Chapter 40: Nana's Bizarre Attitude.
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The moment they arrived at the front door, Momo couldn't wait to run inside. It looked like she planned to tell Lala about taking Nana to the school infirmary for a physical checkup next week.
Nana, however, wasn't about to stand by and watch her dash in so smoothly. Without a second thought, she reached out from behind and grabbed Momo's tail floating in mid-air.
"Eek~~~!"
A bone-melting, sweet gasp burst from Momo's lips, scaring Nana so much that she shuddered and instinctively let go.
"Haha! Trying to use the tail-grabbing trick on me won't work!" Momo turned her head, flushed, and pulled a funny face, before darting inside like a nimble rabbit.
"You two really love playing around. Don't tell me you had no friends at all back in the palace?" Kihara remarked.
Nana turned around in surprise, looking at Kihara. "You actually guessed that too?"
"Because I know a pair of sisters who love and fight each other every single day. The dynamic between them is quite similar to yours."
"Not having friends wasn't Momo's or my fault, though. It was all because Father worried we'd be led astray by others, so he didn't allow anyone our age to come near us."
Saying that, a trace of worry flickered in her eyes. Pretending not to care, she asked casually, "Brother-in-law, you won't get worried about getting beaten up by Father after hearing this and refuse to play games with me, right?"
Kihara smiled, ruffling her pink hair into a messy bundle. "How could I? Not to brag, but even if your father came here himself, I wouldn't be afraid."
"Father is the strongest warrior in the galaxy... How could you not be afraid?" After muttering her quiet complaint, Nana finally remembered the large hand still playing tricks on her head. She quickly swatted it away and shot him a glare. "Then it's a promise! When I ask you to play games later, you aren't allowed to refuse!"
"No problem."
"YES!"
Successfully securing Kihara's promise to play games with her, Nana pumped her small fist in excitement. Turning around, she prepared to face whatever trap Momo had set for her inside, only to find four pairs of sparkling eyes staring at her through the crack of the door.
She could even hear their quiet whispers.
"I told you Nana has already accepted brother-in-law. She's already clinging to him to play video games."
"That's wonderful! You guys like Kihara too! Hehehe... Now we don't have to worry about Father disagreeing. After all, the three of us sisters count as three votes!"
"Ugh..." A bright red Nana squeezed a meaningless sound out from her throat.
"Ugh?"
"AHHHH!!" Pushed to the absolute peak of embarrassment, she covered her face, leaped right over the second-floor balcony, and fled into the attic.
Afterward, Momo pushed the door open with a sheepish chuckle, stepping out together with the other girls.
"Oh dear... It seems our peeping was caught."
"No, no, no, we weren't hiding ourselves at all, okay?" Anna Yanami complained while munching on a hamburger. Walking up to Kihara, she handed him a burger and patted his chest approvingly. "Good job! This burger is your reward."
Momo had already told them about how he saved Nana at the film set, but she omitted the part about artificial respiration.
Otherwise, Anna would definitely not be this calm.
Kihara unbuttoned the wrapper first to check the vegetables inside. Then, using an unmerciful hand, he pinched her chubby cheeks. "I bet you realized there are vegetables inside you dislike, so you passed it to me, right?"
"Sor... sorry..." She pitifully held out her half-eaten burger. "How about... you eat this one instead..."
"Only kids choose—adults take both!"
With lightning-fast speed, he snatched the burger right out of Anna's hand, laughing out loud as he ran into the house. Before even reaching the entryway, he had already devoured half the burger.
Robbed of her food, Old Eight stared blankly at her empty right hand. Immediately after, a dark aura flared behind her, her hair fluttering without any wind. Letting out a furious roar, she gave chase.
"MY HAMBURGER!! YOU DAMN BLOCKHEAD!!!"
The rest of the girls watched their interaction, exchanged smiles, and followed them into the house.
When they finally tracked down Kihara and Anna, she was sitting on top of him, unleashing seemingly harmless pink fists that struck his chest with sonic-boom thuds, producing heart-stopping muffled bangs.
"Where is my hamburger?! I'm asking you, where is my hamburger?!"
"I ate it!"
That simple response made her face flush red. She decisively forced Kihara's mouth open, leaning her face close to peek straight down his throat. "Let me see how far down it went!"
"My... Miss Yanami is truly something else when it comes to food... totally ferocious."
Momo, who had been raised with strict court etiquette, found it hard to imagine a girl making such an unseemly move. But remembering they were childhood friends, she figured this kind of behavior between them was likely similar to her bickering with Nana, and let it go.
In fact, Anna had never even made it onto Momo's watch list. In Momo's view, despite holding the ultimate advantage of being a childhood friend, Anna hadn't managed to become Kihara's girlfriend over the past decade.
Apart from not wanting to date him, she was simply too hopeless to know how to win a boy over.
She didn't even understand a truth as simple as: a boy pursuing a girl is like crossing a mountain, while a girl pursuing a boy is as thin as paper. Even if Anna tried to be a thieving cat later on, Momo didn't think she posed any real threat.
Just a mere foodie—not worth mentioning!
In the end, Sanae stepped forward to pull Anna off Kihara. "Alright, alright, it's just a hamburger. He saved Nana today, so consider it his reward. We can just order another one."
"Wahhh~ Sanae, I want to eat the hamburger you make!"
"Sure thing. Come on, let me take you to the kitchen."
"Phew~ A foodie robbed of her food really shouldn't be underestimated."
Kihara dusted off his clothes as he stood up. Before he could say anything else, Lala dove into his arms with overwhelming warmth and sweet fragrance, wrapping her arms around his neck as she tiptoed to nuzzle her cheek affectionately against his.
"Kihara, thank you so much for saving Nana! She's a very important family member and sister to me. As a reward, you can make one wish to me, and I will fulfill it no matter what—in the name of the First Princess of Deviluke!"
"NO WAY!!" x2
Two firm, resolute voices rang out at the exact same time.
"Whoa, Nana... and Anna, why do you disagree?" Lala blinked her emerald eyes in confusion, a giant question mark popping up above her head.
"Because... because the blockhead is a boy! If you give out a condition like that so casually, what if it turns him bad?!" Anna cooked up a clumsy excuse on the spot.
Nana nodded in strong agreement. "Y-Yeah! How long have you two even been together, big sister? You can't give him such a huge reward all at once!"
"But I don't think Kihara would become like that..."
"Big sister, a reward like this is way too early. Why don't we swap it for a more suitable one for now? Right, Anna?"
"Mmhmm!"
"Alright then..."
Standing to the side, both Sanae and Momo noticed that Nana's attitude was a bit strange. Logically speaking, she had no reason to stop Lala from expressing her gratitude.
Could it be...
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Thank you for reading.