The girl's scream continued to echo in the room.
"No, no, Haruto, I know it was wrong."
The young man's voice was cold: "If apologies were enough, what would the police even do?"
"Hmm~"
"Not anymore~ Woo~~"
The girl gasped and pleaded.
However, the young man remained unmoved.
Finally, when the girl could no longer bear it and began to cry, Haruto withdrew his supernatural power.
He put on a serious face: "Sora, do you realize you were wrong?"
"Huft... Huft~"
Sora's body lay weakly on the table, her mouth slightly open, breathing softly. Her silver hair was messy, covering half of her reddened cheeks.
"I-I wasn't wrong."
"Hah?" Haruto raised an eyebrow and placed his hand on her waist again: "What did you say? I didn't quite hear you. Can you repeat that?"
Lacking confidence, Sora said: "It was just a comic plot."
'Do you think I'm the dumbest character in your comic?'
Haruto sighed and decided to let Sora off for now since the night was still young, and it was almost time to go down.
"Come on, get up, it's time to go."
"I can't." Sora lay in his arms and calmly said: "Because of the wind, my legs are weak now, so I can't walk."
Five minutes later.
Haruto left Sora's room, and as he reached the stairs, he saw a beautiful woman with black hair standing in the corner, leaning against the wall.
'What are you doing standing still here? Do you know how terrifying you look like that?'
Haruto cleared his throat and said with a calm expression: "I was just talking to Sora. She was a bit upset, but she's fine now."
"There's no misunderstanding, Mom~"
The mother gave a soft smile: "After all, Haruto-chan is my son, and I know Haruto-chan's character very well."
'What are you doing with those scissors? Are you really planning to follow the example of someone who righteously eliminates their relatives?'
The mother seemed to know what Haruto was thinking, so she explained: "When I took the scissors, I actually found the kitchen apron torn, so I planned to fix it later."
"Haruto-chan, do you doubt your mother?"
"Not at all."
"That's good."
The mother showed a relieved expression, and then a smile appeared on her face: "Haruto-chan, boys need to learn to protect themselves when they go out, you know?"
"..."
'I always feel like there's a lot of meaning packed into that sentence!'
Haruto looked carefully at his mother, even considering using his mind-reading power, but in the end, he resisted the urge.
If he used mind-reading on all his close ones, life would be miserable.
Haruto replied gently, then followed her downstairs.
After dinner, he left with Itsuki.
The night wind was gentle.
The moonlight was like water, shining for thousands of miles.
Itsuki sighed, the little tuft of hair on her head swaying slightly, and she said happily: "Kuromori-kun's little sister, Nana-chan, is so sweet~"
"But, I still feel like Sora was a bit unhappy. Was it because of me? Kuromori-kun."
In fact, Sora's mood today was quite good.
Others might not know, but Haruto was well aware that if he hadn't agreed to a few of her conditions, knowing her personality, today would've been hard to end!
But now, things were going well.
Haruto denied it, then said: "Just think of Sora as Miku."
Itsuki thought about it. Other than greeting her at the start, Sora had stayed silent and didn't talk much. She did seem a lot like Miku.
"By the way, I didn't see your uncle today."
"Uncle's on a business trip."
"What about Kuromori-kun's father?"
"He's back."
"Then I won't be able to visit you again like this."
"You can come anytime you want."
"Okay."
Itsuki responded, lifting her hand to tuck her hair behind her ear, and softly said: "Kuromori-kun, will you accompany me to meet my mom tomorrow?"
She had thought love was far away from her.
But unexpectedly, among the quintuplets, she was the first to date.
'Kuromori-kun is so kind, and I really like him, so I had to tell my mother. If I like her, she'll like Kuromori-kun too, right? Even though Kuromori-kun sometimes bullies me, he's actually very gentle.'
Haruto took a breath and said, "I understand. I'll go with you tomorrow."
Itsuki's eyes sparkled, and she turned slightly to glance at him: "Kuromori-kun, I've caused trouble for you again~"
"Not at all." Haruto gently shook his head.
In reality, it wasn't a problem for him at all. After all, visiting Itsuki's mom was a normal thing.
The rest of the trip was quiet.
After dropping Itsuki off at her apartment, Haruto didn't look back until she entered the elevator. Then, he turned and quickly disappeared into the night.
Haruto didn't go back.
Because Hiratsuka was still waiting for him.
She had even sent no fewer than three messages to remind him.
Haruto was certain Hiratsuka was in a bad mood today; otherwise, she wouldn't have sent so many messages to remind him!
Ten minutes later.
Haruto arrived at the gym.
This was the gym Hiratsuka often visited, the Kyokushin gym.
Kyokushin focused more on kicking techniques, so Hiratsuka's iron fist wasn't anything special, but her kicking skills were quite extraordinary.
Even though, in Haruto's eyes, Hiratsuka was weak.
But Haruto was different. For him, not just Hiratsuka, but even the onmyoji and yokai, who seemed incredibly mysterious to regular people, were mere nuisances. Therefore, Hiratsuka was actually quite impressive!
It was three minutes before 9 p.m.
At this time, normally, the gym would be closing, but Hiratsuka was a wealthy woman who frequently visited, so it wasn't surprising she had some privileges.
"Sorry, we're closed. Please come back tomorrow."
Behind the counter, a young woman in business attire was surprised to see Haruto, then politely bowed.
As Haruto was about to speak, Hiratsuka's lazy voice rang out: "Yoshida, I called him here, let him in."
The young woman named Yoshida suddenly had a subtle expression.
One was a wealthy, beautiful young woman, the other a handsome young man.
He's so handsome, she couldn't help but wonder, what shop could he possibly be from?
After a brief internal struggle, Yoshida reluctantly reminded him in a low voice: "Sir, we're just a regular gym here."