Chapter 199: Paper Lantern.

Paper Lantern was even smaller on the inside than it looked from the street.

Three narrow aisles, shelves stacked to the ceiling, and a single register near the door where an older man with reading glasses sat flipping through a graphic novel of his own. The man had glanced up, nodded once, and gone back to his book.

Nobody else was there.

Liam worked through Mateo’s list one title at a time, and the stack in his arms grew faster than he’d expected. Jujutsu Kaisen, volumes one through three, sitting together on the shelf like they’d been waiting for him. Chainsaw Man, both volumes. Spy x Family. One Piece volume one, its spine faded from sitting in the sun. Then over in the comics section, Miles Morales: Spider-Man and Batman: The Court of Owls, tucked between a row of Saga paperbacks.

Six out of seven.

He was impressed. A shop this size, this quiet, shouldn’t have had half of these in stock.

A busier store would have been picked clean by now.

Paper Lantern clearly didn’t get much foot traffic, and its shelves were better for it.

That left one.

The Invincible Compendium. Mateo had mentioned it almost as an afterthought, but Liam had looked it up while browsing. It was massive, expensive, and constantly out of stock. Collectors snapped it up the moment it landed.

He walked the aisles slowly, scanning the bottom shelves where the oversized books lived. The store was small enough that it didn’t take long. Past the manga. Past a spinner rack of single issues. Into the last corner by the back wall.

"There."

A thick, heavy spine, sitting alone on the lowest shelf.

Liam shifted the stack to one arm and reached down.

A pair of smaller hands got there first.

They slid the book off the shelf in one smooth motion and pulled it close, hugging it against a dark grey hoodie like a shield.

Liam froze, hand still hovering in midair.

The person was crouched low, hood pulled up, sleeves bunched over their knuckles. Black sweatpants that had seen better days. Slip-on sandals with mismatched socks, one grey and one navy. Their hair, dark and slightly messy, spilled out from under the hood.

He couldn’t exactly snatch it back. He straightened up and cleared his throat.

The person looked up.

Liam’s stomach dropped.

Piercings down both ears. A small stud in one eyebrow. A silver ring beneath her lower lip.

"Oh no." Liam thought to himself.

It was her. The tattoo artist from Ironwood Ink.

Without the mask or the black work clothes, she looked like a completely different person. If he hadn’t known what she did for a living, Liam would have pegged her as someone who rarely left the house. Everything about her outfit said she’d rolled out of bed, thrown on the first hoodie she found, and hadn’t planned on seeing a single soul today.

Her eyes went wide.

She looked just as surprised to see him as he was to see her. Her gaze dropped to the stack in his arms, the Jujutsu Kaisen volumes on top, Batman wedged in the middle, Chainsaw Man sliding dangerously close to the edge, then traveled back up to his face.

Her eyebrows lifted.

Hitomi hadn’t pegged him as the type. The pretty boy who’d walked into her shop with no design in mind and then fallen asleep in her chair didn’t look like someone who knew his way around a comic store. But that stack said otherwise. And he’d come straight for the Compendium, which meant he knew exactly what he was looking for.

She glanced down at the book in her arms, then back at him.

Then she held it tighter.

She’d been waiting on this restock for months. She’d asked the old man at the register about it every single week until he finally gave in and ordered one. It was the only reason this book was even on the shelf. There was no way she was giving it up.

"Hi," Liam said awkwardly. "Uh. Small world."

She gave a slow nod.

"I was, um, going for that one." He gestured toward the book. "But it looks like you beat me to it."

She tapped the cover twice with one finger, then pointed at herself. Firmly.

*Mine.*

Liam raised his free hand in surrender. "Totally fair. You got there first."

"I’m not going to fight you for it," he said. "I promise."

A small shrug. The tension in her shoulders eased just a little.

"Also..." Liam rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry about the other day. At your shop. I kind of just left."

She tilted her head and made a small sleeping gesture, pressing her palms together against her cheek.

Liam winced. "Yeah. That too."

The corner of her mouth twitched.

Liam couldn’t stop staring.

The woman at Ironwood Ink had been sharp edges and silent judgment, a mask over half her face and eyes that sized him up like a bad design. This version of her looked like someone who’d lost a fight with her alarm clock and just wanted to go home.

It was barely 4 PM yet she was out in public in mismatched socks and sandals, clutching a book like a security blanket.

She clearly didn’t care what anyone thought of her.

He looked at the Compendium again. Realistically, he could order it online and have it at Mateo’s door in a day or two. But that wasn’t really the point anymore.

"Okay," he said. "Hear me out."

She narrowed her eyes.

"What if I buy it from you after you’ve read it? I’ll pay double."

Any sane person would have taken that deal.

A secondhand book for twice the price.

That was another stack of manga.

She shook her head without hesitation.

"Triple?"

Another shake, firmer this time. She hugged the book closer, then tilted it toward him and tapped a gold foil seal in the corner of the cover.

Liam leaned in.

[Limited Edition. Numbered. 0347 of 1000.]

"Oh," he said. "Oh, that’s why."

She gave a small, smug nod.

This wasn’t something he could find online in a couple of days. This was the kind of book people waited months for, and she’d clearly been one of them.

Liam sighed and let his shoulders drop. "Fine. You win."

She looked quietly satisfied.

It was only then that Liam realized she hadn’t said a single word. Not at the shop, and not here. Everything had been nods, taps, and looks. He didn’t know why, and it didn’t feel like his place to ask.

"Can I get your number?" he asked. "In case another one of those ever turns up. Might be easier to talk over text."

She studied him for a long moment. Then she held out her hand.

He passed her his phone. She typed quickly with one thumb, the Compendium tucked under her other arm, and handed it back.

[Hitomi??]

Liam smiled at the screen.

He’d spent weeks around women who needed to be impressed with dinners, cars, and money. And here was a manga-obsessed shut-in in a crumpled hoodie who’d turned down triple her money for a book.

It was delightful.