"Alice, are you wearing your mother's nightgown?"
"Mm, even though my mother is getting on in years, she's quite the romantic at heart. She often steals my skirts to wear, so it's only fair I steal hers, right?"
"And you're wearing your mother's perfume?"
"What? Don't like it? Makoto-kun, I'm entrusting this child, Alice, to you, you know..."
'...Come on, no need to imitate your mother's way of speaking.'
"How rude! Call me mother-in-law! I'm so tired, go get me some foot-washing water!!"
Watching Alice getting into character, Makoto scooped her up and tossed her onto the bed.
"Ouch! That's so mean, Makoto-kun, treating your mother-in-law like this. I won't let Alice be with you anymore!"
Makoto: "..."
'Addicted to acting, are we?'
"Leonora! Kneel! I'm very angry right now."
Alice raised an eyebrow, ripped open the zipper with a 'shrrrk', and pretended to look terrified.
"Wow! Soe, you haven't been this strong in a long time! Did you take some medicine?"
Makoto: "..."
The Nakiri Family villa had excellent soundproofing, but it couldn't withstand Alice's 120-decibel soprano and the thumping of the headboard against the wall.
Leonora was still keeping vigil at her husband's grave.
These past few days, only Senzaemon, Erina, and her little secretary, Hisako, were at home.
On the first day Makoto stayed overnight, Senzaemon had moved back to his office at the academy.
Besides the couple upstairs, only Erina and Hisako were in the house.
Hearing Alice's soprano and the continuous banging against the wall, the two were extremely agitated and couldn't fall asleep no matter what.
"E, Erina-sama, should we find somewhere else to stay?"
Hisako, after all, was an inexperienced young woman. How could she withstand such stimulation?
"No!"
Erina gritted her teeth in anger. "Wouldn't that make me look like I'm afraid of her? This is my house, my house!"
Couldn't Erina understand Alice? That despicable cousin was doing it on purpose for her to hear.
So she definitely couldn't leave… wouldn't that make her look weak?
Hisako looked helplessly at the stubborn Erina. The shouting and banging upstairs continued.
Two minutes later, Hisako blushed and stood up: "Erina-sama, I'm going to the bathroom."
After she left and the room was empty, Erina couldn't help but let her hand wander downwards.
…
Several days later, at the Totsuki Academy Moon Banquet Festival.
On this day, the school was fully open, welcoming outsiders to participate in the school festival.
All students could apply to the administration for funds to set up stalls anywhere on campus… though prime spots were, of course, already taken by the Totsuki Elite Ten and some popular clubs.
All students could showcase their culinary skills to visitors.
Many skilled students, through this event, were scouted by famous restaurants and hotels even before graduation, receiving early job offers.
And the fate of those who operated at a loss, needless to say—
Expelled! Expelled! Expelled!!
Totsuki Academy's favorite thing to do was expel students.
This year's Moon Banquet Festival was clearly different from previous years.
Although large numbers of outsiders were still invited onto campus, and highly anticipated students like Tsukasa Eishi, Kobayashi Rindo, and Erina were bustling with activity, their stalls filled with a variety of enticing foods, not one of the hundreds of thousands of visitors dared to touch anything.
Because upon entering the school, they saw a huge banner hanging from the school gate, which read—
[Congratulations to Nishikawa-sama for Becoming the King of the World]
Many outsiders were dumbfounded by the content of the banner.
'Wh, what does it mean?'
Shortly after arriving at Totsuki, they heard from Soma, Ryo, and other stall operators that no one was allowed to eat until Makoto returned victorious after defeating the United States.
Suddenly, freeloaders like Kogoro and Shirogane's father were dumbfounded.
'D, defeating the United States?'
'Really?'
Just as everyone was bewildered and frightened, a sudden cry of surprise was heard: "Waaah! Wh, what are you?!"
Shirogane Dio's expression changed drastically. He immediately recognized the voice of his precious daughter, Shirogane Kei.
"Kei! What's wrong?"
Shirogane Dio and Miyuki quickly rushed to their precious daughter/sister side. They found Kei, her best friend Fujiwara Moeha, and the people around them staring in shock at a figure in a nearby tree.
Looking at the unusually long arm gripping the trunk and the hunched back, Miyuki said in confusion, "Th, that's... a gorilla?"
The next second, the figure turned around. Its bizarre face nearly made Kei, Moeha, and the other middle school girls cry.
A wide, flat gorilla face, with extremely high brow ridges and deeply sunken eye socket, a pair of unnaturally large protruding eyes, the snout and mouth area protruding forward like a primate, and pointed ears characteristic of primates.
It was a standard gorilla face, but the problem was… there was no gorilla hair on the face. It was as smooth as a human's, which involuntarily created an uncanny valley effect.
Even Hachiman, Hiratsuka, and others who had experienced multiple transmigrations couldn't help but feel a chill run down their spines when they saw this face.
"Wh, what are you?"
Erina, who had been waiting at the school gate with her grandfather to welcome Makoto, also nearly fell over in fright.
Having witnessed the terror of the Gun Devil, she couldn't help but get goosebumps all over when she saw this face.
"My name is Charlie. I only remember this name, I can't recall anything else."
Charlie the monkey-man flipped off the tree and landed on the ground. His waist was hunched like a gorilla's, his long arms almost reaching the ground. His gaze swept across the surrounding stalls, lost in thought.
"Where did you get those clothes?"
Senzaemon's expression suddenly changed as he asked.
At that moment, everyone also realized that this bizarre monkey-man was wearing a Totsuki Academy uniform.
Just then, a security guard rushed breathlessly to Senzaemon's side, panting heavily, "Director, something terrible! A student's body was found in the vegetable garden on the back mountain!"
Upon hearing this, everyone looked again at the monkey-man's uniform, immediately made the connection, and their expressions changed drastically.
Hachiman quickly moved to shield Saika behind him, and Ai also stepped in front of Kaguya.
This bizarre creature reminded her of the crab monster they had encountered before.
But to be honest, even the crab monster looked better than this thing.