Chapter 8: Two Denials at Dawn

Though it wasn’t a living being, it should still have some other way to communicate, right? Like…

Chihaya Sayo spoke hesitantly, her slender fingers tracing the ring’s surface. The touch was moist and icy cold, but…

To her own surprise, she didn’t dislike it.

“I’ll ask, and you answer. Blink once for yes, twice for no. Understand?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, the ring blinked once.

So Mitestin really could understand her.

Sayo let out a small sigh of relief, then moved on to the question she already had an answer to but still wanted to confirm.

“Back then, I did something awful… no, I hurt people. Is that right?”

The ring blinked once without any hesitation.

Good. That matched exactly what she’d been thinking. So next…

“There’s another personality inside me, isn’t there?”

The ring dimmed for a moment, as if Mitestin was thinking.

It didn’t keep her waiting long. A soft blink came from the ring…

Then another.

Two blinks? No other personality inside me? Then why? Could it be my own subconscious? But I don’t recall having an antisocial personality either.

Is Mitestin lying to me?

No, it’s my angel. There’s no reason for it to lie. Unless…

A far more terrifying thought surfaced in Chihaya Sayo’s mind. The instant it appeared, it grabbed her beating heart like a giant hand, squeezing so hard that every breath brought unbearable pain.

“What’s inside me isn’t another personality… it’s another soul, isn’t it?”

The ring blinked once.

As if it meant to toy with her, this time it stayed dark for an unusually long while. Just as the girl was about to choke on fear, the ring blinked again.

The heavy stone in her heart finally dropped away, but her confusion only multiplied. Not another personality, and not some twisted arrangement of two souls sharing one body… then what was it? Could it be…

“Mitestin… have you been controlling my body?”

She spoke cautiously, then quickly added, as if to shield herself.

“To protect me?”

The ring immediately blinked twice, rejecting that idea. Then, as if anticipating her follow-up question, it fell silent for a moment before blinking twice more.

Both denied… then what the hell is going on?

Chihaya Sayo, whose brain hardly weighed five grams, felt her CPU had completely overheated. Her entire system locked up. With a brain this limited, there was no way she could think of any other possibility.

Forget it. Why force an answer? If she could prevent it… then who cared what it was?

“Um, Mitestin, as long as I keep myself stable, I won’t turn into that again, right?”

Mitestin blinked once, very quickly.

Getting that reply, Chihaya Sayo finally relaxed completely and collapsed onto her bed.

Whatever that thing was, as long as she stayed clear-headed, it should be fine, right? She could figure out the rest slowly. There was bound to be a way.

The girl pressed a hand to her forehead and lay flat on the bed, gradually drifting off to sleep. She never noticed that the pitch-black ring on her finger, the one resting near her waist, seemed to think for a moment, then slowly blinked one more time.

****

The reconstruction of the Fateful Dream Maid Café went surprisingly smoothly. When the girl arrived at the café entrance the next morning, everything had already been restored, with no sign that a spacequake had ever struck the place.

“Morning, little Sayo!”

“Morning…”

Chihaya Sayo looked listlessly at Miho-san, who was bursting with energy, then dragged her tired body toward the changing room.

Miho-san was always this lively, no matter when. It must be nice.

Sayo, on the other hand, had gone to bed early the night before, yet she felt even sleepier today. Walking down the street felt like stepping on soft clouds, as if her limbs didn’t fully belong to her.

She yawned and looked in the mirror while changing.

When she’d first crossed into this world, wearing clothes like this had made her feel embarrassed. Back then, every change took dozens of minutes of hesitation. But now…

It only looked seductive, really. The outfit covered most of her body. And after wearing any embarrassing costume every single day, it just stopped being interesting.

Top on. Now, the stockings…

Sayo sat down heavily on the soft cushion and couldn’t help yawning again, but her hands began habitually rolling the stockings up her legs. Her long, pale legs were sleek and fair. With just a little effort, the folded edge slipped upward with a soft “shooop,” hugging tightly around her thigh.

Slender legs as fine as pencils were nice too, but…

She looked down and tugged at the stocking clinging to her leg.

Seeing her own pair every day, she’d come to feel that a bit of plumper flesh, the kind that squeezes slightly against the stocking, would look a lot sexier.

“Sa~yo~”

A sweet, cooing voice came from behind, along with the fragrance of body wash. Sayo jerked her head up, only to find that Kanon Miho had slipped into the changing room at some point and was holding her whole body in her arms.

“Mmph…”

“Don’t move. Just be good.”

Sayo felt her body stiffen as if shocked by electricity. Miho-san buried her entire face into the back of Sayo’s outfit and took deep breaths, greedily drinking in her scent.

That was practically a pervert’s behavior. Technically, Sayo wasn’t the one losing anything, but…

“Miho-san, this… what are you…”

She mentally ran through her remaining savings and daily expenses, then weighed the odds of robbing a bank. With a soft sigh, she carefully wriggled out of Kanon Miho’s embrace.

A beautiful woman’s soft, fragrant arms were nice and all, but when that woman was being a pervert…

“Miho-san, you… this isn’t appropriate.”

So weak!

The moment the words came out, Sayo cursed herself over a hundred times inside. Sexual harassment, pervert, freak… those words had looped through her mind a million times, but all that came out was that bland, harmless “not appropriate.”

Damn it! Why am I such a pushover? I clearly… clearly…

Sayo lowered her head and said nothing more.

She was just an ordinary person. In her last life too. This life wasn’t any different. She’d grown used to being pushed around by her bosses and used to staying silent under all kinds of workplace pressure. Besides, this kind of behavior hadn’t actually hurt her much. Honestly…

“Open wide, ah~”

Hearing Miho-san’s voice in front of her, Sayo opened her mouth without thinking.

A hard object was shoved straight into her small mouth. It was thick and uneven, and a bit of warm steam escaped through the cracks, spreading over her tongue along with a savory scent.

“It’s a grilled sausage! I couldn’t resist buying one at the convenience store today, but then I remembered I’m dieting, so I’ll feed it to you!”

‘Feeding’ her, and in such an intimate way…

Sayo didn’t care about the grease. She pulled the sausage out of her mouth with a soft pop and held it in her hand. Remembering something, she didn’t put it back in.

“Okay, okay, it’s my fault, alright? It’s just that Sayo is too cute! I won’t do it again…”

Kanon Miho dropped her pride without a fuss and put her hands together in apology, bowing deeply. Her upper body bent far forward, exposing a stretch of creamy, snow-white hills.

Gulp.

So in this world, the proper way to apologize was to flash your chest, huh? But even so…

“Well then, I’ll take that as you forgiving me!”

Kanon Miho giggled and casually sat down beside Sayo.

It was less ‘sitting beside’ and more ‘half her body leaning against her.’ Sayo could clearly feel the warm breath Kanon Miho let out with every inhale and exhale. It was like something light and feathery was brushing against Sayo’s neck, sending small, tickling jolts down her spine.

Sayo didn’t dare turn her head. She could only twist her waist, trying to put some space between herself and Miho-san, who was clearly not acting normal.

“Miho-san, please behave yourself!”

“I…”

Kanon Miho’s state was very off. She’d always loved teasing Sayo before, but she’d never gone this far, and what she was doing could seriously damage her own social standing…

“Sayo~ what’s wrong? Don’t be scared now. I’ll go slow, gentle…”

A pair of wicked hands was already cupping the girl’s cheeks. The woman leaning against Sayo breathed out softly, her usually fair and well-maintained skin now tinged with an unnatural, flushed pink.

As Kanon Miho writhed like a snake, the whole changing room filled with a thick, honeyed atmosphere. That pink part inside her heart, the part that stood for ‘desire,’ swelled beyond control and then, as naturally as anything, spilled into Chihaya Sayo’s body.

Something’s wrong. It’s definitely wrong. This feels like I’ve been dosed with some love potion…

“Um, Miho-san. I’m not feeling well today, so I’ll head home first. I’m really sorry!”

Sayo hastily shoved away the hand that had crept toward her collar, and without another look at the still-twisting Miho-san on the floor, she dashed out of the maid café.

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