"Wow..."
Walking into the kitchen, Yutsuki couldn't help but groan with a headache.
Actually, the kitchen was relatively clean compared to the other rooms. But this didn't an Nia had deliberately tidied it up; it was simply because it hadn't been used. The thick layer of dust on the stove and the scarce cooking utensils proved this point.
"Shido, is there anything in the fridge?"
Wetting a rag to wipe the stove, Yutsuki asked.
"No, there's only beer and sake."
Rummaging through the fridge, Shido shook his head and answered.
(It feels less like a young single woman's room and more like a single middle-aged man's room.)
Almost able to picture Nia lying alone on the living room sofa at night, eating snacks and chugging beer, Yutsuki sighed helplessly with a sweatdrop.
"Forget it... anyway, it's much better than I expected."
A stench running rampant, cockroaches lurking, a mountain of unwashed dishes piled up in the sink—such terrible scenes did not appear, which could be considered a blessing in disguise. Consoling herself like this, Yutsuki rolled up her sleeves.
"Heave-ho!"
After wiping the stove clean, Shido brought up the shopping bags. Fortunately, they had bought a lot of things today with the intention of restocking the ingredients at ho, otherwise even a clever housewife couldn't cook without rice.
"Mhm... I was originally planning to make so simple ho-cooked dishes. But this kitchen doesn't even have a decent kitchen knife, so the ingredients we can prepare are really limited."
Looking at the vegetables and at in the bags basically rendered useless, Yutsuki couldn't help but cross her arms in thought.
"How about miso porridge?"
Shido proposed. It takes a short ti to make, and being light, it's easy to digest, making it very suitable for the currently empty-stomached Nia.
"Mhm, that works too. Then I'll... ah, there's only one pot."
Realizing once again the starkness of Nia's kitchen, Yutsuki sighed. After thinking for a mont, she rearranged the ingredients in the shopping bags to free up a clean plastic bag. She tore it open, laid it flat on the stove, and then took out a few sheets of dried seaweed.
"I'll just make so rice balls. Shido, after the rice is cooked, don't add the miso yet; give so to ."
"Understood."
Having decided on the nu, Shido put the raw rice into the small pot, washed it clean, and then heated it to cook. After a few minutes, when the rice began steaming with a faint fragrance, Shido turned off the heat first, scooped a few spoonfuls of cooked rice, and placed them on the plastic bag.
"Say, Yutsuki, can I ask you a question?"
Pouring the appropriate amount of water into the pot to simr, Shido casually asked during the downti.
"Go ahead."
"Nia... is she a Spirit?"
"Pretty much."
Mixing the prepared sushi vinegar with the rice, Yutsuki answered in a flat tone.
"That appearance that doesn't match her actual age goes without saying; a Spirit's body aging is suppressed by Spirit power. Although we can't draw a conclusion based on this alone, it's quite a coincidence that not long ago, a Spirit escaped from DEM Industries with your help and hid in Tengu City."
"With my help?"
Shido felt sowhat surprised.
"It's normal you don't know. You had lost your mory due to going berserk back then. Honestly, your attack at that ti just happened to hit a DEM transport ship flying over Tengu City. I don't know if it was a coincidence or intentional."
Tearing the seaweed into appropriately sized pieces, Yutsuki glanced at Shido, washed her hands, and continued.
"This house hasn't been lived in for a long ti. Even considering Nia's own ssy personality, this rooms lack traces of life. Also, the manga and magazines piled up in the hallway are very strange."
"What's wrong with those books?"
Shido asked in confusion. Aside from feeling they were very cluttered, he didn't feel there was anything weird about them.
"The gap in the dates," Yutsuki explained.
"You really can't tell much from those standalone volus (tankoubon). But the serialized weekly magazines have a very significant gap. I glanced at them briefly earlier; most of the manga belong to weekly magazines from several years ago, but the newest weekly magazines are from this month. In other words, that person was in an environnt where she couldn't read manga for a very long ti. And this timing perfectly matches the ti that Spirit escaped from DEM Industries."
However, having said that, it would be difficult for anyone other than manga lovers like Yutsuki to notice such details.
"I see..."
Hearing Yutsuki's explanation, Shido nodded in realization.
"But Shido, I'm actually quite surprised that you noticed Nia's abnormality too. You've grown quite a bit without noticing."
"W-Well..."
Shido nodded sowhat guiltily. He had only casually asked because he felt a slight sense of incongruity, not expecting Yutsuki to have already thought so much from the very beginning.
Coughing dryly, Shido didn't linger on this point and changed the subject.
"Then since Nia is a Spirit, shouldn't we contact Kotori first?"
"Let's wait for now. Ultimately, Nia being a Spirit is still just our guess. If it's true, the best-case scenario is to wait for Nia to lay her cards on the table with us herself."
Yutsuki shook her head. If Nia really was a Spirit, then starving and fainting on the street, only to happen to run into Shido, who has the ability to seal Spirits, and herself, a Spirit, could hardly be called a coincidence.
"Understood."
"Hey, is it done yet? I'm so hungry..."
Nia's wail ca from outside the kitchen.
"It'll be done soon, just wait a bit longer."
After turning her head to reply, Yutsuki shrugged and said,
"Anyway, let's feed that person first."
"Feed... that's true."
Hearing Yutsuki's phrasing, Shido couldn't help but smile bitterly. But indeed, when at ho, it was basically Yutsuki and Shido preparing als for the Spirits in the kitchen. For them, this was sothing they were completely used to.
Their respective tasks were also nearing completion. Shido added green onions, miso, and a little sake to the cooked rice porridge for seasoning, and finally cracked an egg into it. Yutsuki squeezed mayonnaise and at floss into the rice balls as filling, then successively wrapped them in seaweed and arranged them nicely.
Although it was a bit monotonous, due to limited ti and conditions, this was the best they could do.
"Ooh—Ooooooooooh!"
Eating the food prepared by the two, Nia let out inexplicable exclamations of amazent.
"Delicious, it's too delicious!"
Polishing off the miso porridge in less than five minutes, and then taking large bites of the rice balls Yutsuki made, Nia looked like a disaster victim finding a spring in the desert, tears of emotion flowing from the corners of her eyes.
How long has it been since this person had a proper al?
Seeing Nia's exaggerated reaction, Yutsuki thought speechlessly.
However, she couldn't deny that watching soone else eat her cooking with such relish was quite satisfying as a chef.
"Ah—I'm so happy. I haven't had such a warm al in a week."
Rubbing her flat stomach, Nia sighed with deep satisfaction.
"Thanks for the al. Boy, Biri-chan, please allow to take off my clothes to express my gratitude."
"W-Wait a minute! Why does it have to escalate to taking off your clothes?"
Seeing Nia start to take off her coat as soon as she finished speaking, Shido shouted in a panic.
"Hm? In manga, it's common sense to strip naked to express how delicious a al is."
"Don't confuse manga with reality!"
Smack—! Without hesitation, pulling out a paper fan and smacking Nia on the head, Yutsuki said in exasperation:
"Doing that in reality just makes you a pure pervert."
"Ugh... that's a very harsh way to put it, Biri-chan. Shouldn't a person have so dreams?"
Although it didn't really hurt, Nia still rubbed her head and said, pretending to be wronged.
"Is your dream to eat katsudon at the police station?"
"I'm sorry. I was joking!"
Seeing Yutsuki pick up her phone, ready to dial a number, Nia decisively got into a dogeza position on the bed, apologized, and yielded.
Perhaps these two get along surprisingly well. Shido smiled bitterly, gathered the dishes, and walked towards the kitchen.
"Then after washing the dishes, we'll be heading back. Rember to eat properly before you faint from hunger next ti."
"I left so rice balls in the kitchen. If you get hungry later, eat those. If that doesn't work, you'll just have to order takeout yourself."
"Ah, wait a minute!"
Just as Yutsuki and Shido stood up, preparing to leave the room, Nia suddenly stopped them.
"What's wrong, is there sothing else?"
Shido asked in confusion.
"No, no. I ntioned it earlier, I don't hire assistants, so the date right now is sliiiightly approaching the deadline. So could you stay and help a bit, just so simple tasks will do. I'll pay you!"
Saying this, Nia pointed at the manga manuscript on her drafting desk.
"Eh? No, no! I've never touched a manuscript like this before. If I get it dirty, I won't be able to take responsibility."
Shido hurriedly waved his hands in refusal.
"OK! Then we'll stay a bit longer."
"Yutsuki?"
Shido looked at Yutsuki in surprise. The other party signaled him with her eyes to agree quickly.
Right, if Nia really is a Spirit, then it's highly possible she wants to convey so ssage and is deliberately keeping us here.
Understanding Yutsuki's intention, Shido hesitated for a mont before sighing and muttering softly:
"I understand... if it's just simple tasks..."
"Of course, just erasing pencil lines."
Seeing Shido nod, Nia, lying on the bed, hurriedly answered, and then threw her hands up in the air to cheer.
"Great! As expected of Biri-chan, answering so readily."
"It's fine, I also want to see the manuscript as soon as possible."
Yutsuki shrugged and answered with a smile.
"Besides, the only one who agreed to help is Shido, not ."
"Pfft—!"
Almost tripping over the manga on the floor, Shido looked at Yutsuki's nonchalant expression and widened his eyes in surprise.
Damn it, Yutsuki, you actually sold out.
"I see. Then boy, hurry over here and start working."
"Wait—"
Before Shido could say anything, Nia hopped off the bed and pulled Shido into her studio. It was clearly much more spacious than her bedroom, with many art supplies and artbooks placed around, giving it a much more professional atmosphere.
Seeing this, Shido started to get a bit nervous.
"Boy, please sit there."
"Oh..."
It was too late to back out now. Shido sighed lightly and obediently sat at the drafting desk Nia pointed to.
"Let be clear first, it's just erasing lines."
"It's fine, it's fine! I know."
Nia waved her hand understandingly, put on her glasses, and handed a few inking-completed manuscript pages to Shido.
"Then boy, after erasing the sketches, color in the places marked with an 'X' with black."
"You didn't listen to a word I just said, did you!"
Shido looked like he wanted to flip the table and walk out.
"It's fine, it's fine. The difficulty of the two tasks isn't actually that different. Any nimble person can do it. Just use a fine pen to color the details first, and finish the rest with a thick pen."
"As if there's no difference! Erasing lines is one thing, but is it really okay to leave filling in blacks to a beginner like ?!"
"No problem at all. Although it's just a guess of mine, you've used drawing tools before, right, boy?"
"...! Wh-Why would you suddenly say that..."
Hearing Nia's words, Shido's body suddenly stiffened, and he looked away, speaking vaguely.
Seeing Shido's honest reaction, the corner of Nia's mouth lifted slightly.
"Boy, do you know? Soone who knows absolutely nothing about manga wouldn't abbreviate 'erasing things with an eraser' as 'erasing lines', nor would they call 'coloring the black parts' as 'filling in blacks'."
Shido held his breath for a mont.
"It's probably sothing like this. During middle school, in order to perfect your original characters, you specially drew character designs. I get it, at first it was just drawing with a pencil in a notebook, but later, one day, you saw pens and ink specifically for drawing manga in a stationery store, and you couldn't resist wanting to try."
"!? Ah, no, I..."
"Getting a slight taste of success, you started to think maybe you have talent in that area, and wanted to try using screentones. But then you realized that even though it's a disposable item, it's ridiculously expensive, so you gave up."
"Ugh..."
"Later on, you heard about drawing on a computer, thinking 'then I can use screentones as much as I want'. Finally, you discovered that drawing tablets and painting software are even more outrageously expensive."
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh—"
Shido clutched his head and began trembling slightly.
"Well, there's probably more to it than just that. But I feel like continuing would hurt your tender, youthful heart, boy, so I'll stop here for now."
Tapping her pen lightly on the desk, Nia blinked and looked at Shido with a wicked smirk.
"So, boy. What do you think Biri-chan outside would feel if she knew about these things?"
"...Please allow to help you complete these tasks."
Swallowing the bitter tears forming in his eyes, Shido gritted his teeth and slowly answered.
Outside the room.
(Say... Shido, Nia didn't even close the door.)
Hearing the answer filled with resentnt from inside the room, as if he had signed an unequal treaty surrendering his nation's sovereignty, Yutsuki thought with a sweatdrop.
Well, although she noticed from the beginning that Nia was setting a trap for Shido, she didn't expect Nia to figure out Shido's dark history so thoroughly with just that little bit of information. This did surprise Yutsuki a bit.
"But Shido is really too naive, to expose himself so easily. Insufficient training."
It's going to be really troubleso to pretend I didn't hear that next. Yutsuki sighed lightly, looked up at the ceiling, and muttered to herself in a slightly nostalgic tone:
"At a ti like this, he just needed to answer that he read Bakuman."
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