'Jiiiiii...'
'Jiiiiii...'
'Jiiiiii...'
Countless gazes filled with envy, jealousy, and resentment were fixed on Yuto.
It left him feeling slightly awkward.
He coughed quietly and turned his head with an unnatural stiffness before glancing behind him.
Good grief.
Everywhere he looked, he found glowing eyes belonging to a pack of hungry wolves!
"What's wrong, Boss?"
Tohru looked at him in confusion, unable to understand why such an awkward expression had suddenly appeared on his face.
Rias, sitting on his other side, covered her mouth with a faint smile.
She could more or less guess the reason.
"Nothing. Just keep watching the movie."
Yuto lowered his voice.
The seating arrangement was the problem.
Tohru sat on one side of him, with Kanna beside her.
On his other side sat Megumi and Rias.
In other words, Yuto was currently surrounded by four girls.
It was difficult to blame the men behind him for staring with such resentment.
Bringing one girl to the movies was perfectly normal. Even the single men in the theater would not have cared much.
Four girls, however, was an entirely different matter.
Under circumstances like these, even men who already had girlfriends could feel jealousy burning inside them.
Especially when Tohru and the others were all exceptionally beautiful.
That only made things worse.
People truly were not born equal.
Some men might go their entire lives without ever holding a girl's hand.
Others somehow spent theirs surrounded by women!
"Damn it! Why does that guy get four?!"
"Ahhh! That damned winner at life! Damn all popular guys! Explode already!"
"Pah! What kind of bastard brings four girls to the movies at once? He's a disgrace to men everywhere—a role model, I mean!"
"How the hell do you keep four women happy enough to watch a movie together peacefully? Teach me your ways..."
"..."
Listening to the constant muttering behind him, Yuto's expression grew even more awkward.
'Sorry about this. I didn't exactly plan on watching a movie with four girls either...'
He complained helplessly to himself.
Sitting to his left, Megumi quietly glanced at him before looking toward Tohru, Kanna, and Rias.
A faint emotion flickered through her eyes.
Then one cheek puffed out ever so slightly.
Fortunately for her, the theater was dark enough that no one noticed.
The other four continued watching the movie in silence.
Megumi exhaled softly, gathered her thoughts, and turned her attention back to the screen.
The resentful stares finally eased once the movie ended and everyone began leaving.
Yuto shook his head helplessly and followed Tohru and the others out of the theater.
The five of them continued attracting plenty of attention once they reached the street, though none of them paid it much mind.
"Is there anywhere else you'd like to go, Katou?"
Megumi shook her head.
Before Tohru and the others had appeared, she might have wanted to continue wandering around with him.
Now, however, the desire had vanished.
That "group movie" had left her feeling strangely gloomy.
"Then I'll take you home."
Megumi did not refuse.
She merely glanced at Tohru and the others.
'What about them?'
The question was obvious from her eyes.
Yuto turned toward the three girls.
"Tohru, Kanna, go back to the restaurant with Rias. I'm taking Katou home. We'll talk about everything else once I get back."
Both dragon girls immediately wilted.
They knew perfectly well that "everything else" meant their punishment.
There was nothing they could say.
Under Yuto's gaze, they obediently began walking toward the restaurant.
Rias followed behind them, quietly amused.
Even after they had gone some distance, Yuto could still hear Tohru and Kanna arguing.
"We were discovered because of Lady Tohru."
"Kanna! You were the one who suggested following Boss!"
"But Lady Tohru was still the main reason we got caught."
"..."
Yuto could only feel helpless and embarrassed.
He turned toward Megumi with an awkward smile.
She blinked softly, her voice remaining as calm as ever.
"Kamisaka-kun really is popular with girls."
Yuto laughed dryly and chose not to explain.
Anything he said now would probably create even more misunderstandings.
Silence was safer.
"Is the girl in the maid outfit one of the maids at your restaurant?"
Megumi was referring to Tohru.
The dragon girl always wore the maid uniform she had created from her scales.
It had all started because Tohru misunderstood the difference between an employee and a maid.
On her first day at the restaurant, she had assumed that becoming a staff member meant becoming a maid and immediately transformed her clothes accordingly.
Yuto later explained the misunderstanding.
Tohru simply decided she liked the outfit and saw no reason to change into a normal uniform.
"Calling her a maid would be a bit much. She's just one of my employees."
"I see..." Megumi tilted her head slightly. "Then why does she wear a maid outfit? If she's an employee, shouldn't there be a normal staff uniform? Unless Kamisaka-kun has some kind of... preference?"
Yuto stared at her.
"Tohru just likes wearing it."
After answering, he continued looking at Megumi with growing curiosity.
The girl became slightly uncomfortable beneath his gaze. Her brows twitched as she tilted her head, giving him an innocent, almost adorable look.
"Why are you staring at me like that, Kamisaka-kun? Is there something on my face?"
"No. It just feels unusual." Yuto smiled. "I think that might be the first time I've heard you tease someone like that."
Megumi's eyes trembled almost imperceptibly.
She quickly returned to her usual calm.
"Come on. I'll take you home."
"Mm."
Yuto walked ahead carrying the mountain of shopping bags while Megumi quietly stayed beside him.
...
After traveling through several districts by car, Yuto finally escorted Megumi all the way to her front door.
Her home was an ordinary detached house of the kind commonly seen throughout Tokyo.
Even so, owning a house in Tokyo was hardly a small achievement.
Yuto stood outside while Megumi took the shopping bags from him.
"Thank you for spending today with me, Kamisaka-kun."
She bowed politely.
"There's no need to thank me. I should be thanking you for inviting me to the movie."
They exchanged a few more words before finally saying goodbye.
Yuto headed off, while Megumi went inside.
The moment she stepped through the door, however, her grandmother immediately caught her.
"How did today go?"
Megumi blinked.
"What do you mean?"
"The movie, of course! Did anything happen while you were watching it?"
"Grandma, why does it sound like you were hoping something would happen?"
"Of course I was! Otherwise, why did I go through the trouble of buying those tickets?!"
"Well, I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you. Nothing happened during the movie."
"Eh?! How could that happen...?"
"I'm going to take a bath. Bye, Grandma."
Megumi calmly headed toward the bathroom, leaving her grandmother behind to question reality.
Grandma still found the result difficult to accept.
Even inside a dark movie theater, nothing had happened?
Could it be...?
All sorts of troubling suspicions began surfacing in her mind.
No matter how long she thought about it, however, she would never guess the real reason.
Yuto had watched the movie surrounded by four girls.
With four girls sitting around one guy, how was anything supposed to happen?
...
After parting with Megumi, Yuto did not immediately return to the restaurant.
Instead, he contacted Kaguya.
They had already agreed the previous night that he would collect the weapons today, and now he finally had time.
Kaguya told him the location had not changed.
Everything was still stored in the same warehouse as before, and she had already arranged for someone to wait there.
All Yuto had to do was pick up the shipment.
With help from the restaurant over the past several weeks, Kaguya had made considerable progress in the internal power struggle of the Shinomiya family.
She now had quite a few capable people working beneath her.
Hayasaka was no longer the only person she could rely on for everything.
Over the phone, Kaguya explained that she had originally planned to supervise the weapons transfer personally.
Unfortunately, the struggle within the Shinomiya family had entered a particularly tense stage over the past two days, leaving her unable to step away.
That was also why she had not visited the restaurant yesterday.
Once things settled down, she promised to come by and properly thank everyone.
Yuto jokingly told her he would look forward to it.
After exchanging a few more pleasantries, they ended the call.
Yuto headed for the warehouse they had used previously, collected the weapons, and began making his way back toward Ichinose Street.
His daytime errands were finally finished.
It was already late afternoon, with only a few hours left before the restaurant opened.
He needed to get back and begin preparing.
By the time he reached the entrance to Ichinose Street, it was already five o'clock.
Two hours remained before opening time.
The sun had sunk more than halfway toward the horizon, its fading golden light filtering through the clouds and spreading across the city like a thin haze.
Every pedestrian seemed wrapped in a layer of gold.
Yuto was no exception.
The warm evening light only made his already handsome features stand out even more.
The various adult-entertainment businesses along Ichinose Street were cleaning their entrances and preparing to open for the night.
Once darkness fell, the street would truly come alive.
Just as Yuto was about to head deeper into the district, he noticed the old man again.
This time, the elderly man was in a miserable state.
He had apparently just been thrown out of one of the establishments.
"How many times do we have to tell you? We don't know your daughter! Stop coming here and bothering us, you damn old man!"
"Exactly! Quit getting in the way of our business!"
The angry voices of several women came from nearby.
The hunched old man staggered forward, his face deathly gray, until he stopped in front of Yuto.
His muddy, exhausted eyes slowly lifted.
With a trembling hand missing several fingers, he pulled out an old, yellowed photograph.
It was badly damaged and had clearly been torn at some point.
The only image still barely visible showed two girls hugging each other closely.
The old man's lips trembled as he pointed toward one of them.
"Have you seen this girl? She's my daughter. Her name is Morishita Nobuko. Someone told me she moved here later in life. Have you seen her?"
Time had blurred the girl's face so badly that it was impossible to tell what she had once looked like.
The only thing that remained clear was the way she held the other girl tightly.
That girl was probably her younger sister.
"I'm sorry. I've never heard that name before."
Yuto shook his head.
Morishita Nobuko.
He truly had never heard of her.
The old man's trembling lips slowly closed.
His eyes, already clouded like muddy water, dimmed further with disappointment.
A rough, hoarse breath escaped his throat, sounding like an old machine grinding toward the end of its life.
"Never heard of her... You haven't...?"
He tucked the photograph back into his clothes.
Muttering incoherently under his breath, he shuffled past Yuto and headed toward a side street branching off Ichinose Street.
Yuto watched the hunched figure until it disappeared around the corner.
He let out a long breath.
Then he shook his head and continued toward the restaurant.
Behind him, the setting sun stretched his shadow farther and farther across the ground.
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