“So I’ve developed a new massage technique,” said Blade.
“New…? What kind of technique?”
Earnest was standing in front of the rock—their usual hangout spot in the bath. She was acting a bit shy now, covering her bare chest with her hands—an unconscious gesture she’d mostly stopped doing after getting used to mixed bathing.
“Lie down here for a sec.” Blade slapped the large rock a few times.
“Wh-what…?” Earnest took a step back.
“It’s okay. It’s fine.” He slapped the rock a few more times.
“Come on, Anna. Your love’s being tested right now,” Yessica said, acting dumb as always.
“It, it, it, it’s not about love! Not at all…! All right! I’m not some wimp, okay?! As the leader of this academy, I have a duty to set an example for everyone else! I have to take the initiative at all times!”
“So are you gonna do it or not? Just to be clear.”
Her best friend was relentless. Earnest couldn’t hold back any longer. She was on the verge of tears.
“Oh, Earnest? What’s wrong?” A woman whose body exuded glamor and elegance waltzed in through clouds of steam.
“Hey, Lunaria!” Blade called out. “Do you want to participate? I called my old technique First Form, but now I’m on Second Form! This time, I’ve developed a real massage.”
“By all means.”
Lunaria—Earnest’s mortal enemy—didn’t hesitate a single moment. Before, when Lunaria fell victim to Blade-Style Massage Arts, First Form, she’d come the closest to death out of anyone, emitting intense primal screams. Yet now, she didn’t hesitate one bit.
“Your treatment the other day was amazing,” she said. “I truly feel I have risen to a new level.”
“Really? I think I got it all wrong, though.”
“Blade…will you go all the way with killing me this time?”
Earnest’s rival wrapped her arm around Blade’s. They were both in the bath and, therefore, had no clothes on. Her chest, a size most other girls her age couldn’t compete with, was pressed against his upper arm, distorting its shape a little. But Blade remained calm.
“I won’t kill you or anything. I’m just fixing you. I promise not to break anyone ever again.”
“Oh… So that treatment before was just for me…? I’m honored.”
Earnest was getting increasingly irritated.
Again. All that squeezing against him. Stop it.
“Whoa. No more of that,” she said. “I’m gonna do it. I’ll go first. You’re after me. Now step away.”
She slipped between the two of them, pushing them apart. Then she took Blade’s hand and led him to the rock.
“I just lie down like this, right? Ready when you are…”
She lay face down, exposing her back. Once she’d resolved herself, the impending disaster no longer frightened her. She was accustomed to pain, after all. They called her the Flame Empress for good reason—every time she transformed into the Scion of Flame, she endured enough excruciating agony to instantly drive an ordinary person mad.
What’s the big deal? If it’s only as painful as having your bones rearranged, that’s nothing—
“Hwahh…”
A sound escaped Earnest’s mouth the moment Blade’s hand touched her back, and she put a hand to her lips to stifle it.
“What is it?”
“Oh, um… You’re not going to crack my bones again, are you?”
“No.”
“Huh? I…I know I said it hurt a lot the other day… Are you trying to go easy on me?”
“Like I said, I realized I was doing it wrong last time. So this time, I’m gonna give you a proper massage.”
“W-wait a minute. What do you mean by ‘proper’?”
Blade’s hand caressed Earnest’s back.
“Hyah!”
It was just a slight touch, but it produced a strange yelp from Earnest. She covered her mouth again.
“So, yeah, now I know… A massage is when you rub and knead the body to loosen up muscles and improve circulation, right?”
“Y-yes, that’s right… You’re right, but…”
Blade’s hands moved up and down Earnest’s back. She had to exercise considerable self-control to keep any other weird sounds from escaping her as Blade rubbed at her skin, stroked her muscles, then went down to her buttocks—
“You sure are noisy today. What’s the problem?”
He called me noisy! I’m trying so hard to hold it in, too! Not like he even cares! He was all gung-ho about feeling up Lunaria’s ass a second ago! And now he’s calling me noisy?!
“…You’re the one trying to stroke my butt,” she countered.
“Your butt? Oh, is it tense?” Blade reached for it with one hand.
“Hyaaah!”
“C’mon, shut up. I’m trying to give a proper massage here. Be quiet.”
“Hey…?! Wh-why? Why are you devoting so much attention…to just my butt…?!”
“Your rear end contains a lot of different muscles. You have to apply pressure from different directions to reach the deeper layers.”
“No, wait, um, wait! H-hey, hey! You’re getting too close, too close, stop… Whoa, that area’s definitely off limits! Stop, stop, stop!”
“Hm. Had enough already, Earnest?” said Lunaria. “Should I take that to mean it’s my turn? Would you mind giving me a butt massage, too, Blade?”
That was all it took to flip the switch in Earnest’s mind.
“Keep going, Blade,” she demanded.
“You told me to stop just now.”
“Ignore that. Do it.” She pointed her butt straight at Blade.
“Er, I’m done with your butt, so…”
He’s not gonna do it? I mean, I definitely wasn’t hoping he would, but…!
“Rear end, check. Next is your front.”
“What? Wait… The front? But that’s…”
“Great!” said Lunaria. “My turn, then—”
“Okay, one moment.”
Earnest rolled onto her back. It was one thing to show Blade her rear end but revealing her front was a different story. Her chest and lower extremities were now fully exposed. But she had already grown accustomed to the culture of mixed bathing, and she couldn’t let herself look weak around her archenemy, Lunaria. Besides, if she gave up the rock right now, Lunaria would be next in line for a massage…and Earnest couldn’t stand for that. She couldn’t let Blade give Lunaria such an erotic massage. She had to stop it at all costs.
“Whoaaa…”
Just below them, Earnest could see that a crowd of boys had formed, and they were making a commotion.
“Boys, go away,” she said. “Hey, Yessica, chase them off. In fact, kill them.”
“Got it!”
Yessica set off to brutally murder the boys as Earnest sprawled out on the rock, waiting for Blade. But his hands weren’t reaching out to her.
“…You’re not gonna do it?” she asked.
She was now actively inviting him to. But as for Blade…
Hffff… Hoooh… Hffff… Hoooh…
He was engaged in some kind of strange breathing technique. Two different types of spirit began emanating from his hands.
“Huh? Whoa, what…? What’s that? What are you charging up?”
“Something special. It was just a normal massage before, but this part’s gonna be incredible. Ready?”
“What do you mean, ‘special’…? Hyahn!”
Earnest yelped as Blade grabbed her breast with one hand and moved to her lower abdomen with the other.
“I’m going to rotate your second and fourth chakras, okay? Below the navel and around the heart. Women have extra stuff around their hearts, so I’ll have to go a little harder to penetrate the layer of fat.”
“Wait…! What do you mean, ‘extra stuff’? That’s important stuff! …Wait, what? ‘Harder’? Huh? Wait! Stop!”
“Here we go.” Blade used his palms to inject spirit into her.
“Ah! Gah! Hrgh!”
Earnest recoiled from the unknown sensation running through her body. She let out a muffled groan and stretched all the way to the tips of her toes.
The flow of energy within her was being forcibly manipulated. The last massage she’d received from the super-being—the “wrong” one—had rearranged her skeletal structure. But in this massage, which was probably just as wrong, he was rearranging the flow of her spirit. Last time, the treatment had come at the cost of unspeakable pain. But this time, whatever he was doing was…
“B-Blade… N-no, s-s-stop…”
“It’s okay, it’s okay.”
“N-no, it’s not okay…! Wh-why is this happening?! It feels… It feels so good!”
“Yeah, it sure does,” Blade said nonchalantly.
Earnest panted, gasping for air, and shook her head as tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.
No. That’s not it. That’s not what I mean! It’s not that kind of “good” at all!
“Not that! That’s not what I— Aaagh! N-no! No, you can’t!”
“No, no, no, it’s fine. It might feel kinda unusual, but trust me, all right? I know a thing or two about this. Not just human anatomy, but a person’s inner workings, too. I stole— I mean, I learned it all from my master, so…”
The super-being never stopped smiling at her. When he said “a thing or two,” he meant by super-being standards, no doubt.
Earnest was no longer capable of thinking straight. She was convulsing, arching her back and settling back down at a steady rhythm.
Nn, nhhh…
“Right, right. You know, I feel really good when you give me a massage, too. So for today, let’s switch places, and I’ll help you feel good, too. Directly massaging your spirit like this lets me do more than loosen your muscles and improve your blood flow. I can help correct your spirit flow, too. Make it work the way it’s supposed to.”
“Ooh. Hnngh. Urrrgh.”
He was “correcting” her spirit the way only a super-being could. And the most frightening thing was that the price wasn’t pain. It was pleasure.
What’s going to happen to me…?
“Okay, that’s it. Good job. You can take a break now.”
Blade moved away from Earnest, who was lying on the rock like a corpse, and observed the crowd around him. They were all dazed, their faces blank.
“Um, so who’s next?”
“I…I’m fine. Just fine. Nothing’s wrong with me at all. I’ll just go smell the flowers and play with my doll…”
“Is that a no, Lunaria? Okay, how about you, Yessica?”
“Huh? Oh, well, I’m a little interested, but…I dunno if I want to take it that far…”
“No, no, no, it’s fine! It’s perfectly all right.”
“Huh? Ah! Hey—”
And so, Yessica became the next victim. She made a commotion for a while, all “ah, ah, ahgggh” and so on, but soon grew quiet and limp. It was time for Blade to move on…
“You next, Clay?”
“Huh?”
“It’d be a lot more fun than just watching.”
“N-no! Wait! Open your eyes! I’m a guy!”
“…So what?”
“So what?!”
Clay was victim number three. And once he was limp on the ground…
“No! I’m fine!”
…Blade turned to another male student, who tried with all his might to refuse.
“But you were watching, weren’t you? Aren’t you interested? It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. We’re all friends here. I’ll do all of you, okay?”
“S-stay back! B-battle formation! Anti-super-being formation! N-3!”
Everyone took up position to fight the super-being. But, of course, resistance was futile.
“I’m gonna take you all in order, okay?”
And so everyone (except Iona) wound up receiving a Blade-style massage.