This is not the date I wanted.

On the way, Shidao suddenly saw a little girl standing under a big tree in the green belt and crying loudly.

"What's wrong, little sister? Have you gotten separated from your family?"

The little girl shook her head, pointed above herself and spoke in a low voice.

“…Mary.”

Following the direction pointed by the little girl, Shidao saw a small calico cat with a red collar, lying on the branch of a tree in fear and unable to move. It seems that Mary should be the name of the cat.

"Because your cat ran up a tree and couldn't get down, you're worried?"

The little girl nodded towards Shidou with tears in her eyes.

The cat was only trapped on a tree trunk about three meters high, but it was indeed too dangerous for a primary school child.

Shidao took a quick look at the branches of the tree, pondered for a while, and felt that he should be able to climb up.

"Don't cry, I will help you save the cat right away."

Shidou touched the little girl and said a few words of comfort, then put the bag of saury away, rolled up his sleeves and climbed up the tree.

After climbing to the height where Mary was, Shidao placed his feet on the branches of the tree. After his body swayed slightly, he stabilized himself and wiped the sweat from his forehead with a little nervousness.

After taking a few slow steps forward, the branch seemed to have the weight of an adult added to it, and it made a dangerous squeak, which made Shidao afraid to move forward. He began to try to lure the cat over.

"Mary, it's okay, come over here meow."

"Meow~"

Because she is a domesticated cat, Mary is now much closer to people than stray cats. At Shidao's call, she hurried to Shidao's side. After being held in Shidao's arms, she rubbed against Shidao and made a coquettish sound.

"Big brother, are you okay?"

A worried voice of a little girl came from under the tree

"Oh, don't worry, it's all right. I'll take Mary down right away."

After comforting her a little, Shidou carefully turned around and prepared to come down from the tree.

Crack-!

An ominous voice sounded beside his ears. The next moment, Shidao felt his body entering a state of free fall.

A little girl screamed from below. But Shidao was not too panicked. The little girl had asked him to stay away beforehand, so he didn't have to worry about the branches hitting him. A cat wouldn't get hurt even if it fell from the second floor. Shidao himself had extraordinary recovery abilities, so his life wouldn't be in danger.

Even though it hurts.

Holding the kitten in his arms, Shidou turned his body slightly in mid-air, with his back facing the ground, and closed his eyes with a wry smile.

However, the expected pain from the impact did not come.

"Really, what on earth are you doing?"

A familiar voice filled with helplessness sounded, Shidao opened his eyes and saw Mengyue's helpless expression.

"Thank you very much, Mengyue."

Shidou couldn't help but laugh.

"Princess hug, so romantic~"

The little girl looked at Mengyue and Shidao with longing and said. After hearing this, Shidao suddenly realized that he was caught by the other party in a princess hug when he was falling.

"Mengyue, um...can you put me down first?"

Shidou felt his cheeks getting hot and said awkwardly. After all, as a man, being carried like a princess was really embarrassing.

Hearing this, Meng Yue raised her eyebrows and a malicious smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.

"Eh? I'd like to just take you home like this. Something interesting will surely happen."

"Absolutely not!"

It will cause riots in many ways.

Fortunately, Meng Yue was just joking with Shidao, so she let Shidao go.

The feeling of his feet touching the ground made Shidou breathe a sigh of relief and handed the cat in his arms to the little girl.

"Be more careful next time. Don't let the cat run up the tree by itself."

The little girl nodded obediently.

"Yeah, I see. Thank you, handsome big sister and playboy big brother!"

"……Eh?"

"puff--!?"

With Shidao looking confused and Mengyue laughing, the little girl grabbed Mary's cat paw and waved goodbye to Mengyue and Shidao, then skipped away.

"I didn't expect that the rumors about Shidou's affairs have spread to the point where even elementary school lolita girls have heard about it."

Meng Yue turned her head and snickered.

"No way!"

Shidou couldn't help but hold his head and whine. Unlike Mengyue, he couldn't laugh. If his messages and gossips had spread from the school to the whole city, Shidou would never have the courage to leave the house again.

"Well, I don't think that kid would say something like that to someone older than him whom he just met for the first time. Shidou, have you seen that kid before?"

"If you say so..."

Shidou remembered what happened to that little girl.

"Come to think of it, I seemed to have seen that kid during the summer vacation."

"Seen?"

Shidou nodded.

"At that time, I went out with Tohka, and Kuang San suddenly appeared and inexplicably snatched away the calico cat that Tohka picked up. As a result, I met a little girl holding the cat when I went home. (For details, please see the original short story Kuang San cat.)"

For some reason, Meng Yue glanced towards the empty shade of the tree with a subtle look.

"I see...So after seeing me, that little girl mistakenly thought that Shidou was dating Tohka and me. (Author: "Actually, there are more than two.")"

Mengyue nodded to show that she understood.

"But at this age, they already understand the word 'flirting'. Kids nowadays are really scary...

"

"Ha ha……"

Shidou laughed awkwardly. Thinking of the incident at the alley with the cat-eared girl and the cat-mouthed fetish, he didn't know what to say for a moment and fell silent.

"Shidou, do you like cats?"

Meng Yue suddenly asked.

Although he was a little confused by Mengyue's question, Shidao still answered honestly.

"Well... it's just so-so. If I had to say whether I hate it or like it, I'd probably like it."

"Really? I guess I like it, too."

After a moment's silence, Meng Yue sighed slowly.

"Then, as a cat's companion, you must make a promise with me that you don't need to tell anyone else about what happened today."

What does a cat's companion mean? Shidou couldn't help but complain in his heart.

"Of course, I understand."

"If the agreement is broken, a video of Shidou practicing his ultimate move, "Shunsen Boom Blast", will mysteriously appear on the Internet when he was in junior high school."

"This isn't an agreement, it's a threat!"

"Say... we both have each other's shameful memories, so we can keep our promise, right?"

Giving Shidao a mischievous smile, Meng Yue picked up the bag of saury on the ground, hummed a cheerful tune and went home.

——————————————————————I am the dividing line when I return home——————————————————

As night fell, a faint smoke was constantly wafting from the courtyard of the Gokawa family. The scent of autumn filled the entire courtyard.

"Wow! The saury is so delicious after eating the soybean flour bread! It is really delicious with white rice and side dishes!"

Tohka cleared the food on the table at an admirable speed, and her plump cheeks made people smile.

"In the quiet night, I elegantly enjoy the unfathomable delicacy from the deep sea. Kuku - as the Dark Lord, I feel quite satisfied."

"Complaint. Yakushi said the same thing last time when he was eating freshwater fish."

"Stop talking so much! I'm not wrong this time!"

When Xixian pointed out his previous stupidity, Yakushi retorted in shame and anger. Seeing this, Xixian blushed and smiled happily.

"Shidou-kun, Shidou-kun. Yoshino said she wanted to dip it in lemon juice. Remember that."

“Please… please.”

"learn."

Shidou put some sauce on the smoked and grilled saury, put it on a tray, and handed it to Yoshino.

"Huhu——!"

Gently blowing on the hot saury to cool it down, Yoshino took small pieces of the saury into her mouth with chopsticks, then she widened her eyes, shook her shoulders excitedly, and gave Shidao a thumbs up.

"I'm so sorry... the saury here seems a little bland... could you bring me the syrup over there?"

"Ms. Reine, I've never heard of adding syrup to saury. Kotori! You don't need to eat lollipops with your meal!"

"Eh~ What's the matter, Onii-chan? You know, beer-flavored Kabocha paired with saury is a perfect match."

"What's that weird taste? Where are you from, uncle?"

Under Kotori's dissatisfied and Reine's puzzled looks, Shidou confiscated the Kabejia and spread a layer of sauce on Reine's saury.

By the way, Shidou had also invited Miku and Origami today. However, Miku was doing advertising for an important sponsor's company at the time, and when she tried to sneak out, she was forcibly stopped by her agent, Ms. Kuribayashi Subaru. Origami was also punished at AST for her unauthorized actions at the Tiangu Festival last time, and she refused with deep regret.

Then, Shidao suddenly saw Mengyue squatting alone at the door of her house.

"Mengyue, come over and have dinner with everyone?"

"Got it. I'll be there soon."

"what are you doing?"

Shidou walked forward curiously and found a large plate with several grilled saury placed at the door.

"Nothing." Meng Yue shrugged and said with a smile, "A little gift for two stray cats."

Then, Meng Yue stretched out her body and said with a refreshed look.

"Hey! Then I'm going to enjoy myself! White rice with saury and kimchi - the long-awaited autumn of appetite!"

Shidao looked at Mengyue, who had joined the dinner with great enthusiasm, with some confusion, then turned back to look at the door, and was surprised to find that the saury in front of him had disappeared along with the plate.

"Is there a cat around here big enough to carry the plate away with it?"

"Shidou, are you finished eating the saury?!"

Before Shidao could figure out the problem, everyone cheered and started the next round of smoking and grilling the saury.

————————————————Dividing line————————————————————

"Two stray cats... I feel like I'm being led into a strange impression."

Sitting on the rooftop of the Elf Apartment and looking down at the group of people laughing and playing downstairs, Kuang San swung her slender legs, with a look of helplessness on her face.

"Meow~"

"Hey hey, I got it."

After putting the plate on the ground, Heiji cheered, then hugged a saury and began to gobble it up.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Kuang San stretched out her finger and gently shook Heiji's chin, looking at Heiji who was shaking his tail with great satisfaction. Kuang San's originally charming and dangerous face revealed a gentle smile.

"A cat's companion... huh? That's not bad."

Taking out a pair of bowls and chopsticks from the shadow, Kuang San picked up a piece of saury, blew it gently a few times, and passed it to her mouth. Then, Kuang San couldn't help but hold the dimple in one hand, intoxicated and fascinated by her eyes.

"It's already autumn, meow~"