A Hidden Talent!?
"Hmm..."
I was looking something up on my phone — a video of someone getting a nice, cool massage. I got massages every day myself, so I knew exactly how wonderful that sort of thing was. But now that I thought about it, I'd only ever been on the receiving end. I didn't think I'd ever given one to anybody else.
That's it!
I scurried off to the office. Haru was in there alone, so absorbed in whatever she was doing that I suddenly felt awkward about calling out to her. I might have been unemployed, but Haru was a proper working adult. I shouldn't interrupt her work, should I? Even so, I crept closer. There was always the chance she was slacking off.
She was filling out some kind of paperwork. Sales? Revenue? Words that gave me a headache just to look at. I planted myself at her back and spoke.
"Haru."
"Eek!"
Haru shrieked as if she'd been scared out of her skin, and the sound nearly dropped me to the floor myself. What a set of lungs — the scream rang through the entire office.
"You scared me. Oh. It's Hana."
She swept a hand down her chest as if she'd just lost ten years off her life.
"Yeah."
"What are you doing in the office all of a sudden...? You didn't come in here after pulling some prank, did you, Princess?"
She really did treat me too much like a little kid. It wasn't as if I were some walking disaster who caused trouble every single day. Sure, I'd set off several large-scale incidents, but those hadn't been my doing.
They were nothing but the mistakes of these crybaby hormones. If I ever got my original body back, wouldn't I be incredibly intellectual and composed? Thinking about it, my old personality hadn't been anything like this. The mind really did follow the flesh.
"No. I came to give you a present."
"What kind of present?"
Seeing that my hands were empty, Haru tilted her head. Talking would only waste time. I grabbed her hand and hauled her off to my room. Dragging Haru on my own strength would have been impossible, of course, but she seemed to read my intentions well enough, and she came along.
"Haru, lie down on the bed."
"On the bed?"
Still looking utterly lost, she slowly lay face-down. I climbed up, sat on her back, and set about mercilessly massaging her with my hands. Only then did she seem to catch on. A surprise present was best delivered without a word of warning.
"You looked tired, so I'm giving you a massage!"
"Aha. Thanks, Hana."
As if she'd finally understood, Haru smiled a little and gave herself over to it. I started with her shoulders, the way I usually received massages myself. Press here, press there, and the muscle loosened and went cool and easy.
My small hands dug into her shoulders and back like acupressure, putting everything I had behind every push. I really was using all my strength, but I was so weak that, from Haru's side, it must have felt like nothing more than a pleasant pressure. It stung my pride a little. If I'd still had a man's strength, she would have been screaming in pain.
"Hana, where did you learn to do this? It feels amazing~"
She praised me in a thoroughly satisfied voice, so the massage really must have been hitting the spot. I couldn't very well admit I'd only picked it up by watching.
"I tried copying the massage I usually get from the masseuse!"
"Yeah?"
And so I kept at her shoulders and back. Before I knew it, I was concentrating so hard that sweat had started to bead. Maybe it was the difference in our builds, but Haru's back looked enormous.
Next to women her own age it was probably perfectly average, but right now I had an elementary schooler's body. Of course the gap between us felt huge.
And yet it didn't seem as if much time had passed at all before Haru was lying there face-down without so much as a twitch. She ought to have shown at least a little reaction, shouldn't she? Something felt off.
Huh? Since when did I black out?
Haru's eyes flew open. Hana was still massaging her.
"Hana, that felt wonderful. Thank you~"
Haru sat up, scooped Hana into her arms, and swayed her this way and that. Worn out from giving the massage, Hana slipped straight into sleep the moment she was held against Haru.
Looking at that dainty little face, Haru felt a stab of jealousy. Who had she taken after, to be this pretty? The time she'd seen Hana grown up, she'd thought a goddess had come down out of heaven. Hana's looks were that devastating.
"Uh... uh!?"
All at once, Hana's body was growing. Haru felt her own line of sight dropping lower and lower.
It didn't take long. Haru's body shrank until she was as small as Hana had been, while Hana changed into her adult form and her eyes snapped wide open.
"Haru, you're adorable~"
This couldn't be happening. Haru couldn't make sense of any of it. Wasn't this exactly like a dream? Hana was looking her over and calling her cute, and a moment later she slipped her hands under Haru's arms and hoisted her straight up into the air.
"H-Hana, quit joking and put me down!"
Haru kicked, feet swinging through empty air, nowhere near the floor. Hana didn't listen to a word of it.
"Nope!"
With that, she pulled Haru into a hug. Hana's enormous chest was getting in the way of her breathing.
I can't breathe!
Suffocating, Haru thrashed, desperate to get free.
"Haru? She's asleep right now!"
"Reaaally?"
Bora had called me, and when I asked what was going on, she said Haru wasn't picking up, so she'd called me instead. I figured I ought to explain a little further, so I added,
"I gave her a massage! It must have felt really good. She fell right asleep."
Bora went on about something or other. It sounded like she wanted me to wake Haru and have her call back, but Haru was sleeping so peacefully that I felt a little bad about it. I told her I understood and hung up.
I went over to Haru, who was still thrashing. I didn't want to wake her, but I couldn't ignore what Bora had said, so I shook her body with my hands.
Whether I was simply too weak, or she'd sunk too deep, she didn't stir even when I shook her hard. I had no choice but to bring out my secret weapon.
Tickle, tickle.
I tickled her side with my fingers. That was where Haru was most sensitive — the slightest touch made her jolt. Sure enough, her whole body shivered. A reaction was coming.
"Hyaaak!"
She jolted awake with an unidentifiable moan. She must have drooled in that short span, because a strand of hair was stuck beside her mouth. I leaned in and peeled it off with my fingers.
"Wh... what?"
She didn't seem to know why she'd been asleep face-down on the bed. Then she shook her head, looked at me, and appeared to find her senses again.
"No, seriously... Hana, how are you this good at massages?"
She sounded genuinely shocked. It wasn't common for someone to drop off that fast while getting a massage, but my hands had made it happen. They felt so refreshing that even Haru, who had been massaged elsewhere before, was astonished.
"I learned it from the masseuse who works in our building, so there!"
I went hyap, hyap! and mimed giving a massage. The masseuse in our building really was good enough to impress even me. Nothing beat eating lunch, letting it settle, and then going in for a massage. All the fatigue piled up in my head from doing homework in the morning just melted away at once.
It was only my scalp being pressed, and yet it felt as if the brain underneath were cooling off. Truly miraculous skill.
"Even so, this seems a little... strange."
Haru said it as if she still couldn't quite believe what my hands could do. She'd gotten the massage from me herself, and she was still talking like that? Sacrilege. I puffed my cheeks full of air.
"Is my massage weird?"
One look at my face and she seemed to realize she'd slipped. She rushed to fix it.
"No, no! Your massage is incredibly refreshing and wonderful, okay? It is absolutely not weird!"
Of course it wasn't. Buoyed by her words, I declared it proudly.
"Right? Then should I give you another one, Haru?"
"Let's save that for later! Aren't you tired after just giving me one, Hana?"
"Well, I am, but... Oh, right! And earlier, Bora said to call her!"
The moment she heard that, Haru went pale and bolted for the office. It had looked like she was sending off some important documents... I felt bad, as if all I'd done was get in her way. Still, it'd probably be fine, right?