Translator: raggykoshka
Editor: Vie
After they picked up Hiroto with his car, Sousuke drove to Hakonou.
“Mutsu-san, I’m probably a bit late in asking, but considering we’ve brought clothes to change into and all: where will we be staying?”
“A Shinto shrine.”
“Oh, the one inhabited by kitsune?”
“Yes. So we have to stop by a supermarket first. We need to buy our meals as well as gifts.”
Hiroto sat in the back seat with a reluctant expression but nobody noticed since it was quite dark already.
“Gifts?”
“I’m trying to tame them with food. Last time I brought castella cake.”
“Huh, not deep-fried tofu1?”
“We’ve had entire boxes of castella disappear from the kitchen too. I think it’s thekuda-gitsunewho had eaten them.”
“Maybe youkai simply like sweet things.”
Mutsu’s giggle made Sousuke’skuda-gitsuneemerge from under his collar and swiftly climbed up onto her knee. There, it proceeded to curl up and closed its eyes as Mutsu petted it, appearing to have fallen asleep.
Sousuke, Mutsu and Hiroto ended up buying a lot of things at a supermarket on their way. It was mainly meal ingredients, snacks, and some liquor, but there were also various tools like torches and rope.
Mutsu made sure to get a receipt at the cash register.
“Yuuno-san!! What should we do?!!”
“Don’t worry. Mucchan brought that thing with her, so nothing too bad is going to happ...en.”
Sousuke paused in the middle of speaking. A bit away from them, a hazy blue flame flared up.
“Was that Mucchan? Or something mysterious? I really can’t tell...”
The flame neither got bigger or disappeared, it simply flickered in the darkness. Just as Sousuke started to worry, his phone rang. It was Mutsu.
“Sou-san, over here!!”
“Is that flame yours, Mutsu?”
“Yeah, it’s mine!”
Mutsu’s voice was so loud that Sousuke’s ear started to hurt. It was so loud that even Hiroto could hear it. It seemed that despite being on the phone, Mutsu wanted to guide them with her voice.
“My ear hurts.”
After hanging up the phone and getting into the car, Sousuke started driving the car towards the flickering light.
“Is Mutsu-san a bit of an idiot?”
“Mutsu is certainly the type of person that you shouldn’t take your eyes off or she’ll get into trouble. Did you only notice that now?”
“Not really. It’s more like this has reaffirmed my belief.”
1It was briefly mentioned before in Chapter 6 but basically the favorite food of kitsune is thought to be deep-fried tofu (aburaage).
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