Drawn into the Depths
"Did you wake up?"
The unnatural swaying made my eyes open on their own, and I realized the place I was in was quite familiar.
"..."
The reason I called it a "seat" was because beyond the window in front of me stretched a road packed with cars, and I was sitting in the passenger seat of a familiar vehicle.
Without thinking, I tried to sit up, only to be caught by the seatbelt and flop back down. I had no memory of even fastening the belt properly. I had definitely been talking with Undine, and then... no, after that I met the Team Leader...
"Why... am I here...?"
"You don't remember? The Management Team Leader carried you here herself. What exactly happened?"
The Team Leader carried me? That was the hardest thing to believe I'd heard all year.
"Mm, nothing really happened... I was just a little tired."
Glancing to the side, I saw Yerin gripping the steering wheel. The Founder was lying down in the back seat. Since the Founder had been ordered to stay by my side for protection, Yerin—who happened to have the same commute—had also been instructed to travel with me. She must have been forced to leave work late because of me, yet instead of complaining, she was genuinely worried.
"So... are you feeling better now? Want a glucose candy?"
Even while keeping her eyes on the road, she reached out with practiced ease and held out a few glucose candies she'd already nibbled on from the cup holder. Declining, I leaned back comfortably against the seat and turned my gaze out the window. The familiar scenery told me we were already almost home.
"No, I feel fine after sleeping a bit."
"What on earth did you do to get so tired... Ah."
She cut herself off, suddenly pressing her shoulders together and gripping the steering wheel tightly. Her flushed profile made it obvious what kind of fantasy she was having without needing to ask. Was that all she ever thought about?
"It's not what you're thinking, so don't say unnecessary things."
"Huh...? Unnecessary? What were you thinking?"
She actually doubled down with shameless innocence. On any other day my own switch might have flipped, but today I simply wasn't in the mood. How to describe it? The morning after being thoroughly wrung out, my head felt heavy and sluggish from fatigue, yet my mind was strangely clear—almost too clear—as if it were forcing me to objectively examine myself.
"You're... not saying anything else?"
She kept glancing over with that cute, expectant gesture, clearly hoping to be teased, but I felt no desire to play along. Was it really just because I was tired?
"There's a kid in the back. Don't make me say things like that."
"Ah... right... No, wait, we shouldn't treat the Founder like a child...!"
Fortunately, the Founder stirred and sat up, showing interest in our conversation and saving Yerin's attempt from fizzling out completely.
Once I got home and lay down on the soft bed, I'd probably feel better after a proper sleep... But this change continued to grow more pronounced in my daily life throughout the week the Observer had ordered.
Even when Nero climbed onto the bed and wrapped her arms around mine, pressing her soft chest against me, or when Harpy shyly smiled and linked arms with me, for some reason I felt nothing. I became clearly aware of it after seeing Rav's change. The Rav who usually transformed into the ideal form of whatever woman I desired and constantly tried to seduce me had, for the past few days, greeted me in the appearance of a young girl and only played board games with me in an innocent manner. That was undoubtedly because of me.
It wasn't that my feelings for them had cooled. I could say that with certainty. Still, it was unsettling that my lower body—which would normally have reacted even to the slightest glimpse of cleavage—remained completely unresponsive.
"And the cause is probably..."
Kiiing...
Following the opening door, I stepped into a white, spacious room. This was Undine's containment chamber—the place I'd been visiting every afternoon for the past week at the Team Leader's urging to fulfill my promise with Undine. Following the translucent blue shadow cast on the floor by the light passing through her body, I raised my gaze... and there she was, as always, greeting me with her gentle smile.
Welcome, dear.
Her body of rippling blue light reminded me of clear river water so transparent you could see the bottom. If I were to sink into it, I felt I might never be able to escape. It was so pure that its depth was impossible to gauge at a glance.
"...Undine."
Her form was unmistakably that of a beautiful, voluptuous woman, yet her sheer size was so overwhelming that it made me feel like a dwarf. I instinctively swallowed and looked up to greet her.
Yes.
She answered sincerely, her transparent eyes showing a smile filled with maternal affection. I made a resolution in my heart. Today marked the end of the week. The Team Leader hadn't pressured me, but after hearing what the Founder's younger sister—the pure white girl—had said, I couldn't just let it pass. This was the moment change was needed.
...And before that, I needed to clearly identify the strange sense of dissonance I'd felt over the past week.
"You already know I can hear the voice in your heart, right?"
It was something I'd learned through Mini Undine's memories, but I brought it up again for a different reason.
Of course. Thanks to that, it's so much easier to talk like this.
"And that also means that, in front of me, lies generally don't work."
There was something I wanted to ask her.
Dear...?
She might find it unpleasant, but for what I had to do going forward, I needed confirmation first.
"Undine, please answer honestly, just like you've always done until now."
...Yes, of course.
"...Then I'll ask right away."
The thought of stopping midway kept surfacing, but in the end I voiced what I'd wanted to ask.
"Over the past few days, have you been doing something while I was unconscious?"
Upon arriving at her containment room, I would first take off my clothes and be swallowed by her wave-like body, where we would talk about various things—mostly stories about the women I'd met so far. I hadn't brought up the topics; Undine had asked about them. Yet every time, I would lose consciousness at some point, only to wake up hours later surrounded by her sticky form.
Mm... Dear, about that...
After these so-called conversations—or rather, counseling sessions—with her, I was always left with a deep sense of lethargy that forced a choice upon me. My body, exhausted beyond recovery, naturally focused on rest and prioritized only the most essential tasks. In fact, recently I hadn't even been able to help Arachne, and after work I would head straight to bed, spending most of my time at home asleep.
...But something was strange. I clearly remembered Undine previously clearing away all my fatigue. For the past week, whether by choice or necessity, I had been focused solely on Undine. Glug...
"?!"
I noticed the blue liquid had already risen to my ankles and hurriedly tried to lift my feet, but it was impossible. This wasn't ordinary water, after all—it was already gripping my ankles tightly, melting my shoes and socks.
"Undine?! What is this—"
Don't be scared, dear.
Before I could even say I would take off my clothes myself, her freely moving hair had already wrapped around me thoroughly, leaving me unable to move. Gluck...!
You heard what Joker said before, didn't you?
"The Team Leader's...?"
A delicious-looking dear has already entered not just my mouth, but my stomach. I can't exactly stay indifferent, can I?
Indifferent...? Now that she mentioned it, I did recall hearing something like that... or maybe not. So that goose story back then hadn't been simple advice, but a warning...
In an instant, Undine dissolved my clothes completely, exposing my bare body under the containment room lights. Her cool, soft body wrapped around me tightly and pulled me in. There was no way for me to resist.
"Wait a—"
It wasn't a matter of strength. No matter how hard I flailed my limbs, it felt no different from struggling underwater, and the more I moved, the deeper I was sucked in—like a dangerous swamp.
Your body is so simple, dear. Just a little pleasure and a young male's thick desire keeps pouring into my body.
I flinched. At first I didn't fully understand what Undine meant, but it didn't take long to realize. The moment I arrived at her containment room, my lower body would react as if nothing had been wrong. Though she had left my face exposed for now, her body—soft and fully pressed against mine—suddenly made a strange movement.
"Undine...! Wait?! Mmph..."
Before I could even call for help, she pushed me completely into her body, face and all. Without giving me a chance to resist, she forced the writhing liquid through my mouth and nose, preventing me from suffocating. The sensation sweeping over my entire body felt less like being swept away by rapids and more... pleasurable. She was deliberately stimulating my now completely defenseless body with clear intent. And my lower body was no exception.
Here we go... ♡