"Eto... could it be that aside from my T-shirt, you aren't wearing anything else...?"
Ihei Byakuya did not dare ask too directly, so he phrased it more softly.
"Yes, why? Is something wrong?"
Yoshimura Eto instead sounded puzzled.
"?"
A question mark practically popped above Ihei Byakuya's head. "You're still asking me what's wrong... or are you saying you usually dress like this?"
"That's not quite it. Normally I at least wear pants."
Yoshimura Eto answered with a completely serious expression.
It didn't look like she was acting at all.
And there was no reason to act about something like this.
"No... that's not what I meant..."
Ihei Byakuya really couldn't bring himself to directly say the word "panties" in front of Yoshimura Eto.
Forget it...
Even though Yoshimura Eto didn't answer very clearly, he basically understood.
Clearly, she normally didn't wear them. After all, she grew up in harsh conditions. Having clothes at all to cover herself was already good enough.
Come to think of it, in the original story, when she hid her identity and her face and became an Aogiri Tree cadre, she was literally wrapped head to toe in white bandages...
Ihei Byakuya suddenly found it understandable. So she grew up like this...
But that was one matter. The fact remained that she should be wearing them.
So Byakuya prepared to head out again.
"I'm going out to buy something. Just help me keep an eye on the house."
Ihei Byakuya said to Eto.
"Okay."
Yoshimura Eto nodded slightly.
She didn't know what Byakuya was going to buy, assuming it was more daily necessities.
...
Less than half an hour later, Ihei Byakuya returned.
And he brought back a bag.
Yoshimura Eto didn't pay attention at first, just sat on the sofa thinking about things.
Until Byakuya handed the bag to her...
"What is this?"
Yoshimura Eto asked at once.
"Open it and you'll see. It shouldn't be the wrong size."
Ihei Byakuya said.
"What's so mysterious? Clothes?"
Yoshimura Eto opened the package suspiciously.
The result was several pairs of panties, all pure white.
"..."
Yoshimura Eto picked one up and tugged it lightly. Clearly... the elasticity was quite good.
"This is..."
Her reaction showed a bit of surprise. That half-human brat actually went out specifically to buy her something like this...?
"Of course they're for you to wear."
Ihei Byakuya replied matter-of-factly.
"Mm..."
Yoshimura Eto quickly realized how the item was supposed to be worn,
and also understood exactly where it was supposed to go...
"Pervert..."
Yoshimura Eto spat lightly, her gaze showing a hint of disdain, and her expression looking a little strange.
Although she acted most of the time, this line was likely at least partly sincere.
"What? Why are you calling me that? I went out of my way to buy them for you."
Ihei Byakuya felt helpless. "Don't you know it's bad for your body if you never wear anything?"
But Yoshimura Eto didn't listen to his explanation at all and threw another line at him.
"Pervert."
"All right, all right, I'm a pervert, fine."
Ihei Byakuya dropped the topic.
After all, it wasn't a serious accusation. As the saying goes, "desire is human nature."
"As long as you know."
Though she had never worn panties before, Yoshimura Eto still accepted them.
It showed that she really had believed Byakuya's comment that not wearing anything for too long would be bad for her body.
And besides, feeling all breezy down there did indeed seem a bit strange, unlike before when she at least wore pants.
"Right, remember to wash them first before you wear them."
Ihei Byakuya reminded her again.
"Oh."
If Byakuya hadn't said that, Yoshimura Eto had been ready to just slip the panties on right away.
Having only just begun integrating into human society, Eto severely lacked common sense about these things.
When washing the panties, Yoshimura Eto copied how to hand-wash them herself, whereas for other clothes she simply tossed them into the washing machine.
Watching Eto busying herself by the windowsill, Ihei Byakuya thought that hopefully this girl would remain this diligent and self-motivated in the future...
...
It was already late. It was now 9 p.m.
No matter how mature Yoshimura Eto acted, she was still rather young, and at this hour she was already getting sleepy.
"It's about time to go to sleep."
Ihei Byakuya glanced at the time.
Going to bed early and getting up early was good for the body.
And this world was not as technologically advanced as Earth from before he transmigrated. People on the streets mostly still used flip phones, good only for calls and texts.
In Japan most reading was still physical books, and flip phones probably couldn't even browse web novels, much less provide any other entertainment.
So Byakuya had nothing to do this late at night anyway. It was better to just sleep.
Since the place didn't come with beds, Ihei Byakuya had directly bought mattresses and laid them on the floor.
With two people, he bought two mattresses.
He absolutely didn't want to sleep in the same bed with Yoshimura Eto. It wasn't merely an issue of "men and women shouldn't share physical contact." The main problem was that Eto certainly wasn't as innocent, cute and harmless as she looked.
He didn't want to get sliced in half by Eto in the middle of the night...
Even if the likelihood was low, Eto normally wouldn't attack someone for no reason, it was still better to be cautious.
"You sleep in the bedroom, I'll sleep in the living room."
Ihei Byakuya said to Eto.
He had placed one mattress in the bedroom and one in the living room.
This would keep some distance between them.
With his [speed] stat far above that of a normal person, his perception was exceptionally sharp.
If Eto opened the bedroom door and came out in the middle of the night, he would notice immediately.
"Okay."
Yoshimura Eto rubbed her sleepy eyes and went into the bedroom to sleep.
...
The next day, Ihei Byakuya and Yoshimura Eto both woke up early.
And after Byakuya finished breakfast, he needed to prepare to head to work.
He had bought all the ingredients for breakfast yesterday, nothing more than eggs, milk and bread, with the most complicated part being frying an egg.
Waking up to a hot breakfast was something Yoshimura Eto couldn't even dream of on any day in her past.
A fried egg, hot milk and a few slices of bread, that was their simple and plain breakfast.
Even though the breakfast was simple, the fried egg looked, smelled and tasted great, and hot milk and bread were things that could never taste bad.
For Yoshimura Eto, who until yesterday had never eaten proper food, this was already delicious.
Eto suddenly felt that before her revenge plan officially began, she could let this half-human brat cook for her every day.
And when she eventually earned money, she could just pay him a salary, and when it eventually came time to break ties she could spare his life as well...