"I wonder what you'll look like as a Djinn," Paimon mused aloud.

"I haven't really given it much thought," Ugo admitted.

"You should give yourself some muscles, so that I can admire them if we ever meet again."

"I thought you preferred the female form?"

"Are you saying you would get breasts for me?" she asked in mock excitement.

"N-no," he stammered. "I'm not saying that..."

"Then muscles are a good consolation prize."

"I'll...think about it," Ugo said, just so that she would drop the subject.

Silence hung between them for a moment.

"So, then I suppose this will be goodbye, then?"

It had slipped his mind until she said it.

"Yes," Ugo admitted. "It probably will be."

"You know, it wasn't long ago that you got a nosebleed every time you saw me," Paimon teased. "Sometimes, it even still happens."

He wanted to tell her that it might not be as much of a problem if she actually covered herself up more, but even after all this time, he was still too shy to say things like that.

Of course, he didn't really have to. Somehow, she always knew what he was thinking.

Ah, there was something they could talk about (besides magic, which she knew little of and cared even less for).

"How do you always know what I'm thinking?"

"I always know what men are thinking," she grinned. "And women too, for that matter."

"That's probably because they only think about one thing around you."

"Oh?" she said mischievously, her legs opening just a little. "And what might that be?"

"I...uh, you know..."

"No, what?"

She feigned both ignorance and interest, getting down on her hands and knees so that she could be closer to eye-level with him, which not-so-coincidentally happened to make her breasts hang down right in front of him.

He looked away from her, trying to regain as much of his composure as he could.

"Y-you know exactly what I mean."

She clapped her hands together. "You're right. I do."

He turned his gaze back to find that she had returned to a slightly-less tantalizing position, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"But you're a little different," she added. "You think about a few different things. Still easy to read, though. When you look happy, you're thinking about magic. When you look serious, you're thinking about some kind of plan. When you look worried, you're thinking about the future. When you look sad, you're thinking about the people we've lost. And when you look so adorably timid..."

She licked her index finger and slowly traced a line between her breasts down to her pelvis.

"...It's because you're thinking of me."

With eyes wide and cheeks red, his sitting position quickly turned into a crab walk as he tried to scamper backwards away from the embarrassing yet gorgeous sight.

"You're so cute when you're uncomfortable, you know that? It's one of the things I like about you."

That reminded him.

His undignified retreat ceased and seriousness overtook his features.

This would probably be his last chance to find out the truth.

"Oh, there's the serious face. You must have thought of something."

"Yes. I have. There's something I need to ask you."

She sat there with that bright, expectant smile that she carried on the rare occasions when sex wasn't on her mind. Somehow, that made it even harder for him to keep his nerve.

"I..."

"Go on, you can say it," she encouraged.

"I want to know what this is. This thing between us."

"It's whatever you want it to be."

"You've said that before," he replied with a hint of frustration. "It's not a real answer. Why did you start this with me?"

He looked her in the eye with all of the courage he had, trying desperately not to blush. He had carried that question with him for all this time. He had to get an answer, once and for all.

She sighed. It seemed he would finally get his wish.

"I guess you could say it was a whim. I don't get many visitors from other species down here. I was tired of the same old thing. I figured it would be fun to watch you squirm. I am the Djinn of Maniacal Love and Chaos, after all. So, why not be the first to ever seduce a Magi?"

His heart sank. So his suspicions had been correct after all? She really had just been playing with him?

"...But then, before I knew it, we were something. Something good. I wanted to keep it going, even if I had only meant it to be a fling at the start. Certainly, this is by far the longest fling I've ever had."

It was a bittersweet moment. He had finally heard what he had been hoping to hear for so long, but it had happened only now, at the last time they would ever meet. From this day forward, he would be alone.

"It's probably the only fling I'll ever have," he noted.

"Well, it's not like I'll be having much fun from here on out either," Paimon pointed out.

It was true. She would be alone, too.

"I'm sorry about that," Ugo apologized.

"Don't be," she replied. "I don't regret any of this. It's what's best for everyone. And we'll always have the memories. We've made a lot of those."

She shrank down to his size and approached.

"In fact..." she began as that familiar devilish gleam returned to her eye. "Let's make one more."

He was blushing even before she pulled his face into her chest.

The ritual was ready. He had the formulas memorized. The metal vessel (a flute containing Solomon's Magoi) was prepared. All that remained was for him to choose his new form and begin the incantation.

His size would increase, certainly, but overall, there was little reason to change much about his appearance. At the very least, he would be sure to keep his face the same.

But then his last meeting with Paimon came flooding back.

She had wanted him to get muscles.

Well, he wasn't against it, but he saw little point, given that they wouldn't be visible under his clothes anyway.

...Unless, of course, he went without clothes...

Ugo immediately shook his head to remove the offending idea. She had gotten to him even more than he had realized.

Nevertheless, the thought would not leave. Even though he knew they would probably never meet again, his mind was still filled with fantasies of her smiling at the sight of him, pleased to see that he had taken her advice. Maybe he could even leave her entranced for once.

Wild imaginings aside, surely, he could do this one last thing for her, right?

Ugo sighed. In the end, there really was no resisting her, was there?

He tweaked the formulas appropriately and began reciting the incantation.

In the grand scheme of things, what the two of them had shared may indeed have been nothing more than a fling.

But it had been their fling.