the tabletop.
Looking at that increasingly round body, Sato could not help baring his teeth as he muttered:
"How did you get this fat too? Is the food I'm giving you all just too good?"
If it were Chocola, it would at least be understandable. After all, Chocola was an orange cat. As everyone knew, orange cats were destined to become giant chonkers.
But Vanilla was a white cat. Although he did not know the exact breed, white cats were generally supposed to have slender builds.
He could not help remembering when he had first taken her in. Back then, she fit into one palm. Now even using both hands together, he could barely hold all that squishy fat.
He tapped open the message notification. The profile picture belonged to Isshiki Iroha.
[The Greatest Beautiful Girl in the World: Don't forget about tomorrow!]
[Sato: Don't worry, I won't. Tomorrow at 9 a.m. at Chiba City Zoo, right?]
[The Greatest Beautiful Girl in the World: Yep, that's right!]
Looking at the screen, Sato suddenly sighed.
This was troublesome. Wasn't this originally supposed to be just a meal? How had it turned into going to the zoo?
Wouldn't that make it basically a date?
Little Iroha really was quite the schemer.
I treated you like a bro, and you're actually trying to become my girlfriend!
…
Meanwhile, at Isshiki Iroha's house.
Fresh out of the bath, Isshiki Iroha lay on her bed wearing a bathrobe while staring at her phone. Beneath the robe, her smooth, fair legs were completely exposed, and the corners of her lips curved upward every now and then.
Like most girls, Isshiki Iroha's room used cute pink tones as its main color scheme. Pink curtains, pink bedding, pink desks and chairs…
At some point, pink had somehow become a color reserved exclusively for girls.
Damn it!
Boys liked cute things too, okay?!
"Ding!"
Hearing the message notification, Isshiki Iroha quickly shifted her attention back to her phone.
[Sato: Can I bring someone along? A kid.]
Hmph!
Isshiki Iroha let out a soft snort and rapidly typed on the keyboard.
[The Greatest Beautiful Girl in the World: You need to understand that this is supposed to be you thanking me personally! If you bring someone else, where's the sincerity in that? Besides, this isn't some kind of date!]
Sato stared at the message in silence for a moment. Something about this felt wrong.
Wait!
Shouldn't it be precisely because it wasn't a date that bringing someone along would be fine?!
He suddenly felt like he had fallen into someone's sophistry. Isshiki Iroha somehow sounded reasonable, yet it also felt strangely off.
If this wasn't a date, then why were they even going to a place like the zoo?
Still, Isshiki Iroha really had saved him that day. Even if she made this kind of request, he could not exactly refuse.
[Sato: Fine then. I'll come alone.]
Sato sighed, then turned toward Kanna.
"Kanna, I'll be heading out tomorrow. Go find Tohru instead."
"Okay!"
Far away, a certain girl hummed a cheerful little tune.
…
The next day, Chiba Zoo.
Sato stepped out of the crowded subway train and straightened his wrinkled clothes before sighing helplessly.
Even on weekends, trains, Japan's primary form of transportation, were still packed beyond belief.
At that moment, he suddenly felt grateful that he did not have to squeeze onto trains every morning to go to school.
He checked the time. It was just past 8:30.
Isshiki Iroha probably had not arrived yet… right?
Very quickly, after spotting the girl standing at the zoo entrance, Sato suddenly fell silent.
He had deliberately arrived thirty minutes early, so why had this still happened?
Wasn't it supposed to be girls who arrived late?
"Sato, over here!"
The moment she spotted him, the girl's eyes lit up. She hopped excitedly while waving toward him, instantly attracting plenty of attention from the surrounding crowd.
A youthful and beautiful girl would attract attention no matter where she went.
Feeling the jealous and envious gazes around him, Sato took a slight breath and quickly walked over.
"Sorry, I'm late."
"It's okay. I'm the one who came early."
Isshiki Iroha smiled gently.
Hm?
Sato suddenly froze in place, then stiffly raised his head to stare at Isshiki Iroha, his face full of disbelief.
What the hell?!
Are you really Isshiki Iroha?!
At a moment like this, weren't you supposed to say something sarcastic?!
As if sensing the shock on his face, Isshiki Iroha snorted softly and rolled her eyes.
"What? Do you have a problem with that?"
"Not anymore!"
Sato instantly let out a breath of relief. Suddenly, the world felt normal again.
"Hmph, what a masochist."
Isshiki Iroha muttered quietly.
At that moment, Sato looked her over a few times before suddenly saying:
"You look really pretty today."
The girl carried a pink handbag, wore a gray high-collar sweater beneath a light green coat, and paired black shorts with black tights.
The black tights accentuated her smooth, slender legs, making them appear even longer. Combined with her stylish outfit, she radiated youthful charm and beauty, standing out like a star lit up in the night.
"Hmph! As if I'm not pretty normally."
Although Isshiki Iroha's face reddened slightly from the compliment, she still snorted softly and looked at him with dissatisfaction.
Sato merely smiled. He knew that the more he said at moments like this, the more troublesome things would become.
Seeing his expression, Isshiki Iroha puffed out her cheeks.
"Then let's hurry inside. Today I'm definitely going to walk around a lot and eat until you go broke at lunch!"
The girl stuck out her tongue playfully at him before turning around and walking briskly toward the zoo entrance.
Sato shook his head and followed after her.
…
After the two entered the zoo, a school bus covered in cute cartoon stickers suddenly stopped outside the entrance. The words Futaba Kindergarten could vaguely be seen on the side of the vehicle. Once the door opened, a group of future flowers of society filed out one after another.
"We've arrived at the zoo, everyone. Please get off the bus in an orderly manner and don't push!"
"Ooh! Monkey! Monkey! I wanna see monkeys!"
"Shin-chan! Stop causing trouble!"