Thank a lot for the 100 power stones! Here's the bonus chapter
At 200 Power Stones, I'll drop another bonus chapter.
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Hearing that voice, I stop looking off into the distance and turn my head back a little.
Now, in theory this should have been a magnificent view. I'm lying flat on my back on the rooftop floor, and she's standing right behind my head, wearing the school uniform skirt. I think any guy would immediately understand what I mean by "magnificent" without me having to explain it in detail.
But it's a real shame, because what I'm seeing at this exact moment is nothing of the sort. What I see is a monster made of masses of flesh, covered in open mouths that close and open, and uneven teeth chewing on its own meat. And on top of that flesh there are eyes. Many eyes. All of them looking at me.
I click my tongue.
"What? Aren't you happy to see me?"
Seeing me click my tongue, the girl puts her hands on her hips and speaks to me in an annoyed tone while looking down at me.
She's surely frowning right now and probably pouting too. It's an expression that under normal circumstances would have made me laugh. The problem is that from my point of view all I see is a monster trying to be cute, which isn't exactly pleasant to look at.
Anyway, she's completely misread me, huh?
The reason I clicked my tongue has nothing to do with her, and it's actually pretty simple. I hate seeing the people I care about turned into those things. I know it's only an illusion and that what I'm seeing has no connection to reality. She's fine. But knowing that doesn't stop me from feeling, every time it happens, that I'm the one harming them somehow even though that isn't the case at all.
Mmm. Well. Whatever. I put a smile on my face.
"Not happy to see you? It's nothing like that."
If it were Saya, or Rize, or Touka, I would have just told them what was happening and the misunderstanding would have been cleared up in two seconds. In fact, those three have known everything for a long time, so I wouldn't even have to explain it.
But this girl in front of me, or rather, standing almost on top of my head, is Rei. And Rei still doesn't know anything about my monstrous side.
She might have suspicions. Being honest, it's almost certain she does, because she isn't stupid and we grew up together, and there are things you can't hide from someone who has known you since you were six. But I still don't trust enough that she wouldn't react dramatically if I told her everything at once.
"Then what is it, if it isn't that? I climbed all those stairs with so much difficulty to get up here... Arata-kun, you hurt my feelings."
I roll my eyes.
Climbed the stairs with difficulty, she says? Please. This girl doesn't go a single day without training with her spear, and her mother is a vampire known in the supernatural world as the Seventh Progenitor. She took those stairs three at a time, I'm completely sure of it.
"Hah..."
I close my eyes.
This is going to hurt...
I don't have many other options either. I let out a loud laugh at Rei's words to cover it up, and while I'm laughing I send a large amount of mental frequency into the deepest part of my own brain, pressing inward.
—Crack!
All the noise I was hearing before turns into a low hum that seems to come from the bottom of a very deep cave. And at the same time, a sharp, unbearable pain runs through me from my head to the tips of my toes. So much that I almost stop laughing halfway through the laugh.
"Hey, are you okay? You look pale..."
Hearing that worried tone, I answer.
"I'm fine. Just didn't sleep very well last night."
Then I open my eyes, and the world that was macabre before is now beautiful.
And when I say beautiful, I mean really beautiful.
Thick thighs, and a black stocking covering her leg and going up to mid-thigh, squeezing the flesh just enough to create a particularly seductive line. And a little above that...
"Ah, so today they're white."
Hold on. Did I just say that out loud?
Yes. I definitely said it out loud. I don't even have to wonder, because I hear a grumble from above and the next instant she raises her foot and stamps it right into my chest.
"Pervert..."
"..."
Why does everyone always call me a pervert?
I certainly am one and I have no intention of denying it, so in that sense the accusation is fair. But let's think about the situation for a moment. Aren't they almost always the ones who start it?
Because I was lying here peacefully looking at the sky and thinking about my own things. Who told this girl to come up and stand right over my head, in a school skirt, while I'm lying flat on my back?
With those thoughts crossing my mind, I grab her ankle and pull down.
I hear a small yelp of surprise, and the next moment I feel the girl's soft ass drop right onto my stomach.
"Kyah! Arata!"
She turns her head toward me, and with that movement her long, straight caramel hair swings through the air and falls over her shoulder. The two ahoges on top of her head stand up in a way that gives the impression she's furious, though a pink blush covers her full cheeks.
"Don't pull people down without warning. Arata-"
Without paying her much attention, I grab her by the waist, lift her, spin her around in midair and set her back down on my stomach, this time facing me.
"There we go. That's much better, see? Now we can talk face to face."
"Hmph! You just want to look at my boobs, don't you?"
"You know me very well."
Her big hazel eyes open wide, and I can see my own silhouette reflected in them.
"...And you don't even deny it. Unbelievable."
"So, what did you come up here for?"
This young lady sits next to Saya in class, and normally uses the break to stay there chatting with her. Coming all the way up to the rooftop to look for me is something pretty new.
"It's nothing. I just wanted to see you."
She pauses briefly, and her tone changes.
"Also... last night you slept at Touka's house. That girl... she didn't do anything to you, did she? And..."
Her eyes narrow dangerously at me.
"If I remember correctly, you said a moment ago that you didn't sleep well last night... So..."
Saying that, she leans forward to bring her face closer to mine.
At the same time, the smell of her hair reaches my nose, pushed gently by the wind on the rooftop. And as she leans forward in that posture, my eyes are naturally drawn to the hypnotic movement of the two mountains of flesh now swaying a few centimeters from my face.
Rei takes my face between her two soft hands, lifts my head a few centimeters, and looks at me with eyes I can describe without exaggeration as dangerous.
"My eyes are up here."
"Ah. Yes. I see them now."
"And? What happened last night?"
"Ah, in any case, what exactly is Touka supposed to do to me? I just like sleeping there, the same way I like sleeping at Rize's house, or at yours when the occasion comes up. I don't understand what the fuss is about."
A genuinely worried expression appears on Rei's face.
"Damn it... at what point did my childhood friend turn into such a womanizer? I should have taught you to be a loyal gentleman while there was still time..."
I roll my eyes, pinch her cheek between my fingers and smile at her.
"I am a gentleman."
"Pfft!"
Oi.
Rei straightens up on my stomach, covers her mouth with both hands and bursts out laughing.
I watch her while her whole body shakes with laughter. Especially her boobs, which has grown quite a bit over these past few years and at this moment is doing an excellent job of reminding me of that.
Am I thinking about perverted things again?
It turns out that no matter how many absurdly powerful supernatural abilities I have, I can't do anything against the intrusive thoughts of my own nature. When I think about it that way, it's a pretty serious weakness.
After a while Rei gets tired of laughing and wipes the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand. Then she looks down at me with much softer, gentler eyes.
"You looking at me like that... is something I like... Ah!"
As she speaks, she seems to realize those words were something she hadn't meant to say, because her cheeks take on a deeper red until I'd swear a little steam is coming out of the top of her head.
She grabs me by the collar of my uniform and shakes me.
"Forget I said that! Got it?"
"I refuse."
"ARATA!"
Her shout is loud enough that a little bird singing peacefully on the railing chokes mid-note and takes off out of there at full speed.
I shake my head and pat her on the head to calm her down, and while I'm doing it I remember something.
"Hey. I've never asked you before, but... your dad, is he really not angry at you?"
"Huh? No, not at all."
She shrugs.
"I talked it over with him when the whole thing happened and he was fine with it. He was angry, but not at me, so it should be fine. Besides, it's been a while since then. Mom doesn't particularly care either."
"Good to hear."
Rei is a year older than Saya and me. That means she should be a grade above us and shouldn't share a classroom with anyone from our year. And that fact was something Rei used to look at with a fair amount of envy from the other room.
Then the following happened. A pretty stupid teacher named Shido wanted revenge on Rei's father over something from the past, and decided the way to do it was to arrange things so that his daughter would repeat the year completely unfairly.
And Rei, instead of getting upset and crying the way Shido expected with that calm, cunning smile of his, raised her fist in delight and accepted it without hesitation.
For Rei, repeating the year seemed like the perfect solution to her problems.
Shido could only pick his glasses up off the floor, having dropped them from the shock, with a vein throbbing on his forehead.
Right... that teacher.
I should deal with him soon. It's better for everyone if that idiot disappears, isn't it? Not that I need many reasons, but I have plenty anyway.
Well, anyway.
As a result of all that, now Rei is in my class too.
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