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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
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I couldn’t bring myself to push Yu-ra away as she kissed me deeply, the first time in a week I’d felt her lips against mine. When we finally parted, I could look into her eyes again.
“Is there something you want?”
I asked, wondering if the kiss had been a prelude to a request, but Yu-ra just shook her head.
“No, I was just happy to see you.”
A kiss because she was happy to see me? That’s something lovers do, I thought, then remembered I hadn’t answered her question yet.
I still felt awkward about discussing the possibility of a relationship. Yu-ra wasn’t bringing it up either, seemingly content to wait for my answer, but judging by our current level of intimacy, she had probably already made up her mind.
“I need to change.”
“Go ahead. I’ll organize the supplies.”
In the past, I would have waited for her to leave or finish changing, but having already crossed a line, there was nothing to hide, so I took off my shirt and changed into my uniform in front of her.
Yu-ra, as she’d said, was busy checking the supplies, not looking at me. It was another reminder of our newfound comfort level.
“Here.”
As she was about to leave the storage room with a box, I took it from her. While she was physically stronger, I felt it was the right thing to do, and Yu-ra handed it over without a word.
“Oh, wait.”
Just as I was about to leave the storage room with the box, Yu-ra’s voice stopped me. She cupped my face with both hands, since I couldn’t use them while holding the box, and kissed me again.
“Let’s get to work.”
She grinned and left the storage room, and I followed, putting the supplies away in the kitchen.
It was a relatively quiet weekend, which gave me plenty of opportunities to observe Yu-ra.
I hadn’t heard the details of her conversation with the owner and how she’d managed to keep her job. I assumed the open-minded owner had found a way for her to stay.
However, Yu-ra’s experience hadn’t been erased, so I’d been worried she might have changed, but she seemed largely unaffected.
Except for one thing.
“A.”
“Yeah?”
I turned around at Yu-ra’s voice as I was washing dishes. She’d come into the kitchen with a tray of cups and plates. She placed the tray on a shelf next to the sink and kissed me.
The difference was, Yu-ra was kissing me constantly.
She kissed me at every opportunity, making it hard to predict, and if I tried to avoid her, she’d just pull me in with her superhuman strength.
“What are you doing after work?”
“I have some things to do. I need to go somewhere.”
We chatted as I prepared fruit for the juice orders.
Since she was also busy working, it was difficult for her to kiss me during these moments.
“Really? I was going to ask you to grab a drink.”
“You should have told me earlier. What’s the point of having my number if you don’t use it?”
“I thought you didn’t have any friends, so you wouldn’t have any plans.”
That stung a little. She was right; I didn’t have any real friends. My Spacetroe colleagues were just that, colleagues, and the last time I’d had a friend was back in space.
While I appreciated people considering me their friend, I couldn’t confidently say I had any.
“Let’s drink another time. And if you want to expand your social circle, you should try having drinks with other people.”
It was ironic for me to be giving advice about socializing, but she couldn’t just keep drinking with me, so I tried to encourage her to branch out. Like with her Hunter Killer teammates, for example.
“Who could handle my drunken antics?”
“…”
I couldn’t answer that. Who could handle Yu-ra when she was drunk, her already high energy levels amplified by alcohol? I didn’t know anyone in Hunter Killer well enough to suggest anyone.
“Don’t you have drinks with your team members?”
I decided to just ask, since speculating wouldn’t get me anywhere.
“No. It’s hard enough to get everyone together for a meeting.”
“Really? What about Green?”
Having just met her the other day, Green came to mind first. I didn’t mention Yu-bin since their relationship seemed to have improved, but I couldn’t help but think of Green.
“…Why?”
Yu-ra, stopping her work, turned to look up at me, perhaps curious about why I’d singled out Green. I felt her gaze on me and a cold sweat break out.
“Just curious. Since you work there, I was wondering what the people are like.”
I looked away and resumed my work, the feeling of being scrutinized disappearing as the tension eased.
“Green is a bit of an airhead, so I don’t really know what she likes or what she does.”
“What about the others?”
“Red goes to school during the semester, and Blue takes care of her nephew.”
Pink, Yu-ra, worked here, and I didn’t know what Green did.
“What about Yellow?”
“Yellow is also hard to read. She doesn’t really talk about herself… or anything, really.”
Based on my observations and what I’d heard, Red was young but passionate and had leadership qualities.
Blue, whose personality I didn’t know yet, seemed to miss meetings often because of childcare. Pink worked at the cafe and had incredibly high energy.
Green was a bit of an airhead, even her teammates didn’t know much about her, and Yellow was even more reserved, so there wasn’t much information to be gleaned from the team members themselves.
“Why? Are you interested?”
“I told you before, didn’t I? I don’t know what they even look like, so how can I be interested?”
I’d already met Yu-bin and Green, so I knew what they looked like. In fact, I knew what all of them looked like. Unlike Spacetroe, Hunter Killer had been in the media a few times, so finding their pictures online was easy.
However, the team avoided interviews, so unlike other teams, there wasn’t much information about them publicly available.
“That’s true.”
“It’s surprising, though. Even I, someone who’s not interested in that sort of thing, know that the Hunter Killer team has been together for years, but the members don’t really know each other.”
“That’s because we’ve never relied on anyone.”
My observation about Hunter Killer was my genuine opinion. The current team had been together for three years, actively participating in weekly duels, yet they lacked basic information about each other, which was surprising.
Yu-ra’s answer made me turn to look at her. She was looking down, continuing to prepare the fruit, and sensing my curiosity, she continued,
“Not all superhumans are like that, but at least in our team, we’ve all lived independent lives, relying on no one. It’s not that we don’t rely on others. We just don’t trust them easily.”
Yu-ra said they didn’t trust others easily, but from what I’d seen from her and Yu-bin, it felt less like a lack of trust and more like a lack of confidence in relying on others. Having lived isolated lives as superhumans, they simply didn’t know how.
“Green and Blue live with their families, but family isn’t always reliable. You know, like those families who are worse than strangers.”
News reports often featured stories about family disputes, fraud, and even crimes, so I knew what she meant. But I’d considered those cases to be exceptions.
Yu-ra had been abandoned by her parents. Yu-bin hadn’t revealed her superhuman status to me, so she hadn’t talked about her family, but it seemed she wasn’t living with them.
“And even aside from family issues, superhumans face a lot of prejudice. People call us monsters, tax thieves, useless… all sorts of things.”
Her words reinforced the need for thorough research on superhumans.
“But it’s okay now.”
Her voice suddenly brightened, she turned and hugged me.
“Because I have A.”
She looked up at me, smiling, then closed her eyes and slightly pouted her lips, as if asking for a kiss.
An awkward expression formed on my face, and I chuckled and placed a freshly cut strawberry in her mouth.
“It’s not good to keep doing that at work.”
“Mmm…”
She chewed on the strawberry, looking at me with a dissatisfied expression. I glanced around, making sure no one from the counter could see the kitchen, and thankfully, no one was looking.
Yu-ra released me and went back to preparing the fruit.
“Then I’ll do it after work.”
I’d been warned of the impending kiss attack after our shift, and I went back to work.
After my shift, I headed to headquarters to check on the data.
As promised, Yu-ra showered me with kisses as soon as we left the cafe, and I managed to escape after promising to continue later.
Back at headquarters, there were a few people still working and some on night duty. I stood in front of the elevator, waiting to go up to the 3rd floor.
I was mentally reviewing my research plan as the elevator doors opened, when I ran into someone I wasn’t particularly eager to see.
“?!”
The woman inside the elevator, startled by our sudden encounter, frowned when she saw me.
“Well? Are you getting on or not?”
“Yes, I am. I am.”
Long, glossy black hair, a gentle yet imposing demeanor, and a sharp gaze that felt like it could pierce through me. She was the person I was most uncomfortable with in all of Spacetroe.
I stepped into the elevator, pressed the button for the 3rd floor, and waited for the doors to close.
Even though it was a short ride, being alone with her in the elevator felt incredibly awkward.
“Where are you coming from at this hour?”
While I felt uncomfortable, I didn’t have to be intimidated, so I spoke casually, and she glared at me.
“You’re going to bore a hole through my face.”
“I had some errands to run. What are you doing here? It’s not your shift.”
“I’ve had enough fun, so I thought I’d do some work.”
“? What work do you do?”
She seemed genuinely surprised to hear me talk about work, her usually sharp gaze softening. I wished she’d always look at me like that.
Since we were talking about work, I decided to seize the opportunity and ask her something I’d been meaning to ask. I had nothing to lose, even if she refused.
“Speaking of work, could you lend me your archive account?”
Her softened expression immediately hardened, and she glared at me again. While I maintained a distance because of her team leader position, I didn’t think I’d done anything to warrant such a look… I must have unknowingly offended her somehow.
“Why do you need my account?”
“Our team leader said no. I want to review some old data, but I don’t have access.”
“…Come to the 4th floor.”
“Really?!”
My voice brightened involuntarily at her agreement, and she seemed startled by my sudden enthusiasm.
“Thank you, Seira. A colleague in need is a colleague indeed.”
She was Seira, a longtime colleague who’d grown up in the same neighborhood as me on our home planet, joined the same batch, and now, by chance, was stationed at the same branch. It had been months since our last conversation, and her ready agreement made me appreciate the value of having a colleague.
I pressed the button for the 3rd floor again to cancel it and waited for the elevator to reach the 4th floor.
“What are you researching that requires old data?”
“I’m looking for information on the early stages of the superhuman program.”
We entered her office, and she sat down at her computer, turning it on. I sat next to her, unable to contain my excitement at finally being able to access the data.
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