A Strange Space, A Strange Man (5)

"Well, another energetic day has begun, hasn't it? Aza aza, fighting!"

How much time had passed?

Honestly, I had no idea.

But the strange man had called for me.

My body, long since accustomed to this routine, pushed itself upright before my mind even had a chance to think.

"Hhh…… kkuh……!"

"Hmm, your movements have gotten sluggish lately, haven't they? Well, I suppose that's only natural, what with your belly sticking out like that."

The strange man glanced at me and muttered.

At some point, he had stopped resorting to violence to hurry me along, no matter how much I dawdled.

At some point… to be precise, ever since my belly had become impossible to ignore.

Because he had engraved Interbreeding into my Status Window and forcibly put me into Heat, I had spent those days in endless, rutting coupling with the Grazely — and in the end, I had gotten pregnant.

Just in case, he had even dragged in other specimens and made me do it every single day, so it was the natural conclusion.

"Bind."

When the strange man gestured, my body floated up into the air and was flung straight into the laboratory.

He wasn't going out of his way to make me angry, but he still handled me roughly.

"Ugh……!"

The shock of it shook whatever was slumbering in my belly — I didn't even know what it was anymore — and it scraped at my insides.

Today, instead of being laid down on the examination table, I was suspended and fixed against the wall.

"Now then… where should we start…?"

The strange man tilted his head and murmured.

It looked like he was staring at something, but to my eyes he seemed to be gazing at empty air.

"Hmm… did I ever tell you this?"

Still with his head tilted, the strange man spoke.

"There were people who fell into this world before me, you see."

"…?"

That was… the first I'd heard of it.

No, honestly, since I'd never once left this place, there were moments when I doubted whether this really was another world at all.

The only reason that doubt always fizzled out was the Status Window and the magic — or whatever it was — that the strange man wielded.

"You might not remember, but my goal is to return home. For reference, most of the transmigrators who've fallen into this world up until now shared the same goal."

Return home, huh… He had definitely said something like that before.

That he was using me as a test subject, and that if he succeeded, he'd send me back home with him — had he said that?

Honestly, I'd forgotten all about it until he brought it up just now.

Though I had no idea what going home had to do with carrying the offspring of a Grazely.

"I roughly understand it, but this world has magic. The Recovery you possess is obviously magic too. I won't insult you by suggesting you didn't know that."

"……"

"Magic in this world is quite… advanced. Which means there are plenty of spells that look strange no matter how you examine them, are completely useless, and make you wonder why on earth they have to activate the way they do."

Why was he suddenly talking about this?

Before I even had time to wonder, my legs — still fixed against the wall — began to spread apart of their own accord.

"Wh-what…?"

As if that weren't enough, my legs were raised up, my soles forced to point at the ceiling as my posture was locked into place.

With my legs spread wide, I could feel the cold air against my exposed folds with humiliating clarity.

And at the same time, with my soles aimed at the ceiling, my hips jutted forward, leaving my pussy and my anus both shamefully on full display — an utterly wretched sight.

The strange man approached and reached a hand toward my rear.

"Eep, hyii?!"

"For example, this."

A handful of the pubic hair near my suddenly-bared folds was yanked clean out.

Then the hair around my anus was plucked out as well.

"This technically falls under the domain of alchemy… and it turns out the required ingredient is a woman's ass hair?"

The strange man said it with an incredulous snort.

It stung, sure, but compared to everything I'd endured so far, it was nothing.

Separate from the pain, though, this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was something that had never been done to me before, and it left me thoroughly flustered.

What kind of magic — no, wait, what kind of alchemy needs ass hair?

And if he needed ass hair, why was he also pulling out my pubic hair? What was the point of that…?

"You look curious."

"……"

"How shy of you."

From all my experience so far, even when the strange man gave permission, opening my mouth carelessly never led to anything good afterward.

But if I refused to answer, that would invite its own unpleasantness… Still, I decided it was better than speaking up for no reason.

"It's an alchemy developed by one of the transmigrators who came before us. As a rule of thumb, if some recipe demands a weird ingredient like ass hair, you can assume it's the work of a transmigrator."

But why ass hair, of all things…?

"There is a magic that uses hair as a medium. But why ass hair? Did it really have to be ass hair? And why a woman's ass hair, specifically? If the ingredient is just body hair, wouldn't head hair have worked fine?"

Apparently, the strange man shared the very questions I was holding.

That's why I understood that he'd plucked out my pubic hair and ass hair to try out that mysterious alchemy developed by some transmigrator before us.

…But then why did he pull out the pubic hair…?

"This is just my personal curiosity. It has nothing to do with going home… Hmnm, how do I put it… The recipes kept specifying ingredients from women, so I'd been ignoring them all this time."

So he'd decided, hey, I happen to have a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠test subject right here — and set all this up just to satisfy his own curiosity…?

"So I wanted to see for myself. Whether it really had to be ass hair. I'm curious whether pubic hair would work just as well."

What on earth kind of person was this supposed transmigrator from before us…?

No, before that — how did the strange man even know about recipes like that in the first place…?

But the strange man simply dropped the plucked hairs into a test tube and flung it backward with a flick of his wrist.

Then, behind him, something like a portal — a subspace of some kind — opened up, swallowed the tossed test tube, and vanished.

"Well, that's that… I suppose we should continue with the usual experiments?"

The strange man approached and placed his hand on my belly.

I could feel the thing inside — the Grazely, or whatever it was — flinch.

Maybe because the Grazely as a species was so massive, it only gave a small start, but the sensation of my insides being scraped made my face twist all on its own.

As always, the moment the strange man's hand touched me, the Status Window appeared.

This time it was Breast Milk… was it?

My milk had come in quite a while ago.

My belly had swollen this much already — there was no way lactation hadn't started by now.

And yet, until this moment, Breast Milk had never been engraved onto my Status Window.

Worse, it had come with (Permanent) attached.

"Like I said before, just about everything under the sun can be used as an ingredient for alchemy or magic."

The strange man said, stroking my belly.

"And fresh breast milk is… an extremely orthodox ingredient. It's actually classified as a rather high-grade material even by this world's standards, surprisingly enough."

Insane.

"Granted, it's not plain breast milk — it's milk saturated with mana — but since you're a transmigrator, that distinction doesn't really matter anyway. Transmigrators all carry the aptitude of an Archmage, after all."

The aptitude of a mage…?

This was also new to me — no, wait, ever since I arrived here, no one had told me a single thing about this world, not even in passing.

This really was the first time.

"Then let's draw out the fresh milk… oh, wait, first — the thing in your belly seems fully grown, so shall we get it out?"

"…Yes…?"

"It's inconvenient. After all, aside from confirming whether crossbreeding with monsters is possible and extracting a bit of breast milk, there's no real need for you to stay pregnant, right? What's wrong with you? You should be used to this by now."

"W-wait, just a secon—"

Before I could react any further, the strange man put force into his hand and pressed down on my belly.

"Now, where was that birth spell… ah! Procreation."

"Nnngh?! Hyaaaaaah!!"

My insides began to writhe.

It felt as if countless tendrils were tickling my womb, forcibly squirming their way out through my pussy.

"Ahh, ha-aah?! Aaaaah!!!"

Tears spilled out along with my screams.

Annoyingly, of all times, Heat had failed to activate now.

Without pain being converted into pleasure, the monster in my belly clawed at my innards in its desperate bid to escape.

"Wh-why… of all times…"

Why, of all moments, was Heat not activating now?

It always triggered at the worst possible timing, tormenting my body endlessly — so why not now, of all times…!

"Kkh, kkuhk…! I-it hurts! It hurts, ughhuhk…!"

"Ooh, here it comes, here it comes!"

Something I couldn't tell was cold or hot pushed its way out from deep inside my pussy.

Only the very tip had emerged, probably — from my angle I couldn't see it, and honestly, I didn't trust myself to watch a monster burst out of my own body, so I didn't look — but I could certainly feel that something had come loose.

The strange man pulled his pressing hand away from my belly and brought it down to my pussy.

"Hyiihk?!"

When he seized whatever had broken through and yanked hard, my body trembled at the sudden, agonizing widening of my entrance.

Shhhiiiii…

"Whoa! Are you seriously pissing yourself mid-birth? Ugh… you've gotten it all over your clothes…!"

Even wrinkling his face, the strange man didn't stop his rough pulling.

No — he actually began to pull even harder.

POP!

"Hnngkh!"

It came out.

Something long came out.

"…Long…?"

Why did something long come out…?

Are Grazely offspring supposed to be long?

My gaze dropped before I could stop it.

"…Huh…?!"

"Whoa… it's thrashing around like crazy."

In the strange man's hand, the monster that had apparently come out of me was flailing wildly, like a fish hauled up out of the water.

Unlike the enormous bear-like Grazely, it had no fur.

No, it had no arms or legs either.

Its body was covered in scales, and its shape was far closer to a snake than a bear.

"I figured it would lay eggs, but an actual snake came out. Fascinating, isn't it?"

The strange man held the snake up in front of my face as he said it.

"Wh-what is this…?"

"What do you mean, what? It's one of the baby Flypers you gave birth to."

"Huh…? Th-the bear…?"

"Bear? You mean the Grazely? It's been ages since you gave birth to that — why are you suddenly asking about a Grazely?"

"I-I gave birth to it…?"

"Hmm…?"

I was confused.

And the strange man stared at me like he couldn't understand at all.

"Ah, could it be…?"

Then, as if realizing something on his own, his eyes lit up, and he tossed the snake — so it was a Flyper, then? — backward over his shoulder.

"I did think you'd seemed mentally checked out these past few days since giving birth to the Grazely — turns out you'd really lost it, huh? The shock must have been enough to snap your mind loose?"

"Wh-what…?"

"You gave birth to the Grazely one week ago. And immediately after that, you were bred with the Flyper — so what's inside your belly right now isn't a bear. It's a snake."

"Ha…?!"

My jaw went slack, and a sound like a deflating balloon leaked from my throat.

What… what was he saying right now?

So… the Grazely was already long gone, and in that time I'd been impregnated with yet another mystery monster's offspring?

The offspring of a snake, of all things…?

And I'd gotten pregnant all over again, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the entire memory of carrying it to term had been wiped away…?

"Wow~ the Grazely spent months in your belly, but the Flyper took just one week to reach full term and pop out like this. Is that just how snakes are?"

"……"

"Relax your face. Well, memories can vanish, I suppose. Back then your pussy was torn to ribbons, and blood — or guts, who knows — was spraying out of your belly and navel. It was utter chaos."

"Nn, ugh…!"

With every word out of the strange man's mouth, that erased week — the week that had been deleted from my mind — came flooding back into my brain.

-H-hyaaaaaah!!! I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sor— kyaaaaaah!!!

-Whoa… can you see it? The Grazely is trying to claw its way out through your belly right now. From what I know, they don't normally do that. I wonder if sloppy crossbreeding with humans throws off the birthing process too?

-S-sa, save me… please… nnnghk!! Uuuoogh!! Please, please save me…

Claws tearing through my belly from within, and through the fur-drenched folds, the enormous face of a baby Grazely pushing its way out, seized in the strange man's hand and dragged free.

Blood… blood was flowing everywhere.

From my pussy, from my belly… the place where the Grazely thrashed and fought its way out was left shredded and drenched in red.

"U-urrp…!"

Nausea surged up.

I didn't want to think about it anymore.

"Oh dear. You haven't eaten, so I doubt anything will come up."

"Kkheh, khahk khahk!"

Thick, viscous saliva drooled from my mouth, filthy and wet down my chin.

Just as the strange man said, since I hadn't eaten properly, all that came up was spit and stomach acid.

"Get a hold of yourself. There are still plenty of Flypers left inside you — you can't check out on me here."

"Huh…?"

At the non sequitur, I looked up at the strange man, then lowered my head and looked down.

There should have been one large snake lying somewhere behind him where he'd tossed it… yet my belly was still just as full-term as before.

"Flypers are snake-type monsters that give birth to around thirty at a time. Of course, thanks to the interbreeding, there's no guarantee all twenty-nine are still in there…"

The strange man placed his palm flat against my belly.

"…Procreation."

"Nnngh, nnghhkkhk?!!"

"There are definitely more in there. So we should get those out too, shouldn't we?"

The same agony as before came crashing back.

"Kyaaaaaah——!! Nnngh, aaaaah!!"

My pussy split open wide.

One? No, two…?

I couldn't tell.

Tears pooled in my eyes from the pain, and I could barely see.

The only thing I knew for certain was that long, scale-covered bodies were pouring out of me one after another.

"N, nnghk… haah, haah…"

How many were left…?

I couldn't count them anymore.

Every time something slid out of my pussy, my hips bucked, and each time, some unknown fluid gushed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out.

Whether it was amniotic fluid, piss, blood… or love juice… I could no longer tell any of them apart.