Chapter 71:

Volume 3: Chapter 1: Preparation - Part 7

Nephalem


The next morning was difficult for me. I woke up with a pair of boobs in my face, I was standing at full mast, and, to make the whole situation more awkward, Matilda had acted like what happened was nothing. She woke, headed for the bathroom, and told me that she’d start making breakfast in a few minutes.

I really didn’t understand women.

During breakfast, Alicia and I discussed what we were going to do that day. She and I were sitting at the dinner table, while Yūgure, now acting in her capacity as maid, helped Matilda bring in breakfast. I couldn’t even look at the woman after what happened last night.

“We’ll need to go shopping,” Alicia said as she cut her pancakes with the graceful and elegant movements of a refined lady. “None of our toiletries except for the bare essentials like toilet paper are being provided. We’ll want to get travel toothbrushes, soap, and toothpaste.”

“Sounds good,” I agreed with her. I was basically letting her plan all this, since she looked like she was in her element, and I was decidedly not in any element at the moment. “Where are we going to get those?”

“We’ll go to the Aeon Lake Town Outlet,” Alicia said. “It only takes fifteen minutes to get there by train. Plus, I would like to get a swimsuit, and they have a store that’s got a really nice selection.”

Swimsuits? Now that I thought about it, a girl wouldn’t want to wear her school swimsuit at the beach, would she? I didn’t know girls that well, but even I knew that. All the magazines on summer fashion had headlines talking about the latest swimsuits.

“Be sure to take Yūgure with you,” Matilda said. “She also needs to buy supplies and a swimsuit.”

Alicia looked ten seconds away from arguing, but when she caught Matilda staring at her, the redhead sunk into her seat and looked away. I was honestly impressed. At the same time, I still couldn’t look at Matilda without remembering what happened last night. I needed to cross my legs so no one would notice what was happening to me.

“All right.” A deep sigh escaped Alicia’s parted lips. “She can come with us.”

“I appreciate that,” Matilda said, and though her face remained unchanged, her eyes gleamed.

Breakfast finished quickly after that. I was already dressed in jean shorts and a white shirt with a gray collared shirt over it. Likewise, Alicia wore black tights underneath red shorts that matched her hair and were short enough that I could see the cleft of her butt, which was further accentuated by the black tights. Her shirt was sleeveless. It showed off her slender arms. I belatedly realized that an anime character of some kind was on the front.

“Do you like my outfit?” Alicia asked as she twirled around for me.

“Um, it looks nice,” I said, trying not to stare at the cleavage that was staring me in the face.

I kind of wanted to tell her that it was immodest, but I didn’t. Alicia probably knew that people were going to look at her with clothes like that. She wouldn’t care. Alicia had once told me that how a person presented themselves to society was important. With an appearance like this, most of the boys around her would probably assume she was untouchable, and with him present, they would be further put off from coming near her.

That was what I assumed her purpose for wearing that was.

“I’m glad you like it,” Alicia said with a smile, though it soon turned into a frown. “I wonder what’s taking Yūgure so long.”

“She’s probably changing out of her maid outfit,” I said.

True to my words, Yūgure came back wearing something completely different. The black jean shorts, which rode high on her hips, complimented her tanned skin and contrasted with her light pink shirt, which was of the spaghetti strap variety. Her outfit was finished with sandals and a beanie with cat ear-shaped protrusions.

Alicia frowned at the ears. “Aren’t you supposed to hide those when going out?”
Yūgure held up her notepad: I am.

“Well,” I started, looking at the ears as they twitched, “so long as you don’t move them, most people will probably just think they’re part of the beanie.”

Japan was, after all, home to the cat girl phenomenon. Nekomimi were exceedingly popular. I had even heard they had nekomimi maid cafés.

Alicia rubbed her face as Matilda walked up to them. “I guess that’s fine, then. Let’s get going.”

“Have fun shopping,” Matilda said to us.

We waved to her and said our goodbyes. Then we were off.

It was a ten minute walk from our house to the nearest train station, and during that time, all I could do was think about the rising tension in the air. It felt like I was walking between two electric currents. If I moved to close to either current, I was liable to get zapped.

“So…” I tried to start a conversation. “Any idea what kind of swimsuits you two are thinking of getting?”

Alicia smiled. It was full of teeth. For some reason, her smile reminded me of a shark.

“Oh, I have a few ideas,” she said. “You’ll have to tell me what you think when I model them for you.”

“Okay. I will.” I nodded along with her words, but then I paused and looked back at her. “Wait. What?”

Alicia did not answer me, which may have been because Yūgure tugged on my arm, forcing me to divert my attention to her. Consequently, this resulted in the tense atmosphere growing thicker. By the time we arrived at the train station, I could have sworn I was choking, it was so thick.

Getting a train ticket wasn’t too difficult, though I was stopped by a surely guard who somehow believed I was harassing Alicia and Yūgure. Oddly enough, both girls had teamed up on the security guard. While Alicia was the only one who verbally beat him, Yūgure’s glare was enough to send most people packing. This was the only time I’d ever seen them get along.

It was all kinds of frightening.

As we sat on the train, I really did have to wonder about these two. I sat between them at their urging, but then they glared at each other over me, so it felt like having me sit between them was pointless. If I’d have known this was how it would turn out, I’d not have sat between them.

“I think we should get our supplies first,” I said into the heavy atmosphere. It was my poorly masked attempt at getting these two to stop glaring at each other. Their eyes were like needles on my skin.

“That’s probably a good idea,” Alicia admitted. Yūgure, to my secret relief, nodded in agreement. “We’ll stop by the department store first. All of the essentials are there. After that we can move to a clothing boutique.”

I’d never been to a department store before, though I’d seen them from a distance. I was afraid they’d try to kick me out if I went in. Fortunately, perhaps because I was with two other people, they didn’t try to stop me from entering.

Known as Odakyu Department Store, the place was a massive white building shaped like a distorted rectangle. I counted at least thirteen windows from top to bottom, and it looked like they had a balcony for people eating lunch to sit on. The store was right next to the Aeon Lake Town Outlet, which sat on the other side of the street.

“Okay.” Alicia grabbed my arm. “Let’s go inside.”

Yūgure glared at Alicia before latching onto my arm, and like that, the three of us went inside. Once again I was in the middle of what appeared to an argument. I remember hearing a phrase once about “having a flower on each arm,” in which case, I could probably consider these two roses. They had some sharp thorns.

The inside looked every bit as large as the outside suggested. Aside from there being loads of people filling the place, walking back and forth across our vision, the space before us was open and large. It reminded me a little of Saitama Mall.

“Come on,” Alicia said, tugging my arm in an effort to make me follow her.

The beginning of our shopping excursion took us to the second floor, which was where all of the toiletries were. We walked down several aisles, searching for the supplies we needed, toothpaste, a travel toothbrush, sunblock, and so on. Yūgure and I let Alicia take the lead, since she seemed to know what she was doing.

“I think we should get these,” Alicia suggested as she held up two toothbrushes that looked the same save their color.

“Are these good?” I asked.

“They come inside a container made from the handle, so they’re easier to keep from getting dirty. We won’t need to put them in a plastic bag or something.”

I nodded. “So, three of those then. Something wrong?” I asked when Alicia frowned.

“No, nothing’s wrong,” she said, grabbing three toothbrushes and putting them in our shopping cart.

Finding toiletries was easier than I thought it would be with Alicia in charge. It only took us about fifteen minutes before we gathered all of our supplies, paid for them, and had them wrapped in a bag. After that, we were off to the boutique that Alicia was telling me about.
On a side note, I was carrying the supplies.

Not that I minded.

The boutique was a lot smaller than the department store, which I expected, of course. Even so, it was still larger than I had expected, being about the size of a small warehouse. Numerous racks lined the room and shelves sat against the walls. There were only women’s clothing available. As Alicia took Yūgure and I took the back, I spotted the lingerie section and felt my stomach drop.

“Maybe… I should wait outside,” I suggested.

“Why would you do that?” asked Alicia, not giving me a chance to answer. “You have to tell me what you think about my swimsuits, remember?”

Alicia’s earlier words came back me.

'Oh, boy. I was in trouble.'

Alicia and Yūgure kept dragging me from one side of the swimsuit section to the other, sometimes using me in their game of tug-oh-war.

“Excuse me, Yūgure, but I need Jacob’s opinion on this swimsuit.”

'Don’t be absurd. He’s going to look at my choice.'

“Uh, no. I brought him here so he could give me an opinion, not so he could look at you put on little girl swimsuits.”

'Your choices are more juvenile than my own.'

“I dare you to say that again!”

While I was impressed that Yūgure could somehow write with just one hand, while playing tug of war with me as the rope, I was beginning to feel stretched. I remember hearing about ancient torture methods once. One of them was to tie a man’s arms and legs to four horses, and then have the horse pull on him until he just tore apart. It kind of felt like that.

“Look,” I said, finally deciding to put my foot down. “I’ll just… go sit over there.” I pointed at a bench next to the changing stalls. “And you two can grab a swimsuit, try it on, and show it to me. Does that work?”

The two stared at me as though they had just now realized that I was there. It really made me wonder what they were thinking about. Were because they each wanted my opinion, or were they just arguing for the sake of arguing?

“Yeah… I guess that will work,” Alicia said.

Yūgure held up her notepad. Good idea, hubby.

“Who are you calling ‘hubby’?” asked Alicia.

Now that we had this issue settled, I went over to the seat, a long bench that sat against the wall, and plopped down with a boneless slump. Dealing with these two was more exhausting than I thought it would be. Everything was made worse by the fact that I didn’t know why they didn’t get along. It was as if they were fighting merely for the sake of fighting.

Just as I was beginning to let my eyes droop, Alicia came along with a bundle of cloths and fabrics in her arms.

“I’m going to change.” Alicia stared at me with an expression that somehow mixed serious with playful. “Don’t peek, okay?”

I frowned. “Aren’t you the one who’s done all the peeking?”

“W-whatever.” She blushed. “Anyway, don’t peep on me while I’m changing.”

She waltzed into one of the changing stalls, the curtain closing behind her. I sighed. Did she really think I would peep on her? I wasn’t a pervert. If anything, she was more dangerous than me. A girl who walked in on me while I was bathing several times was infinitely more deadly than a guy like me.

Seconds after Alicia went into a changing stall, Yūgure walked up to me. Like the redhead before her, she, too, had cloth bundled in her hands. Despite this, she somehow still managed to write on her notepad.

'I’m going to get changed.'

I nodded. “Okay.”

'You can peep on me if you want.'

“Huh?”

Before my brain could properly register what was written, Yūgure strolled into the changing stall next to Alicia’s. It wasn’t until she disappeared behind it that I truly comprehended her words. I was glad she had already left. I didn’t want her to see my blush.

Who knew Yūgure had such a dirty mind?

The sound of curtains rustling and metal against metal was followed by a voice. “Okay. I’ve changed… um, what do you think?”

Having already resigned myself to this, I stood up and turned to look at Alicia.

I’m pretty sure my jaw hit the floor.

There was nothing immodest about Alicia’s bikini. In fact, I’d say it looked like a fairly standard bikini. It was red, had light pink trimmings, and not much in the way of adornments. Simple. That was the word I was going for.

So, then, why had my heart rate suddenly skyrocketed?

“W-what do you think?” asked Alicia.

“It’s, um, yeah.” Deep breaths, Jacob. Deep breaths. “I… really like it.”

Alicia’s eyes lit up at the same time that her cheeks turned red. “Do you? You think it looks good?”

“Mm.” I nodded. I think I might have lost my voice. Oh, wait. No. I found it. “It looks really good.”

“So I see.” Alicia nodded several times. She wasn’t looking at me anymore. “In that case, I’ll put this in the maybe pile.”

I didn’t know what the “maybe pile” was, but I guess since she only needed one swimsuit, she’d only be getting one. There were still a lot more to try on.

Just as this thought crossed my mind, the curtains to Yūgure’s changing room slid open.

I wasn’t sure what to think.

The first thing I noticed about Yūgure’s swimsuit was that it had very little fabric. It was black, two small triangles covered her nipples, and her bottom was basically a string with a small length of fabric that covered her crotch. However, the fabric conformed to her so well that it didn’t really matter because her cameltoe was completely visible.

“Um…” My eyes fluttered as I tried not to stare. Yūgure wasn’t proportioned like Alicia, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t beautiful. “Erm… ha…?”

Yūgure smiled as she held up the notepad.

'I’m glad you like my swimsuit.'

Liking it wasn’t the problem. I was pretty sure this swimsuit wasn’t acceptable according to the new policies put in place.

Alicia took one look at Yūgure’s swimwear, frowned, and then closed the curtains again. There was some rustling behind the curtain. This was followed by a curse. Then the curtain was pulled back.

It was like being punched in the gut, only more pleasant.

Alicia’s new swimsuit couldn’t be called a swimsuit, for even swimsuits had more fabric. This was more like several strips of cloth strategically placed along her body to hide everything while somehow enhancing Alicia’s already alluring body at the same time. The fabric was also thin. Her nipples were visibly poking into the fabric as she crossed her arms, which resulted in her breasts being squeezed together.

“How… how do I look?” she asked, her cheeks burning as she averted her eyes from my face.

“Don’t wear something like this if it makes you embarrassed!” I shouted after seeing the way she acted.

“I-I’m not embarrassed!” Alicia shouted back.

“You are embarrassed! Your face is beat red!”

“T-t-that’s only because I’m not used to wearing something with so little clothing!”

While Alicia and I argued over whether or not she was embarrassed, which even I could admit was dumb, Yūgure must have gotten changed. She shoved Alicia aside and presented herself to me.

Her clothing was almost completely see through. I only noticed that it wasn’t until I realized that the swimsuit was actually just black. It covered a good deal of her body—except the parts that it needed to cover.

What. The. Hell?

“That swimsuit is completely against school rules!” Alicia shouted. “Take it off now!”

Yūgure held up her notepad.

'No.'

Alicia’s already red faced reached a shade that matched fire trucks.

“Take it off now!”

'No.'

“That does it!”

Alicia attacked Yūgure, grabbing her swimsuit as though she was going to yank it off. Yūgure fought back. The two of them locked hands together and struggled, pushing and pulling and causing a ruckus. I wasn’t sure what to do, but we were drawing a crowd.

I decided to try and stop them.

I really shouldn’t have.

“Hey, you two. Can you please knock it—whoa!”

Alicia and Yūgure collided with me during their fight, and my world flipped around. My head cracked against something hard. My vision went white. When it came back into focus, I was staring at the bottom of two large breasts covered by thin strips of cloth.

“Wuff fe feh?” I said, my voice muffled.

“A-ahn!!!” A pair of hands grabbed my head. “D-don’t breath on me!”

What? Breath on? What was I…?

Oh…

Realization set in. Knowledge made my face burn. The taste of cloth on my tongue, the feeling of something pushing against my mouth and nose, made me realize that Alicia was sitting on my face. Her thighs were straddling my hips.

I tried to buck her off.

“Hggnnn!” a voice moaned.

I froze.

That was not Alicia.

A smaller body was straddling my waist. I twisted my hips. Yūgure, it must have been Yūgure straddling my waist, moaned again.

I panicked.

“Fef Fofff ffffffeeehhh!!!”

“AH! What are you doing?! Stop talking into my crotch!”

“FF FFEEF FFF FFFUU FEF FOFF FFEEE!!”

“I don’t know what you’re saying!”

“NNNN!!!”

“FFFOOFFF!!”

“AH! NO! JACOB! STOP THAT!”

“NNNGGGG!!!”

“FOOOOFFFF!!!”

“AAAHHHHNNNN!!!”

***************************************************************

This one is a bit longer. It was the typical shopping for a swimsuit before the beach chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it. Please let me know what you think and like the chapter. Thank you! (^-^)