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Asakura subtly glanced downwards and found that the "Scale" he had just used as steps had already disintegrated because its designated attachment was 'air.'
"By the way, how did you get up here?"
Asakura asked the girl beside him, who was also peering down from the eaves.
"A ladder."
The girl said concisely, "Here."
Asakura looked in the direction she pointed and saw a ladder leaning diagonally against the side of the shop, with a handcart next to it, on which sat a small box and a high-end guitar case, looking like the kind that cost an order of magnitude more than what Gotō Hitori carried with her.
"Hitori, set up that ladder over there."
So Asakura shouted down to the girl who was still covering her mouth, her face starting to turn purple.
"La-ladder?"
Gotō Hitori gasped, looking around, then finally noticed the fallen ladder, immediately ran over, and laboriously propped it up.
Then Asakura leaped down from mid-air, landing lightly on the ground.
Gotō Hitori looked at Asakura with a wronged expression, as if she had been tricked, thinking, 'Wasn't the ladder not even used at all!' as if making a silent protest.
Then she saw a silver-haired girl wearing a somewhat tattered, oversized black T-shirt climb down the ladder from the platform; because the T-shirt was too loose and ill-fitting, a good portion of her slender, fair shoulders was exposed.
"This child is?"
Gotō Hitori quietly asked Asakura.
"She is..."
Asakura paused here, then looked at the silver-haired heterochromatic girl: "Oh right, who are you?"
"Kaname Raana."
The girl clumsily patted the dust off her clothes, briefly replying, "And you?"
"Asakura Takuma..." Asakura said, then pointed to the pink-haired girl beside him: "And this is Gotō Hitori."
"Hitori."
"Calling me by my first name right away?!"
Gotō Hitori was greatly shocked.
Although when she met Ijichi Nijika, she also quickly called her by her first name, Nijika was, after all, that kind of sunny, cheerful, and fragrant popular girl, and such socially bold behavior perfectly fit Gotō Hitori's imagination of a popular person.
But this silver-haired girl with a somewhat dazed expression in front of her didn't seem to fit the image of a 'popular person' at all.
Wait, maybe she's also fragrant and soft, unlike herself, a shut-in who lacks flexibility from staying at home all the time.
So Gotō Hitori subconsciously sniffed her scent.
Although it wasn't like Ijichi Nijika, who had a top note of citrus, this girl named Kaname Raana also had a faint scent, like black tea or something similar, with a fresher base note.
Kaname Raana stepped back, creating distance from Gotō Hitori.
"Pervert?"
"No, no, no! I was just slightly confirming the ritual of popular people... Please don't call the police..."
Gotō Hitori said flusteredly, her features so tense they seemed about to fly off her face.
Kaname Raana stared at her for a moment; just as Gotō Hitori was about to cower, her mouth formed a cat-like 'ω' shape, and she said with a smile, "Interesting woman."
"Hitori hasn't become a woman yet, so 'girl' should be used here."
Asakura raised a finger and seriously admonished the silver-haired girl.
"Is that the part that needs correcting?"
Gotō Hitori complained, finding it hard to understand.
"Interesting girl."
Kaname Raana said.
"She actually changed it?!"
Gotō Hitori exclaimed in shock.
"Why were you in that place?"
Asakura asked the silver-haired girl.
"That way of calling her makes one feel like she'll suddenly pull out a paper fan... (Note)"
Gotō Hitori muttered softly, but neither Asakura nor Kaname Raana paid attention to her complaint.
"Because the cat was there."
Kaname Raana said.
"A cat?"
Asakura was startled.
"A rare, silver, little kitty cat."
Kaname Raana nodded, confirming it.
Asakura was a bit embarrassed.
Although most people hearing her say that would probably assume she was talking about a silver tabby kitten or something similar.
But Asakura knew very well that she was describing a fact—two days ago, Gokou Ruri had transformed a small piece of peeling silver plastic coating from a signboard on a shopping street's eaves into a small cat, intending to have it tail the stalker who was following them.
As a result, the stalker vanished, and this literally silver cat, which was at least half the size of a normal cat, lost its target; coupled with Gokou Ruri forgetting to dispel the Curse, it had been wandering around the shopping street ever since.
Perhaps because its owner, Gokou Ruri, was relatively close to Asakura, the silver kitten's favorite spot was Asakura's shop, often curling up on the shop's roof to sunbathe—the expulsion Curse attached to the shop, which made Muggles ignore it, clearly had no effect on cats, especially a Curse creation like the silver kitten.
As for why Kaname Raana could ignore the effect of the expulsion Curse, Asakura temporarily had no clue.
Perhaps when she wanted to climb onto the platform, it happened to be the moment Asakura and the others came out of the shop, and the expulsion Curse Invalidation ceased to function? Or perhaps the girl herself had some kind of Curse resistance, after all, the expulsion Curse here at the shop clearly couldn't compare to the inherent rule ability of the Clubroom.
It couldn't possibly be that the expulsion Curse deemed the cat-like Kaname Raana as a cat and thus let her pass, could it?
"I thought it couldn't get down."
Kaname Raana didn't notice Asakura's expression, she just continued.
It seemed she wanted to save the cat, but after she finally managed to climb onto the platform, the cat elegantly left, and due to some irresistible force, the ladder fell to the side, trapping the girl on the platform.
Coupled with the effect of the expulsion Curse, passersby didn't notice the shop, and naturally couldn't hear the girl's cries for help, until Asakura and the others arrived, finally rescuing her and preventing her from being sun-dried into cat jerky.
"If you don't mind, would you like to come in for a drink? It's fine to treat this place like a family restaurant, even though it's not open yet."
So Asakura decisively interrupted the girl's description of the silver kitten, intending to make her overlook the matter as much as possible, as there was no need to burn her memory for such a small thing; human memory is ambiguous, and when she brought it up again after some time, she would most likely perceive the strange cat in her memory as an ordinary kitten with a somewhat special coat pattern.
"Matcha parfait."
The girl's heterochromatic eyes sparkled.
"Sorry, this shop doesn't have any matcha products."
Asakura said.
After all, the house-elves only knew British cuisine; although they had recently started researching Asian food under his influence, matcha was still outside their plans for now, and even the free ingredients provided by the elf kitchen didn't include it.
"0 points."
The girl declared.
"Isn't your family restaurant rating system a bit strange?"
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