Chapter 202: Hina's Purity; The Weather God as Top-Tier Ingredients
The moment the words left her mouth, Hina Amano realized how easily Yoru could misinterpret her. She frantically waved her hands, her face turning a shade of red that rivaled a ripe tomato.
"Wait! No! When I said I 'don't find it resistible,' I didn't mean I was craving to... you know... with you! I just meant that if it had to be with you, I wouldn't mind... No! That's not it either! Ugh, I don't know how to say it!"
"I totally get you," Yoru replied, nodding with the solemnity of a sage. His voice was light and full of amusement. "Everyone in the Super-Quant Club is precious family to me. Besides, this is for the sake of the world. It's just 'tactical acting.' Don't let it weigh on your conscience."
Hina felt a wave of relief and touched by his rare moment of comforting words. She was about to thank him when he patted her shoulder, looking like a wise mentor giving a heavy life lesson.
"After all," Yoru continued, "with my God-tier aesthetics, it's only human nature for you to have 'impure' thoughts about me. I don't blame you at all."
Hina: "..... Your narcissism is actually legendary."
Yoru grinned. "I have no flaws, but if I had to name my best trait, it's my honesty. I'm incredibly handsome, just like Hina-chan is incredibly cute. These are just objective facts of the universe."
"Eh...?"
Hina stalled. Right in the middle of his self-glazing, he had just dropped a "Cute-Bomb" on her. Her face flushed deeper as she whispered, "Me... cute?"
She stole a glance at his face. For some reason, a bit of competitive pettiness flared up in her heart, and she pouted. "You have Mai-senpai, Yukino-chan, Marin-chan... so many gorgeous girls around you. You really think I'm cute? I don't buy it."
"Your logic is failing you, Hina."
"How?"
"Mai, Yukino, and Marin are all top-tier, sure. But the fact that they're beautiful has zero conflict with the fact that you're cute. A buffet can have prime rib and a perfect dessert. Both can be 10/10."
Hina opened her mouth to argue, but the more she thought about it... Wait, that actually makes total sense. The existence of other pretty girls didn't negate Yoru's compliment to her.
Still... the word "Cute" made her heart do gymnastics. After a few seconds of silence, she couldn't help but ask: "So... do you actually like the 'cute' type?"
"Man, you really don't know me at all." Yoru stood tall, his tone becoming righteous and bold. "As the Harem King, I don't limit myself to one 'type.' If they're beautiful and interesting, I like them all!"
Faced with this blatant Harem Manifesto, Hina didn't know whether to be happy that she made the cut or speechless at how "Abstract" and shameless he was. She settled for the one phrase that Miko and Rio always used for him:
"Sasuga, Yoru-kun."
Yoru looked down at their joined hands, then glanced out the window. The summer night was deathly silent, save for the cool breeze whistling through the gaps in the wood.
"It seems just holding hands isn't enough," he noted.
Hina realized it too. A simple hand-hold probably wasn't enough to make the Evil God lurking in the clouds feel like his "Sacrifice" was being stolen.
Which meant... they had to go further. More intimate.
"Um..." Hina took a deep breath, summoning every ounce of courage she possessed. "Let me do it."
Yoru had come all the way to Itomori for her. He was picking a fight with a God for her. If he could go that far, she couldn't let her own shyness stop her.
She took another breath, her eyes full of resolve. She stood on her tiptoes, closed her eyes, and with trembling lips, pressed a soft kiss onto Yoru's cheek.
After two seconds of contact, she pulled back, her face a supernova of red. "How... how was that? Did it work?"
To her shock, she opened her eyes to find Yoru looking at her with an expression of pure, unadulterated "What the hell?"
"Seriously?" Yoru sighed. "You spent five minutes psyching yourself up for a peck on the cheek? You had me all hyped up for a 'Main Event' and you gave me a side-quest."
Hina felt her embarrassment turn into defensive panic. "Was... was that not enough?"
"Do you think that Evil God is an idiot? He's been around for centuries. If a kiss on the cheek was enough to make him panic, he'd be the most sensitive God in history."
"I-I guess you're right..." Hina looked down, hiding her face in her hands. She whispered in a voice so quiet it was almost a hum. "Then... do we... have to kiss? On the... lips?"
"On the lips, huh..." Yoru nodded thoughtfully. "I mean, that wasn't exactly the body part I had in mind for a 'God-Tier Bait,' but let's work our way up. There's no harm in a test run."
Hina was confused. Not the lips? Then what? The hand? But that's even less intimate!
She didn't get it. She just nodded obediently. Before she leaned in again, she felt the need to clarify something—partially to save face, partially to set the mood.
"Just so you know... this is my... first kiss."
Yoru looked at her with soulful, sincere eyes. "Me too."
"R-Really?"
Hina didn't entirely believe him—given the way he flirted—but in this moment, she wanted to believe he was just as green as she was.
To save the world, to kill the Evil God, and to bring back the sunshine—their lips met.
At first, it was just a soft, tentative press. But after a few seconds, as Hina parted her lips to catch her breath, she was met with a tactical, highly-trained invasion.
Her eyes flew open in shock. She tried to push against his chest with her small hands. But ten seconds later, her eyes grew misty. A haze of heat washed over her, and her neck turned a soft pink.
Her hands, which had been pushing him away, slowly found their way around his back, pulling him closer. Small, muffled moans began to escape her throat.
"Mmm..."
As the kiss deepened, Hina felt herself being gently guided down onto the soft futon.
When they finally broke apart, a thin silver thread of saliva lingered for a moment. Hina was panting heavily, her face flushed with a mix of shock, arousal, and pure shyness. She looked up at Yoru, who was hovering over her in a dominant position.
She looked away, her lips trembling. "You... you said it was your first time... so why... why are you so skilled?!"
Yoru's answer was perfectly "Abstract."
"I practice by eating Star Cup pudding cups with just my tongue. It's a pro gamer move."
"What the hell is a Star Cup...?"
"Don't worry about the details. Right now, you're the dessert."
Before she could ask anything else, Yoru resumed his offensive. Being pressed together on the futon, Hina could feel every inch of him. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and a strange, pulsating sensation—something she had never felt before—began to build in her lower body, making her legs clamp together and rub against each other.
Click.
She heard a sharp sound, followed by a sudden feeling of "freedom" across her chest. Hina froze, her brain catching up a second later.
"W-Wait... not there...!"
She tried to protest, but between the kissing and her own racing heart, it came out as a soft, needy whimper.
The "King of the Harem" and "Professional Gamer" Yoru knew that this was like an exorcism. You have to use every weapon in the arsenal to achieve total victory before the enemy can mount a defense.
Hina, now completely on the backfoot, realized too late that Yoru had already bypassed her defenses. His hands were moving with surgical precision.
And then... one hand went "below the equator." It slipped inside her clothes, making direct contact with her "Inner Sanctum."
"Mmmph—!"
Outside, the quiet night was suddenly broken by the sound of a light, drizzling rain.
Hina's body twisted under him, a mix of trying to escape and trying to get closer. She had lost her armor, her weapons, and her will to fight. All that was left were her soft, tearful whimpers that harmonized with the pattering of rain on the roof.
"I... I can't... I'm going to...!"
Hina's body suddenly went rigid, her toes curling as a jolt of electricity shot through her spine. Two seconds later, she collapsed into the futon, her eyes glazed and unfocused, her lips parted as she gasped for air.
BOOM!!!
As Hina experienced her "First Time," a blinding flash of lightning lit up the sky outside, followed immediately by a deafening roar of thunder. The light drizzle turned into a violent, hammering deluge.
"Finally lost your cool, huh?"
Yoru stood up, withdrawing his hand. He looked toward the window where the rain was lashing against the glass and smirked.
"Heh. That didn't take long. You've got zero chill, 'God'."
If the Evil Weather God could hear him, he would have been fuming. Zero chill? Another two minutes and the main event would have started! I wasn't going to let my sacrifice be 'pre-sampled' for half an hour!
The God had no choice but to strike.
"Come forth."
The moment Yoru spoke, his Pale and Pitch-Black Ghost Hands manifested, swirling around the room.
"Stay here and guard her," Yoru commanded. The Pale Ghost Hand tapped its middle finger on the floor—a ghostly "Roger that."
Hina, her hair a mess and her body still tingling from the intense manual labor Yoru had just put in, managed to sit up. She looked at him with a mix of worry and lingering heat. "W-Where are you going?"
"Outside. To settle the bill."
Yoru walked over to the bed, leaned down, and pinched Hina's flushed cheek. "I'll be back soon. Should we pick up where we left off when I return?"
Hina's face went supernova again. "The... the enemy is already out there! What 'picking up'?! You jerk...!"
Yoru chuckled and stepped out of the room, heading for the inn's exit. He wasn't worried about the innkeeper or Hina. The Evil God had one target: the man who had just "defiled" his living sacrifice.
By leaving the inn and moving the battlefield to the open fields, Yoru was ensuring the civilians stayed safe. The Ghost Hands were just a final insurance policy.
Walking into the wall of rain, Yoru didn't hurry. He strolled down the rural road as the lightning began to strike the ground around him with increasing frequency.
BOOM!
By the time Yoru was 200 yards away from the inn, the lightning was so constant that the midnight sky was as bright as noon.
Patter... patter...
Suddenly, the thunder stopped. The rain began to shrink, slowing to a light mist. The transition was eerie and unnatural.
"Here we go..."
Yoru scanned the area, his eyes gleaming with the excitement of a hungry diner finally being served his favorite dish. He wasn't afraid. He was salivating.
"Bring it!"
As if answering his challenge, a high-pitched, crystalline shriek echoed from the clouds.
A massive Whale made of compressed rainwater manifested in the sky. It swam through the air, its "eyes" locking onto Yoru. The gargantuan creature—weighing dozens of tons—leaped from a height of 500 feet, not just attacking, but falling like a watery comet directly onto him.
"Interesting."
Yoru stood his ground. He didn't even put on his "Mask" outfit.
CRASH!!!
The rain-whale slammed into the earth with the force of a tectonic shift.
High above, a mysterious presence watched from the clouds. The Evil God had finally shown his hand—and his fury. No human could survive the impact of fifty tons of water falling from that height. It was a physical impossibility.
The God felt a sense of smug disdain. If this "Exorcist" hadn't been clinging to his sacrifice earlier, he could have done this hours ago. Now, with the brat having successfully "polluted" the girl, the God's rage was absolute.
But as the spray settled, the God's "eyes" widened.
The human... was still standing there.
Wait... what was he holding?
"So, this is the secret, huh?"
Yoru was holding a shimmering strand of Golden Spiritual Energy that was writhing in his hand like a golden eel, trying to escape back into the sky.
"So you infused your own mana into the clouds and the rain to control them? Clever trick. A bit primitive, but clever."
Under the God's terrified and confused gaze, Yoru looked at the golden mana and grinned.
"Now then... let's see how you taste."
Taste?
The Weather God was baffled. He didn't have time to process the thought before a wave of agonizing pain ripped through his entire existence.
CRACK-BOOM!!!
The God's scream manifested as a massive thunderclap. Yoru had just bitten down on the golden strand, tearing away a piece of the God's essence.
Just like every low-level ghost Yoru had ever eaten, the "本体" (true body) felt the feedback. But the God had assumed he was "above" such things. He realized now that he was dealing with a predator that viewed divinity as a delicacy.
"Not bad. A bit zesty," Yoru noted. He looked up, his gaze seemingly piercing through 500 feet of clouds to lock onto the hidden deity.
His voice was full of a hunger that made the God feel a primal chill for the first time in centuries.
"Let's see... once I catch you, should I deep-fry you? Steam you? Maybe a nice braise? There are so many options for high-end ingredients like you. I really need to think this through."