"You want… me to kill someone?"
My mind hits a mental block trying to process the last two words.
Selene wants me to kill. To end someone's life. Me, who's never hurt anyone until recently. The last person I bruised was Coach but he deserved it.
A hand squeezes my shoulder, pulling me from my trance. I lock eyes with Mio, whose own eyes for all I know has seen plenty of death and war. But I'm not like her. Looking at her makes me feel ashamed of my lack of conviction.
"Why aren't you doing the killing yourself," I ask. My words come out hollow, making me think I'm not cut out to be a greater succubus after all. "Why should you be afraid of a lone succubus?"
Selene answers me with a hearty laugh. So loud is her laughter that I think she's doing it on purpose just to annoy me.
"I'm not afraid to admit my cowardice. Yes. One wrong slip and I'm outed as a turncoat."
I take a few steps toward her, leveraging the advantage that she called her own weakness. "I'll reconsider if you admit that in front of your gang."
What I thought is an omnipresent smile since we had met finally cracks. A chill runs up my spine as she rises from her seat and cracks her neck.
I may not have been the tallest boy. I may have even grown a centimeter or two since I became a girl. I take pride in being average in height. But with Selene towering before me, her two jewelled eyes burning into me, I have never felt smaller than I do now.
Mio and Hana shift to my side, but Selene's glare freezes them in place. I can see it in her eyes, daring them to take another step— daring me to say something clever. The words lodge in my throat, leaving me no choice but to swallow my brave facade.
"I lied," Selene remarks, her eyes still trained on the two behind me. "You think I take pleasure meandering in your chimpanzees' concrete jungle? I came because I was told to. One of two things will happen: I go back empty-handed and report that Angel Cloud was ransacked and the perps escaped, or I demonstrate my undying loyalty by bringing your pretty, silver head to the queen— without the rest, of course."
"The… first option sounds good."
A smile creeps across Selene's face again. As soon as she turns her back to me, all the tension in the room vanishes. She picks up the coffee can and cracks it open.
"You have until Friday night. Wouldn't want a rat to overstay its welcome in your home, would you?"
Selene doesn't leave me a choice. I really will have to kill.
Mio comes between the both of us, making use of her bout of courage to size Selene up. "I'll do it instead."
"No dice. The rat will know right away if they sense you, Hana, or Yumi. It has to be by—"
"Someone who can hide their aura," I step aside from Mio to chime in, "a greater succubus, and someone they haven't met before— me."
"I can teach you to hide your aura. Not like you can depend on them to help you." Selene waves her hand and is somehow able to remove my human illusion. "It's like casting an invisibility spell on yourself. Instead of around your body, encase the magic around your heart."
I follow what Selene says, but the look Mio and Hana are giving me suggests it's not working.
"You'll learn. When you come to Coliseum, ask for Deedra and a private room. Take her home after your session. She'll think you're just an unwitting customer to suck off. Where you do the deed doesn't matter to me as long as it's outside of my district. When you're done, bring me her tail."
"Wait—"
Selene pushes the can of coffee back into my hands and turns to leave, "I look forward to our continued friendship."
Mio, Hana, and I decided to stay in Tsukiji for a while before heading back home. It's still early in the evening, and I gave Hatsumi a call that we wouldn't be home for dinner. She sounded happy over the phone, which made me think Kotaro gave her a call when he woke up.
The three of us are having dinner at a popular restaurant downtown. Mio and Hana are stuffing themselves full of okonomiyaki like we weren't at death's door earlier. I have to admire their ability to eat during a time like this. I barely touched my iced tea let alone taken a bite of my savoury pancakes.
"If you ain't eating that, seconds for me—"
It isn't until Mio tries to take my plate, that I come back to my senses and stab the fork into the okonomiyaki.
"Oh, no you don't," I say, digging into the food before she can steal it.
Mio manages to cop a bite with her lightning reflexes anyway. "Hana and I were just talking about giving Selene the good old double cross, then we triple cross the queen afterwards."
"I don't think that will turn out the way you hope," I remark.
"Just throw a bunch of dildos at the queen. Easypeasy," Hana says, drinking half of my iced tea before giving it back to me.
"Can you guys stop taking my food?! I'm already paying for your stuff! Argh�� oomfph?!"
Mio retracts her fork from my mouth as the food slides down my throat. In the next second, my taste buds catch on fire. That's when I notice Mio's plate is coated in vibrant red sauce— chili sauce.
"Why— cough— would you do this??"
I reach for my iced tea but grab empty space. Hana slurps the rest of my iced tea, happy as can be in my moment of agony.
"Hana, you— oh, god… it's burning my throat now— blech!"
Mio looks like she's about to burst a kidney.
"This isn't funny Mio— ahhh! Someone get me some water!"
***
We part ways from Hana after dinner. She seems more than excited now that we'll be seeing each other on a daily basis at school. While having more succubus at school makes me anxious— I can't always keep tabs on them, so who knows if they're screwing random students— it's relieving to know I have an extra ally to rely on.
"Hey~ Chill out already. You're alive, aren't you?" Mio skips ahead of me, waving a hand in my face.
"No. I'm mad at you! Who puts that much hot sauce on okonomiyaki anyway? I thought I was going to die."
My stomach rumbles in protest, scolding me for ingesting a nuclear bomb. I'll probably suffer the consequences on the toilet later tonight because of Mio.
"Heh. You really are the cutest when you're pouting," she says, patting my head. "Feeling less tense now?"
"If that's your way of taking my mind off something, I don't want you cheering me up. Hmph."
My legs buckle under me, and I have to lean against a vending machine to keep steady. It's strange that I'm so out of breath all of a sudden. Mio's single bite of volcanic okonomiyaki was bad, but it shouldn't be this bad.
Lately, it seems like my energy is being drained from me more than usual. Could this have to do with being a greater succubus? Do I just need to have more sex than a lesser succubus to sustain myself?
"Get on," Mio kneels down with her back to me.
"I'm fine— whoa!"
She scoops me up anyway.
Mio's scent has started giving me a sense of comfort. Even as I'm being carried on her back, I feel like I can fall right to sleep.
"What do you think our chances of beating the queen is," I ask, burying my face into her hair.
Mio glances up to the orange-tinted sky and says, "50-50 at best."
"Better odds than I expected,"
We start bouncing as she hops over dried leaves to listen for their satisfying crunch. She takes pleasure in each step, carefully plotting the next without missing a beat. A silly smile flashes across her face. It's almost childlike.
Seeing her silly antics— even if I'm at the butt end of them— makes me want to be a child again. But we all grow up, whether we like it or not. If I had a choice, I'd like for us to stay like this for a while longer.
"What do you think… will happen when we beat the queen?"
As though reaching the final hopscotch box, Mio plants both of her feet firmly on the ground.
"Flying's cool and all but owning a boat is even cooler, don'tcha think?" Mio is staring across the road where a street vendor is selling swimming toys. Among the many floats and tubes is a children's inflatable sailboat.
"You want to go to the beach? You already convinced Hitomi to schedule our class trip to Okinawa."
"I mean Elza. I'm thinking about going back once this is over. Got loose ends to tie up— dark elf bitches to fuck, beastkins get fucked by. Always wanted to take a ship out to the Glimmering Sea, too."
Mio's voice is full of nostalgia. She may be homesick. It's only normal since Earth isn't her real home. Prior to losing the crystal's power, she was able to freely travel between our worlds. This must be the longest she's been away.
"I was also thinking…" She turns away from the shop and starts walking again. "Maybe you wanna come with?"
"M-Me? I can't— I mean… I still have school, college entrance exams, I don't want to leave Hatsumi either. We don't even know if there's a way back."
It's tempting. Why does it have to be so tempting? It sounds like so much fun to explore another world with Mio. But to leave my home— my friends and family behind?
Mio clears her throat and adjusts my position on her back. If she was getting tired, she's doing a good job of hiding it. I can't tell what kind of face she's making from back here.
"Well, shucks. Guess I gotta have as much fun here as possible," is all Mio says. She carries me the rest of the way home in silence.
As soon as we come through the door, Hatsumi tackles the both of us with a hug saying, "Guess what! Guess what!"
It's hard to look her in the eyes when I basically had sex with both of them. Though, I am glad to know Kotaro is making amends with my sister.
"Okay, sis, I'll bite. What?"
"Kotaro called to apologize! He wants to make it up to me this Friday!"
"Ooh, that's great!" Mio reaches behind to squeeze Hatsumi's butt.
"Mio, damn it. Stop fondling my sister," I protest, trying to push them apart.
I'm about to head upstairs to start on homework when Hatsumi grabs my hand and asks me to wait.
"I already have the bath running. Why don't we all take a dip together," Hatsumi suggests.
"But my homework— hey! Stop!" Mio and Hatsumi each grab an arm to prevent me from escaping. "Fine! Only if it's a quick one."
***
My lungs fill with the humid summer air. Sparse clouds and specs of stars dot the canvas of night.
The first thing I notice are the pebbles poking at the sole of my feet.
"Huh…?"
I wake up to my hands gripping the school gates' cold iron bars. I'm bare naked and in my succubus form.
"What… happened? Why am I out here…?"