Editing City Series:Volume8b Chapter17 (section)

===Aoe’s Sight Mode: In DT Castle===

'''<Aoe’s Over Reload>

Aoe entered Sight Mode as soon as he woke up.

His returned sight showed him a wooden frame and a stone panel. A lamp hung from the wooden frame.

He was looking at the ceiling.

He was lying on top of a cloth with a blanket over him. He was naked.

The ceiling he saw was vaguely familiar.

He checked the wall and saw decorative plates and framed posters attached to the stone texture.

He stared at them in his drowsy state, the sense of familiarity growing stronger.

<Whose…?>

His mind finally woke the rest of the way up.

“Yuo!”

He sprang up to a sitting position. He looked around, ignoring that the blanket fell away from him.

He found someone seated behind him by the pillow.

Her back was covered by a light green dress and brown hair.

Past the puffy shoulders of her dress, he saw a word mail window, a program window, and a few data icons.

He looked down at his naked body.

He had a high performance healing charm attached from his left shoulder to his right stomach. There was another on his right arm. He felt warmth below them, but no pain.

He sighed.

Then he looked down at the slender back next to him. To check something.

'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

He blinked for a moment, but she still did not move.

The hair falling down her back did sway a bit, though. A window opened over that hair.

<You don’t need to worry. I promised to be by your side, didn’t I?>

<Give me a bit longer. I’m almost done writing an important program.>

After a while longer, her hands stopped moving.

She took a breath and turned around. She closed the word mail window but left the program window open.

She slowly turned to face him with her knees atop the bed.

She tangled the skirt of her dress in her hands and tilted her head.

<What do you think?>

First, he looked at her face.

Then at her chest.

And her hips.

He leaned to the side to look at her butt too.

And…

“Mh,” he grunted in approval.

She gave him a troubled smile.

<Um, I wasn’t asking for you to judge my various body parts.>

“If you find a man who looks first at a woman’s face, then her boobs, and finally at her butt, you have found a truly honest man.”

<An excellent example of why honesty is not always the best policy.>

<nowiki><I</nowiki> was trying to ask if my treatment for your injuries was sufficient.>

“More than,” he replied without really checking on his condition.

Then he looked at her more closely. Her eyes were focused now.

To be certain, he held his hand out in front of her face and waved it side to side.

She smiled bitterly with the program window still glowing behind her.

<nowiki><I</nowiki> can see your thuggish face just fine, Senpai.>

“Mh,” he grunted in acknowledgment before doing so again. He also crossed his arms. “What do you think?”

She took a closer look at his face before answering.

<Oh, well, I had already seen your face in the audience chamber, but I suppose I was happy to see it again.>

“No. Not my face.”

He looked to the blanket draped over his hips and finally looked back at her.

“You saw me naked, didn’t you?”

<N-n-n-n-now wait a minute here. Back up.>

When she realized what he meant, she leaned forward, her face red but with anger rather than anything else. She reached out her white-gloved right hand to point at his left chest.

<After I carried you here with my Mouse’s help, you were already covered in blood. I couldn’t exactly leave you in your clothes like that, could I? Besides, the wound went all the way down to your hip.>

<You were also unusually hungry, so I had our Mice run down to the dining hall to eat a bunch of heat energy on your behalf.>

“I do not care about my healing, my wound, my hunger, or Monkey’s whereabouts,” calmly replied Aoe. “I asked what you thought.”

Yuo groaned and backed away. She held herself and tensed, but eventually…

<Umm.>

She held an open hand out toward him.

<Please keep in mind this only makes us even. We’re even.>

<You saw me too when I was in the Questron, didn’t you? Saw me naked, I mean.>

“But I didn’t get to strip you first. That bit of fun means you still owe me one.”

<nowiki><I</nowiki> owe you nothing. I didn’t have a choice when you weren’t in any state to remove your own clothes!>

“Mh. You have a point there. There wasn’t anything else you could have done.” He crossed his arms and nodded deeply. “But the fact remains that I have not stripped you.”

She blushed down to her neck when he said that. The sweat on her brow dripped down her cheeks.

Maybe it was an overreaction from her subprograms, but her hands moved in a flustered way.

<U-um, S-Senpai? Are you, uh, familiar with the concept of negotiating?>

“Mh,” he confirmed, giving her some hope. But, “When I negotiate, I always demand it all.”

<Ugh, you really are an idiot, aren’t you?> Yuo spoke in her window and brought a hand to her forehead. <Um, uh, h-how far do you intend to strip me?>

<C-could you be a magnanimous Senpai by going easy on me and letting me keep my underwear on like in a game of strip poker?>

“Where did you learn about that?”

<In the amusement park’s rec room.>

Aoe noticed a hint of enjoyment on her face when she answered on reflex, so he said something else.

“Yuo.”

<Um, yes?>

“What do you think?”

She backed away again.

<Um,> she said in her window and he smiled bitterly.

“Not what I meant. I’m asking if you enjoy this back-and-forth between us.”

Her eyes briefly widened. She looked taken aback but with her cheeks still flushed and she considered what he was asking her.

After a few seconds of silence, she nodded.

<nowiki><I</nowiki> do enjoy it.>

“That’s good enough for me. Let’s switch to Board Mode. I want to set the silliness aside and get some information on the present situation.”

'''<Aoe’s Sight Mode has ended>