My Favorite Thing is the Secret Art: Swallow Reversal. My Special Skill is the Secret Art: Swallow Reversal. My Hobby is the Secret Art: Swallow Reversal – Part 04
Soon after the crawfish attack, I made my way home, trying not to draw attention. I couldn’t exactly take off the cosplay outfit, as doing that would leave me naked. It was either wear this or go full birthday suit. Both options were a disaster.
To make things worse, the girl walking beside me wore nothing but a T-shirt and panties, barefoot. I was carrying a chainsaw. That’s 100% a pervert right there. The second anyone saw us, they’d call the cops.
We stuck to a dark, quiet, narrow street, one too small even for cars. Once we got through, home would be just around the corner. By then, I was hitting peak irritation from the sheer embarrassment.
Why the hell did I have to walk around like this? That thought kept circling in my head.
Then I told the person next to me, who was looking the other way, the cause of all this in the first place, “Why don’t you just go back to your magic world or whatever?”
“Huh? My world’s got a name, and it’s called Villiers. Don’t you lump it in with vague crap like that.”
Haruna pressed her thumb under my nose and rubbed it side to side like she was trying to open a tissue pack. It burned. My upper lip was on fire.
“Fine, fine, just stop. Anyway, just go back to that Villiers place.”
“What? Like I can go back!”
She gave me a menacing look, like I was asking the most obvious thing in the world.
“Why not?”
“Because you stole my mana, that’s why! How hard is that to get?”
I didn’t get it. Was she planning to stay at my place forever? Please, no.
“Isn’t there some way to get you back? I’ll help.”
“Give me back my mana, then.”
“How?”
“How should I know? Figure it out yourself.”
And with that, she turned away again. I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration.
Anyway, there it was—my house. I think it was 165 to 200 square meters in size? Just your average two-story home. At the moment, only two people lived here. Oh, right, make that three with Haruna.
My parents had been on their honeymoon for five years now and counting.
Pretty easy to guess they were probably on their third or fourth trip around the world by now. My younger brother had happily gone with them, but I stayed behind in Tokyo. Whenever I traveled with them, the itinerary was a lot more grueling than working on a tuna boat.
What was supposed to be a quiet, boring solo life was now completely wrecked. Still, maybe I could get my alone time back. I had to believe that. Anyway, I should go inside.
Actually, Haruna had already gone in. Isn’t the homeowner supposed to go in first?
Well, whatever. She looked super embarrassed in that outfit, and we’d walked the whole way with our heads down.
When I asked her why she had come in that getup, she snapped, “A Megalo showed up. What choice did I have?! And stop looking over here!”
Once inside, I immediately de-transformed. That left me completely naked in the house, so I headed straight upstairs. My room was on the second floor. I’d left the chainsaw by the front door.
The room was basic: a bed, a bookshelf, a dresser, a desk, and a TV. Nothing special, even for a zombie. Honestly, it was a boringly normal room.
I grabbed a shirt, boxers, and jeans from the dresser, changed into something normal, and stepped out. Where to? The living room, of course. The hub of family bonding.
In the living room, a big rectangular table and a large plasma TV sat in the middle. The sound of cheerful laughter from a variety show came from the screen.
Sitting formally in front of it, holding a teacup, was a young girl. And you might have guessed it already, but it wasn’t Haruna.
Even indoors, she wore a dress that looked like it belonged to some aristocrat, paired with plate armor that resembled Western-style knight gear. Her hands were covered with gauntlets, and I’d never seen her without them. How she could wear such an outfit in this humid heat was beyond me.
Weird as it was, though, it really suited her.
“Did everything go okay today?” I asked the girl sitting in the living room.
She didn’t turn her head, just shifted her eyes toward me and gave a tiny nod, barely more than a slight dip of her chin.
Then she returned her gaze to the TV. Even though the variety show was full of nonstop laughter, she didn’t crack so much as a smile.
She had long, silver hair that flowed like silk and blue eyes so clear, it felt like they held little galaxies inside them. Just looking at them felt like you might get pulled in.
Her name was Eucliwood Hellscythe, also known as Eu.
She glanced sideways at me again, then placed her teacup on the table without shifting her posture. With her right hand, covered in an unblemished gauntlet that looked like a piece of art, she picked up the black pen lying beside it. Her left hand, wrapped in a gauntlet just as ornate, peeled a sheet off a notepad.
She placed the pen on the paper and tapped the table twice. That meant look at this.
In big, neat round letters, the note read: “Make dinner.”
When did she even write it? I was watching the whole time, but she always finished writing in the time it took to blink, no matter how long the message.
“I’m hungry, big brother. Will you make something? Pretty please?”
That’s how I read it in my head. The actual message was way too plain. So I always imagined it in Eu’s cute voice. Not that I’d ever heard it.
“What do you feel like eating?” I asked.
She tore off another note and tapped the pen twice again.
“Steven Seagal.”
Yeah, no. Not happening. Not even in my mind could I make that sound cute.
“I just reeeally want some Steven.”
Nope. Can’t do it. Tried it, failed. I refused to let my imaginary Eu say that.
I shook my head hard and cleared the image from my brain.
That’s when Haruna showed up. She still looked mostly the same, except now she was wearing a pair of jeans. My jeans, rolled up a bunch of times. When did she swipe those?
Haruna passed by me and plopped down cross-legged on Eu’s right side, opposite from me. She propped her elbow on the table and stared at Eu like she was observing some rare animal.
Eu didn’t seem bothered at all. Even under that kind of intense stare, she calmly sipped her tea like nothing was out of the ordinary.
She’d acted the same yesterday when I brought Haruna home. Even after I introduced her, she hadn’t so much as looked up. Haruna didn’t speak to her either, just watched her, like a motionless koala at the zoo.
When I asked Haruna, “Does Eu bother you?” she just gave a curt, “Not really.”
When I asked Eu, “Do you have something to do with Magiclad Girls?” she completely ignored me.
Yeah, this just reminded me that life was probably better off lived alone.
“Hey, Ayumu, dinner ready yet? I’m starving.”
“Meat sounds good.”
Yeah, yeah. I’m on it.
These two were complete opposites. One sat perfectly straight, kneeling with her legs folded under. The other slouched, legs crossed.
“How about pork kimchi?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
Haruna smiled. Her smile was so cute it was hard not to grin back. If only she’d always look like that.
“Wonderful.”
“Yaaay! I love you, big brother!”
I think it’s safe to interpret it like that. Man, what a cute kid.
All right. You’re probably wondering who Eucliwood was exactly. Some of you might have guessed already, but hear me out anyway.
Why would someone like me—who claimed to prefer solitude—have a strange girl like her living in my house?
I’ll explain, while making dinner for these two.
Let’s rewind back to that day.
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