Apparently chapter 164 was deleted or taken down from the Raw, unfortunately we'll have to skip this chapter :(
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Douraku Utage stroked her chin.
"Loli looks, mature personality, nurturing disposition..."
Hayase Kinue thought it over.
"Like a mother?"
All three fell silent at the same moment.
Then they looked at one another.
Tsukuyomi Komoe spoke.
"Height of a primary schooler, but actual age…"
Douraku Utage continued.
"Looks young, but unmistakably a grown woman."
Hayase Kinue nodded along.
"Radiating that gentle, motherly warmth."
"We..."
Tsukuyomi Komoe suddenly dropped her voice.
"Does that… does that make us legal lolis?"
"Didn't some of the students keep saying behind our backs that we looked like little kids?"
Douraku Utage blinked.
"Did they?"
"I've always thought of myself as perfectly mature!"
Hayase Kinue had a sudden flash of revelation.
"No wonder every mixer we go to, the men all disappear on us!"
"Were they actually mistaking us for primary schoolers?!"
Tsukuyomi Komoe and Douraku Utage both turned to stare at Hayase Kinue in shock.
It was only today — here, now — that the three of them, Tsukuyomi Komoe, Douraku Utage, and Hayase Kinue, truly realised it.
They themselves were exactly what people called legal lolis.
The three of them shook off their stupor.
Hayase Kinue hesitated before speaking.
"Well… if Kagami-kun genuinely likes that type…"
She didn't finish the sentence, but the other two understood perfectly.
Douraku Utage and Tsukuyomi Komoe nodded together.
"Now that you mention it — all three of us seem to fit rather well."
"But we're not mothers!"
Tsukuyomi Komoe raised her hand.
"Neither are any of the characters in there, are they?"
Hayase Kinue reasoned it through.
"Maybe what he needs isn't an actual mother."
"Maybe it's just that maternal feeling he's after?"
The three of them looked at one another again, as if each were silently asking the others the same question.
"Do I have it?"
Just then, the doorbell rang again.
"Oh my, I left the door open."
Tsushima Kagami, standing outside, heard that and simply pushed the door open and walked in.
"Sorry to intrude, Kinue-nee-san."
"Shizuku's on the late shift tonight — I'll go pick her up after dinner."
He changed into slippers and came through to the living room.
That was when he noticed that Tsukuyomi Komoe and Douraku Utage were there alongside Hayase Kinue.
All three of them were sitting perfectly still, watching him with slightly peculiar expressions.
"What's wrong?"
Tsushima Kagami asked, puzzled.
"Nothing, nothing at all."
Tsukuyomi Komoe waved her hands hurriedly.
Tsushima Kagami gave the three of them a suspicious look.
But he didn't press it, and went to sit down on the sofa.
Only then did Hayase Kinue remember.
"Oh my, I still have dishes on the go — just wait a moment, dinner will be ready soon!"
Tsushima Kagami nodded, and absently picked up the magazine sitting on the coffee table and gave it a glance.
Eizonyan.
Huh — you lot bought this issue of Eizonyan too?
As far as Tsushima Kagami could recall, these three didn't seem like the type to buy this sort of magazine.
In truth, apart from Sayuri, Kosaka Akane, and Machida Sonoko — those three peculiar cases — none of the women around him, even knowing he drew adult manga, had ever gone out of their way to buy it and read it.
He lifted his head and looked at the three women in front of him.
The three of them looked back at him.
The living room was quiet for a few seconds.
"Ahaha, it was confiscated from a student during tutoring today."
Tsukuyomi Komoe quickly said.
"Is 'Xuanyayi' the pen name on Kagami-kun's manga?"
Tsushima Kagami nodded.
"It is."
Another stretch of silence fell over the three of them in the living room.
What was with them and all this silence?
Tsushima Kagami was looking at the three of them, sensing something was off, and had just opened his mouth to ask —
Hayase Kinue immediately cut in with a bright smile.
"Kagami-kun, you don't have to say a word — we understand completely."
Tsushima Kagami blinked.
"Understand what, exactly?"
"What type you like, of course."
Tsushima Kagami was dumbstruck.
Douraku Utage leaned in.
"A person's art reflects their heart — what an artist draws tells you what they love."
"Doesn't it!"
"No, it doesn't!"
Tsushima Kagami shot to his feet.
"That's an entirely different matter!"
I really should never have drawn anything for Eizonyan when everyone already knew my pen name.
My reputation, completely shot.
Sayuri and the others hadn't said a word about it — so why on earth had these three grown adults gone and gotten the wrong idea?
Was the age gap between us really already big enough to have opened up a generational divide?
"All right, all right."
Hayase Kinue said with a laugh.
"Just wait a little longer for the soup to finish, and then we can eat."
With that, the four of them lapsed back into silence in the living room.
The only sound was the soft puffing of steam escaping from under the pot lid on the stove.
Tsushima Kagami had the distinct feeling that three pairs of eyes were fixed on him the entire time.
"Ahaha, it's kind of awkward just sitting here like this."
Komoe suddenly spoke up.
"How about we play a game?"
"What game?"
"Old Maid."
Tsushima Kagami looked up at Tsukuyomi Komoe.
Tsukuyomi Komoe was smiling sweetly, Douraku Utage was smiling too, and the corners of Hayase Kinue's mouth were curling upward.
"Why do you want to play a game?"
He asked.
"To bond, of course."
Tsukuyomi Komoe said.
"And Kagami-kun hasn't played with us in ages."
You had a great time messing around with Rei and Seika and the others for the culture festival recently, didn't you~
"It's true — lately it feels like you just come over, eat, and leave."
"We've barely even had a proper chat."
Hayase Kinue put on a show of looking dejected.
"R-really…"
"You ought to keep us company sometimes too!"
Douraku Utage said it with a red face, then immediately followed it up with a scowl.
"You're not avoiding us because we're too old for you, are you!"
How old do you think you are, going on and on about playing.
Tsushima Kagami looked helplessly at the three of them acting like pouty children.
"Fine."
He nodded.
Yay!
In an instant, the three of them dropped their pitiful act and switched straight into the look of people whose scheme had just succeeded.
The four of them gathered and sat around the coffee table.
Tsukuyomi Komoe produced a deck of cards and began shuffling while she explained the rules.
"You know how Old Maid works, right?"
"Whoever gets rid of all their cards by matching pairs first wins."
"Everyone else loses!"
The winner gets to give each loser one command!
With that, Tsukuyomi Komoe glanced over at Hayase Kinue and Douraku Utage — the two of them gave her a wordless, knowing nod.
Only then did Tsukuyomi Komoe finish shuffling and begin to deal.
Tsushima Kagami received his hand and sorted it.
His luck was decent — he played off several pairs straight away.
"Pair of fives, down."
"Pair of threes, down."
"Pair of jacks, down."
His hand grew smaller and smaller.
The three women beside him were also discarding pairs in a steady stream.
In the end, all three of Hayase and the others were left with just one card each.
Tsushima Kagami, however, still had two.
The tense, thrilling draw phase had begun.
It happened to be Tsukuyomi Komoe's turn to draw from Tsushima Kagami.
Tsukuyomi Komoe stared at Tsushima Kagami's face, hoping to nail it in one go.
She was hovering her hand back and forth between his two cards, trying to see if she could catch any flicker of expression —
And found that Tsushima Kagami was wearing a completely impassive poker face, giving absolutely nothing away.
"Ugh, Kagami-kun, can't you at least react a little!"
"The loser has to face a forfeit, you know."
"I really don't want to lose."
"Come on, give me something, give me something, give me something!"
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Danmachi: Summoning Ruri Gokou, And oth
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