Ia Noona (1)
“What... what is this...?”
When Ia Ris arrived at Liar's Trap, clad in her white coat and kicking off the air, she couldn't comprehend the scene unfolding before her eyes.
“Hoo, huah! I almost died for real! Wow!”
A-rank and B-rank awakeners sprawled across the ground, and in the midst of them, a familiar F-rank awakener panting heavily and making a huge fuss. A gate still wide open without a single trace of the monster. And...
“A hole in the sky...?”
A massive gap right in the middle of the thick clouds—one that could never form naturally.
Something had definitely happened here, but she couldn't even guess what.
“Oh? Ia Noona, you're here!”
Ia Ris, whose gaze had been stolen by the enormous hole punched through the sky, snapped back to reality at the familiar voice from ahead.
“Ah! P-Paster!”
Ia Ris, lost in the giant wind hole in the sky, suddenly remembered why she'd rushed here at full speed at the sound of Paster's voice.
The hole piercing the clouds was so bizarre it had made even her—Paster's most important goal in life—forget about him for a moment. But now that Paster was right in front of her, no hole in the sky could hold her attention anymore.
“P-Paster, are you okay? You look fine at least on the outside.”
Ia Ris approached him with worry etched across her face and clasped his hand tightly between both of hers.
“W-Wait a sec, Ia Noona. If you grab me like that out of nowhere...”
Caught off guard by the sudden skinship, Paster tried to pull back, but there was no escaping the grip of an S-rank awakener like Ia Ris.
Seeing him apparently unharmed eased her mind. With her heart calming, the anticipation and excitement she'd felt—briefly overshadowed by worry when she got his text saying Ia Noona, it hurts—surged back up in her chest.
“N-Noona? Can we... do something about this hand first...”
“No way. I'm not letting go.”
“Y-Yes? Why not?”
“Because you called me Noona. Now I don't wanna let go?”
And now he was calling her “Ia Noona,” flipping the strong female switch deep inside her. She flashed him a relaxed, seductive smile and teasingly parried his flustered words.
“What's wrong with holding hands? No one's watching anyway. And isn't it normal for us to hold hands like this?”
“Y-Yes? W-What do you mean 'us'? What kind of 'us' is that...?”
“We're the kind who text without a care in the dead of night. The kind where you call me Noona and I call you that? Doesn't that mean holding hands is fine?”
Ia Ris's sudden bold advance left Paster flustered in succession. Even Ska, Lapis, and Silk Blond—whom he'd casually brushed off head-on—had never hit him with this soft yet forceful feminine vibe.
Still playing the relaxed senior, Ia Ris lightly asked, “Do you not like holding my hand, by any chance?”
“N-No, it's not that I dislike it, it's just... kinda embarrassing...”
“I like holding your hand, Paster. My heart's racing and it feels exciting. You don't hate it, and I love it so much. Isn't it better all around to keep holding like this than to let go?”
Not some self-centered leap like If you don't hate it, that's good enough! or Embarrassed? So you don't hate it, just embarrassed, huh?—her words respected his feelings while voicing her own hopes, and they landed with surprising persuasive power on Paster.
“Of course, if you really hate it, I'd have no choice but to let go... But at least remember that I came rushing here in the middle of the night over one text from you.”
Ska was the type to always jump to self-centered conclusions, and Paster had spent 15 years by her side getting decisions forced on him. Maybe as a side effect, he fell completely for Ia Ris's kind yet assertive way of stating exactly what she wanted.
“W-Well then... guess we'll just keep holding.”
“That's right, isn't it? Paster little bro?”
“Huh? Oh, uh... yeah, Ia Noona.”
“Hehe, hehehet. I love it when you call me Noona. My heart was full of worry and anxiety on the way here. But now that I'm here, only good things are happening.”
Under the dark night sky, her mid-length brown hair shimmering in the streetlights, smiling softly like moonlight—Ia Ris delivered a pretty fresh shock to Paster.
“Ah...”
It was enough to wipe away memories of his date-fight-sex with Ska that day and his apology-sex with Lapis.
She's pretty. If Silk Blond, teary-eyed Ska, or coquettish Lapis were pretty like something inhuman, Ia Noona was just... pretty. Only good things—and it really felt that way...
Wait, only good things?
Lost in her beauty, he'd forgotten to think—but her words only good things are happening jogged something in his mind.
“Ah! I-Ia Noona! You have stuff to do! We can't just stand here!”
“Y-Yes? Paster? What's suddenly...?”
Snapping back as the forgotten memory hit him amid the chaos, Paster gripped her hand and looked up at the sky.
His anxious gaze toward the heavens pulled Ia Ris back to her senses from the pink-tinged mood.
Still staring seriously at the sky, Paster began explaining what he'd briefly forgotten.
“It's not over yet. I managed to launch the bastard into the sky, but I didn't kill it.”
“Bastard... you mean?”
“The strong monster I mentioned on the phone earlier. It called itself Alpha. Wolf-type, black mane that stood out. If we named it Silk-senpai style... Wolfie. Anyway, when it charged with the fastest, strongest rush it'd shown—aiming to turn me and all the other awakeners into mincemeat—I staked my life and blasted it away...”
“W-Wait. Alpha what?”
At the sudden info dump, Ia Ris held out her palm to stop Paster's rambling mouth.
“Calm down first, and slowly. Can't you summarize it neatly and sensibly on your own? Dumping it all out of nowhere like that—it's cute like an immature junior, but hard to follow.”
“A-Ah, yeah. S-Sorry.”
“I'll help you calm down first.”
“No need for th—ugh.”
To settle the battle excitement creeping back up in his chest, she petted his head under the pretext of helping him relax.
With their height difference—her eye level at his collarbone—she had to raise her arm pretty high, but her strokes were so natural, like she'd practiced.
Pure ulterior motives in that petting, but since he'd admitted holding hands wasn't weird for “them,” he couldn't complain about a head pat either.
To Paster, fumbling from his first head pat since the orphanage, she asked in a gentle voice, “Now, tell Noona what happened? What went down with Alpha?”
“Ah, well, y'see...”
※※※
“So to sum up: right at the desperate moment before Alpha Black Mane could crash into the ground like a meteor. You reflexively used Rabbit Hole to redirect its path with your fist, sending it flying straight up into the sky with all that downward speed and power?”
“Yeah, you summarized it perfectly, Noona.”
“Of course. I'm your Noona. Anyway, Black Mane's got crazy pride, so it'll come right back here. For revenge on the Paster who launched it. So don't worry. Noona will handle everything now.”
Flapping her doctor's coat as she spoke, Ia Ris looked like a hero with a cape billowing to Paster's eyes.
To him, she was a dangerous woman trying to claim him—but in this moment, no one was more reliable.
“Ah, ah... I b-believed in you all alo—...”
At her gallant back and words Noona will handle everything, Paster let go of the tension he'd been holding.
“Seriously, Paster. Next time a dangerous enemy like this shows up, don't hesitate—bring me along first. I really hate seeing you get hurt...”
Pfsh!
Thud.
“...Huh?”
At the eerie sound from behind, Ia Ris turned—and saw Paster face-down in a pool of blood.
“Paster?”