Kanae watched his flustered, even somewhat clumsy, back, the smile on her lips deepened.
She slowly and methodically set out the bowls and chopsticks for the three of them, a mischievous smirk playing in her mind.
'That silly girl Shinobu has prepared a big surprise for Mr. Giyu.'
"A family should always be together, all the time."
Giyu Tomioka practically used both his hands and feet to escape to the second floor.
Only when he stepped onto the cold wooden floor of the second floor and left the kitchen that had stirred his heart did his heart, which was about to jump out of his throat, finally calm down a little.
His mind was still a complete mess.
Kanae's soft lips, her sweet taste, her cunning eyes—it was like a song on repeat, playing over and over again in his mind, frantically.
He raised his hand, trembling slightly, and touched his lips.
It seemed that her heart-stirring warmth and fragrance still lingered on it.
"Call..."
Giyu Tomioka exhaled a long, hot breath, trying to calm his overheated brain.
He walked to the door of his deserted bedroom, which had been uninhabited for years, and a sense of doubt arose in his heart.
The second bedroom next door, hasn't it always been empty?
Why does Shinobu insist on coming to my room... to tidy up?
Without thinking twice, he gently knocked on the door.
Thump, thump.
"Sister?! Wait, wait a minute! Don't come in! I... I'm not done getting ready yet!"
From inside the door, Shinobu Kocho's panicked scream immediately rang out!
The voice was filled with the panic and helplessness of someone who had done something wrong.
Not done yet?
Giyu Tomioka frowned slightly.
He assumed that because he hadn't been back for so long, the room was covered in dust, and that the fastidious Shinobu was carrying out a thorough cleaning.
With that thought in mind, he didn't think any further and pushed open the door without a second thought.
"Dinner's ready, Kanae asked me..."
His words were cut off midway through his sentence, stuck in his throat.
The scene before him dealt another devastating blow to his heart, which had just begun to cool down.
In the room~
On his bed, on his floor, and at his little tea table...
It was all piled up, all kinds of his clothes.
The black team uniform he usually wore, with a faint scent of soapberry.
A soft, dark blue yukata worn during rest...
Shinobu Kocho was lying right in the middle of that mountain of clothes.
A suspicious, satisfied blush graced her delicate, pretty face.
"Boom--!"
Giyu Tomioka felt his worldview shatter at that moment, as if struck by a meteorite falling from the sky.
What did he see?
The bright and promising young girl, whom he regarded as the future star of the Demon Slayer Corps, was like a kitten obsessed with catnip, clutching his personal clothing and performing some kind of bizarre ritual filled with taboo and perversion...
"Ah--!"
At the same time, when Shinobu Kocho saw that the person who pushed open the door was none other than Giyu Tomioka himself, her pupils instantly trembled like an earthquake of magnitude eight!
She screamed like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, her fur standing on end, with a scream loud enough to pierce the roof!
She frantically tried to hide the evidence in her hands, but her excessive panic only made her more flustered. Her uncoordinated movements caused her to trip and fall into the pile of soft clothes.
His posture became increasingly disheveled, increasingly... unseemly.
"It's Mr. Giyu! Not my sister!"
"Ahhh, I'm dead! I'm dead! I'm dead! I'm dead!"
"He saw me! He saw me take his clothes!"
"He'll definitely think I'm a hopeless psychopath! He'll definitely hate me! He'll never talk to me again!"
"For this kind of thing, you need a tonic!"
In that instant, Shinobu Kocho's mind was completely flooded with countless comments filled with despair and collapse.
She wished she could faint immediately, or even die on the spot.
This... is practically a public execution! It's more terrifying than death itself—a social death!!
In the end, the dinner began in an eerily suffocating atmosphere.
At the dining table.
Three people, three completely different states.
Kanae Kocho was still the same gentle and elegant hostess. She ate her meal slowly and deliberately, and her pink eyes, which always held a smile, sparkled with joy. She was clearly in an extremely good mood.
Shinobu Kocho has completely evolved into a steampunk princess.
She kept her head down the whole time, her cheeks were so red they looked like they were about to bleed, and white steam seemed to be rising from the top of her head.
She frantically shoveled rice, grain by grain, from the bowl into her mouth in an almost self-destructive manner, as if the bowl contained her mortal enemy.
And Giyu Tomioka...
After experiencing the double blow of being forcibly kissed and the question of whether his sister was a pervert, he has completely fallen into deep philosophical contemplation and is unable to extricate himself.
"Oh, Shinobu."
Finally, the scheming older sister, who seemed to thrive on chaos, put down her chopsticks and spoke in a tone full of concern.
She reached out and, feigning concern, touched Shinobu Kocho's burning forehead.
"Your face is so red, and your forehead is so hot. Do you have a fever?"
What exactly happened in Mr. Giyu's room?
She deliberately emphasized the words "Mr. Giyu's room," her tone unabashedly teasing and mocking.
"I... I didn't..."
Shinobu Kocho's voice was so soft, barely audible, and filled with a sob.
On the other side, the honest but somewhat foolish, blockheaded man instinctively wanted to explain after hearing Kanae's question.
He turned to look at Kanae and spoke in an incredibly honest and sincere tone:
"Just now in the room, Shinobu..."
"Don't say it!!"
He hadn't finished speaking!
A scream filled with despair and collapse suddenly rang out!
The next second!
Shinobu Kocho, like a small purple cannonball with a lit fuse, was instantly launched from her seat!
She stepped over the table with a fearless spirit, leaping over the bowl of steaming salmon and radish!
To Giyu Tomioka's utterly bewildered gaze, he tackled him to the ground!
Thump!
With a resounding thud as the back of his head slammed against the wooden floor, Giyu Tomioka, once again, spectacularly, crashed.
Shinobu Kocho's petite yet supple body pressed completely and seamlessly against his.
With one hand, she tightly covered his mouth, which was about to reveal the truth, while with the other hand, she braced herself against his strong, well-defined chest.
The two were face to face, nose to nose, their breaths mingling.
The girl's rapid breathing from the intense exercise, her supple, incredibly elastic body curves, and her heart pounding wildly in her chest...
All of this was conveyed with unparalleled clarity through this seamless, intimate physical contact.
Giyu Tomioka's brain was completely burned out.