Girl protects boy

Chapter Ichi

Earlier today, she had to 'deal with something', and just left during a conversation at lunch, to my delight. Hopefully she has gotten bored or similar. I'm walking home, wondering if she will harass me again tomorrow. She seems to have a different route home than I, so I won't know until tomorrow. I start contemplating advanced civilizations using dark energy for power, but that seemed just as futile as when I had been trying to think of ways to escape her harassment earlier. Possibly a heat pump between two different sized boxes? No, Dark energy is uniform, and you could change it with gravity, but that would be using gravity to run a heat pump, not dark energy, and so would be limited, possibly by increasing dark energy, but that would just be negative mass, and either way should still obey entropy, so I highly dou-

Suddenly my foot gets caught in something. I jump in surprise, or I try to, at least, as my foot is stuck. Just as suddenly, everything else gets similarly 'caught', as if I'm a bug caught in a spider's web. I am somehow completely trapped. This is the single most terrifying thing I have ever experienced, I can barely keep up with my heart's beating.

I feet something touching my back, a little point dragging across my back. I futilely attempt to turn my head so that I can see it with my widened eyes.

Another thing touches my back. Now I hear Its voice, "Who the hell would put magical protections on some moron who doesn't even know about magic!? That'll take me a few weeks to remove!"

What little vision I had goes dark, and my hearing disappears, along with the thing touching my back. My limbs unstick, and I fall, but am caught. A standard human arm under my shoulders and one under my knees, and the blindfold comes off, and without it, my hearing and vision returned to normal.

I can hear my own heart again, but for the brief second I could only feel it, everything had been too fast to notice it. I can also see Emily Suzuki, with robotic protrusions grasping the blindfold, and a few more off in random directions. Now I am more confused, but still terrified and vulnerable. The protrusions toss the blindfold behind her. Based on her expression, she seems concerned about me.

I thought I should say something, but I couldn't think of anything to say, and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to say anything, so my mouth just hung slightly open.

Now she says, "That was a spider demon, and its name tells you what it does. They're great trap makers, but terrible at combat. I did kill it, as not only would it have killed you, but also many more random people. I am a robot, and a mage. I used this blindfold to block your sight and hearing while I killed the spider demon, as it was very gruesome, despite the inhuman form of the demon. There is magic bound to all life, and the magic bound to you has a magical construct, or a purely magical item, attached to it. It is quite valuable, but it would kill you to get access to it. This magical construct made itself visible only very recently, in fact, earlier today. I put magical protections on you a few weeks ago." I quickly glance around, and I don't see a spider demon corpse, nor do I know what one looks like. I look at her again.

Suddenly the surroundings changed, we're inside a house now, and she lays me down on the couch, as she had still been holding me.

She states, "I'll give us some time here, for everyone else it will seem like a few minutes, but we can have enough time for whatever..."

I nod.

She puts a hand on my cheek, and I tense up, not knowing which direction to pull away in, as her hand is on the opposite side of me that she is, her hand is moving to a more neck position, her thumb in front of my ear, her other fingers on the back of my neck. My eyes are still very wide, but now out of shyness more than fear. Though I still do have worries that she will do something, as the hand she wrapped around my head was a more intimate touch than I want. I also feet incredibly vulnerable and weak.

I took a silent mental note that my backpack and water bottle are not where I'd left them.

She is saying, in a concerned and affectionate voice, "Don't worry, I will protect you."

I... wasn't expecting that. Actually, I don't know what I was expecting.

Wait... I ask, "Protect me from what?"

She responds, "I mentioned earlier that there is a valuable magical construct attached to the magic bound to you, and nobody can get access to it without... killing you, and it is valuable enough that less moral people might just try to do just that. Some change within the construct itself has resulted in it becoming visible, so no one knew about it until recently."

I utter, "Wha..."

She states, "I would never let anyone harm you, so don't worry about that."

I figure she couldn't want to kill me, as if she did, I'd be dead already. But she was willing to kill the spider demon, which I think she considers a person, as she has stated, 'less moral people', implying that the spider demon was a person? So, should I trust her? Well, I have no reason to doubt that she saved my life, and I guess I kind of have to trust her. Maybe?

Her fingers are still on the back of my neck.

Her head is so close to mine.

I try to pull away again, but am, again, unsuccessful. She's smiling in a happy but concerned anout me way.

She, in an oddly affectionately voice, claims, "You're mine now."

I panickingly ask, "W-whha- Hu-uh?..

She states, "You know so much about science and math. You're so intellectual and also unbelievably smart, sometimes brutally so. Yet, at the same time, somehow you're also extremely innocent, endlessly cute, and so shy. You are kind, in your own way, you're vulnerable, delicate, and a little weak. I like that you need a little protecting. [Brief pause while I gasp slightly.] In other words, you are simultaneously a brilliant nerd and shy innocence. I fell in love with you. That being the case, I will make you love me back, and it will be sooner rather than later."

She has utter confidence in her words. I, on the other hand, was blushing slightly at this, and I don't have any special feelings for her, it was just surprising. Though, it was an extremely emotional experience getting my life saved by her, and if it is to happen again and again, as she says, it is possible that I won't be able to control it, over the course of decades, if she truly is set on love. But if it happens over decades, would I want to fall in love with her? She's so powerful and dominant, though, and some part of my subconscious likes that. Then, logically, if it's the kind of thing my subconscious likes, then why is conscious mind against it? But trust can't be gained so easily! I- Wait... Why am I even considering this?

I whimper, "I-I'... I'm n-n... I'm not r... re-read-d-dy f-fo-oh-or that k-kind of-f rela-relationship."

She immediately rebuttals, "You don't think you're ready. I'm a good judge of character, you'll love me soon enough."

I stutter, "Eve- I... if th- even i-i-if uh, that, ah- th-that s-s uh, s-seems f- a- f-forced, er uh like..."

She says, "To some extent, but I'm not forcing too much on you."

I whimper, "Wha- like, a... is... you like..."

She asks, "Are you trying to say that you don't want to be so close to me, with my hand on your neck?"

I lightly nod. Thinking of it, some part of me likes it, but I'm uncomfortable with that part of me.

She says, "Hmm? That nod was so cute! Time is just about up anyway."

I ask, "Huh?"

She says, "I can only give us so much time, and my parents will enter soon, and I have some stuff to do real time. Also, my parents don't know about my being a robot mage, as they are adopted."

I respond,