New Novel
Chapter 16: Ice Cream

Chapter 16: Chapter 16: Ice Cream

"Of course."

Kotone Asaba immediately took Kobeni Higashiyama to buy ice cream.

When they bought the ice cream, the person selling it was also frightened by Pochita, so Kotone had to show his identification and give a brief explanation.

Although dealing with that sort of thing all the time was a little troublesome, he did not mind.

After that, Kotone bought three servings of ice cream in total.

One for himself, one for Kobeni Higashiyama, and one for Pochita.

They sat down on a nearby bench. Kotone held one ice cream in one hand and ate it himself, while using the other hand to hold another ice cream and feed Pochita.

[Pochita Affinity +5%]

Clearly, Pochita also liked ice cream.

However, it was not as if eating ice cream once had raised his Affinity by that much on its own. This included the Affinity that had already accumulated before.

That was because Affinity notifications only appeared in increments of at least 5%, such as 5%, 10%, 15%, and so on. Notifications like 1% or 2% would not appear.

So this was the result of adding the Affinity he had accumulated before. Once it built up to 5%, the notification appeared. Even hugging Pochita every now and then could slowly accumulate it.

"It’s so good!"

Kobeni ate the ice cream, a happy smile appearing on her face, while a faint blush rose across her cheeks.

Maybe because she was so excited that she was not paying much attention, quite a bit of ice cream had gotten on the corner of her mouth.

[Kobeni Higashiyama Affinity +10%]

[Kobeni Higashiyama Affinity progress has reached 20%. Achievement reward obtained: Constitution +1]

Kobeni’s Affinity immediately increased by a large amount.

This made Kotone sigh a little. A single serving of ice cream was enough to raise Kobeni’s Affinity so much. That was all because her family treated her so terribly.

In the original story, in order to pay for her older brother’s college tuition, Kobeni had been forced by her family to start earning money as soon as she graduated from high school, and her only choices had been sex work or a dangerous job like Devil Hunting.

Not only that, even after she became a Public Safety Devil Hunter and earned such a high monthly salary, Kobeni still had no money because she handed it all over to her parents. Even the car she had scrimped and saved to buy was for conveniently driving her family around. Calling that kind of family "bloodsuckers" would not be an exaggeration.

Unfortunately, Kobeni in the original story was too meek. She did not dare cut ties with her family. It was only in the end, while hiding in a safe house on the shore to avoid Makima’s pursuit, that she said what she truly thought. In reality, she had long wanted to sever contact with her family.

Kotone felt more and more that Kobeni was pitiful, and subconsciously reached out to wipe the ice cream from the corner of her mouth.

He was not interacting with Kobeni just for the Codex rewards. He also wanted to help Kobeni solve her family problems, and he had already liked Kobeni quite a bit to begin with.

Kobeni immediately froze. Kotone came back to his senses and also paused slightly.

"Ah... sorry, I just did that without thinking..."

"It’s... it’s fine..."

Kobeni looked away, the blush on her cheeks becoming even more obvious. She was so shy that she could not bring herself to meet Kotone’s eyes.

[Kobeni Higashiyama Affinity +5%]

Although it was a little awkward, the accidental gesture had unexpectedly raised her Affinity a bit more.

The awkward atmosphere lasted for quite a while before the shyness in Kobeni’s heart gradually faded.

She secretly glanced at Kotone, just in time to see him personally feeding Pochita ice cream, and could not help saying, "You’re really close with Pochita..."

"Yeah. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve told you my name yet. I’m Kotone Asaba."

"Oh, right! Asaba, I... I’m Kobeni Higashiyama."

"Asaba...? Actually, I’m the same age as you..."

Kotone reminded her. Although it was just a respectful way of addressing someone and had nothing to do with age, being addressed that way by a girl his own age still felt a little strange.

"I’m sorry, I’m sorry!"

Kobeni instantly panicked and apologized repeatedly. "Then... then Kotone?"

"Yeah. Don’t be so nervous. I’m not angry."

Kotone smiled.

A little while later, Kobeni finished the ice cream in her hand, even eating the cone completely clean.

"Thank you, Kotone. The ice cream was really good... This is only the second time in my life I’ve eaten ice cream. My family bought me one once when I had a birthday in elementary school. The first bite was super good, so good that I started running and tripped, and it fell on the ground..."

Remembering what had happened back then, Kobeni still felt deeply regretful. She had only eaten one bite before it fell to the ground, and she could no longer eat it.

This time, she had properly finished an entire serving, which made her feel extremely happy.

If Kotone had not treated her, she had no idea when she would have been able to eat the second ice cream of her life.

"I’ll treat you to ice cream again when we get the chance."

"Huh?! That’s... um..."

Although Kobeni wanted to say that she would feel too embarrassed, the temptation of ice cream was just too great. It made her unable to say those words, and for a moment, she felt deeply conflicted.

"Then it’s settled. I’m heading back first."

After saying that, Kotone prepared to bring Pochita back to the guild.

"G-goodbye."

It was already almost six o’clock. Kobeni also had to hurry home, or else if she returned too late, her parents would lecture her.

...

After returning to the Private Devil Hunter Guild, Kotone discovered that Aki Hayakawa was sitting in the same seat as before. He seemed to be waiting for him to come back.

Kotone also sat back down in his previous seat, then heard Aki speak.

"How’s that girl doing?"

"She should be more or less fine now."

"Then that’s good. Let’s talk business. From now on, whenever there’s a mission, I’ll try to grab it, because I want to get into Tokyo Public Safety as soon as possible."

Aki had to discuss this with Kotone, because with his strength alone, he could not hunt Devils so frequently at such a high intensity. Using the Fox Devil’s power too often would be too much for his body to handle, while the Curse Devil’s power was something he was better off not using unless absolutely necessary.

"I have no problem with that."

Kotone said.

"By the way, are you also in such a rush to hunt Devils because you want to join Public Safety somewhere?"

Aki asked with some curiosity.

"Not really. I don’t have any plans to join Public Safety for now."

Kotone only said "for now," because once the Codex unlocked and opened entries related to Public Safety characters, then entering Public Safety would only be a matter of time.

"Oh, okay."

Aki did not continue asking. "Do you have anything else to do tonight? If not, wait in the hall for announcements about Devil appearances."

"Nothing else. Let’s go have dinner first."

After that, Kotone and Aki casually found a restaurant and ate dinner. Once they finished eating, they continued waiting in the guild hall for announcements.

During this time, Kotone did not sit around doing nothing. He continued studying those subject materials.

However, even after waiting until past ten at night, there was still no news of any Devils appearing. Since it was too late, the two of them each went back to rest.