That Went Too Far

"Hey! What are you doing?"

A petulant girl's voice rang out. Yuehua Ai looked up and saw a girl about his age glaring at him from the ground.

"Uh... Sorry!"

Yuehua Ai scratched the back of his head awkwardly. His mind had been wandering as he walked along the street, and he really hadn't expected to bump into anyone. He reached out to help the girl up.

"Smack!"

The girl slapped his hand away without a second thought. She pushed herself up, brushed the dust off her clothes, then turned on Yuehua Ai and let loose.

"Do you even have eyes? I was just standing here, and you came right into me! Did you do it on purpose? Don't think you can bully me just because I'm a girl!"

"Wait, wait, wait!"

Yuehua Ai called out hastily, making a stop gesture at the same time.

"Hmph!" The little girl stopped her relentless stream of words, but continued glaring straight at him.

Yuehua Ai's eye twitched. Once she finally lowered the finger she'd been pointing at his nose, he wiped at the nonexistent spittle on his face and let out a sigh of relief. Honestly, even though this was his fault, her endless nagging was getting on his nerves.

At least the one standing before him was a pretty little girl. If she'd been some other brat, Yuehua Ai wouldn't have cared whether he was in the wrong. If anyone acted up like that in front of him, he'd have taught him a lesson with his fist!

"Fine, this was my fault. I apologize. I repent. I wasn't watching where I was going. But, since we're on the subject, didn't you see me coming? What were you doing here, anyway?"

The girl looked pleased when Yuehua Ai backed down during the first half of what he said. But when he asked about the second half, she looked a little flustered.

"Y-You don't need to know!" Her face reddened as she huffed.

How strange.

Yuehua Ai muttered to himself. The girl was cute, but he didn't like how unreasonable and persistent she was. Just as he was about to say goodbye and leave, he spotted the sign above the shop beside them: "Sticky Rice Dumpling Shop."

"A dumpling shop?!"

Recalling the moment he'd bumped into the girl, Yuehua Ai suddenly understood. As he'd walked along the street with his mind elsewhere, the girl had been staring at the dumpling shop window. One of them had been lost in thought, the other daydreaming, both right by the roadside. It was no wonder they'd collided.

When the other boy suddenly stopped paying attention to her, the girl pouted in hurt. Just as she was about to leave, she noticed the very handsome boy staring at the shop sign with an expression of sudden realization.

"Whoosh—" The girl's face flushed scarlet. Clearly, she'd remembered how she'd been spacing out.

"Hey!"

"W-What?"

"Were you thinking of buying some sticky rice dumplings?"

"...Hmph. No, I wasn't..."

Thinking of her empty pockets, the girl forced those words out through gritted teeth.

"Oh!"

Yuehua Ai replied casually. Seeing how embarrassed she was, he looked at her like she was a weakling.

"Hey, what's with that look? You're so full of yourself! Didn't your parents teach you how to apologize? You're an ill-mannered brat!"

Yuehua Ai's look made the girl feel deeply insulted, and she instantly bristled.

Parents...

Yuehua Ai frowned inwardly at her retort. There hadn't been anything especially malicious in what she'd said, but mentioning his parents still made him uncomfortable.

That foul temper of hers, always bringing up people's families, didn't suit her sweet, delicate appearance at all!

As he grumbled to himself and recalled the girl's earlier behavior, the beginnings of a prank took shape in his mind.

Kids were cutest when they behaved. A mischievous little thing like you needed to be taught a lesson. Today, I'll give you an unforgettable lesson in moral education!

Yuehua Ai walked up to the dumpling shop window and tapped on the glass to get the shopkeeper's attention. Then he casually pointed at several items inside.

"Four skewers of sticky rice dumplings, please. And four pieces of red bean cake, too. That looks good as well—give me some of that..."

Watching Yuehua Ai point things out so casually, as if he had money to burn, the girl stood behind him, envious. As she watched her favorite sticky rice dumplings and red bean paste being packed into a woven bag, she swallowed hard, unable to help herself.

"Here, hold this!" Yuehua Ai tossed the entire bag to the girl, though he said the final word so softly it sounded more like a filler.

"Ah... For me? All this?"

The girl's mouth fell open in surprise, but Yuehua Ai turned away without answering her.

"He's actually pretty sincere. Maybe he's not so bad after all," the girl muttered. Looking at the bag in her hands, she curved her eyes into crescent moons.

Unable to resist her craving, the girl cautiously took a skewer of sticky rice dumplings from the bag and opened her mouth to bite one.

A soft, involuntary hum escaped her throat. The girl looked blissful, like a cat being stroked by its owner.

"Hey... what are you doing?"

Yuehua Ai turned around with an exaggerated look of surprise. The girl's body instantly stiffened.

"Th-This... It's not... You..."

"What's with all the 'this' and 'you'? I only asked you to hold my things while I checked whether the shopkeeper had given me the right change. I didn't expect you to start counting my money for me... Heh."

"I-I wasn't... I thought you were giving them to me... I asked you just now..."

The girl trembled slightly. Her heart ached, and she bit her lip before finally managing to stammer out a reply. The dumpling she hadn't swallowed felt like a burning coal scorching her mouth.

"You thought? Heh."

Yuehua Ai snatched the bag back from the girl, then pulled the skewer she'd bitten into from her hand.

"Here."

The girl stood there, stunned. Yuehua Ai took her hand and opened her palm, then pulled a banknote from his pocket and slapped it into her hand.

"That's your pay for carrying my things. Now you can buy your own food instead of eating mine!"

As soon as Yuehua Ai finished speaking, the girl trembled violently.

Big, round tears fell like glass beads, blurring the girl's face in an instant.

"I didn't do it on purpose! I don't want your money!"

The girl threw the banknote away, tears streaming down her face as she stubbornly met Yuehua Ai's gaze.

"..."

"..."

They stared at each other in silence. The hurt and indignation in the girl's eyes cut too deep. No matter how indifferent Yuehua Ai tried to make his gaze, he was in the wrong, and already at a disadvantage. He quickly lost.

"Hey, don't cry! I was just joking..."

Looking at the girl's hurt, stubborn, innocent eyes, Yuehua Ai felt a sudden tightness in his chest. All thoughts of playing a prank disappeared. He really had taken the joke too far. He'd only wanted to tease her because she'd seemed so spoiled and willful!

Cursing himself inwardly, he thought about how he'd been petty enough to argue with a little girl over such a trivial matter, then gone and played such a cruel trick on her. In an instant, Yuehua Ai felt like the lowest kind of beast.

"Don't cry. It's all my fault. I shouldn't have messed with you..."

When the girl heard Yuehua Ai apologize, her defiance and stubbornness vanished. All the hurt surged back, and her tears poured out even harder.

"Jerk! You're a bad person!"

The girl yelled at Yuehua Ai, angrily wiped her tears, and turned to run.

Yuehua Ai was consumed by guilt. When he saw the girl turn to leave, he grabbed her arm.

"Let go of me, you bad person!" The girl struggled, but his hand felt like a shackle clamped around her wrist.

"You..." The girl's tears stopped. The hurt in her eyes gave way to a blazing fury.

"Go to hell!"

The girl turned and kicked hard at Yuehua Ai.

"Ah!"

The girl cried out in surprise. Yuehua Ai raised a knee to block her kick, then twisted and pulled with one hand while hooking his leg behind her knee.

With her back against Yuehua Ai, the girl found him easily pinning her arms with one arm wrapped around her from the front. He blocked the backs of her knees with his legs, leaving her unable to push backward.

"What do you want from me?"

The girl struggled in vain, tears welling up in her eyes again.

"I'm sorry. You were so cute that I couldn't help wanting to joke around with you. Anyone would want to get to know a pretty girl like you. I thought I could use a joke as an excuse to introduce myself, but I got carried away and forgot to think about how you'd feel..."

Once the girl had calmed down, Yuehua Ai explained softly into her ear. Whether it was a girl or a woman, the best way to cheer her up and distract her was always to praise her and tell her how lovely she was.

If she'd been a little older, he should have said he liked her, that he loved her. Women were just like that. Even if they didn't return your feelings, they could be more forgiving toward someone who liked them.

"..."

Hearing him call her cute and say he wanted to get to know her, the girl grew terribly bashful. Her face began to warm again...

"Y-You have to let go of me first... I-I won't run away..."

The girl lowered her head and pleaded.

"Mm!"

Seeing that the girl had calmed down, Yuehua Ai replied and released her. Sure enough, she didn't try to run. She just stood there, shyly lowering her head and fiddling with her fingers. Yuehua Ai couldn't help grumbling inwardly:

That was what I got for forcing myself to say something so sickening...

"By the way, what's your name?" Yuehua Ai asked the girl in front of him with a smile, determined to see his act through.

"Shouldn't you give your own name before asking someone else's?"

The girl sounded a little indignant. She still held a grudge over Yuehua Ai's earlier misbehavior!

"All right, all right. My name's Yuehua Ai. You can call me Ai, Ai-kun, Ai-chan, or whatever you like."

"Ai?!"

Oh my gosh, those names were so intimate! We don't even know each other, and he's already telling me to call him that. What a shameless...

Yuehua Ai had no idea that his deliberate attempt to act familiar had earned him a reputation as a shameless flirt. To be honest, because of the difference between his mind and body, he really didn't know how to deal with little kids. When he'd first met Yahiko and the others, he'd barely talked to them. It was only after he met Jiraiya that they'd found common ground in training and started talking more.

"Now you can tell me your name!"

"...Mm."

"My name's Anko. Mitarashi... Anko..."

The girl bit her lip and answered coyly in a voice as faint as a mosquito's.