Late at night.
Tokyo.
Hayanui Riku (referred to as Riku from here on) walked out of the part-time job café where he worked.
Riku let out a deep breath.
"I really can't keep working at that coffee shop anymore."
The male manager of the café seemed to have some rather peculiar hobbies. During work hours, he was always getting handsy with the staff next to him.
And they were male staff members at that!!
To protect his own dignity, Riku had no choice but to give up this temporary café job. After today, he'd have to find another, slightly safer part-time gig to get by.
A drizzling rain fell.
"Yurei the Manager... you recall he has a beautiful wife. If you just film his terrible habits, get into his house, and show the video to his wife, to keep her husband's job, she would..."
"Or perhaps, on his wife's way to work, you pull her aside, tell her about her husband's habits, fabricate some threatening information. Yurei's wife knows what her husband is really like, and to protect him, she would..."
"The perfect married woman plan."
Riku shook his head. The voice in his mind echoed again.
The perfect plan...
Bah!
This narrator was totally a blond-haired antagonist-type narrator, always feeding him plans that would land him in prison for life.
Wasn't there some method that was actually convenient to use?
Wait a minute!
How did my thoughts even get twisted like this?! It's all that damn narrator's fault!
"You scan the area for prey, and notice something unusual on the bench across the way!"
"A lost girl out late at night, lying all alone on a bench, and it's still raining. If you just carry her back..."
The narrator's voice drew Riku's attention to the bench in the park opposite.
It was already the dead of night, and the park was mostly deserted.
If not for the narrator's prompt, Riku wouldn't have even noticed someone lying there.
A girl was curled up on the waiting bench in the park.
Her school uniform was soaked through, and the bare white thighs beneath her short skirt were strikingly vivid under the streetlights.
The drenched uniform top clung to her, revealing her perfect figure.
The rain-soaked fabric was plastered to her skin, outlining an incredibly alluring shape.
"Man, that's a killer figure!"
Riku unconsciously swallowed hard, then, worried a passerby might catch his lecherous gaze, quickly averted his eyes.
And right then, the blond narrator's voice in his head piped up again.
"You look around. Late night, still raining, no one nearby. This girl, fast asleep on the bench, won't wake up no matter what, like she's dead weight. You've seen this kind of thing before, just usually outside bars. Now, with no one around, you're the first to find her! That body, those curves! A burning, wicked thought ignites within you. You start walking towards the girl..."
Even Riku found what the narrator described a little tempting.
He quickly shook his head.
No way!
You absolutely cannot have thoughts like that!
How is this any different from a one-way ticket to jail?
Riku took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down.
But his slightly quickening breath told its own story.
Riku was a little tempted.
The narrator's voice lingered in his ears, almost making Riku picture the girl being pinned down by some fat, lecherous guy.
Hah!
"No, even if I don't do anything, leaving a girl alone in a late-night park isn't safe for her."
Hypocrisy, mixed with a dose of curiosity, spurred Riku forward.
Riku started moving, walking over.
After a few minutes,
Riku crossed the street and arrived beside the girl.
His mind had been unsettled the whole way; maybe it was the blond narrator's goading, but his head kept filling with inappropriate images.
Riku shook his head, still trying to deny his own thoughts.
Muttering under his breath constantly.
"Straight to jail. Straight to jail, man!"
Standing before the girl,
Riku finally got a good look at her.
The sleeping girl wore a very short skirt.
Her long, shapely legs were pressed together, her soaked, knee-high white socks clinging to the skin beneath.
As Riku's gaze wandered,
a hint of white bear-patterned fabric, barely visible under the skirt, was pulled into an odd shape.
Riku swallowed again and looked away.
Her long, black hair was spread out. The collar of her blouse was strained wide, the hint of soft curves making Riku almost lose his composure.
Even with her delicate arm, like a white lotus root, covering half her face, the revealed portion of her exquisite features still made Riku's heart race.
So beautiful.
Seeming genuinely deeply asleep, the girl's breathing was very soft.
Riku reached out and gently patted her shoulder.
No reaction at all.
"A girl fast asleep, what are you waiting for! It's the dead of night! No one will pass by. Do something, and no one would ever find out! Or, take her to the bushes nearby – with your talents, it'd only take a moment, and this girl would be completely devoted to you..."
Riku's hand began to move, slowly reaching towards the front of the girl's clothes.
His breathing grew more ragged, his heartbeat faster.
The moment he barely touched her, Riku's hand jerked back as if shocked.
"Go for it! You're still too green! In a situation like this, a little effort is all it takes to claim this girl. Just drag her into the little grove in the park..."
Huff, huff, huff.
Riku slapped his own cheeks. He was still a student. Doing something like this would ruin his whole life. No way, no way.
Can't do it for a moment of...
Riku took a few deep breaths.
The rain had gradually stopped, but the chilly post-rain night air helped cool his head considerably.
In the end, Riku decided to take the girl home with him first.
"Excellent idea! Your grimy apartment, imprisoning a runaway girl. You're a genius! Just give her a little reward every day, and..."
"Shut up!"
Riku said, finally at his limit.
This narrator was always trying to steer him toward a life of crime.
Every single time the narrator spoke, it touched on his darkest impulses.
He'd endured it long enough.
Riku looked at the girl. He called out to her a few times, even shook her shoulder, but she still showed no sign of waking up.
"She won't wake up. You won't get caught doing anything. It's way too cold out here. You're getting impatient! Why not just do it here..."
.............
Over ten minutes later.
In front of a slightly run-down, single-room apartment door.
Riku pushed the door open and carried the girl straight inside.
After catching his breath, he dropped her onto the bed.
Even with the rough handling, the girl still didn't wake up.
Riku couldn't help but wonder if she'd taken some strong sleeping pills or been drugged.
There was no smell of alcohol on her at all, just a faint, pleasant scent.
Thinking about that scent...
But if she'd been drugged, the girl's clothes were still neat.
Riku turned on the room light.
He took off the girl's shoes.
Her feet, wrapped in those knee-high socks, were small.
Because of the rain, the white socks were a bit translucent, giving a glimpse of her delicate feet.
The socks were soaked through.
Maybe he should...
take them off too.
Otherwise...
she might catch a cold.
Riku's hand slid upwards.
He reached the cuff of the knee-high sock. Because it was wet, the sock's cuff was tight against her thigh.
Riku rolled the sock down and slid it off.
Maybe because of the rain, her thighs had a pale, rosy hue. Her pink, bare feet were now exposed under Riku's gaze.
"A goddess like this! You must savor every detail!..."
"Savor my head, you pervert."
But even as he said it, Riku unconsciously swallowed hard.