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Chapter 113
Chapter 3 — Dry scrape, burn and perforate! • Episode 3–Rest — Pool ①
Translated by KaiesV
Edited by KaiesV
1.
One day, as the summer vacation for Elephant-san and others was coming to an end, I was at a leisure facility in the Magical World. Its name is Magical Aqualand. As the name suggests, it’s a large swimming pool.
On the occasion of the recent attack on Sakira Town, Elephant-san suggested that one of the reasons may have been that the local Magical Girls and Witches were thought to be not getting along very well, and we’ve been playing around in various parts of the Magical World for the past few days to show how well we get along. Today is part of that, which is why myself, Elephant-san, Blade-san, and Press-san came to visit.
I’m not sure if I’m comfortable pretending to be friends with Blade-san and Press-san, let alone Elephant-san, but I don’t want to be left out of the group and have strange rumors spread again. Incidentally, Shadow-san has settled in Sakira Town, but her homepage and other information haven’t yet been changed, so she remains free from the outside world. Appealing for good friendship in such a situation would complicate the conversation, and above all, Shadow-san herself didn’t want to participate, so he didn’t participate.
That’s all well and good, but there is one problem today.
I have always agreed with Elephant-san’s appeal for good friendship for her safety, and I have always gone along with her, putting up with my embarrassment, but the place we came to today is a quintessential hurdle, or I should say, I have to be prepared for it…
「Sylph-chan? What are you doing in the corner like that?」
「Hyawa!?」
While changing in the locker room, I was evacuating to a secluded area to keep everyone out of sight as much as possible, but Elephant-san spotted me and I made a strange noise.
Today Elephant-san is not wearing her usual Magical Girl-like sky-blue outfit, but a very revealing skin, or to put it simply, a swimsuit. Her bikini is a triangle bikini with ruffled sleeves and ribbons at the bust, and a full cut bottom that is also ruffled, all in a light blue color.
I understand that it is natural for people to see me in my swimsuit, and that it’s not a bad thing to see Elephant in her swimsuit, but I’m still conscious of the fact that it’s so much more revealing than usual, coupled with the close proximity of the swimsuit.
「Come on, come on, If you don’t get dressed quickly, we’ll leave you here～」
Press-san, waving her hands in the air from a short distance away, is wearing a standard triangle bikini and tie-side low-rise bottom, each with a gradient of peach and white.
She actually seemed to be the type of person who wears skinny clothes, and her reasonably large breasts swayed with the movement of her hands. I tried not to look at them, but she called out to me and my eyes kept going in that direction.
「Sylph-san, you don’t have to be so shy, since we’re both girls.」
Blade-san, wearing a black flared bikini and skirted bottom, followed by Elephant-san, came up to me and gently placed her hand on my shoulder and smiled gently at me.
But the problem is, we’re not both girls!
It’s embarrassing to see you all in your swimsuits, and it’s also too embarrassing for me to go out in public wearing a girl’s swimsuit!
I should have said no when I was being taken around to pick out a swimsuit…
「I–I understand, please turn around and face that way!」
It’s embarrassing, but there’s no way I can say I’m leaving after all this time, and it would only cause trouble for everyone, so I’m going to give up.
The changing itself is done in an instant using the magiphone function, so there’s no problem with being seen, but I didn’t want to be watched closely as I changed from my usual clothes to a swimsuit, so I asked them to turn around.
「I’m still uncomfortable…」
At the tap of the screen, I switched from my usual priest-like outfit to a light yellowish-green camisole-like top with a shorts-type white bottom. According to Elephant-san, it is a tankini type of swimsuit. I’m not familiar with the types of women’s swimsuits, so I was fine with anything as long as it was unobtrusive, but after being made to look like a dress-up doll for a long time, it was approved after a discussion between Elephant-san and the other two.
「Whoa! You’re cute as expected, Sylph-chan! I want to take you home!」
「What a dangerous thing to say. But it looks good on you.」
「…Thank you very much.」
I’m not really happy to be told that it looks good on me, but Elephant-san is happy, so I’ll take it as a good thing. And while it’s still embarrassing, it is considerably less revealing than the swimsuits of Elephant and her friends, and this is just barely tolerable.
「Let’s go then, Sylph-chan!」
「Ah, p–please wait!」
Smiling happily, Elephant-san pulls my hand and takes off on a small run.
I ran out of the locker room, trying not to fall down, and as soon as I left the locker room, I was greeted with a theme park-like scene of joy and excitement.
The waterslide is like a roller coaster, one end of a large water athletic complex can be seen even from here, the stores selling food and drink are fancy, and water spurts like a fountain from a giant mountain-like object.
I’m sure that what I can see now is not all there is, and that there must be many more attractions and facilities, things I have only seen on TV were right in front of me, and at this moment I was so excited, as if I was in a dream, so naturally that I didn’t even realize it.
I was immediately brought back to reality by Blade-san, who warned me not to run in the pool.
2.
After cleansing ourselves with a cold shower, we first came to the so-called “water athletic” attraction, a large swimming pool with a number of floating islands and vinyl play equipment.
Only Magical Girls are allowed to use the facilities in the Magical World, and even among them there are at most 10,000 people in total, and not many of them are at the pool at this time today.
「It looked pretty big from afar, but it looks like it can hold up to two people at the same time.」
「Oka—y, then let’s race to see who can cross to the other side of the river faster!」
「Sounds good, it’s going to be fun! First of all, it’s me and Ele-chan!」
「Ah, h–hold on a second!」
The conversation went from there to there, and before I could even shout a word of restraint, Press-san pulled Elephant-san’s hand and jumped onto the athletic track. Elephant-san was in a groove and started jumping across the floating island, so I can’t ask her to turn back now.
Since the use of magic is forbidden in this Magical Aqualand, both girls have only basic physical abilities as magical girls, but they are moving ahead, leaping and bouncing with a lightness that is hard to imagine in human work.
I could hear the happy screams of “wah-kyah” and Elephant-san seems to be very happy.
「Mmph, she’s quick on the uptake.」
「…」
Left alone with Blade-san, I can only stare silently at the back of Elephant-san’s figure as she moves away from me out of some indescribable awkwardness. I have no idea what to say to a girl who is more than a year older than me in a situation like this, let alone on the battlefield.
However, the purpose of this event was to show that we are good friends, and I feel that if we don’t talk about anything, it would be a waste of time and effort to put on the swimsuit, even if we had to endure the embarrassment.
「Sylph-san, you don’t have to get so worked up.」
「Eh?」
Blade-san held my hand and said in a gentle tone of voice, as if she was talking to a small child.
「You don’t have to force yourself to have a conversation, just doing this is enough to appeal to the outside world.」
「Y–Yes.」
I guess I was a little overthinking what to say and how to say it.
You’re right, Blade-san, holding hands while waiting your turn is something you don’t do unless you’re good friends. Besides, I am sure this much is allowed.
I feel just a little bit lighter as she squeezes my hand back a little tighter.
「Uwah—!」
「Kyaah—!」
「…Let us join forces and take it slow.」
「…Okay.」
Elephant-san and Press-san, who were running on the wet scaffolding, eventually slipped together and fell into the pool, making strange noises. Now it is our turn.
As Blade-san said, we will surely go over the obstacles one by one, holding hands.
「Uwawah, i–it’s slippery.」
「Are you alright, Sylph-san? You can hold on to me if you feel like you’re going to fall.」
I thought I would have enough time if I went slowly since Elephant-san and Press-san had already run through it, but apparently it’s not that easy. I repeatedly slipped and almost fell on the slippery vinyl and managed to get back on my feet.
「No, that’s not what I—— wah!?」
「There, look, I told you, didn’t I?」
It was indeed unacceptable for me to hug Blade-san, who didn’t know my situation, so I was going to refuse to do just that. However, I fatally slipped at an inopportune moment, and understanding that I was in a position where I could not recover no matter how hard I tried, Blade-san forcefully pulled my joined hands together and accepted me as I tumbled to the surface of the water.
I was completely out of position and was left to my own devices, which meant that I had to jump into Blade-san’s chest, or, how should I put it, into her breasts.
「I–I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it that way!」
「? We both didn’t fall, so don’t apologize. Come on, Elephant and Press are waiting for us. Let’s get going.」
「Uh, uh～」
My whole body is hot. I’m sorry and embarrassed and I’m dying.
In the end, then I couldn’t look at Blade-san properly until she let go of my hand after we reached the goal safely.