The next day, everyone at the Gourmet Edifice woke up at the very same moment, recalled their idiotic behavior after eating the fruit yesterday, and one after another sank into self-imposed isolation.
Jhin especially—the instant he woke with Kokkoro in his arms, yesterday's dark history came battering at his brain like a raging storm, making him want to stuff a fireball into his own head and wipe out every last bit of that memory.
He covered Kokkoro's eyes and whispered beside her ear, "Let me stay alone in the bedroom for a day."
"M-master... I... yesterday I..."
"There was something wrong with the Bubble Frog fruit—yesterday none of us were quite right. Go on out first and let me be by myself for a bit."
Having said this, Jhin used his substitute to send her outside, then shut the bedroom door tight. With only himself left in the room, he immediately started rolling and spinning all over the bed like a caterpillar, mouth gaping wide in a silent scream.
Just look at what he did yesterday—openly, brazenly laying bare his own XP system right in front of the girls!
It was like forgetting to silence your phone during class at school, only for it to ring out with that alert tone: "Big brother, you've got a text~ Honestly, don't keep making me remind you about little things like this... I-it's not like I care about you or anything, y-you idiot!"
The eyes of the entire classroom snap to align on you, the friend beside you struggling to hold it together just like the Strongman King, fighting back laughter—in an instant the temperature on your face boils over, the hot steam bursting through the crown of your skull with a shrill, piercing screech.
Wishing you could blast the Earth apart with a single punch, or flee the galaxy under cover of night—that's probably the truest portrait of his state of mind right now.
"Just be destroyed... world..." Jhin stared at the ceiling with vacant, lifeless eyes, no more joy or sorrow left in his heart.
While he was off in his room savoring his agony, the four girls had gathered in the living room. The atmosphere among them, by contrast, wasn't all that awkward—after all, after eating the Bubble Frog fruit, the one who'd died of social embarrassment the most was Jhin.
"K-Kokkoro, is that really what Jhin said?"
"Mm..."
"That guy... he wouldn't go and do something stupid, would he?"
"He probably... wouldn't, right?"
Everyone turned their eyes in unison toward that bedroom door radiating an aura of gloom, and then their gazes converged together once again.
Pecorine suggested, "How about... we still send someone in to talk him round?"
"For something like this, Kokkoro is of course the most suitable."
"B-but Master told me not to disturb him..."
"That's blind loyalty!" Megumin urged her with bitter earnestness. "Don't tell me that if Jhin said he wanted to become a useless layabout and told you to leave him be, you'd actually go along with it?"
"Of course not!"
"Right, see..."
Before she could even finish, Kokkoro slammed the table and shot to her feet: "After Master becomes a useless layabout, it absolutely has to be me who takes care of him—how could I possibly just leave him alone?!"
Megumin clapped a hand over her face, struck speechless. She'd forgotten that this elf before her doted on Jhin to an extreme degree—even if Jhin turned into a gluttonous, lazy good-for-nothing castoff of society, she'd care for him without the slightest hesitation, and might even take joy in it.
From the bottom of her heart, she felt genuinely grateful that Jhin wasn't that kind of layabout.
Seeing Megumin's persuasion fail, Pecorine took over from her: "Jhin's not going to turn into a layabout. We're just worried that if he shuts himself in his room like this, what'll happen if he won't even eat?"
When all's said and done, what you care about most really is food, isn't it, you glutton.
Kyaru propped her cheek on her right hand and didn't join in the persuading. Putting herself in his shoes—if she were Jhin, she definitely wouldn't want to see the others during a stretch of time like this either.
She gave a light flick of her tail, which for some reason had turned glossy and sleek, keeping to her attitude of neither approving nor objecting.
Kokkoro knit her brows; clearly she was somewhat shaken: "This... really is a problem. What if he hurts his stomach by not eating?"
"So that's why you have to go into the room and talk him round properly."
"But..."
Seeing her hesitate and waver, Megumin, on an impulse, blurted out words she would come to regret immeasurably: "Since you don't want to go, then I'll go. Let me say this in advance—I won't be anywhere near as gentle with him as you are!"
"R-really, you can?"
"Eh? You're actually going to make me go?"
Kokkoro nodded: "Even a lion will push its own cubs off a cliff to train them. To get Master to pull himself back together, we have to use strong medicine—and in that regard, you're definitely better suited than me."
Megumin felt as though her superior had patted her on the shoulder and said, "You—go take out the max-level Demon Lord." Knowing full well she couldn't win, she had no choice but to grit her teeth and go for it.
"F-fine, I'll go, I'll go."
With hesitant, uneasy steps she came up to the bedroom and lightly rapped on the door with her hand: "J-Jhin, it's me. Can I come in?"
"Didn't I say to let me be alone for a while?"
"E-everyone's really worried about you!"
"I'm worried that the moment I go out, I'll explode."
Hearing this, Megumin got anxious—she could not allow any unauthorized explosion to occur on her turf. She gripped the doorknob, gave it a gentle turn, and just like that pushed the door open and walked in.
"Explosion? The audacity! What explosion dares to show up willy-nilly without my permission?!"
Jhin shot her a glance, then withdrew his gaze: "Sorry to trouble you, but please shut the door for me. Thanks."
"Huh? Oh, oh, you're welcome." Megumin blankly closed the door, then snapped out of it, wondering why she was so obediently doing as he said. She walked over to the bedside and planted both hands on her hips: "Just how long do you plan on keeping up this dried-fish state?"
"A mage who turns into a dried fish the moment she's done casting her Explosion magic has no right to talk about me."
"That's me contributing to the team! Whereas you haven't done anything at all, have you?"
Jhin rolled over where he lay, turning his back to her and waving a hand: "Anyway, could you get out... I'm in no mood to make idle chitchat with you right now."
"Thump!"
A dainty, tender little foot wrapped in black tights stepped onto his pillow. With her right hand resting on her knee, Megumin looked down at him with a condescending gaze: "You just like touching girls' feet, don't you? Here, touch them. And once you're done touching, hurry up and get up for me!"
"No way!"
Seeing Jhin so ungratefully turn his body away, a vein bulged on Megumin's forehead. She grabbed his hand and yanked it toward her leg.
"Hey, hey, hey, what do you think you're doing?!"
"Making you touch my leg, obviously. Once you've touched it, you won't have any excuse left to keep up this pathetic state, will you?"
"How is this 'pathetic' in any way? Everyone has times when they don't want to face tomorrow!"
"Cut the nonsense! Hurry up... and touch... my leg!"
"I! Will! Not!"
Megumin tugged Jhin's hand toward her leg with all her might, while he pulled his hand back as hard as he could. The two of them launched into a tug-of-war just like that, his palm and her black-stockinged thigh staying forever at a barely-touching, never-quite-touching distance.
"You... why are you being so stubborn at a time like this?"
"Aren't you the same? Why are you so dead set on making me touch your leg—can't you try some other method?"
"Isn't it precisely because you like my legs? A couple of touches won't make you lose a chunk of flesh. Just consider it a special service for you, you pervert—now hurry up and turn back into the way you were before!"
"Are you saying... you... like me?"
"Eh?"
____
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🔥 New history: Path of Elation in Warhammer 40K
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