Side Story: The Seven-Key Guardian Deity

Pip. Squeak. Pip. Squeak.

Apparently, he found it fun that it made noise when he bit down and crushed it.

Rudo was sprawled out on his bed, gnawing away at a squeaky rubber ball.

It seemed he was bored.

“…Rudo,” I called.

I thought I would play with him.

Still lying down, Rudo lifted his head. The ball was in his mouth. His triangular ears stood up straight.

“Come here.”

I beckoned.

“…”

But he did not come.

Ah, I’m good on that right now. That was the sort of feeling he gave as his tail flapped back and forth.

Rudo flopped back down on his bed. Squeak, went the rubber ball.

“Hey.”

For some reason, that annoyed me, so I poked his stocky backside. He had a cold-weather double coat. My finger sank into the thick fur. 

“…”

And then Rudo gave me an extremely bothered look. How terribly cheeky. …Since he was being cheeky, I poked him again. Stop it! Rudo tried to bite my hand. I dodged and poked him. I repeated that. Again and again.

One minute passed.

Whap! Rudo’s front paw struck the floor with force. His tail whipped around hard, as if to show how sharply his excitement had shot up. Even when relaxed, a corgi’s face looked like it was smiling, and now he was wearing a full-blown corgi smile.

Even with a longer lifespan, even after growing smarter, a dog was still a dog. For no particular reason, Rudo suddenly ran to the edge of the room, then came rushing back and tackled me.

“Oof.”

That hurt more than I expected. I wished he would stop licking my face.

After knocking me over, Rudo looked incredibly pleased as he wagged his tail wildly.

“Touji-san, are you here?”

As I was roughhousing with Rudo like that, I had visitors. When I looked toward the entrance of the room, I found about five children gathered there, all around the lower grades of elementary school. What was this?

“Is something wrong?”

“No, nothing’s wrong.” “We want to borrow the Monoz.” “Preferably Hitsujigou or Sarugou!” “And we want building materials too.” “We want pumpkins too!” “Do you have a blueprint for a cape?”

They all clamored at once.

A stream of demands came flying at me in the high-pitched voices unique to a group of children.

Well, I caught what they were saying.

Or rather, since this was the second time I had gotten a request like this, it might be more accurate to say I understood.

“All my Monoz are currently lent out. Ah, hold on a moment.”

I fiddled with my terminal and searched for the Monoz units’ current positions. All twelve of them were in the same place.

“Try going to the park. They’re there. Ox Unit has the building materials too, but what are you using them for?”

I voiced my question with a puzzled look. The children also tilted their heads with puzzled looks.

“For the festival the day after tomorrow?”

Their eyes seemed to say, You don’t know? I searched the depths of my memory, but it was currently the end of October. There should not have been any events besides something like a sports festival. I had absolutely no idea what festival they meant.

That was where it ended for the moment.

***

“Trick or treat!”

When I heard those voices filled with joy, I finally learned what the festival was.

Halloween.

That thing where people dressed up in costumes and went around getting candy.

Now that they mentioned it, I did seem to remember it happening around the end of October.

“…Ah…”

I looked toward the entrance of the room.

A group of ghosts seeking candy were staring at me with eyes glittering full of expectation.

Now then, what should I do?

I was in the sort of demographic that did not really celebrate Halloween or make a fuss over it. Well, I was not even sure how to phrase that. I had no memory of ever taking part in even the Japanized version of the culture. Which meant, naturally, that I had not prepared any candy, and I had nothing to give the ghosts.

“Touji-san, candy please!”

“…Right.”

Oh. What was this? One of the ghosts had started making specific demands.

“Hey! What are you all doing? I told you Touji-san was off-limits!”

Those words reached my ears as I was thinking it over. A child around middle school age had run over and was hurriedly trying to make the ghosts apologize.

…No, um… how should I put it… I felt like she had just said something deeply hurtful.

“…Um.”

“Eek! I-I’m sorry, Touji-san! It looks like these kids didn’t get the explanation beforehand! I’m really sorry!”

“…No, that’s… More importantly, why was I…”

Excluded?

“Huh? Because E.B.-sensei said… Huh? She said Touji-san hates Halloween enough to die over it, so we shouldn’t tell you… Huh?”

The girl looked genuinely puzzled.

I see. So that was the culprit. What was that woman trying to do? Was this bullying? Was she bullying me?

“It’s true I’m not familiar with it, but I don’t hate it.”

“…You don’t?”

“I don’t,” I said with a nod.

“Well, I really am not familiar with it, so unfortunately, I haven’t prepared any candy.”

Therefore…

I took a breath. I picked Rudo up from his bed and held a water-based marker in one hand.

“You may play a trick before you go.”

That was what I said.

N-No, stop.

Flail, flail, flail. Sensing danger, Rudo began to struggle, but sadly for him, his legs were short. Once I lifted him, his feet could not reach the floor, and he could not escape.

The ghosts, who had been staring blankly, understood my words and broke into grins.

Five minutes later.

“Yes. You look very gallant now, Rudo.”

Rudo, now sporting a pair of enormous, thick eyebrows, was threatening me.

***

“Trick or treat! You don’t have any candy, do you? So I’m going to play a trick on you! A sexual one!”

Hyah-ha.

That night, something dressed as a vampire came into my room, shouting nonsense. It charged into the room with all that momentum, heading straight for me where I sat on the bed.

“Gmph!?”

So I shoved a piece of candy I had gotten from the children into that mouth spewing nonsense.

When the little ones learned I did not have any candy, they had taken pity on me and given me some of theirs.

They were good kids. I hoped they would never forget that kindness. Though all of it was mint-flavored.

“Why do you have candy?!”

E.B. rolled the candy around in her mouth with a clatter.

“Because I was given some?”

“No way. What about my perfect night-crawling plan?!”

“It failed, so turn right around and go home.”

E.B. hissed at me, and I waved her away. Go over there. I kept tapping away on the Rat Unit’s monitor, putting together macros for commanding the Monoz. They were meant to make it easier to give orders to units that often operated away from me, namely the Dog Unit, the Monkey Unit, the Rooster Unit’s A1, the Snake Unit, and the Rabbit Unit’s S1.

My current skill was【Monoz Command: 2】. Potato Man had said that if I could put together good macros and improve my remote command, he would raise it for me, so I was trying to put in a bit of effort.

“Touji.”

“Yes, yes.”

“What do you think Halloween is?”

“A festival where you get candy.”

“No. It’s a day when lovers dress up in cosplay and do th… things!”

“…”

I honestly had no idea what she was talking about.

Since I could not really understand what she was talking about, I decided to ignore E.B.

I tapped the monitor that the Rat Unit had displayed and continued my work.

“…Mmph.”

Apparently, she did not like that.

Her cheeks puffed out slightly, and then she climbed onto the bed without asking and draped herself over my back.

I felt her light weight, her body heat, and the scent of shampoo.

“…Get off.”

“I refuse.”

She refused. More than that, she started rubbing herself against me like a cat.

The vampire costume was not made from particularly good fabric.

I could feel everything clearly.

Had she just gotten out of the bath? Her skin was flushed faintly red, and it caught hold of my awareness as if drawing me in.

“There we go!”

A hand reached out from behind me, touched the Rat Unit’s monitor, and forcibly shut down the program I had running. Then she closed the monitor.

“Rat Unit, go somewhere.”

“Rat Unit, stay here.”

Two different orders, one from me and one from E.B. Naturally, the Rat Unit obeyed… not me. Why? Listen to me. I shot it a glare of protest, but it did not reach the Rat Unit. No, even if it did, the unit ignored it. He abandoned me and left the room. Just you remember this.

“Now it’s just the two of us.”

“Yes. I would like to be alone.”

“Hey, Touji. Hey?”

“…Have a conversation with me.”

Do not rub yourself against me. Do not breathe into my ear. Get off.

Was this a trait of the Tooth race? That act alone seemed to be enough for her. Heat filled her eyes, and the soft sigh of her breath held a sweetness that seemed to numb my mind.

The weight, warmth, and scent of the opposite sex, of a woman.

I was about to lose.

I thought it might be fine if I lost.

And if I was being honest, I wanted to lose.

“Whoa!?”

She pulled me down backward. I caught myself on the bed with my right hand, stopping it on reflex. Up to that point, it was fine. But only up to that point.

“W-Wait, what are you…?”

“Hehe.”

A light laugh.

The right hand supporting my weight was trapped between E.B.’s thighs.

It was light pressure.

Honestly, I could have shaken it off easily. But I could not do that.

“Caught. You.”

Rub. Her thighs slid against each other. Something ran with a shiver up my back.

Her eyes, like those of a kitten in heat, looked up at me from below.

Flick.

A red tongue.

“Mm.”

It crawled over my trapped right arm.

My arm, my shoulder, and then the side of my neck.

I shivered.

A thrill ran through me.

My strength drained away. I could not put any strength into my body. And yet. Even so. Blood gathered in one place, forcing me to become painfully aware of my own sex.

“Ah, ow.”

Pain ran through the side of my neck.

She had bitten me. When I moved my neck as if to protest, E.B. tilted her head adorably.

Red.

A red tongue. Red liquid resting on it. As if showing it off, as if bewitching me with it, she smiled. Seductively. Then she spoke.

“I am a vampire.”

With that, she ran her tongue over the wound.

She licked it in small strokes.

Something was sent into my body from that place, made sensitive by pain.

A pleasure almost like sweetness.

Blood and saliva mingled. Even the wet, viscous sound made me terribly aware of it.

“Hey, Touji? Do you know what kind of festival Halloween is?”

“…”

“I’ll teach you. It’s a festival where lovers dress up in cosplay and do it.”

“…”

“Hey, Touji. What cosplay is that?”

To that question, I…

I answered, “A werewolf.”