Chapter 27: The Beautiful Matron
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——Pure Avatar——
Sakai Ward — Ikutahara Town
Most of the residential district was shrouded in darkness at night, which made the vast, boundless starry sky exceptionally clear. Looking up, one could even see objects resembling space stations gliding slowly through low Earth orbit.
At this moment, Wakaba was passing by the Kamimura residence next door. Faint sounds drifted from their first-floor living room: a man’s curses, a woman’s weeping, and the sharp, rhythmic sounds of a beating.
She averted her gaze, indifferent to their domestic affairs, and with a single leap, landed inside her own courtyard.
She skillfully buried the blood-stained clothes and trousers she had been wearing into a pit behind the yard. Only after finishing this did she return inside to bathe.
*Splash!*
The bathroom was thick with steam. As she stood under the shower, the blood stains on her body dissolved into the water and spiraled down the drain.
Her hideous wounds were now clearly exposed, layered over old scars, with raw, upturned flesh that looked quite gruesome. However, since this was merely an avatar puppet, Wakaba felt no particular pain; it felt no different than a weapon that had suffered a few chips.
"Just in time to absorb the core crystal!" Wakaba pulled out the fist-sized, pitch-black core crystal and pressed it directly into a wound on her abdomen.
Upon touching her blood, the crystal immediately dissolved, flowing into every fiber of the avatar's being.
*Hummm—!*
A fierce, burning sensation surged through her. In an instant, Wakaba was drenched in sweat, accompanied by the violent pounding of her heart, which echoed in her ears like a drum.
"So hot! Much hotter than last time!" Wakaba felt the burning sensation turn into a stinging pain, as if thousands of needles were pricking her at once.
The already steamy bathroom became even more hazy and dense, to the point where her figure vanished entirely within the mist.
At that moment, on a microscopic genetic level that Wakaba could not see, the special factors embedded in her genetic chain were being nourished by the energy of the core crystal, growing and strengthening with increasing vitality...
Ten minutes later, the heat finally dissipated. Wakaba noticed that her gruesome wounds had already scabbed over.
She changed into a new set of clothes and, without bothering to dry her wet hair, walked out into the second-floor hallway.
*Whoosh!!*
Dense, silver threads emerged from her body, lashing out toward the front, reaching the end of the hallway and sliding down the stairs.
"...The count has reached 55, the length has exceeded 16 meters, and they are much tougher. If I were to face that giant-handed filth-beast from before, I should be able to slice its body directly now..."
Wakaba retracted the silver threads and stepped out onto the second-floor balcony.
She bent her knees, lowered her center of gravity, and gathered magic power into her feet. With a *bang*, she launched herself nearly six meters into the air.
She landed heavily on the balcony, causing the entire structure to sway violently.
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One must realize that this was a high jump, not a long jump.
After absorbing the first core crystal, she could jump 5 meters in a single bound at full strength, but her high jump had only been about three and a half meters. Now that her high jump was nearing six meters, her long jump would likely reach eight or nine.
She nodded in satisfaction and went to the first floor to prepare some instant noodles for dinner, only to hear the doorbell ring.
"Who would come looking for me at this hour?" Puzzled, Wakaba went downstairs and opened the door to find Saori Kamimura standing outside the gate.
She seemed to be holding something in her hands.
Confused, Wakaba walked over and opened the iron gate.
"Bird-kun, I am sorry to disturb you so late," Saori Kamimura managed a smile. Her eyes were still wet with unshed tears, and her right cheek was red and swollen. As a beautiful woman, she looked particularly pitiful.
"Mrs. Kamimura, it is so late, is there something you need?" Wakaba asked, her eyes drifting to the earthenware pot in the woman's hands.
Fragrant steam wafted from it, and upon smelling it, Wakaba’s mouth watered. It smelled delicious!
"Bird-kun, this is some potato stew I made tonight. I cooked too much and couldn't finish it. I thought that since you came home so late, you probably haven't eaten yet, so I brought some for you," Saori Kamimura said with a smile.
Wakaba never refused a benefit offered to her doorstep.
"Thank you, Madam!" she replied, reaching out to take the pot.
"Wait, Bird-kun, the pot is hot. Let me bring it inside for you," Saori Kamimura said, stepping back to avoid Wakaba’s grasp.
Wakaba nodded and stepped aside to let her in.
Saori walked straight across the courtyard and into the house, passing through the foyer and a short corridor to reach the living room.
What met her eyes was a messy room, with empty instant noodle cups still sitting on the table.
She set down the pot but did not leave; instead, she began to tidy up the house.
Wakaba was confused and was about to ask why, but the woman spoke first: "Bird-kun, hurry and eat. It won't taste good if it gets cold."
Hearing this, Wakaba stopped asking and began to enjoy the fragrant potato stew. She had been craving it since she first smelled it, so she certainly wasn't going to be polite.
While Saori Kamimura cleaned the living room, she passed by the bathroom and noticed the dirty underwear in the laundry basket. To Wakaba's surprise, she went over and washed them as well. As for the clothes and trousers, they were nowhere to be found.
Wakaba was too busy devouring the stew to notice this, only realizing it later when Saori passed through the living room to hang the laundry.
Saori gave Wakaba a kind, knowing smile, like a gentle older sister, and teased, "I didn't expect Bird-kun to be at that age already~~"
Perhaps the smile pulled at her swollen cheek, for she gasped, her kind expression fading into silence, looking even more miserable.
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Wakaba was bewildered. At what age?
However, since the woman had brought her food, cleaned her house, and washed her clothes, she saw no reason to argue.
To Saori Kamimura, however, the boy’s reaction looked like the bashfulness of an ignorant youth.
She pursed her lips into a smile once more, walked through the living room to hang the underwear on the drying rack in the yard, and then returned to sit beside Wakaba without leaving.
"Madam, shouldn't you go back? Your husband might be worried!" Wakaba said.
She recalled that Saori Kamimura’s husband was named Kenji Kamimura, a truck driver.
He shuttled between shops, supermarkets, and wholesale markets, usually leaving before dawn and returning after dark. The avatar had rarely seen him.
"He wouldn't worry about me!" Saori Kamimura’s expression shifted, revealing a hint of fear as her voice dropped. "Every time he beats me, he goes out to drink himself into a stupor all night."
"Ah!" Wakaba looked surprised. "Is the injury on your face from your husband?"
"Yes," Saori Kamimura nodded bleakly. "It was fine when we first got married; he could pretend. But after a while, it just kept happening..."
"Why don't you divorce him? I remember the divorce procedures aren't complicated," Wakaba said.
At this, Saori Kamimura offered a bitter smile: "Divorce is easy, but what happens after? How can a woman like me survive while raising a child?"
"You could give the child to your husband and just keep the house for yourself," Wakaba suggested.
Saori Kamimura shook her head: "No, Ichiji is my child from my previous marriage. This man has always been cruel to Ichiji; I couldn't possibly push him into a pit of fire!"
"You were married before?" Wakaba asked, somewhat surprised.
"Bird-kun, do you despise women who have been remarried?" Saori Kamimura asked, staring directly into Wakaba’s eyes.
"How could I? In this day and age, that’s perfectly normal," Wakaba replied.
Saori Kamimura gazed into Wakaba’s sincere, clear eyes, nodded with a smile, and continued, "Do you know why I had two marriages, Bird-kun?"
"Why?"
"Because when I was young, I went to a very spiritual shrine to pray for my fortune in love. The priest explained based on the divination that I would marry twice in this life, and only in my second marriage would I find happiness."
Saori Kamimura chuckled self-deprecatingly, "So I thought, since I’m destined to marry twice anyway, I might as well get married early so I can meet my true happiness sooner!
"It just so happened that my first husband was courting me, so I agreed.
"I didn't expect that I would have Ichiji so soon, and it happened just as the priest said.
"That man revealed his true nature after we married, turning to alcohol and gambling. I couldn't take it anymore, so I divorced him."
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