Shota is surrounded by monsters!

Shota walked to the door, put his clothes away, and went back into his gluttonous form. He shook his head and looked at Senjougahara Hitagi, who was only wearing underwear, with only one desire in his eyes—appetite.

Although it wasn't the first time she'd seen one, Senjougahara's body still trembled slightly under the gaze of this terrifying monster filled with oppressive aura. However, she quickly calmed down with a deep breath.

"One last request... if possible, please reduce your size."

"..."

That's quite a demanding request. However, eating crabs is supposed to be done with care, so Shota didn't say much and shrunk his size to about the size of a hunting dog.

"I prefer cats to dogs."

After saying her last words, Hitagi Senjougahara closed her eyes and lay down on the tatami mat.

"whispering sound."

Shota smacked his lips and, as promised, transformed into a miniature glutton.

Then, with light steps and flicking her now somewhat hardened tail, she walked toward Senjougahara Hitagi, who was lying on the ground.

Speaking of eating crabs, Shota personally prefers eating crab legs first. So, he walked up to one of Senjougahara Hitagi's hands, which was at his mercy, and stuck out his tongue to lick her little finger.

Fresh hairy crabs!

After taking a bite, Shota couldn't stop.

It opened its little mouth and put the entire finger inside, sucking on the delicious crab meat. After holding it for a full minute, completely tasting the crab, it spat out its now red and wet little finger and greedily licked its ring finger.

"Um……"

Senjougahara gritted her teeth to keep from making a sound, but the gluttonous tongue had a strong stickiness, and the pleasant feeling of something being slowly drawn out of her body eventually made her groan.

"..."

Upon hearing the girl's sweet voice, Shota looked up at her face and noticed that it was already flushed red, with her entire exposed skin also blushing. He then said, "I don't like hearing the sounds my prey makes before it dies."

"I see."

Senjougahara Hitagi bit her lip.

"Forget it, let's not focus on our bodies, let's chat for a bit?"

As a demon beast, it certainly possesses the ability to eat and talk at the same time. Holding Senjougahara's finger in its mouth, it casually asked, "Name?"

"Hitagi Senjougahara".

"Hmm... what kind of person were you before you were possessed?"

Chapter Twelve. Crabs taste better when dipped in vinegar.

Senjougahara Hitagi, just as her male classmates thought, used to be a true sheltered young lady. But after encountering a crab when she entered high school, she lost weight, which turned her into the withdrawn person she is today.

As a human, enduring possession by a yokai for over a year is indeed quite remarkable. However, the root of all this is probably Senjougahara's bad luck; when choosing a high school, she inexplicably chose one with a yokai background. Otherwise, she might have encountered exorcists and other human beings much earlier.

Fate always likes to play tricks on people.

Hearing this, Shota smiled inexplicably. When he first became a glutton, hadn't he considered this very question? Fortunately, he still had a nominal "father" who was of the same kind, so he quickly came to terms with reality.

"So, does anyone else know anything about your weight, meow?"

Shota stepped down from Senjougahara's arms, having already tasted all the crab flavor from both arms. After hesitating for a moment, he ran to her thighs instead.

Let's start with the limbs, but licking the toes is a bit too impolite, so let's start with the thighs.

"Principal, the nurse in the infirmary, my attending physician, um..."

Shota's tongue licked her inner thigh, making her moan softly, but she quickly gritted her teeth and continued, "And the homeroom teacher."

"..."

After taking a lick, Shota realized the spot was rather awkward, so he jumped from Senjougahara's inner thigh to her outer thigh, licking as he asked, "Where are the parents?"

“I know. However, my mother was addicted to a cult, and all the family's property was given away as offerings, leaving us with huge debts. Last month, my parents divorced by agreement, and my father got custody of me, so we started living here. However, although it should have been a life for the two of us, because all the loans were registered in my father's name, he is now working hard to pay off the debts and rarely comes home. In fact, I live here alone, enjoying a relaxed and comfortable single life.”

In order to resist the strange sensation brought by Shota's tongue, Senjougahara spoke a long string of words in one breath.

"..."

Shota looked up at Hitagi Senjougahara, who was staring blankly at the ceiling, and said, "Sorry."

"I'm not saying this to gain your sympathy, Mr. Monster, please continue."

"Hmm... are you ticklish?"

"generally."

"That's good."

Shota licked Senjougahara's feet all the way down her outer thigh, but after thinking about it, he realized that licking feet was really beneath him.

So he opened his mouth wide and took half of Senjougahara's foot into his mouth in one gulp. In Shota's mind, the so-called beautiful feet were far less tempting than a crab claw.

Senjougahara's toes twitched uncontrollably from the stimulation, almost trapping Shota's tongue...

"Pooh."

Shota quickly released his grip and said, "I think... you should faint first?"

"No. I need to stay awake."

Senjougahara replied in a flat tone. Shota could only sigh and continue to ask her irrelevant questions to distract her.

"Is there anyone you like?"

"No."

"In life, if there's nothing you love most, there must be something you suffer the most from, right?"

Shota quickly finished the crab meat on her toes, licked her arch with his tongue, and then moved on to her ankle.

"Can't swallow it all at once? Can I only lick it slowly?" Shota shook his head indifferently, but Senjougahara Hitagi fell silent and did not answer his question.

"what happened?"

“My mother…is obsessed with religion.”

Senjougahara recounted the most painful memory from her past, while Shota nodded without asking further questions and licked his lips again.

However, this time, in addition to the taste of crab, there was also a strange fragment of memory mixed in.

Shota froze for a moment; for a split second, he seemed to have glimpsed Hitagi Senjougahara's past...

"You...were seriously ill when you were a child?"

"Maybe so..."

There was a hint of unease in Senjougahara Hitagi's tone.

"Turn over."

Seemingly realizing something was amiss, Shota gestured for Senjougahara to turn around, and she did as he said, lying down. Shota walked behind her. Sure enough, there was a faint surgical scar on her back.

"Did your mother become involved in religion before or after you encountered the crab?"

"……forward."

"Why does this matter cause you the most pain? If that's the case, doesn't Japan have religious freedom?"

"Just like that..."

"It's not just that, is it?"

“Home, at home, my mother brought someone with her, an official from that religious group.”

"and then?"

"They said it was for... purification..."

"Purify what?"

"I."

How to purify it?

"You want to... assault me."

"Beat you?"

"Sexual assault."

Shota fell silent; he didn't ask any further questions. But Senjougahara Hitagi continued speaking in a low, murmured voice.

“I fought back… I hit him on the head with my spiked shoes, and he was injured. Blood flowed from his forehead and he fell to the ground… I was saved. But my mother… blamed me because I had injured one of their cadres.”

"Then, the house, the land, even the debts, my family, everything was ruined. Completely ruined, clearly completely ruined, clearly like that, but the collapse continued. It kept going..."

"That's enough. No need to say anything more."

Shota tentatively licked the surgical scar, and another jumbled fragment of memory flooded his mind. At the same time...

"Crab……"

Senjougahara seemed to catch a glimpse of something unbelievable out of the corner of her eye, and a look of panic crossed her face. Even when she saw Shota's true form, she hadn't been this afraid.

A giant crab, exactly the same crab as back then.

"Ah-"

The moment Senjougahara noticed the giant crab appear, the crab leaped up and landed directly on Senjougahara's body, staring intently at Senjougahara's profile with its bulging eyes.

However, the next second, it was blasted into the ceiling.

"Damn crab, how dare it step on me."

Since Shota was standing on Senjougahara's back, the crab landed directly on Shota's body—if he used Senjougahara's back to gain leverage to hit her, she would definitely be seriously injured.

Then, Shota revealed his true form. After glancing at Hitagi Senjougahara, he leaped up, grabbed the crab that he had knocked to the ceiling with his limbs, and then, using his demonic power, hung upside down from the ceiling like a spider.

A crab, with half of its legs already gone. It seems it didn't want to be licked to death and couldn't resist coming out...

"This monster... no, in Japan it should be a deity. Its scientific name should be the 'Hemi-kai' (貴蟹)."

Shota, using the memory of the eight million recipes he inherited from his father, found the description of this crab monster and said, "Generally speaking, it won't hurt people. No wonder I couldn't tell it was possessed at first, because this kind of monster... is just a simple existence. They accept people's expectations and seal away their painful memories in their place, but as a 'barter' exchange, they take away his weight, causing him to lose his sense of existence."

"Rather than saying you were possessed by it, it's more accurate to say you signed a contract with it, right?"

Shota lowered his enormous head and looked down at Senjougahara Hitagi, who had retreated to the far corner of the room, and said, "An equivalent exchange. It took away the memories you didn't want, and you paid the price with your own weight. I suppose that's what kind of contract it is."

Hitagi Senjougahara simply stared at the two demonic creatures on the ceiling, without answering Shota's question.