The succubus slapped her thigh, shut her eyes, and in an instant, a powerful wave of mental interference engulfed Kōichi and Kazuma's room.
...
Kōichi felt his consciousness blur. Then, right away, the warm scent of hot spring water filled his nose.
He opened his eyes and found himself dressed in a loose yukata, seated in a room at a hot spring inn steeped in Showa-era atmosphere.
Outside the window, pink cherry blossom petals drifted lazily down, settling on the wooden floor of the corridor.
"So it's here... the beginning of the dream?"
Kōichi nervously adjusted his collar, and just then, the door slid open softly.
A figure in a deep blue yukata slowly stepped inside, long hair cascading over her shoulders, her eyes so gentle they seemed ready to melt into water.
That face, that familiar outline. It was none other than Hatano-sensei, the woman who had haunted Kōichi's every thought.
"Kōichi-san, you've worked hard today. The hot spring is ready. Let me... heal you properly."
Kōichi was just about to put on an elegant smile and take her hand when he suddenly noticed that behind her back, she seemed to be carrying a... chalkboard eraser?
Before he could make sense of it, the wall on the other side of the room started shaking violently like a malfunctioning hologram.
Where an elegant folding screen should have been, a scarred school desk suddenly appeared out of nowhere, along with someone sticking his butt out, wearing a filthy grin, and holding a riding crop. Kazuma Satou?!
"Hehehe... Sensei! Please punish me hard with the riding crop! I forgot my homework today. I'm a bad student!" Kazuma shouted with his eyes closed, clearly oblivious to the fact that he had clipped into the wrong scene.
The air froze solid.
Hatano-sensei's gentle expression froze too. She looked at Kōichi, standing there in total disbelief, then at Kazuma, who was still presenting himself for punishment, and finally at the riding crop that had somehow appeared in her own hand, aimed straight at Kazuma's backside.
"Huh? This setup... could this be a private tutor at a hot spring inn?" Hatano-sensei asked, sounding professionally composed, but faintly confused.
"Sa. tou. Ka. zu. ma.! What the hell are you doing in my hot spring?!" Kōichi finally exploded, snatching up a sake cup from the table and hurling it over.
"Wah?! Who threw that at me?!" Kazuma's eyes flew open. When he saw Kōichi in a yukata, radiating murderous intent, and the sensei of his dreams standing there, his whole brain short-circuited. "K-Kōichi?! Why are you in my classroom? And why are you not wearing clothes, I mean, just a yukata? Don't tell me... you're the bad student who's supposed to get punished by sensei?!"
"This is my hot spring inn! You pervert with a riding crop, get out!"
In the hazy dream space, the sulfur scent of the hot spring and the chalk dust of the classroom mixed together in a way so absurd it could have blown any normal person's sanity on the spot.
Kōichi looked at Kazuma across from him, clutching the riding crop tightly with half his body still sunk in the hot spring, took a deep breath, and forcibly suppressed the urge to start ranting.
"Listen, Kazuma. Now that it's come to this, we have no way back." Kōichi stood up with a solemn expression, his wet yukata clinging to his body, giving him a strangely tragic air, like a man marching calmly toward death. "If we quit the dream over a minor collision like this, then we won't just lose money. We'll lose our dignity as men!"
Kazuma froze. He looked at Kōichi, then turned toward Hatano-sensei, who gently pushed up her glasses and casually loosened the sash of her yukata, and swallowed hard. "B-but... the two of us together... this kind of scenario is way too advanced, even for another world! And our roles completely clash!"
"You idiot! This is a crossover event!" Kōichi slammed a hand down on the school desk floating on the water, splashing hot spring water everywhere. "If our tastes line up, then there's no competition, only double the happiness! We can set it up as... an after-school tutoring session held at a hot spring inn! You're the failing student, and I'm the... the sponsor who happened to stop by and decided to supervise your studies too!"
The confusion in Kazuma's eyes slowly cleared, and in the end, it ignited into something like resolve.
With trembling hands, he reached out and clasped Kōichi's hand tightly. Their hands met above the hot spring, as if they were conducting some sacred transfer of power.
"Kōichi... you really are a complete and utter sadist," Kazuma said through gritted teeth, his eyes wet with emotion, the tears of a man who had finally been understood. "But I have to admit, you're right! In front of Hatano-sensei, all awkwardness can be overcome! From today on, we're no longer just comrades who get on each other's nerves... We're brothers who transcend blood, transcend dimensions, and pursue truth together inside the same dream!"
"My brother! I'll share half my authority with you right now!" Kōichi cried, gripping his hand back just as tightly.
Hatano-sensei, standing off to the side, offered an exceptionally professional and accepting smile. Her lips parted slightly, and her sweet voice flowed out like spring water steeped in honey.
"Well then, brothers, it's time for tutoring. Whether it's hot spring etiquette or textbook knowledge, sensei will teach you both... little by little, and very thoroughly."
As her words fell, the chaotic dream space began correcting itself.
The school desk turned into a carved rosewood low table. The blackboard became a screen painted with the words The sea of learning has no end. And the hot spring expanded until it was large enough for all three of them.
"Ooooh! The scene fusion worked!" Kazuma let out a wolfish cheer, flung away the riding crop, and dove headfirst into the hot spring. "Sensei! I don't understand what friction is. Please demonstrate it for me personally!"
"Hey! Kazuma, that's way too sneaky! I was here first!" Kōichi gave up all pretense of dignity and jumped into the pool too, claiming the spot on Hatano-sensei's other side. "Sensei, I also have a question about fluid mechanics I'd like you to explain!"
Watching from the void, the succubus wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and let out a sigh of relief. "Phew... these two humans have incredibly weird tastes, but they're unexpectedly easy to satisfy. Just putting them together doubled the spiritual energy output? What unbelievable creatures..."
Steam curled gently upward from the hot spring, making the half-Japanese room, half-classroom dream space even more hazy and dreamlike.
Kōichi and Kazuma leaned side by side against the edge of the bath, warm spring water soaking into their exhausted bodies after so long spent struggling through another world. By this point, all sense of awkwardness had long since been thrown to the winds, replaced by something deeper, something called the ultimate understanding between men.
"Haa... Kōichi, I finally get why adventurers work themselves half to death to make money." Kazuma tilted his head back, eyes closed, wearing the expression of a man whose soul had left his body. "This isn't a dream. It's a baptism of the soul. Look at those cherry blossoms, look at the shimmer on the water, look at sensei's... ahem, wise gaze."
Kōichi let out a breath of agreement, still holding a cup of dream-sake that had appeared in his hand at some point. "That's why I'm telling you, Kazuma, you need to think long-term. Spending a little Eris for this level of spiritual comfort is an absolute steal. Sensei, about the human anatomy lesson you mentioned earlier, I think we still need more hands-on instruction at closer range."
Hatano-sensei gave a soft laugh, her voice like silver bells passing through the air. She moved gracefully through the water, drawing a beautiful arc before stopping between the two of them.
Her deep blue yukata clung half-transparently to her body in the water, outlining curves that would have made any male creature spray blood from the nose on the spot.
"Since my two students are so eager to learn, sensei naturally can't be stingy." She extended her soft hands, resting one on Kōichi's shoulder while lightly brushing the other through Kazuma's hair. "Then shall we begin with the relationship between heartbeat and blood circulation? Please close your eyes and feel sensei's palm..."