บท 94: Nurture

"I have a question..." said Ohta, lying with her head hanging off the edge of a much larger bed than the one she initially had installed, watching as Will performed hundreds of fingertip pushups shirtless.

"What's up...?" asked Will, maintaining his pace without skipping a beat.

"With such an absurdly convenient ability, why do you even bother with other people?" asked Ohta, referring to Will's System Shop. It had been five days since they began living together, but as he seemingly couldn't sit still, the cave now resembled a cozy, fully furnished stone apartment. There didn't seem to be anything he couldn't acquire so long as he had enough of the currency called Karma, so Ohta didn't understand why he couldn't just find a peaceful place to live and grow stronger without stress or distractions.

Turning his head to meet Ohta's gaze, Will smiled and contended, "If I didn't get out and about, I wouldn't get to meet people like you, Tim, and Dori. My penultimate goal may be to become stronger, but my main one is to bear witness, experience new things, and help people..."

"What about this Sarah chick?" asked Ohta. "What does she usually do in the worlds you reincarnate into...?"

"For the sake of my continued good health and well-being, I choose to abstain from answering that question..." responded Will, causing Ohta to frown and say, "Come on...at least tell me something..."

"Hmmm..."

Flipping onto just the tips of his fingers, Will gradually transitioned to supporting himself with just his index, middle fingers, and thumbs before answering, "I won't speak on her actions in other worlds, as the seven of us agreed not to carry that kind of baggage over, but I know her goal is to master martial arts to the absolute peak. To that end, she typically travels around to battle powerful opponents and sample the various delicacies of the worlds we reincarnate into..."

"Mmm...I do like trying new food..." Ohta conceded, unaware that the delicacies Will was referring to were the two-legged, speech-capable variety. She, Tom, and Z were easily the most sex-positive members of the Sages, though if he had to say who was the most experimental, Will would nominate Dave.

Unaware of Will's thoughts, Ohta lightly drummed her belly, which was partially exposed due to her t-shirt hiking up. Below, she wore a pair of frilly pajama shorts as, after getting used to it, she realized girls' clothing was thinner but more comfortable than boys'.

"Hey, turn your body a bit..." Ohta muttered, causing Will to deliberate before repositioning himself so that the front of his body was facing her. With his head angled at the ground, he couldn't easily see what she was doing, but he assumed it was nothing untoward as Ohta wasn't that bold—at least not yet.

"Hey..." muttered Ohta, preempting Will's response by asking, "Would you prefer if I exercised regularly and ended up looking like Alice(Alessandra), or would you rather I be more like Lyra or Delphina...?"

"This isn't a stab at you, but the type of girls I like don't ask questions like that..." answered Will, adding, "As for your looks, you don't have any cause for concern. I can only imagine how others see you, but you're plenty cute in my eyes..."

Though her cheeks gained a ruddy hue, Ohta pointedly countered, "You say that, but when I suggested we try kissing, you immediately refused..."

"I also explained my reasoning..." contended Will. "I know you're perfectly capable of making decisions for yourself, but from my point of view, you're a minor. I may be considered one due to my age, but—"

"It's just two mucous membranes pressing against one another..." Ohta interjected, added, "It's not that big a step up from holding hands, and I feel like it's a step down from sleeping in the same bed..."

'Someone's been reading too many Shoujo novels...' thought Will, wisely keeping his opinion to himself. It wasn't that he didn't understand where Ohta was coming from, as others their age were doing considerably more than kissing, but if he was going to effect change in the world, he needed to hold himself to a higher standard.

Understanding that Ohta would get annoyed if he remained silent, Will lowered his feet and stood, pulling a towel from his Inventory to wipe his face and the front of his body before turning to face her, asserting, "You might be affected by them, but these are prohibitions I impose on myself, not others. If you feel you can't wait, then don't. Some might, but I won't think less of you if you date a few boys or girls trying to figure out what you like or dislike. That's part of life and something you should be allowed to experience. Just keep in mind that if you end up racking up a hundred-person body count, I may not think less of you as a person, but I certainly won't be becoming your hundred-and-first..."

"And just how many girls and guys have you dated throughout your many lives?" asked Ohta, rising to a seated position and turning to face Will with her feet pulled up on the bed, heels together.

"Five," answered Will, seeing no reason to keep it a secret. Ohta initially frowned at this, but her annoyance quickly turned to bewilderment as Will clarified, "But four of them were in my first incarnation, and the fifth was a relationship of convenience instigated by the other party. I won't get into the specifics, so don't ask."

"So you've been celibate your past five to six lives...?" asked Ohta, staring at Will as if there were something seriously wrong with him. She had only recently become interested in such things, but it felt like her head was full of thoughts of what they could and should be doing...

Shrugging, Will contended, "That's because when I allow myself to love someone, I open myself to them completely. Call me a romantic, but I've always felt that love is a breakthrough emotion, something that guides us to be better than ourselves and permits people to achieve the impossible when experienced deeply. You should remember that if you choose to see this through...because I may appear tame and laissez-faire now, but once I stop holding myself back, my passion is only limited by what my partner can endure..."

With Will towering over her and staring at her with a distinctly smoldering look, Ohta felt her throat constrict, compelling her to gulp as her face and body warmed to the point she started sweating. She was 99% certain that Will was bullshitting to try and cow her into being less insistent, but in the event he was telling the truth...she would be lying if she said the prospect didn't excite her...

"Tell me what you would do to me..." muttered Ohta, leaning back onto her elbows while holding Will's gaze.

"Sure...once you're older," responded Will, causing Ohta's brows to furrow to their limits. Before she could get too angry, however, he preempted her response by adopting a faint smile and adding, "For now, tell me what you want for breakfast. I'll give you a taste of my passion by filling my cooking with love."

Though she was still annoyed that Will wouldn't even talk dirty with her, Ohta didn't hesitate for too long before lying on her back, arms splayed out and gaze fixed on the cave's ceiling as she temperamentally replied, "I want a hundred pancakes..."

"Sounds good," responded Will, knowing full well that Ohta couldn't eat a hundred pancakes but preparing no less. When he was finished, he found her using Fionnadh's fluffy and pliant butt as a pillow as they read manga together on the bed, a common scene over the past five days, but when he told them it was time to eat, she gave him a taste of his own medicine by pointedly responding that, because he had taken too long, she was no longer hungry...

...

With sixteen days passing in the blink of an eye, Will was able to expand the cave to include a larder, an in-ground freezer, a proper bedroom, and a bathroom with plumbing. His restlessness annoyed Ohta to no end, but as the primary beneficiary of his improvements, she stopped bugging him while he worked and began secretly reading books on homemaking.

Emerging from the bathroom, where he had just finished installing a layer of floor tiles, Will's brows perked when he noticed Ohta sporting a pair of black booty shorts, an orange tee that exposed a small strip of her back and belly, and an apron reading a recipe book as she prepared a breakfast medley of sausage, bacon, eggs, potatoes, a type of green pepper, onion, and cilantro. She even prepared a baking tray of hand-made flour tortillas, several of which were burned, but it was the thought that counted.

Hearing the door open as Will emerged from the bathroom, Ohta looked with narrowed eyes, a slight blush tinting her cheeks as she said, "Food will be done soon...if you haven't already done so, make sure to wash your stupid face and hands..."

Though he was tempted to point out that it was past 4 PM, which was a bit late to be eating breakfast tacos, Will smiled, raised his hands, wiggled his fingers, and responded, "Done and done..." before shifting his gaze to where Fionnadh had already finished setting the table and was presently sitting with her legs pulled up on her chair and hidden in a wooly sweater, her eyes glued to the seventeenth volume of a series she and Ohta were jointly reading.

Noticing Will's gaze, Fionnadh raised her own before setting aside the manga, fixing how she was sitting, and asking, "Were you able to finish what you were working on?" in a significantly less archaic manner than how she spoke even just a few days prior. She still had an accent, but it was fading as she increasingly emulated Ohta's curt and confrontational manner of speaking.

"I was," responded Will, taking his usual seat across from Fionnadh as he added, "I also installed a flexible showerhead attached to a hose, so give it a try and let me know what you think later."

"I look forward to it..." affirmed Fionnadh, sporting a faint smile as she provided a slow nod and blink. She initially believed she would be treated poorly after forming a contract with Will, but she was willing to endure to gather information on him and report it to her kin. Instead, he treated her well and had never again brought up her Father or their organization after his preliminary questioning, reinforcing his statement about him not caring about their plans and purposes so long as they didn't interfere with his life or obligate him to act.

Interrupting Will's and Fionnadh's small talk, Ohta set the skillet at the center of the table, grabbed a tortilla with her left hand, and overfilled it before handing it to the former and asking, "When do you want to return to the Academy? I don't mind if you want to remain here indefinitely and hollow out the whole hillside, but if we're going to return, we should do so at least a few days before the deadline..."

"That would be most prudent..." confirmed Will, nodding. "But I thought I made it clear that I'm doing this for you. Until you're ready to return, we'll stay right where we are."

"And what if I decided to stay indefinitely...?" asked Ohta, narrowing her eyes challengingly.

"Then we'll explain the situation to my mom and spend the next three to four years training and cohabitating in seclusion," responded Will, smiling as he added, "There are promises I have to keep, but most can be fulfilled without me attending the Academy. So, as long as you're prepared to help by transferring messages, funds, and people...my time is your time..."

Though her heart initially skipped a beat when Will said he was prepared to stay with her, Ohta felt exasperated by the time he was finished, a tired sigh escaping her throat before she adopted a half-lidded expression and poutily asserted, "Forget it...we'll return in three, five days tops. And when we do, we'll keep the fact that I'm a girl a secret. I'm not changing dorms, and if they think I'm a guy, those hyenas aiming to become your Mistress will have to think twice about how they approach you..."

"Sound's good," affirmed Will, nodding before taking a big bite out of his breakfast-for-dinner taco. He noticed that Ohta had specifically used the word Mistress rather than Lady but decided not to point it out. She likely assumed he would be marrying Lyra at some point, as he all but promised he would do so, but since that was a matter for the future, Will decided to focus on his partially burnt burrito...

...