Wondrous Equipment (2)
I studied Hwayeon, who had closed her eyes and tipped her face toward me. Soft, pretty brows, long even lashes, pink lips pressed lightly together — a face that all but called for a kiss.
...So wanting to kiss her isn't my fault, is it?
"How long should I make it?"
"As long as possible."
Long? And how long is that supposed to be?
I drew about ten TP out to my fingertips and compressed it, and a droplet formed that shone blue as a jewel. I spread it over Hwayeon's eyelids — and, while I was at it, stole a light kiss from her lips.
"Nnh! ...Haa."
Blushing, she covered her mouth with the back of her hand, turned her gaze in search of Franc, and asked with a perfectly serious face.
"Miss Evans. Were there no vixens making advances on Seoha at school today?"
A-a vixen?
"Ah, there weren't. ...Though I can't hold a conversation with you."
"No. I've more or less learned lip-reading. If you speak slowly, I can follow you."
"Is that so?"
"Wha—?! You already memorized enough to hold a conversation? It took me three whole days to learn the entire thing...?"
At my cry, thick with disbelief, Franc fought to hold in a laugh, and Hwayeon shot me a glare before opening her mouth.
"Hangul is an excellent system. Memorize the mouth shapes of the consonants and vowels — from the first to the last — and there's no need to deliberately drill every word after that. How did you memorize it?"
Right. Because Hangul is excellent... Ugh.
"I learned it while memorizing English words and how they're pronounced. One word at a time..."
"But you only memorized English, didn't you, Seoha? In Korean, you started conversing right away."
"...Huh? Now that I think about it, you're right?"
My blank face must have been funny. Hwayeon and Franc broke into quiet little laughs.
"In any case, Franc, you said you can handle electricity. Can you use portable devices as well?"
"Yes. Seoha bought me a tablet, so I've been using that."
"Good. I'll give you the address I use for private mail. Should anything come up, contact me there."
"I understand."
The two of them launched into this and that, leaving me out of it entirely. Franc seemed genuinely glad to be speaking with someone other than me.
"And regarding your attire, Miss Franc."
......!!
"Have you ever held a strong, deliberate will to wear clothes?"
"I never have. I've simply been like this since I first became aware, so I wondered if I had been fixed in this form."
"I see. After looking into it through several texts, I came to think that since you are a spiritual entity, a wish held strongly enough might change the form of that spirit. The true body is, in the end, the soul within the Soul Stone. This appearance ought to be regarded as a projection."
Even as she said it, Hwayeon kept glancing over to check whether Cha Soyoung was waking.
So while she was looking for a way for Franc to wear clothes, she memorized lip-reading too? And on top of that she was watching over Sophia's entry into the Phase World?
Just how competent do you have to be to compress time and spend it like that...?
Franc listened, and with the look of someone convinced, she closed her eyes and began to focus. Ugh. No way... no way, no way...
You can't put clothes on...!
As if mocking that desperate wish, Franc's body soon began to ripple — and in the next moment she was wearing a light, fluttering white dress, long and sheer enough that the silhouette of her body showed through!!
"Nooo!"
"...You really."
"Honestly."
I sank down, hollowed out, and the two of them looked at me and sighed!
Of course Franc in a white dress was beautiful enough to punch the breath out of you. But I couldn't see! Even through Spatial Perception — whether her body itself had turned into the clothes — I couldn't see those luscious nipples, or the golden thicket at the delta between her thighs, or those petals, pure and delicate as a lotus!!
"I hate you, Hwayeon!"
"..."
At that cry, steeped in bitter resentment, Hwayeon asked with a look of pure disbelief.
"You're fine with Miss Evans walking the streets bare?"
"Only I can see her anyway, so what! Even you couldn't see her with a detection skill until I put a buff on you!"
I howled it, frustration packed into every word, and Hwayeon muttered, "That is true, but..." The joy of my life, stolen like this. The resentment!
"Seoha, honestly..."
While I was truly sunk in despair, Franc wore a troubled look, thought it over — and turned her outfit back to naked!
"M-Miss Evans!"
"Well, it's as Seoha says. At present, the only people who can see me are those who receive his buff, aren't they? And those people are only Lady Siha and Miss Hwayeon. Of course, outside the house I'm embarrassed too, so I intend to wear clothes when I go out. But Seoha was so disappointed..."
She blushed faintly and smiled, soft as anything. How could a person be that kind?!
"Franc really is an angel! Compared to her, Hwayeon is... hmph!"
"What?! Kh— I-I can strip as much as you want, too!"
"That's a story for when it's just the two of us, isn't it?"
"Of course it is!"
"Franc is showing herself like that even now, though?"
At that, Hwayeon's face went scarlet, and she immediately started flinging off her tracksuit.
"Kyaa?!"
"Ack?! Wait, I was joking, joking! Don't! Don't strip!"
She doesn't need full taunt immunity, but she ought to have some resistance! What do you do if you fold completely to a provocation of this level?!
Perhaps because we were making such a racket, of all moments Cha Soyoung chose then to wake from her faint. A groan slipped out of her as she lifted her head.
"...What are you doing?"
She looked at us, and her face said she could not believe what she was seeing.
Fair enough, really. Hwayeon had thrown off her tracksuit top and her bra and was about to peel off her pants as well, and I was holding her by the arm, trying to stop her...
"Nnh..."
Only then did reason seem to return. Red all the way to her neck, Hwayeon shot off to the shower room like an arrow.
Those full breasts, swaying as she turned, felt seared into my retinas.
"What happened, that the boss is half-undressed?"
"Ahaha. Well, I teased her a little, and it just... got away from me."
At my awkward smile, Cha Soyoung let out a sigh and tried to stand, unsteady on her feet. I lent her a hand and a shoulder. She looked at me with eyes that held no feeling at all, and spoke.
"I ask that you, Mr. Jung Seoha, at the very least, refrain from playing pranks on Hwayeon. Sophia alone is burden enough."
"...Yes, ma'am."
Cha Soyoung nodded once, as if she would take me at my word, and walked unsteadily toward the showers Hwayeon had vanished into.
When the two of them came out from washing, the timing was perfect. The old butler arrived to say that dinner was ready.
It was... how do I put it. I never thought I'd find myself eating a course meal in someone's house. The maids stood at our sides and attended every bite, and it was so burdensome I couldn't have told you whether the food was going into my mouth or up my nose.
Hwayeon had little to say during the meal, and Cha Soyoung had just as little, and the discomfort only stacked. I learned, for the first time, that a dinner could be this uncomfortable. Honestly, I couldn't even remember what any of it tasted like. Out of courtesy I told the maids who had carried the dishes and the old butler that it had been wonderful, and they all smiled warmly and bowed, which only made it worse.
When I get home, I should take something for my stomach.
We sat in the living room with tea, and Hwayeon and Cha Soyoung went over the spar from earlier — what had been lacking, what needed work. I was listening quietly when a call must have come in. Hwayeon activated her Certifier and began speaking with someone.
Her expression turned grave almost at once. With a face gone a little hard, she brought up heading back.
"I had wanted to talk a little longer, and to help with your training in the hall... but something has come up at the company. It can't be helped. I'm sorry."
"Huh? No, it's fine. If it's something they'd call you for at this hour, it can't be a small thing. I ate a good dinner, and I got to see the house you grew up in. I'm satisfied with that."
I answered with a smile, and Hwayeon sighed as if she were sorry. Still — what could have happened, to put a look that heavy on her face?
I said my goodbyes to the old butler and the maids, and we left the house. I'd half worried the lady of the house might turn up partway through, but she hadn't returned by the time we left the mansion, and I was relieved.
I told the two of them to go straight to the Time River Building. I'd been planning to take a taxi myself, but Hwayeon insisted on seeing me to my door, and even Cha Soyoung said that wouldn't do and held me back by force. In the end I had no choice but to climb into the limousine.
On the way back to my house, I took the hand of Hwayeon, who sat without a word. She had been staring silently at the streets beyond the window. She closed her fingers gently around mine.
"Is it something big at the company? Is that why you're heading back?"
"...It's big. And it's bad news."
Having opened with that, Hwayeon furrowed her brow as if the weight of it had worn her thin, and answered that the call had been a report of a death in Team Six.
The first fatality in a year, she said. The air wasn't one for asking after details. I kept my mouth shut and held her hand a little tighter.
She let me out in front of my house, pressed a light kiss to my cheek, told me to get inside safely, and headed for Yeouido.
I watched the limousine shrink into the distance, then turned my steps toward home and opened my mouth.
"It couldn't be that something happened to Sophia, right?"
"Miss Sophia went in today, didn't she? If something had happened to Miss Edelberg, I think Miss Hwayeon's expression would have been darker. Or harder."
Perhaps because we had left the mansion, Franc had taken the form of the white dress again. She answered with her arm linked through mine.
"Right? If that's what it is, then it's fortunate."
Honestly, news that someone had died whom I didn't know by face or by name, three or four degrees removed, produced nothing more than a feeling of that's unfortunate. Was it wrong, thinking it didn't matter so long as no one I knew died or got hurt?
Mm... I don't know.
More than that, I was interested in Franc's skirt, fluttering so naturally at her side. Spatial Perception wasn't picking up bare skin underneath, which meant this dress was part of her spiritual body too... so how did it drift and flutter this naturally?
Out of curiosity, I caught the hem of the dress between my fingers.
"...?!"
Hm? Did Franc just flinch?
Not my imagination. She had definitely flinched.
I looked at her steadily and ran my hand down the dress, fiddling with the cloth, and Franc's shoulders began to tremble.
In that instant it felt like lightning cracked through my head. Could this be...!
Watching her face crumple just a little, I gently tickled along the hem. She trembled harder — and then suddenly whooshed up to a height my hand couldn't reach.
"Hey, Franc, no fair!"
"Pardon? What exactly is unfair!"
"What's wrong with touching clothes a little? You ran off into the air so I couldn't even touch them!"
"Th-that's... uuuh~! Seoha, you're mean! You already figured out this dress is my body too!"
"Caught me. Heheh."
"Seoha, you really..."
I deliberately took the deserted path behind the apartment complex, bickering with Franc the whole way, and we were home before I knew it.
Whew. Play around with Franc for a while and worries and anxieties vanish in no time.
Living glued to her like this, I could feel the frustration building worse and worse. When I'd lived alone, if the urge hit I just handled it myself, so nothing much had a chance to pile up. On top of that I'd watched two beauties go at it in some pretty intense pro wrestling today, which seemed to have made it worse. At this rate, Franc and Hwayeon might make another cameo in my dreams before long.
I opened the front door and stepped inside, and the smell of something delicious — they were in the middle of making dinner, apparently — hit me square in the nose. I'd eaten, but it hadn't been a satisfying dinner, and I felt like I could easily put away two more servings.
"I'm home~."
"Welcome home, son."
Mom, mid-cooking, took my greeting without even coming out of the kitchen. I tossed my bag into my room and was heading for the living room when my sister exploded out of hers like lightning, grabbed my cheeks, and started stretching them like rubber bands!
"Gack?!"
"Youuu! If you're going to be late, you're supposed to call and say you'll be late, aren't you?! Where were you, what were you doing, coming home this late?!"
"Uuugh! Ah—hah—I was—mmph!"
Feeling a vicious pain in her hands — she'd gone past pulling my cheeks to twisting them — I quickly straightened my fingers and jabbed both her sides. She hunched hard, let go of my cheeks, and backed off.
"Eep?!"
"Agh! My cheeks are gonna fall off! I was late because I went to the Time River Building — why are you pinching me the second you see me!?"
"Where did you poke me! Where, I said!"
"Your sides. So what?!"
Whether it was the poke to the ribs that set her off, my sister started swinging fists and feet with a thoroughly pissed-off face. I knew she'd do this!
I snapped on Mana Mode — Acceleration, slipped past the fist drifting slowly toward me, hopped over the leg swinging in like a low kick, planted a foot on her butt and shoved, and fled for the living room.
"Aah!"
She hadn't expected me to dodge, let alone counter. She went down wide open, then came charging after me with both eyes blazing, growling like an angry chihuahua.
So I thrust both hands out to keep her at bay and laid down a threat.
"Hmph! I'm graduating from my sandbag days, you know? Come at me if you've got the nerve!"
I'm not holding back anymore either! This time I'll flip the pecking order!!
"Whaat! You little—!"
Whether the teasing had finally gone straight to her head, my sister raised her nails and charged just like that. Seeing it, I switched Mana Mode — Acceleration on again.
Slow.
I spread both hands, caught her arms as they drifted in, shoved them aside, and circled around behind her.
"Aaaah~?"
I gave that stretched, strangely distorted voice a smug little smirk, then grabbed both her arms, hauled them up tight behind her back and locked them, and pushed the backs of her knees to force her down into a kneel.
"Uuugh~?!"
Eyes gone round, she twisted, trying to free her arms. The movement looked pretty convincing. She must have picked it up from Cha Soyoung or Hwayeon.
Hmph. As if I'd let her escape. I learned a thing or two from that spar myself, you know?
I overlapped her arms, gripped those slender wrists and locked them, pushed her shoulders until she was face-down on the fluffy wool carpet, and climbed onto her back.
At that, Dad looked this way with startled eyes.
Hehehe. Do you see, Father? This is the moment of revolution!
I shouldn't need Acceleration anymore. I released Mana Mode — Acceleration, kept only Mana Mode running, and clamped her arms so she couldn't move. She flailed both feet and yelled.
"Agh, you're heavy! Seoha, what do you think you're doing~! Get off already?!"
"Heh. Get off so you can hit me again? For the sake of revenge, I can't."
Showing off a winner's leisure to the fullest, I slid a leg under her chin, just in case, so she wouldn't smack it on the carpet and hurt herself.
"R-revenge? Ah. Eek, yaa! What are you trying to— kyaa!"
"Hehehe. They say revenge is as sweet as honey. Turns out that's true."
"Kyahaha! Stop! Don't, don't do iiit?! Ahahahaaang!"
With my one free hand I tickled her neck, poked her sides, and raked my fingers down her ribs. She started writhing like a grub, laughing like she was about to pass out.
"Nooo~. If I let you go now, you'll just charge in and hit me again, won't you?"
"Kyahahak! I-I won't. Ah...?!"
"Then I'll tickle you until your stomach cramps from laughing too hard!"
"Nooo! Ha—hi—stop! I'm sorry! Sis was wrong! I was— aaaang~!"
At her shrieks, Mom poked her head out of the kitchen, let out a small sigh, and went right back in. Dad turned his eyes to his book again with a wry smile. Franc floated in the air, watching me torment my sister as if the whole thing were entertaining.
Which meant nobody here was on my sister's side!
"If you promise not to use violence from now on, I'll stop. Say yes and it'll get easier, you know?"
"You, youuu! You think you'll get away with thiiis—aaaaaang! Kyahahahak!"
"Every time you say something other than the answer I want, I'll keep tickling. Poke, poke. Poke poke poke. Tickle tickle."
I deliberately made the sound effects with my mouth while I tormented her, and she laughed hard enough to leak tears. And the way her legs flailed... at this rate I might awaken to a dangerous hobby.
The situation of her struggling helplessly in my hands — if I did this to Franc, or to Hwayeon...
Kkh. Rock hard.
Anyway, even while taking it helplessly, the way she kept bucking, trying somehow to free her arms, was impressive. If I hadn't enhanced my strength with Mana Mode, she would have reversed this in no time.
Anyway. I had a plan prepared for when her resistance got stubborn!
If she'd been in a skirt I couldn't have used it, but today she was in comfortable elastic training pants, so I could absolutely try.
I activated Mana Mode — Acceleration again, snatched both her flailing ankles, and pulled. Maybe because she did yoga, her body was incredibly flexible, and folding her legs back was easy. A moment where flexibility turned out to be poison.
I gathered both her hands and both her feet toward her backside, then quickly pulled from my pocket the drawstring of the Soul Stone pouch I'd undone earlier, and bound her ankles and wrists together.
"Eek?! Hey! What do you think you're doing! You really—!"
Hands and feet bound together behind her back, turned into a round little caterpillar, my sister thrashed in a fury.
"You better untie this right now?! Big sis is gonna scold you. You!"
"Sis, you still can't read the room, huh? This isn't the moment to come on that strong, is it?"
"...Huh?"
"Looking at my two free hands, don't you feel something?"
I wiggled my fingers and smiled wickedly in front of her — arms and legs bound together, wriggling like a caterpillar — and her complexion worsened rapidly.
"Ah... um, hey. Hehe. Big sis was wrong. I won't do it again, so let me off just this once. Okay?"
"Yeah. Too bad — wrong!"
That's not what I want to hear!
I went around behind her, still wriggling face-down, and sat astride her folded legs.
"Hiiing?!"
"I'll give you one last chance to repent before you fall into tickle hell."
She turned her head. Her face had gone white, and when she looked at me, despair welled in her eyes!
"Now. Promise you won't raise a hand against your dear little brother from now on."
"U-uuugh."
At my demand she made a tearful face and groaned, and in the end...
"D-Dad! Stop Seohaaa!"
She cheaply called on Dad for help!!
"No!"
"Mmph—!"
I shot a hand out, covered her mouth, and was about to tickle the nape of her neck — her weak point — when Dad, without taking his eyes off his book, issued a command.
"Ahem. That's enough."
"Ugh. Dad, you're only ever soft on Sis!"
I made my dissatisfaction plain, but he pretended not to hear and didn't look up from the page. Honestly. As if he isn't the textbook definition of a daughter-obsessed dad.
"Come on. Untie me already!"
"Ngh."
I stared, displeased, at my sister demanding it full of spirit and at Dad pretending not to see. Then I had no choice. I undid the cord binding her hands and feet, and the moment she was free she scurried off to Dad's side.
"Seriously, you become an ability user and all you do is get stronger! You used your ability just now, didn't you? Is it even allowed to use abilities on ordinary people?!"
"Your Honor, I am innocent. I used no strength at all."
"Hey, you're so annoying...!"
Fists clenched tight, trembling, she didn't dare charge again.
I hadn't gotten the promise. But well — I'd inscribed my superiority in strength into her body, so maybe this was enough for today. There'd be plenty of chances ahead to fix her habits.
"Ugh, you become an ability user and get all slick and perverted, I swear..."
"I was always like this!"
"...!"
When I declared it proudly, she looked utterly dumbfounded. Then her face went red, and she muttered under her breath.
"Tiny little thing, all grown up and nothing but rotten...!"
"That's enough of that. Son, go wash up and change. Daughter, won't you give your mother a hand?"
My sister and I answered at the same time.
"Yes~."
I glared at her. She glared right back, and went into the kitchen. On the way she shivered once and stroked the spots that had been tickled. Tickle hell must have been pretty rough.
I dashed to the bathroom, washed, changed into pajamas, and came out to find her setting side dishes and spoons on the table. She asked,
"You're already in pajamas?"
"Yeah. I was gonna eat and turn in early today... oh."
Seeing Franc off to the side, watching Mom ladle the soup, I remembered something I had to do. Franc was my woman now, and there was a way for them to see her, so I ought to introduce her properly. As my woman.
"Mom, Dad. After we finish eating, I'll formally introduce Franc."
"Hm? Son, what do you mean?"
Mom tilted her head, and my sister explained.
"He can use his ability so you can see Miss Evans. Miss Evans is seriously pretty, you know? But..."
She glanced at Dad for a moment, then turned to me.
"Is it okay? Miss Evans is..."
"It's fine. She wears clothes now."
At my words Franc blushed, and moved the spiritual body of her form again... Huh? The white dress shifted this way and that, and changed into a pure white gown?
Setting the change itself aside, the dress she wore was a single length of thin, long cloth, wound round and round, with the accent gathered at her chest, one shoulder left completely bare, the hem falling to her knees.
The cloth spiraling around the sweep of her figure formed lace of its own accord, and somehow that airy, downy feeling suited her so very — truly, extraordinarily well that she looked just like a bride.
I stared, blank. Franc grew shy and gently pressed the slightly flared hem down with her hands.
"I-is it strange?"
"...If that look is strange, then the women of the world should never be allowed to wear a dress."
"What?"
"I mean, if a Franc that beautiful is strange, imagine what ordinary women would look like in one."
"Ah... nn."
I tore my eyes away from her — the shyness a full degree deeper than before — and helped my sister set the table. If I didn't at least do that, I felt like I'd just keep staring at Franc forever...
Tonight's dinner, too, was Mom's cooking. Vegetables and meat in even balance, the careful attention to nutrition plain to feel.
Until a moment ago I'd only thought, oh, I could eat a little more. Seeing the table laid out, hunger came rushing in hard.
"Thank you for the meal!"
Mm. Mm. People really do need to eat somewhere familiar. Still, now that I'd had that curious experience, maybe next time I could actually enjoy the flavors.
...Even so, I didn't think I'd ever get used to being waited on at the table.
After dinner I helped Mom and my sister clear up, and I could see Mom hurrying. She wanted to see Franc too, it seemed.
We finished the kitchen quickly. I waited until the family had sat down on the sofa, then looked at Franc, floating in the living room, and asked.
"Ready?"
"Y-yes!"
Franc checked her outfit one more time, clenched her small fists tight, and nodded. Seeing that, I drew two TP at a time from my fingertips and applied it, in order, across Mom's eyelids, then Dad's, then my sister's.
"Oh my~ If I put this on my eyelids, I can see that young lady...?!"
"Mm."
"...Wooow~."
Even my sister, who had seen Franc once before, startled at the sight of her in the dress. Mom and Dad, seeing her for the first time, seemed past the point of even being able to startle.
Platinum blonde, as if threads of gold and silver had been drawn out together, fell in a natural shimmer to her shoulders. The flush on both cheeks, set off by skin white as snow, was enchanting enough to captivate even another woman.
A slender line of neck flowed into the one bared shoulder. From there, a waist that threw her femininity into full relief, and beyond the pure-white dress, the faint curves of a woman's body — enough to leave even my sister and my mother, women themselves, with nothing to say.
If there was a woman the very word lovely was made for, wasn't it Franc?
Under the gazes fixed on her, Franc slowly descended to the floor, then offered my parents and my sister the same elegant greeting she had first shown me.
"I-I am Flandre Evans. Please, look kindly upon me."
"Uh, her name is Flandre Evans. Her nickname is Franc. She says please look kindly on her. A-and,"
I swallowed, and dropped a bomb on my family, who were still staring blankly at Franc.