19: New Style

"What's a massage for the coming generation?"

"...Don't come."

When Natsuo walked out of his bedroom in the morning, he looked over and saw Kana lying on the sofa in a very lazy posture, swinging her legs as she held her phone. He looked at her for a moment before saying, "You're always on your phone; don't you feel tired?"

This girl was so addicted to social media. She was always on her phone, swiping through weird ass reels. Maybe she was such a dreamer because of how much social media had influenced her. Otherwise, how could a normal person be so obsessed with finding their soulmate?

"Oh, you are awake. Come, come here." Kana looked away from her phone and waved him over. When he walked over, she showed him her phone and said, "Look at this."

Natsuo glanced at the screen and saw that it was a video about a guy who had gotten his older stepsister pregnant, only to be kicked out of the house and disowned by his father.

As revenge, he got his stepmother pregnant as well. He then had his gay friend seduce his father, who became heartbroken after finding out that his wife had cheated on him, only to have his ass cracked with infinite backshots.

Natsuo silently looked away from the phone's screen and back at Kana's grinning face, which was close to his. He pushed her away, saying in a disgusted tone, "You really are sick and disgusting."

This woman had ruined his good mood first thing in the morning. She always liked to bring up the fact that he had slept with Rui.

"How rude! You're the disgusting one! I'm just trying to help you!" Kana grabbed his arms and shouted back at him.

"Help my ass! Fuck off!"

"You fuck off! Ungrateful bastard!"

"Stupid cunt!"

"Dick!"

"Fuck you!"

"You wish!"

Thud!

The two wrestled on the sofa, shoving each other and glaring at one another with murderous looks. Suddenly, Kana pushed him back hard, causing Natsuo to fall off the sofa. However, because he was still holding onto her arms, he pulled her down with him, and both of them crashed onto the floor, with Kana landing on top of him.

"..." Silence fell between them as they stared into each other's eyes without moving an inch. The only sound reaching their ears was the sound of their heavy breathing.

Kana's eyes drifted slightly downward, briefly glancing at his lips, and as if something had taken over her, she slowly moved closer, bringing her face toward his. Her heart was beating so fast that she could hear it pounding loudly in her ears.

"When are you going to get off me?" Suddenly, Natsuo's voice snapped her out of her trance. She froze in place, staring into his clear eyes as she realized what she had been about to do. She suddenly scrambled to her feet and shouted at him, "Bastard! I won't care about you anymore!"

She ran toward her room and slammed the door shut.

"..." Natsuo got to his feet, dusted off his clothes, gave the door to her room a short glance, and left.

After discovering that he could really use chantless magic the night before, he drove the car and went to train again today.

Last night, because he hadn't been able to control the water ball properly and had drenched the entire room with water, he had gotten scolded by Hilda and Chelsea.

Hilda was still sleeping right now. She had binged the whole drama last night and hadn't gone to sleep until very late. On the other hand, Chelsea had gone out very early. It seemed she was investigating the whereabouts of Gotou.

Bang!

'Now that Ryouko Tamiya is dead, Gotou should be pretty weak, right?' Natsuo thought as he cast Water Arrow. A sharp arrow made of water shot forward and pierced through the rock before him.

Back then, the reason they targeted Ryouko first was so they wouldn't have to deal with an overpowered Gotou. That guy could take bullets with nothing but his skin, and he moved at blinding speed too. If it hadn't been for Shinichi's plot armor, he would have never managed to kill him.

"Rock Bullet!" While thinking that it was somewhat troublesome that they couldn't track their progress or keep track of their targets, he cast another chantless spell. A small rock appeared before his palm, and like a bullet fired from a gun, it shot forward and pierced through the holes in the riddled boulder, producing a small explosion.

Although the increase was minuscule, whenever Natsuo finished training, he could feel his magic increasing by a tiny amount. He was very satisfied with that. If he kept working hard, then with enough time, his magic capacity would become much greater.

The only disappointing part was that Hilda didn't know any Intermediate spells to teach him. In fact, even the Elementary spells she knew were ones she had only learned back when she was young, simply because she had been curious about magic.

...

In the afternoon, Natsuo met with Chelsea outside. According to her, the two of them were going to investigate Mayor Takeshi Hirokawa in order to locate Gotou and the other parasites.

They would be bringing Shinichi with them as well.

However, as they walked, Natsuo noticed that they weren't heading in the right direction. Why were they in a shopping street? He looked at Chelsea in confusion and asked, "Where are we going?"

"We have to change how you look." Chelsea wrapped her arms around his and said with a charming smile, "You don't want others to accidentally see you and track you down, right?"

Chelsea could always use her Gaea Foundation to change her appearance, which was why she was having such an extremely easy time in this world. However, Natsuo and the others had to be much more careful about being seen by the police or the parasites.

Without giving him a chance to ask anything else, she pulled him into a clothing shop and immediately started picking out clothes for him. She moved around so quickly that it actually startled Natsuo, but when he looked around, he noticed that the other women were moving just as quickly as she was. He thought that maybe this was some innate skill that only women possessed.

After a couple of minutes, she came back carrying a pile of clothes and pushed him toward the changing room. "Try those. If they don't fit you, we'll try more."

"...Seriously." Natsuo held the pile of clothes, wanting to refuse, but when he saw the excited look on her face, he decided not to dampen her excitement. She was trying to help him, after all.

'These three have been getting weird lately, especially Kana.' He took off his shirt as he thought about how strange the three women had been acting around him lately.

First, there was Hilda, who had become very clingy toward him. He figured that since she thought of him as her foster son, it wasn't really a big deal.

Then there was Chelsea, who was always teasing him in a very flirty way. Sometimes, she would even barge into the bathroom while he was bathing because she wanted to rub his back. And finally, there was Kana, who had also started acting differently ever since he beat up that simp Mitsuo.

'Did she try to kiss me earlier?' When he remembered what had happened that morning, he touched his lips. Since when had he become this charming?

He stared at himself in the mirror. Although he used to work out, his physique wasn't particularly ripped. He didn't exercise regularly, nor did he follow any specific diet. However, lately, ever since he started training under Chelsea, he could see his physique gradually changing.

Natsuo changed his clothes and walked out. Chelsea was waiting for him, holding her phone. As soon as he stepped out, she snapped a picture of him, then rested her chin on her hand as she looked him over from every direction. After a moment, she shook her head.

"It's not bad, but it's not enough. Go change."

And so, just like that, Chelsea kept piling clothes onto him while Natsuo tried them on one after another with a helpless look on his face.

"This is it! You look great now!" After what felt like an eternity to Natsuo, he was finally freed. He stood in front of Chelsea as she looked him over with a satisfied expression.

He was wearing a black leather jacket with a black shirt underneath and ripped jeans. She had changed his hairstyle slightly as well, which completely transformed his appearance, turning him from a friendly, sunny boy into someone with a sharp bad boy style.

When he stood next to her to pay, he noticed that everyone in the shop seemed to be staring at him, especially the women. Even the cashier kept glancing at him a little more than necessary. For a moment, he had the distinct feeling that she was deliberately taking her time with the payment just so she could stare at him a little longer.

"Are we done now?" Natsuo asked her as they walked out of the store.

"Hmm! You look much better now! I like the way you look!" Chelsea held onto his arm and pulled him toward another store, leaning against his shoulder with a wide grin on her face.

"You seem like you're having fun," Natsuo said.

"Heheh, of course I am!" Chelsea replied with a happy laugh.

Not that he was complaining, but Natsuo couldn't help feeling that this was starting to feel more like a date than a mission to hunt parasites with her.