"Hoo..." Hot breath escaped from between his lips and teeth. Asakura slowly opened his eyes, feeling his consciousness as sluggish as if it were enshrouded in thick sludge.
The familiar ceiling swayed gently in his vision, the contours of the room were blurred as if swallowed by fog, and his entire body felt drained of strength. The sore and aching sensation in his joints made him unable to hold back a groan, and even lifting his arm felt as difficult as struggling underwater.
Could it be a Stand... ah, no, an Evil God attack?
Asakura took a breath and tried to sit up from the bed, but even this movement became incomparably difficult.
His throat was so dry it felt as though it had been scorched by the iron sand used for roasting chestnuts in a dry goods shop. He pursed his lips, but he couldn't even manage to moisten his throat with saliva.
At this moment, Asakura felt an unprecedented empathy for the situation of characters in movies who, upon just waking up from a coma, would say as their very first words, 'Water... give me water...'.
A faint ache throbbed inside his head, as if every heartbeat drove his brain matter to pulsate along with it, sending wave after wave of dull pain.
"Ah, ah, ah..."
Asakura finally realized that he seemed to have a fever.
Memories came rushing in like the tide.
Last night after he returned home, he lay directly on the bed intending to take a short nap without even taking a bath. As a result, probably because the accumulated fatigue was released all at once, his entire being fell into a groggy, deep sleep just like that.
It appeared that the accumulated fatigue was much more severe than he had thought, crushing his body the instant he let his guard down.
He reached up to touch his forehead, but what came from his fingertips was not the sensation of forehead skin.
"Huh...?"
He brought the object on his forehead before his eyes and found it was a cooling fever patch.
Speaking of which, it seemed he really had forgotten to lock the door after coming home... Had someone been here?
Asakura sniffled.
It couldn't go on like this; he had to recover his health quickly.
Therefore, he tossed the fever patch aside, made a pistol gesture with his right hand, and pressed the position of the 'muzzle' against his temple.
"[Candle... ugh..."
When people are sick, they become more fragile than usual. If one is entirely alone, this fragility makes it easier to be affected by bodily pain, causing thoughts to be involuntarily influenced by negative emotions.
It hurts so much, it's so miserable, why am I the only one suffering like this? The world might as well just be destroyed.
Thoughts such as these, even if not from the heart, would fly around his head like pesky gadflies, lingering persistently.
The consequence of being unable to concentrate was that the Curse would become dangerous.
"Can't think too much... don't think too much... just get rid of the fever and it'll be fine..."
Asakura muttered a few words softly, reinforcing his own thoughts like self-hypnosis.
"[Candle]"
A temperature-less flame instantly enveloped his entire body.
A moment later, the flames receded completely, and along with them, the signs of the fever vanished without a trace.
But this did not mean Asakura suddenly regained his health.
His current state, at most, had merely changed from 'having a serious illness' to the state of 'just recovering from a major illness'. He was still as thirsty as he should be and as weak as he should be; it was just that the dull pain in his head and the physical discomfort had vanished entirely along with the subsidence of the fever symptoms.
Asakura lay down for a short while, feeling that he had recovered a bit of strength, before exerting effort to sit up, preparing to get out of bed.
"Ah..."
Just then, a small gasp came from the doorway of the room.
He looked toward the doorway and found that Shiina was standing there.
The young girl with smooth, flaxen long hair was wearing loose, casual everyday clothes, with fluffy slippers on her feet, a cute, pale pink apron tied around her waist, and her hands, encased in cat-head insulated mitts, were holding a small, warm clay pot. Her caramel-colored eyes were entirely filled with an inquiring look.
"Asakura-kun, are you already awake?" She walked quickly to the bedside and placed the clay pot on the nightstand. "No need to sit up, you still have a fever."
"I... cough, I'm already mostly recovered."
Asakura responded.
Only, his dismal expression made those words of his seem entirely unconvincing.
"Honestly, do boys just love putting on a brave front that much?" Shiina took off her cat-head mitts and reached out to gently touch Asakura's forehead, presumably estimating his body temperature. "Huh? Surprisingly it already feels like the fever is subsiding a bit? Even though just a moment ago..."
"Are you the one taking care of me? Sorry to have put you through the trouble."
Asakura said softly. Then, with a bit of curiosity, he asked the young girl, who was muttering 'just to be safe, I'd better put another one on' while pulling a new fever patch from her pocket and tearing open the packaging: "But how did you find out I had a fever?"
"Didn't Asakura-kun say before that you wanted me to help take charge of dinner?" The girl answered as if it were a matter of course.
"If I remember correctly," Asakura looked at the table, but not seeing a water cup, he couldn't help but purse his lips, "what I said was after summer vacation ends, right?"
"Then just consider it my own arbitrary decision to express my gratitude to the honorable boss for hiring me," the young girl glanced at Asakura, seemingly realizing something, and ran outside to pour him a cup of water, "is plain boiled water okay?"
"It has no flavor."
"Since you already have a cold and a fever, stop brooding over drinking something with flavor."
"Just kidding, I usually like drinking plain boiled water too." Asakura took the cup and drank it all in one gulp, finally bringing salvation to his parched throat: "Thank you, Shiina."
"You're welcome. Where was I... right, dinner! Yesterday I even specially used the wages I just received to buy very expensive beef and made potato beef stew, but when I came to Asakura-kun's door, there was no response no matter how much I knocked. I thought you weren't home, but luckily I found out the door wasn't locked. Once I entered the house, I saw Asakura-kun collapsed on the bed completely motionless..."
"...Potato beef stew (sucks in saliva)."
"Did you only hear that part out of everything I just said... You absolutely cannot," the young girl raised her index finger and made a 'Dame!' gesture: "Sick people cannot eat such greasy things!"
"I already told you I'm completely cured! My stomach and intestines are burning like a bright red, raging fire, and it is shouting out loud for me to seize that potato beef stew!"
"Compared to potato beef stew, I think Asakura-kun needs to go to a hospital to see a gastroenterologist instead."
The girl retorted. Immediately after, Shiina revealed a lighthearted smile once more: "But when you're sick, as long as you still have an appetite, it's a good thing. Though I can't give you potato beef stew, I made this."
She lifted the lid of the small clay pot, revealing a bowl of steaming hot mixed porridge inside.
"Oh, smells good." Asakura, who hadn't completely recovered from his nasal congestion, took a look and found it was a deluxe version of mixed porridge with shrimp and chicken added—usually, this kind of mixed porridge would only have some egg added.
"Can Asakura-kun eat by himself?" Shiina looked at the pale-faced Asakura, thought for a moment, and directly said without waiting for his answer: "Forget it, let me feed you instead."
"Actually, I can..." Asakura wanted to protest.
He wasn't quite used to the feeling of having the tool for eating his food held in someone else's hands.
"Come, say ah." The young girl scooped up the porridge, blew on it, and brought it to Asakura's lips.
"Wh-?!"
Forced with a spoonful of mixed porridge by the young girl, Asakura swallowed it whole, knitted his brows, and said thoughtfully, "It feels a bit different from the 'ah~' feeding plot by a beautiful girl in my impressions..."
"Is there a problem?" Shiina looked completely blank.
"It's too gentle, it feels exactly like feeding a patient, it completely lacks the ambiguity and romantic flair of 'ah~'!" Asakura evaluated with an air of great importance.
"No, no, no, I am ICC (in character context) feeding a patient here." The young girl complained helplessly.
"Another spoonful!"
"Suddenly becoming forceful all of a sudden..." The flaxen-haired girl looked with amusement at the deadpan, posturing Asakura, "Huhu... Come, say ah~"
"Mnum-mnum... Hm? Th-This mixed porridge—?!" Asakura's expression froze, and his eyes turned incredibly bizarre as he looked at the mixed porridge the young girl had made.
"What's wrong?" Startled by Asakura's reaction, Shiina subconsciously looked at the mixed porridge inside the bowl, but she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.
Could it be that it doesn't suit his taste?
"Subarashii! It is simply a symphony of gentleness, freshness, and fragrance! With one scoop of the spoon, the surface of the thick porridge glints with a soft luster; the grains of rice have been cooked to the point where their original shapes are practically invisible, yet they still retain that perfect hint of sticky tenderness. The aroma of the rice rises together with the steam, like the early morning sunlight gently patting one's face—soft, warm, making one's heart melt along with it. The moment it enters the mouth, the taste buds are enveloped by a gentle impact. The sweetness of the fresh shrimp, the fragrance of the chicken, and the crisp freshness of the vegetables bloom in sequence on the tip of the tongue, each bite seeming to say 'welcome home'. It is a flavor capable of melting away fatigue, making one want to trust it unconditionally.
All in all, it's delicious! Too delicious!" Asakura, whose nasal congestion symptoms had finally recovered enough to taste flavors, praised loudly: "If it weren't for the fact that my strength hasn't returned yet, I'd want to perform a manual clothing explosion!"
"...Honestly, don't say such strange things."
Shiina looked at his antics helplessly, but didn't feel any displeasure, and fed him another spoonful of porridge.
In fact, from her perspective, the fact that Asakura had the energy to act so silly meant his physical recovery was going quite well.
"But seriously, this mixed porridge is truly delicious. The flavor is very rustic and has a homemade feel to it. The cleverest little touch must be adding edible flowers into it, right? There's a faint floral fragrance when eating it. I've never had a mixed porridge that felt like this before, I really like it."
Asakura nodded and praised sincerely.
"Eh? Floral fragrance?" The young girl looked at the mixed porridge in her hand, and after a moment her face suddenly turned a bit red, "Th-that... Asakura-kun, maybe you should just eat it yourself."
"Suddenly I'm abandoned?!" Asakura was shocked, "I'm not joking or being sarcastic, I really like that floral fragrance—"
"Honestly, I get it... stop talking about the fragrance already!"
The girl said in a somewhat self-abandoning manner as she hoisted up another spoonful of porridge.
Asakura looked at Shiina thoughtfully, and catching her off guard, he suddenly took a big bite and ate the porridge from her spoon before she had a chance to blow on it and cool it down.
"Asakura-kun?!" The young girl was startled and hurriedly poured him some water.
And while Asakura couldn't stop making "si-ha" noises from being burned, he managed to figure out one thing because of it.
"...There is no floral fragrance... I. See. How. It. Is."
He looked at the young girl's cherry lips and spoke with deep meaning.
"Asakura-kun, even I can get angry, you know?" The girl stared at Asakura with a blank expression.
If it weren't for the fact that the blush on her face from shyness hadn't faded, Asakura would have been genuinely intimidated by her.
"I'm a patient." Asakura lay back down on the bed obediently, and even very thoughtfully tucked the blanket around himself: "Please spare me."
"You were just saying you were completely fine a moment ago, yet only at a time like this will you admit you're a patient to escape blame..." The girl puffed out her cheeks, murmuring with a bit of slight dissatisfaction in her caramel-colored eyes: "As expected, you should just drink the mixed porridge yourself, Asakura-kun."
"I want Mama Shiina to feed me."
"Who is a mama, are you a child?!" The girl retorted, "The thing just now was a special service, and it has already been canceled!"
"If others saw this, they'd think I can't afford to play," Asakura flipped open his wallet from his pocket, taking out an Hirobumi Ito, a Hideyo Noguchi, and a Katsushika Hokusai (Note): "Give me another three thousand yen worth!"
"This is not a paid service, and the answer to bad children is NO!"
The young girl said with a charming smile.
That being said, although Shiina didn't blow on the porridge to cool it down for Asakura after that, she still very carefully fed him the entire contents of the small clay pot spoonful by spoonful.
The portion in the small clay pot wasn't too large, and Asakura cooperatively ate the whole pot of porridge, even feeling a bit like he hadn't had enough.
"Though I already said it earlier, thank you so much, Shiina." Asakura thanked her from the bottom of his heart once again when the young girl was tidying up the trash in the room, intending to pack it all up and take it away to throw out.
"Honestly, didn't I say it already? Asakura-kun introduced me to a part-time job. Although the boss is a bit of a strange guy, I enjoy doing it very much, and I don't have to worry about living expenses, so I can keep studying properly." The young girl raised her head and looked at that somewhat strange guy with a gentle expression, saying clearly, "If anyone should be giving thanks, it's me who should be thanking Asakura-kun."
"Shiina..." Asakura looked at the girl, his expression slightly touched.
"Asakura-kun..." The young girl looked back at him, a light shining in her eyes.
"So, the potato beef stew..."
"Dame."
"...Dammit, I thought I could slip that past."
"Honestly, stop obsessing over potato beef stew at a time like this!"
The young girl said with a laugh, but then she shook her head gently, "No... perhaps this kind of Asakura-kun is exactly who Asakura-kun is."
Getting along with him was more relaxed and free of burdens. At the same time, although it didn't show on the surface and he possessed a bit of a mischievous streak, he was actually a very gentle and good person.
Mm, this is fine.
Though thinking this way is somewhat selfish, a treasure that no one else knows about is exactly what is more worth cherishing, isn't it?
(Note: These are all the portraits on the Japanese 1,000 yen paper banknotes, representing the version from before 2004, the version from 2004 to 2024, and the version from after 2024 respectively.)