Disastrous Match

It is unfortunate Hans doesn't have any money on his person, but he needs to go home.

"Do you want some chocolate?" Hans raises the paper bag hiding inside his suit and waves it around to emphasize the chocolate delicacy within.

"Sure," Mira innocently grabs the little pouch of chocolate from Hans's hands. "Uum~ yum! This tastes good! My valentines are—"

Hans cut her off as he stretches his open palm. "Money. Give me some. Surely, you will not cheat me, right?" He blatantly and exaggeratedly alternates his eyes from Mira and the pouch of chocolate shamelessly asking for the money.

"I am so nice, right? I could have robbed you blind justifying it as fair, because of the troubles you caused me, but I am not a hypocrite. Instead, I am someone who advocates fair gender equality. Am I not?" He adds in one breath as if he is waiting for this very day just to say these words.

"I— I… I h-ave no money…" Mira confesses with a trembling voice almost on the verge of crying.

"Tsk," It annoys Hans, but he must do something. "And here I am thinking amnesia tropes are good. Raise your hands, let me touch you."

"Eh?"

"I mean, frisk you."

Hans immediately corrects his choice of words lest the misunderstandings interpret themselves. As someone who should be at least five years older than Mira regarding the number of memories in his head, Hans feels a slight disappointment in himself for his lack of tact.

Feeling the touch of the silky dark blue gown, the rough glittery stripes, and the sensual frills, Hans ends up finding nothing.

As he asks Mira to turn around to frisk her again, only now did Hans realize that she is wearing a dark blue gown barely reaching her knees. Clearly, there are no pockets indicating that chances are she has no money.

"Damn, such bad luck…" Hans complains. Truly bad luck that starts piling up on top of each other. He is not even finishing yet researching his identity in this world. What if he suddenly finds himself in trouble? Like say, estranging a should-be acquaintance!

"I… I am sorry…" Mira apologetically bows her head, and with shaking hands, she returns the pouch of chocolates. "P-please take it back… waah~ 😭 they are delicious though…" She is bowing her head, yet it is so obvious that she must be on the verge of crying.

Truly an airhead as Hans describes her in the novel. "Please don't bow to me like that… You can have it…" Hans feels sorry for her, and he realizes, he is being too much of a bully. The longer he looks, the more enthralled he feels. The instinctive desire for attention from a woman is suddenly kicking in.

Unsure of the nature of the psychological burden in his mind, Hans has a wild guess that it might be one of the restrictions of his second Geass from his right eye. Diverting his eyesight downwards, he sees the pair of girlish shoes that Mira is wearing.

"Take it out."

"W-what?"

Confusion once more takes hold of the poor heroine.

"Your shoes, take it out."

"O-okay."

Mira nervously complies, leaving her in bare feet.

"Hmmm… Nothing either huh?" Hans inspects the pair of shoes and even removes the thin soles from the inside. He is hoping that there might be paper bills hiding in her shoes. The way Hans is so keen on searching for money is in parallel with how cheap he is in his past life.

"I don't even have my phone on me, so I cannot use any GPS… I don't even know where we can go now…" This must be despair, Hans thinks to himself. Though not having a nice place to sleep seems lesser than suddenly ending in the mirror realm, receiving threats from a scary magic dad, and facing the main protagonist herself, Hans holds a strong belief that not having a bed to sleep is a far scarier outcome.

"I'd rather be dead than be homeless," This is his life motto. "Ugh…" He tilts his head like a dead fish as he lets out a sound of disgust at his current situation.

"It is okay, you will be fine…" Mira cutely remarks as she pats his head like a reliable big sister… but clearly, she is not.

Hans remorsefully looks at her smiling face devoid of any negative energy.

Mira is a bubbly dense optimistic character— a mirror of Hans who is an egoistic smartass pessimistic character. Mira continues to mechanically pat Hans's head in complete belief that her 'patting' is healing him.

Hans's eyes land on the stockings that seem to have a very slight bulge on the sides. If not for his discerning eyes, Hans will not be able to see it.

"Remove your stockings."

"W-wait… What?"

Color of panic dyes her eyes, Miran feels this disgusting contempt of the creature people refer to as 'men' which is surprisingly unbelievable as the person who is feeling this 'contempt' is none other than Mira herself.

Hans with dull eyes explains in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I might not look like it, but I am a gentleman. I obviously didn't frisk you on your stockings out of respect for you. So, while I am asking nicely… give it up…"

"I— I cannot! I feel that… that… this is wrong…"

Even Mira's stuttering sounds cute, but Hans doesn't see any appeal to that not to mention the victim herself who is at her wit's end.

Hans walks away, and with the same dull tone he uses, he takes hostage of Mira's life. "Thirteen meters. How many steps do I need to take to violate your Geass…"

"Awa~ awa ~ awa~" Mira starts self-destructing.

With reluctance, she finally gives up her struggle. She removes her stockings while under Hans's watch. "You pervert! Pervert! Disgusting!" Mira shouts at him with vigor while she throws her stockings to Hans.

Lacking any malicious thoughts, Hans digs in the stockings using his hand to 'feel' that particular sensation from his past life.

"This smooth touch, the subtle crispiness, aaah~ this must be it!"

Hans pulls out some paper bills. Though it is not the same money as his past life, he can still infer from his memories of how this should be money. Like every 'paper bill' in every universe parallel with the 21st century, the world of Love and Magic has numbers representing the value of the money in its corner, and on top of this are the serial numbers, and a picture of a famous character from the history of this world.

"I don't know whoever you are, but nice to meet you!" Greeting the paper money in front of him as if it is a person, Hans solemnly takes a gander at the beautiful curves of the hundred-value 'Aurum' paper money.

"I will take all of this as your rent, let's go. You will only sleep for the night, okay?" Hans declares without even giving Mira a chance for fair negotiation.

Mira doesn't know that this is 'unfair' though. "O'kay!" She energetically cries as she trails Hans.

After an hour or so, Hans and Mira are seating on another metallic bench after several kilometers of walking. They didn't see even a single taxi on the road as it appears that the night is not exactly inviting for the taxi drivers to do business. It is utterly miserable.

"Oh, fuck! What is my address again?" Hans for obvious reasons starts panicking... again. His brain is regressing so badly, he is imagining himself getting younger. He cannot even find a taxi, so why bother with the address? He might as well sleep on the streets.

Now that he is experiencing it, he realizes how difficult it is to transmigrate to another world. And realistically, this must be how it should look like. "It is not that I am already this forgetful when I am only this young… honestly, this sucks…" At this point, he cannot even blame stupidity.

Even Mira who is usually positive is sulking at the bench as she massages her tired legs.

"Mira, any ideas?"

"Dunno… I know a divination ritual, but I don't have anything…"

Hans also knows the divination ritual, but as Mira says it, they don't have anything. The cruel truth hits Hans. There is Mira, the amnesiac heroine of the story, meanwhile, there is Hans who is recently has become just a transmigrator and is also lacking 'memories' about this world.

It is a disastrous match.