“So, my cute little sister, what exactly did you talk about with this Himeragi Yukina?”
At first, Hikigaya wasn’t particularly concerned.
After all, if Himeragi Yukina really held some ulterior motive, it wouldn’t be that easy to uncover.
But Hikigaya felt he was overlooking a problem…
Girls’ conversations are never one-sided.
And while Komachi’s mouth is sometimes very tight—like a vault, like a fortress—other times it’s not just a funnel.
It’s a sieve.
A colander.
A strainer with very large holes.
Especially since Himeragi Yukina was stumbling, her eyes teary, and her gaze contained a sense of guilt and pity that made Hachiman Hikigaya’s skin crawl.
Guilt and pity.
What exactly did you tell her, Komachi?
“Komachi didn’t say anything.”
“Are you sure that counts as not saying anything?”
“I just told some truths.” Komachi counted on her fingers.
“Like what Big Brother likes to eat, what coffee he likes to drink, what books he likes to read, and a little bit about Big Brother’s insignificant past.”
“Insignificant?” Hachiman’s eye twitched.
“The way she was crying, I’d believe you if you told me you described me as the Hunchback of Notre-Dame.”
“These details aren’t important.” Komachi showed her cute little fangs—the non-vampire kind—in a smile that was equal parts innocent and dangerous.
“The most important thing is that Yukina is now willing to be honest and clear things up. However…” She paused dramatically.
“She said she wants to talk to you alone, Big Brother. It’s a secret that others can’t know.”
“Doesn’t that make it even creepier when you put it that way?”
“Let’s get this straight.” Komachi pointed a finger at his chest.
“No matter how thirsty you are, Big Brother, you cannot make a move on your sister’s classmate!”
“Who would make a move on a middle school student?!”
“But Yukina is just so cute.”
Komachi said it righteously, as if this were an irrefutable fact of the universe—like gravity, or the misery of Monday mornings.
This couldn’t be helped.
Hachiman Hikigaya could only agree with this point.
Although that girl with shoulder-length hair was still quite childish in her choice of panties—pink checkered, he had unfortunately seen—it was precisely this green, youthful feeling, combined with her delicate features and impossibly fair, tender skin, that gave her an extraordinary charm.
Objectively speaking, he told himself.
Purely objective observation.
Nothing more.
Well.
It really was necessary to communicate properly with her.
Hikigaya was very clear about this.
Many light novel plots unfold from misunderstandings—dramatic, exhausting, multi-volume misunderstandings that could have been resolved in five minutes if anyone had just used their words.
He pushed open the door and entered Komachi’s room.
Himeragi Yukina was kneeling on the floor, looking very formal.
Posture perfect.
Hands folded.
Expression serious.
“Sorry to disturb you. Please treat me well.”
The setup was so formal, so unexpectedly ceremonial, that Hikigaya bowed subconsciously.
“Sorry to disturb you. Please treat me well.”
This is too strange.
It didn’t look like a consultation.
It looked like a blind date arranged by a matchmaking agency.
Seriously, what kind of matchmaking agency could arrange such a high-quality blind date partner?
And fifteen years old was already bordering on a crime, right?
Stop it, brain.
Do not go there.
“Where should I start?” Himeragi asked, her voice small but steady.
“Let’s start with your background, Himeragi-san. Is it okay to address you like that?”
“Just call me Himeragi, Hikigaya-senpai.” She bowed her head slightly.
“Is it okay to address you like that?”
It’s becoming more and more like a blind dating show.
An absurd student blind dating show at that.
This girl always gave the feeling of having come out of a primeval forest.
She was exceptionally naive—the kind of naive that made you want to protect her, and also the kind that made you wonder how she had survived this long.
“Ah, anyway. Let’s talk about your situation first. Like… what was your status before, Himeragi?”
“Well, I was attending Kagami no Mori.”
“Kagami no Mori. Is that the name of the school?”
“Yes. On the surface, it is indeed a school. But in reality…”
“In reality, is it a place for training scouts?”
Hikigaya guessed.
But it always felt a bit strange.
Training middle school students to be scouts?
What was this, a spy movie for children?
“It is actually a secret training facility for the Lion King Organization.”
Lion King.
Hikigaya stared at her.
“Simba? A zoo?”
He felt that things were already heading in an unimaginable direction.
But thinking carefully, a young middle school student like Himeragi Yukina paired with a children’s story like The Lion King actually seemed quite fitting.
She had that earnest, wide-eyed energy.
“It’s not that kind of thing!” Yukina’s cheeks flushed.
“Senpai, do you really not know?”
“I should say this is the first time I’ve heard of this organization. I had absolutely no knowledge of it before.”
Hikigaya’s expression didn’t look fake.
Himeragi Yukina had received basic training in things like interrogation—she could read micro-expressions, detect deception, all of it—and she could be certain that the other party wasn’t lying.
“The Lion King Organization is a special agency established under the National Public Safety Commission!”
Hikigaya’s eyebrows rose.
“A state agency? Civil servants?” He processed this.
“Does a special agency mean it trains spies?”
Clearly a Japanese organization, he thought, yet it’s named after an American cartoon.
How should one describe this situation?
“It’s not spies.” Yukina shook her head vigorously, indicating she wasn’t that type of person.
No black turtlenecks.
No concealed weapons.
Probably.
“The Lion King Organization was established mainly to prevent large-scale magical disasters—or to deal with those possessing supernatural powers that threaten public safety.”
Ah.
“Simply put,” Hikigaya said slowly, “it’s an organization that specializes in training demon slayers, right?”
Saying it like that, he understood in an instant.
Demon slayer was a widespread concept—a profession for dealing with supernatural disasters or various supernatural crimes.
It made sense that such an organization would exist.
What didn’t make sense was why one of their trainees was currently kneeling on his little sister’s bedroom floor, looking at him like he was both a monster and a lost puppy.
“Go on,” Hikigaya said, leaning back.
“I have a feeling this story gets more complicated before it gets simpler.”
In that case, it was understandable why he was targeted by Yukina.
After all, he had suddenly turned into a vampire.
Although Hikigaya considered himself to have no harmful intent—he had never bitten anyone, never threatened anyone, never even considered world domination—from the perspective of public safety, he still required supervision.
Fair enough, he thought.
If I were a government official and some high schooler suddenly turned into a blood-sucking creature of the night, I’d want to keep an eye on him too.
But there was a loophole here.
If it were purely for safety supervision, the civil servants could have just come to his door—like the general public—and negotiated properly.
A conversation.
A signed agreement.
Maybe some paperwork.
Instead, they had chosen to observe him in secret, like he was a wild animal that might bolt at any moment.
This wasn’t the attitude a state agency should have.
Rather, it was like they were…
afraid of him.
Hikigaya suddenly grasped something.
“Himeragi. You probably aren’t an ordinary demon slayer, are you?”
Himeragi Yukina nodded.
“It is indeed different from ordinary demon slayers who are directly under the Japanese government. How should I put it?” She tilted her head, searching for words.
“The things we have to deal with are more troublesome. And there are more detailed classifications.”
More troublesome.
Hikigaya already understood the meaning of those words.
Combining them with the rumors about the Fourth Progenitor, he had likely been treated as something like a nuclear bomb.
That was why the person in charge of supervision wasn’t some annoying muscular uncle with mirrored sunglasses and an earpiece.
It had been replaced by a cute girl middle school student—one you couldn’t help but feel well-disposed toward.
Hikigaya never minded speculating about the thoughts of those in power with the deepest malice.
It wasn’t paranoia if they really were out to get you.
And thinking a bit more…
it was possible that Himeragi Yukina herself was actually a dish of food sent by the so-called Lion King Organization.
Bait, he thought.
She’s bait.
Cute, earnest, deadly bait.
“Although I am almost certain,” Hikigaya said carefully, “I still want to say this, Himeragi. You are sure that I am the so-called Fourth Progenitor? The Luminous Twilight Earl?”
“That’s right.” Her response was immediate, unwavering.
“This is intelligence provided by the highest-ranking elders of the Lion King Organization—the Three Holy Ones. It is 100% impossible for it to be wrong.”
100% impossible.
She said it with the conviction of someone who had never been betrayed by authority.
Hikigaya almost envied that.
“Then, to be more specific…” He leaned forward slightly.
“What kind of existence does the Lion King Organization think I am?”
“Eh?” Yukina blinked, genuinely confused.
“Senpai, do you completely not understand? A so-called Progenitor is essentially equivalent to a national-level military force. Any action they take is a mobile natural disaster that rises to the national level.”
National-level military force.
Mobile natural disaster.
Rises to the national level.
“Don’t just casually equate others with such things,” Hikigaya muttered.
His head was pounding.
His dream—his actual, sincere, deeply held dream—was to lie flat in the future and become a full-time house husband.
To cook meals.
To clean the house.
To support Komachi and maybe, eventually, a wife who would tolerate his existence.
Instead, he had suddenly been treated as something like a superweapon.
The universe has a sick sense of humor.
“Then,” Hikigaya asked, his voice carefully neutral, “what is the attitude of your Lion King Organization toward me?”
Yukina met his eyes.
There was no hesitation in her gaze.
No diplomatic evasion.
Just pure, honest, terrifying clarity.
“To monitor all of your actions, Senpai.” She paused.
“If you pose a huge danger, I will personally execute the erasure of you.”
Erasure.
Not arrest.
Not containment.
Not rehabilitation.
Erasure.
Hikigaya stared at her.
She stared back.
And he realized, with a kind of weary horror, that she had just told him—to his face—that she was authorized to kill him.
And she had done so with the same tone someone might use to say “I’ll handle the dishes tonight.”
Is it really okay to say something like that just like that?
It felt like she was the type so simple that she would help the person who sold her count the money.
Or rather…
wasn’t she already deceived?
She probably thinks this is normal, Hikigaya realized.
She probably thinks this is just how things work.
He sighed.
It was the sigh of a man who had somehow become responsible for a middle school assassin’s emotional education, despite having done nothing to deserve this fate.
“Himeragi,” he said slowly, “can I offer you some advice?”
“What is it, Senpai?”
“Next time you’re assigned to kill someone… maybe don’t tell them to their face.”
Yukina tilted her head, genuinely puzzled.
“Why not?”
Because, Hikigaya thought, some of us would like to sleep at night without wondering if the cute middle schooler in our living room is about to stab us.
But he didn’t say that.
Instead, he just reached for his coffee, took a long sip, and wondered how his life had come to this.