"Ugh, it's this hot even at night..."
Izu is a coastal city in central Japan. While the summers aren't exactly lethal, the humid sea breeze sweeping onto the shore always makes life feel like a trip to the sauna.
If humans were compared to thin-skinned, soup-filled xiaolongbao, Imamura Kohei currently felt like his outer layer had been steamed through, and his filling was sitting at a medium-well state!
Fortunately, the small roadside convenience stores were dedicated enough to stay open late, giving him the chance to buy some ice and save his "filling"...
"Seriously, Aina... renting an apartment by the sea is cheap and cool, the city center is no place for humans to live!"
Grumbling all the way while carrying a heavy bag of freshly bought ice, Kohei finally made it from the subway station to Aina's apartment building.
What was normally a "golden distance" of a seven-minute walk felt exceptionally long. If it weren't for the sake of spending more time with Aina... er, his Galgames, he would never have trekked this far!
With that thought, he knocked habitually, then—without waiting for a response—fished his key out of his pocket and let himself in.
However, as the handle turned, the expected sliver of light spilling through the gap didn't appear. Instead, he was met with a darkness even deeper than the night outside!
"Ugh..."
Cold sweat trickled down his forehead. Normally, Kohei wasn't the type to be afraid of the dark, but for some reason, he felt like the room beyond the door was an entrance to hell!
"Aina? You home?"
"..."
The room was silent, with no reply at all. Kohei's brows furrowed. There was no drinking party today; by routine, Aina shouldn't be out.
Could it be that, like last time, she'd fallen ill and didn't want to trouble anyone, to the point where she couldn't get up to turn on the lights all day?
"Aina! I'm coming in. Are you okay?"
"Kukuku..."
The moment Kohei stepped one foot across the threshold, a strange laugh echoed in the darkness, and two hands suddenly lunged out, grabbing him firmly by the wrists.
"Eh?"
He only had time to let out a confused grunt before he was dragged into the room with irresistible force.
At the same time, the lights of the rental apartment flickered on with a snap. As his panicked vision slowly cleared, three perfectly normal university girls in maid outfits appeared before him!
"Welcome home! Master!!!"
"Eh?!!"
His pupils dilated to their maximum. Looking at the three maidens before him—each with a different style, bowing in unison—the CPU in Kohei's brain sizzled and fried.
Plumes of white smoke drifted from his ears, and simultaneously, a single stream of nosebleed made its debut.
It couldn't be helped. While Aina was indeed a bit flat, her three best friends each possessed their own "lethal weapons." The majestic undulations as they bowed were bound to cause collateral damage to the innocent.
"Wait... are you Kanako?"
"Bingo! Master Kohei has such a good memory, actually remembering little old me~"
With a big smile and a peace sign, Kanako Iida teased him wickedly: "So, would Master like to have dinner first? Or a bath first?"
"Emmm..."
He finally recognized all three girls. In truth, he had only seen Kiyoko Kamio and Keiko Suzuki in their non-"make-up corpse beast" forms once; being able to identify them was already an achievement.
But that wasn't the point right now!
His expression suddenly turned grave. Though he didn't know what these college girls were up to, he knew they were Aina's best friends. Combined with this plot development...
"I choose C!"
"Oh my~ Master Kohei is quite direct. But since you want the 'hidden service,' we have no choice but to comply. Please close your eyes first..."
"!!!"
There really is a hidden service! Galgames never lie to me!
Kohei's heart raced. Even though he knew this was likely a joke, being able to see Aina in a normal maid outfit would be a win no matter how you sliced it!
Thinking this, he closed his eyes without hesitation, thus missing the chance to see the evil nature of the "little maids"!
"Kukuku..."
Covering her mouth and snickering, Kiyoko Kamio made sure Aina's quasi-boyfriend had his eyes shut tight, then ran to the bathroom and dragged out the "maid" they'd prepared, shoving them in front of him.
"Yoshi~ Master Kohei can open his eyes now!"
"!!! Aina..."
Kohei snapped his eyes open, his cheeks flushed as he prepared his shy compliments. He couldn't wait to admire a normal, maid-version Aina...
The sentence died halfway in his throat. The "crack" sound heard in the room was the sound of his retinas shattering into a thousand pieces.
Slowly, his gaze traveled up from solid eight-pack abs, to massive pectorals, to mountain-like trapezius muscles. Unsurprisingly, he saw a pair of blushing cheeks—just not Aina's.
"Welcome home, Master Kohei!"
With three scumbag girls pushing him from behind, Miyazawa Yuu stood there wearing a maid headband, delivering the pre-scripted lines with a face full of sorrow.
To be honest, he deeply regretted agreeing to help Aina, and he deeply regretted not hiding under the bed when Kiyoko entered the room.
What made it even harder to bear was: why did Aina happen to have a maid outfit that could fit a two-meter-tall muscular hunk? He felt like these wicked women had planned this all along!
"Please... Please eat me!"
"...Snap!"
That was the crisp sound of a cornea completely exploding, symbolizing the birth of a new blind man in the world. It was truly a tragedy.
The current situation was like a classic "online dating" disaster. You thought your girlfriend was a pure, cute legal loli or a valiant, mature older sister.
Instead, the reality was that not only did "she" have a face full of stubble and a chest covered in hair, but "she" was also packing more heat than you—you wouldn't even need to clear the room for a bathroom break; you could just go together.
"Yuu!"
"I'm a victim too..."
"A victim, huh?"
Veins throbbed on Kohei's forehead. His "mood bar" shriveled up like someone whose mom walked in without knocking just as they opened a "study" folder, while his "anger bar" skyrocketed.
"Die!"
"You bastard! I already told you this wasn't my intention!"
Thud! A full bag of ice was slammed onto Yuu's head. While feeling "chilled to the bone," Yuu crossed his arms, his eyes filled with helplessness toward life.
"Who cares! I have no expectations left for the rest of my life! Are you going to compensate me?"
"Oh? Is Master Kohei unsatisfied with our staff?"
"Like hell I'd be satisfied! What even is this? Send whatever mental asylum this escaped from back where it came! Don't pollute other people's eyes!"
The veins spread from his neck to his eyes. Kohei felt the urge to give these three girls a piece of his mind right now.
To toy with a pure young man's feelings like this—do these people have no hearts?
"Well~ it can't be helped. Since we don't offer a 'man-eating' service here, we had to outsource it~"
Spreading her hands in feigned helplessness, Kanako Iida shook her head. She went to the bathroom and pulled out Aina—who was struggling desperately and refusing to be seen—into the room.
"If Master had chosen 'dinner,' you would have received the services of Maid-chan Aina!"
"Kanako!!!"
Without her heavy makeup to hide behind, Aina Yoshiwara felt shy even wearing a swimsuit, let alone a low-cut maid outfit from a maid cafe!
The worst part was that according to the plans for the Oumi University festival, Kiyoko and the others had ordered specific "persecution props" for Yuu, but because the maid slots were full, Aina hadn't ordered a maid outfit for herself.
So now, she had to make do with Azusa-san's old maid outfit. The most glaring issue was that the chest was very ill-fitting—it was so loose she had to press her hands against it to avoid an embarrassing gap!
"Ugh... welcome home, Master..."
"Puff! Gasp! Puff! Gasp!"
Kohei was instantly mesmerized. Seeing Aina blushing while clutching her chest, he felt his retinas were suddenly resurrected!
There's a saying from a mysterious ancient country in the East: "Like hearing immortal music, one's ears momentarily clear." The current situation felt exactly like that!
"Yuu!"
"What?"
Gently removing the ice from Yuu's head, Kohei gripped his shoulders, tears of gratitude flowing uncontrollably. "This was your doing, wasn't it! Arigato!"
"I already told you it has nothing to do with me! Don't pin every immoral thing on me!"
Ignoring the guy who could change his face with breathtaking speed, Yuu cleared his head and leaned toward Kanako, whispering: "I say, what are you guys doing? Didn't we agree on a plan to drive Kohei away?"
"We are!"
Nodding seriously, Kanako Iida adjusted her tube top and spoke with righteous conviction: "We're trying to make Kohei feel ashamed with 'overly enthusiastic service'! That way, he'll be too embarrassed to come back next time!"
"Then what was my part for..."
"Because it seemed fun, we just made the arrangement instinctively! Ehe!"
Sticking out her cute tongue and giving a thumbs up, Kanako used "Play Dumb." It was super effective! Even though Yuu was so angry veins were popping on his temples, he could only mutter a few curses about "scumbag women."
But trying to make a scumbag feel shame with 'enthusiastic service'? Interesting! I don't know if I should call her naive, or if she just didn't want to help at all!