Strategy for Dealing with Problematic Girls

"Why are you the one giving me something on your own birthday?"

Jhin wondered whether Kokkoro had gotten something backwards, and he brushed his hand lightly over the hair on top of her head, amused.

He hadn't expected her expression to be so serious. "This is my birthday wish!"

"Uh... I wasn't going to refuse anyway. You don't have to be that solemn about it." Jhin crouched down until his eyes were level with hers. "Then I get to give you a present on my birthday too. You're not allowed to turn it down, all right?"

"Of course. How could I ever refuse a gift from Master?"

"See, I always knew you were the best to me." He pinched her soft cheek fondly, then stood and scooped her up in a princess carry. "The room should be about ready by now."

"Master... I can walk on my own..."

"No way. It's your birthday. I'm not letting you just walk back beside me like it's any other day!"

"But... this is so embarrassing."

"It's fine. You're cute when you're embarrassed too."

Steam burst from the top of Kokkoro's head with an audible pop, and her face went so red she had no idea where to look. Jhin's steady heartbeat carried through his chest into hers, and her own pulse quietly began to race.

The girl she had been before she understood the feeling called "like" would have accepted the compliment with nothing more than a small flush. Now a sweet-sour ache spread through her, some strange magic that left her unable to lift her head and face him at all, as though meeting his eyes would dissolve her completely.

A bashful, breathtaking Kokkoro left Jhin's mouth dry. Still unaware that she had already worked out her own feelings, he swallowed the urge to bend down and kiss her hair and carried her back to the room.

He rapped twice on the door and called out, "We're back! Somebody get the door!"

"Coming, coming!"

Megumin came scurrying over, shooting a "get ready" look back at the others before she pulled the door open. "Welcome home!"

Bang!

Bang!

"Happy birthday, Kokkoro!" all three of them shouted at once.

Kyaru and Pecorine set off party poppers from who knew where, and streamers drifted down over Jhin and Kokkoro. Megumin dragged Jhin back out onto the beach.

While the two of them had been out walking, the three girls had turned the place into a proper birthday venue. Plenty of the materials had been bought in a last-minute dash outside, and some of the decorating looked rough around the edges, but the thought behind it reached Kokkoro all the same.

"I did say a simple decoration would be enough..."

"It's a birthday. You don't get many of those. How could we just phone it in?" Pecorine planted both hands on her hips, thoroughly pleased with herself. "We even made a birthday cake!"

"There's no oven here. I'm impressed you pulled that off."

"Heh heh. Good food takes more than skill in the kitchen - it takes creativity!" She gestured toward Kyaru. "Kyaru controlled the wind and fire elements perfectly and baked the sponge in no time at all."

"That's genuinely impressive." Jhin set Kokkoro down and rubbed Kyaru's head as a reward, then gave Megumin and Pecorine the same treatment in turn.

"Master, please crouch down and close your eyes. I'm going to give you your present now."

"Oh, sure."

Jhin shut his eyes, a small thrill running through him. Given the mood and the way these things usually went - was Kokkoro about to kiss him?

Right as the thought crossed his mind, something cold touched his lips. Before he could think it through, what felt like the mouth of a glass bottle was pushed between them, and a mystery liquid poured straight down his throat.

He never got his eyes open. Consciousness left him entirely, and he collapsed onto the sand.

The other three stared, slack-jawed, as Kokkoro emptied a bottle of pale violet potion into Jhin's mouth. Every one of them was stunned witless by it - Kyaru most of all, whose calves were trembling.

Megumin's voice came out strangled, like a rooster with a hand around its throat. "Hey! Kokkoro, this isn't the script we agreed on!"

The plan had been for her to present Jhin with something of enormous importance to the elves as her gift. How had that turned into knocking him out cold with a Charm Potion?

"I'm sorry... While we were walking, the way Master held my hand, the way he looked at me, the warmth coming from his fingertips - it was all like a fire I couldn't put out, burning away my reason. So... I had no choice but to move the plan forward. Don't worry, the ritual only takes a single day."

"Blessing of Light!"

Wind and light elements wove into a Light Cocoon that sealed Kokkoro and Jhin inside. Worried the same thing as last time might happen, Kyaru fetched her magic staff, wrapped a barrier of wind around the outside of the cocoon, and laid protective spells across the sand.

Face still red, Pecorine picked up the empty bottle that had been tossed aside - and found four characters written on the label: Origin Potion. Startled, she waved the other two over. "Come look at this! What Kokkoro gave Jhin wasn't the Charm Potion!"

"Origin Potion? What's that supposed to do?"

"Never heard of it. Don't tell me it's another one of the elves' special concoctions."

When the Elder had sent Kokkoro away from the Forest of Fairies, she had sighed and pressed a bottle of Origin Potion into her hands. "Kokkoro, listen. If... if there ever comes a day when you realize that hero has carved himself into your memory beyond forgetting, don't hesitate. Have him drink this, and perform the Shared Source Ritual."

"Elder, isn't the Shared Source Ritual meant for healing gravely wounded elves? Can it be used on the hero at all, when he isn't one of us?"

"Foolish child..." The Elder gave her a look full of affection. "I'm not giving you this potion to heal wounds of the flesh. I'm giving it to you for wounds of the heart."

"Wounds of the heart? And what does it feel like, a memory carved in that deep?"

"You'll understand when the time comes. If only she could have realized it sooner - ah. Never mind. Never mind."

Inside the Light Cocoon, Kokkoro bit her index finger open and painted a magic circle on Jhin's chest with her own blood, then drew a second one on herself. She lay down on her side beside him, laced her fingers through his, and the Shared Source Ritual began.

Their heartbeats gradually fell into step, and the circles flared with a light sharp enough to sting the eyes. In Kokkoro's design, half of her elven origin essence would split away and enter Jhin's body, while part of his origin essence would flow into hers to complete the exchange. There was only one purpose to it.

He would become like the elves - his lifespan without limit.

Master... please forgive me for being selfish. I've started to fear watching you walk toward death, and I can't even imagine the day we would have to part.

Kokkoro's origin essence never split away. Instead, something surged out of Jhin - a presence scalding enough to set her whole body alight. The immense life force it carried, and the faint trace of dragon's might, told her everything: that bottle of pure dragon's blood had already given him a portion of the dragon race's traits, longevity among them.

A ritual meant for healing naturally moves to fill in whichever side is weaker first. And so Kokkoro was swept under, overwhelmed by the searing tide pouring out of Jhin.

____

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