Chapter 3

1.

Crazy bitch.

That was the first thing I thought when I woke up that morning.

Dojin hadn't done a single thing wrong, yet I'd gotten annoyed with him and burst into tears without even realizing it.

What if Dojin hated me?

Whoosh.

Even as I thought about this and that, my body had already dutifully carried me to the shower, where I was washing up.

Dojin was the first friend I'd made in this damn world. Who wanted to drift apart from a friend?

And he was my only friend, too.

Still, well, he was juuust a little cool yesterday. He'd appeared like a knight and rescued me from a life-or-death crisis.

Honestly, anyone would admire someone like that, right? If you were a guy, you'd want to be that knight; if you were a girl, you'd want to be saved by one.

Or maybe not.

Lost in those thoughts, I finished showering and went out to get dressed.

"Eek!"

When I saw my body twitch, I realized I was already aroused.

What? I didn't do anything.

My face was flushed, and I was still naked, with my nipples standing stiff and my pussy leaking fluids.

What surprised me was how wet I was—it was already running down my thighs. Come to think of it, my panties had been in pretty bad shape when I got back yesterday, too.

Should I masturbate…!

The heat in my body was stronger than I'd expected, so the thought came naturally. It was my body now, anyway, so what did it matter?

I just wiped off the water with a towel, then crawled into bed. I'd looked up how women masturbated online.

They said to start slowly by rubbing the vulva, but seeing how wet I was—wet enough to call it a flood—I figured I could skip that. I lightly brushed my clitoris with a finger slick with my own fluids.

"Ah, haa…!"

An aroused moan slipped out naturally. My body was incredibly sensitive. I tried fondling my breasts with my other hand, but I didn't feel much.

It didn't feel like when that blond punk had touched me. Not that I wanted that bastard to touch me.

Without meaning to, I imagined Dojin touching me…

"Mm, clothes…♡"

Then it suddenly felt as if my whole body had become sensitive.

The pleasure of being touched by a man seemed to stimulate every nerve in my body. I understood why people said their backs arched.

"Hii…♡"

Every time my fingers touched my clitoris or nipples, an aroused moan escaped me before I knew it. I bit down on the blanket.

I couldn't hold back my moans, so I did it without thinking. The blanket was soon soaked with saliva.

The moment I thought of Dojin, my body grew unbearably hot.

I kept thinking about him. Masturbating while thinking of him felt so good.

The pleasure was nothing like what I'd felt as a man.

"Hukh, hngh…♡"

Animalistic moans seeped through the gap between my lips and the blanket. The pleasure coursing through my body showed no sign of letting up.

Wet, squelching sounds rang out loudly. The pleasure kept building until I could hardly think.

Dojin's face.

Dojin's actions.

He'd appeared and saved me.

I thought it was cute how Dojin had gotten embarrassed while telling me my clothes were wet.

"Haaah—♡"

I climaxed.

And then the post-orgasm clarity hit.

…You said we were friends, you crazy bitch!!

I feel so pathetic…

2.

I reached the absolute peak of self-loathing and reflected on myself for using my friend and a man as jerk-off material under the blanket.

By the time I was done reflecting, more than an hour had passed. I hurriedly washed the blanket, got dressed, and went out to the living room.

"Oh, good morning."

"Yes…"

Peridot was there. I was too dispirited by my self-loathing to have any energy, and she seemed worried, glancing over at me now and then.

Come to think of it, that blond punk had called Dojin "Your Hero-ship."

"Peridot, do you know what a hero is?"

"I think heroes are the three people ranked above A-rank."

…Pardon?

Didn't they say the rankings went up to A?

"I guess they're people who serve as symbols of strength, even beyond A-rank. Apparently, they're all in a league of their own, even by A-rank standards."

All I could think was that Dojin was much stronger than I'd realized. Wait, could that really be Dojin?

Until yesterday, I'd thought he was a teleporter and was building up his body to compensate. But it turned out he was a hero?

…Why had he sparred with me, then?

"They're also called the Three Heroes. I heard they have nicknames: Esper, Sword Saint, and Dragon."

So they had nicknames, too.

Well, in a chuuni world like this, it made sense they'd have nicknames.

I figured Dojin was probably the one called Esper. If so, then his ability couldn't be just teleportation.

I came up with two theories.

First, Dojin really was a teleporter, and someone else was Esper.

Second, Dojin had several abilities, including teleportation.

I had a feeling the second one was more likely.

"But isn't the last one a monster?"

"They say that person's ability is to become the incarnation of a dragon. They call it 'Dragon Mode.'"

I wondered if getting chuuni was actually how people got stronger in this world, but judging by Dojin's social skills, that didn't seem to be the case.

Dojin had treated even me, someone who was terrible at talking, well, so he must have been pretty sociable!

Peridot said she'd been going to the library all this time and told me all sorts of things. I asked if it wouldn't be better to spend that time learning how to use her ability, but she said books were interesting and she wanted to read them first.

I responded to Peridot's excited chatter, thinking I might as well take a break since I probably couldn't bring myself to face Dojin.

…That was what I thought, anyway.

Out of nowhere, we got a call to respond. A magical beast had appeared in a nearby city, so we were dispatched. We were transported instantly through something called a 'Gate.'

Now that's some tech.

"After we take care of it, I press this… That was what they said, right?"

As soon as I came out of the Gate, I muttered to myself while examining the transmitter the person who'd briefed me had handed over.

"Bubble. Bubble."

Water bubbles appeared, trapping the magical beasts. I created one bubble to surround myself and another that enclosed everything within a fifty-meter radius of me.

The one around me was spherical. The bigger one was hemispherical.

"They said they'd evacuated everyone, so…"

I was about to unleash a flood, but hesitated. Even if there were no people, the belongings would still be there. No matter how quickly magically created water disappeared, a flooded car was still a flooded car, wasn't it?

Boing. One of the bubbles bounced away. While I'd been thinking, a magical beast must have charged at it and knocked it aside.

It looked like a cat, but it wasn't cute at all. The only things it had in common with one were its four legs and tail. It didn't look catlike at all, but seeing it still made me think of a cat.

It bounced off like a ball, then stopped short. I'd once made one so springy for defense that it bounced around like a soccer ball, so I'd adjusted it to be able to stop it by force at any time.

The functions were ridiculous, but they all worked.

"High-pressure water cannon."

I fired a high-pressure stream of water at the magical beast charging at me again. It had enough horrifying force to shatter even a magical beast's body in one hit.

I ignored the magical beast as it came apart into chunks of meat and focused on taking down the birdlike one swooping at me from the air.

3.

They said there were two ranks above me, but even a B-rank apparently had enough power to destroy a city.

Well, I doubted they could destroy it in an instant. Maybe if they went berserk and poured every last bit of strength in their bodies into it, they could manage that much.

Even I was sure that, if I pushed myself a little, I could create a tsunami on land right now. If I did that three or four times, I could probably destroy a city.

Anyway, I'd almost been forced by that blond punk yesterday, and I still hadn't mastered using my powers, but I was pretty strong.

I pressed the transmitter's button, making the bubbles disappear. An engine roared in the distance, and a huge armored vehicle pulled up in front of me.

"Good work! We'll take it from here!"

"Thanks. Good luck."

I smiled and gave them a slight bow. Then I turned and headed toward the Gate to return.

My shoes clicked sharply against the ground as I walked.

I thought I heard someone say something behind me, so I perked up my ears and listened. Among the ways to enhance your body with magic, there was one that boosted only your hearing.

"Her figure is fucking insane. Look at those tits. They're bouncing all over the place."

"Her ass swaying is the real deal. You don't know what you're talking about."

"She's got a cute face, too."

"You know heroes are all good-looking, so quit making a fuss."

"Come on, you don't see many women like that."

Well, sure. If men ran into a woman with a body like a national treasure, they might talk about her among themselves.

They might do it no matter how I felt. And I felt like absolute shit.

I started to wonder if I should say something, then remembered the blond punk from yesterday.

I was a little scared of going near men. More than anything, I knew that blond punk had sealed my magic yesterday, but I didn't know how, which made it even worse.

It was a long shot, but if this damn world had some rule that stopped women from using magic when a man grabbed them, that would be a huge problem.

Unless I planned to kill every man from the outset, if I approached one just to warn him, I might get subdued and God knows what might happen to me instead.

As soon as I thought that far, the fear I'd felt just before that blond punk had gotten his hands on me yesterday began creeping back.

It was an unpleasant feeling, like my emotions were choking me. Thankfully, no one was visibly looming over me, so the situation was much better than yesterday.

I decided to ignore them and go through the Gate back to my room.

Even if there was only one chance in ten thousand—a 0.01% probability—if there was a worst-case scenario…

I hated gambling. There was no way I'd take that kind of risk when there was no benefit to match such a disastrous downside.

That left only one thing to do: test it. But how? If mere contact wasn't enough, I could try it subtly while I was with Dojin.

But besides that, the man's state of mind—or maybe my own state of mind, as the woman involved—could affect it, couldn't it?

If that wasn't it, then maybe the blond punk was an obstacle set up by the side in control. Calling him an obstacle didn't make it any less of a cheap shot, though. If this was a game, the difficulty was so high it was a shitty game.

I'd come out of the Gate and was walking along, lost in thought, when I heard a familiar voice.

"No. Ugh, I said I don't want to."

"That's what you say."

Thinking it was Peridot's voice, I turned and saw that same blond punk from yesterday making a move on her this time.

He sure was diligent. He could've put that effort into doing something worthwhile.

I poured water over the blond punk's head and pulled Peridot away.

Peridot must have been feeling the same 'arousal' I'd felt yesterday. Her body was hot, and she was panting breathlessly.

In short, she was sexy. A beautiful girl with a flushed face, panting like that—isn't that the best?

"She said no, so get lost."

I usually spoke politely without thinking, but talking casually to him didn't bother me at all. Well, even the most mild-mannered woman wouldn't speak politely to that guy.

"…Pretty girl, are you mad I was looking at someone else?"

"Consistent as ever. Get lost."

What the hell?

Why was he acting like we were close?

"Tch. You've got a pretty face, but you're too feisty."

The blond punk started reaching for me. I flinched when his huge hand came gliding down from above, but I wasn't going to let him grab me like yesterday.

Bubble. Air bubbles rose to the surface. The blond punk seemed to notice something was wrong and started struggling.

I trapped him inside a bubble filled with water.

"One hour. Think about what you've done."

It probably wouldn't last a minute. Anyway, I didn't want to kill anyone. Hitting on someone wasn't punishable by death.

If anything, I might be in favor of the harshest punishments, but hitting on someone wasn't a reason to get the death penalty. Rape was another matter.

Just as I turned around to leave with Peridot,

Splash.

I heard a sound behind me.

"You insolent bitch!"

The blond punk was tearing through the bubble as if it were made of paper. What the hell was this, a horror movie?

"You look like the villain in a zombie movie."

That was my honest impression. I'd just finished wiping out magical beasts, but that was a more striking sight than any of them.

After calming down a little and looking properly, I understood.

"So both your hands have an ability that nullifies magic?"

If I knew how his ability worked, I wouldn't have to be afraid of men anymore.

It seemed to affect whatever his hands touched, be it an object or a person.

There was nothing particularly scary about that. I just had to overwhelm him with sheer weight or volume.

"Don't come any closer!"

As I tried to fire a blast of water, Peridot trapped the blond punk inside something like a fence of dense foliage.

Mm, I couldn't beat that physically. Even if he could nullify magic, that was wood, while mine was water.

"Let's go and forget about him."

I took Peridot's hand and led her back to our room.

"I understand why women go around in groups now…"

I couldn't help nodding at Peridot's words. If someone could erase magic like that, then all that remained was the physical difference. And whether he'd trained for it or been born that way, his muscles were monstrous.

With two of us, we could manage somehow. We had magic, at least. And an ordinary woman could carry something for self-defense or call for help.

"A-and I understand the 'arousal' thing now, too…"

I wondered if Peridot had been as scared as I'd been yesterday, so I glanced at her face.

She seemed more embarrassed than frightened.

I understood.

"Seriously, if you don't know a woman's pleasure, you're missing out on half your life!"

"……"

I had plenty to say, but I wasn't going to say it.