Original chapter: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n0383ht/85/

This is an Extra chapter the Author releases for celebrating the release of the LN, Please Note that the LN only contains first arc with some changes and this is the Web Novel  that I translated.

It had been about a week since we started attending our new school.

The high school in the neighboring town was anti-climactically peaceful, and so far, I hadn't even needed to use my "power."

However, since I hadn't exactly made any new friends, the lack of change in my human relationships was probably another reason for that peace.

Of course, it was only natural that people would find it hard to approach me, given that I transferred in with my lovers in tow.

From my perspective, I didn't have the emotional bandwidth to direct affection toward anyone other than those four, so I was fine with that.

Setting that aside, today I had returned to Hikarinomiya City for the first time in a while.

Wearing the Hikarinomiya Academy uniform, for some reason.

And standing in front of me was Rea, also in her uniform.

"Come in, come in!"

In exceptionally high spirits, she nervously welcomed me into the Oogi household.

I had already shared a meal with her father, Reiji san, several times.

But today, there was no one else home.

It was genuinely just the two of us, Rea and me.

That was the key (crucial point).

"Erika, are you... exasperated with me?"

Rea asked, looking anxious.

I slowly shook my head.

"Sorry, I just don't have much emotional attachment to my own house, so I wasn't really feeling it."

"Ah, so that's it."

"Are you nervous, Rea?"

When I asked, Rea's cheeks flushed and she smiled shyly.

"Yeah, my heart is pounding."

That expression was so cute that I felt like dating her was worth it just for that alone.

To have such a wonderful girl as a lover, what kind of good karma did I accumulate in my past life?

Taking off my shoes and stepping inside, I gently pulled Rea into an embrace.

"Ah..."

"Will doing this make your heart pound even more, then?"

I thought to myself how cheesy that sounded.

The recent events had turned me into someone capable of saying things like this.

But it couldn't be helped, right? I had four partners.

I was telling them I loved them from morning till night, so much so that one mouth wasn't enough.

It wasn't that I had any complaints; they were happy when I did it.

See, just like right now.

Rea's eyes went half-lidded, and with an "Mm...", she leaned into me, nuzzling her cheek against mine and hugging me back.

This place was a part of Rea's everyday life.

Embracing her lover in the space where she always, naturally lived with her family.

Did that sense of the extraordinary breed this "heart-pounding" feeling?

If that was the case, I could understand it a little.

If I invited Rea into my room, the sense of immorality would probably make it impossible for me to keep my composure—well, I didn't want to bring Rea into that cramped, dirty room anyway.

"hehe... This might be even happier than I imagined..."

"You were imagining this?"

I asked while stroking Rea's head.

She narrowed her eyes comfortably and shifted her body as if rubbing against me.

"It was a little dream of mine. I thought if I managed to escape safely with you, Erika, I wanted to do the things normal friends or lovers do."

"Things definitely weren't normal back then."

"Yeah..."

Rea's expression clouded slightly.

That change reminded me of something.

It was a silly worry now, but an anxiety I had seriously agonized over back then.

"Rea, do you know the term 'suspension bridge effect'?"

"I know it."

"Our meeting wasn't normal, right? I was worried that maybe your feelings for me were just the suspension bridge effect."

"You felt that way too, Erika?"

I knew it.

Rea's hug tightened, as if clinging to me.

"I see, you felt the same way I did."

"Yeah. So I understand. That feeling of wanting to do 'normal' things."

"Ah, but you know, I'm not anxious anymore."

"I feel the same way."

"Right? Because... Erika loves me so much... or rather, that much..."

Rea remembered something, her face turning bright red.

My face was starting to feel hot, too.

"S-So, you know, this is really just a 'little dream' of mine. You could even say it's just me being selfish."

"It's fine, I'm enjoying it too."

"Really? You didn't mind wearing the Hikarinomiya uniform?"

"So that's what you were worried about. I didn't mind at all. The things that happened inside the academy weren't bad for me, and more importantly, it's a memory I share with you, Rea."

"Erika..."

Rea looked at me with a melted expression.

Unable to hold back, I stole her lips.

Rea closed her eyes and accepted it without a word.

Thump, I felt my heart race faster than usual.

When I pulled away, Rea also seemed more bashful than usual.

"Kissing in the entryway... it feels like we're doing something really naughty."

"Even though we normally do it outside without a care."

"True. I wonder why it feels so different."

"Maybe a different place will put you in a different mood. What do you say, should we head to the living room next?"

"Th-The living room?!"

Rea's voice cracked.

It seemed that suggestion was a bit too stimulating.

"The living room is a bit..."

"Is it really that bad?"

"B-Because! Even when I'm eating with my Dad, I'd remember kissing you! I wouldn't be able to eat calmly!"

"Is that how it works..."

"Okay, let's go to my room! Or rather, that was the plan from the start. I wanted to have a uniform date with you in my room!"

"Let's do that, then."

Led by the hand by Rea, I headed toward her room.

Even so—visiting someone's house like this was not something I had much experience with either.

And it was my lover, not just a friend.

Thinking about it, I started to feel a little nervous myself.

After everything I'd done, getting nervous now seemed silly—but this was a different issue altogether.

Guided into Rea's room, a soft, sweet scent drifted through the air.

"My room... wh-what do you think?"

A girl's room... so this is the scent they basically have.

Even now at our place, it smelled somewhat like this.

Not in a perverted way, but you know, my room used to be much shabbier and completely devoid of any girlishness.

The same went for the appearance.

The color scheme was unified in white and soft pink... The thought of color-coordinating a room had never even crossed my mind, so I found myself observing it with deep interest.

"It feels very Rea-like—"

"Wait! Asking 'what do you think' in the first place might have been weird. It puts you on the spot, being asked for impressions of a room out of nowhere!"

"Fufu, you're super nervous, Rea."

"C-Can you tell?"

"It's written all over your face."

"uuu, thinking about it calmly, I thought my own room might be even worse than the living room..."

"Because you'd remember me every time you entered your room, right?"

She spent far more time in her room than the living room.

If she ended up thinking about me the whole time she was in here—

"...Wait, but that might already be true even now."

True, the fact that her head was full of me hadn't changed.

She'd stare at me the whole time during class and get scolded by the teacher.

"Then there's no problem."

"But, actually touching each other and just imagining it are different. Once I experience that, I'll be able to imagine it so much more clearly than before—"

I gently pushed Rea, who was making some kind of excuse, further into the room.

Behind her was a single bed, neatly made to welcome me.

"I see. Then I'll have to carve it into you properly so that happens, Rea."

"Hya?! Fwa..."

Supporting her back, I gently pushed Rea down.

I thought I was completely used to it by now, but being in a different place, combined with Rea's surprisingly innocent reactions, made me nervous too.

But I was the one leading, so compared to her panic, this level of nervousness was trivial.

"Wait, wait, the bed right away is...!"

Perhaps it was an unexpected move, Rea shook her head in a panic.

I looked up at her through my eyelashes and asked.

"No good?"

When I let her hear my slightly childish tone, Rea tightly gripped her right hand over her chest.

She must be feeling a pang in her heart.

"Acting spoiled right now is against the rules!"

It seemed permission was granted.

This time, with a mischievous smile, I exchanged a kiss with her to start things off.

◇◇◇ 

Having left the bed for the time being, we straightened our disheveled uniforms and sat side-by-side on two cushions.

On the table were juice and snacks Rea had prepared.

Most likely, her original plan was to chat while eating these.

"Now I'm definitely never going to be able to forget..."

Rea said, her cheeks slightly puffed out.

"Even though we only messed around a little bit."

"It was only 'a little bit' by our standards; generally speaking, we did something amazing!"

It was undeniably true that our senses were a bit paralyzed.

But you were really into it earlier too, Rea...

"It's a uniform date, so I wanted to do normal high schooler things."

"Like what we're doing now?"

"Yeah, I wanted to talk while wearing our uniforms."

Come to think of it, going to a friend's house after school without changing clothes—that's an experience you can only really have as a high schooler.

To be honest, I didn't really get whether that was normal or something to aspire to, since it was a concept so far removed from my life.

But if it was what Rea wanted, I wanted to prioritize it.

While I was thinking that, her cheeks flushed, and she whispered softly.

"...But I was happy about earlier. It wasn't that I disliked it at all, okay?"

This is bad, my girlfriend is too cute.

"Rea."

"Wh-What?"

"I love you."

I steals a kiss from her unexpectedly.

Rea was a little surprised, but she immediately closed her eyes and accepted it.

When I pulled away, Rea's face, bright red like a strawberry, was right in front of me.

"If you say it so suddenly, my heart might stop..."

"You were just so cute, Rea, I couldn't hold back."

"Uuu, just for now, I resent how cool you are, Erika...!"

Cool, huh.

For some reason, that's how Rea seems to see me, strangely enough.

Maybe that's why Rea seems to enjoy it when I push her a little forcefully.

Even now, as I lightly pushed her down while kissing her—

"Jeez, Erika. If we stick together, it'll just end up the same way."

She complained slightly, but made no move to resist.

If anything, she looked happy.

"It can't be helped, this is how we always end up."

"That's true... You and I are lovers, not friends."

"Would you have preferred to be friends?"

"Lovers is better!"

Rea answered immediately.

But despite that, her expression tended to cloud over.

"But—no, never mind."

I knew what she wanted to say.

"It's about Nakami san."

"You figured it out instantly..."

"Because it shows on your face right away, Rea."

"That's just because you observe me too much, Erika!"

"Of course I do. I'm always looking at you, Rea."

When I said that, Rea cried, "That's not fair, that's so not fair!" and rained kisses on my face with teary eyes.

It seems this happens when her feelings of love exceed her capacity.

I've seen her like this many times before, but man, it's cute.

After repeatedly kissing for a while, Rea calmed down a bit and spoke.

"I've made my peace with Luna. But I suddenly realized, I've never actually made normal friends before."

Many people bore scars from that academy, and many lost something precious.

I, who had nothing to begin with, managed to gain a lot, but for the vast majority, that wasn't the case.

Sometimes Rea's heart would remember the existence of those scars and sink.

"I know I shouldn't say this myself, but I think I'm pretty cheerful, and I thought I was good at socializing... But in reality, a certain percentage of my human relationships were fabricated by others."

Especially in her case, the very foundation of her identity was denied.

It's probably not conceited to say that she might have completely collapsed without me as her support.

I stroked her head and whispered gently.

"You wanted to experience what it's like to have a normal friend, not something like that, huh."

"But I completely bypassed that with you and we became lovers. I thought maybe we could do both, but..."

"It didn't work out."

"You know, it's absolutely not that I'm dissatisfied... it was just more than I imagined."

In the end, there was only one way to fill that scar.

To love.

In fact, Rea's scars had shrunk considerably compared to the beginning, and now they barely bothered her at all.

Yes, it was a simple matter.

I just had to love her completely, so much that she didn't even have time to grieve.

"Once I tasted this kind of happiness, I guess I stopped caring whether we were friends or whatever else."

Most likely, the desire to experience "normal" and the desire to love each other despite it not being normal were resting on opposite sides of a scale.

Reason sought normalcy.

It wasn't that she didn't want love. Reason probably screamed that if she attained normalcy and then love, consuming them in a balanced way would make her healthy.

But if you asked which was happier, even if it was abnormal, loving each other overwhelmingly outweighed the other.

So once she acknowledged and accepted it, the rest just fell into place.

"Right now, I just want to stick close to you, Erika."

"Rea..."

Just looking into her eyes, I knew the switch had been flipped.

That's fine, Rea.

Because I'm never going to let you go.

Our relationship is a bit different from normal, so you might get anxious sometimes, but if you have a guarantee that you can stay on "this side" until we die—no, forever—there's no need to cling to normalcy, right?

And I have the power to make that happen.

So, surrender everything to me, Rea.

Let everything become mine.

As if to entangle her, I brought my mouth close to her ear and whispered.

"I love you."

Like pouring in sweet poison.

Soaked in it, Rea's brain went numb, trembling, losing its sanity to love.

"Yeah... I love you too. I love you so much."

"I love you."

"Me too... but, if you whisper in my ear like that..."

"What happens?"

Rea put strength into the arms hugging me.

"I'm so happy, I feel like I'm going to burst..."

Her body heat.

Her skin damp with sweat.

And the pulsing sound of her heartbeat conveyed "I love you" more than words ever could.

I felt an overwhelming surge of affection for Rea and tightened my arms around her.

"I know. My heart is pounding super fast too."

"Can you feel it?"

"Yeah, I feel it. That's how much you love me."

"Yeah, I do. I love you so much. I love you more than anyone or anything else, I love you, I love you so much that—"

Rea pulled away slightly and looked at me straight on.

With eyes feverish with heat.

With eyes drowning in love.

"Maybe today... I really just wanted to have you all to myself, Erika."

Loving me so much that she even forgot what she originally wanted.

I want to answer that.

With all my heart and soul, from the depths of my being, to your love.

First, a pecking kiss to start.

And then I replied like this:

"Then I'll have to let you monopolize me to your heart's content."

It might be different from the "little dream" Rea had wanted to see—

Let's dream together, a dream sweeter than any dream.

◆◆◆

Erika went home before Rea's father returned.

Reiji knew Erika had visited, but of course, he didn't know what had transpired.

During dinner that evening, Rea ate in silence.

Reiji looked at his daughter's face and spoke.

"Rea, your face looks red, are you okay?"

"Heh?! Ah, yeah, I'm fine... ehehe."

It was obvious she was acting strangely, but she didn't seem unwell—if anything, she seemed elated, so Reiji didn't pry any further.

After dinner, as Rea washed dishes in the kitchen, her cheeks were still flushed.

If you asked what she was thinking about, it was, of course, Erika.

(I've become overly conscious of Erika throughout the whole house...)

It was likely because the time they spent together had been so intense.

Whether in her room or the entryway, Erika's voice and Erika's touch wouldn't leave her mind.

It was as if endorphins were permanently flooding her brain, leaking a constant stream of euphoria.

If she let her guard down, her cheeks would instantly relax into a smile.

She hadn't gone to the living room because she didn't want this to happen, but it had been pointless.

That being said—

(But, I'm happy, so it's fine.)

Since she herself seemed satisfied, it was probably fine.