Chapter 62 - Rio's Favorite Things
I'm a man too, you know. I have desires like anyone else.
And the girl before my eyes looks exactly like Elsa.
That fact is working on me to a sickening degree.
Thanks to that, it's stimulating parts separate from sexual desire—places like memories and nostalgia.
In a way, that might be the most sensitive spot of all. Because it's an erogenous zone of the soul, embedded in the brain.
"Are you really okay with me?"
Rio nodded with a small dip of her head. Then she shook her head vertically two, three times in succession.
She seemed unable to wait any longer. She wrapped her arms around my neck, leaning her weight into me and clinging sweetly.
I felt a soft swell press against my chest and deform.
"I don't want anyone but you, Nakamoto-san..."
As she spoke, Rio stole my lips.
With that, a fire ignited in my head too.
From here on, it's man and woman. No, male and female.
Let's do this. I'll throw everything I've got at her.
I held Rio tightly and rested my chin on her shoulder.
I put strength into my arms, as if to say I'd never let her go again.
You are my most beloved woman.
Yes,
"Elsa...!"
—Shit.
I shut my mouth instantly, but it was too late.
Words once spoken cannot be erased.
Of all things, right after being kissed, I had committed the worst blunder imaginable: calling out the name of a former woman.
No, I mean.
My head was full of Elsa, so it couldn't be helped. It was an act of God.
No matter how many excuses I made in my brain, there was no way she could hear them.
When I fearfully pulled away, I was met with an utterly natural question.
"Who's Elsa?"
I tried to offer a flustered, stammering explanation, but she wasn't listening.
"An ex-girlfriend? Or a current one?"
Hmm, I see, I see, Rio nodded to herself in understanding.
"It's a foreign name, right? While you were overseas, you got cozy with some woman over there. With that worn-out face of yours, you really get around, Nakamoto-san. Though I never expected to be called by the wrong name at a time like this."
"...Sorry, that was entirely my fault just now."
As I hung my head, wondering if a slap was about to fly my way, a system message floated up into my vision.
[Rio Saito's Affection Level has increased by 2000]
"I'm aware I did something inexcusable, it was just an old habit... Hm, hmm? Huh? Why is your Affection Level going up from this exchange? Don't tell me you're enjoying this?"
Looking at her, Rio's eyes were even wetter than before, reaching a stage that could only be called ecstatic.
"...Because Nakamoto-san, you're doing the things I like..."
What exactly are the things you like? I asked fearfully.
"Being utterly wrecked by a strong, scary Papa who has no interest in me."
"That's beyond the comprehension of my sexual preferences. Explain it in detail."
"Um, well,"
Rio began to speak.
She said that a brutish, heartless older man who tries to hold her despite having another main woman is unbearably arousing.
"If I was being held and you berated me like, 'Compared to Elsa, you're a joke to use!' I don't know what would happen to me... And besides, this is the boys' bathroom. If I'm treated like a Consumable in a place like this, I'm basically a toilet. Then several of my long-held dreams would come true all at once, you know?"
[Rio Saito's Sexual Arousal has reached 100%]
I felt the heat rapidly drain from my head. There was no room left for passion or romance.
Sure, I knew from the notes section that she was a masochistic daddy's girl.
But normally, you wouldn't think she was this twisted, right?
"...Hey, don't you get jealous? Doesn't it bother you if the man you're in love with is seeing multiple women?"
"I get super jealous. But that suffering also gives me a throbbing thrill."
"What kind of words would make you happy to hear from a guy on a date?"
"'From today on, you're my tissue paper,' I guess."
This girl is hopeless.
No matter how much she looks like Elsa on the outside, her insides are a completely different thing. A different thing, or rather, something filthy.
And besides, I'm more the type who feels comfortable with a woman taking the lead...
"...Let's rest a little more, then head outside. You've been able to walk on your own for a while now, right?"
"Huh? Why? Let's continue! Even if you send me home in this state, what am I supposed to do!? My body's still burning up!"
"That's what's good for you, isn't it? You're on hold."
"Being treated so roughly by a self-important jerk like you doesn't really do anything for me, though."
I wonder if there are standards like rough or polite for a self-important jerk.
If you were to treat a woman with meticulous care, I feel like you wouldn't be a self-important jerk at all anymore.
Among specialists like Rio, there might be strict rules.
"I don't get it. Anyway, I'm just not in that mood anymore. Go deal with your body on your own today."
"Ah, that was good just now..."
[Rio Saito's Affection Level has increased by 100]
"...Hey, when those goblins dragged you in here, you weren't secretly happy about it, were you?"
"That's mean. Stuff like that genuinely hurts, okay? It's not like any forceful guy will do. Being aggressively pushed by a man who isn't my type just pisses me off."
It's a complicated world, I thought, deeply impressed.
"Hey, are you really not going to do it?"
"I'm not."
Rio snorted a "hmm," then smiled fearlessly.
"Well, whatever. I'll have plenty of chances from now on anyway. We're already boyfriend and girlfriend, right?"
Saying that, she leaned her body against me. Her long black hair scattered lightly over my shoulders.
"...Why would that be the case?"
"Because you didn't dislike it when I kissed you. And after that, you held me tight. How do you plan to talk your way out of this?"
I was at a loss for words.
Certainly, she was right.
Such acts are impossible unless you're lovers.
A first-year high school girl and an old man over thirty in a serious relationship.
Triggered by a kiss in the boys' restroom.
I became terrified myself, wondering just how many ordinances we were violating.
I'm already someone who casually disregards the law bit by bit, but this particular screw-up is the type that plunges me into self-loathing.
It's not that I dislike Rio, but dating is still too early, I guess. Or rather, I'd say wait until she's at least twenty.
My honest feeling was that I desperately wanted to get out of this situation by any means necessary.
But I couldn't think of anything. No matter how much I racked my deficient brain, there was no way I could find a convenient excuse to steer this into a harmless relationship.
What should I do?
Rio has the daddy's girl skill. I'm an old man. And the two of us have pressed our lips together.
Even if she was the one who came onto me, it's a fact that I didn't refuse.
I...
"Anyway, can I stay over at your place today, Nakamoto-san?"
"...That's obviously impossible."
"Why? I'm your girlfriend. Staying over is totally normal."
"...No. You and I aren't lovers yet."
Huh? As Rio furrowed her brow, I launched into a grand exposition of my personal theory.
"Just because an old man and a young woman kiss, that doesn't make it a romantic relationship."
"It does! In what relationship other than boyfriend and girlfriend would an old man and a high school girl kiss!?"
"No, it happens! Yes, like a Papa and his daughter! A parent and child would do that much, right!?"
It was a brazen, desperate rationalization: if she has the daddy's girl skill, maybe I can smooth-talk her by bringing up the example of a father and daughter.
A thoroughly crooked way of navigating life that I learned from Angelica.
Now, how will this go!?
I put my last shred of hope into peering into Rio's eyes.
"...That's true... a Papa and his daughter would at least kiss..."
Rio had a mortified look on her face.
My logic was almost certainly flawed, yet it had worked on her.
The terrifying ecology of severely afflicted daddy's girl daughters.
"...Wait just a minute. Nakamoto-san's reasoning is weird! We're not parent and child or anything! So why are you acting like you're my father!?"
"Hah!"
Got you, I smirked inwardly.
"Good grief. I guess someone born in the Heisei era wouldn't understand?"
"What are you talking about...?"
"Children are meant to be raised by society as a whole! That was common sense in the Showa era! To an old man born in the Showa era, any random brat is basically like my own kid!"
"It's Heisei 30 now, you know!?"
"Irrelevant!"
I grabbed Rio by both shoulders and put on the bravest front I could muster.
"You just played house with a kind neighborhood old man! You get it!? This is just part of babysitting!"
"Ba-babysitting!? You're saying a mouth-to-mouth kiss is babysitting!?"
Rio was breathing heavily, her eyes spinning in circles.
She seemed to be quite confused herself.
"Whether you and I smooch or not, this is simply pacifying a child! It's no different from some neighborhood old man you never know what he's doing, joining in a kids' sandlot baseball game! ...He joins the elementary school team and throws a sharp curveball with no restraint, that guy. I wonder who he was... Anyway! You merely happened to be playing around with an old guy who likes kids! You just played house in a lover scenario! Therefore, you and I are not boyfriend and girlfriend! Do you understand that!?"
"I don't get it, but that's exciting in its own way, so it's fine!? It's like I was toyed with by a strange old man, which is a scenario I like!?"
"It's fine!? It's fine, is it!? Then go straight home today!"
"Yeah!"
In a state where neither of us understood what the other was saying anymore, we stepped out of the restroom.