Jin’s POV
   The mother of Sergeant Wakaba and Wakaba is friendly. A bit too friendly. Well, it’s not that Jin doesn’t know the reason. He’s not that stupid.

   “So you’re Minase-kun. I’ve been hearing a lot about you.” she tells him while smiling ear to ear and sneaking glances at Estyshana.

   “I take it that Watanabe has been running off her mouth.” he says drily.

   “Please don’t blame her. Your, well, stories with Esty-chan here was too exciting for me to skip over.”

   “I’m sure it is.”

   “If it’s not too much of a bother, I would love to-”

   “Now now, Kana. I’m sure that Minase-kun is here for a reason.” her husband interrupts.

   That calmed her down. Props to the husband.

   “Oh, there I go again, getting all excited. Are you here for someone?” she asks Jin.

   “Yes, I’m here so that Wakaba, I mean Chifuyu-san could give me some last-minute pointers on solving a few maths questions.”

   She looks obviously disappointed when he didn’t mention that he’s here to see Estyshana.

   “I know that you’re here to study and all, Minase-kun. However, I would like to take a little bit of your time. Just a minute or so.” father Wakaba requests all of a sudden.

   “Of course, sir. What is it?”

   “Thank you for what you have done so far for our city and its people.” he says with a bow.

   His wife follows his lead silently.

   Looks like they figured it out too. Yup, there’s a reason why their daughters are so smart.

   “Please stop that. I’m not doing this to get thanks.”

   “And he’s not doing it out of the goodness of his heart either.” Estyshana mumbles.

   “Quiet, you.”

   “Well, please go ahead to Chifuyu’s room. Esty-chan will show you the way.” mother Wakaba says to Jin.

   “Yes. Please have a good night.”

   “Well, I’ll be in my room if you need me.” Sergeant Wakaba tells Jin and Estyshana.

   “Why were you even with Jin in the first place? The two of you came here together too.” the demon asks her.

   “Let’s just say that we had to crack a case, and I gave him a lift here.”

   She shows Estyshana a mischievous smile.

   “Why do you ask? Are you jealous?”

   Estyshana averts her eyes.

   “Nope. Not one bit.”

   Sergeant Wakaba lets out a chuckle. “Time and time again, you’ve proven yourself to be a terrible liar.”

   “Oh, shut it! We’re heading upstairs, Jin!”

   “Right behind you.”

   Jin couldn’t help but notice that mother Wakaba is beaming excitedly when she heard Estyshana calling him by his first name. He decides to ignore her and follow Estyshana upstairs.

   Turns out the two of them are sharing a room. There are two beds on two sides of the room, along with two different closets and study tables.

   Naturally, Wakaba and Watanabe are very surprised to see Jin here.

   “What are you doing here, Minase-kun?” Wakaba asks.

   “I was just done with my work, and your sister suddenly had the bright idea of bringing me here. I decided to take up on her offer after I heard that all of you are having a revision.” he replies while handing her the plastic bag which contains the things they wanted. “Am I being a bother?”

   “Not at all. You’re more than welcome here.”

   “Rather, I’d say that we’re the ones who’re bothering you.” Watanabe says slyly while sneaking a glance at Estyshana.

   “Whatever do you mean by that, Anri?” Estyshana demands.

   Watanaba lets out a hearty chuckle.

   “Oh, don’t mind me. I’m just talking to myself.”

   Jin sits down next to Wakaba, and Estyshana does the same next to him. Wakaba and Watanabe give them more space so that all of them form a circle when they’re sitting together.

   “So, which part don’t you understand?” Wakaba asks Jin.   

   “I have some problems with Maths.”

   Wakaba hands him her Maths textbook so that he could point out which part. After scrolling to the right chapter, Jin points the part he doesn’t understand.

   “This part. I tried to solve it by myself, but nothing made any sense to me.”

   Wakaba scribbles some equations at her notebook with her pen.

   “For certain questions, you’re to use this first one. Some questions, though, is a bit trickier. In that case, you need to use the second formula.”

   Jin stares at the equations for a while.

   “I still don’t understand.” he confesses.

   “Well, it can’t be helped then. I’ll look for a few sample questions. I’ll solve the first one, and you can try to solve the rest by following my example.”

   “Thanks for your trouble.”

   Estyshana giggles.

   “This is what you get for studying last-minute!” she laughs.

   Jin looks at her while narrowing his eyes.

   “I take it that you, who had been studying diligently for this past month, have no issue?”

   She flinches at the question and averts her eyes.

   “O-O-Of course! I’ll definitely get better marks than you!”

   “And the pigs will fly next.”

   He pauses.

   “You know what, forget that old idiom. The world has gone so crazy that’s actually possible.”

   “All right you two, enough talking and start moving your hands and brains!” Wakaba chides as she’s taking a sip from the can of coffee.

   “Sorry, Mama Chifuyu.”

   “You have my deepest apology, Mama Wakaba.”

   “Say Mama Chifuyu, can I take a break until tomorrow morning?” Watanabe asks as she’s munching on her oden.

   “Will the three of you stop that? And no you can’t, Anri. Besides, that’s not a break. That’s stopping for the night. Now finish up your food and continue with your revision.”

   “Aww~.”

   Once all of them have done eating, the revision continues. However, things are not looking good for Wakaba as she has to tutor three idiots at the same time.

   “Say, Mama Wakaba. How do I do this again?”

   “Mama Chifuyu, I need another break~!”

   “Mama Chifuyu, who’s Tokugawa Ieyasu again?”

   Wakaba covers her face with her hands and groans.

   “I wish for the umpteenth time that Ayumi was here…” she sobs.

   “Speaking of her, why isn’t she?” Jin asks curiously.

   “She said that she has to take care of some things at her shrine.”

   “Probably has something to do with the youkais.” Jin grunts.

   “Why are you talking like it has nothing to do with you?” Watanabe asks him.

   He shrugs. “If they need my help, she would have gave me a call already.”

   “...Wow, you gotta be the most disinterested Hero I’ve ever seen.”

   “So sue me for being disinterested. If I’m not getting calls, that means that it’s nothing serious right? You have to learn to be optimistic every once in a while. More importantly, am I doing this right Wakaba?”

   She takes a look at what he has written.

   “Yup, that’s it. You’re getting the hang of this.”

   Jin lets out a long sigh of relief.

   “Well, I’m glad that’s one small part that I got out of the way. That said, this question probably won’t come out at the test tomorrow.” he mumbles.

   “It might not come out tomorrow, but it might in the future.”

   He rolls his eyes.

   “Here’s the thing. When it comes to useless knowledge like this, I would rather assume that I will never have to use it.”

   “In short, you don’t want to study as much.”

   “That’s right. Even so, thanks for teaching me.”

   She smiles at him. “You can come and seek my help anytime you want.”

   “Yeah, thanks-oof!”

   Jin lets out that sound at the end since Estyshana rammed him from the side without any warning.

   “What was that for?” he demands.

   “Nothing.” she mumbles while puffing up her cheeks.

   Well, it’s not that he doesn’t know. She’s being that obvious. He reaches out his right hand and puts it on her head. She blushes furiously, but didn’t slap his hand away.

   “There’s no need for you to be jealous, alright?”

   “...Okay.”

   Watanabe and Wakaba both look at Jin, then at Estyshana.

   “Say, Chifuyu.”

   “Yeah?”

   “Are you sure the two of them aren’t going out?”

   “You tell me.”

   “We’re definitely not.” the two in question answer at the same time.

   “Well, I give up, in more ways than one.”

   Watanabe gets up from where she’s sitting and climbs into one of the bed.

   “Why are you going to bed already, Anri? It’s still too early to sleep! And that’s my bed!” Wakaba chides.

   Watanabe lets out a huge yawn.

   “Just let me sleep for a while. Until tomorrow morning…” she mumbles.

   “You already tried something like that just now. Now get up!”

   Wakaba gets up and goes to the side of her bed so that she could shake Watanabe awake.

   “Just give me five more minutes…”

   As they’re having the exchange, Jin tries his best on solving more questions based on the equations given by Wakaba. His progress is painfully slow, but he’s getting there. Just as he was about to solve another question, Estyshana shoves a text book at him.

   “Say, how do you read this?” she asks him while pointing at a written sentence of the book.

   Jin takes a closer look at it. It’s a sentence written in English.

   He never had much trouble with English. That said, he’s having a tiny bit of them right now. That’s because the girl, um, demon he likes is just inches away from him. And she smells really good. He take it that she bathed not too long ago.

   “Well? Can you translate it or not?”

   That snapped him back to reality.

   “Yeah, I can. It says “Bob wants a cup of coffee.”.”

   “...What’s with that random sentence?”

   “It’s not random. That’s how you learn English or any other languages. By reading them out loud and writing them down.”

   “I don’t see the point of it.”

   “Agreed. That said, unlike most of the things we learn at school, learning a new language is actually useful.”

   It was then when Jin remembered something.

   “Wait a minute. Why didn’t you just use Translate to know what it says? You know, the same Level 1 Spell that allows you to speak Japanese?”

   “...I forgot.” she replies without looking at him in the eyes.

   “Uh-huh.”

   “Hey, you know why I wanted to do this, so act dumb for once.”

   “Fine, fine. Anything else you want to know?”

   “Well there’s this…”

   Jin “helped out” with Estyshana’s study a bit more before realizing that it’s getting late.

   “Well, I’m leaving. Thanks for the lessons, Wakaba.” he announces as he gets up from where he’s sitting.

   “You’re very much welcome. Feel free to drop by again.”

   “Aren’t you going to sleep here for the night, Minase-kun?” Watanabe asks.

   Upon hearing that, Estyshana, who looked drowsy a moment ago, is immediately wide awake again.

   “What are you talking about, Anri? He’s a boy, remember?” she asks.

   “Oh my~? I meant to say the living room when I brought that up, you know? What were you thinking, Esty-chan~?” Watanabe asks while grinning evilly.

   Estyshana’s face becomes beet red in an instant.

   “Um, nothing! Nothing at all! I swear!”

   “You’re not fooling anyone there. Why don’t you be honest and say that you want to sleep on the same bed as him?”

   “No I don’t! Don’t you start making up nonsense!”

   “What about you, Minase-kun? Do you want to share a bed with Esty-chan?”

   “Kind of.” Jin confesses.

   “Hey!”

   “Oh my, how sweet~!”

   “That’s it, you’re getting out of here right now! Out with you! OUT!”

   And so, Jin has to leave the room while being pushed from the back by the demon. On their way out, they bump into mother Wakaba.

   “Oh my, leaving already?” she asks Jin.

   “Yes, it’s getting late after all. Thank you for your hospitality.” he says while bowing.

   “No need to thank me, I didn’t do a thing anyway. This time.”

   ““This time”?”

   “I was hoping you would drop by again in the near future. Is it too much of a trouble?”

   Jin sneaks a glance at Estyshana who’s standing behind him.

   “No. Not at all. I would love to come here again.”

   “That’s good to hear. For now, good night.”

   “Yes. Good night to you too, ma’am.”

   Sergeant Wakaba chose this moment to come out of her room.

   “May I speak with you for a while, Minase-kun?” she asks him.

   “Is it about work?”

   “I’m afraid so.”

   “Well, I guess I’m staying around for a bit longer then.” he tells mother Wakaba.

   “No worries. Just take your time.”

   He bows at her again.

   “Thank you.”

   “My, you’re such a polite young man. No wonder Esty-chan is head over heels for you.”

   Estyshana gasps loudly.

   “What are you saying, Mama Kana?”

   “Oh, no need to be so bashful about it, Esty-chan. I’m sure everyone in this house know about it already.”

   “That’s not the problem!”

   “Yup, I know that too.”

   “Quiet, you!”

   “I hate to interrupt your husband-and-wife comedy act, but I really need to talk to you, husband-kun.” Sergeant Wakaba says.

   “Sorry about that, sergeant. I’m coming over right now.”

   “Hey, at least deny the “husband” part!”

   The inside of Sergeant Wakaba’s room is quite plain. The bed sheet is plain white, the study table and the chair are made of simple materials, and her closet is quite small. The only extravagant thing in here is the bookshelf which contains lots of thick books.

   “I talked to my superior Chief of Police Hayashi over the phone just now.” Sergeant Wakaba begins.

   “Let me guess, you can’t touch Bouchard with Fukuma’s testimony alone.”

   “I’m afraid not. For one thing, from what we heard from Fukuma-kun, Bouchard isn’t even directly responsible for what happened to him. If we go at this recklessly, he’ll just end up finding a scapegoat.”

   “Figured.”

   Jin really, really misses the good old days when he can just cut someone down without suffering any repercussions.

   “Please don’t do anything reckless.” Sergeant Wakaba warns, as if she managed to read his thoughts.

   “I understand. Did the Police Chief say anything else?”

   “He said that he’ll redouble his effort in order to convince the PM that Bouchard is a dangerous individual.”

   “I have two questions.”

   “Go on.”

   “First of all, how trustworthy is that Police Chief of yours?”

   “I’ve been working under him for almost three years now. He’s definitely a trustworthy man.” she assures.

   “Well, if you say so. My second question: why is the PM backing Bouchard so much? Does he have any dirt on him?”

   Sergeant Wakaba furrows her eyebrows.

   “That’s still under investigation. Done secretly, of course.”

   “So you’re suspecting him too.”

   “It’ll be weirder not to, to be honest. Anyone who’s innocent will at least suspend Bouchard after hearing so many negative rumors about him.”

   “Not to brag or anything, but I’ve met and/or talked to lots of ministers back at the human kingdom in Ifezan. As a result, I’m somewhat confident when it comes to judging a politician’s character.”

   “And what do you see in our PM?”

   “The first impression he gave me is that he’s a peaceful fellow who’s trying his best. To put it bluntly, he won’t survive three days at the court if he was born in Ifezan. I can’t detect any maliciousness or greed from him either, which really puzzle me as to why he would allow Bouchard to go nuts.”

   “As you said, he was mostly being blackmailed. We can’t be sure until further investigation.”

   She checks the time.

   “It’s getting late. You have exams tomorrow, so I shouldn’t keep you for long.”

   She smiles mischievously at him.

   “Are you sure that you don’t want to stay over for the night?”

   “I’m pretty sure. I won’t be able to sleep if I’m sleeping under the same roof as the demon I like.”

   She lets out a chuckle. “At least you’re honest with your feeling.”

   “Well, good night sergeant.”

   “Good night to you too. Once again, thank you for today.”

   On the next day, the atmosphere around the entire school has become quite heavy. And it’s no wonder. Yokosuka has been quite infamous for its supplementary lessons. Those students who get failed marks at their tests will receive hellish lesson for weeks, or so Jin has heard. He has not failed any of his exams so far, so he has yet to verify this rumor. Naturally, he’s more than content to maintain it as a rumor.

   When Jin got to the classroom, the usual gang is already there.

   “Good morning, Minase-kun. Are you ready for the exam?” Wakaba asks.

   “Morning Wakaba. As to your answer, not really.” he confesses.

   “Well, at least you’re not nervous.”

   “It’s just that I don’t really care. My calmness is totally different from you and Ichihara, who don’t have to worry at all.”

   “You’re giving us too much credit, Minase-kun.” Ayumi tells him.

   “Exactly.” Wakaba agrees.

   “Am I now? What were your rankings in the previous exam again?”

   “26th.”

   “Mine’s 19th.”

   “Out of 362 students. And you two are not smart. What does that make us, Watanabe?”

   “Utter idiots, I guess.” she replies.

   Jin looks at Estyshana. She was never a morning demon, so she’s struggling to stay awake. From her look, she looks like she’s about to fall asleep any moment. Even the ringing bell failed to wake her up.

   “Well, good luck everyone.” Wakaba says to them. “And wake up already, Esty.”

   “Just three more minutes…” the demon mumbles.

   The exams were conducted in the period of four days before they’re finally done. Overall, Jin is confident. Kind of. A little. He’s at least confident that he’s not going to fail any of the subjects. After the fourth day, he thought he could finally relax for a bit.

   Boy was he wrong.

 

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