The meal went on slowly, with Akuto calmly tasting and commenting on each dish while Shizuka did her best to attend to him.
Every word of praise he gave to the food seemed to draw a reaction from her, light or strong, as though her own senses had become tightly bound to the pleasure he took in her cooking.
Akuto enjoyed the meal Shizuka had prepared with her own hands, and he also enjoyed guiding her, watching her grow flustered and earnest as she tried her best to make him happy.
As for Shizuka, she drifted helplessly between embarrassment and a strange, rising feeling she could neither fully understand nor resist.
When Akuto finally finished the last sip of miso soup, he set down the bowl and let out a satisfied sigh.
Shizuka, who had stayed close by him the whole time, looked as though she had just endured an ordeal of her own. Her green eyes were slightly dazed, and her breathing had yet to settle.
Akuto bent down, reached out, and gently caught her by the ankle, giving a light tug.
"Ah!"
With a small cry, Shizuka was drawn fully back to his side.
Her lips looked especially soft and flushed, and a few loose strands of hair clung damply to her forehead and cheeks, giving her a fragile, almost pitiful charm.
Akuto's gaze dropped briefly to her feet, still wrapped in those white knee socks, before he looked back up at her and smiled.
"Shizuka said she wanted to give me the best dining experience possible, didn't she?"
"Akuto-oniisan... you..."
She swallowed, already having a vague idea what sort of teasing he was about to say next.
The next moment, he lightly took one of her feet in his hand, more to fluster her than anything else.
"Shizuka, you really are cute."
"Akuto-oniisan... you really are a pervert," she muttered, her pale toes curling and flexing inside the soft white fabric.
She had noticed his gaze on her before. She had known he found her cute from head to toe. But even so, she had not expected him to be so direct about it.
Still, no matter how embarrassed she was, she did not pull away. If she liked him, then even this side of him... she felt she could accept.
So although her face burned with shyness, she still timidly stretched her other foot toward him too, as though surrendering to his teasing on purpose.
"Even when you're shy, you still try so hard. I like that about you too, Shizuka."
Akuto caught both of her feet in one hand, laughing softly at the way she looked ready to melt from embarrassment.
A little while later, he finally released her and lifted his gaze to the girl before him.
Then he leaned closer, one hand cupping the back of her head, the other around her slender waist, clearly intending to kiss her.
But Shizuka hurriedly stopped him.
"W-wait... Akuto-oniisan... you just..."
She could take being teased, but she still felt too shy to let him kiss her immediately after making her blush that badly.
Akuto, however, was as considerate as ever.
"It's fine, Shizuka. I already used a cleaning spell beforehand. Not just on myself either. Look."
Shizuka lowered her eyes in surprise and found that everything was perfectly neat and fresh, as if nothing improper had happened at all.
"So," Akuto asked gently, "is it all right now?"
Shizuka said nothing. She only pressed her lips together, then gave a tiny nod.
Akuto smiled, lifted her chin a little, and stole her kiss with practiced ease.
This kiss was different from the earlier one. It was no longer just a light, tentative touch. There was a clear strength to it now, one that swept away all of Shizuka's thoughts and left her too dizzy to do anything but cling to him in return.
Shizuka responded clumsily, her arms winding around his neck as she poured every bit of her timid affection into the kiss.
...
Elsewhere, in the Netherworld.
Susanoo sat cross-legged inside an ancient hall, a water mirror floating before him. He had only just ended a conversation that had left him thoroughly irritated.
"Takemikazuchi... was defeated by that Akuto within a single minute?"
As Susanoo mulled over the report from the Kuhou family, the sake in his cup rippled faintly, reflecting the deep furrow in his brow.
The Kuhou family summoning Takemikazuchi had been a move he had tacitly permitted, even quietly encouraged behind the scenes.
The result, however, had completely exceeded his expectations.
Takemikazuchi, a proper god of war and thunder, had not merely failed to hold Akuto back. He had been crushed instantly, as if made of paper.
There was no doubt anymore. Akuto's strength had already surpassed Susanoo's original estimate by a wide margin.
It could be said that Susanoo now found himself in a situation where he had no one left to use.
At that very moment, Akuto's subordinates, the knights and witches who had come from Italy, were working together with Japan's native families to annihilate the Kuhou family, the ancient house that had served Susanoo for many years. In only a short time, they had reduced it to ruin, its foundation on the verge of total collapse.
The desperate cries of the Kuhou patriarch still seemed to echo in his ears.
"Lord Susanoo! Please, you must intervene and destroy this fiend! Otherwise my Kuhou family... my Kuhou family is finished!"
Destroy him?
Susanoo merely let out a cold laugh and shook his head.
There was no chance he would challenge a monster capable of killing Takemikazuchi just to save a family that was already as good as dead.
The Kuhou family had lost all value the moment they failed to seize Kusanagi Shizuka and Mariya Hikaru.
In the end, Susanoo cut off all contact with them without hesitation, allowing the image in the water mirror to dissolve into ripples and fade away, just like the family itself.
After severing the connection, he slowly raised his head and looked toward the other two figures seated deeper within the hall.
One was an old man in worn white monk's robes, his face gaunt but his eyes sharp as a hawk's - the Black Prince, Tenkai Monk General. The other was a princess dressed in layered court robes, with short flaxen hair and exquisitely crafted ornaments: Princess Shidou.
"The Kuhou family... is finished."
Susanoo's low voice carried a trace of irritation he did not bother to hide.
Originally, he had intended for the Kuhou family to kidnap Kusanagi Shizuka and Mariya Hikaru, then use Shizuka as a hostage and Hikaru's identity as the Calamity-Purging Shrine Maiden to undo the seal on the Heretic God Sun Wukong.
But they had failed to seize the hostages, and the shrine maiden plan had also collapsed. Under Akuto's watchful eye, how was he supposed to release Heretic God Sun Wukong now?
"The result is already clear. Takemikazuchi failed to last even ten minutes. Now we need to discuss what it means to leave Akuto in Japan."
Susanoo paused, his cloudy gaze sweeping over Tenkai before finally settling on the silent princess.
"Princess. Monk General. You've both heard the report. As for Akuto, and whether he should be allowed to remain in Japan, I need your opinions."
If Akuto had been nothing more than a newly risen Godslayer, Susanoo would not have been this troubled.
What truly unsettled him was the fact that Akuto bore the Authority of a powerful Earth Mother Goddess.
If Akuto ever used that power in prolonged battle, it might awaken the true threat sealed beneath heaven and earth - the King at the End.
Because of the danger of rousing the Last King, Susanoo had been weighing whether he should forcefully act and expel Akuto from Japan, even if it came at a cost.
The Authority Akuto had inherited from Athena carried a dragon-serpent aura so intense it made even Susanoo uneasy.
To the slumbering Last King, such a presence would be the strongest possible provocation.
For hundreds of years, whenever a powerful dragon-serpent aura appeared, Susanoo had used the Calamity-Purging Shrine Maiden to release Heretic God Sun Wukong and send him forth to oppose it.
But now...
The Kuhou family had proven themselves incapable of even controlling the shrine maiden. A useless family like that deserved to be destroyed.
...
In truth, Susanoo was being unfair.
The Kuhou family had already done everything within their power.
But unlike Shizuka, who had no talent for sorcery, Mariya Hikaru had received her own "gift" from Akuto as well.
After obtaining the colosseum pillar, Hikaru had spent time studying how to use it. The moment she realized she was in danger, she activated it directly, unleashing a vibration that returned all nearby enemies to the atomic state. It was entirely different from the automatic defense Shizuka had triggered in a desperate emergency.
So it was not that the Kuhou family had failed to try.
It was simply that their enemy had been far too strong.
...
"Namu Amida Butsu."
Tenkai softly intoned the Buddha's name, his shriveled fingers moving the prayer beads that had appeared in his hand at some unknown moment, producing a faint rasping sound. He raised his eyelids, and beneath those clouded eyes burned a stern resolve.
"Lord Susanoo is correct. This boy bears the authority of the Earth Mother Goddess, and his dragon-serpent aura reaches the heavens. He is nothing less than the fuse that could ignite calamity. This land of Japan bears both the Great Law of the Covenant and the seal of the Last King. It is already balanced on the edge of disaster. How can we permit such a variable to remain?"
The black-robed mage leaned forward slightly, his tone decisive.
"To hesitate in a matter like this is to invite chaos. For the sake of the people, for the sake of preserving the protection maintained for hundreds of years, he must be expelled. And if necessary... before his wings are fully spread and his foundation fully secured... he must be dealt with entirely."
He did not finish the sentence outright, but the killing intent that followed was cold enough.
To him, Akuto's very existence represented the greatest threat to the seal upon the Last King. There was no room for even the slightest gamble.
"I think the same," Susanoo said. "Though I do not necessarily think he must be killed."
"He is Chinese, is he not? Then why not push him to return to China? Better yet, hint that he ought to marry Luo Hao, the Martial King of China."
"If he returns to his roots, then perhaps he will no longer remain in Japan."
Having said that, both men turned their eyes toward the girl who had remained silent the whole time - the princess with the glass-like eyes, Shidou.
At that moment, Princess Shidou sat quietly upon her cushion, like a peerless beauty stepped straight out of a Heian painting.
(End of Chapter)
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