Volume 1 - Harpy Heaven, Chapter 5 - Sketchy Manga

Haru closed the door of her new room and then pulled on her pajama shorts. Despite not being made for harpies, they were loose enough to easily slip her talons through. The stylish jeans she had worn the day before were were another story entirely. Putting those on was like threading a needle, if the needle was made of tissue paper and the thread was barbed wire. The holes torn in their thighs were evidence of that.

She wandered the room, eying Yuisu’s posters and books. Haru wasn’t big on reading, since flipping the pages of normal books was tricky for her, so she left the manga in place and just scanned the titles. Haru started to notice a trend when most of the manga on the first shelf had names like “Sakura Kisses” or “Girl Hearts Highschool”. It was already pretty obvious to Haru that Yuisu was gay, but playing dumb to get her flustered had been fun.

After seeing all this girls-love manga, Haru started to plot a new way to tease miss Yuisu. She plucked a racy-sounding title from the shelf and sneaked off to the laundry room.

Haru rapped on the sliding door to the bathing area. “Miss Yuisu? I had a question about something. Is this a good time?”

“Uh, sure. I was wrapping up anyway. Give me a second,” Yuisu called from inside.

While Haru waited, she sat on a countertop and carefully flipped through the pages of the manga for a sexy scene. She eventually found a steamy makeout session between what seemed to be the main characters of the story, a shy dark-haired girl and the blonde foreign exchange student in her class. Haru plucked a loose feather from her wing and used it to mark the place.

The door slid open and Yuisu stepped out amidst a wave of steam. Haru’s sharp eyes caught another glimpse of Yuisu’s naked form before she wrapped herself up in a large towel.

“What was it you wanted to ask, Haru?”

“Well, I was reading this book and wondered what this part meant. My modern Japanese isn’t that great, since slang can take a long time to trickle into harpy culture.”

Yuisu smiled. “No problem. What’s the line you’re having trouble with?”

Haru grinned and held out the manga, awkwardly clasped with one thumb. “This part here, starting with ‘It’s okay’.”

Yuisu leaned in and read aloud. “It’s okay, Kana. No one will see us up here, and your precious pussy is just begg—”

She stopped abruptly and looked at the rest of the page for the first time. The makeout scene depicted was quickly escalating towards full pornography. She tilted the book and read the title: ‘Wild Lily Passion’. Where did Haru get this? Was it on my bookshelf? Yuisu swallowed hard and mumbled, “Sorry about that. This series probably should have been in the ‘H’ box.”

Haru’s golden eyes gleamed. “Oh, so that’s what was going on with that mysterious box you rescued from my room. Didn’t want me to stumble onto something too racy and have my innocence defeathered?”

Yuisu was pure red while Haru continued, “Thanks, miss Yuisu. The word I was confused about was ‘precious’.”

“R-really?” Yuisu stammered.

Haru’s melodic laughter rang through the room. “Hahaha, of course not. I’m just messing with you, miss Yuisu. I haven’t actually read any of that manga.”

Yuisu’s expression wilted. She suddenly snatched the manga from Haru and ran out of the room.

Haru stayed behind, stunned by Yuisu’s strong reaction. Did I take the teasing too far? She recalled something Yuisu had said at dinner: ‘I know too well what it’s like to be shunned for part of your nature.’

I guess I hit a nerve. I’ll go apologize to her, Haru thought as she left the room to find Yuisu.

Yuisu wasn’t in her new room, so Haru checked the old room next. She peered in through the door and saw that Yuisu was huddled in a corner of the room with her knees pulled to her chest. A different manga, titled ‘Sakura Kisses’ sat open on her knees, hiding her face.

“Miss Yuisu, I came apologize. I went too far with my teasing,” Haru said as she approached Yuisu.

Yuisu peeked over the manga, then hid behind it again. “It was my fault anyway. I overreacted… I’m just so sick of people making fun of my manga… and making fun of my sexuality…”

“I’m very sorry. I shouldn’t have teased you about that. You welcomed me despite my nature, and how did I return the favor? By mocking yours. I’m an awful guest and I’m so sorr—”

“It’s fine.” Yuisu interrupted. “It wasn’t the first time someone pretended to like girls-love manga just to screw with me, and it brought back some bad memories. I know you didn’t mean it like the girls in school did.”

“Learning how to interact with your culture is why I’m here, and now I’ve learned something.” Haru stood tall and folded a wing across her chest. “I promise you now, I won’t ever hurt you like that again, miss Yuisu.”

Then she kneeled down and leaned close to Yuisu. “And I’m sorry about mocking your hobby. I haven’t read many manga, but I’d like to learn more about them. Are there are any good ones you’d like to share with me?”

Yuisu’s tear-reddened eyes appeared over the book again. “This series, ‘Sakura Kisses’, is really good, if you don’t mind a lot of kissing between girls. It’s an adorable first-love story.” She sniffled and smiled at Haru. “It is my favorite, and I like to read it if I’m feeling down.”

“That sounds cute.” Haru smiled warmly. “I’ll check it out after dinner. We should eat, especially after all that exercise earlier.” Haru stood and held a folded wing out to Yuisu. “Shall we?”

As they walked together to the kitchen, Haru grinned at Yuisu. “I’ll make all this up to you somehow, miss Yuisu,” she said cryptically.