Epilogue

Munch munch munch.

That prevailing noise filled the entire apartment. It was a rather familiar noise, but this time, I knew exactly who made it.

“Mana, you’re eating snacks again?” I said, turning around on my chair to face her.

“Yup! You left them out here, so I’m rewarding myself for a hard day’s work!

“What hard work?! You did nothing all day! And besides, it’s not even lunch yet!”

“Silly Ju. It’s for yesterday’s hard work!” She said as she shoved a potato chip into her mouth.

“You did nothing yesterday either!”

“It was such an intense week, you know…”

“It’s Tuesday!”

I sighed.

It had been a couple of weeks since Comikei. In the end, we decided to come clean and reveal that Nitro the Cosplayer wasn’t actually Nitro the Artist. The cover story was that we didn’t intend to trick people, but when the attention started flooding in, we just kept quiet, and that was all our fault. Aru-chan ended up supporting us, and although some people were annoyed and unfollowed Nitrochilla, most of my followers understood the situation and forgave us. From what Sunhi told me later, the convention stalker was fined and banned from attending Comikei ever again. His Fwitter account was also banned—serves him right.

So in the end, after all the dust settled, we decided to keep the Nitrochilla account for both my art and my girlfriend’s cosplay photos.

Right, Mana’s my girlfriend now.

I had to remind myself of that now and again. It felt like nothing meaningful had changed in our relationship. We were already living together, for one, and Mana didn’t have one ounce of romantic energy in her body. And to be honest, neither did I, so things remained about the same as before.

Hmm… are we even dating at all?

“Hey, Ju,” Mana said as she approached me. “What’s this?”

She shoved an empty ramen cup in my face, completely white, without any hint of ever having been painted.

“Where did you find that?”

“It was tucked inside the highest cupboard in the kitchen,” she said. “I guess I never bothered to open that one because there were always snacks in the other ones.”

This girl…

I decided to not comment on it.

“That’s the cup of ramen your figurine came from,” I said. “I fished it out of the trash after you… ehh… materialized. I figured it could be useful to keep it around as evidence, you know? In case we could use it to crack the case in the future.”

“Oh, is it…?” Mana said, as she stared into the cup. “But it’s just completely empty.”

“Yeah… good point. Maybe it’s not that useful, after all. We could probably throw it away—”

“No!” Mana shouted. “I want to keep it.”

“Huh? But why?”

“Because, if I was born from this cup… this is like my mother!” She said, somehow proud of this ridiculous comparison.

“...What the hell are you even talking about?”

“Hmph. You naturally-born folk wouldn’t get it.”

I was about to quip back, but I stopped myself. I guess I didn’t get it. Ultimately, Mana was just some creation with supernatural origins. It wasn’t that strange she’d want to keep around the one thing tying her to her miraculous origins.

Yes, Mana was the same as the day she had materialized. Same ridiculous jokes, same complete disregard to her appearance. If there was one thing that changed in our relationship—

“Ayeup!”

She sat on my lap.

“Hey. I told you to not sit on me while I’m in my computer chair.”

“Girlfriend privileges!” She immediately shot.

S-She’s kinda heavy. And I don’t think this chair was made to carry the weight of two people.

“You can’t say that to justify every single ridiculous thing you do,” I said as I hugged her waist.

“Of course I can. That’s part of the girlfriend privileges.” She paused. “And also, why are you touching my tummy?”

“These are my boyfriend privileges,” I said. “And also, you’re putting on weight.”

“Am not!”

I squeezed her tummy a bit more.

Yeah, she definitely is a bit pudgier… I gotta keep an eye on her snacking habits.

“Hey, Ju. You think there are more people like me out there? You know, people born out of ramen cups?”

“I mean… we can’t say for sure you’re one-of-a-kind.”

I had been checking in on rumors online pretty frequently, but there wasn’t a peep about magical figurines turning real anywhere.

“If there are more people like you out there, they are probably hiding, just like you are.”

“Yeah… makes sense. I wish we could meet each other, though…”

“Don’t worry. If they do exist, we’ll arrange a meeting. I’m sure they’d like to meet you too.”

Assuming she remembers to take a shower beforehand…

“Yeah! That would be nice,” Mana said with a chirpy tone. “But, for now,” she said, turning her head to me, “I can be sure of one thing.”

“And what’s that?”

“It’s that I’m one-of-a-kind for you.”

I paused.

“Wait, was that too cheesy?!” She cried out.

“No… It was cute.”

I leaned in for a kiss.

Her mouth tasted like snacks.

“Hey, Ju…” Mana said sweetly, as she wiggled on my lap. “You’re up for it too, right?”

Well… I guess I have finished a lot of work this morning…

“Alright, alright. But go wash your mouth first. I don’t wanna be tasting whatever junk you’ve been eating again.”

“Yay! Be right back~” She said as she leapt out and went to the bathroom.

My heart began beating faster in anticipation.

“Huh. When did doing this become so natural?” I said in a whisper as I got up.

Guess things have actually changed, after all.

Fin