After Rio declared that she hated the idea, Itsuka-kun’s body went rigid.
Before long, he came to his senses again and listened to the commander.
"...Hee~ So the spirits I sealed are going to kiss me~? And..."
Trembling brown eyes turned toward me.
I knew very well why he was looking so flustered.
"What?"
"H-Hieta too...?"
At Itsuka-kun’s words, which were different from before—still rampaging, but visibly flustered and pointing at me with a sour expression—everyone except Rio, who was pressed up against me, nodded.
"No, me and Hieta?"
"Yeah."
"I, I’m not into men..."
It was a little irritating that he was acting normal about this particular part despite being in a rampage, but what was even more annoying was...
"I’m not into men either!?"
...that he was talking like I’d be fine with it.
No, I hate kissing men too, okay!?
I’m not gay, so why the hell would I like that!
"All the refreshing feeling I had until now just flew away..."
A look of loss settled over his face, which had clearly been cheerful a moment ago.
Just how shocking was the fact that he had to kiss a man for him to react like that?
"I’m no different, though."
Honestly, if someone told me I had to kiss a man, I felt like I’d react the same way.
I had actually screamed when I heard it.
"Well, that’s unfortunate, but it can’t be helped. We have to save Shido’s life."
"...Right. It is a shame to lose this power, though."
"Then..."
"But!"
Itsuka-kun, adding that there was a condition to kissing him, then stated what that condition was.
"Up until now, I’ve made you all fall for me so I could seal your spirit power."
"Right?"
That was only natural, since that was the only way he could seal it.
"So this time, you all have to make me fall for you~"
"...Huh?"
Since he had made everyone else fall for him, this time the condition was that we had to make him fall for us. I couldn’t help frowning.
Sure, everyone except me was a girl, so they could make Itsuka-kun fall for them.
But me?
"That’s seriously fucked up."
I’m a guy, so how am I supposed to make him fall for me!
It was already absurd and despair-inducing enough that I had to kiss a man, and now he wanted me to make him fall for me on top of that.
It was the kind of thing that made swearing come naturally.
If I really, really had to make him fall for me too, then the only way would be to give up my identity as a human being—and more specifically as a man—and turn into a woman to do it.
If it had to go that far, I’d rather die.
Ah, right. I can’t even die, can I?
"To be exact, I already like everyone, so saying you have to make me fall for you might not be the best way to put it."
"So what’s the point?"
"However you do it is fine. Just make my heart race."
"What about Hiki?"
"That..."
Looking at Itsuka-kun, unable to answer the commander’s words easily, it seemed like I hadn’t even been considered from the start.
"Hmm..."
Since he still couldn’t find an answer and was deep in thought, I stepped forward first and spoke up.
"Okay, I’ll make you insanely flustered."
If he exposed his shame, and his heartbeat sped up from the embarrassment, then that could also be called getting his heart racing.
Just you wait.
And I’m definitely going to find a way other than kissing.
"No, no, no. Hieta probably doesn’t need to do that. Just, uh, let’s make you an exception."
Seeing him wave his hands and go completely serious, it looked like I didn’t need to join Itsuka-kun’s heart-throbbing grand operation either.
From the start, the reason I was connected to Itsuka-kun was through a machine anyway.
"Then I’ll be looking forward to everyone else, okay?"
Itsuka-kun tried to brush past anything related to me and fly away on a gust of wind.
I didn’t know whether it was because of the rampaging spirit power or whether he had always been able to do it, but I hadn’t expected him to be able to use the Yamai sisters’ abilities so freely.
Still, there was no way I was letting Itsuka-kun go like that.
"Heh heh, Itsuka-kun. Where do you think you’re going?"
I stopped him by grabbing his shoulder and pressing him down.
Where did he think he was running off to?
If he left here now, what was Rio supposed to do?
"You need to take responsibility for Rio."
"Papa, are you leaving...?"
The moment she saw Itsuka-kun trying to run, Rio spoke up with teary eyes, and she really seemed to have a talent for acting.
Are all spirits naturally gifted or something?
When I thought back to the first time I met Rio, she had been a mature child, so she’d probably already quickly judged the situation and moved to stop Itsuka-kun from escaping.
"W-Well, if it’s for our princess..."
"Jeez, you really are a doting dad, huh."
After sighing at Rio’s interference, the commander said that and declared she would do her best to make him fall for her.
******
After stuffing Itsuka-kun into a room on the [Fraxinus] and leaving Rio there as a guard, we gathered in the command room.
"Haa... let’s put Hiki last for now."
"He’ll probably need time to prepare himself mentally."
"...What a considerate kindness."
Since kissing Itsuka-kun was required from the start, being pushed back to the end didn’t really mean much, but it was still a relief because it gave us time to look for another method in the meantime.
"Then the rest is..."
"Ah, how about this!"
"W-What is it, Miku?"
Miku, who had infiltrated the [Fraxinus] as always, proposed one method.
"Everyone should wear swimsuits and seduce him at the pool!"
"...That’s surprisingly a good idea."
For something she’d barged in and suggested on her own, Miku’s idea was pretty decent.
But I felt like I knew exactly why she’d come up with it.
"...You just want to see everyone else in swimsuits."
"Ah! You caught me~ As expected of my darling, you’re sharp."
Her intentions were way too obvious.
The fact that Miku, who didn’t even need to participate in this operation, was offering an opinion was suspicious to begin with.
More than anything, the sticky desire that had been shining in her eyes when she mentioned swimsuits told me exactly what she was after.
"Well... I guess that’s not bad."
"Right~? And while we’re at it, your darling’s swimsuit too..."
"I’m excluded."
For the record, all I was doing in this operation was the final kiss. I wasn’t participating in the plan to make him flustered.
As long as I’m a man, there’s no way Itsuka-kun would get flustered by me, and since our pass is connected through a machine rather than through a kiss, there’s no reason for me to make him fall for me in the first place.
"So, it’s impossible with the machine?"
"...Unfortunately, yes."
When I asked Murasame-san if we could do it with the machine after all, the answer I got was negative.
"Well, if that had been possible, there’d be no reason to make a plan like this..."
Feeling a huge sense of disappointment that it wouldn’t work, I was thinking about whether there really wasn’t any other way.
"Okay, then let’s go with Miku’s idea."
Before I knew it, the plan had shifted to the pool as Miku suggested—more precisely, it had grown into what was basically a so-called fluster-him dome.
"Though, there’s one thing I’m wondering about."
In the middle of that, Ren raised a question.
"What is it?"
"My body is still like this, after all."
Ren pointed to herself as she spoke, and her appearance was still that of a child, about the same as Yoshino.
Her body was still taking on a childlike form because her spirit power hadn’t recovered yet, and compared to before, she definitely looked a little pitiful.
"Can I even seduce Shido with a body like this?"
So it was only natural for Ren to wonder whether she could even seduce Itsuka-kun with her current body.
"That should be fine."
Still, I knew that worry was unnecessary.
"Oh~? And why’s that?"
"Itsuka-kun doesn’t judge people by appearance."
He wasn’t the kind of person who fell for someone just because of their looks.
Of course, from what I’d heard before, Rinne was apparently close to his ideal type, but that didn’t mean he treated everyone else carelessly.
If he were the type to judge only by appearance, the spirits would have found him unpleasant.
And more than anything...
"He even kissed that commander, so why would you be impossible now?"
Yeah, Itsuka-kun had kissed the commander.
That commander.
Seriously, that commander!
"That’s true."
"Right?"
"But does Hieta even realize that Kotori is standing right behind him right now?"
"Huh...?"
At Ren’s words, I turned my stiff neck to look behind me, and there she was: the commander, radiating the aura of a demonic calamity.
"Hee~ Hiki, what exactly do you mean by that?"
"...No, I mean, literally, the commander and Itsuka-kun kissed."
"No, I’m sure that’s not what you meant."
Crack!Crack!
Terrifying sounds rang out from the commander’s clenched fist, and cold sweat poured down my forehead.
I thought I’d said it pretty quietly, but apparently the commander had heard me anyway.
I tried to explain myself, but by then the commander had already figured out what I meant.
"...Please spare me."
The only choice I had was to beg for forgiveness.
"What kind of nonsense are you spouting!!!"
The commander’s fist slammed into my solar plexus.
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