Bonus Short Stories

Plushie Paradise

“You know, Linze... I really do love these stuffed animals... but don’t you think this is a little much?”

“Ughhh... I had a feeling...”

Elze sighed lightly as Linze frowned. Linze’s room was overflowing with plush toys. Far more than there had been only a few weeks prior, even. Her room was pretty big, but she’d almost completely covered the place in fluffy fabric. I couldn’t believe she’d made so many.

“Whenever I get an interesting idea, I want to make it right away... It just ended up this way before I even noticed...”

‘Interesting idea,’ huh? I can understand dogs, cats, and other cute animals but... you’ve made plushie versions of furniture! And there’s even a stuffed toy bike! Don’t get me wrong, it all looks cute, but you’ve gotta admit a plushie steak isn’t very normal... Well, at least they all look nice.

“Whoa, that’s a big one.”

There was a stuffed white tiger in the corner of Linze’s room. It was a plush version of Kohaku’s heavenly beast form. The other plushies in the room were relatively small, chibified versions, but this one was full scale and extremely realistic.

“Why’s this one so big?”

“Oh, I’ll show you.” Linze walked over to the plush Kohaku, sat down, and leaned back against it.

“See, this way I can rest on my back during reading time.”

“Ohhh, so it’s like a cushion.”

“Yeah. I got the idea when I saw you relaxing.”

Oh. She saw that? I guess it’s true that I like to lean back against Kohaku when I want to relax... Kohaku’s fur is nice and soft, so I can’t help but do it... Heavenly beasts are on a whole other level when it comes to comfort.

I copied Linze and laid against the plushie. It was incredibly soft and cozy...

“I used heaven’s cotton for the insides and white lynx fur for the lining. Still, it’s no match for Kohaku’s fur...”

I wasn’t so sure about that. Sure, it wasn’t quite as gentle or soft as Kohaku’s, but it could certainly give it a good run for its money. I kind of wanted one of them for myself... though I had a feeling it might upset Kohaku if I had one in my room all the time.

“Well, don’t you think you’ve made enough? You need to do something about all these stuffed animals,” I asked.

“I could just put them in my Smartphone’s [Storage]...”

“If you’re just gonna make them and throw them in there, what’s the point?”

“Gah...”

Watching Elze and Linze bickering reminded me of the time my dad got mad at my mom for making too many plastic models.

“You wouldn’t want to toss them out, right?”

“Well, no... I worked hard on them...”

“How about we sell them through Olba’s store? They’re really nice quality, after all.”

“Oh, that would be nice.”

I thought maybe the cat and dog plushies would be okay, but to be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure about the plushie steaks and bicycles. I had a feeling only a particular kind of buyer would go for those...

But I was wrong. Linze’s stuffed plushies were a resounding success. In fact, they sold so well that Olba asked me to establish a full brand line. Linze couldn’t keep up with the demand, so we started mass production at one of Olba’s facilities.

The life-sized Kohaku plushies proved especially popular, which ended up giving the real Kohaku a case of mixed feelings.

Online Shopping?

“Oh, this is good... That one, Touya.”

“Uhhh...”

“Touya, Touya... These shoes, too!”

“Okaaay...”

I didn’t really know what to say, exactly. Lu and Sue were on their phones, showing me images of various articles of clothing and shoes. The fashion websites and clothing images were projected in the air, shown on a large screen in front of me. My other fiancees stood around, looking up at the images and giving their opinions as well.

Obviously, I couldn’t go home and buy them, so we did the next best thing and gave the designs to Zanac, who would then use his company’s resources to create the outfits himself. Zanac’s little fashion store had developed into a full-on brand with many branches all over the world. It’d be no exaggeration to say that he had the world’s aristocracy awaiting his newest creations with bated breath. These cutting-edge designs were all, of course, stuff that I had looked up online and passed on to Zanac, creating a fashion revolution that I had effectively imported wholesale.

“This one’s nice, Touya. Oh, this too.”

“Ughhh...” I groaned quietly in response to Elze, but I saved the image all the same. I’d been doing this for about three hours straight, so I was basically on auto-pilot. Zanac called for the designs once per month, so I basically had to do this before the end of each month in order to ensure that his business could continue thriving.

I never paid much attention to it back in the day, but the fashion scene was constantly shifting. There were new products released every week, let alone every season. What was considered ‘in’ or ‘out’ fluctuated wildly. Honestly, I couldn’t even begin to predict what would be popular two years down the line. Plus, I had nine fiancees. That meant catering to nine different senses of taste and aesthetics. And since they all had preferred brands and styles, I had to sit here for hours and listen to their individual picks until it eventually ended... Then, after it was finally over, I’d compile the saved images and send them off to Zanac. But I also had to put in a little extra time to look up gentlemen’s fashion, since Zanac’s brand catered to more than just women. For stuff like that, I asked Kousaka and Laim for help, since they were older men who had a good finger on general taste.

“I can handle it from here, Touya.”

“Th-Thank you.”

I quietly groaned in relief as my sister Karen came over, apparently done with her love consultation with our knights for the day. I’d been showing her how to properly use the internet so she could handle fashion affairs going forward. Fortunately, it seemed to have been paying off.

“Here... Here... Aaand... Here...”

Karen deftly swiped her hands over the smartphone, switching from fashion website to fashion website with peerless speed. As she moved her hands, several colorful images and designs were projected into the air in front of me. I could barely blink before the images all lined up against each other... It was only then that I realized they were lingerie. I turned and walked out of the room, knowing I couldn’t handle the sight. Not at all.

I couldn’t help but glance at the selected lingerie once they were all done later, but I had no way of telling which of my brides-to-be had chosen which design. Some of the outfits were seriously risque, so I couldn’t help but panic while wondering which of the girls had wanted to wear them...

I quietly shook my head, deciding that not worrying about it would be better for my mental health, then headed to the cafeteria for a late lunch.

The Worst Foods

Every adult has foods they don’t particularly like. I’d say it’s not that uncommon for most adults to have three or four... No, five or six foods that they’re not all that fond of. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I have an unbalanced diet or anything, but I definitely think I’m a picky eater.

There’s some food I don’t like because it takes too many bites to eat, some I just don’t enjoy eating, some I can eat but don’t particularly get excited about, and some stuff I just find unpalatable. Fish eggs, for example. They’re a total no-go. I feel the same about sea grapes, too. Just about anything with fish eggs in it makes me feel gross. I’m not big on shishamo fish, either... I can stomach it, but meh...

Oh, but I’m good with regular eggs. Just thought I should mention that. But I don’t like raw ones. Raw eggs aren’t good. I don’t like rice with eggs, either. Gets too slick and goopy for my tastes.

Next up there’s squid. I know we had those giant squid monsters in the story, where Touya fished them up and served them to the people, but I actually can’t stand that stuff. It’s the texture, I just can’t stand that damn texture... But I am okay with dried squid and dried cuttlefish. I’m honestly better with foods that are dry and hard. I just don’t like slippery stuff, it seems. I can’t handle grilled squid, since it’s still all rubbery and maintains its elasticity.

Can’t say I’m a huge fan of octopus, either. I mean, I’ll eat it, like octopus sashimi and takoyaki are both pretty okay. Takoyaki actually falls under the category of food I’m fond of, even.

The food I despise the most, though? Bananas. And not because of the texture, mind you. I hate them because of the psychological trauma I have that’s associated with them. When I was a child, I would eat bananas all the time. Can’t say I especially loved them, but they were a filling enough snack that I enjoyed. But then, a tragic incident occurred during my early years in elementary school.

I can’t remember if I bought them myself, or if they were at home, but I tucked into a tube of banana chips. I got really into the snacking, so I ate every last one all by myself! Everything after that is pretty fuzzy, but I recall getting a stomach ache and passing out... Next thing I knew, I was down with a terrible fever. I got extremely sick and vomited all over the place for hours on end. And what did I taste through the puke, you ask? Through the feverish screams and the chaos? Bananas. Bananas! My never-ending stream of vomit tasted like bananas! Ever since that day, I’ve avoided anything with a banana-like taste.

Anyway, I also dislike liver, offal, gizzards, fried chicken gristle, or just about anything to do with animal entrails. And I’m not big on spicy foods, either, but that’s not a matter of taste or texture. It’s just that neither my tongue nor my stomach can handle spice.

Oh yeah, this one isn’t food, but I also don’t drink alcohol. The taste’s okay, but I don’t seem to handle it well. I’ve noticed that I have a hard time breathing when I get drunk. I definitely enjoy the taste and scent of whiskey and other spirits, but that’s not really good enough.

I guess when I put it like that, my diet sounds a little unbalanced... I certainly don’t think I could write a story with food as its central focus, that’s for sure.