Yuri Worlds
[28] Return
Misaki didn’t know what to think. Kissing Yuka made her all better? It was a cheerful notion, but one that didn’t make sense. But then there were apparently all sorts of mystical and spiritual things that allegedly happened in this all-girl world. If expressing love from one girl to another was a healing factor, then she wasn’t going to begrudge it, but her brain had to wonder if something else happened. But what?
Perhaps walking around did the trick. It also could’ve been the rain. She hadn’t seen any trace of the mark since they left the clinic. Maybe something they ate. Could also be the heated table. If not for how Ayame responded, she could’ve just written it off as a quirk of the aesthetic in this world when it came to bruises and other blemishes. Even though the dark discoloration was gone, Misaki still eyed the place on Yuka’s leg warily.
Putting her sock back in more of a normal position and adjusting her school slippers, Yuka ambled over to the door and gave a yank on the handle.
“Oh, no…”
Misaki rushed over, ready to add to the pile that they had been locked out on the roof and would have to find a way to signal the rest of the school. But the door popped open with a click, revealing the darkened hallway within.
Yuka finished her thought with a playful pout. “We have to go back in. We can’t stay out here all night and cuddle. Maybe… I should kick it a few times to see if it locks on us.” She giggled and motioned to do that, but quickly held the door open for Misaki.
The trek back to the club room was uneventful, with both Kosame and Bianka caught up in the game on the laptop. The character creation options particularly had Kosame drooling. There were enough drinks left for the two of them, but they weren’t nearly as cold as before. Misaki grabbed the spares to give away to the rest of the group. Having to return to the others and put the mask of normal life back on made Misaki want to drag her feet. Stay with Yuka a little bit longer; be playful but suggestive. Maybe get caught up in the game too, even though four was a lot to crowd around one laptop.
They wound up doing some more tidying before leaving the siblings to their own devices with a reminder of when the school shut down for the evening, especially the Internet.
The two of them soon caught up instead of staying behind. Kosame got the opportunity to introduce herself to the “rapturously glamorous” gal with grape-toned hair, kissing the back of Chika‘s hand as she shot back a skeptical expression. And she was at a loss for words aside from a few faint French expressions of shock when appraising the majestic Grand Tetons on display along with Namiko’s custodial spirit. Everyone traded some measure of contact information, and Misaki‘s companions appreciated the refreshments.
Before Kosame could think about how she would craft her harem, Maharu arrived with brutal, crippling affection. She started with landing a frog splash from orbit, which immediately transitioned into a vertical suplex, followed by a snuggling choke slam and a backbreaker of love to finish. If poor Kosame had any chiropractic problems before, they were now either cured or much worse. The girl took the cheerful assault with a wary smile and patted Maharu on the head with the hand she still had feeling in. For Yuka, Maharu gave her a quick nuzzle and a hopeful expression. Yuka returned the gesture by stroking the girl’s cheek and planting a kiss on her forehead.
Maharu‘s eyes sparkled with a light that had no words to adequately express its beauty. She seemed so happy, and yet there was a quiet darkness ringing her soft brown orbs. Misaki could imagine what dwelled there. Miss Okura didn’t say it directly, but the fact that she said she found Maharu with her murdered mothers told Misaki that the poor girl had been there. She had been there when it happened. She somehow survived. But what her eyes had seen, Misaki didn’t want to know.
Shaking off this dark notion, she smiled for the group as they got ready to go home. The three of them had to sign out back in administration and endure the piercing stink eye of the same administrator from earlier. She didn’t say anything though, and having Kosame around helped by giving her something else to glare at.
It was only once they’d changed, gotten all their bags, and stood at the front gate that it hit Misaki that they still had two kilometers to go. The distance didn’t sound that long, but she wasn’t especially familiar with the metric system. Namiko did some quick math and said that in “their system”, it worked out to about one and a quarter miles.
Not super long. Dwight typically walked over five miles, but she considered him some sort of superhuman. Guy occasionally made a loop around Main Street to lose a few pounds and pick up some Chinese food for them. That trip was about three miles and took a little over an hour. Hauling the entire box of the meal destroyed Guy’s arms for a few days, but Gal got plenty of lewd jokes for streams out of the story.
But those were entirely different bodies and realities. This world, at least as speculated on by Miss Okura, had eight percent more mass. She hoped that didn’t mean anything for gravity. Her legs weren’t even close to tired yet, and she had a gaggle of cheerful and happy girls all around her. Should be easy.
Famous last words…
Yuka said they could try the bus, which stopped a little ways down from the same road as the high school, but the timing wasn’t good. They would have to wait almost thirty minutes for the next ride, and it was a circuitous route to their homes. But that option was open to the vacationing trio if they didn’t think they could make it.
Namiko, despite her oversized load, still looked like she could take on mountains. But that was just who Dwight was. Misaki could tell that Chika wasn’t going to chicken out. And Chika said as much. That made her reflexively giggle, but without any way to explain to the others what the funny part was. Just saying it was a video game reference seemed sufficient.
Despite getting practically mangled by Maharu, Kosame cracked her neck and her wrists and was ready to go.
It wasn’t going to be a short walk, and Misaki accepted that. But at least the company helped make the minutes fly by. And the setting, with scattered houses and expansive farms, filled their eyes with enough sights to take their minds off their physical stresses. Yuka brought up a variety of local pastries that she knew not only their visitors should check out at their earliest opportunity but that now she was craving.
Maharu gleefully announced that, right before she was done cleaning at school, she got a call saying that she would be the lead dancer at the next event for the shrine. It was in a few days, and everyone could come and see it and enjoy the event with food and music they were going to set up to raise a little money to help with summer festivals. Chika put a note in her phone about it. Alas, the event would not be as extravagant as what was coming in the summer, but Maharu urged the three of them to attend.
Kosame’s next segue about the perfect boob size swiftly got shut down by Yuka in favor of a discussion about the best style of kimono. After some washing care tips for kimonos, with emphasis on a laundry net, the group went quiet. Several choruses of cicadas finally made their voices known. Chika recorded a video of it.
When Bianka stepped into the conversation, Misaki was initially worried, but the girl avoided the topics she had pushed so hard previously and instead brought up local sports. None of the teams or their names made sense to the three of them, but the enthusiasm was quietly infectious as Bianka motioned for sumo wrestling, swung around with an imaginary bat, and kicked a pebble back and forth between her shoes. Questions about pets randomly came up next.
Maharu was spooked by lizards' impassive expressions. Her favorites were bunnies and hares. And that was all she said. Misaki found it strange that she clammed up so suddenly, but she expected it was another sore point.
She probably lost some pets, although such a notion on top of everything else seemed almost too much to bear. The Nishikawas had two small dogs with big voices, whom Yuka regularly rolled around with and lavished with love. If not for Haruka‘s various sensitivities and allergies, the Sasaki family would have at least three dogs, Yuka resolved. Her elder sister could mostly tolerate dog dander, unlike buckwheat, but often had a runny nose for days on end. Just not worth it. Even when Haruka inevitably moved away, her moms resolved that they still wouldn’t get dogs, so Haruka wouldn’t have trouble when she visited. But when Yuka got her own place, the pack would be formed. She spent more time considering but not settling on the names of these theoretical dogs than she did on her adult name.
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This crush of fun topics lobbed amongst the group remedied some of the pressing discomforts of walking. But the well of inspiration eventually dried up as the throbbing and aching sapped the brain power of the trio. Fragments of songs that they shouldn’t have even tried humming were a necessary salve. Somehow, largely dragging their feet for the last stretch, they made it back to the Sasaki house.
Maharu had a ways to go before she made it to her home with her grandmother, but she opted to rest with the others. The same went for Kosame and Bianka, even though they didn’t have as much of a trip to get back. Peeling off shoes in the front area and wobbling in the house slippers offered immediate full-body relief. No one wanted to go upstairs, so they all squeezed onto the couch and leaned back against the pillows.
It didn’t take Haruka long to poke her head in and discover seven girlish slugs oozing their way out of the cramped couch. She brought them all something to drink, supplied extra pillows, and spread out as many blankets as she could snag from the closets. Misaki opted to forgo a blanket but enjoyed the pillows she received, the mango cream soda, and Yuka leaning firmly but not too heavily against her.
Out of the group, it was clear to Misaki that Chika and Namiko were both at the point of exhaustion from this long day, with Chica unable to find the energy to bother lifting up her phone to check anything and Namiko trying to turn her boobs back on her face to gain an extra pillow. The Nishikawa sisters appeared only slightly burned out, with Bianka pulling up ‘funny’ pictures on the laptop that her older sister much appreciated. Because the attached privacy filter made the screen visible only from right in front and a little to the side, the sisters were the only ones who could see anything.
Yuka seemed like she could’ve gone several more miles, but she was now stuck to Misaki‘s side. On Yuka’s side, Maharu snuggled up and acted groggy but perked up quickly with anything interesting. And the most interesting development of all was Naoko showing up soon after.
She apologized for not being available as a tour guide earlier. She hesitated with giving the reason, betraying a nervous blush as she struggled to form the words together like an ungainly hunk of dough. “Someone in a town nearby offered to purchase my video game collection. The whole thing, and for a fair price. It was a snap deal, so I had to be there this afternoon to arrange it. I almost didn’t go, but Haruka assured me that she could take care of everything. Thank you, Haruka. I’m so sorry for bailing. The expenses for my cram class wound up being more than I was expecting and than I would ask my mothers to cover. It’s my responsibility. And sadly, I know that for the next couple of years of college, I’m not going to have a lot of time to play video games anyway. They would just gather dust.“
Chika burst free from whatever sapping vines of tiredness had enveloped her and beseeched Naoko to reconsider. Misaki smiled to herself, recalling the multitude of streams where Gal blasted through impassioned efforts at game preservation. Guy sold off his childhood collection to get his first recording equipment. A multitude of games were available on his digital accounts, so he didn’t physically need all those old titles. Plus, the people who watched streamers just cared about the newest of the new. Or so Guy figured. But every new game he played brought wistful dives into what he was missing.
A modest collection regenerated in their high school years, but once Guy was streaming regularly, especially as Gal, that set bloomed with glee and provided the evolving backdrop of his cozy streams. Bianka jumped in with some of this energy, but to highlight the fact that older physical media had a lower chance of spyware and being spontaneously retconned by corporations.
A lull surfaced when Kei arrived home, stretching and waving to the girls. She relayed that the upstairs tea room would be ready for evening tea service and getting together to discuss plans and options for the vacationing group. She also mentioned running into Yasha over by the general store. Yuka smiled and waved to her mom while giving a little shift and a bump of her head into Misaki. Unfortunately, the bump was a little harder than she intended, and the two of them had to grip the spot where the bump occurred with grimaces slowly flowing into smiles.
Misaki marveled at the notion that a girl had done an awkward thing that was totally expected of Franklin. Namiko, still energized by recent custodial efforts and agnostic on physical games after many shrugging discussions with Guy, delicately hopped up, adjusted her helpful kimono, and offered to help out in any way possible.
Kei attempted to wave her off but begrudgingly accepted the assistance. She mentioned a meeting, including Mari, which resulted in the minor fundraising event in the next few days, with Maharu as a happy lead dancer. She also passed along that Fuyuki had stopped to chat with a neighbor about borrowing a heavy-duty shop vac to help with cleaning the old hotel.
Between all this, Yuka stretched out her leg and made sure everyone knew that it had healed up perfectly. Her mother washed her hands and crept over with squinting eyes to make sure that her daughter hadn’t pulled one over on her with a trick of the light or a brush of makeup. She scrutinized the limb under as much light as possible, getting complaints from Yuka.
But it didn’t take long for her to smile, give a puff of relief, and warn Yuka about minding her steps and continuing to check herself. Mentions of all the crazy girls in the city also drifted by before she let her go. She also reminded her daughter to text Ayame with this update and some photos so she wouldn’t be worried. Kosame dropped in a random praise of virtue for healthy girly legs.
They were surrounded and being almost literally crushed by so many different girls. It was so beautiful and special. But something also itched at the back of Misaki‘s head that couldn’t be explained away as the still-unexpected presence of her longer hair. She blinked.
The entire room froze. It was like something out of a video game during a time-stop ability. The world wasn’t different. But the air felt heavier, thick like oil, and she had to force herself to suck in and expel it. It was warm and stifling—far more than it should’ve been, especially for a cool evening. The moment immediately reminded her of the vicious nightmare where she was trapped, and her parents were like mummies.
Nothing moved around her; everything was frozen. Except for Haruka. The older sister stood there with a pure, radiant white light glimmering from inside her and suffusing every inch of her body, from her stretched-out hair to her tiny feet. She gestured in the same polite way as before to a place right next to Misaki, where Yuka was sitting. Misaki didn’t want to look, but it was like her vision was a CCTV camera inexorably scanning the room on its automated path.
Yuka was infected. That was all she could think. The girl had her normal skin, but it was paler and practically devoid of all color. Her clothes were also drained of vibrancy, reduced to noir black and white. From a place on her leg, waves of blackness erupted like oil from a rig. Her hair darkened, turning pitch black, with her brown eyes following suit.
“My sister needs your help…” Haruka spoke in a harsh whisper across the room.
Gasp!
Misaki jerked up with a desperate breath, as though she’d been hit by a frantic spell of apnea like troubled Dwight several years ago. Everything was fine. Haruka wasn’t standing in front of her. Yuka was at her side, the same as she had ever been, but wearing a look of nervous concern at her sudden, flailing gasp. Misaki cleared her throat a few times and sucked down as much of her drink as possible before reassuring Yuka and the others that she had just gotten something caught in her throat.
A dream. It had just been a blasted dream again. Yes, that was all.