"Sorry for keeping you waiting. Forgive me."
"No, I don't mind. But are you okay? You're being clung to."
"Naoya is cheatiiiiing!"
"Mai-chan, cut it out, get off. It's not cheating, and it's rude. Tsukumo-san isn't my girlfriend, you know? Though she's a beauty who's totally my type."
"Ahhh!"
"What to do. It got worse... Maki-chan, don't kick my legs. What is it with you two? Rebellious phase? It's super annoying, give me a break."
"Now, now... isn't it a cute maiden's heart? I'll still wait, so it's okay, it's okay. By the way, I ate all the rice crackers alone, was that okay?"
"I can't eat rice snacks anyway. I'll eat roasted walnuts later. ...More importantly, I'm gonna put these kids to sleep for a bit. They aren't usually like this."
The expression of Naoya grumbling this looked genuinely annoyed, yet his figure taking the twins away while speaking kind words looked like that of a brother with a large age gap.
Truly twisted, and therefore strong. Such a way of being of Naoya Zen'in was manifested in that one act.
-----
"...Finally asleep. Seems they were exhausted."
"Flowers in both hands, I'm envious, Naoya-kun."
"Are you mocking me? Taking care of brats is not what I wanted... I don't have a lolicon hobby."
"Well, it's not 'Bon-Kyu-Bon', more like 'Ston-Poyon-Purin', right?"
"Seriously. Ten years too early. At least wait until over 16."
"That would be older than the current you."
"I said I like older women, didn't I? Now you bring that up? ...Let's restart the talk."
"Ah, right. From the 7th one?"
"'Licking Gall'. This one is quite tough too. It's a binding to eat cursed spirit residuals."
"I feel like I said this when I heard it before, but normally you'd die, right? That."
"Yeah. Without 'Asceticism', I'd probably die. It's worth it for the cursed energy increase."
"It's close to the 'Bath' used when turning items into cursed tools or objects, but doing it with a human body is seriously suicidal. ...It's a bit too unreasonable to use for one of my means to grant my ideal of 'Making all of humanity sorcerers'. Too bad."
"Well, yeah. If you feed it to a normal person, they'd just die from the cursed spirit's poison. If anything, wouldn't Cursed Objects have a one-chance? Incarnation gacha."
"You're grinning. You're saying that knowing it's impossible."
"Just a joke. ...Then next is 'Chastity', huh. Isn't this the most popular one?"
"Indeed, bindings about chastity are commonly heard in old sorcerer families. Though in most cases, it binds women."
"Well yeah. Honestly, this is plain. Just makes cursed energy recovery faster. Shall we move on? Me complaining about not being able to jerk off just becomes sexual harassment, seriously."
"Well, maybe I'll tease you about that another day."
"Cruel. Reverse sexual harassment is also illegal, you know? ...Ninth is 'Seppuku'. This is, well, if I lose, I just cut my stomach."
"Suddenly heavy... Is that limited to killing matches?"
"No, not really. Valid even for Rock-Paper-Scissors."
"That's super heavy! Eh, if you lose at Rock-Paper-Scissors, you die!?"
"No, just cut the stomach. No problem if I heal the wound after cutting."
"No, sure it heals if you use Reverse Cursed Technique. But seppuku hurts like hell..."
"The other day, I played Smash Bros and almost died."
"Why did you think to play a fighting game with that binding???"
"The damn brats were crying and screaming, so I had no choice. I didn't want to do it either. Even when I thought to cheese them with a Meteor Smash, my fingers froze because of the binding. Seriously shit."
"I see, because of the clash with 'Gentleman'... You've lived well this past year, Naoya-kun."
"Seriously. Compatibility with brats is bad. I'll beat up old man Ogi someday."
"I see. ...So, the last binding?"
"'Qikuo'. Meaning is 'Suffering of Effort'. Obligation to train and comply with bindings. You usually get used to that sort of thing, right? Eventually. I don't get used to it. It's always painful."
"Wow."
"Technically, as I myself get stronger, the pain and load become better. It's just the mental side that doesn't get used to it."
"That's plenty tough... The return is?"
"Benefits of bindings are strengthened. Including those other than the 10 bindings."
"It meshes with your current situation and is simply strong. I see. ...Oh?"
"Dammit... I thought it was hot. No luck. Hey Naoya, lend me 100k... Who are you?"
"The person you waited for has come, perhaps?"
"Toji-kun. It's a guest, Tsukumo-san. Special Grade Sorcerer. She has business with you."
"With me? I'll pass on troublesome stuff..."
"No, just a little talk. I'm Yuki Tsukumo. I want to borrow your power for the radical treatment of the jujutsu world. Of course, I won't say for free. How about... 500 million? That's one Summer Jumbo win, right?"
"Oi oi, quite generous. ...Well, I can at least listen to the talk, but depending on the content, I might refuse."
"Of course. Then, the first question..."
—Toji Fushiguro, what kind of woman is your type?
—I forgot. I'm the type who doesn't remember the faces of dead people.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]