After finishing the purchase of all cat supplies and arranging for the large items to be delivered directly to the apartment, Akira and Yukinoshita took a brief stroll around the mall complex. Before they knew it, the hands of the clock had already shifted to signal dinner time.
"As an apology for keeping you waiting this morning, how about I treat you to dinner?" Akira suggested, pointing toward the line of aesthetic restaurants next to them.
"Mmm," Yukinoshita gave a nod of agreement. Her stomach was indeed starting to feel empty after all the walking around the pet store earlier.
The two stepped into their restaurant of choice and took their seats facing one another. While enjoying a complimentary cup of green tea presented by the waitress, Akira began to open up a casual conversation regarding the staff shortage crisis plaguing the Volunteer Club based on Miyuki's information from earlier.
However, right when the waitress arrived to hand over the menu to Akira, the youth's attention was suddenly diverted by a group of customers cheering ecstatically around a massive table at the opposite corner of the restaurant.
"What exactly is going on over there?" Akira pointed toward the crowd using his gauze-wrapped index finger.
The waitress standing next to their table turned her head to look, then quickly reached into her apron pocket to pull out a colorful brochure. "Ah, our restaurant is currently hosting a speed-eating contest, Sir! The grand prize is a limited-edition jumbo Mr. Panda plushie, with only five hundred pieces produced worldwide!" The waitress pointed toward the mascot photo displayed on the flyer.
"Wow! That’s awesome! I want to register!" Akira blurted out instantly, his eyes sparking with pure excitement.
The waitress smiled warmly and turned around to retrieve a specialized registration form for him.
Yukinoshita, sitting across the table, immediately darted her signature authoritative, freezing glare. "You pervert. Wasting food is an incredibly wretched act. Furthermore, with a physical frame that looks no different from an ordinary high schooler, there is no way your body can process an extreme portion like that. I have absolutely zero interest in being troubled with carrying your prone form to the emergency room later."
Akira merely chuckled with high confidence as he accepted his contestant number queue from the waitress's hand. "Thank you so much for your deeply touching concern, Yukinoshita. But rest assured, I am highly confident in my stomach capacity. Just watch my performance."
Yukinoshita stared at Akira’s retreating back as he walked toward the stage with a look of doubt. After a brief hesitation, she let out a tired sigh and chose to follow behind the youth.
Akira presented his queue number to the referee on stage. The crowd of spectators immediately parted ways as Akira took his seat in the empty chair at the very left row of the three primary competition tables.
"Aha! My name is Monkey D. Luffy! Are you also here purely to eat for free until you burst?" A boy wearing a t-shirt at the center table suddenly greeted Akira with a broad, signature grin.
Akira flinched slightly upon hearing that legendary name, but quickly managed to regain his composure. In this combined universe, it seemed this kid named Luffy was just an ordinary civilian with a massive appetite. Even if this boy were an actual Devil Fruit user, Akira felt zero fear. 'Unless the guy sitting next to me is a character from Dragon Ball, then I'd throw in the towel!' Akira thought amusedly.
"Ah, hello! My name is Son Goku. I also registered because I was drawn to the massive portion challenge," the contestant at the table to Luffy's right suddenly leaned his chair back, greeting Akira with a friendly, warm smile.
*Gulp.*
Staring at the real-world version of Son Goku, whose frame was packed with dense muscles akin to a professional bodybuilder, Akira reflexively swallowed hard. The names of the people surrounding him right now were truly testing his psychological focus.
It didn't take long for several waiters to carry out three massive bowls. Inside each container sat a monstrous tower of double-layered beef and cheese burgers drenched in a thick, vibrant crimson chili sauce that practically radiated heat.
*PRIIIT!*
The whistle signaling the start of the match detonated loudly. Luffy and Goku instantly moved like forces of nature, devouring the burgers before them with extreme velocity like a storm vacuuming air. On the other hand, Akira merely consumed his portion with a slow, measured rhythm.
"Hey... that young man on the left looks remarkably average. How does he have the nerve to participate in an eating contest against those two monsters?" a spectator in the front row whispered.
"Who knows? Maybe he’s just a stubborn teenager who is far too overconfident," another spectator chimed in, shaking his head in pity.
But at the exact second those two finished murmuring—
*WHOOSH!*
Akira’s hand movements suddenly accelerated at an absurd velocity. He began grabbing the stacks of burgers before him in rapid succession, shoving them into his mouth in a single motion without even bothering to chew first.
Catching sight of the pure shock and wide-eyed stares from the crowd surrounding the stage, Akira subtly curved a satisfied smirk behind his full mouth.
'Hehe... by activating my shadow manipulation skill right inside my mouth cavity, I can open a minute dimensional rift to teleport every single burger that enters directly into the system's dark inventory. Under this cheat strategy, I am automatically invincible!' Akira thought, laughing triumphantly in his mind.
Akira had completely transformed into a merciless burger-shredding machine. The tower of food upon his table vanished at an extreme, highly visible rate to the naked eye.
*PRIIITTT!*
The final whistle resonated loudly through the restaurant. The exact second Akira forced the final piece of burger past his lips, he threw his hands high into the air, declaring his absolute victory in the contest.
As for the fate of Luffy and Goku as ordinary humans?
Both massive-capacity eaters were currently lying flat on the stage floor, twitching heavily with faces flushed bright red. It seemed that even though they were blessed with immense stomach boundaries, their tongue's defense grid was entirely obliterated when forced to face high-grade, extra-spicy chili sauce.
Akira touched his own lips, which had suddenly become incredibly thick, swollen, and bright red, resembling a pair of grilled sausages due to the stinging, burning sensation. He could only offer a wry smile of deep regret.
At the end of the day, spiciness was fundamentally a form of physical pain. Even though he successfully teleported the burger blocks straight into his system's shadow dimension without chewing, he still couldn't prevent the remnant spicy sauce from splattering and clinging onto the surface of his lips during the process of shoving the food in.
Clutching the limited-edition jumbo Mr. Panda plushie that served as his grand prize, Akira struggled to break through the amazed crowd of spectators to step down from the stage.
A chilled bottle of lemonade was suddenly thrust right in front of his face. "Here, drink this, you absolute idiot."
Akira raised his gaze, finding Yukinoshita already waiting for him. "Ah, thank you so much, Yukino... Pfft, hey! What exactly are you laughing at?!"
Akira’s sentence of gratitude was instantly cut off as he noticed the girl's body language. Yukinoshita was currently covering half of her face with her left hand, while her lips were curved highly upward, vibrating violently as she desperately struggled to contain a burst of laughter triggered by the sight of Akira's sausage lips.
Even though the situation was slightly embarrassing for Akira's pride, this was the absolute first time he had witnessed a genuine, unreserved smile radiate from Yukinoshita's face since the very beginning of their acquaintance. The stunning visual momentarily left Akira's consciousness spellbound for several seconds.
*CLICK!*
A traveling photographer who happened to be passing through the restaurant capitalized on the aesthetic moment to press his camera's shutter, capturing the silhouette of the two teenagers into a physical photo sheet.
Yukinoshita, realizing that Akira was staring straight at her face, quickly averted her gaze awkwardly. A sweet, faint flush of red gradually crept across both of her cheeks. "I-It's nothing... Just take the drink already!" Yukinoshita rushed to shove the lemonade bottle into Akira's grip to mask her bashfulness.
Akira snapped out of his brief daze, locking a broad grin onto his face. "Ah... right. Here, take this. This prize is specifically for you." Akira presented the jumbo Mr. Panda plushie won by the struggle of his sausage lips to Yukinoshita.
Yukinoshita didn't accept the plushie right away. Her eyes stared straight into Akira’s, launching a piercing inquiry. "Why are you giving it to me? Didn't you practically risk your life to win it just now?"
"I only joined that contest purely to secure the free food facility anyway. Besides, how could a guy like me want to collect a cute plushie like this in his room? So it's better if I give it to you rather than letting it go to waste," Akira lied with a perfectly innocent countenance.
Naturally, that was a tactically constructed line of deceit. Yukinoshita could easily read that the youth before her was lying to conceal his goodwill, yet she chose not to expose the facade.
Yukinoshita extended both arms, cradling the large Mr. Panda plushie against her chest with an incredibly tight grip. "Thank you very much, Kitahara-kun."
***
After the entire sequence of dinner and shopping logistics wrapped up, the two walked side-by-side along the sidewalk toward their apartment complex. Without realizing it, their footsteps guided them back across the public park area—the exact spot Akira usually visited when meeting Anko late at night.
"Want to stop by and take a brief stroll inside?" Akira asked reflexively without thinking.
But the exact second the words escaped his lips, Akira immediately cursed his own foolishness internally. 'Damn, my mouth is far too reckless! Inviting a girl into a deserted park area packed with dense clusters of trees right as evening approaches... Yukinoshita is going to instantly accuse me of orchestrating some perverted fantasy!' Akira could already visualize the rapid-fire barrage of sharp sentences that would soon shred his pride.
"Sure."
The answer leaving Yukinoshita’s lips was completely 180 degrees contrary to Akira's prediction.
Akira blinked his eyes in pure disbelief before letting out a soft cough. "Alright then... let’s head this way." Akira took wide strides to lead the way at the front.
The two walked in unison into the green expanse of the public park. Even though the sun had begun its downward trajectory, the atmosphere inside was still fairly lively with the interactions of a few elderly citizens taking casual walks and the laughter of young children capitalizing on the remainder of their weekend holiday.
Akira let out a long breath, stretching both arms wide into the air to inhale the fresh oxygen around the trees. "Ah... the air in this place feels incredibly rejuvenating."
Yukinoshita, walking one step behind him, observed the gesture while crossing her arms over her chest. "I didn't imagine a perverted man like you actually possessed such a prominent childish side when out in the open."
Akira turned his face back, throwing a casual smile. "This isn't childishness, Yukinoshita. It’s called maintaining a spark of pure, innocent youth. The reality of life out in the world is far too exhausting to carry continuously. Isn't taking a moment to relax and rest your mind like a child once in a while an incredibly pleasant thing?"
Yukinoshita shook her head gently, staring at Akira's back with a gaze that was difficult to read. "I completely fail to comprehend where exactly the source of exhaustion comes from for a perverted man like you during school hours."
Akira merely offered a mysterious smile as his response, choosing to keep his nighttime supernatural battles that drained his focus tightly locked away as a secret.
Their footsteps continued to move until they finally arrived at the central plaza area of the park.
Akira halted his walking rhythm, inspecting Yukinoshita who was starting to look slightly tired. "We've walked quite a distance since the mall. How about we sit down and rest for a bit on that bench?"
"Um." Yukinoshita nodded in agreement. She marched toward a long bench made of thick wood, taking a seat right at the furthest right corner.
Akira followed over, taking his seat at the furthest left corner, intentionally maintaining a vacant gap spanning twice the size of an ordinary physical frame between their positions to secure the young lady's comfort.
"Remember! The three of us must remain absolute best friends for life, even after we've all grown up into awesome adults later!"
In the middle of the plaza lawn, just a few meters away from their bench, a young boy who looked to be in elementary school shouted loudly with pure spirit, extending his arms in front of two female peers.
'Best friends for life...?'
Yukinoshita fell into a heavy silence. Her eyes stared straight at the interaction of the three young children in the middle of the field in a deep internal quiet. Slowly, the fleeting memories of her lonely childhood began to spin back, overlapping seamlessly with the reality of the scene displaying right before her eyes.
"Yukinoshita? Yukinoshita?"
"Eh? What's wrong?" Yukinoshita Yukino suddenly flinched, snapping out of her lengthy daydream.
Akira stared intently at the girl beside him with a probing look. "It seems like something has been bothering your mind for a while now, hasn't it?"
"I..." Yukinoshita reflexively closed her lips, intending to deny the statement. Yet for some reason, beneath Akira's direct gaze, the words of refusal momentarily choked in her throat.
"If you want, you can always share and talk about that problem with me, or with Yuigahama and the others. We've all become friends by now, haven't we?" Akira offered the solution casually.
"Friends?" Yukinoshita swiveled her head, staring straight into Akira’s eyes as if trying to search for the truth hidden behind them.
"Yes, friends." Akira placed a firm emphasis on his words, completely refusing to avert his gaze from the girl.
Hearing that confirmation, Yukinoshita slowly lowered her head deeply once more, letting her long black hair cascade down to conceal her facial expression as she drowned in her internal conflict.
The surrounding atmosphere near the park bench instantly plummeted into absolute silence. Right at the exact second Akira was about to reopen his mouth to break the quiet—
"Kyaaa!"
"Ouch!"
Without a single shred of warning, two distinct shrieks—one from a middle-aged man and another from a young woman—abruptly exploded from behind the dense cluster of thick bushes located directly behind their bench.
Akira instantly straightened his posture, shifting into a high-security defensive stance. Due to the recent chain of supernatural combat operations, his danger detection instincts had become highly sensitive whenever he heard strange noises in the brush. "Who's there?! Show yourselves immediately!"
The dense leaves shifted apart, revealing two human figures stepping out with incredibly awkward facial expressions.
"Uncle Nagano?!"
"Sister Haruno?!"
Akira and Yukinoshita shouted in perfect unison, their voices entirely packed with absolute shock.
"My, my, Yukino-chan~ Why didn't you tell Big Sister that your boyfriend is actually the cherished nephew of Mr. Nagano? If I had known from the start, I could have helped you persuade Mother so you two could secure her blessing right away." Yukinoshita Haruno winked her eye in an incredibly annoying, flirtatious fashion toward her younger sister.
Yukinoshita instantly stood tall, her face flushing bright red as her anger ignited. "He is not my boyfriend, Sister! Please stop spouting such ridiculous nonsense!"
Haruno completely disregarded her sister's explosion of anger. The girl gracefully took steps toward Akira, locking a broad, charming smile onto her face. "Hello, Kitahara-kun. I'm Yukino's biological older sister, my name is Yukinoshita Haruno. Since there are two individuals sharing the Yukinoshita surname here, you are completely free to call me Haruno-neechan~"
Akira swallowed hard with immense difficulty. Based on his knowledge, this adult woman before him was a notoriously manipulative character type who was incredibly exhausting and difficult to handle. He chose to immediately draw a line of safe distance as fast as possible. "Hello, Haruno-nee. My name is Kitahara Akira. My relationship with Yukinoshita is purely strictly as classmates who happen to share a clubroom."
Akira then shifted his gaze, staring sharply toward his uncle who was standing next to Haruno while pretending to casually whistle. "By the way... has Haruno-nee already known Uncle Nagano for a long time?"
Hirokazu Nagano quickly scratched the back of his head, attempting to dissolve the pressuring atmosphere. "Ah... that’s an old story that goes back quite a ways, Akira. To put it simply, your uncle once handled a few official bureau matters involving the Yukinoshita family in the past. That's how I gradually became well-acquainted with Haruno-chan."
"Then... what exactly are a high-ranking police official and a young lady from a prominent family doing inside the park bushes together at this hour of the afternoon?" Akira narrowed his eyes in pure suspicion. "And why did you two step out from there simultaneously?"
"Uh... well..." Nagano instantly froze stiff, a crimson flush of awkwardness painting his fierce countenance. It was virtually impossible for him to honestly admit that he had intentionally tailed his nephew from the apartment out of pure anxiety for his romantic life, only to accidentally collide with Haruno who was also hiding within the exact same brush to stalk her sister.
Haruno swiftly intervened before Akira could launch a deeper interrogation, as she herself could never confess that she had secretly installed a hidden mini-camera in Yukino's apartment and panicked into tailing her after seeing Yukino dress up beautifully to go out. "Come now, Kitahara-kun, don't fuss over minor details. Let’s just consider all of this a purely beautiful coincidence."
Haruno leaned her upper body forward, staring at Akira with a playful gleam in her eyes. "By the way... what is your evaluation regarding Yukino, Kitahara-kun?"
Akira tapped his finger against his chin, evaluating honestly. "Um... she's a cute girl, remarkably smart, and... highly straightforward?" However, at the end of his sentence, the direction of Akira’s gaze accidentally landed directly on the flat-as-a-board area of Yukino's chest.
Yukinoshita, catching the direction of that perverted look, instantly crossed her arms over her chest with lightning speed, darting a gaze that looked as though she wanted to execute Akira right then and there.
Haruno burst into hearty laughter upon witnessing that interaction. "Hehe, since both of your current statuses are single, how about you take the initiative to pursue my sister, Kitahara-kun? Just so you know, you are the absolute first male student in her entire high school history—or even since middle school—who has successfully taken Yukino out on a one-on-one outing like this."
Haruno winked toward Nagano. "Besides, considering you are Tuan Nagano's biological nephew, Mother is guaranteed to raise zero objections."
Akira, rapidly getting overwhelmed, immediately hurled a pleading look toward his uncle, hoping Nagano would move to contain Haruno's wild words. But the moment Nagano caught his nephew's signal, the middle-aged man directly raised his eyebrows high while thrusting out a solid thumbs-up of pure support.
Dark lines practically painted Akira's forehead. His uncle was completely unreliable in a tight pinch.
"Sister Haruno!!" Yukinoshita finally shattered her tolerance threshold. She shrieked loudly, cutting off the entire banter of the adults surrounding them. "I am completely exhausted today, so I am going home right now. Goodbye, Mr. Nagano, and goodbye to you too, you absolute pervert!"
Clutching the jumbo Mr. Panda plushie tightly against her chest, Yukinoshita directly turned on her heel and took wide strides to storm away from the plaza, moving rapidly to conceal her burning embarrassment.
"Ah, Yukino-chan, wait for Sister! Don't walk so fast!" Haruno quickly spun her frame around to chase after her sister's footsteps, but before vanishing past the tree line, she snapped her face back toward Akira to wave cheerfully. "See you another time, Mr. Nagano, Kitahara-kun~! Remember to greet me when we cross paths next time!"
Once the silhouettes of the two Yukinoshita sisters fully vanished, Nagano walked over, wrapping his arm around his nephew's shoulder with an immensely tight grip of pure pride. "Impressive, kid. I truly didn't expect you to secretly be this close to capturing the second daughter of the prominent Yukinoshita family. And yet the other day you brashly claimed you didn't know her."
Akira let out a weary sigh, brushing his uncle's hand off. "I told you, Yukinoshita and I are just regular friends, Uncle Nagano. Please stop spreading weird gossip."
"Yeah, yeah, your uncle understands completely. Young people these days are always too proud to admit sweet things like this," Nagano shot back with a face packed with a highly annoying look of understanding.
"Haaah..." Akira could only lament his fate with one long, exhausting sigh.
***
Later that night, inside the luxurious fifteenth-floor apartment unit.
After a long, grueling struggle purely to break free from the barrage of interrogative questions from her overly curious older sister, Yukinoshita finally finished showering. She switched off every single light switch in her bedroom, slumping her tired frame onto the warm mattress.
The black-haired girl swiveled her body onto her right side. Her sharp eyes stared intently at the jumbo Mr. Panda plushie from the eating contest earlier, which now sat neatly atop her study desk. Within that absolute quiet, the sequence of Akira's sentences from the park bench earlier began to spin back, echoing clearly inside her mind.
*'If you want, you can always share and talk about that problem with me, or with Yuigahama and the others. We've all become friends by now, haven't we?'*
*'Friends?'*
*'Yes, friends.'*
Yukinoshita slowly bit her lower lip tightly in the darkness of her room. A remarkably thin, warm smile unconsciously etched onto her sweet lips.
"You absolute idiot..."