Loco Moco ロコモコ

A #KonbiniIdol After Story*
#Wss366 #Sub

“Umi, why the get-up?” Shishi asked me. The 15th-century European cavalier outfit I had rented, along with a flowing amber wig, was an unusual choice. It wasn’t as if I was a big cosplayer.

“It’s to keep my identity a secret. My publishers still receive threatening letters from the cult I wrote about. Apparently, I didn’t disguise its name well enough, and they took offense at my insulting their leader.”

“So, why come?” Her concerned look was so cute that it made me feel all warm inside.

“How could I resist speaking at HawaCon with their offering free airplane tickets and a hotel in a subtropical paradise? Especially when I knew you had never been out of Japan.”

That brought a smile to her face. I knew she felt inferior to people who had done and seen more than she had. Which was a laugh; she had seen things few mortals had set eyes on: the Heian courts of Takiyasha-tennō and Sanuki Tenman; the nuclear-ravaged ruins of Hiroshima; and the blessed Mayoiga.

Those weren’t memories we enjoyed. They were laced with the fear we had felt. The here and now was better. I looked down at my meal and said, “The stipend isn’t much, but it pays for our meals.”

I reached over and wiped a smear of gravy from her face and continued, “You can’t get a loco moco like this at home.”

#TootFic #MicroFiction #NMFic