"Let Me See!" "Big Sis Kiana, No!" / Renting a Place

"Oh, then let's just go straight to a hotel."

"...Oh." Ishiu felt that sounded a little weird. Come to think of it, if the police caught them, would Kiana taking a minor to get a room count as lusting after minors?

After walking for a while, the two found a hotel that was neither luxurious nor shabby—just an ordinary place.

Using her ID, Kiana easily booked two single rooms. Taking their keys, they entered their respective rooms.

"You really get what you pay for." Looking at the neat, comfortable room, Ishiu could not help thinking of that fleabag motel from yesterday. The difference was like night and day.

Sitting on the bed, Ishiu boredly took out his phone, intending to see whether Miss Mei had sent him any messages.

However, Raiden Mei had not messaged him. After thinking about it, he felt he could not just let the girl always be the one to start conversations, so he sent her a text asking, "Did you get home?"

Then he absentmindedly started looking through the phone.

Ishiu was not addicted to phones. To him, a phone was for calling and texting, with photos being the most extra function he used. In his previous life, people had even mocked him for being an ancient relic.

Ishiu did not think phones were particularly fun. Besides, Raiden Mei's phone was an older model. Though it had been well maintained, its response time was indeed somewhat slow, and it had relatively few functions.

As Ishiu casually browsed through it, he inadvertently opened the photo album.

"Holy shit?"

In the next second, Ishiu's eyes widened instantly.

There was only one reason: there were photos of Raiden Mei in the album.

He did not know whether Raiden Mei had forgotten to delete them, but Ishiu really did see them. Miss Mei looked exceptionally beautiful in the photos. She wore a white dress and a sunhat, and the background looked like she was traveling. Her smile was especially happy.

"Let Me Have a Look!" "Kiana, No!"

No peeking, no peeking!

Ishiu awkwardly withdrew his gaze, then stood up, preparing to place the underwear on the bathroom sink. He guessed Kiana had accidentally left it behind, and there was no way he could bring it to her and return it directly. That would be way too awkward.

So he might as well leave it here for now. Once she realized it was missing, she would naturally come get it.

However, before he could do anything, the room door was slammed open with a bang. Immediately afterward, a big white fluffy ball charged in from outside.

Kiana spotted the white strip of cloth in Ishiu's hand almost at once. Her face instantly turned red as a monkey's butt.

"Kiana, you..."

"Shut up!"

Biting her lower lip, Kiana rushed up to Ishiu in embarrassment and anger, then snatched the underwear from his hand.

"You little pervert, what were you planning to do with my underwear?! D-Don't tell me you wanted to do that kind of thing?"

To be fair, Kiana was actually quite knowledgeable. Though she usually acted carefree, she knew that some teenage boys liked using girls' clothes for certain indescribable things.

"What are you thinking?" Three black lines appeared on Ishiu's forehead. "I found it in the bathroom and was about to leave it on the sink for you to pick up. Then you suddenly rushed in. Besides, you... Uh..."

Ishiu trailed off halfway through his sentence. Kiana had gotten too worked up, and her movements earlier had been too large. The bath towel wrapped around her had now come loose.

Well, this was...

That had to be the size of four Bronyas put together.

"Mm!"

Kiana also noticed the problem with her clothing. Unlike other girls, she did not let out an earth-shattering scream. Instead, she hurriedly wrapped the towel properly again, then fiercely glared at Ishiu. "Little pervert! Have you seen enough?"

"No," Ishiu answered honestly.

To be fair, he could watch a scene like that for the rest of his life and still not get enough. He believed that was the thought in every man's heart at this moment.

"Damn it! I'll let you look!" Kiana immediately flew into a rage and reached out to fiercely pinch Ishiu's cheeks. "Have you seen enough now?!"

"Enough, enough." Ishiu did not resist. Whether he had meant to or not, he had indeed taken advantage of the situation. Since he had gotten a benefit, suffering a little grievance was only fair.

But the more Kiana thought about it, the angrier she became. In all her life, when had she ever suffered such a huge loss? Even her stupid dad had never seen her body, yet this brat had seen it today.

No, she could not suffer this loss for nothing!

"Take off your clothes!" Kiana suddenly shouted.

"Huh?" Ishiu froze. What did that mean?

"Didn't you hear me? I said take off your clothes!" Kiana's face flushed red, but a strange gleam flashed through her eyes. "You saw me just now, so I'm going to look at you too. That's the only fair way."

"Huh?" Ishiu looked utterly bewildered. What kind of logic was that? What girl said something like that?

"What do you mean, 'huh'? Hurry up and take them off! If you won't, I'll do it myself." Kiana threatened.

"Are you an idiot?! Why would I take them off?!" Ishiu finally could not endure it anymore. Breaking free from Kiana's claws, he hurriedly backed several steps away from this suspected pervert.

"Be good and listen. Let me have a look!" Kiana rubbed her fists together, looking eager to make a move. "You saw my body, so I definitely can't be the only one losing out. This is the principle of equivalent exchange."

"Equivalent exchange, my ass! I think water got into your brain!" There was no way Ishiu would take off his clothes. What a joke. He was not some host; if he stripped whenever she told him to, would he not lose all his dignity?

"Hmph! Since you refuse, don't blame me for getting rough." As soon as Kiana finished speaking, she pounced at Ishiu. She looked exactly like a big bad wolf ready to devour a little white rabbit.

"Kiana, no!"

Ishiu felt a headache coming on. He had gained an even deeper understanding of Kiana—there was definitely something wrong with this girl's head!

After playing cat and mouse with Kiana for more than ten minutes, she finally gave up on the idea of stripping Ishiu's clothes off.

There was no helping it. Ishiu was simply too nimble. Even after using every trick she had, she could not even catch a single hair of his.

Though they were in a cramped room of only a dozen square meters, once Ishiu used Flash Step, even someone as strong as Kiana could do absolutely nothing to him.

"Damn it! I'll remember this, Ishiu. Just you wait!"

In the end, Kiana could only leave behind that furious threat before storming back to her own room.

Ishiu's mouth twitched. He suddenly felt that getting along with Kiana in the future would be quite difficult.

After that little incident, Ishiu followed his usual routine and cultivated Mana for two hours before turning off the lights and going to sleep.

Nothing happened that night. When he saw Kiana again the next morning, her expression was still sour. She even deliberately refused to speak to Ishiu, wanting to make him mad.

But Ishiu did not react at all. In the end, she was the one who lost patience first and started talking.

A dumb bug was still a dumb bug. (Smirk)

"Ishiu, do you think we should rent a place to live?" Kiana suddenly asked on the way to work at McDonald's.

"Why did you suddenly get that idea again?" After spending some time with Kiana, Ishiu had come to understand some of her personality. She could be talking about one thing one second, then suddenly bring up something entirely unrelated the next. He had already gotten somewhat used to it.

"Because staying in hotels is too expensive." Kiana sighed helplessly. "The money I made working yesterday—just staying at the hotel used up a quarter of it. And I still need to eat. I can't save any money at all like this."

"That makes sense." Ishiu thought about it and agreed. He could not keep staying in hotels forever, could he? That would be far too wasteful.

"Right, right?" Seeing Ishiu agree with her suggestion, Kiana happily said, "I've thought it through. The two of us can rent a place together, then split the rent. It'll be good for both of us. What do you think?"

Renting a Place

"Renting together... Sure." Ishiu nodded. He had no issue with sharing a rental. After all, sharing a rental was not the same as living together. In his previous life, he had often shared places with others, both men and women, so he was long used to it.

"Then should we set some ground rules?"

"What ground rules?" Kiana looked puzzled.

"It means the people sharing the rental make some rules that everyone has to follow. That way, we can make sure we don't interfere with each other while living together." Ishiu explained skillfully.

After all, he had signed plenty of those agreements in his previous life.

The most outrageous time was when he shared a place with four girls. The so-called three ground rules had nearly turned into thirty.

"Mm... That sounds really troublesome. Can we not do that?" Kiana asked awkwardly. She had always been the carefree, unconstrained type, and those ground rules sounded complicated just from the name.

"Whatever. If you don't want to, then we won't." Ishiu did not care either way. It was not like he would be the one at a disadvantage.

"Okay, then after we finish work later, let's go find a place." Kiana said excitedly.

"Sure."

Neither of them was the type to drag things out. Once they decided to do something, they would definitely get it done.

After finishing work, they began looking for a place to rent nearby.

Fortunately, they had already wandered around this area yesterday, so they were not completely clueless.

Very soon, Ishiu and Kiana found a rental listing in an old residential building.

The landlord was a married woman in her thirties. She looked average, but she had a very curvy figure.

When Ishiu and Kiana found her and said they wanted to rent a place, the married woman readily took them to see it.

The apartment was on the third floor of the residential building. It had one bedroom and one living room, a standard layout. It was not very large, mainly because Ishiu and Kiana did not have money to rent a bigger place.

Some furniture was already provided, so they could move in with just their bags. The place was also quite clean, leaving Ishiu and Kiana both very satisfied.

But there was one problem: their money... was not enough to pay the rental deposit.

That was awkward. After all, he and Kiana had only worked for two days in total. They really did not have enough money for the deposit.

Even though Ishiu shamelessly called the married woman "big sister" several times, making her delighted enough to give them a twenty percent discount, they still did not have enough.

"Oh no, we don't have enough money. What do we do now?" While the married woman was not paying attention, Kiana pulled Ishiu aside and whispered.

Ishiu rolled his eyes and said irritably, "What do we do? Make do! You're asking me, but what can I do? It's not like I can conjure money out of thin air."

"Ishiu, I think that landlady seems pretty fond of you. How about..." After pondering for a while, Kiana suddenly pressed a hand on Ishiu's shoulder and looked at him seriously.

"Fuck off! I'm not selling my body!" Ishiu's face darkened. If the married woman had not still been nearby, he really would have wanted to smash Kiana's head in.

This girl actually wanted him to sell his looks so that the married woman would reduce their rental deposit.

You made it sound so easy. Why did she not go sell herself? That would make money even faster!

"Then what should we do? We can't just stay in hotels again, can we? That would cost so much." Kiana said, pained at the thought.

"Then... let me think of something." Ishiu scratched his head and carefully considered ways to make money quickly. In the end, he realized that all he needed to do was search online for criminal law regulations, and he could find plenty of ways to make money fast.

Of course, he would never do anything illegal. He was a principled, peace-loving model young man.

After thinking it over and over, Ishiu could only come up with one solution in the end—borrow money.

As for who to borrow from... did that even need asking?

Besides Kiana, the only person he knew here was Raiden Mei.

Though it was rather awkward to borrow money from someone he had known for less than two days, Ishiu had no other choice. Besides, he felt Raiden Mei was not the sort to fuss over such minor details, and it was not as though he did not intend to pay her back.

So Ishiu asked the landlady to hold the apartment for them while they went back to get money, then pulled Kiana away from the residential building.

"Ishiu, how are you planning to get money?"

"Borrow it." As Ishiu answered, he sent Raiden Mei a text asking whether she was free. She might be in class at this time, so calling would not be convenient.

"Borrow money? You have friends you can borrow from?" Kiana asked in surprise.

"I don't know whether I can borrow it. She's just someone I've known for two days." Ishiu answered frankly. "If I can't borrow it, then we'll have to think of another way to get money."

"What way?"

"You're in good shape, right?" Ishiu asked, looking at Kiana instead of answering her question.

"Of course. I'm super healthy." Kiana proudly patted her chest.

"Very good. If we can't borrow the money later, we'll go perform on the street. You know that act where someone breaks a huge rock on their chest? I believe you can do it." Ishiu patted Kiana on the shoulder and spoke with complete seriousness.

"I'll break your big fat head!"

While they were bickering, Raiden Mei replied to his message, saying that she was free now. Ishiu then sent another message asking whether he could come see her, because he had something he wanted to ask her help with.

Raiden Mei replied quickly this time. She said he could, and even included a smiling emoticon.

Ishiu did not know whether it was just his imagination, but he felt that Raiden Mei seemed rather happy that he had come to ask her for help.

So Ishiu brought Kiana with him, and the two took the Number 11 bus, spending half an hour running all the way to Senba Academy.

Raiden Mei was standing at the school gate at that moment, seemingly having waited for quite a while.

"Mei!" Ishiu called out and hurriedly ran over.

"Ishiu, you're here." Hearing his voice, Raiden Mei turned around. Seeing Ishiu run up to her, a smile could not help appearing on her face.