Level 4

The official welcome-home party for Nayuta ended around ten PM, and Haruto, Miyako, and Chihiro left Itsuki’s apartment soon after. Nayuta, on the other hand, stuck around. This was hardly the first time Itsuki and Nayuta had been alone in here. However, it was the first time since they became lovers.

They sat next to each other by the kotatsu, trying to judge what the other was thinking in between sidelong glances.

“…All alone, huh?” Nayuta asked, fidgeting with her hands.

“…Guess so,” Itsuki stonily replied.

They lingered in this happy (if frustrating) moment for a while; occasionally, the silence was broken by these little conversations.

“Um, th-this room’s kind of hot, isn’t it?” Nayuta suddenly exclaimed, completely failing to sound natural.

“Is it?”

“Y-yeah. I’m starting to sweat a little. Can I use your shower?” She was blushing fully by the end of the question.

“Um, sure,” a restless Itsuki replied.

Itsuki sat there, tortured by the sound of the shower, until the noise stopped. Nayuta came out to the living room soon after, wiping her hair with a towel. She was naked—or would have been, if she hadn’t borrowed one of Itsuki’s T-shirts. It was too big for her, hiding her hip area, but at first glance, one couldn’t tell if she had anything on under it. Almost certainly no bra, at least.

“O… Okay. Done with the shower.”

“Cool.”

“What about you, Itsuki?”

“Um, yeah…”

Pressed on by the blushing Nayuta, Itsuki headed for the bathroom and started showering. As the hot water beat against his body, he thought.

…I see where this is going… There’s only one thing this can lead to, isn’t there…?

They had all come to celebrate her hospital discharge, eating and playing games like usual, and he figured they’d all go their separate ways after that. But he’d also be lying if he said he wasn’t expecting this. He had done his Net research just this morning. No matter how tiny and trivial the question, somebody’s already asked it online, and someone’s already answered it. He had even found a well-reviewed brand of condoms on the Net to purchase. The Internet is so goddamn helpful.

He had hit the books, and he had the gear he needed.

…Get it together, Itsuki Hashima. You’re gonna become a man tonight.

He carefully washed every inch of his body, making sure all the soap bubbles were down the drain before he turned off the water. Once he was out of the shower, he toweled himself off, put on some underpants, dried his hair, and threw on a T-shirt.

After a few deep breaths, he emerged from the bathroom and stepped into the living room, discovering a red-faced Nayuta quietly sitting on the bed.

“Uh… I showered,” he reported.

“You did, huh?”

Nayuta slowly stood up, turned her body toward Itsuki—and inexplicably pumped her fists in the air.

“All right! Let’s do this!”

“Um, okay,” Itsuki replied, raising a fist of his own.

Just facing her like this made his heart feel ready to burst. He was like the hero of a role-playing game, about to begin the ultimate showdown against the Archfiend Overlord or whatever. Calm down, he told himself. Calm down, Itsuki Hashima. Even Goku and Vegeta had sex at some point. If they can do it, why can’t I?

“Fsssshhhhh…”

Nayuta, face so red that steam was hissing out of her head, lowered her fists and brought her hands to her T-shirt.

“Sasekkusu!”

With a shout, she whipped the shirt off.

Her braless breasts, caught in the fabric, jiggled around a bit. Itsuki had researched how to take off a bra, but it looked like that wouldn’t be necessary. She had no panties on, either.

She was in a T-shirt, and now she wasn’t, and that meant there was literally not a stitch on her.

A little embarrassed, she clasped her hands behind her back, revealing her entire naked form to Itsuki. The sight of the girl he loved the most in life in her purest form captivated Itsuki’s eyes and heart completely. He stared slack-jawed at her.

“…What—what do you think?!” she asked with a little too much energy, partly to hide her shyness, and that was finally enough to bring Itsuki back to reality.

“Y… Your…”

“…My?”

“Hair…”

“Hair? …What?”

“Your… Your hair… It’s silver there, too!”

“That’s the first thing you have to say?!” she fired back, her eyes flaring.

“I mean, I was kinda wondering for a while, so…”

His Net research told him the carpet didn’t always match the drapes, but that wasn’t the case for Nayuta.

“…You’re adorable. The cutest in the universe.”

Even Itsuki was surprised at how readily the words came out.

“…Cuter than the ultimate little sister you wanna find?” Nayuta asked, glancing up at him through her lashes.

“That sister hasn’t been born yet, so I can’t really say…” Itsuki realized he was being too honest, but he continued anyway. “…But for now, at least, you’re provisionally the cutest in the universe. So wear it with pride!”

“I’m not sure about the ‘provisionally’ part, but thank you.” Nayuta looked down, still a tad bashful. “And the provisionally cutest in the universe is yours. Heart, body, and everything else. Enjoy.”

“…I—I will.”

With that, Itsuki removed his own T-shirt, stripping down to just his undies. As he brought a hand to his waistband:

“…Should we turn out the light?”

Nayuta shook her head. “I want to see you naked really bad, too, so no, thank you.”

“…Maybe, like, just a little night-light?”

“No.”

“……”

“All right! Down they go! Show me everything you have, Itsuki!”

He had just taken in everything Nayuta had to offer. He was in no position to say no.

Taking a firm breath to steel his resolve, Itsuki lowered his underpants. Naked, he approached Nayuta and pressed his lips to hers. This was different from the first kiss they had at the hospital. This was more forceful, as if they were devouring each other, and it was soon followed by another, and another, and soon, whichever one it was pulling the other down, they had fallen in bed. The foldout single struggled under the weight of two people, and it wasn’t long before it began creaking in protest.

……………………

………………

………

“Okay, Itsuki, time for round two!”

It was not terribly long after both of them came down from their climax. Nayuta’s body was draped invitingly over Itsuki’s, and she was already pleading with him.

“…Isn’t this when the screen fades out, and then I wake up in the morning and you’re sleeping next to me and I look at you and get all wistful and emotional, like ‘Now we really are connected’ and stuff?”

Nayuta scowled at this half-groaned question. “What kind of nonsense is that, Itsuki? The night’s only beginning.”

“But I only just finished. I can’t go again right this minute…”

Nayuta fired a passionate eye toward Itsuki’s hanging member.

“If you get beaten down, you gotta stand back up. That’s what being the protagonist is about!”

“Don’t act like it’s that deep!” Itsuki shouted, face blushing hard. “My dick isn’t the hero of a novel!”

“If you want to be the hero, you gotta go past your limits!”

“I don’t need my dick to be a hero!”

Nayuta’s clear blue eyes pulsed with intense passion. She half-panted, almost roaring like a video-game final boss.

“It’s all right… I’ll make it come back to life, again and again…”

Her face approached the bottom half of his body.

“Wh-what are you doing…?! St-stop, Kanikou…!”

“Nya-ha-ha. Uh-uh. ”

…It had been three years since Nayuta Kani first read Itsuki’s novels and fell in love with someone she had yet to meet. Now the genius writer, blessed with one of this generation’s most intense imaginations and brimming with the passion of a nineteen-year-old girl, was finally allowed to release her feelings from the dam, and one single repetition was not going to be enough.

And this gluttonous feast, conducted by the animal of love once known as Nayuta Kani, continued on until Itsuki was covered in her fluids, wrung completely dry himself, and begging, “Please…please have mercy…,” like the protagonist from a particularly sadistic dating sim.