Challenge: The Fool with the Surname Okayamine

Chapter 87, Itono's Arc: "Girl in the Rain"

Thursday afternoon, May 11th~

A torrential downpour fell outside Wuhe's house, with large raindrops pounding against the windows, roof, and ground, making a crackling sound.

Inside the house~

"Welcome back, Kotori-san~ Oh? And Reine-san too? Would you like to try some coffee?"

Standing in the kitchen, Ming was leisurely brewing coffee, holding a hand-ground coffee powder that Möbius had just sent from England.

Upon discovering the door was open, Kotori, who had just returned from middle school with Reine and Tohka by her side, asked in a very cheerful tone.

"Is my brother not home today?"

While changing her shoes, Kotori, whose white hairband was still tied up, casually asked, "I still have to change it."

"Shido, it's raining heavily now, so it might take you a while to get back," Ming said with a smile, placing the brewed coffee on the table.

As soon as Tohka smelled the aroma of coffee, she moved closer, curiously examining it. Reine, on the other hand, quietly found a seat and sat down.

"Speaking of which, why are you all soaking wet? Did you all come back in the rain? Do you want to take a shower?"

"Thank you for your concern. I'll go wash up in a bit. The commander suggested the same thing on the way."

“Great! Great! That’s what Kotori said too.”

Then, Ming took out the pearl from the drawer, walked up to Qin Li, unwrapped the candy, and handed it to her.

"Miss Kotori, please have some."

"Thank you for your help, Mr. Ming."

Kotori took the pearl and put it in her mouth. The sweet taste spread in her mouth. Ming stood aside like a butler, looking very easygoing and elegant.

More than 20 minutes later~

Soaked to the bone, Shido rushed into the house, first going to the bathroom, and then, for some unknown reason, after hearing Tohka's shouts a few times, he awkwardly made his way to the living room.

"Kotori! What happened? Why is Tohka...?"

"Welcome back, brother!"

"What did you say? Why is Tohka at our house?"

“There is a reason, young man.”

"Oh right, Mr. Shido, please don't get too excited. You just got caught in the rain and you might catch a cold."

Hearing the sound from behind, Shido turned around and saw Reine with a towel around her neck and Ming standing there helping Reine hold her coffee.

"Miss Lingyin, what are you doing here?"

"Sorry, I put in a little too much sugar. Xiaoming, you shouldn't burn yourself when the coffee comes out, right?"

"...Guess? (Wearing gloves, at least the fire spirit won't get burned.)"

Ming replied with a dark expression, it was unclear whether Lingyin had genuinely not noticed or what.

After everyone sat down~

........................

"Tohka's post-illness care?"

"Yes, her spiritual power as an elf has been sealed because of your kiss. Now there is an invisible connection between the two of you."

Reine pointed to her coffee, which was full of sugar cubes, and then to the coffee in front of Shido, gesturing as she spoke.

"Didn't I say after that that you could seal Shido's spiritual power by increasing his affection and then kissing him?"

"Then why do I possess such power?"

"Unfortunately, as the commander, I don't know that much either; I only found out through Ratatosk's analysis."

As Kotori spoke, Ming, who was leaning against the wall listening, glanced at Lingyin with a playful expression.

"Can we get back to the main topic now?" Lingyin interrupted.

"However, Tohka's mental state is unstable, and there's a risk of the spiritual energy sealed within you flowing back. It can only stabilize when Tohka is by your side..."

As she spoke, Lingyin stood up, picked up the tongs, and wanted to get another piece of her coffee, which was already full of sugar. Ming, being quite sensible, handed her the jar of sugar.

"In short, until the elves' designated living quarters are completed, having them stay here is the best option."

"Is that right?"

"And this can also be considered training in Shido."

"Training...we still have to train?" Shido's PTSD relapsed somewhat when the word "training" was mentioned.

"Yes, don't forget that there are other spirits in this world besides Tohka, like the [Flame Beast] you met last time, which is now wanted nationwide for over one hundred million dollars. Their reputations in this world aren't very good."

"Yes, as Kotori said, special disaster-causing life forms in this world are collectively called Spirits. Besides Tohka and the [Flame Beast], there are several other types. Shishi, we would like to ask you to take on the role of communicating with the Spirits."

"Even so, what am I going to do about that [Flame Beast]! Do I look like someone who has that kind of interest?"

Ming agreed, "Ahem, actually... to be honest, the [Flame Beast] is the anomaly among those elves, and currently the only male elf recorded."

After Shido returned to his room, Mei left the Itsuka residence alone and went to the entrance of a shrine.

Ming stood at the shrine entrance as the rain gradually subsided. He looked up into the depths of the shrine, and just then, he heard soft footsteps approaching.

A figure slowly walked over. It was a girl in green playing in the rain. What was particularly eye-catching was the white rabbit puppet in her hand. The toy was very lively and cute.

Upon seeing the girl, Ming smiled gently and greeted her softly:

"Hello, little sister Yoshino Hyoga~"

Hearing someone call her name, the girl seemed startled, her body trembling slightly. She hid behind a large tree, only peeking out half her head to look timidly at Ming.

Ming knew the girl was shy, so he slowly squatted down, took out a piece of candy, and wanted to talk to her.

A little while later, the girl's rabbit puppet peeked out from behind the tree, its eyes darting around, and snatched the candy, speaking in a comical way, as if using ventriloquism:

"Oh my, who is this young man? How does he know our Yoshino's name? And look at you, Yoshino, wearing a blindfold, what are you doing? So mysterious!"

"My name is Akira Okamine, nice to meet you, Ms. Yoshino." Akira bowed slightly, adopting a gentlemanly posture.

"Wow! Dude, you can actually tell Yoshino and Yoshina apart? Not bad~ What do you need us for? The way you're looking at us, are you a lolicon?"

Ming smiled helplessly.

"Miss Yoshino is too kind. I just happened to learn that Yoshino likes sweets, so I wanted to make friends."

Yoshina, clutching the candy, rolled her eyes.

"Hmph, who knows if you have any bad intentions?"

Without replying further, Ming turned around and looked at the rain that was about to stop. "Believe it or not, the rain is about to stop. I look forward to seeing you two again."

Then, after bowing again, Ming walked out of the shrine. As for Yoshino, she took the candy from Yoshina's hand and looked in the direction where Ming had inexplicably gone, somewhat puzzled.

"That guy... he seemed really strange..."