Evening. The sun had already set, and night was beginning to fall.
Fumiya Jin carried the last dish out of the kitchen and placed it on the table. He then brought over rice bowls and a rice paddle, opened the rice cooker, and began to serve the rice.
Pat... pat... pat... The sound of soft footsteps came from the direction of the stairs. Fumiya Jin wasn't surprised by this, as he had specifically gone upstairs five minutes earlier to knock on Mashiro's door, wake her up, and tell her to get ready and come down for dinner.
After filling two bowls with rice and placing them on the table, Fumiya Jin sat down in a chair on one side and finally turned his head to look at the approaching figure...
And then, he was a little surprised.
The naturally beautiful Mashiro was as delicate and cute today as ever. Even after pulling two all-nighters, she only looked a little listless. The dark circles under her eyes weren't obvious; in fact, they even added a certain alluring charm to her.
But none of the above was what surprised Fumiya Jin.
What surprised him was... the girl was once again wearing that white-stockinged cat-girl outfit. You see, on the way back from the publishing house yesterday, Fumiya Jin had taken her to buy a set of everyday clothes, as well as a more conservative set of girls' pajamas.
In other words, Mashiro didn't lack clothes to wear now. Yet she had still come downstairs dressed like this, which was something Fumiya Jin hadn't quite expected.
After all, from a normal person's perspective, this outfit was a little too... risqué.
Though it couldn't be called purely lingerie.
It definitely wasn't the type of thing one could wear outside.
"Do you like this outfit?" Fumiya Jin asked.
Mashiro rubbed her sleepy eyes, clearly not having been awake for long. Hearing his question, she glanced down at her clothes and shook her head.
"I don't like it... but I don't dislike it either."
"Then why are you wearing it again?" Fumiya Jin asked. "You're not using it as pajamas, are you?"
Mashiro didn't answer immediately. Instead, she continued walking until she was in front of Fumiya Jin.
Then...
She turned around.
And very naturally, sat down on his lap.
Leaning into his embrace.
"Because Jin seems to care about it a lot," she said faintly.
Just as Fumiya Jin's way of addressing Mashiro had changed to "Mashiro," Mashiro's way of addressing Fumiya Jin had also changed to "Jin."
Fumiya Jin was slightly taken aback, feeling a bit strange. "Me? Do I?"
Mashiro nodded. "You do."
"For example?"
Mashiro thought for a moment, then said, "When I wear my own clothes, Jin... is very normal."
Fumiya Jin's expression immediately turned a bit odd. "The way you say that... it's as if I'm not normal at other times."
Mashiro turned back to look at him and nodded seriously. "When I wear this, Jin isn't normal."
"You need proof for such accusations," Fumiya Jin argued with mock seriousness. "This isn't some wild story you can just make up."
Mashiro gave him a deadpan look, then lowered her head to look down...
Only to see a pair of wicked claws moving slowly across the white surface...
Fumiya Jin followed her gaze and also saw the scene. He was slightly astonished.
Huh.
When did...?
Has my hand been taken over by a Parasyte?
Does it have a mind of its own? How did it get there completely unconsciously...
"Alright, I'm used to it..." Fumiya Jin calmly accepted his lack of control over his subordinate.
However, he quickly realized the issue in the girl's words...
"Wait," Fumiya Jin raised an eyebrow. "Mashiro, you know full well what happens when you dress like this, yet you still did... Are you hoping for me to be a little 'not normal'?"
Mashiro nodded decisively, without a hint of shyness: "Yes."
"You like it like this?"
"If you're not normal now, you'll be normal when I'm drawing, and then I can focus on drawing," Mashiro said.
Fumiya Jin: "..."
Such simple and crude logic. This girl truly is a once-in-a-millennium painting genius.
Her pursuit of art completely overshadowed her concern for everything else.
Fumiya Jin sighed with a slight laugh, raised his hand, and gently patted her head, "Alright... Well then, let's eat."
"Mmm," Shiina Mashiro picked up the spoon Fumiya Jin had placed on the table for her and started to eat.
Meanwhile, Fumiya Jin gazed at the back of the girl's head, who showed no intention of getting out of his lap, and fell into thought...
A day had passed, and he had completely accepted his new superpower. Moreover, by a stroke of luck, he had also acquired his first queen.
After confirming this superpower wasn't a hallucination, Fumiya Jin naturally made up his mind —he had to turn the four girls participating in the instance with him into his queens, to secure a life insurance policy for them.
However, achieving this goal would not be easy.
First of all, the next time they entered the instance was on Sunday, so logically, everyone would gather on Saturday to discuss their strategy.
Once they were all gathered, achieving his goal would be extremely difficult.
After all, reality wasn't The Deer and the Cauldron, and he wasn't Wei Xiaobao. Besides, Wei Xiaobao didn't bed several of his wives at once through persuasion, but rather through lucky coincidences and mysterious drugs.
Young girls have a sense of shame and are relatively reserved. If he were to suggest they all sleep together under one big blanket right off the bat, they would surely team up and kick him to the curb.
Therefore, he had to conquer them one by one, or at least conquer most of them first.
But to do that, time was tight...
It was already Thursday night. He had less than two days until Saturday morning.
To accomplish most of his goals in such a short time was quite difficult. So he would definitely have to give it his all.
And among the four targets he needed to 'capture,' Shiina Mashiro was clearly the easiest one. She was already right there, practically in his lap, and wasn't resistant to him. It seemed he could 'devour' her at any moment.
If he were to make a move, it seemed Fumiya Jin should unhesitatingly target her first.
But...
Fumiya Jin wasn't really sure right now what Mashiro's attitude towards him actually was.
Judging by the behavioral logic of a typical girl, Mashiro's affectionate behavior towards him would undoubtedly be considered as her having already accepted him, so he could just go ahead and take things to the next level, and that would be that.
But the problem was that this girl's thought patterns were just too different from those of an ordinary girl.
If she really did value painting above all else, and was only accepting his intimacy with an indifferent attitude because of that... could that truly be considered accepting him, and would it be enough to be judged as his next 'queen'?
Fumiya Jin's head started to hurt a little. Should I just get it over with?
"Jin?" The girl in his arms sounded confused.
Fumiya Jin snapped back to his senses and saw the girl tilting her head, looking at him quizzically.
"Aren't you eating?"
"Uh... yeah, I'm eating," Fumiya Jin nodded, deciding not to overthink it for now.
Things had come to this point; it was best to eat first.
If I don't eat my fill first, how will I have the strength to devour someone else?
____
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