Episode 13 — ASMR: I'll Stroke the Inside of Your Ear ♡

"Everyone... can you hear me?"

The moment I murmured it, soft and close, into the ASMR mic, a strange ripple of reactions spilled out of the viewers.

"I'll start now..."

And then I carefully slipped my tongue into the ear-shaped microphone.

"Hnnngh..."

Following the ASMR patterns of the vtubers I usually watched, I pushed my tongue in all the way to the root, driving it until it reached where an eardrum would be... and then I gently worked the moist tip where it met the inside. Slowly up, and down... up, and down.

"I'll stroke... the inside of your ear for you..."

Flicking my tongue around the inside of the ear wasn't enough. I didn't forget to whisper sweetly, the way a proper local vtuber would.

"Schlrp... hnn... nngh..."

The chat seemed to be saying something, but I coolly ignored it and kept my tongue moving. I licked along the ear canal little by little, soft and slow... then traced a circle.

"Hngh... fwoo..."

I eased the tension bit by bit, then slid my tongue straight into the inner ear. The motion itself stayed as careful as I could make it—as if to say don't be startled—and yet I worked that hot tongue hard, writhing with intent.

"Huu... haaah..."

Of course, if I only ever pushed in, they'd get bored of it... so I kept repeating the in and the out. On the way in I burrowed deep, right up near the eardrum, twitching the tip of my tongue by the smallest degrees; on the way out I breathed a sticky sigh and pressed every fine tremor ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of my tongue into them.

"Schlrrp..."

When I drew my tongue out for a moment, a thick string of saliva stretched after it, and the viewers' ears were briefly set free.

"Then I'll go again."

And I pushed my tongue all the way back in.

An old regular of Hunter Gallery, and one of the named viewers of Elia's stream. The S-rank hunter, Neferseti.

"What is this brat even trying to do..."

Bronze-skinned and long-limbed, she lay on the bed in nothing but thin underwear, earphones seated in both ears.

"Ahem... I am absolutely not doing this because I want to hear anything lewd..."

She was only snooping, just in case the troublemaking newbie caused some kind of accident.

"Haaah...!?"

The moment the stream began, the blatant sensation teasing the inside of her ear dragged a moan out of her before she even knew she was making it.

W-wait! This is way too lewd...!

She had listened to ASMR a few times herself, but what Elia was doing now went deeper than that—down into the abyss. She licked the outside of Neferseti's ear with a sultry slowness, loosening a body drawn tight with tension, and in the very instant that body went defenseless, she slid her tongue straight into the ear hole.

"Ah... hnn?!"

She couldn't tell whether it was her imagination, but Elia's breath, blowing in from right beside her, felt moist and sticky. As if... it were real.

"Th-this is actually dangerous..."

She had almost never been hit with a stimulus like this, and Neferseti's eyes brimmed as her body flinched and twitched. A violent jolt, as if her very brain were being ravished. And she couldn't even pull the earphones out. Her ears—and even her soul—were already being ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠toyed with on the flat of Elia's tongue.

"Nngh...!"

Whether Elia knew what she was doing or not, she chewed softly on the ear, savoring the taste. It wasn't a hard bite, and it wasn't a weak one either—a subtle play of pressure that made Neferseti feel every contour of those teeth.

"Kyaah?!"

And with that, Elia swallowed the whole of her ear in a single mouthful. The tongue kept moving. The teeth kept grinding. She toyed with her without pause.

"Stop already..."

Neferseti begged, but Elia didn't so much as pretend to hear. Maybe that was only natural. Right now Elia was pouring every last bit of herself into sucking on an ear.

"Higuhk..."

In the end she spent more than thirty minutes trembling under Elia's tongue, letting out thin, helpless moans. In and out, in and out, over and over—and along the ear canal too, the soft tip of that tongue fluttered, stroking, stimulating. If this had been real, Neferseti's ear would already have been soaked slick with Elia's saliva.

"Hiyah?!"

On top of all of it, the feeling of lips touching her ear and pulling away struck as sharp as a current.

It was only around the fifty-minute mark that Neferseti barely managed to come back to herself.

"...You idiot."

It was only after a long while that I realized something had gone wrong.

"The vtubers I watched all did it like this..."

"Hmm..."

Hearing the outcry from the status window and everyone else, I revised the strategy. Fair enough. Thinking about it now, putting your tongue in someone's ear and kissing them was the sort of thing lovers did, wasn't it? For now, I'd try to keep it as soft as I could.

"All right. Then I'll start light—just a little breath."

"Hoooo..."

After that I ran the ASMR stream on a milder setting (?) than before, breathing hot air in lightly and squishing both ears between my fingers.

"Everyooone... do you like this?"

I let it out in a quiet whisper, voice soft and yielding.

Lulled by the loose, gentle sensation, viewers began dropping off to sleep one by one.

Of course, there were those who still hadn't collapsed even after the stream passed an hour and a half...

Squish.

"A special service for the last-stand squad!"

"I'm pressing the mic with my chest right now!"

I kept the fanservice going for the viewers in every way I could think of.

"Everyone... are you still alive?"

"You're really hard to put down."

And so, around the time every other chat had vanished and only one person was left...

"I'm about to wrap the stream. Anything you want?"

"Hehh..."

She'd come at me with a fairly bold demand. Well, was this much probably fine? If she meant like and not love, then maybe it didn't matter.

"Yes... I like you. All of you..."

After that, Neferseti vanished without answering me. Whether she'd fallen asleep, or slipped off to do something else, only a god would know.

"Not you."

"Hnnnngh!!! Slept great!"

The next morning I dumped the mic that had been cradled against me off to the side and stretched. I'd licked it so much through the night that the thing gleamed with saliva.

"Yeah, I should."

And so, at the status window's prompting, I started gathering my gear piece by piece. They said it got seriously difficult from Floor 5 on, so I'd better steel myself. Once I had everything worth taking, I reached the entrance of the Tower with a light step.

"Okaaay~"

I also didn't forget to call in the disciplinarians I kept ready, just in case.

Confirming the viewers had gathered, I stepped forward without hesitation...

"Enter!"

Fwaaaash—!

A blinding flash washed over me, and I began to transfer into a new space.

"...It's kind of bright in here?"

It wasn't the usual dark cave. I tilted my head, puzzled, at a place where a bright sun had risen. It felt almost... like a village out of the Middle Ages?

"Hey! What are you dawdling for!"

"Huh?"

In that instant a clear, ringing voice yanked my gaze around.

"A newbie healer, spacing out like that—you think that's acceptable?! Don't you dare take a hero's party lightly!"

"Uh... sorry?"

The owner of that voice was a pretty girl with blonde twintails, dressed in bikini armor that screamed JRPG. Mm. I think I got it. So from Floor 5 on, you cleared the floor by wandering around with NPCs?

"Everyone, what's wrong?"

The chat's mood had flipped out of nowhere, and I only tilted my head, lost...

"Really?"

According to the viewers, that woman was the past self of the S-rank hunter, the Hero.

"Uh... so could someone summarize, please?"

I couldn't quite make sense of the situation, so I listened to their explanations one step at a time.

"Yes."

What she told me was that otherworlders, after meeting death in their original worlds, reincarnated on Earth at a vanishingly small chance.

"Aha..."

Boiled down, this Hero rendered as an NPC in my Tower was the supreme Hero of her original world—the way she'd looked before she died.

"Hmph! Space out like a clueless rookie and I'll leave you behind!"

"Ah—yes!"

While I was still listening to the viewers, the blonde Hero hurried me along, and I scrambled after her.

"Don't forget! A hero's party is a thing that claws through the land of death! One moment of carelessness comes back as death!"

"Understood!"

"Hmph! I'll be watching."

Why the Hero of the past was inside the Tower was still a question... but for now, I had to focus on what was right in front of me.

Even as I watched that soft, bouncy rear of hers, I didn't let go of the tension.