The Girl Curious About the Taste of Adulthood
"All right. I'll guide you into a dazzling adult world—one that isn't too bitter."
I answered in a calm voice as I drew an empty shaker from beneath the counter. Yui's eyes were sparkling with her wish to feel the adult world, but I still couldn't hand a magical girl with a face that young a strong drink whose proof had been cunningly buried under sweetness. Do that, and there was no telling what terrifying scolding Shinano would deliver tomorrow. Even so, I couldn't lightly brush aside an order from a guest so full of anticipation.
I packed the cold metal shaker with generous cubes of ice, then poured in, by careful measure, bright orange juice, lemon sharp enough to wake the tongue, and pineapple juice to deepen the sweetness. I sealed the lid and shook in rhythm, and the cheerful clink of ice laid itself over the jazz drifting through the sanctuary. From her seat, Yui's gaze chased my hands back and forth, and every time the shaker rose and fell, those clear eyes, brimming with curiosity, glittered under the lights.
When a cold frost finally bloomed across the shaker, I stopped. I set a pretty, pre-chilled cocktail glass on the counter, poured the luminous yellow drink into the thin glass in a smooth stream, and finished it with a thin curl of lemon peel resting on the rim. Then I slid the glass onto a coaster and spoke.
"For your first step into the adult world, I'll lead you into a beautiful fairy tale. This cocktail is called Cinderella."
Yui clasped both hands together on the counter and let out a bright cheer.
"Wooow...! The color's so pretty! It's sparkling gold under the lights!"
She carefully took the stem of the thin glass in both hands and brought it to her lips. As the yellow drink slid down her throat, her round eyes curved in delight.
"Mm...! It's sweet! Super refreshing, and it tastes so good!"
Not a single drop of alcohol had gone into it, but I hoped the three fruits, woven together, would open a splendid ball inside her mouth. Yui kicked the legs dangling beneath the barstool and burst into a giggle.
"Cinderella—Yui loves the name too~! Right now Yui feels like a princess under a spell, riding in a pumpkin carriage!"
Riding that bright, refreshing high, she leaned forward with the glass still in hand and looked in at me behind the counter.
"Bartender Oppa is the best! Getting dizzy on strong liquor isn't nearly as cool as something this tasty and happy! Yui's gonna press this sweet, pretty memory tight into Yui's precious album. It's too good a memory to forget, so Yui's keeping it for a really, really long time!"
Yui lifted the glass just to eye level and shot me a bright wink. Even the faint smudge of dirt on her cheek couldn't dim that spotless, radiant energy.
"Is that so? Adults tend to wipe the memory of whatever they drank that night clean away. The Greek gods had so much they were forced to remember that they envied humans, who could forget."
My answer settled over the quiet flow of jazz, and Yui—who had been smiling as brightly as a princess in a pumpkin carriage—paused with the glass still in her hand. The legs that had been happily swinging in the air went still.
"They envied forgetting? Whoa! That's, like, super poetic!"
Brimming with curiosity, Yui tapped the clear ice in her glass with the straw and tipped her head cutely to one side.
"Adults are so weird! Yui goes out to play every single day because Yui wants to make tons of precious, happy memories!"
There wasn't a trace of gloom or sadness on the girl's face. If anything, she chattered as brightly as a little kid showing off her adventures.
"But grown-ups drink so they can borrow the power of liquor and erase those precious memories themselves, right? It seems like such a waste... but also kinda cool, like a movie hero!"
Clink, slurp. With the bright knock of ice, Yui bit down on the straw and drew another cool mouthful of the golden Cinderella. When she let the straw go, her eyes sparkled even brighter from the pleasant sweetness.
"The part about the gods envying humans is totally cool too! See, Bartender Oppa isn't just handsome on the outside—your head is packed full, like a real adult!"
Laughing brightly and rocking this way and that on the barstool, she looked exactly like a baby bird flapping its wings.
"Okay! When Yui grows up into a real adult someday, and something gets so complicated that Yui wants to empty her whole head, Yui's coming to find Oppa! Then you have to make Yui a bitter drink of forgetting, bitter enough that even the gods would be jealous. Promise!"
Yui thrust a slender pinky across the counter and grinned playfully.
"But not today! Yui is absolutely not forgetting this sweet, zingy taste of Cinderella, or the cool story Oppa told. Yui's gonna pack it tight in her head and brag about it to everyone tomorrow!"
The fragrant aftertaste of the juice hadn't even faded—no more than the brightness of her expression had. Yui, who had been lightly swinging her legs on the chair, rattled the ice in the emptied glass, then pressed close to the counter and looked up at me.
"Hey, Oppa. Yui, um... that fairy-tale taste just now was really good, but... this time Yui wants to know what it actually feels like to get drunk! On something super, super sweet!"
She was smiling as innocently as a child proposing the most exciting adventure in the world: a magical girl shaking her pink twin-tails, pestering me for real liquor. She might look young, but she was unmistakably an adult, and this place existed as a sanctuary for girls like her when they were worn out. From among the lady-killer drinks that bury their proof under sweetness, I picked out the recipe that would suit Yui best.
From the display behind the counter I took, one after another, a brown bottle of Kahlúa, Baileys—the soft cream liqueur—and amaretto, prized for its fragrant almond. The three of them together would make a sweetness fit for heaven... but with this perfect cocktail, the fatal problem wasn't the mixing. It was the name.
The heavy liqueurs poured down over the ice in the mixing glass. Instead of a shaker, I used a bar spoon to gently break the layers and fold them together, and under the ceiling lights the cocktail began to glow thick and soft, like an elegant café latte. Yui narrowed her eyes and sniffed, already half-lost in the rich coffee, chocolate, and nutty fragrance rising from the glass.
"Whoaa... even the smell is grown-up! This one's way richer than the last one!"
She carefully lifted the glass and took a long sip. In an instant Yui's cheeks flushed like a ripe apple. Her eyes went a little unfocused, and a pleased smile spread across her lips.
"Ehehe... this is really... amazing. Yui's body suddenly feels all warm and toasty. Oppa... what did you say this was called? It tastes like it's gonna stick—bam!—right in Yui's memory!"
Instead of answering, I busied my hands and pretended to be occupied elsewhere, but Yui—cheeks already red with the alcohol—reacted one step faster than I'd calculated.
Grab.
"Hey, Oppa! Where are you going! Yui really, reeeally wants to know the name!"
The arm I'd reached out with, meaning to take the empty glass and slip past the question, was caught just like that. The hand Yui thrust across the counter was hotter than I'd expected. Her eyes were a little more languidly unfocused than before, and the sweet afterscent of Baileys clung to the corner of her lips. She gave my arm a light tug toward herself and tilted her head like a child waiting for the right answer.
She's a pure-hearted magical girl with a buzz on. By tomorrow morning, she'll probably forget all of it. In the end I gave in and put the name in my mouth.
"It's called an Orgasm. It got the name because it lets you feel that flushed, rising warmth inside the sweetness."
The moment that troublesome word slipped past my lips, the air in the sanctuary seemed, for an instant, to heat in a strange way. Before Yui could latch onto its suggestive meaning, I rushed on with the most complicated, difficult explanation I could manage, hoping she'd lose interest at once.
"In fact, the name doesn't refer only to sensory pleasure. From a physiological standpoint..."
At the flood of difficult words pouring from my mouth—as if countless terms were dancing however they pleased inside Yui's head—her eyes rolled this way and that, chasing the shape of my lips. She quietly loosened the hand gripping my arm and looked up at me with a blank face.
"Uuuh... huh...? Physi... pleasure... whaaat...?"
Yui tried to grope back through her memory, then seemed to give up on thinking altogether. She smiled sheepishly and bumped her forehead against my arm.
"Hehe... Yui doesn't knooow... Oppa's voice is so nice Yui can't hear a thing... Yui just knows it's a super amazing, cool name! The adult world really does make you study even a single name, huuuh..."
Yui's languid, warm breath scattered softly across my shirt.