Is this love?

The story begins with Anissina von Karbelnikoff, scientific researcher and inventor extraordinaire.

As with most days, she'd locked herself in her laboratory, working on her latest project: Bathe-Me-Tender-kun, an ingenious device that utilizes pure demon magic, designed to give its user a warm, gentle bath. There would be options too, such as water temperature, bubble pressure, bath scents, exfoliation, massage, love auras, and other such adjustable features which can be tweaked based on the user's (or dare she say it, users') preferences.

Currently, though, her next greatest invention was only a modest pink marble tub filled with water.

"Well, you've got to start somewhere. Let's get to work!" she said to no-one in particular. She rolled up the sleeves of her red dress, knelt next to the tub, and opened a tool box. Perhaps what many people do not know is that her hobby required incredible mechanical knowledge and technical fine-motor skills, and she had them to an extent that would put many prominent male engineers to shame.

However, before she could display her prowess to herself, something strange began brewing with the tub of water.

It was subtle at first. Small ripples seemed to appear at the centre of the placid square of liquid. After a while, the water's spirals got deeper and stronger, and intense force and pressure caused streaks of water to spray from the tub. Some of them hit Anissina, who chose wisely to duck from the growing pandemonium.

And then—SPLASH!—a massive upward spray of water emerged from the middle of the tub. Water absolutely sprayed everywhere. And then, the noise stopped.

A slightly damp Anissina peeked at the side of the tub and saw a skinny all-black thing floating face-down. "Oh, dear," she muttered.

The skinny black thing stood up—"FWAA!"—gasped for air, spat out water, and made some paddling movements, as if afraid to drown in the shallow tub. With pure disorientation and a genuine where-the-hell-am-I? look on his face, his eyes zipped around the workshop, found Anissina, and grinned sheepishly. "I'm… not in Shinou Temple, am I?"

"No, your Majesty. But you are close," she answered.

"Ah, well, at least I'm in the right country this time!" The figure shakily stood up from the tub, fighting slips and slides along the way, and finally made it on the floor on his two feet. "I'm really sorry, Anissina. I hope I didn't mess up your invention, whatever it is," he said.

She stood up, shook her head, and calmly went towards a bureau where she kept some things to clean herself up. She got a towel and threw it over to him. "Well, dry yourself up, your Majesty. It's a bit of a long walk towards your room," she said.

"Thanks." He stood there staring at her.

"… you doremember how to get there, do you?" she asked.

"Uh…" He grinned at her sheepishly. "Ah, wait. Um, yeah, actually, I just remembered now. It's in the other building, right, then two lefts, a right, and then the big green door… or no, two rights, a left, then upstairs, and then the big green door… Thanks, Anissina!" he said. With a confused sort of pace, he made his way out of the room, turned right, turned back, and then turned back again, finally deciding on one direction.

Alone, Anissina shook her head, partly in disdain, and partly in good humor. It can be a struggle, sometimes, to live in a country run by such a young and sometimes unfocused Demon King. All the same, she doesn't want to complain. After all, he lets her do whatever she wants, doesn't he?

Her eyes drifted absently towards the marble tub, which for some reason was still filled to the brim with water. A small, shiny pouch of some sorts was floating quietly in the middle of it.

Curious, she picked up the mysterious item. The texture of the cloth, if it was cloth, felt foreign. It was of an unnatural colour too—a really bright orange that probably glowed in the dark. Furthermore, water seemed to simply slide, rather than get absorbed, from its surface.

It was heavy in her hands, and she felt a small, rectangular object inside it. A sealing mechanism that Anissina recognized as a 'zipper' (King Yuri's other world trousers seemed to always have them at the front) seemed to keep the water from getting inside.

"Amazing! What a great design. I wonder if King Yuri would allow me to look inside this magic pouch," she said to herself out loud. All the same, she didn't wait for permission to open the said pouch.

She unzipped it carefully. A white, rectangular object with a tangled mess of thin, white rope slid out and landed on her open hand.

It was, truly, one of the strangest things she ever saw. It had simple shapes on one side—a dark square, and two perfect circles right below it. Inside the first circle were strange triangles and lines, and unrecognizable symbols at one end.

Turning it over and over, she chanced upon something that she guessed was a switch. Moving it mindlessly with her thumb, the dark square suddenly lit up with amazing white light. A weak, but upbeat sound emerged from the swollen ends of the thin, white ropes.

… what is it?!

"Oh, that? That's my iPod. I had it with me when I went here, but I thought I lost it. It probably arrived in the Demon World late. Good thing you found it, Anissina!"

The Demon King was nice, dry, and cheerful as ever. He sat behind what he dubbed as his office desk when Anissina went up to him to ask about his 'brilliant alien communications device.'

"What does it do? How does it work? From which alien race was the sound that I heard a while ago?" asked an incredibly curiouser, bright-eyed Anissina.

"It plays music. See, you remove it from 'hold' and then you unwind the earphones, plug 'em in your ears, and then start headbanging, if you will," explained Yuri, demonstrating it for the inventor along the way. He especially enjoyed demonstrating the 'headbanging' part. "And the sound you heard earlier… let's see… it was Gackt, a song entitled LONGING. He's from Japan, where I came from… although he doesn't admit to being human, sometimes."

"I see… so it's like a group of minstrels, or maybe a modern-type orchestra, is trapped inside that little device and plays for you whenever you like?"

"Well… I guess you could put it that way, but there are no real people here… just the sounds," said a confused Yuri. "I mean, you don't need to feed it food or anything. You just need to recharge the batteries."

"Batteries?"

"Yep, with electricity."

"Electricity… like from lightning? Or magic?"

"Er…" Yuri scratched his head, now with 30 percent more confusion painted on his face. "Well, back on Earth, you don't need magic to make certain inventions work, just scientific ingenuity…"

Anissina's eyes widened. No magic to make certain inventions work? Then, non-magic users can utilize devices? "That's amazing," she commented with all sincerity.

Yuri seemed to find this rather awkward. "Uh… yeah… not everyone on Earth is specially gifted with magic powers, you see… heh heh." He unplugged the 'earphones' of his 'iPod' from his ears and handed them over to Anissina. "If you like, you can listen to some of the stuff inside. Maybe you can get inspired to invent something like this, as well!"

She gratefully took the device from his hands and examined it again once more. The lit-up box near the top had symbols from a foreign language on it.

"Here, I'll help you out with that," said Yuri. He fumbled with the 'earphones,' plugged them clumsily in the holes of Anissina's ears, and fumbled again with the rectangular part of the device.

Anissina marveled at the shift from silence into sound. A strange melody played in her ears, which had instruments and vocal qualities that she didn't know existed.

She barely heard Yuri saying, "How is it? You're listening to an American 80's band this time."

Whatever 'American 80's band' is, it was pretty loud. The voice garbled and broke into an unfamiliar language. Normal demons would be frightened, but Anissina found it rather beautiful. "IT'S AMAZING!" she shouted at him.

"You're shouting at me. That means you're enjoying it, huh?" he answered calmly.

"NO! DON'T YOU HEAR IT? IT'S PRETTY LOUD! I CAN FEEL MY EARS THROBBING!" she shouted.

"Oh… Anissina, you're the only one hearing it! Isn't it cool?" He gave a silly smile.

"REALLY?!" she unplugged the earphones and was amazed that indeed, the sound didn't escape loudly from the ends as they did on her ears.

"See? It's great! You can listen to loud songs secretly, and you don't have to be embarrassed if you want to listen to embarrassing idol songs in public," said Yuri, with a strange sort of pride. For a moment, Anissina wondered whether it was him who invented the device, but the idea seemed a bit far-fetched; he probably just felt good that for once, he was the one teaching Anissina something new.

At that moment, the door to Yuri's office opened, and Gunter went teetering in. He went past Anissina and rushed towards Yuri. "Oh! Your Majesty! You've arrived! Oooh! What are you doing here?! The public is waiting outside, they've been waiting for you for months now and they're waiting for your most precious word to grace their ears with JOY!" And a familiar smothering ensued.

"G-gunter… please, I kinda just got here, I'm still drafting my speech and everything, see?" But his efforts for needless stalling were in vain. The muffled cries of Yuri went unnoticed as he was dragged towards the door.

"Oh, you need no prepared speeches, just your beautiful presence is enough!"

"Your Majesty, your brilliant alien communication—"

"Ack! Anissina, you can hold it for a while, see ya later!" And with that, the overzealous Gunter and the rather harassed-looking Yuri disappeared from plain view. Anissina was left alone, with nothing to do, inside the office.

"Hm. I wonder what Gwendal's doing…" she thought to herself mischievously before exiting the room herself.

"An iPot, you say?"

"No, iPod," corrected Anissina.

From behind his own office desk, Gwendal frowned at her. Slowly, he put down his quill on his desk and watched her coolly. (He was probably a bit frozen since he got cornered by her again.) "And… you want me to try it out? I'm not sure, Anissina, I've come from training, and there's probably not much magic left. Don't waste your invention on me. Use Gunter instead."

"Silly. Didn't I just say that this is from his Majesty, King Yuri's world? He made it clear to me that one doesn't need magic to be able to use it."

"Under normal circumstances, that might be true," said Gwendal, with that familiar tone of stress and irritation on his voice, "but I'm not sure if that's still the case with the modifications you've done to it, Anissina."

The modifications that Gwendal mentioned were the extra-large pink fuzzy spheres attached to the ends of the earphones. Under normal circumstances, Anissina knew that he would have found these things rather cute, but from her, he always claimed to have the notion that they would bring about physical pain.

"Oh, these?" she delicately touched one of the spheres between two fingers. "Nothing to be afraid of, Gwendal. They're just improved versions of the Earth-language translation devices I had you use a few years ago. Remember?"

Gwendal narrowed his eyes. "Define improved."

"They're much cuter now, aren't they?" She batted her eyelashes at him.

He didn't move.

"Oh, come on. Here, I'll use them for myself." She turned the device on, gently arranged the fuzzy spheres on her ears, and pressed one of the triangles on the white circle. Another melody played on her ears, but the indistinguishable garble from before now made sense to her.

Watching her, Gwendal's closed mouth twitched in a weird way.

"See? No harm done," she said, taking off the spheres from her ears. "And didn't I just look incredibly cute when I wore them? They look just like ear muffs for the winter when they're worn."

"… you're not lying, huh," he said gruffly. His hands on his desk seemed a bit more rigid at that time.

"Gwendal, I'm not lying!"

"Then why do you need to try them out on me?"

"I just wanted to show them to you," she said. She sat at the edge of his desk, leaned over towards him, and crossed her legs. She rather liked Gwendal's forced nonchalant reaction when she did so. "I mean, don't you think it's a good idea to make devices that don't require the use of magic? I'm sure that those of us with weak powers, as well as the human countries allied to the Great Demon Kingdom, would greatly appreciate it…"

Gwendal cleared his throat. "I see. So is this a gentle warning that you'll need me to become a guinea pig for further experiments?" he asked.

"Oh, Gwen, don't be so harsh on yourself! I'd call you my assistant if you work harder!" she said.

He winced.

"Anyway, before it gets painful—" Gwendal's eyes widened at this—"I'd like you to start with something easy. Just to show you how advantageous such devices would be, you see."

Gwendal closed his eyes. It took some time for him to further accept his permanent role in Anissina's life, which is 'Official Palace Guinea Pig', among other things. "Fine. Since next time, you won't find it easy to find me," he replied.

With anI-knew-you'd-give-in-eventually-like-you-always-do expression on her face, she bent over and plugged one of the enhanced earphones in his right ear. She couldn't quite reach the other ear from her position, so she had to lift her legs up and slide further on top of his desk to plug the other earphone in the left ear.

Ignoring Gwendal's reddening face (was it because of the 'subtle exposure' when I lifted my legs, or was it because I put my shoes on his furniture?she wondered), she pressed the triangle again and let the music stream into his ears.

She watched as he closed his eyes and focused on what Yuri called 'American 80's band'. "Well? What do you think?"

Gwendal, at first, was stiff, but eventually, the music had a strange effect on him. First, he was vaguely nodding his head for some reason. Then his fingers were tapping a strange rhythm on the table. And then a strange sound that she'd never heard before was coming out of his throat…

And then—Anissina couldn't believe it at first when she first saw it, but—Gwendal started…

Singing.

"G-gwendal?" she called, but his low bass-like voice overpowered her voice, as he belted:

… so I can hold you in my aarms!
Is this love? That I'm feeling?
Is this the lo-ove? That I've been searching for?
Is this love? Or am I dreea-ming?
This must be love… 'cause it's really got a hold on me-ee…
Hold on me-eee…

He paused. Opened his eyes. Looked warily around, froze when he saw Anissina.

"Er…"

There was a slight disorientation in his stare. It was as if he'd forgotten where he was, what he was doing, or why Anissina was sitting on his desk. It was strange, but he had the look of someone who's been under a short spell.

"Gwendal… what just happened?"

Silently, and with all due embarrassment, Gwendal unplugged the earphones from his ears and gently laid the device on the surface next to Anissina.

"Y… you…"

He shrugged at her. Feeling the need to explain, he said, "I… heard that song before… in King Yuri's world. I didn't expect I'd recognize it, but I suppose I did." His usual gruff voice seemed more forced than usual.

Her response? "Gwendal! You can sing!"

He stiffened. The dazed look on his face was replaced by something much stiffer, kind of like an oh-crap-now-I'm-in-for-it look.

Excitedly, she clapped her hands and swung her legs over his side of the desk. "I mean it, Gwendal. Your voice is a bit rough, and I didn't understand a word you said, but surprisingly you can carry a note!"

Gwendal, again, cleared his throat. He seemed to be doing this a lot when he's around Anissina. "Whatever, it doesn't matter. Singing provides no benefits for the armed forces, so it's a useless talent. My livelihood doesn't exactly depend on it," he said.

"Oh, Gwendal, says who? You're so uncreative, so uninspired! You forget who you're dealing with!" She ignored the nervous look on his face. "I can make an invention that can increase the strength of your men's magic powers if you sing 'American 80's band' to it, and would backfire if you sing out of key—"

"Don't get any strange ideas, Anissina!"

"It's a good idea, Gwendal, don't deny it!" In a gesture of steely determination, she raised her fist and nodded. "Yes, that shall be my next project! Bathe-Me-Tender-kun can wait another day!"

"Bathe-me-tender-kun…? I'm not even going to ask," said Gwendal, rubbing the space between his eyebrows as he did so. "I thought you were going to make nice, harmless inventions for humans' and demons' benefit, now…"

Anissina laughed out loud and waved a finger at his face. "I said no such thing, Gwendal. I'm off to draw my plans for Sing-to-your-army's-content-kun now." She slid off the desk, her hip slightly bumping his shoulder as she stood up straight.

"Right," said Gwendal. A small patch of red on his cheeks rose and disappeared again. "I won't be here when you're done, though."

"Then I'll just track you down!" Anissina walked off towards the door and saw a lithe figure standing outside. "Oh, Lord Weller, you're here," she said.

Konrad appeared inside the room and gave that same calm smile that he always seemed to have on his face. "Good morning, Anissina. Gwendal's in here, isn't he?"

She nodded. "I'm leaving. See you two later." With increasing clarity, sketches of the hypothetical Sing-to-your-army's-content-kun appeared in her mind. Not wishing to delay the design process any further, she rushed to her laboratory and locked herself in there, probably not going to come out there for at least a couple of days or so.

Gwendal sighed as Konrad walked up to his desk with that damned smile on his face. "How long have you been standing there, Kunz?" he asked.

"Well… I didn't see much of the exciting parts, if that's what you're worried about," he said.

"Define exciting parts."

"None of the singing. She did mention you singing, didn't she?... Although, if you were pretty excited that she was sitting on your desk like that, I'd be mistaken." He laughed softly.

Gwendal glared at him. "I don't like that smile on your face, Kunz."

"I'm sorry, Gwen." All the same, Konrad didn't wipe the smile off his face.

"Hmph," went the older brother, crossing his arms over his chest. "So, what brings you here, Lord Weller?"

The younger brother produced a wad of foreign-looking yellow papers from inside his coat and placed them neatly on his desk. "From his majesty. He drafted some new laws that he thinks this country needs, and he asked me to give you and Gunter copies to see them over, refine them if you have to," he explained. "He's always afraid of what your reaction would be, you know."

Gwendal wrinkled his nose at the crumpled papers and almost illegible handwriting. He browsed through them and said in exasperation, "Why couldn't he use normal parchment or paper, like everyone else?"

"He only had a legal pad back on Earth. He apologized, though," said Konrad.

Honestly, that boy wasn't well-versed at all in decency, diplomacy, and at the very least, good presentation. Describing his work as chicken scratches would be kind. Gwendal would have a headache later. "… well, all right then. Tell him that I'll look over them later," he said. He held the papers delicately between two fingers and threw them with distaste inside one of the drawers of his desk.

"All right then, Gwen."

"…"

"What's wrong, Gwen?"

Gwendal frowned at him. "I really, really don't like that stupid smile on your face, Kunz. Wipe it off your face," he said, a hint of a growl rising from his voice.

Konrad laughed. "I'm sorry, Gwen. I really can't help it."

"At least tell mewhy you're smiling like that?"

The younger brother hesitated, but just shrugged and said, "I'm just really glad to see you lighten up once in a while, that's all. And…" He trailed off. He pressed his lips together, as if in hesitation of what he was about to say.

Gwendal raised his eyebrow in annoyance. "And…?"

"Ha ha! Correct me if I'm wrong, brother, I'm just merely observing. But," said Konrad. He paused for a moment, minced his words, ignored the serious look on Gwendal's face, "It always seems to happen when Anissina visits you."

No response on his part.

"…" For a while, they just stared at each other. Konrad didn't seem too uncomfortable, though, much to Gwendal's dismay.

"That's King Yuri's iPod, isn't it?" asked Konrad. He walked towards the desk and switched it on. "Ah, you guys were probably listening to White Snake, huh? I'm not particularly into 80's metal bands. I did enjoy new wave—New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Devo, Duran Duran, that was my thing back then. I managed to watch one of White Snake's old music videos on MTV, though. It's rather… well, I'd say, it's not conservative at all." He chuckled.

Figuring out what Konrad was babbling about was no easy task. Why would anybody listen to waves by some boys from a pet shop? Earth customs are pretty strange. "I didn't understand anything you just said. You spent too long on Earth," Gwendal said sternly.

Konrad shrugged. "Four or five months is a long time, you know, either here or on Earth. I did what I could to survive the wait," he said. "Anyway, may I take this back to his majesty now? Or are you still going to play with it?" he asked, a mischievous smile playing on his lips.

The older brother did not appreciate this at all. "You and the iPot are dismissed, Lord Weller."

"It's called iPod, Gwen."

"Whatever. Go on. Get out of here." With that, Konrad calmly left him in the office, and Gwendal silently went back to work.

(Last song syndrome is a pretty tough thing to fight with when you're working, though.)

Around seven sleepless nights for Gwendal passed. It was ridiculous, really, that he let White Snake bother him for that long.

When he told Konrad about it, the soldier cited Earth knowledge that he could have only learned from the so-called wise demon king Yuri. It was the type of LSS that needed another dosage of the song before it could be let go. The alternate cure, of course, was to belt out the song at the top of one's lungs, in hopes that somebody else would get the syndrome instead of you, or that the song would fly skywards and out of one's brain.

Too bad that Yuri wore out the iPod's batteries a day after he took it to the Great Demon Kingdom with him. (Apparently, Wolfram enjoyed listening to a song by a certain Ken Hirai, much to the amusement of Yuri and the other Ken within the premises.) Now, there was no remedy left but the belting out of the song. That, or he could come with King Yuri the next time he goes to Earth to charge the batteries, or wait a few months or years before he comes back with fully charged batteries.

"I guess you've got to sing, Gwen," said Konrad. His eyes were closed, much like a very smug housecat. "I heard that Anissina's finished her latest invention and is currently looking for you, so you've got every excuse to sing."

Gwendal narrowed his eyes in annoyance. That definitely wasn't something that Konrad would say. Why, he had a bad feeling that Anissina and Konrad formed some sort of alliance so that his capture as a guinea pig would be quick as a—

"Found you!"

Sigh.

A ruthless force clamped onto the back of his jacket's collar and dragged him towards the open door of Anissina's workshop.

"Thank you very much for your help, Lord Weller," said the 'Crazy Lady' as she happily pushed her experimental subject inside the room.

"Yeah, thanks a lot, you traitorous little—"

"As always, Anissina," Konrad replied suavely. "Break a leg, brother."

Inside, Anissina wasted no time in rolling up Gwendal's sleeves and attaching all sorts of weird wires all over his arms, his throat, and then his face. Furthermore, a silly looking helmet, with tubes that connected it to a gigantic green machine with curious levers and buttons all over, was placed on his head.

She then pushed some buttons and pulled some levers on the machine. All sorts of lights blinked and it proceeded to hum merrily under her fingertips.

How the hell does she think of these things? thought Gwendal, partly in annoyance, but also partly in admiration. Indeed, ridiculous as he felt with all sorts of wires on him, he felt a bit intimidated that he was attached to such a big and dangerous device. He was a bit afraid that it would suck all the magic out of him.

Anissina, hands on her hips, nodded in satisfaction as she reexamined Gwendal and the machine. "Good. Sing-to-your-heart's-content-kun is ready for a pilot test!"

"Sing-to-your-heart's-content-kun?What happened to sing-to-your-army's-content-kun?"

"I realized that the machine is much too bulky to be brought on the battlefield. Once I tweak this machine, I might be able to make one much more compact for your army's benefit," she explained. She had in her hands a torch-like object, with a tube attached to the bottom that connected to the machine. "Here, take this," she said.

When Gwendal didn't move, Anissina took his right hand and forced it to hold the torch-like object. "Please be more cooperative, Gwen," she said in annoyance.

"Right, right." He might as well get it over with quickly. "What do I have to do?"

She pointed to the machine—more specifically, the big 24-inch lit-up square at the middle of it. "Please pay attention to the screen," she said.

He blinked. Suddenly, a song list appeared on it.

"There, see? Those are some songs in your mind that are vivid enough to be translated by the machine into sound," explained Anissina. "Hm, I see that the song you sang a week ago is on the top of the list. I guess it means that you're still thinking about it."

"So it seems." Gwendal's usual frown deepened. Even this machine is making fun of me…

"Like I told you before, this machine is designed for optimizing and boosting magic. If you sing well, then the magic of those who hear you will be strengthened by at least 50 percent. If you fail, then it's going to weaken by the same number. For this experiment, let's use that song." Anissina pressed a green key. The machine asked for a confirmation, which she accepted. After that, the screen went black. "You'd better get ready to sing, Gwendal. Use the microphone."

"Wh-what? B-but I don't think I can… I'd fumble the words—my magic--"

"It's okay! The words will flash on the screen! Just look for the words below the pictures!"

A few moments of scary silence for Gwendal. Then, the screen showed… well, weird pictures. More specifically:

Anissina walking by the sea. Anissina drinking tea. Anissina eating noodle soup. Anissina riding a horse. Anissina dragging a weeping Gunter by the hair away from the library. Anissina reading books to Greta. Anissina…

Her sharp voice distracted him from his mesmerized moment: "Gwendal! Pay attention to the words on the screen!"

H-huh? Words? What words? Oh. Those words. "I-I should have known better than to let you go alone…"

And the song went on and on. Seemingly random images of the so-called Crazy Lady continuously flashed on the screen. The words lit up rhythmically, as they should appear in the song. It was a ridiculous scene. Awkwardly, Gwendal tried his best to sing to his heart's content, but obviously, it was no easy task.

Finally, it was over. A cheesy victory fanfare played, and a number flashed on screen: 082.

"…" As if a bit stunned at what just happened, Gwendal's and Anissina's eyes lingered on the lone number.

"… what's that?" asked the embarrassed and exhausted singer.

"… that's your score over a hundred. Hm. It's actually not a bad score," commented Anissina neutrally.

"… I see."

Silence.

"Well, since you heard it, I guess it means that your magic should have increased, Anissina."

"Yes."

"Aren't you going to check?"

"Yes, I'm going to check."

"…"

"You're not checking. You're just standing there," pointed out Gwendal, not bothering to hide the confusion in his voice.

To his surprise, Anissina gave a sly smile as a response.

"… what is it?" he asked. That smile was good at making him nervous.

Slowly, she walked over to a machine next to Sing-to-your-heart's-content-kun, which looked like a pink marble tub filled to the brim with water. She put one hand on the brim. "I was actually waiting for you to leave, since I was planning to try it out on Bathe-Me-Tender-kun," was all she said. And then just like that, she bent over and started untying her shoes.

Gwendal's eyes widened. The next second, his face went as red as a tomato. Without saying another word, he dropped the microphone, removed the wires from his arms, neck, and face in one swift motion, took off the helmet, and briskly made his way towards the door.

"By the way, Gwendal, about those images you saw earlier…"

He stopped, but didn't look at her.

Nonchalantly, she continued. "The machine shows which pictures you associate with the song. So thank you very much. I'm personally quite flattered."

Not knowing what to say, he merely grunted. It elicited some amount of mischievous laughter from her.

Before he closed the door behind him, he heard the sound of a body gently immersing itself in water.

That… was so random, he thought to himself. He was just thankful that there was no machine attached to his head anymore. He wasn't sure if any picture that would flash before it would be decent enough for children to view.

- end -

Author's Notes: Gwendal and Anissina. It was bound to happen. D: If you're curious about the bands mentioned by Konrad and whatnot, there's always Wikipedia to go to. I suggest you listen to their songs, though. I quite like them. (Yes, even Ken Hirai's Pop Star.
By the way, 'Kunz' is a nickname for the German name Konrad/Conrad. If the internet is to be believed, that is :)

Hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading!