37 We Need To Go Deeper

Editor: Crembo.

-Morning, My House -

-My POV-​

"Ugh, never again, never ever fight something that looks like it could explode at any second. "

I applied shampoo to my hair.

"I know it was just a simulation, but still, I feel like its organs are still clinging to my head."

It happened earlier this morning, I asked the System to 'Give me a random monster to fight' and then it gave me a balloon-like monster.

"I still can't believe it just exploded after I punched it once."

Since it exploded and I was in melee range, it showered me with gore. As for why I didn't put up my Counter Armor in that fight... I underestimated it. I saw it was only level 19, so I thought it would be over quickly enough, and easily enough, that I didn't need to apply Counter Armor to my body. And then I paid the price for my mistake.

I rinsed my hair with the shower head.

I pinched some of my hair in my fingers and smelled it.

… It smelled nice.

"… I guess this is okay."

I got out of the shower and started drying myself with the towel.

"Just one and a half weeks left, keep going, me!" I cheered myself up.

I wrapped the towel around my body and left the shower part of the bathroom.

But then I stopped, frozen in place.

Over there, on one side of the bathroom, there's a mirror, a bathroom mirror.

Inside the mirror, I saw my girly reflection. I knew I looked girly because I was a trap right now, but that was not the problem. The problem was I wrapped the towel all the way up around my chest.

'… Since when did I wrap my towel like that?'

I tried to look for the answer in my memory lanes.

I did it yesterday too.

I did it the day before that too.

"This is stupid. I'm a man, not a girl."

I tried to undo the towel wrap using my hand but something happened when I grabbed the towel.

I kept the towel in place.

"Uh, uuuuh, did the system block my attempt or something?" I said while attempting to remove the towel.

Because I was determine to do it, the towel was slowly but surely getting pried open.

"Take that you dumb system! Just a little more and it will be glorious." I smiled with confidence.

I used Pyrokinesis to heat up the left over water from the shower, and with sufficient heat, created steam out of it.

I finally removed the towel.

"Haha! I did it-wait what?! Since when is there so much steam in the bathroom?!"

The steam completely covered me from my shoulders to my ankles.

"You think this steam will stop me?!"

I used Vector Change to gather the light at the certain parts around my body, thus creating darkness that covered my chest and my private parts.

I used Vector Change to push the steam away from my body.

"Easy, now let's-…really? We're really gonna do this?"

There was darkness covering my chest and my private parts, is this supposed to be referencing anime fan service intervention? Steam, darkness, god rays, etc.

"You think this will stop me from trying?!"

I used Pyrokinesis to burn the mirror.

I used Vector Change again to fill the dark spots with light.

*PWOOOSH*

"!!"

The mirror suddenly caught on fire.

I could hear the mirror starting to crack while still enveloped in fire.

"…"

After many cracking noises, the mirror exploded into a million pieces.

I shielded myself from the glass shards with my Telekinesis Barrier.

"… Let's just drop the issue, it doesn't matter how I wrap myself in a towel as long as I'm not naked while I'm searching for my clothes."

"*sigh* …Hm?"

'… Relieved? Why did I suddenly feel relieved?'

After a moment of thinking, I gave up.

"… Whatever." I shrugged it off.

I started walking out of the bathroom to search for my underwear.

About the mirror, I didn't have to worry about it because it will repair itself afterward.

-Morning, Forest of Magic, Kourindou-​

I stomped in the direction of the shop in annoyance.

'This sucks, the bug moved from her stationary spot, I don't know where she went and now I lost one of my daily points, THIS SUCKS.'

I arrived at the store's front door.

'Okay, calm down now, let's just get this over with.'

I calmed myself down and got ready to knock on the door.

*KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK* I knocked hard.

I turned away from the door and started to move my feet.

My feet didn't touch the ground and I felt someone pick me up by the collar.

'What the fu-' I looked behind me, '…I dun goofed.' I thought.

I saw Sakuya holding me with one hand.

"Is this perhaps the morning annoyance you were speaking of?" she said while looking inside the store.

I immediately put on a glove to hide the rings on my hand.

Sakuya carried me inside the building.

One thought that appeared after I was brought inside was 'Those are a lot of junk items'.

So much Junk, junk on the floor, junk on the shelves, junk on the wall, junk on the table, junk with a price tag, this place was basically a junk store.

"Based on what just happened, she is probably the culprit behind my door knocking every morning." said a man behind the counter.

I looked at him.

It's him.

It's Rinnosuke.

The one and only male character in Touhou that has a somewhat deep background story.

[Lv.22 Junk Keeper, Morichika Rinnosuke]

He had golden eyes, short silver hair, and wore a pair of glasses. His clothes were mixed black and blue, and he carried a small bag on his stomach.

I suddenly felt the tug on my collar disappear.

"Ouch!" I landed on my butt.

Apparently Sakuya had enough of carrying me, so she just dropped me on the floor.

"Now then young lady," Rinnosuke spoke.

I focused my attention on him.

"Was there any reason why you knocked on my door every morning?" he asked.

I just stayed silent.

"Not gonna answer, is it? That's okay, I can wait." he continued.

I started observing him.

He adjusted his glasses to readjust his sight on me... No, he was looking at my clothes.

'He's using his ability,' I thought.

His ability lets him identify the name and function of any item he sees. Emphasis 'name' and 'function', because those are the only things he gets from it, not 'how to use', or 'how it's made'.

But still, that was why I wore the glove to hide my disguise rings. He would know for sure why I was wearing the rings if he saw them.

"What a fine piece, 'Red Cherry' is it? So many enchantment in one little package. Even though I have become rusty in magic study, I can still recognize how amazing the clothes you're wearing are."

He leaned toward me.

"Young lady, how about we make a deal? If you give me your clothes then I will forgive your little annoyance- *SLAP*-GUOH!" Rinnosuke flew across the room and crashed into a junk heap.

I turned my head to stare at the suspect who did it.

It was Sakuya, she slapped him very hard.

"Please don't make this hard on me, shopkeeper-san. I don't want the number of perverts in this place to increase." she 'smiled'.

I looked at Sakuya in amazement.

"So cool!" I said excitedly.

I felt something move on my chest.

I looked at it.

'… Since when did I move my hand to cover up my chest?'

I quickly dismissed the thought to look back at Sakuya.

She looked at me while smiling.

"It seems like I will be taking over the questioning part."

Sakuya put one of her knees on the floor, now the two of us were on the same eye level.

I could see the gap between her-I looked back up to her face.

"Let me introduce myself."

Sakuya put her hand on her chest.

"I'm the servant of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and my name is Izayoi Sakuya. You can call me Sakuya. Now, may I know yours in return?"

"Y-yes," I corrected my sitting posture. "I'm Arah-sama's assistant, and my name is Bara Api. You can call me Bara, pleased to meet you, Sakuya-san." I made an introduction bow to her.

"'Arah-sama'? Do you mean the Magician Arah?"

"Y-yes, you're right. " I nod.

"Really? But he never said anything about having an assistant before?"

"I-it's because I only arrived by his magic contract with me a week ago and Arah-sama is still conducting his research in his study." I finally calmed down enough to speak without stuttering.

"'Still'?"

"Yes, he started working a week ago and he's still busy now."

"I see."

After a few seconds of silence and rustling noises from the back of the store, Sakuya suddenly grabbed me by the shoulder.

"Bara-san, please tell me truth. Did he... Has your master done anything to you?" Sakuya said with a serious face.

I was lost for words for a moment but quickly recovered to answer her question.

"No, but I'm aware of his reputation with the people he usually converses with. Some say he's a bad person but some also say he's an okay person. Until now we haven't held any real conversation so I can't judge his personality yet, but when we made our contract, he suggested that I could break the contract if I wasn't satisfied with what I was doing. To me that suggestion explained a lot about what kind of person he really is. Moreover, I still believe that he is a good person at heart." I answered the question honestly.

"… I guess you don't need any help if you're already that resolute."

Sakuya stood up, and I followed suit.

"The bond between Master and Servant is a wondrous thing. Even though the master is him, I hope you will find it too." she explained.

"Speaking from experience?" I asked.

"You could say that." she smiled softly. "All right, I already took too much time in this store, and I have to come back with our new tea set. It was nice meeting you, good bye." she waved.

"Y-yes, it was nice meeting you too, and good bye." I waved back.

And she disappeared right in front of my eyes.

I was not sensing Sakuya's magic signature anywhere near me so she must really have gone back to her mansion.

I made a relieved sigh.

'That was a close one. Somehow my disguise held through that questioning. After all, I think Sakuya is one of those careful types of person. But…'

I felt like there was something wrong in that conversation, somehow it just didn't feel right, but I didn't know what.

I was pondering that while walking towards the door.

"Oi, aren't you forgetting something?"

I stopped and turned my head toward the familiar voice.

"I don't really care about your situation like that maid just now. All I want is the answer why you knock on my door every morning, and I insist that you stop doing it." Rinnosuke said, with a red handprint mark on his cheek.

We both thought for a second, and we both agreed that we should prank/bamboozle him.

We searched for an item on the shelves. We found and selected an item that had a price tag on it, which meant he still didn't know how to use it.

"I'm sorry shopkeeper-san. I can't stop doing it because your front door is made of a perfect material that makes a great knocking sound." I said with a smile. "Also, that lighter can only produce fire if you roll the wheel fast enough with your thumb and also push the button behind it with the same thumb after you roll it." I said while pointing at the lighter.

He turned to look at the lighter.

"Bye!" I immediately ran away.

[2/5 Interaction Points]

-Rinnosuke POV-​

And there she went out of the store.

"Does she think I'm that stupid?" I huffed.

But soon enough, my eyes were once again drawn to the 'lighter' she spoke of.

She correctly said the tool's name, just like the name that my ability gave me. She also knew it was a fire making tool, and that there was a small wheel mechanism inside it.

So that meant she knew how it worked and was telling the truth... But what if she was just bluffing?

"… Only one way to find out."

I got up from my chair and walked to the shelves I put the pile of 'lighters' on.

I picked up one of the 'lighters' and did exactly what the young lady said.

*Fwoosh*

A fire came out of the small hole at the top of the tool.

"… She was actually right."

I looked at my door.

'… What if she also told the truth about the door?' I thought.

I moved my feet to the front door.

I raised my hand and started knocking at the door's hard wood.

*Knock-knock-knock*

"…"

I wordlessly went back behind the counter.

-Afternoon, Youkai Mountain, Genbu Ravine-

-My POV-​

*KABOOM*

*Ratatatata*

"Spray them! Spray them!"

"Dodge! Dodge the water!"

The number of Kappa increased, and currently they were battling each other for some reason.

"… What's actually going on in here? Are they testing a new weapon? Did everyone steal each other's cucumbers or something?" I said with a tired voice.

Kappa are, you could say they are all individual creatures. The only time they bunch up together is if there's a big thing or project that they want to do that can't be finished alone. So now I was really curious as to why they were grouping up and fighting each other.

One of the Kappas finally noticed me.

"The VIP has arrived!" she shouted.

"VIP?! Me?!" I pointed at myself.

They all turned toward me, but only for a second before they all continued fighting, their attacks turning more vicious.

"… Ugh, I think I have a rough idea how this happened." I said while rubbing the bridge of my nose.

I decided to wait behind a tree for all of this to stop. I didn't want to get wet from their attacks, dude.

A few minutes later, the fighting noises stopped and I peeked out from behind the tree.

I saw Nitori and her Kappa friends standing behind a stand. They were all smiling proudly, while the rest of the Kappa were sulking on the sidelines.

'I guess they won the fight then.'

I approached her and asked what was going on.

She explained that the rest of the Kappa finally noticed the transaction between me and her, so they all wanted to join in, but because they're all greedy people, they wanted all the cucumbers for themselves. So they all started fighting each other.

Early in the fight, it was free-for-all... And then some of them noticed that some Kappa started alliances with one another, so the rest of them also followed that example until eventually they conglomerated into two big teams that fought each other for all the collected magical ingredients.

I observed how many materials she got, it was an increase all right.

Before it was only a handful, but now, I think I could fill a cookie jar with all of this.

"We demand 20 cucumbers!!"

"Too much!! Just 10!!"

We started bargaining again and in the end, we agreed on 16 cucumbers for their services.

Reaction Theater:

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ED: Um.

1 line later.

ED: Oh.

He finally realized why I use 'we'

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Author Note:

Heyo, Author here….got nothing interesting to say, so let's say random thing, I'm a lolicon. Great.

This chapter only has 2.6k word. I think I can't make 3k word chapter anymore. I'm sad.

About the thing, not gonna give ya any spoiler.