The Commander, Counseling (3)
Oh...
Following those swaying tails inside, I was greeted by a rather refreshing sight. The house was decorated entirely in an Eastern style, and quite spacious for someone living alone. If I had to pin down the overall interior... it came closest to that of a certain island nation sitting right next to the country I used to live in.
Ask me whether it was a perfect match and I wouldn't know, but did that even matter? I wasn't an expert, and I'd never lived there besides. Well... a set of miko robes did hang neatly along one wall. Easier to just assume the game company had taken their inspiration from that direction entirely. Yeah. The owner of this house had a Japanese-style name, too. That had to be it.
Feels like I've come on a trip to Japan...
Still, it was a somewhat novel feeling. The styles I'd been looking at ever since the possession had leaned Western more than Eastern, after all — inside Firma, and in Berta too, on that business trip last time. Which was why this strangely familiar sensation was one I hadn't felt in quite a long while. Firma had plenty of operatives from the East, of course... but looking at people and looking at a culture were two entirely different things.
...I've gone on long enough. In short, it was simply a fascinating experience.
Besides, walking into a girl's room was... the first time in my life... wasn't it?
...Huh?
...Wasn't this a serious problem?
Until now I'd only been thinking about it from a thorough office worker's standpoint — whether it was even appropriate for a boss to drop by unannounced. I shifted my perspective the tiniest bit, and suddenly this looked... pretty dangerous. I mean, if both parties were adults, perhaps it would be different. But a fully grown adult visiting a child's room, where she lived alone? It looked like I had some kind of ulterior motive. Get arrested like this and there was a high chance I'd be the one going to jail.
No. No.
My thoughts kept drifting in a weird direction, so I shook my head vigorously. I had simply come here to counsel one of my operatives. This was a necessary thing, that was all. Yeah. So, uh, I needed to... do the counseling...
"Um, Hitsuko...?"
"What is the matter, Commander?"
"Our counseling...?"
"We are in the midst of it, are we not?"
...This was it?
Did sitting the counselee on your lap and gently stroking her head count as counseling? The well-cared-for hair felt lovely to run my fingers through, and those ears twitching as if they weren't enjoying it were incredibly cute, but... she had asked me to do it, so I was, and I couldn't help feeling skeptical all the same. Hitsuko was the right age to receive this sort of thing, so it didn't feel particularly off. But was this really okay? I'd never done much counseling, so I had no idea if this was even correct.
"Commander, your hand has stopped."
"No, I mean..."
"Do not stop."
"...Okay. I'll do it..."
...Well, whatever. Who cared. This might actually be better. Counseling had only ever been the means; the real goal was to build a closer relationship. ...Though the distance between us already seemed close enough. Did we need to get even closer...?
"Please eat while you continue."
"...Ah, thanks."
Amid the peculiar conflict unfolding in my head, I took a cookie Hitsuko held out to my mouth. Feeling as though I'd become a thoroughly hopeless adult, I tried to eat it myself — only for her to immediately catch my wrist and set it back on top of her head. ...I even tried putting some force into pulling it away, but it didn't budge an inch.
So after everything, I had to lose to Hitsuko, who was so much younger than me? Was this even right?
...I didn't want to admit it, but what could I do? I was nothing but a useless, ordinary human. I had no choice but to stroke as I was told, and eat whatever I was given. More precisely, it was one of the dolls Hitsuko commanded that was feeding me.
What a strange world...
I lifted my head a little and looked at the dolls of every shape and kind working around the house. To think you could control them just by carefully crafting dolls and sticking a few talismans on. No — not even control. Control would mean operating them one by one, but those things were closer to autonomous operation; they carried out orders on their own. Now that was fantasy. Wait, given the time period, should I call it modern fantasy? This was really confusing.
Anyway, the more impressive part was...
There's so many of them.
Even accounting for the size of the house, their numbers were by no means small. The dolls — nearly ten of them — each performed different work matching their varied appearances. Some brought cookies to the empty table, or poured tea into my cup. Others were in the middle of housework, or simply sitting there doing nothing. ...Though the majority of them were just sitting around idle. Weren't those ones a bit much surplus labor?
I'd been so curious I'd asked her about it once. What had Hitsuko said then...?
"You wish to know why I employ so many dolls?"
"It is only natural."
"Unlike when I resided at the main house, I am alone in this place... but that does not mean I must do everything myself."
"If one has no servants, one simply makes use of dolls, does one not?"
Ah, I think that was what she...
...Huh?
...Wait. This was something I had never known.
It had never come up in the game's story, nor in Hitsuko's personal voice lines. I hadn't even had that conversation. This was my first time coming here — there was no way I would have asked the question that produced that answer. So why was it so vivid? Whose memory was this, exactly...?
Tap. Tap.
"Commander."
"Eh?"
Just as my memories and someone else's memories overlapped and a wave of dizziness took me, an overwhelming softness pressed suddenly against my cheek, and my buried vision gradually returned.
"Would you kindly keep your thoughts from wandering, and focus on me?"
"...Ah, sorry."
My sudden loss of composure had apparently caught Hitsuko's attention. ...It wasn't something I could have helped. I felt a little wronged, but I didn't show it, apologized appropriately, and moved on. Saying my memories overlapped with someone else's and I was briefly confused would have produced an aftermath that was... quite severe.
Unfortunately, even after that, I still couldn't give her my full attention.
"...Nngh."
I did my best. I tried desperately to pour every ounce of sensation into the hand resting against her hair. To wipe away stray thoughts as much as possible, I recited the Heart Sutra I'd once vaguely overheard, repeating it dozens of times in my mind. But it wasn't enough. The feeling of three fluffy tails tickling my chest all at once... honestly, it was maddeningly hard to endure.
What... is this?
It shouldn't have been a big deal. I was just stroking Hitsuko's head, and her tails were swaying, and they happened to brush against my chest. The gap between us was narrow, so it was a perfectly natural phenomenon caused by a lack of space. Yes. That was all it should have been.
But... why was it like this... why did my body feel like it was getting hotter and hotter...?
It's hot...
My breathing grew a little ragged, and my body trembled in little jolts. Sweat beaded on my forehead, and I could hear my own heartbeat in my ears... I even had the illusion that my lower abdomen was pounding. Why was I like this? Had I been working too hard lately? Should I have taken the day off, like Calia said...?
Oh no. The time already...
Instinctively looking up to find some way out of the situation, I saw an elegant clock hanging on the wall. The hour hand was just about to tick past eleven, and my mind snapped into focus. If I stayed any later... never mind building rapport with my next adjutant, I might not even make it to work...!
"Um... Hitsuko?"
With my head forcibly cooled, I glanced at her a few times, then quietly stopped my hard-working hand... and carefully spoke to Hitsuko, who was beginning to radiate an increasingly uncomfortable aura.
"Yes, Commander."
"It's getting late, so I should probably... hup?!"
I had been about to ask if I could go. Before I could even finish speaking, something flew at me and sealed my mouth shut.
Speech forbidden until dawn.
"Mmph, mmph, nngh...!"
Panicking, I desperately tried to peel it off, but it was a completely useless struggle. Paper...? No — similar, but the material wasn't ordinary paper. Then... could it be...?
"I did not catch every word... but you were intending to leave, were you not?"
"Mmph, mmph."
"Nngh...?"
Hitsuko, who had been sitting quietly the whole time, rose from my lap and slowly walked away. Then she ran her fingers along the densely packed talismans beside the miko robes hanging neatly on the wall. ...One spot was empty. No, wait...?
"Mmph, nngh...?"
"Ah, and I shall not remove that talisman from your lips until tomorrow morning. Do bear that in mind."
A talisman... so I was right?
Having satisfied that curiosity, she tapped the lips hidden behind the talisman... then immediately caught both of my cheeks and pulled them hard.
"Mmph..."
...Honestly, I could have just walked out then and there without any real problem. But the look in her eyes at that moment was, for some reason, so terrifying... that I nodded as hard as I could.
Sleeping with Hitsuko was a little scary in several senses, too. Mostly the social and legal ones. ...Well, whatever. If I were still a man with a filthy heart, perhaps it would be different. I didn't have any particular intentions, and now that I'd even become a woman... what was the big deal about spending a night with a girl?
Nothing would happen, but... with my mouth sealed, a thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
...I'm not going to end up imprisoned later, am I?
Come on. No way.