Chapter 294: Cats and Dogs

(Calm down, Shido.)

Inside a dimly lit room, Shido was lying flat on the tatami mats. Pinning him down was a silver haired, doll like cat eared girl.

(I have to think of something. Yes, there has to be a way to reverse this situation somewhere.)

The young girl's warm breath and the faint scent of her hair brought a hint of dizzying intoxication, but far more prominent was the intense anxiety of being devoured by a carnivorous predator.

"Umm... Origami?"

First, he decided to try communicating with words.

"What is it, Shido?"

His first step yielded a miraculous result. The girl in front of him was actually capable of communication.

"Why are you wearing a school swimsuit?"

The girl was currently wearing a tight, one piece school swimsuit.

"Because Shido loves school swimsuits and dog ears..."

Halfway through her sentence, Origami seemed to realize that her hardware didn't match her software. She looked back at her own cat tail, then stared blankly at Shido.

"Woof!"

"If you're a cat, don't bark like a dog! Also, could you please get off me?"

"Understood. Would you prefer to be on top, Shido? Or from behind?"

He took it back. Communication was impossible.

(In that case... I'll use brute force...)

Shido tried to use his strength to break free from Origami's grasp, however...

(It's completely useless!)

Even putting aside the fact that becoming a animal eared girl had probably boosted Origami's physical stats, Shido tragically realized he couldn't even break free from regular Origami on a good day.

"Anyway, what exactly are you trying to do?"

He had only just managed to escape from Miku a short while ago, only to be ambushed by Origami from the shadows and dragged into this room.

"Mating season. My instinct to reproduce is acting up, meow."

Origami stated with absolute seriousness.

"Hold on a second, what the heck is mating season!?"

"Satisfying everyone is Shido's duty."

"Even so, doing this is absolutely not okay!"

"It'll be over before you finish counting the stains on the ceiling, meow."

"You think I'm going to fall for that!?"

Just as Origami's doll like face leaned dangerously close to Shido, the door suddenly slid open.

"Tobiichi Origami, you bastard! Get away from Shido, woof!"

A dog with flowing, night colored hair charged into the room like the loyal dog Hachiko, arriving just in time to protect her master's virginity.

"...Don't get in my way, meow."

"Like I'd let you be alone with Shido, woof!"

In an instant, the scene in the room devolved into Tohka and Origami glaring at each other on all fours. One growled lowly while baring her teeth, and the other arched her back with her fur standing on end.

(A cat and dog fight!?)

Looking at the scene before him, Shido screamed internally in despair.

"Woof! Woof! Woof!"

"Nyaa Nyaa!"

(TL:Cute.....explode Shido)

"Stop fighting already—!"

Unable to stop them, Shido desperately threw himself directly between the two brawling animals. In the end, perhaps realizing she couldn't push Shido down with an interloper around, the battle ended with Origami initiating a tactical retreat.

"Are you okay, Shido?"

"Yeah, I'm fine... probably..."

Faced with Tohka's question, Shido replied dejectedly, sporting a few new scratch marks on his face and bite marks on his arms and legs.

"By the way, how did you find me here, Tohka?"

"Umu! At first, I was just looking for you, but then I smelled you and Origami. I thought something was wrong, so I rushed in!"

"Looking for me?"

He thought it was just a coincidence, but Tohka was actually searching for him.

"Mhm! Let's go for a walk, Shido! A walk!"

Hearing Shido's question, Tohka broke into a bright, happy smile.

"Wait, by 'a walk,' do you mean..."

Going for a walk was perfectly fine, but considering Tohka was currently in dog mode, Shido had a very, very bad feeling about this.

"Mhm! Reine said that dogs absolutely have to be taken for walks!"

Tohka smiled brightly and pulled out a collar and a leash. It was painfully obvious that Reine had prepared them for her.

(Reine-san—!)

Realizing he had been set up, Shido screamed internally.

Five minutes later, unable to say no to Tohka, Shido had no choice but to put the collar on her and hold the leash. He was preparing to go for a "walk" in this completely absurd setup.

However...

"Oh my, Darling and Tohka-san, are you going for a walk? If that's the case, I want to come too, woof!"

They ran into Miku on the way. For some reason, the idol looked incredibly exhausted, almost as if she had recently suffered some kind of severe mental trauma.

"Wait... umm..."

"Darling!"

Unable to say no to Miku either, Shido found himself holding a second leash. He never expected that Reine had prepared a "gift" for Miku as well.

And so, they walked for another thirty seconds...

"Huh? Mikoto-san?"

Miku suddenly spotted Mikoto, who was out for a walk with Natsumi.

"Eek!"

The moment Natsumi realized Miku was there, she scrambled up a pine tree in the courtyard at lightning speed and refused to come down. This left Mikoto standing alone, facing a lunging Miku whom Shido couldn't even hold back.

As a result...

"Sorry about this, Yakumo-senpai."

"Ahaha, i-it's fine... Since it's you, Shido..."

Forced by Miku's insistence, Shido ended up with a third leash in his hand. It seemed Reine had prepared one for every canine in the group.

In the end, Shido embarked on an unprecedented "walk", holding the leashes of two dog girls and one fox girl. (TL:Shidooooooo, *loading gun while calling Yumetsuki over*)

"Come to think of it, where are you planning to go, Shido?"

Mikoto asked softly along the way.

"Where else? We'll just walk around the courtyard, of course."

The place they were staying at was a guest house provided by the village headman. It had beautiful scenery and a massive courtyard. Most importantly, it was entirely reserved for Shido and the group.

What they were currently doing could generously be called a walk. Putting it bluntly, it was... "walking the dogs."

If he actually took three leashed, beautiful girls out into public, Shido was absolutely certain he would be socially annihilated.

"But... I think Tohka and Miku want to go outside..."

Mikoto said anxiously. She was perfectly happy just walking in the courtyard, but Tohka and Miku were the types who didn't care about public opinion as long as they were with Shido.

"It might sound bad to say this, but I'm really glad I have these leashes."

Shido sighed in heartfelt relief. As long as he held the leashes, the two of them wouldn't be able to run off.

"By the way, you've never owned large dogs, have you, Shido?"

Hearing Shido's naive words, Mikoto looked at him with an expression that said, You're way too naive.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you see... when you take large dogs for a walk, sometimes it's not the human walking the dog, but rather..."

"Shido, let's go outside!"

"Tohka-san, wait for me!"

Before Mikoto could even finish her sentence, Shido felt a terrifying amount of force yank the leashes in his hand. In the next second, he was practically pulled into the air like a kite.

"W-Wait a minute—!"

And so, thanks to the sheer brute strength of two dogs with the power of Spirits, Shido finally understood what it meant to be "walked by a dog."

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