Sunlight shone through the cracks of the doors and windows into the house, forming scattered specks of light on the tidy floor.
Shinobu's long eyelashes trembled slightly, then she gently opened her eyes. Looking at the familiar ceiling, she still seemed somewhat dazed.
The poison had affected her body, making her extremely exhausted. She didn't even know when she fell asleep. Her memories in her mind were still stuck at that moment.
A faint blush appeared on her fair and tender face. After a moment, she slowly crawled out from under the quilt.
"Huh?"
A sharp cry echoed through the small courtyard of the apothecary's home.
Shinobu looked at her completely bare body. Her face turned redder than a ripe apple. 'So alluring.'
She looked around for her clothes, but they were nowhere near in sight.
'Could it be...' In that instant, her brain completely shut down, and she stood frozen on the spot, utterly dazed.
"You're awake, huh?" Yae rubbed her sleepy eyes.
Shinobu looked at her, embarrassed and shyly said, "Um, what's this? I don't really remember what happened last night."
Yae yawned, then patted her own small face to wake herself up a little.
"After we came back last night, you had already fallen asleep. I just wanted to wipe your body a bit and help change your clothes."
She scratched her head, looking a bit apologetic. "I was also really tired, and without realizing it, I dozed off."
Shinobu let out a sigh of relief.
Yae stretched lazily, crawled out of the blanket, then folded it up, saying a bit awkwardly:
"Originally, I wanted to take care of you. Didn't expect that in the end, you ended up taking care of me. Thanks for covering me with the blanket in the middle of the night."
"Eh?" Shinobu was stunned.
She slept through the night until morning and didn't remember doing that at all.
For a moment, she felt her body temperature soar and her heart pounding wildly. If it had been a day earlier, she absolutely wouldn't have thought of that kind of scene, but…
Jotaro was gentler than she had imagined.
Shinobu changed into a clean set of clothes, her expression normal, and slowly made her way to Jotaro's room.
Developing affection for the opposite gender is human nature. She, like other girls at this age, had yearned for love. But burdened by hatred and a mission she had to desperately fight for, she couldn't afford to be distracted.
Her experiences made her more mature than other girls her age.
Although she didn't know exactly what this throbbing in her heart was, she quickly suppressed it and gathered her emotions.
To kill demons, she could even sacrifice her own life, what did it matter if someone just saw her body?
Besides, the one who saw her body wasn't some annoying guy…
Shinobu thought she could treat Jotaro as usual, but when she really stood in front of his door, her heart was once again in chaos. Her small face turned red, and she hesitated.
No matter what, Jotaro had saved her. She had always misunderstood him before. This time, she had to properly thank him.
Possessing great strength, and also an incredibly smart mind, Jotaro now seemed very mysterious in her eyes.
She couldn't help but think of the conversation between Jotaro and Tanjiro before. 'Maybe what he said was true, maybe he really had encountered the Demon King Muzan.'
She still wanted to ask him in detail about the demon's attack on the Kamado family that night.
Unknowingly, she got closer and closer to the door, to the point where she could clearly hear the sounds inside the room.
[Good morning, good morning, Morioh Town Broadcasting Station…]
A burst of static noise sounded, and the previous voice disappeared, replaced by music.
[It's just a bit little longer!]
Shinobu had never heard music like this before. She furrowed her willow-like brows.
'Jotaro-san, what in the world are you doing?'
"Moshi moshi, Jotaro-san, may I come in?"
The music abruptly stopped. Inside the room, Jotaro's voice responded, and then the music started playing again.
Shinobu curiously pushed open the door, and the scene inside left her dumbfounded.
'What were all these things?'
She saw Jotaro leaning on the bed, with a bunch of items beside him that she had never seen before. The music was coming from a strange long black box.
Jotaro was propping up his head with one hand and glanced at her with no special reaction. His other hand held a book.
The illustration style on the cover of the book was one Shinobu had never seen before.
Jotaro closed the "Shonen JUMP" magazine, reached out his hand, and the beer can next to him floated up and slowly landed in his hand.
He used a ballpoint pen to poke a hole in the can, then opened the tab and drank the entire can of beer in one go.
After drinking, he burped and asked, "What's up? You came looking for me?"
Shinobu pointed with her delicate slender finger and asked, "That… what is that?"
Jotaro followed her gaze, patted the black box that was playing music, and said, "You mean that? A tape recorder. As long as you have a tape, it can play the sounds recorded on it."
This era already had gramophones, but cassette tapes hadn't been invented yet. These things were bonus items from the system rewards.
After completing the random mission, Jotaro received a massive spatial area, which was a harbor copied from his own world by the system.
The items inside the harbor were preserved along with it.
Time inside the space was frozen. Other than living beings, Jotaro could use it to store anything.
He was quite satisfied with this reward. With a freely usable space, he could bring back some local specialties when traveling to other worlds.
He could also store some daily necessities to prepare for emergencies. Though, that concern was unnecessary.
The harbor was huge, with tens of thousands of shipping containers. Even if Jotaro used the supplies for his entire life, he probably wouldn't run out.
In future worlds, there could be cases where currencies don't match. Some items in the space could even be used to exchange for money.
"No, I mean, how did that can fly on its own?" She had overheard Kaigaku and those demons talking. There was something invisible around Jotaro, his power came from it.
Now, she wanted to confirm that.
Stands were not a secret. Anyone who fought with Jotaro would realize their existence. They just didn't know the proper name of this power. Jotaro didn't hide it.
"A Stand. This is my Stand, Star Platinum."
Star Platinum, under Shinobu's gaze, began tidying up the things near Jotaro's feet.
Watching the items pile up by themselves, Shinobu's small mouth hung open, stunned beyond belief.
Jotaro had a thought and stored everything around him back into the system's space.
"What was that?" Shinobu was startled again.
Jotaro didn't bother explaining too much and said calmly, "Just think of it as a Stand ability."
"Every Stand has different characteristics. Though I say that, in your world, aside from me, there probably aren't any other Stand users."
'Our world…'
Shinobu didn't quite understand Jotaro's words. It sounded like he came from another world.
"Only Stand users can see Stands. Others can't see them. You don't need to be too shocked."
After briefly explaining the Stand, Jotaro asked, "So, why are you here? Is there something you need?"
Shinobu originally wanted to dig deeper, but Jotaro cut her off. She blushed and lowered her head.
"Um… anyway, thank you for yesterday. I misunderstood you before, that was my fault."
Jotaro glanced at her, unfazed, and said, "Don't worry about it. I didn't save you because of you. I just couldn't stand that bastard."
For some reason, Jotaro's words made Shinobu feel a little disappointed. She quickly adjusted her mood and said, "About the attack on the Kamado family that night, I hope you can tell me the details."
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