Looking at the expression on Shikime Natsu's face — that look that said he had her thoroughly figured out.
In her heart, Kushida Kikyou had already cursed this utterly unprincipled scumbag Shikime Natsu up one side and down the other, hundreds — no, thousands — of times.
This bastard whose head was crammed with nothing but yellow filth! As suspected — after taking this huge roundabout route, in the end he was still angling to exploit her predicament and take advantage of her!
However, beyond the anger, Kushida Kikyou couldn't quite figure out the workings of this guy Shikime Natsu's brain — what on earth was he actually thinking?
After all, if he really were that kind of pervert — the type so blinded by lust that he wanted to physically take advantage of her—
Then obviously, it would have been better to just go with the flow and have his way back when, before she'd been flattened, she'd been forced to press up tightly against him inside that cramped, narrow tool box, wouldn't it?
That moment had presented an absolutely golden chance for contact.
But this inscrutable bastard Shikime Natsu hadn't done so.
Instead, now that the very assets she had prided herself on had been erased by his sorcery, she'd been turned into a have-nothing-to-show A-cup.
Facing a flat version of her like this, what concrete advantage could he even take?
Could it be that...
A terrifying thought suddenly flashed through Kushida Kikyou's mind.
Could it be that this guy Shikime Natsu, deep down in his heart, actually harbored some particular kink? That he was more into the run-of-the-mill washboard-flat figure?!
The moment she thought it, Kushida Kikyou had a sudden flash of clarity — this pervert Shikime Natsu wanted to remake her appearance to fit his own twisted fetish!
The moment she realized that she had become a plaything for satisfying this devil's special kink—
Kushida Kikyou couldn't help feeling a wave of nausea rise up in her throat. Reflexively, she lifted both hands and tightly clutched her now-empty chest, a chill running through her entire body.
He really was a sicko of the absolute lowest order!
Of course, the Kushida Kikyou of this very moment let none of that show on her face.
She drew in a deep breath, and by the time she raised her head once more to look at Shikime Natsu, that face of hers had once again been refitted with that quite sweet, faintly pitiable expression.
"So then..."
Kushida Kikyou lightly bit her lower lip, and in a soft, syrupy voice, opened her mouth to ask Shikime Natsu.
"Natsu, what kind of... price are you wanting me to pay?"
As she spoke, she even deliberately bowed her head a touch, slender fingers anxiously twisting at the hem of her clothes, putting on a quite bashful display.
Her pose was calibrated so perfectly that it gave the impression the Shikime Natsu standing in front of her could now make even somewhat outrageous demands, and Kushida Kikyou would, with tears welling in her eyes, agree to them.
Of course, Shikime Natsu turned a blind eye to Kushida Kikyou's performance. He merely smiled lightly, and then kicked the ball right back into her court.
"Kikyou, right now it's you who needs my help — so... it ought to be you deciding what conditions you'd offer up to entice me, not me proposing the conditions."
At those words, the corners of Kushida Kikyou's mouth — still maintaining their sweet smile — gave an uncontrollable little twitch.
Once again she sent her regards Shikime Natsu's way inside her head.
This damnable guy! He really was a piece of work!
Whatever benefit you want, whatever advantage you want to take — why can't you just come out and openly say it?! No, you have to stand here putting on this whole show of riddles, you have to make her guess for herself!
It wasn't as if she were the tapeworm in Shikime Natsu's belly — who the hell knew what kind of sleazy demand was running through that perverted brain of his right now!
Of course, even though she'd cursed him out so thoroughly in her heart, on her face Kushida Kikyou kept that sweet, harmless smile firmly in place.
After all, right now she was without a doubt the one asking the favor. The leverage someone had over her and the right to restore her body were both tightly gripped in this devil's hands.
And one thing that really stuck in Kushida Kikyou's craw was that it was precisely this bastard Shikime Natsu who was the sole culprit responsible for turning her into this miserable state in the first place!
But now, because that damnable bet was something she'd personally agreed to with her own mouth, Kushida Kikyou couldn't bring herself to utter even half a word of accusation against him — she could only humble herself here and beg him.
This kind of being-sold-out-and-then-helping-the-buyer-count-the-money frustration left Kushida Kikyou seething with rage.
She drew a deep breath and began tentatively floating her bargaining chips.
"So then..."
Kushida Kikyou blinked those moist, luminous eyes of hers, and cautiously proposed:
"Natsu, if you'll just help me return to normal right now, then I'll hand over the entirety of my personal points for next month to you — how about that?"
She quickly ran the numbers in her head.
"Look, after this Deserted Island exam, plus our original baseline points, our Class D now has 300-plus class points too."
"Working that out, by the start of next month I'll have more than 30,000 personal points to my name. This sum — I'll keep not a single point of it, I'll hand it all over to you as your reward, all right?"
To Class A or any of the other classes, 300 class points might not be worth mentioning.
But to Class D, which had been through the hell of a zero score, these 300-plus class points were the entirety of their wealth and livelihood at present.
She was willing to hand over the entirety of this stipend — exceedingly important to her — and this was already the biggest concession she could possibly make.
And yet, in the face of this thirty-thousand-point temptation—
Shikime Natsu remained the same: hands stuffed into his pockets, watching Kushida Kikyou with a beaming smile.
He didn't nod, he didn't shake his head — that expression of his seemed to be saying: This? You think a sum that small is enough to send me on my way?
Seeing this oil-and-salt-proof reaction from Shikime Natsu—
Kushida Kikyou silently cursed him out once in her heart.
This guy Shikime Natsu really was an insatiable, exceedingly petty bastard!
All she could do was grit her teeth, and once again seamlessly transition into a wronged, on-the-verge-of-tears pitiable expression.
"Natsu..."
Kushida Kikyou addressed Shikime Natsu with the utmost pitifulness.
"Don't tell me you're still holding on to that bet from earlier — that you really want me to give you the 500,000 personal points?"
"You know perfectly well what Class D's situation is. 500,000 personal points — that's an astronomical figure! Whether or not I can scrape together enough to pay you back over the next three years is itself a huge question."
She was trying to win his sympathy.
If Class D could keep its current momentum going, paying off 500,000 personal points within three years wouldn't be too difficult — but the moment she thought of that pack of idiots in Class D, paying it off was, in truth, going to be quite difficult indeed.
Besides, she didn't want to spend the coming days scraping by because of a debt like this.
Especially as the popularity hub of her class — socializing and entertaining were absolutely indispensable, and without sufficient personal points to back it all up, in this school she'd practically be unable to move a single step.
Kushida Kikyou pressed her hands together in front of her chest and pleaded in that soft, syrupy tone of hers.
"Natsu, 100,000 personal points — will that do?"
Shikime Natsu still gave no reaction of yielding or softening; he merely watched her performance in silence.
Watching him — unmoved by soft or hard, immovable as a dead pig that fears no boiling water—
Kushida Kikyou finally couldn't keep up the act any longer.
Her patience was thoroughly spent.
Yet again, with extraordinary smoothness, Kushida Kikyou simply swapped faces.
That pitifully sweet face instantly turned cold. She folded her arms across her chest and, in an extremely impatient tone seething with venom, snapped at Shikime Natsu:
"Enough!"
"What is it that you want — just come out and say it straight!"
"Stop beating around the damned bush with me here! I don't have the time to keep dragging this out with you!"
Watching Kushida Kikyou finally revert to her true face once again, the smile in the depths of Shikime Natsu's eyes grew all the more pronounced.
He didn't continue to tease her any further — instead, he slowly raised a hand and lightly rubbed his own broad shoulder.
"Ahh..."
Shikime Natsu rolled his neck slightly and, in a tone tinged with weariness and languor, began to speak in slow, deliberate measure.
"Come to think of it, these past seven days on the Deserted Island, sleeping on those rock-hard wooden planks while having to deal with so many things on top of that..."
"Now that I've suddenly had a chance to relax, my shoulders... really do seem to be a little sore."
Hearing this could-not-possibly-be-any-more-obvious heavy-handed hint from Shikime Natsu—
Kushida Kikyou was first stunned for a moment, and then couldn't help but speechlessly roll her eyes enormously at Shikime Natsu.
After all this carrying on, after taking this huge a roundabout route, even at the cost of flattening her body to coerce her—
So it turned out... this guy just wanted to make her serve him like a maidservant, doing this kind of manual labor of kneading his shoulders and beating his back!
Still, the moment she realized it was only a matter of giving him a massage—
Kushida Kikyou's taut nerves did relax a little.
After all, this kind of waiting-on-someone work — back at the start of the school year, when she'd been forced into being Shikime Natsu's exclusive maid — she'd already done plenty of times.
For Kushida Kikyou, this was hardly anything hard to accept.
Reaching this conclusion, in order to get her assets back as quickly as possible, Kushida Kikyou resolutely threw caution to the wind.
She drew in a deep breath, and then on that small face — which only moments before had been thick with venom — once again at a frankly chilling speed, switched right back into that expression brimming with sweetness.
"Oh my, so that's what it was."
Kushida Kikyou immediately stepped forward, and in a voice so cloyingly sweet it was outrageous, coyly addressed Shikime Natsu.
"If that's how it is, then please, leave it all to me with complete confidence, Master~"
This line could only be described as sweetly natural — even "Master," that off-the-charts shame-inducing exclusive form of address, came right out of her mouth without the slightest sense of awkwardness.
The speed with which she entered roleplay mode and the professionalism of her attitude were practically jaw-dropping.
Looking at this girl in front of him — who the second before had been telling him to get lost, and the very next second could coyly call him "Master"—
Shikime Natsu still couldn't help but marvel inwardly at how Kushida Kikyou, this two-faced angel, possessed face-switching speed and mental fortitude that were truly in a class of their own at this school.
Shikime Natsu very cooperatively walked over to a long wooden bench fixed at the edge of the deck and settled himself comfortably back against it.
Kushida Kikyou, for her part, obediently walked around to behind him.
She extended those fair, slender little hands of hers and lightly rested them on Shikime Natsu's broad, solid shoulders.
"Is the pressure all right? Master~"
Even as she asked in that sweet voice of hers, Kushida Kikyou began to knead Shikime Natsu's shoulders.
Night was deep, and the sea breeze gently caressed.
Beneath the dim, soft wall-lamps of the cruise ship deck—
A tall, handsome young man was leaning back against the bench in a languid pose, eyes closed in enjoyment, while a girl — whose figure had become a little flat, but whose face was still sweet and adorable — stood behind him, working with all her might to knead his shoulders and pound his back.
Feeling the just-right pressure being delivered to his shoulders—
Shikime Natsu didn't spare his praise.
"Really nicely done, Kikyou — looks like you haven't gotten rusty at all."
Hearing Shikime Natsu's praise—
"As long as you're pleased, Natsu, that's all that matters."
As time went on—
Ten minutes passed.
Twenty minutes passed.
Kushida Kikyou's small hands, which hadn't paused for even a moment, now felt as if they were about to go completely numb from the high-intensity kneading. The joints of her fingers had even begun to ache faintly.
But!
That bastard Shikime Natsu, sitting on the bench, continued enjoying himself with his eyes closed like he was some kind of grand master, without the faintest reaction suggesting he wanted to call it off.
"Drop dead! Drop dead! Drop dead!"
In her heart, Kushida Kikyou wildly, savagely chopped Shikime Natsu into eight pieces, cursing him an uncountable number of times.
However, even though in her heart she could already barely keep from strangling him outright, the movements of her hands didn't dare slacken even a hair, terrified that this devil would find some excuse not to restore her.
"Endure it! You absolutely have to endure it!"
She frantically cheered herself on inside her head.
"As long as I get through this damned massage, as long as I can satisfy him, the moment my figure's restored, I'll get as far away from this pervert as humanly possible!"
And so Kushida Kikyou gritted her teeth and bitterly held on, feeling as if time itself had stopped flowing.
By the time yet another excruciatingly long ten minutes had passed—
Kushida Kikyou finally couldn't hold out any longer.
She felt as if her two hands no longer belonged to her — all ten fingers were about to snap clean off from the pain, and her arms were so sore she couldn't even lift them.
But the Shikime Natsu before her still sat there steady as Mount Tai, even his breathing turned soft and even, with not the slightest sign of meaning to tell her to stop.
"Natsu... um..."
Kushida Kikyou drew in a breath, and finally couldn't help but bring the machine-like motions of her hands to a halt.
She tentatively called out:
"Master... may I ask... are you satisfied now?"
Yet the sea breeze blew past, and she received no response at all.
Not even the previously even sound of his breathing changed in any way.
Sensing something off, Kushida Kikyou frowned and, dragging her sore legs, walked around from behind the long bench to in front of Shikime Natsu.
When she lowered her head and got a clear view of the scene before her—
Kushida Kikyou turned to stone, every last bit of her.
There Shikime Natsu was, comfortably leaning back against the bench, those pale-gold eyes of his tightly shut.
The expression on his face seemed extraordinarily gentle and relaxed, looking quite peaceful, emitting an even, drawn-out sound of breathing.
This damnable bastard — while she'd been working herself half to death giving him a massage — had actually fallen comfortably asleep!
And from the looks of it, he seemed to have been out for a while now!
Realizing that, like a complete idiot, she had been earnestly massaging an already-sleeping guy for nearly half an hour—
Kushida Kikyou's originally sweet face turned iron-gray in an instant.
She couldn't help but clench tight those still-aching fists of hers, the knuckles popping audibly.
"This bastard!"
A soundless roar erupted in her heart.
If she could, if it weren't for the fact that she couldn't beat him, Kushida Kikyou really wanted to throw a fist right now and smash it viciously into Shikime Natsu's face!
But the remnant of rationality still made Kushida Kikyou restrain the kind of impulse that would lead to serious consequences.
She stood rooted in place, her chest heaving violently.
She looked at this man sleeping before her, and in her heart felt a wave of utter absurdity.
This guy Shikime Natsu — just how thick were his nerves, exactly?
That he could actually sleep this soundly in a place like this?!
And in such an uncomfortable seated posture, no less! This was practically the freak of all freaks!
Looking at that utterly defenseless sleeping face of his—
Kushida Kikyou, in the midst of her fury, suddenly had a wicked idea flash through her mind.
"Why don't I just..."
Gritting her teeth, she thought — why didn't she just leave this guy Shikime Natsu lying here and walk away from him entirely!
Let him take the sea wind on this freezing-cold deck the entire night!
But when Kushida Kikyou's gaze inadvertently fell upon Shikime Natsu's perfect face once again, and then carelessly swept across her own A-cup chest—
Kushida Kikyou gave up the idea. If this guy Shikime Natsu fell sick tomorrow, he'd definitely take it out on her, and she had no chance against him.
Resigned to her fate, she took her phone out of her pocket, lit up the screen, and decided to put that "good people skills" advantage of hers to use.
She was preparing to message the boys of Class A, make up some flimsy excuse, and get them to come pick up their great leader Shikime Natsu and bring him back to his room.
As for herself — she'd just have to put up with being stuck in the tool box for the time being.
However, just as Kushida Kikyou opened her contacts list, and before her finger could even press down—
The Shikime Natsu who had given not a hint of movement suddenly stirred.
He languidly stretched out a long, lazy stretch, then slowly opened those clear, pale-gold eyes of his.
Where was even half a trace of just-waking-up grogginess?
He looked at the dumbfounded Kushida Kikyou standing in front of him with her phone in hand, the corner of his mouth curling up in a wicked smile.
"Oh?"
He addressed Kushida Kikyou in a tone that just begged for a beating.
"That's it? Done already?"
Seeing Shikime Natsu's beating-deserving demeanor — openly demonstrating he'd been faking sleep just to mess with her—
Kushida Kikyou immediately broke off the message-sending motion in her hand and viciously crammed her phone back into her pocket.
She forcibly pressed down the flame of fury in her heart, and barely managed to drag out an expression of skin-deep smile-without-flesh.
"That's right."
She gritted her teeth, all but squeezing the line out from between them.
"So then, Natsu, may I ask if your shoulders are now feeling quite comfortably massaged?"
Faced with her plainly murder-charged question—
Shikime Natsu merely casually rolled his neck and, smiling, delivered an extremely perfunctory evaluation.
"Mm."
"So-so. Passable, I suppose."
"Passable?!"
Kushida Kikyou roared inwardly — her hands were practically about to snap off!
Nonetheless, she drew in a deep breath and didn't blow up.
She looked at Shikime Natsu, fixing him with an urgent gaze.
"Since you've already finished enjoying yourself—"
Kushida Kikyou got straight to the point, her tone carrying a firmness that brooked no refusal.
"Then, Natsu, you can now make good on your promise and help me return to my original state, can't you?"
Faced with her demand—
Shikime Natsu didn't continue to make things hard for her.
He nodded with great willingness and said to Kushida Kikyou, smiling:
"Of course I can."
He rose to his feet.
"I've always been a man who keeps his word."
Seeing Shikime Natsu agree so readily, without even a flicker of hesitation—
Kushida Kikyou, who had been screwed over by him enough times to be skittish, instead felt a strong sense of unreality rising up inside her.
"Really?"
She confirmed again with a touch of wariness.
"You're not pulling some other trick, are you?"
Shikime Natsu couldn't help but let out a soft laugh.
"If you don't believe me, then forget it — I'm leaving."
Hearing that from Shikime Natsu, Kushida Kikyou hurriedly stopped him in his tracks.
"Change me back!"
Seeing how impatient she was—
Shikime Natsu also didn't keep teasing her any further. He put away the smile on his face, his gaze sweeping across the empty deck, before settling on that metal tool box not far away.
"We have to go back over there."
Seeing the slightly resistant look in Kushida Kikyou's eyes, Shikime Natsu shrugged and gave a legitimate reason.
"After all, the restoration process to come... if anyone else were to see it, things would get a bit dicey."
Hearing these somewhat embarrassing words come out of Shikime Natsu's mouth, Kushida Kikyou couldn't help but flush, thinking of what this guy Shikime Natsu might do next.
It really wasn't suitable to do it in this place — only... in order to be able to get back to normal, Kushida Kikyou bore with it anyway.
What was the big deal! She'd already been taken advantage of by him before anyway, so just treat it like being bitten by a dog one more time!
Besides, she was now in an A-cup body — there really wasn't anything left to take advantage of.
"Fine!"
She agreed resolutely.
Then she took the lead, walked over to the front of the tool box, opened the door, and stepped inside.
____
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