I'm not sure who's more adorable here.

User-added tags for this chapter include "predictable but inevitable", "They'll get attached if you take care of them", "There is wabisabi¹ (manly tears)", "Welp, saw that coming", "You've become his mom!", "Sai-no-Kawara"², "One for Mother..."³ and "Housei, my friend"⁴.

1. See post #3421367 and post #3413559.

2. "Riverbed of Recompense", dry riverbed (usually considered to be part of the Sanzu River) where children who die early are said to be stuck in eternal limbo performing the Sisyphean task of piling up stone cairns (to make up, or "recompense" the 'sin' of causing sorrow in their parents by dying early), only to have them knocked down by oni. Unless, of course, they're lucky enough to be smuggled out by Jizou/Kṣitigarbha.

Reference to Gau's actions in post #3435209.

3. "One for Father, one for Mother..." (or "...two for Mother..."), what children are said to say as they pile stones at Sai-no-Kawara.

4. Punchline of a skit from Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende's 2013 New Year's Eve Special. See pool #7912 for a Kancolle version that gets across the general sentiment of the original.