Chương 96: Chapter 27 A Brief Respite (Part 2)

"I'd honestly prefer this one. I'll pick out a rash guard to go with it and buy them. Sorry, even though you both went to the trouble of choosing."

"No worries. It'll look great against your pale skin anyway."

"You really are obsessed with black, aren't you?" Rina sighed.

"If you don't wear some red or orange once in a while, you're going to turn into a monochrome photograph."

"Look who's talking. You two chose pretty conservative options yourselves. It's not like either of you has a bad figure.""" You can't beat your age!"" they said in unison. Rina aside, Mochida was definitely still young. She didn't look like she was in her thirties at all, and she wasn't overweight. Yet she'd chosen a blue floral swimsuit with a pareo. She could always take it off when swimming, but maybe she didn't actually intend to swim. Rina was in her late thirties, but her figure wasn't bad at all.

I knew that for a fact from our time in bed and in the bath. Still, she'd chosen a practical fitness swimsuit, much like the one I'd picked out at first. What was with this ridiculous double standard...? After buying the swimsuit, rash guard, and goggles, I changed in the room. They told me I could just change in the locker room since my legal gender was officially female, but with Mochida there too, I decided to change in the room instead.

I put my clothes on over the swimsuit and confidently entered the locker room, but all I did was put my belongings in a locker, lock it, and walk straight through without using the changing area. I could take off the skirt later and swim as I was. It was already past noon, but since it was a weekday, there weren't many people around.

"Chloe, over here!"

"Chloe-san, we're here!"

"Sorry, did I keep you waiting?" I tied my hair back into a loose ponytail, and the two who had arrived ahead of me called out. Calling me First would draw too much attention, while using Tsukasa could risk exposing my identity. Chloe, the name that had been shown in the media, was better suited for maintaining my cover. Maybe I should ask Mochida to make me a business card under the name Chloe=First later...

"You still have such a great figure, even if you don't have much of a chest. Where did all that Korean BBQ from the other day go?"

"I couldn't become friends with the scale. Rather, it's my mortal enemy! That thing!"

"Now, now. Kaori, you haven't gained any weight, and Rina, you have a good figure too." Mochida had pulled her pareo up to just beneath her chest, wearing it like a skirt. Was her stomach really that bad? She usually wore a fairly slim-fitting suit, so I didn't think it was anything to worry about. Rina, meanwhile, had even put on arm guards, probably to protect herself from the sun. As I took off my hoodie to get ready to swim, the two of them suddenly stood up and grabbed me by the shoulders.

"Whoa, wait! That hurts, that hurts!"

"You really don't understand your own body, do you...? What is this? You're white, slender, smell nice, and on top of that you're incredibly cute. What, are you inviting me again tonight? Are you some kind of green fruit?"

"Chloe-san, you really, really need to be careful about people hitting on you, kidnapping you, abducting you, or confining you! Your looks have a completely different level of destructive power. And... so Rina-san feels the same way too, huh..."

"Wait. If that's how you two feel, then why did you invite me to the pool?"""Because we wanted to see you!"" The two of them were making a fuss, but was it really that impressive? I lightly tried to pinch the skin around my waist... I couldn't even pinch it. Right, I'd sacrificed most of my body fat, and what little remained had gone to my chest. Even so, my chest was small, and my hips weren't particularly large either. I had a feminine figure, but... Forget it. I'd already been kidnapped once, after all.

"Ah... Yeah. I'm going to swim. See ya!" I put on my goggles and got into the pool. Diving is dangerous, so don't do it, okay? Unless you're somewhere you're actually allowed to dive, of course. As for warm-up exercises? I'd heard that static stretching beforehand could actually reduce performance. Or so they say. I don't know. Either way, that kind of information didn't matter to this body. I swam 50 meters of freestyle at an easy pace, then another 50 meters slowly using breaststroke.

After that, I rolled onto my back and floated like a jellyfish, staring up at the ceiling. Ah, I hadn't swum in a long time, but this felt good... Perhaps because I'd been floating around so carelessly, I ended up bumping into someone. The pool wasn't small, and with so few people around, I'd let my guard down.

"Sorry. Are you all right?"

"Yes, I-I'm fine... Pfft. So you wear that kind of swimsuit."

"Whoa, Tachibana-san? What are you doing here?"

"I've been discharged, and I have some administrative work to take care of, so I'm staying here. Right now, I'm doing some pool walking as rehabilitation. It's deep here, so treading water must be tiring, right? If you'd like, why don't we get out and talk for a bit?" This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Rina and Mochida were there too, but they hadn't gotten into the pool and were just sunbathing.

It wasn't as though Tachibana and I were strangers, so I figured it was fine. Tachibana took my hand to help me out, and as I was climbing out, he gave me a push on the butt. An officer of the law committing sexual harassment.

"Tachibana-san, I can get out by myself. That's sexual harassment. I demand an apology and compensation."

"If it doesn't bankrupt me, I can buy you a drink. Are you here alone?"

"Ah! Chloe is getting hit on by a handsome guy!"

"Rina-san, keep your voice down! Wait, isn't that Tachibana-san?" Rina's shout drew attention. People were only looking from a distance, so it was fine, but... Hey, don't take pictures! I'll sue you for taking unauthorized photos. Well, I didn't really mind, but still...

"Should I arrest them for unauthorized photography?"

"I'm off duty, so it's fine. There's nothing I'm worried about being photographed anyway. The people with me are Mochida-san, whom you met at the hospital, and my wife, Rina. Three drinks, and we'll let the butt incident slide."

"Understood." Tachibana went off to buy the drinks, and I returned to the other two. Mochida seemed to be explaining things to Rina. Rina had only seen Tachibana through the stream, so this was their first time meeting face-to-face. My wife wasn't particularly shy, but still, I wondered how this would go.

"Rina, that's Tachibana-san. You saw him on the stream, right?"

"I did... but I don't have a very good impression of him. He's the one who made you First, right?" I suppose that's how it looked from my wife's perspective. I'd spoken with him over the phone before entering the Gate, and entering the Gate had been my own decision. But to Rina, he was the person who had dragged me into a dangerous place and helped create the situation I was in now.

"That was my decision. After what happened in Akihabara, I would have taken action even if he hadn't been there."

"Mm... I know, but it's hard to sort out my feelings about it..."

"Are you Rina-san?" Tachibana had returned with the drinks and bowed his head to my wife.

"As someone whose duty is to protect citizens, I ended up dragging her around with me. I'm sorry." He probably had his own feelings about what had happened. But I was the one who had proposed taking action in the first place. If that was the case, there was no reason for him to carry the burden of responsibility.

"We'll let the drinks wash away the butt incident and everything else. Rina, deciding to stream and taking action over the Akihabara incident were both my decisions. I know I worried you, and I'm sorry. Truly. And I'll probably do various things like this again in the future. So... I'm sorry in advance."

"If we're apologizing, then I need to apologize to Rina-san too..." Mochida lowered her head.

"At first, I doubted both Chloe-san and what you told us..." The two of them each apologized to my wife and bowed their heads. Rina wore a complicated expression. She'd said earlier that she needed to sort out her feelings, so she was probably unsure what to make of everything. Looking at the situation, she'd been almost completely left out of it, with hardly any information until everything was over.

Someone she loved had been put in danger—it's embarrassing to say it about myself, but if our positions had been reversed, I'd have been furious too.

"Tachibana-san, did you touch my husband's butt?"

"Huh? Oh, well... I thought it might be difficult for her to get out of the pool, so..."

"My husband said we'd let it slide, so I will. But please don't sexually harass him again. As for the rest... I don't want to say it was unavoidable, but considering what happened in Akihabara... Yeah. I'm going to go swim."

"Ah, I'll join you!" Rina headed toward the pool, and Mochida followed after her. Mochida was probably trying to be considerate and stay with her. Sorting through your feelings is difficult, but simply having someone beside you can be reassuring. If I went with her now, it would probably only make it harder for her to sort things out. Tachibana and I were left alone at the poolside, but we'd gotten out specifically to talk, so there was no problem.

I put my hoodie back on, sat down in a chair, and drank the coffee Tachibana had bought.

"So, what did you want to talk about?"

"It's nothing too formal, but it's about the Intermediate rank. Do you know anything about it? I have a feeling I'm getting close..."

"Hmm... Have you entered a Gate recently?" Based on my own experience, I believed that entering a Gate was the trigger. Whether it was the Witch or the Sage, they had started talking about things, but my circumstances were probably special, and I didn't think other people's Classes would work the same way. Either way, though, you couldn't take on a Class without entering a Gate.

"No... By the time my body had recovered enough, I was assigned to command the outer perimeter, and I've been buried in work until today. I haven't even been able to visit Kudo-kun in the hospital." So Tachibana had been part of the outer-perimeter group. The fact that he knew about Kudo meant they'd probably met somewhere back then. It could have been at the aid station, or perhaps he'd fought alongside Kudo and the two college students.

"Kudo-san was doing well. He said that losing his arm meant he wouldn't be able to return to his duties, though."

"I see... For him..."

"So I recruited him." Tachibana stared at me blankly. Oh, it seemed he was behind on the news. Well, considering it had only been yesterday and today, if he hadn't watched the news, it was understandable.

"Director of the Special Headquarters for Specific Hazardous Beast Countermeasures. That's the position I somehow ended up being given. Apparently, it's higher than a Public Security senior official." I said it jokingly, and Tachibana let out a chuckle before eventually breaking into open laughter. Tachibana must have had his own feelings about Kudo. He and the others had entered the Gate and become Sweepers before anyone else.

Now that Sweepers had become more common, the power was something anyone could obtain, but back then, whether from family or others around them, they must have faced considerable suspicion and strange looks. Even if they had made the decision to enter of their own free will.

"I like the sound of that. I'd love to work under a beautiful woman like you."

"You can if you want, but you're a police officer, aren't you? Adults are supposed to do what they need to do. And, by the way, there's a possibility that entering a Gate is the trigger."

"That's a painful thing to hear... Please take care of Kudo-kun. And separately, would you mind accompanying me when I enter a Gate? If it really is the trigger, it would be better to have someone knowledgeable there."

"Sure. I'd be happy to. I'll leave the scheduling to you." An expert, huh? Since I'd had my second Class from the very beginning, I wasn't sure whether I could really call myself an expert, but I was at least a Sage. If I asked, the Sage would probably tell me what I needed to know. Besides, if Tachibana reached the Intermediate rank, it might reveal some kind of key to what was required to reach it. Someone who would reach it through the proper path, unlike me. What would that actually be like?

And what would they be capable of? My curiosity was endless.