My Gift Is “Beauty”. I Think It’s Useless, but It Seems to Be an S-Rank Gift With the Strongest Buff Effect for Beautiful Girls

Chapter 22.3.1: Epilogue – Kirino Hyoudou

When I was old enough to understand things, I lived with my family in a big house like a mansion.

The house always had my mom, grandma, and servants. The men, like my dad and grandpa, were usually away for work and only came back sometimes. Still, I think they loved me properly.

I grew up happily in a wealthy family.

The first strange thing happened to my body when I was in elementary school.

“It’s cold… so cold…”

When I woke up in bed one morning, my whole body felt cold, and I thought I had caught a cold.

I stayed home from school that day to rest, but the chills didn’t go away even after a week.

While I was suffering, my grandpa came home after a long time.

He saw my condition and immediately knew something was wrong. Using his authority as the president of the Adventurers’ Guild, he called someone to perform an “Appraisal” on me.

“Ice Aura”—that was my Gift.

To stop the chills, I needed to learn how to control this Gift. From that day, my training began.

It wasn’t that hard once I focused on it.

I seemed to have a talent for it.

After learning to control my “Ice Aura,” I became resistant to cold.

My body temperature was a bit lower than other people’s, but it didn’t affect my daily life.

The next big change happened when I started middle school.

“Huh… what…? Why… so much hair?”

At first, it was just peach fuzz.

Everyone has peach fuzz, and I didn’t know many friends who shaved it.

But my peach fuzz didn’t stop growing.

“My back…? My armpits… even my legs… why… why…?”

What started as peach fuzz wasn’t peach fuzz anymore.

So, I started shaving my whole body.

I heard that my classmates in middle school thought shaving was normal, so I thought I was just doing the same thing.

But slowly, I realized I was different from others.

I became afraid of people’s gazes.

I was always worried about missing a spot or leaving some hair behind. Even when talking to someone, I wondered if they were staring at the pores on my skin. Every look felt like it was judging me.

So, I started avoiding people.

Maybe that’s why it happened.

“Hey, Kirino. My friend says you stole her guy. What are you going to do about it?”

I didn’t know anything about it.

I barely talked to boys, and I had no idea who liked me.

I was too scared of people’s gazes to think about normal things like love, so I avoided that stuff too.

That’s what I told my classmate, but it wasn’t bullying.

It was just that a lonely person’s place in the world got even smaller.

“I have to shave… I have to shave… I have to shave…”

I didn’t care about anything else. All I thought about every day was my body hair.

I couldn’t wear short sleeves or skirts. Even if I did, I always wore tights.

*Prick.*

When a stray hair got caught in my tights, I tore them off in despair. Of course, I didn’t go out that day.

During gym or swimming classes, I made excuses about feeling sick because of my low body temperature and skipped them as much as I could. When I rested, I wore jackets or jerseys to get through the day.

High school was more of the same.

I was cute. I started to realize that in middle school.

Because of my looks, some people were friendly at first, but since I didn’t try to get close to them, they left me alone, and I ended up by myself.

“Hyoudou-san, are you okay alone? Want me to listen?”

Some boys, with kind smiles, approached lonely me—aiming for my body.

But I knew better. I’d had similar experiences in middle school.

“S-sorry—!”

“Wait a second!!”

I ran away, but they caught up to me quickly.

So, while feeling sorry, I used my Gift.

I created tiny ice spikes on the ground. The boy tripped over them and fell, unable to chase slow me. He didn’t know I’d been able to use my Gift since elementary school, so he couldn’t understand what happened.

One day, I found an article online.

“Feeling cold is one factor related to women’s excessive body hair.”

The article said that when the body feels cold, it grows hair to protect itself like insulation.

I didn’t care if it was true.

After finding that article, I started to hate my Gift.

My body temperature was lower because of the Gift.

That’s why I became so hairy. That’s what I believed, and I hated it.

“Kirino-chan? If something’s bothering you, tell me, okay?”

My mom, worried about me, would sometimes say this.

But I was too embarrassed about my body hair to tell even my family.

My mom looked like me, but her body was completely different.

She had smooth skin with no hair at all. Also, her breast was very large.

I already knew about medical hair removal or permanent hair removal.

But because they were family, I couldn’t bring myself to tell them.

“Hyoudou Kirino…”

The turning point came in the second half of my first year of high school.

While walking in the hallway, I heard my name and got closer. A cute girl was standing nearby.

She said I was pretty. I hadn’t heard words like that from girls in a while, so I felt a little happy.

She was so bright that she dazzled me, and she felt different from other girls.

When I looked closely, her skin was so beautiful… no visible pores.

When I told her she was pretty, she accepted my words and was happy. Other girls didn’t react like that.

“Kirino’s like that. Totally looking down on people. She only compliments others so easily because she knows she’s cuter.”

I heard that voice from inside a classroom when I was in the hallway.

I didn’t mean to put anyone down. I was just being honest, but they took it negatively.

Even talking to girls was hard for me, but she was different. I hadn’t been able to compliment other girls, but I could with her.

I wanted to be friends with her… maybe that’s why the opportunity came with an unexpected surprise.

One day, as usual, I was looking for a place to eat my lunch alone and went to the rooftop. That’s when she—Hibiki Hayashido—called out to me, and we ate lunch together.

Two of her friends were there, which surprised me. One was a boy.

I was cautious, but the way he looked at me was different from other boys. It wasn’t creepy… it just didn’t feel bad.

Then, suddenly, Hibiki shouted that either me or him was glowing. I didn’t understand at first, but as I listened to everyone, a word popped up—

“Hair Removal.”

“No way—!?”

A new skill. Learned. Hair Removal.

That word alone made me tremble.

My wish was easily seen through. It was Hibiki’s skill, but then they showed me a picture of Koharu’s blemish disappearing…

“I… I’m done for…”

Before I knew it, I was crying and spilling everything. Koharu rubbed my back, and I made up my mind.

It had been since elementary school that I visited someone else’s house.

I wasn’t in touch with those friends anymore, so it had been a long time, and I was very nervous.