Chapter 7: Shy Little Jean

“Here, this is the dry towel for you.”

Jean came out of the bathroom with a small pink towel tightly clenched in her hand.
It had cute rabbit cartoon patterns on it.
Whether it was shyness or nervousness, her face still had a faint blush.
At this moment, she widened her eyes and looked at Yu, seemingly holding her breath.

Yu was speechless for a moment.

This… such a cute towel, giving it to him, a rough guy, wouldn’t she feel a bit guilty…?

And it was just handing over a towel, why did the atmosphere feel strange, as if she was handing over an invaluable treasure?

However, Yu didn’t know that Jean used to be extremely isolated, especially after her Phoenix Force unintentionally erupted some time ago.
Although Professor Charles managed to control it, all the students regarded her as a monster.
Not to mention entering her room, they were extremely unwilling to even get close to her.

Jean had an extreme fear of her own powers.

But she was also extremely afraid of being alone.

Now that she finally had a “friend” like Yu, who even entered her room, this moment was a precious one for her.
Subconsciously, she took the towel she had been using all along.

Generally, when giving a towel to a friend, a brand new one would be used.

Jean had a brand new one.

But for some reason, her brain suddenly short-circuited, and she directly took out the towel she had been using!

This was the towel she used to dry herself after a bath, and it had even been used on certain areas.
It had only been dried today.
Why did her brain suddenly short-circuit and make her take out this one…?

“What should I do? What should I do? It’s too embarrassing, too shameful… If I suddenly take it back and change it, will Yu think I’m despising him? But if I don’t take it back and Yu finds out… Ugh…!”

(T/N: Well, This Jean is certainly more mature than any eight-year-old should be.
I hope the author can tone it down.)

While Jean was anxiously tangled in her thoughts, suddenly she felt a tightening in her hand.

Yu had reached out his hand and grabbed the towel!

“Ah! Don’t!”

Jean instinctively let out a scream.

“What?!”

Although Yu was a bit speechless, a cute towel given by a girl was normal.
He didn’t think too much about it and was about to take it, intending to wipe the water off his face first.

But he never expected that Jean would suddenly scream, leaving him in a state of confusion.

Damn it!

What the hell!

‘This is the towel you gave me.
Is it really necessary? And… why would you suddenly scream out loud at night and in your room? If someone hears it, it would be impossible to clear this situation even if we jump into the Yellow River!’

“Um…”

The scream even bewildered Jean for a moment.
The next moment, her face turned red to the base of her neck.
She immediately let go of the towel and stammered, “Ah, Yu, I didn’t mean that, I actually, um, well…”

“…”

Looking at Jean’s incoherent appearance, Yu directly gave her a puzzled look with a black question mark on his face.
This girl’s thoughts were really strange—sometimes she wanted to give the towel, and sometimes she didn’t.
Seriously!

Forget it!

First, wipe the water off his face and hair.
Being wet wasn’t comfortable.

So Yu directly picked up the cute pink towel and started wiping his face with it.
He even took a sniff.

Hmm… It’s really fragrant, no wonder it’s a girl’s thing!

Seeing this, Jean immediately stopped talking, widened her eyes, and watched Yu sniffing her towel.
In that instant, she had the illusion that Yu seemed to be sniffing her body.
She could even feel herself blushing all over…

“Jean, do you have any questions?”

Yu looked at Jean’s dumbfounded expression and couldn’t help but feel puzzled.
He reached out his hand passing her the towel.

“Um… It’s nothing, it’s nothing.”

Jean opened her mouth and received the towel, then quickly rushed into the bathroom like a startled little rabbit.

Yu couldn’t help but find it amusing.

This little Jean, always being startled, was indeed a bit different from the calm and elegant Phoenix he had in mind.

For a while, Yu didn’t plan to leave Jean’s room.
His main purpose for coming here was to figure out the relationship between Jean and the mysterious substance mentioned by Flash.
If the mysterious substance referred to the Phoenix Force, then how should he obtain it?

Should he just draw a tube of blood from Jean?

But randomly drawing someone’s blood would be too strange, right?

“Flash, how should the mysterious substance be obtained and absorbed?”

Yu mentally communicated with the Digitized Genes space, hoping to find some clues.

“The mysterious substance exists in an Intangible state, a physical form, and also a parasitic state.
They all contain special energy that can make genes evolve.”

Flash suddenly appeared in front of Yu, but this time, it didn’t take on his appearance but transformed into Jean’s appearance!

This startled Yu.

“Hey! What the hell are you? Why did you suddenly change to Jean’s appearance?!”

“I can transform into the appearance of the person you are close to and fond of based on your subconscious,” Flash explained.

“Um… okay.”

Yu opened his mouth speechlessly.

If it transformed into Jean, then let it be Jean.
Although it felt a bit strange, it was still better than talking to another version of himself.

“So, it means that there is a mysterious substance in a parasitic state inside Jean’s body?” Yu said.

Indeed, the Phoenix Force could be considered a special parasitic power on Jean’s body.

“Yes,” Flash said, “And not only is it in a parasitic state but also in an Intangible state.
If you want to obtain and absorb it, it’s simple.
When the host falls asleep, all you need to do is have physical contact with the host, and the Digitized Genes system will automatically absorb the mysterious substance in its parasitic state.”