[Book of Eros] Chapters 179 & 180 - Epilogue and Afterword. (Patreon)

Epilogue: Two years later.

Leonardo closed the lid on the fifth and final lunchbox he had made. With that, it took the day’s sales to 21 lunch boxes. At 800 yen a box (around 6 USD), that meant he had earned 16.800 that day (or close to 130 USD), and this was less than usual since it was summer vacation. Working like this every day save Sundays, meant their income was of approximately 435.000 yen a month (or 3400 USD). More when students were in school.

“Leo! Is the final batch ready?” asked a voice just as the front door to the Tensai Residence slid open.

Kaede walked in, looking out of breath and with her face a little red.

“It is,” he answered, “but drink some water first. I don’t want you getting a heatstroke.”

His girlfriend pouted but went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of cold water. “I’m in a hurry because Sato-san wasn’t at her house when I arrived and I had to wait for her.”

“I’ll ask again. Are you sure you don’t want us to invest in a motor scooter? We have the funds.”

Kaede shook her head. “Riding the bike every day helps me stay in shape, haha.”

They started this little business of theirs right after they graduated. Kaede didn’t want to go back to university and Leo never had any plans to go in the first place. Neither of them planned to keep freeloading on Mrs. Wisler’s kindness, however, so after lots of brainstorming and analyzing the island’s economy, they arrived to this conclusion.

Everybody praised Leo’s cooking, but it wasn’t like he could open a restaurant with no money. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to go that route, either, but he did notice a lot of people bought the convenience store’s lunch boxes at 600 yen. After giving every single one of those a taste, he was confident he could make something far better, and he remembered there was this lady back in his country who would make a living selling lunches to construction workers. Word of mouth spread attention to his business and he quickly gained loyal customers who preferred to have his boxed lunches every day than subsist on instant noodles. Not to mention, they were delivered to your door!

Kaede was in charge of that. They bought a bike of their own and she would go around town delivering fresh, top quality lunches to working people or those unwilling to cook of themselves.

He had first told her they’d go 50-50 on the profits, but Kaede adamantly refused. She said that he was doing the bulk of the work, so they’d go 70-30, especially since she considered this a part-time job while she and Reiko got their own thing going. Her mother wasn’t happy about it (to put it lightly), but her dad gave her his blessing when he saw how passionate she was about it. He said it was good to finally see some fire in her eyes.

“Alright, I’m going out again!”

“Remember to be back soon or you’ll miss the fight.”

“I’ll make it super fast!” she went for a quick kiss and ran out the house with five new lunches in hand. She prided herself of never being late for a delivery or a script deadline.

With work done, Leo had little left to do but do the dishes. He started on them and only five minutes later someone else rushed through the hallway.

“Kaede!” Reiko called, sounding hasty and excited. “Are you here?”

“You just missed her,” Leo called from the kitchen.

Reiko came into the dining room with a disappointed scowl. “Really?”

“Yeah, she just went out on her final delivery.”

She walked up behind him and hugged him tightly, shaking him from side to side as she groaned.

“Good news, I take it?” he asked, chuckling.

“Amazing news! But she needs to be the first I tell!”

“Can’t you text her?”

“It’s too amazing to say it in a text!” she protested. “The others aren’t here yet?”

“Lucia should be back soon. I needed to restock on some things and she offered to go to Naha in my stead.”

“She must get bored in the mornings while you’re working, huh?” she chuckled.

“A little. She’s enjoying her vacations, though. She says she finally has time to read the books she’s been putting off.”

Lucia was a full-time teacher since last year. It meant her usually easygoing attitude had… changed a bit. She had a lot of work that didn’t finish once she came back home. She was more stressed than ever, but it came from her serious efforts of doing a good job. She said it was hard, but fulfilling. Her mother said she only struggled because she had spent so much time goofing off, and the poor Lucia couldn’t really argue back.

“The others managed to take the same plane here, so they’ll be here for dinner.”

“Have you been lonely?” Reiko teased him.

“You’d think so, but there are these three girls who’ve been taking full advantage of the other four’s absence.”

Reiko giggled. “Hey, we have to take the chances we get.”

20 minutes later, Lucia arrived with several bags in hand, having bought everything he asked for. “I saw fish on sale, but you told me not to get any,” she said, leaving the bags on the floor of the kitchen for him to check. “Should I have gotten some?”

“Nah. I have a more trustworthy supplier.”

He meant the fishery he worked for during high school, of course. Who could he trust more than the people he used to work with? He saw their entire procedure and they sold him the best and freshest produce. And with how much he was buying, he helped keep the business going, too.

“Thanks for this,” Leo told her kissing her forehead.

“Not a good enough reward.” Lucia leaned in a slid her tongue inside Leo’s mouth for a deep kiss. “Let’s go shopping this weekend. I saw this nice dress today that I couldn’t buy because I was running late and my hands were full.”

“It’s a date then.”

“Did I miss it? Did I miss it!?” Kaede’s voice once more came from the entrance, the sound of her quick steps getting louder as she approached.

“No, but it should be starting soon,” Leo said. “I’ll put it on.”

He went to the new smart tv they got. What they were waiting to watch wouldn’t be aired on TV, but streamed on the internet. Not livestreamed, however. The event had already happened and they were showing it a day late. It wasn’t a very important event in itself, but it was massive for all of them to want to watch it the moment it was available.

“Oh, oh, Kaede!” Reiko suddenly started jumping with excitement. “I have news!”

“W-What is it? You’re making me nervous.”

“I got two emails this morning. Two very important emails.”

Kaede’s eyes shot up. “W-Wait! Don’t tell me…!”

Reiko nodded fiercely. “Our storyboards got approved! All we have to do is sign the contract and we have a five-chapter mini-series in an official magazine!”

“Yes! Yes!” Kaede started jumping with joy along with Reiko. “Oh my god! I can’t believe it! We’re actually debuting on paper!”

“Don’t you make more money through donations, though?” Lucia asked them. “And since it’s an adult magazine you’ll only be earning like 2000 yen per page, right?”

“It’s not about the money!” Kaede told her. “Well… not entirely. We’re still relatively unknown when compared to the big shots in the industry, so being on every media we can helps us out. We had yet to try a printed magazine, so this is great news!”

“And you know what else we have yet to do?” Reiko asked, grinning from ear to ear, containing the desire to just spill it out.

“Oh, you did say two emails… NO! NO! Shut up! It’s not what I think it is!”

“It is! I got an email from RabbitHopper Studios! They want to animate the short series we did last year!”

“No way!” Leo exclaimed, his own smile growing by the second. “Seriously? An animation?”

Reiko thrust her chest proudly and lifter three fingers. “Three chapters! One coming out each month. And RabbitHopper is one of the better studios these days!”

“Holy crap! Congrats!” Leo went to Reiko and lifted her up in the air by the waist, spinning her around as she laughed.

He went to do the same to Kaede, but he found her… a little out of it. Her eyes blankly staring into nothing, her body still, her breathing barely there.

“I think she broke,” Lucia laughed.

Leo chuckled and still lifted her, making Kaede suddenly return to the world of the living. “Please tell me you’re not joking,” she pleaded to her partner.

“I’m not! Look!” Reiko took out her phone and showed her friend the email she got. Only then did Kaede start to smile.

“No way! No way! No way!” she squealed.

Leo spun her around as well before setting her back on the ground. She hugged him hard and then turned to Reiko. The two girls held hands and started jumping together, lost in their excitement.

“Our story is getting animated!” Kaede beamed.

“I can’t believe it either! It was so out of nowhere, too!”

“More things to celebrate tonight, then,” Lucia chuckled. “Though I suppose we don’t really know if one of them is actually a celebration.”

“Oh, right,” Reiko flinched and turned her head to the TV. “We’ll find that out now.”

Leo put the video on the TV. The camera moved around a small arena with its seats only half-full. In the middle was a ring like those in boxing, only that the ropes at the edges reached up to a person’s head. In the middle, a man in a white suit held a microphone.

“We are proud to present the opening match of the day, in the light flyweight class,” the man spoke. “In the blue corner, weighing in at 52 kilograms, making her debut in the professional fighting scene, we have Straight Angela!”

The camera showed her in all her glory. She was wearing yellow shorts and a matching, sleeveless top that showed most of her stomach. Angela took a deep breath and let it out slowly, eyes focused on her opponent across from her.

“She’s tall and has a pretty big chest. I’m surprised she can stay at the 50-53 kilogram range,” Lucia commented.

“That’s the highest weight class women are allowed to fight in that organization,” Leo told her. “Weight control was tough on her in the beginning, but Victoria and I managed to come up with a good diet for her.”

Speaking of whom, the coach was right behind Angela, just outside of the ring and acting as her second. And beside her was none other than Valerie, currently working as Victoria’s assistant.

Kaede chuckled. “Valerie looks like she’s itching for a fight herself. She’s glaring daggers at the other corner.”

“Oh, you didn’t see it?” Reiko asked. “Angela’s opponent posted something in her social media before the fight. She said girls like Angela were better off posing in swimsuits than up in the ring, and that she’d help her by, and I quote, ‘fixing her pretty face’.”

“Ooooooh,” was the unified exclamation of understanding.

“Angela looks pretty calm, though,” Lucia said.

“Yeah… Wait for the fight to start,” Leo said, sighing.

“In the red corner, a veteran of four fights and four victories, all by K.O. Weighing in at 51 kilograms, Tachibana Hayami!”

The woman looked like a hardened fighter. Her hair was cut short and dyed turquoise. The muscles of her legs and arms were well toned, as were those of her abs. Her chest was a stark contrast to Angela’s, being quite flat. In that context, it was more advantageous.

“They put a debuting fighter against someone with four victories!?” Reiko asked. “How is that fair.”

“You know Angela,” Leo told her. “She cried to Victoria she didn’t want to fight amateurs and this was the best the coach could do, since Angela is technically an amateur herself.”

The man went on to explain the rules. It would be a fight of three rounds of five minutes each. After that was done, he left to make room for the referee. After speaking some words to both fighters at the center of the ring and sending them back to their corners, the bell rang.

They saw Angela casually walking to the center of the ring again, in contrast to her opponent who approached with her guard up. And the moment she was in range, Angela threw a lightning fast kick to her opponent’s ribs. It landed unexpectedly and made her flinch in pain, leaving her face exposed to a straight punch that sent her to the ground with a bleeding nose.

The crowd cheered loudly, the commentators praised Angela’s technique and strength while wondering why a veteran like Tachibana was caught off guard. Then, people started to get confused.

This was MMA, not boxing. Attacking an opponent on the ground is very much permitted. But Angela just stood there, arms crossed and waiting for the woman to stand back up.

“Oh dear…” Leo sighed.

The woman didn’t waste the opportunity and quickly stood up, only for Angela to get serious. She assaulted her opponent with a barrage of fierce punches and kicks that left Tachibana no other choice but keep her guard up. That was when Angela dove in for the legs, caught her in a submission hold with her legs around her neck.

The referee waited until Tachibana’s face was red until he saw that the veteran had no way of escaping. The match lasted 1:21 seconds. Angela’s debut in the professional fighting world was an overwhelming round one victory.

“She might have lost her Gift, but she spent three years preparing before her first official fight,” Lucia said. “Not to mention training under an accomplished fighter and loving every second of it. Gift or no, this girl is a beast.”

“She doesn’t look very happy though,” Kaede pointed out. “Probably thinks it was a waste of time.”

The fights that followed didn’t interest them, so they stopped watching. Reiko looked at social media and saw that people were already talking about Angela. “We need to teach her how to speak in public or I fear she’ll become the villain of the story,” she said.

Leo couldn’t agree more.

The fight had happened the day before, but it was today that the girls would be taking the plane from Tokyo to Naha along with Seina, who had different business there.

She had used her time well and had gone to four different auditions. Now she just had to wait. Poor girl was the one who had to travel the most, but when Leo hesitantly asked her if she wouldn’t rather stay in Tokyo and come to the island every other month or so, Seina shut him up.

She was currently working on a couple of seasonal shows in the middle of airing, so it was kind of up in the air if she’d have a job in the next two months. She said that was just how the industry worked.

Three and a half hours later, the entire group of travelers came through the door to their house.

“We’re home!” Valerie announced.

The group entered the dining room and Leo stood up to greet them all, starting with Angela.

“Congrats on the victory,” he told her and kissed her. Angela returned it with a giddy laugh. “Did you have to taunt her though?”

“Just following the age old mantra of ‘talk shit, get hit’. Sucks that we went all the way there for less than two minutes of fighting. I thought of dragging the fight on, but the coach would’ve slapped me.”

“I would have,” Victoria said, walking up to Leo to greet him as well with a nice hug and a peck on the lips. “Still, people have their eyes on her now. I have to fight off other trainers who want to take her from me. Bunch of vultures.”

“I wish I could have fought, too,” Valerie groaned. “Seeing the arena in person got me excited.”

“You have to wait until you’re 21, right?” Leo asked her, holding her close and kissing her as well.

“For more serious fights, yeah. I’m just months away now.”

Leo then turned to Seina, who melted tiredly into his arms.

“Though crowd?”

“Not the crowd. The competition. I know it must only be like one in twenty, but there are some bitches who will do anything to get a part. Including but not limited to stealing your script and writing spiteful things all over it.”

“Wow. That sounds petty,” Reiko grimaced.

“Isn’t it? But I have some good news, at least. Both shows I’m working on got second seasons, so I’ll have work guaranteed until next year, even if the auditions I went to go bad. And speaking of… I asked the studios, and they answered positively. If I can get a good home recording studio, they’ll let me work from home unless we have some important business. Meaning I’d have to travel a lot less.”

“Hey, that’s great!” Kaede beamed.

“It is,” Leo agreed. However, he cautiously asked. “…How much would it cost?”

“It’s gonna be a bit expensive, but considering that more people are working like this these days…”

Leo nodded. “We can use the shed out in the back. I’ve been wanting to get rid of stuff in there, anyway. I’ll start looking into it tomorrow. For now, you’re not the only ones with good news.”

“Oh! Right! Listen to this.” Kaede started telling everyone about the offers she and Reiko had gotten.

Mrs. Wisler came back from visiting friends sometime after that. Everyone was there. The house was lively once again and it would be so for years to come.

It was exactly what Leo wanted. A quiet life surrounded by the people he loved. Working hard and supporting everyone pursue their goals. It had been two years since they gave up their Gifts, and Leo’s fears had yet to come to pass. The girls were satisfied with their relationship so far, and he would keep working to keep it that way.

He went back to the kitchen and started the stove.

It was about time to get started on dinner.

THE END.

***

Afterword.

If you count my branch story in Wet Dreams, this is the third story I finish. However, it is the second with my own idea.

The Book of Eros and the Curse of the Gifted is over 270.000 words long. It took me a little over a year to finish, and I’m glad I did for various reasons.

I’m proud I was able to get this done. No matter how long things are, I believe they all should have a proper ending instead of getting dropped and forgotten. The stories I’ve myself left unfinished haunt me, and I want to eventually go back to them and finish them or rework them into something different.

Once more I learned a lot from writing this, mostly about my own creative process. I tried very hard to outline and have a good plan, but it made a lot of it feel stiff for me, like it was artificial (Which it is, since it’s fiction, but I don’t mean it in that sense).

It was a weird premise to start an erotic story, wasn’t it?

“Hey. Want to read an erotic story about people who CAN’T have sex?” Great hook, huh? Even so I squeezed over 270K words out of it somehow, hahaha.

I feel like I should address the ending a little bit. I’m personally not a fan of stories with supernatural elements that get rid of said supernatural elements in the end. I usually want to read them BECAUSE it has something weird in it, not because I want to see it gone. But when I started thinking about how it should all end, I could see no way to drive the themes across while also letting everyone be supernaturally Gifted. Their powers were never the key to their happiness, and in most cases were the cause of their problems.

My writing should do the speaking for itself, which is why I don’t often answer to criticism. You, the reader, have the right to form your own opinion on what’s there. Whether I was able to make my intentions clear through the text or not, once it’s out there, it’s yours to interpret. That’s actually a fucking scary thought, but I wouldn’t like the authors of the things I like to come and tell me I was wrong in my interpretations, so you do you.

That said, I’ll allow myself to feel some pride about what I did with the themes and how they’re reflected in the characters here. Might have been a little too blatant, but I want to believe they came across.

I think I’ve said it before, but the idea for this story was basically “What if six people each had one D&D stat maxed out?” Angela was Strength, Valerie was Dexterity, Leonardo was Constitution, Kaede was Intelligence, Lucia was Wisdom, and Seina was Charisma. As always, though, as I wrote I started running into troubles I needed to think hard on how to fix, and honestly, a lot of the times it wasn’t fun.

I made the decision to finish this story because it was getting very, very difficult. I could have taken a break and written something else, but I think I wouldn’t have returned to this, leaving people hanging.

Because people kept reading. Lots of people kept supporting me in Patreon, lots of people kept reading and commenting on Chyoa. Book of Eros didn’t have the numbers The Affection Multiplier did, but even so some people gave it a chance and stuck with it till the end. How could I turn my back on that trust? Of course, I worry the ending doesn’t meet expectations, but I owe everyone to at the very least see it through.

When I sit down to write my thoughts I always end up forgetting something to say, and there are some things better left unsaid. In fact, I still don’t think I should admit at all that there were times when I wasn’t enjoying writing this, since it may taint opinions on the work itself. But hey, the things is I’m truly proud of having finished a second story, and despite it being difficult, I still love writing more than anything else. It would have been impossible to write this much if I didn’t find fulfillment in it.

I see these as First Drafts, manuscripts to get done so that one day I can come back to them, edit them, fix them, shorten them and pack into true books. Pros usually say to not worry about first drafts because no one will ever see them. Well… not true in my case, haha.

Thank you all for your support so far. I will continue writing and will be back with something else… soon. More on that in another post coming the day after this is posted.

Everyone here in the Patreon, helping me pay some of my bills by doing something I love, I truly cannot thank you enough. I may not say much in posts or such, but that’s because I really don’t know what to say and at times worry it might just be a bother. Like I said before, I think my writing should speak for itself. And yet I keep thinking I’m not doing enough. So thank you for the trust, thank you for giving me a chance, and thank you for reading. I truly hope I was able to give you something worth your time and money, and I hope I can keep doing that in the near future, should you choose to continue to support me.

My undying thanks to you all.

Stay safe. Stay healthy.