Chapter 178: Ran Teaches a Junior a Lesson
Su Ning stared at her phone, her face paling with every passing second. The group chat displayed her personal information in careful detail. The private chat window held a collection of her cosplay photos. They even had her measurements. The doxxing fee had, in fact, been used for doxxing.
Su Ning: "You… you've got some nerve. But if any of this is fake, you're finished. I don't care if I have to chase you to the ends of the earth, I will find you."
After sending the message, she clutched the small wooden box in her hand and stormed back into her room.
A flicker of curiosity lit up Yu Xuexue's eyes as she trailed after her friend. She watched as Su Ning perched on the edge of her bed, her lips leaning close to the box.
"Haruto is the most handsome…"
Nothing happened.
Just as Su Ning's expression darkened, her mind already plotting a vicious revenge, a shocked shout erupted from the doorway.
"You're keeping a pretty boy behind my back?!"
Startled, Su Ning reflexively whipped the wooden box behind her. A moment later, realizing what had just happened, she shot a glare at Yu Xuexue.
"What are you talking about! This is just how you open the box."
"But it didn't open," Yu Xuexue pointed out with a skeptical snort.
The tips of Su Ning's ears flushed a faint red.
Yu Xuexue flopped onto the bed like a starfish, rolling around playfully. She took a theatrical sniff of the air, then raised an eyebrow and pointed a dramatic finger at Su Ning.
"You really are hiding a boy!" she declared. "Your bed has the scent of one!"
Su Ning sniffed the air herself, a flicker of doubt in her eyes, but she couldn't smell anything out of the ordinary. Still, she didn't refute the claim, her thoughts drifting to the troublemaker in the group chat. If he knew her address and had access to her private photos, it wasn't a stretch to think he could have snuck into her home.
Her gaze drifted towards the wardrobe. With a determined stride, she crossed the room and yanked the doors open with a sharp swoosh.
It was empty. Was she just overthinking things?
She glanced down at her phone just as a new message popped up.
The Most Handsome Realm Demon: "Wrong. Saying it once isn't enough. You have to say it twice."
Yu Xuexue leaned over to peek at the screen, but before she could even process the words, the atmosphere in the room changed.
In an instant, a pale blue demonic energy flared to life around Su Ning. Four fluffy fox tails unfurled behind her, crackling with power. She vanished from her spot, reappearing by the bedside in a flash. One hand was curled into a claw, while the other violently ripped the thick quilt off the bed.
Still empty.
'How did he know I only said it once?' Su Ning frowned, a knot of confusion tightening in her gut.
Click.
The soft sound of the bedroom door being pushed open cut through the tension.
Both girls whipped their heads around in unison. The door was ajar, and a young man was bent over, trying to silently back out of the room. He already had one foot over the threshold.
"I knew it! You really did hide a pretty b—"
Before Yu Xuexue could finish her triumphant cry, Su Ning had already raised her hand, firing a condensed bullet of pure demonic power.
Haruto's reaction was instantaneous. He snapped open Yukari's parasol, its familiar pattern a stark contrast to the danger. The moment the pink energy bullet struck the umbrella's surface, it vanished without a sound, as if it had been swallowed whole.
"No need to be so aggressive," Haruto said, his expression a mask of pure innocence. "Didn't I come all this way just to give you a gift?"
"Shut up!"
Su Ning was a whirlwind of embarrassment and fury. She should have known this bastard was already in her house. Her four tails rose high, the tips once again gathering demonic power into a small, dangerously bright pink point.
With lightning-fast reflexes, Haruto reached out, grabbed Kaguya—who had been enjoying the show from the hallway—and pulled her into the room, using her as a living shield.
Just as Su Ning was about to unleash her attack, Yu Xuexue's eyes widened in sudden, dawning horror. Her face went deathly pale. She lunged forward, tackling Su Ning and pinning her to the floor.
"Xuexue, what are you doing?! Whose side are you on!?"
"You can't fight him! If you do, you'll die! You'll die, I'm telling you!" Yu Xuexue was on the verge of tears, desperately holding down her struggling friend.
Seeing Su Ning was about to lose control completely, she frantically grabbed the wooden box from the bed and rushed through the instructions from the chat.
Click.
The wooden box opened.
Inside, a single, shimmering golden hair rested quietly on the velvet lining.
'Why is it just a hair?'
Yu Xuexue felt the urge to cry but no tears would come. Just as she was about to voice her confusion, a terrifying sensation washed over her, causing every hair on her body to stand on end.
The previously noisy room fell into a dead, suffocating silence.
It wasn't just Yu Xuexue. Su Ning froze completely, every muscle locked in place.
The very air seemed to solidify into an invisible weight.
Su Ning trembled uncontrollably, her fox ears pressed flat against her scalp. There was no mistaking it—this was the oppressive aura of a Nine-Tailed Fox. As far as they knew, only one Nine-Tailed Fox still existed in the world. But ever since she was recruited by the legendary Sage of Youkai, she had all but vanished.
For Su Ning and Yu Xuexue, two fox youkai who had only reached the level of Four-Tails, sensing the presence of a Nine-Tails was like a rabbit staring up at a celestial dragon. Their very souls quaked in primal fear.
Su Ning's voice trembled. "You… What is your relationship with that esteemed one?"
Before she could finish her question, a gap silently tore open in the fabric of space.
A stunningly beautiful woman in a round cap stepped out, nine magnificent, fluffy tails swaying gently behind her. The aura she naturally radiated was so immense that Su Ning and Yu Xuexue's legs gave out, nearly sending them collapsing to their knees.
Between the soul-crushing pressure and the nine tails that served as an obvious declaration of her identity, there was no doubt about the newcomer's status.
Yakumo Ran's gaze first fell upon Haruto. She gave a slight, respectful bow. "Haruto-sama."
Hearing that address, Su Ning didn't hesitate for another second. She dropped into a formal kneeling position, her heart already weeping. To be addressed as "sama" by this person meant he had to have an intimate connection to the Sage of Youkai herself.
'With a background like that, why didn't you say so earlier?! If I had known, I would have been groveling from the start!'
Yakumo Ran gave the two trembling fox girls a shallow, dismissive glance before turning her attention back to Haruto. Her voice was soft, yet carried an edge of steel.
"Haruto-sama, please step outside and wait for a moment. Allow Ran to teach these ignorant juniors a lesson."
"Alright." Haruto nodded, then casually led Kaguya into the living room, where he made himself at home, helping himself to their snacks and drinks.
Fifteen minutes later, Yakumo Ran pushed the door open again. "Haruto-sama, you may enter now," she said respectfully. "Please call for Ran anytime if you require anything further."
She opened a gap and departed. When Haruto pushed the door back open, he was greeted by a peculiar sight.
Su Ning and Yu Xuexue were kneeling side-by-side, their knees pressed together, performing a perfect, textbook dogeza.
Haruto's eyelid twitched. Should he admit he had only mentioned it as a joke? They had actually gone for a full prostration. And why was the other one kneeling, too?
"You two can get up."
Kaguya, arriving a moment later, saw the scene and chimed in helpfully, "Exactly, exactly. A proper dogeza should be done after taking off all your clothes, folding them neatly to the side, and then prostrating your—Ow! Ouch…"
Haruto didn't hesitate, delivering a swift karate chop to Kaguya's head to forcefully silence her. As one of the few individuals in Gensokyo with a shred of propriety, he decided to be magnanimous.
"Since Ran has already taught you a lesson, I'll forgive you this time."
With them performing a full dogeza to apologize, what more could he say? He certainly wasn't going to follow Kaguya's depraved suggestion. He wasn't his sister, after all.
Just as Su Ning and Yu Xuexue breathed a collective sigh of relief, they heard Haruto's voice change its tune.
"But…"
The two girls immediately tensed up again.
Haruto walked over to the wardrobe. He reached into the bottom layer and pulled out the cosplay costumes he and Kaguya had bought earlier, placing them neatly on the bed.
"In your free time, put these on, take some photos, and send them to us privately."
Su Ning secretly let out another sigh of relief. It was just cosplay. While being made to wear them specifically for photos was a little embarrassing, it was an incredibly light punishment, all things considered.
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