Part 2
Minori's apartment turned out to be something very unspectacular.
"You live here?" Izayoi asked.
It looked like a typical suburban home.
"You were expecting a white picket fence?" She grinned as she unlocked the door. Izayoi followed her inside, but paused just past the threshold to take in the dwelling: It was clean. Nice and tidy. He half expected the place to be littered with beer bottles like those single teacher type characters in manga and anime.
There weren't that many personal items though. One or two photographs hung on the wall. The furniture and décor appeared very expensive; the big screen television in the living room for one thing. Not to mention the large couch in front of it. That by itself must have cost an arm and a leg.
As Izayoi ventured further in, he awed at the marble kitchen counter, as well as the staircase which led to the first floor. He struggled to wrap his head around how someone like Minori could afford to have such lovely, expensive things on a teacher's salary.
"Would you like something to drink?" Minori's voice asks from the other room.
"No, thank you." Outside in the backyard, clothes were drying, including t-shirts, shorts, bras and panties which quickly caused Izayoi to avert his gaze.
"What's wrong?" He flinched as Minori's head popped up next to him, grinning.
"It's…nothing." Izayoi felt his cheeks turn red.
"I know! This is your first time in a woman's house, isn't it?"
Izayoi decided it would be best not to tell her that his discomfort originated from seeing her undergarments so he just replied with… "Yes, it is."
It wasn't.
"You can relax. I don't bite." Minori moved over to the couch and junk into it. She reached for a can of beer on the foot table beside her and eagerly gulped several mouthfuls of alcohol down her throat. "Now then, what's on your mind?"
The sight of Minori behaving so casually unsettled Izayoi, in a strange way.
He reluctantly took a seat opposite her, but waited so he could collect his thoughts.
He couldn't explain it, but the hesitation from before was fading.
"Lately, I've been feeling really weird. I…I'm not sure how to explain it."
"Oh? Try saying the first words that come to mind." He couldn't do that. It would give away the entire game.
"Well you see, there's this person…"
'A woman?"
"No, a person," Izayoi quickly corrected. "And something happened…with this person."
"Something bad?"
"I don't know. It feels like it."
"What kind of something?"
"The kind of something I'm not comfortable to say out loud," Izayoi elaborated as vaguely as possible.
"I see. I think I understand. And this something that happened, have you spoken about it to this person?"
"No, not yet. We've kind of both been avoiding each other." The thought pushed Izayoi to remember the last time he even laid eyes on Akiza.
"That isn't healthy."
"Neither is the thing that happened. But the worst part is, I don't even know why it happened." Guilt washed over Izayoi. He wrestled with banishing the images of what happened that day to the furthest corners of his mind. If he could delete them completely, he would.
"How do you mean?" Minori transitioned out of her more casual state into a more serious, attentive one.
"We don't even like each other. In fact, we hate each other. And I've never viewed he…I mean this person, as anything other than an annoyance and a pest. I still do. But at the same time…"
"You feel guilty over what happened?"
"Guilty and confused."
Izayoi's self-hatred increased as soon as the words left his mouth, available for all the world to hear.
"Confused?" None of this felt like progress. The more Izayoi spoke, the more bothered he became. Images of the dream flashed in his brain, painting vivid canvasses from brushes dipped in the extraordinary feelings and sensations he experienced on that day.
He couldn't shake the realization that this entire mess had happened after that dream. The constant arousal, the weird sensations—all of it.
"Minori, do you ever have strange dreams?"
The question clearly took her by surprise.
"Dreams?"
"Yeah."
"Of course I do. I mean, I actually believe most of my dreams are strange."
"What about…sex dreams?" Izayoi's cheeks flushed red, prompting him to look aside in embarrassment. "Do you have those?" That should be vague enough.
Minori let out a short laugh which made her face look utterly sweet and charming. She possessed such a wonderful smile. "Izayoi, everyone has those."
"But the one I had was really vivid. And strange."
"Strange how?"
"In it, I was a woman." Minori cocked a particularly un-Minori like expression. "I don't know what to make of it. And ever since that dream, I've been taken over by a lot of weird feelings. It's like my body is out of control."
"You are young, Izayoi. You should enjoy your young body. I know plenty of men who would kill to have what you have."
Another set of images flashed in his mind, this time showing Izayoi things he didn't want to see. Of people he didn't want to hurt or disappoint. The very idea of some of these images being enough to completely push down this growing sense of perversion that had been building since he stepped into Minori's apartment...
He couldn't tell her that he was afraid that if he didn't get these feelings under control, something bad might happen. Best case scenario, he'd end up in some sort of Obscenity Institute reformation facility. Worst case scenario, someone close to him suffered because he couldn't…
"Sexual intercourse must always be for procreation," Izayoi started to say. "Never for recreation. Happiness through efficiency. Efficiency through procreation. Decadence is prohibited. Decadence leads to independence. Independence leads to disorder. Disorder leads to displeasure. Displeasure leads to despondency."
"Do you feel better now?" Izayoi stared back and saw that Minori's expression had changed again. This one was a lot more serious, but still contained a drop of disapprobation. She sounded somewhat disappointed in him for resorting to the national mantra of the country to calm himself.
"Huh?" Instead of explaining herself, Minori rose up out of her seat, leaving Izayoi to ponder her statement.
"Wait here."
It wasn't a long wait.
And he didn't have much choice as Minori had already disappeared behind another door.
In the interim, Izayoi's mind continued to bombard him with vile and horrible images of futures that might be. It didn't take long for these thoughts and ideas to overwhelm to the point where he considered simply leaving the house and forgetting everything altogether.
"Can you come here for a minute, Izayoi? I could use a hand," Minori's voice cooed from the other room. Izayoi halted in my tracks to obey the order given to him.
She was his teacher after all.
And she was trying to help him work through…whatever this was.
Izayoi followed only to freeze in his tracks yet again, but this time, out of pure and utter astonishment.
His eyes widened at the sight of Minori spread out on the bed, dressed only in her bra and panties. Her pert breasts were practically hanging out with the way she is positioned.
"What do you think, Izayoi?" The moment her voice changed to a sultrier tone, Izayoi's mind flushed down the mental toilet.
His first instinct was to yell at her, ask her what the hell she thought she was doing, but…
Staring down at the incredibly attractive, beautiful woman posing for him like that, all Izayoi could say was…
"Wow."
Minori took a moment to appreciate his dumbfound. "Oh my..." She made a knowing gesture at his crotch which prompted Izayoi to take notice and accept that his body had already complimented her back by creating a bulge in his pants. He felt his mind becoming hazy again. "A young, handsome man is getting a hard-on staring at my old body."
Yes, it was. And it wanted to do a lot more than stare.
⌠Sexual intercourse must always be for procreation. Never for recreation. Happiness through efficiency. Efficiency through procreation. Decadence is prohibited. Decadence leads to independence. Independence leads to disorder. Disorder leads to displeasure. Displeasure leads to despondency.⌡