“Ouga!? Hey, Ouga! Come back!!”
”……What are you panicking about, Karen. I’m normal.”
So don’t push that beautified face closer to me.
The closer you get, the more your laden chest reaps my consciousness……!
“R-really? You looked frozen there, though……”
“You’re imagining it. Heh heh heh, Karen, you worry too much.”
A lie. I’d been transfixed, for a moment, by her sheer transformation and cuteness.
The only one who’d realized that fact was Mashiro, who was pinching me from behind.
That hurts. Mashiro, that hurts, please stop.
“Hmm~? What’s wrong, Ouga~?”
Strange — that smile is terrifying.
Heh. As expected of a girl I’ve taken a liking to. Her composure is a cut above.
I’ve fallen for her even harder.
“Welcome back, Karen. Quite the spirited makeover.”
So that the pinch wouldn’t be obvious, I put on a sly smile and brushed her front bangs.
Nostalgic. She used to hide her eyes behind her bangs. I gave her a hair ornament and pinned them up, didn’t I.
It looks like she’s still cherishing it.
Thanks to that, I’d recognized her right away when we reunited — and now, too.
”……I had no reason to crossdress anymore. I was set free. All of that, too, is thanks to Ouga.”
And, she continued.
“It seems Ouga likes girls with…… big b-boobs, so I thought it’d be better this way…… I’m Ouga’s fiancée, after all.”
”……I see.”
My childhood friend had figured out my fetish.
But Karen had accepted it and, biting through her embarrassment, had exposed for my sake the parts (chest) she’d been hiding.
I was now reconsidering my own thinking.
Trampling on the feelings of a girl devoting herself this fully to me…… isn’t that the lowest form of behavior?
True, the main cause was Arnia being too awful as a human being.
But the fact that Karen’s affection is pointed at me is, also, the result of my own words and conduct.
To toss away my responsibility and cut Karen off — an absolute-justice-enforcer woman behind me wouldn’t tolerate so cruel a choice.
So, the opinion I’d held coming in here — I think I have no choice but to change it. Yes, yes. No choice.
Let me accept it. The engagement with Karen.
I gently took her hand.
“Karen.”
“Yes?”
“Let’s get married.”
“Y-yesh.”
And so, Karen and I were joined and lived a happy married life. End.
Happy ending!!
“He~y, Ouga. Come back to reality, please.”
”——!”
The pinched flesh got another full twist.
…… Along with the sharp pain, my consciousness, which had been winging into the future, came back to reality.
Resisting the urge to go stiff, I patted Mashiro’s head.
“Thanks, Mashiro. Now I can make a normal judgment.”
“Good~. That’s right, Ouga’s most important wife (person) is me, yes?”
“What.”
Before I could cut in, a voice with a pressure I’d never heard before came out of Karen.
”……Miss Liche, you tell amusing jokes. I almost laughed out loud, you know?”
“I just said the fact, you know? He gave me this. Along with passionate words.”
So saying, Mashiro flashed the necklace hanging from her neck.
Karen ground her teeth, then exhaled to settle herself.
“Speaking of which — I remember being told, when I was young, Karen is mine…… I think it was?”
“Aren’t you misremembering? Old memories often turn out to be wishful thinking!”
"""…………"""
W-what……? Why are the two of them in such a hostile atmosphere?
”…… The reunion seems to have ended successfully.”
”……!? Headmistress……”
I was startled by the figure of the old woman who’d suddenly appeared right beside me.
She’d probably been there from the start, but the shock of Karen had drowned out everything else.
Since Alice had taken her place behind me at the same time as the Headmistress, only Alice had noticed her from the moment we entered.
“How very close. What a lovely thing.”
Headmistress Milfonti, wearing a pleasant smile, was clapping her hands.
Even [Lightning Strike] can’t, it seems, beat age.
No way this looks like a close relationship.
”…… No matter how you look at it, that is not a friendly atmosphere.”
“Oh, really? When I was young we were much rowdier.”
“For example?”
“Hmm…… we’d grab each other by the collar and exchange punches, and the one who lost consciousness first lost. Nostalgic. The other side always got paralyzed on the first hit~”
…… Eh.
That’s Alice-level bloodthirst. What kind of aging produces the gentle granny in front of me now from that?
That’s not even a fun memory.
“Now that I think back on it, I’m getting nostalgic. Should I teach the two of them, too?”
“I’ll handle the mediation, so please stay perfectly still, Headmistress. Don’t move a single step from there.”
If you step in between, it’ll erupt into a full-scale war.
I like cute girls going kyaa-uffu together, but I don’t want to watch them throw fists bokkogoko.
“That’s enough, you two. Don’t heat up too much.”
"""Which one of us is more important to you, Ouga (-kun)!?"""
“That doesn’t even need saying — Mashiro and Karen are both important to me.”
I stroked their heads as I said it.
And — the two of them visibly deflated.
Heh heh heh…… they’ve both come of age, but only just barely.
Unlike their richly-grown chests, their minds aren’t going to mature at the same speed.
If I admonish them parent-style like this, their anger will dissolve immediate——
“I’m — really happy. —— But the words I want to hear right now are different ones, hmm?”
“I love your kind side too, Ouga. —— But sometimes there are times I want you to say it clearly.”
“——So, Headmistress. What did you want to speak with us about?”
I executed a magnificent pivot-and-retreat.
Cool. Calm. As if nothing had happened.
“Oh? It doesn’t look like it’s been resolved — are you sure?”
“Ah, no problem at all.”
Both my shoulders had fingers digging in, but please don’t mind that.
The faces of the two I usually love to look at — just for this moment, I don’t want to see them.
“Then I’ll be direct. Although I think Reina has been asking you many times already……”
”…… Which means——”
“Yes. Won’t you join the Student Council after all?”
…… So the Council President’s master has finally stepped out in person.
A proposal with more sincerity than ever before, and my head began to ache.
The shoulders, too — bones were creaking with audible meki-meki sounds.
…… The cause of the pain might actually be on that side.