(※ several tens of minutes earlier)
“You’re joking— right?”
The girl who called herself Yuuki’s childhood friend told her with a hint of ridicule that she had inflicted that disgusting monster on her once again.
“Isn’t that a bad joke,” she said.
“Ufufu. Unfortunately, I’m telling the truth”
Arina said as she managed a cackling laugh.
What in the world did she find so funny?
“An improved clone made from this little guy’s cells are now taking root on Mist-chan’s magic core once again. Good for you, right? Now you can become Yuu-kun’s love slave”
“…… Why did you do something like that?”
It no longer felt real, Mist asked her a question in a normal manner.
Immediately, Arina’s expression changed.
“You’ll need antibodies”
She had seen many sides of Arina.
A cowering little girl in front of Yuuki, a friendly girl when they were alone together, and a mysterious girl carrying madness behind her scorn.
Right now she was none of those, she had put on the face of a cool-headed and sagely acquaintance.
“There’s no need for a worm like this to make you Yuu-kun’s slave. It’s just a bonus. What you need right now is resistance to these parasites you suddenly came across”
Just which one of those is the real Arina?
“These parasites are horribly defective products. If left unsupervised for too long it’ll relentlessly eat into the host’s life. It’s intolerable for a person who is to be Yuu-kun’s retainer to be weakened like that. Which is why I’m rewriting your magic core and remodelled it to a drug that repels these. That’s the purpose of the remodelled parasite. That way the parasites will slowly be exterminated”
“….. Sorry, I’m totally not getting what you were saying….”
Arina said one complicated word after another, explaining something, but the reason Mist couldn’t understand was because this girl was treating another person’s dignity and individuality as something worthless.
“It doesn’t matter, I’ll be making you forget after all. I’m only killing time until the remodelled parasite adapts. —right, first of all, ‘stand up and take your clothes off‘.”
Mist stood up just as she was told.
After she took her clothes off, a chill ran on her spine, because all that was done involuntarily.
Arina probed the dumbfounded Mist’s body here and there with her fingers, checking her physical condition.
“The suggestion worked well, didn’t it. Your magic core’s and body’s remodelling will take a little more time”
She muttered to herself.
“Yuu-kun is going to return soon…. well, we’ll manage somehow. All right, ‘put your clothes on‘…. ah, ‘don’t put on your underwear‘. They’re going to get in the way later, anyway. ‘forget they even exist‘ ”
Mist did everything as she was told.
Arina made a pleasant smile.
It was that smile from when she felt she made a friend.
“Ye–s, now for the moment you’ve been waiting for. I’m going to give you the memory erasure suggestion! Mist-chan. Are you ready to quit being human?”
—what kind of resolve should I be having here?
†
In order to escape the prison, Yuuki and Mist had to somehow take care of the jailer watching them in front of the bars.
When you think of jailer, normally you’d imagine a brawny man, but that’s not the case here.
Two maids were sitting on seats, each pointing a blade at the other, smiling as they stood guard.
“Mist, you’re not allowed to move, okay–”
“If you make any suspicious moves we’ll do a double suicide you know?”
The maids gave her a warning in disregard for their own lives as if it were an ordinary warning.
To them, who were under the strong domination of the magic core parasites, orders are more important than their lives.
Yuuki and Mist were very aware that their statement was not a lie or mere threat.
“I know, I know. But let me put Yuuki to sleep. He’s tired you know”
Mist made an appeal.
“What should we do?”
“Well… Just sleeping is probably okay?”
Yuuki turned his back toward the wall and laid down, while Mist sat down next to him as if she were snuggling up to him.
This way, Mist’s back made a blind spot and Yuuki could read the E:ID phone.
“…….. you have got to be kidding me”
Yuuki muttered after reading the explanation.
Mist and Yuuki began talking, still with her back towards him.
“This skill is a skill to make Mist into a mist ability user”
“M, me?”
“Yeah. ‘Human Mist‘…. Is this ability supposed to be based on your name or something. Seems like when you turn to mist you can extract parasites from their host”
Hearing the explanation, Mist slowly nodded.
“In that case, cast that magic right now”
Yuuki became startled.
“No no no! This will turn you into a monster you know! Isn’t that bad!!”
“This is not the time to fuss about appearances. We have to rescue Princess and the girls”
“Even if you say so…. aren’t you scared?”
“I am scared. But you see…”
Mist’s face turned slightly red.
That expression that was intended for Yuuki was unfortunately unseeable from where he was.
“I, I’ll … even become a monster if it’s for Yuu-kun”
“――……”
Yuuki silently got up and tapped the entry on the E:ID phone as he sat.
[Slavetamer skill. Setup to the ‘Human Mist‘ !!] «TN: sic»
“Mist…. umm”
In wonderment, Yuuki said.
“Thank you. I’m happy”
“Even though you never intend to follow up on it”
[Action!!]
Flop, Mist’s clothes fell to the floor.
The clothes’ owner became ‘mist’ as advertised, and a small cloud appeared at the prison ceiling.
She transformed into a gaseous monster.
“What are you doing, Mist!!”
Noticing the abnormality, the jailers shouted.
The bars that were intended to stop people could not hold back steam.
The young girl who became mist easily escaped the prison and attacked her friends who were planning to kill each other.
She transformed into an incomplete shape like dark clouds gathering into a humanoid form, her gaseous fist then returned to that of a human and restrained the hands holding swords.
“Yuu-kun!”
The execution of her abilities themselves were under Yuuki’s control.
He nodded and chanted.
“Spark!!”
[Action!!]
BZZT BZZT, static electricity ran from Mist’s body, the maids let out a small yelp and dropped their weapons.
Mist returned to cloud form and covered the maids’ heads with her whole body.
Immediately, the maids inside the dark cloud started groaning.
The disgusting stench of the foreign objects, the parasites, detached them from their hosts.
The slug-like bodies they spat out started looking for cover.
“Like I’d let you! ‘Strike Bubble‘!!”
Antic.i.p.ating their move, Yuuki unleashed bubbles on them from behind bars, restraining their bodies.
Returning to the form of a young girl, Mist broke the bubble and pinched the parasites with her fingers. Their disgusting bodies dried up and vanished.
” ‘Acid‘ !!”
Mist’s mist dissolved the prison’s lock, opening the cell.
“Come on, let’s go Yuu-kun!”
Mist returned to human form and urged Yuuki to hurry.
“Wait! Clothes! Mist, put your clothes on!”
Yuuki held out the clothes she flung away and called.
After returning from being gas to human, Mist was of course naked.
“Aaah fine!”
She grabbed the clothes from Yuuki and promptly put them on.
“All right, okay! Let’s go!”
“………, hm?”
Looking at her, Yuuki tilted his head a little, then…
“Mist-san, can I ask you something?”
“What? If you haven’t had enough of my naked body I’ll show you later. We have to hurry now!”
“No, well… Not about that…”
Yuuki tilted his head again and agonized like he’s thinking something, then he made sure his memories weren’t wrong and said
“You’re not wearing panties, are you?”
“Huh? … ‘panties’? what’s that?”
“They’re, uh, thin cloth for the immediate protection of one’s lower body…”
“Um, that just now, is it so important?”
Yuuki made his eyebrows into the shape of the letter ハ.
“So panties don’t exist in this world…?”
He muttered to himself and seems to somewhat consent.
“These panties are just cloth. Nothing very important right now”
He replied.
†
“Mist-chan. Are you ready to quit being human?”
“Wait. Let me ask you one last thing”
Because Mist, who had only been stupefied until now, asked, Arina stopped.
“—Everything is for Yuuki, right?”
“That’s right. Isn’t it obvious?”
“Naturally,” replied Arina.
Thus Mist made a big nod.
“Fine. Do as you like”
“Huuuh? What’s this, you’ve given up?”
“No way. I’ve lost lots of things and was saved by Yuuki. I’m only going to be happy if I can offer them to him. Also, Yuuki will take care of me well if it’s him”
“So you trust Yuu-kun”
“That’s what do as you like means, isn’t it? —Also, it’s frustrating”
“Frustrating? What is?”
“That all this is Arina-chan’s doing. Ah, I know. Here, listen to me”
Mist smiled daringly.
“Whatever you do to me, I belong to Yuuki-san out of my own will”
Clever Arina knows what those words mean, and strangely for her, she suddenly shivered.
Mist’s eyes were overflowing with determination.
There wasn’t any hint of the little girl who was crying just now in her.
“I declare this very minute. Even if Arina-chan erases my memory, this declaration will remain inside Arina-chan. Even if you change my personality, even if you turn me into something inhuman, this won’t change. I will go through whatever hardships for Yuuki’s sake. Got it? Remember this”
It was a smile full of resolve to oppose Arina.
It’s almost like a challenge to beat down a love rival.
“I…… I’m not going to lose”