Seeing this scene, Yukino's brow twitched. This looked way too familiar.
If Hiromi fused that piece, she'd probably end up stepping onto the same road of no return as herself.
Yukino hesitated for a few seconds, but in the end chose silence. Putting aside what position she should even be speaking from—just the blessings that chess piece could bestow were things countless people would never get even if they begged for them.
The moment Hiromi fused the Divine Envoy chess piece, Takumi also saw her status panel.
[Name]: Hiromi Megumi
[Class]: Divine Envoy – Reporter
[Rank]: 1 (Intermediate)
[Entries]: Divine Envoy (Purple), Master–Servant Contract (Blue), Spirit-Capturing Camera (Blue)…
[Spirit-Capturing Camera (Blue)]: By infusing spiritual power into your camera while shooting, you can bind spiritual entities into the photo and immobilize them.
"What a wonderfully bizarre ability." Takumi raised an eyebrow, then still gave Hiromi a couple of reminders.
After exchanging phone numbers, Hiromi reluctantly said goodbye to Takumi. She really needed time to process everything that had happened today.
"If I actually publish this article… it's definitely going to blow up."
Staring at the photos in her camera, Hiromi's eyes shone with excitement for a few seconds but once she considered the potential fallout, she calmed herself down.
This kind of thing couldn't be exposed lightly. If she drew trouble to herself, it'd be bad news. So she decided to stick with her initial plan and write an article that "exposed the truth."
"In any case, there are no more aliens at Naimu General Hospital now, so I'm not really lying."
"Right… Um, little sister, you're here too, aren't you…?" Remembering that she apparently had a younger sister, Hiromi spoke to the empty air around her.
"Mm, I'm here, Sis." Megumi replied instinctively, then realized Hiromi still couldn't hear her.
Getting no response, Hiromi could only look around awkwardly. Unable to find any sign of Megumi, she let out a soft sigh.
"I'm sorry… I really don't know if you're here or not. I'll tell Mom about all of this, and with Takumi-san around, there has to be a way. I'll do everything I can too, to bring you back, Megumi."
Speaking with her back turned to her sister, Hiromi cheered herself on.
Watching her big sister be this earnest and adorable, Megumi's eyes welled up. She gently wrapped her arms around her sister from behind, even though Hiromi couldn't feel a thing.
"Thank you, Sis~"
"Uwaaah~ So touching~!"
Watching the sisters' embrace and heartfelt exchange, Takumi practically itched to whip out his phone and record it.
Unfortunately, because of Megumi's whole existence problem, she wouldn't show up in the footage anyway. Standing beside him, Yukino just… couldn't relate.
Only after the Kato sisters' figures slowly left did she finally ask. "Are your exorcism jobs… always like this?"
"Eight or nine times out of ten, yeah. Why?" Takumi put away his phone and replied casually, glancing at her in confusion.
Meeting his gaze, Yukino fell silent for a long moment. Only after a good while did she sigh softly and speak. "You're… way too nice, you know that? You didn't actually collect any money. That 'debt' doesn't even have an IOU and on top of that, you even… passed your power on to her."
From a third-party's perspective, Yukino felt like the "Service Club" she'd founded didn't even hold a candle to what Takumi was doing.
He'd given so much, and what he was getting back in return was almost negligible.
"Mm~ Yes, Takumi-san is far too kind~~" Asia chimed in at the side, looking at Takumi with teary-eyed admiration.
Being praised like that by the both of them, even Takumi felt a little embarrassed. In his current situation, money was basically no different from scrap paper. If he really wanted it, alchemy alone could produce tons.
So that whole debt thing? He'd just been saying it for form's sake. What he actually wanted, what he'd always truly wanted, was the person—never the payment. There was no such thing as "taking a loss" to begin with.
"Okay, okay, don't overthink my life choices. You just need to remember our deal. And the catgirl set had better be extra cute!"
At that final line, Yukino's expression turned indescribably resentful. She'd just managed to improve her impression of him, and in a single sentence, he whacked her back to reality.
"…I know already… you lecherous wolf." She muttered with a pout, then quickly turned and walked away, but instead of heading straight home, Yukino made a detour to a clothing shop.
After carefully scanning the racks, she stopped in front of a lace catgirl set with cut-out patterns, her face burning red.
However, her feet simply wouldn't move. After hesitating for a long time, she still ended up asking for it.
As the clerk wrapped the outfit for her, she couldn't help murmuring, "Kids these days… they're really into some wild stuff."
"Uuuu~~~" Already out the door, Yukino heard that clearly thanks to her heightened senses.
She was already mortified beyond belief; now she wanted nothing more than to dive into the nearest ant hole and disappear.
It's all your fault! All your fault!
After stabbing a thousand little voodoo pins into mini-Takumi in her heart, Yukino finally scurried off, head down.
Blissfully unaware of all this, Takumi had already brought Asia back to the apartment building he'd bought.
"Waaah~~ Takumi-san, this whole building is yours? There are so many units, and it's so big~!"
Staring up at the apartment block, Asia couldn't help a little cry of wonder.
Her wide-eyed admiration actually made Takumi feel a bit guilty. He'd bought this with Mio's money. He straightened his expression, ignoring that small detail entirely.
"Mm. Since we're here, I might as well renovate the place today."
"[Alchemy Magic, deploy]!"
Takumi pressed his hands together, and a massive alchemy array instantly unfolded, covering the entire building. The array expanded outward, swallowing several neighboring streets at once.
Under Asia's stunned gaze, villa-like mini-houses sprang up one after another from the ground.
The central apartment block underwent a complete transformation. From afar, the area now looked exactly like an upscale residential district. The tall, refurbished building in the middle felt less like an apartment and more like a five-star hotel.
"Perfect. Ready to rent." Takumi nodded in satisfaction and quickly snapped a photo to upload online.
He planned to personally screen every tenant who moved in, but first, he'd need to post a rental ad.
"If I keep the rent low enough, there's no way people won't come."
Using his newly-learned hacking skills, Takumi distributed the ad across the internet in an instant. Then he immediately called Senjougahara.
At that moment, Senjougahara was lying on the bed in her tiny rental room, wearing a thin pajama set. Her pale little feet swayed lazily in the air, the picture of playful charm. Twisting a lock of her hair around her fingers, she spoke in a languid, sulky tone.
"Pervert-kun~ You finally remembered to call me. I was starting to think you'd forgotten all about me."
"It hasn't even been that long. You make me sound like some deadbeat boyfriend." Takumi, veins popping, shot back on reflex.
On the other end of the line, Senjougahara immediately switched topics.
"So then, Pervert-kun, why did you call me? Don't tell me you're planning to spend this Saturday thoroughly ravishing my—"
"Stop!!!"
As soon as she started getting bolder and bolder, Takumi cut her off.
He glanced at Asia, who was watching him with wide, curious eyes, and took a deep breath.
....
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