The Japanese-fear sorcerer who started by taking in Tomie

"Tomie, what hobbies does Kūki-sensei usually have?" Shin Hengyuan asked, leaning against the rooftop railing.

"Huh?" Tomie stopped after taking a bite of bread, her face filled with disbelief. "You're asking me? Didn't I just transfer here a couple of days ago?"

"Oh right, I forgot." Xin Hengyuan scratched his head and smiled sheepishly.

So much has happened in the last two days that he momentarily forgot that Tomie had only been here for two days.

The changes in Mr. Kumoki have only occurred in the last couple of days.

"You eat first, I'll go ask the class monitor and the other students." Shin Hengyuan waved to Tomie and then walked towards the door to the rooftop.

Tomie nodded and went back to struggling with the bread in her hand.

"Huh? You mean Mr. Kumoki?" The class monitor thought for a moment, then nodded. "Mr. Kumoki hasn't looked too good lately."

Was his face pale? It was clearly the look of someone who was about to die.

Xinhengyuan couldn't help but complain in his heart.

"However, as far as I know, Mr. Kongmu usually likes to keep some insects, such as spiders, mantises, and beetles." The class monitor thought for a moment and then added, "Besides that, he also likes to have a few drinks with other teachers from time to time."

"OK, thanks!"

Xin Hengyuan thanked him and turned to leave. As he walked, he pondered to himself.

Insects? That's an interesting clue.

He asked several classmates, and the answers he received were largely the same.

Professor Kumoki was a gentle man who had almost no social life other than raising insects and occasionally drinking. No one knew what he had recently gone through, nor did anyone notice the signs of his rapid aging.

Xin Hengyuan's gaze deepened as he looked down at the second hand on his watch, which ticked away.

……

At 3:40 p.m., the school bell rang on time at Sakuramidai High School.

For the first time ever, Kūki Daigo was the first to pack his things, even skipping his usual routine of having a few drinks with his colleagues. He slung his briefcase over his shoulder and walked unsteadily toward the parking lot, his shoes practically glued to the ground.

Kongmu Dahe felt particularly tired these past two days, and for some reason, he just couldn't muster any energy.

He opened the car door, sat in the driver's seat, placed his hands on the steering wheel, and closed his eyes for a while.

"Just hang in there... I'll feel better after a good night's sleep at home," Taiga Kouki whispered to himself, then started the engine.

The car slowly drove out of the parking lot.

Taiga Kouki certainly couldn't afford to live near the school. Sakuramidai High School is located in Chiyoda Ward, the heart of Tokyo, where the surrounding apartments are ridiculously expensive.

With his salary as an ordinary private school teacher, he would struggle to even rent a decent single apartment here, let alone the old house he lived in—although it was an old house, it was a genuine luxury apartment.

Taiga Kouki's home is in Shinjuku Ward, right next to the border of Chiyoda.

Driving from the school takes about half an hour if there's no traffic. This distance is quite fortunate in Tokyo, where many office workers have to squeeze onto trains for an hour and a half every day to commute between the suburbs and their workplace.

Soon, Taiga Kuki drove his car to the apartment complex where he lived.

He first rested in the driver's seat for a while before struggling to open his bloodshot eyes and push open the car door.

Tired, extremely tired.

From the mind to the body, every cell is screaming with exhaustion.

With all his might, Kūki Daigo pulled out his briefcase, struggled to get out of the car, and dazedly closed the door, forgetting to even lock the car.

His head was buzzing and his vision was blurry, but he still forced himself to walk toward his apartment building.

Just a little longer, just a little longer...

I can finally get a good night's sleep when I get back.

Kūki Taiga kept reassuring himself with this thought as he took out his key and opened the door to his single apartment.

The apartment was fairly clean and odorless, which shows that Taiga Kūki is quite tidy.

The apartment has a typical studio apartment layout, with only one bathroom, one small kitchen, and a master bedroom that serves as both a bedroom and a living room.

Although there was no one else in the house, Taiga Kūki instinctively called out, "I'm back."

But the voice sounded weak and listless.

Taiga Kūki didn't even bother to change his shoes and stepped directly onto the tatami mat. He felt his head was spinning, as if he was about to faint at any moment.

But he still forced himself to take a breadworm out of a box in the cabinet with tweezers. The breadworm was still alive and was struggling and wriggling on the tweezers.

Kūki Daigawa, carrying the small box for raising insects, stopped in front of the box for raising spiders.

Inside the box lived a brightly colored spider, about the size of a palm, with a smooth carapace, six slender legs, a head that protruded forward and resembled a human face, and a very plump, dark brown abdomen.

This is Jorogumo, also known as the human-faced spider.

"Sweetie, are you hungry?"

With great effort, Kūki Daigawa placed the bread bug on the tweezers in front of Jōrinbō.

This Jorogumo was found by Taiga Kumoki in the corner of a trash can a couple of days ago.

At the time, it was huddled in a broken glass jar, barely alive. Mr. Kuki, who loved insects, took pity on it and brought it home. He fed it breadworms for more than ten days, and it slowly came back to life.

Mr. Kuki especially loved this Jorogumo he had found. Seeing how resiliently it lived, he always felt inspired by it.

Because he was once a pitiful poor boy. Through his own hard work, he went from a poor rural area to the bustling metropolis of Tokyo, and even became a teacher and homeroom teacher at Sakuramidai High School, a famous private school.

This is incredibly difficult!

He endured countless nights of studying late into the night, days when he was so poor he could only afford instant noodles, and times when he was looked down upon, before finally getting to where he is today.

So when he saw Jorogumo come back to life from the brink of death, he always felt that she was encouraging him, that she was another version of himself.

Jorogumo pounced, biting the breadworm and piercing its body with her venomous fangs. In the blink of an eye, the breadworm lay still.

"Eat more, eat more."

"Ikumu Taiga said with a smile. But as he smiled, his head suddenly felt dizzy, as if it no longer belonged to him."

With a thud.

She collapsed onto the tatami mat and completely lost consciousness.

Time passed second by second, and the sky grew completely dark.

Kūki Daiga lay motionless on the tatami mat, his breathing so faint it was almost inaudible.

The Jorogumo slowly climbed up the smooth glass wall and flipped out of the bottle.

Six slender legs silently clung to the bottle's mouth and climbed down the table leg. The moment it touched the ground, its body began to swell, the arthropod's form twisting and reforming in the darkness, emitting a faint clicking sound.

Immediately afterwards, a beautiful woman without clothes "grew" out from the spider's body.

The upper body was that of a plump, fair-skinned woman, whose skin gleamed with a cold white luster under the moonlight; the lower body, however, remained that enormous spider, its dark brown abdomen swollen, its eight long, hairy legs supporting the ground, motionless.

It's extremely strange.

Half woman, half spider.

The beautiful woman had a thick head of long black hair, with strands hanging down, half of which fell in front of her chest, just enough to cover her fatal protrusion; the other half fell behind her, concealing her smooth back.

Her abdomen bulged slightly forward, as if she were carrying something, and one arm unconsciously rested on her lower abdomen, her fingertips gently caressing it, the movement so tender it was almost pathological.

She slowly leaned down and brought her face close to Taiga's.

A pair of blood-red eyes gleamed in the darkness, staring intently at Kūki Taiga.

"What a good owner..."

She murmured softly, her voice like a sigh squeezed from the depths of her throat, carrying a damp, cold, and sweet-smelling quality.

Then, she pressed her entire body against him, her soft body covering Taiga's like a close-fitting garment, fitting perfectly...

She opened her cherry-like mouth, revealing a pair of sharp teeth...