"Eh? What happened? Why did everyone leave?"
Kanroji Mitsuri, belatedly, lifted her head from the pile of snacks, stuffing both cheeks full.
Kochou Shinobu turned her head and whispered, "So cute, like a little hamster."
"...But," Haruto pursed his lips, finding it a bit difficult to say, "What's with her clothes?"
Her chest was so exposed that it made people afraid to look in that direction.
"It must be that guy, Maeda Masao," Shinobu frowned. "He's a tailor among the Kakushi. Because he always deliberately sews revealing uniforms for female Demon Slayers, and he wears glasses, everyone in the Demon Slayer Corps calls him the 'Perverted Four-Eyes.'"
"Eh? Always?" Haruto's eyes widened as he looked at Shinobu.
"...That's right, I also received a uniform like that once," Kochou Shinobu said, gritting her teeth. "The day after I received the uniform, I took it, along with matches and lamp oil, and found him. Then I burned the uniform right in front of him... This girl looks so easily fooled; she must have been tricked by that guy."
As the two of them were conversing quietly, Kanroji Mitsuri saw Kyoujurou walking over and happily waved, "Mr. Rengoku!"
"Kanroji!" Kyoujurou cheerfully sat down in front of her and discussed their upcoming mission.
Haruto noticed that Obanai Iguro on the side was still staring blankly at Kanroji.
No way, this small, quiet young man, could he be a pervert who hides it well?
He lightly raised an eyebrow and got up, heading towards the kitchen of the restaurant.
Inside the small kitchen, several chefs were busy, passing plates of snacks and handmade desserts out through the window.
The pastry chef in the back was spreading red bean paste on mochi skin, filling it with strawberries, then grabbing the edge of the skin and flicking it. A plump, white strawberry daifuku with a pale red filling was flicked onto a tray.
Haruto heard two chefs talking quietly: "That pink-haired girl must have eaten almost a hundred daifuku already, right?"
"More than that, she even took a tall stack of red bean buns, and it looks like she can still eat a lot more!"
"How scary, such a thin girl yet she can eat non-stop..."
"Her name is Kanroji Mitsuri. I heard she's Kyojuro Rengoku's disciple. Sure enough, both master and disciple have this kind of physique... Are your hands tired?"
"Don't even mention it. Look, there are still so many swordsmen. I need to go knead dough."
"Kanroji, plus Kyoujurou... It seems we won't be able to relax today... Wait, if I remember correctly, the Pillar Meeting is today, isn't it?"
"!"
The two chefs exchanged a horrified glance, then simultaneously turned their gaze to the smiling, white-haired swordsman leaning against the side.
"Mr. Haruto!" they both shouted.
"You were talking bad about me!" Haruto lifted his chin.
"Absolutely not!" they both shook their heads.
Haruto grunted, and with both hands, effortlessly carried away the entire large tray holding the food.
The pastry chefs, whose stock was suddenly emptied, made bitter faces and started spreading red bean paste on mochi skins again.
After Haruto easily swallowed thirty daifuku in one go, Obanai Iguro finally hesitated and walked forward.
He seemed to have deliberated for a long time, his hands always tucked into his sleeves, not daring to take them out. Only when he reached Kanroji Mitsuri did he quickly pull out a gift bag and place it on her table.
"Eh?" Kanroji looked at the gift bag in surprise, a little at a loss.
Obanai was silent for a while. Even though the white snake wrapped around his neck shook its tail to urge him, he only looked up and slowly said, "For you."
Then he greeted Kyoujurou and left with his own bento box.
Not only was Kanroji bewildered, but even Haruto and the others watching were confused.
"How about... opening it?"
Kanae withdrew her gaze from Obanai Iguro's flushed ears and chuckled as she looked at Kanroji Mitsuri, "It should be a very precious gesture."
"That's right! Although Iguro doesn't say much, he is a very steady and kind person," Kyoujurou nodded.
Obanai Iguro had been rescued by his father, and because of this connection, his relationship with Obanai was also very good.
Under everyone's gossiping gazes, Kanroji opened the gift bag.
Inside was a pair of brand new green striped long socks. They looked like they had been bought in a hurry, but unexpectedly, they matched Kanroji Mitsuri's green hair tips very well.
"How cute!" Shinobu said with a smile, "It seems he really put a lot of thought into choosing them."
Kanroji was indeed a very cheerful and lovely girl. She cupped her cheeks, her face turning bright red: "I didn't expect it either! Seeing him standing there for so long, I thought he was some kind of bad guy!"
Shinobu visibly liked the lively, cheerful, and somewhat naive Kanroji very much. With Kanae's gentle voice guiding them, the three girls quickly grew closer.
"Kanroji's hair color is really beautiful," Kochou Shinobu, a member of the gradient hair club, touched her cherry-blossom pink gradient long hair and praised her sincerely.
Uzui Tengen popped a piece of sashimi into his mouth and quietly agreed, "Indeed... this hair color is so flamboyant it's almost irritating."
"Speaking of which, I originally had black hair, this hair color..." Kanroji Mitsuri, on the contrary, scratched her head shyly: "This hair color is because I once ate one hundred and seventy sakura mochi every day for eight consecutive months, that's why my hair turned this color..."
Shinobu's hand, which was touching her hair, stopped.
Σ( ° △ °|||)?
One hundred and seventy sakura mochi?
So that's five thousand one hundred sakura mochi in a month, and in eight months... forty thousand eight hundred?
Forty thousand sakura mochi... If it were Kochou Shinobu, even if she only ate sakura mochi from birth, she probably couldn't eat that much... "Eating so much continuously, don't you get tired of it?" Haruto leaned his head over from beside her, discussing seriously with Kanroji: "Of normal-sized sakura mochi, I can probably eat more than two hundred and fifty in one sitting, but after a week at most, I have to switch to something else..."
"Two hundred and fifty! You're amazing!"
"Five ants!"
"Eh heh heh, not really... The most I ever ate was when I was thirteen, I ate three hundred and sixteen onigiri in one meal!"
"Three hundred and sixteen?! So your hair color also changed from eating onigiri?! Can eating white rice make you white?!"
"Five ants!"
"Ah, no, that's my natural color..."
Kochou Shinobu, caught in the middle, suddenly felt like she had fallen into an endless hell of onigiri and sakura mochi, occasionally interspersed with Kyojuro Rengoku's loud praises of food.
What kind of amazing organization is the Demon Slayer Corps, after all?
Kochou Shinobu chuckled, and just as she lowered her head, a gentle touch came from her left hand, which was resting under the table.
Haruto held her hand, his eyes curving into a smile, staring at her for a long time before leaning his head back to continue discussing the wonders of food with Kanroji and Kyoujurou... Was he worried I was bored?
Kochou Shinobu pursed her lips, and under her sister's teasing gaze, she slipped her slender fingers into Haruto's palm, interlocking them.
Listening to you talk... I would never feel bored.