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“Please, could you go back to being happy, Mika?” I apologized to her, since she’d immediately started to sulk. However, when she looked at me over her shoulder, there was a contented smile on her face.

This girl, she was just pretending to be mad!

“Heh-heh-heh-heh, that’s right, Ayumu… No, Alim,” she told me.
“Huh, why not Ayumu?”
“I’ll call you Ayumu when you’re a boy and Alim when you’re a girl, alright?”
“I… I see? Then… I’ll¹ call you Mika², okay?”
“Eh, it’s not like my name changed? Well, it’s fine. Referring to yourself like that when you’re Alim should be okay, too.”
“Huh? Really?”
“Yeah. After all, you probably talked like that when building relationships in this world, right? It’s not something you can change at this point.”
“You know, that saves me some trouble! Thanks, Mika!”

I turned back into a girl and showed her a deadly angel smile.

“What’s that?! Can I do that too?”
“You can, you know, if you do it like this.”
“…Alim, you’re pretty sly, aren’t you?”
“Probably.”

“Still, you probably only recently turned into a girl, right? Moreover, when you turn into a girl, you seem to be interested in men, and when you turn into a boy, you start acting like a pervert, just like you did as Ayumu…”³
“Eh? I’m not a pervert, you know? Though, that’s pretty much it for the explanation.”

Mika smiled fearlessly. It gave me a bad premonition.

“Let me teach you about being a girl! Since you’ve only just become one, right?” The moment she said that, she hugged me tightly. “Hm~, you have a pretty good body, don’t you?”
“Eh… Hold on, Miss Mika?”
“You do it like this here… good!”

…Kya~~

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“Uh~… I can no longer be a bride!”
“You can still be the groom, you know?”

I was just sexually assaulted⁴ for a bit, not a big problem. That’s right, this isn’t the time to be messing around.

“Hey, Mika. It’s sudden, but can we talk seriously for a little bit?”
“…Okay.”
“How did you come to Anazumu?”
“…I got run over by a truck.”

“Right. I wonder, how is everyone doing?”
“I don’t know. Dad, Mom, and Sakura were sad…”
“How were my parents? What about Kanata?”
“They were awfully sad, too.”
“I see…”

It crossed my mind that I hadn’t thought about it much until now. If we ever had the chance the return to earth, we should probably take it. As I was thinking about that, Mika spoke up.

“Both you and I died in an accident. Everyone will be sad about this. Still… from my perspective, you’re most important, Ayumu… alright?”
“Did you perhaps sense what I was thinking?”
“You know, how many years do you think we’ve been together?”
“All of today.”
“…Ugh… You’re terrible…”
“15 years, milady.”
“Right?”

I see, I can probably interpret this as her being fine with not going back, as long as she can be together with me, can I? If I can be with her, that works for me, too.

“By the way,” Mika continued, “since it’s already past noon, we should eat something.”
“You’re right! I will make it, you know.”
“Alim… your cooking was alright, I guess, back on earth.”⁵
“But it’s on a different level now, you see?”
“Is that so?”
“Yup!”
“I’ll look forward to it, then.”

I cooked rice in the kitchen. Mika looked like she was rather surprised when she watched me. I finished the omurice⁶ in a flash and placed it on the table.

“Eh, what the… That was way too fast… And it looks delicious.”
“Heh-heh. It’s awesome, right? I’ll tell you about my skills, stats, and what I’ve done since I came to Anazumu while we eat.”
“…This is the most delicious omurice I’ve ever had in my life…” Mika commented after taking a bite. “Was this really made by you, Alim?”
“That’s right, you see, one of my skills is called Item Master and…”

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“Phew, that was way too delicious, you know. Please make it again! As something to look forward to, right? Erm… then, from what you told me just now, you already build up quite the personage in this world, haven’t you, Alim?”
“Yeah, it looks like that.”
“So, am I a gold digger⁷ now?”
“…You might very well be.”
“Then, what are we going to do today? Will you be busy again?”

I have practically nothing planned for today. So…

“I won’t be that busy today, so I’ll make lots of clothes and daily necessities for you, Mika! Enough clothes for all seasons, so you can rotate them every two weeks.”
“Eh… is that okay?”
“Yep! Because it’s for you, Mika.”
“That makes me happy! Do you know what kind of clothes I prefer?”
“How many years do you think we’ve been together?”
“All of today.”
“…Ugh… You’re terrible…”
“15 years!”
“Right?”

“Oh, that’s right. In that case, I have one request.”
“What is it?”

She’s acting a bit bashfully again. I wonder what she wants?

“That teddy bear I got from you on my birthday last year… Couldn’t you… make one similar to it for me?”
“Sure thing!”
“Thank you… I always slept with it… I totally got addicted.”

She cherished it that much, didn’t she? That makes me happy.

“Then, I’ll go buy a bunch of stuff for you, so please wait for a bit, alright? You can borrow this in the meantime.”

I lent the “Tozumaho” to Mika.

“Huh? Is that a smartphone?”
“No. The Tozumaho is something I created. You can read books and such on it, you see!”
“How many books there?”
“10 million of them. I went to the library yesterday and was able to import them as data.”
“What an amazing item… See you later, then.”
“Yup, I’m off!”

I went out into the city to buy various materials.

TL notes:
I love their back-and-forth dialogue here in the latter half. Shows just how well they know each other.

1. Here, Alim switches from 俺 (rough male version of “I/me”) to 僕 (more polite male version of “I/me”). I’m pretty sure he’s been using 僕 when speaking to people ever since he came to Anazumu.
2. He says he’ll call 美花 (“Mika” in kanji) ミカ (“Mika” in katakana). As she comments afterwards, there’s no difference in pronunciation.
3. Not sure about this sentence. While he frequently comments on good-looking guys as Alim in his internal monologue, I don’t think he ever said any of that stuff out lout. Maybe Mika simply knows, since she has a read on him?
4. The original here is イタズラ/悪戯, which means “prank” or “fooling around” but is also a euphemism for sexual assault.
5. Not sure about this, she might also say that back then he only made instant food.
6. Apparently a combination of omelet and fried rice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omurice
7. The original is 玉の輿, a shortened version of 玉の輿に乗る (“to marry into a family of high rank/with a lot of money), which is surprisingly close to the English “gold digger”.