The Total Commander's Welcome
Vendetta
The moment I opened my eyes, what greeted me was not the ceiling of some miserable hovel, but a space so vast it bordered on the grotesque — and within it, row upon row of experimental tubes standing in formation.
Inside the tube directly before me was a woman. A mask with a hose attached was clamped over her mouth, and she hung limp with her eyes closed.
Peculiarly enough, she was dressed in the kind of magical-girl costume I had only ever seen in manga, anime, and web novels.
All around me, women's moans never ceased. They were not purely sweet, either — because mixed in among them were dying screams, raw and guttural: Guhhhk.
"What are you doing?"
"The readings are abnormal. One look should tell you that."
Two figures stood before the tube, speaking like that.
Calling them two people felt imprecise; one person and one organism would have been more accurate. One was a pointed-eared creature of the sort commonly called an elf. The other was far less ordinary.
Instead of a head, it had tentacles. They writhed and undulated in real time, and… yeah. Not great. Where exactly did it speak from?
"Loyalty isn't rising at all."
"Again? But if we keep administering the dose, she'll go completely mad like the others… This is no good."
The elf muttered in incomprehension, then suddenly turned toward me.
"You there. Bring it over. Quickly."
Me?
My mind snapped into focus. I was standing there dazed, holding something heavy in my hands. If what they said was true, I had come all this way to deliver it.
Which meant, in short, that I was bottom-rung labor — the kind that hauled junk around.
"Y-yes. Right away. Coming."
I shuffled forward awkwardly and set it down before them. The elf regarded me for a long moment — a gaze free of malice, pure curiosity and nothing more. As for the tentacles, I couldn't even tell if they had eyes.
A moment later they dismissed me as if I no longer existed and resumed their conversation.
The control panel they were studying was packed with unfamiliar characters and graphs. I had no idea what any of it meant, but some values soared far above the baseline while others plunged well beneath it.
In short: nothing about this was normal.
"So what do we do with this one… Turning her into a mere combatant would be a waste."
"Indeed. You there."
A male voice. Apparently the tentacled researcher.
"Are human hearts truly this complicated? I cannot make sense of it. Not in the slightest."
I was about to say something when the elf cut in.
"Leave him be. This one was captured by the Total Commander several days ago, and all he has done is lie in his room. He seemed determined to die on his own."
"Ah — so this is the one…"
"Yes. The human the Total Commander granted a week's reprieve, and told to look around this place."
"A civilian maintaining his sanity is impressive, truly. Ordinarily, anyone crossing into this space would have gone mad the moment they arrived."
"Indeed. This one cooperates with nothing except hauling cargo. Though that ends today. Time sense is utterly unreliable here."
"Do you not find the time you perceive strange as well?"
The two of them began bickering. This was my chance to sort out the situation.
Strange. Definitely strange. It felt as though I had entered someone else's body. More precisely — as though I were living through someone else's life.
In that instant, an unidentifiable memory flashed through my mind.
Standing in the middle of a city reduced to rubble, clutching my older sister, staring blankly at the sky. Screaming for help while the people called heroes were too busy chasing villains to care.
"What sort of expression is that?"
"According to the data: 'doubt' and 'realization.'"
"Hmm… Last night he shed water droplets from his eyes. Perhaps some memories have returned. Well, if he has caught the Total Commander's interest, he can go painlessly, as he wishes. Come."
When I came back to myself, they were saying that while looking at my face.
Right. If your only family got caught up in some disaster and died, and you alone survived — emptiness would be natural. The person I had possessed before transmigrating had wanted to die.
But whatever this situation was, I had clearly taken over this body. I couldn't just die like this.
Above all, I knew nothing. Meeting this Total Commander first and thinking things through afterward didn't seem like a bad idea — so I followed them without complaint.
"We have brought him."
"Ah. So you have come. Return to your duties."
"Yes, ma'am!"
The two who had escorted me snapped off crisp salutes and withdrew. In the darkness, golden eyes flashed.
Footsteps sounded, and the figure that emerged from the dark was — astonishingly — a woman wearing nothing beneath a coat of something like mink. Not a scrap of undergarment.
In short: complete nakedness. Her hair and breasts provided some cover, but that only inflamed the imagination further.
"Why that look? Ah. I see. Your species tends to react that way upon seeing this body's female aspect. Last time you beheld the male aspect, and it may have scrambled your perception. My apologies."
"So. Has your heart changed? Do you still intend to die?"
This bare woman leaned in close without a shred of shame — no, as if the very concept of shame were foreign to her.
Her face was near. The breasts half-hidden by her hair looked all the more indecent for it.
"No answer. I expected you to beg for death."
"Last night, you murmured someone's name. It seems that was no empty noise. Have you lost your memories? Human mental structures are fragile — a great shock can strip them away — but I did not expect it to this degree."
"Well. Fine. Even without your memories, you are still yourself. Killing you as you are would be a waste, so I shall explain once more."
"I am Masti Benelov. Both the male aspect and the female aspect use the same name."
She struck an arrogant pose, making no attempt whatsoever to conceal her sensual figure. A human form of absolute perfection.
"This appearance is a form designed for the study of humans. I ask your understanding."
"…It's fine."
"Would you prefer to be received by the male aspect? Then I shall do so from now on—"
"This is better."
"Hmm. Very well. Should I meet other humans, I shall do so in this form."
With the vast window of darkness and stars at her back, Masti flicked her fingers. A screen appeared, dividing the window into four quadrants.
Various scenes unfolded across them. Magical girls, heroes, hunters, a hero's party — people of forms I recognized, moving busily about.
Fighting them were women in roughly uniform black suits. Multiple combatants would swarm a single target, but their power looked insufficient.
"We are Benelov. We wage war to make the worlds our own."
"In that process, we take the heroes of various space-times and make them ours — employing them as combatants. Humans call it 'corruption,' I am told."
"This time, we moved into this space-time in order to dominate the human realm."
Which meant… every one of those women in black suits had once been human?
"Why? Why people?"
"Because, in a given space-time, using the people of that space-time is simply more efficient."
"Moreover, humans seem to gain tremendous power when their natures are twisted into their opposites. So we have been experimenting, making various efforts…"
"But humans are a troublesome species. Every method we used on other races has failed. They either go mad, or they never corrupt at all — one or the other."
"They would say, 'Our hearts will never break before the likes of you.' And indeed, they were right. Though I still do not understand what a 'heart' is."
Masti looked almost regretful.
"This place is our headquarters — Crimina. An invasion base existing in the gap between space and time. We tried to acquire other humans for study, but those without power all had their minds shattered upon arrival. It seems they cannot withstand the force of crossing space-time."
"All except you."
Masti pointed at me as though she had made a great discovery.
"We do not understand humans. Not the 'heart' they always speak of when captured, nor how such explosive power can emerge from such insignificant life-forms. We still do not properly grasp it. That is why we need you."
"To understand humans better. To use them more effectively. To corrupt them. We wish to make them ours."
Masti lifted my chin.
"I shall say it once more. This Masti Benelov desires you. Even should you refuse, I hold your resolve to protect your own kind in high regard — and shall kill you without pain."
What was there to deliberate?
This wasn't even a threat against my life, and she seemed to be treating me with genuine regard. She truly didn't understand people.
As I considered what to do, I thought of that magical girl.
She had been beautiful.
To confess a shameful past of my own: I had consumed a great deal of content in which the sense of justice that said "I must protect someone" twisted into a desire for one person alone.
Brainwashing, hypnosis, aphrodisiacs, NTR — the way they broke, the way something that had never known pleasure gradually blackened… how was I supposed to not love that?
A genderbent magical girl pleasure-corrupted into serving as a breeding bitch. A nun forgetting her god to worship a cock. A hero broken by hypnosis and sold off as a slave. Those kinds of filthy, arousing scenarios were simply too good.
"So long as you work for us, the method is of no concern."
"With the methods we have used thus far, we can only produce combatants who follow orders until they break."
So I could make that magical girl look only at me?
I could gradually conquer her heart and steal her for myself?
That was the best possible outcome.
"I'll do it."
"…Oh? And your reason?"
"Revenge."
The despair of no one coming to save me or my sister, and the desire for vengeance against them — those two things must have fused and carried me across space-time.
"Hmm. Kin's revenge upon kin. It must relate to this thing called the human heart. Tell me of it someday."
"Yes."
"Good. Benelov welcomes you, Vendetta. However… I cannot trust you blindly, can I?"
"Then…?"
"There is a human female hero we captured in relatively intact condition. In her own words, a magical girl."
"Make her ours."
I cheered silently to myself.