1.53: Goth Pride ParadeI was dimly aware that I had missed something important. The st thing I remembered clearly was Akuchi’s sudden tackle, the overwhelming press of her body against mine and the unbearable heat, and the sharp rush that sent my vision spiraling. After that, there was only a bnk stretch. I'd experienced no pain, no strange dreams until I woke, greeted by the beautiful view above me.

  My head was faintly swimming. Apparently some time had passed. I was embarrassed at how excited I got. It was even a little mortifying.

  I hoped I hadn’t fallen face-first onto Natalia-sama’s floor. This face was sacred. If I ever damaged it, I’d never forgive myself.

  My disoriented thoughts aside, the skylight above Natalia-sama’s office was truly breathtaking. Clouds drifted zily across a dark, star-strewn sky, the Milky Way glowing faintly like speckles of glowing watercolor streaked across the sky. For a moment, I forgot our mission entirely. The beauty overhead felt too peaceful for what we were pnning.

  My gaze lowered from the heavens to the girls gathered around Natalia-sama’s desk. They were huddled in quiet discussion, their voices soft enough that the room felt wrapped in calm.

  “Susumu-sama!”

  Akuchi’s head snapped toward me the exact millisecond my breathing shifted. Before I could even sit up…

  She unched and crashed into me like an affectionate meteor.

  “Hyaaaaaa!” I yelped, grateful that she at least wasn’t wearing Reiko-chan’s face this time.

  “I’m sorry!” she said quickly, hugging me tightly enough to compress my ribs. “They expined everything to me… about your feelings for the girl whose face you’re wearing. So I will avoid using that form to my advantage. This body is a little more comfortable, I hope.”

  I nodded, stunned and a bit touched. “Yeah… thanks. What did I miss?”

  Akuchi leaned in conspiratorially. “We’ve been discussing tonight’s approach. It seems our ‘take the bait’ pn is… perhaps not the wisest strategy ever crafted by mortal… or yokai… minds.”

  Her voice dropped to a grave whisper.

  “So I shall take this painful role for you.”

  Relief washed over me so hard I nearly sagged. “I appreciate that, Akuchi.”

  “Still… I have a feeling we’re facing a difficult battle,” she sighed, drawing her knees to her chest on the cot beside me. “At least you won’t have to pretend to be her when your emotions are still so raw. You knew her best, Susumu. You’d py her perfectly, I'm sure… but if I’m going to do it for you, I need to understand her.”

  Her eyes softened.

  “Tell me everything about the girl who stole your heart. Her habits, her voice tones, her mannerisms. The more I know, the better I can act.”

  I swallowed and nodded.

  And I began to talk.

  We started with the pyground where we met. Childhood afternoons. The manga series she loved. Her gentle smile. The tiny frown she made when she concentrated. How she walked. How she talked. How she’d tilt her head when she teased me. Every detail unraveled from me like a confession.

  Akuchi sat curled at my side, arms wrapped around her legs, listening with absolute focus… Nodding, smiling, and chewing her lower lip as I rambled like a Reiko-chan otaku giving a lecture series.

  “What are you two doing?”

  Rui burst into the room like a missile. She sprinted directly at us.

  I barely had time to register her presence before her shadow fell across me.

  Her leg descended.

  “Don’t hurt this face!” I yelped.

  THWACK.

  Her heel smmed into my sternum, fttening me onto the cot. I let out a strangled gasp, seeing stars. Even Akuchi froze, wide-eyed.

  “Kami,” Akuchi whispered reverently. “She could py Reiko better than me.”

  I wheezed and pushed up on an elbow, my sternum aching. “Damn it, you savage! We were perfecting Akuchi’s acting! Why are you acting like this?!”

  Rui crossed her arms under her modest chest… which made her look even more offended somehow. “That’s not a bad idea,” she admitted, pouting. “My bad for interrupting.”

  She flicked her hair, recovering her composure.

  “Anyway, I need you to join us. We already came up with a different pn. You don’t need to know all the details.”

  I stared at her, appalled. “How are we supposed to succeed tonight if we don’t cooperate?!”

  “Hmph.” Rui lifted her chin. “Our strategy depends mostly on us. You’re the muscle if things get messy. So stop compining and move!”

  Before I could argue, she vaulted over the cot, seizing my arm like a grappling hook, and yanked.

  “Hurry! I’m hungry!”

  The moment Rui said she was hungry, my stomach twisted and gurgled loudly enough that Ume gnced over with a giggle. We hadn’t eaten anything since Ume’s mystical curry, and considering how violently that curry had rearranged my guts… it was debatable whether it had “settled” at all.

  Rui seized both my hands and yanked me upright before sprinting back to Natalia-sama’s desk with me. I stumbled after her like a newborn deer on its first day.

  Everyone turned to look at me… smiling in a way that felt too suspiciously coordinated.

  Natalia-sama looked exhausted but resolute. “Susumu, take everyone downstairs. If you walk up the street to the north, there’s a twenty-four-hour diner about four blocks away.” She handed Rui a small envelope. “I’ve given Rui enough to pay for everyone. Go and eat. The truth is… none of us may survive tonight. So enjoy this moment. Make it count.”

  “What about you, Natalia-sama?” I blinked and rounded the desk to take her arm. “You should come too!”

  She touched my hand warmly. “I’d love to… but I can’t. My skills are needed here.” Her smile softened but didn’t falter. “When you return, you’ll find a custom outfit waiting for you. One just like you suggested earlier.”

  I froze.

  Rui’s grin spread like wildfire. “I wish you could join us, but please do your best! I’m counting on you, Natalia!”

  Suspicion bloomed in my chest.An outfit? Custom? For me?? Inside an hour??

  What kind of combat gear was she pnning??A dress made of chainmail? A reinforced veil? Shapewear blessed by the gods??

  Why were they still determined to stick me in girls’ clothes for a dangerous mission?!

  I finally looked down at myself and groaned.

  They had dressed me up like Reiko-chan’s fashion-forward cousin.

  A soft skirt brushing halfway down my thighs.Stockings.Bck leather boots.A blouse with a high colr and tiny decorative buttons.

  And then I noticed…

  “C—CRAP.”

  Two suspiciously convincing orbs were sitting on my chest.

  Before I could stop myself, I grabbed them.

  Relief washed through me… just padding. Very convincing padding. They’d taped my chest up specially to simute natural cleavage.

  Too-long hair in the wrong color draped across my vision when I started filing. I reached up and touched it and nearly had a heart attack.

  They even put a wig on me?!

  “Why did you DO this to me?!” I cried. “Wasn’t the goth loli dress bad enough?! Do you all have some kind of ‘let’s force Susumu into women’s clothes’ fetish?!”

  Natalia-sama ughed softly. “Of course not. It’s because I don’t make men’s clothes.”

  I actually clutched at my heart.

  She continued, patient and graceful: “You have a girl’s face and voice. We only completed the illusion. I know you wouldn’t pass as this Reiko at close range. Even though you know her better than anyone, except for RuiRui, what about a beautiful young woman?” She smiled warmly at me, flooding me with sunlight. “Easily. Now go enjoy yourselves.”

  “Where are my clothes? Can’t we at least wash them?” I begged… absolutely freaking out. My hands shook. My stomach twisted.They really expected me to pass as a girl in public.Had everyone here lost their collective minds?

  I was hairy. I was nky. I was built like a scarecrow that had been bullied by the wind. There was only so much Reiko-chan’s pretty face could do for someone as hopeless as me.

  Nope.I touched my exposed leg and my eyes widened. It was silky smooth. On reflex, my hand went to my armpits.

  Gone…

  A jolt of panic spiked and I checked my crotch, my breath caught halfway through.

  Did they somehow send me to Thaind express overnight? No… it’s the same night, obviously…

  Relief hit hard enough to make me sag.

  “There’s NO time, idiot!” Rui barked and spped my fake breasts like she was ringing a doorbell.

  “H-HEY!!” I yelled, clutching at them as though they were real.

  “Besides,” Rui said smugly, “you look incredibly cute like that.”

  “Cute enough that you still wanna kick me around, apparently…” I muttered darkly.

  Ume giggled. “You’re both adorable. Like siblings fighting.”

  Rui tugged my arm and herded us toward the exit. Natalia-sama called after us:

  “Rui-chan… I bet that the vampires will fight the hardest. Ume-chan, make sure they’re rewarded properly.”

  “Thank you, Natalia~.”Ume winked, blowing Natalia a kiss.

  Natalia looked tired… but also fiercely determined. Her shoulders drooped with fatigue, yet her eyes shone with purpose. She turned toward her workbench with the air of someone rolling up their sleeves for war.

  I wanted to stay. To see how she crafted it. To maybe help.But Rui practically dragged me away by the wrist.

  My cheeks burned pink as we descended the escator to the first floor. There weren’t many customers at this hour, but the ones lingering all turned to look at us.

  Not at me specifically… but enough gnces slid over that my skin buzzed with self-consciousness.

  Surely at least someone could tell I was a guy in women’s clothing. Surely someone.

  As we crossed the first floor, my eyes flickered toward a passing mirror.

  And I stopped dead.

  A slender, pretty young woman stared back at me… very pink-cheeked, long-shed, looking way too elegant.

  Soft… Feminine…

  If I wasn’t Reiko… it was very Reiko-adjacent.

  My stomach flipped.

  …

  Was that really me?

  We stepped out of the store, the cool night air brushing against my cheeks. Rui took the lead with all the confidence of a tiny general marching to war. I followed close behind, blushing so intensely I could feel heat radiating off my entire face.

  Suddenly it felt like a girls’ night out.

  …Well, except for the vampires stalking behind us like an aesthetically coordinated funeral procession.

  Every few steps, I peeked over my shoulder.Each time, the crowd had grown rger.

  Ume had called them quietly as we were leaving… and they’d apparently been waiting just out of sight, slipping into our orbit like shy satellites. Now, following us in single file, double file, quadruple file… the whole spectacle had become a goth parade.

  I gave one st look behind me.

  Yup.It was basically all of them.

  Half were cute gothic girls with doll-like faces.The other half were bishounen whose genetics had been imported straight from a shoujo manga.

  They possessed every trait I’d always wished I’d been born with… grace, symmetry, cheekbones that could cut gss. Beneath the grunge and eyeliner, they were objectively gorgeous.

  The universe was funting its cruelty.

  I swallowed.Would a pce like this even let us all sit down?Was it wise to mob a diner with sixty vampires in the middle of the night?

  But Natalia-sama had told us to eat.So we would eat.

  “Susumuuuu,” Rui sing-songed, tugging my arm as we reached the corner. “We’re here.”

  I looked up.

  Regal Boost

  Oh.One of those chain diners.I’d eaten at one before… but I didn’t know they were open twenty-four hours. Rui gave a confident yank and dragged me toward the doors.

  “Kya—! Don’t pull me around like thaaaat!” I stumbled, grateful beyond words that they hadn’t shoved me into high heels. Those things were supposedly fashion torture devices designed to maim and end bloodlines.

  Inside, the restaurant was quiet and warm.Only a handful of people were seated, scattered across small tables.A sigh of relief slipped out of me.

  Good. Seating wouldn’t be…

  The waitress bowed politely as we stepped in.

  “Welcome to Regal Boost!” she chirped with a bright smile.

  I blushed and nodded back shyly. Rui took point. Thank every god known to man.

  I had no idea how I would expin our situation while dressed like Reiko-chan’s fashionable twin cousin.

  “We need seats for… um…” Rui paused, eyes shifting toward Ume.

  Ume stepped ahead with a predatory grin.

  The goth parade streamed in behind her, filling the waiting area like a silent monochrome tsunami. The crowd swelled and swelled until the entryway was a wall-to-wall mass of ruffles, chains, ce, and pale complexions.

  The waitress’s smile froze.

  Then her face drained of color as though someone had switched her skin-tone slider to “ghost.”

  “Seating for fifty-eight,” Ume said sweetly, baring a tiny fang.

  The girl’s eyes widened.Her hands trembled.A bead of sweat traced a dramatic arc down her cheek.

  And the entire restaurant went dead silent.

  Reiko (For a side by side comparison)

  Susumu in Drag (Lacks the fierce eyes that Reiko has)

  Relwing