"Hey, hey. Where are we supposed to dump this?"
"It sounds like Government is interested, so let's contact Aika."
(Stage 01 Open 05/23 07:30)
A Transfer Student in Early Spring Signals the Collapse of the School
Part 1
A jetlagged mind made it hard to get up in the morning.
In the cabin space of the cruiser he lived in, Shiroyama Kyousuke rubbed his eyes on the double bed as the alarm clock's ringing assaulted his senses.
He got back at it by hitting the switch of the bedside alarm clock.
And for some reason, the vessel named Isabelle had slipped onto the double bed while wearing black cat pajamas.
"…"
Kyousuke tried to get his sleep-addled brain working, but he ran out of strength and gave into the urge to fall back asleep.
He heard a girl's voice from below the covers.
"I put my body on the line for the best setup I could manage, so I'm disappointed you aren't going along with it. Zuuun (deadpan)."
"?"
What was this?
Why could he hear something below the covers?
To figure out what this was, his foggy mind led him to reach out and touch it…but what was it? It was soft and warm…so what in the world was it? A steamed bun? It seemed a little too small for that.
"And when you just start groping me, I'm small-sized unsure how to respond."
His mind finally caught up to reality.
He was reminded of a shameful summer morning long, long ago before he had become Alice (with) Rabbit. That morning, he had wet the bed. At first, he had refused to believe it, but he had been unable to ignore the strange sensation. Just like back then, he hesitantly peered below the covers and the experienced summoner screamed just like his past self.
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???"
"Oh, I finally got the reaction I wanted. Pinpon pinpon (deadpan)."
Quickly rolling out of bed with a mixture of surprise, shock, and slight sadness was just like that day.
"Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-why-why are you here!?"
The crawling black cat pajamas reigned supreme as the only one left on the double bed.
"Nya nyaaan (deadpan). I haven't gotten my reward for that midair battle."
"What?"
"I believe we settled on a Dengeki Restaurant Hobby Set."
"I thought we parted ways for the night at A Block's international airport. And why!? Actually, how did you even get inside the cruiser? Did you pick the lock? Did you melt it? Or did you use a power drill? I won't get mad, so be honest with me!!"
The girl who had fallen into a feline mentality gave him a displeased look from the bed.
"I need to give you a super-sized punishment for breaking our contract."
"Except now you're breaking the law! Just because normal people forget all about summoners and vessels is no reason to stop following society's rules! And if you broke the lock to break in, I'll have to get a new one, so just tell me!"
"So it's time for a super-sized attack using the cheetah style! Whoosh (deadpan)."
"!? Why are you leaping at me when I'm the angry one here!?"
The black cat pajamas used her lithe, muscular body and the bed springs to launch herself with great force. Kyousuke was helpless as they started rolling around together on the cabin floor.
As the young girl mounted him at full force, Kyousuke lay on his back, covered his face with his hands, and sobbed.
"I don't even care anymore, so can you just get off of me…?"
"Only if I get my reward. No further orders will be accepted until then."
Isabelle started bouncing her hips up and down to hurry Kyousuke along.
The behavior might have looked seductive if the blows had not been hitting him in the solar plexus, making it even more painful than the boxer training in which a large ball was dropped on the stomach.
"Hurry, hurry. Hobby Set. I want a Dengeki Restaurant Hobby Set."
"Gh, gbh!! I-I can't exactly do anything unless you get off of me first!!"
The black cat pajamas stopped moving up and down and tilted her head instead.
"Hmm. The task will never be complete without the reward, but I can't receive the reward without agreeing to a new task…"
A dull spiraling light appeared deep in her eyes.
"Ghhh (deadpan). Oh, no. I don't understand even a small-sized bit of this anymore."
"Oh!? Why would that make you strangle me!?"
He put up a struggle and finally managed to push Isabelle off of him.
It took her more than thirty seconds to cool down.
"I-I want my Dengeki Restaurant Hobby Set…"
"Fine, fine. Wait, are they even open in the mornings?"
It did not look like he would be given time for a shower, so he stuck to the bare minimum of washing his face and then changed into his school uniform in the shower space. He had school today. He lived a double life, but he wanted to do "as much as possible" to avoid neglecting either one.
Isabelle used his time out of the cabin space to change into her red military uniform. She must have gotten bored waiting for Kyousuke because she had grabbed the TV remote and started watching a morning information show.
"Let's get rid of those May blues by having a second Halloween in early summer! The witch's night comes late to Toy Dream 35! The Delayed Walpurgis campaign has begun. We actively recommend you all wear costumes and anyone in costume will receive a variety of benefits while the campaign lasts."
"C'mon, let's go. Your Hobby Set is waiting for you, right?"
"Right. The Juddark toy is waiting for me!"
They left the cruiser together.
Toy Dream 35 was the result of a foreign entertainment company buying up a bankrupt Japanese city and converting it into a giant amusement park. Most of it was a collection of super high-rise buildings built over the ocean and they were connected by layer after layer of giant bridges in a spider web-like arrangement.
Kyousuke's cruiser was in the harbor that bordered the ocean on the lowest level of the city. The first floor (that is, around the waterline) of the giant rectangular buildings generally had cruisers and boats moored around them.
There was a small path that may have been a protruding part of the building or buffering material to protect against collisions from the cruisers, but walking along that was a good way to slip and fall, so they jumped from ship to ship to reach the stairway up, just like he always did.
After a bit of climbing the emergency staircase that zigzagged up the building's wall, they finally reached one of the giant bridges. There, they could enter the crowds. Perhaps due to the costume campaign mentioned on TV, the crowd was filled with people dressed as witches or Little Red Riding Hood.
"Happy Walpurgis!!"
"C'mon, hand over the donut! Otherwise, this'll be a one coin donation!!"
"Gozaru, gozaru. The Gozaru Samurai has transformed into a gargoyle!"
The place was packed with dragonfly-winged fairies, gray costume characters, and more. Even costume weapons must have been banned because a police officer was scolding a samurai and a kunoichi.
"Faster, faster. Hurry, hurry."
"Breakfast isn't going anywhere."
"Juddark is really popular and I don't want him to sell out. We need to super-size it! Make a super-sized dash!"
"Hm? Juddark?"
The giant bridge was packed full of office workers in suits, students in a variety of uniforms, and a costumed group of foreign tourists who had decided to get an early start. It was easy to forget the bridge was as wide as a road with three lanes in either direction.
They followed the crowd of giant pumpkin costumes and sexy bunny girls and then took a turn into a building.
Burgers, frankfurters, barbecue, beef steaks, and sodas. As a foreign-owned amusement park, Toy Dream 35's restaurants served a lot of American junk food, but the Dengeki Restaurant was known to some for being even more chaotic. While most domestic chains were in decline, this one had made a push overseas and actually seen some success. If anything, it could be classified as a family restaurant. With bowls, plates, meals, combos, and lunches, the menu was something of a mess, but that careless obsessiveness was very much like a Japanese chain restaurant.
It was fairly busy, so they could not get a table seat. They were guided to a counter seat where they sat side by side.
"Whoosh(deadpan). Waitress, I want a Hobby Set! I know it comes with a Juddark toy!!"
Kyousuke still had no idea what a Juddark was and it made him think of some kind of chocolate, but then he saw some information on the corner of the menu.
"It's the dark mascot hero Juddark! His dark judgments will slay evil!!"
He did not know the details, but it was apparently a bipedal black cat with a mean look in its eyes. The somewhat large-headed cat had a wire in its hands(?).
Something like that could become a strategic international product with annual revenue exceeding 500 billion, so the Toy Dream amusement park cities really were unique. A character could be as valuable as an oil field.
"Why do you want that so bad? Isn't it just a kid's meal that adults know their kid will like because it comes with a little toy?"
"What it is doesn't matter."
"?"
"It's super-sized important that we close out the task by proving the contract was fulfilled."
Kyousuke despaired when he did not find cereal and milk on the breakfast menu and settled on ordering an eggs benedict, seafood salad, and iced coffee set.
While waiting for their order, Isabelle swayed her small body back and forth and spoke.
"What are we going to do after this?"
"Oh, you mean about that? Yesterday's midair battle was unexpected, but it doesn't really change what we need to do. Let's just do the job we were given."
"Then you should have made the contract from the very beginning."
"If we could have settled this without a contract, that wouldn't have been necessary, right?"
That was when someone's hand interrupted them. Kyousuke looked over, thinking it might be the waitress, but it was another customer. It was Rendou Akiya, a classmate of Kyousuke's who at first looked like a girl with semi-long brown hair but was actually a boy who liked to wear a girl's blazer and pleated skirt.
But today, he was wearing something else. As part of the Delayed Walpurgis, he was wearing a three-pointed witch's hat and a cape.
And the boy looked like he had only noticed Kyousuke's presence after sitting down next to him.
"Oh. What are you doing eating out, Shiroyama-chan? I thought you subsisted on supermarket meals."
"I have my reasons."
"What, did your fridge or microwave break?"
"More importantly, what's with that getup?"
"Oh, this?"
His classmate spread his arms to show off the miniskirt costume.
"I had trouble deciding between a witch and a fairy. During the campaign, you get a discount if you shop in costume. I think you get 15% off at this family restaurant. And isn't that military uniform girl in costume?"
"That isn't a costume. And don't we have school after this?"
"You silly puppy. I can't understand why anyone would wear their uniform all day long. Doesn't make any sense."
The miniskirt witch boy ordered a Japanese-style breakfast based on tamago-kake gohan.
"By the way, have you heard about the transfer student?"
"That's news to me," answered Kyousuke.
"Unfortunately, it's a guy. I guess we won't be getting the triple sevens of a beautiful, mysterious, and virgin."
As you can see, Rendou only chose women's clothing as a fashion statement and he was not a true "trap".
Witch Rendou waved sociably at the waitress who brought him his tamago-kake gohan set. As Kyousuke watched, he frowned in realization.
Rendou had ordered after him, but his food had arrived first. Which meant…
"Oh, this isn't good…"
"What is it?"
"I need to step into the kitchen a moment."
"What is it, Shiroyama-chan!? Are you the kind of person who likes to call out the chef?"
Kyousuke ignored the frantic shout and stepped through the staff only door with Isabelle following him.
At first, the cooks looked surprised, but…
"Hm? Huh…? Oh, that's right! I forgot your order!!"
"As long as you've remembered."
People forgot that summoners and vessels existed as soon as they left their field of vision. Even if there was a mechanical order slip, it was all over if they mistook it for an erroneous input.
"U-um, uh, this will not happen again, so you can return to your seat…"
"Sorry, but I have a fairly serious food allergy, so could I watch you cook it?"
"Nuuun (deadpan). It would be a super-sized problem if you forgot my Hobby Set."
Even ordering food at a restaurant was difficult.
It was easier at a school cafeteria where the kitchen was visible from the counter.
Once they returned to their seats with the completed food, the waitresses had "forgotten" about them and other customers' butts were filling their seats.
"…"
"…"
Pressing their foreheads against a nearby wall in sorrow was their only option.
Part 2
After eating on their feet, Kyousuke parted ways with Isabelle once more.
"Can you kill some time until school's out?"
"I will be super-sized okay. If I need to, I can break a window. Smash, smash(deadpan)."
"Just this once, you can pick the lock if you want, but don't break anything."
Kyousuke continued alone to a high school on a square portion of R Block. Once he entered the classroom, his classmate Librarian-chan noticed him.
Once in school, everyone was wearing uniforms, so there weren't any wolfmen or Frankensteins walking around.
"Good morning, Shiroyama-kun."
"Morning. Aren't you here pretty early today, Librarian-chan?"
"My name, my name."
She had been caught in the middle of some summoner battles concerning a ghost known as the Rainy Girl, but that entire incident had ultimately been made so it "never happened" and she had no memory of it.
"Are you doing that Delayed Walpurgis thing, Librarian-chan?"
"Gh!? How did you hear I was stuck as a cat ears girl...no, a cat leotard girl for a costume event at work!?"
"Um, Librarian-chan…?"
"Geh! I shouldn't have said that!! Just to be clear, this is a wholesome job! There isn't anything untoward about it! It's just a delivery service!!"
Librarian-chan blushed and tried to explain away some sort of misunderstanding, but Kyousuke was unsure how to react when that misunderstanding only existed in her mind.
And apparently she was still a part-timer girl even after "that incident" was changed.
After calming down some, she changed the subject.
"To ho ho. That's just the uniform for the job and it doesn't match my tastes at all. Maybe it's just an issue of rose-colored glasses, but I had an awful time with a job yesterday too."
"What was it? Sexual harassment?"
"In a way, it was worse!!"
Her blood pressure seemed to rise as the memory worked up her anger.
"I was working as an eco-friendly bicycle delivery service, but sometimes you get asked to make mysterious deliveries of pets people are sick of or memorial tablets! And they don't care where it goes, so it's up to you to figure something out! And you're not allowed to complain or refuse!!"
"Yeah, I've heard scammers will get people to pay them using a bike delivery service instead of an ATM."
"But the most common one lately is Girl's Backdoor. It's just what it sounds like: a product that lets you bend teenage girls to your will! And they're selling for huge amounts on online auctions, so they're being sent out for delivery all over the place! Apparently the rumors started right here in Toy Dream 35. I don't know what it's all about, but I ended up having the police stop me and bring me in for questioning. Can you believe that!? 'Hey, you there. I doubt you are, but you aren't being paid to assist in an auction scam, are you?' God, it pisses me off!!"
"What exactly is it? Do you plug it into their temple to rewrite their brain?"
"Don't ask me. And who would actually believe something like that? The actual product isn't the problem; it's how they're using the rumors to make a ton of money off of the auctions. It doesn't matter if it's a cardboard card, hairspray with the label peeled off, or a plastic pendulum."
As she spoke, Librarian-chan held out her smartphone for him to see.
An online auction page did indeed show quite a few entries for something called Girl's Backdoor. She scrolled down the list, but there was no end in sight.
The example photos showed a great variety of "forms": everything from strange old tomes to something like a homemade laser gun. It was definitely a movement, but Librarian-chan may have been right that it was more about using the name to sell junk at a high price than about the Girl's Backdoor itself.
"That's pretty incredible. All the numbers are up in the thirty or forty thousands. Even if you take into account these are auctions, it's quite something."
"I know, right? What I can't believe is there are this many people out there who secretly want to bend girls to their will! That feels like enough of a threat on its own!!"
"But don't the back covers of magazines have ads for lucky necklaces and bracelets with phony-sounding stories about how it made someone popular with girls? The demographic for those has just moved onto the auctions, so I bet the total numbers aren't that much different."
"That's like telling someone not to worry because there have always been that many roaches behind your dresser and you just never noticed. It doesn't help at all! It just creeps you out!!"
Kyousuke began to wonder if there were similar "lucky" products that supposedly made girls popular with boys. He did not have a habit of checking manga or fashion magazines for girls, so he did not know what was advertised in them. That was when Rendou Akiya entered the classroom. He must have changed since leaving the family restaurant because he wore a girl's uniform instead of a witch costume.
"Morning, everyone! Huh? Weren't you with me earlier, Shiroyama-chan?"
"We must have gotten separated in the crowd."
"More importantly!!" cut in Librarian-chan. "You! You were making money selling five or six of those Girl's Backdoor products through online auctions, weren't you!? Why do you have to make people like us work up a sweat running around town just so you can make some dirty money!?"
"Don't be silly. Those are just joke products! It's not like I'm taking advantage of the commotion to trick people!! The description of its effects is just a personal opinion!!"
"Grr, grr!"
"B-besides, if those stupid guys send me all their money, they can't get their hands on a real Girl's Backdoor, right? Of course, that's assuming real ones actually exist. All I'm doing is preemptively stopping their evil deeds. You should be praising me as Dark Paladin Rendou Akiya, the hero who protects the city's peace from the shadows!! C'mon, tell her I'm right, Shiroyama-chan!!"
"I don't like that anyone's excitedly buying these things, but I don't like how you're making such easy money either! Don't underestimate a diligent part-timer girl! Roar!!"
The crossdressing boy fled with the librarian girl in hot pursuit. They forgot all about Kyousuke the second they took their eyes off of him, but he just sighed at his unchanging daily life. He may have been a summoner who used the gods of legend as a stepping stone to reach his goal, but even he was fond of a peaceful life. Even if he had no idea how long the peaceful part would last.