Onihunter Yuna 2

91 A Trip (Side Story)

"Is that really necessary?" Tirr stammered.

"Yes. This is unacceptable. You stand out too much." The girl rushed back to her room to plunder her piggy bank.

"Won't your mother notice if I have other clothes?" he shouted after her.

Her face appeared in the doorway. "You're right." She studied him thoughtfully. "Wait. I have an idea." Swiftly, she scurried into the kitchen, grabbed a pair of scissors, and went back to her room.

The oni came over and peered into the room. On the walls were posters of anime and manga characters. In a bookshelf heaps of manga were lined up, between which small figurines lined up.

In her bed were some stuffed animals and pillows. A large mirror stood beside the girl's wardrobe. She squatted on the ground in front of it and handled the scissors.

He went in to see what she was doing, when he recognized a monster in the mirror. Immediately he jerked back, but the beast did the same.

Marika looked at the mirror and then up at him. "Everything okay? You look like you saw a ghost."

"What's that?" He pointed to the mirror, whereupon the monster pointed at him. Tirr growled. It had red-glowing eyes, just like the oni, so it had to be an oni. "Who are you?" he asked the creature.

The high-school student turned her head and looked at him, then turned and looked in the mirror. "That's you, dummy."

"What?" He came closer in amazement, staring at his reflection. Oh, kid. You're not a very handsome boy. Kira had told him that. He looked at the outgrowths on his head. Then the distorted features, the red-glowing eyes, and the mouth, which was like a hole with sharp teeth. "I'm ugly."

The girl got up and looked at him. He was not a model, but he was not ugly either. She liked the small dimples that formed around the corners of his mouth when he smiled. "You're not ugly. I think you're fine."

He pointed to his face. "How can that be fine? I look like a monster."

"No. You look quite normal." She frowned as she remembered her mother's stories. "Ah, you don't see your human form," she remarked.

"What?"

"Oni have a natural stealth spell that makes them appear in the eyes of humans like humans. I can only see your human form. That's why you don't get noticed in public."

"I hear that for the first time," admitted Tirr.

The brown-haired chuckled. "Even I know more about oni than you. Who would have thought that?" She picked up the garment in her hand. "Here, I made you a tank top."

He took off his jacket and dropped it to the floor.

Marika stood on her tiptoes and tried to put it on him. "Come on, bend down. You're gigantic." He smiled and accepted the request, whereupon the girl covered him with the material. "Yes, that looks much better than the stupid jacket." She looked at his smile, which made her feel warm in the stomach. "Let's go." She turned away so he wouldn't notice that she blushed, grabbed her bag and hurried to the front door. There she slipped into her canvas shoes. "Are you coming?" Tirr followed her and waited by the door. She looked around. "Don't you have any shoes?"

"No."

Marika groaned. "For real?"

"Your mother doesn't have my size." He grinned.

"All right. It's a small improvement." She opened the door, stepped out, waited until he was outside and locked it behind them. "Here we go."