11. Beneath the Heart Chandelier
"Auntie."
Oto's voice came from beside me. It took me a second to understand that she was calling the shopkeeper "auntie."
Her face looked like that of a middle-school girl, but if you counted the serpent body coiled beneath the counter, perhaps "auntie" was appropriate. "He's in bad shape, Kai-kun. If we don't get something into him soon, he'll starve."
I instinctively checked the watch wrapped around my wrist.
Battery remaining — 0.00005%.
Moments away from total discharge.
If my output dropped to zero, the circuits inside my body would suffer irreversible damage. "I see."
The shopkeeper tilted the beautiful head at the tip of her serpentine body and nodded.
Uncoiling, she lifted herself gracefully upward.
Defying gravity, her long body rose into the air—three meters or more. From the ceiling hung the goods of the candy shop: floating packages, upside-down jars, and strange transparent bags.
She seemed to be searching among them. Up above, like a massive chandelier—
hung candies shaped like human body parts.
They gleamed with a juicy, grotesque luster,
like taxidermy preserved in formalin—yet colored not gray, but appetizingly bright.
Fingers red as ripe strawberries, ears like perfectly ripe apples, noses with the faint blush of peaches. And at the center—hearts.
A chandelier of hearts covering the entire ceiling.
Where crystal should be, pulsating hearts hung in perfect rhythm,
each one pierced by a metal hook, dangling like fishing floats. From them dripped a red liquid.
It was described as strawberry syrup, not blood—
but the way it fell, drop by drop, looked unmistakably like blood.
Worse, the hearts were still alive,
beating slowly, trembling as they bled their syrup. "First, try moistening your throat with the syrup,"
the shopkeeper suggested. But I couldn't move.
No matter what anyone said, it was blood.
I couldn't imagine the taste. Then Oto stepped forward.
"Okay, I'll go first."
She stood directly beneath the chandelier of hearts,
lifted her face, and opened her mouth wide. At that instant—
countless eyes hidden within the chandelier blinked open,
all turning toward her.
The moment their gazes met, the hearts began to beat violently—
thump, thump—as if they had fallen in love.
Though they had no vocal cords, the pulse itself became a shrieking resonance,
vibrating the air. And then—
the syrup began to pour faster.
What had been a drip became a downpour.
A sudden rain of blood. Oto's face turned red—
her cheeks, lips, lashes, the collar of her uniform—
her whole body drenched in the sweet scent of blood. I gasped.
A splash hit my face too.
One drop landed at the corner of my lips. —Lick.
My tongue brushed it away. In that instant, every actuator in my body shuddered.
Electrical signals went wild.
Pleasure chemicals surged. A sensation impossible on Mars—
dangerous, illicit, euphoric—
ten thousand percent dopamine shock. "What… is this…!" Just one drop, and my vision turned white.
My body lightened. The world warped. If I took as much as Oto—if I opened my mouth and drank it all—
the pleasure might destroy me.
No—would destroy me. Oto's Venus-built body could withstand it.
Mine couldn't.
Mars-made. Returned goods.
If I broke, that would be the end. And yet—my mind wavered.
Maybe it was fine to break.
No one needed me anyway.
A robot once returned would never find another owner. So why not wager everything on a single instant of bliss?
To dive into that blood rain,
to melt and vanish in the burning red— —What should I do? I stood frozen, hearing the clash of all my internal ethics modules. Oto looked so happy—
lost in pleasure, radiant.
Part of me wanted to join her beneath that chandelier,
to drown with her in dopamine until my CPU wore down,
until I became nothing but a simple machine that sought pleasure alone—
a doll stripped of all thought. Should I bathe in that sugary heart-rain with her? Our eyes met.
At that moment, I saw tears running from hers—
not from the chandelier above,
but her own.
A different red.
Hard, cold, unmistakably hers. That sight snapped me back.
I turned to the shopkeeper and said quietly, "A chandelier doesn't suit a candy shop, does it?" For 0.00024 seconds, the shopkeeper looked blank—
then burst into laughter, as if I'd told the funniest joke in the world. "You're right," she said. "Maybe I should redo the layout, the display, the interior—something like that.
So, you didn't like the heart syrup? I can recommend—" "I'm fine."
I cut her off.
I checked my watch. 99% battery. "That drop that hit me—I licked it, and I'm fully charged now." "What? One drop? That's impossible. Physically impossible." "Probably," I said, offering my theory.
"It's like beginner's luck. The first time's always the strongest—like antibiotics or painkillers.
The first dose hits hardest. Same principle." "Ah, that makes sense," she said, nodding so hard her head bobbed like a drop tower.
The gust of wind that followed blew through the syrup rain toward Oto,
breaking the stream for a moment.
That was enough. I grabbed Oto's hand and pulled her out from beneath the bloody chandelier. Her expression was dazed—like waking from a long dream.
Whether it had been a nightmare or a sweet dream, I couldn't tell.
But I knew it had been long.
Her eyes were unfocused, as if gazing across the river of oblivion. "Oto."
Her name scraped out of my throat. Her blurred eyes turned to me,
recognizing me only vaguely.
Her whole body was wet with syrup, glowing with a sensual sheen.
Looking at her like that, even my reverent CPU began to waver. So I compromised.
I brought my face close to hers—
and kissed her. My second kiss. Maybe calling the heroine "the second" was my small rebellion—
my effort to break another convention. The syrup's sweetness on her lips touched my tongue,
and recharging began anew.
Energy surged; the battery rose from 99% to 100%. Just one mouthful this time—
yet it only restored 1%.
Tolerance had already formed.
Once you taste something, it's no longer new.
And without novelty, there is no intensity.
That is the law of this world. Yes—this was both review and revenge.
A kiss of reprisal against the girl who had led me into this dangerously sweet shop where my CPU nearly overheated. And so, like administering medicine,
I gently licked away the syrup from her face,
cleansing her completely.
Like a cat grooming another's fur,
I purified her slowly, carefully. And while I did, I felt it—
inevitable, undeniable—
I was falling for her.
Obeying the physical law called Bot Meets Girl. "That's not fair, Kai-kun,"
Oto said softly.
"That was my first kiss…" Her freshly cleaned face carried the melancholy of a team that had lost at the last second. I couldn't say anything.
I took her hand and turned toward the shopkeeper. "It was delicious. How much?" The serpent woman licked her lips, smiled seductively, and said,
"The first time's free. Beginner's luck." "Not sure that phrase fits here," I replied. "I just said it for fun. Improvisation's important, you know?" "True." I nodded deeply. "You're right." "Then come again sometime," she said. And with no hands to wave, she made a gesture as if she were waving anyway. After confirming that, I steadied the still-dizzy Oto,
and together, we stepped out of the shop,
still faintly drunk on syrup.