Chapter 23: Marisa: Drink it directly, he won't be able to resist.
....
Sharing a single straw to drink Kihara's special milk was a line Marisa wasn't quite ready to cross. As far as she was concerned, her relationship with Shinobu hadn't reached that level of intimacy yet. More importantly, Kihara was technically the fiancé of her best friend, Reimu.
'There's no way I'm doing anything behind her back!'
Consequently, Marisa resolved to wait until nightfall to sneak back into Kihara's room for a midnight snack. That way, it would be just like their days back in Gensokyo—totally guilt-free.
After all, she was the legendary Black-and-White Thief; breaking into his house in the dead of night to steal a little something to eat was practically her job description.
'Come to think of it, Reimu and I are essentially best friends. If you sneak a taste of your best friend's boyfriend, can you really even call it stealing?!'
...
After finishing the dishes, Kihara stepped out of the kitchen. The sight of four beautiful girls gathered in the living room made him instinctively pause in his tracks.
Anna Yanami was currently busy introducing them to the Tokusatsu drama he had starred in, while her grand weight-loss regime seemed to have been entirely shelved.
Truth be told, watching other people view a TV show he had actually acted in made Kihara feel a wave of profound awkwardness, though he couldn't quite articulate why.
Fortunately, their undivided attention was glued to the television screen. None of them had noticed him emerging from the kitchen. Had they spotted him, he would have undoubtedly been dragged into the viewing party.
Just imagining that scenario made him curl his toes in sheer embarrassment.
(Who would have thought that the cover story I used to explain why I have an income without a regular job would turn into a piece of history that borders on a dark past?)
Sighing internally, Kihara tiptoed toward the staircase, planning to slip up to the second floor to have a deeply profound, intimate discussion with Shinobu regarding the intricacies of trains entering tunnels and the hundred different applications of band-aids.
Yet, the moment his foot left the floor, Lala abruptly spun around and called out to him, "Kihara, come over here! The show you acted in is so cool!"
"Ah... coming!"
Like a compliant convict stepping onto the execution platform, he listlessly trudged over and sat down beside the girls, silently waiting for the inevitable moment they would ask him to provide live commentary on his own scenes.
Anna covered her mouth, snickering to herself. She had intentionally dragged the girls into watching his Tokusatsu drama. Serves him right for callously announcing her weight gain in front of so many people, which had subsequently led to the other girls interrogating her about her true weight.
She wasn't about to let a humiliation of that magnitude slide—not even for the boy she liked.
"By the way, Anna, how is your weight-loss plan coming along?"
Kihara's attempt to deflect the topic did not catch Anna off guard. Adjusting a pair of black-rimmed glasses that existed purely in her imagination, she deliberately uttered two heavy words: "Fasting!"
"But every time you fast, you end up losing control of your own mouth, binging on snacks, and suffering a massive rebound, right?"
"It doesn't matter! This time I'm not fighting alone! I have Sanae, Lala, and Marisa standing right behind me to keep me in check!"
Kihara glanced over at the trio of girls, who were nodding with supreme confidence. Suddenly, he found himself intensely curious about how her weight-loss journey would unfold. After all, each of the three represented an entirely different system of power.
Sanae possessed the power of faith, Lala wielded supreme technology, and Marisa commanded pure magic.
Employing three vastly distinct cosmic forces just to help Old Eight lose weight... Kihara could only foresee a landscape of absolute, unmitigated chaos.
Casting a gaze of profound sympathy toward her, Kihara offered a weighty, earnest piece of advice: "You... make sure to take care of yourself."
"?"
Anna felt as though his words carried a deeply ominous subtext, though she couldn't quite tell if it was out of genuine kindness or malicious mockery.
"Come to think of it, I was planning to head out today to buy some new Gunpla models. Lala, do you want to come along?" Sanae suddenly interjected, successfully breaking their focus on the television screen. She then cast a subtle, fleeting glance at Kihara, as if silently claiming credit for the rescue.
Recalling the awesome robot they had assembled together the previous night, Lala's eyes instantly lit up. She sprung off the couch like a coiled mattress spring. "I wanna go, I wanna go! Let's head out right now!"
"Since you girls are heading out, you might as well drag Anna along. It'll be the perfect chance for her to get some exercise."
"Makes sense!"
"W-Wait, what about the show?" Anna stuttered. She hadn't even finished teasing Kihara yet; she was thoroughly reluctant to leave so soon.
"What era do you think we live in? The latest episodes are all available on streaming networks. Don't think you can use that as an excuse to laze around the house."
Kihara's flawless logic left her with no room for rebuttal. She could only glare at him helplessly before being forcefully dragged out the front door by an over-enthusiastic Lala.
Marisa, who had remained entirely silent, watched them leave. A sudden realization dawned upon her: with the house completely empty save for the two of them, it seemed she didn't have to wait until nightfall to get her hands on that special milk.
Hesitating for a mere microsecond, she launched herself at Kihara like a ravenous predator pouncing on its prey.
"Kihara, I want to eat hamburger steak for lunch! We'll buy the ingredients on our way back!" Anna suddenly doubled back, popping half her head through the living room doorway. "Huh? Where did Marisa go?"
"She went to the restroom. Is there anything else?" Kihara replied smoothly.
"Nope! That's it, bye!"
Only when the sound of the front door clicking shut echoed through the house did Kihara finally breathe a sigh of relief. Reaching up, he removed the pointed witch hat from Marisa's head, gently running his fingers through her dazzling, silk-like blonde hair.
"What's the big rush? If Anna had caught you, how exactly were you planning to explain yourself to her?"
She didn't answer. Instead, she gave him a light, playful nip with her teeth as a form of retaliation, before rolling her eyes at him with exquisite charm.
Having thoroughly replenished her required quota of special milk, Marisa put her hat back on and instantly flipped the switch to business mode. Slipping her official transfer student notice into Kihara's hands, she vanished from this world entirely, returning straight to Gensokyo.
It was blindingly obvious that she had absolutely no intention of attending classes in this realm, leaving the massive headache of explaining her sudden disappearance entirely on Kihara's shoulders.
...
Meanwhile, inside the Deviluke Royal Palace.
Momo was taking her usual stroll with Nana through the fountain garden. Unlike their previous casual walks, however, they were utilizing this opportunity to secretly map out an escape route.
Ever since their elder sister, Lala, had successfully sneaked away with a spaceship, the royal guard's patrols within the palace had become vastly more rigorous and frequent. This wasn't directed at them specifically; rather, King Deviluke felt that allowing Lala to casually stroll out with a starship meant the palace defenses were entirely too lax.
Thus, he had personally overhauled the patrol routes and security protocols, making the duo's grand escape plan significantly harder to execute.
Momo knelt down at the edge of the courtyard, softly whispering to the blossoms planted there, "Does anyone know the guard rotation times?"
"Mmhmm... I see. So the hangar area goes completely unguarded for five minutes at exactly 2:30 PM? That is an immense help. Thank you so much!"
A brilliant smile bloomed across her face. Standing up, she murmured softly, "See, Nana? I told you the flowers could gather incredibly useful intelligence!"
To have obtained classified information of this caliber to aid their escape to Earth, the tsundere Nana was forced to give a reluctant nod of approval. "They did a decent job, I suppose. Though my animal companions could have easily done the same."
"Let's not bicker over trivial things at a time like this. Let's finish up lunch, pack our things, sit through our final history class, and make our escape!"
"Got it."
"I wonder what kind of person our brother-in-law is. I'm so looking forward to meeting him!" Momo mused.
"Hmph. If I catch him taking advantage of Elder Sister, I am absolutely not letting him off easy!"
....
Thank you for reading.