[The Unwanted Gift]
“Hah, ah… haah, ha… i-it’s over.”
The sense of dissonance that hits when a dream ends is still so strange. It’s like my body is still left behind in the situation I was just enduring, while only my mind has returned here… to this pitch-black darkness.
My chest feels a bit tight. It’s different from the tightness of being out of breath; it’s more like… something that wasn’t there before is filling me up?
Ah, no… the dream is over. It’s just my imagination. Just my imagination.
I’m never accepting a gift from Vega-sunbae ever again…
It is finished. How was it?
“N-ne? The dream?”
Yes.
Why are you asking for my thoughts on the dream, you Eyeball? Well, the power you gave me turned into breast milk, and I got milked dry by a monster until I… you know. So what?
“…I-it was just okay.”
Just give me the power already.
Is that so… Very well.
I’ve been feeling it more lately, but this Eyeball is a bit suspicious, isn’t it? But I need the power for now, and I don’t have any concrete proof, so I’m just keeping an eye on it.
I shall now accept your questions.
“Okay.”
After all, this Eyeball is the only one who listens to these kinds of questions.
“Lately, I’ve been fighting magical girls who are trying to take your fragments, right? I’m curious if Spica might be in that same state.”
I can answer that with certainty. You are mistaken.
Eh. What… I had secretly considered that kind of development, but I guess not. I’d even wondered if a “Spica vs. Spica” scenario might come up later.
If you wish to satisfy that curiosity, asking your companions might prove helpful.
“Oh… really? Okay. And one more. This is a question about someone other than Spica.”
I have one more question born from the dream I just had. What Vega said at the end. She told me to gather plenty more by the time we meet again. What could that mean?
“The dreams I have here… the possibilities of defeat, right? Can other people interfere or enter them?”
It’s clearly a dream, and the defeat is supposed to end there. The suggestion to meet again is… a bit strange, isn’t it?
It is not impossible, but I wonder. I doubt there is anyone with such a purpose.
Uh… there is. A pretty girl who keeps appearing in front of me lately… Anyway, that means there might be a way, right? I’ll have to tell Deneb later.
“Okay. Thanks for telling me.”
That was amusing. We shall meet again, Spica.
The dream is ending. The dream Vega gifted me is fading away.
My body feels stiff.
“Ugh, hyaaaa…”
I stretch and get out of bed. It’s the start of a familiar day, and there’s nothing particularly different from usual, but… the tightness in my chest I felt in the dream is subtly bothering me.
“Just my imagination, just my imagination… yeah, it’s all in my head.”
Morning means it’s time to get ready for school. I ignore the lingering tightness and head to the bathroom.
“……”
Why does this feel so familiar…?
Standing in front of the mirror, I stare intently at my chest—
“T-this… back then, at the beginning, the s-slime. That…!”
The first dream I ever had. I remember the slime suddenly seeping into my chest, and the feeling that my breasts had grown ever so slightly.
“It can’t be, it’s not… it’s just your imagination, Yuseong. Don’t get the wrong idea, okay?”
Feeling a bit anxious, I ramble to myself for no reason. I slowly raise both hands, gulp—and move them toward my chest…
“It’s just my imagination… just my imagination. Once was enough, right…?”
I suddenly grab my chest and squeeze hard.
“H-hngh-♡”
I… I’m insane. I almost, almost, almost came right there…
“Hoo, huaaa, ha, haa… O-okay. So that’s how it’s going to be…”
I have a plan. I leave the bathroom and trot over to my closet. I pull out my secret weapon—a compression bra I prepared just in case.
“I’ll just press them down tight. Hehe… I’m so smart, aren’t I?”
With a triumphant smile, I take off my clothes and put on the bra—put it on, put it on?
“Th-this… ugh, ugh-“
Snap-
The bra hook makes a cheerful sound as it flies off into the distance.
“……”
I-it’s okay… I can just wear a different bra…
“So, you’ve snapped five bras since this morning?”
“Hey, hey…! K-keep your voice down, you crazy b*tch…”
“Just how much are you planning on growing? Can you give me some, huh?”
“Take them if you want…”
We’re in the school cafeteria, and it’s lunchtime. Chaehyun has had a subtle… jealousy? A similar feeling toward my chest since we were little. It’s still the same now.
“No… how can all your underwear become too small overnight?”
“……”
Her expression isn’t great, so… maybe I should stop talking.
“So, you went through morning classes braless?”
“U-uh-huh.”
I answered as quietly as possible. Every time I walk, my chest keeps bouncing, and it’s incredibly distracting.
“Then what about the nipples?”
Suddenly, Chaehyun reaches out and pokes my chest with her index finger.
“Hey-!!! Y-you crazy b*tch, crazy b*tch… you sound just like an old man…”
…Thank goodness she poked the side by a hair’s breadth.
“A-anyway! I’m going to buy new ones on the way home.”
Even during class, I was hyper-aware of the fabric brushing against my chest. I’d chosen the softest material possible… but it’s still so itchy. Plus, every time the n-nipple tips brush against it, a tingle runs down my spine.
“Yeah, you should. Buy even bigger ones this time. They’ll probably be even bigger than this soon.”
“Wh-what are you saying! That won’t happen.”
“Are you Yuseong, or are you a dairy cow?”
A dairy cow.
Chaehyun probably didn’t mean anything by it, just trying to tease me, but I feel a sting of guilt because the dream I had yesterday keeps coming to mind.
“D-don’t say things like that! Calling a person a… a dairy cow.”
“Are you sure milk isn’t coming out? Come here.”
“Kyaaaa-!! Wh-wh-where are you touching…!”
It might have been a mistake to bring up my chest troubles in front of Chaehyun, who has a complex about her own. With the same hand she used to poke me, she grabs my chest firmly—and starts kneading it lightly.
“Hi, uh…♡”
“……”
“Y-you… I told you n-not to…”
I’m so embarrassed I could die… we’re in the cafeteria. No one else heard that, right?
“Why, why is your expression like that… why, again?”
The expression on Chaehyun’s face, sitting across from me, is a bit strange. A bit flustered? Surprised…?
“Hey… y-you…”
Chaehyun’s hand, which had just been clutching my chest, is now pointing at me, trembling subtly. Specifically, at my chest. At the spot where the nipple is pressed against the fabric.
“Why… why? Why are you doing that?”
I look down to see where Chaehyun’s finger is pointing. My gray shirt—which I chose because I thought it wouldn’t be see-through—has turned a darker color in one spot. As if it had been soaked in water.
“Sweat. It’s sweat. It’s sweat. Got it?”
“O-oh, okay.”
Emergency. I jump up and run out of the cafeteria as if fleeing. What should I do about this troublesome friend? I put off my revenge for another time and head toward a secluded corner of the school.
“Magical Girl Spica, Transform-! Transform, Transfoooorm!!”
I transform more desperately and urgently than ever before. Starlight wraps around my body, and I’m in my familiar dress… but it feels a bit tight today. No? That’s just my imagination too. It has to be…
“Deneb, she’ll be home, right…?”
Deneb is the only one who can help me right now. I leap into the air with all my might and fly toward her house as fast as I can. I’ll promise myself again… I will never, ever accept a gift from Vega.
“S-Spica… hello, what’s the matter…?”
“Sunbae-!! Deneb-sunbae, m-my…! My chest…!”
“Y-y-your chest…?”
Did I get to the point too quickly? No. I’m in a hurry.
“U-um, first of all, can you not tell Sirius-unnie about this? I feel like I’m going to get scolded so hard.”
“U-uh, just t-tell me first…”
I tell her about meeting Vega on my way home yesterday. About how Vega defeated the monster and gifted me the fragment. About how I woke up from the dream to find all my underwear too small… and finally, what happened in the cafeteria just now.
“What, what do I do about this…?”
I look at Deneb with teary eyes, begging for an answer.
“W-well… to reduce the influence of the dream on your physical body, the only way is…”
“…A fake dream?”
Sirius has already blocked the option of dealing with other rifts.
“U-uh… but since V-Vega is there, I’m not sure if you’ll be able to win…”
That’s true. Even if it’s a fake dream, Vega is there.
“Ugh… i-is there no other way? Really?”
“H-how about this…?”
Ohhh…? Does she really have another way? I look at Deneb with high expectations as she pulls something out from under her desk.
…Heart-shaped stickers?
“W-when you don’t have underwear, you can use these temporarily…”
“I don’t want to.”
“…Sorry.”
If I go back like this, nothing will change. So there really is no other way…
“Okay. I’ll try the f-fake dream. But! If it looks like I’m going to lose, Deneb-sunbae, you have to end the fake dream. You did it last time, so it’s possible, right?”
“That… should be possible. Of course, it would be best if you w-won…”
“Huuu… that’s true. I have to try, I guess.”
I sit in the large chair that resembles a massage chair, which I’ve used once before. Let’s not think so negatively, Yuseong. Maybe I’ll get lucky and win?
“Then I-I’ll start…”
“Sunbae, you know you have to end it if I’m going to lose, right? P-please…!”
It’s too late to back out now. Come at me… Vega-sunbae. …Please just let me win once.
