Gradually Becoming Uzo

As he said this, Okiya Subaru always felt as though a shadowy phantom had appeared behind him.

A shadowy phantom dressed in black, with curly hair.

On the way to their destination with the children,

Okiya Subaru silently reviewed what had just happened.

...No matter how he thought about it, he seemed a little suspicious.

"..." But the deadline was right in front of him. If he did not seize the weekend as an opportunity, once school started, he would have even fewer chances to find little brats to use as tools.

And if the mission failed...

Uzo's smiling face flashed through Okiya Subaru's mind. He felt that if something like that really happened, there would be no need to write his thesis. Writing a last will and testament would be far more practical.

But then again—the shift in topic just now had actually been fairly natural.

Besides, he was currently a graduate student under immense pressure from an approaching thesis deadline. It was not strange for someone like that to do anything. Add in the trait of "liking children," and it would not seem so abrupt for him to take a few cute kids out to look for a baseball field.

...Even if there were a few minor doubts, the people he was dealing with right now were only a group of children who had barely seen the world, not quick-witted adults or detectives. It should be fine.

As Okiya Subaru pondered this, he lowered his head and found that, among the five children, the bespectacled boy and a mixed-race little girl were looking up at him again.

When their gazes met, the little girl coolly looked away, perhaps out of shyness.

The boy with glasses, meanwhile, gave him an innocent, pure smile. He seemed to have a