A stunned silence fell over Yukino Yukinoshita. Her sharp eyes darted between the hulking form of Masao and the petite, cat-eared girl beside him.
Finally, she furrowed her brows, the question escaping her before she could stop it.
"Hiratsuka-sensei, when you said they were family... you meant that in the literal sense?"
A faint, amused smile touched Hiratsuka's lips.
The sight of the unflappable Yukino so visibly bewildered was a rare treat. She could only shrug in response; she was as much in the dark as anyone.
Their synchronized, questioning gazes settled back on to Masao.
He felt the weight of their skepticism and puffed out his cheeks in offense.
"Hey, what's with the looks? Is it really so hard to believe we're related?"
Yukino and Hiratsuka shared another glance, then looked at Jahy—at her twitching cat ears, her defiant pout, her general air of doll-like cuteness—before turning back to Masao with a synchronized, decisive nod.
The unspoken message was deafening: There is no universe in which the two of you share DNA.
Masao clutched his chest as if struck. "You... you wound me!"
For a moment, a flicker of guilt passed over Yukino's and Hiratsuka's faces. They were being judgmental. Perhaps, beneath the layers of well… fat, they shared similar features. Maybe he had a good jawline hidden under all that.
Their self-reproach was short-lived.
"Alright, fine, you got me," Masao admitted with a sigh. "We're not blood-related. I found her."
"I knew it," Yukino said, the words dripping with vindication. It all made sense now.
"Wait a minute," she pressed, her lawyer-like instincts kicking in. "You said you found her. That's an unusual word choice. Surely you mean 'adopted'?"
"Nope. Found her. Right in the creek under the bridge we cross on our way home."
Yukino knew the spot well. They passed it every day. She often paused there to admire the evening light on the water. It was a scenic place for quiet reflection, not, as it now seemed, a source of mysterious, adoptable children.
The moment she'd laid eyes on Jahy, Yukino had been captivated. It wasn't just the girl's general adorableness; it was the pair of very real, very fluffy cat ears perched on her head.
A genuine cat-girl. Yukino found herself idly wondering what they would feel like to touch.
Masao pulled the small girl forward. "Anyway, this is Tanaka Jahy."
"The 'Tanaka' is unnecessary!" Jahy interjected, stamping a small foot. "You will address me simply as Jahy!"
In her mind, taking a human's surname sounded too much like becoming a subordinate, a servant. Even if it was meant to signify family, she wasn't ready to concede the point.
A contemplative look crossed Hiratsuka's face. "So... the river creek, you say?"
The perpetually single teacher was suddenly calculating the odds of solving her familial pressure to get married, with a strategically found daughter.
Masao nodded sagely.
"You can find one if your luck is bad enough."
"Indeed!" Jahy agreed, nodding vigorously before his words fully registered. Her head snapped toward him. "Hey! What do you mean 'bad enough'? You will explain yourself! Encountering one such as I is an honour!"
Masao responded by pointedly ignoring her and shoveling another bite of his lunch into his mouth.
"Such insolence!" Jahy fumed, but her tirade was cut short by a loud, plaintive growl from her stomach. "Ahem. It appears... it is time for my midday sustenance."
"Don't look at me," Masao said without glancing up. "I'm not sharing."
Jahy peered into his lunchbox with disdain. "Hah! As if I would deign to consume such bland food."
As the two bickered, Yukino saw her opening.
"If you're hungry, you're welcome to share what's left of my lunch," she offered, her voice softer than usual.
Jahy stood on her toes to inspect Yukino's beautifully arranged, half-finished meal. Her eyes locked onto the remaining tamagoyaki egg rolls.
Seeing this, Hiratsuka moved toward the door.
"That won't be enough for a growing girl. I haven't eaten either. I'll run to the convenience store. Don't go anywhere."
"Very well! Your service is acknowledged, Shizuka-chan!" Jahy declared.
Masao didn't miss the way Hiratsuka's step hitched for a fraction of a second at the overly familiar "Shizuka-chan."
'She gets to call her that? Is that the secret power of being a kid?'
Once they were alone, Yukino gestured for Jahy to sit in a chair she pulled up beside her. Using her own chopsticks, she carefully picked up a piece of the fluffy tamagoyaki and brought it to Jahy's lips.
"Here now," she said, her voice gentle. "Open up."
Jahy obeyed without a second thought. "Ah—"
The moment the sweet, delicate egg touched her tongue, her eyes slid shut in pure bliss.
"Exquisite," she breathed, a look of bliss on her face.
A warm smile—a rare sight—touched Yukino's lips.
Masao had stopped eating entirely, his own meal forgotten as he stared at the scene.
A motherly Yukinoshita was a vision of devastating beauty. For a fleeting, dangerous moment, he imagined a future where she looked at him with that same softness,
perhaps even feeding him with her own hands...
His envy for Jahy skyrocketed.
'It's not fair! She gets all this special treatment just for being small and cute! If I could just turn into a cute little girl…' He shuddered, discarding the thought almost immediately. 'No. Absolutely not. I'm perfectly fine right where I am.'
His staring, however, had been a little too intense.
Yukino felt the weight of his gaze and looked up, the gentle expression melting away to be replaced by her customary cool composure. She cleared her throat softly.
"Masao-kun," she said, her tone formal once more. "Do you have a reason for staring so intently?"
"Ah, well... It's just that..." he fumbled, searching for words. "You looked really gentle just now, Yukinoshita. It was... kind of like a mother."
He finished with what he hoped was a disarming, good-natured smile.
It had the opposite effect. Yukino's expression frosted, her eyes sharpening.
"Masao-kun," she began, her voice dangerously level. "Let us set that observation aside. A more pressing issue is the amount of meat in your lunch. It is hardly conducive to your stated weight loss goals. I propose that, starting tomorrow, you restrict yourself to vegetables only."
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