Chapter 1: Getting Silky Smooth

Chapter 1:
Getting Silky Smooth

 

SINCE THE CHORES were done for the day, I was chilling out in the drugstore.

Once Mina noticed that Noela and Ejil were absent, she came over. “Mr. Reiji…um…I’d like to talk about something.”

“Sure. What’s up?” Did she gain weight again?

“I bet you just thought something incredibly rude,” Mina scowled. “Do you think I’m going to tell you I’ve gained weight?!”

“Are you an esper or a detective or something?!” I groaned. How did she guess that?!

“Whatever. Since I haven’t gained weight, it’s fine.” Mina almost sounded like she was bragging. “That said, you’re right that this involves my appearance. Um…” She glanced around, then inched closer to my ear and whispered.

I was shocked. “You’re seriously worried about that?”

“Yes! Anyone with a fair maiden’s soul would be concerned! It’s tough!”

Hunh. I never guessed that Mina thought about that kind of thing. “Do you think it bugs Noela too?”

“I wonder. She’s kind of unique.”

Yeah… I guess Noela’s so fluffy, she might not pay attention to that.

Mina pressed her fingertips together. “U-up till now, whenever I’ve spotted any, I’ve taken care of them,” she said in a hushed voice. “But…”

“I get it. That must be really annoying. You want something that gets rid of them all at once, right?”

Mina nodded.

“For a guy, I guess it might be a drag if the girl you liked didn’t look after that,” I reflected.

“Exactly,” agreed Mina. “I don’t think that’s unique to men either. Women prefer guys to look after those things. Your shins have bothered me lately, to be honest.”

“My shins?” I echoed. “Uh, but it’s kind of a different story for dudes, right?”

Still, it would’ve been easy to get superficial. I figured lots of women would be happy with that. I bet there’re other girls like Mina out there.

“Hey!” Paula came in, waving. “I see you’re free as always, Rei Rei!”

“You’re the last person I want to hear that from,” I retorted.

Mina bowed her head politely. “Good day, Paula.”

“Hey, Paula, do you do that too?” I blurted out.

Paula was obviously confused. “Uh…what’re the deets?”

Mina quietly explained.

“Oh. Well…yeah, sure,” Paula replied. “I am a young woman dating around, you know. To be honest, I think most people do that. You do too, right, Anna?”

Paula turned, revealing that Annabelle had been in the drugstore for a while.

They must’ve met up on the way here. Wait…Paula calls her “Anna”?

“Er…yeah, I guess.” Annabelle looked away, embarrassed.

“Really, Captain?” I asked. “That’s surprising.”

“Well, gee whiz, sorry.” Annabelle glanced at me awkwardly. “Anyhow, uh…this isn’t the kind of conversation to hold at the pharmacy.”

I get it. This kind of thing’s normally “girl talk.”

“You see,” Mina explained to our two visitors, “I just asked Mr. Reiji to formulate something that makes the process nice and quick.”

“Oh, I get it!” Paula and Annabelle replied in tandem.

“If customers want something like that, I could whip it up and put it on sale,” I mused.

“Please do!”

Damn, that didn’t take much. They really want it badly, huh?

I left the three women behind and headed to the lab.

When I thought about it, lots of female customers came to the drugstore for beauty products. It wasn’t an understatement to say that tons of women wanted to stay beautiful as long as possible.

As I finished my work, Noela popped her head in. “Master, Noela bored.”

“Then go help Mina. I think she still has housework.”

“Leave to me! What that, Master?” Noela pointed at the new concoction.

I laughed like a mad scientist. “It’s a treatment to make women beautiful! If you used it the wrong way, though, it’d be real bad news.”

 

Hair-Removal Cream: Contains hair-dissolving particles. Suppresses hair growth.

 

From the way the three women described their hair-removal troubles, it hadn’t sounded as though they were unique cases. I was betting that the cream would be a big hit with female customers. Once I’d made several bottles, I took three back to the store and guided the girls to the washroom.

“This stuff here will take care of hair really fast. It’s just what you wanted.” I showed them the bottles. “It’s called hair-removal cream.”

They gulped loudly, focusing on the new product. “Hair-removal cream?”

It’d be fastest just to show them. I spread a tiny bit of the cream on my arm. “Let it sit for five minutes, then gently wash it off. After that…”

“After that…?” The trio directed their serious gazes at my forearm.

I rubbed off the water, revealing a hairless, silky-smooth patch of skin to everyone present. The girls gasped in shock, then applauded.

“Wow, that’s amazing, Mr. Reiji!” exclaimed Mina. “Thank you so much! Now I won’t need to spend all that time in the bath, battling my hair!”

“You’re a super-duper legit genius, Rei Rei!” agreed Paula. “That stuff’s really crazy. It takes, like, no effort!”

Even Annabelle nodded, satisfied with the hair-removal cream’s results.

To be extra sure, I had the girls test the cream themselves on the backs of their hands. It seemed to go fine.

“So, you worry about excess hair too, Annabelle?” Mina asked.

“Oh, shut up. Is that so bad?” Annabelle huffed.

“Of course not!” Mina replied. “It just makes me think you’re a girl like us, that’s all.”

Turning bright red, Annabelle tossed her wallet directly at my face.

“Ow.”

“T-take as much as you want, you big jerk!” Grabbing a single bottle of hair-removal cream, she rushed out of the drugstore, still beet-red.

What the heck’s her deal?

I didn’t know how much money was in Annabelle’s wallet, but I hadn’t intended to charge her, since she tested the new product for me. I’ll give back the wallet tomorrow morning, when she drops by for her potions.

“Anna’s a real cutie,” Paula whispered, staring at the spot where the captain had been.

“Yeah,” Mina replied. “This time, I actually agree.”

I told Paula that she didn’t need to pay me; after that, she and Mina locked me out of the washroom. I figured they wanted to use the hair-removal cream right away. I was interested in what was going on, but I would’ve had my ass handed to me if I’d peeked, so I slipped away.

In the lab, I grabbed the remaining bottles of the hair-removal cream prototype and headed back to the storefront.

Wait. There’s a bottle missing. Did I miscount?

Before long, Mina and Paula came out of the washroom.

“Look, Mr. Reiji!” Mina exclaimed. “I’m all smooth now!”

“What’s your ulterior motive for getting me this silky-smooth, Rei Rei?” cackled Paula.

The two looked thrilled with the hair-removal cream’s results. Unfortunately, I had no way of knowing what had gone on behind the scenes.

 

***

 

The next day, I got up at the usual time, doing my best to ignore the racket elsewhere in the house.

“Good morning, Mr. Reiji,” Mina smiled.

“Morning.” I sat down in the dining room. As Mina cooked breakfast, I asked casually, “Did that cream cause any weird side effects?”

“Nope! Not a thing.” Mina glanced at Noela. “Um…not for me, at least.”

Noela was sitting next to me, and she didn’t look any different than usual. Well, except for the scarf around her tail. Why would she bundle her tail up? She’s usually so proud of it. Did she use the cream?

I turned to Noela. “Aren’t you dressed up today? Did something happen?”

“Garoo?! I-It nothing!”

Burning with curiosity, I pulled up the scarf to peek.

“Master! No touch! Pervert!” Noela quickly put some distance between us.

Too late for that. I’d already seen what I needed to. The scarf wasn’t a fashion statement; Noela’s prized fur was gone. She’d snuck out a bottle of hair-removal cream when I wasn’t looking. “You used the cream, didn’t you?”

“I told you he’d find out, Noela,” Mina interjected. “This is what happens when you try whatever Mr. Reiji makes without listening to the instructions carefully.”

Noela’s ears drooped sadly. “Arroo…”

According to Mina, Noela had noticed what happened this morning. The cream was supposed to be beautifying, yet her tail’s fluffy fur was gone! She’d been afraid that she would get in trouble if I found out she used the cream, so she’d gone to Mina about it.

“That explains why the house was so loud this morning,” I mused.

“N-no worry,” Noela stammered. “Grow back soon.”

“Hmm. I don’t know about that, Noela,” I replied. “That cream also suppresses hair growth.”

“Arroo?!”

Pitter patter! Noela trotted close and tugged at my cuff. “Sorry! Sorry! Noela no use without asking anymore!”

“All right, all right! Just stop pulling my sleeve!”

Noela clung to me tearfully. I patted her head, since no other choice was available to me. After she let go, I grabbed the hair-growth shampoo I’d formulated for Zeral.

“If you use this, your tail fur should come back,” I told Noela. “The hair-removal cream doesn’t stop growth completely.”

“Thank you, Master!” Noela sniffled, wiping her tears away. “Noela stay by Master’s side forever.”

I didn’t get mad at her. At the end of the day, Noela was just a young girl. Girls her age were usually interested in beauty, since it attracted guys. In fact, everyone—male and female—had that instinct.

The next day, Noela’s fluffy tail was back to normal. She never tested new products without asking again.