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"No, I came with Shinobu-neechan!"
Kanao Tsuyuri said, her expression unchanged.
"I see..."
Veldora's face fell. No new stock coming in, then.
"Hmph! It's all that big bad guy's fault. If he hadn't put her up to it, how would Kanao-chan have ever started drawing... drawing... drawing that kind of thing!"
As Kochou Shinobu said it, something seemed to surface in her memory, and a blush crept up her face before she could stop it.
Kaito, still locked in the rock-paper-scissors standoff, had caught Kanae Kocho and the others arriving. He heard Kochou Shinobu's words, and a mischievous smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.
"Hey! Little girl, are you badmouthing me again?"
Whoosh.
The moment he said it, he vanished.
Slap!
"Hmph! Oh, you've gotten smarter."
Kaito looked at his right hand, caught firmly mid-swing, and turned to Kochou Shinobu with genuine surprise.
"Heh heh! I haven't been standing still either!"
Kochou Shinobu held his wrist with both hands and declared this with obvious pride.
"I see. So how long are you planning to keep holding my hand?"
Kaito looked down at her grip — which had not loosened in the slightest — and asked with a teasing smile.
"Ah!!!"
She let go immediately.
But even as she did, something small and contrary stirred in her chest, and she muttered under her breath before she could catch herself:
"Hmph. It's not like I was holding it that long anyway..."
She had spoken very softly. Everyone present heard it perfectly clearly.
Rimuru looked at the flustered Kochou Shinobu and quietly took stock of the situation. The number of girls who had taken an interest in Kaito was growing. She could not just sit here and watch this go on indefinitely.
She turned the question over to Raphael immediately.
'Raphael. Do I really have to be the one to make the first move, like Veldora said? Kai-chan is way too popular.'
[Analysis complete. This advisor recommends that Master seriously consider Lord Veldora's suggestion. Based on assessment of Kaito-sama's personality, the conclusion is: he will not refuse Master.]
'Really? ヾ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ'
While Rimuru was quietly deliberating whether to act on this that very evening, Kaito was running his own quiet deliberation on whether it was finally time to stop dancing around things with a certain girl who never stopped arguing with him.
"Kaito-nii. How have you been lately?"
A clear, composed voice cut through his thoughts. Kanao Tsuyuri had, apparently of her own initiative, started a conversation.
"Ha! Great, as always. What about you? Have you been well?"
Kaito asked her with a gentle expression.
"Yes. I've been drawing doujinshi lately. Veldora-sama seems to really like what I draw, so I've been... mm mm..."
The room went quiet.
Everyone stared at Kanao Tsuyuri, who had delivered this information without a single change in expression, as though she had just reported on the weather.
How was it possible to say something like that so completely without hesitation?
"Kanao-chan! You cannot say things like that in front of everyone!"
Kochou Shinobu lunged forward and clamped both hands over Kanao's mouth before she could continue.
Then she turned and shot Kaito a glare sharp enough to cut glass.
Kaito could only shrug. The glare was fair. He hadn't exactly handled this one with particular grace.
What had actually happened? Let's rewind a little.
Half a Month Ago · Jura-Tempest Federation · Kanae Kocho's House
Kanae Kocho looked at Kaito, still sound asleep beside her, and the warmth in her eyes deepened quietly.
She reached out and gave him a gentle nudge.
"Kai-chan. Time to get up."
"Sakuya... I don't want to get up. The blanket won't let me out yet..."
Kaito mumbled it into the pillow, barely half-conscious.
Kanae looked at him for a moment, something between fondness and exasperation passing over her face. Sakuya really had spoiled this man thoroughly. Every single morning, she would coax him up at her own pace without raising her voice once.
"What am I going to do with you."
She leaned down, pressed a light kiss to his cheek, then tilted her head close to his ear and blew softly.
"Kai-chan. I'm not Sakuya. Did you forget you spent the night here with me?"
The breath against his ear jolted him properly awake. He blinked, focused, and found Kanae Kocho smiling sweetly at him from very close range.
The mischievous look came immediately.
He reached up, wrapped an arm around her slender waist, and pulled her in.
Then he kissed her.
"Mm..."
He didn't let her go until she was breathless. She pulled back and gave him a look caught halfway between reproach and delight.
"My! Naughty this early in the morning. Do you like me that much?"
"Yes. Is that wrong?"
"Hehe! Of course not. Who told me I'm your personal secretary? I can't exactly say no to you, can I!"
Kaito looked at her — that soft, entirely deliberate expression that said she was completely at his mercy and knew it — and thought, very loudly, that she was an absolute menace.
"Alright. Time to get up."
"Okay."
After getting ready, the two of them came out to the living room together and found Kanao Tsuyuri already seated on the sofa, perfectly still, saying nothing.
"Kanao-chan. Is there anything you've been wanting to do for yourself lately?"
Kaito sat across from her and asked with a genuine look of concern.
Kanao raised her face and looked at him.
Then, as if something had just come back to her, she said without expression:
"Kaito-nii. Ohayo."
"...Good morning."
Silence resumed.
Kanae Kocho opened her mouth to say something. Kaito got there first.
"Kanao-chan, since there's nothing in particular on your mind, how about I introduce you to something? A kind of work."
"Work?"
Kanao tilted her head slightly.
"That's right. And I think it would suit you very well."
Kaito thought of the quiet girl from the anime he used to watch, who had spent years barely leaving the house and rarely speaking to anyone. He had a feeling, a strong one, that a certain particular kind of work might be exactly what Kanao needed. Even if it only brought out something as small as a hint of shyness, that would already be something.
He brought her back to her room. Nobody else knew what was said between them.
What they did know was that not long after, a certain kind of illustrated storybook began quietly circulating through the Jura-Tempest Federation. A genre known as doujinshi.
And a name spoken only in hushed, reverent tones among a growing underground readership: Eromanga Sensei.
Dedicated fan organizations had already formed. The Eromanga Sensei Fan Club, for instance, was currently chaired by Veldora, with Aihara Enju serving as vice-chairperson.
This was also, incidentally, part of why Shizu had been hunting the idle quartet with such persistence lately. They had led her students astray.