The Crimson Red Riding Hood

I walked back the way I had come while the night wind brushed against me, returning to the forest.

When I reached my home bathed in moonlight and placed my hand on the door, I felt a strange sensation in my nose.

‘…A faint sweet scent, different from Monaka’s… This smell was definitely…’

My Five Senses stat was as high as 201 points.

As I was now, I would probably win even if I competed with a dog in a battle of smell.

Thanks to that, I noticed even the slightest change in the scent drifting through the air.

“What do you want, Shinobuko?”

As I spoke and opened the door, I saw a small figure sitting quietly in the back of the room.

A petite body illuminated by the light streaming in through the window.

Her face above the neck was hidden in shadow, but the hood draping down to her shoulders was unmistakably that of the female ninja.

The darkness whispered.

“…An intruder.”

“That’s my line. Breaking into someone’s house in the middle of the night—what do you think you’re saying?”

However, Shinobuko ignored my words and continued at her own pace.

“Nin. Just who are you, exactly?”

“I’m just an unemployed failure.”

“Do not play dumb. I saw it myself. You caught Lady Monaka in midair and landed safely after she fell from the tree.”

“So you were spying on us?”

Shinobuko stood up without making a sound.

“That movement was undoubtedly one of our ninja skills, Izuna Throw. Even I, who have trained as a ninja since birth, have yet to master that skill. Why, then, can an unemployed man like you use it so flawlessly?”

“Who knows? Maybe it was just a coincidence.”

“If you insist on playing dumb to the very end, then I, too, have my own ideas.”

…Whoosh!

Shinobuko suddenly raised both hands high.

It seemed to be her own version of a combat stance.

However, since she was small and had short arms, the pose looked more like a threatening chick and was almost comical.

“Hey, hey, what are you planning to do? Going to dance with a forest squirrel?”

“Nin! I will show no mercy!”

Shinobuko leapt at me like a kitten pouncing on a toy.

True to her claim of lifelong ninja training, her movements were quite impressive.

But she was far too slow.

At least, for someone like me whose Agility stat was 201 points.

“She looks like she’s standing still.”

When I lightly twisted my body to evade her, Shinobuko grasped desperately at empty air and stumbled, losing her balance with an “Whoa—!”

A clear tremor of fear ran through her normally expressionless face.

“Ghk…! To dodge my Tomoe Throw—you’re the first since the chief…!”

“I see. I’ll say this just in case, but no matter how much you try, it’s pointless. You’ll only get tired.”

“…How absurd!”

Shinobuko grew stubborn and lunged at me again and again.

I deflected every single attempt without even letting her graze me.

After a while, she began breathing heavily, her shoulders rising and falling.

“Th-this ghostlike movement…! Just like the chief… no, even beyond that…! And you haven’t even disrupted your breathing…! A true monster…!”

With my Endurance stat also at 201, this still didn’t even count as a warm-up.

“I told you. You’ll just get tired. So go to sleep already.”

I was about to add, “Go home,” but Shinobuko suddenly jumped again and launched a desperate all-out attack.

She looked like a flying squirrel leaping at its prey, but even that I dodged with ease.

Shinobuko was about to slam straight into the empty floor when—

“Good grief, can’t be helped.”

I grabbed her by the waist just before she crashed and pulled her in.

“Pya!?”

With a cry and the lightness of a small bird, Shinobuko fell straight into my arms.

Since she was so small, her face ended up buried in my chest with a “Mngh!?”

Shinobuko looked up at me with startled eyes.

Both of her hands were clenched tightly in my shirt.

“Well, looks like you finally got caught.”

What I meant was I had caught Shinobuko, but she seemed to interpret it the opposite way.

“‘Go to sleep’… ‘Caught’…!? D-don’t tell me you intend to put me through that…!”

“That what?”

“When it comes to ninja techniques used on a captured kunoichi, there’s only one! B… ‘Bou-chuu-jutsu’…! No, ‘Bou-chuu-chuchu’…!”

It seemed Shinobuko’s tongue was as short as her hands, as she couldn’t pronounce Bedchamber Arts properly.

She puckered her lips like a duck, desperately trying to say “Bedchamber Arts,” but eventually gave up.

“You plan to use that ‘bou-chu-chu’ not only on me, but also on Lady Monaka!”

“What are you even talking about?”

I said, placing a hand gently on her head.

“You saw how I move and thought Monaka would be violated, so you came to defeat me. But I would never do something like that. To me, Monaka is an important childhood friend. If she’s in trouble, I’ll help her—but I’d never attack her. Never.”

I spoke seriously, intending to reassure Shinobuko.

Finally, I smiled and said,

“So relax.”

But she said nothing.

She simply stared up at me with her eyes wide open in shock.

After a brief pause, her face turned so red it felt like it made a sound—fwoooosh!

Covering her crimson face with her black hood, Shinobuko sprang away from my arms in a flash.

“N-nin-nin! J-just for today, I’ll let you off the hook!”

She glared at me sharply, her expression a mix of embarrassment and frustration.

“Next time we meet, it will be a fight to the death!” she declared before vaulting out the window and fleeing.

As I blankly watched her retreating back, my body became wrapped in stardust within the night darkness.

“Level up? I didn’t really do anything, though. All I did was make a girl from another class blush…”