It was… uh… a very soft kiss.
Honestly, I'd not been ready for it. It might have been the softest kiss we'd had so far.
I could feel my face heat up and my body refused to answer any of my commands.
"What?" I fumbled out when Llewellyn pulled back a bit, but he just cupped my head and kissed me again.
"…"
I closed my eyes, letting him do as he pleased while I tried not to turn into a molten heap of lava on the spot.
Llewellyn's tongue swiped at my lower lip one last time, making me gasp, before he pulled back to look at me.
"…"
I caught fire again.
What the hell. I was so flustered I could barely function.
"Let's go," Llewellyn said, straightening himself and holding out a hand to help me get up. "That position can't be comfortable."
I let out some kind of sound I didn't even know what was supposed to mean myself, and accepted his hand.
"Do you… uh… want to check the shrine?" I asked. "Or should we just leave?"
I was almost sure he would say "let's go home" but at the last moment he said, "Let's take a look, you never know."
I nodded, picking up Penguin and patting him gently, before helping him into my pocket.
***
Now that we'd taken care of the Distorted Realm and there were no more swords flying out of it, the shrine looked innocuous enough.
Penguin chirped from my pocket, poking his head out to look around, but he didn't jump out.
Okay, maybe it was still a bit ominous.
"Wait," Llewellyn said before I could go in. "There's information for tourists written in English here. Come take a look."
Oh, that was good. Maybe it wasn't that abandoned, then.
I knew nothing about Japanese shrines, but according to the text here, this place had once been an armory shrine, founded as a branch of Oyamazumi Shrine, sharing its protection over soldiers and sailors.
It said people passing through the mountains had brought their swords here, laying them in the hall as offerings before setting out. Some took them back on the return trip, believing the swords had been blessed; others left them to the shrine.
After that, the historical references got a bit heavy and my eyes glazed over them, but I caught mentions of old samurai families, mountain routes, and more details about the blades entrusted here for luck.
"Mmh," Llewellyn said. "Let's take a look inside."
The wood creaked under our weight as we stepped in.
The main hall wasn't large, with the altar at the far end. Someone had cleared out most of the religious artifacts and the offering box lay on its side, coins scattered across the floorboards. I didn't know what I was most surprised by, that those coins were still there or that a tourist spot could be in such a state.
Of course it was also possible that this place had actually been well tended to and I was just witnessing the aftermath of the Distorted Realm. I'd never really stayed after a Distorted Realm, so I'd never really seen if, once the Realm lifted, the area surrounding the location of the fight went back to normal or was a mess too. Maybe the latter, then.
"I think this place has been abandoned for a while," Llewellyn said, running his finger along one of the many wall mounts I assumed were supposed to hold swords. The dust was thick enough to leave tracks and all the swords were gone.
Well, the last part wasn't surprising, they'd all been directed at us after all.
I wandered toward the side room. The sliding door was stuck and it creaked ominously in the moonlight, but it finally opened. However, inside there were only tatami mats and some broken ceramics. Nothing unusual.
"Found anything?" I called.
"Just old festival decorations," Llewellyn called back. "Some masks. Nothing recent."
I rejoined him in the main hall. He was holding up a fox mask, the orange paint chipped and peeling. In the moonlight, it looked almost alive.
"Creepy," I said.
"At least it's not a Destabilized Artifact."
That was true. The thought gave me the chills.
Still, I took out my phone to take a pic of it.
Llewellyn snorted and set it back down carefully while I took a few more pictures of the hall.
I wondered if it was true that swords here received some kind of blessing. Did these kinds of thoughts even make sense in our post-System world? And could System swords be blessed here too?
"We should go," Llewellyn said. "This place will need proper documentation, but that's not our job."
He was right. We'd cleared the Distorted Realm, but we were on foreign soil. There was still a chance we could get into trouble.
We stepped outside just in time to hear voices coming from the forest.
Ah, shit.
I had no idea what they were saying, but they sounded like local authorities. Probably. Or whatever Japan's Knot response unit was called.
Llewellyn grabbed my wrist. "Time to go."
The last thing we needed was being found at an abandoned shrine in rural Japan at—what time was it here? Three in the morning?
I was sure they knew who Llewellyn was and that we'd just neutralized a Distorted Realm, and the System would have likely teleported us back if they tried to detain us, but… well. We weren't about to risk them pulling anything weird on us.
Llewellyn's arm circled my waist, and we teleported back.
***
We landed in Llewellyn's living room and I sighed in relief.
It wasn't dark outside yet and it took me a moment to readjust mentally.
Just then, Lumos materialized in the room as well and rushed toward Llewellyn, tail wagging.
Penguin let out a delighted chirp and jumped out of my pocket to greet him, before they both started running around.
Llewellyn exhaled, watching them. He let go of my waist and went to wash his hands before putting the kettle on and collapsing on a chair at the kitchen table. I washed my hands too, then sat down, sighing.
"Well, I suppose this was straightforward enough," I said. "We even got to sightsee a bit."
Llewellyn seemed amused.
"I forgot you teleported back immediately after Guildford," he said.
Well! Not like I had a choice!
The kettle was done quickly. Llewellyn got up to fill both of our mugs before coming back with a tin of biscuits.
I took one. It melted in my mouth.
"..."
Damn, why was everything in his house so high quality?!
Penguin and Lumos trotted back in. Penguin, spotting the biscuits, chirped and tugged at the hem of my trousers with his beak until I put him on the table.
He inspected the tin, looked at Llewellyn, and turned into a fire fox—clearly remembering which of his forms enjoyed desserts more.
Llewellyn broke a biscuit in half and offered him a piece.
I grinned at the sight.
Llewellyn leaned back in his chair, sipping his tea. His hair was messy from the wind, his shirt unbuttoned at the collar. He looked... Uh.
"Would you like to stay?" he said. "Do you have plans?"
He asked it casually, but I saw his finger tap against the ceramic of his mug.
I thought back to that kiss and was suddenly too hot again.
The problem was, I did. I wanted to stay.
I really wanted to be here. I didn't want to go home. I wanted to spend time with him, have dinner together, then drag him to the bedroom and pick up where we left off.
But...
"I really need to spend some time in my Core Partition," I said with a sigh. "And I didn't have the chance to study those blueprints yet."
Llewellyn nodded, though I saw his shoulders drop just a fraction. "Of course."
Damn it.
Llewellyn had given me access to both his home and his Core Partition and had never made me feel unwelcome.
I'd done… neither.
In fact, I basically just showed up, ate his food, and left!
That didn't seem right.
It made it look like I wanted to keep him at arm's length, which was the exact opposite of what I wanted.
I took a deep breath.
"Would you..." I rubbed the back of my neck. "Would you like to join me?"