Cozy Muscles

[CozyMuscle]

Cozy Muscles #7

1. The Library

Professor Plumb led them to Lichtburg's massive public library, which no longer functioned as a library, nor was it public. It was an imposing Gothic building in the city's historic old town. It boasted six floors of reading rooms, but now the ground floor was barely operational. The walls were lined with half-empty bookshelves, and instead of readers, the room held only office clerks.

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"Only a few university professors have access to the books now," Plumb informed Susan.

"It's a shame," Susan said. "The place was beautiful and always full of student life."

"I can't believe this whole place used to be a library," Asuka said, fascinated. "It makes me want to study."

"And you will," Susan said under her breath. "One of Luka's conditions for accessing the funds you inherited is that all five of you sign the papers and enroll in the university."

"What?!" Asuka shouted.

"We'll talk about that later," Susan cut her off.

The group then walked down a side hallway until they reached a small room that served as Plumb's office.

"This place has really gone downhill," Susan observed.

"The books are being shipped bit by bit to the Organization's archives in Betonwald. Since the university tuition is so exorbitant, there's no longer much demand for the library," Plumb explained.

Professor Plumb squeezed in behind the small desk that barely fit in the tiny room, put on his glasses, and began flipping through several folders.

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"I was given access to the library records as a favor. We can't stay long. Marin found something that might interest you."

The group waited patiently while Plumb muttered to himself, painstakingly searching through the papers.

"Eureka!" he called out. He pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to Susan.

The page displayed the borrowing history of a library user registered as U. S. It included the user's work and participation as a cadet, formal complaints and observations, and small payments issued, as well as fines imposed:

- Helped organize the new collections. Payment.

- Filed a formal complaint against the Organization for disrupting students' studies. Fine.

- Cleaned all six floors of the building. Payment.

- Threw an officer through the air for blocking access to the second floor. Fine.

"Can we see the books checked out for personal reading?" Asuka asked.

"Of course," the professor replied, turning back to the papers on his desk. "Here you go," he said, handing her a folder containing over forty pages of book listings.

The group gasped in disbelief.

"Sounds like Uzu..." Asuka whispered as she read.

Books checked out and returned:

- Stormy Heights

- Lane Yerre

- The Governess of Marrowmere

- The Lady of the Crystal Lamps

- The Knight of the Broken Lily

- Rhymes in the Winter Garden

...

"It's her!" Asuka shouted. "They're all romance novels!"

"How can we find her?" Susan asked.

"Unfortunately, there are no residential address records in the archive," Plumb answered. "Her activity stopped just a few months ago, right when the Organization began relocating the books. And all the staff from that time were fired. I tried contacting a few, but had no luck."

"How strange..." Susan commented.

"So we're back to square one," Gina said, dejected.

"At least we know she was in the city," Fletcher noted.

2. The Search

After saying goodbye to Professor Plumb, the group decided to split up to cover more ground. Lichtburg wasn't a large city, and they had a general idea of where to look. If Uzuhara had stayed in town, she would need to be working locally to get by.

Susan headed toward Lichtburg's famous publishing houses, thinking Uzuhara might have taken a job there.

Asuka decided to search the bookstores, reasoning that Uzu couldn't stay far from books.

Fletcher and Gina took down the addresses of the various departments at the University of Lichtburg that worked directly with the library.

The group set off in different directions to locate Asuka's friend and bring her back to Betonwald. They agreed to meet back at the hotel for dinner once the city's evening activity wound down.

Asuka was captivated by Lichtburg's bookstores. Not only did they feature a far broader catalog than those in Kaltmark, but they were packed with tourists, and the staff were true literary experts. Luka had sent Uzuhara into her very own fairytale. She thought about how wonderful some of the aesthetic choices and ideas from these picturesque bookstores of the City of Light would look in their own café.


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As night fell, Asuka left the last bookstore, frustrated at having found no trace of Uzu, and couldn't help noticing that someone was trailing her.

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The group met up for dinner, disappointed at having turned up no leads. They decided to try again the following day. Asuka mentioned her feeling that someone was following her.

"And you're right," Susan said, lighting a cigarette. "Marin called. The Organization knows we're here."

3. The Lawyer

In one of the apartment blocks built by the Organization for Lichtburg residents, a rising boxer was celebrating his latest fight. The previous day, he had defeated a tough opponent who had been undefeated in the Eisenfeld region until then. He had bought several six-packs of beer and now sprawled out on the couch in front of the TV. In the apartment's kitchen, a woman moved diligently yet nervously.

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"Can you be any more useless, Clara?!" the boxer yelled from the couch. "The game's already started! How hard can it be to cook a few burgers?!"

The woman peeked out from the kitchen doorway, looking distraught.

"You told me the game started in an hour," she said.

The man stood up, fueled by alcohol.

"Are you calling me an idiot?!" he asked menacingly, stepping toward the kitchen. "Are you saying I don't know when the damn game starts?!"

Terrified, the woman apologized without looking at him, pretending to focus on the food.

But the man didn't stop. He closed in and slapped her across the face, sending her to the floor with a split lip.

"Do you know how many women would love to be with me?" the boxer spat. "Do you have any idea how lucky you are? I don't know why I ended up marrying such a useless woman."

"I know..." the woman sobbed.

The man hauled her up by the neck as if she weighed nothing. Just as he raised his hand to slap her again, someone knocked on the door.

The boxer grunted and let go of the woman.

"Who the hell..." he muttered, heading toward the door.

When he opened it, he found a girl propping a bicycle with a front basket against the curb of the cobblestone street. She wore a cropped lace-trimmed blouse and a tight tartan miniskirt. Her dark brown hair fell to her shoulders. Her body was lean and remarkably muscular for someone so young.

"Oh, hi there!" the girl said. "I'm Clara's lawyer. I'm here to finalize the divorce paperwork. May I come in?"

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"Divorce?!" the man bellowed in shock.

[CozyMuscle]

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[CozyMuscle]

Cozy Muscles #8

1. The Mysterious Girl

The muscular young woman walked past the boxer without waiting for an invitation. She carried several folders, which she placed on the dining table.

"Let's see..." she said. "I'll need signatures from both of you." She glanced at the woman standing in the kitchen, who was trying in vain to cover the bruise on her face with her hands.

The boxer turned to the lawyer, incredulous.

"I don't understand..." he began.

"Let's make this quick, shall we? It's getting late," the lawyer said with a smile.

The man turned on his wife.

"What is this, Clara?" he demanded.

"I want a divorce," she managed to stammer.

The man stood frozen in shock for a moment, but his expression quickly darkened.

"I'm not signing anything. I want you out of my house right now or I'll drag you out by your hair," he spat at the young woman holding a pen. "And you..." he snarled at his wife, "you're going to pay for this."

The lawyer stood up from her chair and looked at Clara.

"It seems we've reached an impasse," she said. "I need your authorization."

Clara nodded.

"Authorization for what?!" the boxer demanded, losing his patience.

The young woman didn't answer. Instead, she set the pen down, pulled a pair of padded gloves from a folder pocket, and began putting them on.

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"What do you think you're doing?" the boxer growled, stepping forward to grab her and throw her out the window.

"We don't want to do anything lethal, do we?" the lawyer replied. "I just need you to sign a document."

"What?!" was all the large man managed to say, still struggling to understand what was happening.

The girl's first blow landed squarely on his jaw.

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Thud!

The impact sent him crashing into the wall, and he collapsed face-first, disoriented. Even though the man had taken plenty of hits in his life, this one felt different: both the power and the execution were flawless.

"You damn bitch..." he muttered, forcing himself back up.

"Are you going to sign the papers?" the muscular girl asked, hands behind her back.

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" the boxer roared. Dropping into a fighting stance, he threw a two-punch combination at her face.

The girl slipped both punches, smiling. The boxer had rarely seen anyone read punches that fast, even in the ring. The young woman countered with a body blow that, even as he twisted and tensed his abdomen, hit him like a cannonball. He swung again, but she pivoted out of reach and drove an elbow straight into his temple.

Crack!

The man crumpled, dazed.

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"Are you going to sign the papers?" the young lawyer asked again, her smile unbroken.

Stunned and terrified by what was unfolding, the boxer did the only thing he could think of. In a fit of rage, weakened by her heavy strikes, he charged at her without any technique. He grabbed her around the waist and tried to lift her, but she didn't budge an inch.

Instead, she grabbed him by the neck with one hand, lifted him effortlessly, and used her free hand to drive a brutal punch into his mouth.

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Smack!

The boxer dropped to his knees once more, on the verge of passing out. The girl then grabbed him by the nape and began shaking him violently.

Clara, watching from the kitchen, gasped as several bloody teeth tumbled onto the carpet.

"Are you going to sign the papers?" the girl asked. Without waiting for his answer, she landed another punch on his chin.

Crunch!

The man's heavy body slammed into the floor.

When the boxer came to, he found himself seated at the dining table, the pen the lawyer had brought gripped in his right hand. On the table lay the documents and, inside an ashtray, five bloody teeth. He felt the girl's warm breath near his ear.

"Are you going to sign the papers?" the muscular young woman said, pointing to the exact line. Right beside it, Clara's signature was already dry.

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The boxer switched the pen to his other hand. He was left-handed.

---

2. The Vigilante

Asuka chose a simple white t-shirt and black leather shorts for her walk through Lichtburg.

That morning, Marin had visited them at the hotel. He drank tea with Susan and informed her that the Organization had learned of their presence in the city. They were being watched. The Organization believed they were planning to meet up with Steiner, which was why it hadn't mobilized agents to apprehend them immediately.

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Throughout her walk visiting the bookstores she hadn't seen the previous day, Asuka felt followed once again. However, there was a carelessness to her pursuers that struck her as odd.

After stepping out of an old bookstore on the outskirts of the city near the residential apartment blocks, Asuka turned into a dead-end alley. With an agile leap, she caught the streetlamp and bounced up onto the low roof of a house.

From above, she watched two men enter the alley, looking in every direction. Both wore the riot gear of Lichtburg officers. After sweeping the alley, they huddled to exchange a few words.

Asuka seized the moment. She dropped down behind them, and before the two men, frozen by her sudden appearance, could react, she drove her elbow into the first officer's chin.

Crack!

The man collapsed onto the cobblestones like a sack of potatoes.

Asuka grabbed the second man by the neck, his eyes wide with terror, and slammed him against the wall.

"If I squeeze a little harder, your neck will snap," she whispered. "And we don't want that, do we?"

The man, saliva dribbling down his chin, managed a feeble shake of the head.

"Who sent you to follow me?" Asuka asked.

"Nobody..." the man stammered. "We're investigating a vigilante who's been attacking men in the area... A girl like you," he added, staring at Asuka's body, her muscles flexed tight against her clothes from the exertion.

Uzu! Asuka thought.

Asuka lifted the man several inches off the ground with one hand and met his eyes with a smirk.

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"Well, you found me." She lowered him, hooked her arm around his neck, and squeezed with her biceps, cutting off his air until he went limp.

---

3. Another Number

In one of the offices now operating inside Lichtburg's library, Professor Plumb waited nervously for the man across from him to speak. Meetings with this man always left a bitter taste in his mouth, as if the man were toying with him.

The man kept his gray hair short, and dark glasses hid his eyes. He wore a tailored, immaculate suit. In one hand he held a photograph of Susan; in the other, he twirled a dagger.

"So your favorite student, the famous Susan Vogel, is visiting my city," he finally said, grinning.

"Yes, Mr. Forty-two. I was informed today that she's staying at the hotel on Seventh Street for a week," Plumb reported.

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[Wookey]

You keep drawing readers deeper in to this wonderful story. The graphics are fantastic