210. Running into each other in an alley.
210. Running into each other in an alley.
"Chrono~♡"
"What."
"Just."
".........."
I just felt like calling your name♡
Hestia hugged my arm between her breasts.
'....Seriously.'
I wished she'd stop.
If you asked whether it felt good or bad, well, I wasn't some eunuch bastard so of course it felt good.
But life isn't decided solely by what you like or dislike, you know?
"Daughter...?"
Look right now at Theia in front of me.
Her eyes were trembling, and she looked utterly spaced out, unable to grasp reality.
She tried to maintain her reason by drinking coffee and taking deep breaths, but Ultimately, she just shook her head back and forth as if she still had no idea what was going on.
The questions she might ask had multiplied into branching tangents, so she wasn't even attempting to ask anything at all.
In stark contrast, Hestia, as if she'd seen it all before, climbed right onto my lap and hugged me.
The way she was so brazen about it...
"Customer... this kind of behavior inside our shop is difficult for us."
"Ah, sorry!"
Ultimately, a cafe employee came over and told them off.
Hestia, as if there was no helping it, stood up while holding my hand.
"Since it's come to this, let's go to a motel!"
"Oh come on.""Daughter?!"
Whether she couldn't read the room, or just wasn't reading the room.
I thought the latter was more likely, but Hestia didn't care about such things.
She pulled my hand more strongly and forced me up.
As she dragged me along, apparently aiming to go all the way to a motel, Theia grabbed my other arm and blocked our path.
"Huh? Mom wants to come along too?"
"That's... that's not the issue right now!"
"Doing it with Mom too... I might not hate it."
"Wh-What the hell are you saying right now?!!"
What was she saying, indeed.
I suspected it was a very Greek solution to the problem.
Since bestiality and incest were the default baseline in that neighborhood.
'You'll be comfortable once you let it all go.'
History that was going to disappear anyway.
As I stayed still, adopting a come-what-may attitude, Theia stomped her feet in apparent frustration.
"Hestia. I understand your feelings. But isn't there a time and place? Now is the time to focus on other matters."
"? This is the time and place, though?"
"......Daughter...!"
My daughter, has changed....!
She went beyond just pupil-dilating shock; her reason itself was visibly clouding over.
Actually, Hestia's statement wasn't completely baseless.
Because doing serious hymen-annihilating sex was only possible now, while regression was an option.
So the conditions of that 'time' and 'place' did actually match up, but...
"What on earth... what on earth did you two do...?"
"............."
I couldn't bring myself to say that we'd held a mock wedding followed by serious sex.
When I simply maintained my silence without a word, Theia slowly let go of my arm.
"Fine... If you two like it that much, what can I even do about it."
She finally let go of my arm as if she'd given up.
A look of resignation.
Hestia approached Theia at that.
"Hmm?"
"...? Daughter?"
"Hmm.... Hmmmmm....!"
She scrutinized Theia.
Then she tilted her head and brought her face to Theia's ear, whispering.
"──,...───?"
A tiny whisper.
And then.
"Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-What are you talking about?!!"
Startled out of her wits, Theia jumped to her feet.
Hestia, still with a grinning smile, poked Theia in the ribs repeatedly.
"Seeing that reaction, I'm right, aren't I."
"What... how old do you think I am...."
"If you go by outward appearance, you look like you're in your 20s, though?"
"....Hestia...!"
Kyeeeah♬
Hestia scurried over to me and hid behind my back.
"Euuk.... euuuk....!"
"....Huh?"
She was trembling.
Soon after, my eyes met hers.
".........."
"...Uuuhm??"
She bowed her head deeply.
I still couldn't quite grasp the situation.
"Alright, alright, let's hurry and go outside?"
"Yes? Uh.... yes."
Since we had to get outside anyway.
We left Theia alone there and came out.
Hestia was still smiling with my arm held in her embrace.
"Mm, mm. Family takes after each other, after all!"
"........."
Family takes after each other.
Hestia and Theia were alike.
'...Which means.'
It was probably something absolutely impossible in reality,
but precisely because it wasn't reality, it was a plausible assumption.
My thoughts sorted themselves out as I slowly walked forward.
"Family. Hestia. A moment ago."
'What are you talking about.'
'How old do you think I am.'
'If you go by outward appearance, you look like you're in your 20s.'
And──family takes after each other, right.
'....No way.'
Just in case, I spoke to Hestia.
"So, did the conversation end well?"
"Huh? What conversation?"
"You did whisper, so I said you whispered, but I heard all of it anyway, that one."
"Ah... really?"
"Yes. Anyway, Hestia, are you really going to be okay with it?"
No matter how 'Greek' it was.
At the low-toned remark I added.
"Hmm... but even so, incest was a pretty common occurrence, you know? And strictly speaking, there isn't even a blood relation."
"............."
I slowly put my hand to my forehead.
'Ah, please.'
With this, suspicion turned into certainty.
Hestia had proposed a mother-daughter combo, or something similar, to Theia, and Theia had refused it.
That was the established fact.
And the part after that was....
[Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-What are you talking about?!!]
'....This is also a maybe, but.'
It was purely a domain of speculation, but.
I questioned Hestia once more.
"She didn't seem entirely opposed to it... Hestia, are you really okay with that?"
"Yeah~~ I dislike it a little bit, but I love Mom even more than that, so!"
"Fuck."
"Huh? What did you say?"
"Nothing."
So she didn't hate it.
Even after witnessing it with my own eyes, just in case, I'd run a secondary verification on Hestia.
If she had hated it, she would have denied it or denied the possibility.
Nevertheless, the fact that the conversation moved on naturally meant only one thing.
'Let's get the hell out of here, fast.'
Before I ended up becoming a piece of trash in that mold who even went for a mother-daughter combo.
I hurriedly took Hestia's hand and walked out of the city.
...
..
.
─Tung... tuwung.....
"Has it shrunk a bit?"
Outside the city.
A barrier shaped like a translucent dome.
Only there was one difference: it felt like it had shrunk slightly in size compared to the last time I came.
"....So it wasn't just a feeling, it really did shrink."
I gauged the measure by looking at the buildings.
It was about 1 block smaller than the last time I was here.
Watching the radius shrink slowly, little by little, even now, it looked like cutting off the 'Time' had been effective.
'On top of that, the barrier form is a hemisphere, so.'
The barrier would shrink increasingly faster, at an exponential rate.
And if maintaining the barrier eventually became impossible, the barrier would break and we could escape outside.
"I know it's happening, but it's a bit of a shame."
"A shame, you say?"
Hestia gave a bitter smile.
Indeed, from Hestia's perspective, there was no helping but to feel regret.
"Definitely. Now you can't live it up however you want anymore, can you, Hestia?"
"Yeah. At best, it'll probably be about a week? Though it'll probably end before then...."
Still, it's a shame.
Such a shame. It's too much of a shame.
"Once the regression is over, after that...."
"...After that, whatever."
Nothing special.
We'd just live normally.
Hestia silently leaned her head on my shoulder.
"...I hope there'll be days like this again later."
"I'll try my best."
"!,.....Hee♡"
"Huh? Eo... eoeoeo?!"
Suddenly, Hestia threw herself at me as if pouncing on me.
Unable to withstand the weight, I was pushed back against the wall, and Hestia placed her palm flat beside my head.
─Tak!
"How can our Chrono's words be this pretty?"
"...Hestia?"
Kabedon. She placed her hand on my cheek as I was half-slumped down.
A gentle, soft touch. In contrast, her eyes were gradually deepening, growing more intense and smoldering.
"Hey... we're outside right now, you know?"
"Yeah. So what?"
"No. I said we're outside?"
Was this person in her right mind right now?
Even though I kept saying we were outside, and even saying it was daytime, she kept closing in on me.
"Even if we let the act itself slide, we have to pick the time and place a little...!"
"Everyone did this back in the Greek era, though?"
"Ah fuck!"
That damned Greece.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do, so why was she running on Greek time here?
"Thanks for the meal....♡"
"....Hik!"
Ultimately, as a minimal compromise, we decided to enter a nearby alleyway.
I wondered if this was right, but a wrong answer was still an answer.
But then...
"...Chrono?"
"Huh?"
Why was Theia over there?
************************
Meanwhile, around that time. In Theia's case.
"............"
She'd returned home.
She read a book. Nothing registered.
Ultimately, she kept going over the same page countless times, meaninglessly turning and flipping the paper back and forth.
"...Sigh."
She couldn't seem to calm down.
Sighs kept leaking out continuously.
'Hestia, you see....'
Got herself a boyfriend, she said.
Someone she liked. That child, usually so proper, had gone so far as to climb onto a man's lap and act all aegyo.
A complete transformation.
But that expression had looked so full of happiness.
'I too... was like that once, a long time ago.'
But what about now?
She was a widow. A widow with two children, at that.
On top of that, the laughable fact that not a single one of them was her own child.
"Maybe... I should have conceived a child when I was given permission?"
Her husband had been a seedless watermelon.
So no matter how much they tried, they couldn't conceive.
That's how the answer that eventually came out was──to join with a man who wasn't her own and have a child.
At that time, feeling such a huge sense of betrayal, she'd fought him, asking how he could do that, and it ultimately ended with them adopting children, but.
Thinking about it now, maybe it would've been better to have done it....
"....Fuuuuu."
No, let's stop thinking.
The more she thought, the more she felt like she was sinking deeper into a mire.
At times like this, this was exactly when she needed to do something like exercise or take a walk to change her thoughts.
"Then...."
Where should she go?
Just, let's go anywhere.
If she just walked wherever her feet took her, that would be enough.
Theia came outside and plodded forward.
─Tuwung!
"Ah!.....Huh, huuuh...?"
But.
─Tung....
"....Huh?"
Something like a transparent wall had blocked her way?
She could clearly see the path ahead, but she actually couldn't move forward.
Something was strange.
Something, something was too strange.
"G...Go back home."
She turned her steps around.
─Tuwung!
".............."
The front was blocked again.
Her way was blocked outright by a transparent wall.
'....What is this..?'
The terror of being blocked by an invisible wall.
Unable to advance, nor retreat.
That a place she'd been able to pass through just moments ago was now blocked by a transparent wall she could no longer go through.
"......Eut...!"
Someone was watching her.
Someone was trying to harm her.
She had to run away. But where should she flee?
"Ph...Phone...."
She had to make a call.
If it was Chrono, he could save her.
Theia hurriedly took out her phone and tried to make contact.
[────]
"Huh...huh...?"
But the call wouldn't go through.
No, the phone itself had abruptly died in an instant.
"Why... is it....."
It had worked just fine only moments before.
The phone suddenly turned off. She was boxed in on all sides.
"....Eut.... eueut....!"
Fear.
An indescribable, unknown fear.
The moment her heart was filled to bursting with the urge to run away this very instant.
─Hwiiii...
"Wind...?"
Wind.
Where the wind passed through, there was an empty space.
"......Ah!"
Her deliberation was short, and her action came bursting out immediately.
Where the wind blew. She ran, following where the wind flowed.
It seemed as if she was being guided by something, yet she was too afraid to just wait still anyway.
"Haa...! Haa! Haa!"
She ran.
She sprinted.
She bolted forward.
Running, running, just continuously running.
─Haaah...♡
"Haaoo, ha... haaah...?"
At the end of that, she heard someone's voice.
A person. There was a person beyond that.
With a single heart full of hope for help, Theia ran and dashed towards the alley from which the sound was coming.
And so.
"...Chrono?"
"Huh?"
The sight of Chrono engaging in a sexual act with Hestia.
Simultaneously, Theia could feel the transparent wall that had been confining her vanish.