VOLUME 7

Chapter 1: Part 2

I busied myself with my beta painting and shading, but there was still plenty of ma.n.u.script to do. Nene-san had said the deadline was tomorrow… but ugh, this was looking like it would turn into a marathon. Maybe Saras would come back and help us again?

“Ahh, looks like we’ll need some more time. Hey hey. You wanna stay over?”

“Eh?” Being able to stay over with a girl who was living alone was like a dream come true… and it was a dream I didn’t even ask for. Actually, this might’ve been the first time I stayed over at a girl’s place. So I ended up getting more excited than even I could have predicted and responded in a booming voice as if I was an overly friendly bartender.

“Sure, with pleasure!”

Okay, I have to get a few provisions for staying over now. I took out my cell phone and dialed home.

Ringgggg… Ringggg… Click.

“h.e.l.lo? This is the girl who dances like a b.u.t.terfly and geniuses it up like a bee. What do you want?”

A cute girl’s voice answered the phone.

I really was curious exactly how a bee had anything to do with genius, but I should probably just ignore her.

“Ah, Haruna? So… I’m staying over at Nene-san’s place tonight. Could you bring me a change of clothes? Also, I’ll be going to school straight from here, so it’d be great if you brought my uniform too.”

“Hm? Sounds like a bulldog eating wild gra.s.s… oh, it’s Ayumu.”

“What kind of sound is that supposed to be?! Wouldn’t that be pretty silent?!”

“So, Ayumu, watcha need?”

Didn’t I already tell you? Ugh, fine. I tiredly began my explanation again.

“I’m staying over somewhere to do some work so please bring me a change of clothes thanks.”

“Huh? Why does the beautiful genius Demon Baroness masou shoujo Haruna-chan have to lower herself to do something for the likes of you? Stop bothering me!”

That’s exactly what I expected to hear.

“Okay okay. Put Sera on then.”

I tried to quickly deal with Haruna, but I swear I could almost hear her frowning from the other end of the line.

“W-Well… maybe if Ayumu asked nicely. I’m not completely against helping out.”

Hm? It was rare to hear Haruna making concessions like this.

“Umm… oh great genius girl Haruna-sama. Please take pity on this worm.”

“Say it in a more grating way.”

“Haruna-shama~~.”

“Gross! Shut up!”

Eh? Wasn’t this just not fair? I had no idea what she wanted me to say…

“Well, I guess it’s fine.”

“Hm?”

“It’s fine, I’ll bring your clothes. You better be super thankful to me the rest of the year!”

“Yeah yeah. As you command.”

“Okay! What’s the address?”

“There should be a memo stuck around my desk or somewhere that has the address written on it.”

“Okay okay. Leave it to me!”

“I’m counting on you.”

“Aye aye~~.”

Click. Beep, beep, beep. Well, it was pretty obvious she didn’t care much about my clothes, but she’d probably bring them now.

“What a strange phone call.”

Nene-san’s face was right next to mine and she was giving me a wide smile. I backed up in surprise.

“Well, it was only because I was talking to a strange person.”

“Mhmm.” Nene-san looked at me with suspicion in her eyes.

I get the feeling that she was misunderstanding something.

Around three more hours pa.s.sed. I could start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but midnight was already rolling around.

Haruna sure was late. Ah! Don’t tell me she was planning to walk here. My house was in the west part of Tokyo. It was quite far from Koto Ward, which was on the East side of the city.

She should’ve been able to take a train by herself…

“Want a bath? I can lend you some clothes.”

“Nah, I’ll wait until my own clothes come. Also looks like there’s a long night in front of us.”

“Kaay~. Maybe I’ll take a bath…”

Nene-san gave a stretch in her chair before standing up. And now she was giving me a teasing look. Why was that?

“Got it. Go ahead.”

I replied casually while continuing my beta painting. Nene-san’s lips curve upwards.

“… Gonna peek?”

“I won’t!”

Ugh, this girl… she just won’t let up with the teasing. Or maybe she wanted me to peek…? Mmmmm… no no no. I won’t be tricked! I won’t let you trick me!

Nene-san went towards the bathroom that was right next to the entrance.

I could hear the sounds of running water coming from the bathroom. She was probably showering about now.

Hmm… this was strange. What was this fluttering feeling in my chest?

I saw an image of Nene-san from just a moment ago running through my head.

“… Gonna peak?” I saw her standing there in a tank top, smiling teasingly at me.

I saw her thighs, which had a decent bit of meat on them. And her calves. And her b.u.t.t. And… those S-cla.s.s b.r.e.a.s.t.s of hers.

That amazing body was in that room right now, wet with droplets of water.

………………… I couldn’t ignore it. Why couldn’t I help but think about this?

I had to keep going with the ma.n.u.script. But my pen was not in the mood to move.

I could hear humming. It was a popular anime opening from long ago.

Dammit, why was I getting so excited? Just because a girl was humming an anime song I knew? Dammit, I couldn’t stop thinking about her! Couldn’t stop at all!

Concentrate, Ayumu! Concentrate on your work!

Scratch scratch… scratch scratch…

Schhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh~~~

Dammit! I’m being drowned out! It was like the sounds of the shower were overwhelmingly louder than the sounds of my pen!

And then, the shower fell silent.

It didn’t feel like she had used the water to fill a bathtub or something, so I guessed that she was the type that was happy with just a shower. Which means she would come out soon. Hooray, I conquered my libido! Point to Ayumu!

Knock knock. Someone was knocking at the door. It was probably Haruna, so I stood up. It wasn’t like I was doing something dirty or suspicious, but for some reason I ended up tiptoeing silently to the entrance.

“Is someone here?”

I had been looking down, so when Nene-san peeked her head out the bathroom I collided into her with full force.

“Uwah! Hah?! Hyah?!”

Nene-san, who was only wearing a single towel right now, lost her balance and grabbed onto my clothes to try and stay upright.

However, I had also run into Nene-san, so my feet ended up slipping on the floor.

… After that, before I knew it, I had collapsed onto the floor, with Nene-san on top.

S-Something nice and soft was pus.h.i.+ng into my back!

“Nene-san, hey…”

“Zzzzzz…”

“She’s sleeping! Hey! You’ll catch a cold! Come on, get off…”

For now, I at least turned my body around so I was facing up.

“U-Ummm…” Nene-san sleepily raised the top half of her body up.

Like she was practicing a martial arts move or something, Nene-san had taken a mounting position right above me.

Her single towel slipped and fell a bit.

O-Ohh, that was marvelous… wait, no! Stop!

“Hey, Nene-san! You can’t be doing that!”

This sight was blindingly perverted. It hit me with the force of a thousand suns.

It was too bright for a high school student and for a zombie, so I covered my face with my hands.

Nene-san’s eyes opened lazily and she put a hand on my chest before glancing down at me.

At that point, she finally realized the position we were in.

“Ahahaha~. Sorry about this. Aikawa-kun sure seems to have the power to draw himself into these kinds of situations, doesn’t he? Lucky lucky~.”

Nene-san gave me a bright laugh before hiding her beautiful body with her towel and standing up, walking back into the room.

Geez. I also stood up and escaped to the front door. Opening the door, I saw… n.o.body at all. Maybe it took too much time for me to answer the door and they had a.s.sumed there was n.o.body home?

I shut the door and went back into the room.

Nene-san was asleep in the middle of the room, still wearing that one towel, so I couldn’t help but let out a sigh.

“Please at least change before going to sleep.”

I poked her a few times on her soft skin, a look of complete calm on my face.

The dirty thoughts that any healthy high school boy would be thinking in this situation threatened to break out, but I kept them in.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES