Sexual Harassment Turnabout Trial (2)
Sexual Harassment Turnabout Trial (2)
Sia, Alice, Aika.
The three candidates for Yujin's crush that he had revealed during the interview.
Alice's reaction upon seeing the interview was...
"......?"
'Who could it be...? It was not me.'
She was utterly convinced that it couldn't possibly be her.
After all, if Yujin liked her...
he'd have done it already in the infirmary.
He'd have hypnotized her and done all the things she often saw in those "eyes."
Yet after waking from hypnosis, she'd found boxes of painkillers for menstrual cramps.
Later, she learned that while she slept, Yujin had been lifting weights in the training room.
Those were not the actions of a man who loved her.
'Even in the Gate, he held me completely against him, but he didn't get hard at all....'
One more thing to add.
During the transfer into the A-rank Gate, Yujin's PTSD flared and he clutched Alice tightly.
She had felt him with her entire body.
Her entire body, truly—from every angle, including between her legs.
Yet the Yujindo hadn't so much as twitched.
If he loved her, it should have stood proudly upright.
———Just as she'd seen on her phone the week before.
'It wasn't as though he had erectile dysfunction. I'd seen it during our video call....'
On Aika's first night living with him, Alice had pestered him into leaving a video call running all night.
Through it, she had seen everything clearly with her own two eyes.
The Yujindo being drawn at dawn: a male physiological response.
Even Alice hadn't been able to stare. She'd yelped and ended the call immediately, though she briefly regretted not taking a screenshot afterward. In any case...
Thanks to that, Alice knew perfectly well that Yujin was no eunuch.
Yet when that same man held her tightly, he hadn't so much as twitched, let alone drawn his blade.
It was only natural that belatedly realizing what that meant would hurt her self-esteem.
'Yujin didn't find me attractive, did he? In the terminology of those "eyes"... I was a total turnoff, unlike Ms. Ninomiya.'
As an added bonus, she suddenly found herself envious of Aika.
Aika had larger breasts, more money, and greater strength.
She even lived with Yujin...
and knew with precision that the Yujindo measured roughly eight inches.
The woman who had once made the Yujindo fully draw: Aika Ninomiya.
For some reason, Alice grew depressed, and the corners of her eyes drooped.
"Haaah...."
'Well, it could not be Ms. Sia. It had to be Ms. Ninomiya after all. Feelings had bloomed while they lived together. I was only Yujin's totally unsexy Pine-Needle Snow companion.'
-Tap, tap.
Her finger slid across the phone screen.
She opened Outstar, tapped Yujin's account—one of her mutual follows—and opened their DMs.
She meant to send him a private message.
What was she supposed to say?
The person you like, it's Ms. Ninomiya, right? I've figured it all out. Should she go with that?
It sounded like her, but she hated it.
Should she ask whether it was her?
That was even worse. It would look as though she was fishing for an answer while letting herself hope.
Should she advise him that it was too early for romance?
In England, children did everything by middle school. As if anyone would believe that coming from her.
Countless letters were typed and erased again and again.
Like a heart too complicated to put into words.
Only her gloom grew deeper.
'What right did I have to say any of this to Yujin in the first place? I was a total turnoff....'
-Ding!
[Mom - Alice, are you dating Yujin?]
"......?"
———A DM arrived in the middle of all that.
Was she dating Yujin?
Those were the words her mother had sent.
"Haaah...."
-Tap, tap.
[The person Yujin likes is Ms. Ninomiya. Not me.]
[Mom - Why are you so sure? Did Yujin tell you that himself?]
[No. Actually, Yujin and I aren't very close.]
[Mom - But you like Yujin.]
"......What?"
Alice's eyes flew wide.
She liked Yujin.
Those shocking words had stunned her.
[What do you mean? Yujin and I are just friends.]
[Mom - Alice. There's no such thing as friendship between a man and a woman.]
[I said we're really just friends. Yujin doesn't see me as a woman.]
[Mom - No way. Unless he has erectile dysfunction.]
[You don't know anything about Yujin, Mom.]
[Mom - Maybe not. So think about it carefully. There must've been moments he showed interest in you.]
That was the advice her mother gave.
Alice briefly looked back on the past.
[I'm counting on you from now on, Alice.]
The first day, Yujin had saved her when she was getting insulted for her fashion sense.
On their first day together, he'd carried her to the infirmary.
When she pestered him to film a commercial, he eventually agreed without complaint.
When they were thrown into a Gate, he'd hugged her before anyone else.
He had tried to protect her before anyone else.
'Come to think of it, he had become incredibly flustered whenever our bodies so much as brushed... Seriously. Over breasts?'
—Grin.
Alice found herself smiling without realizing it.
It had not seemed that way at the time, but looking back...
there had indeed been several moments when Yujin showed interest in her.
[Mom - I do not know whether he likes you most among the three, but he definitely sees you as a woman.]
[Maybe. Still, that doesn't mean I like Yujin. He's a friend.]
[Mom - And you clearly like him as well.]
"......."
'We were Pine-Needle Snow companions... Huh?'
She had thought of Yujin as a friend.
A very precious friend, certainly, but still only a friend.
Yet now that her mother had said it...
she could not help questioning herself.
Did she like Yujin?
...Do I like Yujin?
Her heart beat faster merely from imagining it.
[I don't know.]
[Mom - Then how about trying to date Yujin? There's a lot of talk about it in England right now. About whether you'll date Yujin or not.]
[Really?]
[Mom - Of course. That CRPS thing—over here, they just prescribe painkillers and charge thousands of pounds, but he cured it completely for only 5,600 pounds.]
[That’s true, but.]
[Mom - More than anything, it’s about time you tried dating. Take this chance and give it a try.]
Her mother even gently encouraged Alice.
Everyone knew Yujin Coin had a promising future, and now there was talk that he might like her daughter.
He wasn’t a bad prospective son-in-law, so she coaxed Alice into trying to date him.
Alice's cheeks turned bright red.
'I still didn’t know whether I liked Yujin... but this was for Britain, so it couldn’t be helped.'
[That sounds reasonable. Though I doubt Yujin likes me most among the three.]
[Mom - You never know. He might like all three.]
[You are quite the joker. Anyway, I’ll try. As a Briton.]
In any case, Alice revived.
She rose to her feet.
She shot upright as if she’d never been deflated.
'I should talk to Ms. Ninomiya first.'
—Trudge.
Then she headed straight for Yujin's quarters.
After all, Aika was the woman Yujin was most likely to like.
Alice intended to have a calm conversation with her.
...She had clearly intended to do nothing more than talk.
—Creak. Mutter, mutter.
"That Ninomiya... Buying a mountain of clothes like this, then saying returns were a hassle and asking me to throw them out instead... Well, judging by these clothes, I suppose there was no one else she could ask."
"......?"
A sudden voice reached her.
When she looked over in surprise, the Chairwoman was carrying boxes full of clothes.
They were loaded onto a handcart that oddly suited her.
But even the handcart couldn’t hold them all.
One box wobbled, then dropped to the ground.
The clothes inside spilled out in a heap.
—Thump.
"Damn it... Cadet Alice? Sorry, but could you help me? If I let go, the rest look like they’ll topple over too."
"Ah, yes!"
The Chairwoman, who’d been about to snap in irritation, called Alice over.
While the Chairwoman held the handcart, Alice picked up the clothes and put them back into the box.
"Thank you. Ah, what these clothes are is a secret... Hm?"
"......."
—Tremble, tremble.
"Good grief. Damn."
———In the process, Alice saw exactly what kind of "clothes" Aika had ordered.
The Chairwoman let out a single lament and fell silent.
She could clearly see the disaster about to unfold.
"There. Then I’ll be going."
"Thank y..."
—Patter, patter!!
"......Good grief~ Woman trouble. Nothing but woman trouble~."
A soft lament echoed behind the fluttering pink ponytail.
* * *
Meanwhile, Aika was in an extremely good mood.
It was thanks to the mountain of clothes piled in the living room.
"Hm-hm~."
'Korea really was great for this. How did packages arrive in just one day?'
Just the day before, after the Prime Minister had scrapped the hakama-related plan,
she’d stayed up all night ordering thirty million won’s worth of clothes.
Even after throwing out the ones that didn’t fit or looked disappointing in person, more than a hundred remained.
Just looking at them made her hum.
She was excited at the thought of wearing comfortable, pretty clothes from then on.
'Let’s see. This was... a babydoll, wasn’t it?'
—Slip.
'It hadn’t looked like much on the mannequin, but this was quite lewd. Was this what my disciple liked?'
There were also some extraordinary items mixed among the clothes.
The night before, when Aika had asked him to pick out clothes for her,
Yujin had given these outfits a thumbs-up, saying they’d suit his master perfectly.
In truth, her swimsuit had overwhelmed him, so he’d casually said everything would look good.
Aika had been embarrassed too and had simply clicked purchase, so lewd clothes and underwear had ended up mixed in.
And how did she react to the lewd underwear?
'If my disciple liked this sort of thing... I could close my eyes and wear it for him. Young men had all sorts of... troubles, after all.'
She fawned over him as if it were only natural.
So her disciple liked this kind of thing. What a taste.
Right. Since she couldn’t let him touch her breasts, she’d at least wear something a little lewd for him.
Then he could use the sight as material when he took care of himself.
It was an idea that would have made Yujin ask whether his master’s grace wasn’t being served in an absurdly heaping portion.
But at the same time,
that virtuous young man would probably endure it somehow with hypnosis.
In the end, Aika’s fawning was destined to be a tempest in a teacup.
———At least, it had been before the British fire flared up.
—BANG!!!
"Ms. Ninomiya!!!"
"......? Aren’t you my disciple’s friend? What brings you here?"
Alice burst in, her face flushed red.
Aika stared at her blankly.
She hadn’t even realized she’d been putting on a fashion show in the living room without locking the front door. She only looked indifferent.
Fire blazed in Alice’s eyes.
'So that was why there was talk about whether Yujin had feelings for her. She was pulling underhanded stunts like this!!'
Standing in the living room in her underwear with the door unlocked?
What was this? Had she planned to pretend it was an accident and show her body to Yujin?
Good lord. What Alice had suddenly witnessed was already this bad.
How much had she run wild before now?
Disgusting. Fawning. Filthy. A pervert.
'There wasn’t even a pervert like this in those “eyes.”'
"You pervert!!! What are you doing to Yujin!!!"
"...Hah? My disciple is at the amusement park with his adopted daughter."
"Changing clothes in the living room without locking the door! And wearing see-through, lewd underwear on top of that!! You were planning to pretend it was an accident and show yourself to Yujin, weren’t you!!"
"......!!!!?"
Aika jolted in shock.
Carried away by her good mood, she’d finally realized she’d forgotten what she was wearing.
"Th-this is, well. You see."
"Because you’re insecure about your age, you were going to strip and seduce him!? Wearing these lewd clothes!!?"
"I had no such intention...."
"I’ll burn every last one of these clothes!! Incinerate them! Incinerate them!!"
—Whoosh.
But Alice’s rampage didn’t wait for an explanation.
To her, this was the scene of a precious friend nearly being sexually harassed by a thirtysomething spinster.
The flames she unleashed engulfed the piles of clothes...
-Thud.
"...What are you doing?"
But she failed to burn them.
Aika had blocked the flames with her own body.
The babydoll she wore was singed slightly, but...
a few pats of her hand extinguished even that.
It was a glimpse of the dignity of the S-rank No. 1.
Alice charged again without being intimidated in the slightest.
"You pervert!! You've been looking at Yujin that way!? We trusted you with him because you were his master!!"
"......."
"No matter how desperate you are to marry, seducing Yujin this way is...."
"Enough of your nonsense!!"
-Bwaaang!!
Aika merely unleashed a lion's roar.
The sonic attack sent the grappling Alice flying.
The innocent clothes were torn in the process.
"Hnngh!?"
"Honestly. How rude. What is this nonsense all of a sudden...."
"You did something lewd!! To Yujin!!"
"......!!!!?"
Her clothes tore, her hair became disheveled, and she landed hard on her backside.
Even so, Alice's fighting spirit did not break.
The prodigy of the "eyes" unleashed a barrage of facts.
"You obviously kept touching Yujin's body and flirting with him, did you not? And that wasn't enough, so you forced him to touch you too!!"
"Th-that's...."
"You deliberately wore lewd clothes to put him in a difficult position. You pushed yourself on him while claiming you'd wash him. No, you must have stripped him just to look at his thing!!"
"......."
It was slander so excessive that anyone else would have told her to tone it down.
Aika said nothing and averted her eyes.
Every word struck painfully close to home.
'Well... things had somehow happened that way....'
Had she touched Yujin?
She'd touched every inch of his body while claiming she'd wash him. She had even patted his bottom in the Gate.
Had she forced him to touch her?
Only yesterday, she'd forced her unwilling disciple to spank her dozens of times.
Deliberately wearing lewd clothes? That one truly was slander...
Except that while washing him, she'd worn nothing but a bathrobe to see whether her disciple reacted to her body.
'Besides, even though I hadn't meant to, I'd seen him several times with X-Ray Vision....'
"......."
"See!! You pervert, you lecher!!! Typical Japanese woman!!!"
At that, Alice's warped perception exploded.
As expected of someone from the homeland of those "eyes." Such astonishing depravity.
My assessment on the first day had been correct!
"Get out of Yujin's quarters this instant, you sow in heat!!"
"A, a, s-sow...!?"
Emboldened, Alice delivered the classic line.
Aika's mind went blank.
She'd heard nothing but praise since childhood as a kendo prodigy and an awakener genius. Now, without warning, someone had called her a sow.
Confusion rose before anger at the sudden insult...
-Squeak.
"Master~ Sorry I'm la—"
"What took you so long!!"
"......!!!!!"
Yujin arrived at the worst possible moment.
Alice hurriedly shoved him into the living room.
Look at this sow. This is really too much—she seemed to say.
The gift in Yujin's hands...
fell limply to the floor the instant he saw his master.
Cherry-blossom-scented bath salts, his gift for Aika, scattered through the air.
"...Master?"
"D-di-disciple. This is not what it looks like...."
What kind of state was that, Master?
I wasn't a perverted sow, my disciple.
The meanings neither dared voice crossed chaotically in their gazes.
"What do you mean it is not what it looks like!! You pervert, you sow!! A lecher who thinks only about doing filthy things to Yujin!!"
"Alice!? What are you saying to Master? There is no way she would...."
"You're being fooled, Yujin!! By that bitch!!"
Alice planted herself squarely between them.
"As your Pine-Needle Snow companion, I can't let this stand!! A trial! We are holding a trial!!"
"What?"
"I'm charging that woman with sexually harassing you, so defend her if you think you can!!"
She declared sternly.
"The loser gets the death penalty!!!"