Chapter 19: Desensitization Training

While Jiang Ciqiu was still plotting her after-school dessert shop operation, up on the second floor of the gymnasium, in the stands, Ilya was leaning against the railing, lost in thought. Suddenly, a bone-chilling cold crept up her spine, like prey being marked by a predator hidden in the shadows. The golden-haired girl snapped her head around, only to see Lin Xia approaching with a gentle smile.

“Strange…” Ilya muttered to herself. She, who was hailed as the Babygoat, the pride of heaven, could she really have such an illusion about an ordinary person? Probably the aftereffects of expending too much mana during the hospital operation the night before last.

“Ilya, do you mind if I ask you a few questions? About Aqiu.” Lin Xia stopped at a safe distance of two meters, his tone mild.

“Sure, go ahead.” Ilya replied automatically. Aqiu? That must be a nickname for Jiang Ciqiu. They were really close, weren’t they?

“It’s like this: Aqiu helped tutor me while I was in the hospital. Now I want to give her a gift as thanks, but I’m not sure what girls like.”

“A gift? A nice pen or some small jewelry wouldn’t be a mistake. But if it’s from a good friend, she’d treasure it regardless.”

“Got it, thanks.” Lin Xia nodded, agreeable.

For some reason, looking at this clean-cut, easygoing boy, that inexplicable dread crept back into Ilya’s heart. It couldn’t be that Jiang Ciqiu’s obsession with keeping Lin Xia alive had been so strong that she’d cursed him, right?

“Well, it’s almost lunchtime. I’m heading back to class.” Unable to bear the eerie feeling any longer, the young lady made an excuse and fled.

Lin Xia remained where he stood, watching her silhouette disappear around the stairwell corner. The smile on his face vanished in an instant.

“So she’s a magical girl, after all?” He murmured, “Must be the gold one.”

Growl…

With that confirmation, a restless sound, like a beast’s hunger, stirred in Lin Xia’s belly.

In the two days since his narrow escape, he’d pieced together what he had made a deal with. It was a being with an endless appetite for consumption, granting him the power to reshape his flesh at will, grow armor-like scales, and sprout claws that could tear through steel plates… And to it, magical girls and calamity beasts were premium ingredients.

Just like last night at the abandoned construction site, if he hadn’t been the first to tear into and devour most of that corpse-mountain’s flesh and blood, he absolutely wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from latching onto Hongxia’s neck.

“Hah…” The youth took a deep breath and raised his left hand. Chitinous claws were emerging from the joints of his fingers, tearing through skin, the searing pain cleanly blocked by receptors his brain was flooding.

Lin Xia stared emotionlessly at this ghastly hand. That night in the hospital when he was attacked by the calamity beast, after he found and swallowed that lump of flesh, his body had been able to mutate like this.

Strictly speaking, picking up something so dangerous meant he should turn himself in to the police. But Lin Xia felt his most likely fate after that would be being locked up in a research institute and cut into pieces. And he didn’t want to die yet.

“Sigh, one step at a time.” The youth sighed. He’d barely crawled out of that hopeless hospital bed, barely made it back to Aqiu’s side. He had to find a way to survive.

…

After lunch, the early summer sunlight grew increasingly languid. Jiang Ciqiu, holding a carton of yogurt, strolled along the shaded, camphor tree-lined path. Watching the high schoolers dashing around and horsing around, she sighed with heartfelt sentiment. Not having to go back and read the boss’s expression, not having to face endless bugs to fix, being young again… it was wonderful!

Just as she was leisurely wandering toward Class 8, First Year’s entrance, ready to go in and savor a lovely nap, a slender arm shot out from the side, blocking her way.

“Don’t go in yet.” The girl turned her head slightly to see Ilya standing right there, her brows knitted into a tight frown, her delicate features painted with unmistakable disgust.

Jiang Ciqiu’s heart suddenly lurched. Oh no! Could Lin Xia have done something wrong, or said something out of line to offend her?

“What is it now, my dear young lady? Did headquarters hand down another new mission?”

“No, it’s the smell inside.” Ilya shook her head, then pointed a finger at the closed classroom door in front of her, her tone full of loathing: “The sweat from the boys after their PE class, combined with the smell of just having eaten, it’s all trapped in there fermenting… it stinks to high heaven.”

“Oh, I thought it was something serious. That’s nothing.” Hearing that Lin Xia hadn’t caused any trouble, Jiang Ciqiu instantly relaxed. As a seasoned corporate drone who’d pulled all-nighters fixing code in internet cafes and ridden crowded slow trains for over ten hours, she had absolute confidence in her olfactory endurance.

“Lunch break is precious. Getting back to my seat for a nap is the real priority.” Jiang Ciqiu waved her hand, completely brushing off Ilya’s warning, and pushed open the door, strolling into the classroom.

But she’d barely taken three steps inside when, after just one breath, she froze dead in her tracks.

“Ughh!” The young lady’s warning had been right.

“It stinks. Holy crap, why does it stink so bad? Did someone take a dump in here?” Jiang Ciqiu’s eyes went dark from the sour, stinging odor hitting her, and she nearly threw up the yogurt she’d just drunk. And the source of this smell was none other than the boys in the classroom.

She pinched her nose shut, barely making it to her own seat in the corner. “Because it’s hot, the AC’s on, so we can’t open the windows for ventilation… ugh… blegh!” She gagged as she grudgingly pulled out her chair and sat down. With the schedule, there was practically a gym class every day from here on out. Was she supposed to spend the rest of her precious life suffocating in this acidic stench, like a gas chamber, every single day?

No way! A living person shouldn’t be killed by a bad smell!

Jiang Ciqiu began scanning her surroundings for a solution, and her gaze quickly landed on the empty chair next to her. That was Lin Xia’s seat, with his school jacket draped over the back.

Come to think of it, what did Lin Xia smell like, anyway? Jiang Ciqiu felt a sudden surge of curiosity. In her memory, because of his long hospital stays, Lin Xia always carried a lingering scent of disinfectant. Now that he was out, would he, like the male lead in those power-fantasy web novels, have some fresh, pleasant fruity or floral fragrance? Or maybe some sandalwood?

Then his jacket could be a temporary gas mask!

With that thought, she looked around furtively, left and right, like a thief. Confirming no one was paying attention, she quickly snatched Lin Xia’s jacket, buried her face into it, and inhaled deeply.

“!!” The next second, Jiang Ciqiu’s pupils shrank to their limit. A rush of intense masculine scent, mixed with that rising acidic odor, slammed into her completely unprepared brain like a heavy hammer, polluting every nerve of her sense of smell.

“Cough, hack, bleghh, ugh❤, it stinks!” Jiang Ciqiu held the jacket away from her at arm’s length, tears nearly streaming from her eyes. This guy, with his fast metabolism, sweated even worse than the other boys! So all that stuff in novels about fragrant natural body odor was total lies!

She wanted to just toss the jacket back onto Lin Xia’s chair, but the moment before she let go, she hesitated. …If she pinched her nose and refused to smell it just because it stank, or simply ran away, that was loser thinking!

To ensure her survival over the next few days, she absolutely had to adapt to this acidic stench characteristic of a pack of boys. And Lin Xia’s jacket, absolutely saturated with that pure, undiluted masculine scent, was the perfect desensitization material!

Once she got used to this extreme smell, the classroom’s odor would be practically nothing!

With this in mind, the girl gritted her teeth, and with a look of tragic resolve, unfolded that oversized male jacket and put it on, pulling the zipper all the way up to her chin in one swift motion, burying half of her face within the collar.

“Ungh… I mean, it’s to survive, but… it’s still so bad…” Jiang Ciqiu couldn’t help but roll her eyes, feeling like she was being forcibly held against that sweaty boy, barely able to breathe.

No… she had to adapt!

She could practically feel a metaphorical fan spinning like crazy on top of her head. She was someone who could endure the stench of cigarette smoke in the office and the liquor-soaked breath of greasy middle-aged clients after a drinking session without even flinching. At the same time, she was a veteran magical girl who could ignore the smell of calamity beast blood and innards! How could she give up here!

And so, the black-haired girl’s eyes hardened with unwavering determination as she buried her face deeply into Lin Xia’s uniform and started inhaling furiously against the fabric.

“Sniff, ugh, sniff, ugh, sniff…”

“Uh… Aqiu?” A baffled voice came from behind Jiang Ciqiu.

“!” Lin Xia’s sudden appearance startled Jiang Ciqiu, who was completely immersed in her desensitization training. The sheer embarrassment of being caught in such a perverted act by the very person involved sent her adrenaline spiking, and she instinctively shot up to explain that she was cold, not doing anything weird.

But because she moved too quickly, another wave of the acidic stench hit her lungs, and as she stepped on the loose leg of her chair, her legs gave way underneath her.

“Hey, careful!” Lin Xia certainly hadn’t expected the always-spirited Jiang Ciqiu to suddenly trip over nothing. Even with his reaction speed now far beyond a normal person’s, he could only manage a single stride forward.

In the end, Jiang Ciqiu, carried by momentum, slammed headfirst into Lin Xia’s thigh.

At the moment of impact, the girl’s small nose twitched involuntarily, and in that extremely close proximity to his inner thigh, she sucked in a huge, deep breath. A masculine pheromone smell, ten times stronger than what had been on the jacket, crashed directly into her brain like an electric current.

As they say, when things reach their extreme, they reverse. After her nervous system’s defenses surrendered to this olfactory assault, in order to survive, her perception automatically twisted the disgust caused by this overwhelming intensity into sheer pleasure.

Click.

Jiang Ciqiu felt the metaphorical fan on her head spin out and shatter.

“You okay? Did you get hurt?” Lin Xia quickly bent down to help her up.

“, Cough, I’m fine.” Jiang Ciqiu raised her head stiffly. Her already pale cheeks were now flushed as red as a ripe tomato, and under the scrutinizing gaze of her friend, a traitorous trickle of blood began to drip from her nose.

“You look anything but fine!”

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