Witch Academy (4)
"Finally, I've got them all...!"
The woman set down the pile of comic books she had bought, murmuring happily to herself.
Even though it was a brand-new release rather than a pre-order, it had still taken some time for the full stock she wanted to appear. They had said they were ramping up production on the ones that sold best, and sure enough, this batch finally let her secure every cover of Witch Academy.
At the start of the release she had been forced to settle for the single remaining Lucy cover and enjoy the work with just that. But once she actually read it, she liked every character so much that she vowed to collect them all. Today that vow had finally come true.
"Hoo... Mana's color illustration. How long I've wanted to see this."
Witch Academy had color covers in four versions—Lucy, Ami, Lily, and Vine. Beyond those, there was only one way to see the protagonist Mana's color art: collect all four covers and piece together the quartered drawings printed on the backs.
"Stick them like this.... Ah, it came out better than I expected. So putting it in like this finishes it?"
Because of that special format, someone had already made and started selling a frame designed for the completed picture. She had of course prepared the frame in advance. Following the instructions written on it, she folded and attached the covers; once finished, the image looked as if it had always been a single painting.
Naturally, stripping the covers for the frame left the four books bare. But she had anticipated exactly that and bought accordingly—two of every cover. So she did not forget to place the four volumes of Witch Academy that still had their character covers (the ones not used for the frame) neatly on the bookshelf by type.
"Mm. Satisfying."
She hung the newly completed frame beside the bookshelf, nodded, and began to admire the picture. First she examined the girls' illustrations arranged on the shelf in detail. Lucy's she already owned, so she passed over it without much excitement. Among the newly acquired covers, the one that immediately struck her as special was Ami's.
"Oh...."
Come to think of it, when Ami had begged Mana for sex, there had been a scene just like this. A dog collar was fastened around Ami's neck, the leash attached to it running out of the frame. Wearing that while having sex had been the condition for getting any. After that scene Ami had become extremely submissive, so it counted as a pretty important moment.
Beside it, Lily's illustration—like Vine's—showed her spreading herself open with her fingers. But where Vine hung her head in embarrassment, Lily looked confident and self-assured. The paper in her hand was probably the photograph proving Mana was a man. Lily had used that to force Mana into sex.
Well, the most important one is this, though.
She was seeing those other pictures in the flesh for the first time as well, but not completely for the first time—plenty of people already owned them, so she had at least peeked. Mana's, however, the one she had just finished assembling in the frame, was a picture she was truly seeing for the first time. Of everything she was viewing right now, it was practically the most important part.
"Wow...."
Looking at the girls until a moment ago had been thoroughly enjoyable. But because she herself was a woman, the bare body of the male Mana sent a far hotter rush through her. Almost as if she meant to climb inside the frame, she stared intently at Mana's illustration.
Mana's fundamental trait of cross-dressing—wearing the women's clothes that signified that cross-dressing—was absolutely central. Mana was skilled enough at it that, fully dressed, he became a pretty girl one could easily mistake for the real thing. This picture, however, deliberately left him in women's clothes while still revealing the male skeletal structure and other features that should have been hidden. Just by looking, you could tell it was a boy who cross-dressed.
The cute, embarrassed look of Mana forced to wear women's clothes, coexisting with the sturdy male body and the swaying energy of his cock— the whole thing matched her tastes perfectly.
"Hoo... I spent quite a bit, but I don't regret a single coin...."
Compared to the money she had blown last time on the tattoo that came as an extra for Divine Conception, this was nothing. If you simply waited, you could get everything at ordinary prices for certain. Honestly, that much was hardly a burden.
"Haa... I'm so happy...."
The moment she finished looking, she carried the coverless volumes of Witch Academy to the bed, opened straight to the pages she needed, and with her free hand began soothing the body that had heated up from staring at Mana's color illustration.
In a World Where Erotic Comics Are Legal
"Wow. If there hadn't been a rule that you absolutely have to wear the academy uniform, this would have been a disaster."
Given the content, I had already expected that the old discomfort around cross-dressing or male-dressing would vanish—and that cross-dressing itself might even become fashionable. But the situation had turned out far better than I anticipated. An enormous number of men started reading my work, blowing right past the boundaries of that prediction.
The real issue was still that the protagonist of this comic, Mana, was cross-dressing. Witch Academy was packed with erotic elements that made a man's life look so enviable that readers wanted to live it themselves. Boys who started cross-dressing just to experience that enviable life kept increasing. That much could still be written off as pure reader reaction.
But beyond that, plenty of women liked the cross-dressing male characters. Demand from them meant more guys started cross-dressing simply to match girls' tastes.
"Wow...."
As a result, new illustrations of cross-dressing male characters were pouring out, and clothes made specifically for cross-dressing—cut to fit male bodies—had even appeared. The exhibition halls had always been mostly girls, so I had tried to tell myself it still just looked like a sea of girls. After hearing those stories, though, the thought that men might be mixed in among them made me a little uneasy.
No, honestly I knew it would be a short-lived trend. But more people than I expected are actually drawn to the concept of cross-dressing itself.
The one relief was that, unlike my original world, no one was drawing a woman and then insisting it was a man. If clothes covered the key skeletal points, the character might look quite girlish—but wherever those points were left uncovered, the careful details made it clear the character was male. That sensibility came through intact.
"Hoo. Anyway, I'm glad I won't have to see any of it at the academy."
Tomorrow was the start of second semester; I had to return to the academy. The academy required the issued uniform, so cross-dressing was fundamentally banned. The real problem now, though, was not that I might see cross-dressing—it was that my own body was about to be forced into it.
"You're really not going to do it? I want to see."
"I said no...."
Rosaria, surprisingly, seemed to like the whole cross-dressing aesthetic. She was making a huge fuss about wanting to see me dressed as a girl. Most things I would do if Rosaria asked, but cross-dressing was just too mortifying.
"What a waste. It would have been ridiculously cute."
"Is cross-dressing that cute?"
"Yeah. Isn't this cute?"
Wouldn't a guy looking "cute" just be annoying? I had never once thought about it that way, so the whole idea left me flustered. Then again, the same way putting cute clothes on a strong-looking girl can be hot—cross-dressing probably scratched a similar itch for girls.
"Stop saying weird stuff and help me look over the courses for registration."
"...Right. I did promise to help with that."
The day I had to return to the academy was right on top of us, yet I still hadn't finalized my course selections. I wanted to build a solid foundation around Record Magic, but Rosaria had heard plenty of lecture rumors and even taken some classes herself. She would know which subjects were good and could fill me in on the ones I didn't understand.
"Aha.... So something like this would be fine?"
"Yeah. That should work."
We talked about course registration for a long time and ended up falling asleep late. Because of that we woke far too late and nearly missed the return deadline. The moment I first opened my eyes and saw the time, it felt like every drop of blood had drained from my body. Even after we finally reached the dorm, I was still so rattled that nothing felt real.
"Long time no see, Cali."
"Yeah, long time no see, Nia."
Nia had arrived early, finished unpacking, and was there to greet me when I finally showed up. This was not the cute Niar I had grown used to outside—this was the cool-atmosphere male student Nia himself. Somehow it felt hard to adjust.
"Looking at me with that expression... is it because you want to hear this voice, Cali-nim?"
"C-cough. Honestly, after hanging out outside so much I just got a little used to it. Of course here I have to go back to the old way and adapt."
"Right. Did you see the new work this time?"
"Yeah. How was it?"
"How do you think it was?"
With that, Nia suddenly stepped in and wrapped his arms around me. Looking up at me from that angle, he sent a gaze that was strangely, deliberately seductive.