The Cheetahs Are Laughing (3)
The Cheetahs Are Laughing (3)
In principle, all so-called "anniversaries" are established through a certain degree of social consensus.
Just as no one calls December 25th "the James Webb Space Telescope launch date" instead of simply "Christmas."
Only through such social consensus could you prevent the chaos that would otherwise befall a group.
This was a matter of course, even in a cyberpunk world where morality and ethics had (nearly) vanished.
However.
Their thinking seemed to diverge somewhat from such social norms.
[Day 1 Anniversary]
Just what on earth was this day meant to commemorate? And what sort of joyous occasion could it be to start celebrating from "Day 1"?
I had absolutely no idea.
It was written merely as "Day 1 Anniversary" without any rhyme or reason. If I could have figured that out at a glance, I'd be a psychic, not a Mage.
Thus, I intended to ask the women around me what today's anniversary was all about.
But before I could even pose the question, they had already congratulated me first.
"A day like this actually came."
Andrea said, scratching her nose.
Her expression brimmed with maidenly sentiment.
Leaving aside what sort of day this was.
Using Andrea's remark as a starting point, the other women began to speak up one by one.
"Congratulations."
Eve, the super AI wearing an incongruous "party hat," was the first to congratulate me.
"......."
The Chairman, wearing a faint smile upon their lips, applauded silently.
"...Well, it's not that I have zero complaints. But my mind definitely feels more at ease."
Catherine nodded slightly in agreement.
"......That. Hmm."
Natasha, with a somewhat bashful look, kept her head slightly lowered and couldn't finish her sentence.
"......Is this right?"
"...I don't know either."
Maya and Julia, who seemed not yet to have grasped the situation, asked each other with bewildered expressions and clapped along with everyone else.
A voice calling "Omedeto—" from somewhere briefly assaulted my head.
Ugh, my head.
I shook my head violently to snap myself awake and tried to make sense of the current situation.
"...So just what is this anniversary for?"
All I had done was go up to the rooftop, briefly call Drex, and come back down. I couldn't fathom at all why, in the meantime, they had even dragged in Monolith employees to create this congratulatory mood.
It almost seemed like a new form of hazing.
At my question, everyone's gazes shifted toward "Eve."
So the culprit was you...!
Now also catching the brunt of my glare, Eve walked one step toward me.
Eve began to briefly summarize and explain the current situation.
"It is the anniversary of the day we started dating."
"...Who did?"
"The seven entities including 'me.'"
"With whom?"
"With 'Si-un.'"
"?"
If I might offer my opinion—
I was reeling from the unforeseen situation.
31. The Cheetahs Are Laughing (3)
Even in Neon City, a free city outside the realm of any nation, a culture that served as a basic framework firmly existed.
That was "American-style culture."
Various detailed reasons for this existed in the in-game setting, but in my opinion, it simply seemed to be because the game's developer was based in America.
Of course, if you went out on the streets, there were slightly more billboards written in Japanese. And the number of geisha advertising models with white makeup on their faces was considerable as well.
But that was largely because the cyberpunk genre was pioneered in the 1980s. It was merely a lingering trace of Japan's bubble era influence.
Anyway, aside from the unique cultures that varied by district, the culture at the heart of the city could be seen as having a strong American flavor.
Here, I had a question.
"What dating anniversary in America...?"
Because in America, they don't particularly make a big deal out of "dating culture" in that way.
Unless it was a proposal aimed at marriage, more often than not, relationships just developed into romantic ones naturally while spending ordinary time together.
Of course, it was also common for couples to get together after going through the process of DTR (Define The Relationship)—that is, establishing the relationship, i.e., confessing.
But even in that case, they don't celebrate anniversaries in units like 100 days or 200 days, the way I used to back when I lived in Korea.
Maybe a "wedding anniversary."
.......
Hmm.
We hadn't even had a wedding ceremony yet.
Thankfully, it wouldn't be that.
I let out a hollow laugh and said.
"...What dating anniversary. We're not kids."
I had already lived in this city for ten years.
That was enough time for a Korean man armed with a Confucian society mindset to become a denizen of cyberpunk.
"Then you should live wearing shoes at home too─."
Cancel that.
"Gah!! How dare you wear shoes inside the house!!"
As the cyberpunk local inside my heart whispered like a devil, the Confucian scholar-official in my heart suddenly snapped awake and howled.
Even so, shoes were a step too far.
Anyway, having reclaimed my Korean mindset, I internally chewed on such useless thoughts and spoke to them once more.
"And I haven't even confessed yet."
"Come on."
It was Catherine who cut me off.
"You said you like all seven of them anyway."
"?"
"We can just do the proposal later."
Leaving the latter part of her words aside for a moment.
I stared at Eve.
At the same time, my eyes met Eve's.
"......."
"......."
Eve quietly nodded her head.
I had raised a tiger cub....
Watching my personal information leak out as easily as if through a Korean security program, I couldn't hide my wretched feelings.
While I stood there, letting out a hollow laugh of "...Heuheu." in my dejection.
Andrea linked her arm with mine and clung tightly to me.
"Anyway, if we all feel the same way about each other, it's fine, right."
I failed to collect myself for a moment at that sudden physical contact. Suffice it to say, I felt an extreme, clinging softness.
Catherine, who had been watching that scene, narrowed her eyes as she looked at Andrea.
"...No matter how you look at it, aren't you sticking to him a bit too much?"
"Nope, not at all."
While still clinging to me, Andrea wagged her index finger.
Then, she pointed to Eve, Julia, and Maya in order.
"There are people way farther along the bases than the rest, you know. Maya herself testified that she already did all the sucking and licking."
Her phrasing was a bit...
At those words, Maya, her face flushed red, pitifully voiced her own opinion.
"...Th-that, I only sucked on his lips!"
"Same difference."
Having nonchalantly disregarded that opinion, Andrea looked at the others and stated flatly.
"In other words, I'm saying people who haven't done even that much need to step up more and push further along."
Logically, I couldn't refute it.
But from my ethical standpoint, it was a deeply objectionable statement.
"What do you think? Am I wrong?"
""......."
But it seemed like it had been an incredibly interesting story to everyone else.
Hearing those details, Catherine, Natasha, and the Chairman all flinched slightly at the same time.
The flow of the conversation was too fast, making it hard to keep up. I roused my confused mind, then cautiously raised a hand.
"Uh, my opinion is."
"You don't want to?"
"...It's not that I don't want to."
I was just overwhelmingly flustered.
It was true that I had sorted out and acknowledged my feelings on the rooftop, but I had never anticipated the situation would escalate this quickly.
I slowly swallowed my saliva.
I carefully took a look around me.
.......
These people.
Their eyes were a little scary.
A brief silence ensued.
Perhaps taking that for a form of "consent."
They began to walk toward me.
I had no idea why their breathing was all so overpoweringly ragged.
I tried to step back instinctively, but I couldn't escape Andrea's grip tightly holding my arm.
At the very least, I had thought Natasha or the Chairman would step back a little and read the room, but they too were walking toward me, bit by bit.
I spoke up to calm them down.
"Just a moment."
"I said we're all just going to kiss you in turns."
That situation is exactly what was scary.
I retorted inwardly to Andrea's words.
Still, I would have preferred things to happen in a bit more of a romantic mood—but to hell with the mood. I just felt like a civilian standing naked before a pack of carnivores.
Was there truly no one here who could help me?
I momentarily turned my gaze toward where Eve, Julia, and Maya were.
"...Help me for a mome—."
And then I stopped talking.
Those three, who had still possessed their reason just a moment ago, had already joined this group as well before I knew it.
Was there really no way out?
.......
There wasn't.
Feeling like a condemned man walking to the execution ground, I spoke to Andrea, who was holding onto me.
"...Then really, just a moment."
"......Why."
Had she retained just the slightest trace of reason?
Andrea answered me.
All seven stared at me, stopped in their tracks.
To preserve my final shred of self-respect, I made a very small request of them.
"Just let me go brush my teeth real quick. No matter what, we still ought to set the mood a little......?"
I trailed off toward the end.
Somehow, the atmosphere around me was strange.
Their breathing felt even rougher.
Andrea murmured in a low voice.
"...You seduced us first, you know?"
"Excuse me?"
Uh, teachers?
And at that moment.
Seven pairs of hands, physically stronger than me, surged toward me as if flooding in.
That day, I realized that kissing could actually pose a threat to my life.
* * *
Dr. Terra (bioware specialist, egg ghost, doctor), who had come after receiving an urgent call, said.
"Your ribs are broken, you say?"
I nodded without answering.
It was because there was severe pain every time I breathed.
Tilting her head sideways, Dr. Terra scratched her plain metal face. She had no expression, but her tone was full of curiosity.
"How on earth did this happen?"
I didn't answer this time either.
I merely glanced at the perpetrators standing awkwardly around me.
"......."
Everyone brimmed with apologetic looks.
They seemed ashamed of themselves for momentarily losing their senses and violating my frail body.
The only reason we'd been able to stop was because my ribs got damaged.
It was a situation where it wouldn't have been strange if I had just stopped breathing.
I had never imagined I would see a flashback of my life—one I never even saw during mercenary work—in a moment like this.
I'll have to figure out what to do about this weak body of mine first.
I sighed inwardly and thought.