Chapter 19 Don’t scare the cat

“Hahaha, you’ve been pranked!”

Silence descended on the three of them. Kisuke has cold sweat running through his back while he maintains his nonchalant expression.

Yoruichi is snickering at Kisuke’s actions and Koneko is slowly walking towards the two with her head hanging down, her hair bangs were shadowing her eyes. Kisuke can’t see the face she is making right now and is just waiting for her to reach him and get pummeled for real.

When Koneko reached Kisuke, she was just more than a foot away. Due to the height difference, Kisuke can only see her head still hanging down.

Her next action, however, shocked not only Kisuke but also Yoruichi. Koneko hugged Kisuke and started apologizing with her sniffling voice, “…I’m sorry…I’m sorry…I’m sorry.”

Yoruichi gave Kisuke a blaming look. Kisuke, on the other hand, panicked for the first time since he reincarnated here.

He hurriedly patted Koneko’s head and said, “N-no, Koneko-chan. Don’t apologize. It’s my jokes that have gone too far. I’m sorry.”

‘Did I just opened some sort of trauma for her?’ Is what he thought, otherwise, she wouldn’t have such a reaction.

But before he could contemplate more on this idea, Koneko moved to his back while still hugging him. He felt his body became lighter and the next thing he knew was he is knocking his head to the ground.

Koneko just did a german suplex on him and wiped her face of her tears.

“Yoruichi-san, please let me borrow your bathroom and washing machine. I’m sticky from sweat and dust.” Koneko faced the cat and started walking towards the shop.

“Sure. I’ll show where is it.” Yoruichi responded and followed Koneko inside.

Kisuke was left all alone having an affair with the ground but he isn’t even mad as he thought that his punishment is pretty light.

Koneko took an hour and a half long bath to clean and also calm herself down. Her uniform was also done with dry cleaning.

Koneko dried her for another five minutes. She noticed that her hairclips are still not with her. Remembering her senpai still has those, she dressed up and went to the living room.

In there, Kisuke is nowhere to be found. Koneko only saw Yoruichi on top of the sofa watching a late-night TV show, and a mountain of snacks situated on the center table.

Koneko smiles a little at this sight but immediately returned to her stoic expression. She sat down on the sofa and started working on those snacks.

“Kisuke-senpai?” Koneko asked Yoruichi while munching on cookies.

“He said he wanted to check on something and returned to his room on the second floor. He’s been at it for more than an hour now.” Yoruichi looked at Koneko, ‘cute’ she thought.

Koneko stopped eating and looked at the cat, “…Is he… avoiding me?” She inquired in a low voice.

“No way that’s the case. That idiot’s face is thicker than the wall of China.” The cat retorted at her words.

“Pfft.” This is one of the rare times that Yoruichi saw Koneko laugh, ‘really cute’ is what on her mind.

“Hey hey, Koneko-chan, you should at least deny that. You know I’m a wholesome senpai that gets embarrassed on many occasions.” Kisuke came walking from the stair a cheeky grin on his face.

“Shut up, Ero-senpai.” Koneko didn’t look at him and just continued eating.

“Harsh!”

Kisuke also sat down on the sofa and helped Koneko with the snacks.

“How did you do it?” Koneko suddenly asked.

“Hmm?”

“How can you keep dodging and countering my attacks? I know for sure that I’m faster and stronger than you. Can you see the future?”

“Haha~. No way. I’m not a fortune teller.” Kisuke just laughed at Koneko’s guess.

“Then how?”

“Koneko-chan, you’re strong, physically, but as a fighter, you’re very inexperienced.”

Koneko looked at him urging him to continue.

“I can tell your next action based on how you move your muscles and how you flare up your aura.

“You’re too straightforward with how you fight and rarely use any feints.

“After fighting you for a few minutes, I manage to figure your whole style. You didn’t notice that I was leading you to do some actions that I can easily counter.

“Remember those ‘pokes’? Those are your openings in which you wouldn’t be able to react in time and can be fatal if attacked with enough force.”

Koneko glared at Kisuke when she heard the word ‘pokes’, but Kisuke ignored it and just continued explaining.

“How were you able to do all of that?” Koneko pouted as she remembered their match. She received too many pokes and the thought of all of that can actually kill her scared her a little.

“How? hmmm, let just say that I’ve been in some life-or-death battles and I had to learn that to survive.” Kisuke stood up and walk to the kitchen to get the barley tea in the refrigerator. He returned with two glasses and filled it to the brim.

Koneko is silently contemplating everything that Kisuke had just said.

“You could have hit him if you stop holding back.” Yoruichi who is silently watching the two all this time suddenly spoke.

“I didn’t hold anything back at the last few minutes of our sparring.” Koneko is confused at Yoruichi’s words. The cat sounds like he is very certain that she was holding back.

“You’re holding back, and you know it,” Yoruichi repeated her words.

Koneko as if she remembered something shuddered.

“…How did you..” Koneko just trailed her words in response.

“I see… So you are afraid.” Kisuke immediately saw through her concerns.

Koneko’s eyes widened. She was shocked yet again at Kisuke words.

The only people who knew of her origins and real abilities are those of the Gremory Household. Due to a certain incident when she was young, she came to fear her powers and never used it again.

She is worried that this power will take hold of her and hurt those around and important to her. Hence her reaction earlier when she thought that she almost ‘killed’ Kisuke.

She hangs her head down and tears are about to flow again when she felt a hand landing down on her head.

Koneko looked up and saw Kisuke, eyes still shadowed by his hat but he has a gentle smile on his face.

“Koneko, If you don’t want to use it, then don’t, if that is going to make you more at ease. But remember this, you have a power within you because you own it, not the other way around.”

“What does that mean?” Koneko wiped her tears and asked.

“It means that power is something for you to control, and you don’t have to be afraid of something you control.” It was Yoruichi who answered Koneko’s question.

“Well, well. You can think about that later, it doesn’t have to be now.” Kisuke suddenly clapped his hands to change the mood. “Koneko-chan, it’s pretty late. You should go.” He reminded her.

“Um… Thanks for having me Kisuke-senpai, Yoruichi-san.” Koneko stood up and bowed to the two. A red magic circle appeared below her.

“Take this with you.” Kisuke took out a paper bag and stuffed a bunch of snacks to it and gave it to Koneko.

“If you want to train your hand-to-hand combat and some fighting experience, you can come here. This guy will accompany you.” Yoruichi said to Koneko while she waves her paw.

“Thanks, I will.” Koneko disappeared in a burst of light, teleporting her away.

“Aren’t you too soft on her?” Yoruichi directed a question to Kisuke.

“Well, aren’t you the same? It feels like I have a little sister that I can spoil.” Kisuke covered his face with the fan and laugh.

“Right, I have this strange urge to spoil her.” Yoruichi agreed with him.