"This is discrimination! Blatant discrimination!"
Eto looked thoroughly displeased, as if Byakuya had done something terribly wrong to her.
"What are you even talking about..."
Byakuya was momentarily confused. "Are you upset because I just introduced you as a 'friend'?"
He could guess that much, but he hadn't expected Eto to care about such a trivial thing.
"Besides that, there's another thing. You said Akira's name so naturally, so why do you insist on adding '-san' after my name?"
Eto continued her questioning.
"?"
A question mark appeared over Byakuya's head. "Isn't it just whatever comes naturally? I say whatever rolls off the tongue. I don't think there's any need to fuss over such trivial matters."
But Eto shook her head. "No, this is very necessary. Differential treatment is unacceptable. Please do a proper introduction again."
"...Is that really necessary? We don't actually have that kind of relationship."
Byakuya felt somewhat helpless.
"It absolutely is necessary."
Eto's attitude was very firm.
"Are you going to love me and leave me already? How heartless..."
Eto dabbed at nonexistent tears in the corners of her eyes, putting on a pitiful, heartbroken look.
Byakuya's expression went blank. "Hold on a second. Your teasing won't work in this situation. These two little ones don't understand topics like this."
"That's exactly why I'm saying—we're lovers witnessed by countless people. Can you at least respect that setting?"
Having nothing better to say, Eto could only bring up this justification.
"I already told you, these two don't understand this kind of thing. There's no need for us to put on an act in front of them."
Byakuya spoke with a perfectly straight face.
"..."
Eto was momentarily speechless. "Fine, talking to a blockhead like you is pointless anyway."
She gave up.
Once the brief little drama between Byakuya and Eto concluded, the One-Tail Shukaku finally spoke up: "I'm the One-Tail Shukaku. After being defeated by Byakuya, I had no choice but to follow him."
"Oh? It can actually talk."
Eto immediately became interested.
"Of course I can. I'm a Tailed Beast. Though you probably can't comprehend that—basically, I'm a very powerful existence."
Shukaku spoke with pride.
"Really? How powerful exactly? Give me a little demonstration?"
Eto asked curiously.
"I'll pass on that. Byakuya definitely wouldn't let me."
Shukaku shook its head firmly.
If it demonstrated its power, this entire city would be in trouble.
"Without any exaggeration, Shukaku could destroy all of Tokyo in an extremely short time. That's roughly how powerful it is."
Byakuya spoke up.
"That powerful...?"
Eto found this somewhat hard to believe.
But she had never seen Byakuya boast or exaggerate about anything, so it was difficult to doubt him.
"Speaking of which, what about this little one on the other side? Is it also one of those Tailed Beast things?"
Eto's gaze shifted to the cat-like creature on Byakuya's other shoulder.
In terms of appearance alone, the Two-Tails Matatabi, which resembled a small cat, was at least somewhat cuter than Shukaku.
At normal size, Matatabi looked fierce and mighty, but in miniature form, it naturally became adorable.
"I'm the Two-Tails Matatabi."
Though its tone was gentle enough, its attitude seemed rather unwilling to engage with this human (ghoul) before it. After saying just those few words, it lay back down.
"One-Tail Shukaku... Two-Tails Matatabi... So your names are related to the number of tails?"
Eto noticed that Shukaku had only one tail while Matatabi had two—matching their names perfectly.
"Correct."
Shukaku confirmed.
"So here's the question: Shukaku and Matatabi, which of you is stronger? Is it the one with more tails?"
At that moment, Eto asked a somewhat sensitive question.
This immediately caught both Shukaku's and Matatabi's attention.
"It's not absolute. It's not strictly related to the number of tails. At least I'm not the weakest."
Shukaku spoke seriously.
It was being considerate of Matatabi's feelings by not directly claiming it was stronger.
In fact, though Shukaku was the One-Tail with the fewest tails, its overall strength ranked near the top among the nine Tailed Beasts. This was because its foundational abilities were solid, and it also knew the Magnet Release sealing jutsu.
"I'm not the weakest either."
Matatabi also asserted firmly.
But the specifics were unknown. The nine Tailed Beasts were difficult to rank precisely in terms of strength, and there wasn't reliable evidence to reference. The only certainties were that Nine-Tails and Eight-Tails were undeniably first and second.
"I see..."
Eto nodded slightly.
"Would you mind having your conversations during break time? The noise is disturbing other people's work."
Just then, Akira, sitting at her desk, suddenly spoke up.
"Ah, sorry, sorry. I'll be more careful."
Eto scratched her head and smiled apologetically. "By the way, Akira has been busy all day. Shouldn't you take a break first?"
"I'll rest in a bit. There's still a lot left to process. Because a certain Director suddenly took two days off, quite a backlog has accumulated."
Akira spoke expressionlessly.
Byakuya immediately felt guilty. "Leave the rest to me. You go get some rest first."
"No need. Two people working together is faster. Here's your half."
Akira immediately moved a large stack of documents onto Byakuya's desk.
"Alright."
Byakuya said nothing more and sat down to work.
Shukaku and Matatabi were both bored with nothing to do, so they simply watched those documents from Byakuya's shoulders—getting to know this world a little in the process.
Even the restless Eto settled down, sitting on the sofa eating snacks while typing on her laptop.
With both Byakuya and Akira working together, their efficiency improved dramatically. They quickly finished processing the accumulated documents.
Akira could finally rest.
She walked over to the sofa area and sat down, leaning gently against the backrest.
"Akira-san has worked so hard. Byakuya should at least come give her a massage."
Eto spoke up at that moment.
"It's nothing. No need to go to such trouble."
Akira said dismissively.
"Really?"
Eto then said, "Then how about giving me one instead? Writers have occupational hazards too, you know."
"..."
At this, Akira suddenly cared very much. She immediately changed her tune: "Byakuya, please."
Byakuya was caught in a dilemma. So who exactly was he supposed to help...?
...
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