Sister Skadi, I Have a Girlfriend Chapter 8

Mizuki's "Flexibility"

After dinner, Mizuki naturally couldn't sleep together with Exusiai and the others. Fortunately, the base had spare rooms for him to use, and tidying one up didn't take much effort. There just wasn't enough time for any extra decoration.

"Let's leave it at that for today. Just make the bed, and tomorrow we'll buy a wardrobe, desk, and stuff. Oh, right—Mizuki, you have Originium Arts, don't you?"

Sitting on Mizuki's bed, Exusiai recalled what had happened that morning and found it incredible. She had seen plenty of strange Originium Arts before, even powers like Mostima's that could affect time itself.

But Mizuki's ability could affect other people's thoughts and even alter their common sense. Honestly, that was a little scary.

"I don't think that counts as Originium Arts."

The room was simply furnished with only a bed and a set of bedding. Mizuki naturally sat beside Exusiai, in an adorably duck-like sitting position.

"True. Anyone except the Infected needs an Arts Unit to use Originium Arts."

"But I don't have anything like that."

Mizuki filled in his name on the self-criticism letter for driving without a license while thinking. Even he didn't know how to use his ability. For now, he could only confirm that he needed to focus intently and immerse himself in something.

"Maybe it has something to do with your background. Are you done writing?"

Exusiai shifted over and took a glance. Mizuki hadn't used the self-criticism letter she had written beforehand. Instead, he copied it out himself, because their handwriting was rather different.

Exusiai's handwriting was bold and uninhibited yet still neat. Mizuki's, on the other hand, was airy and casual with a soothingly elegant touch. The difference was obvious at a glance.

"Yeah, I'm done. I'll hand it to Miss Chen the day after tomorrow."

Tomorrow, he still had to buy daily necessities. At the very least, he needed a few spare sets of clothes. Mizuki also needed to have a weapon custom-made. He felt an umbrella would suit him best, but an umbrella also seemed too fragile.

"That's good. Say, Mizuki, doesn't sitting like that get tiring? I heard that duck sitting is pretty hard on the body."

"It's fine. I'm very flexible."

As if to prove it to Exusiai, Mizuki stood up and leaned backward, bracing both hands on the floor. He completed a backbend in one smooth motion, and it looked effortless.

But Exusiai's attention wasn't on Mizuki's flexibility. She stared at his lower abdomen, wondering how it could hold so much food. It wasn't scientific at all. Mizuki had eaten almost more than his entire body weight. Could boys' stomachs be bottomless pits too?

But the longer she looked, the more she noticed. Mizuki was only wearing a black silk tank top underneath, the sleeveless, shoulder-baring kind. And it wasn't particularly thick, either.

Combined with that position, it allowed Exusiai to see Mizuki's exposed lower abdomen. She even instinctively felt that his name was truly fitting.

Mizuki really did seem as though he had been made of water. His skin was so smooth and tender that even Sora, an idol, would be insanely jealous. It was pale and soft too. Exusiai always felt that no normal person could possibly have skin like that. It would be a waste of Mizuki's looks if he didn't become a celebrity.

And after staring for too long, Exusiai instinctively wanted to taste what he was like.

"Haa..."

Mizuki effortlessly straightened up, then looked at Exusiai, who seemed to be spacing out. He waved a hand in front of her eyes. He had no idea what delicious thing she was thinking about, but she was actually drooling.

"Ale, come back to your senses."

"Ah!"

Exusiai instantly realized what strange thoughts had been running through her head and hurriedly wiped away her saliva.

"Sorry, I got distracted. But Mizuki, your flexibility really is amazing!"

She gave Mizuki a thumbs-up and used a smile to cover her embarrassment. She had been bold enough to physically blow up a school as a child, so she still had some nerve.

"Oh, right, you should go take a bath. I'm heading back to rest first. I'll leave tomorrow's breakfast to you."

While laughing awkwardly, Exusiai couldn't help scolding herself internally for being attracted by looks. She had also moved the barbecue gathering they had mentioned that afternoon to tomorrow. Otherwise, everyone probably wouldn't be resting yet.

However, distracted as she was, Exusiai overlooked one problem. She forgot to watch where she was going.

"Eek!!"

Her foot stepped into empty air, and Exusiai felt the hard floor rushing toward her. But just as her nose was about to collide with it, her fall abruptly stopped.

"That was close."

Mizuki grabbed Exusiai's hand and pulled her up. Exusiai lost her balance and fell directly into his lap. Her legs were still weak. The accident had come so suddenly that she had nearly thought her nose bridge was doomed. If she ruined her pretty face over that, it would truly not have been worth it.

"Be careful."

"Oh... yeah."

They were a little too close. Exusiai patted her chest and took several deep breaths before calming down. Damn it, that was unbelievably embarrassing. But she hadn't noticed during the day. Now that she was sitting on Mizuki's lap, Exusiai realized that he had a very distinct fragrance. It smelled like lotus flowers—light, yet impossible to ignore once noticed.

"I-I should get going first. Remember to rest early."

This time, Exusiai remembered to watch where she was going. As he watched her leave in a fluster, Mizuki simply found it amusing. Exusiai looked extraordinarily cute when she was nervous.

Hurrying out of Mizuki's room, Exusiai returned directly to the four-person bedroom from before. It had originally been a double room like Mizuki's, but the girls had found that troublesome and simply torn down the wall between them, turning it into a four-person dormitory. It was much more comfortable to sleep in that way.

However, when Exusiai burst in, Texas, Croissant, and Sora, who had just changed into their pajamas, all looked utterly confused.

After half a minute of silence, Croissant spoke with some uncertainty.

"You two... finished that quickly?"

"How long did you think it would take? An hour?"

Exusiai was baffled. They had only been tidying up a room. Besides, Mizuki's room only had one bed right now, so it had taken just a few minutes. The remaining twenty-odd minutes had been spent with Mizuki copying his self-criticism letter while discussing how to arrange the room with her.

"Don't say that, Croissant. I heard twenty-eight minutes isn't short."

Sora nudged Croissant's waist with her elbow, signaling that she had exposed her ignorance. Mizuki was Aegir and Exusiai was Sankta, not famously vigorous Cautus or Phidia.

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing. We just didn't expect you to come back to sleep tonight. Mizuki's room has a double bed, right?"

As Texas spoke, even her pointed ears couldn't help twitching a few times. She was clearly surprised too.

Exusiai might have been straightforward, but she wasn't some hot-blooded idiot. She immediately understood what the three of them were thinking and grabbed a pillow beside her, tossing it at them.

"You've gone too far!"

Mizuki's Girlfriend

As an Aegir, Mizuki had a natural affinity for the sea and lakes. But Lungmen was inland, within Ursus territory. There was no possibility of an ocean here.

That was why he felt especially relaxed while bathing like this. Soaking in the bathtub felt like returning to some gentle harbor, with all his exhaustion melting away into the water.

"Glub glub..."

Soaking beneath the water, Mizuki blew out several cute bubbles, then closed his eyes and let his consciousness sink along with his body.

The cold engulfed his entire body, but Mizuki didn't panic. Every Aegir had an instinctive fondness for the sea—or rather, for water. He was no exception.

The cramped bathtub was nowhere near enough for him to stretch out, but Mizuki vaguely grasped something. By focusing in this manner, the subtle flash of inspiration from earlier in the day gradually became clearer.

(The Brood... needs... The Brood... danger. Who are you? A new kin, a new Firstborn. What is your name?)

In the water? No, the voice came from beside Mizuki's ear. Though it wasn't human language, it translated clearly into something he could understand. Mizuki was a little surprised.

"IZUMI. That's my name."

(Izumik. The Brood receives. The Brood understands. What is the Brood's direction? Struggle or exploration? Migration or reproduction?)

Although he had no idea why they translated his name as Izumik, Mizuki thought the Brood probably wasn't referring to a single individual. Was his consciousness connected to something? It felt comfortable.

"Exploration and reproduction."

Mizuki chose the two options that seemed relatively conservative to him, though he didn't understand how the other party viewed them.

(The Brood understands. The Brood executes. The Brood is responsible for reproduction. The scaleless kin have already headed to your location.)

For some reason, Mizuki felt that he wasn't talking to one person, but to a group of people. Their thoughts were simple, though, and excessively uniform. He was puzzled by what kind of existence they were, but the sensation he had vaguely grasped earlier slipped from his fingertips once again. The conversation ended there.

Meanwhile, in Kazimierz, Skadi arrived at a run-down psychiatric hospital. She had listened to the contents of the recording pen they had obtained from Jose earlier. That was precisely why she had chosen to come in person.

After explaining her purpose and paying a small fee, Skadi received a warm welcome from the person in charge of the psychiatric hospital.

"Those people are seriously ill, so please be careful even through the bars."

Skadi nodded coldly, carrying her greatsword as she followed the nurse into a dark room.

The moment she approached, murmured whispers entered Skadi's ears. She stopped at the door while the nurse reached out and knocked.

"Hey, Canned Food. Someone's here to see you."

Canned Food was the only scavenger among that group who occasionally regained consciousness. The others had already descended into madness, crouching in corners all day as if hiding from something terrifying.

As for that name? Scavengers born in the wasteland rarely had proper names. Some didn't even know how to write them.

"Who is it? Old Jose?"

It seemed Skadi was lucky. Canned Food happened to be lucid at the moment. She didn't waste words, merely taking a photograph from her pocket and holding it up to the small window in the iron door.

"Have you seen this person?"

The photograph showed Mizuki, smiling brilliantly beneath a translucent blue plastic raincoat. Yet that very smile evoked the thing Canned Food least wanted to remember from the depths of his heart.

"No... don't... I didn't... Don't eat... I-I really don't know him, don't do this, don't do this..."

Clutching his head in extreme agony, Canned Food felt as though he were being torn apart. His brain was like a balloon someone had shoved inside it, and now someone was continuously inflating that balloon until it was about to burst.

That reaction, as if he had gazed directly upon some indescribable thing, made Skadi frown. She had lived with Mizuki for some time and believed she understood her little brother well. Mizuki was a good child. There was no way he could have done anything like this.

Besides, Mizuki wasn't particularly strong. He was simply too unusual for a Seaborn. Skadi had never sensed any danger from him.

Something must have happened. Mizuki must have encountered something. Skadi couldn't help clenching her fist, then swung it backward and punched straight through the chest of the nurse, who had been coming at her with a dagger.

"Who are you?"

There was no sensation of flesh being pierced. Skadi's fist seemed to have simply passed through air. The nurse was completely unaffected despite having a literal hole in her chest. She merely smiled and licked her dagger as water splashed from the wound Skadi had created.

"Just as expected of an Abyssal Hunter. You don't hesitate at all when you strike."

"What are you?"

Not human, yet capable of human reactions. Skadi's brows furrowed tightly. The nurse before her gave her a very unpleasant feeling. Of course, she didn't think the other party could hurt her. She simply felt instinctively uncomfortable and annoyed at her own dullness.

"Isn't that rather rude? Sigh, I was originally hoping to get something from these people. I never expected to draw you here."

It truly was unreasonable. A few scavengers—so what if they went mad? Every year, countless scavengers and bounty hunters died in the wasteland, and no one spared them a second glance. Why should these few receive special attention?

There was something wrong with this psychiatric hospital itself. Skadi had simply been too anxious to find clues about Mizuki, and her personality was somewhat simple-minded, so she hadn't considered that possibility.

"If I'd known, I would've dealt with that Old Jose. Sigh, it's not like I can beat you."

The nurse seemed to regret not silencing Jose, who had come seeking information before. She had originally wanted to see who stood behind Jose, but she had never expected it to be the most troublesome person possible—Skadi.

"You've been investigating him?"

"Yes. Sigh, his whereabouts are too unpredictable, so there's nothing we can do. I heard the Church of the Deep has started moving too. What a hassle."

The nurse removed her cap and slowly stepped backward, voluntarily pulling Skadi's fist out. The wound was swiftly filled and repaired by surging water, even restoring her clothes at the same time.

Her skin, hair, and body turned into water, then gathered together again into another form: long flaxen-green hair, lively yellow eyes, and the appearance of a Liberi. She carried an umbrella behind her back.

"Oh my, there's no need to be nervous, Miss Skadi. Strictly speaking, I should even call you big sister."

Water droplets fell from between her strands of hair. The longer Skadi looked, the more displeased she felt. She tightened her grip on her sword, ready to strike at any moment.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Muelsyse."

"I'm Mizuki's girlfriend~"

Along with Muelsyse's words, the entire psychiatric hospital collapsed.

Help from Her Best Friends

It was late at night. Exusiai tossed and turned in bed. Her best friends had long since become used to ensuring their sleep quality whenever they stayed with her. They plugged their ears tightly to avoid Exusiai's or Croissant's snoring, and wore eye masks to avoid being blinded by the fluorescent tube above Exusiai's head.

So no matter what Exusiai did, they basically wouldn't wake up.

"Seriously, it's all their fault. Of all things, why did they have to say that?"

Her face was still slightly hot. Exusiai couldn't help blaming the few people sleeping carefreely nearby, who were even snoring. It was because of what Texas and the others had said before bed that she had been lying there for an hour without being able to sleep.

Tossing and turning, Exusiai couldn't sleep no matter how she positioned herself. Her skin might have been thick enough to serve as Croissant's shield, but she wasn't shameless. Being told that directly—by her closest teammates and best friends, no less—how could anyone act as though nothing had happened?

The key was that Exusiai genuinely did have some feelings for Mizuki now. From her perspective, the two of them were more or less bound together and couldn't shake each other off. Naturally, they should develop their relationship with marriage as the ultimate goal. Besides, Mizuki was quite nice. After just one day together, she felt that they suited each other rather well.

And there was also the way Mizuki had caught her earlier. She knew it was the sort of cliché trope found in cheesy novels, but even now, that faint lotus fragrance seemed to linger at the tip of her nose.

"Huff... snore snore snore~"

Listening to Croissant snore, several dark lines appeared on Exusiai's forehead. She clenched her fists and told herself to endure it. She absolutely couldn't use physical methods to make Croissant biologically silent forever just for a moment of peace.