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

After paying the bill.

Amamiya Natsuki successfully acquired ownership of the koi, reached for the net next to the fish tank, scooped up the koi lying there in despair, and then walked out of the shop.

Seeing this, Lord Zhu Zhu quickly followed with small steps, not daring to stay in the shop alone.

A cold wind blows softly.

The sky grew increasingly dark.

As Natsuki Amamiya stepped out of the restaurant, the koi fish in her hand suddenly began to leap, and just seconds later, a girl appeared out of thin air.

It was Fujiwara Chika, who had just experienced the life of a lucky koi fish.

Amamiya Natsuki, quick-witted and agile, grabbed the Secretary and pulled him into her arms.

"I've actually turned back to normal?"

Fujiwara Chika looked confused and murmured.

“Of course it can be turned back,” said Natsuki Amamiya. “The food curse can be lifted as long as we leave the restaurant.”

Upon discovering that she had truly returned to being human, Fujiwara Chika burst into tears.

For some reason, my body suddenly turned into a fish and was thrown into a fish tank to be chosen by customers as ingredients. If I was unlucky, I would be made into sashimi.

I was so excited to finally see Natsuki Amamiya, but I couldn't speak and could only spit out a few small bubbles... It was a nightmare.

"Did you already know about me?"

Fujiwara Chika stretched out her arms and hugged Amamiya Natsuki's neck tightly, her voice full of grievance.

Amamiya Natsuki nodded and said:

"That's right, I spotted you as soon as I entered the store."

"Then you're going to eat me too!"

Fujiwara Chika felt even more aggrieved upon hearing this.

I never gave up, but when you came, you actually said you wanted to eat me.

despair.

Utterly desperate.

“We need to find a suitable reason,” Natsuki Amamiya said gently. “The manager is right here; I can’t just pick you up and run away, can I?”

A gust of cold wind blew by, and Fujiwara Chika couldn't help but shiver.

"Um..." Zhu Zhu, who had followed them out, coughed lightly and suggested, "Fujiwara-kun, why don't you put your clothes on first?"

"Other guests might come later."

"Eh?"

Fujiwara Chika was startled and looked down, whereupon her snow-white skin came into view.

"Ah ah ah ah ah--"

The pink-haired girl's face immediately turned red, and she quickly covered her chest with her hands, squatting down in a panic.

Turning from a koi fish back into a human was like going from hell to heaven. In the midst of this extreme joy and sorrow, I even forgot that I wasn't wearing any clothes. If Zhu Zhu hadn't reminded me, I wouldn't have realized it yet.

"...You're still looking!"

Fujiwara Chika tilted her pretty face up and couldn't help but blush and shout.

Amamiya Natsuki took off her coat and draped it over Fujiwara Chika's shoulders: "Do you have any spare clothes in your game backpack?"

"No."

Fujiwara Chika's pretty face flushed crimson, and she shook her head upon hearing this.

Only clothing produced in the game can be put into the game's inventory. Problematic clothing is rare, and I haven't been able to get it from blind boxes for so long.

Where is Zhu Zhu?

Natsuki Amamiya turned to look at the magical girl again.

"I'm sorry," Lady Zhu Zhu shook her head and whispered, "I didn't either."

Amamiya Natsuki pondered:

"Then take off your clothes..."

One sentence immediately made Lady Zhu puff out her pink cheeks and couldn't help but glare at him.

You actually made me take off my clothes and give them to other girls to wear... Don't you care that I'm exposed?!

"Don't bully Zhu Zhu." Fujiwara Chika clutched her chest and squatted on the ground. "Zhu Zhu's clothes are so small, I can't fit into them. Even if I could, I wouldn't agree to that kind of thing."

Amamiya Natsuki said:

"Where are your clothes?"

"The clothes should still be inside the restaurant..." Fujiwara Chika bit her lower lip, recounting her experience with a wronged expression.

The secretary was very lucky. After entering the instance, he did not immediately appear next to the ghost story, but instead appeared safely in a small park.

Unfortunately, she was the only one in the park.

Everyone else dispersed.

Without a cell phone, unable to contact anyone, and not knowing where everyone was, the whole town was deserted, eerily quiet, and the atmosphere was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.

“I was originally planning to stay put and wait for you to come to me.” Fujiwara Chika clutched her coat to cover her chest, her tone resentful. “But you didn’t react at all, so I figured you must be in danger and wanted to go to you to see if I could help.”

Amamiya Natsuki said:

"I've appeared with Lord Zhu Zhu and am trapped in the dream of the haunted house."

Since she couldn't sense the presence of the red string in her dream, she naturally couldn't respond to Natsuki Amamiya.

“That’s right.” Lady Zhu Zhu nodded. “I can testify… the first narration that played was about us.”

Fujiwara Chika continued:

"After I left the park, I was still wondering where to go when I suddenly saw two elderly men with gray hair walk into the restaurant. I felt that they were not bad people, so I went in to ask for directions."

"I don't know why, but when I smelled the aroma of the food, I suddenly had an irresistible urge to eat it," Fujiwara Chika said, her voice filled with confusion. "It was an uncontrollable feeling."

“Clearly, this is not an ordinary restaurant,” Natsuki Amamiya analyzed. “There might be some kind of psychological suggestion that makes people want to order food after entering.”

"Huh?" Zhu Zhu was taken aback, tilting her little head. "Then why wasn't I affected?"

Natsuki Amamiya casually remarked:

"As an employee of this restaurant, you have so many customers to serve, and you still want to eat?"

"……I see."

Lord Zhu suddenly understood.

It turns out that when he called me Xiaosong and asked me to come over and massage his legs, it wasn't because he wanted to bully me, but because he wanted to protect me.

"When I took my first bite of the food, the game notified me that I had encountered a ghost story." Fujiwara Chika crossed her arms and continued to tell the story. "Then I discovered that the woman in the kimono had a face growing out of the back of her head. I was so scared that I quickly hid in the bathroom. Just when I was about to be found, I heard a sound next to me saying that there was infighting and that an innocent girl had been betrayed."

Lady Zhu covered her buttocks with both hands and glared at Amamiya Natsuki.

“That’s right,” Natsuki Amamiya said frankly, “It’s still us.”

"Huh?" Fujiwara Chika tilted her head in confusion. "But the narrator said you guys were fighting amongst yourselves, and there's also me, your uncle, giving you a lesson... What's going on?"

“It was all an act.” Amamiya Natsuki remained calm and showed no sign of guilt as she briefly recounted the events. “As it turns out, the narrator doesn’t have the ability to discern true from false intentions… Continue, what happened next.”

Fujiwara Chika nodded and continued:

"Then the narration started, and the woman in the kimono turned and left. At the time, I didn't know why, but now it seems that she was clearly attracted by the narration."

"I was worried that the woman would come back, so I secretly jumped out of the back window to escape. Who knew that as soon as I landed, I turned into a fish."

"It appeared in the fish tank the next second."

"I was completely stunned at the time, and I had no idea what was going on. I was swimming around in the fish tank until you came into the store."

"In conclusion, that's how it all happened."

Fujiwara Chika finished speaking in one breath.

Master Zhu quickly grasped the key point: "Um, why did Chika turn into a fish?"

“It’s a koi carp, not an ordinary fish,” Natsuki Amamiya corrected. “I think I know why.”

"Hey, what is that?"

Fujiwara Chika quickly looked over.

Amamiya Natsuki asked:

"Did you not pay the bill after you finished eating?"

"The situation was dangerous. I was worried that woman would block my way at the door, so I had to jump out the window to escape." Fujiwara Chika stammered, feeling deeply ashamed of her act of dining and dashing. "...Was it because I didn't pay?"

“Very likely.” Natsuki Amamiya nodded. “I just spent 3,200 yen to buy you. How much did you pay for your meal?”

“Hmm, let me count…” Fujiwara Chika counted on her fingers, then her eyes widened. “Exactly the same!”

"One of the rules of the restaurant," Natsuki Amamiya concluded, "is that customers who dine and dash and then skip out on their bill will become the restaurant's ingredients."

"I can't believe it," Fujiwara Chika muttered to herself. "I should have paid the bill first and then eaten."

"I doubt it will work," Lord Zhu Zhu whispered a reminder. "Money from the real world probably can't be used here. The money Xia Shu just received was all old banknotes that are no longer in circulation."

"Ugh, how insidious." Fujiwara Chika puffed out her cheeks, gradually regaining her energy. "I should have known better than to go in."

"Let's go find your clothes first," Natsuki Amamiya said. "Where did you jump out of the window?"

Fujiwara Chika looked around. Twilight was falling, the town was desolate, and all she could see were unfamiliar buildings she couldn't recognize. She declared confidently:

"do not know."

Amamiya Natsuki sighed, "Let's go, let's take a walk first."

"..."

The three were lucky; within minutes, they found the girl's clothes lying on the grass behind the restaurant.

When Natsuki Amamiya shone her flashlight, the pink bear looked quite adorable.