"So that’s what it meant."
Those were the scratches Natsumi had made on my face with her nails.
When I lightly rubbed my cheek, stinging a little, the wounds had already vanished.
"I’m a little jealous of that kind of regeneration."
"Doesn’t Itsuka-kun have it too?"
It wasn’t like I was the only one with regeneration.
His just worked on a slightly different principle than mine.
In my case, it was more like my body’s time was forcibly rewound because of my immortality, restoring me to my original state. His was more like flames flickering like a phoenix as flesh regenerated.
Wait. Come to think of it, if Itsuka-kun had regeneration too, why were there still scratches on his cheek?
"Ah, small scratches don’t regenerate for me."
"I see."
According to Itsuka-kun, minor wounds didn’t heal, and only injuries serious enough to be fatal would regenerate.
That was a strangely convenient yet inconvenient ability.
"Enough small talk. Come over here."
The commander called me and Itsuka-kun over and showed us a graph.
A graph whose values kept fluctuating erratically.
It was probably Natsumi’s mental state.
"Is this Natsumi’s mental state?"
"That’s right. It goes up and down a bit, but it’s nowhere near a level where we can seal her."
"Well, yeah. Natsumi seems to hate her real self."
Even from the brief conversation I’d had with Natsumi, it was obvious she hated the way she really looked.
To be more precise, it would be more accurate to say she lacked confidence in her true form.
She’d even said she looked shabby right now, and if you looked at the graph, there was definitely a negative side to it.
"If she didn’t feel that way, she wouldn’t have transformed."
"Yeah, fair enough."
But to me, there was definitely charm in Natsumi’s true appearance too.
Her skin was in pretty good shape, and her hair was a little rough, but that had its own appeal.
And her face was cute, too.
'Isn’t this basically humblebragging?'
The thought came to me naturally.
"From where I’m standing, she’s already plenty attractive as she is..."
As I said that while looking at Natsumi on the monitor, Itsuka-kun beside me offered an opinion.
"...Wouldn’t it be good if Natsumi could realize that herself?"
"Oh, that’s a good idea."
The biggest reason we couldn’t seal Natsumi right now wasn’t her affection level, but her mental state.
She was so down on herself that her mental state had worsened, which made her unstable and impossible to seal.
If, in that situation, she realized her own charm and stopped putting herself down?
Her mental state would improve, and we could resume our approach on Natsumi.
There was just one problem.
"She’s someone who even used transformation to hide her real self, though?"
Like the commander said, she disliked her true appearance enough to hide it with a transformation.
If you already dislike something, all you can see are the flaws, so making her like her own true form was the key task here.
How was I supposed to solve that?
"Hmm... transformation...?"
Then a phrase suddenly came to mind.
'A woman’s makeup is a transformation.'
I’d seen that line a lot in my past life, and Gyeongsik had said it too. It was all over the internet as well.
Since Natsumi thought she was ugly right now, wouldn’t it be enough to dress her up with makeup or something?
"Maybe we should try dressing you up... with makeup or something?"
So I said what I was thinking, and the two of them looked at me and widened their eyes.
"Oh? What a coincidence."
"We were thinking the same thing."
As soon as we realized our thoughts matched, we immediately started making plans.
*******
After turning off all the lights in the isolation room where Natsumi had been held and kidnapping her, we headed to a room provided by [Ratatoskr].
Inside were various beauty products and Miku.
Yes, that Miku—the crazy psycho lesbian Miku.
She was in a fairly stable state now, but when she first met Natsumi, it had been a total disaster.
"Darling! Who is that girl? Is she a present?"
"Why would she be!"
She was the type to lose her mind the moment she saw a woman, so calming her down took some work.
Honestly, I’d almost regretted dragging Miku into this.
The reason I’d brought Miku into the plan was simple: she was an idol.
Since idols sing and dance in front of people, I figured she’d know a lot about skin care and beauty.
Fortunately, that guess had been right, and Miku had agreed to help with the plan.
Or maybe she just wanted to satisfy her own desires.
Anyway, everything was ready, so I lifted the burlap sack and freed Natsumi.
"Pwah!"
Apparently breathing had been uncomfortable inside the sack, because after letting out a big gasp, Natsumi froze and looked around.
"...Huh? What? Where is this?"
Miku greeted the flustered Natsumi with a smile.
"Welcome to our one-day-only esthetic salon! Welcome to Salon de Miku~"
"Huh!? What is this supposed to be?"
"What else? An esthetic salon, just like Miku said."
To be honest, I didn’t really know what an esthetic salon was either.
I was just repeating what Miku said.
But if I showed that I didn’t know, I had no idea what would happen, so I answered calmly.
"Wait, I don’t get what that means!"
Natsumi, saying she didn’t understand why she’d been dragged to an esthetic salon, suddenly looked like she might cry.
"You’re making me do this so you can laugh at the sight of an ugly girl who’s fallen for her own delusions――ghk!"
The commander’s hand blade came down toward Natsumi’s head as she kept wallowing in self-pity.
The commander, who had been watching her, apparently couldn’t take it anymore and came out personally to stop her words.
"Enough. Just lie down already. We’re on a schedule."
"Schedule...?"
Natsumi tilted her head, unable to understand.
Then I explained our plan to her.
"Natsumi. Today, we’re going to use every method we can think of and every method we can pull off to transform you. If we succeed, we win. If nothing changes, you win."
Our plan was a Natsumi transformation project disguised as a wager.
We’d dress Natsumi up and make her gain confidence in her original appearance.
If we lost, it would be a little troublesome, but we’d even gotten help from Marina and Maria, our top-performance AIs, so losing wasn’t an option.
"Oh, and if you win, you can do whatever you want."
"Whatever I want...? What do you mean...?"
"For example, how about this? I’ll let you go wherever you want. In other words, I’ll completely release you."
At my words, Natsumi closed her eyes and started thinking.
She was probably calculating the pros and cons in her head.
But she had no choice but to accept.
She’d seen my strength, and the most realistic choice she had right now was to take our wager.
If she refused here, there was no telling what we might do to Natsumi, so in the end she’d have to accept.
I didn’t know who came up with it, but creating a death-or-death choice like this.
How evil.
[That evil came from your own head.]
Marina said that over the intercom, but I had no idea what she was talking about.
I wasn’t the only one making plans. We all made this plan together.
Human nature really was evil after all.
"Fine."
After a little while, Natsumi apparently made up her mind and opened her closed eyes, staring straight at me.
"I’ll accept that wager. If I win, you really will let me go, right?"
Seeing Natsumi accept the bet, I grinned and said,
"Yeah, of course."
If she won, I really did plan to let her go.
She’d probably be chased again, but I had promised to release her.
That meant I wouldn’t be lying.
"I’ll show you, Natsumi. That your current self, not the transformed version using an angel’s power, is more than attractive enough."
As I declared that with a smile, Natsumi turned away and told me not to talk nonsense.
That slightly catlike expression almost made me blurt out what I was thinking.
[Ugh. Lolicon.]
I ignored Marina’s nonsense and stepped out of the room, then said to Miku,
"Then, Miku. I’m counting on you."
"Leave it to me~"
I was a man and Natsumi was a woman, so there was no way I could touch her back.
That was why I had no choice but to leave everything to Miku and step out of the room.
As I left, I couldn’t stop worrying about what would happen if Miku went off the rails.
Still, Miku was an idol, and she knew very well that this was an approach attempt.
I believed she wouldn’t cause any trouble.
-Haaah... haaah....
And yet why did the image of Miku with unfocused eyes, a flushed face, and breath so wet you could see it keep popping into my head?
'Miku, I can trust you, right...?'
Honestly, I was pretty worried.
"Hiki, what are you doing standing there?"
"Ah, no. I’m coming."
At the commander’s call, I shook my head and erased the strange image of Miku from my mind.
'I have to trust her.'
Miku knew how to keep work and private matters separate, so I decided to trust her.
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