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Ninamori bowed. 'Good evening.' When she raised her head and saw Naota's father's face, she let out a yelp. It was definitely the shady man who'd handed her the magazine earlier.

'Ah, it's you,' Kamon said. 'Well, sit down. It's not much, but it's dinner.'

What's going on? Ninamori wondered. I thought he was really dodgy but now it turns out he's Naota's father.

'Naota's girlfriend?' Shigekuni asked. 'Not bad.'

'Haruko ran her over,' Naota explained.

Kamon wore an uneasy expression and seemed so unnerved that it was almost funny. 'What do you mean, 'Ran her over'?'

'Hey hey, let's not worry about the details,' Haruko suggested. 'Let's eat!'

With that, they all found their seats and started dinner.

A family dinner was a little unusual for Ninamori, as sitting down as a family for an evening meal had become a thing of the past for her. She wasn't terribly fond of the magazine man, but she'd told herself to behave for the time being.

Although she was on her best behavior, Ninamori suddenly started crying. It wasn't out of sadness, however; it was because of the spiciness of the curry. Spicy! Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot! Ninamori moaned to herself.

It was as painfully spicy as Naota had warned it would be, and must have been several—no, many, many levels beyond Ninamori's curry bread in spiciness. It well exceeded the limits of what humans could tolerate.

Through her tears, Ninamori forced a smile. When she thought about it, though, it was funny. She'd managed to hold back her tears the entire day and hadn't imagined that such a stupid thing would make her cry. There was no withstanding this, however. Ninamori simply ignored the tears that flowed freely and continued to partake of the strong spiciness that even made her head hurt.

'You're doing pretty well there, Shigekuni,' Kamon remarked, shoving his spoon in his mouth as though he, too, were forcing himself to eat the curry.

Shigekuni appeared to be pained, but kept eating nonetheless. 'You know, I think even Indian people would be surprised by this!'

The reason Kamon and Shigekuni were eating without making a single complaint was because Haruko was watching them. Like longtime romantic rivals, they couldn't disagree when she asked if the curry was good.

'You like spicy foods, right?' Haruko asked Ninamori. 'It's Manhattan-flavor 'Star Prince Goes to New York' curry!'

'You didn't have to go as far as New York,' Naota grumbled. He was the only one who hadn't touched the curry. He'd eaten only the white rice and pickles—his way of protesting, apparently.

'You're such a kid! It's an adult flavor,' Ninamori explained to Naota before putting some into her mouth. To tout how much more mature she was than her classmate, the Marquis de Carabas gobbled the spicy curry, pretending it was completely normal.

'Hey, w-water…' Shigekuni stammered.

Immediately following Shigekuni's plea, there was a noise in the nearby kitchen, meaning that someone else was there.

Who is it? Could it be that high school girl, Mamimi? Ninamori wondered.

It turned out to be Canti, who was carrying some cups on a tray into the dining room.

Ninamori was more surprised than when she'd first seen Kamon here. 'What is that?'

Who could blame her reaction? It was a robot, after all—a two-legged, two-armed humanoid robot. Plus, it was wearing an old jacket and was acting unusually human.

The robot handed a cup of water to Shigekuni.

'Wh-what is that?' Ninamori asked.

'It's our television,' Kamon explained.

It was true that its head resembled a television.

'But why is it walking around?'

'Because it's a TV walkman, of course,' Kamon replied dubiously.

TV walkman? Does Sony sell that kind of stuff in stores now? Ninamori wondered.

'Anyway,' Kamon said to Ninamori, 'how are you feeling, Little Miss Mayor?'

Ninamori was taken aback, realizing the meaning behind Kamon's words. Naota's father had known she was the mayor's daughter all along, and with that knowledge, he'd still handed her the magazine revealing her father's scandal. Ninamori felt even more disgusted by him. If she hadn't known he was Naota's father, she would've run off immediately.

'You know a lot about Ninamori,' Naota remarked, slightly surprised. 'How do you know her?'

It came as a surprise to Naota that Kamon knew anything about Ninamori. He had no idea that it was his own father who'd produced that magazine. The name of Kamon's serialized mini-comic magazine, Come on Mabase, was meant to mimic 'Kamon Mabase.'

Wearing a shady expression, Kamon asked Ninamori, 'You're pretty famous now, aren't you?'

Ninamori could only stare in horror. The reason she was 'pretty famous now' was all because of that comic. That Kamon could say those words with such a calm face proved that he was a pretty disgusting excuse for a man. However, the Marquis de Carabas wouldn't lower herself to such levels. 'No, it isn't really a big deal or anything,' she replied modestly.

'Don't go spreading rumors about being hit by the bakery bike, okay?' Haruko urged lightheartedly.

'H-hitting a pedestrian…' Kamon stammered as his abominable expression turned to one of unease.

Haruko's words seemed to have shot down Kamon's proud attitude. Having published the mayor's scandal out of self-righteousness, Kamon felt disheartened that his own housekeeper had been involved in an accident with the mayor's daughter.

Ninamori had been bailed out ever so slightly. As she began to come to terms with the fact that she'd, indeed, been run over, she wondered exactly who this strange girl who made Kamon uneasy was. In her head, Ninamori compared the girl with the secretary who'd fooled around with her father. They were about the same age, but the girl was completely different.

'Why don't you stay here tonight?' Kamon suddenly suggested. 'Forget all the terrible things at home, right?'

'It isn't a big deal,' Ninamori replied.

'No, no, no. You must stay with us tonight. I'll give your parents a call. You can sleep soundly and forget about all the bad things—like getting run over.'

'Thank you very much, but you don't have to phone them.'

'But it would be a bit—'

'It's all right.'

'They don't know where you are…'

'My parents are my parents. I'm me,' Ninamori asserted. 'If my father gets arrested by the police or divorces my mother, it has absolutely nothing to do with me!'

Canti stared worriedly at the girl as she spat out her words.

After dinner, Kamon half suggested, half forced Ninamori to take a bath at the Nandaba house. 'It's been a bad day, hasn't it? You should at least take a bath to relax. When I wanted to escape my home life, I used to take a bath to get over everything,' Kamon revealed.

Because Ninamori really was worn out, and because this was none other than Naota's bathroom, she decided to take a bath, if only to satisfy her curiosity.

The Nandabas' home was an old wooden house, and the bathroom was well used. Compared to the one Ninamori had at home, it was pretty small. Even so, when she got into the hot tub, she felt herself relax a little. (The after-effects of that super spicy curry that'd brought tears to her eyes started to subside, too.)

After letting out a drawn-out sigh, Ninamori began to reflect on her day in the unfamiliar bathtub. As she began to feel a little better, she started to realize that lamenting over the unfortunate things that had befallen her