Dusty and disheveled, Jhin left the open lot beside the little warehouse. After several dozen failures, large and small, he decided to set the whole thing aside for now. Magic that dealt with space really wasn't something you could crack on a whim.
Failure is the mother of success.
He rubbed his stomach, which had started growling, and looked up at the setting sun. At that moment, in his eyes, the sun had turned into one enormous orange.
"It's about that time. Megumin should be coming to pick me up, right?"
Making her come and fetch him was one link in Jhin's chain of teasing schemes. Turning your girlfriend red to the tips of her ears was one of life's great pleasures, after all.
His plan was doomed today, though, because the one who came for him wasn't Megumin. It was Kokkoro.
The little guide came walking up from a distance at an unhurried pace. The evening glow dyed her long white hair, gathered into twin tails, a warm orange-red, lending her a livelier air.
"Master, I've come to take you home." She tilted her face up with a small smile. "Megumin says she doesn't want to deal with you for the time being."
"All right, let's head back then." Jhin felt a twinge of regret, then took Kokkoro's small hand in his. "What made you change your hairstyle all of a sudden?"
"Komekko tied it for me. Does it look nice?"
"It looks great. Next time you want a new hairstyle, come find me. I'll do it for you."
"Mm."
Back at the house, Pecorine had already laid out a table of lavish, generously portioned dishes. To Jhin's relief, she hadn't put any distance between them after the earlier accident. She acted as though nothing had happened at all.
As for Megumin... she glared at Jhin the entire meal, tearing into the meat in her hand as if it were him.
Only the two of them knew why she had ended up like this. Yuiyui, his mother-in-law, knew only that the pair of them had done something in that room; the details had all been sealed off behind the wind element barrier.
Komekko watched the two of them and their strange atmosphere, blinking her big eyes, whatever was going on inside that little head of hers, and then blurted out, "Brother-in-law, are you cheating?"
"Pfft!"
"Cough, cough, cough!"
"Komekko! You mustn't say things like that!"
Jhin pulled out a handkerchief and wiped down Kyaru, who had taken a faceful of sprayed cola and now looked like she'd lost all will to live. Megumin had sucked in a sharp breath, caught a mouthful of chili, and was coughing herself inside out. Yuiyui was busy plugging her youngest daughter's mouth with more food.
Hyoizaburoo kept his head down and shoveled rice, the very picture of a man who wanted no part of any of it. Kokkoro and Pecorine let their eyes travel around the circuit of Megumin, Jhin, and Kyaru, and found, to their own surprise, that Komekko's remark wasn't entirely without merit.
When Yuiyui had woken them, Kyaru and Jhin were the only two nowhere to be found in the living room, while Megumin sat with her arms folded, puffed up like a blowfish, a last trace of flush still fading from her cheeks.
The guest room had been screened off by a wind element barrier. Nobody needed to think very hard about what those two were doing in there.
"If you're choking, drink some water."
"Mm."
Megumin drank the tea, glanced at the now-empty cup, and slowly turned her head to look at her mother in disbelief. "Again?"
"You could actually taste it? That I didn't expect." Yuiyui propped her cheek on her left hand, her gentle smile betraying not the slightest hint of a woman who would drug her own daughter.
Because Pecorine had passed out before ever drinking the sleeping powder tea, she had no idea that Megumin's mother had spiked it. Seeing Yuiyui come into the kitchen of her own accord to lend a hand, she'd been delighted, cheerfully walking her through the ingredients she was using and the dishes she meant to make.
And so Yuiyui slipped the drug into the food and the tea a second time without the slightest difficulty. This round, not even Jhin escaped being knocked out.
When Megumin and Jhin came to, they were already inside a room as stifling as a furnace, their clothes long since soaked with sweat and clinging stickily to their skin.
So freezing us didn't work, and now it's heat...
Jhin sincerely admired his mother-in-law's refusal to give up, and so he stripped without a moment's hesitation.
How she had managed it was anyone's guess. The entire room was saturated with dense fire element, yet nothing had caught fire, and the window that had been sealed with solid ice was now covered by a layer of liquid crimson flame.
"Do you have no shame at all?"
Megumin sat cross-legged, elbows on her thighs, chin resting in her palm, staring speechlessly at her stark-naked boyfriend. The whole thing struck her as faintly absurd. The two of them had never actually gone all the way, and yet here she was, taking in the scene in front of her with complete composure. Not a ripple of feeling. If anything, she wanted to laugh.
"I have some. Just not much." Jhin sat down facing her, and seeing how flat her reaction was, teased, "Where did the pure, innocent jet-black Explosion mage go? Give me something to work with."
"Hmph. Did you honestly think I'd shriek like some little girl?"
"No, I suppose not. You've seen plenty of it by now, so it's only natural you're used to it. More to the point, aren't you hot?"
Sweat rolled down from Megumin's temples in beads the size of soybeans. Her expression stayed perfectly flat. "I'm not hot."
"Your clothes are soaked through, though."
"Not hot."
"There's a puddle of your sweat all over the floor."
"Not hot."
Megumin, now thoroughly locked in a contest of wills with Jhin, contradicted him at every turn. Outside the room, listening to it all, Yuiyui wanted nothing more than to charge in and bring her fist down on her idiot daughter's head.
What was the point of sulking at a time like this? Peel off the stockings, take a little initiative, and it would all be settled!
Faced with Megumin's near-impregnable defensive posture, Jhin pinched his chin and rubbed it back and forth.
Megumin took that in, quietly pleased with herself. There's nothing you can do about me now, is there? I refuse to give you what you want!
"Well, nothing for it. You've forced me to use my trump card."
Jhin traced a few strokes in the air. The motion was familiar and unfamiliar all at once, and it gave her a terrible feeling. She seemed to have forgotten that he still held a piece of her dark history in his hands.
"Even if you happen to be good-looking, even if you happen to be exactly my type, don't you dare imagine I would ever marry you!"
Crack. That was the sound of the wall around Megumin's heart splitting apart.
Her dead and buried dark history had risen up to attack her.
"I'll kill you. I am definitely going to kill you and then kill myself!"
Megumin lunged at Jhin like a vengeful ghost come to collect a soul, but he had long since guessed what she'd do. He dropped flat onto his back, seized the hem of her dress, hauled it upward, and peeled the whole thing off her with silky ease.
The two of them went at it in that room, hot and heavy in every sense. Outside, Yuiyui caught a short run of slapping sounds and grew tremendously excited, certain that this time her plan had finally worked. Before long, though, Jhin burst out through the window again, breaking that membrane of fire element with nothing but raw physical strength.
Her daughter yanked the bedroom door open with a bang. Her clothes were wet enough to wring out, her breathing came fast and shallow, and strands of hair clung to her scarlet cheeks, as though she had just been fished out of a river.
She bolted briskly into the bathroom. Yuiyui, a head full of question marks, leaned in to peer into the bedroom. Scraps of clothing lay scattered all over the tatami, and yet there was no sign of the one thing she had been hoping to see, which left her more puzzled than ever about what exactly those two had been doing in there.
____
🔥 HELP UNLOCK THE NEXT BONUS CHAPTER!
* Comment & Win: For every 5 REVIEWS on this chapter, 1 bonus chapter is released!
* Power Stones: Hit 100 POWER STONES? Bonus chapter unlocked!
* Early Access: Can't wait? Support on P@treon: Walnut-chan to read up to 40 chapters ahead and unlock a library of 60+ stories!
🔥 New history: Zenless Zone Zero: The Retired Void Hunter — posted on The_Mikudayo