kscans

Chapter 176 - Life's Answer

"Hohee, so this is a love hotel. This is what they're like, huh."

Without any shyness or embarrassment, Kawasaki looked around the room with childlike curiosity. Right now, Kawasaki and I are in a love hotel, but not to do anything lewd.

(Well, we will be doing something a little lewd.)

But on the level of a magazine for boys or young men, not an adult magazine. There's no reason to beat around the bush, so I'll be blunt. We came to this love hotel to have a cosplay show. I once talked about it with all the homeless guys under that bridge (they're all reintegrated into society now), but I love cosplay. No, it wouldn't be wrong to say I am in love with it. It wouldn't even be an exaggeration to say I love it 3000.

That said, I can only really enjoy cosplay through adult videos or pictures online. I'm sure I could feast my eyes on some amazing cosplay if I went to one of those events, but...

(I just don't have the time.)

My conscience would bother me if I took paid leave just to go look at sexy cosplay. And even if an event like that falls on a day off, I usually have other plans. I just never get the chance. I'm sure I could make an opportunity if I seriously planned for it, but I don't even have the opportunity to make an opportunity. With one thing and another, my only option was to enjoy cosplay on the other side of a screen.

(But now, an opportunity has presented itself.)

Kawasaki is beautiful. The highest class of beautiful. Chika-san, Takahashi, Suzuki, Rika-chan, Sarna-chan. I know a fair number of beautiful women and girls. But if we're picking based on looks alone, Kawasaki would probably be number one.

(Though her personality makes her feel human.)

She has a delicate, almost artificial beauty that seems detached from reality. Her emotional range is narrow. No, even if it were average, her overly perfect features would have given her the impression of a doll. To put it another way, when you think about it calmly, it's pretty wild that she needs such a quirky personality just to feel human.

And a woman like that, you know? She goes and says something like, "I'll do anything for you!" Of course I'm going to jump at that. Of course I'm going to take this golden opportunity to ask her to do all sorts of cosplay.

(Heh heh, I bought a stupid amount of costumes.)

We didn't come straight to the hotel. We stopped by several adult shops and bought a massive number of costumes. I even bought some inside the hotel. I made one of the most wasteful splurges in my thirty five years of life, but I have absolutely no regrets. That said, like I mentioned earlier, it's all stuff that stops short of being R-18. It's not like the mosaic required erotic costumes I had the Death Gods wear, so don't get the wrong idea.

"Well then, shall we start right away?"

"Hold on!!"

"? What is it?"

"It's not 'what is it'..."

I couldn't hide my alarm as Kawasaki suddenly pulled off her obi. I mean, we've taken a bath together before, but still.

"Getting undressed in front of a man."

"But it's you, Satou-san."

"Eh?"

"You're a gentleman I've opened my heart to, enough that I wouldn't mind going all the way, so I have no reservations about showing you my skin, you know?"

...Come to think of it, she said something like that before. Her favorability rating was skyrocketing through the roof, and I felt more terror than happiness.

"Could it be you thought I was the kind of woman who would show her skin to anyone? You're so silly, Satou-san."

Kawasaki cackled. This time, I felt a surge of irritation. What is this feeling. It's the same irritation you feel when an idiot calls you an idiot. I let out a small sigh and drew a magic circle on the floor.

"If you're going to change, do it on top of that circle."

"Like this... ooh!?"

An impromptu changing room materialized from the circle. It was a simple thing enclosed by a curtain, but it would be enough.

"I want you to start with this."

"Okay."

I handed her the first costume set, and Kawasaki went inside the changing room. ...You know, in a way, this is sexier than watching her undress live. I could see the silhouette of her taking off her kimono... and I couldn't help but gulp. Gokuri.

"Mmph!"

The curtain opened with a sha.

"A sailor uniform feels so new. I wore a blazer in both middle and high school."

The first order was a classic, a sailor uniform (summer version). But this was no ordinary sailor uniform.

"But this is short, isn't it. Both the top and the bottom."

That's right, this sailor uniform was a fantasy sailor uniform. The top was short enough to reveal a peek of her navel even when she stood normally, and the bottom was so short that any slight movement was an opportunity for a panty shot. On top of that, it was more sheer than usual, raising the odds of seeing her bra through it.

"...I'm glad to be alive."

"Eh, are you crying!?"

"Kawasaki... could you just, like, spin around for me?"

Gratitude for being born into this world, a sense of accomplishment for having continued to live. I sent my request while savoring the joy that life gives.

"Like this?"

Her long, lustrous black hair and her skirt flew up. A fleeting panty shot. But with my kinetic vision, I could even stretch it into an eternity. Seared into my memory was a pair of pristine white panties. From this day forward, I will never forget them, no matter what happens.

(And not just the panties.)

Her bra too. Not her bra showing through her shirt, you know? It was a bra flash. She raised her arms a little when she spun. I saw it through her sleeve. A bra flash. A pure white matching the panties below. A whiteness that seemed like it could wash away all the hate festering in the world.

(Is a world like this worth protecting?)

A question someone once threw at me. I think they were sneering at everything. At the time, I was trying to figure out what to have for dinner, so I ignored them and beat them to death. I don't even remember their name. To whoever you were, sorry I couldn't answer you back then. But now, I can say it with my head held high.

(It is. The world is worth protecting. It was worth protecting.)

Someone who tried to end the world, and me, who tried to let it continue. You really don't understand the meaning or significance of a battle until much later, huh. If that battle led to this present happiness (panty shot) and bliss (bra flash), then it had meaning. It had significance.

"Ring the bells!"

"!?"

"A blessing upon all living things!!"

God, for the first time in my life, I pray to you. Please make the happiness of this moment last for an eternity... Along with my prayer, I tinkered with my own structure, giving myself the function of a biological camera. It was an old trick I'd picked up. I think I was around twenty three or twenty four? I was really into bio-weapons that could alter their own bodies. So for a time, I seriously devoted myself to developing physical modification technology.

(But I got bored as soon as I finished it and haven't touched it since.)

It wasn't a waste. None of the paths I've walked have been a waste. It's all connected. The me of the past shaped the me of today. It's all connected. Not a single thing was wasted. I see. So this is life. Connecting feelings to spin the future. Ah, I understand. I understand everything.

"So fast! A, an afterimage with mass...!?"

Snap snap snap snap snap snap snap snap snap snap! I burned the image of Kawasaki into my mind from every conceivable angle.

"Pose! A pose, please!"

"L, like this?"

After I finished a full round of shooting, I stopped and created a small bathtub. Then I pinched one nostril and...

"Fun!!"

"Ueh!?"

I unleashed a torrent of blood from my nose.

"Sorry about that all of a sudden. I got a little too excited, so I figured I'd let some blood out."

If I get this worked up on the very first one, my body won't last. I let some blood to cool down.

"A bathtub full of blood... that should be impossible, given the nature of the human body..."

"Heh, my red blood cells are having a party."

"Are you okay in the head?"

"I might not be."

But every so often, a man needs a day like this.