68. Gentian’s Intentions
“What’s wrong, Sora-kun? When you look at me with such fervent eyes, it makes me blush. Come on, you can spoil me like you always do.”
The doctor’s behavior is too unnatural. He says things like this, but he only covers my mouth and doesn’t do anything else. And he hasn’t unbuttoned his shirt any further since I first saw him.
I can’t read his intentions. I don’t know what to do. Should I run away or go along with it? For now, I’ll just observe the situation… Huh?
“……….”
His right hand is still covering my mouth, but the doctor is holding his left index finger to his lips. He must mean for me to be quiet.
“…?”
I nod my head without understanding. The doctor isn’t a hero, so if it comes down to it, I can use force to escape. Even now, with my mouth covered, I could overpower him if I really tried.
“……….”
When the doctor sees that I’m not going to resist, he removes the hand that was covering my mouth. He must have some plan after all. When I obediently remain silent, the doctor wraps his arm around my back and starts to feel around under my clothes.
“Wha!?”
I quickly cover my own mouth with both hands to muffle the sound, and the doctor chuckles, looking slightly troubled, as he begins to slide his hand inside my clothes. My back, my waist, my butt, and then my belt. His long fingers move smoothly and freely over my clothes, feeling me up. It’s kind of ticklish.
“…Well, well.”
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Just when I’m starting to panic, thinking that he’s really going to take my clothes off, the doctor lets out a sigh of relief and pulls something out of my back pocket, then withdraws his hand.
“My apologies. I just found a little something.”
“Huh?”
As the doctor hides his hand behind his back, I hear a sharp crack, like something plastic breaking.
“You can talk normally now, Sora-kun.”
“Y-yes.”
What was that strange behavior just now?
“No, I’m sorry. I have something important to tell you, but I didn’t want anyone else to hear it, so I had to resort to some forceful measures.”
“What do you mean?”
“This.”
The doctor shows me his palm, which is now holding something tightly. It’s a small, cheap-looking device, about three centimeters in diameter.
“What is it?”
“A bug. It was planted on you.”
“Wiretap!?”
Like, the thing that detectives and spies use?
“Who did you meet today?”
“J-just some university friends, and Uguisu-san.”
“Hmm.”
The doctor types something on his keyboard and switches between the countless monitors. The footage from the base’s security cameras is still displayed, but I’ve gotten used to the vast base and can now recognize where each camera is located.
“That’s in front of Uguisu-san’s room.”
“Indeed.”
He taps his index finger lightly against his lips and stares at the monitor, deep in thought, but no one appears on the screen, even after a while.
“…I see.”
“Um, could you please explain?”
“My apologies, but I have no idea who did this. I simply destroyed the bug that was planted on you. As I said before, I have something to tell you that I don’t want the other girls to hear. Of course, I don’t want them to know about the secret room either.”
**eavesdropping device** Who would do such a thing… or rather, I haven’t met any other heroes except Uguisu-san today. I don’t understand why my college friends would bug me. Well, I don’ t understand even if it was Uguisu-san. But if it was Uguisu-san, she would have had plenty of chances, and I don’t want to believe it, but would she really do something like that?
“This room itself is safe. Even if someone managed to get in, I made sure there would definitely be traces. Anyway, now that your privacy is guaranteed, let’s go to the room in the back.”
“Um, but isn’t eavesdropping bad? Doesn’t that mean there’s a possibility that it will be bugged again? Or rather, is it possible that I’ve been overheard until now, like, my monologues when I’m alone in my room…”
“Don’t be surprised by an eavesdropping device now. It’s one of the three artifacts of a yandere. Rest assured, there’s no woman here who would hate you just because you have a hobby of reading shonen manga lines aloud by yourself at night and indulging in the pleasure.”
I don’t have the Yu Yu to ask what the remaining two artifacts are. Or rather, that’s not what I’m concerned about, and I don’t have such a strange hobby.
“If you’re worried, I’ll lend you a simple probe later. If you find it again, report it to me.”
I sigh as if I was being selfish. Is eavesdropping such a common form of communication?
“Y, yes. Thank you…”
While I thanked him in words, I was seriously trying to remember what kind of monologues I had been saying until now. I’m relieved that I’ve never used any of the heroes for ‘such delusions,’ but anyway, everything is so Embarrassing that I could die. Let’s believe that the eavesdropping device was only for today.
As for the doctor, he was fiddling with his tablet, seemingly oblivious to me. The wall at the back of the computer room creaked open, revealing a hidden room. It was the room where I was first shown the future vision. The heavy memories of that time flashed back a little, and this room might become a trauma for me.
“O, oh, excuse me.”
“Ah, come in.”
As always, the hidden room is bland, and it gives the impression of being a small and compact company reception room.
The doctor, who was sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed, laughed and said, “I’m sorry, but I’m out of powder.” I don’t mind if it’s about coffee, but he doesn’t seem to think it’s bad at all.
“First of all, I have something to tell you.”
Of course you do. It’s obvious to anyone that my proposal has just made the worse situation.
“Thank you for saving Uguisu.”
“Huh?”
Doctor Gentian is dignified, carefree, and has the same elusive expression as always, but I felt a solemn weight in those words alone.
“Although it was necessary, my judgment to send Uguisu and Himawari on the same mission was wrong. If I had known about their feelings, I could have noticed the possibility of a conflict, and it wasn’t impossible to assume that Uguisu’s life would be in danger if Himawari went berserk… It was completely my fault.”
“No, that’s not true.”
To be honest, I thought I was going to be scolded, so I was taken aback by Dr. Gentian’s dejected appearance.
“I heard that Uguisu’s life was saved by your judgment. You did well to save her in that situation. I would like to commend you for your actions as Philance Blue, including your request for Momo’s assistance.”
“Ah, thank you. But, well, in order to save Uguisu-san, I, I ended up proposing.”
“…Well, I was surprised to hear that too.”
Maybe he’s being vague because he feels responsible, but my proposal was bad after all.
“What’s done is done. It’s much better than her dying.”
“Speaking of that, I was thinking that it would be better to tell Uguisu-san that it was a lie sooner rather than later. I went along with the idea of covering it up because you instructed me to, but Uguisu-san’s injuries are completely healed now, so I don’t think her life will be in danger if I tell her it was a lie now. Of course, she’ll lose trust in me and it will make her sad, but I think it’s more dangerous to postpone it indefinitely.”
It’s not certain that I would have confessed the lie if I hadn’t been instructed to.
“Besides, I feel like it would be more pitiful to keep her hopes up for a long time. Maybe the damage will be less severe now.”
“Actually, I thought so too, but the situation has become somewhat uneasy.”
Can it get any more uneasy? I think the relationship is already like walking on a tightrope.
“Actually, the content of the future vision changed significantly when you proposed.”
“T, that’s…”
After all, the future can be changed.
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By becoming husband and wife with Uguisu-san, I seemed to be getting closer to the future that was predicted, but in reality, Uguisu-san’s way of thinking had changed significantly. The Uguisu-san in the vision continued to self-harm and lie in order to be protected by me, but the real Uguisu-san would rather support and take care of me. I guess my actions are starting to change Uguisu-san’s mind.
“That’s good. I thought so too.”
In other words, if I continue to change Uguisu-san’s mind like this, there’s a possibility that our future will eventually become ‘a perfectly ordinary couple.’ So my actions weren’t in vain after all. So that’s why there was nothing mixed into the food this time.
“Ah, Sora-kun. I’m sorry to interrupt your joy, but will you listen to what I have to say?”
“Ah, yes, sorry.”
“About the new premonition, I have both bad news and terrible news. Which do you want to hear first?”
“Huh?”
Oh, so this is what it means to doubt one’s own ears. I laughed at myself for being so foolish as to rejoice over a false happy ending.