"Treat her to a meal, treat her to a meal, treat her to a meal. Are you sure this is, okay? Why does this feel so unreliable to me?" Helplessly looking at the messages his sister sent him, Shido Itsuka was also extremely exasperated. The information his sister gave him was extremely unreliable. He could see that Tohka liked to eat, but no matter how he thought about it, this just didn't seem reliable at all.
"If I were you, I'd take off that earpiece. A little girl who's never even dated, and a whole bunch of leftover men and women. Haven't you ever heard? It's not the Godlike enemies you should fear, it's the pig-like teammates." Glancing at the earpiece in Shido's ear, Tohka continued her tirade. She couldn't help it—those guys really were too full of things to criticize. If she remembered right, there even seemed to be a masochistic vice-captain among them.
"Ah?" Hearing Tohka's words, Shido was reminded of yesterday's incident. He subconsciously wanted to take the thing off, but before he could finish the motion he froze.
"Do, not, take, it, off." Because at that moment, Kotori's voice came through the earpiece, warning him one word at a time. She had heard every word Tohka just said, and it almost made her bite her lollipop in half.
"Mm, fine." Hearing his sister's voice, Shido could already imagine that right now on the warship, that bunch of people must have been fired up by Tohka's few casual words. Of course, just like Tohka said, he didn't have any faith in this bunch either—they almost got him killed yesterday.
"Let me see..." But just as Shido was agonizing over where to go, he suddenly realized that Tohka had disappeared in front of him.
"You idiot, truly hopeless." At this moment, Kotori's voice full of hatred for iron that could not become steel sounded in his ear: "Just walk straight ahead, then turn left into that shop, hurry up and get over there. It's a bakery. Hurry, according to our information, that Spirit doesn't have any money. If she gets into trouble with the store, it'll be a hassle."
Alright, Shido retracted what he said earlier. It looked like this bunch of people were still somewhat useful—relying on their black technology, at least they could track Tohka's location so he wouldn't lose her.
"Tohka, you... uh, is that kinako bread?" Finally catching up to Tohka, Shido saw her coming out holding a pile of food. As for what was in Tohka's hand, he recognized it at a glance. It was sitting in the store window on the only empty shelf, with a sign that said "Kinako Bread."
"You're here, so you stopped hesitating." Casually taking out a kinako bread from the bag, Tohka nodded in satisfaction as she savored the taste on her tongue. Back when she was in Marvel, she hadn't paid attention to this sort of thing. But today, passing by this store, she'd suddenly been captivated by the smell of the food. Then, as if some special switch had been flipped, she couldn't stop herself from falling in love with it.
"Is it really that tasty? You actually bought them all." Watching Tohka with a twitching eye, Shido never would have thought Tohka would like this sort of thing. But just then he suddenly noticed something—the shop hadn't been damaged at all, and the owner was even wearing a satisfied smile. That meant Tohka had bought them through normal means: "Wait a second, you're supposed to be a Spirit, where did you get the money to buy all this?"
"Mm, money... are you talking about this?" Hearing Shido's question, Tohka casually pulled a wallet from her pocket and waved it in front of his face.
"Wait, that's..." Seeing the wallet in Tohka's hand, Shido was stunned. Then he quickly patted his own pocket. As expected, he didn't feel anything: "When did you take my wallet?"
"When you were zoning out playing on your phone. Alright, here you go." Casting a scornful look at the somewhat shocked Shido, Tohka casually tossed the wallet back to him. Honestly, if it weren't for luring out Phantom and getting a suitable identity, she wouldn't have bothered agreeing to Kotori's so-called date. That girl really thought she'd been tricked. Just because she usually didn't bother thinking didn't mean she was stupid. Back in Marvel, she could do whatever she wanted because Tony took the heat for her. But here, she could only rely on herself.
"Do all Spirits act like you... ah, my money." Originally, he'd wanted to complain about Tohka's sleight of hand, but very quickly Shido couldn't feel happy anymore. Because Tohka had spent all the money in his wallet, not leaving a single yen behind.
"Tch, you're really so LOW." Casting another scornful glance at this pathetic young man, Tohka then, as if performing magic, pulled out a stack of bills from her pocket. But these weren't yen—they were crisp green U.S. dollars. She couldn't help it—before leaving Marvel, she'd stuffed a whole bunch of dollars into her pocket just in case. But because she wasn't clear about the exchange rate between dollars and yen, she simply swiped his wallet. Although large U.S. bills weren't easy to use in Japan, for Tohka it wasn't a big obstacle. Anyway, this was still Earth, so presumably dollars from the two worlds were interchangeable.
"Are you really a Spirit or just a rich person? Why are you carrying so much cash around?" Even Shido was a little shaken by Tohka this time. This girl carried so much money—was she not afraid of getting robbed? But very quickly he dismissed that thought. If anyone tried to mug Tohka, he could only mourn for those robbers in advance.
"Alright, Shido, don't let her throw you off." But at this moment, Kotori's voice came through again. Because she realized that this wasn't going anywhere good—Tohka's affection level hadn't gone up at all.
"I've already picked out a shop for you. Even if you don't have money, don't worry. Just do your best, big brother. We'll give you our strongest support." Maybe because they'd been too shocked by Tohka yesterday, this time that unreliable group didn't give him any of those perverted mental choices, but instead changed tactics and decided to back Shido financially.
"Uh, alright." Hearing his little sister's words, Shido could only nod helplessly. He really didn't have the nerve to let Tohka treat him. So, this time, no matter how uneasy he felt, he could only head to the shop she mentioned.