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Yukino Yukinoshita struggled to recall what had happened.
Initially, because Yui Yuigahama hadn't shown up for two consecutive days, she couldn't help but worry and obtained her home address from the school to go look for her.
The result, of course, was nothing.
But just as she was about to leave and look elsewhere.
In just an instant, as if passing through a dreamlike, ethereal soap bubble, everything around them had undergone a drastic change.
And her last memory remained in a bizarre, colorful scene.
"It's not... a dream..."
The girl, still unable to move easily, enveloped in a thick shell of solidified toffee and French caramel almond shortbread, looked at the giant monster approaching her from not far away. The fear of the unknown, like hypothermia, gradually stripped away her warmth and hope, causing Yukino Yukinoshita's body to tremble almost imperceptibly.
The cookie monster roared as it advanced, continuously playing muffled dessert shop advertisements and sweet songs from within its body. The incongruity and distortion created by the combination of the two made one's scalp tingle.
The giant monster reached out to grab Yukino Yukinoshita.
The moment the girl closed her eyes in fright, there was a crisp 'clink' sound, and the monster's grasping claw seemed to hit an invisible wall, its front end directly shattering.
However, this disintegration lasted only for a brief moment. In the blink of an eye, the monster's limb was restored.
"Step back," Asakura's voice, calm to the point of sounding cold, came out.
Then, under Yukino Yukinoshita's astonished gaze, he swung the forty-centimeter-long ladyfinger cookie in his hand at the giant monster. The sight was so impactful, like Don Quixote charging at a windmill, that it even created an unexpected sense of absurdity.
However, in the next instant, following the extended line of Asakura's swinging ladyfinger cookie, the monster's body was directly split in two, as if it had been cut into two sections by an invisible blade.
"I can't step back..." Yukino Yukinoshita was stunned for a moment before she came to her senses. She tried hard to move her body, but the thick sugar shell and shortbread crust firmly bound her, allowing her to only sway slightly.
"I wasn't talking about you."
Asakura glanced at her, then swiped the ladyfinger cookie in his hand, making a motion similar to a side cut.
Yukino Yukinoshita then found a large chunk of the sugar shell on her body had been shaved off.
So she struggled again, like a chick breaking out of its eggshell, and finally managed to free herself.
"I don't think I'll ever eat toffee again," the girl muttered, feeling sticky and uncomfortable from the pungent sweetness.
"You should drink more milk," Asakura commented.
"Sorry for being petite," the girl retorted irritably.
"Rather than 'petite,' I usually describe it as 'hard.'" Asakura replied seriously.
Yukino Yukinoshita clenched her fists.
She was so annoyed, especially seeing Asakura's complacent expression, which made her even more irritated.
So, Yukino Yukinoshita, in a fit of pique, got a little angry.
She decided not to continue the conversation about her body with Asakura.
"What is that thing...? It's moving again!" Yukino Yukinoshita exclaimed, looking at the giant monster that had been horizontally bisected but seemed to be reassembling itself.
"I'm afraid you'll have to ask Miss Yuigahama what exactly she did to the dough," Asakura said, stroking his chin as he looked at the giant monster.
It seemed that when dealing with this kind of 'mysterious' monster, simple, direct physical destruction was far more effective than casting Magic on it. Using Snake to achieve a similar effect consumed much more than Scale Blade.
While thinking this, Asakura's hands didn't stop. He finely minced the giant monster, which was almost fully revived, into stewing meat.
Yet, the giant monster continued to recover methodically, its shredded body reassembling like countless ants gathering together in an orderly fashion.
"...I think we shouldn't criticize other people's fetishes," Yukino Yukinoshita said with difficulty after a moment of contemplation.
Asakura felt as if she had misunderstood something very important.
However, because it felt interesting, he didn't intend to clarify for Yui Yuigahama. While remaining vigilant of the still-reviving giant monster, he also scraped off a layer of the candy shell from Yuigahama.
Yukino Yukinoshita immediately understood and leaned in, trying to wake Yui Yuigahama.
Originally, Asakura thought that since Yui Yuigahama hadn't had a drop of water for about three days, she probably wouldn't be easy to wake up, and even if she did wake up, her condition should be very poor—likely somewhere between lingering and a final burst of energy.
However, when he fed her blood just now, Asakura noticed that her mouth was moist and warm, and she wasn't truly severely dehydrated.
Considering that this girl didn't have the acting skills to fool him, Asakura was inclined to believe that this space had an instinctive protective effect on the girl.
"Mmm... Yukino? Why does my mouth taste like rust...?" Yui Yuigahama groggily opened her eyes and saw Yukino Yukinoshita, who seemed about to slap her awake.
The latter nonchalantly lowered her hand and then asked, "Yuigahama-san, do you remember what you did before you lost consciousness?"
"Huh? Ugh..."
The pink-haired Mochi showed a somewhat pained expression, seemingly trying hard to recall something.
"I remember trying to make cookies according to the method Yukino taught me."
"The method I taught wouldn't cause such a drastic change in the world..." Yukino Yukinoshita said helplessly.
"Th-that... along the way, I felt the dough wasn't fermenting enough, so I added a block of yeast that said 'Make your dough move like slime!' on the packaging?"
"Well, setting aside other things, Yuigahama-san, you've been learning to bake cookies for a while now. Don't you know that cookie dough doesn't need to ferment?"
"Huh, is that so? Yukino, didn't you teach me that?"
"Ah."
The two girls looked at each other.
"More importantly, where did you get that yeast you mentioned?" Asakura suddenly asked.
"Huh? Asakura-kun is here too... No, where is this...? Ugh, don't glare at me with such scary eyes," Yui Yuigahama shrank her neck. "It seems I got it from a salesperson... No, it seems like a sample sent in the mailbox...? ...Or it might have been at home from the beginning...? Huh? Why, my memory..."
"No need to say more, I think I understand."
Asakura sighed, facing the giant monster that had stood up again: "Leave the rest to me."
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