Next Target, 400PS!
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[I'll be there in a couple of days!]
Not long after, Kai's reply arrived, bringing a radiant smile to Sayuri Sawamura's face.
[Okay!]
She typed a single word in response and put her phone away. Perhaps sensing that Kai was currently occupied, she refrained from bothering him further.
"Hmm~"
Humming a cheerful little tune, she happily went back to her chores.
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Meanwhile, on Kai's end.
Shortly after he put his phone away, Shizuka Hiratsuka's supercar pulled up outside a sprawling, detached villa.
Although she wasn't a corporate heiress, Shizuka's father was the fearsome boss of the Hiratsuka-gumi—a renowned yakuza syndicate. In a very real sense, Shizuka was a real Yakuza Princess.
Not only did she drive a supercar, but the neighborhood she lived in was a high-end, very expensive villa district.
"Didn't we agree to go to a hotel?" Looking at the villa, Kai turned to Shizuka with mild curiosity.
"I just feel like hotels aren't very safe." Since she lived alone, Shizuka much preferred her own home to a hotel. It felt way more comfortable.
"Alright then." Kai naturally had no objections. It was the perfect opportunity to check out Shizuka's place anyway. "I'm not going to walk into a mountain of empty beer bottles, am I?"
After all, according to the anime, Shizuka was notoriously hopeless at domestic chores, especially cleaning.
"OF COURSE NOT!"
His comment made Shizuka blush and instinctively snap back in defense.
Thank goodness! She had hired a cleaning service beforehand. If he had seen the state her house was usually in, her sophisticated image would have been utterly shattered!
Thinking about it, she couldn't help but mentally praise her own foresight.
"Sure, sure, whatever you say!"
"HMPH!"
Shizuka let out a soft hmph and walked ahead to unlock the front door.
However!
"Hmm?"
As she reached the entrance, she noticed the front door was slightly ajar. She froze in her tracks.
"No way."
Is someone inside? Aside from her parents occasionally dropping by, no one else ever came to her villa.
A bead of cold sweat ran down Shizuka's forehead.
WHY? WHY NOW OF ALL TIMES?? Her parents usually wouldn't visit for weeks or even months. Why did they have to show up the one time she brought Kai home??
If they saw her with a guy nearly ten years her junior... given their explosive tempers...
'Hiss!' She didn't even dare to imagine the consequences.
"What's wrong?" Seeing her suddenly stop dead in her tracks, Kai walked up and asked curiously, "The door is open, why aren't you going in?"
He reached out, pushed the door fully open, and prepared to step inside.
"WAIT!" Seeing this, Shizuka's eyes widened in panic, but it was already too late.
'Whatever, if I die, I die!' She squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for the grim reaper's scythe to fall.
"Kai-kun!"
As soon as the door swung open, a familiar cheerful voice called out, full of excitement.
The next second, a figure darted out from the villa and launched herself directly into Kai's arms!
He naturally raised his arms to catch her.
"Sonoko?" Shizuka, who had already accepted her impending doom, opened her eyes and completely froze when she saw who it was. "What are you doing here??"
"Why shouldn't I be here?"
Shizuka was bewildered, and Sonoko Machida seemed equally confused. Still wrapping her arms around Kai's neck, Sonoko tilted her head and looked at Shizuka with an inquisitive stare. It was as if she were wondering who else Shizuka had been expecting to see.
"I... no... wait, how did you even get in??"
Shizuka finally realized what was truly wrong. No one besides herself and her parents had the keys to this villa. Why did Sonoko Machida have a key to her house?
"Isn't it obvious?" Sonoko shrugged, looking entirely unfazed. "Knowing your habits, I figured you'd just hide a spare key under the welcome mat. I found it on the first try!"
"..."
Shizuka was rendered speechless. It was an airtight defense...
"But why did you even come over??" She hadn't notified Sonoko at all.
"I told her to," Kai interjected with a smirk. "Didn't you tell me you already let her know? So I just casually mentioned it to her. I only intended to ask her to bring some 'props', but I never expected this!"
Hearing this, Shizuka's face grew increasingly tense.
She knew she'd messed up. She'd lied to both Sonoko and Kai.
"W-Well, she's here now, isn't she?" Shizuka muttered, her voice tinged with resentment.
"You actually have the nerve to complain??"
Seeing Shizuka try to play the victim, Sonoko's temper flared.
"If it weren't for me, you never would have reconnected with Kai-kun in the first place! IT'S ALL THANKS TO ME! And how do you repay me? You try to hoard him all to yourself! Are we still best friends or not?? Have you forgotten who comforted you after all those failed blind dates??"
Initially, Shizuka had felt quite guilty. But hearing Sonoko bring up her traumatic history of failed blind dates made her instantly annoyed.
"Don't act like I haven't spent countless nights drinking with you when you were sad!" Shizuka retorted. "And since we are best friends, what's wrong with letting me have him all to myself just once?? You've had him to yourself so many times already! I've never had a solo turn!"
Her guilt disappeared. The more she talked, the more justified she felt.
Confronted with such blatant shamelessness, Sonoko was at a loss for words. Fortunately, she knew Shizuka well, or she might have truly lost her temper.
"You're just too inexperienced. You clearly don't understand that true joy is only found when everyone plays together!"
"..."
'I'm sorry, but that is not something I want to understand!'
"Speaking of which, Kai-kun mentioned you brought some 'props'. What kind of props?"
Please don't let it be like the stuff she brought to the hotel last time.
Shizuka never would have imagined that a woman like Sonoko Machida would be into such flashy, wild toys.
"Don't worry. They are definitely things that will make you very, very happy!" Sonoko flashed a mysterious smile and wiggled her eyebrows at Shizuka.
Shizuka didn't say a word, but a deep, ominous sense of foreboding washed over her.
And very quickly, all her worst fears were realized.
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"YOU MANIAC! I... I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!"
Seeing Sonoko pull out a toy that looked very realistic and aim it at her... on the other side, Shizuka truly sensed murderous intent.
"Oh, come on, you can join in too in a minute."
"Get... GET AWAY FROM ME!"
Even Kai looked at Sonoko with a hint of mild surprise. He wasn't certain if this was her real character, but it was clear that Sonoko was becoming a very experienced and shameless veteran.
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Nearly two hours later, the fires of war finally began to subside.
Having a large villa definitely had its perks, particularly the massive, custom-built bathtub.
Kai leaned back against the edge, looking entirely relaxed and content. As for Shizuka and Sonoko, they were completely drained of energy, slumping bonelessly against his sides. They barely had the strength to twitch a finger.
"Kai-kun, do you remember Utako Kasumi?" Sonoko suddenly asked, as if recalling something important.
"Utako Kasumi? You mean Utaha Kasumigaoka?"
'Utako Kasumi' was Utaha Kasumigaoka's pen name.
Come to think of it, he hadn't contacted Utaha in a while. He couldn't help it—there were just far too many beautiful girls surrounding him right now.
But thinking back, while Utaha might not be the most conventionally 'beautiful' among the heroines, she was undoubtedly one of the most uniquely captivating.
"Right. I almost forgot you two have a senpai-kouhai relationship!" Sonoko nodded.
"Did something happen to her?"
"Nothing happened to her personally, but her book is in trouble..." Sonoko let out a frustrated sigh. Honestly, Utaha's prose was phenomenal—she was undeniably top-tier among rookie authors.
However, the genre of Koisuru Metronome was too niche, and combined with her rookie status, it was struggling to find an audience.
After all this time, its sales had barely scraped past the thousand-copy mark. At this rate, the cancellation of the second volume was virtually guaranteed.
Sonoko had tried her hardest to push it, but it hadn't made much of a difference.
"I see." Kai nodded in understanding.
It made perfect sense. In the anime, Utaha's book only succeeded because it was carried by Tomoya Aki's protagonist aura. But now? Tomoya Aki was long gone, and without him, Utaha's novel was probably doomed to cancellation.
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