Chapter 94: Yamada Ryo's Dark Chocolate. (Patreon)

Daniel sat through several performances under Seika Ijichi's murderous glare, as if she wanted to eat him alive.

Only then did he lead his girlfriends out of STARRY's basement, and they climbed the steps back up to the asphalt road.

The sky had already gone dark. There weren't many pedestrians around, since this wasn't exactly downtown Tokyo.

In Shibuya, the nightlife would only just be getting started.

"Let's get dinner first. We can deal with everything else later."

"What do you all feel like eating?"

Daniel turned and asked the three of them.

"Yakiniku."

"Anything's fine, Yoru-kun. You decide."

"Anything expensive!"

The three girls answered one after another. The one who wanted yakiniku was Kamuro, the one with the sweetly coy "whatever you decide" was Sakayanagi, and the one who wanted expensive was, naturally, Ryo Yamada.

Daniel's women each had a distinct personality, and this was no exception.

"Then we'll go with Masumi's pick and have yakiniku. Arisu, do you know a place that serves A5 wagyu?"

"I do. I'll make the arrangements."

Sakayanagi Arisu smiled faintly, took out her phone, and sent a message.

Daniel and the others didn't have to wait long. A stretch Maybach rolled in from down the road and stopped right in front of them.

Ryo Yamada walked over and looked the car over. Then she whipped around to face Sakayanagi Arisu, her eyes sparkling.

"A luxury car like this... so you're a real heiress?"

"If you wouldn't mind, Ryo would like to take you as her adoptive mother!"

Sakayanagi Arisu covered her mouth and giggled. She didn't mind Ryo's behavior at all. She found such shameless flattery rather entertaining.

"That's a bit much. I'm only slightly well-off. If you want to curry favor with someone, you'd do better to curry it with Yoru-kun."

"If Yoru-kun wanted, he could buy a hundred of these without it making a dent."

Having been pointed down the right path by Sakayanagi Arisu, Ryo Yamada decisively clung to Daniel's arm and purred, "Daddy! Don't go easy on me tonight!"

Daniel looked at this woman with no shame whatsoever, reached out and patted her perky rear, and promised with an amused grin, "Remember you said that."

"Let's get in the car and eat first. You'll be in for it later."

"Mm-hmm!"

Daniel and the girls settled into the back seat of the stretch Maybach. Sakayanagi Arisu deftly took chilled drinks out of the built-in fridge and passed them around.

In Japan, drinking underage wasn't permitted, though of course that rule didn't really apply to wealthy families like Sakayanagi Arisu's.

But given her earlier physical condition, she was certainly forbidden from touching alcohol.

So the car she'd arranged had no liquor in it. That didn't stop Ryo Yamada from holding her glass of soft drink and putting on airs like a big shot in a TV drama.

"By the way, you just followed us without a second thought. Weren't you worried we might be bad people?" Daniel asked curiously.

Daniel hadn't used a single power from start to finish, yet Ryo Yamada had carelessly climbed into the car with him. He really wanted to know what she was thinking.

Ryo Yamada set down her glass and answered as if it were obvious, "Nope. You lent me money, you helped our band out of a jam, and you're good-looking. You can't be a bad person."

"Besides, this car alone could buy my life. What could you possibly want from me? My looks, right? And I already agreed to be your girlfriend."

"So there's nothing to be scared of!"

"Your logic is something else," Masumi Kamuro couldn't help muttering. She still couldn't understand how anyone could propose dating the moment they met.

Sakayanagi Arisu chuckled too. "So Miss Yamada wasn't blinded by money after all. She was making her own judgment."

"A bassist has to be bold enough to make the call," Ryo Yamada said proudly, sticking out her not-so-large chest.

The girls started chatting in the car. Daniel watched the bevy of beauties and didn't interrupt them while they got closer.

He only used Sakayanagi Arisu, sitting beside him, to scratch his itch. With his mind blank, he found himself wondering who it was that researched white stockings in the first place.

Sakayanagi Arisu endured his mischievous hand and shot him a coquettish look.

Oho, still daring to provoke me?

Daniel's palm traveled upward along Sakayanagi Arisu's soft, silky white stockings.

"Mm..." Sakayanagi Arisu couldn't hold back a soft moan.

"Adoptive Mother?"

Ryo Yamada looked curiously at Sakayanagi Arisu's flushed face, not quite understanding.

Masumi Kamuro, recognizing that familiar sound, blushed as well and even tried to cover for her.

But Ryo Yamada had already spotted Daniel's hand and realized why Sakayanagi's face was so red.

"Do you want to touch mine too?"

Far from being embarrassed, Ryo Yamada moved to the seat opposite Daniel and eagerly raised one shapely leg wrapped in black stockings toward him.

Daniel naturally didn't hold back. His left hand stayed on Sakayanagi's white stockings, while his right caught Ryo Yamada's ankle and slipped off her shoe in one smooth motion.

Her jade-like foot in black silk was now exposed to the air. It didn't smell strange at all, only a faint scent of mint.

Maybe it was because a band meant standing a lot, but Ryo Yamada's legs, dark as chocolate in their stockings, were springier than Sakayanagi's.

The silk-smooth feel combined with those gracefully curved lines made it hard for Daniel to let go.

Now these were legs a man could play with for years.

"Ryo, the feel is excellent."

Hearing Daniel's teasing, Ryo Yamada hummed smugly.

The back of the car had a soundproof partition, so there was no worry about noise reaching the driver up front.

Of course, Daniel could also have blocked the sound with vector manipulation. He let himself go and thoroughly enjoyed himself as the car drove on.

After a while, the car stopped at the mouth of a quiet alley. A shop with no signboard glowed with light farther inside.

Daniel and the others climbed out of the car. Once outside, Sakayanagi Arisu and Masumi Kamuro wiped the corners of their mouths.

As for Ryo Yamada, she stamped her foot on the ground in an awkward stance, her face still a little red.

"Something feels sticky inside my shoe," she complained.

"That's just psychological. I cleaned it up for you, remember?" Daniel said, savoring the memory.

Ryo Yamada rolled her eyes. "It was a bit weird, but I didn't hate it. Anyway, hurry up, hurry up! I'm eating A5 wagyu as my wages!"

Seeing the girl's impatience, Daniel laughed. "All right, all right. Arisu, lead the way."

"Mm. Follow me."

The group walked down the alley and into the unmarked shop. When they pushed open the door, there was no smell of grilled meat as they'd imagined, only the scent of some unfamiliar flower.

A tall, mature beauty in a kimono stood at the front desk. When she saw Sakayanagi Arisu and the others, a smile immediately appeared on her face. "It's been a while, Miss Sakayanagi."

"What would you like this time?"

Sakayanagi Arisu kept up her gracious smile and said calmly, "Yakiniku. Please bring plenty of A5-grade beef. The rest is up to you."

"Oh, right. Yoru-kun, Ryo, Masumi, do any of you have foods you can't eat?"

This was Masumi Kamuro's first time in a private-kitchen restaurant like this one. She shook her head blankly.

"None for me."

"Same here," Ryo Yamada chimed in.