Outbreak Company: Volume 6 (Premium), page 7
part #6 of Outbreak Company Series
But then...
“It’s all right.”
I could feel ripples coming closer. There couldn’t be more than a meter between me and Hikaru-san now. The fact that her voice seemed to come from slightly above me implied that she was standing in the water rather than submerged.
Meaning that if I were to turn around now, I would be, er, staring right at the lower half of her body, and there was no way she would still be wearing her towel in the bath, meaning, uh, her mysterious Bermuda Triangle would, it would be right in front of— it would be right— gaahhhgk (Please stand by.)
“Or are you more excited by naked members of the same sex, Shinichi-san?”
“No, even I don’t get excited by naked—...............”
............Come again?
What was that? Pardon moi?
In my complete and utter confusion... I unthinkingly turned around.
The first thing I saw was Hikaru-san’s devilish little smile.
Below that was a chest as flat and tranquil as the sea, then a belly button sitting smack amidst a smooth, pale abdomen, and below that...
“..................”
Well, I mean, it was definitely... It was very, distinctly noticeably...
“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!”
The echo of my shout bounced all around the bathing area.
“Wha— Wha-wha-wha-whaaa...”
I stood bolt upright in spite of myself.
“You don’t have to act so shocked,” Hikaru-san said, looking a bit annoyed.
“Y-Yeah, but—I mean—b-b-b-b-but...!”
“But what?”
“You’re a m-m-m-m-man?”
“Yes. So?” She—he?—seemed to wonder what all the fuss was about.
Argh! How can you act so cool and like this is all just perfectly normal?!
“But— Your clothes— The Suiren outfit—”
“It’s cosplay. It’s not that unusual, is it?”
Hikaru-san smiled without a hint of malice.
O-Okay. Calm down, Kanou Shinichi. Calm down and count your prime numbers—I mean, take stock of the situation!
A man? Who? Hikaru-san? A man?! Cosplay?! Dressing as a girl?!
I caught my breath: something like a flash of inspiration hit me.
I remembered what Garius had said:
“...Wonderful.”
“Shinichi.”
“You could learn something from her...”
Could Garius possibly have known at a glance that Hikaru-san was actually a guy?!
So when he told me to “learn from” Hikaru-san, had he meant... whoa, whoa, wait a second!
My imagination was headed to some dangerous places. I hate the way my otaku self only seems to have a really powerful creative streak at times like this.
To compound the situation...
“Shinichi-sama?!”
They must have been able to hear my scream in the rest of the house, because who should come charging into the bathing area but Myusel?
Oh yeah. I’d forgotten how sharp elf hearing is... Wait, trivia like that doesn’t matter right now!
“What in the world ha—”
“Er...”
Time stood still.
I was just standing up in the bath—in other words, I was looking right at Myusel, and all the important bits were plainly visible.
Hikaru-san was also standing there, facing away from the maid.
And then there was Myusel, staring straight at me, eyes wide.
For an instant, nobody moved a muscle—but Myusel’s face turned red about as quick as was possible.
“Er, uh, um, Myusel—san?”
“I’m...... very, very, very s-sorry!” Myusel stuttered, then squeezed her eyes shut, turn around, and started to dash—
“Eep?!”
—straight into the wall of the changing room.
“Hey, M-Myusel!” Panicked, I jumped out of the bath and ran over to her. It must have been a pretty good clonk—or maybe she was just overwhelmed by what she’d seen. In any event, she was out cold. Except she kept muttering “I’m very sorry, I’m very sorry,” like a mantra. What propriety.
No! That’s not the point!
“Is—Is she okay?” I muttered, looking closely at her face.
And that was when...
“What happened?”
“Whatsa matter?”
“What’s wrong?”
...as it just so happened, the rest of the women showed up.
“Ah...”
I froze.
I realized that this was an even less explain-awayable situation than the one I had appeared to be in a minute ago.
There was Myusel, sprawled on the ground and out like a light.
There was me, buck naked and hovering over her.
............
What did I do to deserve this downward spiral?!
“Shinichi-kun?” Minori-san crouched in front of me, grinning. That was a grown-up for you—the nakedness of some punk kid didn’t move her at all.
That was all well and good, but—ahh! That posture emphasized Minori-san’s softness and her jiggliness and why now of all times was she only wearing an old T-shirt, and—just a second, was it possible she was going bra-less? Not the point! My you-know-what was getting harder and harder to explain...!
“Uh... This is all a big m-misunderstanding...” I knew it was futile, but I had to say something.
Minori-san nodded as if to say I didn’t have to go on.
“Believe me, you don’t have to explain anything. ♪”
“Of course you’d say thaaaaaat!”
That was when Minori-san put a serious joint lock on me. Of course she did. It was in the script.
Chapter Two: A Trading-Card Strategy?
The girl looked as if she had been incarnated from the darkness itself.
She simply appeared, there in the black—her hair long and dark as pitch, the hem of her dress, which was covered in frills and lace, billowing as she approached. She wasn’t walking, either; much less running or jumping. She simply stood there and seemed to grow bigger and bigger. It was a weird feeling, as if the distance were shrinking itself. As I watched her stupidly, she got closer and closer until we were practically breathing on each other.
“Ah...” A trembling sound escaped my lips.
I stood frozen, with no idea what to do—when she poked me in the chest.
It caused me to collapse to my knees, then fall flat on my back, and then she was bending silently over me, ever closer. There was no light anywhere, yet for some reason I could easily see her pale face, her smile.
“This time, the ritual of the contract shall be done...”
In contrast to her solemn pronouncement, I noticed that she was blushing like a shy little girl. Meanwhile, all I could do was quiver. Our eyes met—and she furrowed her eyebrows as if in embarrassment, bit her delicate, pink lip like she was fighting something back.
“In order to manifest the vow between light and darkness here and now...”
She unceremoniously mounted me. Her thighs, which I could see peeking out from under the lace-fringed hem of her dark skirt, seemed impossibly bright in the darkness. I could feel the heat of her body through her clothes, proving to me that she was no illusion, but a being of flesh and blood.
“The door of destiny will now open...”
She reached out for me, pulling at my shirt, her slim, white fingers brushing my skin.
Ahh... I trembled at the thought of what was to come.
I was as helpless as a sparrow now, unable to do anything in the face of this girl. I couldn’t move a muscle, as if the very root of my existence had been entrapped. I was totally at her mercy.
Of course, the two of us were all alone in the darkness. There was nobody who might come and stop her.
“The pact of blood washes all things...”
Or at least, I hadn’t thought there was.
So why did I hear someone whispering?
I looked around in a panic.
“Myusel—?!”
Myusel was there.
No—not just her. Minori-san and Elvia, too. I didn’t know when they had arrived or how long they had been there, but now they were illuminated as if by a spotlight.
None of them said anything. Instead, the three girls kept looking at each other, occasionally shooting little glances in my direction. They had their hands to their mouths and were whispering to each other, like old ladies spreading the latest gossip.
Then, for some reason, Minori-san took a step closer.
“That’s some pretty face, huh?”
What the heck? Why did she sound so... masculine? Like the older brother at a morgue seeing the corpse of his younger twin...
“Heh,” Minori-san went on, pointing at me and the girl. “Some guys have all the goddamn luck, eh?”
“......Huh?”
My gaze vacantly followed Minori-san’s pointing finger.
At some point, I discovered, the girl in the black dress had become completely naked.
Not a scrap of clothing on her, naked as the day she was born. But... There was no bulge at her chest. Instead, the bulge was between her legs... and what a bulge! And it was standing at attention—
“Huh?! Huh?!”
My brain, which until that moment had been partially paralyzed, suddenly kicked into high gear—and I remembered the name of the girl sitting on top of me.
No—not the girl.
His name was Ayasaki Hikaru-san. The other otaku who had come from Japan to be my assistant. And a real, true, bona fide—
“I,” Hikaru-san said with a languorous smile, “am perfectly happy with one of you cute little straight boys.”
“Who are you, the Yaranaika guy?!”
But my little one-liner didn’t get me anywhere—Hikaru-san grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. With great gusto, he opened both his hands wide. Buttons went flying, and suddenly I was exposed to the world, and Hikaru-san’s gaze.
“Noooo!” I gave a girlish scream and covered my chest.
But that meant I didn’t have any hands left to defend my pants. His manner terrifyingly casual, Hikaru-san pulled my belt away, stripped off my pants, and then he was reaching for my underwear...!
“N-No, please don’t!” I protested.
At this rate, this book is in danger of being declared harmful to youth! Er, I mean—
I don’t want to lose my maidenhead before my virginity...!
Er, or maybe I had that backward! But anyway, the point was, I wasn’t exactly jealously guarding my first time, but I didn’t want to have it stolen by a man...!
I tossed and turned, trying to escape, but Hikaru-san held down my shoulders, much stronger than he looked. And from that mounted position, it was easy enough for him to pin my flailing arms with his knees.
This was bad. I couldn’t get free.
There was nothing to save me now. Myusel and the others were just looking our way and whispering.
“Ah... Ahh...”
The blood drained from my face. Hikaru-san leaned closer.
Even at this moment, his face was very pretty—it still looked like a girl’s face to me, and maybe that was as close to salvation as I would come.
But... But...!
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
It was with that scream that I woke up.
I opened my eyes to find myself drenched in an unpleasant sweat. I checked my smartphone, which was by my bed, and found that it was still quite a bit earlier than I usually got up. Gentle morning sunlight peeked through the curtains in stark contrast to my bleak mood, and I could hear birds chirping happily outside.
It would have been a really beautiful morning, if it hadn’t been for that dream.
I put a hand to my chest and could feel my heart pounding, and not in a good way. It was just a dream. I knew that, but my body hadn’t gotten the message yet. I didn’t seem likely to fall back asleep at this rate.
“Sigh...”
I changed clothes without much enthusiasm, then decided to have a walk around the house in hopes that it would refresh me a little. Just sitting around seemed likely to invite flashbacks of that nightmare. A bit of exercise might be just what I needed.
“This sucks...”
I headed for the dining area, still periodically shaking.
The early hour meant I didn’t see anyone else on the way over. Even so, I assumed Myusel, Brooke, and Cerise were all up and at work already.
“Mornin’,” I half-whispered as I entered the dining area.
As I expected, there was no one there. Myusel was probably in the adjacent kitchen. There were a lot of mouths to feed and several different diets to observe, so the kitchen was a busy place in the morning. I didn’t want to cause Myusel any trouble by distracting her, so I just sat in my chair and waited.
“Mmm...” I sighed and stretched, then slumped down into the chair.
“Ah, Shinichi-kun.”
“Er... Matoba-san?”
I looked up to see the bureaucrat just coming into the dining area.
“You’re up early,” he said with a smile.
“Speak for yourself. Is something up?” As I recalled, he had said he had to get back to Japan in a hurry. Or had he already been there and back again?
“Oh, I just got back here a bit sooner than expected. As I had the time, I thought I would drop in and see how things were going.” That seemed to support my theory.
“Should I go get Minori-san and Hikaru-san?”
“That won’t be necessary. I’m not really here on any specific business.”
With that, Matoba-san sat down at the table across from me. Faced with a man easily old enough to be my father, I found myself sitting up straighter. Not that I had anything in particular to talk to him about right now...
“Say, Matoba-san,” I said, briefly thinking back on my nightmare. “Why didn’t you say anything about Hikaru-san being a guy?”
He could have just introduced my new assistant as a man up front.
To my barbed question, however, Matoba-san responded with a blank look and an inquisitive tilt of his head. “You didn’t know?”
“Let’s just say it was a bit of a shock when I found out,” I said.
Plus I’d had to look at a naked dude when I was totally unprepared for it. I was sure that nightmare was residual trauma from that experience.
“I don’t believe announcing someone’s gender is a typical part of introducing them.”
“Well, er... That’s true, but...” I wanted to think Hikaru-san constituted a special case. “It’s a kind of androgynous name, and with the way he was dressed... Wouldn’t most people assume he was a girl?”
“Ahh. I see,” Matoba-san said with a bit of a dry smile. “I saw his resume before I interviewed him, so I wasn’t so shocked.” In other words, misunderstandings are a lot less likely when you know he’s a guy going in.
Honestly, though, given what a convincing girl Hikaru-san made, it seemed like it might be natural to just, you know, say something about it. Or did this guy really not think of anyone as anything besides the info and photo on their paperwork?
“As I recall, I did refer to him as Hikaru-kun...”
“Well, yes, you did...”
Matoba-san could see I wasn’t quite convinced. “What do you think of Hikaru-kun?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Is he fitting in?”
“Yeah. I can’t believe he’s only been here a few days.”
It was true: Hikaru-san had only been in the Holy Eldant Empire for three days. To be precise, this was the morning of the fourth day.
He had pretty much been part of the action from the moment he got here, and by his third day, he was on good terms with almost all the students. I’d often seen him chatting happily with all the various members of our household, and I hadn’t heard of any disagreements or trouble.
When I saw all the costumes and various other things he’d brought along with him, I got the impression that unlike me, he had known what was coming and had been able to prepare for it. But even so, I could only admire how thoroughly prepared he was.
I wondered when it was that I had gotten used to this world, had started to be accepted here.
I wasn’t sure, but I knew it had taken more than three days.
“Honestly, I’m almost a little jealous.”
“Well, we learned from our experience with you, Shinichi-kun. We made sure to inform Hikaru-kun of what would be happening. Perhaps that made the difference. In any event, I’m glad to hear he’s getting along.”
“He sure is.”
“He’s very talented, you know.” All of a sudden, I thought I heard something portentous in Matoba-san’s tone. “He had to be, to be chosen as your assistant.”
“Uh...huh,” I replied with an ambiguous smile.
I might normally take that sort of remark to mean that Matoba-san was calling me an even more talented person, but it was dangerous to take anything this guy said at face value. Even if he wasn’t exactly my enemy at the moment, the Japanese government stood behind him—and given how impertinently I had opposed their plans, I doubted they thought very well of me.
Having said that, I had gotten myself accepted in the Holy Eldant Empire much more quickly and much more thoroughly than the government had expected—including becoming good friends with Petralka. Set aside the question of whether that was deliberate: if you thought of this as a sort of infiltration op... well, I’d done a pretty good job.
So in short, Japan may not have really wanted to keep me as the general manager of Amutech, but as things stood, replacing me with someone else would be too much of a blow to their efficiency to be a viable option.
“Master? Matoba-sama?” a familiar voice said.
Both of us looked toward the kitchen door. There was Myusel, standing with a look of surprise on her face. She wasn’t used to seeing me up this early—and definitely not with Matoba-san for company.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were here. I’ll make tea right away.”
“Oh, don’t trouble yourself,” Matoba-san said easily, holding up a hand. “I was just on my way out.”
