Return to Normal?

June 8, 2026

Ruka was talking to Sayaka and Kumiko at school a little over two weeks after the incident involving Kana and Kazu’s parents had happened. “It’s been a pretty quiet few weeks since all that bullshit happened,” she said to the couple. “I’m just glad that I’m not permanently fucked up from the fight. I’ll be able to go back to fencing this week in a reduced capacity, so I’m really looking forward to that.”

“We were all pretty scared when we first found you,” Kumiko replied. “I’m shocked you’re able to go back at all so soon.”

“I won’t be doing actual matches, but I’ll be able to practice. So, anyway, what are you two up to after school?”

“We’re gonna go to Kumiko’s home and do homework together,” Sayaka explained. “And after that, we’re not sure.”

“Together, eh?” Ruka mischievously told them, “Are you two gonna try to take things up a notch?”

Both of them blushed. Kumiko replied to her, “We, uh, well, um… My dad will be home… So, uh…”

“I’m sure he’ll give you two some space if you want to be alone. He did already, right?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean anything!”

Sayaka then interjected, telling Ruka, “We’re not gonna do that! No way! We’re not like Yoko-chan or her boyfriend!”

“I swear, those two fuck like rabbits when they get the first opportunity to be alone together,” Ruka joked. “I’m just surprised she said yes to doing it with him so soon into their relationship. I’m not at all surprised that Yamanaka-san wanted to do it so soon, though. That’s just how he rolls.”

Kumiko then asked her, “What about you? What’s your plan for tonight?”

“I gotta head to a family function with my uncle tonight,” Ruka replied in a tone indicating that she was not looking forward to it. “It’s for a birthday. I don’t really want to go, but my uncle insisted. I don’t have the best relationship with the rest of my father’s family, but I have to keep up appearances at least sometimes. That said…” She then pulled out her phone and showed the couple a dress in a photo. “At least it gives me a good excuse to wear this. I got this a few months ago for formal occasions, but I haven’t had a chance to wear it out anywhere.”

The photo showed off a light blue strapless low-cut dress. Sayaka beamed, “Woah, that looks so pretty! I bet it would look so good on you, Ruka-chan!”

“Thank you. My only concern is that it’ll show off some of my, well… Assets… A bit too much for some people.” She then swiped right to show them a photo of her trying on the dress. “Here I am wearing it.”

“Don’t worry about them,” Kumiko assured her. “I mean, yeah, it’s a low-cut dress, and it does show off your, well… You know what I mean, but still. It’s not like you can help it.”

“Listen,” Ruka chuckled. “I’ve dealt with pervs gawking at my boobs and other people judging me for how big they are since I was in my last year of elementary school. It sucks, especially when you’re young and a guy twice your age or more can’t stop staring, but these assholes would look and judge me regardless of what I’m wearing. Besides, it’s not like I’m dressing like this every single day of my life. I can withstand one night of this if it’s for my uncle, just as you stayed with Yoshiro in the men’s bath a few years ago when we went to a hot spring together.”

“She’s got a point,” Sayaka told her girlfriend.

“You do,” Kumiko agreed. “Like I told him back then, I pretended to be a boy for the first twelve or thirteen years of my life before I realized who I was meant to be. I could pretend again for an hour if it meant making sure one of my friends wasn’t alone in a hot spring.”

“Besides,” Ruka admitted with a smile. “I don’t usually say this about myself, but I think I look pretty sexy in this. I mean, I’m not gay, but I think so. What do you two say as the resident lesbians of the group?”

Sayaka metaphorically bit her tongue, very much agreeing with Ruka’s assessment of herself in the dress but not wanting to creep her out by verbalizing it. “Well, I, um…”

“You do look very sexy in it,” Kumiko then blurted out, causing Sayaka to blush intensely. “…What? Don’t lie to me and say you don’t think the same, Sayaka.”

“She is, but… I…”

“I’m not bothered by you two saying it,” Ruka assured them. “We’re friends, right?”

“Of course,” Sayaka replied, worried that she offended Ruka somehow. “I’m sorry, Ruka-chan! I just… I know you’ve dealt with creeps before, and I just don’t feel comfortable saying that about you even if you wanted me to. I thought that you’d not like that sort of thing, you know?”

This comment seemed to not sit well with Ruka. Her smile turned into a slight frown. “That’s what I was afraid of.”

“Huh?”

“I really don’t like that. Just because some assholes stare at me or judge me or make comments about my body… It doesn’t mean I want you or anyone else I care about to treat me with kiddie gloves. I’m not repulsed by sex. Being a victim of those monsters doesn’t mean I don’t have my own wants and needs like any other woman.” Ruka had let slip her past a bit by implying something worse had happened to her than mere sexual harassment. “If it’s the right boy, I want to feel wanted by them. I want them to think I’m hot or sexy or beautiful or whatever. I want them to find me physically attractive, and if it comes down to it, I want to have sex with them. I just don’t like it when girls or older women think I’m a whore for what my body looks like or when men old enough to be my father won’t stop eyeing up a sixteen-year-old girl… Well, I’m almost seventeen, but that’s not much better. I know I probably keep repeating myself, but I really don’t like the idea that just because you’re a victim of sexual harassment or sexual assault means you must no longer want to be or should be sexual in any form, because it takes away our agency at a time when it’s already been damaged.”

Both halves of the couple felt bad, in particular Sayaka, who had made the initial comment. “I’m sorry, Ruka-chan. I had no idea… I just…” The girl seemed on the edge of crying with how bad she felt.

“No, no, no,” Ruka assured her. “It’s okay. Now you know, Sayaka. I didn’t mean to just pile all of that on you. I just feel passionately about it. Why don’t we go back to the dress for now and stop talking about all this depressing shit, huh?”

“Yeah,” Kumiko agreed. “Anyway, like I said, I think you look gorgeous in that dress, Ruka-kun. If I tried to wear it, it would feel very, uh… Loose up top.”

Ruka laughed at Kumiko’s comment. “Probably not as loose as Yoko. I swear, the hormones you’re taking are gonna give you boobs bigger than her.”

Sayaka then looked at Kumiko and then down at her chest, realizing what Ruka said was true. “She… She’s right.”

“I hope so,” Kumiko replied with a chuckle. “I always liked the idea of having a decently-sized chest as a girl. I’m not saying they need to be giant, but I don’t want to be a cutting board.”

Ruka nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. Anyway, I gotta get going. I need to do my homework, get changed, and head to the family function. Have fun, you two.” She then waved goodbye to them and left.

As she walked away, Sayaka commented to Kumiko, “I still feel bad for what I said to her.”

“I didn’t realize she felt so passionately about this,” Kumiko replied to her. “It also feels like she’s letting on to something that she hasn’t told us about… Something that’s more serious than mere harassment.”

“I’d rather not speculate. It would be rude.” The couple then walked hand-in-hand out of the school. “Come on. Let’s go to your house.”

…

A few hours later, Ruka, her uncle, and her uncle’s family all got out of a car and walked out of a parking garage and onto the street. They then walked across the street and entered a small meeting hall. Ruka, who wore the same blue dress she showed Sayaka and Kumiko, walked up to the door first and opened it for Daisuke. “Here you go, Uncle Daisuke.”

“Thank you,” he replied to her. When he, his wife, and his son walked in, she came in behind them and closed the door. “Ruka, did you grab the present for Ken?”

“My apologies,” she replied to him in a far more formal tone of voice than she had used with her friends. “Let me go back and find it. I am terribly sorry.”

“It’s fine,” he assured her. “Just go back and get it.”

“I shall.” Ruka then briskly walked out of the hall and back to the car. As she re-entered the parking garage, she saw two men dressed more casually talking among themselves nearby. She then entered a stairwell to go up to the level where her uncle had parked. As she did, however, she stopped to pull up her dress slightly, leaving the door ajar as she did with her back turned to them. This would prove to be a mistake when she heard a comment from one of the two men.

In a voice the two men thought was quiet enough that she could not hear them, one of them said, “That girl had big fucking tits.”

The other man replied, “Yeah, she did. She looked kind of young, though.”

“I’ll be surprised if she’s not eighteen or older already. If she isn’t, well, she’ll be eighteen someday. That dress really doesn’t leave much to the imagination.”

“Man, sometimes, I wish my wife had boobs that big.”

Ruka was disgusted by what the two men had said. She shut the door very loudly to indicate that she had been there before storming up the stairs to the second level of the parking garage. Once she got to where she needed to be, she walked briskly to Daisuke’s car and opened the rear door before sitting down in a seat next to the present she was meant to grab. She looked at herself in the rearview mirror of the car and said, “I can’t fucking help it, assholes.” She looked down at her body and thought to herself, “Those two were brazen enough to sexually comment on me when I was nearby. Saying those things about me when you’re probably twice my age is one thing, but then that one piece of shit insulted his own wife. That’s what drove me over the edge. I’m used to people like that mistreating me for my body, but to mistreat someone else, especially your own fucking wife, while comparing them to me… I can’t tolerate that.”

She then got out of the car, present in hand, and walked down the stairs to the first level. When she opened the door, she saw the two men awkwardly standing by the same car they had been earlier. She locked eyes with both of them as she approached them, both men having realized they had been loud enough for Ruka to hear them. As she kept looking at them, one of the men asked her, “Hey, what’s you’re probl-?”

“Don’t you fucking dare finish that sentence,” she interrupted him as she stopped and put the present down. “You know exactly what the problem is, you piece of shit.”

“Woah, hey,” said the other man, the one who had insulted his own wife. “What’s with the hostility, man?”

“You especially have no God damn room to talk,” Ruka said as she pointed at him. “I heard everything you two said about me. How old are you two?”

After a brief pause, the first man replied, “He’s thirty-five and I’m thirty.”

“That’s what I thought. I’m sixteen. Honestly, you two perverts making those kinds of comments about a girl still in high school isn’t what really made me mad. It disgusted me, but it didn’t anger me too much. No, what your friend said about his wife is what really pissed me off.” She got close to the older of the two men, getting up in his face and telling him, “How do you think your wife would react if she heard you saying you wished she had tits as big as a sixteen-year-old girl?!”

“Back up, man! Get out of my face!”

Ruka then backed off of him and picked up the present. “Whatever. I have more important things to do than entertain you two. If you wanna fuck a girl with big tits, at least fuck one that’s a college student. I’m sure there’s a college girl out there desperate enough and with such little self-respect that they’ll sleep with you two losers.” She then briskly crossed the street and re-entered the hall to avoid any potential repercussions from insulting the two men.

As she walked back in, an extended relative of hers saw her. “Ah, welcome back. I heard you had to run back and get Ken’s present from Daisuke’s car.”

“Indeed,” she replied, dropping her casual tone for her formal tone once again. “My apologies.”

“That’s okay.” The woman, who was the sister of her grandfather, then took the present. “I must say, your dress is…”

“Hm?”

“It’s very pretty,” she said in a somewhat reluctant tone. “I like the shade of blue. The dress also accentuates… Certain things, too.”

“I am aware,” she replied with a polite smile. Internally, she thought to herself, “That’s just great. First, I deal with pervs, and now I’m being judged by another woman. I’m getting a two for one today, huh?”

“Anyway, thank you for coming, Ruka. You don’t usually come to family functions for the Kishio family anymore, and we all miss you.”

“I have been busy,” she said with a bow. “I apologize. I am glad to be here tonight for your grandson’s birthday.”

“I still can’t believe he’s already ten years old,” replied the old woman. “It seems like just yesterday he was still an infant I was holding in my arms when his parents were busy.”

As the two of them walked into the hall to join the party, Ruka thought to herself, “Forget about what happened for now. Just relax and enjoy the party…”

…

Meanwhile, as the party was going on, Sayaka and Kumiko found themselves alone in Kumiko’s bedroom. Her father had left them alone after dinner, going out to see some friends from work while implicitly telling his daughter that she and her girlfriend could do whatever they wanted for a few hours.

The couple were watching the news on TV in the bedroom when Sayaka asked Kumiko, “So, uh… Do you want to do anything besides this?”

“Well,” Kumiko replied. “My dad did leave us alone, and he winked at me before he left, so…”

“Ah, right.” Sayaka then clung onto Kumiko, resting her body against her. “You know, we’ve only done… Well, what we did in the hospital one other time since then.”

“I’ve been meaning to say we could do that again,” Kumiko admitted as she wrapped an arm around her girlfriend. “But I always feel like I’m stepping over the line if I ask you directly.”

Sayaka, confused, asked, “Stepping over the line?”

“It’s just… I feel kind of dirty for asking for that sort of thing directly, you know?” Kumiko blushed as she turned away from her girlfriend slightly, thinking to herself, “…And I don’t want to push her too far. I know we’ve already done some stuff, but since I still have… You know… I fear that going all the way would be too much.”

“Are you okay?” Sayaka then kissed her on the cheek. “Come on. I don’t bite.”

“I know,” she replied. To lighten the mood, she joked, “You can do other things with your mouth, though.”

Sayaka blushed intensely. “Uh, yeah… Uh… I can…”

“So, anyway… What do you wanna do?”

Sayaka replied to her by kissing her on the lips, to which Kumiko replied by kissing her back. The two exchanged kisses several more times before eventually Kumiko found herself on top of Sayaka, making out very intensely with her. As they continued to embrace each other and lock lips, Kumiko very gently reached her hand under Sayaka’s shirt and began grabbing at her bra and chest, to which Sayaka replied, “That feels so good…”

“So, you… Do you…?”

Sayaka then thought to herself for a few seconds before telling her girlfriend with a mischievous smile, “Take your skirt off. I want to try that thing we did again.”

Kumiko did as told and slid her skirt and underwear off. Sayaka responded by beginning to undress as well, and soon, both of them were devoid of any clothes before they began to once again engage in some rather intense physical intimacy without going all the way. When it was over, both of them began to get dressed in the same clothes they had on beforehand, although Sayaka wiped her face with a paper towel she had grabbed during the middle of their session before putting her bra and shirt back on.

“That was fun,” Sayaka told her girlfriend.

“Yeah, it was,” Kumiko nodded. “Thanks for that.”

“No, no, no. Thank you for what you did to me.”

Kumiko blushed, thoroughly enjoying getting compliments and praise from her girlfriend for how she had pleasured her. “So, um…”

“Yeah?”

“What now?”

A silence soon fell upon the couple. It was becoming clear that both halves had wanted to go further than touching each other or performing oral sex on each other, but neither of them wanted to be the first to take the next step. Kumiko thought to herself, “God, I wanted so bad to just flip her onto the bed and take her, but… Will she really like me going all the way with her given what’s in my pants?”

Sayaka, coincidentally, thought to herself, “I wish she would pin me down and take me, but maybe I’m already going a bit far as it is with touching her. If I push her into full sex, it could trigger her dys-whatever condition she has.”

The silence was soon interrupted by both of their phones going off with an alert from the Agency. Kumiko groaned, “Are you fucking kidding me? Right now?!”

Sayaka picked up the phone and saw the alert. “It says here there’s a Class Three magical beast a few blocks from us. We really should go.”

“Alright, alright.” Kumiko then got up from bed and held her left hand out. Then, both her and Sayaka’s rings glowed as they transformed into their Magical Huntress outfits. When the transformation was complete, they looked at each other and nodded before running out of the apartment to respond to the magical beast sighting.

…

Kana and Kazu had managed to arrive first at the magical beast sighting, and as they ran into the alleyway, they pulled out their weapons. Down the alleyway was the portal the beast had emerged from, and as they ran up to it, they saw the beast running back in. Kana saw it, which was a hunchback creature with the head of a goat and walked on two legs, and told her brother as they ran through the portal and into a grassland with a few trees nearby, “Oniichan, be careful! It’s on two legs!”

“Yeah, I can see that!” Kazu threw several knives at the beast as Kana attacked it with her steel whip. The beast roared in response to being hit by the knives before it charged at the twins, to which Kana dodged a swipe of its claws before whipping it, leaving cuts along its right arm. Kazu then jumped up onto a nearby tree and launched himself over the beast, slicing into it with his fan.

The beast tried to swing at Kana again, and this time, a claw managed to graze her just barely before she was able to whip him again. This time, the whip got embedded in its body, causing Kana to get thrown when the beast wailed at her and tried to rip the whip out of its body. As she hit a tree, she yelled out in pain, “Agh! No!”

“Kana!” Kazu then ran up and attacked the beast again, deflecting a blow from its claws and managing to slice into its body again with his fan. The beast replied by trying to grab onto him, but he managed to let go at the cost of his fan, which the beast grabbed and threw into the sky.

As the fan landed in the grass nearby, Kana staggered to her feet and remarked, “Oh no… We lost our weapons…” It seemed as though the beast was about to take both of their lives now that neither of them had any way to defend themselves anymore.

Then, right before the beast could strike them, two arrows from Sayaka’s bow struck the beast, causing it to turn around and face her and Kumiko. Kazu looked over and shouted, “Sayaka-oneechan! Kumiko-oneechan!”

“Back away from them,” Sayaka shouted as the beast charged at her in rage, bleeding profusely as both arrows broke off of his body when he flung one of his arms out. Sayaka replied by jumping up and shooting a third arrow right into one of the beast’s eyes, causing it to stop in pain and confusion. This gave Kumiko a chance to strike, and she took it by hitting the beast with her sledgehammer as hard as she could, knocking the beast down onto the ground.

With Sayaka back on the ground, she then fired one last arrow into the beast’s head, which managed to pierce its skull and kill it. As the beast slowly began to fade away, Kumiko told her, “Well, that takes care of that. I’m surprised it was a Class Three.”

“Well,” Sayaka pointed out. “Kana-chan and Kazu-kun did beat us here, and they did injure it.” She then turned to the twins and asked them, “Hey, are you guys okay?’

“Yeah,” Kana replied to her. “I got thrown into a tree, but I’ll be fine.” She then winced in pain. “Agh…”

“Maybe you should get checked out,” Kumiko told her with concern in her voice.

“I don’t want to miss school, though,” she replied. “Today was my first day back since me and my brother stopped living with our parents.”

“I get that, but you can’t ignore your health too much.” Kumiko then offered a hand to Kana. “Come on. We can take you to an Agency hospital.”

Are you gonna get an ambulance for me?”

“No. We’ll take a bus. It’s not too late.”

“I need to go with her,” Kazu insisted. “She’s my sister, and I can’t leave her alone.”

“That’s fine,” Kumiko replied to him as she pulled her phone out to take pictures of what was left of the magical beast’s corpse. “We’ll all go together. All four of us.”

…

“So she’ll be alright?”

“Yeah,” Kumiko replied to Hana over the phone at the Protection and Research Agency Yokosuka Hospital. “She just needs to get checked out. The Agency let her and Kazu-kun’s internal case worker know about what happened, too.”

“Thank you for taking her,” Hana replied to her from her bed.

“Sorry to wake you up at 9 P.M. on a school night,” Kumiko chuckled.

“No, no, it’s fine. It’s part of my responsibility as your leader.” Hana then yawned. “Me and Ayano-san got back from after-school activities about half an hour ago. Kendo practice ran late since we have a match tomorrow, while the school newspaper went out to meet with the US Navy to do a story about the naval base in the city. We were still both up.”

Riko then emerged from the dorm shower, wrapped in a towel. She asked Hana, “Who’s that?”

“Murata-san,” she told her. “It’s about that girl we rescued two weeks ago. She’s okay, but she had to get checked out for some minor injuries from a battle.”

“Damn, this late?”

“Yeah.” Hana then turned her attention back to Kumiko. “Well, anyway, thanks again for looking after the twins. I’ll talk to you or your girlfriend tomorrow. Goodnight, Murata-san.”

“Goodnight, Miyashita-san,” Kumiko replied before they both hung up with each other. She then sighed and asked her girlfriend, “Sayaka, is Kana-chan’s case worker here yet?”

“Yeah. We should be all set to go.”

“Perfect.” The couple then walked out of the lobby of the hospital together. “Tonight went a lot later than expected. I hope not every night this week is like this.”