A Lewd Cultivator in Brockton Bay 5: Responsibilities and Surprise (Patreon)

A Lewd Cultivator in Brockton Bay
Chapter 5: Responsibilities and Surprise

-VB-

It was April. Soon, the canon timeline for Worm would start.

I, on the other hand, was busy juggling between three responsibilities. 

My first responsibility was to myself: to improve my body, my level of cultivation, and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Oh, and booze. All of this was covered by the extensive physical training I did along with a healthy dose of five cans of beer a day. Not enough to get me drunk but enough to keep me at a happy buzz while still allowing me to focus on my life.

I didn’t drink my life away, thank you very much. I drank because I had to drink.

My second responsibility was to Amy. As her new secret boyfriend (age difference made any kind of public announcement iffy at best and illegal at worst), my responsibility to Amy was to listen to her, to act when she asked, and to be the guard for all of her booze, apparently. 

I was fine with all of that.

And my last responsibility was to keep my job. Just because I was a cultivator did not mean that I suddenly had no worldly obligations. No, I needed to eat more because I was a cultivator, pay the utilities, pay the property tax, and more. 

Money was still an issue, and I was not a “parahuman cape” powerful enough to take whatever I wanted whenever I wanted like Lung or Kaiser could. I was, at best, a Brute 3. Maybe Brute 4 under special circumstances. 

Which meant that I still had to work my day job of being a software engineer.

Which meant… spending a lot of time in front of the computer, straining my eyes, and being generally stressed over a piece of line that should work but won’t FUCKING WORK!

“... Is this the reason why all software engineers are lanky sticks?” Amy asked while looking at and touching my neck. “I mean there’s so much stress hormone pumping through your body that you’re actually burning your fat stores faster through working than exercising, which is an achievement, I tell you.”

Amy stayed at my house for longer periods of time now. In her own words, since I was now her official unofficial boyfriend, it was only “dutiful” of her to spend more time with me. If she did so while wearing a shirt one-size too small for her bosom or her hips, then it was only because I, her boyfriend, didn’t take her out shopping yet. 

I grumbled. “You can still tell that much?”

“Yeah. I mean, I did say that I am seeing less of you internally through my power, but that’s a slow increment so far,” she said casually. “It’s the difference between ten thousand and nine thousand nine hundred ninety nine, and that’s the difference I am seeing everyday.”

I grunted. 

“So? How is my body doing?” I asked with a grumble and allowing myself to be distracted now.

“Muscle improvements are steady so far,” she hummed. “You can probably lift … half a pound more.”

“That’s a lot.”

“But because of your job, you’ve lost more fat reserve.” She pulled out a bottle attached to her hip by magnets and took a long swig. And then she grumbled as she turned the bottle upside down and nothing came out. 

“I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing,” I hummed at her analysis of my body’s condition. I paused before sighing. I saved my work and pushed myself away from the desk. I turned to Amy and saw her smiling with a light blush. The smell of alcohol told me that there wasn’t anything lewd going on inside her mind right now. At least, that’s what I was thinking. “Yes?”

“Let’s go out!”

“Amy-”

“As capes~!” she giggled, probably not a little drunk.

“But everyone knows you.”

“Yup… Wait, that’s not good, right?”

...

“Do you know how to fight?”

...

“... No.”

“Then why the sudden -” 

She reached for, grabbed, and uncapped the beer bottle I’d left at my table and took a long swig. She moaned as she set it down, completely ignoring my unhappy look.

“Cuz you’re … you’re a cape!”

“...Okay?”

“You have responsibility!”

“To myself and you, yes.”

“No, to everyone!”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re strong, so you should be out there and … smashing villains,” she slurred. 

“Amy, I think you’re drunk…”

“No, no, no. I’m nosh drunk…”

“Amy… Is this about yourself?”

She shut up before… “Shut up,” she grumbled-mumbled. 

I grinned. “Is Amy grumpy?”

She tried to punch me. “S-So strong but y-you don’t do anything with it!”

“I’m still trying to get better,” I objected.

“You dust concrete!”

“That just looks impressive,” I replied. “Because -”

“That’s better than what I can do!”

Oh, it was … she wanted me to do things because she wanted to do something. She lacked initiative. She wanted to change.

Sometimes, however, acting out wasn’t the best option. Amy wasn’t prepared for a cape combat. She could knock people out if she touched them but before then? What about the rest of the fight that happened before melee?

“Okay, show me what you’ve got.”

“...Huh?” she looked at me quizzically. Still a little drunk, she tried to think but it wasn’t going to be easy. 

“Think of it as a Shaker or Master effect. If you can’t fight drunk to a degree, then you won’t be able to fight on the streets,” I reasoned.

“B-But that’s why y-you have a team!” she countered with a slur.

I opened my mouth to object and then closed them. I leaned towards her a little and grinned. “Oh, so you want to go out as a cape with me … because you want it to be a date?”

Amy smacked me on the top of the head before turning around to leave. Alas, she was drunk, and ran into the doorway. 

I have to be honest; I laughed my ass off.

-VB-

The day after her suggestion that I should go out as a cape, Amy brought her sister to my house.

And oh boy oh boy.

That sister brought their mother.

Was our relationship over before it even began?