Drip-drip-drip-drip, drip-drip-drip-drip...
As the annoying sound of the alarm clock echoed in the bedroom, time had instantly advanced to the next morning.
Bright sunlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains, falling onto the wooden floor. Traces of the previous night were visible everywhere in the room.
One black cat ear perked up from under the quilt near the headboard. Accompanied by the slight movement of the covers on the bed, a girl's lazy and slightly confused voice rang out.
"So noisy~ What is that sound?"
"The wake-up alarm."
A corner of the quilt was lifted, and Hanakain Reiji yawned, covering his mouth, then sat up steadily.
Ignoring Kuroka, who was still squinting and ooh-ing and meow-ing beside him, trying to physically retain him, he stepped directly out of bed and went to the desk facing the window, pressing the stop button on the alarm clock that was continuously blaring from the inner corner of the desk.
It wasn't until the noise disappeared that Kuroka, still curled up on the bed, finally lifted her head, her sleepy eyes blinking open. Of the pair of cat ears on her head, one stood up and the other drooped.
"Do you have to go out to that school again? I have to say, the alarm clock is the worst invention ever made by you humans, Haaaah (yawn)... Oh, wait, I remember your alarm clock didn't sound like this before?"
"Can't be helped, I replaced it with a new one."
Hanakain Reiji took his hand off the alarm clock, turned around, and looked at the cat-eared girl on the bed, who was propped up on all fours, her 'mountain' assets precariously pointing toward the floor.
"The last one was placed by the bedside, and you smashed it with one punch, Kuroka."
"W-Well, who told it to make such a loud sound all of a sudden? I was half-asleep, and it just started ringing! It scared half the life out of me..."
Kuroka's eyes darted around, clearly lacking conviction.
The young man slightly shrugged: "That's why I put the alarm clock on the desk this time. That way, you can't reach it when you're lying in bed."
"Ugh..."
Kuroka puffed out her cheeks, about to continue complaining and emphasizing that alarm clocks were a barbaric invention. But when her gaze landed back on the young man, the words that were already at the tip of her tongue refused to come out.
The sunlight that had been shining through the curtain gap onto the floor was now casting diagonally upon the young man's body, clearly outlining his long, yet powerful, muscle lines.
"...What is it?"
Seeing the person on the bed mutter and then fall silent, a question mark slowly appeared above Hanakain Reiji's head.
Kuroka continued to stare blankly, her alluring red lips slightly moving.
"You've got morning glory..." (You're hard...)
"It doesn't matter if I'm hard. We don't have that much time in the morning. I'll take care of you when I get back tonight."
Hanakain Reiji shook his head, bent down to pick up the clothes that had been scattered on the floor last night, and then added another sentence after a moment of thought.
"Besides, last night we kept going until you passed out before stopping. Now you're thinking about it again this morning? Even if a Yōkai body is sturdy, you shouldn't be so self-indulgent."
"Every time I hear you, a human, say something like that to a Yōkai, Big Sister always gets a strange sense of displacement..."
Watching the young man pick up all the scattered clothes one by one, Kuroka, who had sat up from under the covers, gently pouted.
Then, she threw off the other half of the quilt covering her. Completely disregardful of her nakedness, she sprang off the bed with an agile leap, pouncing on the young man who was about to head out the door. She clung tightly to Hanakain Reiji from behind like an octopus.
Throughout this entire process, the young man's body didn't shake at all, as if he had already anticipated that she would definitely do this.
Their skin was touching, their body temperatures and sensations clearly transmitted between them. Hanakain Reiji turned his head and rubbed his nose against the girl's cheek.
"At least put your clothes on first..."
"Big Sister won't~ We're home anyway, and no one else will see us. What does it matter~"
Kuroka shook her head and hummed.
Her intention was simple: since she was already aroused, and although she could use magic to "clear the negative status" at any time, a better solution was to also arouse Hana-Hana.
That way, Hana-Hana wouldn't have to go to that school, and they could get busy all day long at home.
A happy ending, congratulations.
Unfortunately... she did not succeed.
Twenty minutes later, Hanakain Reiji, having finished washing up, sat down at the dining table in the living room, accompanied by a gloomy-faced Kuroka, who had been forcibly dressed in her kimono.
Breakfast was a sandwich with milk. Hanakain Reiji had a fried egg and bacon sandwich, while Kuroka, being a Nekomata, preferred fish, so her filling was changed to sardine and bacon.
"Oh yeah, did anyone reply to that post you made last night, Hana-Hana?"
Kuroka took a bite of her sandwich. Even though she had been forcibly dressed to avoid indecency, she was still restless, constantly swinging her legs under the dining chair, using her exposed bare toes to scrape against the young man's calf.
"Let me see..."
Hanakain Reiji put down the glass mug full of hot milk. Freeing up his hand, he first gave her lower back a sharp pat through the kimono, which instantly straightened her spine and forced her into a stiff posture. Only then did he take his phone out of his clothes and log into the forum.
Returning to the post he had made last night, there were, unsurprisingly, quite a few replies underneath.
Some replies simply commented with "6" (a slang term for 'awesome' or 'smooth' in Chinese internet culture), others replied with "Who asked you," and the rest were mostly asking if it was real, or if it was a prank prop.
"That's very strange..."
Hanakain Reiji gazed at the continuously scrolling screen, slowly taking a bite of his sandwich.
At this moment, Kuroka beside him finally recovered slightly from her trembling. Her face slightly flushed, she leaned over sideways.
"...What is it? Is something wrong?"
"Hmm, I wouldn't say there's a problem."
Hanakain Reiji shook his head with a slight hesitation.
Although this forum was created by the Tokyo Jujutsu High School itself, ordinary civilians could easily log in, and for some occult enthusiasts, it was essentially a gathering place for like-minded people.
However, the ultimate purpose of the Jujutsu High School creating such a website was to leverage the convenience of the internet to constantly monitor the occurrence of occult phenomena across Japan.
To put it simply—early detection, early treatment.
After all, even the millennia-old Onmyōji Hanakain family could only manage to "dispatch missions upon receiving a request," let alone the newly established system of Curse Users.
It was fundamentally impossible for them to conduct high-intensity, round-the-clock, blanket searches for occult phenomena across Japan. No amount of manpower would suffice.
In contrast, it was more efficient to directly trick occult enthusiasts into posting and sharing on the forum, thereby increasing their work efficiency.
But this didn't mean that the Curse Users only browsed the forum after creating it. Sometimes, they would also reply to help requests or posts that raised genuine doubts.
The sealing talisman on the finger he picked up yesterday was clearly the work of a Curse User, yet so far, no "professional" had contacted him.
That's not very 'Jujutsu' of them, is it?
Unless—
Like lightning flashing through his mind, the question mark above the young man's head instantly transformed into a small, bright light bulb.
Hanakain Reiji then closed his own post, returned to the main forum page, and clicked on his private message inbox.
Just as he suspected, a single unread message lay quietly inside. It had been received last night, about two minutes after he made the post, but at that time, he was already doing with Kuroka, so he hadn't noticed it at all.
The private message sender had the ID
$$BrightMirrorStillWater$$
. Judging by the nickname, they weren't using their real name, but the content of the message immediately revealed their identity.
[Hello, I am Saeko Busujima, a third-year student at Tokyo Jujutsu High School. Based on our assessment, the item you possess in your post is an extremely dangerous Special Grade Cursed Object belonging to Tokyo Jujutsu High School. Please immediately distance yourself from the Cursed Object and contact me upon seeing this message!]
The wording was polite, the tone was strong, and a string of phone numbers followed it.
Logically, there was nothing wrong with this, but Hanakain Reiji somehow felt inexplicably annoyed reading it.
What do you mean, 'belonging to Jujutsu High School'? I confiscated it, okay? How did it immediately become your High School's property?
And as for "dangerous"?
The young man glanced sideways at the briefcase on the table, where the temporary sealing talisman he had added last night was still running stably.
He opened the case to check. The finger inside was still lying quietly in the indentation, not even changing its direction or position, clearly emphasizing its compliance.
Right. If this thing even dared to twitch, I would have immediately slammed a Great Might Heavenly Dragon (Daitenryū) on it.
I'm too cool for you to show off. jpg
So, after a moment of thought, Hanakain Reiji typed out a reply.
[Hello, I am Qin Shi Huang.]