That afternoon Tenten had discovered an important truth about Kaito Shirogane.
He was a con man.
Not legally, probably. She didn't have enough evidence to report him to anyone either. But while she stayed kneeling on the floor of his apartment, with a rag in one hand and a bucket of water beside her, she was completely convinced she had been the victim of the most unfair negotiation of her life.
The costume didn't help.
The plush ears weighed a little forward every time she lowered her head. The bow at her neck brushed her throat.
And the body of the outfit —black, short and shiny— hugged her chest until it made a cleavage she had never authorized, and from behind there was no dignity whatsoever: the cut left her ass out in the open, round and pale.
The fishnet stockings rose to mid-thigh. When she bent to pass the rag, Kaito —if he lifted his gaze— saw everything, absolutely everything. Her folds. The way the fabric tucked into her.
Tenten knew it. That was why she cleaned with her teeth clenched.
"Remind me why I'm doing this."
Kaito remained seated by the low table in the living room, apparently oblivious to her suffering.
He was cleaning the steel of his katana with a special alcohol in slow, methodical movements, checking the edge under the window light.
His characteristic bangs covered his left eye.
"Because you accepted." Kaito said.
"I was desperate to learn that." She retorted.
"That doesn't invalidate an agreement."
Tenten squeezed the rag. When she did her lower back arched.
"Why do you do this? Do you have some strange fetish?" she asked.
Kaito looked at her. Appreciating that tanned ass under the afternoon light.
Tenten got furious.
"Don't look!"
Kaito looked away with amusement.
"Don't worry. You'll rarely find me around here. And answering your question, it inspires me to write."
Tenten blinked.
"Write?"
"I'm a writer of adult novels." Kaito said simply.
Tenten suddenly blushed while letting out a piteous moan.
"Where the hell did I get myself into?"
Kaito was amused by her.
"I already told you you'll rarely find me around here. I'll normally be at my shop. You can simply do your work and leave."
"No way." She shouted suddenly.
Kaito lifted his gaze again. Meeting her eyes. A determined, decided look.
"I'll come when you're home. I promised to get you hard until you cut it off. A decent punishment for a pervert like you."
Kaito was left speechless with her. Then he let out an incredulous laugh. In the style of a pirate character.
"Well, you'll have to work very hard. Because this barely qualifies to turn me on." Kaito said, making Tenten even angrier.
Tenten threw the rag at him. But Kaito tilted his head slightly and let the cloth pass by his face.
Then he kept cleaning the katana.
Tenten couldn't help looking at it with curiosity. As a weapons mistress. She felt that katana was out of range.
She could recognize a well-made weapon. Few things captured her attention that fast.
She approached him.
"Can I see it?"
"No." Kaito answered.
"Why do you always answer no first?"
"Because it normally works."
She sat in front of him on her knees, with her hands on her thighs. From that position Kaito could see her tits every time she breathed.
Tenten seemed to notice his gaze and smiled with mischief. But right now she was more interested in the weapon than in teasing him.
"It's a very beautiful katana." She couldn't help saying.
Kaito ran the alcohol over the steel and nodded.
"It actually is. Its name is Shodai Kitetsu."
Tenten was surprised.
"It has a name?"
Kaito nodded.
"Shodai… Kitetsu..." Tenten repeated the name softly.
"First?" she asked then.
Kaito nodded.
"It belongs to a series of three cursed swords."
Hearing this Tenten opened her eyes again.
"Cursed swords?"
Kaito nodded again.
"If you're of weak will. You can suffer a misfortune, even die on the spot."
Tenten then understood why he hadn't let her hold it.
"Who forged it?" She couldn't help asking.
"The truth is I don't know."
Kaito stayed silent for a few seconds. Then he remembered something curious. He had died without ever officially learning the identity of the man who had forged the Gorosei's sword.
The Nidai Kitetsu, the second generation, had been forged by a smith named Kotetsu, ancestor of Kozuki Sukiyaki. It was one of the twenty-one Ō Wazamono, the excellent-grade swords, situated one step below the twelve Saijō Ō Wazamono to which the Shodai Kitetsu belonged.
The Sandai Kitetsu, third and youngest of that fearsome line, had been the work of Kozuki Sukiyaki himself, former shogun of Wano and grandfather of Momonosuke.
But there was a piece of that story Kaito never got to know.
The first. The Shodai Kitetsu.
The oldest of the three and the only one classified among the twelve Saijō Ō Wazamono.
Tenten was left speechless.
"You don't know the name of its forger? How is that possible?"
"Let's say I found it and it chose me."
"You don't know where it comes from either?"
Kaito stopped and looked at her.
Tenten raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
"Nothing. It's just complicated." He said.
"You always say that before telling something interesting. The same thing happens with those strange abilities." Tenten said, crossing her arms. Her tits bounced in a visual spectacle for Kaito.
Kaito shook his head, knowing she was provoking him. But he did nothing for the simple fact that he didn't know how Tenten would react.
And he preferred not to find out.
Instead he observed the blade of his katana for a few seconds before continuing.
"It comes from a land called Wano."
Tenten searched for the name in her mind. But she found nothing.
"Wano?"
"Yes."
"I've never heard of it." She said.
"I'm not surprised." Kaito let out a laugh.
"Is it a small country?" she asked again.
"Not exactly."
"Is it near the Land of Fire?"
"Not that either."
Tenten started to suspect she was going to have to tear every answer out of him.
Then she leaned in again to look at the katana up close without touching it.
When she did. Kaito could see the curve of her ass marked by the costume.
"Can you stop provoking me?" he asked.
"I told you I was going to get you so hard you wouldn't be able to stand it." She said with mischief.
At this point, and humiliated in such a way. She didn't care about seducing a pervert.
Of course, seducing him and going further were two different things. Tenten had her limits clear. And judging by how Kaito acted. She knew that he also knew his limits and didn't intend to cross them.
Tenten gave this her approval.
That was why she showed more and more ease in seducing him.