The moment that crate of Truth Serum was brought out, Kitahara realized things might be getting a little bad.
Even so, despite the ominous feeling and the alarms screaming in his head, he still did not think this was some trap aimed at him. He simply figured these girls had been a little overstimulated and wanted to blow off steam.
Hm? What kind of stimulation, you ask? Wasn't it obvious?
It was Valentine's Day. All over campus, everyone else was pairing off and showing off their affection, and by evening the leave slips over at the student dorms had piled up like a small mountain.
But the girls on his team, because their relationship with him was still perfectly normal, could only stand there and watch other people flirt and act lovey-dovey. They knew that was not exactly a healthy way to think, but it was only natural for a little resentment to build up. Wanting to vent it through some activity was not strange at all.
And not just the girls. Thinking about it carefully, Tazuna and Rudolf were both older singles too. It was not that hard to accept that they might also be feeling some kind of way and wanted an outlet. It was just that...
Kitahara stole a glance at the girls' sleepwear around him, fell silent for a few seconds, then quietly looked away again, unable to stop himself from sighing inwardly.
He knew these girls trusted him and were not very guarded around him, but dressing like this was way too much. Once he had the chance, he really needed to sit them down and have a proper talk about it...
While Kitahara was thinking all that, the others had already finished drinking the Truth Serum. Once they set the empty bottles back on the table and laid out the contents of the box, the game slowly began.
Of course, before the game itself officially started, someone had to explain the rules.
The rules were not complicated. More or less, everyone rolled a die together. Anyone who rolled below the lower threshold—thirty, on a hundred-sided die—had to choose Truth or Dare, draw a penalty card from the corresponding deck, and carry it out.
Conversely, anyone who rolled above the upper threshold—eighty—got to draw a reward card from the bonus deck. The effects varied, and they could choose any other player to carry them out.
That "choose anyone" was not completely unrestricted, however. One of the rules was that you could not call someone out by name. You had to designate them by number instead, and each person's number changed every round and was kept secret, which served as a balancing measure.
Once the rules had been read out, the game officially began.
There was not much to say about the first round. Kitahara drew a perfectly ordinary number and rolled a perfectly ordinary result, earning neither reward nor punishment.
Everyone else was more or less the same. Only Silence Suzuka got lucky enough to roll a ninety-six and drew some kind of reward card nobody knew the contents of. And just like that, the first round ended in a hurry.
Since the first round passed so peacefully, Kitahara let out a quiet sigh of relief. Things did not seem as bad as he had imagined.
But just as he was thinking that, the second round opened with the dice handing him something truly outrageous.
And in the literal, physical sense.
"Hm, my roll seems a little low..."
Super Creek looked at the number in front of her—seventeen—and after a moment's thought, made her choice.
"I'll take Dare."
With that, she let out a small sigh and reached for the penalty deck. But once she drew a card and saw what was written on it, her expression suddenly changed.
"My, well now..."
"What is it?"
"See for yourselves."
As she spoke, Super Creek turned the card around. The moment the others saw its contents, their expressions changed too.
[Penalty 11: Choose a number and act like a baby in that person's arms until your next turn to roll.]
The mood turned a little delicate the moment everyone read it, especially for people like Tamamo Cross and Komata, the longtime victims of Creek. They found themselves feeling rather hard to describe.
—As a side note, after putting her things away and hearing there was going to be a sleepover, Tamamo Cross had immediately rushed over in her capacity as family, and in the name of preventing Kitahara from dying tonight. For some reason, though, she had also changed into that same kind of thin sleepwear in the end.
As for Kitahara, while he also felt this punishment was a little delicate, he was not especially worried.
There were so many people here, and the numbers were random. There was no way she would just happen to pick him...
"Then... I'll choose number six."
At Creek's announcement, everyone quickly checked the number cards in their hands. After confirming they were not number six, they all let out a breath of relief. Only Kitahara, after checking his own card, quietly turned it upside down.
Yes. He was definitely number nine.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard Kitahara tried to deceive himself, after a bit of process-of-elimination, everyone's gaze still converged on him, and the six in his hand was promptly exposed.
Under normal circumstances, the other girls definitely would have done everything they could to stop such an obvious chance to steal a march.
But today, as they watched the awkward expression slowly spread across Kitahara's face, not one of them said a word to stop it. They simply watched in silence, with the faintest trace of satisfaction rising in their hearts.
Thinking about it carefully, they had been getting exasperated with this blockhead for ages. By the end, some of them had practically gone numb to it.
And all the while, he had seemed to drift outside the situation entirely. Sometimes he had even laughed at them for it. It was about time he got to squirm a little too.
So, under everyone's gaze, Creek walked over to Kitahara, cheeks slightly flushed, and slowly sat down in his lap, pressing herself against him little by little.
How was he supposed to describe this...?
In Kitahara's original imagination, "acting like a baby" meant Creek would lie in his arms and he would just hold her for one round. That was all.
But instead, just as he had finished getting his arms into position, Creek directly sat down in his lap facing him, then leaned right into him.
Given Creek's figure, even ordinary movements of that sort were already pushing the limit. And now, like the other girls, she had changed into that thin, delicate sleepwear, with decidedly mature colors showing faintly beneath it.
Kitahara himself was still dressed normally, but the instant Creek pressed against him, he could still clearly feel her faintly warm body heat, and through their points of contact, a fullness and softness utterly unlike the younger girls'.
"Um, Creek, I think maybe we could try a different position..."
Kitahara's voice came out a little dry. He did not dare look down at her either, afraid he might see something he should not.
But in response to his suggestion, Creek only shook her head with a blush, rubbed lightly against him, then looped an arm around his neck and whispered into his ear.
"A lot of fathers hold their babies like this, you know. So Papa Kitahara, just bear with it a little."
With that, Creek lowered her head, rested her face against Kitahara's chest, and closed her eyes in satisfaction.
That left only Kitahara staring straight ahead with a conflicted look on his face, both hands hovering awkwardly in midair with no idea where to go.
"A responsible grown-up would hold the baby, Guinea Pig-kun."
Agnes Tachyon spoke with a smile, and the others immediately voiced their support for her in one form or another.
You little...
Looking at this bunch of brats who were clearly enjoying the spectacle, Kitahara very much wanted to get up right then and rap every last one of them on the head.
But under the circumstances, after hesitating for a while, he still let out a sigh and slowly wrapped his arms around Creek.
And the instant he did, he confirmed one thing.
Yeah. As expected, that damn outfit was basically the same as not wearing anything at all.
Far from acting as any sort of barrier, it actually added a little extra texture on top of how easy it already was to feel her softness and warmth, as though it had been designed specifically to invite contact.
Still, complaints were one thing. Once he actually held her, Kitahara had to admit that Creek felt extraordinarily good in his arms.
The faint warmth of her body, the plush softness of her flesh, and that perfectly balanced fullness all combined into something comfortable and reassuring, enough to make a person want to just sink right into her.
No wonder Tamamo and Komata-san and the others, despite usually being so wary of her, turned so docile the moment they ended up in her arms. There really was a reason for it...
And so, after stabilizing the situation with Creek for the time being, the game resumed.
This time, perhaps because everyone's luck was bad, after Creek, Oguri Cap, Manhattan Cafe, and Tokai Teio all rolled values below thirty in succession, and all of them, without exception, chose Dare as well.
Fortunately, the punishments they drew were nowhere near as outrageous.
[Penalty 3: For the next three rounds, you may not speak.]
[Penalty 27: Until the next round, maintain a heart gesture with the person on your left.]
[Penalty 19: Open your phone and confess to the person you most recently chatted with on LINE.]
Oguri Cap's silence penalty was simple enough. Cafe had Agnes Tachyon on her left, so the heart gesture was easy too.
As for Tokai Teio's confession, it sounded dangerous on paper, but the person she had most recently been chatting with was Rudolf, so she got through it without much trouble.
For some reason, though, even though all three had been lucky enough to draw punishments they could complete easily, they each looked a little disappointed. It left Kitahara thoroughly puzzled.
Still, he did not have long to stay puzzled.
Because right after the three of them, he rolled a six himself, then, under everyone's gaze, braced himself and drew a penalty card from the deck.
[Penalty 45: Remove one piece of clothing.]
What the hell was this?
The moment he read it, Kitahara nearly flung the card away.
After all, now that he was back in his dorm, even though he had not changed into pajamas, he had at least taken off his coat and such. Aside from his pants, the only thing on his upper body now was his shirt.
There was no way Kitahara was taking off his pants in front of the girls, so that only left his shirt...
No, wait.
As something occurred to him, Kitahara suddenly looked up. His gaze swept across the girls around him, over those flimsy pajamas—the only layer they had left on—and several extremely bad images flashed through his mind at once.
"Um, I think this punishment might be a little inappropriate..."
Clearing his throat, Kitahara voiced his concern.
The other girls exchanged looks, but before any of them could speak, Satono Diamond smilingly added, "Please don't worry, Kitahara-san. There are no duplicate punishments in this box, so there's no need to worry about what comes later."
"Oh. In that case."
Hearing that the strip card was the only one of its kind, Kitahara let out a sigh of relief.
"Then I'll just draw another one... right?"
He reached for the penalty deck again, but before his hand could get there, someone caught it halfway.
"Trainer Kitahara, what Diamond said was that there's no need to worry about what comes later. She didn't say you were exempt from taking your punishment."
Holding his hand, Tazuna smiled brightly.
"Following the rules of the game is very important, you know."
Kitahara originally wanted to explain to her that it did not feel appropriate.
But when he saw that smiling expression of hers, and the grip on his hand that felt like an iron vise, he fell silent for a moment. In the end, he quietly withdrew his hand, obediently undid his shirt, and took it off.
He really was in great shape...
Once Kitahara removed his shirt, although most of the girls looked no different than before on the surface, he could still feel numerous gazes gather on him. He could even faintly hear the sound of people swallowing, which left him at a loss for words.
And especially after his shirt was gone, Creek pressed herself against him again.
This time, without the fabric of the shirt in between, the plush fullness of her body became several times clearer than before. Combined with the gentle rise and fall of her breathing, no matter how he tried to distract himself or suppress it, certain reactions were unavoidable.
When Creek noticed, her body trembled slightly a few times, and a faint blush spread across her face. But she did nothing further. She simply kept clinging to Kitahara, steadily breathing in the scent drifting from him.
Then the game continued.
After Kitahara, there were no further twists in the second round. It passed smoothly enough, and soon the third round began.
As for the third round, perhaps because enough people had already been unlucky in the previous one, everyone seemed to be doing fairly well this time. Before it got to Kitahara, two people had already rolled above eighty, and not a single person had rolled below thirty.
Then Kitahara rolled a three.
"I choose Truth."
Kitahara spoke at once.
"Alright."
Satono Diamond nodded and pushed the Truth deck in front of him.
Then, under everyone's gaze, Kitahara slowly reached out, drew a card from the deck, and turned it over.
[Question 15: Of everyone here, who do you like best?]
The card flipped over.
The room fell silent in an instant.
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T/N: IFHASIFHASIFHIAFSALF