Chapter 31

[I'll have to talk about this with the old man as well. I don't want to come back after a few years to find out everyone's dead-]

Upon noticing how much he's come to care about the family of three, Igor smiled weakly.

[Tch. There goes my plan of not getting attached.]

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|DxD|

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After walking in silence for a few minutes, Shuri and Igor finally approached the kindergarten that Akeno went to. It was quite noisy since there were dozens of children running around inside the fenced enclosure. 

Many children stopped playing and looked at Igor. With his long blonde hair and blue eyes, Igor's appearance aroused the children's interesting. Furthermore was that he was wearing a blue haori and open-toe boots. 

His appearance was completely out of place and easily garnered the children's attention.

"Hey! Look at the big brother over there."

"Whoa…"

"Awesome! He looks like Trunks!"

"Hello big brother!"

The children all ran over the fence and began calling or complimenting Igor. The blonde merely gave them a glance before focusing on finishing his lollipop.

Meanwhile, Shuri was silent the whole time. The words she heard from Igor were resounding throughout her mind over and over again.

'That's very admirable, aunty. But what if the person who's targeting Akeno is powerful? What if me or the old man aren't there?'

While she did often consider this issue, she believed she was hidden well enough.

[With Cleria-sama acting as the overseer of this town, they won't dare to come…right?]

Although she rarely engaged herself in the world of the supernatural, she was knowledgeable enough in knowing that if anyone from the Himejima clan wished to come to Kuoh, they would have to go through Cleria. With the bounded field covering the entire town, it was nigh impossible for any of the supernatural to sneak in.

Shuri was assured in Cleria's competence since not once had there been a case of stray devils, exorcists, or any other party infiltrating Kuoh without her knowledge.

[Furthermore, there's my husband and Azazel who also occasionally stay here. With these facts, no one would dare pursue us here…right?]

Her thoughts were wavering. But she couldn't ponder any further on them when Akeno came rushing through the door to the reception.

"Mama!"

Rushing towards her mother, Akeno wrapped her arms around her waist. Shuri smiled and gently rubbed her head.

"Go and fetch your bag so we can go."

"Okay~"

Turning around, she ran into the hallway towards the room where their bags were usually stored. As for Igor, he was casually paging through a few children's books placed on the shelves. With each book he paged through, his face scrunched up even more.

Faced with the onslaught of pictures of various princesses and princes, he muttered to himself.

"Praise the lord my father home-schooled me."

Shuri caught that little tidbit of information and approached the blonde.

"You never went to kindergarten."

Igor didn't reply but instead showed her the cover of Cinderella.

"My father was smart. When other people were learning these…things, he taught me about useful stuff like cars."

Shuri's curiosity was tickled.

"Cars? As in identifying different cars?"

"No, aunty."

He closed the book and placed it back on the shelf.

"My father taught me how to fix cars. He used to run an automotive-repair shop before he died. Since that garage was our family's source of income, he took advantage that I was still young to teach me as much as he could about repairing cars, what tools to use, and how to improvise."

"And did you understand?"

He laughed.

"Of course not, aunty. I was a snot-nosed brat who would rather watch Popeye than hold a torque wrench. What is important though aunty is that while I didn't understand at the time, the knowledge remained in my head."

Although he was laughing just a moment earlier, his gaze turned pretty solemn.

"Though, I guess that knowledge is pretty useless since the shop was probably destroyed. Anyway-"

It was in that moment that Akeno came trotting back.

"I'm back mama- Brother Igor? What are you doing here?"

Looking at Akeno's dirtied appearance, Igor's mood improved.

"Why can't I come, little chick?"

Akeno clenched her fists.

"I'm not a little chick!"

"You certainly are to me. Your wings haven't grown big enough yet so of course you're a little chick-"

"Raaa!"

Akeno charged forward and grabbed Igor's haori before biting his shirt. She looked up as if wishing for him to see her ferociousness.

With the lower helms of his shirt captured within her teeth, Igor simply smiled and rubbed her head.

"If you keep biting…I'll turn you into a frog."

"?!"

Immediately, Akeno let go and ran over to Shuri with an aggrieved look.

"Mama! Help me!"

Hiding behind her mother, Akeno stuck out her tongue at Igor while she clutched on tightly to her mother's dress. Shuri as well as the surrounding staff smiled sweetly at the scene.

But their faces quickly changed when Igor started stripping.

"W-what are you doing?!"

Having dropped his haori on the ground, Igor gestured to the wet patch on his shirt.

"Having a wet patch on my stomach feels uncomfortable."

Without further ado, Igor pulled up his shirt and the effect was instant. Many eyes of the female staff and even some wives lowered towards the blonde's shredded abdomen. As the shirt moved further up, their gazes also moved up with it.

Gulp

The blonde did not disappoint. That wide, muscled chest of his resulted in the young staff members having reddened cheeks while the more 'experienced' women stared at the blonde with half-lidded gazes.

Igor was oblivious to all of this. Folding his shirt into a rough bundle, Igor dropped it on the floor before bending over to pick up his haori. This gave view to the glistening muscles on his back. The way they moved as he bent over made some women directly begin to fan themselves.

Standing up, the blonde put on his haori but did not bother to button it. This left a teasing view of his chest and abs.

The young receptionist in her late 20s walked over to Shuri and whispered in her ear.

"Ne~ nee-san. You don't mind bringing him here more often, right?"

Shuri shoed her with her hand.

"No, Tanigawa-san."

Meanwhile, Akeno was completely confused as to why so many people were staring at the blonde.

[What's so good about this stinky brother? Hmph!]

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|DxD|

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Exiting the building, Akeno and Shuri were about to walk on when Igor suddenly stopped. Noticing that his gaze was fixed on the car parked on the opposite side of the street, Shuri questioned him.

"What's wrong, Dimori-kun?"

Igor didn't reply but continued to watch. Inside the car was a young man who was furiously struggling to turn the steering of the car. 

Although the wheels turned, he clearly used a lot of effort.

"That car's ball-joints need to be replaced soon."

"Ball-joints?"

Watching with nonchalance, Igor continued.

"Yeah. The reason why the steering is so hard could either be a problem with the steering box itself or one of the ball-joints in the front of the car. I can't be sure just from looking but I'm betting on old ball-joints being the cause. One of the first symptoms of them being old is the steering wheel hardening. If that guy doesn't replace them, they will break and his car will literally fall to the ground."

Shuri nodded weakly.

"Oh…"

It was quite clear that she didn't understand what the blonde meant. With no idea how to carry on the conversation, it was Akeno that came to the save by pulling on the dress.

"Please can we go, mama? Detective Conan is going to start soon."

She ruffled Akeno's hair, mentally reminding herself to reward her with some snacks.

"Alright, my dear."

Taking their first steps, both Igor and Shuri calmly walked by while Akeno was clearly full of energy. It was quite fun for the both of them to watch the young girl try subtle tactics at getting them to hurry up. It only served to make them walk slower just to see her pout.

It was still only three in the afternoon, nearly an hour before the anime would start. At their current slow pace, it would only take them thirty-minutes to reach home, leaving more than enough time for her to get settled in before the program starts.

But Shuri felt Akeno didn't need to know those specific details.

"You still need to take a bath when we get home, young lady."

"Mamaaaa."

"Fufufu~"

The blonde watched these moments with a smile on his face. It made him reminisce about the times when he was still with his family.

[Father, mother, little brother. Despite all these years, I still miss you.]

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AN

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As promised, I've delivered. There's still a chance to read ahead with a free trial on my page before I cancel it.

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