Please Get Better
"Oh, oh, woooow..."
"Hehe. What do you think? Looks like fun, right?"
"Y-yes... it looks super, super fun...!"
The instant we stepped into the manga cafe, Batori's eyes went huge, her whole face lighting up with delight. Fortunately it wasn't a busy hour, so the place was quiet — and the moment we walked in, we were met with row upon row of shelves packed tighter than a library, hundreds and thousands of volumes wedged into every available inch.
For someone who looked like she'd never set foot in a place like this, it had to be an overwhelming kind of joy. I sincerely doubted Batori's personality would have ever let her come here alone, of her own free will.
"Shall we pick out a room first? We could sit at one of those tables, but... claiming a whole room is way more comfortable than a table."
"Y-yes...!"
"Hehe."
I couldn't help smiling. Batori's reactions were just that cute. If she weren't an Eodeokshini — if she'd had a tail like a dog or a wolf — I was certain it would have been wagging itself into a blur right about now.
We wandered the cafe together at an easy pace and settled on a small room tucked into the farthest corner. For two people as small as we were, it felt pretty spacious. That said... the room itself was still on the small side.
The floor was covered in a soft, springy mat, with a few blankets and pillows scattered around — a little nest of a room where you could sit, sprawl, and lose yourself in a book. It didn't look like the kind of place you'd spend any time being active.
"Woooow... Counselor, it's so, so big in here... and the floor is so squishy..."
"Right? It looks perfect for reading."
"Heh..."
The way she kept pressing and patting at the floor, utterly enchanted, was adorable. Anyone who saw a little goblin girl this cute would want to dote on her — so how on earth had she ended up this shy, this easily embarrassed, this starved of confidence? Of course... there were probably any number of reasons. A person's personality was shaped and reshaped by all kinds of things, after all.
"Shall we go browse for some books?"
"Y-yes...!"
"This is a reading place, though. Keep your voice down just a little, okay?"
"Y-yes..."
...Not sure what actually changed there.
Anyway, I led her back out into the stacks. I didn't know much about manga, honestly, but the whole point of a place like this was grabbing whatever looked interesting and just enjoying it. With this many books, why limit yourself to one?
"Hehe..."
I found myself smiling again. I didn't know any of the titles, but I was looking forward to it all the same. And Batori, staring at the shelves crammed with volume after volume, looked just as excited — so we decided to pick our books separately, and split up for a bit to make our selections.
"What did you pick up, Batori?"
"Ah, um... it's a romance manga that's been really popular lately...? And, um, a new volume just came out, so, um... hehe..."
"Hmm..."
No idea what that is. Then again, I barely read manga to begin with. I was usually too busy with work... or too busy hunting down photos of cute, pretty, fluffy, or sleek beastfolk heroes. I'd never taken much of an interest in manga or any other kind of subculture.
"Wow, it looks like a lot of fun. And we've got this nice spot all set up. Perfect for kicking back and reading."
"Hehe... you think so...? I'm really looking forward to it too...! The floor is so soft, and the blankets are so warm — it's going to be great for reading!"
There was no reason to kill the mood or wipe that smile off her face. So I gave her a suitably agreeable answer and stretched out beside her.
As for what I'd picked... it was just a manga. A completely unknown manga. Honestly, I'd just pulled volume one of something I'd never even heard of off the shelf. The reason was simple enough. I didn't know any of them anyway.
"Hehe..."
Well, Batori had been in such a good mood that the corners of her mouth hadn't come down once. And I got to slack off on the company dime in complete comfort!
Even if I fell asleep like this, it wouldn't be sleeping on the job behind the Team Leader's back — it would be falling asleep while reading manga. Net gain, as far as I was concerned.
"C-Counselor? Why are you looking at me like that...? Is there something on my head?"
"Ah. I was just looking at your horns. They're fascinating."
And I got to admire her horns while I was at it, too.
"Uh..."
"Would it be okay if I stroked them gently while we read?"
So I asked, the way I always did when I got bored. Those horns really did make me want to touch them every time I saw them. That uniquely smooth texture was endlessly interesting... and after meeting with Saran recently and not getting to touch her tongue, I kept finding my eyes drawn to Batori's horns instead.
If I was being completely honest, I'd wanted to touch Saran's tongue myself. A real snake tongue — thinner than a regular person's, but not so impossibly thin that she couldn't pronounce anything, the way an actual snake's would be. I'd wanted to feel that.
"......"
"Is that a no?"
Anyway, that was why I asked Batori. Even if she said no, it wouldn't have gotten in the way of reading... I was just bored. I just wanted to touch them. There wasn't any bigger reason than that. Then again... I was usually like this anyway.
"Uh, um, nngh..."
Unlike me, she looked like she was agonizing over it. Her eyes dropped all the way to the floor, a faint flush coloring her cheeks, her whole expression full of worry.
Kind of cute.
So soft.
It had been a long time since I'd seen an adult woman so much smaller than myself — and she was a girl with dokkaebi horns, which only made her cuter. Add in the white-and-black hair and those red eyes, and the whole mysterious-little-girl package made every reaction of hers that much more adorable.
"I-it's okay...!"
"Oh."
"If it's you, Counselor... u-um, please be... gentle?"
"Ooooh..."
Okay, that's actually ridiculously cute.
I was also pretty surprised she'd given permission so easily again. Last time I'd touched them, they'd clearly been a pretty sensitive spot — so the fact that she was letting me do it again this readily was a little startling. I was starting to seriously wonder if I'd aimed my last hypnosis in the wrong direction.
Last time, I'd just told her not to trust the words of strangers or people she wasn't familiar with so easily... maybe I needed to change the type of suggestion entirely and tell her not to trust people too much in general...?
"......"
"Hyaah?!"
"Ah. I'll be gentle."
"Y-yes..."
I'm still going to touch them, though.
And so we started reading.
I enjoyed my book with Batori stretched out beside me, stroking her horn as I turned the pages. The manga itself wasn't all that interesting, but it was more than enough to kill time as entertainment — the kind of mindless comic that was perfectly suited to zoning out. And the reason I could keep reading it anyway was that I was reading it while slacking off on the clock. Even something that trivial felt fun under those conditions.
"Hah."
On top of that, the horn of the girl sitting next to me felt wonderful under my fingers, and the distinctive scent coming off her — something like flowers — was more than a little pleasant.
"Hnnn..."
"She fell asleep."
At some point, Batori had drifted off. The book she'd been reading had clearly been interesting, but she'd started getting drowsy about halfway through.
"...Pfft."
We'd started out lying down to read, but keeping that position had made my back ache, so I'd sat up and leaned against the wall instead. Then her head had begun to nod, her eyes slipping shut... so I'd just let her rest it on my shoulder, and now here she was, sound asleep without a care in the world.
"..."
Originally I'd just planned to chat a little and slack off. But with things turning out like this...
I started thinking a little too hard.
I'd hypnotized her last time, but looking at her now, that hypnosis clearly hadn't been enough. I was pretty sure I'd given her suggestions to stop caring so much about other people's eyes, to raise her self-esteem, and not to let people fool her so easily. It just didn't seem like any of it had taken as strongly as I'd hoped.
"Hmm."
There she was at last — a little Eodeokshini, resting comfortably against my shoulder with her eyes closed. Whispering quietly wouldn't be a problem even in a manga cafe, so I decided to put her under a little more strongly this time.
I flicked my fingers, softly.
"Batori... slowly... slowly now."
She wasn't just relaxed. She was completely at ease — truly, deeply asleep — which made dropping her into hypnosis, and then easing her further down into her inner consciousness, almost effortless.
"Batori. When people look at you lately, how does that feel?"
"I'm scaaared..."
"But you can stand it? When it's just a few people looking at you."
"I-it's scary, but... I'm okay..."
"Hmm... then if about ten passersby were looking at you, would that be very scary?"
"Yeees..."
Asleep, and still answering my voice one question at a time — this little goblin girl. She really did come across as even shyer, even more fragile in her self-worth, than I had imagined, and it worried me. Truly... honestly...
"...Batori. You're going to get used to people's eyes, little by little. Right now, even three or four people are enough to make you shrink into yourself, enough to scare you. But it's going to get better. Slowly."
"Yeees..."
"The reason people keep looking at you lately is because you're doing well."
I wanted her to get better. I really did. She was a cute, pretty girl whose horns were convenient to pet, but up close... she was almost painful to look at. I couldn't not say it.
"And another thing, Batori. If some stranger suddenly walked up and started talking to you, would you believe what they said that easily?"
"Nooo...?"
"......Huh?"
What?
For someone who said that, hadn't she been trusting me way too easily...?
I'd asked the question of her inner self. The answer should have been something close to an unambiguous fact. So why was it coming out like this?
When I'd asked to touch her horns just a little while ago — and every time after that, whenever I asked her for something or told her something — she kept agreeing too readily, believing me too readily. It had worried me enough that I'd been meaning to do something about it.
I didn't follow up with any related hypnosis after that. But that answer alone was more than enough to leave me completely thrown.