“…Huh? Wh-Who… might this be?”
The sight of a lady, whose features probably seemed strangely familiar, trying to reshape the contour of Shion’s skull with her fists defied all attempts at comprehension, and Rona found herself at a complete loss as to how to respond. Had it been a complete stranger who tried to do harm — or whatever it was she was trying — to Shion, she would have smashed the attacker’s face in immediately, but something about that face made her feel like she’d seen it before, and the odd feeling stayed her hand.
“Yeah, I guess that’s the normal reaction one would have…” muttered Renya as he continued his manual excavation of his victim’s temples. Shion kept struggling under the bone-crushing pressure of his fists, but her attempts to escape proved futile.
“N-No way… Is that you, Renya?! What in the world…”
Despite his feminized attributes, Rona managed to deduce his identity through his tone of voice and manner of speech. The girl really was very perceptive. He found his respect for her grow a little.
“Good question. I’m dying to know, too.”
“L-Let’s get you inside first,” urged Rona as she hurried the three of them into the room. “If somebody sees you out here like this, it’ll be…” Her words trailed off as she considered their situation. “Huh, not actually much of a problem, I suppose.” The people who knew Renya, she could count on one finger. To anyone else, he and Shion would seem like nothing more than two girls having a bit of fun at the door to their room. “In any case,” she said, deciding there was no need for concern, “you can keep doing what you’re doing, but let’s have you do it inside the room.”
“Huh? Wait, Rona?! You’re not going to help— Ow ow ow!”
Renya clamped down harder on her, his fists grinding viciously at the sides of her head.
“You sure are taking this in stride,” he said casually as he felt Rona place her hands on his shoulders and push him through the doorway with a struggling Shion in tow.
“If even I lost my cool,” said Rona, “then this situation would spiral downwards very rapidly.”
“Hm?”
“You’re quite flustered, aren’t you, Renya?”
He thought he was doing a decent job at keeping calm, but he seemed to have been ruffled on some deeper level. Whatever latent turmoil lay within him must have shown in his expression. Releasing Shion from his death grip, he touched one hand to his cheek, surprised by how Rona managed to see right through him.
“Wow, you’ve got a keen eye.”
“I get plenty of practice,” she answered, glancing at her friend, who was splayed across the floor. Renya’s assault on Shion’s temples had taken its toll, and as soon as he released her from his grip, her eyes had rolled back in their sockets as she fell. With the nonchalance of someone who had done this a hundred times, Rona picked Shion up, carried her to the bed, and gently set her down.
Renya walked over and looked down. In the back of his mind, he thought, this is technically my bed. Of course, it would have been terribly inappropriate to demand that Shion’s unconscious body be dumped on the floor, so he lowered himself onto an unoccupied space at the edge of his bed.
“Well? Would you mind explaining what in the world happened?” demanded Rona.
Had she also taken a seat on the bed, it would have resulted in the slightly questionable situation of having three girls intimately close to each other on the same bed. Instead, she pulled the only chair in the room in front of Renya and sat down facing him.
“I’m waiting for an explanation myself… Does this world have some sort of disease or phenomenon that would cause this?”
“I’m no sage so I can’t say for sure, but speaking from my own limited experience, I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
Renya nodded with a hum as he leaned back a little with his hands on the bed, crossing his legs out of habit. The gesture caused Rona’s expression to stiffen. He noticed the change but raised his eyebrow, unsure of what was bothering her. Meanwhile, she was motionless, her gaze fixed squarely on his legs and waist.
“Rona?” he asked perplexedly, but Rona did not respond.
(Wow, such slender ankles… And what is with that narrow waist? Not to mention that firm leanness around the stomach, now that’s just cheating… Judging from the way the shirt bulges, there’s probably plenty of volume there, too… What is it with this girl’s body? It’s got the contours of a church bell! Her figure might be better than mine! Absolutely nothing on her sags… And she’s got such seductive curves… Wha— No way… Look at it jiggle! And she barely even moved! Wow… Just, wow… Then there’s her chin. So sharp… Same with the look in her eyes. They just scream “big sister.” She has the same hairstyle as when she was male, but something about that mismatched style is alluring, as well…)
“Uh… Rona?”
“Yes, you’re making my mouth water.”
The words just slipped out of her lips. A split second later, she realized. Her hands shot to her mouth and her eyes widened, but it was too late. Renya had already scurried across the bed, retreating into a corner that put the most space between the two of them.
“Um, you see, that was…” Rona started to say.
“You monster! Where do you even draw the line?”
“L-L-Let’s move on to other matters, shall we?”
Rona had a feeling that any further discussion would only lead to her digging her own grave, so she forcefully proposed a change of topic. Renya, who was concerned by what a desperate Rona might do once she dug her own grave, was more than happy to agree.
“What’s important right now is how exactly this delici— I mean mysterious situation came about.”
“That’s right. Also, I’m pretty sure I just heard something that I definitely shouldn’t have heard, but I’ll let it slide for now.”
“You were fine all the way up to last night, so whatever it was, it must have happened sometime between last night and this morning. Does anything come to mind?”
Renya sifted through his memories, recalling his actions and his surroundings during that timespan, but nothing stood out.
“Anything?” Rona probed. “Even if it’s, say… you ate something funny?”
“Funny, huh…”
At Rona’s prompting, something came to mind.
“Now that you mention it, you know the tea they brought out after dinner last night? I do remember that tasting particularly bad.”
“Huh? That tea? Wasn’t that yours, Renya?” asked a third voice. It came from the horizontal figure beside them. Apparently, Shion had woken up at some point.