Chapter 6

“Mana, wake up,” I said, shaking the girl sleeping on my spare futon, her pajama shirt halfway slipping out. “Right now!”

“Ugh… what is it? Can’t I just sleep for five more minutes?” She said, her eyes still closed. “I swear I won’t be late to work.”

“You don’t work! You’re a freeloader!”

“Oh, you’re right! Eh-eh. Back to sleep—”

“Oh no, you don’t!”

I yanked the futon covers from her, exposing her legs to the chill of my early-morning room.

“Hey! What’s the big idea?” She said as she got up.

“You know exactly what you did, you little minx.”

“Huh? Whatever could you possibly be speaking of?”

“This! This photo you posted on my Fwitter account!”

I shoved my phone in Mana’s face, close enough that even she could see exactly what it was even without her glasses.

“Oh, that. Yeah, I did post that, didn’t I?” She said nonchalantly.

“You don’t realize what you did, do you?”

“Hmm? It’s just an innocent little photo. What’s the harm?”

The photo in question was a selfie—or rather, a body shot—of Mana with the artwork I had been working on yesterday on my tablet in the background. She had the decency to take it while wearing a hoodie—one of mine, in fact—so it wasn’t too revealing, but you could clearly tell the person was a girl from the long hair and body shape. In fact, the fact that she wore my clothes made it somehow more erotic. And the caption read, “Hard at work on my next piece!”

The moment I opened my social media that morning, all hell broke loose. I had hundreds of notifications, and the photo was currently sitting on 20,000 likes and over 100,000 views.

“What’s the harm?! Anyone seeing that photo on my account will totally think you’re the artist!”

“Yeah, that was the point, silly,” Mana said as she put on her glasses.

Don’t tell me—

“Wait, were you trying to imitate Aru-chan?”

“Yup!” She smiled deviously. “I figured it would help boost your account, you know? Like, you’re a way better artist than her. All you’re missing are boobs and a pu—”

“Stop right there,” I said, shoving a hand her way. “Don’t say it. More importantly, how the hell did you log into my phone and computer?!”

“Dude, you’re way too unguarded. And your passwords are just my birthday anyway. You were basically giving me permission to use it.”

“Oh. Right.”

Well, that’s quite embarrassing.

As I vowed to change my passwords to something a little less obvious for my literal OC, Mana shot me a smile.

“So, did you get any? Commissions and stuff?”

“Hm? Oh, I haven’t checked my DMs or email yet.

But sure enough, they were there. Half a dozen requests for commissions. It was more work than I had in months.

“See, my plan worked!” Mana said happily.

So she was trying to be considerate of our situation?

Until then, I was assuming she had just played a prank on me or something, but in a roundabout way, it was a nice and surprisingly smart gesture of her. She couldn’t work since she was an illegal supernatural alien, so she was basically a living drain on my resources. But she still existed physically in the world, so she could, for the lack of a better term, use her body for something. If she pretended to be me—or rather, if she pretended to be the “face” of Nitrochilla—then it was a way for both of us to gain something from it. Win-win, right?

“I’ll admit it did work,” I added. “But I really don’t like this.”

“Hmm? How so?”

“I mean, for once, I’m not the girl in the photos,” I explained the obvious point.

“What, is that your issue with it? You can just pretend to be a girl, and all’s well!”

“I’m a terrible actor, though.”

“Worry not! I’ll help you with that part. I’m a certified girl, you know.”

Certified by whom? …Actually don’t answer that.

Sigh. “Alright, so I admit we could pretend that you’re Nitrochilla. But still, I don’t like this at all. If we go along with this, I’m basically using you for your body alone, reducing you to just a pin-up girl—”

“But isn’t that exactly what I am?” She said, her voice leveled.

And then it clicked.

Right, that’s what Mana was always supposed to be.

I designed her to be a pin-up model and nothing else. Her lore and personality didn’t cross my mind that much. I didn’t give her a past or a reason for existing other than to look pretty.

But reducing a real person to her looks is a different story.

“Look, I know what you’re thinking,” she said. “But I want to do this. I want to be helpful to you as I am now.”

I bit my lip.

It gives me the ick, but if this is what she wants…

“Are you sure?”

“Of course! I said this before: what’s mine is yours! I’m basically part of you, so you can just use me however you want. Okay? I don’t mind at all.” She said with a smile. “Oh, but not in that way, you horndog.”

I really feel like you’re the only horndog here.

“Okay, okay, fine. But no more snatching my phone without permission. I want to check out every single photo you take to make sure they are okay.”

“You’re such a worrywart!” Mana said, puffing her cheeks. “Even I know the limits of these things.”

⬡⬢⬡⬢⬡

She did not know the limits of these things.

“Rejected. You’re showing way too much of your legs.”

“Whaaat?! It’s just a little bit! Gotta use my assets, you know?”

“A little bit?! You basically have nothing on!”

This ridiculous discussion happened after we both had breakfast and Mana decided to start taking photos of herself in the various clothes we bought the other day. The problem is, as the pantyless incident proved, she had no concept of shame whatsoever. Most photos were… fine enough, if a bit spicy, but in this last one she took, she was wearing very short shorts she had sneakily bought back at the store.

I guess in that artwork I was drawing of her before she materialized, she was kinda dressed like that too… Wait, is this all my fault?!

“But won’t this attract more people?” Mana questioned.

It was a good question.

“It will, but those are not the kind of people I want following my account! No more horny posting, okay? The comments are bad enough as is.”

“Oh, did people leave lewd comments?” She asked, adjusting her glasses.

“Were they ever.”

“Hey, hey, let me read them!”

“Nah, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Come on, I can handle it!” She said, inching closer and bending forward slightly.

Ugh… she really knows how to push my buttons.

“Argh, fine. Just don’t come crying to me later.”

I handed her my phone, and she happily grabbed a chair and sat next to me, scrolling through the comments.

“‘Wow, you’re so pretty!’ ‘I didn’t know you were a girl!’ ‘I wish I had a girlfriend like you irl’. Not sure what’s the problem… most of them are quite tame.”

“Well, yeah, those aren’t too bad, I suppo—”

“‘I wish you’d take a photo without that hoodie’.”

“Aaaand there it!”

Casually sexual harassment, anyone?

“‘I will in the next photo! Thanks!’ Aaaand sent!”

“What, you’re responding to them?!”

“Of course! They are my loyal fans! I have to keep them happy, you know?” I mean, sure, but still… “Oh, I think I got a DM! Hmm… seems like it’s from that guy.”

“Wait, don’t check the DMs—”

I tried to reach over to grab my phone, but Mana swerved on her chair, her back facing me.

“Oh, now this is where the creeps are! Oh boy, these guys are desperate,” she said with a jovial tone that really didn’t fit right with the text.

I had given a cursory glance at the flood of DMs I got overnight, and well, some of them were… very explicit, shall we say.

“Yuck, there’s even a guy here offering to take pictures for me. ‘I’m a professional photographer,’ he says. Yeah, right!”

“Come on, give it back!” I said, trying to snatch the phone from above.

However, this sneaky devil noticed my hands reaching above her, and so she decided to put the phone in the one place I couldn’t get to.

“There!”

“Wha— Don’t put my phone in your boobs!” I said, recoiling from her.

“Eh-eh-eh-eh. It’s a girl’s special trick to hide things!” Not so much hide as in making it inaccessible! “You can always reach out to it, you know~”

“Idiot. You know I can’t do that…”

Mana turned around, still with that curled-up smile. I just knew she was thoroughly enjoying messing with me—but something about her expression struck me as odd.

“Those messages really got to you, huh?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your eyes aren’t smiling.”

“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean? They don’t bother me, trust!” She said, trying to muster as much lightheartedness as possible.

Sigh. “This is why I didn’t want to let you see them. Don’t let them get to you. I’ll just block those guys and be done with it.”

“You know, Ju… you’re being too protective of me. I can take this much. I was fully aware some creeps would show up.”

“But still…

“I’m fine! Really!” She said with a smile on her face—but I could tell she didn’t particularly enjoy that sort of attention. “More importantly, have you gotten any money from the photo?!”

“Well, my account isn’t monetized just yet, so not directly,” I said. “But I did get plenty of commissions. And maybe some more supporters on FunBox? I haven’t checked it yet.”

“Here. You can check now,” she said, handing the phone back to me after fishing it out from her cleavage. “It’s not actually very comfortable having something this hard poking my chest.”

Ugh. It’s still a bit warm…

I gave it a quick scrub with my shirt and checked FunBox, a site where people could directly support artists. Lo and behold—

“Oh, wow! That definitely changed!”

“Hmm? How much are you earning?”

“I was at around ¥5,000 yesterday, but it’s like ¥20,000 now!”

“Three times as much! That’s amazing!”

“Yes… yes it is,” I added, still in disbelief over the entire thing. “And I got paid immediately when people joined.”

“You can buy so many snacks with that!”

Any misgivings I might have had about this whole “Mana as Nitrochilla” hustle completely evaporated after seeing my bank account.

Yes, this can work. This can definitely work!

Between the direct cash infusion and the extra commissions, I wouldn’t be having money problems for a while.

“We have to celebrate this somehow!” Mana said excitedly. “I know! We can drink beer again—”

“Rejected,” I shot back. “No more alcohol for you.”

“Buh-uh. You’re no fun,” she said, pouting a bit.

“How about we go out and buy you some cake or something? Since it’s technically your money and all.”

“No, you already bought clothes for me. I don’t need anything else. You can use it however you please!”

“Are you sure?” I added.

“Yeah! Go ahead!”

“Well, if you insist… Then I know exactly what to do.”

It was right there, on my phone’s main screen. A certain app that tempted me whenever I got a decent windfall, and one that I hadn’t touched in many weeks.

“It’s time to gacha.”