Two hours later, in Makoto's room
Originally, to welcome Ran's arrival, Makoto, who usually preferred to take his time, had quickly finished his battles with the other girls and was waiting in the room.
However, upon seeing who arrived, he couldn't help but be surprised.
"What brings you here so late, Attorney Kisaki?" Makoto put his shirt, which he had already taken off, back on.
"Um... Commander Nishikawa, I heard you're going to find a Devil's heart to transplant for my husband."
Upon entering, she had noticed Makoto's robust physique. Eri looked down, not daring to look directly at him.
Partly because she was at that age and couldn't handle the stimulation.
And partly because, although she had thought it through from Makoto's perspective and understood his actions, seeing him in person, looking like he was about to devour her little cabbage, still made her involuntarily angry, though she didn't dare let him see it.
"Yeah... so what about it?" Makoto asked.
"I heard that the kind of Devil's heart that can be transplanted to humans is very rare. Commander has taken such good care of our family, we have nothing to repay you with."
Saying this, Eri began to unbutton her office lady uniform.
'Good grief! An unexpected bonus?'
When he saw the mature, elegant white skin, Makoto immediately forgot all about a certain little unicorn.
"P-Please be gentle. I-I haven't... waaah!"
Before Eri could finish her sentence, Makoto completely silenced her.
She felt he was like a wild beast, ravaging her madly.
Who was more charming, Eri or Yukiko? It was also a controversial topic in the previous life.
But if you asked Makoto to judge, his conclusion was… Yukiko was more business-like, Eri was more athletic.
Yukiko was beautiful, and with her status as a world-famous actress, taking her out was a status symbol... she was the business type.
Eri, on the other hand, was mostly in the state of a cool and elegant queen of the legal world, wearing figure-flattering OL uniforms, looking down her nose at everyone, very good at stimulating a man's desire to conquer.
To put it bluntly, she looked like someone you just wanted to go to bed with.
Before, in the Chainsaw Man World, Makoto was also very excited the first time he was with Yukiko, but that was also due to the buff of Shinichi next door.
Eri didn't need any buff at all... she alone was enough to ignite a man's madness.
Outside the door, Yukiko was almost biting through her lip.
'Oh my god, was Eri that thirsty?!'
Finally, Yukiko couldn't take it anymore. With a 'smack', she pushed open the door.
Under Eri's shocked gaze, her best friend dove in.
Only to see Makoto, one hand holding each of them down—
"Eat!"
…
"Uuhh..."
Ran moaned softly, rubbing her eyes as she woke from her dream.
Then she felt a soft, squishy sensation.
Opening her eyes, the sight of something soft and close up startled her.
Looking up, her mother's beautiful sleeping face came into view.
"M-Mom...?!" Ran couldn't help but exclaim.
"Mm... Ran, you're awake..." Hearing a lazy voice from behind her, Ran turned her head and was shocked for the second time: "A-Auntie Yukiko..."
It was then that Ran realized she was actually sandwiched between her mother and aunt.
'Was this how the three of us had slept last night?'
Yukiko yawned and said, "You fell asleep at my place yesterday, so I called Eri to come take you home. Maybe she was too tired from taking care of Kogoro recently, but Eri fell asleep too, so... that's probably how it happened."
"R-Really?" Ran was a bit bewildered.
'How had I suddenly fallen asleep?'
Looking at her mother, still sleeping soundly, Ran felt a bit sorry for her, 'Mom was really too tired from taking care of Dad lately. As their daughter, I...'
Suddenly, Ran realized: 'Wait, if Mom wasn't there, wasn't Dad all alone at the hospital right now?'
Thinking this, Ran quickly got up. While putting on her clothes, she said to Yukiko, "Auntie Yukiko, I'm going to the hospital first. Let Mom sleep a little longer."
"No need to rush, Ran. I called Kogoro last night and arranged for a caretaker."
Despite this, Ran was still worried and insisted on going to the hospital to take care of her father.
Seeing Ran's determination, Yukiko couldn't refuse and waved her hand: "Be careful on the way. Eri and I will sleep a bit more."
Ran nodded and left, closing the door behind her.
Before the door was even fully closed, Yukiko dove back down.
Even for someone with Makoto's constitution, last night was an exceptional performance.
Who knew why that damn man was so excited?
Actually, there was another reason Yukiko didn't leave with Ran… because if she stood up now, everything would be exposed.
The same was true for Eri next to her.
But anyway, this way, Ran had escaped disaster for the time being.
However, the two seemed to have overlooked a problem.
Although Ran had escaped disaster last night, the problem was that she still felt a strong sense of guilt towards Makoto, as well as a desire for love that had nowhere to go after Shinichi's death.
These things wouldn't disappear just because Yukiko and Eri had intercepted her once.
Ultimately, it was treating the symptoms, not the root cause.
They were just desperate and trying anything, even though they had no other options.
Meanwhile, when Ran arrived at Nakano Hospital, the scene was chaotic.
She overheard snippets of conversation from the people around her—
"An Anomaly! An Anomaly has appeared!"
"Hurry and contact the military!"
"Why is it holding that old man hostage?"
"Good thing he didn't grab my husband... we still have 32 years left on our mortgage."
Hearing the people's discussion, Ran's expression changed: 'A monster had appeared? Was Dad okay?'
"Please make way, everyone. I'm Commander Nishikawa's student. I'll handle this."
Hearing someone claim to be Makoto's student, the crowd quickly parted to make way.
Ran hurried forward. Halfway there, she saw Maruo, the hospital director and her father's primary physician, standing at the front negotiating with the other party.
"Calm down! Calm down! Don't hurt the patient! What are your conditions!"
The tall figure opposite roared in a tearful voice: "Call Nishikawa Makoto! Call that bastard Nishikawa Makoto to come see me! Damn him, he dared to steal my woman! I'll kill him! Kill him!"
Hearing this roar, everyone, including Ran, was dumbfounded.
'Was that the Anomaly talking?'
'He just said Commander Nishikawa stole his woman?'
'No way, really?'
But the problem was, they didn't remember Nishikawa Makoto having an Anomaly girlfriend.
Not just ordinary people, even Ran, as Makoto's student, didn't remember.
Maruo also looked bewildered… regardless of whether what the Anomaly said was true or false, someone at his level couldn't contact Makoto anyway.
"U-Um, wh-who is your woman? J-Just don't hurt the hostage."
Maruo said, steeling himself.
Only to hear the Anomaly opposite still shouting with tears and snot running down his face: "She's Ra—"
"Director Nakano!"
Just then, Ran finally pushed through the crowd and arrived beside Maruo.
"Ran!"
Suddenly, the Anomaly's face lit up with joy as he called out Ran's name.
Ran was stunned. She turned her head to look.
She saw that the person he was holding hostage was none other than her own father, Mouri Kogoro.
She then looked at the Anomaly—
Black and white, like the scales of a soccer ball, as if stitched together from soccer ball leather.
But what shocked Ran even more were the Anomaly's facial features.
"Is... is that you, Shinichi?"