Shota is surrounded by monsters!

"One last question," Shota asked, "Do you regret signing the contract with it?"

After Shota eats the heavy crab, Senjougahara's weight may return, but her memories, emotions, and past will be swallowed by Shota along with the crab. Her memories of her past—her mother's past—will become blurred, and she will be unable to recall them no matter how much she is questioned.

"Never mind. Eating crabs on their own is a bit bland; a touch of memories is just right."

After waiting for a long time, Senjougahara still didn't answer her question. Shota opened his mouth and bit down on the crab's claw, which only had one claw left. He was about to tear it off and swallow it...

"and many more."

Shota, with a claw in his mouth, looked at Senjougahara Hitagi.

"Please let me... say a few words to it."

Hitagi Senjougahara was sitting there, looking at Shota with pleading eyes.

"whispering sound."

Shota released his grip, flipped over, and fell from the ceiling, continuing to pin the heavy crab beneath him.

"I'm sorry..." Senjougahara Hitagi bowed respectfully to the Jukai—in the minds of most Japanese people, the Jukai should be a god rather than a monster.

"Thank you." Hitagi Senjougahara looked up at the heavy crab pinned beneath Shota, tears slowly streaming down her cheeks. "But... it's enough. No matter how painful it was, those memories and emotions are my treasures..."

"Please give me back my weight... Please give me back that memory, my mother, too... From now on, I want to bear all of that myself."

"Ah-"

The giant crab beneath Shota's feet suddenly vanished, and he could only barely make out some glimmer as it returned to Senjougahara Hitagi's body. The expression in the gluttonous giant eyes kept changing, gradually returning from greedy desire and instinctive appetite to a human-like clarity.

"When eating crabs, vinegar is the best condiment."

Taotie murmured something, then walked out of the room without looking at the girl kneeling on the ground crying.

"Is it over?"

Mashiro raised her head and looked at Shota, who was slowly turning into human form.

"Yes. It's over."

Shota nodded and put the clothes he had just taken off back on back on. Meanwhile, Mashiro secretly tried to sneak into the room where Senjohara was.

"Ok?"

"I'll go and lick up the saliva my brother left behind."

"Forget it. Don't go. Let that guy be alone for a while."

Shota ruffled Mashiro's hair and asked, "Mashiro...do you have any unhappy memories?"

Mashiro thought about it seriously for a while and said, "Yes."

"...What memories?" Shota was curious about what kind of past this slime girl could have.

"Back then, my brother's father, who was very fierce-looking, wouldn't allow me to speak to you, brother."

"..."

Damn dad, so you knew all along! Sweet water my ass!

Shota gave the sky the middle finger, then sighed and said, "I really want to catch a giant crab and eat up my thirty years of memories."

Maybe half an hour, maybe an hour. When Senjougahara, who had wrapped her soft heart in a hard shell like a crab, tidied herself up and came out of the room, Shota was there playing with compressed biscuits and Mashiro, building blocks.

"Thank you."

Hitagi Senjougahara bowed to Shota.

"In the end, I lost over a year's worth of weight and gained nothing, plus an unhappy memory for no reason. Do I regret it?"

Shota glanced up at Senjougahara, then turned back to continue playing games with Mashiro.

"Oh, don't drip water on my rations!"

Shota slapped away Mashiro's hand, which was doing something naughty, and swallowed a compressed biscuit.

"It's not that nothing was gained."

Senjougahara looked at Shota, who was playing with building blocks, with her red and swollen eyes from crying, and said, "At least you've made a good friend."

"congratulations."

Shota casually replied, "Let's just pretend you never promised me. In the end, you got your weight back yourself. From now on, please pretend I don't exist. Go find your nice friend."

"I see."

Senjougahara nodded and left the room where Shota was.

"Ah, ah, I suddenly want to eat crab. So white, I really want to eat crab."

As soon as Senjougahara left, Shota lay on the table and complained, "I really want to eat crab."

Mashiro handed a compressed biscuit to Shota, who could only sigh and swallow it whole.

"Hmm? I don't remember buying strawberry-flavored compressed biscuits."

"Giggle."

Mashiro laughed happily.

An hour and a half later, the door to Shota's house was opened without his permission.

"..."

Shota looked towards the door with some wariness.

"Crabs." Hitagi Senjougahara leaned against the doorframe, raised a bag of crabs in her hand, and asked Shota, "Want some?"

"Didn't I tell you not to come looking for me again?"

Despite saying that, Shota's gaze remained fixed on the bag that Senjougahara was carrying.

"Oh my, didn't you tell me, Mr. Yokai, to go find my friend?" Senjougahara said to Shota in a surprised tone, "Don't you know that my friend is you?"

"Don't make such a presumptuous decision."

Shota's gaze remained fixed on the bag.

Senjougahara Hitagi seemed to have discovered something interesting, and she lifted the bag and teased Shota's gaze.

"So, Mr. Monster, do you have any friends?"

Yes, there are tons.

"I'm really surprised that someone like Mr. Yokai, a perverted man with a huge penis who likes to lick girls, actually has friends. Can you tell me who they are?"

"Friends and such..." Shota thought for a moment, then realized he really couldn't answer, but...

"I don't like licking girls, and besides, I don't have a huge penis! It's a tail, a tail!"

"Oh, really?" Senjougahara Hitagi said softly, "I saw everything."

It seems... she really did see me naked...

"If you piss me off, I'll eat you up!"

Unable to win an argument, Shota could only resort to a final threat.

"Then please..."

Senjougahara Hitagi stretched out a hand to Shota, saying like a queen, "Lick him like a loyal dog. Oh, sorry, I forgot that Mr. Yokai is a Taotie, not a puppy."

I have this feeling that if I actually lick it, I'll have lost...

"Are you mentally prepared to provoke the ancient ferocious beast? Monsters are man-eating creatures."

Shota stood up and looked at Senjougahara at the door with a cold gaze.

“I don’t know about other yokai,” Senjougahara Hitagi said, not avoiding Shota’s gaze. “But I do know that you—Kousaka Shota-kun—are not that kind of yokai. Aren’t you?”

Chapter Thirteen. Friends

Thus, Shota made his first friend in Japan—a very sharp-tongued girl, Senjougahara Hitagi.

This friendship was established while eating crabs cooked by Senjougahara, ignoring what she said.

Since we've already licked each other, we're friends now. Mashiro said this after buying her two bottles of juice at Senjougahara.

In short, that sensitive girl grasped Shota and Mashiro's weaknesses after only one encounter. From this perspective, she is indeed a remarkable human—now she has no connection to monsters whatsoever, she is simply a human being.

Besides having two monster friends.

"Ah... I'm hungry."

Shota looked at the pile of crab shells on his table, shook his head, and said, "I should have known better than to eat them. The more I eat, the more I want to eat..."

"If you could say that before you finished eating all the crabs, Kousaka-kun, it might be more convincing." Senjougahara Hitagi sat opposite Shota, who had eaten all the crabs by himself from beginning to end. At first, he maintained his composure and ate politely, but by the end, he had completely wolfed them down.

"After all, I haven't eaten crab in thirty years."

"Oh? How old are you this year, Kousaka-kun?"

"Thirty, I guess."

Thirty months?

Thirty years.

"Ah, I thought I misheard when I heard 'thirty years.' I never imagined Kousaka-kun was this old. Underneath that youthful exterior lies the heart of a lecherous old man? No wonder Kousaka-kun's tastes are a bit strange. Wait, thirty years old and thirty years without eating crab? That means Kousaka-kun has never eaten crab before? Even if he's never eaten crab, he's so picky about how it's cooked. I guess he truly lives up to his reputation as a glutton?"

"..."

I can't exactly tell her that I ate this in my past life to refute her, can I?

Shota could only shrug and say, "Think what you want."

With that, he took the last crab leg in his mouth and lay down on the tatami mat.

"What is thirty years to a monster?"

Hitagi Senjougahara seems to have developed a bit of interest in stories about yokai (supernatural beings).

"Hmm... If I'm developing normally, I should still be in my childhood, right? Thirty years is a long time for humans, but it's probably negligible for my endless lifespan."

Senjougahara Hitagi was slightly surprised when she heard about the endless lifespan.

"What an enviable yet terrifying lifespan! Is this how the Taotie spends its days eating and sleeping, wasting time like a pig?"