Nora Valkyrie smacked a pair of shades on Lie Ren's face.
"…? N-Nora, what'd you just-"
"Ren!" Nora chirped happily with a bright smile. "You need to smile more often, Reeeeeen."
Ren had been minding his own business by reading a book titled "How to Deal With Valkyries for Dummies." Unfortunately, it turned out to be a Starcraft guidebook specifically made for Terran Valkyries instead, but Ren decided to read it anyway to see what the fuss about strategy games was about.
Then Nora just happened to come by and be Nora as usual.
"But… why the shades?" Ren asked Nora.
The orange-haired girl snickered mischievously.
Uh oh, Ren thought as he remembered the particular face the girl made. That usually means something drastic is going to happen.
"The shades you are wearing right now are the 'Confidence-Spiker Shades'! They kick your confidence up a notch, from what I heard, so you should be able to smile a lot more often!"
"…Really, now?"
"Really, now! Don't you feel confident?"
Ren thought hard. Did he feel confident? He actually did feel a bit confide-
Wait, that was just his stomach being happy with the cookie he ate earlier.
The dark-haired student sighed as he shook his head.
"Look, Nora, I really don't feel like these 'Confidence Shades' are working at all."
"Hmmm…"
Nora raised the bottom of her lip as she began to think of ways to make Ren smile.
"Oh!" The orange-haired hammer-wielder exclaimed. "How about you go break some legs!"
"…Nora."
"Break some legs!"
"Nora, I-"
"Leg some breaks!"
"…"
Ren shook his head. For some reason, however, he actually felt like satisfying the girl's desire for once. Standing up from his chair, the man looked across the cafeteria he had been reading in before coming across Cardin Winchester bullying Velvet again.
Frowning at Cardin's actions, the man with a pink streak on his hair walked up to the ginger-haired giant of a student.
"Cardin."
"…Huh? What's your problem, Rayban? Got a problem with her problems?"
Suddenly reaching out for Cardin's legs, Lie Ren suddenly tripped Cardin and lifted his legs before smashing Cardin's knees with an elbow.
"AUGHUIQEGJNKSJNSG- MY LEGS! OH GOD, HOW AM I GOING TO STAY PRETTY IF YOU BREAK MY LEGS?!"
"The answer is: never."
So, Ren broke Cardin's legs. Somewhere far away, some kid began to rant about how people should never say "never," only to get his nuts kicked hard enough to make him a singer.
"Good job, Ren!" Nora exclaimed excitedly. "Wow, those legs broke so quickly. He should be able to recover with his aura, though!"
Ren nodded, smiling at Nora.
Wait.
…I'm smiling?
The dark-haired man tried to frown, only to notice that his face did not change from its smiling ways. Startled by the lack of control over his own body, Ren sensed that something was wrong.
"Alright, since you smiled, you can stop right there, Ren!"
He just can't stop smiling.
"…Renny? What's the matter? Was it that funny?"
He really couldn't wipe his own smile off his face. His eyes had widened, and his smile remained the same.
"Helloooooo, Remnant to Reeeeeeen?"
And suddenly, Ren began to attack Cardin again.
"HERMERGERSTOPAGHRGIGHGHGKGAGHHHHHHHH!"
Nora laughed nervously, unable to comprehend the fact that Ren was literally tearing off Cardin's legs off.
"Renny?"
A splatter of blood that reached her face finally made her eyes widen.
No one but Ren, Nora, and what was left of Cardin remained in the cafeteria. Cardin's large intestines were shoved into his eyes, his mouth spilling blood like a pretty little water fountain. His fingers were nicely sticking out of his throat. Still smiling, Ren turned to Nora with a mask of red.
"You're right, Nora!" He laughed, feeling relieved of some stress he felt from work. "This is pretty fun!"
"R-R-Ren…?"
"Heyaaaa! What's going on?"
Nora looked away from Ren in horror, finding Ruby Rose skipping into the cafeteria. The dark red-haired girl was unaware of the gore that painted the center of the cafeteria. Her eyes quivering, her lips trembling, Nora backed away from Ren, still unable to comprehend that Ren just tore up Cardin with his bare hands.
"R-Ruby…?" She tried to yell, though her voice remained quiet.
"Oh, hi Ren!" Ruby chirped. "That's an awful lot of Heinz ketchup on your face! Hehe!"
"Bah," Ren said as he shrugged lightheartedly. "Wanna share some?"
"…Ew, I don't want to share ketchup with you, Mr. Ren!"
"Come on; this ketchup's really good!"
Ruby found Ren's aggressively positive personality to be interesting, but she decided to comply with his words. It wasn't often that Ren smiled that much, after all!
"Sure, Ren-!"
As soon as Ruby stepped closer to him, however, Ren tripped Ruby and picked up her legs.
"-Huh?"
Nora watched in horror as Ren not only broke Ruby's legs, but also stuffed said legs into Ruby's stomach.
He smiled; he smiled as happily as he could. Though Ruby seemed sad at first, Ren made sure to make her smile. It worked after he manually altered her face, though. Some people just needed a little push to smile. She looked funny, remaining still with her red fingers pulling her mouth's corners up.
His smile redder than before, Ren turned to Nora. Nora backed away and blinked, only to find Ren tripping her.
"R-Ren! Wait, this isn't- REN! WAIT!"
Ren clutched Nora's stomach as his grip on her left leg tightened.
And with all of his strength-
…
…
…
Ren woke up.
The familiar ceiling of JNPR's dorm room appeared before him. The day before, Nora seemed excited about watching some sort of horror movie with him, but she ended up watching it by herself. He really did try to watch the movie with her, but alas, work nearly murdered his consciousness.
I should have tried to get that work finished earlier, he thought with a bit of disappointment. Nora really wanted me to watch the movie with her, after all.
As Ren attempted to lift himself up, however, he felt something heavy lying on his chest.
Something light, actually.
Hm?
The dark-haired student raised his blankets, only to find a Nora curled into a ball near his chest.
"…"
"…"
The orange-haired girl squeaked as she shifted herself a little closer to Ren.
"…I had a bad dream," she whispered, looking up to Ren with a shaky and tired smile. "Y-You're okay, right?"
Ren blinked. It was rare of him to see a vulnerable-looking Nora, especially a Nora with such a worried smile. Perhaps the dream she had really was crazy enough to frighten even her out of all people.
The dark-haired student smiled warmly, rubbing her head as he surrendered from getting up.
"I'm all okay, Nora."
Nora nodded.
"…Five more minutes?"
"…Five more minutes."
Ren's smile made Nora feel fuzzy.