Store-4 "Shall I Buy It?"
"Shall I buy it?" I suggested casually, but Mikoto waved her hands in a panic.
"Ah, no!"
Mikoto grabbed my hand and bolted off to somewhere else, fleeing for her life. Her frail strength couldn't possibly drag me along, so with my arm caught, I followed her lead on my own feet. Only then could I see her back.
"Huff, huff... Sorry. Because of me..."
Before I knew it, Mikoto and I had run all the way to a corner of the department store. There was a bench for people waiting for the elevator, so I sat her down.
"It was going so well, really great this time..."
I ruffled her dejected head vigorously. Mikoto, at a loss, simply relaxed and let my touch take over her body.
"What do you plan to do from now on?"
"Huh?"
"Weren't you thinking of going back to voice acting?"
Mikoto plugged her ears as if even hearing the words was blasphemous. After a moment, she spoke first.
"Master... why are you doing all this for someone like me?"
"Who knows."
Mikoto's head and the side of her breast pressed against my body. Over my arm, her face slowly slipped into my embrace.
"Master... aren't I causing you trouble? Maybe... it would be better if I just went far away?"
Startled, I flicked her forehead in gentle scolding, but she didn't even pretend it hurt—she just wore a strange expression.
"I'm always making things hard for you. It's okay to just tell me to disappear."
"... Let me ask one thing first."
Mikoto's head had somehow ended up on my lap. With vacant eyes, she stared up at me.
"Why are you doing all this for me?"
"W-Well..."
Mikoto squeezed her eyes shut in embarrassment.
"You wanted to become a voice actress so badly, but now you're suddenly scared again. If it's just about making a living, you don't have to be this anxious because of me, right?"
Mikoto's mental state had been seriously unstable since the incident. At first, I thought it was natural after such a rough ordeal, but upon reflection, the trigger and her psychological shift didn't quite match. If it was just fear from the kidnapping itself, she should have seen me as a safe haven and leaned on me. Her attitude was subtly different. It was almost like with Yukiko—as if I held a position beyond that of a mere "other" to her.
"Because... I realized you're different from other people, so I'm scared, and sorry..."
"I am different from you, sure..."
"That's not it!"
Mikoto struggled to lift her head. With the difference in our seated heights, she had to look up at me.
"All the things I agonized over, the things I thought were impossible, everything I saw as hopeless—Master sweeps them away with a single gesture, like it's nothing..."
Mikoto's expression seemed filled with anger at herself, yet oddly dazed.
"You could get mad at me, beat me for betraying you, kill me—and I couldn't even protest. But Master forgave me without a word. Even in character, you're in a whole different league from me..."
Mikoto clenched her interlaced fingers so tightly I worried they'd snap.
"When everything betrayed me, you were the only one in front of me."
Her expression gradually softened.
"My dreams? What I was good at? What do they even mean now?"
She was angry that her life had been shattered.
"I have the love bestowed by someone as great as Master. That's everything. I want to devote the rest of my life to you alone."
She gazed at me with reverence.
"B-But if I'm a burden to you, then I guess I have no choice..."
She bowed her head in shame toward herself. Watching Mikoto cycle through anger, self-loathing, ecstasy, and embarrassment in such a short span left me with a strange sense of emptiness.
"I see..."
I carefully pried apart her clenched hands and gently took hold of them.
"Guess I should answer too, huh? Why I'm doing all this for you? Sorry to disappoint, but... I don't love you."
Mikoto's face froze in an instant. Actually, "froze" might not be right—it hardened in confusion.
"After all that, and you don't love me?"
"Yeah. No. I thought about it carefully, but nope. The feeling when I look at Yukiko is definitely different from when I look at you."
We hadn't even known each other properly for days, and falling in love that fast didn't make sense. Yukiko and I hadn't dated long either before it happened, but that was a pretty special circumstance.
"Ugh... I can't beat Yukiko..."
Mikoto shook her head vigorously.
"Same here. Is there anyone who could beat Yukiko? She's just... on another level as a fellow human. Makes me feel inferior. Anyway."
"Then I really don't get it. Why are you doing all this for me?"
"At first, it was just curiosity. Like, oh, there's a girl like this? Interesting... But as I heard more, I realized something."
"What?"
"While I was holed up in my house corner, playing around, you had already achieved your dream."
I wanted people who worked hard to be rewarded. I wanted someone's dream not to go to waste. Rather than someone talentless and lazy just scraping by, those who help others should be treated well.
"It pissed me off. Here I was, living easy, just gaming day by day."
The dwindling number of men, the privileges for them—it wasn't my fault. I'd done my best according to my conscience. No need to feel guilty toward those having it harder just because I got lucky. I knew that in my head, but my heart wouldn't accept it easily. It felt like shoving past friends who'd studied way harder than me, getting into a top university just because I was a "man."
"But right in front of my eyes was someone desperately fighting for the work she'd done her whole life, having to sell her body and conscience. I hated the society that made her that way."
As I recounted the past, Mikoto shrank back, recalling her betrayal. I wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
"It's unfair."
Mikoto mulled over my words, then let out a light laugh.
"You're way too kind, Master."
This time, Mikoto placed a tentative hand on my shoulder, as if comforting me.
"Anyway, I wanted to help you achieve your dream again."
"I don't need voice acting anymore. As long as I have Master, I'm fine. So if you don't want me, just throw me away."
Mikoto refused firmly, without a hint of hesitation.
"If not, never abandon me."
"You don't have to give up voice acting just because you're my slave."
"But my day is still just 24 hours? I want to devote my entire life to you, to atone for my mistakes."
Mikoto seemed to see nothing but me, utterly sincere.
"If you give it all to me, what'll be left for you?"
"You've already given me everything, Master. In your mercy and love, I could do whatever I truly wanted."
Mikoto sprang up from the bench and stood before me. I was sitting, she standing, but finally our eyes met level.
"Like you said, I could have gone back to voice acting, done any role I wanted. You're endlessly lenient... Maybe you'd even set up an agency for me, let me chase every dream."
And Mikoto leaned in carefully, kissing my lips. The lip-to-lip contact was brief, but she licked every corner of my tongue.
"So this is me choosing to give it up."
Mikoto's smile was serene, natural, beautiful—and poignant. Only seeing her smile like that did I have to admit it.
"Yeah... I see."
Her smile felt so fleeting, as if I'd never see it again, and all the more beautiful for it. I stared blankly at that radiant smile. I kept gazing at Mikoto's face, lost in it, until she replaced her smile with a puzzled look and asked why I was just sitting there.
/////
"Looks like we're wrapping this up. No more going back to voice work... But one thing left."
"Huh?"
"I've been feeling it, but why do you keep prefacing everything with 'if you don't need me' or whatever?"
I pinched and stretched her cheek a bit. It was plump, soft, and delightfully stretchy.
"Ah, aaa! Master is so kind, you might take in someone useless like me out of pity..."
"Even when I thought of sending you off for your dream, I felt a pang of regret deep down. And what? 'Throw me away if you don't need me'?"
Mikoto rubbed her reddened cheek but couldn't hide her thrill.
"Then, for real? Just minutes ago you said you didn't love me!"
"That's that, this is this! Not everyone loves the weather girl, but if she's cute, that's a plus, right?"
The words made me sound like trash—hell, they exposed me starkly—but I couldn't stop now.
"Having a pretty girl at home to play with, follow me everywhere, let me touch her breasts, even spend nights together—who wouldn't love that? From my side... it's all good."
Mikoto was a beauty. She looked far younger than her age, with huge breasts, a cute face, and a light, petite build—packed with appeal.
"Looks like you want proof of how much I need you. I'll prove it. With your body."
"Eh? Ehhh? Mi-Mikoto likes when Master takes charge, but suddenly you're so beastly, it's hard to keep up—honestly, I love it though!"
Mikoto mumbled like a broken record, her face flushing red. I searched my phone for a nearby love hotel.
"Oh, and something I've felt since before—your sentences are too long. Don't call me Master anymore. Just call me Oppa."
Mikoto hesitated a moment. Silent with her face still red as we boarded the elevator, she finally whispered in my ear.
"Okay... Oppa!"
The elevator descended slowly. I was glad she couldn't see my expression.
Mikoto had been reborn.