"I'm heading out."
Turning back, Chiba glanced at Yukina, who had risen to see him off, and waved.
"Be careful on the way."
Though she could not see Chiba waving, Yukina waved back as well, as if by mutual understanding.
Come to think of it, the pet shop had been closed yesterday, so they had not been able to buy a cat or dog. It was not ideal for Yukina to stay home alone like this.
I've been busy enough not to notice, but Yukina must be terribly bored by herself at home.
I need to find her something to pass the time.
After waving and turning away, Chiba could not help but have that thought as he stepped outside.
Yesterday, they had gone to the pet shop. Konoha really did have one, selling ordinary cats and dogs, but unfortunately, it had closed in preparation for relocation due to expansion. There was no telling when they would be able to buy one, so they could only return home empty-handed.
And because the research department could not provide Chiba with many white mice, he had used them all up.
Yukina had not objected to that. In fact, she had been the one to suggest that Chiba use them all.
But Chiba knew that Yukina was still reluctant to let them go. She simply did not want to interfere with his experiments.
As for why Chiba needed white mice to research health supplements, Yukina had somehow asked him about it yesterday.
However, Chiba had muddled through with the explanation that "every medicine has some toxicity," and that "my health supplement is made by extracting and concentrating the essence of medicinal ingredients. After concentration, that portion of toxicity gets concentrated too, amplified countless times over, so it has to be separated out. The