I Sealed Sukuna’s Finger#519+520: Sheila-san Also Became a Cup, You Spent All Day at Home Doing That, Didn't You?

Door opening, door closing—within seconds, Lucia had left the living room and returned to her own bedroom.

Just as she'd said, she'd only gotten up because she was thirsty and wanted water. She'd accidentally heard sounds from the living room, and when she went to check, she'd discovered the embracing pair.

"Phew~"

Taking a long breath as she returned to her bedside and sat on the soft mattress, Lucia found she couldn't lie back down.

Just like humans, demons had their troubles and pressures. But sleep was something that could only be achieved in a relaxed state.

Right now, the moment Lucia relaxed and closed her eyes, her mind involuntarily replayed the image of her mother embracing Bokue Keikain on the sofa.

As Sheila's eldest daughter, her mother hadn't hidden anything from her about this matter.

That's right—Lucia had always known about the relationship between her mother and Bokue, though she'd never mentioned it to her younger sister Maria.

And Lucia was equally aware of what her mother hoped for from her.

It all came back to that same principle: demon realm culture had always been about respecting the strong. Whether male or female, everyone naturally gravitated toward more powerful partners when choosing mates.

And... the demon realm's views on romance and marriage were completely different from the human world.

To be precise, the demon realm's current relatively normal relationship standards had only developed since trade with the human world began half a century ago. Before that—in the generation before the previous one—all sorts of chaotic arrangements had been extremely common.

For instance, if someone wanted to recruit a powerful individual into their family, competing for them—even going "all hands on deck" together—wasn't entirely impossible.

And right now, her mother was making exactly that kind of plan.

Of course, as far as Lucia herself was concerned, she'd been born and raised in the Northern Territories, following the Old Satan Faction from a young age. The remote region and her complete lack of visits to the human world meant she'd received virtually no exposure to human ethical perspectives.

So truthfully, Lucia wasn't particularly opposed to the "all hands on deck" approach—especially with her mother's clear hints.

Besides, her personal aversion to Bokue had already gradually dissipated over this past month of interaction, even slowly transforming into positive impressions.

Take the tripartite summit that had just concluded a few days ago. She, her mother, and Maria had all attended that conference.

There, she'd watched a seventeen-year-old boy single-handedly dominate the entire assembly, leaving the leaders of all three factions unable to act out of turn in his presence.

Not to mention the subsequent scene of riding a celestial dragon through the heavens.

Which was precisely why Lucia could understand her mother's intentions so well.

After all, unlike Mio Naruse who carried Gremory bloodline, she—from the perspective of both the Gremory family and Bokue himself—was technically an "outsider" right now.

And the simplest way to become an insider was to "go all hands on deck."

But... she'd once condemned and cursed him so harshly over Lord Ramuthas's matter. That must have left an absolutely terrible impression on Bokue.

Someone like her, now wanting to offer herself—would he... actually accept her?

Heh~

Another long exhale escaped her. The nightmare maid leaned backward, collapsing onto the bed and raising her arm to rest across her forehead, blocking her vision.

So conflicted.

❁❁❁❁

Meanwhile, Bokue and Sheila—who'd been embracing on the sofa moments ago—had long since left the living room.

They'd gone straight to the bedroom. The petite nightmare housewife sat on the bed's edge in the young man's embrace, her delicate face—identical to her daughter's—showing a shallow smile, clearly full of anticipation for the coming storm.

"Hmm? Why do I feel like..."

Bokue's hands wrapped around Sheila's waist, but the sensation seemed off somehow. He couldn't help squeezing repeatedly.

The unnecessary action made the nightmare housewife—who'd thought the palace gates would open wide the next second—sprout a small question mark above her head.

"What's wrong? Is there a problem?"

"Well, how should I put this..."

Growing increasingly convinced something was different, Bokue rarely showed uncertainty as he furrowed his brow slightly, squeezing twice more and comparing the current measurements against his memories.

"I get the feeling... Sheila, have you gotten slightly bigger recently?"

Not referring to anything specific—literally meaning her entire person had grown larger, become more substantial.

In Bokue's memory, although Sheila was already the mother of two daughters, her physique was actually even smaller than Maria's by a fair margin.

Yet today's measurements made him feel like Sheila had grown an entire size—at least matching Maria now, maybe even slightly exceeding her by a tiny bit.

This... what was this, hitting a second growth spurt at her age?

"Eh? Really?"

Hearing the young man's assessment, Sheila couldn't help but pause slightly.

"That probably means my power has recovered somewhat during this period."

"Power recovery?"

"Mm..."

Seeing Bokue's increasingly puzzled expression, the nightmare housewife started to explain, but after pausing a moment, she couldn't resist reaching out to poke his cheek.

"Honestly~ Bokue, you didn't think I'd always been this size from the beginning, did you? No way... You should know that before giving birth to Maria, I was always a mature, sultry older-sister type. It's just that after the birth, I seemed to pass all my power to Maria, which caused me to shrink to this size."

"If my body's starting to recover now, that means the power I lost back then is gradually returning too."

Sheila let out a light huff here.

"Of course, for us nightmares, as long as we have sufficient power, our body size is something we can change at will. So even after my power fully recovers, I can still transform into my current small form... It just depends on which type you prefer more, Bokue. Hmm?"

As she said this, she deliberately raised an eyebrow at the young man in front of her, as if issuing a challenge.

Setting up a trap question?

Looking down at the triumphant little nightmare housewife in his embrace, Bokue shook his head.

"Well, let's wait until after your power recovers before worrying about that."

Dropping that line, Bokue moved decisively—

❁❁❁❁

The sudden intensity made Sheila gasp sharply, her mind blanking for an instant.

Her head fell back, silver hair cascading like a waterfall as waves of sensation crashed through her body with overwhelming force.

"W-wait! Hold—ah!"

But there was no mercy in his movements, no hesitation in his approach.

❁❁❁❁

On another front, as time passed and Saikai Academy concluded its daily classes and entered club activity mode, a tall, straight-haired girl from Japan's Bureau of Astrology finally located the old schoolhouse.

"Mm... so this is the place."

<><><><><><><><>

Thanks to Sheila-san's interception, Bokue ended up delivering the dinner groceries to Yukina's apartment a full two hours and twenty minutes later than planned.

And so time marched forward—from noon to afternoon, then from afternoon to evening.

As the fiery red sunset gradually sank below the distant horizon, the old schoolhouse at the peak of the Keystone Gate suddenly blurred for an instant—like a holographic projection experiencing minor fluctuations.

Simultaneously, faint spatial magical energy ripples spread across Itogami Island's sky.

This wasn't any sort of ominous portent—just a normal occurrence.

Because Bokue had connected the space above the Keystone Gate to the interior of Saikai Academy, essentially giving the old schoolhouse a fixed teleportation coordinate. Whenever it activated to switch positions, it would cause spatial disturbances.

While the Special Ward Security Team technically shouldn't allow such things, Itogami Island was now Bokue's private territory. Plus, their household included a Special-Class Attack Mage from that very security team.

As long as Natsuki Minamiya kept her little mouth shut, everything else was negotiable.

Simply put, whenever spatial magical energy suddenly rippled above the Keystone Gate in the evening, it meant Saikai Academy had let out for the day.

"Looks like Rias and the others are back."

Inside a certain sword shaman girl's apartment, Bokue sat on the sofa with one arm around Yukina and the other around Sayaka. He turned his head toward the window, looking in the direction of the distant old schoolhouse.

"Guess I should head back—"

Sayaka—who'd been left somewhat flushed and lightheaded by the young man—suddenly snapped back to awareness at those words.

Not because she felt inferior around Rias and the other "numerical monster" girls, but because she'd only just remembered she'd been away from La Folia's side for almost an entire day.

Thanks to Bokue's arrangements, she and La Folia had both relocated to live on the Keystone Gate—same as Mio Naruse and Maria's accommodations. The walk from this apartment to the hotel suite was literally just a few steps.

But still, abandoning her employer to fool around with her boyfriend all day as a bodyguard was pushing it a bit...

Bzzzz—

However, before the War Dancer could finish speaking, another surge of spatial magical energy rippled through the air.

This time, it didn't appear above Itogami Island—it manifested right inside... the apartment's living room.

"Finally home~!"

A crimson magic circle imbued with Primogenitor magic opened in midair. The petite, side-ponytailed girl carrying a school bag dropped down lightly, landing steadily before spinning in place. She then precisely aimed a cheerful peace sign at the three people still on the sofa.

"Man~ I'm exhausted today! Being at school all day..."

"Exhausted? Did something happen?"

Seeing Nagisa return from school looking so worn out, Yukina blinked in confusion.

After all... if it were someone else like Asagi-san complaining about being tired, she might assume they'd had fitness testing in gym class. But Nagisa was a vampire Primogenitor.

Something that could tire out a Primogenitor? That was a thing?

At least with Yukina's imagination, she couldn't quite picture what could cause such a situation.

"Huh? Nothing happened—just a normal day."

Nagisa tossed her school bag onto a chair beside the dining table, then bounced over to the sofa, unceremoniously squeezing between Yukina and Sayaka into Bokue's embrace.

Reaching her familiar position, she looked up at the young man and smiled faintly.

"But since Yukina-chan took the day off, I spent the entire time at school imagining whether you and Onii-chan were home doing all sorts of this and that. I couldn't focus at all! Yukina-chan, you have no idea how much willpower it took for me not to skip class and come home early!"

Yukina: "..."

Honestly speaking, by all reasonable standards, this was when she should remind Nagisa to focus on her studies at school instead of thinking about those things all the time. But looking back on what she'd actually done at home today... yeah, she really didn't have any standing to lecture Nagisa.

"Oh right, one more thing!"

As if suddenly remembering something, Nagisa clapped her small hands together lightly.

"Onii-chan, if you have time, you should probably head over to Rias-nee's place right now. Another big sister showed up at the old schoolhouse today—someone I haven't seen before and don't recognize. But she seems to know you, Onii-chan, and specifically asked to meet with you by name."

"Who?"

Bokue raised a questioning eyebrow.

Setting everything else aside, his contact information wasn't exactly classified. Anyone who knew him basically had his phone number. If they wanted to meet, couldn't they just call?

Unless... it was someone he didn't know?

"A tall big sister with straight black hair."

Nagisa stood on tiptoe, gesturing to indicate approximate height.

"I think her name was Kisaki Kiriha, and she said she's from Japan's Bureau of Astrology... something called the 'Six Blades'? I think that's what she said..."

The Bureau of Astrology??

The moment those words left her mouth, both Yukina and Sayaka visibly startled, instinctively exchanging glances.

After all, they'd learned about the Bureau of Astrology's potential movements just this morning from Master, who'd explicitly warned them to watch out for the Bureau of Astrology personnel.

Though they weren't sure what the Bureau of Astrology intended by visiting so openly, since Master had given that warning, being cautious couldn't hurt.

"The Bureau of Astrology... huh?"

No longer content to remain in the young man's embrace, Yukina—remembering her master's warning—immediately rose from the sofa.

"Senpai, remember what Master said this morning? Let's go over there together."

"Yeah, sure..."

Bokue shrugged.

❁❁❁❁

The scene shifted—the four who'd been in the apartment moments ago quickly arrived at the old schoolhouse.

Upon entering and stepping into the common room, Bokue glanced around. Everyone was there—whether Mio Naruse and Maria, or Asagi Aiba as well.

And then there was the "straight-haired big sister" Nagisa had mentioned.

"Pleased to meet you, Bokue Keikain."

Hearing movement from the entrance behind her, Kisaki Kiriha in the center of the common room turned around with a smile, her crimson eyes reflecting the young man's image.

She bowed politely.

"I'm Kisaki Kiriha from Japan's Bureau of Astrology, one of the 'Six Blades.' I've come on assignment and apologize for this sudden intrusion on your island. I wanted to introduce myself at the first opportunity."

"I'm here representing the Bureau of Astrology on behalf of Kusuki Happiness Enterprises to recover a missing asset—a girl named Eguchi Yume."