Because of how thoroughly shocked she was, Kushida Kikyou was utterly stunned for a moment, the entire person of her gone blank.
Her lips parted faintly, opened and closed, yet no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't manage to produce a single sound.
Inside the dim, cramped tool box, Kushida Kikyou slowly lowered her head, her gaze dazedly fixed on the front of her own chest.
The summer short-sleeved T-shirt that had originally been stretched taut, tracing out a pair of enviable curves, was now hanging limply and pitifully off her body.
Between her collar and the fabric, an empty, hollow gap had appeared.
Even without reaching up to touch them, the airy weightlessness — that sensation of having lost the gravity once pressing down — told her, clear as day, that this was no illusion.
The sight before her — for Kushida Kikyou, who had always taken pride in her own "capital" — was simply too shocking. Horrifying, even.
At the very least, in the more than ten years of her life so far, she had never gone through anything like this — had never so much as imagined this kind of absurdity even in her dreams!
It took a full several seconds before Kushida Kikyou managed to come back to herself from the initial shock — the shock that, only moments before, had left her unable to speak a word.
What followed, surging up in its place, was humiliation and fury so violent they were like a volcanic eruption that could not be contained.
Hidden inside her sleeves, both of Kushida Kikyou's hands clenched themselves tightly into fists, unable to help themselves.
She jerked her head up — those eyes that had once been so dewy and limpid were now filled to the brim with rage.
If looks could kill, the man before her would already have been sliced into a thousand and ten thousand pieces.
Looking at the girl in her near-breakdown state—
Shikime Natsu, far from showing the faintest trace of guilt, instead lifted the corner of his mouth and couldn't help letting out a low chuckle.
"How was that?"
He spoke to Kushida Kikyou in an utterly carefree tone.
"Kikyou, didn't you say you wanted me to prove it to you in person? Well — now you've seen it for yourself, haven't you?"
Shikime Natsu spread his hands wide, putting on the picture of perfect, blameless innocence.
"I'm the sort who concedes when he loses a bet — I've perfectly fulfilled my promise. And what's more, throughout the whole process, I didn't deliberately try to take so much as a sliver of advantage of you."
He paused deliberately, then in a tone laced with a touch of teasing, added in an airy little aside—
"Look — the space in here, hasn't it conveniently opened right up?"
That perfectly accurate observation drove like a sharp blade right into Kushida Kikyou's heart.
It really was true.
A few minutes earlier, because of Kushida Kikyou's much-vaunted, impressive figure, within this cramped little tool box, the two of them had been forced to press tightly against one another — to the point where even breathing had felt suffocating.
But now.
With Kushida Kikyou's chest having gone flat as a plank, between the two of them who had previously been pressed so tightly together, miraculously enough, a clearly visible distance had genuinely opened up. Right at this moment, even if Shikime Natsu were to shift his shoulders ever so slightly, he wouldn't so much as graze her anymore.
Kushida Kikyou truly hadn't expected it.
This guy Shikime Natsu — he had actually been able to pull off something that defied basic physics!
But — the Kushida Kikyou of this moment had no mood whatsoever to marvel at his miracle work.
Her rage was already on the verge of erupting.
No matter how you sliced it, those things on her chest had been a source of her pride, and now they had all just vanished. Forget comparing herself to Horikita Suzune — at this point, the Kushida Kikyou of right now was probably outmatched even by Sakayanagi Arisu.
"You…"
Kushida Kikyou drew in a deep breath, doing everything she could to suppress the impulse to scream.
She lowered her voice and, grinding her teeth, demanded an answer from Shikime Natsu.
"What exactly… did you do to me?!"
In the face of a gaze that looked as if it wanted to devour him whole, Shikime Natsu only smiled faintly.
"You felt it for yourself, just now."
"All I did was employ a special set of massage techniques, and gave you a simple meridian massage."
Going strictly by the literal words, there really wasn't anything wrong with what Shikime Natsu had said.
Kushida Kikyou frantically replayed the whole process in her mind.
She really could clearly recall the sensation of Shikime Natsu's fingers just now — warm, with a strange rhythm, and — well — really rather perverted too!
Massage or no massage, the moment Shikime Natsu had put his hands on her and started kneading, to her that was a perverted act, plain and simple!
But! Just pressing on a few pressure points, how was it possible to make mass itself simply vanish into thin air?!
This absolutely was not scientific!
And yet — apart from the massage, whatever other surreptitious tricks Shikime Natsu had pulled, Kushida Kikyou genuinely hadn't spotted so much as a hint of an opening.
Of course, for the Kushida Kikyou of right now—
She didn't care in the slightest about the scientific principles or magical mechanisms behind any of this.
All she wanted was her own things back!
Kushida Kikyou glared at Shikime Natsu, the rims of her eyes faintly reddened with anger.
"I don't care what kind of black magic you used."
She stared at him without letting up, growling at him in a tone of command.
"Right now! Immediately! This very instant! Turn me back!"
If not for the fact that those few Class C girls were still chatting away outside — if not for the fact that she was terrified that a single sound would draw a crowd and her reputation would be shredded to ribbons—
Kushida Kikyou swore: she would absolutely have just pounced on this insufferable creep in front of her and beaten him within an inch of his life right then and there!
Shikime Natsu raised his hand slightly, making a placating little gesture, indicating to Kushida Kikyou that she should calm down.
"Don't get so worked up."
"It isn't permanent. There's a time limit on it."
"Once the time is up, the effects of the massage will wear off, and your body will naturally return to the way it was."
Hearing this guarantee, the heart that had been hanging in Kushida Kikyou's throat finally settled a little further down.
As long as she could turn back, that was fine.
She bit her lip, her eyes fixed coldly and unwaveringly on Shikime Natsu, and asked frostily—
"How long is the time?"
Shikime Natsu met her gaze, and tossed out a single figure as if it were nothing at all.
"Twenty-four hours."
Upon hearing that.
Hearing this answer, Kushida Kikyou was clearly far from satisfied. For someone like Kushida Kikyou, who needed to be socializing every moment of every day, twenty-four hours was completely unacceptable.
Even if she went back to her dorm later, she would absolutely be spotted as abnormal in an instant — after all, the change in her was hardly some minor little thing.
Granted, the constant pressure that had been bearing down on her shoulders year in and year out really had vanished, and her body felt lighter than it ever had.
But! For Kushida Kikyou, who had always relied on this cute, lovely outer shell to maintain her "perfect angel" persona, this was, without a doubt, terrible news that fell upon her like a thunderbolt out of a clear blue sky!
She glared without let-up at the smiling man before her — this guy Shikime Natsu really was just a devil!
Watching Kushida Kikyou's utterly despairing expression, Shikime Natsu kindly, generously offered up a solution.
"Since you think explaining it would be such a hassle—"
He looked at her, a teasing smile playing at the corner of his mouth, and suggested—
"Then tomorrow, Kikyou, why don't you just go with the flow, and tell everyone a little white lie."
"You can just tell them that this is actually what you've always looked like — and that the size everyone saw before… was just something you'd padded out on purpose, for the sake of looking better."
Upon hearing those words.
Kushida Kikyou stared, eyes wide, looking at Shikime Natsu with the kind of incredulous gaze one reserved for a complete lunatic.
This guy… did he even know what kind of crazy nonsense he was spouting?!
He actually wanted her to go and admit, of her own initiative, to other people that her previously impressive figure had all been a fake product of padding?!
Although — analyzing it rationally for a moment—
Kushida Kikyou had to admit that the excuse Shikime Natsu had come up with did, in terms of logic, just barely hold together.
After all, ever since school had begun, she had been very particular about protecting her own privacy. She had never once, in a swim class or in a changing room, openly displayed her true situation to anyone other than herself.
So saying she'd been padding — that really could pass. It was just… if she actually chose to do this—
On the surface, everyone might console her, telling her there was no need to worry about something like size; but behind her back, they would absolutely take her for a woman who'd resort to any means to get attention!
The very thought of walking through the school grounds in the future — of the strange, weighted looks people would cast at her, of how, in their hearts, they'd be sniggering at her as a "padding girl"—
Kushida Kikyou felt the world go black before her eyes. Her three years of high school life were going to be utterly, unrelievedly grey.
"Absolutely no way!"
Kushida Kikyou rejected the suggestion through gritted teeth. She looked at Shikime Natsu, clinging to one last sliver of luck, and confirmed once more—
"Natsu, tell me the truth."
"Is there really… really no other way at all? Do I really have to wait out the full twenty-four hours?"
Shikime Natsu looked at those eyes of hers, full of yearning hope, and with the utmost cruelty nodded his head.
"That's right. Not a minute, not a second can be shaved off."
That single gesture utterly shattered Kushida Kikyou's last fantasy, leaving inside her heart a stretch of deep, deep despair.
And it was at that very moment—
Outside on the deck, the few Class C girls seemed to have finally decided they were getting a bit chilly — or perhaps they'd had their fill of chatting.
"The wind seems to be picking up. Why don't we head back inside the cabin?"
"Mm, let's get back and turn in early. We still want to enjoy the cruise properly tomorrow."
Along with the gradually receding voices and the scuffling of footsteps, the deck outside returned once more to silence.
Once she had confirmed that those people had left—
Kushida Kikyou didn't want to spend even a second longer in that cramped little space.
She quickly reached out, gave the metal door of the tool box a forceful shove open, then hastily stepped out from within the dark tool box and stood once more on the deck.
The sea wind outside was as cold as ever.
But the Kushida Kikyou of this moment, with rage burning in her chest, didn't feel the cold in the slightest.
She pulled the coat — Shikime Natsu's coat — tighter around herself, turned around, and with a thoroughly furious expression on her face glared at the Shikime Natsu who had stepped out close behind her.
"You had better not be lying to me."
She stared at him without letting up and, refusing to give up, asked him once more—
"Is there really, truly no way at all to get me back to normal quickly?"
Kushida Kikyou felt that if she couldn't change back by tonight—
Then in order to keep anyone from seeing her in this disastrous state, the only thing she could do was use feeling unwell as an excuse, and grit her teeth through those grueling twenty-four hours either out here on this empty, cold deck, or holed up in some unoccupied storeroom.
She didn't even dare go back to her room!
And the mastermind behind all of this catastrophe — Shikime Natsu—
At this moment was, of all things, standing there with both hands tucked into his pockets, leisurely as you please, watching her with the kind of look one might reserve for a stage performance.
That bystander attitude made Kushida Kikyou feel intensely irritated, to the point where she could hardly resist the urge to lunge at him and tear that face of his to shreds.
Right at this moment.
Standing in the freezing sea wind, looking down at her newly flat chest—
Within Kushida Kikyou's heart there welled up, despite herself, a powerful surge of regret.
She regretted it.
Had she known Shikime Natsu's hands were so freakishly heretical, had she known things would end up like this—
Earlier, back in that corner, she should never have provoked this guy Shikime Natsu in the first place! She shouldn't have set her sights on those five hundred thousand points, nor on the idea of putting Shikime Natsu into a maid outfit!
If she had just been inside that tool box, forced together by the cramped space, and had let this guy Shikime Natsu cop a few feels in the darkness—
Then so be it, let him have his feels! Treat it like being brushed up against by a dog.
At the very least, that way she could have preserved her own capital, and absolutely would never have ended up in the wretched, can't-get-off-the-tiger position she was in now.
Now look at things.
She'd tried to steal a chicken and lost a fistful of rice in the process.
Not only had those five hundred thousand personal points, once practically within her reach, gone right down the drain—
Even the lovely dream she had been planning — putting Shikime Natsu into a maid outfit and having him serve as her maid for an entire month, taking the opportunity to humiliate him — that, too, had gone up in smoke.
Most crucial of all — those things on her chest that she had been so proud of were gone too!
This was the very picture of "losing both the lady and the soldiers"!
And on top of that, this change had brought enormous repercussions for her actions going forward.
Even if her dark, twisted true face hadn't been exposed to anyone else at the school—
Still, the moment she got saddled with the title of "vain padding-girl" and had to endure all those strange, weighted stares—
That alone would be more than enough to make it impossible for the pride-driven Kushida Kikyou to stay on at this school.
Letting her become the sort of person that the idiots in Class D — those she looked down on most — would point at and snicker about behind her back?
Such a thing — Kushida Kikyou would rather die than accept!
As for going and explaining to everyone that all of this was because Class A's Shikime Natsu had used some kind of miraculous massage technique to make them disappear?
Don't make her laugh.
Setting aside, for the moment, whether anyone, on hearing such a reason, would even be willing to accept an explanation as absurd as a tale out of the Arabian Nights—
Step back ten thousand paces and suppose for a moment that people actually did believe it was Shikime Natsu who'd done it.
Then the very next question becomes: how, exactly, did Shikime Natsu do it? When? Where? And — why was he giving you a massage in that kind of place?
In any case, the moment that explanation left her lips—
It would absolutely tie her, irrevocably, to this dangerous guy Shikime Natsu, and give rise to no end of suggestive associations that would be near impossible to clear up.
Kushida Kikyou absolutely did not want that to happen! Especially not to be lumped together with this insufferable wretch of a Shikime Natsu!
Shikime Natsu looked at that face of hers, expression flickering uncertainly between dark and bright, and gave a clap of his hands.
"All right then."
He spoke up in an easygoing tone.
"The hour's getting late. I should be heading back to get some rest."
He looked at Kushida Kikyou, a flicker of teasing flashing through the depths of his eyes.
"Since you're not willing to use the excuse I suggested, then I'll just have to ask Kikyou to settle in nicely on this peaceful deck for now."
"Once those twenty-four hours have passed, you can regain your confidence and present yourself prettily before everyone all over again."
On hearing these words of Shikime Natsu's — words that could only be called cold-blooded and merciless—
Kushida Kikyou was rendered absolutely stunned right where she stood.
She stared at him, wide-eyed, unable to believe her own ears.
This bastard! He'd reduced her to this state — and now he was just going to dust off his backside and walk away?!
Leaving her, all alone, to grit her teeth through an entire night out here on this deck, in the bone-chilling sea wind?!
Even if she did have his coat draped over her, getting frozen out here all night long, the only miracle would be if she didn't catch a cold!
Shikime Natsu paid no mind to her shock.
He looked at Kushida Kikyou's small face, slightly pale from the cold, smiled, and said—
"My coat — I'll lend it to Kikyou-san for the time being, to ward off the chill."
He even went so far as to put on a little show of yawning.
"Well then, I really am getting a bit sleepy, so I'll be heading back first. I wish you, on this lovely night, a most pleasant time enjoying the breeze."
Having said that, Shikime Natsu, without the slightest hesitation, turned on his heel and made to head straight for the stairwell leading down into the cabin.
"You — stop right there!"
Watching her one and only lifeline about to run off—
Kushida Kikyou could no longer concern herself with any pretense of poise or composure.
She lunged forward in a sudden burst, thrusting both hands out and gripping Shikime Natsu's arm tightly.
With every last bit of strength in her body, like the most shameless of brats, she desperately refused to let Shikime Natsu go.
"Don't you dare just walk away from this!"
"Since because of you I can't go back, then don't you go thinking you get to go back and sleep either!"
"This is your punishment for turning me into this!"
Looking at this thoroughly frazzled, brat-throwing-a-tantrum picture of the two-faced angel in front of him—
Shikime Natsu, far from getting angry, actually found it rather amusing.
He lowered his head, looking at the pair of small hands clutching his arm so tightly, and then his eyes met Kushida Kikyou's enraged glare.
"Kikyou — that's a rather unreasonable thing for you to say."
Shikime Natsu smiled, his tone as unhurried as ever.
"I haven't done anything wrong."
Comfortably and at his leisure, he helped her recall what had just transpired.
"As I recall, you said it yourself — if I couldn't pull it off, then I was the one who'd have to pay the painful price of five hundred thousand points and a month as your maid."
Shikime Natsu leaned forward slightly, looking at that face of hers, which had gone a little stiff with the embarrassment of being in the wrong.
"But now, I've proven through actions that I did pull it off."
"That being the case, as the victor, I naturally don't need to pay any price, and I don't need to accept any punishment either, do I?"
On hearing these words.
Kushida Kikyou's face instantly turned an iron-grey color.
She opened her mouth, wanting to argue back, only to discover that she had no rebuttal to give.
She really had dug her own pit and jumped right into it.
But even if she had to be utterly shameless about it, she absolutely could not let this guy go!
Just as Kushida Kikyou was steeling herself, ready, even if it meant kicking up an enormous scene right here on the deck, to keep Shikime Natsu in place—
A sudden development.
"Tap, tap, tap…"
A clear set of footsteps abruptly drifted over again from around the corner of the corridor — and by the sound of them, they were rapidly drawing nearer to the direction the two of them were standing in!
Someone was coming!
Kushida Kikyou's heart gave a violent lurch.
The position the two of them were standing in now was several steps away from the tool box that could have hidden them.
To make it back inside the tool box before whoever was coming rounded the corner — time-wise, it was already utterly out of the question. They would absolutely be caught right in the act.
There was no other option!
In her panic, Kushida Kikyou's body reacted faster than her brain.
With a single sharp "whoosh" of motion, she stepped right around behind Shikime Natsu.
Pressing herself tightly against his broad back, she clutched at the hem of his shirt with both hands, hiding that despairingly flat expanse of her chest completely and utterly behind Shikime Natsu's back.
Trying, by this means, to keep whoever was coming from spotting the abnormality on her body.
The very next second.
The owner of those footsteps rounded the corner and appeared on the deck.
It turned out to be those very same Class C girls who had just left.
It seemed they had dropped something, and had doubled back to look for it.
And so these few girls, utterly unprepared, came face to face with Shikime Natsu standing right in the middle of the deck.
Following that, their gazes naturally fell upon Kushida Kikyou, who was hiding right behind Shikime Natsu.
The Class C girls paused for a moment, their eyes then sweeping back and forth between the two of them.
A lone young man, a lone young woman. The deck, in the depths of the night.
This whole tableau — it was practically the textbook definition of a late-night romantic rendezvous!
"Ah — oh… ehehe…"
One of the girls was the first to react.
Her cheeks faintly reddened, and then she let out a small, awkward-yet-faintly-thrilled "I-get-it" sort of smile.
"Umm… excuse us, did we interrupt something?"
"Sorry, sorry! We'll leave right away!"
Before either Shikime Natsu or Kushida Kikyou could so much as get half a word of explanation in—
Those few Class C girls, as if they'd run smack into some earthshaking piece of gossip, jostled each other along.
Kushida Kikyou, at this moment, was utterly disheveled in the wind. It was over. She really hadn't anticipated being dragged into being implicated with this guy Shikime Natsu — and moreover… as far as explaining things went, that was going to be extremely difficult to clear up.
Still… no matter how you sliced it, this was easier to explain than the fact that she'd been turned into a flat-as-an-airfield A-cup. Of course, Kushida Kikyou had no intention of just letting this guy Shikime Natsu off the hook, either.
____
👻🔥Heey! Walnut-chan for more chapters!🔥👻
🔥 New history: A Martial Arts Master Will Never Be Humiliated
Help us reach these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 universal bonus chapter