“HISS—!”
The Round-Head Spider launched another silk attack.
This time the injured one joined in too from where it lay on the ground.
Yukino’s cat-eyes were sharp and clear, tracking both trajectories at once — the arcing silk threads vivid against the air in her sharpened vision.
Her body felt impossibly light, as if gravity had partially let go of her, a freedom she’d never felt before in her life.
She tightened her grip on Natsuyū’s waist and leapt — carrying both of them a full metre — and set him down lightly.
“Trust me.”
She tilted her mouth up at the corner as she said it.
Natsuyū felt the puff of warm air against his ear again and suppressed a shiver.
He called up the stone pickaxe.
Aim — lean — throw.
Crack.
The pickaxe drove straight through the injured spider’s head.
Green blood and grey matter scattered across the ground.
A length of silk and a purple gland burst out beside the corpse.
Headshot.
Clean.
[You killed a common monster — EXP +1]
So that’s the new EXP Gain ability working.
Kill a monster, get experience.
He was one step closer to unstoppable — just a matter of time now.
“HISSS— sss sss—!”
The last Round-Head Spider watched its companion’s skull get punched out through the back, and something very old and very biological took over.
It turned and ran.
Eight legs blurring into afterimages.
Natsuyū looked at a fleeing spider and saw nothing but warm, uncollected EXP.
“Yukino — after it!
If it has more friends and brings them back, that’s trouble.”
In calmer circumstances, Yukino would have identified that reasoning as flimsy.
The spider had plenty of time to fetch reinforcements while they safely cleared the area.
But somewhere along the way she’d developed the habit of moving when Natsuyū moved.
Before her brain finished the thought, her body had already grabbed his hand and broken into a run, carrying them both toward the stream at speed.
Airborne over the water — she registered the warmth in her palm.
Wait.
Why are we chasing a spider?
There’s no reason for this.
Thud.
Thud.
They landed on the far bank.
She turned to say something — and Natsuyū was already pulling her forward at a run.
He’s strong.
And fast. New chapters come out on g.com first.
Does he actually need me at all—
“Yukino — give me your weapon!”
“O-oh.
Right.”
She reached into her backpack and handed over the stone axe, watching him with faint suspicion.
He took it, kept running, and threw.
The Round-Head Spider was nowhere near fast enough to outrun Natsuyū and a cat-girl.
The gap had already closed to five metres.
The axe hit true — straight into that round, oversized abdomen.
SPLAT.
The belly burst.
A final shriek.
The spider went flat.
A large chunk of purple meat dropped beside it.
[You killed a common monster — EXP +1]
“Got it!”
Natsuyū broke into a bright, full smile, teeth showing, and let go of their joined hands: “Yukino — thank you.
Couldn’t have done that without you.
You were brilliant.
The excellent Yukinoshita strikes again!”
Did she actually do anything meaningful?
The question tried to form — and was immediately buried under praise.
Yukino’s mouth opened and closed without a sound.
She raised her chin slightly, swept her hair back, and smiled with elegant restraint:
“I do hold a seventh-dan aikido certification.”
Natsuyū’s eyes drifted to the cat ears bobbing gently with her movement, then dropped to the round, fluffy black cat tail swaying rapidly at the back of her uniform trousers.
She had a tail too?
Where exactly had that come from?
He wanted very much to test the texture of both.
Pure curiosity — the entirely normal fascination any person has upon encountering an actual cat-girl.
“Don’t look.”
Yukino caught his gaze.
The tail flicked sharply behind her back.
She glared, ears pink at the tips.
A moment later — the ears folded back into her hair.
The vertical pupils faded.
The tail, presumably, also vanished.
Yukino was simply a girl again.
A very pretty one, now lacking any supernatural features.
Natsuyū reluctantly looked away.
Stingy.
Wouldn’t even let me look, let alone touch.
I’ve just never seen a cat-girl before — I was curious.”
He smiled and then asked: “You said your ability was turning into a cat — was that just a half-transformation?”
The word cat-girl made Yukino’s eyebrow twitch.
She wanted him to use something else but couldn’t think of anything more accurate.
She took a breath and composed herself:
“I can fully transform.
What happened just now was a different use of the ability — keeping a human body while drawing on a cat’s strength.
I didn’t expect the non-human traits to appear.
This was the first time I’d used it.”
Natsuyū recalled something, and his smile warmed.
He gave her a small, deliberate bow:
“Thank you.”
Yukino looked at him, confused.
“For what?”
He straightened.
“You made it very clear earlier that you weren’t comfortable using your ability in front of others.”
“But when I was in danger, you didn’t hesitate.
You activated it immediately and fought alongside me.”
“Of course I have to say thank you.
And what happened — the cat-girl part — if you don’t bring it up, I won’t either.”
This feels oddly familiar.
Just with the roles reversed.
Yukino looked at him for two quiet seconds, and found herself sincerely saying:
“You were the one doing the real fighting.
The way you moved — it was impressive.”
“I’m always impressive,” Natsuyū replied.
The same exchange, mirrored.
Both of them caught it at the same moment and smiled — the same small, involuntary smile.
Yukino registered it first, felt something shift in the atmosphere — warmth edging toward something else — and pulled back.
She faced away, straightened a strand of hair at her ear, and pointed at the drops beside the corpse:
“What’s that?”
Natsuyū redirected smoothly.
“Same as getting wood from a tree — this is what you get from killing a monster.
Think of it as loot drops from a game.”
He tried activating Appraisal on the drops, succeeded, and checked with interest:
[Monster Meat (Freshness 99%, spoils in 3 days): Common ingredient.
Consuming causes: Poisoning, mood drop, diarrhoea, satiation.
Note: The finest dining available before starvation.]
The game evaluation is accurate.
Nobody’s eating this unless they’re days from death.