The Purity of a Rental Girlfriend

Reflexes must be honed throughout the years. The incoming fist was but a blur to Raven; she couldn’t register it before I dodged it for her. The abrupt turn of events stunned Raven, which gave me free rein over her muscles. I skipped a few steps back, bringing in some distance as a buffer.

“Don’t do anything,” I ordered in Raven’s mind.

“Endo-kun, why are you doing this?” Raven asked her assailant. I wondered whether she paid attention to what I said. Her heart found a reason for its pounding. The possibility of affection, now shattered.

E.T.’s silence emanated a calculated malice; his face shifted under the cold white light from the bedside lamp, contrasted with a neutral expression. His attractive features took on a new meaning. An unfeeling machine.

He charged me again. I had my stance ready for him and sidestepped to dodge his blow. The strike dispersed the nearby air that brushed against my face. The attack would have been painful if it had connected.

The attack missed. Before he could regain his balance, I leaped at the opportunity and kicked him with as much force as Raven’s body could muster.

The impact sent E.T. stumbling across the room. His wobbly steps reminded me of a tumbler doll. He grasped the edge of the dresser to regain his balance. I had to go on the offensive if I wanted to end the fight. To do that, I had to get permission, grudgingly.

“Don’t suddenly flinch or freeze up when I attack him. Or do you want to be here all day, acting as a passive punching bag?”

“Can we solve this peacefully?” Raven asked. I wasn’t the slightest bit surprised. She expected us to call it a day and go have afternoon tea.

E.T. surely thought that Raven was addressing him, and his response was to open the cabinet and take out a bow. Its appearance flaunted an arrogant nobility. Black stripes ran across the weapon's limbs; the pattern gave the illusion of undulation. I questioned how a bow this long could fit in such a cramped space.

Even though my quasi-omniscience couldn't tell me directly what it is, scouring from the culture and mythology of Japan yielded me a guess: Hama Yumi, the evil-destroying bow.

E.T. grabbed an arrow from the same cabinet and drew the bow at me. I searched for the closest object I could fashion into a shield. A pillow on the bed.

Too far away.

Dodging wasn’t an option either. From what I knew about the weapon, the stronger the user's conviction, the more it would empower them. I should bet on his lack of conviction and try to…

I was reminded of something from the past. The thought translated into a sensation. I was clutched by the hands of the dead. Mixed among them, as their leader, was a distinctive pair of arms with much richer vitality. Familiar, because they were mine once, mine to control, mine to sin with. But now, it was part of the mirages that chained me in place, extinguishing any action.

As a result, I could only raise Raven’s arms in surrender and remark using her voice, “You have the Hama Yumi. Am I the evil you are going to vanquish?”

“Oh ho. You know what it is?” E.T. chuckled, a hint of humanity returning. He lowered his aim slightly, about to relax the taut, a moment of his lowered guard that I could have seized. I could have rushed forward and snatched the bow away from him. That way, I wouldn’t have to dance to his tune anymore.

I had risked Raven’s life before, too, but this time, I had no justification. No force driving me past the abyss, where the sleeping whispers dwelled. Scrap that. What I really meant was that the risky move wouldn’t help the situation.

That said, Raven had to be an idiot and step forward. “Excuse me…”

The tension relit as E.T. tautened the bowstring again. Raven stopped, emphasizing that her hands were still raised. “Why did you attack me? What do you want?”

E.T. smiled, and his charming aura returned. If there weren’t an arrow staring down at Raven’s face, she would have been squirming with awkwardness. He let his enchanting voice dismantle the unease. “I’m going to put away this weapon. And if you attack me, I won’t hold back, and I won’t work with Yonna-san and you.”

“Yonna-san? Who is…”

“Yes! You passed my test as well. Your skill is as great as the rumors say.” I hijacked Raven’s question to keep up the cover story. Normally, fighting for muscle control was too messy, as conflicting commands could cause unpredictable movements. But I had to make this point clear, or the past week of preparations would go up in smoke.

To throw Raven a bone, I whispered this in her mind. “This person is the Robin Hood. Let that sink in.” The casual tone of my remark contrasted with its significance. One of the most evasive criminals in the world, the person who held the key to Raven’s questions, was delivered to her on a platter.

She didn’t give it time to sink in; instead, she asked E.T., “Are you really the Robin Hood?” Ever so direct.

E.T. relaxed his bow, gently placing it aside, as if it were porcelain that had already cracked. “I don’t understand why you are asking this. Yonna-san said you are mentally troubled, but I didn't realize it would be like this.” Guilty as charged. I did tell him that to ease any suspicions spurred by Raven’s cluelessness.

“Yonna is the alias I used to contact him.” Feeling particularly generous today, I passed along this information into Raven’s head. I couldn’t see her pout forming, but the feeling of the facial muscles shifting told me plenty.

Her subtle reaction struck a strange chord in me. Warmth wrapped around my soul, pulling the curtains on the witching hour that had disturbed my mind. It was a resonance from another time, when I would freely share information with a person.

“I'm not mentally troubled,” Raven said, disrupting my chain of thought.

“She said you would say this,” E.T. replied almost instantly.

“Damn it.” Raven clutched her head, probably racking her brain for a defense. Her conclusion? Moving on and forgetting my slander of her mental well-being. “Listen, let’s cut to the chase. I'm here to publicize the information you have about the magical artifact trade. That's it.”

E.T. took a moment to un-knit his eyebrows. “Publicize? I don’t need you to publicize anything for me. Yonna-san told me you can help me in another way.”

“Huh?” Raven’s body heated faster than a radiator. It wasn’t hard to guess what she was thinking; the real question was why her mind would shift to that place so quickly.

“Yeah, you are his rental girlfriend.” I delivered fuel directly to the fire in her mind. Perhaps the most pointless lie I had told. But I didn’t regret saying it. The mischief granted me a strange sense of comfort.

“What am I to you?” Another point-blank statement from Raven. But I had to note that this sounded like what a distraught girlfriend would say.

“Sit down, please.” E.T. pointed to the bed. Raven’s whole body convulsed as if possessed by a tumble dryer. Still, she complied, though her steps were plagued with tension, akin to the walking dead.

“Fine, I promise nothing sexual will happen,” I conceded this to her mind. She didn’t acknowledge it, but a bit of her smile returned, and a sliver of relaxation emerged.

E.T. crouched to access the safe inside the lower cabinets. Fingers speeding on the keypad, he opened the box to take out a mirror from inside. Another magical artifact. My best guess would be the Eight-Hand Mirror. Said to reveal the truth, perhaps it worked similarly to quasi-omniscience.

“Look directly into it.”

Raven took the mirror from E.T. As she gazed into the artifact, nothing returned the favor. She didn’t have a reflection.

Time seemingly froze for a moment. Perhaps E.T. thought that it took time for the image to load, but the mirror wasn’t a webpage. Eventually, he broke the silence by taking the mirror away; his lips broadened into a smile. “I don’t know what trick you used, but I’ll work with you.”

I didn’t use any tricks. I didn’t have to. Because every horseman and every artifact scrambles the information flow. For better and for worse.