056. Memory (1)
056. Memory (1)
※ This chapter contains content of a somewhat higher intensity. Please exercise caution when reading.
Rinne said.
That I could do it.
There was no need to ask what she meant. It was obvious.
What Rinne had finally allowed was for our lips to touch.
In short, a kiss.
There was no reason to make a fuss about it.
After all, this was practically a medical procedure to resolve an unexpected side effect of a skill.
If I thought of it like performing CPR to save someone from drowning, I could treat it as no big deal.
I could just get it over with quickly and head back to base.
Back at base, Rinne would finish her writing based on today's experience.
And I could clear my backlog of paperwork and get a good night's sleep.
That was what I'd thought.
Rinne, however, seemed to have a lot more on her mind.
......No, perhaps 'complicated' wasn't quite the right word.
If anything, she was in a much simpler state than I was.
Standing beneath a streetlamp somewhere in the amusement park, Rinne had forgotten everything around her and was directing every ounce of her mental energy at my lips.
And she was probably thinking something incredibly stupid.
—So those are the lips I'm going to have my first kiss with.
——I'm going to spend the rest of my life remembering that my first kiss was with those lips.
......And so on.
Ah, of course, this was nothing more than my imagination. She didn't actually say anything that foolish out loud.
But anyone who saw Rinne's red, dazed face in front of me would probably make the same guess.
It was not a good idea to leave a romantic like Rinne in that state for too long.
With every passing second, Rinne would prettify and romanticize the situation, turning it into a light novel in her head. The more she did, the harder it would be for her to forget her first kiss.
Above all, even I was starting to feel strange.
Which is to say.
'......Has Rinne always been this cute?'
No, if we're talking purely about looks, of course she was cute.
She could hardly help it. Biodroids were manufactured to be attractive.
I had always thought Rinne was pretty, at least in the face.
But because of her scrawny figure, sloppy clothes, and above all her rotten personality, I had almost never thought of Rinne herself as adorable in a feminine way.
And yet right now, Rinne simply looked cute.
Why?
Was it because she was dressed up like a light novel heroine?
Was it because we'd spent the whole day on a date, clinging and nuzzling and rolling around?
......No.
It wasn't anything that simple.
The problem was the contrast with her usual self.
Normally, she didn't care if her panties showed and constantly poked my thighs with her bare feet as a prank—that shameless, cheeky little brat of a girl, Rinne.
"......Nnnggghhh."
She was so embarrassed that a strained groan leaked from the back of her throat.
She was shy enough to fold both hands demurely over her stomach.
She had gone so red that even the line between her skin and hair seemed to disappear.
The contrast between her usual self and this moment before her first kiss could hardly have been greater, and it made her radiate cuteness.
......Was this the legendary 'gap moe' (which I'd learned about from reading light novels because of Rinne)?
Whatever it was, could I take a picture? I wanted to keep this forever.
It might even come in handy later for shutting Rinne down whenever she got cocky.
Actually, if she'd stay this adorable, maybe it would be better not to kiss her at all and just leave her hypnotized.
My hesitation lasted only a moment.
"Wh-what are you just standing there for...! Stop dragging it out and do it."
Unable to take it any longer, Rinne urged me on.
Of course, it wasn't her usual shrill nagging.
It was closer to a scream she'd barely forced out because she could no longer bear the embarrassment.
Nevertheless, having pulled myself together, I took a step toward Rinne.
"......Eep."
Rinne instinctively retreated half a step.
She hesitantly shuffled forward by half the distance she had retreated.
After that happened about three times, we were close enough that neither of us could take another full step.
Soon, my exhaled breath gently stirred Rinne's bangs.
Perhaps she felt her forehead had been exposed in the process. Or perhaps she was simply startled by the sensation of breath touching her.
Rinne jerked her head down.
"Lift your head."
"Y-you could just come down instead, Oppa...."
"Lift it."
A firm, forceful order.
If this were the usual Rinne, she would never have followed it. If anything, it would have stirred up her rebellious streak and likely escalated into needless sulking.
But Rinne as she was now—
"H-here......."
Without a single retort, Rinne began lifting her head exactly as I'd told her.
Throughout, Rinne's eyes were closed.
She squeezed her eyes shut so tightly that moisture beaded at the tips of her long eyelashes.
Moving slowly, she gradually raised her head, like a bride lifting her veil before the groom.
Then she carefully offered her dainty lips, ready to receive the kiss.
Even so, the angle was still slightly off.
She was short, and on top of that she had a surprisingly high, well-defined nose.
If we kissed at this angle, our noses were bound to get in the way.
It would be better not to botch our first kiss.
To correct the angle, I carefully reached for the tip of her chin.
Was that the mistake?
At the unexpected warmth against a place she hadn't expected me to touch, Rinne flinched and opened her eyes.
But by then it was already too late.
"......Mmph."
Rinne received her first kiss with her eyes wide open.
A soft, yielding sensation where our lips met.
Each other's breath flowing directly from nose to nose.
Warmth, and scent, and other things difficult to put into words.
As those sensations mingled, Rinne let out a blissful sound, as though she'd fallen into ecstasy.
"......Haaa, ah......."
Good.
The other party was satisfied, and I myself had reached 'a kiss' without feeling all that embarrassed either.
If I pulled my lips away just like this, Rinne's abnormally high affection for me would subside.
Afterward, we could agree never to speak of what happened today and pretend it never happened.
And with that, Krädel would return to normal.
Everything according to plan.
Up until that very moment, that was what I'd thought.
"......Huh?"
And then, the very next moment.
Something wrapped around the back of my neck.
What was this? An enemy attack? — I wasn't stupid enough to think that. At this timing, there was only one thing that could be wrapping around the back of my neck.
Rinne's arms.
......But why?
We had achieved the objective—the kiss—so it was time to pull apart.
Why was she wrapping around the back of my neck—— and there my train of thought cut off.
Because Rinne's lips, pressed against mine, had begun to open.
"Mmnn......!"
What the——! I tried to say.
But the words didn't come out. Because Rinne's tongue, slipping out past her parted lips, had begun distinctly licking my lips.
Belatedly, I struggled. But the other party was a biodroid. Now that she had resolved to violate me, there was no way for a frail human man like me to escape.
Once I realized that, I stopped struggling physically and started thinking.
Why was this girl suddenly acting like this?
We'd clearly agreed to just kiss and be done with it.
Could it be that her surging affection had made her lose self-control?
Wasn't her affection supposed to be less intense than that?
In the first place, shouldn't the hypnosis effect have vanished by now?
Several seconds had passed since our lips had properly made contact.
We had kissed——
'......Ah.'
At that point, a sudden realization dawned.
Come to think of it, wasn't the word "kiss" surprisingly vague?
By my definition—and, I assumed, by the mainstream one—a kiss was simply lip-to-lip contact.
But that definition was not universal. Different people drew the line differently.
Rinne and I had never explicitly agreed on exactly what counted as a "kiss."
I'd never imagined she would be using the minority definition.
And Rinne had probably never had a chance to compare definitions with anyone else.
Perhaps we had been using the same word with entirely different meanings.
For me, as I'd said, it meant simple lip contact.
For Rinne, apparently, it meant something more.
Namely—— tongue included.
Which meant Rinne was now——
desperately trying to push her tongue in so the act would satisfy her own definition of a kiss......!
The time it took to realize that fact was about three seconds.
After a brief pause, my mind advanced to the next step.
So what was the best course of action?
There was not really any choice here.
Rinne was the one who had hypnotized herself, and Rinne was the one who had set "a kiss" as the release condition.
So the kiss required to release it had to be whatever Rinne herself considered a kiss.
In short, unless I used my tongue too, Rinne wouldn't break free of the hypnosis.
Meaning, fundamentally, this was Rinne's fault.
She was the one in the wrong, and I was the victim.
Even so, covering for a subordinate's mistake was part of a commander's duty.
With the resolve of a soldier facing an enemy, I parted my lips.
......I shouldn't have.
No, opening them was the right call...... The problem was that I'd opened them too wide and too suddenly.
Think about it.
She had been struggling desperately to get my lips open.
I should have opened them slowly enough for her to adjust, but whether from carelessness or because everything happened so fast, I'd failed to do so.
As a result.
As a result, Rinne's tongue, completely unprepared for the sudden opening, slipped far deeper than necessary.
"......Mmph......?!"
Rinne startled.
But there was no way to undo it.
Rinne let out a long breath through her nose—Kuhu—and accepted the situation.
Then she wound her small but firm tongue around mine.
Gulp—the saliva I swallowed without thinking tasted unfamiliar.
Just as I realized that unfamiliar taste was Rinne's—
"......Puh-haaah......!"
Rinne pulled away.
A long thread of saliva stretched between us.
Then it snapped—Tuk—and fell onto Rinne's collar, which sat lower than mine.
Was it that dampness that brought her back to her senses?
Rinne, who had been staring at me in a daze, suddenly narrowed her eyes into a hostile glare.
"Wh-why did you suddenly open your mouth like some kind of lunatic...! I was surprised!"
I was equally dumbfounded and shouted back.
"You're the one who tried to stick your tongue in!"
But Rinne, as if I were the one being ridiculous.
"Hah? A k-kiss obviously includes tongue......! Otherwise it's just a peck!"
As I'd thought.
So Rinne really had been using that definition.
I decided I would give her a proper sex-ed lesson about that later.
Either way, suddenly opening my mouth wide had been an obvious mistake. I should apologize.
"Sorry. I'm a beginner."
At those words, Rinne flinched in surprise.
"......I-I'm sorry too. I'm a beginner."
For once, she apologized readily.
I'd wanted to end things on that touching note, but I couldn't.
"So?"
"Huh?"
"Does it seem like the hypnosis effect has been properly dispelled?"
"......Wait a bit. My heart's pounding right now so I can't judge objectively......."
So it was pounding.
Well, it would be strange if it weren't pounding, but still.
Anyway, we took a ten-minute break.
By the time the kiss from moments ago felt as distant as something from a dream—
Rinne spoke quietly.
"......Nothing's changed at all, though?"
What was that supposed to mean?
"What are you talking about? Nothing's changed?"
"You still look handsome, Oppa."
So that was her criterion for judgment.
Putting that aside.
"Nothing at all has changed? Are you sure you've checked properly?"
Maybe because I'd kept asking, Rinne stared at my face again as if running another test.
After about thirty seconds of that, Rinne's face suddenly flushed bright red.
Then she curled in on herself and stammered:
"......Yeah. I'm still in a weird state."
Cute.
But this wasn't a problem I could dismiss with just that thought.
We'd even gone through with a proper kiss, yet the effect hadn't vanished. How was that possible?
Rinne and I puzzled over it for several minutes.
Then Rinne suddenly asked:
"What does the status window say?"
"......Huh?"
"This counts as a status effect too, doesn't it? Something should be showing up."
Now that she mentioned it, that was true.
But I hadn't thought to check the status window until now.
"What. You hadn't even checked?"
"Because you sounded so certain that a hypnosis effect had been applied."
"Even so. That's careless."
She was right. I could have checked at least once.
Well, it wasn't too late to check now.
I pulled out my PDA.
The status window displayed the following:
[No status abnormalities have occurred in the last 24 hours.]