In order to prevent the restless kitty thief's heart from dying, trying to grasp the future...
Kaito beckoned with his left hand, and in the next second, the clothes hanging not far away floated over. Just like a masked rider transforming in a tokusatsu show, in the blink of an eye, they were fully and completely worn on his body.
The silver-haired girl in the bathtub saw this scene, and her little mouth couldn't help but open into an exaggerated "O" shape.
"So amazing!"
'Is it sorcery? Or magic?'
kitty's curiosity was also very strong, very eager to figure out the principle behind it.
Before she could excitedly pounce forward, she was interrupted in advance by Kaito who had already anticipated it.
"Curious?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Then be good and obedient, and take your bath properly."
Kaito crossed his arms, speaking at ease, "Judging by your behavior, I'll consider whether to satisfy your curiosity."
———
Finally dealing with the clingy kitty, he returned to the bedroom. Just as he stood at the door, Kaito faintly heard a burst of intense gunfire from inside the room.
Among them, there was faintly also a pleasant female voice, seemingly explaining something.
"Mm? Master, you're finally back?"
Opening the door, the room didn't have the lights on, and the curtains were tightly drawn, appearing somewhat dim. Only the computer screen not far away glowed with a faint blue light, preventing the room from being pitch black.
Kumiko, as usual, greeted him but didn't even turn her head, her eyes still fixed on the screen in front of her.
Kaito didn't pay much attention, but seeing her so obsessed, he casually glanced at the screen.
Just an ordinary game screen, it seemed to be one of the currently popular FPS online multiplayer games on the market. One could freely choose characters, each with different skills. Aside from the abundance of cheaters and the developers not being human, the gameplay was very engaging.
'However... wasn't Kumiko always uninterested in these shooting games?'
What she played the most on a regular basis, besides gacha mobile games, were fighting games and MOBA games. Why did she suddenly switch preferences today?
'Wait a minute.'
'In the lower right corner of the screen... Is that a Live2D animated avatar?'
Coupled with the pleasant female voice sounding from time to time, Kaito raised his eyebrow, 'Is this a livestream? Or a VTuber stream?'
He increasingly felt that Kumiko was diving deeper and deeper into the otaku path...
"Is Master also interested in Teacher Alter's stream?"
Seeing Kaito constantly looking this way, the young blade girl patted the empty spot beside her and very generously said, "Come sit together, this chair is quite big. If you get tired of watching, just sleep directly, it's fine."
"Although I don't know why, I always feel like you're saying weird things again…"
Kaito lightly tapped her little forehead, "Also, what do you mean by Teacher Alter?"
"Always hitting my head... if I become stupid in the future, it's definitely Master's fault…", Kumiko couldn't help but mutter quietly, then pointed at the screen and said proudly, "It's this! This one!"
The virtual streamer on screen had the ID [Alto Otogi Official], with a very intellectual-looking black-haired big sister avatar. She had just pulled off a cool four-kill play, prompting a flood of bullet comments like:
[The most unfamiliar episode ever!]
[She's not even pretending now?]
[So boring, main account please unplug the USB.]
Although the number of viewers wasn't high, the interaction was very lively.
The black-haired big sister Live2D in the lower right corner moved a bit. Although bombarded by the viewers' doubts, she clearly didn't take it to heart and smugly said: ["Wanted to get along with you all as a newbie, but what I got in return was ridicule and contempt…"]
["Now the main account's done pretending! I'm revealing my cards!"]
["This four-kill proves my true strength!"]
["Where are the haters in the chat? Especially that Void Snorlax. You're the one always mocking the main account for being bad, right? How do you explain this four-kill? Say something!"]
Full of strong resentment.
However, the voice was quite pleasant. Though to Kaito, it sounded slightly unnatural, likely due to a voice changer.
Also, he wasn't sure if it was just his imagination.
Even with the voice changer's cover, he still felt like he had heard this voice somewhere before.
Before he could think further, Kumiko was already tugging at his sleeve in excitement, pointing at the screen and saying, "It's starting, it's starting!"
Kaito refocused on the screen, only to see the streamer had already exited the game interface and was clearing her throat, speaking seriously, ["Alright, alright, Lord Main Account is generous and forgives your past disrespect. Anyway, now it's time for the weekly emotional counseling segment... Let's welcome today's victim... ahem, I mean, today's letter sender to open mic and speak."]
'Emotional counseling time?'
Kaito was both amused and exasperated, "Little kids nowadays, always watching such nonsense?"
At most, this young blade spirit hadn't even been born for a full month. What kind of emotional issues could she possibly need counseling for?
"I am not a little kid," Kumiko puffed her cheeks and floated up, stopping only when she hovered a head above Kaito. Then she seriously declared, "If we go by age, I am at least five hundred years old this year. Already an old woman with one foot in the grave!"
"Five hundred years old is Murakumomaru's age, not yours."
Kaito couldn't hold back and knocked her on the head again, "Also, what do you mean one foot in the grave? Who taught you to misuse idioms like this?"
"Teacher Alter... no no!"
Kumiko reflexively covered her head, then quickly corrected herself, "Murakumomaru is me, and I am Murakumomaru. Murakumomaru's age naturally is my age too, so me being five hundred years old is perfectly reasonable!"
The logic wasn't wrong.
But the former Murakumomaru had no sentience, she was merely a pure weapon. Even if she had existed for five hundred years, her entire perception of the world only came from the past half month.
Seeing that this annoying master was unmoved and still treated her like a clueless little child, Kumiko unhappily pouted.
As a sword spirit, she didn't understand many things, like what "liking" meant, or what "love" was.
She had once secretly sent a private message to Teacher Alter's account, asking some emotional questions, such as what liking was, and how one expresses love for someone...
Not only did the other party not ignore her DM, they even replied patiently: Liking someone means wanting to be with him/her for a lifetime.
Inspired by this, she thought: if she and Master were to be together for a lifetime, then naturally this feeling must be "liking."
Because of this, she regarded the [Alto Otogi Official] account as a teacher and learned many things from her emotional mini-classes.
Teacher Alter once said, the most troublesome situation between a boy and a girl is when one party sees the other as a child that needs taking care of.
Because seeing someone as needing care, one will subconsciously place themselves in the elder's role, and thus won't develop strange or romantic thoughts.
And right now, Master clearly saw her this way.
'Damn it...'
The little blade girl couldn't help but bite her finger, 'This is a bit tricky...'
[T/N: 'Alto Otogi' is from Bocchi]
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