Noboru Summoned a Succubus

Where are you Hanako?

Where could she have been?

I couldn’t think straight. There were no special, romantic spots where we had shared important memories. There were no cliche parks or forests or secret hideouts that I could suddenly remember where she would be waiting for me.

The sun hung low outside my window, as if to signal that I was running out of time.

A horrible thought suddenly pierced my mind.

What if she returned to the Nether?

I gripped my phone in my pocket.

She had one too. She took it everywhere she went. I had never so much as called her before, but wherever she was, it should have been with her.

Was it too late? Had I already gone past the point of no return?

Don’t think about it.

I called her on DINE.

One ring.

Two rings.

Three.

No response.

But at the same time, I didn’t hear a ring or buzz anywhere around the house either. Which meant she had it with her.

I called again.

One ring.

Two rings.

Three.

I wouldn’t give up.

One ring.

Two rings.

Three.

One ring.

Two rings.

…

“Hanako! Where are you!?”

She answered.

There was no response on the other side. But she answered.

“I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have run away. B- but I want to apologize! I want to talk to you properly!”

No response.

“You’re still here, right? You didn’t… return to the Nether, did you?”

Why didn’t she say anything? What could I say to get her to acknowledge me?

What was she thinking?

Was her lack of response just a somber way of telling me that it was too late after all?

“I- I command you! As your master! Don’t go back! Tell me where you are so we can talk things out properly!”

“Shoutarou…”

She was there. I breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m sorry. I lied to you. We don’t have a master-servant pact. We never did.”

“W-what? What do you mean!?”

“When you summoned me, you never used your own blood to seal the pact. So thus, the ritual was never duly completed.”

Hot sauce.

I used hot sauce.

So what?

“I don’t care! I don’t care about some ritual, or pact, or whatever! I’m commanding you not to leave because I don’t want you to! I don’t want to lose you Hanako! Is that not enough!?”

My throat was already hoarse, and I could feel myself tearing up. But even so, I couldn’t give up. At least now, I had to follow through where I couldn’t in the past.

I could hear a light sniffle on the other side of the line.

“N- no need to worry, Master. I’ve only gone for a light walk in the park by our home. But if you insist, I suppose I’ll wait for you here.”

There was a slightly sly shift of tone on the last line.

Joking at a time line this…

“Shit! Then say that to begin with!”

Dammit, Hanako. I’m coming to sort things out.

I ran back out to inform Hiroshi of her location.

She was nearby. And she was waiting for me like she always did.

I was feeling fired up.

~

“Hanako!”

There she was. Clad in nothing but her skimpy uniform, she sat by a park bench with Bella calming resting in her lap. She was stroking her like a cat while wearing a soft smile.

“W-what are you wearing out in pub- AGH! Nevermind! We don’t have time!”

She giggled. This was the Hanako that was so important to me. It didn’t matter if she was a human, or a succubus, or a plant. I wanted to stand side-by-side with her all the same.

“I’ve thought about things between us. And I’ve decided.”

She calmly opened her ears for me, with a silent nod.

Was she nervous? I sure was.

It didn’t help that Hiroshi could hear everything not far behind us, but he clearly kept a bit of a distance to give us some space.

“You were right. We don’t love each other. We don’t have some sort of manga romance like either of us had hoped. But that has nothing to do with you being a demon, or a succubus, or anything like that. You were wrong about that.

“I am afraid of you. And there are sides to you that I’m still unsure of. But that’s only because I never really tried to get to know you. Your past; your honest feelings; I’ve been trying so hard to toss guesses about you all this time. But really, I should have asked.”

She was visibly surprised by my words. As was I. I didn’t know I had this sort of confidence in me. I wasn’t even entirely sure of what I was saying. But I did know that I had to follow through. For the sake of my relationship with Hanako.

“I’ve never experienced something like romance–or love. I don’t need any of that. I’m different from most people. I have a hard time relating with others, and yet I’ve been so confused by the fact that I can’t experience things in the same way that they do. I’m defective! Of course my personal developments are going to be weird!

I don’t need anything like labels! I don’t want a traditional romance anymore! Instead, I’d much rather continue to explore what we have right now. I want to stay with you, in whatever form that takes.”

I heaved in for air. I was entirely out of breath.

I wanted to sit down, but the only seat here was already occupied by Hanako. And sitting next to her all casually didn’t really feel like an option at the moment.

She was beet red.

…Did I just confess?

What was this feeling?

There were butterflies in my stomach.

I looked back at Hiroshi, who was awkwardly looking away from me.

“I- I need some time to think about it!”

Hanako awkwardly blurted something out.

“I just- I don’t- uhm…”

She was fidgeting like crazy.

What the heck? This demon girl was adorable.

“My heart is- is beating really fast right now… I- I don’t quite know what to do.”

“Eh?”

EHHHH?

It wasn’t just her. My chest was pounding so hard I thought I’d start bleeding out my ears.

“I apologize. Uhm… Sh- shout- sh… Master.”

She buried her face in her hands, and I could see her tail peek out behind her. It was almost spinning.

She couldn’t even say my first name. This was awkward as hell.

“Oh yeah! Noboru!”

I almost forgot. And to my own discredit, I only remembered him in my desperate attempt to find a way to change the subject so I could fix this horribly awkward situation I had created.

“I need your help to find Noboru! He was kidnapped by a succubus!”

“Saito Noboru? Your friend?”

“Yeah! We’re pretty sure he, uh–oh, this is Hiroshi. Kobayashi Hiroshi.”

I pointed to the boy who was trying his best to mind his own business behind me.

“Sorry… I told him about you.”

No, but she’d probably be happy about that, wouldn’t she?

Sure enough, her smile got wider. Slightly devious, even.

“So this is Kobayashi… I see. Nice to formally meet you.”

He wouldn’t make direct eye contact with her. Figures, considering she was a live demon after all. I had a similar apprehensive read.

Hanako stood up and sniffed into the air.

Well, I can just about pinpoint his location. Not to worry; your friend is alive, though he seems to be in quite a bit of distress.

“Can you take me to him!?”

“You alone should be enough. Bella, if you would?”

Hanako was back to her confident, care-free self. Still, I didn’t understand what she was saying.

“Y- you’re not coming with?”

She unfolded Bella’s flaps and sprung her open with a bit of joyful vigor. Her movements were as elegant as the first time I saw her.

“That’s not necessary! Trust me. Bella will lead you there.”

She handed the umbrella off to me. I took the handle, no less confused.

Though if Hanako so confidently insisted, maybe it would be-

“EHHHHH!?”

All of the sudden. My feet lifted from the ground with a mighty gust of wind, and I started to wisp off into the air.

“Both hands, Master!”

As I was raised higher and higher, I couldn’t help but spring onto Bella for my dear life.

“I-if you drop me, I’ll never forgive you…”

I looked up at her, but there was no response.

Actually, we might have sped up a little.

We flew higher and higher, all the way up until Hanako and Hiroshi were no more than specs in my vision. I could see almost all of Tokyo from above. The lights; the cars; the people. They were all part of one big ecosystem. It reminded me of when I first flew into the city with my sister from Kashihara.

I had said goodbye to all of my previous friends from elementary school, as well as my mother. I didn’t understand back then why Koyuki and I were moving away. Even now, I wasn’t entirely aware of the reason. Koyuki refused to talk about our parents. Anytime it got brought up, she always spouted on about “moving forwards, not backwards”.

I was so confident back then; I even had friends. It was strange, how such a life felt so foreign to me. I had changed so much over these past three years that I couldn’t ever imagine being the person I once was back then.

But what I had now wasn’t bad either.

That said, make no mistake. I was thoroughly terrified throughout our entire time in the air.

As we approached Saitama, Bella lowered our altitude bit by bit until I safely landed right by Agikase Bridge.

I looked back up at Bella, who stood tall and proud in my hand as if she had just done something really cool.

“You’d better not expect me to thank you for that. You’re not Mary Poppings.”

I got whacked.

It was hard to see properly, but I could hear somebody crying from under the bridge. It sounded too feminine to be Noboru, though considering I had no other leads, it had to at least have something to do with his kidnapping.

Maybe there had been multiple victims?

I cautiously stepped through the grassy hill as we approached the bridge’s underbelly. Bella was firmly gripped in my hand, just in case I needed to whack somebody.

Not that I was any kind of fighter, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to make her think I was willing to use her in that way. I wasn’t oblivious to how purposely rocky that flight was; she had been enjoying my near-death experience to the fullest.

As I approached the corner preparing to peek in, I caught a snippet of a male voice.

“It- it’s gonna be fine! Ugh… L-look, I was just a little startled! W-why don’t do it again!”

…Noboru?

The girl was still bawling, but despite that her voice was loud and brash.

“No! No way! Y- you started crying! And we’re under a bridge right now! What the h-hell kind of first time would that be!?”

“You’re the one who brought us here!”

“Waaa! You’re blaming me now, huh!? I can’t believe you! I didn’t know what to do! And- and people were looking, so I just kind of took off! Sorry that I saved our asses!”

What… the hell was going on?

“Uhm…”

I actually felt a bit bad butting in, but my curiosity got the best of me.

“Noboru…?”

“S- Shoutarou! Man! What’re you doing here!”

“What- you got kidnapped! We’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

“Woah dude, no need to get so loud. Look. I, uh… man, when you put it like that, I guess I did get kidnapped, huh… But hey, it’s not my fault! This bitch straight up snatched me and flew away!”

“And now you’re calling me a bitch! Boo hoo…”

“Shit! Uh, I’m sorry! I, like, I didn’t mean it that way! Y’know, like… bitch in Japan is actually a compliment!”

“Like I’d fall for that, idiot!”

The girl beside Noboru, with short, stubby horns and massive, claw-like hands, was obviously the succubus in question. Even if the ridiculously in-human form didn’t give it away, the lingerie which was styled similarly to Hanako’s definitely did. She even had a fluffy tail which twirled about as she cried with great exaggeration.

Who did she think she was fooling?

Though I still wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, I already got the feeling I had been worrying over nothing.

“Oh, Shoutarou! By the way, I did it! I summoned a succubus! Look, here she is! Isn’t she smoking hot!? No tits, but she’s still a catch, don’t you think?”

“AGH, I’ve had enough with you, Master! I’ll kill you!”

Shit!

The succubus raised her arm to take a slash at the kid before her, causing him to fall backwards in a panic.

“N-no! Please…!”

I began to run forward with absolutely no plan in sight.

She paused at the sight of Noboru’s terrified face.

“Uhm–wait! Uh, n-not like that! It was just a joke!”

She was pathetic…

I mean, in a good way. A sigh of relief escaped me.

“Ahaha! I was just faking it! You really thought I was gonna cry, didn’t you! Idiot! Bitch!”

“Shut up! Don’t call me a bitch! You were about to bawl like a fucking infant, you little brat!”

“N-no I wasn’t! I faked it, obviously!”

“Agh, I hate this!”

What was I supposed to do about this situation?

“Hey human, what’s your deal? You smell real funny.”

“Shoutarou, man, we’re all the way over here. Do you really smell that bad?”

“Obviously not!”

God dammit, I felt my brain cells shriveling up just from watching these two converse.

At least they were getting along I suppose. It could have been a lot worse.

I looked at Bella, who didn’t offer even a shred of help.

I figured I should just stop thinking.

“I w- was brought here by the succubus Hanako. I’m supposed to… uh, bring you two back.”

“Wait… Hanako? As in Hanako the Romance Guru?”

“Hanako the what?”

“Shit, you’re not fucking around… I can smell her on you. It’s pungent, too. No way, did she really mark a human? That Hanako?”

Mark me?

Like a dog marks its territory?

Did she?

“Shoutarou, what’re you talking about!? Wasn’t Hanako your girlfriend!?”

Shit. I hadn’t thought about the fact that I lied to Noboru about her.

I would have to come clean.

“Sorry, I lied. She’s actually, well… I summoned her. She’s a succubus too.”

I would have to face the repercussions here and now. But maybe I could. I was feeling just a little bit stronger than before.

“Shit dude, that’s sick! What the hell, why did you keep that from me!? We’re like, succubus bros or something!”

Right. I should’ve expected that answer.

“It doesn’t matter! We have to go back and let Kobayashi know you’re okay!”

“What!? Kobayashi knows? Shit, he’s gonna be mad as hell when he finds out…”

“He already knows. He’s… really more worried than anything.”

“Crap man, I gotta go apologize to him. Come on, let’s go. Uh…”

“You did not.”

“Crap. I forgot. Sorry.”

“I can’t believe this idiot! It’s Novella! NO-VE-LLA! Get it into your thick fucking skull!”

“Come on, I can’t help it! It’s been a long day, okay?”

“Jeez… You’d better not forget again, okay Master?”

After everything I went though, it was almost refreshing to see how stupidly carefree this blonde-haired pervert was.

I could almost respect it.

Almost.