39 Much to His Frustration, Another Curve Ball is Thrown

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[Hikigaya Hachiman's POV]

"I am afraid I don't swing that way."

"Ah, that's too bad. But having a dance doesn't necessarily require you to be sexually interested in your partner, though."

"That's also true for a date, but you still prefer to have a date with a woman, don't you?"

"Touche."

It took great self-control for me to not jump at the bastard and end him right in front of everyone. It made me seethe inwardly, but I couldn't act rashly. We had many humans in the hall. If we exposed our identity, wiping their memory off about the event would be a hassle. Moreover, we couldn't guarantee no one escaped from our cleanup. Some onlookers might witness what transpired and left without anyone knowing.

"I am Kawagoe Aseru, by the way; the head of Azel group," the bastard introduced himself as he extended his hand.

"Hikigaya Hachiman, a newly appointed board director of Orion Inc. Nice to know you, Aseru," I replied, crushing his hand and disguising it as a handshake.

"Ha-Ha-Ha… I don't feel you like me that much."

"I would have if you were a woman."

We smiled at each other and then let go of each other's hands. The room was still silent as if everyone could see the lingering hostility in the air. The brown-haired weirdo clapped his hands, attracting everyone's attention. He smiled and then cheerfully told them to enjoy the party until the food was ready. Just like that, the chattering returned and the room gradually got lively.

He bade me farewell and then mingled with other guests. The message his eyes conveyed was clear: "Meet me later." I didn't let my gaze linger on him. I immediately turned around and met the girls' apprehensive look. Haruno and Sae-chan did a good job hiding it, but their eyes didn't lie. Yukino remained tense until I smiled lightly at her. Her expression eased and a blush appeared on her cheeks.

Looking at Shinobu, I found her having a contemplative look. She must be quite surprised that the culprit was the head of the Azel group himself. She had initially guessed the culprit must be one of his thralls. The bastard was known to pick up loose cannons, so his thralls were anything but stable. Although the bastard wasn't that normal either, it seemed his thralls' craziness had affected him since he had never done anything this stupid.

Of course, I didn't care about his reasons. I came to the gala to kill him, so nothing else mattered. The Azel group would lose its head and even face bankruptcy, but it had nothing to do with me. He had barked at the wrong tree and had to pay for it. Shinobu shook her head faintly and gave me an 'I'll talk to you later' look. We resumed our talk with the girls and they immediately forgot what had just happened.

"Do you mind if this curious parent joins your lively conversation?"

Before long, an older version of Yukino with bigger assets approached us. She was wearing a black kimono, making her look like a noble from the feudal Japan era. I noticed Yukino shifted uncomfortably but didn't say anything. Haruno didn't show much reaction, but I could tell she was a bit wry. The Yukinoshita matriarch seemed to be a quite scary figure in the house. I wondered how the patriarch behaved around her.

"The adults always find the youth's talk boring and pointless. But if you think otherwise, we don't mind having you around…"

"Ah, how impolite of me." The Yukinoshita matriarch covered her mouth in embarrassment and then bowed politely. "My name is Yukinoshita Himeno. I am Yukinoshita Kito's wife or you better know me as Yukino-san's mother. It's nice to meet both of you, Hikigaya-san, Shinobu-san. I didn't know my daughter was acquainted with such important people."

"We prefer living with as little attention as possible. Wouldn't you do the same if you could?"

"Unfortunately, when your husband is a diet member, it's impossible."

"Must be hard."

"I am already used to it."

The way the Yukinoshita matriarch carried herself was worthy of praise. She had the best response for every word thrown at her and didn't get carried away by the other's pace. I could understand why the Yukinoshita sisters were afraid of their mother. She could easily render their stubbornness useless. If they decided to remain hardheaded, I was sure she would break them. Yukinoshita Himeno possessed the reserved attitude of Yukino and the manipulative nature of Haruno, or rather, she passed those down to them.

The announcer said the food was ready, so everyone immediately scrambled to their table. Himeno-san invited Shinobu and me to join their family, but we politely refused. We had people from our branch office attending the gala, so it was better to join them. Moreover, we didn't want to make the guests think we preferred the Yukinoshita more than the others. In this type of event, we had to make sure we appeared neutral.

We sat at our table which was too big for three people. Sae-chan informed me that the table designated for her wasn't that big before, so the host must have changed it while we were busy chatting. The size of the table wasn't important, of course. It was the person who joined us that mattered. The brown-haired bastard was testing my patience by sitting across from me with an amiable smile that was as fake as breast implants.

He tried to make a conversation, but Shinobu and I ignored him the entire time. Sae-chan would respond to him out of courtesy but eventually opted to nod wordlessly at every word he said as she noticed our absolute disinterest. Before long, the dance started. He asked Sae-chan if she would like to dance, but she refused outrightly. He didn't falter and immediately looked for another woman to bother.

"Would you like to dance, Shinobu?" I asked, noticing some of the women who had asked me to be their dance partner approaching.

"I will be your last dance partner," Shinobu replied while nibbling on the red velvet cake that served as dessert.

"Do you want to dance, Sae-chan?"

"Yes…" Sae-chan replied rather bashfully.

Shinobu glanced at Sae-chan with mild hostility as I took her hand. She then looked at me blankly, telling me to not try anything funny with her eyes. I smiled reassuringly, causing her to nod. I led Sae-chan to the center of the hall, putting ourselves among the people who were there to dance. I put my hand on her waist and held her hand with the other one. When the music began, we danced.

It was quite amusing seeing Sae-chan unable to meet my eyes. She was usually cold and stoic, so seeing her squirm under everyone's eyes was as endearing as it was surprising. At some point, she just buried her face in my chest. I let out a chuckle and she immediately pinched my waist for that. As I wondered what was the deal with women and waist-pinching, the music ended. I let Sae-chan go and thanked her for her dance.

I saw some women coming to me, so my eyes immediately looked for Shinobu. I didn't want to dance more than twice. At that moment, Haruno entered my vision. It was unfortunate that I had to dance thrice, but the women stopped in their tracks when Haruno approached me. The music played and we danced again. Haruno was a lot bolder compared to Sae-chan as she glued our bodies together. I could feel every nook and cranny of her body and smell her scent. Her fair neck tempted me to bite it there and then.

"My, my, don't you love me so much? Does my body excite you so much? You will make Yukino-chan sad, you know. Ah, you will also make your girlfriend, Shinobu-chan upset," Haruno teased.

I was not in the mood to respond amiably, so I leaned down and threateningly whispered, "Don't tease me too much. I might eat you; you know."

Somehow, it had the opposite of the intended effect. Instead of looking horrified, her face flushed as she sputtered some incoherent sentences. I don't understand these women sometimes. It still caused her to shut up, so it worked regardless. It was surprising, though, that she spent the entire time burying her face in my chest as Sae-chan did. When the dance ended, she immediately scurried away, refusing anyone's request to dance.

I looked for Shinobu to end my dance session but found Yukino being bothered by an insistent familiar-looking boy. I sighed lightly and walked to her. When I asked her to dance with me, she immediately accepted it. The boy flinched when he met my eyes, apologized, and then scrambled to the crowd as if looking for protection. Yukino shot a smug look at his scrambling figure. That's Yukino for you, all right…

I walked her to the center of the hall and danced when the music began. We danced quietly, but Yukino would comment on how well I did. Everything was going normally until she accidentally slipped, causing me to catch her by her waist in reflex. One of her legs was raised in the air and our face was so close that we might just kiss. Ignoring our proximity, our form was aesthetic enough to make the juries of the competitive ballroom dance applaud us.

The dance proceeded with Yukino burying her face in my chest the entire time. Just like Haruno, she scurried away when the dance ended. Having enough of the dance, I was determined to find Shinobu. Thankfully, she came up to me and asked for a dance. I gladly accepted. When we danced, more eyes were on us. Maybe, it was because of Shinobu's beauty or our proximity. I doubted it was the latter, though, as we had quite a lot of lovey-dovey couples on the floor.

"I didn't know you were scummy enough to flirt with women, knowing that your girlfriend is on the side watching," Shinobu said, quite dangerously.

"I wasn't flirting, though. You should know better that I am not good at flirting," I defended. "Heck, I don't even know how to flirt! I would have flirted with you every time if I knew."

Shinobu looked like she had something to say but shook her head in the end. She was quite exasperated judging by her sigh, but I wasn't going to ask her about what bothered her. I merely enjoyed our dance, putting my chin on her head as she buried her head in the nook of my neck. It was only possible because our height difference was not big.

"I will ensure everyone's safety here, so you can take care of that loose head. You are more than capable of taking him down, but be careful."

"I know. I will finish everything quickly."

When the dance ended, everyone applauded. Their applause was strangely targeted at us. Of course, I didn't care about that. My eyes were planted on the brown-haired bastard that was excusing himself. He smirked when he met my gaze and I took that as the cue to finish my business.

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Honorary Mention:

Venerable Immortal Bowzer

Venerable Immortal Drowz

Venerable Immortal Funéral

Venerable Immortal Keksimus Rex

Venerable Immortal Orion

Venerable Immortal x_iLaggedOut_x