Chapter 14: Do Pretty Girls Really Smell Good Everywhere?
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"That category of talisman is entirely outside my area of practice."
Sanae's smile had gone slightly wooden. She had not anticipated that this small-animal-energy girl would open her mouth and produce something capable of dropping jaws. The gap between the exterior and the content was considerable.
"I — I knew that, obviously. I was just joking around." Yanami Anna retreated back to Kihara's side with brisk efficiency.
That was not a joking-around expression, Sanae noted internally, and followed everyone inside.
The interior of the house hit her with the specific quality of modern world that she hadn't fully prepared herself for. Everything was clean-lined and full of objects that served purposes she could identify but hadn't personally interacted with in some time. She moved through it with the absorbed attention of someone cataloguing details.
Since she'd be staying for a while, Kihara put Lala in charge of making Sanae comfortable and took Yanami Anna with him to clean out the spare room, then head to the shops for bedding and groceries.
The night was settling in properly by the time they left. Yanami Anna walked slightly ahead, hands clasped behind her back, not filling the silence the way she usually did. Her silhouette moved in and out of the pools of light from the streetlamps — lit, then dark, then lit again.
"You don't want Sanae staying at my house."
Her step hitched. She kept going, voice carefully flat. "I don't feel that way. It's just... a little strange. A few days ago, I was the only person who came to your house. And now there are two more people, and they're both—" a pause— "attractive."
"It might be a little late to say this, but... there may be more coming."
"What?!"
The carefully maintained composure dissolved. She spun around, closed the distance in one step, grabbed his shoulders with both hands, and shook him.
"Are you telling me you have more fiancées?! We literally grew up together — when did you have time to go around meeting other girls?! Are you some kind of time management genius?!"
"I wouldn't call them fiancées. Just people I know."
She narrowed her eyes. The voice dropped by several notes. "Male or female?"
"Female, obviously. If I said they were male, what would you think?"
She considered this honestly. "That you like men."
"Exactly."
"Haaah." The long exhale of someone who had run the math and not loved the result. She released his shoulders. "I'm genuinely worried about you getting your money taken by someone with bad intentions."
"Actors don't make as much as you'd think."
"But you've been working since middle school. Unless I'm misremembering, you told me you'd saved around twenty million yen?"
"Roughly."
"That's a significant amount. Are you sure the next person who shows up will be like Sanae-san and Lala — genuinely not interested in money?"
Kihara didn't know exactly who was coming from Gensokyo, but the idea of anyone from there targeting his savings in this world was genuinely funny. If anything, the more likely interest was in something else entirely.
"Don't worry. That scenario is impossible." He reached into his pocket, pulled out a bank card, and tucked it into her hand with the casualness of someone handing over a pen. "Keep this for me if you're concerned. Password is your birthday."
Yanami Anna looked down at the card.
Then she started jumping in place.
Several minutes of this. On the public street. At night.
When she finally stopped, she was holding the card in both hands, staring at it, and her vision had developed a soft doubling effect.
He set the password to my birthday.
He's giving me his savings to hold.
Is this... is this a confession?
I have to keep this safe. Get a small safe. Lock it. Keep it until we're married and then we can use it to build our—
Wait. No. If I say yes right now, I'm one of those women who's after his money. I refuse.
Her expression cleared with remarkable speed. She held the card back out.
"This is too valuable. I don't trust myself to keep it safe. You should hold onto it."
"Honestly — were you just misunderstanding something? Because you were extremely excited a moment ago."
He stepped forward and put one hand on the wall behind her, not hard, just there, the space between them becoming less theoretical. The streetlight came from above at an angle that put half his face in shadow, which produced an effect on her pulse that she would have preferred not to acknowledge.
"I wasn't misunderstanding anything. I was happy for you about your savings."
"Really. You're sure it wasn't because you thought I liked you?"
She made a small involuntary sound and pressed both hands to her face. The temperature there was significant.
She was one hundred percent certain he was doing this on purpose. This was a deliberate application of her own desensitization methodology, turned against her, with full knowledge of what it was.
He knows I actually like him. He must know. Does he know?
"I give up, stop— and we're outside, if the paparazzi—"
He didn't stop. His left hand found her wrist and moved it away from her face, the approach continuing, warm breath arriving just ahead of him.
"Let them. It won't affect my current work."
The air from his words was warm against her cheeks. Her chest rose and fell. He was very close. The geometry of the situation was such that a very small movement on her part would resolve it into a kiss.
She had no psychological preparation for this whatsoever.
She closed her eyes and waited for it.
A quiet laugh.
That sound.
The warmth of the impending moment converted instantly to a different kind of heat entirely. Yanami Anna opened her eyes, found him grinning at her with zero remorse, and let the rage fully materialize.
She bit his nose.
"OW OW OW—!! Anna, are you part dog?! Let go—!!"
"I. Will. Not. Ahgk—!!"
They scuffled in the dark for a while. Eventually Kihara was sporting a tooth-mark on his nose and Yanami Anna had burned off enough energy to conduct herself in a shopping center. They found what they needed, queued up, and Kihara noticed the cashier trying not to laugh.
"A bite mark from a pretty girl," he said, keeping his voice low. "Most people never even get that far. Though I will say, the breath is a little—"
She grabbed his sleeve and dragged him to a corner of the underground parking structure, turned to face him, and breathed directly at him.
"Where?! Where is it bad? I am meticulous about dental hygiene, and furthermore—"
she pointed at him with righteous energy— "you used to say that pretty girls smell good everywhere. You said that. In middle school. With your own mouth."
"Anna. There's a fairly important piece of reality I should update you on. Pretty girls also go to the bathroom. You can't honestly be telling me you produce strawberry-chocolate—"
Her face went through several configurations in rapid sequence.
She closed the distance with both fists raised.
"I'm going to bite you again—!!"
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Thank you for reading.