Kaguya-sama: Love Is War wants me to turn myself in.

Pansy anxiously bit her lower lip and couldn't help but look at Natsuki Amamiya. For some reason, she had a feeling that the boy in front of her would have a solution.

"Eh?"

Pansy's eyes widened in surprise as she saw Natsuki Amamiya standing to the right of the flashlight, her body turned to the side, holding a baseball bat in both hands, striking a standard batting stance, and forcefully swinging it at empty air.

On the wall.

The shadow cast by the black baseball bat flew past and hit the shadow cat perfectly.

Suddenly, the shadow cat on the wall leaped up and darted into the darkness.

"home run."

Amamiya Natsuki nodded in satisfaction.

When I swung the bat just now, I clearly felt a subtle resistance in front of the bat, indicating that I had hit something unseen.

But the effect was minimal—if an ordinary cat got hit with a baseball bat, cat lovers' associations would immediately come knocking and send razor blades.

The shadow cat, however, seemed completely unaffected.

There may be injuries, but they are completely undetectable to humans.

"Yes, only a shadow can touch another shadow."

The pansy opened its eyes wide and realized what was happening.

Although the intelligence had been analyzed, the inertia of thinking prevented a timely and correct response.

"Get up quickly."

Shi Shou breathed a sigh of relief and quickly pulled the boy with the spiky hair away from the flashlight's beam.

"I almost died just now."

The boy with the spiky hair was pale and breathing rapidly, clearly severely frightened, with faint blood seeping from the bandage on his right hand.

Shadow Cats can harm human shadows and, through an incomprehensible mechanism, reflect the damage to the shadow onto the player's body.

"What should we do now?"

Shikimori frowned, her expression grave; the initial excitement of catching a cat with a trap had completely vanished.

If we don't catch the second shadow cat, then all our previous efforts will have been in vain.

"How about setting up another cardboard box trap?" the girl with braided pigtails suggested. "No cat should be able to resist a cardboard box, right?"

Kaguya Shinomiya nodded slightly and said:

"You can give it a try."

“But we only have one flashlight.” Shikimori frowned slightly. “There might be other flashlights hidden in the warehouse, but right now…”

“No,” Pansy said quickly, “there’s a second one, the one I took at the beginning.”

As the girl with the braided hair spoke, she turned to look at Amamiya Natsuki, recalling what had happened upstairs.

Was the reason I asked myself to "borrow" a flashlight earlier just for this?

Did this guy already know how to beat the game beforehand?

“Once bitten, twice shy. If Shadow Cat were intelligent, I don’t think that Cat Lady would necessarily fall for it,” Natsuki Amamiya said. “But let’s give it a try.”

"Going right now."

Shi Shou is very proactive, almost as much as Hai Meng.

"Wait a minute." Natsuki Amamiya raised her hand to stop her. "Let's reinforce the cardboard box first, so that the cat we caught doesn't escape."

Upon hearing this, the group hesitated.

With the lessons of the past right before their eyes, no one dares to easily enter the light now.

"I……"

Shiki took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and wanted to step forward.

"Let me do it."

At the crucial moment, Kaguya Shinomiya stepped forward without hesitation.

"Eh?"

Shikimori looked at Kaguya in surprise, but seeing her calm expression, and then at Amamiya Natsuki holding the baseball bat, he quickly realized what was going on.

It's not that she's not afraid of being attacked, but rather that she believes the boys around her can protect her...

"Shikimori."

Amamiya Natsuki looked at the pink-haired girl and called out.

"what happened?"

The pink-haired girl looked up at her.

“You guard the left, I’ll take care of the right.” Amamiya Natsuki reached out and pulled the pink-haired girl to a spot in front of the flashlight. “Remember, stand here and don’t move. Now swing the bamboo sword and master the shadow’s attack method and trajectory.”

"I see."

Shikimori took a deep breath, his expression serious, gripped the bamboo sword with both hands, and began practicing while looking at the wall.

Only after he had mastered the attack range of the shadow did he nod slightly: "That's enough."

Amamiya Natsuki looked at Kaguya and took out a few bricks from her game inventory:

"The task of reinforcing the cardboard boxes is now entrusted to you."

"Hey, why do you have a brick in your backpack?" the spiky-haired boy couldn't help but complain. "A normal person would just throw it away if they found something like that!"

Amamiya Natsuki sighed and handed the brick to Kaguya: "Then it's related to my previous game."

"what?"

"In Ukraine, a country where a comedian became president, the country stubbornly insisted on joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Coupled with soaring international fuel prices, an economic crisis swept the globe, many countries faced food crises, and a supervolcano erupted in a South Pacific island nation, causing a year without a summer. International tensions escalated rapidly, ultimately leading to a nuclear apocalypse..."

The boy with the spiky hair squinted and said, "Why does this sound so familiar?"

Amamiya Natsuki remained expressionless and continued:

"One hundred years after the nuclear apocalypse, I and a dog named Pace are scavenging for trash in the wasteland."

"Is this that famous game?" Pansy couldn't help but complain.

"In short, I developed a good habit of thrift and frugality in the wasteland." Amamiya Natsuki interlaced her fingers. "Even a brick can be used to hit someone."

"..."

Preparations were completed quickly.

Kaguya Shinomiya stepped forward to reinforce the trap.

Amamiya Natsuki stood guard on either side of Shinomiya Kaguya, one on the left and one on the right.

Another shadow cat appeared as expected and attacked Kaguya Shinomiya, but being prepared, each attack failed.

"Could we use this method to get through the corridor?"

Pansy suddenly offered a conjecture.

“It’s dangerous.” Kaguya Shinomiya shook her head. “There’s more than one light in the corridor.”

"...Yes."

If there's more than one light, then there will be more than one player's shadow, which will increase the difficulty of defending against attacks many times over.

Shigemori quickly replied:

"Let's set up the second trap."

The abandoned warehouse is very large.

To avoid the two flashlights interfering with each other, the players chose another corner to set up a trap, and soon a similar trap was successfully set up.

It's a pity it's useless.

The Shadow Cat, which was significantly larger, ignored the trap and didn't even attack when Kaguya Shinomiya stood under the light and used her body as bait.

“Two possibilities.” Kaguya Shinomiya frowned slightly. “One is that the shadow cat was scared, or the cat is intelligent and chose to weigh the pros and cons and lie in wait in the dark.”

Upon hearing this news, all the players frowned.

Due to limited resources, it's impossible to set up a better trap. The other shadow cat has clearly become smarter. How can we capture and imprison the cat?

"I figured out a way."

Amamiya Natsuki suddenly spoke, breaking the silence.

"any solution?"

Everyone looked over.

“Since that shadow cat is a living being with a certain level of intelligence, then it must have another weakness…” Amamiya Natsuki said slowly, “Let’s go back.”

Several players returned to the previous flashlight.

The trap, reinforced with bricks, cast an incredibly thick shadow, making it impossible for the cat inside to escape.

“Stray cats and dogs in the city will take care of their cubs.” Natsuki Amamiya held up one finger and spoke eloquently, “To put it simply… you could say it’s the love of a parent for their child, or maternal love.”

"you want……?"

Kaguya Shinomiya widened her eyes slightly, already guessing Natsuki Amamiya's thoughts.

“It’s simple.” Amamiya Natsuki stretched out her baseball bat, its shadow landing perfectly on the cardboard box trap. Looking at the large shadow cat faintly visible at the edge of the light, she took a deep breath and said:

"...Madam, you don't want our daughter to get hurt, do you?"

Chapter 215 I'm sorry, ma'am, we didn't mean to...

When the two shadow cats appeared on the wall at the same time, a prompt appeared in front of Natsuki Amamiya's eyes.

You've discovered two Shadow Cats; another useless biology encyclopedia entry has been unlocked.

Please do not harm the kittens in front of their mother; the consequences can be severe.

The prompt in front of me is crystal clear.