Tanimaki Enters a Bread-Baking Contest (Part 1)

Tanimaki and the others walked quietly along an avenue lined with plane trees.

Before long, Debiru spotted a food truck up ahead. His keen eyes could pick out even the slightest movement from far away.

“Looks like they’re selling bread. Let’s get some. I’m starving.”

As he spoke, Debiru pulled out his wallet.

“Debiru, you’re paying, meow.”

Even though Mayutan gave Tanimaki exactly the same amount of spending money as Debiru, Tanimaki was as shamelessly stingy as ever.

The delicious aroma of freshly baked bread drifted from the food truck. Debiru could no longer resist.

The vendor appeared to be a female Kaninchen dachshund.

“Excuse me! We’d like to buy some brea—”

“Eek! A bandit!”

The instant Debiru called out to her, the dog headbutted him.

Before he could even cry out, Debiru lost consciousness.

“W-What do you think you’re doing?!”

Mayutan panicked at the unexpected turn of events.

“What the meow? Are you an enemy?”

Tanimaki braced himself for a fight.

“Eek!”

The dog headbutted Tanimaki and Mayutan in quick succession. Neither of them had time to fight back before they, too, lost consciousness.

However, when the dachshund noticed the wallet in Debiru’s paw, she finally realized that she had jumped to the wrong conclusion.

“He had a terrifying face, but he was only a customer…”

Had it only been Tanimaki and Mayutan, perhaps none of this would have happened.

“Oh no… What should I do? I need to call someone for help.”

In a panic, the dog called her family.

Tanimaki opened his eyes.

He was lying on a soft futon beneath a fluffy comforter.

“Meow? Where am I? Is this heaven?”