Peter Pan - 8
"Did you arrive safely?"
"Yep yep! Thanks to you, Master, I got here just fine! I even met up with some friends, and tonight I'm planning to settle things with that jerk!"
Hearing Mikoto's voice eased my tension a bit. That excited, exaggerated high pitch was rare even in Japan.
"Be careful—it's dangerous. You have to come back safe. Call me anytime you need help."
"Psh, no problem! I'll keep messaging you, so don't worry too much! Bye-bye!"
After the call ended, I gathered my thoughts. Right up to the end, I couldn't shake the feeling that Mikoto was framing someone.
"Was I just overreacting?"
"In my personal opinion, Mikoto isn't the type to harbor that kind of hatred toward anyone."
Yukiko had just finished showering, and traces of last night still lingered faintly on her body. She'd scrubbed away what she could, but the red marks seeped deep into her skin couldn't be washed off with water.
"If that voice acting dream was crushed because of some executive she had to service—let's call him Executive A for now—and she gave up being a voice actress to become a slave instead, wouldn't she have reason to resent him?"
"Unless the man was exceptionally vile and sadistic, wouldn't it be more rational to surrender her virginity to Executive A once and pursue the voice acting career she so desperately wanted?"
I hadn't expected Yukiko to say something like that, so I paused for a moment. With her usual refined image, I'd assumed she valued chastity and honor above all else.
"Even if she did resent him, there was no need for such rude demands. Whatever her past, Mikoto's current status is that of a slave."
"True..."
"If you got angry over that request, Master, it would mean sacrificing her present life for past grudges."
Honestly, I couldn't easily imagine Mikoto hating anyone that much. We hadn't known each other long, but she struck me as someone more focused on herself than others.
"For a good, forgiving man like you—who overlooks harm done to himself—just suspecting Mikoto is already a huge loss for us slaves."
Yukiko mixed the milk and sugar from the side table just right and prepared my coffee. It wasn't quite as good as what she made at home, and she grimaced a little herself, but one sip told me it wasn't bad at all.
"Even if she'd used your wallet for personal gain or plotted against you, it wouldn't have made you this tense."
"That serious, huh..."
"Or perhaps Mikoto wove truth and lies together cleverly."
"Sigh... For now, let's just focus on whether Executive A raped her or not. Keep it simple."
"Actually, there's an even simpler way to look at the situation."
Yukiko was almost always right. But I wasn't sure if I could fully accept her sound advice.
"It's fine. I'll think about it later."
Deep down, I hoped all my worries were pointless. I just wanted Mikoto to shake off any lingering regrets or bad ties and come back smiling.
/////
I'd hoped to stroll around with Yukiko, but she lightly refused.
"I doubt I'd enjoy it, and even if I did, it would clearly eat away at your peace of mind."
"You sure? No one in Japan you want to see?"
"No. Besides, to properly monitor Mikoto, I need to stay focused from now until nightfall."
A barrage of static crackled from the laptop. The rustling phone in her bag, irregular footsteps—all filtered through the speakers.
"Amazing... How'd you pull this off?"
"Just installed an illegal program, nothing special."
Yukiko had been sitting there for hours, doing nothing but listening through her earphones. Even when I offered to take over, she silently held her post.
"...Sorry, Yukiko. Always putting you through this."
"At this point, consoling you that you don't need to apologize feels tiring."
Yukiko brushed back her hair lightly and stood from the chair.
"But I'm curious what fresh reason made you think that this time."
"Well, you're my woman, right? So shoving the job of watching another girl onto you feels... kinda shitty."
In an era where one man couldn't love just one woman, building a harem might not be so terrible. But emotionally, it stung to dump Mikoto's issue on Yukiko without handling it myself.
I'd tried brainstorming surveillance methods, but my half-baked ideas were laughable. When Yukiko heard my plan—roughly chase her to Japan, tail her to wherever she used the documents, and eavesdrop with super hearing—she firmly overruled it and devised, then executed, her own.
"That's a novel perspective I hadn't considered. Your... 'niceness,' Master, is still hard for me to grasp. I'm a slave. Use me like your own hand."
The footsteps changed. Ambient noise dropped sharply for a moment.
"She's entered a building. It's the production company connected to her."
I swallowed hard and focused on the laptop.
"Is the executive she's after in there?"
"Honestly, no way to know right now. There are no men working at this animation studio. Most lack the stamina for eight-hour days anyway."
"Without the physical enhancement procedure to fight the virus. Not easy."
A door slammed open, followed by Mikoto's low voice. Yukiko quickly turned up the volume so the words came through clear.
"It's over, Nemu."
"Really, you haven't grown a bit, have you, Mikoto?"
This was the first time I'd heard Mikoto spit words laced with such hostility. She'd probably met her target—but the responder was a woman.
"Haven't grown? Me? Still look like a kid to you, Nemu? Here—Master's order. Step down now. Get lost."
The sound of a paper envelope ripping, pages fluttering. Mikoto's voice nearly broke with rage.
"So you whored yourself out for that scrap of paper and now you're bragging?"
"Say whatever. Just get out of the industry. That shitty position let you watch other girls lose their virginity, huh? Those days are done."
"Heh, like a kid dragging her parents along to act tough. Pathetic, pathetic."
Mikoto unleashed harsh words. The innocent girl I'd seen was gone.
"Whatever, I can't fight it, so I'll concede. I'll turn myself in. No idea how you roped in your master, but pushing back openly might lead to who-knows-what..."
Mikoto stomped her feet in fury, but her light weight barely registered through the speakers.
"At worst, a fine or suspended sentence. That do it for you?"
Mikoto huffed in anger. Nemu had lost her position in an instant, Mikoto had pulled off sweet revenge—yet Nemu stayed nonchalant.
"Kinda disappointing, though. If you were gonna sell your virginity anyway, you should've just taken my initial offer. Would've been easier for both of us."
"I pass on a crazy dyke like you."
"Nah, you know I'm not a dyke—just a crazy bitch. You're one too. That's why I liked you."
With that, Mikoto stormed out. Yukiko and I stared blankly at each other for a while before she closed the laptop and spoke first.
"Anyway, the situation's much better than I expected. Their history seems messy, but it doesn't look like Mikoto's plotting anything major enough to worry about."
"The culprit was a woman, not a man... Kinda unexpected, but at least Mikoto didn't lie."
"Her reason for punishing that criminal had nothing to do with sexual assault or junior voice actresses. But you'd call it a personal matter, Master."
The tension melted away. Days of discussing and fretting with Yukiko over nothing—just baseless worries.
"Glad it worked out."
I closed my eyes and stretched out on the bed. Yukiko lay naturally beside me.
"Calling right now would be too obvious... I'll wait a bit and ask if it went well."
I tossed and turned with Yukiko for about an hour before dialing. But oddly, Mikoto didn't pick up.
"No answer... Hope nothing's wrong."
Yukiko was already up, tapping the laptop.
"No weird patterns on her phone location. Not kidnapped or caught in anything. She might've just crashed early—not that strange."
"Wait one more day, then..."
I figured I'd overreacted. Maybe a long bath kept her from answering, or she dozed off like Yukiko said. I sent a short text, shoved the phone aside, and held Yukiko close.
The next day, and the day after—no contact.