After dinner, it was once again Tanaka Masao who walked Yukinoshita Yukino home.
The next day—Friday night.
Having gone to Tanaka Masao's house for three days in a row, Yukinoshita Yukino had started to feel a bit familiar with the place.
On the way back to her apartment, Tanaka Masao spoke up.
"Yukinoshita-san, I'm going to Tokyo tomorrow. Let's move the tutoring to Sunday instead. You can take a break too—you've worked hard these past few days."
Yukinoshita Yukino didn't ask much about his trip to Tokyo. She remembered that he'd gone there last weekend as well.
After hesitating for a moment, she said,
"Since you're going to Tokyo, you can have a cheat meal there. It won't affect anything."
She ate lunch with Tanaka Masao every day, and for the past few evenings she'd also been having dinner at his house, so she naturally knew exactly what his daily meals looked like.
Every single day, Tanaka Masao ate boiled chicken breast, boiled broccoli, boiled green peppers, boiled—
Oh, and extremely fresh, freshly squeezed vegetable juice.
Even Yukinoshita Yukino had to admit that Tanaka Masao's willpower was impressive.
At the same time, she felt a bit sorry for him.
Of course, beyond sympathy, Yukinoshita Yukino also believed that excessively suppressing one's appetite could have negative effects on both physical and mental health.
That was why she had proactively suggested tonight that Tanaka Masao could have a cheat meal—no need to strictly control his diet.
When Yukinoshita Yukino said this, the happiest person wasn't Tanaka Masao himself, but Tanaka Kazumi.
Her excitement practically overflowed.
Yukinoshita Yukino already knew how to feel sorry for her silly son—great progress!
So Tanaka Kazumi, wearing a blissful smile, gently but firmly rejected the suggestion.
[A cheat meal? What cheat meal? Only useless people need cheat meals. Masao has strong willpower—he doesn't need that kind of thing at all.]
Faced with his mother's absolute trust, Tanaka Masao was deeply moved.
His tears—and even his saliva—had long since dried up.
Now, hearing Yukinoshita Yukino actively suggest that he go eat a cheat meal, he was so touched he almost cried.
Why "almost," you ask?
Of course, because his tears had already been fully dedicated to his caring mother.
"Yukinoshita-san, I have to say it again—you really are an angel. I honestly love you so much."
Overcome with emotion, Tanaka Masao failed to control his mouth and blurted out such an exaggerated line.
Yukinoshita Yukino coughed awkwardly when she heard that.
"Good that you know."
As for the rest of Tanaka Masao's nonsense, she chose to ignore it.
After escorting Yukinoshita Yukino home, Tanaka Masao returned and noticed a note placed on the table in the living room.
It read:
[Go out tomorrow and eat something good. If you can bring little Yukino along, that'd be even better.
Love, Mom.]
Under the note was a ten-thousand-yen bill.
Tanaka Kazumi, of course, had no intention of withholding Tanaka Masao's once-a-week cheat meal.
Watching her son grow thinner by the day made her heart ache…
Oh, wait—that wasn't right. In this case, she was supposed to be happy.
Rejecting Yukinoshita Yukino's suggestion today was partly because the diet meal had already been prepared—if Tanaka Masao didn't eat it, it would go to waste.
After all, no one else in the house was willing to eat something that bland and tasteless for him.
Another reason was that Tanaka Kazumi had looked up some information about dieting.
She learned that cheat meals worked best when scheduled on a fixed day each week and repeated consistently.
Tanaka Masao's last one had been on Saturday, so she decided to set it for that day.
"Geez, Mom… pulling something like this. Who's she trying to move, anyway?"
Tanaka Masao shook his head as he put away the note and the bill, an uncontrollable smile on his face.
Being cared for by two women at the same time—this feeling was truly amazing.
At this point, Tanaka Kenji had something to say.
[Masao, actually, your mom only left the note. That ten-thousand yen was from me. You could at least thank me a little too.]
A father's love is like a mountain.
If possible, he really hoped there could be a few more mountains like that.
...
The next day, Tanaka Masao packed up early in the morning and headed to Tokyo.
Yukinoshita Yukino would be coming over again tomorrow, so he still had to return from Tokyo in the afternoon. His schedule was tight.
Tanaka Masao invited Jahy along, but she refused.
After all, our Lady Jahy had finally remembered her great mission of collecting magic stones and rebuilding the Demon Realm.
With no school and some rare free time, of course she had to go look for magic stones.
Tanaka Masao was a bit curious about how Jahy even went about finding magic stones, but with so little time, he could only wait for another opportunity.
...
After sitting on the train for most of the journey, Tanaka Masao stretched his body.
He wondered if next time he could just mail the manuscripts over instead—wouldn't that make things easier?
But as soon as the thought crossed his mind, he dismissed it.
He wasn't coming to Tokyo just for the manuscripts.
Deepening his relationship with the Sawamura family—and maybe looking around for other anime characters—that was the real goal, and far more appealing.
"Let's spend a bit more time wandering around Tokyo today."
With a plan in mind, Tanaka Masao arrived at the Sawamura household.
The one who came out to greet him, as always, was Sawamura Sayuri. She said that Eriri had stayed up all night rushing a manuscript and still hadn't gotten up yet.
After handing over the sketchbooks and draft manuscripts to Sawamura Sayuri, Tanaka Masao took his leave.
Sawamura Sayuri tried to get him to stay, but Tanaka Masao declined, saying that exams were coming up soon and he needed to go back and study.
Hearing that it was for studying, Sawamura Sayuri didn't insist further and told him to come play again after the exams.
It wasn't until some time after Tanaka Masao had left that Eriri finally came downstairs, yawning, and asked,
"Where's that Tanaka guy? Hasn't he come yet?"
"Tanaka-kun already went back."
"Went back? That was fast."
"Exams are coming up. He went back to study."
"Oh… I see."
"What, Eriri—are you feeling disappointed because you didn't get to see Tanaka-kun?"
"Not at all. Anyway, where's the new book? Let me see it."