Chapter 60 – After Shopping (~)
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Kouta couldn't remember much how he walked from that restaurant. His mouth was red and his tongue was still numb from the pain. During this trip, he had experienced what hell felt like.

On the side, Rimu could only shake her head.

"I told you so, but you didn't believe me..."

Unlike her, Kouta was just an elementary schooler with a normal tongue. In the world, only some people would be able to enjoy extremely spicy tastes, and he was not included in this.

Nevertheless, he still insisted to finish 2 bowls of hot red mapo tofu. But, in the end, he could only give up halfway in the first bowl and drink 7 glasses of iced tea until his stomach puffed up with water.

The rest of the bowls were finished by Rimu.

For some reason, Rimu was very good at handling spicy food. She was still fine even after eating two and a half bowls of the spicy tofu. On the contrary, she could even taste a sweet pineapple flavor faintly from them.

'I was able to let out a good sweat today. This should be enough to burn the fat from the cake yesterday...

This is not a bad thing for me, but on the other hand...'

She glanced at Kouta's sorry state again.

"ノ​'ꪑ​ ჰ​ꪮ૨૨​ꪗ​, ૨​ノ​ꪑ​ꪊ​-ᥴ​ꫝ​ꪖ​ꪀ​... ノ​ Ե​ꫝ​ノ​ꪀ​?​ ノ ꫝ​ꪖ​ꪜ​ꫀ​ Ե​ꪮ​ Ե​ꪖ​?​ꫀ​ ꪖ​ ૨ꫀ​ჰԵ​ Ե​ꪮ​ꪑ​ꪮ૨૨ꪮ​᭙​..."
(× I'm sorry, Rimu-chan... I think I have to take a rest tomorrow...)

Because his mouth was still burning in heat, Kouta couldn't make proper sounds. Thankfully, Rimu was still able to understand his words a little bit.

"Ah... um... Please take care of yourself... And I'm sorry about this..."

Rimu bowed her head, apologizing to Kouta. She felt guilty about this incident and simply wished for him to quickly recover. Kouta only responded with a wry smile. Unfortunately, his swollen lips made his smile look ugly.

He couldn't blame Rimu for this. It was his mistake to order the food blindly without prior confirmation. So he only reaped what he sowed. However, a new determination burned inside his mind.

'A blunder! How could I make a fool of myself in front of Rimu-chan!?
Kousaka Kouta, you're a shame of a man! It's just eating mapo tofu and you became this wretched?

I should train myself so I can eat spicy food with ease. Today's mistake won't be repeated a second time.'

From that point on, Kouta would beg his mother to make spicy dishes for dinner. His father, who was collateral damage because of this, could only cry in silence...

♠♠♠

 

Having split with Kouta, Rimu headed back home.

She already detached her hood and sleeves from her sweater. Now that she was back at Kusanagi City, she didn't have to worry about the pollution.

The greenery and the air purifier system in this city were enough to repel that threat to her loli skin!

'Today I bought a lot of stuff for the preparation of my plan.
Some things happened along the way, but it didn't change the overall result.'

It was very regrettable what happened to Kouta. She didn't think he would be so reckless, choosing to order the same food as her. But, even when he realized that he had ordered the wrong food, he still insisted on eating that spicy mapo tofu.

And the result was that.

'I feel bad for Kouta, I hope he'll be fine...'

Remembering that, Rimu sighed once more.

Originally, she planned to borrow Kouta's PS2 DVD tomorrow. But after today's incident, she didn't feel like doing so anymore. After causing so much trouble for him, how could she shamelessly ask for more?

'Let's just focus on the Art Contest for the time being...
Though, now that I think about it, I feel that the probability of winning is not that high.'

Rimu understood perfectly that art itself was subjective to the observer, there was no definite standard in it.

An ugly painting that even a monkey could draw could be considered a masterpiece and worth millions of dollars. Meanwhile, a well-drawn painting that wasn't appreciated by anyone could only become garbage and rot in the corner.

Hoping to win such a contest was too naive and foolish thinking. It was like buying a lottery with a 99% chance of losing money. Not really worth the trouble and the effort.

In that case, she had to change her method. The method of how to utilize her drawing skills to the fullest.

"Perhaps I should learn how to draw manga."

Drawing manga has it's own techniques, like placing panels and other stuff. But it shouldn't be hard to learn and Rimu was confident that she could get a hang of it in a short time. She couldn't compose stories well, but that was not a problem.

Because there were Kurumin-sensei and other authors. She could just make manga adaptations from their novels. Of course, the author's permission was needed. But that also could be discussed.

After drawing a manga, Rimu could send it via email to the publishers. If they accept her manga and published it, then that's good. But if not, she could just self-publish it on pixiv and accept donations.

Thinking about that, Rimu's mood brightened with motivation.

When Rimu got to her house, she found out that the package had arrived as well. It was placed on the table in the living room.

On the side, Riku was calmly sitting on the sofa while drinking a cup of milk taken from the fridge. His expression was tranquil as if he was in the middle of meditation.

"Welcome back, Rimu."

"Un, I'm home..."

Noticing that Rimu had arrived, Riku placed the cup on the table and greeted her with a smile. It was his usual gentle smile that Rimu knew well. However, for some reason, there was something wrong with that smile!

Rimu couldn't help but get afraid. She had a bad feeling about this.

"...Riku?? What's wrong? You seem weird..."

"Hmm? Nothing's wrong, though. It's just your feeling.
By the way, you let out a lot of sweat, right? Let's go to bath together?"

"Oh... okay?"

She nodded unconsciously. It was true that she had let out sweat after eating the spicy mapo tofu. She felt uncomfortable and a bath would certainly refresh her body so she agreed without much thought.

However, she failed to notice something important.

How did Riku know that she had sweated a lot?

That afternoon, Rimu's laughing scream reverberated in the bathroom.

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