All the Heroines are my Ex-girlfriends

Chapter 73: Kirisu-sensei, why are you so panicking?

Kirisu Mafuyu placed her teacup down and shook her head.

'No, no.'

How could she let herself be outsmarted by this troublemaker student, bribed to get away with things!

"Yukima-kun, when will your family be back? I need to talk to them about your issues."

Kirisu Mafuyu leaned her elbows on the table, interlacing her fingers, showing a serious attitude.

"I don't have one."

Yukima Azuma calmly replied.

"Eh?"

"I said, I don't have a family."

Hearing Kirisu Mafuyu's doubtful tone, Yukima Azuma repeated himself.

Kirisu Mafuyu's expression immediately changed.

She stared at the young man in front of her, momentarily speechless.

This information was truly shocking to her.

Two seconds later, Kirisu Mafuyu regained her composure and quickly apologized:

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up a sensitive topic, I just..."

"Just worried about me," Yukima Azuma interrupted her with a smile.

"Don't worry, Kirisu-sensei. It's not a sensitive topic for me, so it's fine."

Kirisu Mafuyu widened her eyes.

On the contrary, she was the one being comforted.

In that moment, Kirisu Mafuyu realized.

Even though she always called Yukima Azuma a "troublemaker student, a troublemaker student,"

She really had no idea how heavy the burden he had to bear was.

How could a young man smile and say "it's not a sensitive topic at all" like that?

Kirisu Mafuyu wanted to say something.

She opened her mouth but then fell silent, unable to speak.

In the quiet living room, only the sound of Yukima Azuma lightly sipping his tea remained.

The silence lingered for a long time.

After a moment of thinking, Kirisu Mafuyu finally managed to say:

"Can you tell me about your situation?"

If she didn't know what had happened in Yukima Azuma's past,

Any attempt at comfort would be meaningless.

Any guidance would just be self-righteous.

At the very least, Kirisu Mafuyu needed to understand what this young man had been through.

Only then could she attempt to help him.

"Not to sensei, of course."

As a result, Yukima Azuma answered like that.

Kirisu Mafuyu was stunned.

After all, this young man had always been polite, humorous, and though a little mischievous, very obedient to her.

Could it be that his past was so heavy that he didn't want to talk about it?

Just as Kirisu Mafuyu was thinking that.

"Three years from now, I'll graduate, and by then, sensei won't be my teacher anymore."

"In Japan, there's probably no such thing as 'once a teacher, always a father,' right?"

"So, asking questions like this as a teacher might be crossing the line."

"But, if Kirisu Mafuyu wants to know, I definitely won't hide anything."

While speaking, Yukima Azuma lightly shook his finger.

Kirisu Mafuyu really wanted to grab his ear.

These words showed no respect for a teacher at all!

Show some proper respect for your teacher!

But, considering that the young man in front of her was a troublemaker,

Kirisu Mafuyu decided not to argue with him.

"Alright, then, as Kirisu Mafuyu, tell me about your story."

Yukima Azuma nodded.

"This story begins with a child who wasn't particularly smart. How should I put it, the Yukima family is not a traditional family."

Yukima Azuma began telling his story slowly.

However, he intentionally hid the fact that he was someone who had crossed over.

The rest of it, though, was true.

The Yukima family was not a traditional family.

Although not large in scale, it was indeed a clan.

And being a clan, to maintain a better lineage, they adhered to the principle of "the talented should lead."

This was beneficial for the development of the clan.

However, for the incompetent, things became very bad.

Yukima Azuma wasn't born as a "slow" child.

As mentioned earlier,

As a reincarnator, Yukima Azuma's soul had to gradually merge with this body.

Before, Yukima Azuma had no memory of his past life.

Moreover, due to the integration period,

When he was born, Yukima Azuma was even slower and less quick-witted than ordinary children.

This Yukima Azuma was the second child in his family.

His biological parents despised him because he was so incompetent.

As a result, Yukima Azuma didn't receive the care he should have.

Once he gained some ability to take care of himself, he was sent to Tokyo to study.

Probably with the thinking of "out of sight, out of mind."

Thus, the Yukima family completely missed the first turning point for Yukima Azuma.

Later, Yukima Azuma's performance rapidly improved.

He stood out in the Shogi world, gaining attention in a short period.

The Yukima family wanted to bring Yukima Azuma back.

But he flatly refused.

At that time, things were quite tense and not at all pleasant.

Fortunately, during that period, Yukima Azuma happened to meet Kasumigaoka Utaha.

Then, three years ago,

The Yukima family suffered an accident.

Except for Yukima Azuma, who had been abandoned in Tokyo,

The Yukima family completely collapsed.

"That's how it happened. I completely became someone without any blood relatives left. Only those who claim to be relatives, but in reality, they are just hungry wolves eyeing the family wealth."

"I used a bit of trickery, paid a price, escaped from Chiba, and now live alone in Tokyo."

Yukima Azuma concluded.

At this moment,

Kirisu Mafuyu's gaze became somewhat vacant.

Though Yukima Azuma spoke calmly,

Just thinking about it, one could tell that what he had shared, if it had happened to anyone else, would have been experiences from hell and a devastating shock.

To go through such things and not become an anti-social person, against humanity, could be considered a miracle.

The fact that Yukima Azuma could remain so composed and polite was truly hard to believe.

Kirisu Mafuyu herself was the type to "regret her youth."

She had once shone brightly in figure skating.

But she gave up her talent due to personal emotions.

Throughout the rest of her life, she never stopped regretting it, and after becoming a teacher, her personality became more stubborn.

However, upon hearing what Yukima Azuma had gone through,

Kirisu Mafuyu felt that the pain of her youth was nothing.

It wasn't even half of what the young man in front of her had to endure.

Initially, she had planned to offer some comfort after hearing his story.

But now, that was out of the question.

What comfort could she offer?

Not to mention the person involved, even someone just listening like her was on the verge of suffering psychological trauma!

Just as Kirisu Mafuyu was sinking deeper into her chaotic thoughts,

Clink clink clink!

The sound of metal clinking clearly echoed from the hallway.

Kirisu Mafuyu snapped back to reality, looking up toward the source of the noise.

She saw a white cat, about the size of two palms.

At that moment, the cat was dragging a large metal bowl, nearly as big as its body, making a clattering noise on the floor.

Looking at this cute white fluffball,

Kirisu Mafuyu felt her wounded heart heal a little.

"What's this?"

She asked curiously.

Yukima Azuma had stood up at some point and explained:

"It's called Shiratamaru. I found it on my way back after school not long ago. It seems to have been abandoned, so I brought it home."

Saying this, Yukima Azuma gently picked up Shiratamaru.

It was strange.

He had fed it earlier when he came back at noon, hadn't he?

In the afternoon, since Kirisu Mafuyu was coming, he had carefully locked Shiratamaru in a cage.

Glancing toward Shiratamaru's room,

Yukima Azuma realized,

The simple latch on the cage had been opened.

He looked back at Shiratamaru, meeting its striking mismatched blue and yellow eyes, and fell into deep thought.

Shiratamaru: "Nyan nyan?"

What he say?

It seemed that Shiratamaru's intelligence was truly high, even exceeding expectations.

It was no different than a Border Collie in the body of a cat.

At this moment, Kirisu Mafuyu also stepped closer to observe.

She watched the scene of one person and a cat living in harmony.

Kirisu Mafuyu was so moved that she almost burst into tears.

Thank heavens.

At least this child hadn't gone down the wrong path.

Yukima Azuma took Shiratamaru's food bowl, prepared a portion of food for the cat, and even added some freeze-dried food.

Once the food was ready, Shiratamaru leaped down from Yukima Azuma's arms.

It immediately dove into the food like a whirlwind.

The noise of Shiratamaru's bowl being hit and clattering loudly echoed through the room.

Yukima Azuma thought to himself that he needed to speed up his plan.

Otherwise, if Shiratamaru kept banging the bowl like this every day, it wouldn't be good at all.

He had to finish building the automatic feeder as soon as possible, so that Shiratamaru would "torture" the machine instead of banging the bowl every day.

The scene of Yukima Azuma deep in thought automatically transformed in Kirisu Mafuyu's mind into: 'cats are the medicine for healing the soul.'

Kirisu Mafuyu wholeheartedly agreed with this thought.

She even began to consider whether she should get a cat herself.

As both of them were watching Shiratamaru eat,

The sound of a door opening came from the entrance.

"I'm back."

Kasumigaoka Utaha had returned home and immediately noticed a pair of women's shoes by the entrance.

These shoes were not the school uniform type that students usually wore.

So, she immediately ruled out several possibilities.

Eriri, Kato Megumi, or others certainly wouldn't be wearing these types of shoes on a school day.

In other words... it was a another "sneaky cat" again!

Realizing this, Kasumigaoka Utaha's expression immediately soured.

Nice!

She had just been sweet yesterday.

And today, this person was already planning to betray her, huh!

"Welcome home."

Yukima Azuma came out from the room, greeting Kasumigaoka as usual.

Kirisu Mafuyu also followed behind out of curiosity.

After all, Yukima Azuma had said that he had no family.

So who was this person entering the house now?

Seeing the two of them acting so casually, as if nothing was amiss,

Kasumigaoka became even angrier.

Nice, now they weren't even pretending anymore!

"Lonely-kun, could you explain who the woman behind you is?"

"Why did you bring a stranger into our house!?"

Kasumigaoka emphasized the phrase "our house," grinding her teeth in anger.

Who is the "sneaky cat" daring to approach Azuma? I will finish her off right now! The 512 combo, senpai in black stockings, has been activated—rune settings with just a click.

Kirisu Mafuyu, though a woman past her prime and having never been in a romantic relationship,

Still, with a woman's intuition, she could smell the intense scent of gunpowder in the air.

Having never gone through something like this before, Kirisu-sensei was momentarily at a loss and didn't know what to do.

Seeing Kirisu Mafuyu flustered,

Kasumigaoka Utaha grew even bolder, her overwhelming aura taking charge.

Her sharp gaze locked onto Yukima Azuma.

Yukima Azuma smiled, turned, and made the introduction.

"Senpai, this is my homeroom teacher, as well as a teacher at Toyogasaki, Kirisu Mafuyu-sensei. She's here to check on my health."

After finishing his words, Yukima Azuma turned to look at Kirisu Mafuyu.

A question mark immediately appeared over his head.

Wait, sensei, what are you panicking about!?

As soon as Yukima Azuma finished speaking, Kasumigaoka Utaha was also taken aback.

A teacher? A teacher from Toyogasaki?

Did that mean her jealous outburst just now was completely embarrassing?

But wait, she's a teacher visiting the home, so why is she acting so panicking?

Both of them turned to look at the teacher.

Kirisu Mafuyu finally realized.

Right, I'm a teacher, and I'm here to visit my student's home.

What on earth am I so panicking for?

In an instant, the atmosphere became exceedingly awkward.