"Welcome to the family, Son"

Hikaru follows behind Hiromi who approaches the dining table in the kitchen area. The tiles separate the kitchen from the rest of the dark brown wooden floors.

Two people were sitting on the dining table waiting for the mother to finish setting up the table. The brother was the first to notice and looked up from his phone. He squinted at Hikaru and glared.

"Look, who I brought in from the street!"

The mother who had just set up the plates on the table and the father looked up from his newspaper at the newcomer.

"Oh, that's great Hiromi!" the mother said.

"Looks like you found yourself one of a kind! He is good looking." said the father.

"He looks pretty," said the brother with a lewd expression. His tongue was seen from his open mouth bulging against his cheek.

"Don't you lay a hand on him Luffy! He's mine!" Hiromi spat in disgust and was protective of Hikaru.

"Kids! Not on the table!" the mother yelled.

Upon seeing Hiromi's affections for Hikaru, Luffy glared at him while Hiromi had a look of annoyance.

"Sorry about that uh-"

"Hikaru."

"Hikaru, my name is Juro. My daughter's Hiromi-"

"I already told him," She interjected.

"My son, Luffy and my lovely wife Mami."

Juro smiled at Hikaru warmly.

"Thank you for accepting our invitation, our family celebrates a couple of meals with pure strangers for luck and wealth. We believe that the character of the person we invite will indicate how much good luck we'll have later. If the person is good, our days will be fortuitous and bad luck if the next person is horrible."

A smile came on as Juro was talking.

"So, we hope breakfast will go alright."

"We'll see," Hikaru said uncaringly in almost a heartless manner.

The old man kept on smiling.

"Well, come on now, take a seat young man. The steak is ready."

Mami went to grab a steak that she was reheating on the stove and came back to where Hikaru was sitting. After Mami, returned everyone began eating.

A steak piece on a fork went in Hikaru's mouth. A subtle light flickered on the surface of Hikaru's eyes as he tasted it. It was delicious.

The cut didn't look like it was any steak he knew. It was not as good as the Kobe beef steak that he had for 90 dollars with Chiho yesterday but it was still spectacular. It was an exotic taste that was even more amazing because of a variety of seasonings that perfectly complimented and enhanced the flavour.

Since the taste was so alluring and curious, it would garner as much attention as an authentic Kobe beef if not more.

Juro didn't miss this. Luffy did even though he was sneaking glances at Hikaru the whole time.

"So? How was the steak?" He said with a knowing grin.

"It was delicious. Your wife's cooking is astonishing." Hikaru praised.

"Oh ho! My! You are too sweet, boy." She blushed from his compliment.

"With words like that, I'd better be careful or I'll lose my wife from under my nose bahaha!"

"Oh noo! Haha!" Mami cackled.

The whole table laughed except for Luffy. They chatted for a while after that. They asked things like which school he went to and about the steaks he liked. He knew and tasted a lot more steaks than the average person does. Juro and Mami were deep into the conversation as they also loved steak dishes and meat.

Hikaru ate very fast for a social breakfast. He didn't need to eat regular meals since he never felt hungry since consuming Aimi. Swallowing a whole human body would last a couple of days for his fast metabolism. However, since then he's eaten more than his body could keep up and most of the food is stored as potential energy (biomass form).

He still ate steak because he wanted to taste his favourite food. He never activated his absorption while eating and he let it sit naturally in his stomach so he can enjoy the feeling of satisfaction and fullness.

He finished the steak and side dishes in less than five minutes.

Surprisingly, the family saw how fast he was eating and matched his speed. None of them fell behind. Hikaru wasn't eating his fastest but neither were they.

'2 minutes... no.'

He felt that they could eat much faster than that with the way they were eating. They had all finished in sync, a moment after he did.

Hiromi looked like she was having a crush. She enjoyed listening to the conversation when it was about Hikaru's lifestyle and the facts about him. She couldn't wait to learn more about him in the following weeks. He was going to be the best boyfriend she had all her life. Maybe enough to even call him her lover.

A deep grin spread across her face but Hikaru didn't notice. Everyone was now looking at Hikaru and smiling. Hikaru had an unchanging inattentive smile on his face.

"Mom, dad, Hikaru's going to my room for a chat now," Hiromi said breaking the silence.

"We'll clean up the dishes," said Mami.

"You two, don't have too much fun," Juro chuckled as he got up from his chair.

Hiromi got up from her chair and so did Hikaru. As he followed her, he caught a glimpse of Luffy sneering as he watched Hikaru walk around his left side. His eyes were keen.

Hikaru stood at the base of the stairs as Hiromi stopped ahead and turned around to him.

"Hikaru..." She said with a soothing voice.

She had one hand holding onto her chest where Hikaru's eyes followed.

A standard seduction technique.

More of the underside of her bare breasts could be seen as she stood higher up the stairs.

Yet Hikaru remained aloof

She reached out with her hand for Hikaru to take it.

"Follow me."

As Hikaru took her hand, he also felt a hand grab onto his right shoulder. He got turned around by a pull on his shoulder and saw that it was her father.

Juro drew back his arm

"Welcome to the family son!"

He threw a punch at Hikaru's face.