Hermione took a deep breath and answered. "Loren, I noticed in your notes that the 'Castrated Edition' of the Gender-Swap Ring will turn a man into a woman from the inside out as soon as he puts it on, but the duration is only five minutes, and it's on a two-hour cooldown."
Loren nodded at once. That was exactly what he'd intended. A ring with compulsory effects fit the nature of a prank item, and a time limit made it seem less harmful.
Seeing him confirm it, Hermione continued, "Your Castrated Edition can transform a man completely into a woman. If you really sell it publicly, a lot of awful things could happen. You set it so each ring only works for five minutes every two hours, but you didn't prevent wearing multiple rings. With, say, twenty-odd rings, someone could maintain a female state continuously. And even five minutes is enough time to do a lot."
Her words made George and Fred break into a cold sweat. Being a girl herself, and having been at Loren's side, Hermione was more mature than in the original timeline. The twins hadn't considered that angle at all. They were boys, not quite old enough yet—still at the stage where toys beat out girls.
If the rings spread into society, the turmoil would be enormous. What would dark wizards—or to be blunter, adult male wizards—do with such a ring? No one could predict it. Most wizards' minds had… issues.
Just imagining it made George and Fred shiver; the box in their hands suddenly felt like a hot potato.
In truth, the loophole was something Loren had left on purpose—or not exactly on purpose. He was curious to see a man use a Gender-Swap Ring and end up pregnant; that would be very interesting. If he then disabled the ring's function while they were pregnant, that would be even more interesting.
Since Hermione had found the problem, Loren went with the flow. "I'll add locks and safeguards. We'll limit activation to a single bound wearer and enforce a global cooldown. Even stacking multiple rings won't bypass it."
That one sentence gave the twins hope. George's hands stopped shaking around the box; they both looked at Loren, eyes pleading for the new solution. Loren, seeing their expectant gazes, pulled out a sheet and a pen and began scribbling rapidly. In a short while a new packet of notes was in Fred's hands.
With a fix in place, Hermione didn't press further. She went back to reading, absorbing the knowledge in front of her. She'd noticed that since entering the wizarding world, Loren had become a bit too carefree—or, perhaps, too fond of mischief. Under Loren's influence she shared a streak of "fun," but she still had lines and wouldn't let him cause too much trouble.
George and Fred, delighted, left with the boxed machine and the new notes. Seeing them nearly out the door, Hermione had to add a reminder: "Hide the Castrated Edition packet. Don't let anyone find it, or real trouble will follow."
Hearing her, the twins—already at the threshold—waved repeatedly to show they understood.
Loren took Hermione by the hand. She tucked the notes into her enchanted handbag and stood to follow him. He led her to a small room nearby and pushed the door open, gesturing for her to look inside.
One glance and Hermione gasped. A large white spider with pink patterns sat on a beanbag, and in front of it stood a game console Loren had built. From the look of it, the spider was gaming.
Hearing someone at the door, the spider turned its head nimbly toward them. Its face wasn't as grotesque as other spiders'; take its head alone and one might think it belonged to a pretty girl.
Hermione immediately realized this was the eight-eyed spider Loren had taken from Hagrid—only he'd remodeled her into this. That, she hadn't expected. The spider spotted Loren, dropped the controller, and rushed over, scrambling up onto him and rubbing her head against him.
Loren was quite pleased with her behavior. Stroking her head, he said to Hermione, "Her name is Shiraori[1]. What do you think?"
He'd just borrowed the name "Shiraori." Honestly, he couldn't think of anything better, and it wasn't like Shiraori would suddenly isekai in to smack him.
At Loren's words, Shiraori climbed down and began circling Hermione, putting on her cutest act. Her memory told her this was the mistress—time to perform.
Hermione had a soft spot for adorable, fluffy things; she couldn't help but be fond of Shiraori and kept petting her.
Seeing how much Shiraori enjoyed it, Loren didn't interrupt. When Hermione had finally loved on her enough, he said, "Show her your room."
At once, Shiraori rolled onto her back, waved a foreleg in salute, then tugged Hermione's robe hem with another leg, leading her to a little room.
When Hermione stepped inside, the décor stunned her. Aside from the beanbag and game console opposite the door, one side of the room was stacked with bottles of fizzy soda and all kinds of snacks. The other side had a soft, big bed, but it was covered in scattered manga and little figurines, and posters were plastered on the walls.
It was the quintessential room of an otaku girl—if Hermione had known the term.
And thus, a new Shiraori had been born. The only downside was that she'd been influenced a bit too much by the memories Loren had implanted—she constantly begged to watch the latest anime, to play games, to get all sorts of figures; if refused, she'd roll around on the floor.
Loren had no resistance to such behavior. He'd personally remade and endowed her with memories; to him, Shiraori was like his daughter. And of course he tried his best to satisfy a daughter's wishes. A game console was simple—thanks to his high-level alchemy, he quickly produced a machine like those from his previous life and loaded it with a pile of games he'd played before.
As for manga, Loren went straight through Gringotts for overseas purchasing. All it took was a few Galleons, and the goblins were happy to bring back stacks of volumes from Japan. In the 1990s, Japan's manga industry was already flourishing; flipping through what the goblins returned with, Loren spotted a few familiar titles.
With manga and games in hand, Shiraori wanted figures next. That was even less of a problem for Master Alchemist Loren—but he didn't craft the figures himself right away. Instead, he gave Shiraori a heap of materials and had her make them. He'd patterned her completely on his Spiderette template, reproduced every magical function he could from Harry Potter spells, and gone further, granting more abilities: she could freely control her size as needed, or wield magic to shape all manner of materials. With that, she had more than enough ability to make figures on her own.
But when he saw the lopsided, "cursed" pieces she first produced, Loren had to step in and make a few exquisite figures as references. Now Shiraori could craft all kinds of figures skillfully, and the ones Loren made were her most treasured possessions. She was tugging Hermione along now to show off those prized items.
Hermione didn't mind this childlike behavior; she could sense Loren's attitude toward Shiraori, though it did feel like suddenly having a daughter. Soon she was drawn in by the manga and games as well. Though she acted mature, she was still a little girl—she had just turned twelve this year, celebrating her birthday in the Hogwarts library.
Loren still remembered the look on her face when she received his birthday present. Since they were at school, he hadn't made a big fuss—he simply spent the day reading with her in the library and gave her a gift.
Watching Hermione, clumsy at first but quickly getting the hang of the game as she sparred back and forth with Shiraori, Loren felt a wave of contentment. He could feel the heavy pressure on Hermione's shoulders, and he knew he was the cause. He didn't care about her grades—no matter how hard she tried, she wouldn't catch up to a monster like him—but if she wanted to chase, he wouldn't stop her.
He hadn't planned to teach Hermione alchemy today, but plans had changed when the twins dropped in. Seeing her hit her stride, trading blows with Shiraori, Loren smiled in satisfaction, pulled out a volume of Detective Conan from Shiraori's manga stack, and sat down to revisit the adventures of that little bringer-of-death grade-schooler.
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[1] From "So I'm a Spider, So What?"... yup