We were on a train, heading to the prison where Aria's mother was being held.
Kurumi wasn't with us today; she had plans with her elementary school friends. Hearing that, I was really glad she had made friends at school.
Well, she's good at putting on a front, so I wasn't sure if she was being her true self... but it seemed so, since she was hanging out with them so often. If it were a bother, she'd just make up an excuse and decline.
Kurumi also had something to investigate on her own. It seemed she was looking into the incident herself.
But more than that, I was concerned about Aria. She seemed so restless, constantly checking her reflection in the train window.
When I asked her, she said she hadn't been able to visit lately because of the Butei Killer investigation. She wasn't in her uniform, of course, but a white dress, and her forehead was fully visible.
This fidgety state of hers was new to me.
"Senpai, I know you understand, but with Kanzaki-san's mother..."
"Do you really have so little faith in me?"
Yukina's words stabbed my heart. Did she really think I'd make a move on a married woman? Even I wasn't that unprincipled (said by a guy who's involved with two girls).
By the way, I hadn't told Aria about my relationships. I didn't think it would make a difference, and Aria herself seemed to be the type who thought romance was silly and uninteresting.
Since it was a holiday, the train was quite crowded. Not a packed train, but still close enough that we were bumping into the person next to us.
It had been like this since we got on, so we were all huddled together near the door. I made sure to stand between everyone and the other passengers, acting as a wall. I'd hate for anyone to get groped. Though, with this group, they'd probably just fight them off.
With three more stations to go until our destination, the door on our side opened. A huge crowd of people surged in.
Before I knew it, I was swept away by the flow of people and had lost my group.
"Whoa... this is..."
All the composure I had a moment ago was gone, and people were crammed against each other.
This super-crowded situation... I was unlucky to run into this on a holiday, not during rush hour.
There was nothing I could do now. I decided to switch gears and focus on whether I could get off at the right station. As I relaxed, my arm was suddenly pulled. It was a very small, thin arm, like a grade-schooler's.
"Aria?"
It was Aria who had pulled me.
The people around me gave me annoyed looks as I moved through the tightly packed crowd. Strangely, they didn't look at Aria that way. Was it because she was so small? Maybe she could fit into the small gaps.
The train swayed again.
The curve of the tracks made us sway in the same direction.
"Ah...!"
My hand was trapped. My arm, which was getting a little tan from being in this world, was pressed against the fabric of Aria's white dress.
Not against the fabric and the wall, but against the fabric and fabric. What they were covering was thigh on thigh, and a private part. In other words, my hand had been pushed into Aria's crotch.
A soft sensation was transmitted to my hand.
"Wha-what?! Where are you...?! H-hic...! S-stop..."
The swaying of the train made the pressure vary. The sensation changed shape again and again.
The unpredictable swaying, even though I didn't mean to, turned into an irregular caress.
"That's, that's no good...! G-get your h-hand out...!"
I couldn't pull my hand out because Aria was squeezing her thighs together with incredible force, so my hand could only move where there was space.
My hand should have been separated from her private part by at least two layers of fabric, but my experience since coming to this world allowed me to distinctly feel the sensation of what I was pushed into.
As I tried to pull my arm out in a brief moment of separation,
"N-ngh...?!"
Just then, I was pushed back in, and not only that, because I was trying to pull out, it became a rubbing motion, and I could hear Aria's breath.
Aria, who had been telling me to get away, was now pressing her face against my chest, desperately trying to keep her sounds from escaping.
"I-I'm not... letting you get away with this...! When we get off the train, you better... be prepared...!"
Aria glared up at me, her face beet red all the way to her ears. My son, who had long since pushed up against my pants, reacted to her expression.
Next stop, Station X. Next stop, Station X.
Finally, we were at our destination. I relaxed my shoulders a little. Because of that, I couldn't brace myself for the sudden stop.
The hardest part of her private area, hidden by a soft shield. The repeated stimulation had made it innocently poke out, and in the very end, I pushed hard against that spot.
"Ngh-ghhhhhhh...?!"
---------
The doors opened, and we were released. We had all worked up a bit of a sweat from being so cramped, and the outside air cooled us down.
I braced myself and called out to Aria. I knew she was angry, but all the more reason to apologize quickly. The longer I waited, the bigger the explosion would be. Besides, it was my fault to begin with.
"A-Aria-san? Hey, where are you going?"
Aria ignored me and walked off briskly. Was she that angry? I had thought that as soon as we got off the train, she would have started shooting.
What was the right thing to do now? Should I keep apologizing, or stay quiet for a moment—
SMACK!!!
That wasn't a gunshot. That was the sound of a perfect slap to my cheek.
I've heard that a slap can sometimes rupture an eardrum, but I'm okay, right? My body just spun around in the air, and my ears are ringing.
As my eyes went white from the sheer force of the slap, Aria, her face bright red, turned back.
"The bathroom! You idiot!!"
She said, then walked away quickly.
It goes without saying that I was chased by Aria afterward.
---------
With a small red mark on my cheek (due to the size of her palm), I walked for about ten minutes from the station and arrived at our destination.
There were several such facilities on this island. This one, in the middle of the sea, was even harder to escape from than a mainland prison.
Rumor had it that there was an even higher-security facility on this island that housed more dangerous criminals.
I followed Aria, who was walking confidently, with no hesitation in her steps. The person at the reception desk seemed used to seeing Aria. That meant she came here often.
The room we were led into was the kind you see in dramas.
An acrylic partition divided the room in half, and on the other side was a simple door. It was a picture-perfect meeting room.
After waiting for a while, a woman appeared.
This woman was Kanae Kanzaki. Aria's mother, and also a person who had been wrongly convicted and sentenced to 864 years in prison.
She was the person Aria and we were trying to save.
She looked more like an older sister with a significant age gap than a mother. She followed the rules of light novels: a person whose appearance doesn't match their age, especially a mother.
And when I saw her in person, it was hard to believe she had committed crimes worthy of 864 years.
The guard who had brought her stood back, and Kanae-san sat in a chair. Aria sat in the chair on our side.
Aria said she was here for a regular update and to introduce us.
Aria introduced us clearly.
"My... you're Aria's friends, aren't you?"
"N-no, that's not it... I mean..."
"Nice to meet you. I'm one of Aria's friends, Shō Yozuki."
"Hey!?"
Come on, everyone, jump on the bandwagon! This intention should be understood without words!
"I'm also here. I'm Yukina Himeragi. Aria-san has been very good to me."
"I'm Asuna Yuuki. Aria-chan and I are planning to go shopping soon."
"E-everyone, that's enough..."
"Hehe, nice to meet you all. I'm Kanae Kanzaki, Aria's mother. It seems my daughter is a handful."
"Haha. No, really."
Lately, they've been staying at my house. It feels like I've gained more girls without even using the gacha.
And they dump all the housework and other chores on me as a matter of course. I thought, Kinji must have had it rough.
"Ahem!"
Aria cleared her throat to change the mood.
"Mom. We don't have much time, so I'll be brief. Everyone here helped me solve the Butei Killer's third and fourth incidents. The third was a bomb on a bicycle, and the fourth was a bus."
Aria spoke quickly. Kanae-san's expression hardened.
"His activity has been rapidly increasing. He should be showing his tail soon... No, I'll catch his tail and show it to you. That's why, as planned, I'll first catch the Butei Killer."
Aria stood up from her chair.
"If I can prove your innocence in his cases alone, your 864-year sentence will be reduced to 742 years."
Still almost 750 years.
What kind of crimes did the Butei Killer commit to add up to 120 years?
"I'll handle everything else before it gets to the Supreme Court. I'm going to throw all those I-U guys who made you a scapegoat into this place."
Her eyes were filled with intense anger. It was completely different from her usual tantrums.
I was about to get nervous myself, but as expected of a mother, Kanae-san looked calm.
Kanae-san closed her eyes, absorbed Aria's words, and then slowly opened them and said,
"Aria. I appreciate the sentiment, but it's too early to challenge I-U. More importantly, have you found a partner yet?"
"Well, that's..."
The way Kanae-san changed the subject showed that the Butei Killer was hardly on her mind. And Aria, who had been so fired up just a moment ago, was visibly shrinking. The topic of a partner was that much of a sensitive subject for her.
A partner. For generations, Aria's clan has been tasked with finding a partner who can better draw out their abilities and act together.
However, because of her personality, Aria had been unable to find such a person and felt out of place among her clan, even looked down upon.
...Huh? Why is Aria looking at us?
"...I found one. Right here. Everyone here is strong enough. Unlike others, they don't avoid me. If one of them could be my partner...!"
"Aria."
"!!"
With a single word from Kanae-san, Aria's mouth was sealed.
"That's not how you choose a partner."
It was a harsh word.
Aria looked down after hearing that, and Kanae-san also fell silent. Of course, we didn't interrupt. In fact, we couldn't.
The meeting room fell silent.
How many minutes had passed like that? The guard looked at his watch, stood up, and pulled on Kanae-san's arm.
"Kanzaki. Time's up."
"Stop! Don't be rough with my mom!"
Aria banged on the acrylic panel to protest, but the guard didn't respond at all. The guard's eyes met mine, and...
"Gah!?"
...Why? He recoiled with a look of extreme fear. You don't react like that when you see someone's face.
The guard quickly let go of Kanae-san. He did that much just from seeing my face?
"Thank you, Sho-san. But you shouldn't do things like that too much, okay?"
"...Huh?"
Kanae-san left with a strange word in the end, bowed, and left the room.
"...Did I do something?"
"No, I don't think you did anything..."
I asked Yukina, who was next to me, but she tilted her head in confusion as well. Could it be that I was giving off something like bloodlust? But that didn't make sense, since Yukina and Asuna would have noticed.
"Well, anyway, thanks to you, Sho-kun, Aria's mom wasn't treated roughly!"
Asuna tried to lighten the mood. Was that what happened?
Aria's mood had plummeted again after Kanae-san left.
"Aria, let's go home for today."
"...Okay."
She stood up from the chair, completely drained of energy.
After that, we tried to cheer Aria up, but it was no use. Feeling awkward, we decided to head home. She said she wouldn't be returning to our house for the night but to her own original residence.
In the end, until we parted and she was out of sight, Aria never regained her spirits.
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