Cough… that… Machi, take off your clothes."
After Uvogin and Nobunaga left, Rimo clearly felt that the atmosphere in the room suddenly became strange, as if the air itself had taken on a faint pink color.
Machi pursed her lips slightly. After a short silence, she spoke in a voice that was a little lower than usual.
"Rimo… can we go back to my room?"
Although Machi's expression still looked calm on the surface, Rimo, who had spent enough time observing people from Meteor City, immediately noticed that the tips of her ears were faintly red.
"Ah… oh, of course."
Rimo reacted quickly.
Indeed, when Uvogin and Nobunaga were around, everything felt rough and straightforward. But Machi was different. As a girl, undressing in the living room would obviously feel uncomfortable, especially in a place like Meteor City, where children mature early just to survive.
Even in Rimo's previous life, an eleven-year-old girl already understood the difference between men and women.
Speaking of which, Rimo remembered that he had already experienced puppy love back in third grade in his previous life. At that time, he was actually two years younger than Machi was now.
After the two of them entered Machi's room, Machi turned her back to Rimo and began taking off her shirt.
Rimo subconsciously shifted his gaze slightly downward.
Looking at Machi's slender and pale back, Rimo couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
Growing up in a place like Meteor City, surrounded by garbage mountains, pollution, hunger, and violence, Machi was still able to maintain such clean and fair skin.
If that wasn't natural beauty, then what was?
Now that he thought about it carefully, most of the people who would later join the Phantom Troupe weren't ugly at all.
Pakunoda's appearance was influenced by her ethnic culture, and she deliberately altered herself, so her original looks were hard to judge.
Kortopi hid behind his hair all year round, so no one knew what he actually looked like.
Uvogin was a rough man, but he clearly had his own appeal. Nobunaga, despite acting like a delinquent swordsman, also had a certain charm.
The only one who could barely be called "not good-looking" was Franklin, but people who liked that type would probably find him very attractive.
As for the female members, they were all outstanding in their own ways. Machi went without saying. There were also those who were strong, tall, and carried a dangerous kind of beauty.
(Speaking of which… should I accept Pakunoda in the future? I really like her personality, but objectively speaking, her face is pretty ordinary.)
Cough.
No, no, no.
Rimo forcefully pulled his thoughts back.
Focus.
"Machi, I'm going to start… cough, I'm coming."
"…Mm."
Even though Rimo's hand didn't actually touch her body, Machi still felt a wave of heat pass close to her back. Her neck slowly began to turn red.
The process that followed was already familiar to Rimo.
He carefully injected Nen into Machi's body, guiding the aura through her closed Aura Nodes, forcing them to open one by one.
Compared to Uvogin's violent body and Nobunaga's sharp senses, Machi's aura felt more delicate, like threads weaving together.
After completing the entire process, Rimo successfully awakened Machi's Nen.
Seeing Machi breathing a little faster, her face faintly flushed, Rimo decided not to rush her.
Unlike Uvogin and Nobunaga, Machi hadn't fully focused during the awakening, so she lost a bit more aura in the process.
Letting her rest was the right choice.
"Ahhhhhh!! Toilet! Toilet!!"
The moment Rimo stepped out of Machi's room, Uvogin's loud roar echoed through the entire building.
Rimo was still on the second floor, yet his ears rang slightly.
Honestly, Uvogin's voice really deserved to be called a future anti–Shadow Beast weapon.
"Uvogin! What the hell are you doing?!"
Rimo rubbed his ears and shouted downstairs.
"Hehehe, I finally got revenge for the last time!"
Before Uvogin could explain properly, Rimo reached the ground floor and saw Nobunaga walking in, his face swollen and bruised.
The moment Uvogin heard Nobunaga's voice, he exploded again from inside the bathroom.
"You ask this perverted lunatic what kind of fight that was! He didn't care about anything else. He just kept aiming at my lower half! I've never seen someone so twisted!"
Uvogin's voice was filled with grievance, like a three-hundred-pound child being bullied.
Originally, Uvogin had simply wanted to test how strong he had become after awakening Nen.
Who would've thought that Nobunaga, this thick-browed madman, wouldn't fight normally at all? No matter how Uvogin attacked, Nobunaga didn't defend properly. He focused entirely on one target.
And the worst part was that Nobunaga used Nen-enhanced strikes.
This wasn't just revenge. This was personal.
"You blind bastard! You had to go for that kind of move?!"
"I, Nobunaga Hazama, swear that today I've reclaimed my honor!"
Nobunaga announced proudly, despite his face being beaten into something resembling a pig's head.
Uvogin, still trapped in the bathroom, clutched the tissue with shaking hands.
"Nobunaga… you just wait… next time I'll make sure you regret being born!"
Rimo's lips twitched as he tried very hard not to laugh.
For some reason, looking at Nobunaga standing there with his head raised like a victorious rooster, Rimo felt a strange sense of destiny.
These two were absolutely meant to fight each other for life.
…
Night fell quietly.
As usual, Rimo and the others sat around the huanghuali wooden table for dinner.
The food was still created through Rimo's materialization ability.
Now that he was more skilled, Rimo no longer needed to awkwardly touch raw ingredients directly. He could even materialize plates and utensils together with the dishes.
After resting in her room for a while, Machi came downstairs.
Rimo had been a little worried that the atmosphere might feel awkward.
But it turned out he was overthinking.
Under Uvogin and Nobunaga's constant bickering, the mood remained the same as usual. Machi's expression didn't change either, as if nothing special had happened.
Only Rimo felt slightly guilty.
"Rimo, I seriously love you. How do you even come up with all this food? Even if I imagined things out of thin air, I wouldn't be able to think of this many dishes."
Uvogin sighed deeply while picking his teeth.
Machi and Nobunaga nodded in agreement.
Aside from the first Kobe beef, everything Rimo had made afterward was food from his previous world.
Various Chinese dishes completely overwhelmed their senses.
Rimo rolled his eyes at Uvogin.
"Don't be disgusting. These are just dishes from my hometown."
A faint look of nostalgia flashed through Rimo's eyes.
He didn't know if he'd ever get the chance to go back.
His parents still had younger children to take care of. Even if they eventually learned that he had disappeared, they probably wouldn't collapse because of it…
As Rimo sank into his thoughts, Machi quietly reached out and gently held his hand beneath the table.