“…”
“Sakura.”
“…”
“Sakura?”
“…”
“Sakura!!!”
“Ah, oh, huh?”
The dazed Akiba Sakura snapped back to her senses and looked around frantically.
“What’s wrong? What happened?”
“…”
After scanning the room, Sakura remembered she was currently eating at the dining table at home.
“This child, it’s not often you eat at home, so why are you always spacing out?”
Akiha Masayuki looked at Sakura with doubt and worry in his eyes.
“Is the study pressure too much lately? Do you want to go fishing with Dad for a while?”
“Eh—really? I think that sounds great!”
“Your dad is a fishing master, you know. The fish I’ve caught are more than the hairs on your mother’s head—ow!”
“Sakura’s father, really, are you planning to corrupt Sakura again?”
Akiha Shiori walked over carrying a plate of fragrant, crispy fried fish.
Hearing Akiha Masayuki “luring” their daughter away, she didn’t hesitate to elbow the back of his head.
‘Man!’
“What do you mean, corrupting her!”
Akiha Masayuki rubbed the back of his head dramatically while looking at his wife with a simple, honest smile.
“Isn’t it because I haven’t seen our daughter at the table in so long and missed her dearly? Then I noticed she’s always dazing off lately… So I worried my precious daughter had too much study pressure. I thought fishing would be an excellent choice.”
“Even so, you can’t go fishing. It’s too dangerous —”
Akiha Shiori let out a huff from her nose, then slowly placed the fried fish on the table and wiped her hands on her apron.
“If you lose your footing and fall into the water, it’s whatever. But if Sakura falls in, you’d better expect two stabs from me!”
The beautiful woman’s gentle and pleasant voice turned gloomy at that moment, sending a chill down the back of Akiha Masayuki’s head —
‘There it is! Mom’s “Double-faced Asura” mode!’
Seeing the faint red light in Akiha Shiori’s eyes, Sakura felt as if a demon mask was overlapping with her mother’s face.
‘Sometimes I really have to admire Dad. He can actually make my usually refined and elegant Mom transform into an Asura in an instant. That’s amazing!’
Sakura sincerely admired her father.
Two things alone showed that her father definitely had some skills — first, the ability to easily piss off Akiha Shiori, and second, the fact that he pissed off Akiha Shiori every day but hadn’t been taken out by those two stabs yet.
“I… I was just saying. Since you won’t let our precious daughter go, I won’t mention it again, okay?”
Seeing things taking a turn for the worse, Akiha Masayuki’s forehead began to break out in a sweat.
“When do you not say that? I think I should give you one stab today to make sure you remember it in the future.”
At some point, Akiha Shiori had pulled out a deboning knife from somewhere behind her, looking at Akiha Masayuki with a “kind” expression.
“!”
Seeing the cold glint of the small knife in Akiha Shiori’s hand, Akiha Masayuki immediately kicked his chair back and slid into a kneeling position in the corner of the living room to reflect on his actions.
‘That survival instinct…’
Her father’s personal example showed Sakura the radiance of “survival” that humanity emits when facing extreme danger.
She admired him even more in her heart.
“Hmph, are you full?”
Akiha Shiori crossed her arms and looked at the distant Akiha Masayuki facing the wall.
The small knife had disappeared.
“Of course not, my dear wife, I haven’t eaten a single bite…”
Just as Akiha Masayuki wanted to turn back and play the pity card, he saw the small knife Akiha Shiori had been holding embedded in the wall less than 30 centimeters from his face.
“I’m full.”
With a face full of despair, Akiha Masayuki turned back to the wall and continued his reflection.
“Not forcing you?”
“Not at all.”
“Good, good. Let’s eat, Sakura —”
Hearing Akiha Masayuki’s response, Akiha Shiori turned back and looked at Sakura with a gentle face —
“Your father is already full, so we don’t have to wait for him anymore.”
“…”
‘Talk about “full”…’
After silently mourning for Akiha Masayuki for one minute, Sakura picked up her rice bowl.
“Sakura, let me ask you something…”
However, at that moment, Akiha Shiori suddenly switched seats to sit next to Sakura and whispered:
“How did things go with Tsuguo later?”
Hearing this question, the corners of Sakura’s mouth curled up —
“Everything is going perfectly!”
“Oh?”
Akiha Shiori blinked her eyes and looked curiously at the proud Sakura:
“Does that mean…”
‘Already won him over? That was fast!’
“Yeah, I successfully got Tsuguo to agree to one thing —”
‘If that brat Aoi hadn’t come to mess things up, maybe the interaction would have been even richer. I just didn’t expect that girl to bring the shop assistant along to join the chaos.’
“Huh? Only one thing… Ha, well, that’s pretty good!”
Akiha Shiori smiled, then used her chopsticks to place a piece of fish in Sakura’s bowl.
“But you still need to be more mindful of Tsuguo’s feelings, okay? I suspect he’s been so cold to you since summer break because you used to play pranks on him all the time.”
“Mhm… maybe?”
Although Sakura responded that way, her heart thought otherwise.
‘I have a feeling Yuuma Tsugumu definitely didn’t become cold for those reasons.’
‘But it doesn’t matter —’
Sakura clenched her small pink fist and secretly cheered herself on —
‘Since he already agreed to take me to the Amusement Park, the next step is…’
The Amusement Park was a great helper for boosting feelings.
Naturally, Sakura planned to gain even more ground there.
‘No matter why he suddenly grew cold toward me, my next strong offensive will definitely — be too much for him to handle! Wahaha!’
“Ke ke ke ke ke ke ke ke…”
“……”
Seeing Sakura holding her rice bowl and laughing like an idiot, Akiha Shiori gave her a doting look and continued eating.
“Were you two — talking about a boy just now?”
Just then, Akiha Masayuki, who was still facing the wall in the corner, suddenly appeared like a ghost behind Akiha Shiori —
“Cough, cough, cough… You…”
Akiha Masayuki’s sudden appearance startled Akiha Shiori so much she nearly choked.
“Tell me, my precious daughter, is some bad boy harassing you? Don’t be afraid. Dad will take a baseball bat to his house right now and…”
Before he could finish, Akiha Masayuki’s eyes rolled back, and he collapsed with foam at his mouth.
A large, smoking bump was slowly rising on his head.
“When it’s time to eat, eat. Why is there so much talk?”
Akiha Shiori calmly wiped her fist with the tablecloth, then gave Sakura a smile —
“Sakura, let’s keep eating. Ignore him.”
“Uh… okay!”
Sakura quickly lowered her head and started eating.
‘So… will my future life with Yuuma Tsugumu be like this too?’
Sakura peeked at Akiha Masayuki lying on the floor, then at the calm and composed Akiha Shiori.
‘If I can order Tsuguo around as easily as Mom orders Dad…’
However, Sakura soon shook her head to dispel such thoughts —
‘No! He’s just a Victim I’ll discard at any time. Regardless, it’s unlikely we’ll ever reach the point of walking together through life… right?’
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See you’re already thinking of your future life together, you’re cooked.