I adopted a child demon from the Gap, and I'm a special agent for the Bureau of Supernatural Ab

Chapter 1, Section 243: The Beginning of Winter

The cold wind howled through the streets where winter had already arrived, and snowflakes drifted and fell throughout the city, slowly accumulating in the corners.

In cities where the cold season has arrived, keeping warm is obviously a very important matter. And for Japan, which lacks central heating, one cannot help but mention a rather unique heating system that the country possesses.

In a quiet apartment building on the second floor in a corner of the city, a person let out a sigh of relief and slowly stretched.

"Finally done, this thing called a kotatsu."

Li Cheng wiped the fine sweat from his brow and spoke with a tone full of accomplishment. Beside him, a girl cheered and jumped inside, only a wisp of her golden hair peeking out from outside the kotatsu.

A unique heating device belonging to this small island nation: the kotatsu, which looks like a square low table with a quilt covering the ground and all four sides of the table. Underneath the table is an electric heater. As a martial artist with high physical strength, Li Cheng didn't have much need for warmth, but the girl beside him was very dissatisfied. So, under semi-coercion, Li Cheng created this local specialty kotatsu.

At this moment, watching the girl rolling around in the kotatsu with a happy expression on her face, Li Cheng couldn't help but smile as well.

Even though I don't know how to use it myself, if she's happy with it, there's no harm in getting one for the house. It can also replace the old, slightly broken coffee table.

"Phew, now I can sleep well in winter too," a satisfied voice said as a head with slightly disheveled long hair emerged from the kotatsu and looked at Li Cheng standing in front of her. "So, all we're missing now is a nice parasol."

"A parasol?"

Li Cheng walked to the kotatsu and sat down cross-legged. The girl then climbed out of the kotatsu a little, rested her head on Li Cheng's lap, and looked up at him.

"Of course, we've always had a parasol, but unfortunately we lost it. Since some people say they're family, buying us a new one shouldn't be a problem, right?"

A decorative umbrella...

Li Cheng recalled that two months ago, when he was immersed in a certain memory, he did indeed see a young girl carrying a parasol that she almost never let go of when she was out. Clearly, that parasol, which didn't have much practical use, was quite important to her.

So, this is probably an idea influenced by female consciousness, right?

Li Cheng began to think.

"Buying a parasol is no problem at all, but Zi, if you want one, you'll have to come out with me."

After a moment's thought, Li Cheng smiled slightly and spoke earnestly to the girl who was still lying lazily on his lap.

"Is this a rather unreasonable request? Or does Chenglian lack even the taste to choose an umbrella?"

As Li Cheng expected, the girl's face immediately showed displeasure, and her words were full of rejection.

"This has nothing to do with my taste. The important thing is that you haven't left the house for a month. You refuse to go for walks, you refuse to go grocery shopping, and you even refused to visit the Emiya family last time. If this continues, you'll become a so-called 'homebody' in reality."

"That's for humans, right? We're monsters, you know. It's normal for monsters to sleep for months on end without going out, isn't it? In fact, we're supposed to hibernate this season. It's just that I haven't been sleeping well because of the trouble that Cheng keeps bothering me every day."

"Don't try to fool me with that. You're just a heavy sleeper. Your original hibernation habit was only for the purpose of maintaining the barrier. That excuse won't work on me."

"Tsk, you actually remember it so clearly..."

It was clearly no longer feasible to continue trying to deceive her, so she had no choice but to sigh and reluctantly crawl out of the warm kotatsu.

"Sungjin is becoming less and less gentle."

"I just feel that staying at home for a whole month is not a good idea, so going out for a walk is not a big deal."

……

Two months have passed since the incident that spanned the Black Continent and the China Alliance. After a considerable battle, Li Cheng finally killed his enemy and returned to his hometown, no longer running away from the past. Meanwhile, Xi, who had once been a part of the past, fully regained her memories and reclaimed her former name: "Zi".

The transformation from a little girl who looked no more than ten years old to a sixteen or seventeen-year-old woman has caused considerable trouble. After discussing it with Kiritsugu Emiya, Li Cheng managed to grudgingly explain it away by saying that "Zi possesses a special ability that allows her to change her physical appearance and age; this is her normal appearance now."

In daily interactions, this change brings even greater trouble.

Compared to the composed woman Li Cheng remembered, the woman before him, Zi, was completely identical in appearance, but her figure was still slightly immature. Even so, her chest and body were already quite well-developed. Furthermore, due to her lack of self-awareness and frequent casual attire at home, she unintentionally provided a lot of eye candy on several occasions.

Things like her disheveled appearance upon waking, her unwittingly asking Li Cheng to scrub her back while she's in the bathtub, or changing clothes on her own in Li Cheng's presence—although Li Cheng himself wouldn't be bothered by such favors due to the tempering of his willpower from martial arts training, it still caused him a lot of annoyance over time. Li Cheng had reminded her many times, but she still showed no signs of changing.

As for her refusal to go out, that's another change. Before, when she lost her memory and still had a childlike personality, she was incredibly curious about everything new and was willing to try new things. But now, after recovering, her daily life is clearly tinged with a sense of despondency. If before she could barely manage to go out for a walk every few days, now that it's started snowing, getting her to leave the house is unimaginably difficult.

It has been a full month since she last went out.

This feeling is truly frustrating...

Thinking about all the things that had happened during this period, Li Cheng could only sigh and rub his forehead.

When she was a child, she was practically obedient to him and always listened to Li Cheng. But since she recovered to her current state, she has started to have many of her own ideas, and Li Cheng, who is having difficulty changing his ways, is finding it increasingly difficult for them to get along.

However, at least this time she was willing to go out.

"Oh dear, it's been snowing for a long time, but how come there's not much snow left?"

Walking down the street, Zi looked at the snowflakes slowly falling from the sky and showed a slightly disappointed expression.

"After all, it's an urban area, so it's quite difficult for snow to accumulate."

Li Cheng, holding a large umbrella to shield Zi's head from the falling snow, spoke from the side.

"What a pity, I thought we could see some snow."

Shaking their heads with some regret, the two quickly arrived at a shop selling parasols. About half an hour later, Li Cheng selected a pure white parasol.

"Then, let's head back now."

She swung the white parasol in her hand, chuckled softly, and vanished into the black gap. Because she had set up a realm of common sense and uncommon sense beforehand, none of the passersby noticed her movements or the opening and closing of the gap.

Did she just use the gap to go back? It seems she really doesn't like going out.

Is it because he dislikes crowds? Or is it because he doesn't particularly like people? Or perhaps it's a combination of both?

In that case, I'd better not force her next time.

However, this method of teleporting directly through gaps seems pretty good. I'll try it myself when I go grocery shopping sometime; it can save a lot of time.

As Li Cheng walked down the street, he looked up and saw a burly man with blue hair standing in front of him.

"Hey, isn't this the guy I fought with last time? It's been a long time!"

Despite it being winter, Cú Chulainn, dressed in summer casual clothes, strode up to Li Cheng with a hearty smile and patted him on the shoulder.

…………

Thank you to reader Qiluoxing for the blade, thank you very much.

Thank you to readers Nan Ye and Qi Luo Xing for their monthly tickets.

Thank you to readers Single Draw Forever≧▽≦, Vesemir, Abnormality, Mysterious Girl A, Sakura-chan over, Smiling Half-Step Staring, Terrifying Rabbit, Hanyu Ringo, Nan Ye, Sin Demon King EX, Mou Lei No. 9, and Qi Luo Xing for their recommendation votes.

Well, the name has been officially changed starting today.

Chapter 244: The Beast in the Dark

On a winter street, two equally tall and burly men stared at each other with completely different expressions.

"Why are you still here, you bastard?"

Looking at Cú Chulainn with a cheerful smile in front of him, Li Cheng couldn't help but frown and said rather rudely.

“That’s really a nuisance. I came here through proper channels, and I can stay as long as I want before my visa expires,” Cú Chulainn said with a sly smile. “Or perhaps you recently transferred to the visa department and your sense of justice has kicked in, so you want to check the authenticity of my documents? Just so you know, I don’t usually carry those kinds of things with me.”

"No, as long as you don't cause trouble in this city, I don't need to intervene. Besides, it's very important to carry your important documents with you at all times. If you don't want to get into trouble, you'd better take this seriously."

"Haha, that's no problem. In such a beautiful and peaceful place, I don't want to cause any trouble. Speaking of which, buddy, how about we go fishing together?"

Li Cheng clearly showed that he was very unwilling to communicate, but whether it was due to a lack of self-awareness or thick skin, Cú Chulainn still smiled and even extended an invitation.

"Not interested."

Li Cheng shook his head and refused without hesitation. He had no good feelings towards this guy who had caused him trouble in the past.

"What a pity! How about we have another match sometime?"

Cú Chulainn was not discouraged, and continued speaking.

"No time."

As Li Cheng spoke, he turned and left, not giving the other person a chance to continue.

Go home early and take the dirty clothes you changed into yesterday to wash. In the evening, how about making some hot soup? That would be more suitable for the winter atmosphere.

As Li Cheng pondered, he walked forward, his peripheral vision catching a fleeting figure in the crowd, along with a head of pinkish-purple hair.

Instinctively, he stopped and looked around, but all he saw were ordinary people coming and going, and Cú Chulainn who had already walked away.

That feeling just now...

Li Cheng closed his eyes and subtly mobilized the demonic power within his body.

Just as I suspected, the strange feeling I had just experienced was the aura of a demon. In other words, that fleeting figure must have been a demon.

Is it a monster with pinkish-purple hair?

Li Cheng remembered what Huo had told him about the problem within the barrier that had caused someone to be accidentally pulled out. The appearance of Remilia and Cirno confirmed this. According to Huo's initial deduction, one last person remained missing and undiscovered.

If I remember correctly, that hidden world was home to many beings that are now rarely seen in the outside world or have completely disappeared, like the vampires and fairies from before. So, is this time a monster? But aren't monsters beings that need fear to exist? Without fear to sustain them, shouldn't they gradually weaken and eventually disappear?

Regardless, Huo had been a great help in my training with the use of demonic power, and I had also sent the first two found wanderers back home. If possible, I should find them as soon as possible and send them back, provided, of course, that they are willing to cooperate.

The traces of demonic energy were very weak. Li Cheng tried to track the other party's movements, but the aura disappeared after only a few steps. Unable to find the other party immediately, he had no choice but to temporarily abandon the idea of ​​searching for them and instead choose to go home to discuss the situation with Zi.

What he didn't know was that after he left, a purple-haired girl slowly walked out from the alley at the street corner, looking thoughtfully in the direction Li Cheng had left.

"purple?"

She muttered something softly to herself, frowned and thought for a moment, then turned and left, quickly disappearing into the crowd.

She has more important things to do now.

……

Dusk, as the sky grew increasingly dark.

Cú Chulainn yawned, picked up his bucket full of fish, packed up his fishing gear, and walked slowly along the road at the dock with a satisfied expression.

"Today's harvest is pretty good, but all I know how to do is grill fish. Ah, I've got it! I'll ask that guy with the dual swords for help. His cooking skills are really high."

Muttering to himself, Cú Chulainn walked slowly along the deserted road. A gentle breeze stirred up a few fallen leaves, and Cú Chulainn's pace gradually slowed and came to a stop, finally halting on the concrete road next to a cold storage facility.

"I don't know why you're following me, but if you want to get a few fish from me, I might as well consider it."

Cú Chulainn's indifferent voice echoed in the empty riverbank, and as if in response, the cold wind suddenly intensified, accompanied by a howling sound. Cú Chulainn let his hair be tousled by the wind, and simply turned around slowly.