CH 13

Blowing in the night breeze, I turn back and head back to the forest.

When I put my hand on the door of my house, which is illuminated by moonlight, I feel a strange sensation in my nostrils.

It is a faint sweet smell, different from …… monaka.

I think this scent is …….

My “five senses” status has 201 points.

I’m sure I can beat a dog in a sniffing match.

Thanks to this, I am able to notice even the slightest change in the scent that drifted around.

“What do you want, Shinobuuko?

I open the door and see a figure sitting at the back of the room.

A small body, lit by the light coming through the window.

You can’t see her from the neck up because of the shadows, but the hood hanging down to her shoulders definitely belongs to that of a female ninja.

The darkness whispers.

“…… you bastard.”

“That’s my line.

I’m not sure what you’re getting at when you barge into someone’s house unannounced in the middle of the night.”

But Shinobuko ignores my words and proceeds at her own pace.

“Nin. What the hell are you, that you are?

“I’m just an unemployed dropout.”

“Don’t play dumb. I have seen it, that I did.

I saw Monaka-sama fall from a tree, that I did, and you held her in the air as she landed.”

“What, were you peeping at me?”

Shinobuko stands up without a sound.

“I’ve been training as a ninja since I was born, and I saw you using the skill “Izunaslow” without a doubt de gozaru.

Even though I have been training as a ninja all my life, I have never mastered it.

Why is that you, an unemployed man, are able to use it?”

“Well, it’s not a coincidence, that it isn’t.”

“If you’re going to keep playing dumb, then I have an idea-degozaru.”

…… ba!

Shinobuko raises both hands high

It seems to be her own battle pose.

But Shinobuko was small and her hands were short, so she looked like a threatening chick, which made me smile.

“Hey, hey, what are you doing? Are you going to dance with the little squirrels in the forest?”

“Nin! It is useless-degozaru!”

Shinobuuko pounces on me like a kitten aiming for Jarashi.

She has trained as a ninja all her life, and her body language is quite impressive.

But it is too late.

As I have 201 points in Agility.

“You seem to be standing still.”

When I turn around and dodge, Shinobuko grasps the void where I was, and loses her balance with an “oops”.

A shiver runs through her small face.

“You are the first person to dodge my “Tomoe Nage” since the chieftain, that ……!”

“I see. I’ll tell you what, no matter how much you try, it’s useless. I’m sure it will only tire you out.”

“…… Stop laughing-degozaru”

Sinobuko is so pissed off that she jumps towards me again and again.

All of which I fight off without even giving a second thought.

After a while, she begins to catch her breath.

“This ghostly …… body language! It’s like a chieftain ……, no, it’s more than that-degozaru ……!

And you’re not even losing any breathing. ……! You’re a real “monster”-degozaru!”

It’s not even a preparatory exercise for me, as I have an endurance status of 201.

“I told you, you’ll only get tired. So go to bed.”

I am about to continue, but Shinobuko jumps up and launches a desperate attack, like a Japanese flying squirrel pouncing on its prey, but I am able to dodge it with ease.

Sinobuko is about to be knocked to the floor, but

“Oh, dear.”

I grab her by the waist just before she crashes and hold her close.

She jumps into my arms with the lightness and scream of a small bird.

She’s petite, so she buries  her face in my chest with a “Mug!”.

Sinobuko looks at me with a huffy, upturned look and her hands tightly clasped around my shirt.

“A~ah, I’ve been caught at last.

This is meant to be, “I’ve caught you,” but she seems to interpret it the other way around.

“‘Go to sleep’ and ‘I’ll catch you’ ……! You’re not going to put me through that-degozaru?

“What do you mean by that?”

“There is only one kind of ninjutsu that can be applied to a captured kunoichi-degozaru

Bo… “Bochujutsu” ……!　No, ‘bochujuchu’ ……!

I wonder if Sinobuko had a short tongue as well as short hands, or if she couldn’t say the “bochujutsu” properly.

She pouts like a duck, desperately trying to say “bouchuu jutsu”, but eventually gives up.

“You’re going to use that ‘bochu-chu’ to kiss not only me, but Monaka-sama as well!”

“What are you talking about?

I put my hand on her head.

“You saw the way I carried myself and thought Monaka was going to be a handful, so you came to beat me up.

But I’m not going to do that. Monaka is a dear childhood friend to me.

If she’s in trouble, I’ll help her, but I’ll never attack her.”

I say that seriously, trying to reassure Shinobuko.

Finally, I smiled at her and said, “So, don’t worry.”

But she doesn’t respond.

She looks up at me with her eyes wide open in surprise.

A beat later, kaaaaahhh! She turns so red that she almost makes a noise.

Shinobuko covers her reddened face with her black hood, and with a shoo! And then she pulls away from my arms.

“nin nin nin …….　I’ll let you off with this for today, degozaru!”

She glares at me with an expression of mixed embarrassment and regret.

“But the next time we meet, we will kill each other-degozaru!” And with that, she climbs over the window and runs away.

As I watch her go, my body gets covered in stardust in the darkness of the night.

“Level up? I didn’t do anything special.

The only thing I did was make the other girls in my class blush. ……”