There Were Three People, But Only One Actually Kissed?
Tania lowered her head a little and buried her face in my neck.
Her hot breath heated my body, and the sound of her ragged breathing rang nakedly in my ears. The thick scent of lilies made my head spin.
I carefully tried to push her away, but my hands were soon overpowered by hers. Stacked atop mine on the bed, Tania’s hands were so hot I wondered if she had a fever.
Because our bodies were pressed so tightly together, I could feel her through the thin hospital gown. Perhaps it was because Tania herself was wearing nothing but the Academy uniform’s white shirt and skirt. A few scraps of thin fabric did nothing to stop me from feeling her body heat.
“Tania…”
I carefully called her name, but she gave no response, absorbed only in burying her face against my shoulder.
Was it because Tania’s body, half draped over mine, was so hot? I started getting warmer and warmer, and sweat began to form. In an instant, the sweat soaked into my hospital gown. The damp fabric was pressed against my skin by Tania’s weight, clinging to me.
With all this sweat, wouldn’t Tania find it unpleasant, burying her face in my shoulder like that?
“Um… Tania?”
I called carefully again, but still no answer. I tried to push her off with force, but the strength of her grip on my hands was too much—I couldn’t do anything.
So there was this much of a power gap between Tania and me. It was a new realization, but somehow it didn’t scare me. Still, being in this situation… I guess you could say I felt a little pressured? My heart was starting to pound a bit, too.
Tania’s head, which had been buried in my shoulder, began slowly climbing up my neck. Her left cheek brushed against my right cheek, and Tania, lifting her upper body slightly, stared blankly down at me—still with those vacant, unfocused eyes.
Was she trying to let out the heat because her body was so hot? Her mouth was slightly open, and I could just barely see her tongue. Breathing hard like that, she almost looked like a puppy.
She lowered her head again and began slowly descending. This time not toward my shoulder or neck, but toward my face—with her head tilted at an angle.
Before our faces could draw close, our chests—which had briefly separated—pressed together again. At that soft sensation, I found myself thinking, unbidden, that it was a shame we were wearing clothes. If only these scraps of fabric weren’t in the way. I even thought about just ripping them all off right now—but I barely managed to hold myself back.
As I’d said before, if things went that far, I felt like I’d end up doing something very bad to Tania.
And then, just like before, the distance between our faces closed. Tania, who must have thought this was a dream, seemed to be hesitating as well—she froze in the position right before our lips met. Thanks to that, I could feel the soft, pliant touch of her lips brushing lightly against the tip of mine, teasingly.
Just as I felt something in my head about to snap—
“K-kids these days sure are fast…”
A voice came from behind, and at the same moment Tania’s body went completely still. Still pressed against me, her eyes went round as she met my gaze and blinked several times. Then she bolted upright.
I’d thought it was a bit premature for this kind of thing already, but having it interrupted right when we were about to do it left me feeling disappointed.
Still straddling me, Tania blankly tried to process the situation—then her face flushed red as a ripe persimmon. Her pupils lost their focus and trembled wildly.
“Ah, euh, ik…”
She mumbled something incomprehensible, then—bam!—bolted out of the hospital room.
“…….”
A brief silence filled the room, and I called out to Cecilia, who was standing there with her face bright red in an awkward posture.
“Teacher.”
“Y-yes?”
“What brings you here?”
“…I left something here earlier.”
She seemed to be staying at this hospital as well, wearing a patient gown. I asked the beautiful female teacher, who was standing there awkwardly in her hospital clothes:
“You saw, didn’t you?”
“W-what are you talking about~. I’m blind, how could I see anything~.”
She laughed awkwardly. Ha ha.
Of course we hadn’t actually kissed yet… but with Cecilia, there was a chance she’d figured out what we were about to do from the ragged breathing, the slight creaking of the bed, the rustling of the blankets. She knew that herself, which was why she was trying to pretend otherwise.
But people who are flustered can’t answer questions properly. Just like right now!
“From which angle did you see it?”
Cecilia can sense not only her own future, but other people’s as well. Yes… she can clearly experience another person’s future two seconds ahead through all five senses. And Tania and I had been right on the verge of kissing. Which meant…
“I-I didn’t see anything!”
Cecilia was so obviously flustered that anyone would think Oh, she saw it…, then she turned and left the hospital room. On her way out, she bumped into things and stumbled around in a very un-Cecilia-like fashion.
“Hmm…”
Had Cecilia kissed Tania from my point of view, or kissed me from Tania’s point of view? I’d have to ask her later.
There’s something a lot of people misunderstand about Cecilia’s ability.
That she can sense the future two seconds ahead from her own or another person’s perspective. Yes, that much is correct.
But there’s one thing she never tells anyone: the futures Cecilia can see aren’t limited to two seconds ahead. Two seconds is simply the range she can sense without penalty. If she wants, she can check further into the future.
The penalty is that her ability gets sealed for a period depending on how far ahead she looked. Because of this, she never looks more than two seconds ahead during combat. No matter how sharp her senses are, with her ability sealed she’s just someone with good motor skills.
But sometimes, she accidentally overloads her ability. Specifically, when she looks into someone else’s future without any preparation and gets badly flustered.
Yes. Just like now.
“Auuuugh…”
Cecilia’s condition hadn’t been that bad, so before Elysia woke up, she’d briefly stopped by her hospital room. At that time, she’d left the sword she always carried with her in Elysia’s room, so she’d just come back to get it.
And she’d heard some unusual sounds.
Two sets of ragged breathing that sounded extremely excited, the soft sound of bodies sliding across the blankets, the occasional creak of the bed. Even the air felt strangely muggy.
Unfortunately, Cecilia had never heard sounds like that before. If she’d thought a little longer, she might have figured out what they were—but instead, she used her ability to sense the future of one of the people in the room, trying to understand the sounds.
Elysia was still unconscious, so she checked two seconds into the future from the perspective of her friend, Tania.
And Cecilia silently screamed and jumped in place.
Of course she did—the moment she saw the future, she experienced someone else’s tongue entering her mouth for the first time in her life…!
Lips pressed together, two tongues clumsily tangled. Saliva was exchanged, and a sweet taste filled her mouth.
From the perspective of Cecilia, who’d never dated anyone in her life—she’d never even had her first kiss, and yet she’d absurdly learned what a kiss felt like.
And here, Cecilia made two mistakes.
The first was something she would never normally do: her ability went haywire. Because of that, in what was only an instant in reality, Cecilia saw a full hour into the future.
At first, Tania was on top of Elysia, devouring her lips….
But a little further into the future, it was the opposite. Before she knew it, she’d been pushed back and ended up lying on the bed, and Elysia had sat up and climbed on top of Tania.
Unlike before, Tania’s face was flushed bright red, her eyes round with shock as Elysia stole her lips. As if she’d only just woken up, a startled Tania tried to push Elysia away….
Was Elysia stronger than Tania? Or had Tania’s body gone limp? Either way, Elysia didn’t budge an inch….
And exactly one hour into the future, Tania was half-undressed and completely out of it.
Of course, Cecilia experienced every single sensation of that entire sequence with perfect clarity, and she collapsed to the floor, trembling. Someone must have spilled water and not cleaned it up—the floor where she sat was soaking wet.
Staggering, Cecilia barely managed to get up, and then a thought struck her.
The eyes of Elysia looking down at Tania were similar to the ones she’d had two days ago, when she’d danced in that red dress. Vacant and unfocused, as if her mind had left her, with only emptiness swirling inside.
But this time there was a slight difference… those eyes that should have been empty were filled completely with Tania.
Was it because of the water on the floor? Her butt was completely soaked, and droplets dripped down between her legs. Some of them slid down her thighs, tickling her.
With legs trembling as if all strength had left them, Cecilia barely stood—and then she made her second mistake.
Overwhelmed by the bizarre new sensations and experiences, without meaning to, she muttered:
“K-kids these days sure are fast.”
And the fact that, because she’d seen one hour into the future, the penalty left her unable to sense the future for a while—so she bumped into things on her way back—well, that’s another story.