Tokyo: After years of stagnation, the heiress of the yakuza arrives.

evening.

As the setting sun passed over Tokyo's towering skyscrapers, it cast its last orange-red rays upon the zoo.

The road, which had been shining brightly in the daytime sun, gradually darkened, while the edges of the leaves seemed to be coated with a thin layer of gold.

The wind carried away most of the heat as it passed through the tree-lined avenue, and also dispersed much of the sweet, cloying aroma of popcorn, sausages, and ice cream wafting from the shops in the distance.

The closing announcement had already been broadcast once, and some indoor exhibition halls closed early. Staff members stood at the intersections to guide visitors toward the exits.

The children who were just standing around the glass and refusing to leave were dragged out by their parents, one in each arm. Some were wearing panda hats, some were holding giraffe plush toys, and one little boy was clinging tightly to the railing, claiming that he had to live in the zoo with the monkeys today.

The young father tried to persuade him for a long time to no avail, and finally said only, "Monkeys eat vegetables at night." The child immediately let go. The dreams of human children usually cannot withstand the test of vegetables...

Near the exit, Shido Kuroba leaned on a cane in one hand and carried a paper bag containing souvenirs and leftover food in the other.

The big black dog inside the coat pocket had lost all interest in exploring, with only half of its increasingly pointed head peeking out. It swayed back and forth with each step, like a sewer tourist whose energy had been completely drained by a large tourist attraction.

Onodera Zanne walked beside her, holding a commemorative couple photo taken that day. Her long black hair was gently blown by the evening breeze, and the faint smile on her face had not truly disappeared since the afternoon. At least for her, today was a very pleasant day.

Surprisingly, Shido Kuroba didn't have the urge to immediately flee Tokyo, hide in the sewers, or lock himself in a toilet for refuge. Although he experienced some twists and turns and things weren't very pleasant, once he erased all of that from his memory, the rest of the experience was surprisingly easy.

When it comes to the "spiritual victory method," Shido Kuroba is still a very authoritative figure.

Watching animals.

Eat.

I chatted with my senior about trivial things, while Dahei chewed on the food beside me. When we got tired, we sat down to rest.

No need to worry about whether there will be any discounted rice balls left tomorrow, no need to fret about when the landlord will raise the rent, no need to think about how some wicked old woman will torment me, or the pressure from the minister...

That's awesome!

For wealthy people, going out on weekends is just a normal option in life. If they want to go to the zoo, they buy tickets; if they want to eat, they order food; if they are tired, they can take a taxi home; and even if they don't have enough fun today, they can come back next week.

For Shido Kuroba, a Tokyo rat who has long lived on the edge of the sewers, ideals, interests, and entertainment are all expensive luxuries. When you're hungry, no one will ask you what you like, and when your rent is about to expire, no one will care whether you have any life goals.

The poor do not own their time.

Today I have to find food, tomorrow I have to figure out how to pay the rent, and the day after tomorrow I might have to find a new place to live to accommodate one person and three mice because of a landlord's sudden erratic behavior. Just surviving takes up all my energy, so where is there any extra space to think about poetry and distant places?

Poetry cannot be dipped in soy sauce.

Free accommodation is not offered in the distant area.

Therefore, Shido Kuroba always wanted to enter the system and become a qualified parasite with a formal position, stable salary, and paid leave.

Ideally, one should also secure a position that is neither too big nor too small, but just enough to allow one to abuse one's power, sitting behind the window every day drinking tea and reading newspapers, strictly scrutinizing the documents of troublesome people who come to handle business, and sending back copies of documents that are even 0.5 centimeters short of the edge, making them queue up again.

The strong must ruthlessly humiliate the weak!

Of course, at this stage, Shido Kuroba is still the one being humiliated.

He glanced down at the lemon iced tea in his hand. There was only a thin layer of liquid left in the transparent glass. The ice had long since melted, and lemon slices clung to the glass. With each step he took, the glass swayed slightly, and the straw still bore the marks of being bitten repeatedly.

When he first accepted the drink, Shido Kuroba, adhering to the principle of "better safe than sorry," only planned to take a sip to prove that he had no suspicions about his senior, and then immediately seal the evidence and go home to find a cockroach for a biosafety test.

As a result, the weather was too hot.

The zoo was crowded, and everyone's thoughts were surprisingly the same: they would squeeze into wherever there was air conditioning and seek out wherever there was shade.

The end result was that the air-conditioned areas became human steam rooms, and the shady areas became human compressed biscuits. After walking through half of the park, it felt like the Tokyo sun was pulling out all the moisture from his body, and Kuroba Shido could only keep drinking, sip by sip.

As I drank, half the glass was gone.

If we walk a little further, there will be almost nothing left.

Kuroba Shido stared at the bottom of the cup and suddenly fell into deep thought. Did his senior even foresee this?

First, buy a seemingly normal cup of lemon tea, and make him only take a sip out of caution. Then, arrange for him to be in a zoo environment with high temperature, crowds, long route, and no free water. Rely on these objective conditions to gradually break down his defenses, and eventually let the whole drink naturally enter his stomach.

That makes perfect sense.

It's so logical that it's as if the sun in Tokyo today was bribed by the senior student in advance to help her complete her plan to empty the beverage.

Kuroba Shido secretly glanced at Onodera Zanne.

Onodera Zannen happened to look over as well, her eyes crinkling slightly: "Shido-kun, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing, I was just wondering why it's so hot today."

"The weather forecast says it will get colder this evening."

"I can feel it."

Kuroba Shido withdrew his gaze, took another sip of lemon tea, and decided to stop analyzing.

Anyway, I've already drunk it.

Even if there really is something strange inside, it has now gone from an attempted crime to waiting for the drug to take effect. Continuing to dwell on it will only increase mental strain. It is better to believe that you have the powerful metabolic ability of Ultraman's human form, and that ordinary drugs will be automatically purified by light energy after entering your body.

Onodera Zannen glanced at the time.

It's almost closing time, and we've completed all the planned routes for today. We've also collected the commemorative photos and keychains from the couples' activities. All that's left is to leave the zoo and have Kuroba Shido give her a ride back to her apartment, which isn't far from where she lives.

We can continue chatting on the way.

Once you get to the apartment building, you can use the excuse that you bought a lot of things today and it's inconvenient for one person to carry them upstairs, and ask Shido to come in and rest for a while. What happens after the rest is not important; what's important is to complete the next step of entering his private space.

Just as Onodera Zannen was about to speak.

Kuroba Shido suddenly took out his phone.

The screen didn't light up at all.

But his movements were extremely natural. He pressed his thumb on the side, put the phone to his ear, and his expression instantly became serious.

"Feed?"

Onodera's lingering voice stopped.

Kuroba Shido nodded and took two steps to the side: "The package has arrived? What? It requires a signature in person, or it will be returned to Hokkaido?"

There was no sound on the other end of the phone.

Kuroba Shido remained completely unaffected, taking charge of asking and answering questions himself, even adding pauses and expressions of shock based on his imagined deliveryman's tone.

"Can't we put it at the entrance?"

"Is it not allowed according to apartment regulations?"

"Is there something valuable inside, worth 800 yen?"

"Why is 800 yen considered a valuable item...? Okay, okay, I'll go back right away. Master, you must wait for me. I'm less than an hour away from home now. My leg is still limping, but it's not a big problem. I can use the other leg to go twice as fast!"

Onodera Zannen looked at him quietly.

From her angle, it was very clear that the phone in Shido Kuroba's hand was upside down; the earpiece, which should have been pressed against his ear, was facing his chin, while the charging port was neatly facing his ear.

Hold it upside down.

Shido seems not to have noticed.

Kuroba Shido continued his act: "Okay, I understand. Deliverymen have it tough too. I definitely won't let you wait in vain. If all else fails, hold the package in your arms to warm it up, so it doesn't catch a cold."

After saying that, he solemnly put down his phone, casually pressed the screen that was not lit up, looked up at Onodera Zannen, and a very regretful expression appeared on his face.

"Excuse me, senior, there's a package at home that requires your signature to receive, so I might have to head back now."

"So that's how it is."

Onodera Zannen didn't expose him, but simply put the commemorative photo in her hand into her bag and smiled gently: "Then Shido-kun, you should go back first. I'm very happy that we could come out together today."

The attack method is perfectly normal.

There was no attempt to persuade them to stay.

I didn't ask for the tracking number.

She didn't offer to go back with him.

Kuroba Shido felt a little unreal. He cautiously observed for two seconds to make sure that no dangerous messages like "ready to follow," "already memorized the address," or "the deliveryman is off enjoying himself" appeared above his senior's head before he relaxed slightly.

"I'm happy too. Please be careful on your way home, senior."

"Shido-kun too."

Onodera Zannen called a car.

A few minutes later, the black sedan stopped outside the zoo. Before opening the car door, she glanced back. The evening breeze blew her long black hair to her shoulders, and the last rays of the setting sun fell on her face. She looked so beautiful that she seemed to belong to a different scene from the other tourists who were hurrying away.

"See you Monday, Shido-kun." Onodera Reine smiled and waved.

"See you on Monday," Kuroba Shido replied hastily.

The car door closed.

The vehicle merged into the evening traffic and quickly disappeared at the intersection. Shido Kuroba stood there, waving politely until the taillights of the car were completely out of sight. Only then did he bend over as if suddenly powered off, leaning on his cane and letting out a long sigh of relief.

"Hoo..." Kuroba Shido wiped the sweat from his forehead, unable to tell whether it was from the heat or from being frightened.

survived.

Today's zoo episode finally ended safely. He wasn't taken back to the apartment by his senior, didn't meet up with his pink-haired online friend in person, and wasn't detained by the zoo for compensation because the elephant was unconscious. Although the process was very dangerous, the ending was still that Kuroba Shido successfully escaped.

perfect.

He truly deserves the title of Tokyo escape master.

A relieved smile gradually appeared on Shido Kuroba's face. He looked down at his phone, preparing to confirm whether he had actually dialed the wrong number.

Then the movement stopped.

The phone is upside down.

The charging port was facing him.

The Black Feather Warrior said, "???"

He slowly turned his head and looked in the direction where Onodera Zannen had left. He could see clearly where his senior had been standing.

In other words...

The Black Feather Warrior said, "..."

Awesome!

Kuroba Shido remained silent for a few seconds, then quietly turned his phone to face the camera. The look of relief on his face gradually turned into an even more uneasy expression after being gently let go.

"never mind."

As long as the senior doesn't expose it on the spot, today is over. The most important ability of adults is to jointly maintain a not-so-clever lie. Whoever exposes it first is responsible for cleaning up the mess. The senior clearly understands this well.

Kuroba Shido threw the empty lemon tea into the trash can, lifted Daikoku up a little from his pocket, and moved towards the station with his cane.

Hey.

Hey.

Hey.

I had just left the zoo when my phone suddenly vibrated.

Amamiya Kaoru sent a message.

Hey kid, wanna come for barbecue tonight? It's on me.

Shido Kuroba stopped in his tracks.

free.

barbecue.

The teacher is treating us to a meal.

The three keywords enter the brain, and without even complicated thinking, the fingers have already completed the response.

【go.】

Then he added another sentence.

【position.】

The response speed was so fast that all the delays and alertness in the zoo were just system lags. Only when it came to free meals would Kuroba Shido automatically switch to a gigabit network.

Amamiya Kaoru quickly sent a location.

[Ellie's here too. We're coming from home. If you're closer, go ahead and grab a spot.]

Kuroba Shido opened the map and found that the barbecue restaurant was only two blocks away from the zoo, and it wouldn't even take ten minutes to walk there.

fate.

That's fate.

Heaven saw that the poor Tokyo pretty boy had exhausted himself at the zoo today, so it specially arranged for old cows and horses to provide him with free energy replenishment.

"Come on, Big Black, let's have barbecue tonight, the teacher's treating."

Big Black was pretending to be dead in the pocket, but when it heard the word "eat," its head immediately perked up.

"squeak?"

"Don't worry, you'll get a share. When has the boss ever skimped on his subordinates' meals?"

Big Black: "..."

It remembered the time it had been forgotten at Kaoru Amamiya's house and had fainted from hunger for a whole day.

But Dahei did not refute it.

If the boss says no, then no.

……

One hour ago.

Amamiya Kaoru's apartment.

A weekend variety show was playing on TV, and the host was laughing hysterically, but there was little response from the living room. Amamiya Kaoru was slumped on one side of the sofa, holding a game controller in her hand.

Shimotsuki Airi sat cross-legged on the carpet, gripping another controller tightly, her face serious as if she were participating in some world-class e-sports competition.

On the screen, two cartoon race cars wobbled and sped across the track.

Kaoru Amamiya is in charge of banging her head against the wall.

Airi Shimotsuki is responsible for falling off the cliff.

Less than thirty seconds into the race, one of the two got stuck inside the guardrail and spun around in place, while the other drove against traffic and knocked down three computer-controlled players. The rankings in the upper right corner remained stable at eleventh and twelfth, with neither player significantly stronger than the other.

"Xiaoyu, do you even know how to play?"

Shimotsuki Airi stared at the screen, her fingers clicking away, but her race car was still facing the opposite direction of the track.

"Of course I will, it's just that the controller has a delay!"

"You just said there was a delay in the TV broadcast."

"Both the TV and the controller are included."

"What about the last game?"

"The map design in the last game was flawed."

Airi Shimotsuki: "..."

Adults always have a lot of reasons when they lose.

Amamiya Kaoru finally managed to back out of the guardrail and was just about to accelerate when Shimotsuki Airi's race car came rushing towards her. The two cars met in the middle of the track, spun three times, and then both fell into the pool next to them.

Two huge elimination signs popped up on the screen.

The living room was quiet.

Amamiya Kaoru turned her head.

Shimotsuki Airi also turned her head.

"Xiaoyu, you bumped into me."

"It was clearly you who went against the flow!"

"I'm looking for direction."

"Why did you hit me while you were trying to find your way?"

"Because the light rain is blocking the way."

Amamiya Kaoru: "..."

Elementary school students' ways of shifting blame are simple, but they are confident and assertive.

Beside the coffee table, Big Black's wife squatted at the entrance of the cardboard box, holding a small piece of biscuit in her arms, quietly watching the two gaming newbies blaming each other, while Little Black crawled over along the controller's connecting cable, opening his mouth to examine whether the long black strip was edible.

With quick reflexes, Shimotsuki Airi scooped up Little Black.

"Little Black, you can't."

Little Black: "Squeak?"

"If this gets chewed up, Xiaoyu will cry."

Kaoru Amamiya: "I won't cry over a controller!"

Shimotsuki Airi looked at her: "Is it expensive?"

Amamiya Kaoru paused for two seconds: "I might be a little sad."

Shimotsuki Airi put Kuro back next to her wife, Dahei, and then stuffed some specially prepared food into her mouth. Kuro immediately forgot about the controller cable and started munching on it.

The two of them played from morning to afternoon.

The race was lost.

In the fighting game, Amamiya Kaoru was repeatedly beaten to a pulp by the AI ​​on easy difficulty, while Shimotsuki Airi laughed at her for a long time. When it was Shimotsuki Airi's turn to play, she lasted three seconds longer, and in the end, the two of them agreed that the enemy was cheating.

Teamwork makes it even worse.

Amamiya Kaoru was in charge of giving instructions, while Shimotsuki Airi was in charge of disobeying them. One pushed the box off the cliff, and the other jumped off after it. They failed to complete the tutorial for a whole hour before the game thoughtfully popped up a prompt asking if they wanted to enable the preschool assistance mode.

Shimotsuki Airi closed the game without any expression.

Kaoru Amamiya put down the controller without expression.

It's not their cup of tea.

It's because modern games don't respect ordinary players.

The living room quieted down again, with only the TV host still laughing. After eating their fill, Big Black's wife and Little Black huddled in a cardboard box, leaning against each other, and began to sleep.

Amamiya Kaoru sprawled on the sofa, scrolling through her phone.

Shimotsuki Airi was watching TV while hugging a cushion.

ten minutes.

twenty minutes.

Half an hour later, the two of them heard a sound almost simultaneously.

Gollum-

Amamiya Kaoru looked down at her stomach.

Shimotsuki Airi also looked down at her stomach.

The two, one big and one small, looked at each other again.

"Ellie, are you hungry?"

"Xiaoyu called first."

"It's normal for adults to have high energy expenditure."

"Xiaoyu just lay on the sofa today."

"You burn energy even when you're lying down, and your brain uses a lot of sugar to function."

Shimotsuki Airi glanced at Xiaoyu's game record for the day and seriously doubted whether Xiaoyu's brain was even functioning.

Amamiya Kaoru sat up from the sofa, stretched, turned her gaze to the kitchen, and a determined look, like that of an adult woman reaffirming her ability to live, gradually appeared on her face.

"It's okay, I'll cook today."

Shimotsuki Airi's body froze instantly.

"I won't eat it."

"I haven't said what I'm going to do yet."

"I won't eat it no matter what you make."

"Ellie, don't be prejudiced against the teacher. Last time it was just because I hadn't done it for a long time and I was a little rusty. This time I watched the instructional video in advance."

"Have you finished watching?"

Amamiya Kaoru paused for a moment: "I watched the beginning."

Shimotsuki Airi hugged the cushion tightly and moved to the other side of the sofa: "I'd rather starve to death than eat anything Xiaoyu makes."

Amamiya Kaoru: "???"

That's so hurtful.

How could a mature adult who has lived independently for many years not even be able to cook dinner for a primary school student properly?

Although the last time the fried egg was a little too dark and the pan caught a little fire, and Dahei had a brief out-of-body experience after eating it, those were all accidents.

Cooking inherently involves risks.

Behind the Nobel Prize are countless failed experiments. Kaoru Amamiya only sacrificed the health of an egg and a mouse for a short period of time, which was completely within the scope of reasonable trial and error.

"I'm making the simplest egg fried rice today."

"don't want."

"Cook noodles?"

"don't want."

"Fried sausage?"

"don't want."

"Surely I can heat the bento in the microwave?"

Shimotsuki Airi thought about it seriously: "That's fine, but I have to be able to do it on time."

Amamiya Kaoru: "..."

Damn it, this awful distrust!

Has her status in the family become so low that even her right to use the microwave oven requires supervision from elementary school students?

Amamiya Kaoru stood up angrily, rolled up her sleeves, and prepared to enter the kitchen to wash away her shame with her true strength. Shimotsuki Airi also stood up and stood in front of the kitchen door with her arms outstretched.

"Xiaoyu, the kitchen is innocent."

"Get out of the way!"

"No."

"I'm an adult!"

"Therefore, we must take responsibility for our actions."

Amamiya Kaoru: "..."

That makes so much sense, I can't even refute it.

The two stood frozen at the kitchen door for a long time. The big black wife poked her head out of the cardboard box, glanced at Amamiya Kaoru, and then quickly dragged the little black one inside.

Danger.

The woman was preparing to cook again.

Finally, Kaoru Amamiya took a deep breath and picked up her phone again.

"Let's not do it anymore, let's go out for barbecue, it's on me."

Shimotsuki Airi immediately lowered her arm: "Okay."

"Didn't you agree too quickly?"

"Because the barbecue won't be ruined by Xiaoyu."

"The barbecue is also handled by someone!"

"But not light rain."

Amamiya Kaoru: "..."

This child must eat one less chicken wing today.

She opened the chat app, found Kuroba Shido, and edited a message.

Hey kid, wanna come for barbecue tonight? It's on me.

It took less than two seconds to send.

【go.】

Another second passed.

【position.】

Amamiya Kaoru's lips twitched as she looked at the reply speed: "This kid usually pretends to be dead when it comes to messages, but he's faster than anyone else when he hears someone's treating."

Shimotsuki Airi, carrying her little schoolbag, had already started changing her shoes: "Because Uncle knows what's important."

"Whose side are you on?"

"This is the barbecue area."

Amamiya Kaoru: "..."

Very realistic.

She chose a barbecue restaurant that wasn't too far from the zoo and her apartment, sent the location to Kuroba Shido, and added that Airi was also there, so he could go and grab a table if he was closer.

Before leaving, the two prepared water and food for Big Black's wife and Little Black again, checked the windows and cardboard boxes to make sure Little Black wouldn't chew on electrical wires again anytime soon, and then closed the door and left.

……

Night gradually fell.

Following the directions, Kuroba Shido limped across the street. The barbecue restaurant was just at the second intersection ahead, and the air was already filled with the aroma of charcoal and cumin.

He was very close to his destination.

But at the intersection further ahead, Riki Sawamura and Yoshiko Sawamura had already turned the corner.

The mother and daughter spent the whole day at the zoo. Although they had eaten fast food at noon and bought ice cream and snacks in the afternoon, for Yoshiko Sawamura, those things were only enough to keep her alive. She was still one large meal away from a proper dinner.

Her eyes lit up as soon as she smelled the barbecue.

"barbecue!"

Ritsuki Sawamura didn't stop walking: "Auntie, you ate two hamburgers, four pieces of fried chicken, and a large serving of fries for lunch."

"That was at noon."

"I also had ice cream this afternoon."

"That was in the afternoon."

"It's only just evening."

"So it's time for dinner."

Ritsuki Sawamura: "..."

The old lady has figured out time management.

Yoshiko Sawamura didn't give her a chance to continue refuting. Her nose followed the aroma and locked onto the brightly lit barbecue restaurant on the street corner. In an instant, she transformed from a pampered lady who had been walking all day and was just complaining of leg pain into a starving ghost who was fully revived after smelling meat.

"Hurry up, little pink-haired girl, or all the good spots will be taken!"

"I'm not hungry."

"Mommy's hungry!"

"You can eat it yourself."

"Eating barbecue alone is soulless!"

Yoshiko grabbed Riki's wrist and dragged her towards the barbecue restaurant, her yellow tiger ears bouncing on her head. They ran faster than when they were chasing limited-edition badges at the zoo.

Pushing open the shop door, you are greeted by the heat of charcoal fire and a rich aroma.

Yoshiko Sawamura's eyes lit up completely.

"Boss!"

She dragged the impatient Ritsuki Sawamura inside, her momentum like someone who had finally found a granary after three years of starvation.

"Give me a whole batch of everything on the menu that can be grilled!"

Ritsuki Sawamura: "..."

One intersection away.

Hey.

Hey.

Hey.

The sound of the cane is getting closer...

"This seems to be the place?" Kuroba Shido glanced down at his phone, then looked up at the name of the barbecue restaurant.