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Translator: penny
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: 2.1 Nightmare
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(※Warning! There are unpleasant descriptions in the early part.
If you'd rather not read them, please scroll down to the point marked with * * *.)
Long ago──
Yuuki and Naibusu were friends.
Together, they cried, laughed, shared their pain, and divided their joy.
Many friends died, but the two survived together.
They came to trust and rely on each other even more.
Time passed.
The harsh times ended, and an era of peace arrived.
They made new friends and gained many precious people.
Yuuki even found someone he liked.
The two friends believed this happiness would last forever.
──But it didn't.
The women who had been close to Yuuki turned their backs on him, one after another.
His kind mother abandoned Yuuki and Hina and left. ──Following him.
His innocent little sister became ──. She flipped Yuuki off and called him trash.
His crush, his childhood friend, manipulated their friends to isolate Yuuki. So he'd cling only to her. She didn't hesitate to ──either.
The strict teacher got high on drugs and became ──.
The dignified student council president became the new student council's ──.
The lively classmate was ──by a monster that escaped from the research lab.
The cool neighbor big sis protected the students from terrorists by ──. ──Right in front of them, then murdered.
Yuuki was devastated.
He'd lost all the women who'd been close to him.
Yuuki could no longer trust women.
Liking women would just lead to heartbreak and loss.
So Yuuki depended on the only man left, his friend Naibusu.
It wasn't that he liked men or anything. He just came to hate women.
And Yuuki wasn't the only one hurt.
Naibusu, who had lost even his last remaining family, his big sister, and was left all alone.
He depended on Yuuki too.
The two wounded boys depended on each other.
Naibusu thought.
He wanted to comfort Yuuki.
Behind that wistful smile, Yuuki's soul was shedding bloody tears. He wanted to bring back his real smile.
Naibusu thought.
Both he and Yuuki had lost their families.
So why not build a new one together?
And so Naibusu used it.
The '───' he'd received from Yuuki.
It was a gift Yuuki had given to Naibusu, who was depressed after losing his sister.
A legacy left behind by Yuuki's deceased father.
The '───' that granted wishes.
To his one friend who wouldn't betray him, Yuuki had given his most precious treasure.
When Naibusu wished to become family with Yuuki, he turned into a woman.
And when Yuuki saw Naibusu as a woman──
"─── ───."
──He said.
"Naibusu. Sorry. I want to make up. Wait for me in the middle school gym storage room after class."
When Naibusu saw that note──
"Oh, this the guy?"
"He actually came? What an idiot."
"This was a dude? Damn!"
"Hey hey, for real?!"
"Looks just like that foreign teacher from before!"
"Those tits are huge!"
Strangers were waiting there. Men.
Yuuki, the one Naibusu was looking for, wasn't among the more than ten guys.
Naibusu resisted.
But in her fragile female body, she couldn't overpower multiple men.
She was beaten for a long time, resisting with the resolve to die right there──
"Resist one more time, and we'll drag your friend here and kill him too. Kurosaki Yuuki, was it?"
──At those words, Naibusu stopped resisting.
Foul minds kept pouring in.
Over and over.
Over and over.
Over and over...
.
.
.
And... by the time Yuuki finally came looking for Naibusu, it was already──.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"──Aaaah!!"
I jolted awake with my own scream.
My consciousness returned.
I realized too late that it had been a nightmare.
"Hah, hah, hah..."
My breath came in gasps.
My back was drenched in sweat.
Sweat trickled down my cheek.
I must have been under a lot of stress.
Why did I have that dream again?
That damn nightmare.
Maybe because I finally killed that trash pervert after so long.
My deep subconscious might be warning me not to get complacent after just one.
There's still a long way to go.
"Tch."
I clicked my tongue and got out of bed.
I needed to change out of these sweat-soaked clothes.
"Naibusu? Are you okay?"
Knock knock. My sister's voice came with the knock.
Her voice put me slightly at ease.
In the dream, even sis had gone wrong.
— Naiad's Mind'What's wrong? Did Naibusu have a bad dream?'
"Sis, sorry for the noise. I'm fine."
I quickly threw on some clothes and answered.
Feeling that sis was safe, that it was all just a dream—it finally sank in.
"...You sure you're okay?"
"Yeah. Just had a bad dream."
"A bad dream?"
"Kinda. An old one."
I couldn't say it was a dream from the original game I'd played before possessing this body.
I tried to brush it off vaguely.
— Naiad's Mind'An old dream... maybe from the Great Catastrophe? They say survivors all suffer from trauma from back then. Mom and Dad died then too. Naibusu even got drafted into that war.'
Hearing "old dream," sis thought of the Great Catastrophe.
The original Naibusu had been terrified of the Great Catastrophe, but it hadn't tormented me that badly.
I'd nearly died several times, but I survived in the end. Leveled up a ton too.
For some reason, it felt like playing a game fighting those monsters.
Maybe because I wasn't in my right mind right after possessing, but killing monsters actually relieved stress. Pretty satisfying.
Leveling up was fun too. If I'd had free time, that trash game would've haunted my head nonstop, but I didn't even have the leisure.
If I hadn't killed monsters, I'd probably have gone insane or offed myself.
My real trauma isn't the Great Catastrophe—it's the original game.
I'd rather die than go through those NTR violation scenes again.
For real.
"Naibusu. Wanna sleep with sis tonight?"
"Huh? It's not like that."
Her unexpected offer threw me off a bit.
I'm not a kid, and sleeping with sis just because of a scary dream?
To sis, I must still seem like a little boy.
"Sis wants to sleep with Naibusu."
-Click.
Sis peeked her head through the door crack.
"Can I come in?"
"Uh... yeah."
Sis was in somewhat sexy, grown-up sleepwear.
White... negligee, was it?
Lots of lace, lots of exposed skin.
She was wearing that sheer, flimsy nightgown.
I glanced at her and looked away.
Phew... good thing I'm not a pure love fanatic.
Incest pure love? No thanks.
I won't waver.
Still, sis sure is careless.
What if I weren't a pure love guy?
— Naiad's Mind'Wearing this made me a little nervous, but Naibusu doesn't seem to care. Well, siblings shouldn't be conscious of each other anyway, right?'
"Then it's been ages—let's sleep together in Naibusu's bed tonight!"
Sis came in and dove onto my bed.
...No, don't do slow-mo dives like that here.
The time from her floating in the air until she hit the bed: about 0.5 seconds.
But that less-than-a-second felt several times longer to my eyes.
Okay, I get it.
Sis's legs are pretty, her panties are cute, her butt is great.
The hem of her short nightgown fluttered up, fully exposing her white panties and the butt they covered.
Being the only one—her family—who gets to see this natural exposure from sis, who's the idol of the academy boys? That's my privilege.
But because we're family, I don't feel lust.
I'm a bona fide pure love fanatic. Incest pure love? No thanks.
...Still, just looking is fine, right? Beauty is to be appreciated. It doesn't wear out.
Looking at sis's body alone made me feel healthier.
"Hurry up and come. If you don't, sis'll fall asleep first."
"Yeah."
Slow-mo over, sis sprawled face-down on my bed and patted the spot next to her.
— Naiad's Mind'Hehe. Naibusu's scent on the bed.'
"...Sorry, sis. Does the bed smell? I just sweated a bunch."
"Huh? Not at all. It's fine."
— Naiad's Mind'Phew. Kinda heart-pounding. Naibusu's scent.'
...While thinking inside it smells.
Well, fussing over that between siblings would be weirder, huh?
"Lights out."
"Yeah."
I hid my inner discomfort along with the room light.
"Naibusu. It's been forever since we slept like this, huh?"
"...Yeah."
I lay in bed with sis.
She was so close her breath brushed me.
— Naiad's Mind'He's more tense than usual. Must be the bad dream lingering. How can I help him relax?'
"What, embarrassed to sleep with sis?"
"Not really."
Sis teased playfully.
Having someone else in my bed felt a little unfamiliar. Awkward, maybe.
It was true; things were a bit off.
But I'm a bona fide pure love fanatic.
I won't waver. Won't bend.
I don't walk the path of incest pure love.
"Scared? Want sis to hold your hand?"
"I'm good."
"Why? Embarrassed?"
Hmph. I'm not a kid.
No way holding hands with sis would embarrass me.
I grabbed sis's hand first.
She's older than me, but smaller and more delicate—a woman's hand.
"Ah."
Thanks to my enhanced senses, I could see in the dark like daylight.
Sis's face was bright red from gripping my hand. Crystal clear.
Me? Totally fine... totally fine...?
Wait...?
"Naibusu. You are embarrassed, aren't you?"
"...A little."
A little. Embarrassed.
Weird.
I'm not an incest fanatic.
Me, a bona fide pure love guy.
Why the pounding heart?
No matter how beautiful sis is, a pure love fanatic like me shouldn't waver.
No way...
...Naibusu, is that you?
The original Naibusu, whose consciousness got absorbed into mine—is he an incest fanatic?
That was the only explanation.
— Naiad's Mind'What... Naibusu being embarrassed is making me feel it too for no reason...'
No. Sis was already embarrassed to begin with.
At this distance, I could sense body heat changes, heart rate, everything.
So sis's pounding heart isn't my fault.
"...Night, Naibusu."
"...You too, sis."
But.
Neither sis nor I could fall asleep easily.
Still, Naibusu and Naiad never let go of each other's hands until the end.
I listened to sis's fidgeting mind while watching the dawn sun rise beyond the window.