Size (14)
"News here, news there. Every channel is running nothing but emergency broadcasts. 'A tree in the heart of the city—proof that aliens exist?' And... 'That high-speed road chase, who is that guy?' Wow, I've suddenly become a celebrity overnight."
"...Ha."
Lying in a house far more spacious than my studio apartment, I watched the news Seo-hee had put on for me. No matter how many times I flipped through the channels with the remote, the images stayed the same—an announcer reporting on footage of me in a helmet or the tree soaring high in the middle of the city. A sigh slipped out before I could stop it.
"Seriously, what the hell were you thinking? No, more importantly—how did you even do that?"
"I don't know either. Still... they're being pretty thorough about this."
"What do you mean?"
Even after switching through more than twenty channels, the same stories kept repeating. The unease settled in my gut. Most of the coverage focused on the tree I had created. But the part about the masked pursuer was minimized. Practically nonexistent. I'd caused total chaos in the middle of a crowded street, yet none of it made the news. No matter how I looked at it, this was media control. A gag order. Something like that.
I pressed the power button and killed the TV. Watching more wouldn't help. It only made my head throb worse.
"Unnie, Sua unnie fell asleep."
"Ah, good work."
Another door opened. Nabi poked her small head through the gap and whispered in a quiet voice. Seo-hee gave her a little wave of appreciation.
"Then you should rest too. I'll go check on Chae-yun."
I waved vaguely as she rose from the bed and disappeared into another room, then buried my face in the pillow. It smelled of Seo-hee.
This place was far larger than my studio apartment. It was Seo-hee's house. With so many of us injured, my cramped room would never have fit everyone. Seo-hee had brought us all here instead. She'd originally saved up to rent a big place to live with friends, but now she lived alone with Nabi. She told us to stay until our wounds healed.
"...What happened to her friends..."
I pulled the blanket over myself, closed my eyes, and muttered pointless words into the quiet.
...Sleep wouldn't come. I'd been trying for over an hour, but it refused to arrive. I'd thought the exhaustion and pain would knock me out the moment I lay down, yet something kept nagging at me.
"..!! ...!! Uuu...!!"
Ah. Right on cue. Noisy sounds drifted from the room Seo-hee had called her dressing room. The woman who had eaten the fruit—one of the main sources of all that chaos—was locked inside. We couldn't just leave her behind, so we'd brought her along, but...
"...She's too loud. I can't sleep like this..."
Ignoring my screaming muscles, I climbed out of bed and walked over. The cold doorknob turned under my hand. Inside, the woman—gagged, hands and feet bound—glared at me and thrashed wildly.
"..."
"Mmph!! Mph!"
"...Please be quiet."
"Mph?! Mmmph!!"
I had no idea what she was trying to say. Sighing, I brushed my bangs back. She clearly had no intention of staying silent. Just in case, I decided to try it.
I focused power into my hand and reached toward her. The same way I'd put the rampaging Chae-yun to sleep back at the café. Maybe it would work on her too.
...It probably wouldn't. I hadn't even used the petals, after all. Wait—what?
"...Huh?"
A blue light glowed from her body. How was this possible? I hadn't used any petals on her.
...Could it be because of the fruit?
Carefully I extended my hand toward the light. A warm sensation met my palm. It was solid.
"...I don't understand what's happening, but..."
I didn't understand, but the timing was perfect. If I could use this power properly, perhaps I could do something about the fruit she'd swallowed.
"...Still, first things first..."
First, I wanted to rest. She had to be tired too, so I'd let her sleep a little.
"Alright then... 'Sleep...'"
"Ughp?!!"
I hadn't even finished the command. I pulled at the blue light rising from her, expecting the familiar sensation of success. Instead, an enormous unknown force slammed into me the moment I drew it in. My body flew backward, floating for a split second before smashing into the wall with brutal force.
"Ugh!!"
I crumpled to the floor.
"Cough! Cough! Fuck... it hurts again..."
The feeling was strange. Two opposing forces violently repelling each other. Like the north poles of two magnets slamming together. In that instant I sensed it—something inside her. A green light glowed at the center of her body, absorbing my blue energy.
One method spun rapidly through my mind. With this approach, I wouldn't need to extract the fruit from her at all.
"...Mmph...!!"
The woman made a strange noise through her gag, then her eyes curved into a mocking smile. She was laughing at me. My current state must have looked ridiculous. I started laughing too. It had been pure coincidence, but thanks to it, one of my biggest problems had solved itself.
I stood up and walked over to her, then removed the gag.
"Pwah! Finally I can talk. I thought I was going to suffocate."
"I was planning to take things slowly, but whatever. Who are you? Why were you being chased?"
"Why should I tell you?"
"...Fine, skip it. Where did you get that fruit?"
"...Bleh~"
She stuck her tongue out like a child, taunting me.
"Do you even know what that thing does? What the hell were you thinking, eating it?"
"None of your business, is it? More importantly, are you the ones behind that monster flower?"
She ignored every one of my questions and fired off her own. Her face looked relaxed. Or rather, she radiated an inexplicable confidence so exaggerated it actually put me on edge.
"..."
"Ahaha, I was right, wasn't I? You guys really are pathetic."
"...What are you talking about?"
"I read up on you. If you can't parasitize a human body, you die immediately, right? That's why I feel sorry for you..."
"...Hmm."
If Seo-hee or Su-a had heard those words, this woman would have died before she even realized the sentence she'd just spoken was her last.
"I have a personality where I have to say what I think. Do you pathetic weeds who can only survive by latching onto people really believe you're superior to humans?"
Her tone grew angry.
"That fruit I ate is important to you, isn't it? Then you can't hurt me. Because I swallowed it."
"...Why do you think that?"
"It was in the data I hacked. 'If a human ingests a power source, the power source becomes permanently bound to the human's body.'"
"What?"
"To extract it, you need 'another power source.' So what are you going to do?"
"...Aha. I see."
The woman giggled, completely unaware of what she'd revealed. I covered my mouth to hold back the laughter. To put it bluntly, I had never planned to remove the fruit from her body. The first reason was what I'd felt after using the blue fruit's power on the road earlier. While using it I hadn't noticed, but the backlash afterward made me think, I won't be able to use this much.
The second reason came from watching the blue light react with the green one, each trying to devour the other. Do I really have to eat the fruit myself?
The fruit's power was already burdensome for me. A second one would double that burden. So the solution I came up with was simple: create an oxygen tank. No one dives into the deep ocean without equipment. Even veteran divers couldn't manage it. I would create a tank to ease the burden that appeared whenever I used my ability. And the material for that tank was this woman.
I would use the fruits' natural desire to absorb each other.
"...In short, you can't kill me. Understand?"
"...Yeah. I understand."
"Uhu hu... Good. Now that you understand, I'm sorry for speaking so harshly earlier. From now on we have to help each other. So if you could untie me first... Eh...?"
I grabbed the collar of her shirt while she laughed triumphantly and yanked with all my strength. The fabric tore away like paper. Beneath it lay a cute bra.
"Wh-what are you doing?!"
"...Pathetically small."
They weren't completely nonexistent, but compared to Chae-yun, Seo-hee, or Hee-ju and their enormous sizes, these were far smaller than even Su-a or Nabi, whom I'd considered small.
"...You're not a student, are you?"
"I'm twenty-one!!"
Whoa. She's even older than me. I reached out and touched the small breasts.
"Eut...?!♡"
She shrank back in embarrassment. Ignoring her reaction, I continued fondling them.
"S-stop..."
Her trembling voice began to quiver in time with her shaking body.
"Stop! Stop it!! What the hell are you doing? Have you lost your mind?! Won't you be in trouble without me? As expected, a weed like you just doesn't understand!"
Her face, now much redder than before, shouted at me.
"I'll forgive you if you stop right now...!"
"Hahaha..."
"What? What's so funny?!"
"You're the one who's mistaken, and the way you're acting all superior is hilarious."
"...What? What did I misunderstand...!"
"Why do you think I need you? What I need isn't you. It's the fruit inside you."
Mocking the woman who stared at me blankly, I poked her chest with my finger.
"What I'm going to do from now on is turn you into a living tank."
"What...? What does that even..."
"Like I said, the fruits repel each other and try to absorb one another, right? I have the same kind of fruit inside me."
"...What?"
"So if I consume all the power of the fruit inside you, you'll literally become a living battery that keeps supplying me with power while staying alive."
"D-don't talk nonsense! That's... that's impossible...!!"
"No. You may not realize it, but right now you're connected to that fruit. If all its power gets devoured, what do you think will happen to you, linked to it as you are?"
"....Ah..."
Her face finally drained of color as understanding hit. She began inching backward.
"I've figured out how to consume the fruit's power. No matter the method, it seems I just need to make the person's mind submit to me."
When the rejection reaction between our fruits had pushed me away earlier, I must have been a little scared. That's why some of my energy had been absorbed by her. In that case, shouldn't I subdue her using the method I'm best at?
"...Don't worry. It won't hurt."
"W-wait, don't come near me...! Don't...!! Kyaa?!!"
I shoved her down. Then I tore off the spats she wore. She wasn't wearing underwear. Her pussy appeared immediately—pure white, smooth, completely hairless. I took off my pants and pressed my cock against her groin.
"Hik?! W-wait! Please wait!!"
I paused at her desperate cry. Was this her final request?
"Th-that... you can't...."
"...What?"
She swallowed hard. In a tiny, crawling voice filled with embarrassment, she whispered.
"...It's my first time... so please, not that...."
Her whole body trembled. Tears glistened at the corners of her eyes from fear.
...If I continued like this, I'd be complete trash, wouldn't I?
"...Alright."
I pulled my cock away from her pussy.
"...Eh? Y-you're really...?"
It would have been her first and last experience in life. If that special moment became rape, of course she would hate it. Maybe I should help her enjoy it too. If I made her beg me to put it in herself, then it wouldn't be rape, right?