...An enclaver, huh. "Hello! What brings you here?"

"I'm Nie Huaisang and I have a proposition for you."

"Oh?" she says with a slight sideways grin.

"A little bird told me you're planning to be a trader! I'm running a shop, and I feel like we could work together."

"Well, not yet, I didn't bring anything that'd expire before Christmas." How does he know. She wants access to his spy network or whatever it is. "I thought maybe I'd wait for you to sell out first but if you have a different plan...?"

"Darling, I don't plan to sell out until six hours before graduation. But I don't see why we need to compete. We can both be on the same team, right? Serving our customers."

She raises an eyebrow. "And how would we do that?"

He snaps open his fan. "Well, right now I'm just trying to convince you of the benefits of me owing you a favor."

"I can see how that would be useful. What are you working up to asking me for?"

He points with his fan to Jiang Cheng over at the Shanghai table. "I want to study in the Shanghai reading room with Tomonori, another Japanese indie. He's very cute and I want to get to know him better. Except my enclavemate Jiang Cheng hates him for no obvious reason, and this is going to disrupt my studying. So I would be greatly appreciative if you could keep him out of the Shanghai reading room until, say, 3pm."

"Well," she says. She takes a bite to cover for needing a moment to think. There's an obvious strategy, here, if he's asking a girl specifically for help, and she's not sure what to do about it if she's being asked to seduce an enclaver... "What kinds of things interest him?"

Nie Huaisang, a victim of homonormativity, has no idea that he's suggested that Misaki do this.

"Alchemy, math, stabbing things, animals, pointless and arbitrary rage but his bark is worse than his bite I promise."

Oh, good, that is not a list of kinks. ...That is maybe someone's list of kinks, but.

"If I get him talking about alchemy or math or animals or stabbing things, will that work or will he be like 'what are you doing, why are you so interested in me, who even are you?'"

"He will be like 'who even are you' and then you ignore him and keep talking and he will simmer down into a low but consistent level of anger at the universe."

Right, okay, so the plan is that she should go antagonize an enclaver on purpose. "And how big a favor are you agreeing to owe me for this?"

"I promise you'll be satisfied afterward," he says, which is not an answer.

Given the affinities some of the Shanghai folks have, that's the worst answer. "Maybe I could pick out some stuff from your shop?"

"Sure!" Nie Huaisang says, with the boundless confidence of someone who's sure he can talk Misaki into thinking actually he benefited her by causing her to meet an enclaver.

"What've you got today?"

"Mana storage bracelets, perfume, preorders on makeup... but we can't decide the payment now. You don't know how pleasant or unpleasant Jiang Cheng is to interact with yet! I'm not going to stiff you, I value our future working relationship."

That would be reassuringly suggestive of confidence in Jiang Cheng's personality, if not for the mind control. Instead, it is suggestive of mind control plans. "I'm sure he's lovely but I really can't put that off till later. How much mana can the bracelets store?"

"Pretty normal amount for a freshman project."

"Oh, they're a freshman project, of course. Is the makeup enchanted?"

"No, but I can introduce you to an Anglo who does enchanted makeup."

"None of this is really impressing me but maybe for enough mana storage to store, oh, all the mana I can make in a month?"