Tokyo. Chiyoda Ward.
The district was the exclusive enclave of the capital's ruling elite. So while Makoto Nishikado had torn through central Tokyo not long ago, several months of reconstruction had restored the area to roughly sixty percent of its former glory, making it one of the fastest-recovering wards in the city.
Inside a mansion so lavish you couldn't afford it in this lifetime or the next, Kotonoha Katsura opened her eyes after what felt like an eternity of unconsciousness, her gaze unfocused and lost. Her first transformation had left her disoriented.
"Where am I..."
Before she could sit up, a shriek erupted from downstairs.
"Slash! Sheathe! Iai! Helm Breaker!"
She recognized the voice. Nayuta, if she remembered right. The child Makoto had brought back from that other world.
Kotonoha dragged herself to the first floor on unsteady legs, arriving just in time for another outburst.
"It's empty! Why is this stupid thing attacking NOW?!"
On the screen, a black dragon's fire breath launched Nayuta's character straight onto the felyne cart.
"Oh, you're awake!" Kokoro set down her controller and scurried over on short legs to pull her sister inside, then called toward the living room. "Big Bro Makoto, she's up!"
Kotonoha looked at Makoto Nishikado, who sat with Nayuta in his lap, and asked in a daze, "Makoto, I..."
"Don't worry. You'll get used to it soon."
He rose to his feet. "When you have time, come by the Suzuki estate. Train with Megumi and the others. Reze can show you the ropes too."
Kotonoha fidgeted. "Are you sure it's okay to give me something that powerful? Utaha and the others..."
"I already talked to them. They weren't a good fit, and there'll be plenty of chances for stronger abilities down the road." He waved it off. "Anyway, we're heading out."
He scooped up Nayuta and made for the door.
"Already?" Kotonoha blinked. She'd only just woken up.
Kokoro rushed to block his path. "Big Bro Makoto, at least stay for dinner!"
She'd kept him and Nayuta here this long specifically so her sister could wake up and have time with him. All that effort, about to walk out the door.
"Can't. Everyone's waiting at home. This is our first dinner back in the real world."
Kokoro's face fell. She didn't understand what "back in the real world" meant, but one thing was clear enough: he wasn't staying tonight.
"I'll walk you out."
The three of them moved to the entryway. Kotonoha watched from behind as the two put on their shoes, words caught somewhere between her chest and her throat. Only when Makoto's hand reached for the door did she find her voice.
"When Yu Ishigami's plan kicks off... let me help."
He glanced back at her, smiled, and gave a small nod. Then he and Nayuta were gone.
Kotonoha stood alone in the empty entryway, one hand pressed against the left side of her chest, lost in thoughts she couldn't name.
Outside, Makoto Nishikado carried Nayuta piggyback toward the Suzuki estate.
"Bet you anything that girl wants to sleep with you."
Nayuta's chin rested on his shoulder.
He rolled his eyes. "Can you not talk like that? You're a little girl."
"Hey, are you gonna sleep with me someday?"
"Shut it! You want this book to get axed?!"
That evening.
Following the banquet they'd held in the Chainsaw Man world, the Suzuki estate hosted another grand feast to celebrate their return to reality. The Suzukis had no idea why everyone was in such high spirits, but if Makoto Nishikado wanted a party, refusing wasn't an option. The moment they showed even a flicker of reluctance, the Tokugawa and Shinomiya conglomerates would be lining up to take their place.
At the banquet, Suzuki Shiro spotted several unfamiliar faces. Alice Nakiri he recognized, of course, being Senzaemon Nakiri's granddaughter. But Nayuta, Reze, and a few others were complete strangers. Commoners, probably. If any of them were heiresses to a major corporation, he'd know.
And then there was...
"Hey! Old man! Hook me up with some female dogs! Young, untouched ones!"
Suzuki looked around. Who the hell was talking to him?
"Are you deaf?! Down here!"
He looked down.
A toy poodle with an absurdly human expression was yapping up at him, its beady eyes burning with indignation.
"Hurry it up! Get me a few lady dogs. Young ones!"
Suzuki had accepted that the world now belonged to superhumans, but this still short-circuited his brain for a solid three seconds.
The freaks in this household keep multiplying.
The Suzuki estate's bathroom had been renovated into an open-air hot spring, and as everyone knows, you wash before you soak.
Makoto Nishikado's pre-soak routine, however, was somewhat unconventional.
Alice and Reze knelt before him, tongues working him over in tandem, and he let his eyes drift shut in contentment. This was it. Only after enduring the horrors and white-knuckle battles of a supernatural world could you truly savor the simple pleasures of ordinary life.
A soft warmth pressed against his back. He shifted his gaze to find Utaha draped over him from behind, arms looped around his neck, delivering her personal body-wash service.
Someone seized his arm. He turned, and Megumi's lips filled his vision before he could react.
Seconds later, another pair of hands cupped his face and redirected it to the opposite side. Airi's mouth closed on his.
Across the washing area, the group led by Yui Yuigahama, freshly scrubbed and ready to enter the spring, froze mid-step at the spectacle.
This was... not exactly subtle, was it? Should they feel flattered by the complete lack of modesty, or insulted?
"Hey, hey... want to jump in too?" Hina's eyes glittered with mischief.
They might have returned to their sixteen-year-old bodies, but psychologically every one of them was a woman in her twenties or thirties who'd been waiting long enough.
Even Yumiko, proud as she was, couldn't deny the thought had crossed her mind. But one look at the tangle of limbs threatening to swallow Makoto whole, and she forced the desire back down. She slipped into the pool with her chin held high.
"A-as if I'd want my first time with that many other women around!"
Because no matter how much they'd accepted Makoto having other women, a girl's first time still meant something. Not here. Not like this.
Yui and Hina exchanged a glance. She had a point. They tore their eyes away from the spectacle and sank into the pool.
But as the sounds from the other side grew louder and more urgent, three pairs of hands beneath the steaming water began drifting lower all on their own.
Chapter 124 (Part 2) - Yukino: You're Stealing My Mom Now?!
A few mornings later.
The normie trio woke in their shared room. Despite moving into the Suzuki estate, they'd kept their old arrangement as roommates, all three in one space.
"Yui, where are you sneaking off to this early?"
Yumiko watched Yui Yuigahama tiptoe toward the door.
"...?!"
Bun flinched, spinning around with a brittle laugh. "N-nowhere! Just... the bathroom."
Yumiko glanced pointedly at the right side of the room. Their private bathroom. Every suite in the Suzuki estate came equipped with its own bath and toilet. No reason to leave.
"Yui, you forgot something."
Hina sat up in bed and held out a small packet.
A condom.
"Gyaah!"
Yui's face went nuclear. She slapped at her pajama pocket. Empty.
"Sneaking off without us? That's cold." Hina grinned.
Yui stared at the floor, face hot enough to boil water, wishing the hardwood would open up and swallow her whole.
Yumiko let out a long, steadying breath. "Alright. Here's the order: Yui goes first. Hina second. I'm last. Sound fair?"
Both girls stared at her, stunned. Yumiko pressed on, voice cracking. "W-we all want the same thing, right? So let's go together. But we're taking turns. Turns, got it? Not... all at once."
Queuing up, no less. Like he was a deli counter. Then again, at least he was the one behind the counter.
On the way there, Yui's cheeks still hadn't cooled. "Um... Yumiko? W-why am I first?"
"Because you like him the most. Out of the three of us."
Yumiko said it like it was obvious.
Honestly, what she and Hina felt for Makoto Nishikado was less love and more the gravitational pull that powerful men exerted on women in this country: a mix of submission and dependence. That accounted for the lion's share of their feelings, at least.
They'd moved into the Suzuki estate alongside Utaha and the rest, families in tow, but in the household hierarchy, they occupied the bottom rung.
Because even among the women Makoto had brought under his roof, there was a pecking order.
The estate's servants could read at a glance which women their master favored and which he kept at arm's length. They adjusted their behavior accordingly.
If Megumi Kato's parents asked a maid where the restroom was, they'd receive a deep bow and a personal escort.
If Yumiko or Hina's parents asked the same question, they'd get something closer to "Can't you see I'm busy?" or "Find it yourself."
A slight exaggeration, perhaps. But only slight.
And when it came to combat ability, Yumiko was nothing special. Hina had never even officially become a genin.
The only card they had left to play was themselves.
Yui was different. After years of living side by side, both girls could see it plain as day: she was genuinely in love with Makoto. So she deserved to go first.
Called out by her best friends, Yui's blush deepened. She didn't argue.
The three of them arrived at Makoto's door and exchanged glances, each swallowing hard.
Several seconds ticked by. Then Yumiko, who might not have been the strongest of the three but was always the first to step forward when it mattered, moved to the door and knocked.
"Um... excuse me, is Lord Makoto awake?"
Click.
The door swung open on its own.
Yumiko and Hina locked eyes. In perfect sync, four hands planted on Yui's back and shoved.
"Kyaa!"
Bun stumbled through the doorway. The door slammed shut behind her.
"U-um, M-Makoto, I... I came to..."
She stood there scratching her cheek, unable to string together a complete sentence.
"Oh. Sorry, didn't know it was you."
His voice cut through her stammering. Yui blinked, instinctively looking up.
"Wait. You probably shouldn't..."
Too late. There before Makoto, back turned to Yui, the Akizuki sisters' mother, Kayoko, knelt with her head dipping and rising in a steady rhythm.
Yui's brain crashed.
If Airi or Marina had been kneeling there, or even Utaha, or Chika Fujiwara whom she'd only met yesterday, she wouldn't have batted an eye. But their mother? That floored her.
Makoto scratched his head. "I thought it was Ayano, so I opened up. She's usually the one who comes by in the mornings."
His routine had settled into a pattern over the past few days: the younger women at night, the older women in the morning. Wives and mothers ran on early schedules from years of adult life, while teenagers liked to sleep in. So mornings belonged to the married set.
Being this relaxed since returning to reality was no excuse for opening the door without checking. Sloppy.
Right on cue, the voice of the very woman he'd mentioned drifted through from the hallway.
"Yumiko, Hina. What are you two doing here?"
Mrs. Yukinoshita regarded the two girls guarding the door with a sharp frown. She hadn't paid them much attention before, but thirteen years of coexistence in the Chainsaw Man world had made them familiar enough.
Yumiko and Hina blanked.
"A-Auntie Ayano, um, we were just..."
Neither could figure out what to say. They could hardly explain that their best friend was inside experiencing her sacred first time and they were standing watch.
"If you have no business here, move along. Makoto and I have important matters to discuss." Mrs. Yukinoshita's expression radiated authority. No one would doubt for a second that she was here to negotiate a billion-yen contract.
Hina tried to hold her ground. "B-but..."
"Hm?"
"S-sorry! We're going!"
One look, and Yumiko seized her friend's wrist and fled.
Inside the room, Yui heard the whole thing and nearly cried.
Some best friends you are!
The door opened again. Mrs. Yukinoshita stepped inside and, before she'd even kicked off her shoes, began loosening the sash of her kimono, her composed mask dissolving into something hungry and eager.
"Makoto, I'm here to..."
She looked up and met Yui's devastated stare.
The two of them, aunt and niece in spirit after thirteen years together in the Chainsaw Man world, stood gaping at each other in frozen silence.
"A-Auntie Ayano, you... you're here to..."
Yui's worldview cracked open a little wider.
Kayoko Akizuki being here, she could process. But Ayano Yukinoshita? The Yukinoshita sisters' mother? In Yui's mind, Mrs. Yukinoshita had always been the picture of dignity and severity. A stern matriarch who tolerated no nonsense. And now she was standing in the doorway with her kimono half undone and that look on her face...
Shame crashed over Mrs. Yukinoshita like a wave, the same mortification she'd felt years ago when her own daughters had confronted her. She buried her face in both hands. "D-don't say it, Yui..."
A stifled gasp from Kayoko pulled both women's attention back across the room. Wet, rhythmic sounds filled the brief silence.
Makoto exhaled slowly, then beckoned. "Come on in, Ayano." He looked at Yui. "And Bun, I can guess why you showed up this morning."
Yui shuffled to his side, face scarlet. When his arm circled her waist, her whole body went taut as a wire.
"Relax."
He turned to Mrs. Yukinoshita while keeping Yui close. "Ayano, you and Bun got along well over there, didn't you? Why don't you show her how it's done."
Pride bloomed across Mrs. Yukinoshita's face, and she spoke in a voice softer than anything her own daughters had ever heard from her. "Come here, Yui. Eyes on me. Auntie will teach you."
"Mmph..."
Yui's face hit a temperature that shouldn't have been biologically possible.
This was supposed to be just me and Makoto. How did it turn into a group lesson?
Several days had passed since their return from the Chainsaw Man world.
After long deliberation, the Yukinoshita sisters decided to visit the Suzuki estate and have a proper conversation with their mother. It had been over a decade since they'd truly talked. Not argued, not sniped at each other from across a room. Talked.
Haruno and Yukino were torn, but in the end, neither could sever the bond entirely.
A maid informed them that Mrs. Yukinoshita had gone to visit Lord Makoto.
Both sisters knew exactly what that meant.
They'd learned the truth thirteen years ago, but hearing it confirmed again still drained the color from their faces.
"Let's wait." Haruno squeezed her sister's hand.
Yukino said nothing, sitting rigid on the sofa with her head bowed.
Two hours crawled by.
Their mother still hadn't returned.
The sisters stared at each other in disbelief. Makoto's stamina aside, their mother was an ordinary woman. No abilities, no enhancements. How was she still in there?
"She's not going to die in there, is she?" Haruno swallowed hard.
"I'm going to check."
Yukino couldn't sit any longer. Accidents had befallen other players' families: Alice Nakiri's relatives, Eriri's parents, Shinichi Kudo. She refused to let the same thing happen here, no matter how fractured her relationship with their mother had become.
Haruno hurried after her. She trusted that over a decade in another world had tempered Yukino's tongue, but it was better to be safe.
When the Yukinoshita sisters reached Makoto's door, they heard their mother's voice. Gentle. Patient. A tone neither of them had ever heard before.
"Good, Yui, just like that. Easy now, don't rush. Deep breaths. A little dizziness is normal..."
"Mmm... Mom, it hurts..."
Yui's small, strained voice followed.
Yukino's composure detonated.
You're stealing my mom now?!
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