Our Friendship Changed (Not) a Bit After I Discovered My Childhood Friend Has a Rubber Fetish by derStoryKeeper

Our Friendship Changed (Not) a Bit After I Discovered My Childhood Friend Has a Rubber Fetish by derStoryKeeper

Chapter I - My friend Tomika has a thing for rubber

Haruto always knew Tomika as an upbeat, swim ace in comparison to his love for books, especially long, complicated works full of big concepts and philosophy.
Never would he imagine finding her laying on her bed masturbating and even less so while wearing a skintight rubber catsuit which leaves nothing to the imagination other than her chest.
Will their friendship survive this sudden turn of events?

I had been friends with Tomika from the time I could barely walk. We had our scuffles sure. But we stood through all together through thick and thin, from Kindergarten all the way to our final year in highschool. We had been best friends through all of it and nothing more, despite our parents joking seemingly every other day when they could expect their grandchildren.
Yet now Tomika, was kneeling on their floor, a vibrator lying next to her and wearing a black, shiny skintight catsuit from neck to toes, this image I had of my friend has been utterly shattered.
“Please! Do not tell anyone about this!” She begged me, her face blushing from embarrassment.
I had returned earlier from the Literature Club today, as we only did the introduction of our new members at the beginning of the school year, and with Tomika having returned early from swim training as well due to the bad weather, I decided to visit her.
She was alone at home, her parents usually coming back late, especially her father who always took the late shifts when he could. I could barely hear vibrations coming from her room, but thought it was maybe one of the dozen micro quakes occurring regularly.
“Yo Tomika are you in your room?” I had seen her room many times by now. Certainly not as girly as my big sister’s room was. “Tomika?”
No answer.
I walked up to her door and upon knocking, thought I could hear her… moan.
“Tomika, are you alr…”
Everything I knew about my friend shattered at this very moment. She was laying on her bed, wearing this black, reflective catsuit, using a vibrator to… to… masturbate.
We both stared at each other in utter silence until she stumbled out of bed and falling on the floor, that damned thing falling out of her hand.
She then knelt and looked up at me, begging to keep my lips sealed about this.
“Especially not my parents.” She sounded absolutely terrified.
“I… won’t…”
“So anyway…” She responded, relieved but still trying to change the topic from something other than what she was wearing. “What were the freshmen in your club like?”
“Some of them joined because they didn’t want to be part of the ‘Going home club’. Most of them only ever read light novels and fiction. Nothing beyond that.”
“Not everyone can chomp down a 500-page behemoth like you can.” She jostled me. “You could weightlift with the books in your room.”
“I just want them to take it seriously!” I protested. “It’s always fantasy or other escapist fantasies, nothing asking the big questions…”
“Like?”
“Ulysses.”
“Like the Greek hero?”
“No, by James Joyce…”
“Wait, wasn’t that the one I gave up on 10 pages in?” She groaned. “Look, Haruto… Sometimes you don’t want to read something that requires a degree in smartass.”
“I know…” I rolled my eyes. Tomika had never been a big reader, with the height of her reading being manga.
As we sat there in uncomfortable silence I occasionally glanced at her suit as it squeaked while she shuffled around.
“How long?” I swallowed my spit, as I felt something strange.
“How long I have the boob suit? Bought it a few months ago. My first one I bought a year ago during Golden Week. But if you mean how long I have been into rubber: I guess…”
Only then did I notice that her usual lack of… chest wasn’t there, with two bulging sacks hanging there.
“Since that summer we and my family went diving in Okinawa. To think me not wanting to get out of my diving suit would lead to…” Tomika grinned at me. “Are you looking at my boobs?”
“What? Totally not!” I tried to look away as she rocked back and forth, making them jiggle.
“Don’t lie. You don’t need to worry. These are just fakes?”
“Fakes?”
“They are.” She gently squished them as she went on. “I am telling you, it was surreal when I saw myself with them for the first time. Crap, I am sounding like a woman with chest envy, don’t I?”
All her talking of her breasts and fondling them certainly did not help me to get my mind off them, and by now she has taken notice.
“You are looking at them. Wanna touch them?” She reached out for my hand and…
“Wah? No! I really don’t.” Pressed it against her suit’s breasts. “AH!”
“Calm down. It just silicone you are touching. Or do you think it would feel different?”
“H…how would I know? Now p…please let go off my hand.”
“Fat chance, buddy! Not when you are looking so pan…” One moment she gloated at me, the next however she let my hand go and turned around. “EEK!”
“What is it?” Tomika even from behind had a blush in her face.
“Your… little man…” She pointed down.
And sure enough, without really having felt it before I had become hard.
“IAMSOSORRY!”
“Nah, it’s alright buddy. Kinda forced myself on you, didn’t I? Probably still a bit horny from before…” She laughed awkwardly. “Anyways… You wanna play video games?”
Tomika pointed to the console in her room. It was 7 years old by now, with us having pooled our money coin by coin just to buy it, with her always having brought it to school for us to play it during the lunch break.
“Sure, but don’t you want to get out of… you know.”
“I mean sure… but it would be bothersome… Washing it… Drying it… Not to mention getting the lube from my body…”
“Oh, that is fine…” I nodded, looking at her. I have never noticed how good she looks, her hips, her legs. I wondered if she would look this good with her actual sized breasts and… Damn what was I doing, to have such thoughts about my friend!?
And now she was looking at me.
Without a word she went over to her closet, pulled out a shirt and striped it over her body, veiling her form, though her suit’s breasts still peeked out from under it.
“There. What do you wanna go for, buddy?” She knelt down and removed the attached controllers from the console and chugging one to me. “Super Matteo Cart? Shift Sports? Super Fighter Assembly?”
“Shift sports… What gamemode would you prefer?”
Tomika pondered while starting up the game.
“How about Tennis?”
“Ah a classic…” It reminded me of the times when we first met. Her parents visiting mine, and all of us played the previous version of this game, mainly Tennis and bowling.
‘Start’
Playing the game, one could almost forget that Tomika was wearing a skintight suit. Rubber wasn’t it? It looked polished from what I glanced between swings and so smooth, contrasting with the white shirt under which her boobs…
Focus man! You got to focus on the game.
The ball raced back and forth between our avatars on screen, while we both tried to keep concentrating on hitting the ball.
Yet I could for some forsaken reason not help myself but look at her and even when I tried to avoid the obvious areas, I couldn’t help but feel aroused by it. Her arms, shiny and black to her fingertips moving through the air up until they collided with her artificial cleavage.
‘Out’
“Damn, who would have thought they’d be so annoying…” She muttered, while I rubbed me eyes. If she hadn’t played the ball to the side, I would have not returned it. All because of this damn suit she was wearing. Speaking of which, she was currently rolling up her shirt all the way to her breasts, pulling the shirt tight and tying a knot on one side, revealing everything below, like she was wearing nothing at all. “Now they shouldn’t get in the way. Ready?”
“Ready.”
In truth I knew how this game was going, with her being able to distract me at every turn. The game went to her.
Even when we decided to switch to bowling, where we could take turns and our time, I couldn’t help but look at her when she tossed the ball, leaning over, her breasts jiggling even beneath their improvised bra. With no pressure on the singular throws however, I could land multiple strikes over the course of the match and ultimately won.
“Man, how do you manage to not always have these stragglers still standing.” She pouted at her loss, but quickly cheered up, embracing herself, making the suit squeak. “Ah, never imagined having so much fun while wearing this.”
“What do you mean?” Considering I caught her masturbating, this was pretty tame in comparison.
“Usually when I am done putting it on, I am at a bit of a loss. ‘I am in what now?’ Especially after I… you know.” Tomika blushed as she cleared her throat. “You are the first person seeing me wear it.”
“Thanks for the honor, I guess?”
“Don’t be so shy!” She put her arm over my shoulder pulling me close enough for her… the suits boobs to touch me. “I should be the one thanking you, buddy!”
She had her hand balled and I followed suit, bumping it.
“Thank you for having me, but I really need to go now.”
“Still got things to do?”
“I need to fill out the applications for the literature club and I bought a new book.”
“Thick and big as you like them?”
“Yes…”
“Fair enough. I still have to do some training exercises. Not even mentioning…” She pulled the white shirt of her body, revealing her shiny figure again. “I need to wash, dry and hide this before my parents come home.”
“F…fair enough.” I replied. “See you tomorrow.”
“See ya, Haruto.” She waved at me as I walked out of her room and her house.
Yet even at home, I couldn’t get the image of Tomika out of my mind, slowing me down considerably, be it with chores or with reading the copy of ‘The tale of Genji’ I bought recently. No matter how much I tried to get my mind of her in this shiny suit it didn’t work and I could feel it.
Eventually, some time after I had dinner, with my parents coming home late, I decided to get to bed early, hoping a good night’s rest was all I needed for this spell to disappear.
However, to my annoyance and disgust, I was woken up, by a creamy wetness in my pants.
“Crapcrapcrap.” I stumbled from and to my bed, trying to clean this mess up.

“Yo, Ikemoto. You slept well?” One of my classmates spoke to me.
“Na…” I yawned. “Woke up. Middle of the night.”
“Really? Why?”
“Oh, I would like to know, trust me.” I lied about what truly happened that night.
“Good morning, Haruto!”
“Good morning, Tomika…” I waved her as she waltzed into class, sitting herself next to me. After 2 years of being in separate classes, we finally were in the same during our final year. In any other case I would be overjoyed for us to sit together like this and be able to talk.
But after yesterday… Was that even real? Her wearing a rubber catsuit? Me catching her masturbating?
No, it had to be something I must have made up. There can be no other way. I looked at Tomika while she was getting to know our new shuffled class, some she knew already, some I knew, some neither of us knew.
But from a glance, she was still the same old Tomika I knew: The ace of the Swimming club, my childhood friend and overall outgoing, if a bit lacking when it comes to school grades.
“What did you do after the first day of the year, Shimizu?” One of the female classmates asked her.
“I hung out with Haruto… Played some local multiplayer on the Shift.”
“Really? Ikemoto? The literature club president?” On second view I actually recognized her, and not for good reasons.
“I know, he is a bit of a bookworm…” Tomika rolled her eyes, but the classmate… Kanamori? I think wasn’t having it.
“Bookworm is underselling it. The guy considers anyone who doesn’t read ‘the classics’ not to be a real reader.”
Says the girl who only reads shlock to arouse women, for all intents and purposes the equivalent to pornography for men.
“And anything in the list of bestsellers is not allowed in his precious library.” As if some random fantasy slop made for mass consumption even deserves to be in the vicinity of the works of masterworks, written with the lifeblood of the author and not just some trope checklist.
“Not to mention…”
“Yo, cut it out.” Tomika shut her up. “I am not going to have my buddy trash talked by the likes of you. Yes, he is often too serious for his own good, especially when it comes to books. But he only is because he care about intellectual stuff like that.”
“…”
“He is also very good at school and helps me a ton soooo…”
“And what do you pay him with? Your body?”
“Says the one thinking ‘69 shades’ is a masterpiece!” I raised my voice.
“Ugh, a boy like you just wouldn’t understand it. The guy in there is such a handsome, thrilling guy…”
“Oh, I do understand. And let me tell you: I have read a bit in this waste of paper and can honestly say that you are in good company with boys searching H sites when they are alone with tissues in their bedroom.”
“Ewww…” She and some of the other girls in class turned away in disdain.
“Maybe you could have put it a bit… softer…”
“Someone needs to tell them the bitter truth. Pretend they are better than the other sex only to follow the same vices in a different coat of paint.” I sighed out my rage. “I also am luckily not interested in sucking up to them and thus immune to their gossip.”
“What about me?” Tomika looked at me with a mixture of a pout and a grin.
“You are my friend.” And as such I knew her to be better than the common female rabble, or the male one for that matter.
The commotion in class cleared, as the teacher came in.
“Rise, bow, sit…” All this fanciful talking was now finally squelched for the actual reason we were here: Education, learning and not talking about what he or she did or didn’t say.
“Haruto…” Tomika shuffled her table next to mine. “Can I look into your book. I forgot mine.”
“Sure…” I took out my book.
“Thanks… I think I misplaced it after washing and drying my suit.”
Suit… No way… No. Perhaps she means her school uniform or something like that. Certainly my friend would not be a deviant like that. Absolutely not.

“What is this?” I looked around the half dozen members of the literature club, rifling through the first drafts of their writing projects for the semester.
“Our first cliff notes, Ikemoto. You said we should send them over group chat so what is the problem?”
“The problem is none of you have come up with anything interesting!”
“Here we go again.”
“Just the usual slop of overpowered protagonists reincarnated from another world, with no sense of conflict whatsoever in generic place, not-Europe”
“What about mine?” One of them Kohinata, raised his hand.
“And just because you set it somewhere else doesn’t make it better. Let me see:” I grabbed out the outline he came up with. “An Americana-otaku is transported into a fantasy version of the wild west long after the demon lord has been defeated and now becomes the most powerful human mage with the goal of becoming… ugh… The new President of Fredonia. What even is this name?”
“I read about it.” Kohinata protested. “At one time the US-Americans argued what to call their new nation. Fredonia was one such suggestion.”
“Well good riddance they didn’t take it.” I chugged the papers on the table. “We still got a lot of time ahead of us, so you all still have time to rethink your approach. Remember: ‘The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself’”
“Faulkner.” One of the club members rolled her eyes as she picked up her outline. “Doesn’t mean we can’t set it somewhere interesting.”
“Any place can be interesting. But not one you ripped off wholesale from someone else.”
“Say, what have YOU come up with, Ikemoto?” I bit my tongue for a moment when I heard it.
“I… am still figuring it out. A good plot takes time. All parts need to be considered and a conflict worth telling needs to be extrapolated. Be it against another, against oneself, against nature or against society.”
“Pfff…” I could hear rustling, with some leaving the room and other picking out or putting back books from the shelf on the other side of our room, while I went to the one which had the good ones.
Books about struggle, about philosophy. Tales as ancient as times itself. Analytic text about human nature from every part of the globe. What generic Isekai story could hope to deserve to be placed next to these titans of writing.
I pulled out ‘The Eye of Shiva’ by Amaury De Riencourt which I had recently picked up for the club, but not before reading it myself and put it into the shelf.
“Oh, looks old. What’s it about?” One of the club members walked up to the shelf and flipped through it.
“It’s about the duality between Eastern mysticism and Western scientific tradition, and how with advancements in latter, both will converge to form a new…”
“Sounds complicated, not to mention it’s in English.” With a sigh he put it back. Leaving me alone with the abundance of books I have provided over the 2 years I have been here, plus some that were worthwhile, compared to the books they had previously shared a shelf with.
Such books were on the other bookshelf, which was frequented by the rest of the club, with the only ones other than me with taste have graduated a month ago.
“Also look at what the postman brought yesterday…” Behind me they bantered about their fancy new releases.
“There is a new manga volume of Legacy of the Dragonslayers? What is it about?”
“The Octavius arc. After all the foreshadowing they are finally going the states… Well, what’s left of it.”
That too I pretended to not care about. Perhaps I could stop by the bookstore on my way home…
Looking out through the window, I could see the swimming club taking turns in the, while heated, still cold pool, with only Tomika eagerly jumping into the ice cold water.

The sun was already setting as I walked over to Tomika’s house, having already read through the manga.
Legacy of the Dragonslayers. Everything about it should make me gag. A multimedia mecha franchise with a gacha game of all things at its heart, with tons of eye candy of all kinds.
And yet, I murmured as I walked towards Tomika’s home, I became a fan of it. At the beginning I only downloaded the game because Tomika wanted me to. It was an RTS with which I had some experience from playing AoE 2. Although Dragonslayers had mechs instead of castles, which are the main source of customization due to the parts and pilots.
Yet what truly fascinated me were not the towering behemoths or the pilots in plugsuits wearing them, but the world in which it was all set in: Fallen, with the people in it clinging on to whatever they could. To loyalty, to pride, to unity and most important of all, to their humanity despite all of them having to fight each other in a world utterly ravaged by a dragon precursor civilization.
Tomika however, was more interested in the ‘cool mechas and pilots’, although… the plug suits… could it be they were also cause for her…
“No, that was a dream. Clear and cut.” I mumbled to myself as I knocked on the door, waiting for Tomika to come down. There was no way she could have…
“Yo, do you have it?” Tomika greeted me wearing a red rubber catsuit with black gloves. “I can’t wait to read the intro to the upcoming event. Is something? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Tomika… You are wearing… a catsuit…”
Tomika looked down for a second then quickly dragged me in and closed the door. “Sorry, didn’t have time to change before you told me you’d come… Hehe…”
“And that doesn’t bother you? Me seeing you like this? What about your parents?” I noticed then that this suit was closer to her lithe form, without any false breasts.
“I don’t think anything can top you catching me with a vibrator!” She laughed heartily as we walked to her room. “And my parents come home late usually so I got more than enough time for cleanup.”
All the while I was gazing at her back, seamless and polished.
“You look good…” I thought I said in my head, however from Tomika turning around, showing the other side of her body, I could tell it wasn’t just in my head.
“Really?” She looked at me with a blank stare.
“Y…yes…”
“Thanks, buddy…” She turned back around while sounding… not displeased.
“Anyway… Here is the book…”
“Already went through it?”
“It is a manga. Compared to my usual reading this is a snack.”
“Yeah I know… Can’t wait to read it. To think we finally get to see what Octavius is…”
“Who.” I corrected her.
“Don’t spoiler me!” She pouted as she turned the first page.
After we had passed the point where the Kei Aketsu, a mecha pilot of the Pacific Union came to find his place in the society of the Frontiersmen after crash landing and was currently gawking at Gaby’s mecha, which was more of a collection of scraps than a real mech, Tomika stood up.
“You want something to drink?”
“Sure. Do you have tea?”
“Yep, I’ll be right back buddy.” She disappeared from her room.
Strange to think, she was wearing something so erotic, yet acting so casually around me. In the end it made little difference. She might as well be in her pajamas, and it would not make much difference. I wondered what she likes about wearing it so much she had changed into it to wear during the afternoon.
I also wondered where the other catsuit was. Looking around there was obviously no box marked ‘Lewd Rubber Clothing’. Maybe her closet.
Nope.
Where then…
My gaze fell onto her bed, specifically the storage boxes beneath it. When we were small, I had asked her once if she had a monster under the bed, something I quivered in childish imagination. She told me with all the stuff beneath it there was no way a monster could hide beneath it.
And after cramming it out sure enough I found a large square box with pieces of what I assumed was rubber, neatly folded in plastic bags as well as some bottles of liquid and next to the box was a blue tub.
“You know it is impolite to look around a girl’s room without her looking.”
“Wagh!” I jumped up, finding Tomika giggling with a tablet of teacups, putting down on the table.
“Congrats on finding my hidden stash.”
“I am so sorry.”
“Chill, buddy. It is just clothes.”
“Very weird clothes.”
“Means I am weird I guess?” She giggled, stretching herself.
“What do you like about it?” I cleared my throat and quickly sipped my tea.
“Rubber?”
“Yes, you told me that it started because of diving.”
“Well… Maybe not just diving.” She tapped on the manga of Dragonslayers.
“I thought as much.” I laughed with her. “But what do you like about it itself?”
“Many things: How it looks, how it feels. It feels strange wearing it at first, but after getting over it…” Tomika hugged herself, making her suit squeak. “It feels like a snug, second skin.”
“You really like it?”
“Yes… Although…” She looked at me and grinned. “It feels great to have someone else to talk about it in person. I have to admit: I was afraid we would stop being friends after you found out about it.”
“We are friends…” I told her, trying to hide my embarrassment about her rubber fetish. “I am usually the weird one of us.”
“With your book obsession?” She nudged me. “Speaking of reading. Let’s finish the manga. I am really interested who this Octavius actually is.”
“Sure… Rolling for pilots and parts after that?” I flipped to the last page where codes for extra rolls were printed to promote the game.
“Definitely. Maybe we can even get this Octavius as pilot.”
“Afraid not. His role is far more… important…”
“Oh.”
We then continued reading the manga together, with Tomika continuing to wear her rubber bodysuit, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

Chapter II - Unseen by the world at large

Ever since Haruto found out about his childhood friend’s rubber fetish, nothing much changed for them in school. They came to school together, went to class, ate lunch, went to their respective clubs and returned home, if possible at the same time, if neither of them had to do any overtime at their clubs.
Yet one morning Tomika comes to school late, too late.
Also she is very excited for Golden Week, for some reason.

“Good morning, Tomika…” I waved at Tomika as she rushed in, minutes before school began.
“Morning… buddy” Tomika greeted me with exhaustion as she sat herself next to me in class. “Nice weather isn’t it…”
Something was off about her, but I couldn’t say what exactly. Normally we met up and walked to school but today she was late, even more so than usual.
“It is. Hopefully it is going to stay the same over Golden Week.”
“Sure, hope so… Hehe… Would hate to not be able to go outside.”
“Very much? What are you going to do?”
“Well, my parents do. It’s their wedding anniversary. So, I am going to be alone for the week.”
“Nothing planned in particular?”
“Not really…” She shrugged, which was when I could hear a sound I had heard before. The sound of squeaking rubber.
Before I could ask her, what was up the teacher came and class began.
Over the course of the day, she consistently acted strange, walking stiff and being very conscious about her sleeves and her skirt, which was unusually long, reaching down to her ankles. Not to mention how unusually skittish she was around me.
When I spoke to her, she avoided the closeness we usually had and kept her distance, like she was hiding something.
A thought entered my mind, that Tomika had done something profoundly stupid, which I however suppressed trusting her to have some sense of common decency. Did she not tell me herself to not tell a soul about her secret?
Eventually the time of day came for our club activities and walking into the literature club room I certainly did not expected Tomika to greet me.
“Hey buddy, mind if I stay here?” She waved at me while flicking through a book from the light shelf.
“Sure, but don’t you have training right now?”
“I… told the coach I am not feeling to well…” She rubbed her stomach. “I got a pass for today.”
“Because you are our swim ace?” Kohinata murmured while working on his writing project.
“Yeah… Probably?” Tomika rubbed her head after being reminded of the privilege of her position of being so fast she could be graded as a boy and still get top grades. “By the way, what are you working on.”
“Writing project. Isekai but it is set in a Wild West setting.” He told her, while she poured her eyes over his notes.
“Woah, now that is I have never read… Do they use magic guns instead of swords?”
“Sort of, but I guess for your boyfriend it would still be subpar…” Kohinata gestured at me.
“We are just friends!” I corrected him.
“Sure…” He rolled his eyes. “By the way how is YOUR writing coming along? I am already outlining the plot for mine.”
“I… still need to mull it over. You cannot rush these things without sacrificing quality.”
“Maybe I can help you?” Tomika plopped herself down. “Let’s start with your average teenager being transported to…”
“Nope.” I slammed my notebook I used to brainstorm on the table, opening it to a new page, the rest having been discarded.
“You haven’t even heard me out!” She pouted at my opinion. “It could be the next big thing!”
“Next to all the rest of the stories about someone getting transported to another world by way of truck collision. Pass.” I wanted to make something that would stand out.
“Hmmm… You do like Dragonslayers… Maybe…”
“Ikemoto likes Dragonslayers? Really?” Kohinata laughed in disbelief over my interest in the series.
“Not really…” I tried to play my liking to this franchise down.
“Liar.” Tomika poked me. “He loves it.”
“Tomika!”
“To be fair, he likes to talk about the worldbuilding and how it depicts… eh… How did you put it.”
“How history has shifted after something catastrophic like the Dragon Crisis, similar to a famine or a plague, or a massive war and that history keeps moving ever forward.”
“Still… Wouldn’t have expected you to play it.” Kohinata stared at me before turning back to his work.
“As you like big events which turn everything upside down… How about… Hmm…” Tomika pondered. “Oh, I have a weird idea you can poach: Medieval Japan switches places with Britain.”
“That… How would that even work?” Two people meeting, with extremely different views. Although European also had a feudal system.
“I dunno.” Tomika shrugged. “You are the brain of us two.”
“Sigh. Thanks for the idea but… I’ll think about it.” I told her, to which she nodded, flipping through the book she picked up again.
“What is up with Shimizu? Is she on her period?” Kohinata could hear him ask one of the female club members.
“No…” She said with a disdainful conclusion. “You wouldn’t know a period if you had it.”
“I was just asking.” Kohinata defended himself. “No need to get all prissy.”
I could finally focus on my bookshelf in the club, picking out two books which could help me: One about Japan in English, which had proved to be a fascinating outside view on ourselves. The other was going to be at first a book I had read about Europe and the effect the Black Plague had on it, leading to its eventual dominance. But then I noticed the book next to it: ‘The Vikings’, a Japanese translation. I recalled it describing them as wild and individualistic. The total opposite of what a Heian court at the same time would be. Even their language was highly context-free compared to the East Asian languages which were the most context-sensitive.
I think I was onto something, I pondered as I plopped the two down and started reading it.
I then noticed that the book Tomika was reading was one from my shelf, her eyes straining as she read, and again that squeaking.

I looked up at the pouring sky, feeling satisfied at always having brought an umbrella for a situation just like this.
“Well shit.” Tomika however looked less pleased.
“Forgot yours?”
“Yes…” She sighed. “Could we share one?”
“Sure…” I opened my umbrella waiting for her to walk under it, before we started walking home. During our way however I noticed Tomika was clinging very closely to me, trying desperately to not get wet at all.
“A bit skittish today for someone who swims regularly…” I eyed her.
“I just don’t feel well today…” She looked away. Something was up, something…
Before we could react to it, a truck sped past us, way beyond limit, splashing us with a big swill of water. Looking down on me, I was mostly spared, only my trousers getting sprayed at the bottom, as well as my shoes and socks.
“Pfuh.”
Tomika however had gotten the brunt of the load; her clothes being completely wetted revealing underneath them…
“Not like this…”
A red, seamless texture, covering her body.
“I was almost home.”
“Tomika…” I could feel my eye twitch with a lot of pieces of her behavior starting to make a lot of sense. “You did not wear your… latex catsuit to school today?”
“It was an accident.” She blurted out, completely flustered. “I forgot to take it off yesterday, fell asleep and woke up late with it.”
“And you could not… quickly take it off.”
“Neck entry… It takes time to get in and out. And as you know I was far too late already. At least my parents are already on their wedding anniversary trip…” She shuddered, be it from cold or from the thought of her parents finding out, her school uniform clinging tightly to her suit…
“Let’s head home quickly then.”
“Agreed.” Tomika nodded. And for a while we speeded up, with me trying to shield Tomika from the few prying eyes on the street, though with this weather they were few and mostly didn’t even notice us.
But after a while, I noticed Tomika trailed after me, forcing me to slow down and looking at her, she looked spaced out, her coughing with a dry throat.
“Are you alright? You look dizzy?”
“You see..” She sounded like she would faint from effort of walking alone. “When you wear latex, you sweat. A lot. And I also ran to school this morning.”
“Oh.”
“Should have brought more than a bottle to drink… hehe…” She started to stumble and almost…
“Watch out!” Fell, if I hadn’t caught her, putting her arm over my shoulder.
“Upps…” Her eyes blinked slowly.
“Let’s hurry up!” I looked at her. “Can you walk?”
“Y…yes… Just one foot in front of the other…”
Step by step, we slowly managed to walk to her home, we stripped off her wet uniform to reveal her glistening latex suit and I gave her a big jug of water.
“Gluck! Gluck! Gluck!” Which she managed to empty in one swing, while I took off my socks and put them up to dry. “Buuuuaaaaaaah!”
“Better?” I had just hung her clothes up to dry.
“Yes!” She hammered it on the kitchen table. “Man, you would not know how much my heart was beating at every single turn today!”
“From fear or excitement?” I furrowed my eyebrows.
“Yes… Ah… I feel so sweaty inside of this. I am going to need a shower after all this.”
“If you are fine, then I will go home.”
“Ehm…” She stammered. “Could you help me out of it?”
I blinked a few times. “Excuse me?”
“I can get out alone, but it would be much faster if you were to help me out.”
“I don’t know…” I turned away.
“I am not expecting you to undress me fully!” She giggled, gesturing a line just below her armpits. “Just get my shoulder out of it, the rest is easy.”
“Just the shoulders?”
“Yes…”
“Very well.”
We both got up and entered the bathroom, upon which I noticed her feet: Unlike her gloves, which I could see why she left here, her rubber socks were still on her feet.
“Why did you keep the socks?”
“You’ll see.” She said walking to the bathtub, putting her feet on it’s edge and stripping them off one by one, with a stream of sweat escaping them.
“Told you I was sweating buckets in this thing.” She poured them out into the bathtub, walked in and took the showerhead, stretching her collar to let some water in, then turned her head to me. “Would you be so kind?”
I carefully grabbed both sides of her collar, with her instructing me how to hold it.
“Not just with the fingertips, the whole hand or you could tear it.”
I only stretched it little at first.
“How did you even get into this in the first place?”
“You need to pull more. Don’t worry it is made to stretch a lot.”
Then more and more, terrified with every bit of finally tearing it, until…
“There we go!” I had pulled it past her right shoulder, letting it snap carefully back, Tomika proceeding to snake her arm out of the sleeve. “Told ya it would work.”
“I know. Still…”
“Now onto the next one.”
The other side went, unsurprisingly easier, with a lot of the tension in the material being gone, until Tomika stood in front of me, the sleeves of her catsuit dangling by the sides, the suit just covering her chest.
“Perfect, I can do the rest myself now!” She breathed a sigh of relief. “Always a bit jumpy when getting out. Good thing my other suit has shoulder zippers.”
“You mean here.” I drew a line on my shoulder blade.
“Yes, it is one of the better options regarding latex.”
“Let me guess: The other options are a back or a front zipper?”
“Yes, though both can cause tensions in the suit and while a back zipper is harder to access, for me a front zipper…” She looked down at her small chest with a blank stare. “Is just not it.”
“Should I get you some clothes while you are showering?” I pointed to the door.
“Would be very swell of you!” She nodded. “Just drop it next to the door. I’ll pick it up when I am done.”
After a small round trip, I had gathered a shirt, some sweatpants and, of course, underwear and gently laid it down before the door, and went back to the living room, picking out my research material about Vikings and the Heian period to make more notes in it.
Why some boys my age went crazy over female underwear I could never understand. Sure, it was covering the private parts, but that’s about it. To think some would treat it as some sort of holy relic. Especially worn. Disgusting.
“Ah that felt good.” After a while I heard Tomika coming out of the bathroom, wearing the clothes I had left her. “Time for the cleanup.”
She walked past me, to her room and came out with a couple of ziplock bags, a blue washing tub and a two bottle.
“Where are you going?”
“Washing my suit.”
“Can’t you put it in the washing machine?” I got up and followed her.
“Better not.” She replied as she walked into the bathroom. “The best way is to do it by hand.”
“By hand? Isn’t that tedious?”
“Yes, and no.” She put on some music on her phone, the soundtrack of Dragonslayers, put the catsuit on a hanger and draped the gloves and socks over the bathtub edge.
Next, she filled the washing tub with water, taking good care to control the temperature by moving the faucet around carefully. Once she was done, I put my finger into it: Mildly warm.
She proceeded to take a bottle of soap and poured a bit of it into the water and whirled the water around to spread it. “Light soap, anything stronger might be harmful to it.”
Finally, she took her suit, a mysterious zipper on it being opened and dumped it into it and went on to knead it, rinse it and turn it over and over again, doing the same with her sock and gloves, after hanging the catsuit on the curtain railing.
“That’s it?” I asked her after she took the two minor pieces out and dumped the murky water into the bath.
“Not yet. Got to treat it with lube as well.” She filled it again and this time put a small bit of the other bottle in it.
“Won’t that make it oily?”
“That’s the idea.” She answered me after putting the catsuit in it, although for a much shorter time than before, taking it out after a few seconds and repeating it with the remaining pieces. “Keeps the latex from sticking to itself and makes it last longer. Some swear by talcum, but I would rather not risk my mom asking about suspicious white powder on the floor.”
And at last, the suit, the gloves and the socks were all hanging on the curtain railing, water dripping off them.
“You do that every, single time after wearing it?”
“Yes, I never said it was low maintenance. It requires a lot of thoughtful care but…” She stopped the music blaring from her phone. “It’s totally worth it.”
“And now?”
“We let it dry. It is nice and dark in here once the air is dry again.” She closed the window, which she must have opened previously. “Takes a few hours, then I can store it away.”
“If you say so…”
“We can do homework in the meantime. Could you…”
“Help you with it? Sure, what subject.”
“English…” She sighed and complained. “With all those same sounding words, why did they never think to develop something like kanji?”
“Different attitude about context.” I shrugged. “Shall we?”
“After you.” She replied, her face dreading the deciphering of English texts.
We were deep in the analysis of a story when I felt and urgent need.
“I need to go.” I got up and ran over to it and while sitting on the toilet stared at Tomika’s red catsuit.
This thing, although there was the other still, had caused so much between me and Tomika in the recent weeks. What was so… mesmerizing about it?
Having finished and washed my hands I started to touch it. It was smooth and slightly oily, but not as shiny as it was before. Perhaps the lubricant she used was enough to keep it from sticking together, but not enough to make it as shiny as I remember seeing it. From the first I saw her wearing it, it looked like she was wearing a suit made out of oil… Or metal? No, metal could still be dull, and this was not.
It also didn’t seem to have seems, only overlaps of material. Was it glued? Then my eye fell on the zipper beneath the legs. Naturally you would want something like this, I chuckled. Imagine having finally pulled this on, only to have to go to the bathroom right after.
“Yo, buddy!” I could hear Tomika shout. “You done yet? I need your help with the text…”
“One moment!” I replied, taking one last look at the red rubber suit.
Why was it so fascinating, I wondered, it is a piece of clothing, nothing more. Yet when Tomika wore it, it was… so much more.
I also wondered how much this thing costs. While one could assume it to be as cheap as a throwaway glove or a condom, it didn’t look like it, not from how much care she took to clean and store it away in airtight ziplock bags.
Not to mention, where would you even buy such a thing? As well fitted as it was to her measurements it must have been custom made by some sort of tailor.
“Tomika?” I walked back to the living room, where she already set, grumbling over her textbook. “Where did you even manage to buy the suits? It can’t be cheap…”
“Haha… Yeah, it ain’t cheap. That’s for sure…” She leaned over to me and whispered the price in my ear.
“Wow… That is a quite lot.”
“Indeed.” She nodded. “But when you buy at the right time, you can get discounts, not to mention I barely spend money on much else.”
“Except Dragonslayers…”
“I pulled the belt tighter on that. Especially with campaigns being often a much better deal. As for where:” She pulled out her phone and looked up a site. “This is the store I bought the suits from. Takes about one or two months for made to measure things, off the rack it takes a week or two.”
“And you gave them your address?”
“I mean yeah. How else would they know where to send it? I do have to be careful though…”
“Your parents?”
“Yep, once they came really close to answering the delivery man, before I could intercede and shuffle away with it.”
“You think they would be not very amused by what you are spending the money we earn on our side job?” I asked her rhetorically.
“Yes, not to mention I also siphoned some money away from the competition prizes.”
“Wait, that too?”
“It was just a dozen thousand Yen, give or take.”
“A dozen thousand?”
Tomika gazed away, mumbling about in denial about the financial prospects of her libido-fueled purchases.
“Not that I can complain. Reminds me on the time I bid for a book until it was in the 10000 Yen region and the other bidder pulled out.”
“Was the book at least good?”
“Sort of… Although it was very tattered. I don’t even want to touch it anymore.”
“Because it could turn to dust?”
“Yes.” I cleared my throat, switching to English. “Let us return to working through this text.”
“S….sure thingu…” She responded in even more broken English. “Letsu do it!”
For the rest of the evening, things felt as if they had returned to normal.

During Golden Week I came over to Tomika’s house a few blocks over. Mostly to help her grades, although we procrastinated quite a lot. And though it was mostly reading for me…
“Good morning, buddy!” For her it was her rubber fetish, with her wearing her well-endowed catsuit as she greeted me at the door.
“Are you going to wear it every day?”
“Only while my parents are gone. It is not like I get the chance to wear it around the house without restriction.” She explained, which also cleared me up as to why the situation during the last school day happened: Her parents drove off, and she ecstatic for such a rare opportunity, immediately put it on, only to forget that there was one more day of school and waking up late with no way out.
“Fair enough,… Learning or relaxation today?”
“We did hit the books until late yesterday, so I think we both deserve a treat. How about a round of Dragonslayers?” Tomika pulled out her phone, waggling it around.
“Very well… 1v1, Random map, as usual?”
“As usual.” I replied, already going to the preparation screen to pick mechas, pilots, commander and faction. “I bet you are going to also play as Commonwealth?”
“And you as Drakkenritterorden?” She replied with a smirk, leading us both to laugh. We both were highly predictable with our faction choice.
Soon enough we were sitting cross-legged across each other, building our army, expanding our economy, scouting out the other’s base, training our pilots and most crucially preparing to construct out first mech to get an advantage, meanwhile we glanced looks at each other trying to read what we were each planning.
“Is something?” Tomika looked up after I had finally gathered all the resources to build the last piece of my first mech and deploy it.
“No… nothing…” I maintained my poker face. If things are going to plan, I would be standing in front of her base with a mech optimized for countering her favorite strategy of mass infantry and melee mechs, with my artillery focused mech, surrounded by cheap, numerous fodder by the 15-minute mark, hoping she wouldn’t adapt to my choice of mech parts by building fast tanks to crash through my lines and take it out.
It was at this moment the doorbell rang.
“Wait, could it already be here?” Tomika murmured. “Can we pause for a bit?”
“Eh, yes. Are you expecting something?” I nodded, putting down my phone.
“Yes…” She told me, walking over to her closet and quickly pulling a shirt and sweatpants over her body, hiding the latex she was wearing. “A package.”
She left the room, with me hearing her running to the door and opening it, talking to the delivery man. All the while I stared at her phone.
With the match paused, I decided to sneak a look at how far she had come along, only to see that the game was not in the foreground anymore. Instead, it was social media she had pulled up in particular the post of a woman who wore a rubber suit like her, however her face was hidden by some sort of balaclava mask made out of the same material…
“Caught you.” Tomika had returned without warning, making me jump, which in turn made her giggle, as she took her shirt and sweatpants off, having put the package she had just received to the side. “If I told you I put it up to ward you off, would you believe me?”
“Did you?” I countered her question with another.
“Well, yes… But also no…” She grabbed a scissor from her desk and opened the package. “I was so excited to see how the hood would look like, I looked up an image from Miss Yogomu.”
“wait.. Hood? Is that what’s in there?”
“Yes…” She pulled the sides apart and took out the content. “There is currently a sale for Rubber Day, so I decided to buy this.”
It was another piece of rubber clothing in a zip-lock bag, which Tomika pulled out revealing it to be a hood with holes for what looked like… a face.
“Rubber day? What do you mean?”
“May the sixth. Rub-ber” (Rubber: Gomu, May: Go-gatsu, Sixth: Muika)
“Oh, I get it. But we have school again on that day, don’t we?”
“I know!” She sighed. “And my parents are going to be back tomorrow, so I won’t be able to walk around the house like this at all.”
“I assume the people you follow online will be having some kind of celebration for it?” I nodded to her phone lying next to her, the woman wearing the hood still visible.
“Yes… In fact, …” She looked at it with longing. “One day I want to go to a Rubber day convention. Everyone wearing latex and having the time of their life. Finally meeting people in person, I could only ever see online, maybe even become friends with them.”
“Next year we are finally done with school, so perhaps then?”
“Perhaps…” She whispered looking at her hood. “But for now I am going to enjoy what I have now.”
Tomika crawled to where she stashed the rest of her latex clothing away and pulled out the bottle of lube I had seen before, as well as a piece of cloth and a… latex facemask.
Quickly she pulled over the hood, shifting it so her eyes and mouth were aligned, poured a small bit of the liquid on it and proceeded to polish it with the cloth.
“Tell me, how do I look?” She asked me.
With the rest of her head hidden beneath the black hood, her lips became more pronounced and seemed fuller, her eyes became more prominent and enhanced. She moved her head around while she messaged the oil into it. It was…
“You like it, don’t you?” She grinned at me with radiant teeth.
“Well, it looks good on you.” I rubbed my eyes out to avoid looking at her.
“Ehehe…” She held up her head with both her hands. “Do I look sexy?”
“Ehm… You are covered in rubber from head to toe.”
“Not entirely…” She objected. “You can still see my mouth and eyes. But with this…”
She picked up the facemask, put it over her head and fixated it with straps on the back of her head. Could she even breath in this thing?
“Ah…” She breathed out, proving she it was possible for her to breath in it. “Now I am… almost… covered. Hmm, maybe I should have bought a hood with microperforations for my eyes like my facemask has.”
“You mean small holes?” I looked closer at her facemask and indeed could see pin-prick sized holes all over it.
“Yes… Ah… Or a blindfold or something like that would have been a good purchase too.”
“A blindfold?”
“Yes… Wait… That reminds…” She crawled up to me, with her body, her eyes piercing into me, while her mouth moved unseen. “Don’t you have one? I think I saw a black blindfold laying around in your room.”
“I do… But it isn’t rubber, and I would need to go back to my house and…”
“Doesn’t matter. Could you fetch it for me? Please!” Her eyes begged me as well as the way she knelt.
“Ok, ok. Sheesh. I’ll get it.”
“Thank you sooo much, buddy!” She was excited hearing this. “I’ll wait here.”
It was only a short walk back and forth, including finding where me sleeping blindfold was lying around, next to my discarded pajamas and put it in my pocket were no one could see it.
Returning to Tomika however, I found her taking pictures of herself, posing in various positions, with the final one being her leaning on the wall, while winking and making a V sign.
“Oh, you are back!”
“Why are you making pictures of yourself.”
“Because I want to post them online.”
“Are you serious? What are the people in school going to say about you?” I was a bit shocked to hear that, to but it lightly.
“Yes, of course I am going to post them on my main account for the school to see.” She stared at me, in disbelief after her sarcastic remark, clarifying: “I have an alt account I use to follow rubber stuff. Here…”
She showed me her account on the phone: It had no pictures, not even a profile picture, but already many people she followed and plenty of bookmarked posts with the name ‘PlayfulMiChan’
“And now with the hood I can finally post stuff without my face being seen!” She widened her arms triumphantly.
“Then why the blindfold?” I handed her it.
“Because I also want some pictures where I am completely faceless… Like a mannequin which has come to life.” She inspected the blindfold. “Why do you own a blindfold anyway?”
“The sunlight always shines directly on my eyes, especially during the summer.”
“Then just lower your shutters, buddy.”
“I tried that.” I sighed, while she put on the blindfold on her forehead. “It shines right between the wall and the shutter, in the summer waking me up at the crack of dawn.”
“Oh I get it.” She patted the blindfold on her head. “I’ll return it to you right after… But first…”
She handed me her phone with the camera active.
“Can you take pictures of me? Bit hard to do with the blindfold on.”
“I…” Before I could say anything more she had it over her eyes, removing the last vestige of her humanity. Before me sat a doll, without any facial features, where Tomika once was, breathing deliberately in and out.
Without warning it… she… got up and slowly felt her way towards her bed, plopping herself down and lying on it.
“Tomika…” I mumbled.
And then Tomika began to writhe and shift around.
“Are you alright?”
No answer came from her, but the creaking and squeaking of rubber against each other. Her hands moving up and down her body, fondling herself, turning around, sometimes with her face up top, other times lying on her belly.
Following, she made noises from her mouth, noises of delight and soft moans. She also began to squish her suit’s breasts and her bottom, latter she even slapped it once causing a cracking noise.
Finally, she hugged large pillow tightly with both her hands, lifted her bottom up and made even louder moaning noises.
Then she collapsed on her bed.
“How did they turn out?”
“Huh?”
“The… Oh please don’t tell me…” She got up, lifted the blindfold just above her eyes and took her phone back. “That’s why I didn’t hear any shutter noises. I put in all this effort and you didn’t take a single picture…”
“Sorry, it was just…” She eyes grazed me with disappointment. “You were just too…”
“Intense.” Her eyes and voice shifted to teasing. She gave me the phone back and sighed. “All right, I’ll turn it down a few notches. But I better be hearing the camera shutter a lot!”
“You will.” I opened the camera again. “I am ready.”
“You better be.” She pulled the blindfold over her eyes again. “Here we go.”
The poses this time were less on the erotic side, and more on the cute side, with her making one picture where she had formed a heart signed just between her head and her chest which I found particularly striking.
“Hey Tomika…” I remarked. “I think this would make a good profile picture. What do you say?”
Tomika had removed the blindfold and her facemask and looked at it.
“Yep… That’s nice. Let me see…” She then poured over the others. “That one. That one. That one…maybe. Nope. Yes. Yes. Nope. Nope. Double nope… Oh yes!”
“A good haul?” I took a gazed at them myself. Tomika was completely unrecognizable in them, with the only thing that maybe would give her away being the color of her bedroom walls and her bed.
“Yes, for a start it is perfect.” Tomika made an excited squeal. “I can’t say how thankful I am for you helping me out, buddy!”
“You are welcome…”
“What a fun day huh?” She smiled at me, still wearing her hood. It made her smile so much more serene.
“Yes, but I’ll have to go home, or my parents are going to ask if I stay over here.”
“I wouldn’t exactly mind.” She grinned and returned my blindfold to me. “But sure… See you, buddy.”
“Good night, Tomika.” I replied to her after she accompanied me to her door.
Yet even as I walked home and ate dinner with my parents who were talking giddily to each other I couldn’t help but see the image of Tomika in the hood with only her eyes and her mouth visible etched into my mind.

What was it with the hood Tomika showed me, which enticed me so, I wondered as I tossed around in bed.
All it was, was her head covered in a shiny material, with certain spots visible. A sentence came into my mind. One I had told the members of the literature club after critiquing their work, with the biggest offender being the description of a character by one of them which went on for one and a half pages.
“There comes a time when you achieve perfection not by adding more words, but by reducing words until only the necessary words are there.”
“But how will the reader now what my character looks like.”
“They will imagine it.”
Imagination… I know what Tomika looks like without the hood but still I was thinking of her at…
I looked at the phone: 0:32 am.
Then I noticed something else: My phone’s battery had drained extremely fast, down to the 10th percentile.
“What the…”
As I checked what app I had running I noticed that Dragonslayers was still running.
I quickly contacted Tomika.
H: Our match is still running
T: What
T: Fuck, it really is huh
T: Want to finish this before going to sleep
H: Sure
I grinned, as I still knew my mech was almost ready. She would never see it coming
T: Great, I am feeling really comfy right now in my bed with my suit on
H: You are wearing it in bed??
T: Yes, suit hood and all.
T: Wanna take a look, buddy? :)
T: Here you go
Attached to it was an image which was only viewable once before it deleted itself. I hesitated to open it at first, but ultimately, I did.
I was greeted by what was Tomika judging from the eyes. She sat in front of a mirror her legs spread with her phone between her legs directed at the mirror, with one hand holding the phone in place, while the other slightly squished her breasts while caressing the side of her face hidden by her facemask, with only her eyes poking out in a craving manner.
I could not tell for how long I just sat there and stared at her, at times shamefully swallowing my spit down. Only snapping out of it when she messaged me again.
T: Hey buddy. Are you ready to play?
H: Give me a minute
I put down my phone, clasped my hands over my face and began to chant.
“Tomika is your childhood friend. You have known her so far and did not think like that about her. Do not think like that about her. Do not think like that about her. Do not think like that about her. Do not think like that about her! Do not…”
T: My game’s open. Let’s go.
“Shit…”

Chapter III - Stories, colds and (latex) maids, oh my!

As president of the literature club it is Haruto’s duty to keep the other one’s on track with their writing project, even if the other members see his determination for literature as annoying rather than admirable. Tensions escalate when one of the members, Kohinata, gives his first draft to him.
All the while he also has to deal with Tomika and her secret: A latex fetish, which causes him to see her in a different light for the first time.
And with him not having written a single page for his own writing project, the last thing he needs right now is something causing him to miss a school day.

“This is just…” I tossed the draft Kohinata had come up with back on the table “Trash. I don’t know what else to say.”
“Again!?” Kohinata shouted at me. “Let me guess it is not ‘deep enough’. No ‘themes’, No….”
“All you did was take the standard Isekai story and swap, medieval Europe for 19th century America.”
Kohinata rolled his eyes and pouted.
“Let’s take the Sheriff’s daughter for example: The office of sheriff was NOT some inherited title passed down the generations. It was and is an elected office. Not to mention we are in an era where no women would wear so little… It is simply unrealistic.”
“Why do you care so much about details like that anyway? Elves, orcs and dragons exist already. Why not take creative liberties?”
“There are creative liberties…” I gestured trying to calm him down. “And then there is doing no research on the USA during this time period beyond stereotypes about guns, cowboys and Indians and writing a jumbled mess.”
“I have at least already written something, unlike you!” He grabbed his stuff and sat himself in the corner away from me, continuing his scribblings. “I see you at the finish line.”
“Kohinata, all you are going to make is going to be subpar.”
Kohinata refused to even answer me, with him getting out his headphones and blocking me out.
“Oof…” I could hear someone from the others in the club room murmur who had born witness to our heated discussion.
All he came up with was some bog-standard plot: A self-insert protagonist whisked away to not-America, with the quest to vanquish generic demon lord again, all the while getting the attention of every female character around him, with all being scantily clad. Was it too much to ask to do at least a minimum of research before starting to write?
“Fine, do it your way. If you actually want to do proper research feel free to use the books over there.” I pointed to the shelf with the heavy books. “I know you won’t though…”
For now, I decided to focus on my own writing project and for that I needed inspiration, which I certainly couldn’t get coped up here. Think… Vikings… Pirates… Seafaring… water…
My tired eyes darted to the pool building.
Besides getting inspiration, today Tomika and I would go to our part-time job again so I might as well pick her up, I thought as I walked down to the pool building, with the exercises still ongoing.
“Can I wait here while Tomika swims her rounds?”
“Shimizu? Sure, but it’s your fault if your books get wet.” The coach told me bluntly, to which I nodded, sitting myself down in safe distance from the school pool, while he took his whistle in his mouth.
Tomika waved me just before he blew it. Once he did Tomika jumped into the water, with the other swimming club members, although it was soon clear why she had been their captain since the second year: She immediately got ahead of the pack, gliding through the water like a seal, and when faced with one end of the pool, she swiftly made the turn without barely losing any tempo.
She was a natural at this compared to me, who was contend with being able to swim without drowning.
“Aaaand… 3:05. Very good.” The coach stopped her time, keeping counting for the ones coming after her.
“Almost 3 minutes. Woohoo!” Tomika pumped up her fist, while holding on to the pool edge. She had very much given her all, judging from how she slowly heaved herself out of the water, her swimsuit dripping and glistening. It almost reminded me of…
“Hey, to what do I owe the honor?” She walked up to me, having dried off a bit.
“Just a change of scenery…” I answered her, while leaned over my books.
“And?” Tomika pushed it down and looked me straight in the eye.
“Our part-job. Our shift should start soon. I’ll just finish this up, you go ahead and get changed.”
“Ah fine.” She slouched off towards the direction of the locker room, returning with her school uniform on. “All set and ready?”
“Yes…” I had gotten barely anything done, nothing but the overarching world where two cultures which couldn’t be any more different clashed with each other. “Let’s go.”
“Very well…” She pitched her voice to a very formal tone, taking on the posture we would need for our work. “We wouldn’t want to let the masters and mistresses waiting, would we?”

“You look very fine today!” Tomika jested as I walked out of the male locker room of the restaurant we worked at. “Like a real butler…”
“Oh, shut up…” I sighed, while looking at Tomika, who was dressed up as a maid. “You look very dashing too.”
“I take that as a compliment.”
“Enough dallying you two!” One of our work colleagues interceded. “We got a full house today.”
The Royal Albion Teahouse originally started as a maid café with a focus on British style teatime, however the owners decided to also expand to butlers to get more potential customers, which is how I got hired, thanks to Tomika already working here.
“May I help you, ma’am?” From the reactions of the female customers, the gambit has been a resounding success.
“Of course…” The woman in her late 20s sounded sickly. “Let me see…”
“May I recommend chamomile-lemon? The mistress sounds rather unwell.”
“You could say that… Ugh my head… I will have that and some cucumber sandwiches then.”
I quickly wrote down her order and gave her a slight bow. “It’ll be here right away.”
As I gave the kitchen the order I could hear Tomika talk to another maid, Hanao.
“Your friend is a natural at this. It’s like he has been to butler school or something?”
Well, reading about Victorian England and researching how servants acted in their households was no butler school, but for a part time job it was more than enough, in addition to using a very formal vocabulary and having good manners.
“I know…” Tomika rolled her eyes, not having noticed me. “It is just every time one of those older woman looks at him…”
She had seen me, immediately turning back to her work, loading up a tablet with teacups and delivering them to the correct table.
“What is?” Hanao called after her.
“Tell ya later…” She scurried away.
“Order for table 6!” One of the kitchen staff handed me the order for the sickly office lady, which I delivered with alacrity.
“Here is your order, ma’am. Pepermint-Lemon tea and cucumber sandwiches.” I put the sandwiches on her table, as well as the warmed, empty cup.
“Ah thank you very much….” She took a bite from a sandwich, seemingly having some trouble swallowing it.
“Would the mistress like her milk first or last” I held up the small teapot and a small can of milk.
“Neither I don’t need i… iiii… it… ACHOO!” before I managed to react, I could feel a hail of droplets on my face, not to mention see them on my uniform. “Oh no. I am so sorry… I am…”
“No need to worry about me, ma’am. I am fine.” I gently put down the pot and milk can, took the towel on the towel I was carrying around my arm wrist, and cleaned her snot of my face. “I would however strongly recommend the mistress to not strain herself so much at work. Perhaps taking a day off would do your health good?”
“I know. But I have some big projects I am working on so I cannot really…” She told me while I proceeded to pour just her tea in and hand the cup to her hands, with her breathing on it and drinking a bit. “Ah that feels good…”
“I wish you a wonderful afternoon here.” I bowed to which she nodded, drinking more of her tea.
“You got the full load from her, buddy.” I crossed paths with Tomika while going to the next table. “Wanna take it easy?”
“’Tis but a sneeze. It won’t be making a cripple of me.” I laughed, staying in butler-persona.
As the afternoon became evening however, I could feel my nose tingle. But I thought it would probably pass by tomorrow. I even drank lots of chamomile tea, just to nip whatever this was in the bud.

When I woke up, I felt like… I felt like…
I felt like shit! My head throbbed, my throat scratched, my nose was running and soon enough I started coughing. Great, I still needed to go to school though. Why couldn’t it have been on the weekend?
I slowly got out of my bed and tried my best to at least look somewhat put together before going to kitchen where my mother was sitting and reading something on her phone.
She took one look at me before getting up and walking me back to my room. “I will call the school. You go back to bed.”
“No, it is fine. I can manage…”
“Just like your father…” She sighed. “You wouldn’t make it halfway to your school. Take the day off.”
I slowly crawled back under the sheet; I could feel my body shiver while feeling hot.
“I’ll leave you some rice porridge and there is some soup in the fridge left over. But I won’t be here until late in the evening…” My mother said, coming in with a bowl of the stuff.
“I’ll write…” I spoke with a dry voice. “Tomika, I’ll need to ask her to bring me the stuff I will miss today anyway.”
“Ah, good for you to have such a good friend. Hope you will get better dear.” She smiled and leaving for work and me bedridden.
After a while, when my head didn’t press as hard, I managed to swallow the porridge, get to the toilet and back, and wrote Tomika about me having caught the cold from hell.
T: Must have been the sick customer yesterday
H: She should sue her boss for letting her work with something like this, for her and her coworkers’ sakes
T: I will be there as soon as I can buddy
T: Hope youll get better :)
H: Thanks
And so, I lay there in my bed, having eaten the porridge already, my mind pushing me to do something and not just laze about, yet when I tried to push myself to do something productive my mind ached in agony.
“Ugh…”
It felt wrong to just do nothing while my class was ongoing. It felt even more wrong to do something frivolous like playing videogames, which I eventually attempted.
But even at the start screen of Dragonslayers, where I perused my collection of mech parts, pilots and commanders and checked the contracker, I started to get headaches and when I tried to continue my playthrough of the Octavius campaign I had to stop when my eyes were starting to burn.
I put the phone aside and closed my eyes, trying to sleep despite my body freezing and burning alike. Just with what kind of cold did that woman infect me, I wondered, to cause me such discomfort? Not to mention the sheer number of tissues I went through just to keep my nose dry, making me eventually plop my nose with two of them.
Minute for minute, hour for hour I continued to stare at the ceiling of my room, wishing for it just to be over, for something to just take whatever is causing this ravaging of my body and tear it out cleanly.
As my phone rang, I managed to grasp it with my shivering hand and hit ‘Accept Call’ and put it on loud and on my nightstand again.
“Hey, buddy. How are you doing?”
“Not very good…” I croaked.
“Sheesh! I can hear that.” Tomika sounded very concerned. “Don’t worry I’ll be there in a bit. Asked the coach if I could skip training today to look after you.”
“Whatever it is must be very infective. Bring a mask or something just in case…” I continued. “Wouldn’t want to give whatever I caught to you.”
“Very well. Hold on for a bit longer, buddy.” She responded. “I also asked the teachers to give the handouts of today…”
“Thanks a lot Tomika… cough… I will leave the yard door unlocked.” I said as I got up and walked down, my body screaming out in pain as I walked down and up the stairs
“Crap that sounds bad…” I could hear her whisper before I left the room. “I’ll see you in a bit!”

A good few hours later I could hear someone open the backdoor, with footsteps following.
“Tomika is that you?” I tried to shout as loudly as I can.
“Yes,..” She replied. “Just give me another minute or three…”
What did she need a minute more? Perhaps put on a medical mask or gloves?
“Argh…” My head ached returned with a vengeance after thinking too hard on it. It was likely something… As long as she…
I heard footsteps coming to my door which soon opened to reveal:
“Master…”
A maid costume. A maid costume of a material I very much knew by now: Rubber. The person wearing it, was also wearing a maid headdress, the same as Tomika’s at work, as well as what looked like two facemasks: One of rubber and on top of it a regular medical facemask. “I am here for. You can rest easy now.”
“Huh…” my head started spinning. Where did she get that dress from? Why did she even wear it? To catch what I had? And why did she call me master? All these questions however where melting in the face of the aching in my head.
“Don’t worry, master.” Tomika made a curtsey, holding the fringes of her dress, then walked up to my bed holding a small bag, opening it to fetch a thermometer. “I am going to treat you as best as I can. First off… Open your mouth.”
I opened my mouth with her sticking it into a corner of it waiting for it to finally beep.
BEEP!
“Let’s see…” She pulled it out, with me noticing that her hands were in rubber as well. “38.1° C Not good, but nothing dangerous. Let me see if you have sweated already. Can you sit up?”
I nodded as she put the thermometer back in the bag and helped me sit straight, only to quickly take a swipe of my body with her cold rubber hands, making my skin tingle.
“Nothingy the fever is still working on it.”
I used the time she checked my sweat to remove the tissues in my nose, swollen by snot.
“Ah, good thing I brought some nasal spray. I will prepare it while the master is blowing his nose. Not too harshly though.”
I nodded. Taking a tissue slathering it, while she pulled out a nasal spray, shook it, and sprayed a small amount into the air.
Gently she held the back of my hand and inserted it into my right nose hole and held the other shut with her other’s hand’s thumb.
“As soon as it comes, you need to breath it in as hard as you can, master. Three, two, one…”
A rush of burning liquid entered my nasal cavities. Not a throbbing burning like I felt before, but a sharp, purifying burn.
“Now the other.”
She repeated it there too, allowing me to, for the first time in hours, use my nose to breath, though it was far from open again.
“Feeling better, master?”
“Yes…” I sniffed, finally being able to breathe through the nose again. A wonderful feeling.
“Very good. Would the master like to eat something?”
I nodded. “Preferably something light… Oh and some tea I guess…”
“Very well… I will be back in a moment.” Tomika bowed slightly and disappeared through the door and downstairs, where I could hear her using our kitchen.
I took a deep labored breath while slacking back down into my bed. My head was still throbbing, but finally I was able to push myself to ask myself: Why the hell was Tomika wearing a rubber maid costume?
Without her to answer it, I tried to rationalize it: I did warn her that she should take care not to infect herself and with rubber, from what I knew, being very sterile, maybe she thought it could help in that?
Great, but that still did not explain why she was wearing a maid costume, in general, even if it was made of normal cloth.
“Your chicken soup and tea are done, master.” Tomika pushed herself through the door while holding a tablet with a bowl and a cup, both steaming and put it down on my nightstand. There was also some kind of pillow next to them, I swore I could recognize.
“Tomika… Why do you…” Before I could put my question together, Tomika already took a spoonful of chicken flavored soup porridge, pulled down her face masks to blow on them, before masking up again and leading the spoon to my mouth.
“Say ah…”
“Ah!” The food, after cooling down a bit, flushed down my throat easily, without feeling too painful. “very good…”
“Thank you, master…” Tomika was clearly smiling, even with only her eyes visible, stirred the porridge a bit and gave me another spoon. And another. And another. And another. Until finally the bowl has been emptied and my belly was filled with warm, easily digestible food.
“Should I arrange the pillows so you can comfortably drink your tea, master?” She put the bowl aside.
“Yes, that would be very kind of you.” I used the minor amount of strength I had to push myself up, though Tomika still had to help me, with her taking some of my pillows and arranging them to support me. She also quickly snuck the pillow on the tablet beneath my sheet.
It was warm and from the touch of it filled with…
“Cherry pits?” It then dawned on me where I had seen this pillow. “You still have your guest brother’s cherry pit pillow?”
“It was a gift from Gustav, so yeah…” Tomika broke character for a moment. “Not to mention that it is nice to have it on your lap when you feel terrible.”
She probably used our microwave to quickly warm it up and it certainly felt very nice to have something so warm, almost to the point of being hot, overpowering the pain and heating up my outer body.
“Anyway…” She cleared her throat. “Does the master have any more wishes?”
“Ehm…” I looked at her, while letting the tea cool down beneath my nose, it’s chamomile-lemon scented steam soothing my nostrils, before taking a sip, with the hot water scorching at my sore throat. “Could you get some books from my shelf?”
“Of course, master? Any wishes?” She said, walking up to it: It was filled mostly with books I had already read, which normally would be not very enticing, but right now something lighter, something I already knew the contents of would be excellent.
“They are not ordered so it might be hard to pick out: Tragedy and Hope, The worm at the core and Albion’s Seed.”
As soon as I mentioned the last one, I could hear Tomika crack up and snickering.
“Is something?”
“No nothing … hehe… seed…” She continued to giggle behind her mask while slowly pulling out the three books and carrying them to my nightstand. “Here is your perusal, master.”
“Thank you, anything else?”
“That would be… Oh wait…” Tomika went to her bag and pulled out a bunch of papers. “Here are the papers your tutors have given to the class in your absence, master.”
“Tutors? Oh, you mean teachers…” I took another sip of the chamomile-lemon tea. “Anything important I missed?”
“Not really master. I also added the book pages you need to look up. Although I doubt it would be very difficult for you to find them on your own.”
“Thank you, Tomika.”
“Would you mind if I stay here, master? Just in case you need something.”
“No not at all… Feel free to make yourself comfortable…” I opened the first page of Tragedy and Hope.
“Thank you, master.” Tomika made a small curtsey. “I will be attending my own studies while I am here, if you don’t mind.”
Tomika proceeded to kneel down at the table in my room, her dress hiding her legs fully, taking out her notebook and utensils and began with her homework, deeply concentrated in it, while I read through words I had already once absorbed, reading more for the sake of reading, and not to inspire some deep thought.
And yet I still wondered.
“Why dress as a maid?” I asked her, in a non-expectant manner.
“I am your maid, master… What else…”
“I mean for real?” I emphasized my question, making her stop for a second.
“I want to feel cute from time to time, I guess. Do you think I look cute, master?”
Looking at her dress: frilly and ornate, yet simple and straight. I knew little of fashion, and neither did Tomika, from what I knew of her.
“You look good in it.” I nodded. “Very cute indeed.”
“Thanks. Means a lot to me, Haruto…” I heard her mumble.
“Did you say something?”
“I appreciate your compliment, master.” She corrected herself, while… blushing? Maybe I still needed to get better. But her being there with me, allowing me to chat from time to time certainly helped pass the time quicker, even with her doubly strange outfit.
Eventually the sun started to set, and Tomika started packing her things up, but not before taking away the empty mug and bowl, and tugging me in.
“By tomorrow you will be all well again, master.” Even now she kept in character, radiating a gentle aura which put me straight onto the fast-track of recovery, in addition to the food, the tea and the cherry pit pillow.
“Hopefully we see each other at school again, Tomika.”
“I hope so as well… Give my greetings to your mother.” She made one final curtsey, before lifting her bag and walking out the door.
Before she did however, she stopped.
“By the way Kohinata talked to me. He wants me to tell you to meet him once you are well again.”
“I.. will…” I slid deeper into my bed, as she left the room and, after a few minutes, likely due to having to take off the maid dress, out of the house, leaving me to slowly, but surely get better.
The next morning, I woke up very hungry, but feeling better than ever, noting to myself to speak with Kohinata and press Tomika about what the deal was with the rubber maid dress.

“Why the dress?” I walked up to Tomika on our way to school, trying to temper my still sore voice.
“I told you: I wanted something cute to wear.”
“Then why not your regular maid uniform.”
“I just thought I’d be more…”
“Sanitary?”
“I wanted to say fun. But I’ll take that argument as well.”
“Where did you even buy it? Your usual site?”
“Not exactly: It was second hand, so much cheaper, but still good quality all things considered. Also means it doesn’t need to be fitted exactly to me.”
“It was pretty loose, now that I think about it…” It certainly was less revealing then her usual catsuits, although her bust… Wait…
“Did you wear your black catsuit beneath it?”
“Maybe.” She grinned and me a head rubbing. “Ah it is good to see you back to your old self!”
“By the way: Why did Kohinata want to talk to me?”
“I dunno…” Tomika shrugged. “But he sounded like apologetic.”
“Really? And here I thought he is still mad at me for criticizing his self-insert story…”
“From what he told me you had been pretty harsh on him.”
“I… Look… If you had read it, you would come to the same conclusion…”
“Maybe…” She put her hands behind her head. “Although I might have put it a bit lighter… You are always unusually blunt. Even Gustav said that, and he is German.”
“Okay I get it, the German exchange student told me I am too direct even for him… Sigh!”
For a while we just walked side by side, until the question of her rubber maid uniform crossed my mind again.
“Why would anyone even think of making a rubber maid uniform anyway? Like, who would come with that?”
“Oh, your poor innocent thing…” Tomika put on a haughty voice.
“That doesn’t answer my question.” I pushed her, to which she hastened her step.
“Tomika!” She started running. “Hold up!”
Faster and faster and faster.
Until finally we reached the school.
“You… haven’t…”
Before I could finish, she put a finger over her mouth. “Let us continue this when we are somewhere more private, alright?”
Behind us I could already hear the main wave of students reaching the school.
“Fine…” I gasped, walking to the locker and switch shoes.

Kohinata proved to be extremely elusive, with me trying to find him in class during the small breaks between the hours, yet every time he seemed to dodge me in one way or another, even when I had asked people where he was, he was already gone by that time. Just my luck. I really did not want to have this discussion during our club time when I could be working on my project.
However, I also did not want to waste my lunchbreak to chase after him.
Suddenly my phone beeped.
T: Yo, did your mom give you leftovers to delete?
H: Yes
T: Would you mind if I help you? :P
H: Right next to the waterspouts behind the school? As usual?
T: Ill be waiting. Gonna need it to make up for skipping swimming yesterday
She always did have a big stomach, and for all the rubber maid shenanigans she pulled yesterday, I did owe her for it. And besides my mother hates me bringing leftovers back from school.
Walking up to the back to the school I found Tomika intently staring at her phone with her headphones on.
As such I decided to sneak up on her from behind just to see what she was looking at.
On screen where two people in full rubber, orange and white respectively, wearing some kind of rubber animal mask, with one humping the other and grabbing something between their legs. The title: The fox’s trap turns into the bunny’s trap.
“Tomika…” I pulled out one of her earphones. “What are you watching there?”
“YIIIIIEEKS!” She jolted upwards, only to see it was me and relaxing again. “Oh, it is just you.”
“What are you watching? If anyone else but me saw you, it would be over for you!”
“Well, I found these two’s account and saved some of their content… I thought you would come later.”
Right, I had been looking for Kohinata and thus were closer to our usual spot.
“Why are you even watching two guys having… it?”
“Come on, have you ever seen what boys watch to get off? I like men, and want to see more men, boys usually like women and want to see more of them and less dick, well male dick that is.”
I hated the way she put it, mostly because it made a surprising amount of sense. Most guys wouldn’t want to share when it came to this.
“Besides…” She added scrolling back to a moment before the two animal faced actors went at it. “It is not male on male anyway.”
She pointed to the one does not bend over, adjusting something on their hips looking like a…
“Is that fake phallus?”
“A strap-on!” She said enthusiastically, as the bunny woman entered the fox man in the video, the sound thankfully muted. “They are really great at this… Should have seen the beginning where it looked like the fox would devour the bunny before she managed to subdue him. Well, she does have a small chest, so the mix-up is a given”
“Please turn it off…” I stared blankly at her salivating gaze, to which she obliged with a blush. “Why do you even watch something crass like that in general.”
“Rubber just short circuits my brain…” She admitted after an awfully long pause.
“What?”
“I… Gah, how do I say this…” She scratched her hair while finding the right words to explain it to me. “If it has latex I want to see it. No matter what is in it…”
“Anything?”
“Well okay I do have my limits: Feces, urine… And especially the pig nose.”
“Pig nose?” Tomika pulled up her nostrils as an answer.
“It just looks very stupid.” She laughed it off. “But there are some people into humiliation who like it.”
“But everything else is good? As long as it has latex?”
“Yes, and latex can be combined with basically anything. As you could see with my rubber maid outfit.”
“So, you did it for your own desires!” I pointed at her.
“Okay, fair I might have had ulterior motives. Latex is such a fantastic material, and you can be use it for any type of clothing or costume…”
“Any?” I furrowed my eyebrows.
“Yes, say it and I can show you a picture with a person wearing it as latex…”
“Hmm…” I thought of something far away from what you could use it. “Military uniforms.”
“Nope.” Within seconds she produced a picture of a girl in a red parade uniform.
“I meant practical uniforms.” I swerved away, while eating my lunch, with Tomika picking out tidbits with her chopsticks while we played this weird game.
“Still nope.” She next showed me a girl in special ops gear with an undersuit of rubber, emerging from a sewer, guns pointed.
“Crap… hmm…” Maybe something more pious, more sacred… “Nuns. There is no way…”
Tomika grinned and pulled up an image with a woman in a nun costume praying, while a vibrator was bound between her legs. “This one’s a classic.”
“Damn it…” I bit my lip. “How about… eh… nurses… No wait, they usually wear latex gloves…”
“Oh, these ones do not just wear throwaway gloves.” Tomika told me as she showed me a nurse with latex clothing and a white gasmask, holding some kind of suction device over what had to be the patient’s member. “And that look of hers. Cold and sterile…”
“Ninja…” I fell into her words. “Something like latex would be way too noisy.”
“Actually…” Tomika was silently swiping on her phone, giving me hope.
And quickly she dashed it, showing me several female masked rubber shinobi images. “This guy also writes a story about them. Gotta bookmark those…”
“I totally forgot about kunoichi.” I moaned at my short sightedness at forgetting about female ninja who use their own bodies as a bait and the usual dark-blue suits…
And so our game went on. And at every turn she no matter what I guessed she came up with an image, be it drawn or taken, of someone wearing rubber clothing in that style. From fire fighters, to police, to school uniforms to kimonos to knights and finally…
“What about pilot suits…”
“Do I need to even show you a picture?”
“What do you mean?”
“Dragonslayers.”
“Right…” I groaned, upon remembering what the pilots of the Dragonslayer mechas wore. “I thought of airplane pilots… But these suits are shiny and tight… I see it…”
“You give up?”
“You win.” I responded to her poking me.
“Speaking of Dragonslayers…”
“Are you thinking about LoDs con?”
“Well…” She hesitated for a moment. “Not exactly… I just realized that latex kinda has a futuristic style about it.”
“Futuristic? How come?”
“Think about it: It is shiny when polished, very sleek, skintight. Doesn’t that remind you of the sort of… eh what’s the word… function over form… No extras, just slick rubber.”
“I see what you mean.” I chuckled. “Funny, considering rubber is made from tree sap.”
“And there are so many clothes and accessories you can combine it with.”
“Yes…” I looked at her tentatively.
“That’s a whole style. Even my little accident with me having to wear it beneath my school uniform: The studious high schooler on the surface, but a pervert beneath.”
“Anything else that pairs well with it?”
“Well, there is of course corsets and high heels, and basically anything related to bondage, cuffs and chains and the like. Oh and of course gasmasks!”
“Gasmaks? Like real ones?”
“Yes, although they are a pain to get. Argh… I tell you every time I find one of the good ones they cost as much or more than an entire catsuit.”
“They were made to protect from hazardous gases, not for your pleasure…”
“Yes, I know… But still, what wouldn’t I give to own one.” Tomika gushed as she snatched the final morsel of food and looked at the time. “Almosht ova… Letsh ge back to clash befo the teshas come lookin fo us”
“Would you at least swallow before we go back?”
“Gulp. Sorry… Hehe…” Tomika laughed, then leaned back and smiled at me. “Thanks for listening to me ramble about rubber for a bit. I… never had anyone I could talk to when it came to it.”
“You are… welcome?” I blinked at her a few times before I finally packed up my box and both of us returned to class.

“Kohinata, you wanted to talk to me?” I walked towards him, as he looked up to me from his writing. “Writing going well.”
“Yeah… uhm…” He then pulled out a book, Nine nations of North America, one not from the main shelf, but form the books only I usually read. “Yesterday when you were sick… I took your advice and looked around your shelf and found this… ehm… Was a bit hard to read though…”
Kohinata laughed awkwardly. “But from the little I understood from it… I found it fascinating. I hope you don’t mind I took one of your books…”
“Well…” I stuttered a bit flattered. “I only contributed them; they are technically for the entire club to read… I am usually the only one though…”
“I am relieved. Thought you might get mad at me…”
“No not at all…”
“Although…” He flicked through the pages of it. “Even after going through it a bit, I still don’t get it. I thought the USA was one nation?”
“…under god.” I joked in English. “Well, it is legally, but beneath those are… let’s call them regional identities, some even existing before the people of them came to North America.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Can you pull up the map?” I said as I got out one of the books, I had not managed to finish during my sickness yesterday from my bag: Albion’s seed.
It showed the North American continent divided into various regions like New England, The Foundry, Dixie, Quebec or the Breadbasket.
“Just like how in Japan there are different regions with their own sub identities, like Okinawa, Hokkaido or even Osaka, there are also regional identities in the USA.”
“Why is Canada included though?”
“Canada is culturally very close to the USA, though from what I read the Canadians are very keen to try and differentiate themselves. Anyway…” I pulled out Albion’s seed and opened it on a page with a map.
“These sub identities are even stronger in the USA as most of these people came from somewhere else with the two most notable regions being New England and the Dixie south.”
“Weren’t they all English?”
“Not the exact kind.” I explained further. “The New Englanders were mainly descendant of the Puritans who were more religious and egalitarian, while the American south has deeper roots in the aristocratic parts of England. As you can see here… They even came from different parts of England.”
“Oh…”
“The two groups fled to North America separately with the Cavaliers after they lost the English Civil War, only for the Puritans to flee later after the monarchy was reinstituted.”
“And both would end up having another Civil War centuries later.” Kohinata recognized the cruel historic irony. “But for different reasons… Hmm… Now this is very helpful…”
“Really?”
“Yes, I thought about giving the world of the story I am writing a bit more nuanced conflicts then just ‘Demons who got their lands conquered’ vs ‘Descendants of the divine army’ now settling there. But this whole concept of different people, cultural or ethnic, clashing over how Fredonia should be governed.”
“You don’t have to copy the actual history verbatim if you don’t want to. Also there are regional identities not even mentioned in this book.”
“Like?”
“Well, there are the Mormons, a weird Christian sect from what I read, the Ozarks who are the descendants of Scottish settlers… Oh and Scandamerica, who originate from Scandinavia, naturally.”
“Wait, I thought Vikings never settled permanently in America.”
“They didn’t. But in the late 19th century a ton of settlers were coming in from Scandinavia who, funnily enough, tended to settle in a region that was climatically close to their old home.”
“You are telling me they travelled thousands of kilometers only to settle somewhere familiar.”
“Yes…”
“Haha… If I wrote that it would be made fun of…”
“History can be outlandish at times.”
“Speaking of Vikings… What about your story…”
“Well…” I cleared my throat. “I am not quite sure…”
“Just tell me what you got Ikemoto.”
“Very well…” I sat down and began telling him of a world where, with the America not existing, the Vikings of 1000 years ago, reached North-East Asia, slowly sailing down the coast of Asia, causing havoc in Korea and Japan. The main point of the story would be how much our ancestors in Japan and the Vikings clashed culturally, in language mainly but also in expectations of their nobility and in their religion, but also how we had some weird commonalities like bathing a lot or wearing ones hair long, with me describing a scene where a Viking lord asked a captured slave about a shrine, him being told it is of Raijin, a thunder god, he entered it making a prayer to Thor for good fortune.
“And what is the Viking lord’s name?”
“I haven’t thought of that really…” I admitted shamefully.
“A world needs to be filled with interesting characters to be a good story. Even someone like Tolkien knew that, and he created an entire language before writing the prequel to his greatest work.”
“Hmm… I just haven’t come with something good yet.”
“Then… Let me think… How about this: The Viking lord makes a deal with the emperor: He gets to rule the regions in north Honshu to bring the Emishi under imperial control and his oldest daughter is married off to someone at the court, maybe even one of his sons.”
“Is that son a self-insert…”
“Well…” Kohinata blushed as I caught him.
“But I do have to say, that is not bad as a start. The Vikings often became part of the aristocracy back in Europe anyway. With some at the court questioning the emperor’s decision, maybe some local daimyo who naturally don’t want the foreigners taking their glory of dealing with the Emishi… The Emishi themselves trying to play the Vikings and the local daimyo against each other in order to survive.”
“Man, I hoped you would be thinking more about the guy getting a cute, blondie as a wife.”
I rolled my eyes. “It would be an arranged marriage so not much there, but… I guess it could lead to a series of the two slowly understanding each other and their respective peoples…”
“Do you have a name for your story?”
“I thought about… Kita no akuma.”
“Devils of the north?”
“The European people getting raided in real life saw them as such. I doubt we would have seen them any differently.”
“Sounds dope! Can’t wait to read it.”
As Kohinata turned back to his writing, I turned back to my work as well.
For a while I stood over a first blank page before I finally put down the first of many sentences describing the tale of the first contacts with the people Europeans knew as Vikings.
‘The messenger read the report of his now burned village again to his lord: They arrived in the early morning, in boats with the heads of dragons, washing up on the beach. Then the pale ghosts disembarked their boats and ran up the beach howling like demons. “Did they shout anything specific?” the lord asked his frightened subject. He swallowed the fear which has shaken him to his bone when he first saw these hairy beasts run towards the villages, to plunder, to rape, to pillage it, down his throat. “Va… Va… Varuharra.” The word alone caused a terrifying moment of silence in the audience hall.’

I was surprised at how much progress I had made in the time I came home, even if I stayed there until our club supervisor asked me to leave. However, when I finally was home after taking a detour to the convenience store, Tomika had written me she wanted to talk about something in her room.
“It better not be about latex again…” I sighed as I read her message, making my way to her house, but not before making a detour to my room and picking up the cherry pit pillow, she had left here yesterday. It had kept me nice and cozy all the way until I slept, having cooled down completely by next morning.
As I made ran down the blocks to her house, I came to wonder about why she had mentioned gasmasks. Perhaps the facelessness? Or because they could be made from rubber as well? I tried to imagine Tomika wearing one but couldn’t really come to a clear picture even when I rang on her door.
“Ah come in!” Tomika greeted me, wearing her rubber maid uniform, with a rubber facemask hanging loosely around her neck.
“I thought cleaning and drying this takes time?” I asked spryly.
“Yes it does, but when I saw it hanging in my closet today… I just couldn’t resist. But first come up to my room I got something to show you.”
“Is it more latex?” I raised my eyebrows.
“Well, yes… But actually no… You will see.” She waved me up the stairs. As I followed her, I noticed she was a tad taller than me, with the culprit showing itself as we walked up the stairs.
“High heels?” She was wearing knee-high leather boots with heels.
“They are my mother’s. They really fit the look, don’t they. Actually, wore them yesterday too.” Tomika answered me while she pulled the face mask over her face.
“Didn’t notice.” I commented, having been in bed the last day, I certainly did not catch that.
Shortly after we entered her room, she pulled out her phone and looked something u.
“You spoke about LoDS Con earlier?”
“Yes… It is still a few months due though, isn’t it? Do you want us to go there?” I had almost forgotten about it. The past conventions for Dragonslayers had been held overseas, but this year it would come to our country, and even better just at the beginning of the summer holidays.
“Correct. But there is more…” She was clearly grinning underneath her mask. “Look at this!”
“An E-Mail to… a latex tailor…” I gazed at Tomika who was giggling with excitement.
“Not my usual one though. Read on…”
“Let me see…” I read further, my eyes widening as it came to the order Tomika made. “Cosplay? Of Dragonslayer pilots?”
Tomika nodded. “And it should be ready by the time. What do you say… Should I order one for you as well?”
“Look…” I shut her down. “I know you like latex, but for me…”
“Come on.” Her eyes pouted. “Oh, who am I kidding, once you set your mind to something… But how about…”
“Spit it out.”
“Octavius? He always wears a neat coat, and you would be perfect for someone of his caliber of intellect.”
“Hmm… I don’t know…”
“Do you know any of the lines in the parts of the campaign we played?”
“Well…” There was only one speech I knew, mostly because it was the one in the intro cutscene of a recent level, the D.C. Siege, we still struggled at, and thus heard Octavius say that one too many times. “Step away from my chair…”
I readied myself, clearing my throat and stood up.
“I speak to you now, not as a soldier or citizen but as a grieving son…” I pointed downwards. “My great-grandfather died on this floor. Right there. Shot 27 times. Butchered by ones he called his friends. Who will tell me that is not murder? Who will tell my soldiers who still mourn for him after a century that that is not murder?”
I made a poignant pause in which Gerald Octavius’ soldiers would walk into the chamber.
“Who will speak against the motion?” I kept my tone as bitter and serious, as Octavius’ voice actor had done it. No shouting, but dogged will to reunite his country, by any means.
“Bravo!” Tomika clapped. “It’s like you are his Japanese ancestor or something.”
“As far as I know, he isn’t supposed to have Asian heritage…”
“I was just joking.” Tomika walked out and came back in with a coat and a pair of large round glasses. “Put this on.”
“Is this your dad’s?” It was way too large for me.
“Yep…”
Next, I took the glasses, very familiar glasses.
“Aren’t these yours? Last time you wore them was in middle school.” Putting them on left me with a blurry vision, although her eyes had gotten better at that point.
“Stay like this!” She told me as I had my hand on their frame, pushing them up my nose. “And… perfect!”
Tomika showed me her phone, after I took them off.
“Reminds you of a certain young ambitious commander?”
“You think I could pull off an Octavius cosplay?”
“Absolutely!” She exclaimed. “But probably not with my dad’s coat. Perhaps we should ask the sewing club for help?”
As she rambled on, I took the glasses and held them up in a way as if Tomika would wear them.
“What are you doing?”
“How do you think you would look wearing them right now?”
“I see… Combining maid and rubber with glasses…” She smirked with her eyes and took them to put them on. “How does it look?”
“I…” My heart stopped for a moment. The maid uniform, the glasses and especially the rubber, from some reason I could not fathom, were complementing each other extremely well.
“Am I looking cute? Or sexy? Or both? Wait, what would the combination of the two be called? Cuxy? Sete?”
“Cute…” I stammered. “You look cute in it.”
“Cute it is then.” She sighed for some reason and picked up her phone. “Would you mind taking a picture of it for my alt account?”
“Sure.” I said as she handed her phone to me.
She uploaded the pictures once I was home, and for the next hour, even though I had set my mind to it to finish the introduction of Devil’s of the North, I couldn’t help but distract myself by looking up the rubber maid with glasses pictures on her Tomika’s alt account.

Chapter IV - Good drones follow orders

It is that time of the year all students fear: Exams. Every second they are closer to that dreadful day students go either one of two ways: Face the beast head on and learn until their brains boil over, or try to cope with not learning for the tests at all by any means possible.
Tomika, never having been the best student, compared to Haruto is starting to behave strangely and Haruto begins to worry if she is not taking things too far.
Even more so that because it reminds him of the presentation he is going to has held in Social Studies.
The Topic: Over-centralization.

In this chapter: A bit of a different take on dronification inspired by a conversation on /d/.

“And this is why I think the biggest problem facing our nation is the abandoning of our countryside… Thank you for listening to me.” Tomika bowed to the class and walked back to her chair ready for the next student to hold their speech.
“What would you say is the biggest danger our country is facing?” This was the topic had to prepare for social studies class today, with Tomika speaking about how ever more villages just turn to ruins, with their last aged inhabitants dying away, like her grandparents’ village. In preparation for it she had asked me for help, finding good sources which I had already gathered due to my own topic overlapping rather well with hers, though mine was much larger in scope.
The others held their speeches about the usual candidates: Poverty, inequality, corruption, pollution, one even about the grander economic malaise going on, which surprised me.
After all those, however…
“Ikemoto. Your turn…” The teacher called me up. I had until now not raised my hand, or made myself notable, leaving the others to hold their speeches. All this, so that mine would have the biggest impact.
“Oh, that’s a lot of notes.” I could hear one student whisper as I walked past to the front of the class.
“We have heard many things plaguing our society and even the world at large. All of them naturally worth mentioning…” As I reached the blackboard, I took a piece of chalk and turned around. “Yet there is one threat far bigger than any of them, yet far more elusive. Something which can be seen everywhere, yet because it is everywhere it is the slowly boiling water we swim in. The biggest danger to our country is…”
I wrote the 4 kanji regarding my topic on the black board with broad strokes: 過集中化
“Over-centralization. Something that any tyrants of the past could only ever dream off. A gathering of control in the hands of very few leading to a system which robs humanity of both the people at the top, the bottom and everyone in the middle.
First let me set up the stage: We are writing the year 1771, on the other side in England the first factory in the world is opened…”

“So let me recap:” Tomika walked next to me as we walked away from school, but not home, yet. “With the help of technology, ever more power gathers into the hand of a ‘manager class’…”
“Manegerial.” I added. “It includes both private managers and public bureaucrats.”
“Okay… They get more power, but due to them only seeing the numbers they only get the statistics and not the humans behind them.”
“Yes, up until now large systems of bureaucracies involved delegation to a local department to a point where the local administrator knew the people on the ground personally and with lack of fast communication, they had a lot of freedom to make choices, with the central department being too far away to keep an eye on them all the times.”
“But with stuffs like the internat they can obviously… Like asking a worker past the usual hours if he could fix something.”
“Sure… But I thought more about things like keeping a precise track of everyone’s work output and promoting and firing after that, without needing to actually talk to them even once.”
“Hmm…”
“And with so much power and a system which incentivizes people to become cog in a machine… What would be easier? Admitting the system is wrong? Or genetically changing the humans on the ground to better follow orders and not do things like becoming depressive over feeling their life has no meaning beyond work.”
“I think the genetic engineering part is still a bit far fetched…”
“We are making strides there, but I doubt we know how to handle such godlike power.”
“One thing I still don’t get: The system you are describing… Is it capitalism or communism?” Tomika turned her head to me in confusion, the terms she had only really learned in social studies last year.
“It is both and neither… It is a hideous chimera.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Capitalism grew by supply and demand, by a local trader knowing where the wind was blowing and profiting from it, if a local guild didn’t have him punished for disturbing their way of doing this, but nowadays it is big amorphous companies, where the head has no idea about things at the bottom, only being able to see the workers as numbers and they in turn have no personal relations to their boss, he is just some faceless shadow at the top of the chain giving them orders. Meanwhile communism wishes it could just change humans to fit itself, to make them selfless and non-tribalistic, yet for most of history, no central planner had enough data to accurately decide what should and shouldn’t be produced and by how much, leading to them falling apart or allowing capitalism in one form or another, see China.”
“They have become more restrictive though from what we learned…”
“Because with the internet and big data, they have the control and the information they had always desired. They can finally cut out the middlemen they had to begrudgingly accept. And more so, remove their privacy and freedom by subtly nudging them in ways the first Chinese emperor could only dream of.”
“Buah… You really put a lot of thought into this…”
“Oh, trust me, this is barely scratching the surface. I haven’t even talked about elite overpopulation.”
“Let’s talk about something else: ” Tomika sighed. “My head is still spinning from all the population data in the book you have lent me. What about your club’s writing project? Are you coming along nicely with yours?”
“Yes, I finally managed to draft up all the characters I had planned for it, not to mention I finished the prolog where the Vikings start settling in northern Honshu.”
“I don’t think the local daimyo are going to like that.”
“Oh, they don’t. But they also see them like the Emishi, when in fact they are far more dangerous than the Emishi ever could be, especially because they know how to sail around to where they want to attack.”
“And where would that be?”
“Kyoto.”
“No way!”
“To a viking a city full of defenseless nobles would be like a candy shop to a child. Lots of plunder and little resistance… Although it does turn out differently then what their raid leader had planned, thanks to a cunning prince”
“Can’t wait. Mind if I read it when you are ready? I am no ace in literature, but I can find the odd typo and give you feedback.”
“I would very much appreciate that. Speaking of books…” I looked at the goal of our trip, the Spring-Cleaning flea market, a trove for rare things to turn up, like old books. “Do you want to tag along or split up?”
“Nah, I’d be boring if we were alone and besides… Maybe I find some old game, or manga, or something like that.” Tomika chuckled and we walked down the rows of stands, where people were offering the odds and ends which had accumulated over the years. Often, I had found books here, which no bookstore or even website had, almost forgotten by time itself if they had not been kept by their previous owner and sold to me or any other interested party.
What sort of rare tomes will I discover this year, with all the money I had saved I could buy plenty of them, although maybe I could help out Tomika if she found something which interested her.
“Something catching your eye?” I turned around only to stare at a stand with mainly military hardware, sans guns, of course. “Tomika?”
“Well… eh” Tomika stammered before pointing out something on the table. “This.”
“A…gasmask…”
“MSA Millenium… to be precise…” Tomika spat out, looking ashamed at knowing what type it was, with the man running the stand laughing.
“What do you want a gas mask for? Cosplay?”
“Ehm… yes…”
“Well, it’ll cost you a tidy sum…”
“I know that… Man” Tomika gazed longingly at it.
“Don’t worry Tomika I can buy it for yoooo…” I looked at the price and felt my heart sinking. “This much? You can’t be serious?”
It was nearly all the budget I had planned for the flea market.
“I am.” The seller responded. “These things are highly prized and rare to find anywhere outside of a big mass seller.”
“If you say so… Oof.”
“Haruto, you don’t need to.” She tugged me away. “I don’t need it anyway. Even if it is cheaper than anywhere else, I have seen them resold.”
Her voice was oozing with her a disappointment at losing out on such an opportunity. An opportunity she would likely never have again. I could see her looking back at it when we walked to the next stand.
“Tomika… Give me a moment…” I counted my money and walked up to the stand. “I would like to buy this.”
“Impressing your girlfriend? Good choice.”
“I am just her friend. I just want to make her happy.”
“Just joking… Here and in return…”
I forked over my cash, with great reluctance. I could have bought a dozen books for this, maybe even more. All gone, for a bag containing a respiratory device, a replacement visor, a filter and some other object I couldn’t quite pin down.
“Haruto… You really shouldn’t have.”
“I did.” I answered her dryly. “Hope you like it.”
“Oh… I will. Definitely.” She stared at the bag for a solid minute while we walked around. “I’ll buy you any book you want.”
“That’s going to be a lot of books.”
“If that is not enough… I can repay you another time.”
“Sure thing…” I nodded continuing to peruse the stands, distracting me from the eyewatering sum I had spent on the gasmask Tomika was holding. She did end up buying a few books for me with her money she brought.
“Quite the haul huh?” She told me once we were walking back home from the flea market.
“Certainly…” I looked over the books I had bought, though I had to make some tough buying choices. The smell of old paper was very pleasant. I then looked at the only item Tomika was carrying.
“I’ll send you a picture of me wearing it when I am home.”
“We do have exams to learn for, and considering your grades, I wouldn’t waste too much time on stuff like this right now.”
“Right, the exams…” Tomika rolled her eyes, taking a series of short breaths. “I’ll just try it on… Maybe with my hood… Nothing more.”
We continued walking until the crossing where we always went on to our separate homes.
“See you tomorrow, Tomika…”
“Likewise…”
Later that evening I received a message from Tomika: A one-time image again. I sighed, remembering her telling me she wanted to show me what it would look like on her.
Yet upon tapping I was left wide-eyed. She did not merely put on the gasmask, or even just it with the hood. Instead, she was wearing her boob catsuit in addition to not only her hood and gasmask, but also her gloves. The only thing I couldn’t see were her socks, and I bet she was wearing those too.
H: Tomika… What about the exams?
T: I know I know
T: It is just
T: As soon as I put the mask on I wanted to wear it with all of it. Feels like I am completely isolated from the world
T: I will get back to learning now
H: I doubt you will be able to learn wearing it
T: I mean it. I totally can wear this and learn for the exams
T: Ok maybe without the gasmask, but trust me I can manage
H: We will see each other tomorrow then
T: See ya… Oh and another treat. You bought it for me after all
It was another picture, in which Tomika fondled the gasmask on her face, especially the valves, for some reason. Probably some kind of pose she saw somewhere.

“Oh look, it’s Ikemoto…” I could hear them whispering as I entered class.
“You think he is still on about ‘evil elites’ who want to control society by way of social media.”
“What a weirdo…”
If they had listened to my presentation, they would know that those ‘elites’ were not doing it out of malice, but naivete and because the incentives of society had been built up in such a way as to reward the things pushed for. But all they heard was someone rambling out conspiracy theories in front of the class, naturally.
“Haruto told me what he meant!” Tomika had walked in with me and now had engaged the group in conversation. “He might have chosen a bit difficult words: All he meant was that they are not the moustache twirling kind but more the one that just slides the rest into problems because they don’t know any better… How did he call it again? Eh…”
“Banality of evil.” I shouted across the class. “People doing evil things but trying their best pretend everything is normal, even if it really isn’t.”
“Thanks buddy…”
“How can you put up with this clown?” One of the group chastised Tomika.
“I know he is a bit standoffish at times…”
“At times… More like always…”
“But I have known him for so long. He can be really a chummy guy if you get to know him.”
“Like anyone wants to deal with the Lit Club’s dictator…”
“Well then… We have nothing more to say to each other.” Tomika got up, turned around and walked all the way to the table next to me. “Are you alright, buddy?”
“I am here to learn, not to get involved in stupid gossip.” I rolled my eyes. “Let them talk. Grades will speak a different language in the end.”
“You don’t need to suck it all up, you know?”
“I find it the best option, rather than getting mad.” I replied, while getting out my books. “How has learning gone yesterday? Did you get far?”
“Oh that…” Tomika suddenly began to stammer. “Has been going great honestly.”
“Uh huh…” It certainly didn’t sound like it. Did I have it right and she was too distracted by wearing her fetish outfit?
Didn’t she have an alt account? What did she name it again?
I had to think about it for the whole day, worried about Tomika and if she would manage to pass the exam. Then after we had gone home, it finally came back to me.
I searched for @PlayfulMiChan and I found the pictures we had taken and then some. But also, text post she had made in conjunction with a picture of her wearing the gasmask with the rest of her latex.
‘Finally got a gasmask today and am ready to be dronified. Any recommended material for it?’
Dronified? What was that even supposed to mean? As I read the comments beneath there were various mentions of ‘drones’ and ‘dronification’. Looking up the former only lead to male bees, unmanned aircrafts and after some searching in English specifically lead to lazy people, or ones doing menial labor.
Looking up the latter however lead to a lot more fruitful explanations, although it left me with a harsh feeling in my gut. It seemed to be a fetish concerning the willful abdication of one’s own will to someone else, individual or group, leaving oneself as a blank puppet, a biological robot.
Slavery was one thing. No one choses to be one be it through being taken captive in war or due to being unable to pay debts. But this was…
“Tomika, what are you getting yourself into?”
Terrifying. I had no other words to describe it. Especially after having done research for my speech about over-centralization, it reminded me of the people telling Zarathustra they would love to be ‘The Last Men’ he spoke of as a warning for what they could become.
I pulled up my messages with Tomika and was ready to tell her to stop with this, but when I wanted to type I was at a loss. What should I tell her? ‘Stop it now!’? If I gave it to her blunt like I usually, she would not take well to it.
I bit my lip and put my phone down to think while lying on my bed.
I had a bad feeling about all this, yet I didn’t want to bud heads with Tomika. And considering she had so far been able to separate her normal life separate from her private desires so far, perhaps this was just another facet of her love of latex she was exploring or something like that.
I switched off the light in my room and went to sleep, repeatedly needing to calm my anxieties for Tomika’s wellbeing.
She was smarter than this, I assured myself. She would not let this escalate this further than this. I knew she would not take a wrong turn and let this take over her life.

Tomika walked differently to school today. She also didn’t talk as much, with both of us remaining awfully quiet, although I did try to break it from time to time.
“How is learning for the exams going?”
“Good…” She said with a blank stare forward and a flat voice.
“Are you well?”
“All well…” Her tonal reflection didn’t change at all.
Even during our time in class, her blank gaze didn’t change. It was like her mind was somewhere else for all of it.
I still thought about her shift in personality when I was in the literature club, with Kohinata sitting across me while we researched for and wrote our stories.
“Are you alright Ikemoto?”
“Yes… It is just…” I certainly could not tell him about Tomika’s fetishes. “Exams keep me occupied.”
“Ah right, it must be hell for you. Makes me scared for next year.”
“You are keeping up with class well?” Kohinata nodded to my question. “Then you should not have to be afraid.”
“What about you and Shimizu?”
“Well, I did well last year. Tomika… ah… Bit more complicated.”
“You were near the top grades. Sounds more than just ‘well’. Shimizu worries you?”
“She was always the more physical one of the two of us. Her grades last year have been below middling.”
“So, summer lessons for her?”
“Yes, and if she might even need to repeat her final year.”
“More physical.. huh” Kohinata grinned. “Did you insert Tomika as Ingrid in your story?”
“What? No…” I protested.
“Come on…” Kohinata poked me. “You couldn’t help but insert you and her as the booksmart prince being married to the strong, norse princess?”
“I just thought it would be an interesting contrast!” I explained myself. “Especially with how much the views on women differed between those two people.”
I was currently writing a scene where the court was murmuring about this strange woman with the golden locks and blue eyes, especially the other women. A foreigner at court, with such bestial proportions and eyes, dressed in finest silk as if to mock them all.
“Although I found it fascinating how the Viking guests clash with the Heian court. A palace of such refinement walked through by a people so crude and crass. And they see the court as a bunch of sissies.”
“’A court of weaklings and bootlickers. None of these men ever drew blood to defend their honor. They would choose a beautiful death over a glorious one.’”
“Is that in one of the future chapters?”
“Thought a bit ahead…” I nodded, before continuing: “’However the one they presented as my daughter’s future husband…Scrawny and weak as he might be, his mind is as sharp as an axe.’”
After that we both wrote on silently until a while later Kohinata started again.
“The whole individualist-collectivist contrast is also something I want to implement in my story…”
“Right, it is set in not-USA after all.”
“What would you say are the dark sides of individualism? Collectivism tends to be rigid and stifles creativity.”
“Hmm… A strength pushed to its extreme turns into a weakness so…” I looked at the shelf with the heavy books, pondering his question. “An abundance to chaos, I guess. And atomization. People do need social groups and become unhinged without them, except some dedicated hermits.”
“Wouldn’t that lead to people seeking to be part of a collective again?”
“Yes, of course… But they will be vulnerable to cults and…” It was then Tomika flashed before my eyes.
“And?” Kohinata waved his hand before my face, snapping me out of it.
“And radical movements…” I uttered, quickly turning back to my writing.
For the rest of the day, I had a bad feeling about Tomika, especially looking at her alt account where she posted her ‘dronification process’. This whole thing sounded more and more like some weird cult she has slid down.

With every passing day, Tomika became more and more… vacuous for a lack of a better term, especially in the month leading up to the exams. She just existed on the chair next to me, not talking or joking around as she did before.
She came to school, sat in class, went to her club and then went back home without barely saying anything to me then ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’.
And soon enough…
“Ikemoto. You are close to Shimizu, aren’t you?” Her coach knocked on the literature club’s door.
“Yes.”
“Do you know if she is well? She hasn’t come for training for the entire last week. Maybe she isn’t feeling well, but at this rate she is not going to qualify for the national highschool tournament.”
“I will talk to her and… Wait… national tournament?”
“Yes, did she never tell you? It is after the exams, but with her slacking off I don’t like her chances.”
“No but… I will speak with her.”
“I hope she comes around again. Would be a bloody shame if she didn’t…” Her coach nodded.
Unable to find her in school, I decided to text her again.
H: Your coach asked about you skipping training.
H: Is something wrong?
She did not answer at all, with a history of unread messages ever since that weird behavior of hers began. How deep was she by now? And more importantly how could I get her to explain herself more than just a ‘Good’ or ‘Fine’ or ‘Ok’?
It all began with that damn gasmask. All because I let myself be convinced to buy it for her and now…
Wait… She still owed me for it, didn’t she?
I quickly called her, over and over again. Whereever she was, at some point she had to pick up. It took a half dozen attempted calls until I finally heard her voice.
“Shimizu here…” Her voice was deadflat and strangely muffled. Was she wearing that mask?
“Tomika…” I had to chose my words carefully. “Do you have anything planned today? I thought we could do something together when I am back from school. You still owe me a favor for lending you money.”
“A favor?” A long silence later she replied, her voice strangely inflected. “Come to my home. I will return your favor there. I’ll leave the backdoor unlocked.”
“Tomika… wait…”
By that point she had already hung up again.
“Tomika… Just what are you doing…” I said to myself with a mixture of fear and confusion.

“Hello? Tomika? Where are you?” I shouted into the house as I entered it, receiving no answer. “Hello?”
Slowly I checked all other rooms in the house until I came to her bedroom door. Never had my hand been so shaky as it was now when turning the doorknob.
In the middle knelt a figure in a black suit, her hands tied with zip ties and a plastic bag over her head.
“TOMIKA!” I rushed to her, after grabbing scissors from her desk to remove the zipties, her hands falling to the floor lifeless.
My panic was only lifted when I noticed a piece of paper being taped on her forehead, moving rhythmically and tearing it off revealed several small holes.
“You stupid…” I bit my tongue and read the paper.
‘Instructions for your new Model T:

1. Remove hand ties and plastic bag
2. Begin commands with Model T. E.g. “Model T, cut me an apple.”
3. Enjoy’
   I read it again, this had to be a joke. Right?
   I turned my attention to Tomika, still there was a bag over her head.
   As soon as I removed the bag, I saw Tomika wearing the gasmask, however her eyes were not visible, instead there was only a tinted visor.
   “Tomika?” I waved my hand across her face.
   “Error. Illegal designation. Please use proper designation.”
   I swallowed my spit. This was crazy, too crazy.
   “Model… T?”
   “Initialize… Recognize owner…” She stared at me with her faceless gaze. “Initialization complete. How can I serve you?”
   “Tomika, I just want to talk…”
   “Error. Illegal designation. Please use proper designation.”
   “Ok I get it.” What sort of weird game was she playing? For now I decided it was best to play along. “So… eh… Model T, could you cut me an apple please?”
   “Error. Unclear order. Please be more precise.”
   “Eh…” Did she really want me to say it like it was on the instruction? “Model T, cut me an apple.”
   “Understood.” Tomika said with a dead voice, stood up and walked out of her room. Following her I noticed she was also moving like a robot. Well, not stiff… More like she was mind controlled.
   She went down to the kitchen, took an apple, cut it into 8 pieces, draped them on a small plate and turned around to give it to me.
   “Thanks…”
   I sat down and tentatively ate a piece, Tomika just standing there, not making a sound except the labored breathing of her gasmask.
   “Don’t you want to sit down…” I swallowed a piece. “Model T?”
   “Error. Unclear order. Please be more precise.”
   “You can just do it if you want to…”
   “Error…”
   “Ok ok, I get it!” I sighed. “Model T, please sit down.”
   “Understood.” Tomika did as I told her. Great how was I supposed to talk her out of it if all she reacted to was direct orders?
   After I had finished my apple, I put the plate away, Tomika continuing to sit at the table even as I went to the toilet and came back.
   “T…” I corrected myself. “Model T, please follow me to the couch.”
   “Understood.”
   We both walked to the couch where we both sat down.
   “Model T, please answer my questions.”
   “Understood.”
   “Why do you do this?”
   “It is Model T’s purpose.”
   “Are you Tomika Shimizu?”
   “Model T does not recognize that name.”
   “Are you going to do anything I order you to do.”
   “Affirmative! It is Model T’s purpose.”
   Really? She would do anything?
   “Model T…” I swallowed my spit. “Sit on my lap.”
   “Understood.” Tomika got up and plopped herself down on my lap. I could feel her breathing while we sat together like this.
   And for some reason it made my heart race vicariously and thoughts entered my mind, which I had never had before. Forbidden thoughts.
   Desires which now could be satisfy so easily.
   “Model T, please hug me.” I touched her smooth body.
   “Understood.” Tomika obliged, turning around, her legs slinging around my body, her arms embracing me, her entire suit creaking while her breathing hastened, as did mine.
   More… I wanted more of this… For her to hug me more… To caress me… To… to…
   I could feel blood rushing to a particular organ.
   “Model T…” I gasped. “Please get off me.”
   “Understood.” Tomika sat up straight, standing in front of me.
   No… Not like this! Not while she was in this state of mind! I came here to get out of whatever spell had been cast on her mind. I silenced the urges within in me, at least for the moment.
   “Model T, please take your mask off.”
   Tomika just stood there, frozen solid.
   “Model T, take your mask off.”
   “Error…” She replied, her voice shaking for the first time. “Cannot comply with order.”
   “Model T, Aren’t you supposed to follow my orders?”
   “Affirmative.”
   “Then take your mask off.”
   “Error. Cannot comply with order.”
   “Model T, why can you not comply with a such a simple order?”
   “Error…”
   “Please take it off.”
   “Error.”
   “I ask you to take it off.”
   “Error! Error! Error!” She now started shaking, still refusing to tell me why she is doing this, yet now I had managed to crack her sleek façade.
   I stood up, took her head and forced her look straight into my eyes.
   “Tomika, please!” I raised my voice, before quieting down. “I just want to talk… Would you please take it off for me.”
   I slowly released her head again and no sentence followed from Model T, instead she slowly sat herself down again and after a series of deep breaths, loosened the straps of her gas mask and finally took it off and put it aside.
   Tomika’s eyes were glistening again, although I could see them becoming watery around the edges.
   “You know…” She began with a croaking voice. “I always liked to swim. It took my mind off things. All I had to do was swim from one end to the other.”
   Her eyes slowly began to swell.
   “I was never the smart one, so of course I liked it… But now… I have exams, and last year I only barely passed, and last year’s swim tournament was also failed totally. I think I was third to last place…”
   “Tomika…”
   “I don’t want to think about the future every single second! About some big event which I am going to fail at!” She gazed at me, tears running across the latex of her hood. “I just want to be in the moment, blissful of things I am not going to succeed at anyway! And with this mask…” She grappled the gas mask behind herself. “I can just be. A drone blissfully unaware. Just following orders, nothing more. I don’t want to think. I don’t want to feel. I just want to feel…”
   I returned her hug again.
   “Bliss…”
   “But then I you would cease to be you.” I squeezed her, trying to assuage her anxiety. “Who would be there to get me down to earth when all that was left of you would be… a slave of your own volition. It would be a tragedy for someone like you to go out like this.”
   “Haruto…” She sounded bitter in her cries.
   “Whatever may happen to you, I will always be your friend. No matter what. After all you picked me up more times than I can count. Whatever may happen in the wider world, YOU still control your own life.”
   Without a word Tomika responded to me, by hugging me back, her sobbing ebbing out after a while.
   “Better?”
   “Yes…” She nodded with a nasal voice. I let her recompose herself for a minute before continuing.
   “Tomika…” I tried to speak as softly as I could. “The exams are only a few weeks away…”
   “I know…” She bit her lip.
   “Have you learned already?”
   She shook her head. “You know I never really learn… And my mother told me to… But every time I saw my suit, my gasmask… I just thought, only a bit… Then I will go back to learning… And I got into it and… I took the vibrator and…”
   “Pleasured yourself?”
   “I just…” Tomika was shaking. “I just did not want to think about it. And when I discovered those drone asmr videos… I… I felt so at ease. I just… was. No exams. No competitions. I just wanted to feel this way forever and ever.”
   “And you couldn’t stop?”
   “I did not want to stop. When you called I was currently watching one and… I had this idea that you could be my owner… You were the smarter one of us anyway.”
   “You were so afraid, you wanted to give up control over to me?”
   “Yes” She whispered out as I looked at her gas mask, inspecting the visor. “Are you taking it away? Probably a good idea.”
   That would be a natural reaction, to immediately take away the addiction from the person. Yet this was not a physical addiction, more a mental one born of anxiety.
   “Hmm… This wasn’t tinted originally, was it?”
   “I have the original in my room.”
   “You know where?”
   “Yes… One moment.” Tomika got up walked up to her room and returned with the clear visor.
   It took me a moment to figure out how to replace it but once I did, I handed it back to her.
   “Would you put it on?”
   “Haruto…” She took it with regret. Her hand only held down by her will not to immediately put it on again.
   “Trust me.” I held her hand, grasping the mask and she slowly put it on again.
   This time I could still see her eyes, afraid of her own desire to lose herself in this drone personality. One of obedience and bliss.
   “Tomika…” I looked her in the eyes knowing that what she needed now… “You will learn for the exams.”
   “What…?” She looked at me confused.
   “That is an order! Do you understand?” Was a guiding, firm hand.
   “Understood.” She replied, not in her robotic voice she had previously. Instead she sounded assured by me being there to help her.
   We both went up to her room, packed out the school materials, sat down and went through everything she needed to grasp to pass the test.
   And whenever she started to drift away, I would tell her:
   “Tomika, focus!”
   To which she replied: “Understood.”
   Once I left her house for her to take off her suit, we had already covered more subject matter than she had managed to get through in a month.

The next cram session proceeded similar with us both going to her house and, if her parents were not there, her wearing the full rubber suit with gasmask.
The only order I gave her was to learn, and to stay on target, all while slowly getting through all she needed to catch up on, taking her sometimes more and sometimes less time to grasp it.
And while I needed to order her less and less to focus, the times when she became distracted became more and more irritating, with the final straw being me catching her with her hands between her legs.
“I just can’t focus, at all.” She replied.
“This damn suit…” I uttered silently, it was a curse not just on my mind but on hers as well. Perhaps…
“Tomika, have you ever tried meditating?”
“Meditating?” She was perplexed. “Never took you for the spiritual type.”
“I thought it was stupid as well at first.” I laughed, remembering the first time I had followed instructions from an uncle of mine, when I visited him at the temple where he lived. “But really helps you get your mind of things.”
“Isn’t that what I did? You know the whole dronification thing?”
“My uncle would probably say that you tried to overpower the pain by way of pleasure…” I took up the position my uncle had shown me. “What actually helps is to let the mental pain slowly flicker out.”
“Like this?” I could hear Tomika shift around, with me checking her position and nodding before closing my eyes again.
“Yes… Now breathe in and out…”
We both took a breath and let it out again.
“In and out.”
“Good… Think only of these two things… To let the air fill your lungs and push the air out again… Everything else takes a backseat to these primordial forces.”
“In and out.”
“In and out.”
We sat there, in quiet meditation, her breathing accentuated only by her gasmask. We let everything else pass by us, as time became meaningless.
And after roughly an hour…
“Wow… I feel… great.” Tomika and I opened our eyes again.
“All clear again?”
“Yes, I never thought it would be that effective.”
“Our minds are fickler than we’d like to believe. And also deeply interconnected with our bodies.”
“What are you? A guru? I thought you were a bookworm.” Tomika laughed.
“No… But the material and spiritual can be quite… interwoven.” I slowly left the lotus position, feeling lighter as well. “Now then… Back to learning?”
“Of course.” Tomika nodded and picked up her pen again. “Can we do this more in the future?”
“Sure, why not.” I nodded back.

Ever since I had taught her the basics of meditation, I had seen her do it at school as well. Especially in the swimming club, where she did it nearly every time before she began swimming under the stopwatch of her coach.
Although nothing was stranger then seeing her mediate in latex, with her full gear. As was the case when I entered her room on the day before the exams.
There she sat, crosslegged, from head to toe in rubber, wearing her gasmask, arms resting in her lap and focused inwards, not even noticing me entering.
Her breathing however sounded strange, and I soon noticed why: Connected to her mask was a hose leading to a bottle in which water was bubbling around.
“What is this?” I nudged the bottle sitting next to her. From the looks of it, it had a straw leading into it leading to the water. “How are you even able to breath with this?”
“Oh!” Tomika jolted upon finally seeing me, opened her and unscrewed the hose, the water splashing while she still breathed through it.
“Wait, the air comes through the outside, through the water.”
“Yes…” Tomika laughed as she answered me. “I mean it looks kinda weird… But it helps me focus a lot during meditation as does my gear.” She stroked the valves on her gasmask
“How come?”
“It makes me have to breath in with intent. Although it is best used with just enough to cover the straw. You should have seen me when I had filled it up to the top. I could barely take a single breath. As for the suit… How can I put it? It makes me feel separate from everything around me. Inside I am just me.”
“It helps you dissociate from yourself?”
“That’s the word!” She flicked her finger. “Never was one for complex language.”
“If I told my uncle about the things you use to meditate…” This kind of self-minimizing was certainly healthier than what she did before. “Speaking of complex language…”
I sat myself down at her table.
“Right, of course…” Tomika lunged up from her bed and sat herself down in front of me. “Tomorrow’s the day. Anything we need to still go over?”
“No, just recapitulating what we have gone over.”
“And then?”
“Taking a rest for tomorrow.”
“Really?” She was astounded. “Not learning until the last moment?”
“Best not make yourself mad over it or lose sleep. Doesn’t bode well for the exam to arrive a tired and anxious mess.”
“So that is what I have done wrong all those years!” She laughed at her own tendency to procrastinate. “Good to know for the future. I guess once we are done, I go meditating?”
“That sounds like a good plan. Although…”
“What?” She grinned at me with her eyes alone.
“I just play video games at that point.”
“How about us continuing the Octavius campaign after this? There is one mission I just can’t seem to finish on my own.”
“Sounds good. But first…” I nodded, taking out my notes
“Of course.” Tomika nodded back, while she crammed the notes she had made, as well as her books.
Subject by subject we managed to summarize the bullet points of what we needed to remember for the big exams coming up.

“Aaaaand…” Tomika practically dragged me through the crowd of students, the anticipation marked on her face, as we approached the exam rankings posted in the hallway. “Yes! I did it!”
Tomika was in the upper middle of the pack, having passed without the need for summer lessons. As for me…
“Third…” I did pretty well myself. “Not bad.”
“You are under the top 3.” Tomika nudged me. “Sounds more than just ‘not bad’.”
“Hey Tomika!” One of her friends walked to us. “Nice work!”
“Same goes for you, Nakami!”
“I mean I only barely passed.” Her friend remained humble, even though she was ahead of Tomika. “But how did you improve so rapidly? At the last exam you were just at the border of failing.”
“Well…” Tomika eyed me, obviously not telling her about how she got stuck coping with the stress by burying her head in rubber and hypnotic bliss, only for me to pull her out in a very unorthodox fashion. “Let’s just say Haruto gave me a kick in the butt and ordered me to learn.”
“Ordered you?” Nakami eyed me then her then me, then smirked. “I didn’t know you could so raunchy…”
“I just told her to get up and do it!” I cleared my throat. “Nothing more.”
“Anyway… Are You planning anything today, Tomika? Thought we could celebrate us passing.”
“Sounds like fun.” Tomika replied to her, before turning to me. “Wanna come with us?”
“Well… ok…” I certainly didn’t have anything better to do. “Where do you want to go?”
“Hmm, do you know any good bookshops?” Nakami asked me.
“I do. However,…” I began scratching my head. “You ought to be prepared to be there for a long time.”

“You didn’t lie.” Tomika jested as we walked home, with a bag bursting with books. “The only reason Nakami put up with you perusing half the store, was because she could read through her favorite romance series.”
“Fair enough…” Book purchases were weird, they start out light yet always end up heavy as my right arm could attest now. “I did take my sweet time. Although you didn’t buy anything.”
“Because my prize is at home!” She exclaimed.
“What prize.”
“Part of my costume for LoDs Con.”
“The plugsuit?”
“No…”She grinned, walking backwards. “The other important part for it.”
What could be more important than the plugsuit she had ordered, I wondered. Knowing her it was something made of rubber.
“Ah it arrived!” She was looking at her phone, with postal tracking opened. “Come, I wanna try it out. You got to see it.”
“Sure, but…” I heaved the bag in my hand. “I’ll leave this at my house first. Go ahead.”
It only took me a quarter of an hour to get home, unload the dozen books I had bought and walk over to Tomika’s house were I was greeted by her, wearing her red, slim, rubber suit .
“Welcome!” She let me in, holding something in her other hand, something round and with hair attached.
“Is that a mask?”
“Not just any mask!A kigurumi mask.” Tomika closed the door behind me while I removed my shoes and held the mask in front of her.
For a moment I held my breath. It was a large and solid helmet in form of a head, with golden hair attached to it.
“Do you recognize it?” Tomika grinned before she slowly slid the mask on her head, locking it in with a latch.
“Of course I do…” How could I not. The face Tomika wore was one of Dragonslayers most peopular characters, the leader of the Commonwleath mechs in the lore. The only ways to get her, an ace, the highest rarity, was either by rolling lucky in the Commonwealth banner, or as I did, by completing some of the hardest achievment in the orignal campaign of the game.
“Hark! Oh knights of the round table.!” Tomika posed in the same royal manner she did in the various cutscenes and in the anime. “By the morrow we shall reign victorious over our draconic foes or die knowing we did all to protect that which we cherish most. This I, Artoria, swear by my honor as Princess Commander of the Albion Knights!”
“Wow…” I clapped, while she breathed in after she had recited the fiery speech Royal Knightess Artoria held, managing to let the pilots from various factions who had fought for so long against each other in their petty wars, be they Pacific Union, Dragon Realm, Commonwealth, Drakkenritter and even the few Dragon Communion followers, to take heart again after a horrid loss against the returning Dragons during the Dragon’s Return campaign and storm the grand Dragon Vault once more. “This was epic!”
“Thank you!” Tomika bowed.
“You could almost be mistaken for her… Although Artoria is a bit more… endowed…”
“I know. That is what the rubber plugsuit is for…” Tomika pouted, covering her chest. “What about your costume?”
“Wait…” I pulled out my phone and showed her a picture I had made. “The coat came recently, although I am still waiting on the cap. But it should be arriving soon.”
On it I was dressed as Gerald Octavius.
“Snazzy!” Tomika grabbed the phone. “You thought of everything! The uniform. The sunglasses. Even the wig looks real!”
“I mean it isn’t that much, compared to yours.”
“Nah, it is! Which reminds me…” Tomika pulled out her own phone, opening up an image of Artoria, despite the hard shell mask she was wearing. “Doesn’t she also wear a jacket? Like here.”
“An Albion lion motif… Don’t they sell those as merch? Might be useful even outside of cosplay.”
“I’ll get that as well then.” Tomika giggled as she tapped around on her phone. “Oh man. I can’t wait!”
“To dress up as Artoria?”
“Yes, but also…” Tomika fumbled around with her phone. “It’’ll be the first time I get to wear latex in public!”
While I did not share her excitement for rubber, I could very well understand where she was coming from. If I had a chance to do something I never did in public without any pushback, I would probably take it as well.

Chapter V - The Royal Knightess and the Great Commander

Taken from the About page of Legacy of the Dragonslayers:

The year is 2432. 392 years ago, without warning, beasts rose from the earth beneath Siberia. They were intelligent, and yet for all of it they were deeply malevolent. We called these beasts Dragons, for they conjured images of those mythical creatures, they however called us Kre-thur, “Rodent” in their tongue.
Yet we did not stop resisting, even when they burned our cities and slaughtered and subjugated us once mighty nations. And eventually, we created beats of our own: Giant Humanoid mobile weapons platforms, agile enough to face them on sky and earth: Dragonslayers
It took two generations of bloody sacrifice, yet eventually the final dragon was impaled on the Matterhorn, now called the Ruthrax’ Marter.
But, just as the dragons scoffed about us, we turned against each other soon after.
Ever since mankind has been in a state of war, having replaced nuclear arms with Dragonslayers, piloted by an elite of compatible pilots able to control these machines.
These are the times of the men and women fighting for glory, hope, their people when tales of dragons have become mere legends.
And yet the earth in Siberia has been said to still stir even after the last known dragon met its doom.
Welcome to Legacy of the Dragonslayers, young commander.

Decided to use an idea I had for a while about an RTS game with mechs (Think AoE2 but the castles are customizable mechs). Considering a lot of mech franchises have skin tight rubber-like suits, I thought it could fit well.

In todays episode: Tomika and Haruto visit a convention of their favorite game, planning to cosplay characters from Dragonslayer. Two leaders of armies who face each other on a battlefield their people have stood on over 650 years ago.

Tomika and I sat quietly on the train looking intently at our phones. To the other passengers we must have just been two more teenagers with their eyes glued to their screen. However…
“YES!” Tomika shouted in excitement before realizing this was neither her nor my room. “Sorry…”
“We did it.” I whispered to her as the final cutscene of the Octavius campaign was rolling. After months of playing through it, mission by grueling mission, Gerald Octavius had finally managed to fulfill the duty to his late great-grandfather and reunite his broken country, with the enemy commander of the final battle of the campaign, Princess Artoria of Albion herself, handing over New England to the Great Commander of the Reunited States in the Boston Harbor, him lying in bed due to his sickness, his mind still sharp. “Took long enough.”
“It was terrifying how the AI managed to nearly be everywhere at once.” Tomika sighed. “But at least we beat it before the convention starts.”
While I still watched the credits roll, Tomika was stretching herself next to me.
“Time to collect our rewards!” She tapped on the screen to get the rewards for completing the campaign on normal difficulty, which were mostly parts and a random renowned pilot from the Octavius campaign, as did I, also looking at the achievement requirements for the higher tiered rewards afterwards.
“Man, some of those requirements are insane…” Completing the entire campaign on Draconic difficulty, without reloading a single mission, while completing all side objectives and not losing a mech even once was rewarded with Gaby Cloverfield, an ace pilot, in her Re:US plugsuit, instead of her usual look of her late father’s tattered, rolled down plugsuit and tank top.
“Fair enough challenge for that Gaby plugsuit outfit.” Tomika leaned at me, gazing at my phone. “They really knocked those character designs out of the park this time.”
“They built up to it for years. Of course they would want to do it justice.”
“Aaah… Anyways… I can’t wait tomorrow. LoDs con is finally here in Japan, and we are going to be attending it in person…” She was giddy from excitement. “And cosplaying no less. What about you?”
“Likewise.” I held my emotions much closer to my chest. “But for now we better go to our hotel. If we wake up early the queue won’t be as long.”
“Of course…” Tomika nodded, trying to remain calm, to no avail. “Oh man… oh man… I can’t believe it.”
It was certainly going to be the highlight of our final school summer holidays.

“Morning!” Tomika shook me awake. “I don’t want to be standing around all day.”
“Give me a moment.” I slowly sat up and looked around. The hotel we had booked luckily had separate beds as well and wasn’t too outrageous in price. Not to mention breakfast was included.
I then also noted that the costumes we had brought with us were already hanging on the bathroom door. On one side the uniform and long coat of Octavius, on the other side the plugsuit of Princess Artoria, already shiny.
“Are we not going to have breakfast first?”
“Of course.” Tomika replied while I quickly got changed into the normal clothes we have brought. “But I thought I already prepare them both so we can get changed and be on our way.”
As I walked around, I also stubbed my foot on something solid: The kigurumi mask Tomika had brought with her, with Artoria’s noble gaze.
“You ready?” Tomika leaned in from the bathroom door.
“Yes…” I walked over to her plugsuit to appreciate its red sleekness, as well as workmanship of the various 3D printed addons and golden ornaments, reminiscent of a British uniform, including the neural plug-in tail, used in-lore to directly control the limbs of the mechas, including the Dragonslayers.
After a quick meal together, with us both going over the plans for the next 3 days we went back up to our room.
“I’ll change in the shower if you don’t mind.” Tomika told me while she picked up her suit and her mask helmet, the golden locks swinging around.
“Sure thing.” I turned to my costume, putting on the uniform piece by piece, then followed by the coat and finally the wig of short golden-brown hair and of course…
The sunglasses.
In the mirror stood not Haruto Ikemoto, but Gerald Octavius, commander of the Eagle Mountaineer Army and the boy who reunited the United States from its state of anarchy after its last president was murdered in the halls of the senate itself. All of course, just in the lore of Dragonslayers.
“Are you done, Tomika?” I looked aside to the bathroom door.
“Not yet. Gimme a moment!”
Fair enough, I thought. This gave me more than enough time to adjust the uniform, so I looked like a young man, though sickly and weak, with ambitions of historical importance. A proper commander in chief.
“Oh, come on!” Tomika uttered loudly as she exited the shower. “This is why I don’t like back zippers!”
Her suit, though tight at the legs and hips was rather loose around her neck.
“Need some help?”
“Oh yes please…” Tomika nodded then turned her back to me. Between the shiny red catsuit was a long sliver of her smooth skin… Wait was it always so smooth? Why am I even thinking about it?
In one smooth motion I took the zipper and slid it all the way up to the base of her neck, sealing her in.
“Ah, perfect!” She stretched her arms, pushing out any leftover wrinkles before putting on her gloves. “Although you don’t look bad either.”
“Thank you.”
“Now then…” Tomika walked into the bathroom and came out with her kigurumi mask, putting it on. Her voice and breathing were slightly muffled, but still audible. “Could you help me out with the hair? There should be a ribbon and a brush in my stuff.”
“Your hair?” I saw her walking to her luggage and returning with a brush and a ribbon. “I guess it is a bit messy. And the ribbon… Is there a hairstyle you have in mind?”
“Yes, you know the braid Artoria has in her first appearance?”
“That one?” I showed her an image on my phone, in which the front was medium to short hair, with the longer strands tied up at the back into a braid with a ribbon at the end.
“Exactly…” Tomika sat herself on her bed and turned her head away from me. “You told me once your sister taught you how to do it.”
“Yes. Hold still…”
After a bit of straightening the synthetic hair out, I bound it together strand by strand, finally tying it up with the red ribbon, reaching down to the middle of Tomika’s back.
As I did however, I noticed Tomika clenching her fists on her lap, making latex’ signature creaking sound.
“Are you nervous?”
“Of course, I am…” Tomika laughed against it beneath her mask. “I am going to wear latex for the first time in public.”
“Well…” I was still for a moment, focusing on weaving the hair together. “With the con everyone is just going to see it as cosplay anyway.”
“I know, but still… Latex in public and not to mention finally going to the LoDs con… I am just so excited.”
“That should be it.” I tied the ribbon. And moved to the hanger, taking off the jacket, emblazoned with the Commonwealth’s signature lion on its back and various patches of its nations on the front. “Your jacket, your highness.”
“Thank you very much.” She slid her arms in, her voice changing to sound more regal, holding out her hand. “Shall we?”
“Of course…” I put on a tone similar to Octavius calm demeanor he had shown, even when a mission ended in failure.
Together we stepped out and onto our way to the convention.

With the queue still being short, we entered the convention hall very quickly with many people already roaming it.
For us both it was definitely surreal. Everywhere were posters of the Dragonslayer franchise with all parts of it served: The manga, the anime, the live actions movies, fan content and of course, the game where it all began, even containing a small arena for tournaments and duels.
“Hey look!” Tomika pointed towards the live sized bust of a Dragonslayer mech. “To think they would be this huge in real life.”
“IF they were real.” I pointed out.
“I know…” Tomika rolled her head around, as if she wanted to show me, she was rolling her eyes beneath her mask, walking towards the mech and reading a sign next to it with a stairway leading to its head. “No way! You can go in there?!”
Before I caught up with her, she had already run up the stairs all the way and into a room with a curtain separating it from the outside.
“Hey, Haruto. Come in! You have to see this!” I could hear her from inside and upon entering I saw why she sounded so excited.
“A cockpit…” It was just small enough to stand hunched over, the outside world clearly visible likely with cameras at the mech’s head…
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Tomika had already seated herself in the pilot seat. “And it gets even better.”
She pointed to a small machine in front of her, the control console, normally used either in emergencies or for the mechanics maintaining the Dragonslayer, with a text prompt on it:
‘1000 Yen for 4 photos’
I then saw the intake for either cash or wireless payment.
“One moment…” I pulled out my wallet and was ready to feed a bunch of coins into it, when Tomika stopped me.
“Before you do…” She wrangled out the tail part of her suit from behind her back. “You gotta connect me to the mech.”
“Connect?” I took it and after not long found the plug where in lore the pilot was connected to their mech. “It is just a hole… There is not intake.”
“I know…” She waved her hand around. “It is probably there just to look good on the photo anyways.”
“Ok…” I let the tail-end slide into it, with Tomika making some very strange groans, jolting as if she was hit by a shock “What… was that?”
“You forgot? That is any pilot’s first reaction when being connected to a mech for the first time. The rush of suddenly feeling your nerves connected to another, larger body.”
“That is what happens in Dragonslayers, yes…” I responded to her pretension with mild annoyance.
“Anyway…” She looked straight forward. “Put them in so we can get started!”
I nodded and put the money in, us both getting ready to pose for each of the pictures, the countdown being shown on the now darkened cockpit windows.

“What do you say?” I showed Tomika the pictures after shuffling through them.
“Great! I really like how you nailed Octavius inside the cockpit.”
“He was in one during the crossing of the Mississippi… Although certainly not with Artoria.”
“I know…” Tomika gave me the pictures to put away and pulled out her phone. “Where to next?”
“Excuse me?” A guy with a camera waved to us, with some in the crowd reacting to his shouting while others simply ignored him. “Could I take a picture of you?”
“Sure, go ahead!” Tomika walked towards the photographer, while I followed along and sat myself on a bank and watched as she posed for the camera, at times more regal and noble, other times more… cutesy, I guess would be the word. “Like this?”
“Yes… Yes… Excellent…” The photographer, after checking the pictures on his camera, turned towards me and started taking pictures of me? “Could you put your hands over your mouth again? The Gendo pose?”
“Gendo? You mean like this?” I clutched my hands together, so they made an arch over my mouth.
“Yes… Just like that! You really look like Octavius, someone with grand plans…”
“What he said!” Tomika nodded, standing next to the photographer. “What do you want those pictures for anyway?”
“It is for documentation. I was hired by the company running this event to make an archive of all cosplayers, or at least as many as me and my team can manage…”
“All cosplayers?” Tomika became more still, while the camera man checked his camera having finished taking photos of me. “Say… I know it has only been a few hours since the con opened, but have you seen any other latex cosplayers?”
He looked down at her rubber plugsuit, then turned to his camera.
“Yes… There were some in the north wing of building 3. You shouldn’t be able to miss them, considering how eye-catching that clothing is. Have a good time!” He bade us goodbye, as did we, with Tomika immediately sprinting off towards the place.
“Wait up…” Leaving me in the dust with her slowing down, if only to let me catch up. “You are… really excited about this, aren’t you?”
“Of course I am!” She shouted, though her mask hid any of her glee under the slight noble smile of Artoria. “I never saw latex on anyone else but me in person…”
It made sense why she would be, I thought while we were jogging through the halls, people passing by us with some looking, while others were busy with getting to where they wanted to go. I would be excited too to read a book I have only heard about for the first time, to devour it page by page.
“There they are!” And it didn’t take us long to find them, with Tomika waving at the group of cosplayers. “Hello!”
It was a group 4 people, all of them wearing polished latex in some form or another, with 3 being in pilot plugsuits of various well-known characters while the other wore a Mech Cracker cosplay, an ingame sniper unit, the nightmare of any strategy relying too heavily on just their mechs, she even carried a replica of their signature portable railgun.
“Wow…” One of them immediately noticed Tomika walking towards them. “Nice Artoria cosplay! And such a cute mask.”
“Aww, thank you!” Tomika gestured clutching her hands to her heart. “You all got neat costumes as well. Especially you… my husband.”
She nodded towards the guy dressed as Tatsuya, the 4th prince of Japan and just like Artoria able to pilot a Dragonslayer, who in turn held his hand towards her. “I am flattered… my dear Artoria.”
She let her hand fall into his, which he then gave a kiss.
“Aww, you really look like them…” The other female cosplayer, dressed as Adelaide, Artoria’s maid and batwoman or orderly, pulled out her phone. “How about a photo of the Royal Couple, Lady Artoria?”
“Oh, that would be a wonderful, Adelaide!” Tomika clasped her hands together joyfully, before sitting herself down, as did the Tatsuya cosplayer next to her, embracing her like any married couple would.
I couldn’t help but feel a twinge in my heart watching this. They are just playing roles, I told myself and yet…
“Is Octavius feeling jealous?” A female voice teased me over my shoulder, belonging to the mech cracker cosplayer, who had pulled up her vision goggles. “I thought you and Artoria are enemies?”
“We have just met you all… That is about it.”
“Don’t worry!” The other male, dressed as a Drakkenritter Johan, slapped me on my back, a wide grin over his face. “He and Adelaide are already betrothed in their normal lives. He isn’t going to snatch your girlfriend away.”
“We are… just friends…”
“Really?” Their faces betrayed their amusement at this whole escapade.
“Really!” I reiterated.
“In any case… I will return her to you now.” The Tatsuya cosplayer led Tomika to me, holding her hand towards me, while his fiancée was looking at the pictures. “Adelaide, are the pictures good?”
“Very much so!” The Adelaide cosplayer held up her thumb. “I can send them to you now, if you want them.”
“Sure, very nice of you!” Tomika nodded, looking through her phone to give her contact information.
“While you two are here…” Johan took out his phone as well. “Have you ever done a Dragon Vault?”
“Of course we have.” I was a bit bewildered by his question, although part of me knew why he was asking it already. “We usually just run them together. Can get tough, but we certainly don’t wipe on the first floor.”
“Oh, that is great!” The other now pulled out their phones as well. “With you two we might actually manage to clear the Dragon Tyrant’s Vault!”
“I…” This was no weekly vault, we two had cleared many times, awarding a couple dozen rolls on parts and pilots a week. The rewards were, depending on how deep you went, huge, with a guaranteed ace pilot and tons of factory new mech parts awarded upon full completion. However, the Dragon Tyrants’s Vault was also infamous for its brutal difficulty, or so I had heard, until now. Certainly not something Tomika and I could ever stem alone.
“Let’s break in and steal the Tyrant’s loot then.” Tomika raised her fist, leading the other to cheer as well.
As a team of six it might be doable.
A short walk to a more comfortable spot, us exchanging in game friend requests and setting up our mech and pilot loadouts later, we were all set.
“Everyone ready?” Tatsuya looked around for all of us to confirm, with all five of us nodding.
‘Vault unsealed, good luck down there pilots.’
As we set up our base camps for further exploration I looked over to Tomika from time to time. Even with the game going on, she did not remove her mask, but I could tell she was focused like the rest of us on the game.

“I can’t believe it…” Tomika blinked multiple times, staring at her phone while our group of six sat around the table, wearing an apron, her kigurumi mask lying next to her. Even when the waitress brought out food, she was still fixated at her ace pilot she had gotten. “We managed to get through that gambit. My whole screen was filled with dragon fire.”
“Congratulations. Now…” I pushed her plate to her seat right next to me. “Renate Brunhild can wait, can’t she?”
“Of course.” Tomika put her phone away. “Thanks for the food.”
“Thanks for the food.” The rest of us repeated and started eating. All of the rest wore aprons just like Tomika, with the reason for it staining said aprons very quickly.
“So…” Adelaide began. “How come you wear a rubber plugsuit? Most people just go for spandex… Wouldn’t exactly blame them.”
“Neither do I, but rubber…” Tomika fidgeted with her fingers for a bit. “Rubber is just special.”
“Agreed, it just feels like a tight hug when you were it… Although…” Adelaide put down her chopsticks and embraced her fiancée. “It feels so much better when you are hugging someone, especially if both are wearing rubber.”
“I can imagine that.” Tomika grinned, and for a split second glanced over to me, too fast for me to make out what kind of look she had on her face. Teasing? Accusing? Disappointed?
Instead, she talked with the others about latex in its many facets.
“Why dress up as Octavius anyway?” The Johan cosplayer nudged me.
“Pfuh…” I leaned back. “I guess I like how he has such a presence despite only being a commander. I remember everyone being pissed he was not a pilot, but… I think he just fits better as the man with the plan, who sets the pieces up for success.”
“You and Octavius are kind of alike… Considering you made several good reads on the AI during our vault run.”
“If you say so…”
“Hey, Haruto…” Tomika tapped me on my shoulder. “I have just heard from Adelaide that they there is a cosplay competition tomorrow. How about us two?”
“Eh… I mean we are no pros. And Artoria and Octavius aren’t exactly on good terms so…”
“What about the intro scene of the final mission…”
“You mean…” We had seen this scene too many times, considering how many times we attempted the mission. But I never skipped it, due to how well it was executed.
Two generals meeting each other before the begin of a battle deciding the course of history, as it has happened for millennia.
“Do you think we can repeat the lines without help by tomorrow?” I looked at her with complete seriousness.
“You can count on it!” She exclaimed with gleaming eyes.

Even with us having learned our lines back and forth last night and calming our nerves by playing matches against out new friends during the day we were both shaking in anticipation, having applied just yesterday evening, a spot being freed up due to one of the contestants missing their flight. Tomika was tightly gripping her Artoria mask, sitting next to a wall.
On stage was currently one of our new friends, the girl who dressed up as a mech breaker, recreating the scene of the original campaign, in which after the Pacific Union and Commonwealth were on the brink of losing with, with Artoria staring down the barrel of the enemy until a mech breaker gets the lucky shot on them turning the situation around, struggling to aim the railgun and firing.
As the moderator thanked her for her performance I turned to Tomika.
“Are you ready?”
She took a few breaths, doing the meditation we had practiced together during our preparation for the semester exams and put her helmet on, her face disappearing behind that of Artoria’s.
“Ready and set!” She held out her hands, which I grabbed, helping her up. “Just like we practiced yesterday.”
“And now, for two cosplayers who decided to appear together: Introducing the Great Commander of the Re:United States and the Royal Knightess of the Commonwealth, Gerald Octavius and Princess Artoria of Albion!”
We both walked on stage, the crowd applauding us, with me carrying a chair from backstage, putting it down before signaling the moderator to turn down the lights so that we could begin.
In the darkness of the stage Artoria quickly took the chair, placed it down and sat on it with legs crossed, while I disappeared just offstage, only to reappear walking slow and steadily, the headlights shining on us two.
The scene began, one of two commanders meeting each other at the eve of their battle, as it happened so often during history.
“So, this is the great Octavius I heard of.” Artoria gestured toward me, Octavius. “To think that such a sickly child could raise and army to march from sea to sea. If it weren’t for my scouts, I would hardly believe it.”
“Yet here I am, in the flesh…” I let out a cough, as did Octavius in the cutscene, having caught an illness just at the wrong time. “I have come with a final appeal, to you your highness.”
“Spare me.” Artoria waved him away. “You might have had a series of lucky battles, yet all you fought were either tribes, fanatics or mercenaries. Hardly fitting of a ‘great commander’. Your little revival of the that so called ’experiment’ ends here, where it all began…”
I looked to my left, where instead of the Boston Harbor was the crowd, silently watching.
“Mayhap, are you still mad at us for dumping your tea into the sea?”
“You had great man leading you then, for sure. But it only took 3 centuries to tear yourself apart. Your great men had all passed away. Your sun has set, even if your great-grandfather tried his darndest to turn things around.”
“Says the princess of a country who lost their empire in only a few decades. After we bailed you out from the wars preceding that fall. Twice!”
“And yet since the Dragon War has been fought and won, our great Commonwealth arose and stands united. Can you say the same about your nation, your failed experiment?”
“Failed?” I let out a chuckle, slowly turning around and walking towards her. “As long as we hold dear to our hearts that the unalienable truths are the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, our experiment has not failed yet.”
“Really? Is that how you managed to convince so many to join your cause? With honeyed words? Or was it your guns doing the talking?” Artoria gestured with an open palm towards the boy who would reunite this land.
“Both, although at times my speeches alone were enough for men to lay down their arms and walk by my side. Tales of what this country was and will be again.”
“Like Napoleon during his escape from Elba…” Artoria stood up and slowly walked away. “Perhaps future generation will talk about this battle as has been done with Waterloo or Stalingrad.”
“If I were to draw comparisons then Actium or Yorktown. Although to be fair, I hate such comparisons. It distracts from viewing the battle on its own, without any pretensions or predestinations.”
Then we put on a poignant silence, were we stared at each other.
“I will await your soldier on the battlefield then. I privy you to send your best, little boy. You will need them.” Artoria slowly turned around and began to walk away.
“I will have them give you my regards when they face you. Until we meet again, your highness.” As did I, walking in the opposite direction, the music which had been playing now peeking to undermine the scene.
As we left the stage, we could hear the roar of the crowd.
“Thank you very much for such a great contribution… Next on…”
I quickly joined up with Tomika behind the stage, who had sat herself down again, her mask removed.
“We did it!” She giggled madly, sweating. “I can’t believe we made it through…”
“Likewise…”
“Come on!” She punched me in the shoulder, although not with as much force as usual. “You already knew the scene like the back of your hand, I skipped them after seeing it for the first few times.”
“Fair enough…”
“Hey…” The mech breaker cosplayer waved at us. “Great job out there!”
“Thanks.”
“Are you up for some PvP later on, once the other are done as well?”
We both looked at the stage were currently Tatsuya and Adelaide were replaying a joke scene from the first campaign, where Adelaide was spilling the tea on embarrassing childhood stories about Artoria, including the fact that her father named her after a character from a certain visual novel.
“Sure, why not… We’ll be getting us something to drink in the time.”

“Ah, that was so much fun…” Tomika threw herself on her bed, still wearing her plugsuit, holding on to the mask, she had just taken off. “What are you looking at?”
“Just doing rolls we won.” I had sat myself down as well and opened my phone, the menu screen theme of Dragonslayers clearly audible. In the competition we had landed on 4th place, with the price being 100 rolls, or 50 for each of us. Certainly not the main price of a trip to the game studios. “Not bad for only practicing the day before…”
“Well, you and Octavius were already on the same wavelength. You just had to carry me along.” Tomika joked, as she pulled out her phone to cash in her prize. “Anything good yet?”
“Nope…” It was only the 22nd roll. “Although there are some useful mech parts. Especially the one with the tank treads… Tatsuya nearly ran me over with those during our duels.”
“Yeah, I heard that.” Tomika giggled. “Although his face when he marched into your base only for you to ambush him with 2 dozen mech crackers was priceless.”
“I mean, what did he expect playing Bharat, known for fast Dragonslayer rushes? That he could just roll up to my base and… Oh!”
“You got something good?”
I showed her my phone, with a pilot wearing a combo of an unzipped, tattered plugsuit and a oil smeared tank top. “Gaby Cloverfield. Might be useful for a more tanky setup, especially with those tank treads and artillery to draw aggro…”
“YES! Look at that!” It seemed she had finally hit something good as well. Brigham Young, leader of the Deseret Mech Platoon, enemy turned ally of Octavius. His specialty being buffing troops. “Oh man, he looks so cute in the plugsuit!”
“Really? That is why you are so excited?”
“Of course I am! It is not only girls which can look good in skin tight plugsuits.” She was poutingat me, furrowing her eyebrows.
“Oh… ok.” I couldn’t help but think about what it must feel like wearing one. From what Tomika told me it was comfortable, although it could be sweaty.
“By the way… what do you think Artoria and Octavius see in each other?”
“Rivals, enemies… But in the end, they do respect each other. Artoria for her frontal leadership, Octavius for his forethought and planning long before the first shot is fired.”
“Really… Don’t you feel there is a sort of tension between them?”
“Tension? Of course there is tension. They are in a war, and afterwards she had to walk into his base to surrender to someone who was in a sickbed from the toll his conquests incurred on his health. Not to mention there is still the border with the Commonwealth to the north.”
“If you say so…” Tomika got up. “I will hit the shower…”
“Do that.” I nodded looking at her mask on the bed.
When I pulled it on, I was surprised how well she could see with it, although breathing was a bit restrictive.

During the final day, us 6 mostly just roamed around the convention. Visiting stands and presentations of various fan content like fanart, doujinshi or game mods and playing against randoms or each other, with many wanting to take pictures. Mostly of the latex suits, but some recognized me from the competition yesterday, complimenting me on how well I had played Octavius, even saying I could give the actual VA a run for his money.
“The exact mixture of weak, sickly and prideful, ambitious…” Tomika giggled beneath her mask when she mentioned what one of the commentators had mentioned while we stood in line.
“Fits you man…” Tatsuya clapped me on the back. “Can’t wait to see the movie though… To think we are going to be the first to see it.”
“It is in English though…” The mech cracker girl commented, looking how long it would take to get a seat.
“Wasn’t there some trouble during its production?” Tomika nudged me.
“Yes, it was supposed to have European subventions, but they pulled out because they did not like the tone of the Frisian campaign…” I rolled my eyes remembering the news. “They expected that it would end with a diplomatic solution between Nova Roma, Albion and the Drakkenritters and not with Klaes winning with burte force and playing the enemy mechs off against each other.”
“What did they expect? For all of them to dance and sing together?” Johan laughed. “Still happy they managed to wrap production up.”
“I can’t wait to see the actors they chose for Adelaide and Tatsuya on screen… Oh I think they started letting people in!”
Slowly we got into the darkened room, sitting down next to each other, waiting for the lights to fully dim and for the movie to begin. A tale about a pilot who protected his little village, no matter the cost.
Next to me I could hear Tomika remove her mask, putting it on her lap, her eyes fixated on the screen for the whole time, even when she was snatching snacks from me.

The credits fell, as Klaes climbed out of his Dragonslayer and lying down to smoke one last cigarette, the last of the three armies having finally retreated from this one mech army, him knowing that his family and village were save.
“Imma go…” I slowly got up.
“You won’t stay for after the credits?” Tomika looked at me, while she put her mask back on. “They are doing meet and greets with the actors.”
“Toilet…” I stammered, with her simply nodding as I ran out of the room, just like Tatsuya and Adelaide who had went out a few minutes earlier, having held out only to miss the end.
If I meet them I will tell them the bit they missed, I thought as I finally found the bathroom and coming out shortly after.
Yet when I passed the disabled toilet however I could hear voices. The voices of the Tatsuya and Adelaide cosplayers.
“Lord Tatsuya…” She sounded aroused. “We must not… If Lady Artoria finds out about this…”
“Shh make no sound my beloved Adelaide…”
“Let me at least get out of my plugsuit…”
“You said it yourself… We have only very little time…”
“In our plugsuits, my lord…. But… But…”
“We have waited so long to finally be alone, lovely Adelaide…”
They did not…
“Ah… Lord Tatsuya… It is so big…”
They were doing it. My mind started to produce images of what I heard and no sooner could I feel my shame grow.
I slapped myself and quickly removed myself from the bathroom area, almost running back to the cinema, where they still held the meet and greets.
“Ah there you are!” Tomika was standing in line for the woman who had played Artoria in the movie, next to her was a translator. “Have you seen Tatsuya and Adelaide…”
“Nope…” I spat out. “I guess they still need to take their time…”
“Jeez, what could they have possibly eaten?” Tomika turned back to the queue, while the images I had cooked up in my mind of the two were still running on repeat of a courtly affair between a prince and his own wife’s lady-in-waiting.
Why did they even do this? They never hinted at anything like that happening. Neither ingame, nor the light novel nor the manga, nor the anime and definitely not in the movie we just watched.

It did not leave my head, even after we came back from the con and I went out to get us some instant noodles for the two of us to eat.
“Tomika, I am… back…” I opened the hotel room door, finding Tomika in the plugsuit sitting with her mask on and her hand between her legs. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing!” She shouted, staring at me with her motionless mask, while obviously hiding whatever she had just been reading.
“Tomika!” I chased whatever she was holding with her continuously turning until the moment I switched direction and, in her dizziness, managed to grab the booklet she was holding.
‘Royal Revenge: Conquering the Commander’ on it was Princess Artoria, holding down Octavius in a very explicit manner.
“What is this?” I gestured at the doujinshi while she was removing her mask, looking at me mostly straight-faced, though still blushing.
“Artoria/Octavius doujin. Remember what I asked you about tension?”
“Tension? You mean…” I looked at the booklet and at her multiple times. “They are enemies, at best rivals, not to mention she is married…”
“What about courtly love? But also…” Tomika walked towards. “Them being enemies makes the whole ship even hotter.”
“Ship? I still don’t get what you mean.”
“Let me demonstrate it to you…” Tomika grinned as she put her mask back on and took a deep breath, just like when we got into character on stage.
“Ah… To think I was forced to surrender to you. A man who had been in a sickbed at the time of his victory!” She didn’t look at me. “Such humiliation. Such indignation!”
“Tomika?” I whispered, but to not avail.
“But this time…” Tomika… No, Artoria grabbed me and threw on a bed. “I will be the conqueror and you, oh mighty commander of America, will be my conquest!”
She carefully unbuttoned my uniform to reveal my bare chest, which she stroked with her latex gloves, cold and alluring, crawling all the way down, while breathing with excitement. “What do you say, Gerald? Grant me your manhood by which you conquered all between the Pacific and Atlantic and we could rule an empire in which the sun never… set…”
“Is something Tomika?” I silently swallowed my spit.
“You aren’t playing his part…” Tomika removed herself and sat next to me, with me turning away, my heart violently pumping.
“No shit.” I spat out. “I certainly don’t know the lines of whatever you just read!”
“Ah fair enough… I got in way over my head. Did I at least convince you? How Artoria could see him in that way?”
I took a while to think. A princess humiliated by a man weaker than her, yet mightier in other ways. Inferiority mixed with admiration of his intellect and refinement.
“I guess so…” Tomika removed her mask and slowly unzipper her back, as she walked to the bathroom. “It was really fun!”
“This?”
“No, you dummy. The whole convention! It was so very thrilling to have made new friends over this game.”
“Same here…”
“Not to mention seeing how latex looked on others in person…” I could hear her mumble as she closed the door.
Alone with my thoughts, I removed my uniform, stumbling on the booklet Tomika had been reading. A few seconds of hesitation later my curiosity won out and I flipped through it.
Most of it was sexual in nature, much to my annoyance, although Artoria in her plugsuit was very entrancing. However, when they spoke more than grunts, Octavius was clearly aroused by the only woman who could match him on an intellectual level. An equal, though the two had very different styles of leadership and military doctrine, her being tactical and him being strategical. The dynamic reminded me of the ideas I had for prince Masao and Ingrid in my story. Perhaps…
Hearing Tomika come out of the shower I quickly tossed the book aside and rushed to the shower myself.

After half a day we were back home, greeted by Tomika’s parents.
“You are early. How was your trip to that convention? Did you have fun?”
“Tons of it, mom!”
“Well, considering your improved grades you have earned it.” Her father was still deep into his work, even during the holidays. “Don’t slack off once school starts again, you hear me?”
“Loud and clear.” Tomika sighed turning around to see me off. “What a trip huh?”
“Indeed.” I grazed at the suitcase in which Tomika had stored her plugsuit and whispered. “How are you going to wash it?”
“Once my parents are in bed, I will get to it.” She whispered back, before raising her voice again. “Say hello to your parents for me when you are home.”
“I will.” I waved her and then went my way home through the narrow streets of our neighborhood, the crickets chirping in the late afternoon.
Coming home, I saw their shoes at the entrance, yet nowhere home with the exception of that room which I did not want to even knock at. Although it was strange that they didn’t make the usual noise in it. Maybe they rested from whatever they were doing in there.
I silently walked to my room, put my bag down and walked over to my desk where the notes to my story Demons of the North still lay open after 4 days unchanged.
“The plot was good, but you need to make the characters in them more interesting.” Kohinata told me before the holidays.
“More interesting…” I mumbled, pondering about what I could add, the memories of the convention still being fresh, including the two Adelaide and Tatsuya cosplayers making out.
An affair between a prince and his wife’s servant. Servant… Slave…
Then it hit me.
One of the servants Ingrid brought with her was Momoha, a slave taken from a raid, given to Ingrid as an interpreter by her father Ebbe Goldbeard until she managed to learn the tongue of her husband.
I had included Momoha’s perspective at the beginning, mostly as a point of view character to introduce Viking way of life to the reader.
Yet over the chapters I had sidelined Momoha, especially once Ingrid started speaking Japanese with other members of the court. What would someone like Momoha think about the northern devils? Hate for the destruction and pillaging of her village. Disdain for their barbaric nature. Rage for them diluting the sacred bloodline of Prince Masao.
And if all of those were to mix with her falling in love with the gentle prince, it would lead to the love triangle between Masao, Momoha and Ingrid practically writing itself.
“I think I got something good…” I told myself as I outlined the drama between a meek prince, a barbarian maiden and her reluctant translator.

Chapter VI - The desire for abstraction

With their last summer holidays over, the school festival is now comming up, with the literature club busy to finish their works to present them to the world, including Haruto.
He however is struggling with two things:
How to give ‘Devils of the North’ the last touch up to be as good as it can be and what to do about the recent series of sudden awakenings from dreams involving not only Tomika, but also rubber, and not only on her.

“Come on Tomika! Just a bit more!” I shouted from the sidelines, seeing her form slither through the water. “You are almost there!”
Today was her competition, with me being right there to cheer her on. She was 150 meters away from finishing then 100, then 50, slowly fighting ahead and gaining tempo with each turnabout at the ends of the pool. Until finally…
“And the winner is: Tomika Shimizu!”
Under the cheer of the crowd Tomika rose from the water, wearing a black rubber catsuit and a gasmask, waving to the crowd, until she came to me.
“There you are buddy!” Tomika embraced me. “Wanna wind down a bit? I am kinda hungry.”
“Sure, why not, you deserve it.” I replied, with us two now being in the empty locker room. As I looked down at my body I was looking just like Tomika: Shiny and black, with Tomika kneeling down looking between my spread legs.
She unscrewed something from her gasmask, revealing a hole leading to her mouth. Her hands grabbed the zipper at my crotch pulling it down, with the gasmask touching my…
I woke up, groaning as I felt something wet in my pants. This was not how Tomika’s competition went. Not at all.
“Urgh… Not again…” I forced myself up, scrambling to find a fresh replacement for my underpants and walked to the toilet to clean myself up, not turning on the painful lights and not daring to check the time to find out just how many hours of sleep I had left until I had to wake up from school.
Ever since we have returned from the Dragonslayer convention, I had multiple of these dreams, at first barely remembering them, before I decided to write them down. As I did after I returned to my room with fresh underpants, folding the soiled ones and putting them into the washing basket praying that my parents don’t notice their state.
I noted down, beneath the other entries in a notepad I kept hidden behind other schoolbooks: ‘Tomika, rubber, gasmask, me in rubber, swimming’
They always included Tomika and her wearing rubber, at times I wore it too, somehow, though the scenarios changed. At times she was a maid, at times she was ‘Model-T’, other times some other nonsensical situation.
Now, a few days after her winning the swimming competition she trained so hard for, I had this kind of dream.
Only once did I have a dream about Artoria, although considering Tomika cosplayed as her.
I quickly closed the notepad, slid it back behind the other books and went back to bed, hoping I could catch some sleep after this sudden wakeup.

“Great… Feel like shit…” I groaned as I plopped down on my spot in class.
To no surprise, my accident led me to have a terrible night’s rest and come to school extremely tired. At least it was only the first day after the summer holidays, so everyone still needed to get over the holiday rust.
“Hey… Hey… Ikemoto… Look at this!” Two guys from my class came up to me shoving their phone into my face.
“Uh huh…” I tentatively grabbed it, taking a while to process what I saw…
“Ey… Look… He is looking at it. Ahahaha!”
It was two naked people humping another.
“Who do you think he wants to be?”
It was two guys copulating.
“Totally the guy getting his ass blown. Hey!”
I took the phone and walked to the teacher who just came in equally as tired as me.
“Teacher…” I shouted in class. “Kimura has gayp… MMMPFH!”
“Shut up!” Kimura held my mouth closed; his voice filled with panic. “It was a prank. I am sorry ok…”
“What is it, Kimura?” The teacher now asked him, taking the phone out of my hand, the phone. Luckily for Kimura, the screen was locked. “What did you two show Ikemoto on Kimura’s phone?”
“Just…” The two stammered, their faces pale. “You know… Sexy ladies and stuff…”
“Delete it now, and I’ll let you off the hook this time.” The teacher sighed and tossed them their phone back, rambling on as he went back to his desk. “On the first day after the holidays… These young ones get more brazen with every year… Can’t wait for my retirement.”
Kimura meanwhile quickly deleted the video and together with Ota went back to their seats staying silent for the rest of the lesson.
“Hey buddy!” Tomika walked in, noticing the two staring blankly to the front. “What happened to these two?”
“They screwed around with me…”
“And found out.” Tomika grinned as she sat herself down next to me. “By the way… I met Nakami.”
“Right…” I rubbed my eyes. “Give her my thanks for her and the sewing club making the uniform.”
“Already did.” She showed me the picture of my Octavius cosplay, posted on the Dragonslayer convention website, where they showed off all the attending cosplayers, including us. “They loved it!”
“Great to hear… Wait, did you also show yours?”
“No, of course not!” Tomika whispered back. “Would be far too embarrassing for her to find out.”
“Really?”
“Yeah! Anyway…” Tomika obviously decided to change the topic. “Are you excited for the school festival? What is the literature club planning?”
“Definitely. We will just do readings of the stories we all wrote.”
“Neat. Is yours done?”
“Almost.”
“Almost?”
“Some minor parts still need touching up. But that’s about it.”

During our clubtime, we all spent time reading through the other members work, to give some final advice and criticism before we finalized the works we would be presenting.
“Wow…” Kohinata gave my script back to me. “This is really good.”
“Much appreciated.” As did I with his work. “Yours is great as well.”
“Although… Can I give some criticism?”
“I gave plenty. Go ahead.”
“During the scene where Ingrid and Masao are about to consummate their marriage…”
“Yes?”
“It is just… plain boring.”
“Well, they are married. They are expected to sleep together…”
“But there is no intrigue, no tension, no excitement!” Kohinata explained.
“How would you have written it? Or could you give me a scene from your work?”
“Hmm… Give me a second.” Kohinata flipped through his work: The Demonlord is long gone, yet I have still been reincarnated into this world. “Here. In this scene Fiona and Gentaro share a bed in a cabin in the middle of the desert at night due to the cold.”
I took the book again and read through the passage he pointed at.
“How does that help me? They did not do anything beyond sharing a bedsheet.”
‘”Do you feel a bit warmer?” I asked Fiona, who shifted just behind me.
“A bit yes…” She rested on one hand, with the other holding her pistol. Her body radiated with warmth, heating up us both in the cold arid night. I turned around and saw her body’s contours beneath the sheet.
“Do say if there anything bothering you.” I almost touched her before I retracted my hand.
“I will. Good night, Genny.” She softly punched me in my belly. “Now turn around.”
She didn’t sound aggressive, more… playful.’
“Oh…” I reread the part a few times. “I think I get it. But…”
“But what?” Kohinata asked me while I flipped through my story, marking the scenes where I needed to overhaul them, to make them more enticing.
“How did you manage to write these kinds of scenes?”
“Hmm…” Kohinata took a moment to think. “I know you are not one for fanservice or erotic books. I might have taken some inspiration from them. Turned down the sex appeal down to an appropriate level though.”
“Ah… eh… I will look up some of them.” Like hell I would look up such junk just to fix these scenes, maybe I will just cut them entirely. Although that would hurt the love triangle dynamic. “Thank you for your advice.”
“No problem…”
As Kohinata and I went back to the drawing board, I was stumped at these scenes, stuck at what to write more than ‘and then they had sex.’

Why did it have to happen right now?
I had come to visit Tomika, with her wearing her black catsuit with the beasts, and do some schoolwork with her, maybe some gaming as we usually do.
But today I couldn’t help but ogle at her body, to want touch it and to…
“Stop!” I uttered as I closed the bathroom door, pulled down my pants and sat down on the toilet, staring at the culprit of my troubles between my legs.
I tried to wait until it deflated again, but I just could not stop thinking about Tomika in her sleek, shiny catsuit.
As my hand moved down, I made my fatal decision.
“Just this once… Until I can find a better solution.” It was the only way for me to look at Tomika without looking at her…
When I stared at the now open door, I saw Tomika blushing while looking at me, with my hands on my…
WHAM!
Tomika shut the door.
“Wait… I can… explain… Shit!” I grit my teeth as I slumped down on the toilet again, my gut filled with shame and guilt. And fear… for our friendship.
It took me a while to take heart, pull up my pants again, wash my face, not daring to look in the mirror and walk outside towards Tomika’s room, where she was sitting with legs crossed on her bed.
I sat down on the floor, with neither of us saying anything or looking at each other for a long while.
“Sorry…” I blurted out. “I am so sorry for doing it in your bathroom.”
“It is fine… You are a boy after all… You caught me doing it too after all…” She looked displeased, but also not. “Would you mind telling me…”
She was clearly thinking about what words to choose next.
“Did you think about anyone in particular while doing it?”
“Well… uhm…”
“Did you think about me?”
“Kinda… Yes…”
“Figures.” Tomika laughed awkwardly. “Should have been obvious.”
She pulled on her catsuit and let it snap back. “With me wearing latex so often this it was bound to occur.”
“I would like to apologize.” I knelt down and bowed before her face on the floor. “If you want to, I will do anything to make it up to you!”
“Anything?”
“Anything!”
“Hmm…” I looked up, seeing Tomika jumping off the bed, crouching to pull her rubber storage box from beneath her bed, pulling out her red catsuit. “Wear this and I’ll consider us even.”
“What?” I stared at her.
“My catsuit. You had so much time ogling me… I think it is high time you return the favor.” Tomika grinned as she handed the catsuit to me.
“I… Is it even my size?”
“We are about the same size. Not to mention latex can be quite stretchy so you should slide in easily.” Tomika turned around for a moment to bring out the dressing aid. “Don’t worry. If I put in lots, you should slide in easy enough.”
As she slathered the insides of the catsuit with it, I could feel my heart racing…
“F..fine…” I stammered. “But turn around while I ch…change…”
“Very well.” Tomika twirled around and sat down just behind me. “I will tell you what you need to do. Owe you that much.”
“T… thank you…” I unbuttoned my shirt with sweaty hands, then my pants and my underpants until I was buck naked, holding only the catsuit.
“First off…” Tomika raised her voice. “Pull on the stockings one by one, from the tip like you would pull on stockings, until they are just over your knees.”
“O…ok.” I proceeded to bundle up the right one, and put my foot into it, until they hit a strap and pulled it slowly up until it crossed my knee. “First one’s on.”
I then continued with the next one, the neck entry now pulling my legs together.
“Remember… Latex can stretch! Don’t worry about pulling the neck apart. It is used to it.”
“Ok…” I proceeded to pull it over my other knee. “What now?”
“Pull it both until it fits nice and tight over your lower body.”
“Uhuh…” I took the rolled-up neck and pulled it up, keeping both sides equal until it touched my crotch. It felt cold, pushing against me member. “Hng…”
“Is it over your butt?”
“Yes… I think so…” I squealed. It was way too tight down there.
“Great… One moment.” Tomika got up and pulled up the suit more, while also pushing out wrinkles on the stockings. “I will take it from here.”
I could feel Tomika grabbing the suit from behind slowly dragging it over my body, stretching it further against my loins.
“You are a scaredy cat.”
“I have never worn it until now.”
“Don’t worry you look good in it! I think.” She had just pulled it up over my stomach, scrunching up the right sleeve holding it open. “Put your hand in.”
It took some wrangling to get into the sleeve, but after I had pushed my hand through it, it practically tugged it on my arm itself, with it now stretching diagonally over me.
“Can you feel any tension?” Tomika asked while tugging at various points.
“I… think a bit here at the shoulder…” Without hesitation she pulled at the spot, pushing out any air pockets. “I can do the other myself.”
I repeated the same process on my left arm, with the only difference being that the catsuit snapped tight around my neck, sealing me in. “Ah… This is certainly…”
“Amazing?” Tomika smiled brightly at me as she tossed some black pieces of latex at me, which turned out to be a pair of gloves and socks.
“Something… I wanted to say…” I muttered as I pulled on the socks and gloves. It felt like I was inside a bright red ballon, all the while Tomika just stared at me with great fascination, letting out a whistle as I put on the final piece. “You happy now?”
“Absolutely… You look fantastic… Although…”
“What now?” I sighed, as she rummaged around her storage box.
“You still need to be shined up!” She pulled out a bottle of liquid and a small cloth. “Hold still!”
She sprayed some of it on my and proceeded to rub it on my body thoroughly.
As I stood there rooted in place, I couldn’t help but feel aroused as she massaged it over my neck, my arms, my chest and my back.
“I… can do the rest myself…”
“Just a bit more… Won’t take long…” Tomika was deeply engrossed in polishing me, mesmerized. She tirelessly forged ahead, lower and lower until she almost reached my crotch.
“Tomika….” I grabbed her hands on instinct, trying to yank the bottle and cloth from her hands, taking a step back, but she did not let go of them. “I can take it from hereeeeeee…”
My feet, too engulfed in this skintight material stepped on something flat and thin, perhaps on a zip lock bag, making me slip and in turn, causing me and Tomika, to fall.
We both landed on her carpet, with the clank of the bottle not far behind.
Opening my eyes, I could see… Nothing… But it was round and squishy…
“Sorry… I was just too into it…” Tomika apologized, pushing herself up on my chest, with me realizing that her catsuit’s breast had been right in my face.
“You don’t need to. I was the one who… grabbed… you…” My brain slowed down my speech to process what I just saw: Tomika was kneeling on my belly, her hands on my chest, while I had mine on her hips. Both of us forgetting to blink or breath for several seconds, just staring at each other with wide open eyes and flushed faces.
Before my mind could muster the strength to overpower my base instincts and ask Tomika to get off me, Tomika blinked, took a deep breath and asked me:
“You wanna do it?”
I blinked now too. “Do what?”
“Are you serios?” Tomika scoffed, though not bitterly. “You are a boy; I am a girl. You are wearing rubber; I am wearing rubber. I am into it and from what I can tell…”
Her right hand, moved to my now raging bulge. “You are horny as well.”
“But… we are only friends…”
“Of course we are… We knew each other for so long… But you are certainly not the sleazy type who would take advantage from me… Besides… I wouldn’t mind losing my virginity to you.” Tomika blushed and a voice I had never heard screamed down the rational parts of my brain, to drop the inhibitions and do it. “So?”
My rational brain however had one last ace up its sleeve.
“We don’t have protection.”
“Wow…” Tomika laughed heartily. “Not bad. You are really thinking ahead… Good thing I am already prepared for this.”
Tomika pulled down her crotch zipper, with my quickly looking away, only to take a glance.
Beneath the zipper was the same material as the rest of her suit, seamless except on part going inside between her legs.
“Is that…”
“An internal condom.” Tomika smiled gently, while caressing my body, crawling up to my right hand around her hips, and playing with its fingers, while her other tapped between her legs. “What do you say? Now neither of us is going to be virgins anymore.”
I swallowed my spit at the same time the rational part of me surrendered to my urges, my head nodding. “Sure.”
“Alrighty then…” Tomika moved her body, so my bulge was right in front of hers, her hand pulling the zipper handle. “Here we go…”

Tomika and I were laying in her bed after all of it, zipped up, still in latex, holding onto each other while catching our breath.
“Wow…” I could not put into words what both of us had done. As I felt my hand touched her breasts. “Oh sorry…”
“Don’t worry…” She took my hand and pressed it firmly against them. “They are just fakes anyway.”
“I…” I squeezed them a bit before letting them go. “That was…”
“Great, wasn’t it?” Tomika was as exhausted as I was. “Felt so much better then rubbing it out alone.”
“Really?”
“Of course… Don’t tell when I found you on the toilet that was your first attempt?” Tomika’s slap on my back, was answered by my silence. “Wait, really?”
“I never preoccupied myself with… carnal desires… In fact, … I am kind of surprised that it wasn’t as painful as I imagine it to be. It wasn’t painful for you, was it?”
“Of course, not…” Tomika blinked at me in confusion. “But what makes you think that it would be?”
I bit my lip, the image of what I saw occurring in that room bubbling up in my mind again.
“Hey buddy!” Tomika shook me out of it. “It is ok… You can tell me if there is something troubling you… We are friends… Well, now friends with benefits.”
Her eyes, looking calmly at me, soothed the tide of memories, letting them ebb out. Her hands gripping my shoulders making me break my vow to never tell a soul what I saw.
“When I was 10 I woke up in the middle of the night from hearing my mother scream… Although it was muffled… There were also cracking sounds.”
“ok…” Tomika looked at me, slightly concerned, but still relaxed.
“I walked to where I heard it. It was from a room my parents had always locked and forbade me and my sister from entering. But it was open, and I looked inside:”
Tomika held onto me, nodding to keep me going forward.
“My mother was… tied up with ropes, something was in her mouth… a gag and her eye were blindfolded. She lay on her belly with a man in a black hood whipping her… He hit her… Multiple times… Then… took off his pants and… began to hump her…”
“Haruto…” Her hand caressed my face, swiping away something beneath my eyes.
“I am not done!” I shouted. “When he was done… the man… he took of the mask… And then… That man… my father… he freed mother and… kissed her… She was happy… Why was she happy?”
“Hey, it is alright…” Tomika embraced me, as I could feel myself shake, with her responding only after I could control my body again. “I think what you saw…”
“Yes.”
“I would guess your parents are into BDSM. From what you told me.”
“Bds… You mean…?”
“Bondage and Sadomaso. He did not abuse her. At least not without her consent.”
“What…” I rubbed my eyes, only to find that latex was not good at getting the rheum out. “You mean my parents get aroused doing that?”
“Sounds like it from what you just told me. I am relieved that it wasn’t anything worse.”
“Likewise, but why would get people aroused from being tied up and hit?”
“Who knows…” Tomika shrugged. “As long as they both get along. Did something like that ever happened outside of their sessions? Outside of that room?”
My mind was rapidly reevaluating countless memories of my parents interacting, resorting them into new categories. For all I remembered except that time, they had never been abusive, not to me, or my sister and especially not to each other. “No… I don’t think so… Still feels weird. To think I might have been conceived that way…”
“Yeah… I never had to think about what my parents could be doing in bed.” Tomika comforted me still, rubbing my back. “But I am happy I could explain what your parents were doing.”
“Thank you… I guess…” I fell back on her bed. “It is certainly as exhausting, the talk and the… You know….”
“For me too…” Tomika lay flat just beside me breathing in and out. “I don’t feel like doing anything right now… How about we just listen to some music and chill.”
“Sounds fair.” I responded, my body not moving an inch, with Tomika grabbing her phone and earphones, and giving me one of them, a lofi tune emanating from it.
For a long while we just rested there, saying nothing doing nothing, just laying on her bed together. At times I slid my hands over my body, encased in shiny smooth latex, creaking as I did, mesmerized by how it felt, how it looked, how it sounded, how it smelled.
“By the way…” Tomika spoke after some time after she had noticed me inspecting myself. “How do you like it… The catsuit…”
“Bit tight, especially down there… But…It feels kinda good… Not going to lie…”
“Really? Hmm…” Tomika hummed to the song, while we lay there until the sun went down and we parted after I removed the suit.

“Hey Kohinata what do you think? I reworked the scenes you told me weren’t engaging.” I handed him my reworked story, with him skipping to the marked sections.
He read them once. Twice. Thrice. Rubbed his eyes and read them again.
“This… This is good. How…” Kohinata stammered amazed at the text. “I really like how you flipped their usual dynamic. Masao being on top of her, while she is the more passive part. But… He does seem to care about her, even if they are only together due to an arrangement.”
Where previously I had both just nod and go into bed, now Ingrid was a bit shy, having compared herself to the more elegant and refined women of the court. Masao however doted on her, even though she was taller than him, with him gently caressing her open belly, telling her how beautiful she looked.
“How did you get so good at writing dirty scenes in only a week?” Kohinata continued the other scenes. “Now the triangle between the three actually makes senses. He genuinely loves Ingrid, but mostly indulges Momoha’s desires for him. While she, though willing to be a mistress for him cannot accept his love for someone she considers to be just one step removed from an animal. While Ingrid grows feelings for the prince and does genuinely likes Momoha and sees her as a confidant, only for her to attempt to kill Ingrid in her sleep, and fail. Tragic really…”
“That was the intent…” I looked outside the window, where Tomika, now free from the pressure of competition, swam row after row.
“But how?” Kohinata reiterated his question. “How did you get the scenes to be so good?”
“I guess…” I smiled as she finished her course, looking up to the window to wave me. “The muse kissed me.”
I looked around the club, with all students being absorbed in writing or reviewing others works. Most members were on their way to finish their writing projects, with most only doing their final corrections and minor rewrites.
“I think we will manage to send them to the printers this year on time. This year’s school festival is going to be great! With this many works to present…”
“Yeah, by the way, what is your class going to do this year? We planned to do an arcade with a bunch of board games and snacks. What about you?”
“Well, … It is going to be a café.”
“A maid café? How original.” Kohinata joked.
“Well sort of…” I looked aside. “We are also doing butlers…”
“Can I expect to be served by you there?”
My silence was condemnation enough against me, already dreading the day where Kohinata would waltz in, and I would have to call him ‘master’, which is why I never told anyone but Tomika about our part time job.

During the middle of the night I was woken up, this time not by a pleasant dream with an unpleasant wakeup, but by my phone. Who could call me at this… Wait, what day is it today? It couldn’t be.
“Happy birthday Haruto!” Tomika congratulated me on the other end of the line just as the clock struck midnight, as we had done to another ever since both of us had a phone.
“Thank you, Tomika…”
“Are you going to celebrate with your family tomorrow?”
“Not… really… They both got their hands full at work…”
“On your birthday? What a bummer!” Tomika responded, expressing the disappointment I was feeling. “How about you come over to my house after school and we celebrate together? There is that one cake recipe Gustav taught me I really want to try. Not to mention… I got a surprise for you…”
“Sounds good…See you tomorrow…” I was only then putting together that the way she said ‘surprise’ sounded fishy.
“See you today, birthday boy!” Tomika laid up before I could question her about it.
“Right, it is already today… If it involves rubber… It is my birthday, not hers…” I mumbled as I drifted back into sleep. Although at this point, with all that recently occurred… I did not really mind if she wore something like that.

“Happy birthday buddy!” Tomika waltzed in from the kitchen holding a dark chocolate cake and a small bowl of whipped cream and after putting them both down pulled out a pack of 18 candles, arranging them and igniting them, while singing ‘Happy Birthday’
I blew them out after which she gave me the knife and put some whipped cream on both our plates, while I cut each one of us one slice.
“Apricot?” I bit into the dense, yet rich cake when I noticed the flavor taste of fruit amongst the bitter chocolate. “Wasn’t that the same cake Keiler made you for your birthday last year?”
“Yep…” Tomika nodded, her grin hiding some kind of anticipation. Although what that was, I did not know, she did not wear latex as far as I could see. Maybe a present she was excited to give. “It’s a variation of Sachertorte. Gustav told me he learned it from his grandmother.”
“A very good variation indeed…” It was just dense enough to not be to cumbersome, and when combined with the cream… Perfekt, as he always said.
“I especially like the dark mantle of chocolate around the cake… So smooth and soft…”
“Why am I not surprised.” I chuckled, as Tomika stood up, walked up to her room and down again, this time holding a present in her hands.
“Here, for you buddy!” It was a gift box with ribbons.
“Aw, you shouldn’t have…”
“Take it.” I followed her request this time and took the box and put it aside on the table. Tomika however kept eyeing it, thumping with her foot. She was more excited for the gift then I was…
“You want me to open it?” Tomika nodded after I asked her. Now I was curious.
I loosened the ribbons and removed the lid and gazed upon the contents inside.
“Tomika?” I shifted my sight towards her, looking eagerly at me and then back into the box. “Did you put some of your rubber things in here, by mistake?”
“Nope…” She said with a straight face. “It is yours.”
“You mean…” She had gifted me latex clothing as my birthday present. In fact, there were multiple pieces counting the zip lock bags: One pair of both gloves and socks, a hood with small openings and, of course, a catsuit. “You know it is MY birthday, don’t you?”
“Of course! You did say that you felt good in it. Not to mention how we went at it for an hour.”
“Tomika!” I blushed, remembering the night when we… deflowered each other.
“Don’t lie. You were totally into it.”
“I…” I bit my tongue, the feeling of this material fresh in my mind, and when I opened the bag, its smell too came back to me. “I guess I can try it… But how did you get my measurements?”
“Nakami…” Tomika explained as she removed the plates and the remaining cake from the table. “Told her that it is for a suit.”
“Well, you certainly told her the truth… Though not all of it.” I felt the suit in its packaging, the thought… the want of wearing it haunting my mind, as we walked upstairs.
“Would you mind if I wore mine too?” She looked at me while opening the door.
“I mean at this point…” I gestured to her storage box under her bed, to which she replied by a wide smile and running over to it, pulling it out and fishing out her red catsuit, gloves, socks and hood.
As I pulled out the suit, I noticed it had three zippers, one between the legs and two on the shoulders.
“Is it really easier to put it on with them?” I turned around to Tomika who was already undressing behind me.
“By miles… although the neck entry does have its draws…” She put the red suit over her half naked body, before starting to lube up and enter it.
We both continued to redress, her handing me the dressing aid after she had slathered herself and the red suit with it.
Tomika was certainly right, it was much easier to get in with the shoulder zippers, with less worry about tearing the suit at its neck, and not as much force necessary to pull it on myself. After having zipped the shoulders tight I proceeded with the hood, already shined up as was the rest of the gear she gave me.
“Wait… Wasn’t there one more?” Tomika looked around after she pulled on her hood, with only her eyes and mouth being visible.
“I… don’t think so…” As I pulled it on, I could hear her swiftly walk down to the living room and up again.
“Found it! You forget the best part of your present!” Tomika held up a small piece of latex, its shape being phallic with a bigger pockets at its entry.
“Is that a condom?”
“Think of it as a reusable condom. Want to try it?”
“As in putting it on, or putting it to use?”
“Why not both?” Tomika closed the gap between us and with her free hand, slowly stroked down my chest. “I think your little man has already given me your answer.”
“Fine!” I sighed, hoping that whatever came next would, it would atleast prevent me from getting her pregnant.
“Sit down….” Tomika softly lead me to a mirror in her room, with her kneeling behind me, her hand opening my zipper and putting it on.
Looking in the mirror, I could hardly recognize myself. Was this… boy supposed to be me. I was smooth and black, from head to toe and shiny. Even touching myself in various spots didn’t make this shock less harsh. Why did I feel so good wearing it? Why could I not stop sliding my hands all over me… Wait, that wasn’t my butt..
“Hng…” Tomika had just finished her work down there, yet still held on. “Someone is liking his birthday present.”
“I guess it is nice…” I tried to avoid her eyes in the mirror.
“Come on…” She tightened her grip around it. “Those eyes of yours don’t lie. I won’t let go until you spit it out…”
Her hands around it made me squirm, as did her legs pulling me to her body rubbing tightly against my back.
“I… You…”
“Say it!” She said with a sweet, teasing voice.
“It is… amazing.” I blurted out, my chest loosening from the admission. “You look amazing in it. I… love how I look in it. It is just amazing to see it, to feel it.”
After Tomika blinked a few times, she smiled as she put my penis back into the suit and zipped my crotch up, proceeding to hug me tightly from behind with her arms, making ours suits squeak delightfully. “You are damn right! You look so hot in it!”
“I still wonder why though?”
“Who knows…” Tomika loosened her grip and shrugged. Then she crawled to face me. “Would you mind if I took a photo of this momentous occasion. Didn’t get a chance to take one last time.”
“Are you going to post it?”
“Well… Would you wearing a mask change your mind? No one would know it is you.”
“That sounds… fair enough…”
“One moment…” Tomika walked up to her storage box and pulled out her gasmask. “How about you take this? I put the tinted visor on, so not even your eyes are visible.”
I nodded and she pushed the mask on my face, pulling the straps on methodically. Breathing in it was strange. It wasn’t that I was restricted in airflow, or that I didn’t get enough air, it just felt as if I was removed from the world in a way.
Then I looked in the mirror again: Now there was not even a hint of who I was. Before me sat something in evoking the shape of a human being, with a mask where its face should be. Like a statue or a robot made in the human image… Wait… Could that be why?
“I also bought a proper latex blindfold when I ordered your gear…” Tomika walked up behind me and when I turned around, I saw her wearing her facemask and her blindfold over her hood.
I got up and immediately grabbed her by her hips, something deep within me wanting to… to hold her… to make her…
“Woah, there buddy…” She was stiff for a moment before relaxing and grabbing me by my shoulders. “I think I might have activated some neurons in your brain huh?”
She too, was reduced to but the shape of the human form without details.
“Abstraction.” It came out of my mouth, the gasmask slightly muffling it.
“Huh?”
“The reason why we both like this is because it is an abstraction of the actual human form. Without its details and flaws…”
“Like a stick figure?” Tomika tilted her head.
“No, still a bit more. But just reduced enough to remove the tiny flaws, leaving only the platonic ideal of a man or woman.”
“My my… To think you still get all philosophical in it. But…” Tomika and I rubbed against each other. “It does make sense… yeah… This could be why we are into this.”
It felt exhilarating for us to touch and rub each other like this, our bodies squeaking like baloons rubbed against each other.
“Now then…” Tomika lifted her blindfold and grabbed her phone. “You still up for it?”
I nodded, while she prepared the camera.
“Then let’s introduce the world to my rubber pal…” She dropped the blindfold again and got ready to make the photo. “Ru-kun!”
Snap!
“Ru-kun?”
“I called myself Mi-chan. Would you prefer another alias?”
“Ah…” She just chose the second syllable for me, just like she did for herself. “No it is fine.”
“Alrighty then…” Tomika took the blindfold off and began to type the post: ‘Me and my rubber pal Ru-kun about to have tons of fun on his b-day.’
“There…” She put the phone away, shifted the blindfold back over her eyes again. “Now then…”
With in an instant, she flung her legs over my thighs, holding me tight. I wavered for a few seconds with her weight pulling me down even as I held her, until I could make sure we both landed on her bed.
Even as I stood atop her she did not let her legs go.
“Let us have tons of fun on your birthday, Ru-kun!” She found my zipper and pulled it down.

“AAAAAh… Mmmh…” Tomika moaned with her mouth full of the forkful I just pushed into her mouth. “Chocolate Cake and rubber is such a good combo…”
“Agreed.” I bit off of the fork she held to my face, with my fork holding her next bit.
We both sat on the couch with plates of Sachertorte and cream, after we had come down from her bedroom after a long eventful hour, feeling the urge to eat something sweet.
And now we just sat next to each other on the couch feeding each other bite after bite. All the while our free hands were entwined with each other.
Until Tomika let go and walked with her fingers over to my crotch.
“Wanna do it again?”
“Now?”
“No, I mean in general…”
“Well…” The rush of it still was fresh in my veins. To me sex had seemed trite, and after I had taken part in sex ed, was to me nothing more than bait for reproduction. And yet…
“mmmh…” Just like the cake Tomika put into my mouth it was such a sweet bait.
“You want more?” Tomika smiled at me, already seeming to know my answer.
“The cake or us doing it?”
“Both.”
“Sure…” I responded by giving her some cake, much to her delight. “I can go for some more when we have the time for it, Mi-chan.”

The school festival had finally come and with me having gotten from the literature club after having done a reading of my book, Devils of the North, from the part where Momoha described Viking society, I had sprinted to my classroom and with me already wearing the butler uniform which I borrowed from my workplace, Tomika and I began our shift together with three others, two of them making the food and the tea.
“Just like at work huh?”
“Indeed, but with more children around…” I sighed as I walked to a family who was already waiting for their tea, their daughter having ordered fruit tea. Certainly not what you would drink for teatime, but the master has the last word.
“Where is he?” Without fanfare Kanamori, in her maid uniform, who had just done her shift waltzed in, her eyes locked on me.
“Kanamori…” I quickly handed the customers their tea and biscuits. “May I help you?”
In her hand was a book, one of the copies we sold at our club. My book, Kita no Akuma, to be precise which she now held to my nose.
“How did you manage to write such a good story?” She asked me earnest, yet her confusion written all over her.
“P…pardon?”
“You made Masao such a hot guy even though he is such a softie… And the rivalry between Ingrid and Momoha… Not to mentioned how spicy some of those scenes got…”
“Kanamori!” I warned her, nodding to the table we just served. “We got children here…”
“O…of course… It is just when I read it, I couldn’t believe it was YOU who wrote it.”
“Yet here we are.” I shrugged. “You can press me out after my shift. Alright?”
“Absolutely… If you excuse me…” She was barely two steps out the door before I could see her drooling over it while reading it. “Oh my… Go get him Momoha…”
“Oh, look you got a fan!” Tomika pinched me in my sides while passing by me.
“Sigh! If only she would pick up on the cultural-political clash and not just the love triangle.”
“Maybe not her but other might.”
“Enough chitchat you two!” A classmate in a butler uniform chided us, to which we obliged, serving many customers until we finally finished our shift and were free to visit the various stalls.
“Hey Haruto…” Tomika whispered to me as we walked around Kohinata’s class, which had been turned into a arcade with various games, both board games and videogames. “Wanna play master and maid when we get home?”
“You mean…” By now we had done it half a dozen times, yet the thought of wearing latex always made my blood rush to my face. “Sounds…great…”
“Hehehe…” Tomika chuckled her gaze drifting downwards, before looking at me again, now cheerier.
“You can’t wait, huh?”
“Nope…” She walked ahead of me and looked back and smiled. “You are the bestest buddy I could have!”
“’Bestest’ is not a… Thanks… Tomika…” I sighed, excited for what we do when the festival was over.

Chapter VII - High Seas and Mooinlit reefs

Tomika and Haruto’s class is going on a school trip. However they are not staying in a hotel a week straight. Instead, their class has chosen to sail around Japan’s southern seas on a chartered sailing ship, the weather still comfortable warm there even during autumn.
Many adventures will be had during this voyage, although Haruto has a hunch that his friend has some ideas for adventures that aren’t exactly school approved.
Especially now that they have become friends with benefits.

This chapter is partially inspired by two of my school trips, one on a sailing boat in the Netherlands in 10th grade and another one on the Croatian peninsula Istria in 12th grade.

The coastline shrank ever with each passing second, with us looking back on it on the sailing boat we chose as a class trip and left the harbor of Kagoshima and Kyushu behind us, the seas of the southern islands ahead of us, with the wind whistling through our hair, ever stronger the farther the coast was away.
“Feels like we are going on a grand adventure!” Tomika exclaimed loudly beside me, some heads of our class turning to us. “What do you say, buddy?”
“It is quite refreshing I guess…” I looked out onto the clear blue sea and sky.
“Except us not having internet for the most time…” Kanamori complained, holding up her phone desperately trying to send one last message. “…and it’s already gone.”
“Get used to it!” Our homeroom teacher came up behind us. “Neither did the sailors back in the day and lo and behold they managed it well and good.”
“Ughh…” The class groaned, knowing they voted for this without thinking about the general lack of network connection, forcing them to drastically reduce their time online.
“The captain of the ship told me that it will be a bit until we switch from motor. Until then you can go under deck again if you’d like to get your things out of your luggage.”
“Understood…” The rest of the class moaned at her statement, cut off for a long time from the digital navel, as for me…
“You seem quite relieved, Ikemoto.” Our teacher noticed me looking less shaken.
“Oh, I am…” I told her, while we were walking under deck. There was a small kitchen, a common room filled with old board games and books, and behind it many rows of cabins and a small washroom. “I hope to get lots of writing done during this week. Especially with us being at sea.”
“Ah, right. You are continuing the Viking story? I loved how you described the Heian court from an outsider’s perspective. Where is it going next?”
“Definitely more south… Perhaps Korea… Or Song China… Not sure.” I finished my thoughts as I entered my cabin.
“Good luck then… And don’t do anything funny with Shimizu.” She warned me, although not seriously.
“We are just friends.” I rolled my eyes and closed the door, knowing that the only reason we were allowed to share a room, with everyone else already had picked their cohabitant leaving us two left, was due to our friendship and my lack of… normal male pubescent behavior.
“Just friends huh?” Tomika joked climbing down from the upper bed.
“Well… with a bit on the side…” I mumbled.
Tomika grinned, before letting herself fall on my bed.
“A whole week at sea! I can’t still believe this idea won out against just going to Kyoto like every other class.”
“Would have been fascinating as well to visit.” I sat myself down at the small table and pulled out my notes. I had finished the tale of Masao, Ingrid and Momoha, yet there were other tales which had spun off inside my head as I was writing it. Of the newcomers sailing further down the East Asian coast, plundering, trading and learning more about these strange people and vice versa. Old certainties and rites being disrupted by a hitherto unknown force and the consequences of this monumental clash between two very much opposite cultures. Besides my notepad I had also brought books about Korea and China around year 1000.
“Kind of boring though… Temples and palaces and museums… I would much rather live the adventure than read about it.” I could hear her toss and turn before getting up and walking up to me to give me a squeeze. “Are you really just going to sit there for all of it? We could be having so much fun right now…”
“Tomika…” I pushed her hand away from my crotch and softly knocked on the wooden walls. “You know how thin the walls here are. Besides, I thought you got your fill from our ‘master and maid’ play during the weekend…”
“I know…” Tomika pouted as she whispered. “But you pulled out so many times.”
“You said ‘no’…” I explained to her, while marking parts in the book about Korea’s north and south states period. “And I acted accordingly.”
“Well… There is a difference between, ‘No stop’ and…” Tomika encroached on my ear, breathing into it as she whispered: “No… Master, Please… I cannot hold on much… much lon… ger… ah…”
“Anyway…” I leaned back, managing to suppress the alluring memories of Tomika in catsuit gasmask and maid rubber combination. “There won’t be any games of that sort for a week. Especially considering we do not have… any rubber…”
Tomika looked away, the mark of a guilty woman.
“Tomika?”
“What?” She held her hands up with a flustered face.
“You did not…”
“Weeeeeell…”
I quickly pounced on her luggage, and opening it, I immediately smelled it. The smelly smell, smelling of…
“To. Mi.Ka…” I pulled out a zip lock bag out from beneath her regular clothes, containing my suit. Beside it were others I recognized as well, like Tomika’s red suit, as a two bag that were new to me, one small and one big. “Why are you bringing rubber on board?”
“Ehm…” I groaned at her loins doing the thinking. “We can totally sneak out…”
“Really?” I scoffed.
“Not to mention!” She grabbed the smaller new bag. “This one I can wear just regularly.”
“Is that a… swimsuit?” The bag was thin when I inspected it, with an orange piece of clothing inside.
Before Tomika could answer me, we heard a knock and just before our teacher was investigating our room, we managed stuff away the zip lock bags, with me moving back to the chair and pretending to read.
“Everyone up on deck. We are out at sea. Time for you to come up.”
“Like real pirates… Yarr!” Tomika hooked one of her fingers.
“Sailors…” Our teacher corrected her.
“Of course… Sailors…” She said as we both got up.
“Just don’t plan anything stupid…or horny…” I whispered to her.
“Me? Never!” She replied as we stepped on deck, not the first bit not the last.
The coast was now far away, with many looking back at it in yearning. No one had yet to get sick though. The wind smelled of salty waters.
“Alright y’all.” The schooners captain commandeered us in a thick Okinawan accent. “I’ll be needin’ you to shift the sail around, so we pick up the south wind.”
While we were quick at finding the right ropes to pull and loosen, the captain’s wife and second in command helping us, we were sluggish at yanking the ropes as a group, some pulling harder, others weaker and some not at all and most importantly not as a group.
“At once, y’all.” The captain roared out of the cabin where the wheel was. “At once I said, you never played tug o’ war?”
“Give us a break man…” I could hear Kimura groan in front of me. “We got some sloths over here…”
“I do pull, you just pull at the complete wrong time!” I complained back, with similar conversations on the other side of the ship.
“Oooooohoooo…” Tomika began to sing a song in English. “Ooh… Come you, young sailormen listen to me…”
I knew this song. Tomika had a phase in 8th class when she was absolutely obsessed with pirates after playing this one video game about them. She had sung this one so often that the lyrics had been burnt into my mind as well.
“I’ll sing a song of the fish sea…” We both sang in rhythm, pulling the rope in rhythm. “And it’s windy weather boys stormy weather boys. When the wind blows, we’re all together boys blow ye wind westwards boys blow ye winds blow. Jolly sou’western boys steady she goes.”
As we sang this line, some of our classmates began to pick up on it, despite it being in English, and even if they did not get the lines, they got the melody and with it the rhythm.
“That’s the way!” The captain roared happily as we managed to shift the sail, with it now catching the wind southward, leaving us all drained. “Y’all can rest for now…”
We were all relieved, with some of us going back below while others stayed up.
“Not bad…” Kimura yelped as he looked out to the sea. “Not bad at all, Ikemoto.”
It certainly did feel like the beginning of a grand adventure.

“Yo buddy!” Tomika pulled down the book I was currently reading letting me see the class playing water ball on the beach. “Wanna come join us?”
With the first island of our trip being well known for its fine sand beaches, the majority of our class naturally decided to visit it.
“Not really…” For me it did not matter much. “I’d much rather read.”
I was in the shade next to our homeroom teacher who was also reading something, though more on the light side.
“Aw really?” It was then I really paid attention to what she was wearing, as I looked at her pout. It was a swimsuit made of rubber, but not like a competition swimsuit. “Not even for a short swim? The water isn’t that cold.”
Instead, it snaked itself around her body: From the back of her neck across her chest, crossing itself above her navel and around her hips down to her crotch, then up again, splitting off beneath her navel and rejoining the former pattern, leading to an endless loop.
“If you change your mind, you can always come and tell me…” She waved at me, as she sprinted towards the rest of the class playing.
“Hmm…” I could hear my teacher murmur. “Quite daring Ikemoto. But it does fit her slim stature…”
“If you say so…” I rubbed my eyes, hoping to deflect accusations of lechery.
“And it seems to have its desired effect…” She giggled. “Perhaps it would be better to separate you two after all…”
“What do you…” I looked down, seeing what she was getting at and quickly covered it with my book. “I am perfectly able to control myself!”
“He… Of course…” She did not take me seriously at all. “As long as you two don’t hop into the same bed it should be fine. Considering your good reputation…”
For a while I just sat there, trying to get the blood out of the parts of my body where it shouldn’t be right now, forcing myself to think of all kinds of horrid, disgusting things… In the end choosing to imagine the first Viking attack on Momoha’s village in all its brutality and goriness. And to no surprise, I found my swim trunks had deflated.
The sun, even in the shade was warm and comforting making me sleepy, and after a while on trying to focus on reading, I just put the book over my head and rested for a bit, and eventually fell asleep, only waking up slowly, when I felt myself moving and the sun caressing my face, the book having fallen off at some point.
“Psst! Quiet, he is going to wake up.” I recognized this voice.
“Tomika? What are you doing?”
No answer.
“Tomika…” I opened my eyes, the sun blinding me. It took me a bit to realize I was carried, by Tomika and someone else, right into the direction of the ocean, with them already being knee deep into the water. “What are you doing?”
“One, two…”
“PUT ME DOWN! PUTMEDOOOOWN…”
“Three…”
With great velocity I was tossed through the air and landed face first in the cold water of the pacific.
“GAAAH! What the hell?”
“Thought you might need a push…” Tomika rolled the water ball between her hands, the rubber of her swimsuit glistening. “Just one round.”
I sighed.
“One round!”
And pushed the ball out of her hands, making her smile, before turning to the others.
“Haruto is joining!”
For as long as I knew her, she always managed push me out of my comfort zone, in an often abrupt but not cruel manner. Perhaps that is why we became friends in the first place.
The water ball game did turn out to be more fun than I expected, and, in the end, I still managed to read through the chapter, just as I had planned.
All this ball tossing did make me hungry though.

Each day’s supper we had to cook ourselves, with a group of 3 to 4 being responsible for each day. Though mostly it was rice, which is why we had bought a giant sack of it on the outset as most of us had planned dishes involving it, as we did today.
“Tanaba was best.”
“Nah, Kanamori… Although Shimizu’s swimsuit was amazing to look at as well.”
“Ota, Kimura what are you talking about?” I eyed the two next to me, who had been talking rather loudly about our female classmates.
“What are we talking about he asks?” Ota joked.
“The girls’ swimsuits of course… Not that you would get it.”
“Hmm… Tomika’s was alright I guess…” I muttered thoughtlessly, while shoveling down the rice soup the two had been involved in down my throat.
“Oh… Don’t tell me…” The two grinned mischievously at me.
“It is not like that!” I defended myself. After all we were just… friends… right?
“Ah the pains of the friendzone…” Kimura thought loudly, before whispering something to Ota. “How about I tell you a secret?”
“What would that be?”
“How to flirt with girl without needing to talk to them. Sound interesting?”
“Why would that be interesting?”
“An introvert like you wouldn’t dare to cold approach anyone…”
“Fair enough… I got nothing but time and a bowl to clear.” I decided to indulge him, even though I technically didn’t need his advice. Even with my recently blossoming urges.
“First of: You make eye-contact.”
“Wow… What a secret.” I rolled my eyes.
“Wait, there is more…” Ota assured me, with Kimura continuing.
“Then you wait for her reaction: If she looks away you drop her like a wet towel…”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“You smile and wait for her to smile, just like before if she looks away, drop her.”
“If only it would be that simple.” I laughed and rolled my eyes.
“But here comes the most important part that everyone fucks up: If she smiles back…” he did a drum whirl with his chopsticks. “You look away…”
“At what?”
“Anything… Your food, your friends… Something that shows that you aren’t pushy or desperate over her and that you got better things to look at then her.”
“And the moment she pays attention to you, but you deny her yours, she’ll want you to give her attention again.” Ota upturned his voice in a snooty manner.
“I don’t know…” Well, it did make some sense, although it did sound a bit like that hogwash from dating advice books.
“Try it out…”
“Alright, alright.” I shrugged, and let my eyes wander around until they fell on Tomika who was currently talking with some girls.
I looked at her, she looked back and blinked.
Then I smiled, and she smiled back giving me a little wave.
Finally, I turned back to Kimura and Ota. “And? Did it work?”
“I mean you are already friends… That is kinda cheating…” Ota complained, until he noticed Kimura eyeing Tomika for a second, making big eyes.
“Look at her though… Nah man, I think she might have something for you.”
“Are you kidding? The captain of the swim team with him? Fat chance.”
“She is just my friend you two!” I rolled my eyes.
“My friend… Certainly…” Kimura commented sarcastically before turning to me. “Did you see how she looked after you?”
I ignored his comment for a while, but my curiosity rose with every second until I, for a second looked back at Tomika: She had been looking at me with heavy-lidded eyes, until she noticed that I noticed her and turned back to the gaggle of girls surrounding her.
When we were done eating and went back to our cabins, I originally wanted to ask Tomika about why she had given me that look, until I noticed what she was looking at as I climbed to the upper bed.
“Tomika… I don’t think you should be looking at that here…” She was looking at our account, which was previously just her account, now renamed to @MiRubberPals. “Besides how are you even looking at that in the first place?”
“Harbor Wifi.” She slid down the available networks and pointed to the one she was connected to. “Our pictures of master and maid did well… Oh look…”
I read the comment she was pointing out: ‘You two look so cute! Nice to see your friend got into latex as well. Hope we can meet each other again at some point.’
“Who are they?”
“Their profile…” She opened it and scrolled down. “Don’t you recognize them?”
“Wait…” Indeed, I did. “Those are the Tatsuya and Adelaide cosplayers.”
“Yup. Ah and they got so many good pictures here… Almost makes me wanna go down and put it on myself.” Tomika rubbed her legs and looked downward to her luggage, while she scrolled down their posts with many audacious pictures of the two.
“Is that why you looked at me that way during supper?” I groaned.
“Duh, we have been here for 4 days, and we couldn’t do it a single time.” Tomika pouted. “Girls can get horny too you know?”
“I will make it up to you when we get back home…” I climbed out of the bed, took my toothbruch and past and went to the bathroom. “Just try and keep yourself in check from doing anything you will regret until then…”
“I will try…” Tomika rolled her eyes and mumbled when I was almost out of earshot range. “As best as I can.”

Two days later we were allowed to explore this island’s town on our own. However, Tomika had already went along with a bunch girls she sat with at lunch, leaving me with…
“Whew, look at that…” These two guys, Kimura and Ota, who were walking around with their loudspeaker turned to max while they pranced around the place like prideful cockerels while I merely tagged along them.
“Do you not have any shame?”
“Relax dude…” Kimura shrugged my complaint off as he took a photo of a girl at one of the numerous shops on this street, pretending he just wanted to take a photo of the building itself. “You need to enjoy yourself from time to time…”
“Who are these even for?” I looked at the inventory full of cheap electronics and knick-knacks, the prices way beyond double for what I would ever pay.
“Tourists. Especially foreign ones. They’ll buy anything.” Ota chuckled as he shook one of the trinkets, a snow globe, or more precisely a sand globe.
“You certainly behave like ones.”
“Again…” Kimura did turn down the music a bit. “Relax…”
“Ugh…”
“Hey wanna see a prank?” Ota nudged us both.
“No.”
“What kind of prank you are talking about?”
“I think some of the loudspeakers here have their Bluetooth turned on.” He pointed to a shop with many of such crappy loudspeakers.
“No, way…” I shook my head, while Ota tapped on his phone. “There is no way any of them would leave them…”
Loud rap music erupted from the shop in an instant, causing the employee or owner to get up from his nap, run toward the loudspeaker and after some fumbling turn it off.
“Don’t laugh man…” Kimura kept a cool face, straining itself. “We are just passing by.”
“I am trying to…” Ota was in the same predicament as well, quickly putting his phone away.
“You two…” I sighed, shaking my head at those two clowns, as well as the shop who left these things on. For customer testing maybe?
“By the way… I am feeling hungry…” Ota rubbed his belly.
“Let me see…” Kimura looked up a list of local restaurants. “Seems there is a place selling Italian pizza.”
“Really? Italian food. Here of all places?” I looked at the site he pulled up.
“Seems to be run by some Italian expat. Even got good reviews.”
“Sure. Sounds good.” I nodded with us three walking through the streets all the way to the restaurant ‘Pizzaria Minnerva’. At least they have some sensible thoughts in their heads.
As we sat down however, they ordered the biggest size the place had for each of them, with the waitress asking them if they are sure about this.
“We are big growing boys!” Kimura boasted as he slapped his belly. “More than enough space here.”
“An itsy-bitsy pizza, for a little boy.” I however only ordered a small Pizza, much to their amusement.
Once the order came in though, their pizzas were delivered on large wooden spatulas straight from the oven with only mine coming on a regular plate, leaving them quite shocked.
“Ah, it’ll be fine…” Ota took one of the gigantic slices and began to eat.
For a solid half-hour the two struggled to even eat a quarter of their mammoths while even I only managed to eat three fourths of my much smaller pizza.
“Crap we gotta go back soon.” Kimura was visibly beaten by his food with was Ota groaning: “Is this how it feels to be pregnant? Burp!”
And even I had reached my limit, asking the waitress if they could pack up the leftovers for us.
An hour later we ran back to the boat, with the rest of the class already having returned 30 minutes ago.
“Woah what you got there?” Tomika eyed us carrying the boxes with our unfinished, cold pizzas.
“Pizza. Already could though…” I responded.
“Hmm…” Tomika walked over and lifted the lid to check my pizza’s toppings. “Could I have one?”
“Sure…” I handed her my box. “Take it.”
“Much appreciated!” She took a slice, when I noticed her shopping bag.
“What did you buy?”
“Snorkeling gear…” She answered me between bites. “For the high sea swimming tomorrow.”
“Really?” I checked the bag, finding two full scuba masks, lead belts, flashlights, however… Only one pair of flippers.

For most of today I stayed on deck, even with the class swimming around the platform the ship had, with Tomika snorkeling around the boat.
It was not a particularly deep spot though. Unlike the reef further out we were able to see this evening, illuminated first by the remaining sunlight and then by the full moon in its perigee.
Only until 11 o’clock though, as by that point most of us were back in their cabins and by midnight not a sound could be heard from any cabin, except snores and grumblings of the unlucky souls trapped with the snorers.
“Hey Haruto… Wake up…” Tomika sounded excited as she shook me awake from my half slumber.
“What is it?”
“How about some late-night swimming?” She looked at me, with her… hood?
I looked down to see she was wearing her rubber suit.
“Have you gone mad?” I whispered upset at her.
“Shhh… Everyone else is asleep. I checked.”
“Are you expecting me to wear mine as well?”
Her eyes told me all I need to know.
“We are just going to swim in it. Think about them diving suits.”
“I…” I took a deep breath.
“Come on. It is going to be fun! Not to mention how good you look in yours.”
“Alright…”
“That’s the spirit.” Tomika handed me a bunch of zip lock bags.
As I put on my suit, I noticed the last bag Tomika had pulled out. It looked like rubber wrapped around something solid, but flat. “What’s in there.”
“You will see…” Tomika told me as she grabbed the bag with the scuba bag.
The boat was dead silent, with the rushing of the waves masking our steps up to the deck where the full moon illuminated the night and more so, our shiny bodies.
I felt my heart racing as we walked over to the ladder to the swimming platform. Tomika finally pulled out the mysterious rubber piece from its bag and unfurled it. It looked like a large hose ending in a large fin at its bottom.
“It’s a mermaid suit. Bought it from someone clearing out her things.”
“You could have just used a local pool or beach.”
“I know… But the weather isn’t as warm at home and when I heard we were going to the south on a sailing trip. I just couldn’t resist.”
“Then why take mine with you as well?”
“For one, I need someone to look out for my safety… Just in case…”
That sounded, surprisingly sensible.
“But I also wanted to see you in it. And I knew…” She lay her arms over my shoulders and pulled my close, causing me to slightly stumble as the ship swayed in the waves. “You wanted to wear it too.”
I felt a swell of shame rushing through my veins as we climbed down to the swim platform, which was only a few dozen centimeters above the water, yet at the same time it felt so exciting. Here I was, wearing a rubber gimp suit with my entire class just a few meters away from us. Meanwhile Tomika, in her radiant glory making this all feel… thrilling.
“Now then…” Tomika gave me the mermaid tail, laid down and held her feet towards me. “Can you help get it on?”
“Of course…” I said as I rolled it up and slowly pulled it over her feet and then legs, with her turning around so I could tug it over her hips. “And done.”
“Ah…” Tomika rolled around, flopping around on the floor. “I feel like a seal… haha”
She smiled so beautifully, as she knelt upright, grabbing for the bag with the snorkeling gear.
“Let’s see… Mask, belt and… flashlight.” Tomika handed me the rest of the gear while affixing her belt and the flashlight on it, and put the mask on her head, but not her face yet. “Don’t forget the flippers.”
“Of course… But why the belt?” I asked her as I adjusted it and continued with the flippers.
“To counteract… eh… buoyancy… I think that’s what it’s called. Otherwise, it would be very difficult to dive with our lungs full of air. This also has a special feature…” She grappled one of the packets on my belt different from the others, followed by hers and pressed a button, the packet on my belt starting to rumble. “We can notify each other when one of us is in danger.”
“Clever…” I pressed the button on mine, causing hers to rumble. “But there are probably more signs I should know…”
“Right of course… There would be this for all OK… Then this and…”
After a small course on diving hand signs, we both were ready to dip in, with Tomika carefully lifting herself up so that she can slide her combined legs into the water.
“Oh…”
“Is it cold?”
“A bit. It is more refreshing really. Come!” She waved me in, and I hesitatingly obliged.
“Woah! It is not as cold as I imagined it. Quite strange feeling though… To feel the ocean’s cold but not any wetness.”
“You say it, buddy! Are you ready?” Tomika grinned as she gave me my snorkel mask, combining both a snorkel and diving goggles into one.
“Kinda like the gasmask I bought you…” I commented as we both put them on, pressing them tightly against our faces.
We both nodded and then, jumped in.
At first, I was a bit disoriented but with Tomika grabbing my hand I quickly found my bearings and was able to grasp my flashlight, now able to see the reef, brimming with life, colorful even though we had only the light of the moon and our flashlights to illuminate our surroundings.
As I took my detour up to the surface and down again, I couldn’t help but feel how natural Tomika felt in this environment: Effortlessly navigating her surroundings, swimming ahead of me the entire time, with me only catching up when she slowed down to look at something like an anemone.
When we both needed air again, she rushed up, almost jumping out of the water while I merely surfaced, checking if we could still see the ship. To my relief it was quite visible in the moonlight, and we were only a short swim away from it.
Tomika gave me an asking nod and the ‘ok’ sign to which I replied with my own. She then pointed down and dove down again, after taking a deep breath.
It was amazing for how long she could manage to hold her breath, for every time she came up, I needed to get a breath 2 or 3 times. Her movement was very deliberate, likely preserving precious oxygen that way, in addition to whatever training she had done previously to hold her breath.
With every consecutive plunge into the reef we forgot time, forgot that we were on a class trip, forgot that what we wore was quite unusual, simply exploring the reef around the ship for what was likely an hour or more.
Tomika seemed to surface less and less, only surfacing for every 4 to 5 times I did. Perhaps I was just exhausted, although it didn’t seem like I was taking breaths more often than I did at the beginning. And wouldn’t she also get exhausted?
The next part of the reef ahead of us was particularly deep, with me gesturing her I would surface, her nodding to it, staying underwater and going even deeper.
Perhaps she wanted to push herself, I thought upon surfacing when a shock came over me, making the sweat beneath my rubber suit turn ice cold.
My belt rumbled. She was in trouble!
I dove down, shining my lamp around, to no avail. Still the belt rumbled, over and over again.
As I went up to catch air again, the rumbling suddenly stopped, and my heart dropped.
Again, I dropped down and searched frantically. My heart racing even though that was the last thing I needed right now to find her. Finally I saw a couple of bubbles float up and looking down, faintly illuminated by the moonlight I saw a red, shiny body together with a flashlight, but it seemed to get ever farther.
I rose up again, and took a deep calm breath, readying myself to hold my breath for as long as I could… No, for as long as I had to. And raced to the bottom.
A few seconds in I saw her, her arms flailing about, trying to get upward but clearly loosing strengths as she clutched her throat at times with on hand.
Suddenly she thrashed around, her other hand now grasping her throat as well, in full-fledged panic, just as my lungs began to ache.
As I finally reached her and put her hands over my shoulder, she was already limp, and I could see that water had come inside her mask, with no more bubbles coming out of it.
I pointed upwards to which she weekly nodded and we both began to swim upwards, yet with her weak paddling and my lack of air we would never make it. Unless…
Without thinking, I unlocked both her and my belt, leaving them and our flashlights to tumble down into the depths of the ocean while we made our ascent, helped by the loss of weight and whatever air was left in my lungs and perhaps in hers as well.
My lungs burnt, yet I knew I needed to hold it. Only for a bit until I was able to breathe again.
I spaced out my exhales and at last, managed to get us both to the surface, where I could hear Tomika cough up water.
Still holding her I slightly lifted her mask so the water could spill out faster, her coughing intensifying as I did.
“Cough! Sorry… I… Cough!”
I let the mask sit loose on her face, while I carried her back to the platform, where she held onto the ladder while I got out, after which I dragged her out of the water when a wave came in.
The first thing she did was tear away the mask and cough it all out.
“Sit up.” I pushed her up and clapped on her back to aid her to get all the water out.
“Cough! Why… Cough! Did I… Cough! Think… It was a good… Cough! Idea?”
“Are you alright?” I ignored her question, putting both our masks and my flippers back into the bag.
She leaned on me exhausted. “I am alive… Breathing. Seems fine enough…”
“What were you thinking? You could have…” I held her close to me, fearing the sea would try and take her again. “…drowned.”
“But thanks to you… We are both here… Together…”
We both sat there as the water dripped off our bodies, the moon shining brightly on us, yet slowly descending, though morning was still far away.
“Say…” Tomika coughed slightly as she put on her sultry voice. “How about a little reward for my hero?”
“Really… Right after all this?” I scoffed. “I mean certainly not with your mermaid suit.”
“Oh, there are other ways I have to reward you…” She licked her hand, turned around and slid it down my chest.
Only the moon bore witness to the things we did next.

As I rubbed out the salt from my suit a thought came to my mind: Tomika and I had never showered together, and certainly never in rubber.
“Ah…” Tomika was leaning with her hands against the wall, relaxing, her legs spread. “Feels so good, with the lukewarm water splashing on her latex clad body.”
Water on rubber had a surreal feeling, that much was for sure.
“Should I go out while you cha….”
Before I could finish my question, we heard a knock on the door to the ship’s shower, making us both so silent we even stopped breathing.
“Who’s in there?” It was our homeroom teacher.
Before I could say anything, Tomika lay a finger on my lips and spoke up:
“I am feeling a bit unwell and wanted to clean up.”
“Are you ship sick? Should I get you some medicine?”
“No… It is just… the usual monthly trouble…”
“Ah, alright. Do go back to bed as soon as possible. We need you all on deck for our journey back to Kagoshima.”
“Understood!” Tomika replied, waiting until the teacher walked far enough way into her cabin. “That was close…”
“Let’s hurry up and…”
Before I could react, Tomika took off the hood and started to strip off her catsuit.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked, with her opening my shoulder zippers.
“Better not taking any chances.” She took her suit of with great haste, spurning me on as well. “Get going!”
After a short, very awkward shower, with neither of us daring to look at another and us both walking back to our cabin with nothing but our loose latex pieces covering our private parts, we dried off, put on pajamas and buried the rubber clothing, though neatly folded, deep into her normal bag.
“Bit short for a cleanup though.” I commented, when we were in bed, looking at the bag.
“It shouldn’t break over a few days of negligence.” She said from above. “Once I am back, I will get to it, don’t worry.”
Slowly we managed to sleep, with the only hint of our nightly adventure being out tired faces the next morning. Luckily the others did not ask any questions, as we sailed full speed northwards.

We disembarked the ship soon after the captain had towed the boat for the final time, his wife stopping the motor.
“Off ya, lads ‘n lasses” He helped us over the gangway, lifting some of our luggage, including Tomika’s. “Quite heavy… What’cha got in there?”
“Just dirty clothing.” Tomika took her bag off him. “Isn’t that right, buddy?”
“Yeah of course!” I replied, after her catching me deep in thoughts.
Not about the continuation of Kita no Akuma, even though I had come far in fleshing out the world beyond Japan, and the characters: Both the Korean prince who is openly warring against the Vikings as well as the court of Kaifeng, who regard the brother of Ingrid with amusement as little more than a smelly, hairy beast capable of speaking and writing and dismiss the warnings from both Korea and Japan that these newcomers should be taken seriously.
No, my thoughts even as we hitched the train back to our hometown, our class chatting and Kimura trying to hit up Kanamori, to little success, was on that night us two swam beneath the moon and Tomika nearly…
“Is something?” Tomika, sitting beside me, eyed me with concern.
“Well… Nothing…” I tried to brush her off. “Although…”
I gestured her to come closer and whispered to her.
“Is there a reason you were pushing yourself during your diving that night?”
She blushed for a second, turning around.
“I just… wanted to see… how long I could last. That’s about it.”
“Ah ok.” I nodded, with both of us saying little, and rather snoozing off to regain some sleep after that wonderful, yet terrific night out at sea.
I couldn’t help but wonder, if there was not more to it.
Tomika’s legs being bound tight. Her attempts at pushing the limits of her lungs.
I had discovered one strange secret Tomika had already during this year. Could there be more sides of her I do not know yet?
The thought made my stomach cribble with both excitement and fear.
“By the way…” I had barely paid attention to Kanamori’s gossip and complaints about Kimura’s attempt at courting her on the train back home. “There was a pair of dolphins near our ship the night before this one.”
“Really? How are you so sure” One of her friends laughed at her remark.
“Like…” Kanamori described them. “There was something that came up regularly to breathe and when I looked out, I could see some kind of smooth shiny skin… Not to mention the fins were that of a dolphin and not a fish.”
Both me and Tomika maintained a perfect facade of not knowing what she was talking about, even though we knew exactly what she saw.

Chapter VIII - Restrained urges

For a long time both Tomika and Haruto both felt something for each other. A kinship perhaps, friendship they had assumed for most of their life. Yet beneath this label was a yearning that went far beyond mere friendship. Even as they both got into latex and rubber they both called this retrained urge friendship… Nothing more.
Yet this urge yearns to be released even as it rattles against its restraints, with only a question of time for it to be let loose.

“How did you even come this far without learning?” I groaned as I went over Kimura’s and Ota’s last mid-year exams, a tragedy in red ink. So much red ink. The two had come to the literature club just as the club time was about to be over and we could go home again.
“Luck, I guess…”
“Seems you luck is beginning to run out.” I held my head in my hands as I looked over their homework after they roped me in to help them prepare for the exam. It would be a miracle if they succeeded. “No wonder you had to do summer classes.”
“Don’t remind me!” Kimura groaned.
“Our final summer…” Ota wailed. “Wasted in school!”
“Well, if you keep don’t keep it up it might not be you last summer… Although if you don’t improve by next year, it might mean summer lessons again.”
“So, are you going to help us?” Kimura and Ota looked at me like puppies.
“We will see what I can do. But you two must finally get of your butts.”
“Thank you so much!” The two went down to their knees and bowed with their head to the floor.
“Get up. This is embarrassing.” Surreal to think that these two, who had it out for me and made fun of me, now were pleading me to help them pass their final exam this year, after they heard I saved Tomika from having to attend summer classes.
“Of course… When do we begin?” The two were still on their knees.
“Right now!” I cleared a desk, and gathered another chair, for three in total. “Sit down and get out your books.”
“It is kinda late…”
“Indeed, it is. Only a few months to the final exams.” I sighed after seeing their anxious faces. Their families must have given them quite the tongue-lashing, for them to be so meek a week after we had come back from our class trip. “Don’t worry, we are not going to sit here all night. I will just go over a general plan. What exercises you need to do and so on…”
And while the two nodded at first and played along at the start, it only took a dozen or two minutes for them to get distracted again.
“I am telling you, she is a real freak in bed.” Kimura gloated.
“What kind? Is she into choking?” Ota egged him on.
“No, but she really likes a good held down and not let go!”
“Could you two please focus!? We are trying to save your educational results here!” I had lost my patience. “You ought to focus on far more important things than coitus!”
“Coitus… Heh…” Typical of the two to laugh it off.
“It is called sex. Guess someone who never experienced it would speak of it in arcane language.”
“It is not… Whatever…” I grinned internally. If only those two knew. “Your screwed up desires are not of concern here right now…”
“Our fucked-up desires?” The two looked at me as if I had just told them the ocean was dry. “It was our babes who wanted to get it.”
“And other tales we tell ourselves…” I rolled my eyes and continued. “Now for Japanese classes I would recommend you going through the reading material our teacher gave us this year and analyze chapter…”
“Hold up dude!” Kimura interrupted me. “Whatever you might think about us: My new girlfriend was the one who asked me to restrain her.”
“Same for mine…” Ota raised his hand. “Should have seen my face when she led my hand to her neck and asked me to apply pressure. ‘Are you sure about this?’”
“Why would they want this?” For a moment the image of my mother in that room popped up again.
“Women can be crazy in bed.” Kimura shrugged. “Maybe you will find it out one day, too.”
“They play themselves up as angels in the light, but often they are little lusty devils in the sheets.”
“If you say so…” I repressed the urge to chuckle. The popular girl who had a kink in bed. Tomika in her full rubber suit popped into my mind. “But what would I possibly know about such things.”
“Right.” Kimura finally turned his attention back to the important things at hand, as did Ota.
But not before giving me advice: “Whatever you do, you gotta keep your wits about you when you know your girl is crazy. My ex is still mad at me for not letting myself be peg…”
“EHEM! Focus…” I knocked on the desk.
“Of couse… of course…”

H: Will come back late, had to help out our class clowns
T: Ota and Kimura finally getting real about their exams? Even summer classes were not enough to scare them straight.
H: Not everyone can be ordered to sit down and learn
T: Like Model T
H: …
T: Speaking of which. My parents are working longer tomorrow due to some big project at their company. Wanna reactivate Model T?
H: You want to play drone again?
T: Or would you like to be Model H?
H: Fine I will wear the gasmask too
T: Neat… Reminds me, how about a little roleplay?
H: What do you have in mind?
T: Let’s just say… Princess Artoria needs some relief after a long an arduous fight.

“Stupid hair…” Tomika mumbled as she removed her Artoria mask and brushed its hair straight. “Only an hour in bed and it has gone all frizzy again.”
“In think this is the first time you wore your plug suit while we did it, wasn’t it?” I removed the gasmask from my head, tugging the rubber hood back over my nostrils.
“I think so yes…” Tomika leaned her head to me. “Although we almost did it in the hotel during the convention.”
“Right, the one where you wanted to act out an affair between Artoria and Octavius… Although…”
“Although what?” She carefully put aside the mask and crawled over her bed to me.
“It certainly made more sense as a scenario then… Artoria having a personal prostitute…”
“They did have military brothels in some armies… not to mention whores going into camps for easy money.”
“Not the case for the ones who got chased out of camp by Saint Jean d’Arc herself, pummeling them with the flat of her sword.”
“Really? Hahaha!” Tomika cleared her throat. “YOU BETTER LEAVE MY INNOCENT BOYS ALONE! YOU DIRTY SLUTS! Hahahaha…”
After a while she managed to calm down from the vivid image of the holy woman running after scantily clad women, swinging her sword like she had seen the devil himself.
“Ah… I did love you played the attendant when I walked in from a tiring battle, ready to attend her every need. Even if it meant pinning her down and nailing me doggy style.”
“What do you mean by that?”
She had lain with her belly down, holding a pillow while I… humped her from behind.
“You pushed me down and… did not let me go until I came. Not to mention how you grabbed my wrists… Hmmm…”
“You like me… dominating you?”
“Yes, kinda… Or do you have a problem with…” She held in choosing her next words. “Sorry, if I made you something you are not comfortable doing…”
“It was not a big deal…” I looked aside, my hands trembling. “Do you… like that kind of stuff… Bdsm?”
Even after all this time, I still couldn’t forget my mother’s painful, muffled screams.
“If it contains latex…” Tomika ruffled her head. She was embarrassed. “Although if I am honest some of the heavy SM stuff does turn me off.”
“Like?”
“Electrodes… Clamps… Torture and things that leave lasting scars… You know.”
I felt relieved, if only a bit.
“What about… choking?” I rambled thoughtlessly, causing her to blush.
“Well, no… though…”
“Though what?”
“Have you…” She fidgeted with her fingers, saying nothing. She then gently grabbed my hand and looked into my eyes. “Have you ever heard of breath control play?”
“Is that choking”
“Kinda, but not really…”
“Wow that explains a lot.”
“Argh I know. It is…” Tomika bit her lip. “… hard to explain…”
I could sense that she was distraught by having to lay open something so hidden, even to someone like me. Would latex have been as difficult to explain to me if I hadn’t walked into her room all these months ago? Although then we wouldn’t be here discussing… breath control play.
“You don’t get chocked directly, but instead your breath is controlled by external means.”
“Sho shut off completely… Wait, is that why you dove so deep that night?”
“Could be… However,… there is also rebreathing. You remember how I slept with a blanket over my head because I was afraid of monsters seeing me when I was a kid.”
“Yes, your mother always chastised you for it. Do you just put a bag over your face?”
“That is one way or…” She grabbed her gasmask’s hose. “You attach a bag to this and wear a gasmask.”
“Like you did with that bottle…” I also realized that this strange bottle, also tied into this breath control thing.
“So… I guess that is out now.” Tomika breathed out a sigh of relief. “I can understand if you don’t want to go further…”
“It is fine… Just… I never saw you doing any of that stuff, minus the bottle and our diving session.”
“For good reason. I followed the common wisdom online:” Her face became darker. “Never. Do. It. Alone.”
“That… makes sense…” In the best case she might have been caught by her parents, in the worst case… I didn’t even want to think about that.
“So, I only `toyed around with latex. Safe enough to enjoy on your lonesome.”
“Would you want to indulge in those things as well?”
“I mean… Of course!” She curbed her excitement. “Only if you agree to it, naturally.”
I hesitated but nodded, to which she got up, and got out the bottle, filling it with a bit of water, as well as some scarves. “How about we start light, Haruto?”
“Sounds fair enough… Wait why are you handing me the scarf.”
“To tie me up of course…” She told me as she put on the gasmask, connecting it to the hose, but not the bottle yet.
“Do tell me if it is too tight.” I took her wrists and tied the soft scarf tight around them.
She immediately tested how good my knotwork was, straining against the restraint on her hands. “Not bad…”
“Really?”
“Yes…” She stopped when she looked at me. “Why are you so afraid of this?”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I… Of course you don’t.” She tapped on my nose even with her bound hands. “That’s why I trust you to do it.”
“Trust me?” The image of my mother in that room surged up again.
“Yes…” Tomika put her hands on my chest. “I trust you to not abuse the power I willfully give to you.”
“Like a liege swearing fealty to his lord?”
“Weird way to put it but yes…” Tomika giggled. “Right now, I allow you to restrain me. To have full control over me.”
“Are you sure about this? How do I know if I do something wrong?”
“Oh, the safe word. Almost forgot about that. Something that I can say quickly but is not too common.”
“Not too common… Hmm… What about ‘Zarathustra’?”
“What is that?” Tomika had no idea.
“The founder of Zoroastrianism, an old religion from Iran, but more commonly known nowadays through Nietzsche…”
“Sounds uncommon enough!” Tomika interrupted me. “When I say ‘Zarathustra’ you stop, but until then… I trust you with my body.”
“o…okay…” I took her hands of my chest and pinned her down on the bed, with them above her, kneeling over her shiny body, her chest rising and falling, always looking at Tomika to see if she was alright.
I then grabbed the bottle and connected it to the hose of her gasmask. Immediately it started bubbling every time she slowly and arduously breathed in.
A part of me hesitated, told me to stop, as I saw Tomika lying there helplessly, even something as natural as breathing being restricted for her now.
“Don’t worry… I…” She spoke, taking time to breathe in again. “Trust… you… comp… lately…”
Though I could not see her mouth, I knew she was smiling, which I replied in kind.
I slowly felt my way up and down her body, pressing myself on her chest, while my hand stroked her neck, while the other went between her legs. “I promise, I will handle you carefully.”
It would take a long time until she said: “Zara…thustra…”

“Good morning.” Tomika greeted me at our usual spot on our way to school, the weather now having grown colder we were wearing our school uniform coats.
“It has gotten fresh.”
“Indeed…” Tomika smiled beneath her scarf as we walked to school. “The perfect weather for latex.”
It was the same scarf I tied her up with yesterday. I couldn’t exactly place how I felt as I towered over her, dominating her. Was it the feeling of power? Of agency over her?
“Did you like domming me?” Tomika whispered to me while we crossed the street.
“I… You seemed to like it…” I recalled how relaxed she looked after I removed the mask, and she could breathe freely.
“Hmm… I did. Maybe we can reverse it next time.”
“You mean me being tied up?”
“Yes… I am not sure if I am more dominant or submissive…”
“With the scarf and the bottle again?” I played with the scarf hanging from her neck.
“Pretty much…” Tomika sighed and pouted. “I would love to have the kind of gear they use online.”
“Well, it is your birthday soon.”
Tomika blushed when I mentioned it. “You don’t have to.”
“And considering you have gifted me a full suit. It would only be fair. Although I have no idea what kind you want.”
She didn’t reply until we were almost at the school.
“Buddy…” She looked at me as we passed the gates. “Let’s meet during lunch at the back of the school. I got some ideas what you could gift me.”

“Let’s see…” I looked up the list again as I walked to the Autumn flea market.
The gear Tomika told me about was these rubber bags meant for ‘rebreathing’. Plural, as she wanted us to use them together, which also meant we would need another gasmask. The bags I had already bought online at the site Tomika showed me.
And the guy who sold us the mask, might also have returned for the autumn.
It took some time, and I even picked up a few books on the way, until I finally saw his stand with military paraphernalia, including.
“Hey, I know you.” He recognized me. “You want to buy another one?”
“Yes…” I looked at the price tag, high as ever. “This one.”
“Millenium, a favorite…” He picked it up and handed me it, while I separated myself from my hard-earned cash. “Also for cosplay?”
“Eh yes…” I chuckled. “Kinda…”
“Kinda?”
“We have come to use them for… other things…”
“Wait…” He looked at me disappointed as I walked away. “Don’t tell me you are one of those rubber fetishists…”
“What… no…” I tried to look as convincing as possible. “We… used them once for cutting onions…”
He chuckled. “Good, I will never forgive these freaks for desecrating them for their sick kicks.”
The words stung deep. I mean, Tomika always kept hers nice and clean, she certainly didn’t ruin it. Yet for the entirety of my walk home this guy’s remark ate away at me. He sounded utterly reviled at… us.
I mean sure what we did was far from normal, but we did not do any damage to the mask simply by wearing them during…
What about Tomika’s scarf, I suddenly questioned myself silently. I had given her that as a birthday gift. Did we not just misuse it to tie her up? It was meant to give warmth, not for arousing play.
I threw myself on my bed, my head throbbing with guilt, and pulled out my phone back home to look at the discount, I had been eyeing went.
Ever since I started wearing it Tomika had shown me latex videos from time to time, inspiration for our sessions, with some of them being of people trapped in something called a vacuum bed, a bag of rubber sealed up and drained off air, leaving whoever was in there trapped and unable to move.
While I asked her if that was something she wanted as well, she discouraged me, telling me the mask and the rebreathed bags are enough.
On my search for the bags however I found such a vacuum bed, for a massive, limited discount. It was still a lot, but I knew Tomika would probably like it.
I hovered my finger over the buy button, the still huge number making me hesitate.
Tap.
I clicked and put my phone to my side, lying on my bed. I bought it because she wanted to experience it, although I was left wondering as I pulled up my bedsheet over my face.
Had I always been so weird? Now I was buying a vacuum bed and getting into all these freaky kinds of things my parents are into. What was I becoming?
Ping!
Tomika had sent me a message.
T: Am bored, parents not home, do you have anything planned?
She had put on her hood for a quick image, smiling at the camera. And suddenly all these worries flew away, in her radiant beauty and grace oozing from the picture.
“How can you be so lovely and bizarre at once?” I mumbled as I stared at the pictures we had posted of us in latex, mostly us in common daily situations. We looked so uncanny wearing it, yet we just did normal stuff together.
H: No, give me a few minutes.

We both had looked at each other in anticipation all day in school, even when other people in class congratulated Tomika for her 18th birthday, our hearts racing knowing what we had planned today.
I had even prepared her cake the day before, just so we could use all of our time alone together.
“Happy Birthday, Tomika.” I put the cake with candles in front of her, for her to blow out.
Both of us were already wearing our rubber suits and hoods and had already shined up.
“Now then…” I stood up after we had our fill of the apple cake I had made. “I bet you want to see your presents.”
“Of course! You didn’t let me into my own bedroom for crying out loud.” Tomika pouted jokingly. “All your secrecy is making me horny!”
“Here you go…” I opened the door, to not only the new gasmask and the two rebreather bags, but also…
“A vacuum bed… Wow…” Tomika stroked the already built-up framed rubber amazed, before jumping at me. “You shouldn’t have.”
“Hope you like it.”
“Oh, I will… But…”
“But what?”
“Who is going in first?”
“If you want to…” I gestured at the opening.
“I mean sure… But you in it… Hnnngh… Ah I can’t decide!” Tomika looked as if she decided on which flavor of ice cream she wanted. “You or me… Both is not an option… Hmm…”
“Should we throw a coin?”
“Maybe…” She then looked at the other presents. “You bought another gas mask?”
“Yes, you said you wanted one for me so we could wear them at the same time.”
“Hmm…Maybe although…” She got her gas mask out, fumbled with one of its valves, attached one of the bags to the hose on the other valve and then did the same for the one I had bought. “How about we decide it with a breath play competition?”
“Sounds dangerous.” I objected.
“Not if we do it right.” She handed me my mask, with me cautiously taking it.
“What are the rules?” I looked into the mask, inviting me to put it on.
“Hmm… How about this:

1. We hold another’s bag on our laps, not our own.
2. The one who opens the other’s bag loses, the winner has to open the losers bag after.
3. We sit back-to-back, so we don’t fondle each other.
4. After we plop up the bags plugs once a 10 second counter runs down, we start.
   Sound fair?”
   “Fair as can be…” I sighed, with bated breath as I inspected the mask, the hose and the bag attached to it. “Are you ready?”
   “Yes… One moment…” Tomika opened her phone and set an audible timer. “Now, mask up!”
   We both sat down on her bed, facing away, giving us the deflated bags on their hoses. Next we both put on the masks tight.
   “Ready?” I could hear Tomika behind me.
   “Yes…” I gulped down my anxiety.
   “Then… Take a breather.” Tomika tapped her phone and put it down.
   “10… 9… 8…” I breathed in and out as deeply as I could, already feeling the restruction of the mask, the hose and the bag.
   “3..2…1…” I took one final breath, as did Tomika. “0”
   I plugged up her rebreather bag and when I breathed out and in, I could feel Tomika had done the same.
   I let my hands falls and tried to slow down my heart, as I gazed down on Tomika’s bag expanding and retracing in a stable rhythm.
   At first it felt… Normal. A bit limiting due to only being able to breath out as much as the bag held, but not uncomfortable, relaxing even.
   Tomika even approached my hand, locking her fingers onto mine, as if to encourage me not to give up immediately.
   Only barely could I feel my lungs strain as I breathed in my already used air and out again.
   As I sat there in quiet contemplation with Tomika’s air coming and going from the bag on my lap I gazed at the vacuum bed I had constructed in her room: A frame of plastic pipes, connected to a vacuum cleaner with a latex bag hung upon it.
   Tomika had shown me videos of people in it, unable to move, only able to breathe to exist. For a moment I imagined Tomika stepping into it and me on top of her body, framed like a three dimensional picture, a piece of art I could play around with as much as I…
   “Shit…” I mumbled, as I felt my hand on my crotch, quickly removing it, but it was already too late, as I felt my breath hasten as it tried to extract whatever oxygen was left in the bag.
   As was Tomika judging from her bag inflating now much more irregularly: Sometimes a large burst of air, sometimes small hastier gasps.
   It was only a question of time until one of us broke, with out breathing becoming more and more desperate for fresh air.
   As I felt my head become dizzy however, I finally pulled the plug and shortly after I let out an uncontained breath and was able to feel cool fresh air once more.
   “You… lost… buddy…” She gasped.
   “I… I… I know…” I replied, quickly pulling the mask off, with Tomika following shortly, looking clearly exhausted.
   “I’ll let you… Rest… Then it is time for… your punishment…”
   I just nodded, dropping the gasmask on her bed, falling on her bed.
   What was this rush in my body, this elation? My heart was racing, of course, to deliver oxygen, but for some reason I felt good now, after having been forced to breath stale air.
   “You live it?” Tomika teased me.
   “Shaddup… It’s just the adra… adre… adrenaline…”
   “Sure, it is…”
   We both just lay there for a while, until Tomika got up.
   “Now then… There is a bed for you to lay in.”
   “Yes, yes…” I nodded rapidly as I got up as well. “Do you know how it works?”
   “A bit, but this one may be different.”
   “Well then, this one apparently got a valve for the cavum cleaner, so it doesn’t need to run constantly, the seal is done with this shaft here on which the latex is rolled around and clamped tight to seal it, as for air inside…” I pointed to the breathing tube. “… that is here.”
   “A connector and just the right size…”
   “You got it.”
   “Yep. Now… Time for you to slip in.” Tomika grinned as she held the sack open.
   The rubber creaked as slowly descended into the lightless depths my hands searching for…
   “Found it.” The breathing tube’s mouthpiece. I quickly shifted downwards into the darkness and put my mouth over the piece, even if it tasted bitter.
   “If you are in trouble moan loudly thrice. Enjoy your stay.” Tomika giggled outside the hole, before closing it and sealing me in the pitch-black darkness.
   To be fair to Tomika, aside from it being latex, it did feel like being under a blanket, a very thin blanket I could stretch quite far. That was until I heard the vacuum cleaner being turned on.
   Within minutes my little world shrank more and more until my body was firmly pressed in tight, especially the neck, unable to move, to shift, but still able to breath.
   And even that became restricted as Tomika screwed something on the other side of my connection to the outside world, restricting airflow and producing what I could make out are bubbling noises.
   “Something to keep you occupied…” Tomika whispered next to my ear, the two layers of rubber only slightly muffling her. “Aaaaaah… You look so handsome displayed like this… Oh… Would you look at that…”
   Her hand moved over my body all the way down to my… “You are already this hard? Hihihi…”
   She softly massaged it making me groan.
   “I know. I know. Don’t eat your meal too fast. Don’t worry I will thoroughly enjoy you like this. Mmmmh…”
   Great, I thought, partially sarcastically, as Tomika started playing with my helpless body, caressing it, from arms, to head, to chest to legs… Nothing was off limits to her now.
   I breathed in and out, my head becoming dizzy, as I had to force myself to breath in and out.
   I could feel her weight shifting around as she sat on my body, not too heavy to be uncomfortable but still sensible.
   “Do you like this?” She asked me as she held my chin.
   “Mpfh…” It was lovely, my mind becoming mushier. Maybe the arousal? I could still breath well enough.
   “I will take that as a yes… Hmm…” She now laid herself fully on my chest. “So soft, yet so firm…”
   I wanted more of this. Of her talking to me in this soft voice. Touching me this gently. Wrapped up tightly in her care…
   My breath hastened as a fog clouded my mind, but even with the bottle at the end I could breathe perfectly fine.
   I wished this could go on for ever and ever, me being in this cocoon, as if I had returned to the womb.
   Comfort… was the last thing I could remember before everything became blank.

The next thing I noticed was something pressing repeatedly on my chest, followed by something touching my lips… My lips…
I wasn’t in the vacuum bed anymore. In fact, while I still wore my suit and hood, I could sense my eyes and mouth being exposed to the air.
Again that something opened my mouth and pushed air in twice in rapid succession, before something pressed on my chest again.
“Wh… what is going on?” I opened my eyes, seeing Tomika next to me, her hands on my heart, her reddened eyes contrasting with the rest of her black shiny body.
“Haruto…” She whimpered. “You are alive! Thank goodness you are alive”
And then she hugged me tightly and desperately.
“What happened?” I tried to sit up, my mind still groggy. I realized I was still partially in the vacuum bed, however it was ripped up down to my navel, while I still wore latex. “Why did you…”
“You stopped breathing…” Tomika confessed me. “The water in the bottle didn’t bubble anymore and… you weren’t moving anymore…”
I tried calming her down, touching her on the shoulder.
“I… I cut you out and did CPR… and…” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “My lust nearly got someone I love killed…”
“Love?” The word stuck out to me. “Like, a friend?”
“I…” Her tears kept flowing, her face now mixing with dread and… something. “Not… just as a friend… I… I love you!”
I sat there awestruck while she wiped her tears away, not too much avail.
“Since when?” My heart was racing. D
“I dunno… Maybe when you saved me from drowning… Maybe when we first started doing it… Or when you comforted me and helped me when I was afraid of the exams… Maybe… Sniff… Maybe it just grew over time without me realizing that I have grown to love you, Haruto.”
“Tomika…” I swallowed my spit. Was this fuzzy feeling in my stomach always there? For a moment I wanted to think it was just me passing out that caused it, but when I looked at Tomika smiling at me, I couldn’t help but smile back, helping her wipe the tears off her face. “You are the most amazing person I have ever had the pleasure to know. Without you… I think I would just be holed up doing nothing but reading books all day.”
She looked at me, with a radiant purity, despite our state of dress, holding my hand on her cheek tightly, as I got up. Her upturned, luscious lips smiling at me softly, with me coming close to touching them with my own.
“What I mean to say is…” I blushed as I touched her lips with my fingers, her hands now on my back and shoulders. “I love you too.”
It was unclear whether Tomika or I moved in, but the result was the same: Our first kiss.
When we parted again after the longest moment in our life, we looked at each other drunk on the same feeling of affections, giggled and kissed again.
And again, more intensely.
With every kiss we became wilder and more passionate and went beyond merely kissing to things that, while we had done before, felt so much more intense than ever before.

After we were done, we continued to lay there, embracing each other, making our rubber suits squeak and creak.
“I don’t think you ever made heard you make such noises.”
“Well… You weren’t my boyfriend until now…” She beamed brightly at me, before giving me a kiss, hugging me even firmer. “Ah, I love my rubber boyfriend!”
The idea for us being… a couple… would have sounded insane to me. Yet now, it just felt right holding her close to me, to cuddle with her, have her nuzzle up to me.
And the fact that we both wore rubber did not hinder it whatsoever, in fact it made it even better.
“And I my rubber girlfriend.” I replied, our eyes meeting, radiating a passion I had for the longest time only read about until now, before she gave me a giggling kiss.
“Is this the fire in the hearts of men?” I joked as Tomika’s kiss ravage ebbed down.
“I got no clue… But I feel very warm with you.” She leaned on my chest, pulling my arm over her body, with us sitting on the remnants of the vacuum bed.
“Shame about the vacuum bed though…” I muttered.
She shook her head, while locking her fingers into my hands. “It is just a piece of rubber in the end. I am… so happy we can be together like this.”
“Likewise…” I embraced her from behind, holding firmly onto her as I chests rose and fell. “Although… what changes now?”
“Hmm?”
“What is going to change now that we are… in love?” I reiterated my question in the same baffled, yet awestricken tone.
“Everything…” Tomika sighed out relaxed yet cheerful. “And nothing…”
“Care to explain?” Is shuffled back to look down at her face, while she held up her hand to caress mine.
“I still wanna hang out and have fun with you together, both normally and in latex… Be with you as much as I can… However,…”
“Yes?” I stroked her head, much to her enjoyment.
“More intense? More meaningful? Gah… You are the one of us who does the big thinking!” Tomika pouted.
“Build a future together? Considering the purpose of the chemicals in our bodies driving us currently…”
“Haha… Ah, good to know it is still you bud…” She held in for a second. “No… Darling…”
“Tomika…” The word made my heart skip. “I am going to miss you calling me buddy.”
“Then how about dear buddy?”
“Sounds good.”
“Now then… my dear buddy… You wanna play some games? Like the good old day?”
“Fine by me.” I got up, took the controllers of her console and gave her the other one.
It was almost like back when we were friends. When I did not know anything about Tomika’s hidden desire for the material, we were both wearing.
Except that Tomika, was taking every opportunity to cuddle up to me and, more distractingly, kissed me, causing to fall back in Matteo Cart several times.
“Wait for a second.” I told her after a particular intense kiss from her, getting up and picking up both of our gasmask, without their hoses and giving her one. “I do like you kissing me, but you need to dial it back.”
“Alright…” Tomika rolled her eyes as she put on her mask, as did I, much to her bewilderment. “Why are you putting yours on though?”
“Eh… I guess it is only fair…”
“Hehehe…” Tomika got up and began to fondle me, our masks touching with a clank. “Don’t lie. You want us both to be like this! Abstract sexy humanoids…”
Her sultry way was quite funny, but very much endearing, our mouth so close, yet unable to touch. As we continued our snuggling we forgot about the game, about what had nearly happened to me. We were just two being, deeply infatuated with each other.
“Dear buddy?” Tomika asked me as she held on to my butt. “Should we come out at school tomorrow?”
“You mean… Like this?”
“Ahahaha! Not like this… Although it is thrilling to think about it.”
Her hands moved up to take my hands off her and mingle together.
“I mean… as a couple.”

“Yo, Ikemoto!” Kimura walked over to my desk, while Tomika was on the toilet. “How is it going?”
“Pretty well…” I hummed.
“Never seen you this happy.”
“Should I be not happy?”
“If you say so…” Kimura shrugged. “Just wanted to thank you for helping me. I managed to get through the pop quiz without guessing the answers.”
“Really? That is good to hear. Keep it up and you will make it.”
“Yeah, I hope so…”
“I am back, dear buddy!” Tomika waltzed in. “What are you two yapping about?”
“Grades.” I responded. “I helped him and Ota with getting their stuff together.”
“Well, my dear buddy here did have the greatest teacher in ‘helping someone to learn’.”
“’My dear buddy’?” Kimura eyed us with suspicion. “Are you two… Nah…”
Tomika grabbed my hand demonstratively, grinning at Kimura.
“Still not buying it. You are just screwing with me.”
“Are we?” Tomika turned her head to me, taking my chin and… planted a kiss on me in front of the class.
If I weren’t blushing, I would have found Kimura falling back and uttering, “No freaking way…”, over and over again really funny.
Not soon after the class erupted in massive chatter over the whole thing, especially the girls who looked at us as if the sky had fallen down, while the guys either stared at me enviously or nodded at me politely.
“She is really together with him? The literature club pres?”
“What does she possibly see in him? She could have had so much more.”
“He snatched the swim team captain? That virgin from the backrow? Damn it!”
“He scored his childhood friend. What a legend!”
The noise died down abruptly as our teacher came back from her break looking around as to what had caused this commotion until she eyed us, still holding hands.
She sighed and shook her head with a smile and clapped her hands. “Time to get back to work class! We got much to do until the final exams!”

“Kohinata is your successor as club president then?”
“Yes… Wouldn’t have imagined it, but there are many other things I would have imagined at the beginning of the year.” My eyes fell on Tomika who strutted alongside me in her coat. “The team already decided on the next captain?”
“Yes… Whoever beats me in the three disciplines of jumping, diving and swimming.”
“Hard nut to crack, don’t you think?”
“There is some prominent talent beside me in the club.” Tomika put her hands behind her head in satisfaction.
“So, what does one do on a date?” Tomika asked me as we walked down the shopping mile.
“Beats me. We have hung out so much at various places… Maybe the quality of the place?”
“Fine restaurants instead of the usual Ramen shop?”
“Something like that.”
“Crap… Now I am hungry for ramen.”
“We are just hanging out then?”
“Why not…” Tomika shrugged, with us both laughing.
We went to the place we usually visited, with the owner already knowing our order, merely nodding at us, as we sat down.
The shop was quite busy at the time with people talking to each other as they waited for or ate their food. Including two people that were… familiar.
“Wait… aren’t those…” Two faces we hadn’t seen since the Dragonslayer convention.
They noticed us as well, choosing to get up and sat next to us.
“Long time no see you two…” It was the Adelaide and Tatsuya cosplayers.
“Good to see you too. What brings you here?”
“Partially business, Wakaya has to be attend a meeting for his company here tomorrow and with me exchanging shifts at my job we managed to get a day off and decided to visit a friend of ours today.” Chika, the Adelaide cosplayer explained.
“She actually recommended this place to us.”
“Oh, who is your friend?” I asked them.
“Her name is Yomu… But I think you might know her better as Miss Yogomu…”
Tomika nearly spat out her drink.
“THE Miss Yogomu? She lives here? In the same city as…” Tomika pulled out her phone.
“I don’t think it is a good idea to look that kind of stuff up in public.” I beseeched Tomika as she scrolled down Yogomu’s account.
“That is why the station was so familiar… It is the same…” She quickly obliged and put her phone away. “How is she in private?”
“Quite the eccentric personality, as is her husband.”
“Ah, her shiny snow wolf…” Tomika was clearly thinking about something obscene.
“What do you mean by that?” I inquired her.
“Well…” She lowered her voice so only us four could hear it. “One of their common scenarios in their videos is her domming him as a dompteur… With the twist that she slowly loosens his restraints, while he struggles aggressively against them.”
“The end result being?”
“Her exhausting her white wolf.” Wakaya explained further, together with Chika. “Or him breaking loose and forcing himself on to her.”
“You mean… she risks getting raped willingly?” And just after all that happened between me and Tomika in the last weeks, I felt like a completely fresh concept assaulted my brain.
“It is not exactly like that…” Tomika waved it away. “Remember what we did, dear buddy. It is like that but more overt.”
“Still sounds like an oxymoron to me.”
“I think it was in one of your books eh…” Tomika rubbed her temples. “Something about two opposite forces being needed for a stable society…”
“Something like that.” I nodded, trying to fit that more larger concept into the idea of someone getting willingly abused.
“And what did you do? Just chatting and having a good time?” Tomika’s curiosity regarding her idol was unsatiable.
“We actually did a collab.” Chika told her. “Should be uploaded in a few days.”
“A collab? Wow!” Tomika slouched on the table. “I wish we could do a collab with her. Alyways wanted to meet her.”
“Why that?” I asked her as the waiter brought our food.
“Because…” She poked in it for a bit. “It was when I stumbled onto her, that made me really want to get into latex… Like actually making me save money to buy my first catsuit…”
“Right about the time where you started your part time job huh?”
“Bullseye…” Tomika slurped down her first bite. “How about we start making more content, now that we are… together.”
“Together?” Chika giggled. “Are you a couple now? How sweet.”
“Yep…” I sighed.
“From what I remember you do have a lot of pictures posted already…” Chika pondered. “Not to mention the unique style you got.”
“What do you mean?”
“Latex combined with a wholesome vibe… You never actually posted anything explicit, just you two hanging out, playing games, or him reading… A lot.”
Of… How could I forget the countless times I brought my book with me, only to find pictures on our account Tomika had snuck from me where I was reading, while wearing my rubber suit.
“Well, we were still minors so…”
“Wait…” Chika interrupted her. “You were under 18 when you posted them?”
“I was until last week. He was already 18 when I took my first picture of him.”
“I am not saying this lightly…” Wakaya talked straight with her. “You better delete every picture of you and start over.”
“What? No fair! Just because he is a few months older than me. We never posted anything explicit!”
“Tomika, I hate to admit it… But they are right…” I tried to calm her down, to no avail.
“Hair Splitting.” Her mood was on the floor.
“Hmm… Now would be okay though?” I asked the two.
“You are not minors anymore… Should be okay now.”
“All the work and effort… Gone…”
It was roughly 30 pictures she had posted over the months. Much, but not too little to recreate in a few days.
“Didn’t your parents want to go to the hotsprings during the culture day weekend?”
“Yes, all… 3… days…” Tomika had realized what my idea was. “You think we can recreate them in just 3 days?”
“If we spent all day in latex we can definitely take enough pictures…”
Tomika planted a kiss on my mouth.
“…and then some…”
“I love you, Haruto. I can’t wait for our rubber marathon!”
I laughed, as Wakaya and Chika looked at us.
“The blossoms of youth…” Chika sighed.

“Are you ready?” Tomika tapped her legs, already in her red rubber suit, her gasmask on her face.
“One moment…” I pulled mine tight as I looked down at what I would be wearing for the weekend.
Her parents had only left the house 20 minutes ago, when we started redressing, with Tomika already having prepared everything we would need: The maid costume, the tinted lense, even the plugsuit and the kigurumi mask and of course the camera.
The thought of spending three days like this made me dizzy enough, but together with Tomika…
“What did you do with the vacbed?”
“I sent it back. I only hoped to get the material costs for the frame back, but when I told them why we ripped it, they refunded me the total price I paid for. No questions asked.”
“Hah! I guess they want to avoid the legal troubles. But now, Get over here!” She patted on her bed, with me sitting down next to her to take the first picture of the long weekend: Us two in selfie, hugging each other as we looked in the camera.
The description of the post of it:
‘Friendship ended with Ru-kun, now Ru-kun is my boyfriend.
Friendship ended with Mi-chan, now Mi-chan is my girlfriend.’
It would be a weekend with long days, and equally long and sleepless nights.

Chapter IX - Where the apples fall from their stems

Having made their relationship serious, Tomika and Haruto are closer than ever. Yet over them looms not only the final of their school life, but also the burning question their parents had ever since they played together in the daycare: When will you two get married?
A question made more complicated by the asterisk in their love: Latex, as well as Haruto’s parents being not exactly vanilla themselves.

I had just gotten to the part of Kohinata’s story where his protagonist faced the bounty hunter who was sent to capture his female gunslinger companion and bring her home to her family overseas, when all the sudden…
“What are you doing?” Tomika plopped herself down on my lap, wearing nothing but rubber from head to toe.
“Reading…” As was I.
“Hmm… How boring…” Tomika smirked, while she shuffled around on my lap. “We could be doing so much more, no?”
“This is the…” As our weekend in rubber went on, we became less and less focused on making pictures and more and more occupied with having sex.“4th time today…”
Tomika put her left arm around me, leaving the other one behind her back. “How about a 5th time?”
“It is barely afternoon…”
We had done it when we had just woken up, did it twice in the morning, once after lunch.
“Seems your little friend down there disagrees…” Tomika grabbed between our legs.
“Hng… What do you have planned now?”
“Nothing much…” She revealed what she was holding in her other hand. “Just wanted to have some more innocent fun.”
“A vibrator?”
Tomika nodded and held it on the intersection between our legs. “Trust me you are gonna love this…”
“Isn’t this meant for wo… ooh…” As she started it, I could feel the vibrations deep into my… my…
“For women?” Tomika teased me, and kissed me, leaving an oozing spit trail between us. “It can message sausages just as well. Want to go higher?”
“Y…yeah…” Why did this feel so good?
We pushed ever onwards, more deep kisses, ever higher on the staff Tomika was holding. Her tongue was tensing up from time to time as did mine.
RING!
Her phone suddenly went off, someone called, which we ignored for a while. They could wait until we…
“Oh shit!” Tomika exclaimed, shutting the vibrator off leaving me high and dry. For a moment she looked at the ringing phone, then gestured me to be quiet.
“Hello mom! How are you… Oh… Oh really? Really sucks for dad… What are you going to do now?… Really?… No, I still got stuff in the fridge for you, no problem… Yes, soft things too… Okay, see you soon. Bye…”
Her expression had shifted, from full on horniness to panic, as she quickly took her hood off.
“We gotta get out of this!” She tossed the gloves and socks away.
“What?” I needed some time to cool off.
“Now! My father bit with his fillings on a stone in an octopus, so my parents are returning right now.” She hurriedly removed her catsuit.
“When are they going to be back?”
“Half an hour… A full one tops…” She quickly packed up the loose rubber clothing and put them in the tub. “We ain’t got much time. If we do it fast and shower together and clean everything before they come back…”
“And drying?”
“Really hate to do it, but I’ll just have to shake and wipe them. No time to let them dry off on their own!”
“Ok…” I slowly removed my hood, with Tomika already pulling down my shoulder zippers. “What are you?”
“We. Have. To. Hurry.” Tomika insisted.
“I am going. I am going.” I removed my rubber catsuit myself and put it in the tub, as we both walked naked into the bathroom with no time for any further intimacy.

We had barely managed to pack it all away when her parents came back knocking, Tomika breathing a sigh of relief.
“Ah you were here, Haruto?” Tomika’s mom asked me while she consoled her husband, who was clearly in pain.
“Yes, we spent the weekend together with my parents on vacation as well. I took the couch.” I rapidly lied. “We watched movies together, played video games…”
“But mostly learnt for the exams!” Tomika added.
“Very good of you…” Her mother quickly rushed to the freezer to get her father a fresh pack of ice on his cheek. “Very responsible…”
“It was nice of you to have me stay here.” I bowed to them all and left. “See you at school tomorrow, Tomika!”
“Bye!”
As I went home, continuing my writing there I suddenly recalled something: When we washed the smaller pieces of latex, there was only one hood in the tub.
“Nah, I am just imagining things…” I shrugged it off and continued deep into the night, when I could hear my parents, who had returned around early evening, walk up into that room and closed the door.
“Sigh…” In the past this would have made me shudder, yet now… Who was I to judge them? Although it still bothered me, but I could not point to why exactly.

“Where is Tomika?” Nakami asked me, as I passed her by to the way to my classroom. “You always come here together…”
“No clue…” I shrugged back.
After I had waited at our usual meeting spot for 10 minutes, I had decided to leg it to school. Perhaps she was sick I thought and entered the classroom, without much fanfare.
Only 1 minute before the bell rang however Tomika appeared in class, walking to the seat next to me.
“Sorry for being late… uhm…”
“As long as it wasn’t anything bad.”
“Haruto…” She was nervous. “I got to talk.”
“What is it?”
“I think… it is best for us if we do not meet after school… alright?”
“Wha…” My blood froze, with me just nodding. “Any reason in particular?”
“Nothing really? Just… Don’t come home to me…”
“Alright…”
We didn’t speak to another again, but something clearly weighed in her, and it wasn’t like her drone phase last semester. I could feel that something bad had happened.
We didn’t even talk in the break, with her walking over to her female friend group, although she didn’t seem to be happy there either, just better at masking it.
“Looks like your relationship is on the rocks…” Ota leaned backwards to me. “…buddy…”
“Oh, zip it!” I growled back. “She just… needs some space…”
“Nah, he is right…” Kimura chimed in, just what I needed. “Count yourself lucky: Most girl’s would not be as thoughtful about it. You better start looking again.”
“We have been friends for years!” I was getting seriously pissed at the two. “It is all… going … to turn out fine…”
“Dream on, Ikemoto:” Ota laughed. “The childhood friend always loses…”
For the first time, I felt dread, and not the dread of a test. No genuine dread, of the possibility to lose her and worse: I had no idea why.
And when I asked her why, she was already at the school gates, picked up by her parents whose eyes were filled with nothing but disgust for me. Making me walk home alone, a sinking feeling festering in my stomach.
For the first time in my life, I genuinely thought of ending things.

“Haruto…” My mother knocked and slowly entered my room, while I was brooding over my books for distraction, to no avail. “There was a call… From the Shimizus.”
“Tomika’s parents?” I jumped up, with my father also entering the room. “What did they say? Did they explain why am I not allowed to visit her?”
“Calm down…” My mother sat down on my bed, my father on her side. “First off, I want to say how relieved I am, that you found something that genuinely excites you. For a long time, your father and I had been worried that something might be wrong with you…”
“What do you mean?”
“You know…” My father, though in somewhat of a good mood, cleared his mood. “The rubber.”
My face grew pale and red at once. “How did you…? Did her parents?”
They nodded to my incoherent babbling.
“They found a… rubber hood at their house last night… And upon searching her room this morning found what they described as a ‘wardrobe full of perverted clothing’.” My father explained, which made it clear why Tomika came late. She must have gotten a very rude wakeup and then the worst lecture of her lifetime. No wonder she was so hollow this morning.
“However…” My mother noted softly, yet sternly. “You should not push such interests on other people, especially someone you have known for such a long.”
“Okay, hold up!” I raised my hands and voice. “Just for the record: I… was not the one who pushed these things on her! She… kinda… dragged me into it… well dragging might be a bit harsh… point is: She was into it waaay before I ever knew about it.”
“Really? The Shimizu’s told us that it was you.”
“Did her parents say that, or was it Tomika herself?”
“Well…” My father rubbed his chin. “They were very heated on the phone… Do you really think they just assumed it was him, dear?”
“Akure is very quick to judge… I did only notice how he became more confident recently…” She whispered back, before speaking to us both loudly. “Perhaps we should go over to them. To clear things up.”
“Very well…” My father slapped his knee and got up. “Do you want to come as well son?”
“Of course…” I gulped my fears of her angered parents down. I needed to be there to set the record straight. To defend her and myself.

So, it came that we all sat down at their kitchen table, my parents on one side Tomika’s on the other, with her father fresh from the dentist, and each of us at the other end of the table.
“Look, Karin, that is just sounds…” Her mother scoffed at mine, being old friends they very pretty much the reason Tomika and I met each other so early. “Ridiculous.”
“Akure, they are in the age where they are interested in those kind of things…”
“Of course they are, but girls her age are interested in beautiful boys, male idols, maybe romance… Not this!” She pointed to the black, rubber hood, which had gotten dusty. Where the hell did Tomika forget it?
“No mom… She is right…”
“Look, if he has threatened in any way whatsoever.”
“He did not, mom. I told you already that me getting into it has nothing to do with him!”
“Why else would you spent who-know-how-much money on things worn almost exclusively for weird sexual acts…”
“I…” Tomika stammered, not finding an in between her mother.
“And here I always believed you to be a decent young man…” She was now gazing at me. “To think you forced my daughter to appease your perverse …”
“He never…” She tried again, only to be cut off by my mother.
“Look, say whatever you want Akure, but the last thing my son would do is pressure someone he knew for so long into something like this. Besides they were and now are adults… Let them indulge in such things. No harm done, right?”
“Karin, they are ruining their life with these ‘indulgences’. Do you think anyone will hire them if they find out they are wearing this? It is all because of your sons hidden urges… !”
“He never had any urges because he saw his parents doing BDSM as a kid until he saw me in my rubber suit!” Tomika shouted out loud, leaving a deafening silence in the wake, and my parents flustered.
“Karin…” And her parents wide eyed. “You are a mother! Why are you still doing it?”
“Still?” Her father looked at his wife, the pain numbed by the sudden turn of events, looking at his wife with confusion. “Did you two…”
“No, we did not, but I always told her to not bring these kinds of books into our dorm room…”
“Did… you… really see us?” My mother looked at me with nerve wracking shame.
“We always locked the door. Did we really forgot about it a single time?” My father covered his mouth.
“No wonder he grew up like this, Yujin…” Her father
“Your daughter told us what happened, Naoya!”
The conversation became an evermore heated bungled mess with them shouting about our fetish, about my parents’ nightly escapades and about whose fault it was in the end and who raised their respective child correctly, while we just sat there silently.
Or at least until Tomika, slammed the table, got up, walked over to me and pulled me up from my chair, looking at them.
“ALSO…” Tomika shouted at them and then kissed me while nearly crushing me with her embrace. “Haruto and I are a couple and if things go well, we might actually marry each other just like you always wanted!”
The bickering stopped, with them seemingly reflecting on the cavalcade of revelations occurring within just a quarter of an hour, all the while Tomika clung onto me, as if she wanted to show that she would never let go off me.
“Okay…” Her mother sighed, rubbing her temples. “I think we need to talk… Just us women…” She side-eyed her husband, nudging them outside, with me and my father following, after which she closed the door behind us.

“Yujin, catch!” Tomika’s threw mine a beer can, which he readily opened. “You are not going to drink beer?”
“I was at the dentist a few hours ago…” He said as he put down the tea cups for me and himself. “Now then… You got some explaining to do.”
“L…like I said before… I never knew about Tomika’s hidden interest until I stumbled upon it… ”
“You are lucky my head is still throbbing from the dental surgery. How did you find out?”
“Well… ehm…” I gulped, wanting to rather avoid the eyes of a father who was not having it.
“Just tell him the truth son… You won’t hit him over that, Naoya, won’t you?”
“We will see…” Tomika’s father sipped his tea calmly. Too calmly.
“It… all began at the beginning of the school year… I was visiting Tomika coming earlier than expected and found her… in the suit… with a vibrator… in her hand… running…”
“Go on…” He breathed in and out with much restraint.
“I promised her not to tell anyone and after that we just hung out and played some video games…”
I went through all that had happened between me and Tomika: The time she wore it to school by accident, the now-deleted pictures, how she came to me dressed as a maid when I was sick, the weird drone episode, during which he looked particularly disturbed, the convention, how she finally roped me into it and our little bondage adventure ending to our confession.
“And there you have it…” I left out the parts where Tomika brought our rubber clothes to the class trip, as well as the vacuum bed escapade, cutting that out neatly from the confession part.
“Hmpf…” The old Shimizu put his tea cup down. “You have a penchant for storytelling you know?”
“Yeah…” I laughed very awkwardly, trying to figure out whether he was convinced of my retelling or not.
“The childhood friend wins for once!” My father slapped me on the back. “I have to admit I am proud of you son for finally getting together with her, after so many years…”
“Yujin…”
“Just joking, Naoya… So, does he have your blessing?”
“My blessing? For their relationship or the… things they have done?”
“Ehm… Yes?” My father laughed. “I am not really one to judge with the latter and you know we four always joked about them being just one step away from becoming a pair anyways.”
“Agh… Yes, of course… How could I forget.” Tomika’s father joked. “As for the bedroom part…”
“Yes…” I responded with worry in my voice. “You two at least seemed to have been responsible enough until now… And considering you might move out once you are done with school I cannot really stop you.”
“So, you are ok with it?” I gulped down my spit and worry.
“I will have to talk it over with Akure first… But… yes… However…” He got up and looked deep into my eyes. “You better not take advantage of my kindness, or her willingness, do you understand?”
“Yessir!” I spat out, making my father laugh.
“Ah did I sound like that when I was worried about Konata and her life choices?”
“Perhaps… How is she doing anyway?”
“Last I heard from her, she finally got together with someone… Took her long enough…”
“Ah, the follies of youth:” Tomika’s father sighed out. “Reminds me a bit of how I met Akure… A hard shell, but a soft core…”
“Well Karin…” My father looked embarrassed to the side. “Let’s just say we met on a meeting of… likeminded people… Heh… How about we see how the ladies are doing?”
“Fine by me. Again, I need to talk this out with Akure before making any final call.”
I grabbed the empty teacups and carried them to the kitchen where to our surprise we only found my mother.
“Where are Tomika and Akure?” Naoya asked her, while he walked over to get himself a glass of water and painkillers.
“Bathroom…” My mother slumped on the table. “Your wife is a tough one I tell you that.”
“How did it go?” I asked her.
“I pretty much was devil’s advocate the entire way through… The two were pretty much at a deadlock, arguing back and forth, until Tomika told her that if she wants to, she can go and toss it all in the trash, she will just buy it again and Akure would have only wasted the money and time she invested in them.”
“And then?”
“I guess both came to an impasse… Until right now, when Tomika asked her mother if she could at least wash the hood. Akure told her that she can just put it in the washing machine together with the other black clothes.”
“OOOF!” It slipped from me, but also… from my father…
“What’s so bad about putting it in the regular clothes?” Mr Shimizu had swallowed his medication and finished the rest of the warm water in his glass.
“Put bluntly: It would be like putting wool with other clothes. A bad idea.” My mother told him.
“For the rubber and the other clothes?”
“Probably…” My mother commented. “Tomika took it to the bathroom, and Akure followed her.”
“Alright…” Tomika’s father walked to their bathroom and when we arrived we saw Akure leaning on the door, watching intently as Tomika rinsed the hood in the sink, two bottles next to her feet.
“She really takes good care of it huh…” She mumbled before she noticed us.
“Well, darling. What do you say…” The two threw glances at their daughter, while I walked in to look at the bottles closely: It were the bottle of soap she usually used for this, as well as the silicon oil, likely avoiding getting sacked by her mother due to its inconspicuous appearance.
“I… need to think about all this…”
“What a day hmm…” I tried my best to comfort Tomika by putting my hand over her shoulder, to which she responded by pulling me closer.
“You say it, dear buddy…” She stopped, holding the now dripping hood in her hands as the water flushed away.
“Can it go in the dryer?” I was surprised at her mother asking about it, in any way whatsoever.
“No… Just let it dry naturally.” Tomika responded as she shook it, turned it to the inside, shook that, turned it back again and carefully put it over the handle of the plunger. “There… You can put it together with the other things next morning.”
“I think you can do that yourself…” Her mother commented, walking towards Tomika, never letting her eyes of the hood. “Your… apparel is in the attic.”
Tomika was speechless. “Why…?”
“I am still mulling it over, but I think you know best how it ought to be stored.”
“Th…thank you… mom…”
“In exchange you are not wearing it in our house until your father and I come to a decision…”
“I… can accept that…” Tomika walked out, only to be stopped by her mother, speaking sternly yet full of concern.
“Just promise me to not let it consume your life! Right now, you have your future to consider and not temporary thrills.”
“Of course, mom…” Tomika breathed a sigh of relief. “And thank you… for listening to me.”
“Same goes for you.” She then looked at me. “If you want to someday marry one day you will need a foundation to build your future upon.”

Future… The word stuck with me even until next morning in school, where we were also discussing the same topic in class.
‘Write down career paths you could imagine taking’
Until now I had never really thought about it, mostly just taking it test by test which went rather well for me until now. But after that…
I decided to peek into what Tomika had written.
“Swim athlete, swim teacher, lifeguard, ama freediver, diving teacher, saturation diver… Did you write down only things that got to do with swimming?”
“Yeah, I figure I am kinda good at those… And saturation diving sounds neat… High wage, lots of free time at home…”
“Wasn’t there a case were divers were torn apart during decompression?”
“Yeah, bedford… something… Maybe an ama then… Bit quaint though… What do you got?”
“Nothing.” I admitted.
“Hmm… You like books… Maybe librarian?”
“Maybe… maybe…”
“HEY!” Kimura had turned his chair sideways and now was leaning back, his chair wobbling but stable. “Looks like you got back together?”
“Back together?”
“He thought we had broken up…”
“Kimura…” Tomika was angered. “We never broke up! We just had some… parental problems…”
“Thought you were childhood friends?”
“Yes, but these things still happen.”
“Now that you are back, Ikemoto…” He started whispering to me. “You might need some special knowledge to please her when the time comes. I am always willing to help.”
“You don’t need to get even for my help and besides, we are already over that point.”
Kimura froze, his eyes wide, only strampling when his chair was almost falling back.
“KIMURA!” Were it not for our teacher, grabbing his chair just as its center of mass was firmly behind him. “How often do I need to tell you NOT to tilt your chair.”
“Sorry…” Kimura apologized.
“Tell that to your parents when you get hurt…” She looked over his completely blank page. “You got an assignment to do.”
“I know… I know…” Kimura rolled his eyes, turning to Ota. “What about you dude?”
“Eh, my uncle got a repair shop. He already offered me an apprenticeship.”
“Lucky… Bro… I barely thought about this.”
That made two of us, I thought.
“Don’t worry, you don’t have to turn it in at the end of this lesson.” Our teacher reminded us. “But please… Just take you time and think about it.”
I nodded, but even after the lesson and during club time I couldn’t stop thinking about it, with Kohinata eventually asking me what was troubling me.
“Future career paths… hmm…” I pondered after I told him. “What about translator? Your English is pretty good and I heard some companies have started using native translators after getting complaints about shoddy translations.”
“But translations from English are already done here…”
“No, I mean from Japanese into English. The complaints came from abroad. It also would be a good way to maybe pitch your own works…” He tapped on a copy of Kita no Akuma. “I would love to read how it continues; you hinted that Ingrid’s brother was fed up and wanted gathered some of his men to go viking on the continent after complaining about his family having ‘gone native’.”
“I don’t know if I can manage a career as a writer…”
“Then I will be waiting for you when I have my work published. But I will be your senpai then!” Kohinata grinned.
“Like hell that will happen!” I bantered back. “I will be your once and future senpai!”

“Heyo, dear buddy!” Tomika waltzed into my room as we had agreed to, with the plan being to finish our assignment. “Look what I brought!”
“Tomika…” I sighed seeing the ziplock bags she showed. “Didn’t you tell your mother we are going to focus on more school and not rubber?”
“Yeah, but what my mother doesn’t know…” She shrugged my worry and handed me a collection of bags. “These are yours.”
“Why are you giving me them?”
“Because they are yours.” She reiterated. “Although… Do you have anywhere you can store them?”
“Eh… Let me see…” I got up, there should be a box right beneath my books. “There.”
I quickly sorted out the lego sets inside it and placed my latex clothes in it. Old toys, replaced with new ones.
“Now then…” Tomika sat down on at the table in my room. “We will do the homework, and then the fun stuff.”
“How responsible!” I chuckled.
“I have grown up…” She proudly announced.
Yet as we neared the end of our homework and assignments, I could see her becoming twitchy, looking outside my room’s door.
“So… Your parents have their little room here?” She asked nonchalantly.
“Do you mean…” She nodded. “Yes, but they keep it locked.”
“Well then…” Tomika closed her book and pounced up. “We’ll just have to find the key!”
“Tomika, wait!” I chased after her, my father at work and our mother’s meeting for a parent-teacher conference. When I caught her she was already in their bedroom. “Look they aren’t just going to keep the key to such things in their…”
On instinct she pulled the compartment on my mother’s nightstand and pulled out an innocent looking key.
“…nightstand.”
“Got it. Now…” She walked past me, looking for a locked room finding it at the end of the hallway. The door to that room, where she stopped to look at me. “Don’t worry, Haruto. We will face this together.”
She grabbed my hand, put the key in and turned it, the door creaking open to reveal…
A bedroom, probably for a guest.
“Woah!” The bed having a metal frame, the shelf in it stocked with all manner of toys, adult toys. Tomika investigated it all with a childish sense of wonder. “They really got everything here: Ropes, whips, plugs, gags, blindfolds… Hmm… No male chastity devices, only female ones.”
“What has that to do with anything!?”
“Your father must be the dominator… and your mother the sub.” She continued her perusing. “However… As I expected…”
She grabbed two small ziplack bags and removed their contents: Two rubber hoods.
“I knew there had to be a reason why your mom is weirdly knowledgeable in cleaning latex!”
“You mean… But there is no other latex here beside it.”
“Because their main kink isn’t latex, but BDSM. See…” She held them open to reveal holes, although there seemed to be some missing. “One restricts the eyes, the other the mouth.”
“Oh…” I held one of them, the one without the mouth hole. “To think they wore these…”
“Let’s try them out!”
“Eh…” I tried to weasel my way out of this room. “Maybe not now.”
“Hmm… You are right!” She put them aside laying them on their bags, coming to reason.
“We must get into our catsuits first of course! Wait here I will get them!”
And off she went. Leaving me in the den of my parent’s degeneracy and my own thoughts. If there was a god, I pondered, he must be a comedian, how else would I first be appalled by sex from my parents’ deviancy, only to become one myself if not for someone getting a laugh out of this whole situation.
“And… I think I got everything.” Tomika hauled the bags into the room, plopping them to the ground and turned to the various restraints in the room. “Now what should we use…”
“Should we really?” I grabbed my bag, the urge to put it on being strong. “It is my parent’s things…”
“Your parents aren’t here and besides I think they would be cool with it.”
“I… ugh…” Knowing my parents, she was more than right. “What do you have in mind.”
“Hmm… Of course, the hoods…” She went to the shelf, picking out things that looked like cuffs and chains. “How about we use these?”
“Sure…” I inspected them. They were made out of leather but padded with softer material on the inside. Whatever my parents were doing, they took great care not to cause each other too much discomfort.
“Now… Time to get changed!” She removed her shirt and loosened her bra.
The whole changing process has turned into somewhat of a ritual of us both, with us not even turning away anymore.
Especially the part where we pushed out the air pockets from each other suits was really intimate for us both, with me straightening her red catsuit until it fit snuggly on her.
“Ah… You have gotten good at this!” She exclaimed she pulled on her socks and snapped on her gloves.
“Really? Did I?” I asked while I did the same.
“Hmm… Yes…” She stroked over her body. “It is… absolutely perfect.”
The way she said that send shivers down my spine and into my… member.
“Let’s begin slowly.” She grabbed the restraints and hoods and put them on the bed, all reachable, as well as a keychain. “These should be all the ones we need…”
She checked which keys fit the cuffs and removed and put away those that did not, until there were only four.
“First off… Legs.” She snapped on one cuff on her left leg and the other on mine, doing the same with the other on both our right legs, with the chains crossing each other.
“Wait… don’t tell me you want to bind us together?”
“Your mind has gotten rotten huh?” Tomika smirked. “Because that is exactly my plan!”
“Are you sure about this?”
“We aren’t doing any breathplay, just restraints. And these ones are so soft that beyond being unable to move they don’t cause any lasting damages, padded as they are. But let me check something first.”
She took the hood with only the eyes and pulled it over my head, not yet zipping up at the back.
“Can you inhale through your nose well enough.”
My mouth was blocked by an impenetrable wall, but my nose still had two holes.
I nodded.
“Then there we are all clear. Next off… ” She clicked one of the cuff pairs on my wrists. “Put your arms under my armpits.”
I did as she said, with her clapping the other on my wrist, with me now firmly chained to her after she used a key to lock the cuffs.
“Now then…” She put the keys away and took one hood pulling it over my head.
“Mmpfh…” I could see her as she adjusted it and pulled the zipper on the back tight, but not speak.
“You… look so… cute with only your eyes…” She held me tight, with me doing the same, unable to object or agree.
Tomika at last, put the cuffs on her wrists, checking if she could properly unlock it with her wrists bound, which was possible to my surprise.
She took the other hood with a flustered face, put it on, the only thing visible on her face being her mouth.
“Let’s see…” She felt her way under my shoulders, slowly wriggling her free wrist into the cuff and with a click, locking herself in. “Now we are bound… forever…”
“Mpfh!”
“Or as long as we want to. Don’t worry dear buddy, I still got the keys right behind you.”
She shook them with a rustling sound, before gripping them tight and pulling me closer, kissing me on my obscured lips.
“What are we going to do now though, huh? Maybe hugging? Rubbing us against each other? I do feel that you got something growing down there!”
“Mpfh!!” She was right, but she didn’t need to rub it in, or herself on it.
“Ah, what a tease! So close… I want it in me… Yet we cannot… AH! I want it sooo badly!”
“Mpfh!” Stop it, I shouted in vain. I could feel it bursting, while she continued to smother me with kisses, her eyes hidden.
“Come on! You enjoy this too, don’t you?” Her mouth was madly grinning.
“Hmpfh!”
“Thought so… Ah, I wish could keep doing this forever and ever and…” Her ceaseless squirming stopped when we could hear a clinging sound.
Not rustling keys in her hands, but a sudden sound that faded as fast as it came.
“Oh no…” Her lips went from a grin, to a frown. “Please don’t tell me I dropped them on the…” She shifted around trying to grab something off the bed on which we lay, until…
Clank!
“CRAP!” Another sound, this time harsher and coming from just the edge of the bed, perhaps somewhere on the frame, perhaps on the floor. “No, no, no…Please tell me they are still…”
Tomika stretched her hands, with me shuffling around to accommodate her.
“Yes, almost got them…” She now stretched her hands as far as possible, until she loosened them when another sound came, not as bombastic this time. Like a final note to a comedic song. “The keys are under the bed…”
We were stuck.
“mmmpfh!!”
“Look maybe we can still…” I could hear her wriggle around with her wrists. “Nope… Sigh!”
There was an awkward silence.
“We can always wait for your parents…” She shrugged, much to my displeasure.
“Hmpf…” The last thing I wanted was for either of them to come home, finding me and Tomika in this very room. Maybe I could still.
I wriggled and even checked how tight the cuffs were and to my disappointment found them to be expertly made and pulled just tight enough not to cause discomfort, but also be inescapable without outside aid.
“Your mom should come home in a few hours, shouldn’t she?”
“mh-hm” I tried to make sound like an ‘uh huh’.
“Hey see it from the bright side, you are getting to hug your girlfriend for all this time.”
I sighed, clasping my hands around her, looking at her luscious smile, while she did the same.
After an unknown time of cuddling, Tomika asked me a weird question.
“Could hum something? A melody or song?”
“hm?” Why that?
“I know… It is just… It is so dark in here…”
“Hm!” Wait, was she afraid of the dark? “Hm hm hm!”
“Hey!” She pouted, before she let her mouth rest. “I know… It is just… I just need something to hear… I want to hear that you are still here with me.”
“Hmpf…” I rolled my eyes, while patting her on her back.
“Would you?” She asked, in childish frightened voice.
“hm hm…” I nodded, though she could not see it and began humming.
“That is… the theme song of Dragonslayers? Isn’t it?” She nuzzled against me, with us resting side by side, with me continuing to hum all the songs I could remember from that game: The main theme, triumphant and tragic; the theme of the dragons, brutal, cruel and ancient; and the themes of the various factions.
I was at the Commonwealth’s theme, a version of ‘I vow to thee my country’, itself derived from ‘Jupiter’ from Holst’s ‘The Planets’ when we could hear faintly a door open beneath us.
“Wait… Are they?” Tomika cleared her throat. “HELLO? MS. IKEMOTO? CAN YOU HEAR ME?”
“Oh, you are here already. What is it?” I could hear my mother call from the lower floor, already walking towards the steps and up. However…
“We are kinda stuck here! Could you help us get free…”
I could hear two pairs of footsteps.
“What do you? Wait are you…” I saw my mother open the door. “…in here?”
She burst out in a giggle. “What did you two get yourself up to?”
“I dropped the key down there. Beneath the bed could you unlock it and…”
“Tomika?” I then saw her mother enter the room. “What do you think you are doing?”
Tomika smile disappeared quickly.
“Come Akure, let’s get them out first, okay?”
With the keys, it only took my mother a minute to get us out of the restraints, with us pulling off our hoods, finally able to either see or talk again.
“Hmm…” My mother eyed me. “Tomika is onto something. You do look handsome in this. And shiny.”
“Mom!” I could feel myself twinch while my mother looked at me as if I had won a prize or something.
“Ah, sorry… I must be… How do they call it nowadays? ‘Cringing you out’?”
“You… could put it like that…” I sighed.
“However…” She became very stern. “If you do this in the future, either one of you needs to be not bound! Or you need some third person to keep watch of you…”
“A third person?” I scoffed. Like we suddenly would get into threesomes.
“Karin… Do you really need to encourage them?” Tomika’s mother, sitting in front of her silent daughter.
“I am just giving them advice on safe practices, Akure.” My mother explained with a sense of maternal duty. “Considering they like it so much.”
Akure turned back to her daughter, from the neck down in shiny red and black rubber: “Do you like this…? Wearing this I mean…”
Tomika looked for a moment into her mother’s eyes, filled with… disappointment? Shame? Realization? “I do…”
Tomika rubbed her hand over her neckline, making it creak. “I love how it feels. I love how it sounds. How it smells. How it looks on me. How it looks on others. How shiny it can be if polished. I love how Haruto looks in it especially!”
I could feel my heart race as she said that, my mother giggling, making it even worse.
“And there is nothing that would… change your mind about this?”
“I don’t think so… Even if it all got burned or buried in an earthquake… I think I would buy it again.”
“Hmm…” Her mother still sounded harsh. “Did you… at least wear… protection while you two were doing it?”
“Yes…” Tomika pulled out the smallest bag we hadn’t used yet, because we hadn’t needed it this time yet. “It is… a reusable condom… I guess.”
“Practical.” My mother commented.
“Karin…” Ms. Shimizu growled and sighed, mustering her daughter for a last time. “Your father… already told me he is… fine with it.”
“And you?” Tomika looked in dreading anticipation at her.
“Sure…” Tomika erupted in gratitude, hugging her mother, who calmly pushed her away again. “But as long as you are under my…”
“Or my?” My mother pointed at herself.
“Or her roof…” She sighed. “You will have to follow some rules.”
Tomika nodded sternly.
“You will clean up after yourself. I will not wash these!”
“Fine by me. I’d rather do it myself anyways…”
“Before you change into it, you will cover the windows during daytime. I don’t want the neighbors spotting you in this.”
“Alright.”
“You will also not stroll around it in the neighborhood! Especially not during the day!”
“Understood.”
“And please… Don’t do anything dangerous that would threaten your life.”
Tomika and I looked at each other, knowing full well what she meant with this.
“Understood.” We both shouted, laughing at our synchronicity.
“And do not forget you have a regular life to live, not just… this.”
“Of course mom…” Tomika rolled her eyes. “I know you want to be a grandma sooner than later.”
“Tomika!” She shouted back, before calming herself down and actually smiling for once in the past few days I saw her. “Karin and I will be down in the kitchen. You two change into something more… plain.”
“Of course…” Tomika nodded, taking my hand as we walked out and to the bathroom together. “I love you mom!”

What a crazy week, I thought as I was hunched over my assignment, which fried my brain.
But it felt like everything had returned to a state of normalcy I knew a year ago: When Tomika and I were just friends and I did not know the specifics of just exactly what my parents were doing in that room.
“Haruto…” Speaking of the devil, my mother barged in holding a large piece of clothing on a hanger… “Here is your rubber suit! It should be dry by now.”
“Th…thanks mom.” I then saw she had already packed up the socks and gloves, with my taking them. It felt really awkward as I stored them while she was watching.
“Although you could have just come in and taken it when was showering.”
“MOM!” The amount of cringe I felt at that moment was almost lethal.
“Sorry…” She laughed. “Where would you hang this up?”
“Ehm… We usually put it in the zip lock bag it came in…” I scuffed my head, taking my suit from the hanger she was holding, and tried to fold it up.
“Haruto…” My mother said after a while. “You are folding it all wrong.”
“How else am I supposed to fold it?” I turned my head to her slightly annoyed at her continuing presence, while she walked over to where the suit was.
“I guess… With a bodysuit… Like a combination of trousers and a shirt…” She took the suit and folded it in threes, tugging the sleeves in without trouble, pressing out the air and handing me it. It looked just like how she folded my normal clothes. “Clothes folding is a transferable skill, no matter the material.”
“Thank you…” I stammered while putting it in the bag and stowing it away, a thought crossed my mind, that in the past I would have surpressed. “Regarding…”
“Is something?”
Ever since I knew about that room a question was in my head. An ugly question.
“The things you do in that room… Did you…”
“I know it must be weird for your parents to do stuff like this…”
“Did you conceive me and Konata in pain?”
“Conceive… You mean?” Her mimic told me immediately her understanding what I meant. “Yes… We did it often, so it is not unfeasible that when we didn’t use protection… you resulted in that.”
“Alright…” The answer to the question burning in my mind for yours still felt grueling, to think my mother was in pain while I…
“However…” She interrupted me, hugging me gently from behind. “It was nothing against the pain I felt when I brought you to this world. And if I was given the choice, I would go through the pains, all of it again, to have you and your sister. You are the greatest thing ever happening to us… I will love you both, always.”
“Thanks… mom…” Her maternal affection felt so warm. “I love you too, even if you are weird at times.”
“The trick is to know when you are around people where you can be weird, and when you need to be normal.”
“The three faces everyone has?”
“Yes, except the one you never show, you can show, but only to people you trust deeply enough.” She loosened her grip on me. “In your case, that would be your dear Tomika.”
“I get it…” I wiped the tears of my face. “And thank you, mom. I will go back to my studies now…”
“Ok…” She got and almost walked out. “Although I am interested: Did your kink ever teach you anything?”
“A lesson? What do you mean by that?” I was burying my head in my assignment.
“SM taught me that at times, you need to endure whatever pain life throws at you, because at the end of all that are such wondrous things you never would imagine to have in your darkest days.” She sounded sorrowful,yet so filled with joy. “Sorry if that comes out as ‘cringe’, it is just Akure and your father really helped get through some tough times.”
“Abstraction…” I answered her. “Many people just abstract themselves, becoming whatever they are needed for their role. But they hardly change beneath that. When you have grown fond of someone, it does not matter what abstract role they take on, you will always cherish them.”
“A good lesson… Oh before I forget it… Your father and I want to go out during this Christmas…”
I eyed her, thinking of course that it had to be related to BDSM.
“Oh don’t look at me like I got some devious thing planned. We just want to visit your sister and her new beloved.” She disappeared with a giggle, as I sighed.
As I endured the pain of filling out my assignment, the question of Christmas didn’t leave my mind.
A Christmas date would be wonderful. Although what I wanted to do was something to make it feel special to her… Hmm…
A memory crossed my mind, to be more specific a name Tomika held in much reverence.
“Wait, didn’t Wakaya and Chika know her?” I pulled out my phone and asked them if they could put in a good word with her and my idea for a personal Christmas meeting with her, as impossible as that seemed.
After this I put down the phone, I let my head boil over math.
My head cracked and screamed in pain, as I mulled over any profession I could see myself working in, taking every mental path possible… With every flagellation of my own ideas of what I could do for a living, the paper became ever fuller, until…
PING!
My phone got a message, as I had almost filled it out completely.
I pushed my school material aside and read it. It was from Chika.
Ch: Lucky for you, her hubby is always dragged to their company xmas party so shell appreciate the company :) I already wrote her.
H: Thank you
The next morning, I woke up with a message from said person.
M. Y.: Chika told me that you wanted to arrange a meeting for your darling girlfriend’s date. While I do have time and I would cherish having people over for the night, I am left to wonder: What can you give me in return, young man?
I answered, after giving some thought to it, giving her my offer, but also my conditions.

Chapter X - A very special Christmas

Christmas, what for the West is a family holiday about giving gifts to loved ones, with its origins in the Christian adoption of Pagan festivals like Jule and Saturnalia, is viewed in Japan akin to Valentine’s Day, where couples go out to have a good time. A more romantic rather then familial love.
Amongst the many couples roaming the decorated streets on this cold and snowy night however are also Haruto and Tomika, with few noticing that their pants beneath their coats are oddly reflective.
Just what are these two up to, and more importantly why?

“How beautiful…” Tomika exclaimed as we walked around the bustling, having just left the station, lit streets on Christmas Eve. Flanked with decorated trees and chain of lights everywhere you looked.
“Knew you like it.” I smirked, not letting on that my legs were ice cold.
“Although…” Tomika glanced down her coat, unfit for her chest. “I would not have expected an idea like that coming from you.”
“Well… It is part of the surprise.” I laughed awkwardly, knowing full well I was not telling her the truth. I glanced at my phone looking at the instructions she gave me we had to follow so she would meet us tonight, with me being left to explain to Tomika why I wanted to do this, without spoiling the surprise.
“Let’s see… There should be a toilet here…”
“I mean… Us wearing latex under our coats is risqué enough.”
“And here I thought you were the adventurous one of us two…” I countered.
“Adventure is one thing, but this…” She inhaled sharply. “This is a whole ‘nother level of kinkiness.”
“Are you willing to pull through with it?”
“Considering you told me that you already reserved a seat at that restaurant…” She sighed and stepped into the toilet, with me closing and locking the door behind us.
“This is insane…” I could hear her mutter. I thought it very much the same, but considering how much she would love to meet her in person, I did not want to ruin the surprise for her.
I put down the bag and pulled out our hoods and gas masks, as well as other things.
“Did you put tea in those…” She pointed at the vacuum bottles.
“No just hot water… It is not meant to be drink but…” I took out the hoses and two 3D printed connectors between the hose and the bottle, with a long tube going into it. “Inhaled.”
“A hot bubbler bottle?” She exclaimed. “Miss Yogomu recently did a promotion for it! Must have been expensive.”
“The connector was… I just bought two regular vacuum bottles.” I looked inside to see if the water was still warm, steam coming out of it.
“So, this is the surprise?”
“Not… exactly…” I corrected her, still biting my tongue to not spill her the actual one. “You will see when we get there.”
“’When we get there… When we get there…’” Tomika grumbled as she put on her hood and her gas mask. “You have been telling me ever since we left my house.”
“You will love it! I promised you.” I promised her, as I plug in the hose with the bubbler bottle, strapping it with a belt around her coat.
“It better be something good… Ah… Feels like I am in a hot bath…” She enjoyed the warm air filling her lungs, while I put on my hood, gas mask and bottle as well, and took a deep breath.
My lungs were filled with air the water had warmed, feeling rather comfortable, considering how cold it was outside.
“Are you ready?” I asked her gently, both of us pulling our coat’s hood as much over our now covered faces as possible, the heated water bubbling with each breath.
“Ready… As can be…” She took a deep breath, and opened the door with her rubber gloved hand, peeking outside to see if there was anyone there.
It was frigid still, even with the warm air warming us up, each exhale causing a puff of steam to escape from the other valve of our mask.
“Just… follow my lead…” I waved Tomika to me, who hooked her arm in mine, as if she hoped the closeness would lead to me warming her up. We both made a run to an alleyway, where less people would see us.
“You know where we are going?”
“Yes…” I grabbed my phone to check the route to the restaurant again. With only one exception we could get there by using the maze of tiny streets and alleys zig zagging across the downtown without much problem.
I only noticed when we were midway that the wind had begun to pick up, only slightly at first, snowflakes gently landing on our visors, yet more and more the snowstorm grew stronger, even in the tight alleys, protected from the worst of it, could we feel the drop in temperature.
Yet the biggest hurdle was in front of us: The crossing with the main street, engulfed in what was almost a blizzard.
I waved to Tomika, that we just needed to walk forward, with her standing behind, breathing and jittering from the cold.
I grabbed her, trying my best to shield her from the wind, our coat hoods flying off and revealing our heads, were it not for the thick white hiding us from the other unfortunate pedestrians caught out by the storm.
We stumbled over to the other side and through the passageway until we found a less wind-stricken spot where we could rest for a bit, clinging tightly to each other, while steam leaked from our masks.
“Is it…” Tomika was exhausted and cold. “Is it far?”
“Not much just a bit…” I tried to underplay just how cold my legs felt right now, not to mention the rest of my body, barely insulated by the coat, with the rubber not keeping any warmth at all. We might as well have walked naked through the street. “Only a few more turns…”
“Ok…” Tomika loosened herself from me and we started walking again, so that our legs wouldn’t freeze solid. “Just a … bit more…”

The owner and the only waitress of the restaurant, though more like a small bar, stared at us, when we entered the restaurant and removed our coats, with us at first more focused on getting warmed up again.
“Ehem…” The owner cleared his throat. “Did you two reserve for tonight?”
“Y…yes… Under the names…” I stammered as I removed my mask, feeling very awkward. This must be the first time I spoke to anyone else like this except Tomika, or my mom that one time. “Ru-kun and Mi-chan…”
“Alright…” He, however, didn’t even make a comment about how we looked, merely checking a list. “Please take a seat over there…” He pointed to an alcove nestled in a corner of his small establishment.
As we sat down, Tomika having removed her mask as well, with us putting them next to where we sat, the waitress took our orders.
“Wow… So many options with chicken…” Tomika looked over the menu.
“SFC is filled at this tonight… With lots of people who couldn’t reserve there…” She shrugged, after we told her what we wanted to drink. “Take your time with your food…”
“One question:” Tomika spoke up, blushing still. “Why are you so… relaxed with us coming in like… this.”
“Oh, the gimp suit? Eh, one of our regulars wears it. Should’ve heard how the boss cussed her out at first for scaring away customers… But she pays well… Often brings others like her… Not to mention…” She smirked. “The boss did come to like her for the eyecandy…”
“Regular… Hmm…” Tomika puzzled. “This place does seem familiar… Didn’t I see it before?”
“Speaking of the devil…” We could hear the waitress mutter as the door opened. “Are these two part of your group?!”
“You could say so, darling…” A sultry, female voice answered her.
“Wait… That isn’t…” Tomika immediately recognized it, with the owner quickly finding her way over to us and sitting down. “M…Miss Yogomu?”
“In the flesh…” She giggled. “Well, rubber to be precise…”
“But how? Why?” Tomika was speechless.
“You ought to thank your boyfriend. He convinced me to meet you two today…”
“You really…?” Tomika stammered looking at me with sparkling eyes, before hugging me eagerly. “You are the bestest boyfriend I could wish for!!!”
“No… problem…” I rubbed her back, with her only slowly letting go of me.
“And besides…” Miss Yogomu sighed. “With my husband being trapped in his company’s Christmas party… I didn’t have anything better to do tonight anyway.”
“Still… Thank you for giving us your time…” Tomika bowed to her. “It is such an honor to meet you!”
“The honor is all mine. Chika showed me your account…” She pulled out her phone. “You two are lovely…”
“I mean…” Tomika shuffled around quietly after such a “We only did pictures where very amateurish. Compared to the quality you put out…”
“Let me tell you something: Some of the best latex images I have seen in recent times are from amateurs. People like you.”
“Are you serious?”
“Dead serious…” Yogomu smiled at her. “Pictures like yours are full of passion and love for rubber and bravery to put yourself out there, compared to models who only do it because they heard there is a demand from a niche audience, who look bitchy into the camera and remove it as soon as possible, sometimes during the shoot…”
“And the worst tag their pictures as latex… Only for it to turn out to be some other material like PVC or Spandex…” Tomika egged her on.
“Oh, don’t get me started…” Yogomu groaned. “The number of times where I had to tell someone, over and over again, that what they wore is NOT latex, only for them to try and weasel their way out.”
“’What is your problem? It is shiny. It is tight. No need to be so uptight!’” Tomika put on a mocking high-pitched voice.
“It is about the principle!” Yogomu laughed as she mocked these people. Why did I feel with the two, even though I probably had much less investment in the whole thing. “Latex is latex. And no matter how much you bitch and moan, your pictures of PVC, no matter how much you wanna convince me. Are. Not. Latex!”
“Ha…” I laughed, as I realized why. “Hahahaha!”
“What’s so funny?” Yogomu eyed me with a frown.
“Nothing… It is just…” I slowly caught myself again. “Tomika? Is this how I sound like that when I talk about literature?”
“Pff…” Tomika busted out laughing as well. “Maybe… It does sound elitist…”
“Well…” Yogomu was laughing at it as well. “You need to set some kind of rules or next thing we know; we will be seeing wet nylon stockings tagged as latex.”
“You are one to talk about purity…” I raised my eyebrows.
“Sigh, I know, but you got to draw a line somewhere… Otherwise it’ll just…”
“Get flooded by people who come in and the first thing they tell you that they don’t like how things are done, and everything needs to change to accommodate them?” Tomika completed Yogomu’s sentence.
“Something like that… Now…” She looked at the waitress who walked over to us. “What do you want to eat? I can vouch for their fried chicken. Better than SFC…”
“Hmm… We will see about that…” Tomika nodded at the waitress, while I quickly looked through the menu one last time.

“And for you…” Miss Yogomu handed the waitress the money billed.
“Ah, that was really good.” Tomika slapped her stomach with a satisfying sound. “Loved chatting with you!”
“As did I.” Yogomu cleaned the angles of her mouth. “Now then… How about we head home? I live just down the main street.”
“Oh, that sounds great! Is it on the same side of the street?”
“No, why do you ask?”
“We will need to cross from one alleyway to the other side then. Especially now that the storm has cleared up.”
“Alleyway? We are just walking down the street.” Yogomu’s statement left us both shocked, while she already strapped her mask on. “How else did you get here?”
“We… tried to stay out of sight as much as we could…” I explained to her. “The storm certainly helped.”
“And nobody saw you? What a shame!” She shook her head. “I thought I had myself very clear in my condition.”
“Condition?” Tomika turned to me.
“She would meet us if we wear latex in public.”
“But we did…”
“Hiding away, beneath a coat at that…” Yogomu lowered her voice. “You need to show the world how amazing you look in latex. Same goes for you young man…”
“But what about people seeing us?”
“Then let them look. Especially on such a beautifully snowy night.”
“How long is it?” Tomika sighed, weary, but also… excited, as we put on our masks and coats.
“About 5 minutes… Wait, are you really going to wear coats again?”
“Warmth. It is cold out there.” I replied.
“Tsk. Tsk. How can you call yourself rubber fetishists if you aren’t willing to endure a little cold.”
“It is below 0 out there. “Don’t tell me you walked out there in the snowstorm.” I told her, to which she just stared at me, while adjusting the bottle on her hip before connecting it.
“Yes.” She turned to the owner who handed her our vacuum bottles, freshly filled with hot water.
Before we knew it, Yogomu had strapped the bottles on our hips as well and connected them.
“We cannot go out like this!” I protested while she took our coats and pressed them into the bag we brought.
“You can…” She flung the bag over her shoulder, walked behind us, grabbing us by the shoulders. “All you need… is a little push.”
“Merry Christmas…” We heard the waitress call, when we felt the biting cold as if we were naked.
We were outside, the snow contrasting sharply against our shiny, black suited bodies.
“Aah! So… cold…” Tomika breathed in and out.
“It’ll get warmer when you keep moving.” She patted us on our shoulders and walked ahead of us. “One foot in front of the other…”
Slowly we recovered from our shock, with Tomika clinging tightly to my arm while we followed this crazy woman through the white, illuminated street.
“R…Ru…kun…” I couldn’t decipher whether Tomika was shivering or merely taking breaths from the bottle. “People… are… looking… at us…”
I nodded, preferring to look ahead and not draw more attention to us than we already did. Miss Yogomu, however, was completely unfazed by our situation, prancing about like she owned the place.
“Come on darlings…” She looked over her shoulder, her hand waving at us from below her waist. “Chin up! You are two beautiful creatures on a beautiful night!”
“You are one to talk…” The air I breathed might have been warm, but the cold was still chilling. Nevertheless, I tried to walk with my back straight, helping Tomika by putting my arm around her waist. “Keep going forward, Tomika… Let them look if they want to…”
“Are you… not…nervous?” Tomika kept holding on to me, looking down at my hand holding her. Jittering. Clouds of steam puffing up from her free gas mask valve.
“I am. But right now… Let’s just follow her… somewhere… warm…”
I swore that I could see that woman smile beneath her gasmask as she stole glances at us, while we walked all the way to the apartment complex where she lived.

“Aah… Warmth!” Tomika immediately saw the kotatsu in Miss Yogomu’s apartment as soon as we came, climbing under it with only her head peeking out. “Brrr… My legs were freezing.”
“Miss Yogomu…” I too put my legs beneath it, as did the woman who owned it. “What if someone did not JUST look?”
“Everyone just looked.” Miss Yogomu smiled, as she removed her gasmask and peeled a tangerine from the bowl. “Besides, it is Christmas. People got better things to do tonight then get up other peoples’ arse.”
“Pretty dicey of you to bet on normie inertia…”
“Normie in-what?” Tomika crawled out from the kotatsu to take a tangerine as well.
“I read about it online, more as a concept… Most people are too busy with life to do extreme things, like attacking people they don’t like or starting a revolution, unless the situation is really dire or affects them personally.”
“I really would like to take part in your uprising, but I got an appointment at 6.” Yogomu joked. “A more general term might be status quo inertia though.”
“Fair enough. The same essay also mentioned a more extreme form of it, where the inertia is so strong that even terrible conditions don’t cause unrest.”
“Man, we are here for latex not philosophical discussion.” Tomika pouted.
“I know… It is just that I don’t get to flaunt my degree in philosophy every day. However,…” Yogomu got up from the kotatsu and Rummaged through a drawer, taking out a key. “Now that you are warmed up again, I’d say you earned your reward.”
“And what would that be?” Tomika cocked her head, still under the kotatsu.
“Access to our playroom.”
“You don’t mean…” She sprang up in and instant, following her, with me close behind.
She led us to a locked door, opened it and let us enter.
“This is. So. AWSOME!” Tomika squealed, as we entered the room filled with all kinds of restraints, gas masks and other kinds of erotic toys, more than even my parents had.
“Like a child in the toy store…”
“Well, they are toys.” Yogomu commented back. “Just not children’s playthings.”
For a few minutes we let Tomika explore the room, with her leaving no stone unturned, until she finally had enough of just seeing them. “And we can really use it?”
Miss Yogomu nodded.
“Really?”
“You have fulfilled your end of the bargain. Although… May I ask you both something?”
“Sure.”
“Which one of you is the dominant one?”
“Eh…?” I looked at Tomika who was equally at a loss for words.
“We… aren’t really set on that?”
“Oh, good to hear…” Yogomu sighed in relief. “I almost feared that both of you were bottoms. Or worse, tops… Like me and my sister…”
“Bottom? You mean… The passive part? The one who gets penetrated?”
“Not exactly… You can be penetrated and be dominant at once. It is more about who is in control. But how do you decide who takes what role?”
“Eh… I dunno… Usually it just comes as it comes…” Tomika scratched her head at this strange conundrum we found ourselves in. “How about we throw a coin?”
It was efficient but… How to put it? If this were a story there would be no thrill or drame to it. Just random chance, and whoever the author favors more.
“That is not very exciting at all…” Yogomu complained as well. “I’ll leave you to it then…”
As I puzzled how to decide in a less random fashion, I recalled how I first met Tomika, when we were not even in preschool, our parents bringing us to a playground.
“Mi-chan, do you remember how we first met? We scuffled over some shovel in the sandbox.”
“I remember, I wanted to build something with it, and you tried to wrestle it back from me, with no luck. Our parents were really mad at us.” Tomika smirked with only her eyes. “Do you want a rematch, now that I am your girlfriend?”
“A erotic wrestling to decide who tops, hmmm…” Yogomu murmured in the background, having regained interest. “Give me a few minutes. I’ll prepare everything…”

We both stood, rebreathers hanging from our gasmask loose and still open on the other end, the other valve blocked, with our restraints of choice for our opponent at the ready: Tomika mainly choosing cuffs and chains, while I choose something looking like opera gloves, though heavier and ending in mittens, as well as some belts and straps.
Yogomu already had a camera prepared and filming, serving as the referee for the match.
“Remember the rules… The first one to be immobilized or to become too tired or to remove their rebreather on their own loses and becomes the others submissive plaything for the evening.”
We both nodded.
“Ready? Set!” We both took one final breath and plugged up our rebreather bags. “Go!”
Tomika immediately tackled me trying to place the cuffs on my legs, with only one leg getting chained, the other cuff dangling about while Tomika got ready to pounce again, with me barely jumping away, only holding the belt.
“Hah!” Tomika at last grappled me and locked my legs together, although I could still walk. She looked at me cocksure she was winning.
I could not beat her. At least not head on. She next tried to grab my arms and cuff them too, with me avoiding her, barely dodging out of the way.
“OLÉ!” Yogomu shouted as I barely avoided Tomika’s charge, her huffing like a bull.
Again, I dodged her grapple, though I could feel my air becoming staler. But hers would likely be too, and unlike I who focused on only moving as much as I needed, not even trying to attack, but staying on the defensive.
Over and over, she charged at me, with her bags inflating ever more irregularly, until…
“Argh…” Tomika slipped and fell on the floor, gasping for air as she tried to get up. Yet before she could, I made my move, pressing her to the floor and taking the belt to tie her legs together.
While she was able to push me off, she was clearly struggling to breathe and untie the belt at once.
I quickly walked over to the long mittens and pulled one of them over her free hand. Tomika tried to lash out at me, but only fell on her back, continuing to gasp.
I took my chance and slipped the other glove over her free arm and zipped both of them up, my head starting to spin.
At last, with the mighty beast squirming about, I took the straps, wrapped it around the mittens’ hooks and pulled them down in front of her, the fake breasts of her catsuit squeezed between her arms and tied them to the belt around her legs.
She writhed around for a while, one last act of futile resistance before she slumped down and I removed the plug on her rebreather before I opened mine, both of us taking in fresh air.
“Sh…Shit… How… how did you… get me…?” Tomika was clearly out of breath.
“And the winner is: Ru-kun. And your price is…” Yogomu announced, walking over to Tomika, loosening some of the belts and straps I put on her. “One submissive Mi-chan!”
“Yogomu… I think you are a bit overdramatic…” I rolled my eyes, still a bit winded.
“No… She is right…” Tomika told me while Yogomu took her still restrained mittens and tied them to a pole above her head, pulling her up until she could barely stand on her toes. “I am your plaything… for this evening…”
“But I organized this for you; Tomika.” I removed her gasmask so she could breathe freely.
“Doesn’t mean the plaything can’t have wishes of its own…” Yogomu commented as she walked out. “I’ll leave you to it. Just come to me if you need help, Enjoy your Christmas session…”
And so, we were left alone in a room whose entire purpose was the enjoyment of the erotic.
“What now? Any wishes?” I shrugged as she dangled about.
“Hmm…” Tomika swayed left and right, looking around. “Oh, I got something! But you need to loosen the rope first.”
She wrestled her mittens around, with me loosening the rope, allowing her to stand firmly on the ground again.
“Now take that rope and tie the two mittens together behind my back. Each arm to the opposite side.”
“Alright, but what do you…” I led her arms around and tied the rope, only then realizing what she was getting at. Even with my limited knowledge I knew what her idea now had been. “A straitjacket.”
It accentuated her catsuit’s breasts nicely, the arms framing them.
“Hnng… Ah…” She tested the strength of my knots. “Good job, ain’t no way I am getting out of this. Now let’s see…”
She was already trying to add more to it, looking at the shelf with the gear on display, kept immaculately clean.
“Oh… That gasmask…”
“What do you mean? Yours?”
“No, on the rack…” She walked over to a couple of gasmasks hanging off a rack, knocking her head against one of them. “Yogomu once used this one. I wanna try it.”
“Very well…” I took it off, noticing the protrusion at the mouthpiece, as well as a couple of other gasmask hanging from the rack looking like a wolf’s face and with a chuckle placed the one I took on her face.
“Bound and gagged.” I fell down on the bed of the two, its frame made of metal pipes, likely handy in tying some poor fool up. “Is that what you wanted?”
“Mmpf!” Tomika nodded eagerly, walking up to me, kneeling down and…
“Mmpf…” Rummaging around between my legs.
“What are you doing? You are not able to do it with that on.”
“Hmpf.” She pulled her head away from my crotch and put it into my right hand.
“Do you want me to touch it or… wait a minute…” As I fondled the snout of her gas mask, I noticed it was loose and moveable. I remembered a dream from half a year ago…
“Don’t tell me…” I slowly screwed out the gag and removed it.
A gas mask with a hole leading right to her mouth.
I put my finger inside it, and upon rubbing the viscous innards of the patted innards of the gas mask together, likely Tomika’s saliva.
“I am thirsty…” Tomika mumbled from within, putting her chin back between my legs. “Can you give me something to drink… master?”
“Can I?” I laughed lowly, my right hand moving around her body, the other fondling the soft inside of the gasmask. “The real questions are…”
I removed my left hand and placed it on my crotch zipper…
“Am I willing and more importantly…”
And slowly pulled it down.
“Do you get more than you wished for?”

“My, my, my…” Yogomu had come knocking, with us two laying exhausted on the bedroom. “You have been busy, haven’t you?”
“You could say that.” I told her as I cuddled a Tomika, with no restraints or gasmask, but very much plugged up, head and bottom, dozing off.
“Mittens, bitch suit, straps, belts, gags…” She looked around the room, littered with all the things we used. “You are one greedy sub, aren’t you Mi-chan?”
“Hmm?” Tomika was exhausted after two hours of us… using all of this for our pleasure.
“Perhaps she needs a bit of a wakeup…” Yogomu gazed at the pumps dangling between her legs, grabbing one of them and gave it a few good squeezes.
“MMMPF! MMMPF!” Tomika moaned, finally waking up.
“Finally awake?” Tomika nodded rapidly once Yogomu let go of the pump. “wait that gag isn’t that…?”
Tomika loosened the gags straps around her head, the gag popping off a bit, although the majority of it was still down in her mouth and throat.
She tilted her head upwards, grabbing the end of it and slowly and with much gagging pulled it out.
“Buah…” Her mouth lay agape, with her holding the gag triumphantly. “Sword swallowing’s lewd cousin…”
It had me worried when she had shoved it in at first, until I noticed that once in, her belly still rose and fell as normally.
“I remember that one…” Yogomu smiled, while she took it off Tomika, wiping off the saliva. “I used it on Tarou during one shoot.”
“’Tarou gets a new chewing toy.’” Tomika retorted. “I just had to try it myself…”
“A bit dangerous for a first time though, don’t you think?” We were surprised when we heard a male voice from behind the door, with its owner coming in behind Yogomu and kissing her.
“Speaking of the devil…”
“Wait, didn’t you tell us that he is on a company party?”
“Was…” He corrected me, and pulled off his shirt, revealing his chiseled physique. “The boss drank too much and had to be brought to the hospital and the rest of us left. Which means… I can actually have fun, instead of pretending to have it.”
“And your idea of fun is…?” I asked him.
“Why…” Yogomu hugged him from behind, having to go on her toes to reach his head level. “Being his wife’s and mistress’ loyal and cuddly dog of course.”
The fact that he was submissive even though he could easily lift her, not to mention cruder act he could do with ease to her, was on the surface very absurd.
“Although… You do need to be pushed on a leash from time to time…” She grabbed him by the throat.
“I am but an animal, with desires I cannot control.” He responded, turning around and deadlifted her without much effort, making her scream, though not in panic. They both laughed and he let her down steadily again. “I would like to get into my pelt first…”
“Oh right… eh…” The room was a mess from our session. “I should probably clean up first.”
“Hmm… Mi-chan. You still got something in there.” Yogomu walked up to Tomika pointing to the pumps between her legs. “I’d say we go into the main room so I can pull it out.”
“What about Ru-kun?” Tomika almost turned to me, but Yogomu escorted her out.
“Eh…”
“I think the boys need some alone time.” Yogomu looked back through the door and waved. “Don’t worry, young man, he is very tame.”
And so, it was just me and Yogomu’s husband in the room, who had already taken out a gleaming white catsuit from a closet in the room.
“I’ll just… turn around…” He cleared his throat after we stared at each other blankly.
“Same. I just clean up after us here.” There were enough items lying around to keep my attention elsewhere, while he, from what I could here was busy getting changed.
Yet at times I couldn’t help but glance at his muscular body, likely taking a lot of effort, disappearing beneath a seamless surface.
“Kinda counterproductive, that rubber hides your muscles. Must have taken quite the effort…”
“haha… Oh don’t worry about that. A wolf’s muscles are hidden by his fur anyway. Ehm… Could you help me?”
“Sure…” I put the last items on the shelves, hopefully where they ought to be, hanging up the gas mask Tomika tried on the rack after cleaning out the white grime.
“How long have you been into rubber?” He asked me while I helped him pull the neck entry suit over his shoulders.
“A few months… Tomika was the one who introduced me, probably very uncommon.”
“You could say that…” He snaked his arms through the sleeves.
“Not to mention…”
“Not to mention what?”
“Like I said…” I held my tongue. “Men really don’t look as good as women… It just looks to soft.”
“Well, I had many people make me compliments…” He chuckled. “Mostly men though…”
“That is what I was getting at.” The seal closed around his neck with him pushing out any air pockets.
“Right, of course…” He picked up an already opened bottle of silicone oil again and polished himself with it. “You just got to stand firm about what you want and not get pushed around.”
“Did you get approached by men?”
“Oh, tons… But I told them where my interests were. As scrawny as I was back then, I still felt I had to stand by who I am, even if push comes to shove. Besides… I wasn’t the only dog at that party… And there were a bunch of women as well…”
“Yogomu included.”
“Yes…” He smiled, his hands resting. “To think a woman as graceful as Kiyomu decided to adopt a pup like me.”
“’Adpopted’? I don’t want to step on your tail, but it sounds… creepy.” I assumed that Kiyomu was likely Yogomu’s actual name.
“Well, not in that way… We played around, got talking, hit each other up again and again over the months until we… started committing to each other in earnest.”
“You fell in love.” I stated, as he began polishing himself.
“Yes, very much so… Could you do me a favor and rub the back parts I usually let her do it.”
“Sure…” I squirted out a bit of the oil and rubbed it on his back. Beneath the rubber I could still feel solid muscles. “You said you were scrawny… When did you get so… jacked?”
“It was after we got together. I started hitting the gym because…” He laughed at himself. “Because I felt I needed to be more to deserve someone like her. After a while she started noticing it and when I told her, she came with me regularly and started hyping me up and kept me pushing onwards with compliments.”
“A woman was nice to you? That is your explanation?”
“You probably know this already but…” I finished rubbing his back just as he pondered his next words. “A woman’s earnest praise can set the heart of men on fire. Give you purpose…”
At first, I wanted to respond by calling him out as overly romantic, yet as I recalled my time with Tomika, especially the last year, I could only feel his words ring true.
“I guess it is kind of true… If Tomika wasn’t there, I probably would have kept to my books…”
“Whatcha reading?”
“Nothing interesting probably… History, politics, anthropology, philosophy…”
“Oh, Kiyomu got tones of books like that…”
“Any you like?”
“A few… But work keeps me busy and when I am home, I just want to…”
“Be coddled by her while you both wear latex?”
“Hey, you can read my mind, too?”
“Doesn’t take a psychic to figure that out.”
“Speaking of which…” He had just pulled on his hood, after he had done so with his socks and gloves, when he knocked on the door, picking up a peculiar, white, gasmask from the rack.
“Kiyomu? Are you done?”
“One moment…” It came from the other side, with our two women appearing shortly after, Yogomu holding two deflated, dangling plugs, while Tomika scratched herself on her backside. “Again, Mi-chan. You should not inflate them so much.”
“Soooorry….” Tomika rolled her eyes, then gazed wide eyed at Yogomu’s husband in the white suit. “You are bigger in real life then I could imagine, Tarou.”
“Hahaha…” He laughed heartily. “I am a hound, after all.”
“My hound…” Yogomu approached him, taking the gasmask of his hands and putting it on his face. “With such smooth beautiful, white fur…”
“mmmh…” He touched her nose with his snoot. “To think we finally have the chance to spend christmas in latex together…”
“Yes, although… Not alone…” She eyed me and Tomika.
“If you need some alone time fair enough… We will be on our way…” Tomika bowed apologetically and politely.
“I didn’t say any of that.” Yogomu giggled. “In fact… We’d love some company… What do you say, Tarou?”
“As long as you and the boy don’t fill our ears with philosophical discussions…” He laughed, as did Tomika.
“Fair enough… I will try.” I rolled my eyes.
“Don’t worry, dear buddy, if it comes to that it’ll probably be interesting listening to you two argue over such things…” Tomika came close to my ear. “While being all shiny and tight.”
“Should I get us all something to drink?” Tarou pointed to the door.
“How sweet of you… But first…” Yogomu walked over, pulling a series of connected black straps, which she pulled over his body and secured. “Your harness…”
And attached to it was a leash, with which she led him to the bed, where he was pushed down, his hands and feet being tied to the frame.
“Are you not thirsty?” Tarou giggled as Yogomu climbed on top of his body, snuggling up to him enjoying every bit of him for her to access at her leisure, while he tried to get free without avail.
“I am…” Yogomu stared into his eyes. “I have not had my daily dosis of my sweet lovable pup all day!”
“Ok… We should definitely leave you two alone…” I laughed, while Tomika sat herself on a chair in the room.
“Oh no, please stay!” Yogomu responded politely. “I would love to have a live audience. Not to mention…”
She now was completely on top of him, her whole weight resting on his body.
“Perhaps we can teach you two a thing or two about making your future times in latex even more exciting.”

I would not forget this night so soon, I thought, as Tomika and I sat, heads resting against each other in the rail cart, swaying sidewards as it moved.
Tomika, for the first time in her life, could talk about rubber with like-minded people, as did I with her as well, though about less erotic topics like anthropology and mainly how there is what I have seen described as a ‘Shadow of History’, where no written record exist, but one can see its echoes in genes, myths and artifacts.
But most of the evening was filled with bondage, and both of them teaching us how to tie each other up.
I still remember Tomika’s firm, yet gentle touch as wriggled helplessly against the restraints she, with Yogomu’s help put on me, but also how cute she looked, when she was wrapped up like a present.
“E…excuse me?” A station attendant stood before us, shaking us out of our nap, visibly confused. “This is the last station… You… need to leave the train…”
“Oh…” It took me a bit to awaken enough to realize my surroundings and the fact that Tomika and I were still in full gear, with our coats being half open. “One moment… Tomika… We have to go…”
“Hrrrm… Just a bit more…” Tomika growled, until she opened her eyes.
“D…do you need help?” The attendant put on her best smile, despite the awkward situation.
“We are fine…” I nodded towards her, picked up Tomika under her shoulder, with us two walking out of the cart and into the pitch-black night.
“Merry Christmas…” I waved back at her as we stepped on the empty station, coated in a layer of snow.
It was serene, us two, black as the night, walking through white streets devoid of life, snow gently falling upon us. I barely recognized our neighborhood through my gas mask’s visor.
“Tomika…” I shook her up. “I think your house is closer.”
“Soundsfine… Justwannasleep…” She mumbled, exhausted from the day, both the walking and the action in Yogomu’s and Tarou’s playroom.
We trudged through the thick layer of snow, the cold biting into us, when we finally reached Tomika’s house, lightless, with her parents also spending Christmas out and about.
I nudged Tomika, until she managed to produce the key, turning it slowly and us warming into her warm home.
“Ah!” As soon as we came in, I pulled off my gasmask and rubbed my weary eyes. “I’d say we better get out of this and… Tomika?”
Tomika also removed her mask, put it down on a table, walked over to the couch and let herself fall on it.
“Tomika?” I rattled her.
“Too tired…” She mumbled; her eyes closed. “Wake me up in an hour or two…”
Even after shaking her more, Tomika had already fallen asleep, breathing slowly.
“Uah!” I yawned. Perhaps Tomika was right, I thought, my eyes feeling so at ease when closed. I took a blanket and a couple of pillows from the other couch in the living room, putting the pillows beneath her head, cuddling up to her and pulling the blanket over us.
“Good night, Tomika…” I kissed her on the lips, to which she smiled back. “I will wake you up in a bit… Just an hour or two…”
I closed my eyes, with only the soft noise of air moving in and out of our bodies being audible, as well as the creaking of rubber.
“A bit of rest…” I told myself. “Then we will be up again…”

When I woke up, I found myself in Tomika’s bed. Alone. As I rubbed my eyes out, I also noticed I wasn’t wearing gloves, or a hood. Only the catsuit and socks remained on my body, with the hoods and gloves folded on a chair. And I could smell… food.
“Tomika?” I shouted, with a pair of footsteps coming up.
“Morning, buddy!” Tomika greeted me, wearing the exact same outfit as me, only with a shirt over her catsuit. “Mom made breakfast, you better come down before it is all down.”
“Ah, that sounds… Wait, what your parents? What about… you know.”
“It’s fine. She made breakfast, and you are probably starving from all the stuff we did last night.” She kissed me, then left downstairs. I got up, picked up my shirt I had left here yesterday and mentally prepared myself to face Tomika’s parents as I walked down.
“Morning…” Said parents were currently sitting around the kitchen table with Tomika in her shirt-latex combination, sipping coffee and eating breakfast as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
“M…morning…” I stammered, with Tomika pushing a plate towards me.
After a while of silence her father broke the silence.
“You two must have one hell of a night, considering we found you sleeping on your couch. Gave us quite the shock when we came home.”
“Did you carry us upstairs?” I asked after swallowing my bite.
“Yes… Considering we don’t know about… that. We only removed the…”
“Hood.” Tomika helped her father.
“Your hoods and your gloves… You slept like babes all the way through.”
“Thank you… I guess.” I cleared my throat from the awkwardness. “And yes, we did have a wonderful night.”
“Good to hear.” Tomika’s mom sighed.
“What about you two?” Tomika asked her mother. “How was your Christmas?”
“Oh, you know… The usual couple things… Going out on a date… Eating good food… Having fun…”
“At a love hotel?” Tomika couldn’t help but giggle upon seeing her mother’s priceless reaction.
“Well… ehm… We were at many places yesterday evening…”
“Can I expect a sibling in 9 months?” Tomika kept on giggling.
“That’s it…” Her mother was deep red, as was her father. “Once you are done, you two go to the bathroom and change to something normal.”
“Alright mom…” Tomika rolled her eyes.
She was stern, yet not overly harsh, despite the embarrassment Tomika had just caused her.
“You first…” I let Tomika into the bathroom, closing it behind her. And leaned against the door.
What a crazy night it had been. Yet for all the trouble it had caused, it was very fun and exciting. And with Yogomu and Tarou giving us their numbers, former asking me if we could exchange interesting articles and topics, while latter offered me to take me to the gym, we had become fast friends during the night.
Perhaps Tomika and I would have a relationship much like theirs, though probably without the weird fixation on dogs they had.
As I walked over to grab my regular clothes I noticed a message on my phone from my father.
D: How was your night? We had a lot of catching up to do with Konata and her lover.
H: Great, honestly. How is Konata’s lover?
D: Hibiki is a great match for her honestly.
D: Btw. I got something to confess to you…
H: What is it?
D: Yesterday we got a BIT drunk, and we may have spilled more then just you and Tomika having gotten together
My heart stopped at what my dad was implying. My parents knowing about it was already weird enough, but my sister… She would never let it go.
H: what did you tell her?
D: From what I remember just the gist… rubber and so on… You can explain it to her when she and Hibiki come to visit during the New Year.
H: I will…
I put down the phone and took a deep breath.
“Is something buddy?” Tomika asked me, walking out of the bathroom with a towel around her body, holding the rubber clothes over her arm.
“Nothing…” I messaged my face, only able to imagine what a pain in the neck she would be. “Only the fact that we not only have do I have to worry about exams, but also my big sister being home and teasing me nonstop… After years of her tricking me into watching obscene videos.”

Chapter XI - Graduation from life’s prolog

With the year’s turn, is a time where past and future are closer then ever and Haruto is faced with many oddities:
His sister behaves strangely reserved when she visits them together with someone else, his relationship with Tomika is going well, although not as fiery as before.
Not to mention both of them are facing their final high school exams.
As the prolog of life comes to a close, he must choose wisely to make sure that his relationship with Tomika withstands the cruel teeth of time.

Second to last chapter, next one will be the final one.
I have also had the idea to team up with an artist to adapt this story into a more visual form, like a light novel or a comic. But alas I am terrible at communication.
Nevertheless, I am hereby asking if anyone with art skills would want to work on such a project with me.

I stepped backwards after ringing the temple bell six times, all of us clapping our hands and making our New Years prayer together, me, Tomika, my parents.
And my sister Konata and her new girlfriend, Hibiki.
“What did you wish for?” Tomika nudged me.
“You aren’t supposed to tell…” I muttered back, waiting for a moment for my big sister to make some snide remark. Yet none came, looking sideways I could see her taking a glance at me then looking straight forward.
“I am thanking the gods for my girlfriend’s family being so nice!” Hibiki blurted out.
“Biki…” Konata sighed.
“What? You got whacky parents, an adventurous little brother and his girlfriend. What’s not to like?”
“It is just…” Konata was annoyed by the question but tried not to show it. “You aren’t supposed to tell others.”
For the rest of our New Year’s visit Konata stayed awfully quiet, even during the drawing of our predictions, where she had previously done everything to peek into mine, now she just stayed put and didn’t even bother trying to bother me.
Eventually last year’s night came to pass, with onlookers staring eagerly at the year’s first sunrise, with our family sitting together, me next to my sister, while Tomika and Hibiki were already getting chummy.
“So…” I shifted around. “Are you looking forward to the next year, big sister?”
“Yeah…” She said after a long while, with an even voice, no hint of her trying to tease me or show me something obscene ‘to finally get me into my puberty’. “What about you? Exams’ coming up…”
“Oh, don’t remind me…” I sighed.
While I did consider myself a good student, the prediction I got, despite knowing that it was likely just random chance, left me worried:
“Uncertain. There is an uneasy balance, choose wisely and the rest of your life will go smoothly, unwisely and the things you worked hard for will fall apart.”

For the next months, Tomika and I learnt, nearly nonstop. As soon as we came back from school, we went up to either of our rooms together, sat down, and hit the books, day after day, week after week.
It was after one of those sessions, when Tomika went home after dinner with us, Konata and Hibiki staying with us until they could find a new apartment, when a thought crossed my mind.
We didn’t sleep together since Christmas.
In fact, we didn’t do any particularly lewd or obscene since then, having been too busy with hitting the books and cramming the contents of the test into our brains.
Perhaps we had done it so much in Yogomu and Tarou’s room, we had simply… spent ourselves? As strange as that sounds…
“Hey… brother!” I felt a slap on my back, and while the tone sounded like my big sister, when I turned around, I saw her girlfriend staring at me. “Something troubling you?”
“Nothing…” I rolled my eyes and walked past my sister’s room, where the two had stayed for a month already, while looking for a new apartment. “Just… you know… educational troubles… final exams are coming up.”
“Really?” I could hear Konata from her old room, looking up from her laptop. “I thought you always prided yourself how smart and clever you are? Or did you get a bad omen on New Years and are now panicking over it and cram books over it?”
“Zip it, Konata!” I bit back.
“So much for your precious books…”
“Hmm, I don’t think it is the bad omen…” Hibiki pondered. “You and your girlfriend… Mika…”
“Tomika.” I corrected her.
“Did you two have sex recently?”
“BIKI!” Konata ran out of her room and stretched her mouth angles. “Could you please not!?”
“I juu… waaa’et eh hel’ ” She struggled against my sister’s grip, with her eventually relenting. “Besides, didn’t you tell me how he was ‘too well behaved’?”
“I…” Konata took a long, pained look at me and groaned. “know…”
“I just wanna help your little brother…” She patted Konata on the head.
“How sweet of you…” Konata blushed. “Ah, I know you are such a sweet roll… I think he is probably going to figure out by himself…”
“If you say so…” Hibiki rolled her eyes, then turned to me. “But if you wanna spice things up maybe you two should wear your gimp…”
“That’s it!” Konata grabbed Hibiki and shut the door behind them.
Seems like my sister and I have the same taste for women, but I didn’t grin just because of that.
“Konata…” I called through the door, as a way to get her back for all those times shot through my mind. “I would like to sleep early, so if you two don’t mind: Keep your moans down!”
“Okay!” I could Hibiki, although I already ran to my room, ready to lock it.
“HA!RU!TO!” Konata screamed and ran after me, wildly trying to get into my room, twisting the knob and slamming against the door.
All the while I rolled on the floor, laughing. After all those years I finally got back at her for all the times teasing her, just what I needed after a day of hitting books.
“Right…” I rubbed my eyes out.
For all my jesting, I really did need to go to bed early. School was tomorrow and me and Tomika still had a ton of stuff to get through.

Tarou: My gym has a special offer to bring friends along. Maybe you would like to come join me and Kiyomu?
Haruto: Would love to. But I got to study for exams
Tarou: Understandable. Don’t neglect your other needs though. Physical exercise can help clear the mind, besides other things… Tell me if you changed your mind
Haruto: I will…
Only later, under cringing did I realize what he meant with ‘other things’. Things for which neither I nor Tomika had time right now!

I could feel someone shaking me awake, my head resting on my desk, books and notes open.
“Shit… Did I fall asleep?”
“It is past midnight, son…” My father stood behind me. “Perhaps you should go to bed?”
“I still was just getting done with homework… Not to mention preparing for the exams… And helping Tomika…”
“Did something happen between you?” He sat himself down looking at me with concern.
“Nothing really…”
“Really? Because sounds like something happened.”
“Well…” I couldn’t help but think of the last month between us. “We just meet to learn… And that’s about it…”
“The problem is nothing indeed.” He stated firmly.
“We are busy with learning.” I repeated myself, crossing my arms.
“I know tough times and all, but you must not forget to tend to your relationship with her.”
“What do you mean by that? We have been together for so long…”
“A friend and a girlfriend are very different things…” He interrupted me. “Do you know how to make a campfire without a lighter?”
“No, what are you getting at?”
“A romantic relationship… Is like a campfire. It is hard to make one, although I guess for you lightning has struck at just the right place. However, a campfire eventually goes out if you do not tend to it. You will need to throw a few twigs or logs into it, once it stops blazing brightly and only simmers.”
An image of me and Tomika came to mind, sitting around a glowing campfire, throwing logs in it and chatting for hours, until at the end of it all, it died and left us in the dark.
“We will acclimate to each other, alright… But what do you mean by throwing logs and twigs into it?”
“Haruto… You still got a lot to learn about women…” He sighed. “Make her a compliment occasionally, give her some flowers, cook something for her, invite her out… Show that you appreciate her. Signs of affection.”
“Ah I get it!”
“Do you?”
“I… hope so… We have been so occupied with learning…”
“Learning, learning, learning…” My father cackled. “You should be the last person to be worried about not passing… Besides that, life isn’t going to be just grades and ranks.”
“But I will need to have good enough grades to be able to provide for her…” I spat out.
“Haruto…” My father said calmly. “In matters of love there is no ranking… You two don’t need to be the best for each other… You just need to be enough in the long term.”
“Sounds like a losing strategy…”
“It comes with time and routine… Speaking of experience…” He laughed. “I envy you… To get to fall in love with your childhood friend. But me and your mother have been through so much already.”
“And you didn’t grow cold to each other?”
“Still hot enough to sleep together on the regular…”
“DAD! I really didn’t need to hear that.”
“Sorry… Just slipped. Although you should agree on at least one set time in the month, just to keep things smooth.”
“You mean…Do you and mom have a similar thing?”
“Yes…”
“That explains why you always went in there on the last Saturday of the month…”
“Well, eh… hehe…” My father laughed sheepishly. “But seriously, agreeing on a locked in time makes things much easier then ‘whenever both feel like it’.”
“What if one or both… aren’t feeling it?”
“Well, I figure Tomika has enough material to get you both going…”
“Yes… She probably does. May I please go to bed now?”
“Of course, got my shift tomorrow as well.” My father stood up and went out of the room. “Remember: Show her your affection regularly on your own.”

I had come early from the club down to the pool with two boxes wrapped in a cloth, Tomika making her final rounds.
“That is Shimizu’s boyfriend?”
“Yes, they have been together since before high school.”
“A bit scrawny though… Wait are these…”
Tomika jumped from the pool and sat herself on the edge. “Whatcha got there?”
“I… ehem… I made us something to eat. Do you want some?” I untied the knot and gave her one of the bentos I made, although I asked mother constantly if I did anything wrong, especially when it came to timings.
“Do I?” She eagerly grabbed, after she had dried off her body, though her swimsuit still accentuated her figure. “Thanks for the lunch, buddy!”
“You are welcome…”
“What are you lookin’ at?” Tomika stared at me, making me realize I was staring at her and not eating my lunch.
“Ehm… It is just…” I poked around. “You look very beautiful when you are like this… In your bathing suit.”
“Aww…” She blushed slightly and moved closer to me. “How sweet of you, dear buddy!”
We both sat at the edge of the pool, eating our lunch. It felt nice… I even took off my shoes and socks and let my feet slip into the cold water.
“Ah that felt good…” Tomika rubbed her belly as she put her box aside. “After this it is back to learning?”
“About that… Tarou offered me to go to the gym… Would you like to come with me?”
“You? The gym?” Tomika giggled.
“Only really because he asked… Not going to do much I guess.” I looked away after Tomika teased.
“Hey, I didn’t mean it like that.” Tomika put her arm around me, her eyes capturing mine. “Of course I would love to come with you. Wasn’t in a gym for ages!”
“I will tell that we both come then?”
“Yep…” Tomika grinned and kissed me, causing the other female swim club members to chatter. “Don’t worry we are going to start slowly.”
“I am relieved …” My heart started pouncing when she said this.

“What are you looking for, brother?” My sister leaned on the door frame as I rummaged around my closet.
“My sports trunks…” I didn’t turn around, still trying to fish it out. “I am going to the gym…”
“You and gym? Hah!” Konata laughed, just like back in the day. “With whom?”
“Tomika and… some friends…” I’d rather not talk about Tarou and Kiyomu with my sister. “I looked everywhere but I cannot find them.”
“Because you never search properly!” Konata walked towards my closet, to be precise a compartment to the left of it, where in the past my parents hung up their old coats. Now however…
“Konata, do not open…” She opened it, revealing the contents to be none other than my rubber catsuit, a thin plastic back draped over it to keep the dust from it, with the other things in boxes at the bottom.
“I… guess you can find it on your own…” Konata’s reaction upon storming out of the room was filled with… disdain… no… I could not place it.
“Konata…” I ran after her after slamming the other closet shut, with only us being in the house, with our parents wishing to have a private talk with Hibiki, especially dad. “Why are you acting like this?”
“This is just… too much…”
“Too much?” I scoffed. “YOU were the one who showed me obscene videos like the one where a woman smokes a cigarette with her…”
“That has nothing to do with anything!” She retorted annoyed. “You were always so sickly well-behaved, never even as much as a perverse strain in your body…”
“Well, too bad! I guess you got your stupid wish!”
“Not like that…” She walked back from her previous statement.
“Like what then?”
“Like… Just a bit… And not as much as mom and dad…” She leaned against the wall.
“Right, that… Since when you knew about them?”
“When I came out to them.” She laughed. “I came in expecting them to be at least somewhat confrontational… But when it happened they told me them complaining would be throwing stones in the glass house… Although…”
“Although?”
“They did tell me I didn’t need to worry about grandchildren with you around…”
“Wait…” I blinked in disbelief. “That is why you teased me and showed me all that weird stuff?”
“You…” She became very quiet. “You could say that. I am who I am, but I still feel I owe them… Especially with how accepting they were.”
“Unlike Hibiki’s parents?”
Konata just nodded, saying nothing more about it.
“I always thought myself as… You know… The odd one out… But with mom and dad, and now you… I kinda feel like that again, but it is like… completely flipped upside down.”
“Oh…” Before she was the weird one, now she was the most normal one of us. “Don’t fret it, Konata. The world has been built on the uncountable, unnamed shoulders of normal people. Now then, where are those stupid trunks? I know I put them somewhere here.”
“Hmm…” Konata got up and walked off, with me returning to my room, only for her to return a minute later. “Here… It was in the dryer.”
“Oh thanks…”
“Hey, that’s what siblings are for…” Konata shrugged. “Glad I could help you, bro.”

“COME ON BUDDY! YOU GOT THIS!” Tomika leaned over me while I pushed the weights away from my sternum.
“AAAARGH!” With a final cry I let the bar rest on the fixture above me, letting my now severely punished arms fall to my sides.
“Not bad for the beginning…” Tarou clapped, while Tomika helped me up so he could take over the bench.
I stood agog as he added not 5, not 10, but 20 kilo to each side. “How much is that…”
“About 70 kilo with the handle… I usually do more but I am not feeling it today…”
“Yeah…” I imagined my arms breaking like twigs if I had to press such a weight. “Maybe I will try something else…”
“Good choice!” Tomika threw me my water bottle, which I barely caught. “You ever tried stretching? Kiyomu wanted me to show exercises.”
“That sounds… relaxing.”
“Haha… Trust me.” Kiyomu walked over to us and took us to a part of the gym for floor exercises. “They can be quite straining.”
“How hard could it possibly be.” I rolled my eyes, in total ignorance.
It only took a few of doing exercises together with Tomika and Kiyomu to show me the sheer folly of my assumptions.
“Hnng!” I stretched in ways and started to feel muscles I never knew I had.
“And stop…” It looked so easy when Tomika and Kiyomu did it. “You did great!”
“Really?” I laughed in disbelief. “I feel like every bone in my body is about to break.”
“Really? Let me see… Tell me where it hurts.” Kiyomu started to rub against my sore muscles.
“Ah!” I said whenever she touched one of the many extremely sore spots.
“You pushed yourself too much, buddy…” Tomika took over, gently pushing Kiyomu aside, who took it with grace.
“Is that bad?”
“Not necessarily but maybe start with less next time and do it more regularly…” She massaged my muscles, the pain lessening for a bit. “It is like learning: Hard to do if you slack, easy if you keep at it.”
“Can go for many things…”
“Mmmhh…” Tomika nodded. “I think they have a massage room here.”
As we went in, with me lying face down, while she kneaded my back through my shirt, a thought came to mind. “Speaking of slacking of: You think it is the same with sex? Or is it more like bicycle riding, where you never quite forget it?”
“My, my… Are you getting lewd thoughts from this?” Tomika giggled, kneading harder as if to punish me for my audacity. “We really didn’t do it a lot recently… Learning all the time.”
“Considering we have finals soon. Although… Do you have time?”
“Hmmm…” She moved down to my legs. “I still must go through all of math. Ugh… Now you really want to make me get geared up right now.”
“What about the last day before it?” I tilted my head around. “Not like we will get a lot done. And it might help us with stress…”
“Do you feel relaxed afterwards?” Tomika leaned over me.
“I… suppose so. It certainly did not feel like the devil’s laugh I read so much about…”
“What’s that?”
“Some men feel empty afterwards, especially if they did it alone… I never did it that way, and when you were with me…” I turned around and put my arms around her. “It felt good.”
“Hmmm…Very well…” Tomika heckled me with kisses. “We will have something to look forward to besides just our finals.”

“What are you doing, Haruto?” I could hear Tomika waltz into my room, unloading her bag with what were clearly not books.
“Going over the study material one last time before our first exam tomorrow…”
“I don’t wanna hear it!” Tomika put her arms around me in exhaustion. “I don’t wanna hear about math, or Japanese, or English, or history. All I want today… Is you and latex, together…”
“Alright…” I put my books away and walked over to my closet. “It was my idea anyway.”
By now, the whole dressing process was so natural to us that we didn’t even look away when we pulled the latex on, even helping each other when needed. After only a few minutes we were all dressed up and polishing each other. Although Tomika was slightly twitching.
“Anxious about tomorrow?” I asked her.
“Of course I am… But like I said.” She pulled me close and kissed me. “I don’t want to hear about it, at all. All I want is the sweet sound of latex rubbing on latex.”
As to undermine her point she caressed my back.
“Feeling horny enough?” She grinned.
“Hmm…” It felt… good. “What else you got?”
Tomika continued to grin even wider, walked over to her discarded clothes and pulled out her phone.
“How about watching some… inspirational material?”
“You mean… like an adult movie?”
Tomika nodded, walked over to my bed, and gestured to me to sit on her lap. As soon as I did, she put her arms around me and fumbled around on her phone, opening said video.
“This is the first time I actually bought one after I watch one.”
“How did you watch it before?” I made myself comfortable.
“Well, you know…” Tomika whistled.
“Piracy.”
“You know I couldn’t legit buy it. But I am going to make up for it. Not to mention Sister Irene and her congregation are donating parts of the proceeds to renting homes for homeless people.”
“Charity? From someone making adult movies?”
“She is a rubber nun. And from what she wrote about her research into churches, they were and are very involved in charity work. She is nothing if not dedicated to her role.”
It still sounded like a strange joke. Although the people receiving this money wouldn’t be too picky when it came to the sorts of people helping them out.
“Sigh, let’s see if it was worth the money.”
“Oh, you better believe it is!” She tapped on the screen and the video played, just loud enough for us to be audible, though no one was currently at home except us.
It was of a man and a woman, both shy and uncertain of themselves, their faces unrevealed, taking part in a very strange congregation: The members are dressed in rubber, featureless up to their heads, listening intently to the words of a nun, wearing rubber and a gasmask, mimicking a Christian mass.
Once the whole event was over, while some people got touchy, the two protagonists didn’t, just preparing to leave, as they did many times. This time however, the nun, introduced as Sister Irene, stopped them and took them aside into a room.
Over the course of the video, she slowly pushed the two together up until they were on top of each other and rubbing together. By now they were clearly into each other, as Irene moved her fingers down to their zippers.
“They finally get their sweet release…” Tomika stated, clearly horny herself, as was I.
“What do you mean?” My answer came when the nun revealed what seemed to be…
“Chastity devices…” Tomika moaned softly, her hand reach down to my bulge. “To think they had to hold it all back… Only for the gracious sister to finally…”
“What are you two…” We were interrupted, much to our embarrassment, by my own sister who we had not heard return from her date with Hibiki. “Oh.”
“What is it?” We could Hibiki from the stairway.
“Nothing…” Konata sighed, almost closing the door. “Just my brother and his girlfriend in their gimps suits…”
“Really? I gotta see that…” Hibiki ran towards the door, only blocked by Konata who was desperately preventing her from seeing inside, which gave Tomika just enough time to put her phone away, none of us saying anything.
Eventually Hibiki’s tenacity became too much for my sister to bear and the two tumbled in.
“Woah shiny!” Hibiki ogled us. “You look good in it.”
“Th…thank you…” We both stammered.
“In fact…” Hibiki’s gears were clearly turning. “Wait here a moment…”
“You are not thinking about…” Konata ran after her. “Do not do it! Do not even think about… ugh…”
In fifteen seconds flat Hibiki returned with her camera. “You two kind of remind me of a pair I once pictured for a nude photography.”
“Like porn?” Tomika looked puzzled at her.
“No, she means fine art nudes…”
“Correct… Now… Tomika could you lift your arms around his waist and lean with your head on Haruto’s shoulder?” She was already in the zone, much to my sister’s frustration.
“Like this?”
“Yes… Stay that way…” We looked at the camera and waited until it clicked. “Great. Now can you two just sit side by side…”
We followed her instructions with me placing my hand on Tomika’s while sitting on the bed edge.
For what felt like half an hour, she took picture after picture, some more sensual, others more innocent.
“Are you done yet?” Konata had watched all this unfold; her arms crossed.
“I think so… Although…” She eyed my sister, who knew Hibiki’s expression judging by her own.
“Oh no…”
“Haruto…” Hibiki waved me over. “Could you stand next to your sister?”
“Hibiki!” Konata was not very amused.
“Come on, Konata… Just one picture.” Hibiki pitched her voice higher and looked at my sister with puppy eyes.
We both waited with much embarrassment for her to take the final photo, with Tomika standing next to her.
“And done.”
“Can I see the pictures?”
“Of course…” Hibiki showed her the results with Tomika’s face lighting up. “Woah these are so good… Could we have these? We have a page where we post them…”
“Really? You gotta show me. I did plan on giving them to you anyways, but if you want them to post online…”
“Haruto…” My sister groaned. “Could it be that both our girlfriends share some braincells?”
“Very likely.” I gave her my honest answer, as Tomika showed Hibiki our account.
After an exchange of pictures later, Hibiki and Konata finally left the room.
“Try to keep your voice down while doing it.” Konata gave me one final look of acceptance, not as enthusiastic as that of my mother, but are more muted one.
“I will try.” I told her, knowing well that with how pent up we two were for the final exam that would be harder said than done.

It was over. Twelve years of school culminating in the piece of paper I held before me, rolled out from its container.
The finals were tough, especially on Tomika, but we both returned today as high school graduates. Both of our families had come together in our garden to celebrate thoroughly which meant lots of drinking except for, ironically enough, me and Tomika.
By now it was half past midnight, having awoken from a vivid nightmare about having to take a test again, calming myself down with looking at my graduation certificate.
“Pretty good huh?” Tomika nudged me, still awake, unlike both our parents, Konata and Hibiki who had fallen asleep drunk.
“Same goes for yours.”
“I don’t think I could have made it without you.”
We sat in solemn silence together for a while.
“What now?” I wondered out loud.
“We gotta find a good college I guess… Although… I still am going to compete in swimming…”
The silence continued.
“Haruto, how about a final visit to our school? You still got the keys because of the literature club, right?”
“Yes,…” I went over and jangled them. “Kohinata told me I could come and pick out the books I want to keep later. Do you want to go on a nighttime visit?”
“Yes… But not in uniforms or casual clothes…” She grinned back mischievously.
“You don’t mean…?” Her nod was everything I needed to know.
Damn that beautiful smile of hers.

We both sat down in the spots in class, the same as we had for the previous year. Only with two big caveats, the moonlit night being the simpler of the two, with the other being our state of dress.
“I always wanted to this…” Tomika looked at the blackboard.
“Coming to school in full rubber gear and nothing else?” I looked at her immaculate form, her endowed silhouette and gasmask reflecting the faint light.
“Did you never imagine how the others would react if we were to appear in school like this.” She took a look at me, who was like her wearing only latex and a gasmask.
“I… usually keep these kinds of things separated.”
“Really? You never did?”
“I would stick out like a sore thumb, that’s for sure.”
“Then how about everyone wearing it?”
“Excuse me?”
“Imagine a school where the uniform would be full latex suits and gasmasks.”
“There is no way that would ever happen. How would that ever work?” I scoffed at it.
“It is just a fantasy…” Tomika leaned on her table. “Close your eyes and imagine a school, where we could come in like this as if it was the most normal thing in the world…”
My eyes shut gently, and I let my imagination run wild.

We were already sitting in class, with everyone dressed in the new school uniforms.
“Why does this have to be so tight?” One of the students moaned inside his mask.
“It’s that or getting infected by the plague spores.” Someone else answered him.
“They could have at least given us some room… or allow us to wear something over it.”
“You say it girl…” Two female classmates were talking with each other. “Although… Have you seen how Fujimoto looks in it.”
“Perhaps this whole ordeal has its good sides in the end. Sigh, even if it means boys staring at us.”
“When you smoke, they pitch back, Kanamori!” I commented.
“I mean… I don’t really mind some boys looking at me.” She defended herself. “How are you two holding up? You don’t really look bothered by it.”
“Eh, you get used to it.” Tomika stretched herself.
“I hope so…” Kanamori complained as our teacher, dressed just like us.
“Good morning, while I know the current situation is affecting all of us, we should not let this hold us back. You all have your final school year ahead of you, let’s make the best of it.”
“Teacher is looking soo sexy…” I heard one of the boys whisper.
“Rise, bow, sit!” The teacher shouted, eying said student with ire, continuing the lessons, as if she was not wearing a skintight suit.

“We can’t even eat solid food…” Nakami, sitting with us in the cafeteria drank her pack of soup-like liquid through the straw of her gas mask. “Not to mention how stuffy it is in this mask.”
“Want to test your luck and remove it?” Tomika removed her straw.
“And get infected with the spores? Fat chance…” Nakami continued muttering, as we all drank up and walked around school.
Everywhere it was the same state of obscene normalcy with everyone trying their best to continue as usual, despite needing to wear the new protective uniforms.
“Kinda funny…” Nakami commented just before we split off for the respective clubs. “How everyone looks the same.”
Walking into the clubroom, I was greeted by several black shiny figures, all absorbed in reading or writing, or discussing either or both.
“How are you doing, Ikemoto-senpai?” One of them, Kohinata judging from his voice, waved me to the corner where he was currently sitting.
“Alright, considering the circumstances. What about you?”
“The suit is cumbersome. But with some time, you stop noticing it. I was just reading that book you brought…”
I looked at the cover. “The eye of Shiva. How do you like it so far.”
“It’s good, honestly. Crazy to think that certain things were discovered by certain religions centuries before a scientist could lay their eyes on them.”
“Much to Einstein’s dismay, God does indeed throw dice…”

Just before school closed, I finally visited Tomika at the pool, where she and the other club members swam, still in rubber, glistening in the water.
“Yo, buddy,…” Tomika reached the edge of the pool. “Wanna swim as well?”
I put down my bag, took a few steps back, Tomika realizing what I was about to do. I put my shoes away and started running forward.
“Here I come!” I shouted, jumped as far as I could and cannonballed into the water.

As I swam up, I could see the moon shining on the rippling surface.
“How was latex school?” Tomika swam toward me.
“Kinda exciting…” I joked. “And tiring. We must have been walking around for an hour by now.”
“Likewise…” Tomika leaned back and let herself float, the gasmask sticking out from the pool. “Nothing better than dead man’s float…”
After seeing her float serenely, I tried it myself. Upon putting my weight on the water and looking up, I felt awed.
“Beautiful night we got… Not a single cloud…”
“Yeah…”
For a while we two just floated, no movement, no sound except our breaths. It felt like time itself stood still.
“It’s crazy… Feels like we only began high school last week and now…” Tomika broke the silence. “We got our life ahead of us… College and work and…”
“Are you scared?”
“A little bit.” Tomika admitted. “Guess that comes from worrying about grades too much.”
“Don’t worry. You can count on me. I will always be with you when you need me.”
“Thank you, dear buddy…” Tomika chuckled, and we continued to just… be. To let all thoughts of tomorrow or yesterday go by and just float together.
Until however…
“Oh fuck…”
Tomika swam out.
“What is it?”
“I think I saw a flashlight. If we are caught like this…”
We both climbed out, already seeing the flashlight closing in, as well as hearing steps and the whistling of the janitor.
Without thinking we rushed headfirst into the next best building and held our breath, as we pressed together behind the door, hoping not to get found out.
“Hmm, thought I heard someone swim… Eh maybe just some animal… I probably just need some sleep… Uah! What a boring job.”
We continued to hold our breath until we were sure he was well out of earshot.
“Pfuh that was close. Are you alright?”
“Yes, I think I am…” I breathed a sigh of relief. “How about one last round and then leave? It must be way past 2 am by now.”
“Fine…” Tomika danced with her fingers up my chest. “Maybe we can find a spot where no one sees us… going at it.”
“Hmm… How about the school roof?”
“The school roof? Oh, you are one naughty boy!” Tomika teased me.
“Only got yourself to blame for pushing me into this…” I walked ahead of her.
“And I love it! Every single bit of it!” She quickly caught up to me and ran ahead until we reached the roof to have some fun.

The moon was well past its zenith when we strolled around the school garden and hallways, until we finally reached the gates, with me opening and closing them behind us.
“Haruto?” Tomika was clinging to the gate. “What do you think our younger selves would say if they saw us like this?”
“Are you thinking of a specific time? Highschool, Middle school…” I asked her.
“No, just in general… We must look crazy to them…” Tomika sounded, for once, self-conscious about her appearance.
“Hmm…” I removed my gas mask and held her tight. “I’d say on the younger range, we would gloat about how cool we look… Like superheroes!”
“Says the one who always called such things mass-produced slop…” Tomika removed her mask laughing.
“I know… But moving on.” I cleared my throat. “On the older side, we would probably realize the attraction to this material… But no matter the age…”
I held her cheek softly with my hand, pulling us closer.
“We would have realized the feelings we have for each other were much more than just mere friendship.”
And kissed her passionately.
“I love you, Tomika.”
“You too, Haruto…”
Tomika flung her arms around me, both of us holding onto our gasmask as our bodies and tongues intertwined, the rubber creaking and squeaking.
After making out, for what must have only been a minute, but felt like an eternity if bliss, we finally let go of each other and put our masks back on.
“We better get home before our parents wake up.”
“Fair…” I replied to her.
We both took one last look at the high school, and walked forward, hand in hand, leaving the prolog of our adult life together behind.
Ahead of us, the ordinary, yet at once very odd, journey of a lifetime.
“By the way…” I gripped her hand tightly as I proposed her. “Do you have any plans for the sixth of May already..?”

Chapter XII - (Un)ordinary adult life

It has been a long road for Haruto and Tomika, from mere childhood friends, to an unexpected revelation, to them slowly getting closer and him coming to embrace it as well, until the two finally finished school.
But just because they are adults now, with adult responsibilities does not mean they cannot indulge their proclivities once in a while.
Especially when they get an invitation to a prestigious event.

Sorry for the delay, I had to finish an exam and then caught a flu, but now have managed to finally finish this story
It has been quite the journey and it has been a blast and would love to hear everyone’s final thoughts and questions.
Also my idea to turn this into a comic of sorts still stand and I am looking for someone to collaborate with me on this.

6th of May

“Have you seen those gals stare at us?” Tomika giggled behind her gasmask, as we walked into the elevator of the high-rise building.
Tomika and I had walked from our apartment all the way to the building complex in full gear, with many people gawking at us, except the building manager who had merely rolled his eyes and let us in.
“And another one of those…” He muttered.
“Ah, I can’t believe it!” Tomika squealed behind her mask. “Our first time at a real latex event, and it is even on the sixth of May! But how did they manage to do the party in a penthouse, I wonder?”
“Funny, I actually asked Tarou about it during our workout. Apparently the guy who owns it is some finance guy, who let them host it there… He is also attending himself.”
“I think I have heard of him. He orders tons of commissions from artists.”
“All latex?”
“Naturally… That man’s got pockets as deep as the ocean.”
“You must have been looking forward to this ever since Miss Yogomu gave us an invitation?”
She had given us an invite upon us asking her, apparently it was some kind of exclusive event to boot.
“Absolutely… But what I am more looking forward to…” Tomika flung herself around my arm as the elevator stopped at the highest level. “Is to be there with you!”
DING!
“How sweet of you.”
“You’re welcome.” She responded as we walked out into the hallway. “Let’s see… 3rd one on the right side… There…”
We rang the bell next to it, and waited for a moment, holding our written invitation to the camera.
“Let’s see… Proper dress code… You are… Mi-chan and Ru-kun?”
“Correct!” Tomika rolled with her boots forwards and backwards.
“Welcome in!” We were greeted by a man, roughly in his late 30s, wearing a thick rubber jacket with a shirt and pants combo beneath it, from the same material. “To my humble abode.”
“Thank you for having us.” We bowed slightly, hung up our coats on an overfilled hanger, and removed our shoes, adding them to the roughly 3 dozen pairs clogging up a shelf, the chatter and music being only a room away.
‘Humble’ was quite the understatement. It was a huge apartment, and cleanly kept, so much I did not fear ripping my rubber socks on the parkette floor.
“WOAH!” Tomika gazed at what was at the end of the entry hallway.
The main living room chock-full with people wearing clothes of all colors and shapes, both tight and wide, with only one common denominator: Rubber. It was so much that it hung like a sweet odor in the air. To think I would not only get used to this smell one day but come to enjoy it.
“Looks who’s here!” Two of the figures, wearing very familiar plugsuits walked towards us. “Long time no see! How are you?”
“Chika! Wakaya!” Tomika greeted them enthusiastically, while I remained more reserved, but still friendly.
“We are fine. Recently moved into our new apartment together.”
“How is it living with your girlfriend?” Wakaya nudged me.
“Well, you certainly get to know her more than you ever know before, not to mention adjusting to the smaller space … But it has been nice so far… Besides that…” I rubbed my hand over my body. “We can wear rubber on our free days…”
“Now that sounds like the real benefit! Even if the smell sticks after a while…” Tomika flung herself around me. “Did I tell you how good you look?”
“Constantly!” I laughed beneath my gasmask, yet this simple sentence made me feel so glad to have her around. While I wore it a few times alone already, it is not the same without someone else around to see it, which made me always glad when Tomika came home and discovered me wearing it. “So, what does one do during a fetish party?”
“Pfuh, it is a lot like a regular party… Music, food, getting to know people.” I sighed at Chika’s explanation. A bookworm like me would rather tug himself in with a bunch of books than go out to party. “But we got some… Let’s call them special events…”
“Special events?”
“Like the one Miss Yogomu is currently doing with her Tarou.”
“You don’t say?!”
The two led us to seating, chairs, a large couch and some beanbags, arranged in a half circle in what I assumed was usually a large living room.
In the center were two figures, a female in black and a large white male wearing a gasmask with canine features, who the former was currently putting in chains and securing on a frame, while a large part of the room was watching.
“Now… Be a good puppy…” Miss Yogomu ordered him, wearing a hood with eyes and mouth visible, while he growled, though it receded into a whimper. “Good! Good… boy…”
Tomika looked on excited as Yogomu teased Tarou in front of the audience, a dog utterly tamed by a woman so much smaller than him.
Chika and Wakaya, however, only stayed for a bit.
“Where are you two going?” Tomika whispered after them, as to not ruin the display for the others.
“The house got some… private playrooms…”
“You don’t need a reservation, but it is finders keepers and we asked someone else how long they’d be using it for.”
“Ah ok… Have fun you two.” Tomika waved and turned around just as Yogomu took a tail plug and…
“AWOO!”
Inserted it.
“I will never understand why people like shoving things up there…”
“Something to do with the prostate…” Tomika answered and took a good look at my eyes. “Don’t worry. I am not asking you to shove things up there.”
“What a relieve.”
“But… Speaking of up there…” Tomika shifted around in discomfort. “I think something wants to come out there…”
“I told you to go back home before we went out.”
“I did pee but didn’t need to go big yet…” Tomika complained, trying to keep it in, until after a long struggle of hers and Tarou, she finally relented. “Hold down the fort, I gotta go for big girls!”
She sprinted off in the direction where the bathroom was labeled to be, leaving me alone.
Well, I was not technically alone, but I knew no one around me and Tarou and Yogomu were currently busy. Everyone around me was chattering and talking, with me just sitting there, all alone in my rubber suit.
If it were not for Tomika, I’d likely not be here… Probably reading and learning for college, day in and out. I hadn’t mind being alone before… But right now, the cold I felt now was not just the rubber on my body, as I gazed at Yogomu pushing Tarou close to the edge.
“Sshh… No need to struggle…” Yogomu leaned into him as she freely groped him.
As I sat there, I couldn’t help but feel horny and lonely at once. It felt like sugar: extremely sweet but very much unsatisfying and not filling.
“Excuse me?” For a moment I thought Yogomu was standing next to me, even though she was on stage.. “Is the couch here free?”
“Yes, of course…” I moved aside on the couch, with her taking the space, and crossing her legs. She was dressed like a nun, though one in latex and a gasmask.
“What is a charming young man like you doing all alone?” She moved closer to me looking me in the eyes.
“Actually, I am not alone…” I looked away. “My girlfriend’s just on the toilet right now.”
“Really?” Her eyes glittered in suspicion, not believing me.
“Yes, really…” I cleared my rather dry throat.
“Are you thirsty?” I nodded after she asked me. She looked around and waved someone over, who turned out to be a person who did not even have a face, facial features obscured by a full hood, holding a tablet with filled glasses adorned with a straw each.
“Who is this?”
“He is a member of my congregation. We got both alcoholic and non-alcoholic options.”
“Congregation?” I knew I had heard her voice before. “Are you Sister Irene?”
“The one and only. I was asked if my congregation could do the catering today and of course there were many willing volunteers who wouldn’t want to miss the chance to be part of this event.”
“Understandable… If I could take part in some rather exclusive events with notable writers present, I would sign up as a waiter in a heartbeat.”
“So you are into literature? Reading or writing?”
“Eh… Reading, but I started writing recently…” I responded a bit perplexed.
“Fascinating but first… Let’s have us something to drink first.”
We both took a glass from the faceless man in rubber, but when I took my drink I noticed the belt over his crotch.
“Are you alright man?” He nodded to my inquiry about his wellbeing.
“Oh, he is very alright! I tell you if none of them wore chastity during mass it would be pandemonium!” Irene joked. “After all there needs to be some tensions if they want to find a partner.”
“Partner? What are you, a matchmaker?”
“You could call me that!” Irene took the straw and put it through a hole in her gasmask. “I started my congregation for this purpose… The charity events came later.”
“Weird…” I commented.
“Weirder than what we both are wearing?”
“More as in it is weird to combine something so overtly fetishistic with something so… traditional like partner arrangement and charity. Like managing to fit something square into a round hole.”
“Haha… I do take my role as a nun very seriously… You know…”
As she said that, we heard a loud clang from the stage, our attention moving back to it.
Tarou had broken free from his restraints and now was lying on top of Yogomu, who desperately tried to escape from the hound she had provoked for so long, moaning desperately, though very much for show, until she gave up in a very dramatic display of submission to him.
“What a delightful sight, isn’t it? So much for her telling me she is the more dominant of us two.”
“Do you know each other? Sounds like you have some kind of beef?”
“Well… kinda… Anyways…” Irene was obviously dodging my question with her own. “You said you started writing recently?”
“Yes, I did. For a school project in my final year.”
“May I read it later?”
“I mean… sure… I have it on my phone in my jacket… But why are you interested in it anyway?”
“I work as an editor at a publishing company for a living. This…” She gestured at her suit. “Is sadly only my hobby.”
“And you think I could be published? You haven’t read a single line.”
“I wouldn’t mind at least taking a look at it. Good writing can often come from the strangest places. Kafka never published his work during his life…”
“I mean sure, but … from a guy you met during a fetish party?”
“Perhaps?” She shrugged. “Mind if you give me the rundown?”
“Well…” I put my glass down and tried to sort my thoughts in this strange atmosphere. “It is about Vikings landing here in the Heian period and the cultural clash involved. It also has a love triangle between a prince, a viking maiden and her servant who is an enslaved noble… If that interests you…”
“It certainly is not another Isekai…”
“Look who’s come to watch me!” A voice, very much alike Irene’s interrupted us, turning out to be Yogomu’s, who proceeded to sit on my other side. “Has my little sister been trying to entrap Ru-kun into her little cult?”
“Oh no, we were just talking about writing. But I bet my little sister didn’t know that, did she…”
“Wait…” The way they bickered, aggravating yet not of open hostility. Not to mention their voices were too similar. And they call each other sister, but why both the little one?
“Hmpf!” Before I could answer, I felt someone plop herself on my lap and putting my arms around her. “Ah, Tomika you are back…”
“I better hope you two are not fighting over him.” She stated at the two upset, before looking at them. “Wait, you are here too Sister Irene?!”
“Don’t worry Tomika…” I sighed patting her head. “The two just had typical sibling squabble.”
“You mean? She is your sister?” Tomika looked left and right at both Yogomu and Irene.
“Twin sister to be more precise…” Kiyomu sighed at a very excited Tomika who began to squeal.
“I am so jealous of you…” She said with glee. “Having a sister who shares your fetish. Although I do imagine there was a risk of getting too frisky…”
“Well, not exactly…” Irene negated Tomika’s assumptions.
“They are sisters, Mi-chan.” I bonked the girl who never had siblings on her head. “But who is the older sister of you?”
“Me of course!” The two said at once and looked at each other.
“Kiyomu…” Sister Irene growled. “I am your senior by 21 minutes.”
“Yet you always lagged behind in school, Iroha. Not to mention I already am married. I am clearly the older sister by example!”
Tomika blinked and looked at me. “So that is their problem: They are both dommes.”
The two shut up instantly and looked away in shame.
“Your parents must have had nerves of steel.” I joked.
“You wouldn’t know half of it…” Kiymou rolled her eyes.
“Says the one who always started the fights.”
“SSSSH!” Someone else from the audience gestured them to quiet down, with the next show coming up.
“I am the older one…”
“Nah, I am.”
The two dommes let their squabbling rest for now.
The presenter had put a strange construction on stage: A circle on the bottom with small tubes extending from it, while his assistant held a ring with latex stretched over it.
“Introducing: The living statue maker. Is there someone in the audience who’d like to volunteer.”
“Wait is that thing connected to a vacuum…” I could barely hear Tomika, and when I looked in the same direction, I saw it too. Whoever would end up there would end up getting vacuum sealed.
And both twins noticed we were looking very intently.
Before we could react, I could feel my hand being raised up by Kiyomu, while Irene did the same with Tomika.
“Ah! There they are! Please come up!”
“Eh…” We both looked around, the eyes of the crowd already fixed on us. Tomika slowly got up, as did I, both of us walking slowly, hand in hand on stage.
We followed the instructions of the presenter: Removing our gasmasks, stepping on the circular platform and taking one tube each, which split into two, and shoving them up our noses.
“Time for the encasement!” The presenter announced as the assistant took the latex pane, rolling the latex over us all the way down to our feet, leaving us in total darkness, with the material being sealed around the edge of the platform.
“Don’t worry, Tomika… I am right here.” I placed my hands around her body.
“Same goes for you…” Tomika responded in word and action.
“And now for the final touch! If you would…”
Even with us bracing ourselves, we were shocked at how fast the air was pumped out, leaving us stuck together, including our mouths.
“The audience can now come up to inspect the artwork. Touching is explicitly allowed.”
We both tensed up and wriggled around to no avail, as we could feel the first hands touch us.
Then Tomika stretched out her tongue, probably by accident. Yet after she had retracted it, she pushed it out again tentatively. I responded by opening my mouth slightly and touching the tip of her tongue with mine. And over time we started to dance around with our tongues.
So absorbed did we get into the longest kiss of our life that we blocked out the many hands touching us all over our bodies.
As long as I was with her I couldn’t care less.

“That was… wow…” Tomika gasped as she put on her gasmask again, me already having put on mine.
“You say it.”
There was a big applause, but we were mostly exhausted after all this walking back to our seats, where we found Yagomu sitting together with Tarou, however Irene was nowhere to be found.
“Are you looking for my sister, Ru-kun?”
“Yes… she… offered me to appraise my writing.”
“Mixing work with pleasure? Tsk. Her mistake.”
“Work?” Tomika asked me.
“She works as an editor… I told her about me writing stories and asked me if she could take a look at it. Where did she go?”
“I think…” Tarou looked around the large room. “She went to the goo room with two members of her congregation.”
“I think I saw that one when I looked for the toilet. Follow me…” Tomika waved me in the same direction. “You must feel excited to have your work appraised, huh?”
“Well… She said she wanted to take a look at it.”
“I know… This is not really a ‘professional’ event. Let’s see this should be… it.” Tomika opened the room in which we saw, many figures laid out on the floor, writhing around in some sort of weird white slime sprayed out over the entire floor.
Including Irene, who was sitting, together with two of her faceless congregation shifting against her, her hand between her legs.
“Eh, excuse me, Sister Irene.” Tomika waved at her, as she walked towards her. “Ru-kun wanted to talk wi-aaah!”
Tomika slipped and landed on the floor.
“Are you okeeeeeeee…” I immediately rushed in, only to slip myself, landing in a particularly thick patch of the slime and when I got up I had to wipe away the goo from my visor as best as I could and turned around.
“I think I am…” I could make out Tomika barely behind a white haze. “Bwahaha… You look like you…!”
“Like what?” I managed to clear my vision, yet it barely changed the white smears on her black exterior. Only then did I realize she also was covered in viscous, white slime. “Oh…”
“Look at us…” Tomika tried to get up, only to slip and fall right into my arms. “How… absolutely filthy we are…”
There was no denying it, the way we looked right now was in no way shape or form decent. Like two pigs wallowing in mud while mating.
“Such is human nature… All of us born from the same filth…” I held her tightly, my grip slipping on her goo covered body.
“Ah… All this goo makes me want to have your in me…” She responded in kind, taking a bunch of slime on the floor and smearing it on me while gliding her hands downwards to…
“Excuse me… You wanted to talk to me, Ru-kun?” Sister Irene interrupted, snapping us out from our lust.
“Sorry…” Tomika let me go and bowed. “We got too much into it.”
“No need to apologize… Although you really should use the private rooms for going to pound town.”
“Says the one who was just masturbating.” I pointed at her.
“Well yes, but actually no…” She lifted her skirt to reveal a chastity belt.
“You wear one as well? I thought only your congregation did?”
“It would be unfair to them if I could pleasure myself at will. Not to mention… I want to save myself for that special someone…”
“You got plenty of options in your congregation.” I responded to her.
“These are not for me. They are for each other. Like these two here…” She grabbed the two faceless people by their chins and pointed them to each other. “I found them in the back of the kitchen, desperately trying to jack each other off… So I decided to take them with me and tease them a bit.”
The two moaned softly, clearly in a heightened state of arousal.
“But anyway… You wanted to talk with me?” She let the two go, with them shuffling towards each other while Irene spoke to me.
“Yes, ehm… Should I sent you a digital copy of the book I wrote after the party?”
“I would like to read it here as soon as possible. I always like to give personal feedback in such matters.”
“I mean sure… But we are kinda covered in… you know… suspicious slime right now.”
“Oh, that is no problem…” Irene replied. “We can just use the penthouse’s pool on the roof to get this off.”

The goo was by now washed off, though I still splashed around at the edge with me feet, Tomika swimming from one end to the other in breakneck speed, drawing the aw of the other attendees, while I turned my head at times to Sister Irene, who was currently lying on a lounger holding my phone, reading my story: Devils of the North.
“Your verdict?” I looked at her, with her eyes still fixed on the phone.
“It’s quite good… Although I have only read a few chapters in.” She read a bit onwards until finally handing it back to me after I had brushed off the water droplets from my rubber-gloved hand. “While I cannot promise anything specific, I will put in a good word for you for which I would need you to send me a full copy, although… I am not going to lie, the premise got me hooked. Especially Momoha’s biased view on the vikings… But considering she got captured by them…”
“That is… wow… Thank you. But it would be for the best if you do not mention where we met.”
“Of course…” Irene laughed. “I do know how to separate work from pleasure, don’t worry. We will have merely met in a bookshop…”
“Look at you, Ru-kun!” I could hear Tomika walk up behind me after climbing out of the pool. “Making connections and moving up in the world.”
“Well, she only said she would put in a good word.” I corrected her.
“Your girlfriend is right…” Irene laughed. “I know from my faith that one should strive to be humble, but you shouldn’t think so little of the talent you got.”
“Your faith?” Did she mean that the costume she wore.
“My sister is taking her cosplay veeery seriously, isn’t she?” Yogomu joined together with Tarou, putting her legs into the pool.
“I’d rather put as looking into it for research and finding it very illuminating…” She fumbled around with a small cross necklace.
“You certainly don’t look the part:” I was a bit… bewildered by this revelation of hers, like the squaring a circle, only the circle was her proclivities, and the squaring were her newfound beliefs. “Considering the latex… Or the chastity belt.”
“I told you before…” She leaned into me. “I want to save myself for a good match.”
It was at this moment I deemed that God must indeed be a comedian and exist, by sheer hilarity of such a person existing.
“To be his plaything?” Kiyomu teased her sister. “Do sent me the photos of you being hogtied if the time comes, Iroha.”
“Oh, you wish!”
“Ah sibling squabbles…” Tarou sighed.
“How long do you think they are going to argue?” Tomika asked me.
“Give it a bit…” I told her, knowing these kinds of bickering from me and Konata.
“Why did you come over anyway?” Irene threw up her hands.
“Maya Izuki is going to be on stage next…” Kiyomu pouted.
“Wait? The Maya Izuki!? How did you…?” Kiyomu grinned mischievously and shrugged, to which Sister Irene, or Iroha threw herself at her squealing. “YOU. ARE. THE. BESTEST SISTER EVER!”
“Who is Maya Izuki?” I had never heard the name.
“You don’t know who Maya Izuki is?!” The sisters looked at us aghast.
“I think… I have…” Tomika was visibly trying to jog her memory. “My mother… or was it my father? They got a record of hers, I believe…”
“Iroha…” Kiyomu looked at her sister with a tortured face. “We have gotten old…”
“Then let us revel in the memories of the youth… Little sister…”
“Of course, my little sister…”
“Ah these two…” Tarou shook his head. “By the way, Kiyomu and I just used the private room, if you go fast, you might get in before someone else claims it. I will have to indulge my wife for now…”
He barely turned around, when Tomika grabbed my hand and stormed off with me. It didn’t take much guesswork where to.
We entered the private room: A bedroom, same style as the others. Only that the bedding was made out of rubber, and there were many contraptions and toys all over the shelves, more then even my parents had. Not to mention the multiple bottles of silicon oil.
Most notable sight however, was one of Irene’s faceless devotees who was scrubbing the bed and putting some of the clearly used gear in a bag.
“The room service. She is making the room ready for us and bringing out the gear Tarou and Miss Yogomu just used.”
“Ah… eh. Thanks… I guess…” I nodded at the figure, who nodded back, quickly finishing up her work and almost walked out.
She stopped before us, slipped her phone out of a pocket on her right leg and tapped on it.
“You want to take a picture with us?” Tomika gestured at us, to which the faceless women nodded repeatedly.
“Well then…” Tomika pulled me closed, held up her fingers to a V and waited for the faceless women to snuggle up to us and aim her camera. “CHEESE!”
The woman checked her phone, turned around, bowed to us and went out of the room and us alone.
“What now? Anything you want to do?”
“I wanted to ask you the same…” Tomika took a bottle and put in on the nightstand before throwing herself on the bed. “How about a bit of chilling?”
“Sounds good.” I lay myself down next to her, pulling the sheet over us, only realizing it was transparent when it was over us, our forms still visible beneath the smoky black fabric.
We were cuddling, wearing latex in a bed made of latex under a latex sheet, during a party where people only wore latex. It was… very pleasant to say the least.
For a moment however Tomika loosened herself from me, filling her hand with silicone oil before returning and slipping her hand beneath the sheet and between my legs.
“Is this…. Chilling for you…” I giggled as her hand grasped my loins.
“Just prepping your little man to go inside me… Latex on latex needs some extra lube for it…”
“You really want to do it, huh?” I Shifted myself on top of her, the rubber creaking all the while.
“Duh!”
“How about…” I grabbed the latex sheet and dragged it over us until it covered us entirely. “We chill some more?”
“I would love to…” Tomika let go of me and dragged the zipper between her legs down.

“Ah…” Tomika stretched her arms as we walked out of the room. “That was fun.”
“You didn’t need to leglock me.”
“Why not? You make such funny noises when I do it!”
“I could barely hear anything with that Idol doing her little routine… We were one…two…three… rooms away and still…” As I counted, I noticed that the hallway was strangely empty… Normally there was at least one person walking to or from the bathroom.
“Yeah, I don’t think I can listen to my mom playing that one without cracking up anymore…”
“Hey… You two…” Chika was walking towards as. “I was looking for you two.”
“Is something?”
“Yes, we are about to take a group photo…”
“Oh, neat idea! Good thing you came faster this time…”
“Tomika…” I growled, my pride tarnished.
“I was just kidding.” Tomika held me close as she apologized, before turning around to Chika. “He usually lasts much longer but I found that if you put your legs around them…”
I softly punched her in her side, to which she responded in kind, both of us laughing it off as we arrived at the living room where nearly every attendant was present.
“Now, everyone please squish a bit together.” Sister Irene gestured everyone to press together while one of her faithful was operating a camera.
We slotted right in, being able to spot Tarou, who was princess-carrying Yogomu, as well as Chika and Wakaya, who stood together on the right side of the crowd.
“A bit more…” The rubber of everyone creaked and squeaked as we tried to press together as much as possible, the various colors melding together.
So close were we that it felt rather uncomfortable, especially considering that except for my suit, I was practically naked.
“You ready, dear buddy?” But when Tomika snuggled up to me, her arm around my waist, it all felt… alright.
“Yes…” I leaned into her, putting my arm over her shoulder as we gazed into the camera.
“And… perfect…” Sister Irene ran over to the front, kneeling in front of us with the rest of her congregation present today.
As the faceless rubber creature behind the camera counted down with his hand, I couldn’t help but chuckle at it all.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing… really…”
Indeed, it was nothing. All the people we met here today were nothing but ordinary. For all the eroticism thrill and provocative nature latex had as a piece of clothing, it was still people wearing them, who had more going on in their life than just it.
And I couldn’t wait to meet them once more, be it within or without latex.

10 years later

“Papa, what are you writing?” The gentle hand of my daughter, Kiki, was on my legs trying to peek into my current project.
“It is not really my work…” I lifted her up on my lap. “I am doing a translation.”
“Translation?”
“Yes, I am taking a text in our language…” I put my hands together and lifted them over her head to the other side, while she followed them with her eyes. “And rewriting it into another language.”
“Isn’t that stealing from the one who wrote it first?” She looked at me concerned.
“Oh… oh no…” I couldn’t help but laugh. “I am doing it with the explicit consent of the author.”
“Why don’t other people just learn Japanese and read it that way?”
“That… is harder than it sounds. Imagine everyone would demand their works be only readable in their own language. Many of the books I read you would be a mystery to you until you could understand them.”
“Like…” I shrunk my current work project and looked for the original work of one of her favorite books. “Pippi Longstocking. You think you can read it?”
“Of course… ” She boasted. “My teacher told me she was proud how fast I memorized all the writing systems. I even know 100 kanji!”
I unplugged the laptop and held it on her lap, with her immediately looking through the pages.
To no one’s surprise her confidence faded quickly. “Why are there dots on some of the letters? Eh… Ehm…”
“And this…” I carefully lifted my laptop back up. “Is why translators exist, so that people can read things in their own language. Even if our views on life are different.”
“Why are they different?”
“Because they grew up in different places and have adopted over a very long time, long before your mother and I were born. A people in a thick forest, large grasslands, deserts are going to value different things then us, who have adopted to our homeland.”
“But… that mean we will never understand each other.”
“We can, although it is a difficult job, not here…” I pointed to my biceps and then my head and heart. “But here.”
“In our head, but why the heart…”
“Because even if you think you understand a people fully, there are things that are more difficult to grasp. Things that go so deep, neither us nor them would ever think about every day. And my job is to take a text in our language or theirs and try to understand what they mean and write down how we would think about it.”
“Also, what was in the package? Mama took it when I showed it to her after I opened for the delivery man.”
“How about…” I closed the laptop before she could asks any further questions about that. “We greet your mother and brother when they come home… She had a long day and told me the market stall is about to close.”
“Ok…” She jumped off and ran through our living room and all the way to the porch, taking a deep breath before shouting over the wide, blue ocean. “MAMA! WHERE ARE YOU?”
“Over here…” We could hear her barely over the shore dunes and rush of the wave, but saw her outline holding Watarou by her hand, both of them waving back.
“Mama…” Kiki ran at Tomika who picked her up, laughing, still wearing her scuba suit, the combined fin slung over her shoulder. “Did you find something?”
“Giant shell!” Watarou, held up a shell as big as his head, almost tipping over.
“Careful…” Tomika picked up the shell from his hands. “The other Ama allowed me to keep it because he did not let go of it.”
“I hope they didn’t mind you took your kid to work today.” I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Oh, not at all… They adored him.” She pulled her hair out of the scuba hood and visor, walking into the house and straight to the shower, while I looked for a good place for the seashell while also keeping track of the children. Or at least I tried.
“Did you two got done packing?” I reprimanded them as they chased each other through the house for a toy.
“No…” The two looked away.
“Then go… You wouldn’t let your aunts wait just because you goofed around and did not pack.”
The two nodded and went to their rooms upstairs.
Our home, an old fisher house, which we had bought, renovated and expanded before Kiki came to this world. Thanks to the national fragmentation policy, the publishing company Iroha and I work for had moved one of their departments to this rather quiet village, with Tomika finding work not only as a diving teacher but also as an ama under the tutelage of one of the few women who still uphold the tradition of diving without oxygen tanks.
“Ah… How was your day, darling?” Tomika walked out of the bathroom with a shirt and shorts, still drying her hair with a towel. “The market was really busy today.”
“I got pretty far with the current chapter… At least until our daughter interrupted us.”
“Always the curious mind, hmm?” Tomika wrapped the towel around my head and pulled me close for a kiss, a very passionate kiss, the keys on our necks jingling.
“Tomika… Wait until Konata picks the children up.”
“Alright… When is she here?”
“A couple of minutes…”

“Are you two ready?” Konata patted our children’s heads, their hastily bags packed for the weekend. The two nodding.
“Thank you again, Konata…” Tomika bowed deeply. “You don’t know what it means to have some time off from parenting once in a while… Even if only w”
“Hey, that’s what family is for… Not to mention Hibiki has come to like the two…”
“Auntie Hibiki!” The two ran towards her, while she gave them a good hug, although only with one hand.
“Don’t spoil them with too much sweets!”
“I promise!” Hibiki still had one of her hands behind her back.
“Hibiki…” Konata took her hand to reveal an assortment of sweet.
“That is just… you know… A few travel rations…”
“Fine for the travel, but don’t stuff them with it. Even if they beg you with their expertise in puppy eyes.”
“See you, little brother!” Konata gave me a big hug, whispering into my ear: “I hope your naughty weekend is going to be very fruitful.”
“Thank you…” I laughed awkwardly, with Konata quickly going to the rent car she and Hibiki came in, the children sitting on the back, their luggage in the trunk.
We waved at them up to the point that they were way out of sight.
When they were Tomika and I threw each other glances and smiled, my heartbeat racing at what we had planned.
The house had been, from what the old owner told us, the abode of a shinobi and thus had many hiding places, which our two children had already discovered, with the exception of one: It was a edo period depiction of an ama, flanked by two small fish knobs with small insets in their mouths.
We took the keys of our necks and turned them both at once, the contraption loosening with a click. We turned the hidden wall until it was almost right angled to the wall it hid itself as and we entered the hidden room and turned on the light.
Beside the bed, it’s latex bedding covered by a plastic foil, there was a hanger with all our latex suits as well as all the other accessories we had accumulated over the years.
“Shall we?” Tomika gave me that lustful look she had kept under wraps for the entire day.
“After you!” I replied, taking two of her suits from the wardrobe. “Which one?”
“Let’s go with the classic…” She grabbed the black one and began putting it on, while I did the same.
“Ah, how I have missed this!” Tomika moaned softly, as we shined each other up.
Ever since Kiki, but even more so since Watarou, we had so little opportunities to wear latex in our house. But with my sister offering to take care of them every so often, Tomika and I can even go so far as walking around our house wearing rubber.
“You look lovely, my dear…” I held my wife close, our fingers intertwining as we sat on the seaside porch of our house.
“Likewise… my dear buddy husband.” Tomika answered sneaking a kiss in. “But there is one final piece missing…”
She walked to our bedroom and came back with the box she had put up on the closet to prevent our children’s curiosity to get the better of them and unpacked its contents:
Two black hoods, with no visible holes, except micro perforation for the eyes, but three protrusions, one for each nose hole and a larger one for the mouth, but that wasn’t all…
“I love the bunny ears!” Tomika played with the flaps on the sides of her hood, while I stared at the thing that would soon enough be down in my throat. “You scared?”
“Of course not… As long as I am with my lovely wife…” I caressed her cheek, my thumb moving over her luscious lips.
“Hap!” Tomika shuffled a bit forward and swallowed my thumb. Even beneath the rubber I could feel how she was sucking it, her tongue swirling around it, all the while she leaned into my hand. Even after all those years, my wife was still as hot as ever, and my little man definitely agreed.
Which reminded me…
“I totally forgot about the condom…” I removed my thumb a trail of spit between its tip and her lips. “Should I go back or do you want…”
“Do I want what?” She wiped the trail off, while smiling at me, while taking the hood and opening the zipper at its back.
“Do you want to go… for another child?”
“Rolling for a third one, hmm?” Tomika said while kissing the tip of the mouth gag of her hood.
The suit she wore was the same suit I saw her in all those years ago, when I walked into her room and both our lives changed irrevocably. With one change however…
“Yeah, I think we can afford to.”
After our marriage, having held a rubber party a week later, Sister Irene, performed a ‘ceremony’ in which she took the internal condom of this suit Tomika was wearing, and cut off the tip of it.
“Very well.” I took her mask, aligned the protrusions to her nose holes and mouth, and looked at her beautiful face one last time. “You ready?”
Tomika nodded and I started pushing the hood on her.
The nose protrusions were easy enough, but the real struggle began when it came to the gag. Only a few centimeters in and she began to gag, her hands, one on my arm the other helping me to push it in shaking, all while she groaned.
“mmpf…”
I Stopped to take in her reaction, she was breathing heavily, her eyes… full of lust. After letting her catch her breath, I pushed on bit by bit until on the final stretch her eyes rolled back while she let out a very satisfied moan.
“MMMPF!”
With one final act, I dragged the hood over the rest of her face and head and zipped it all up. For a moment, it seemed Tomika herself was in disbelief, as her still shaking hands touched where her face would be, but the only detail was an X roughly where her nose and mouth were.
“Look at you… What a cute bunny you are!” I kneaded her face, all while I could hear her muffled laughter. “Can you see me?”
She nodded, her hands feeling and eventually grabbing my mask, unzipping it and holding its insides in my face.
“My turn hehe…?” I could almost see her smile beneath her hood.
I could feel my nostrils stretch as the two breathing holes were inserted, coiling around all the way to my throat. All the while the gag inserted itself deeper and deeper until it reached the back of my neck, bending itself downward to get deeper.
I groaned, and I gagged as it was pushed all the way down, with Tomika pulling the hood over my head as well and sealing me in, while I breathed in panic, my body needing some time to adjust to the thing stuck in my throat.
It took a bit until my panic was subsumed by arousal, especially when Tomika held me close and rubbed her mask’s X on mine, unable to kiss.
We were shiny, sleek and unable to talk, yet we did not need to. By now we knew each other so much we barely even needed words.
“Hmmpf!”
I love her so much! And her being like this made it even better and from her playing around with my body as well, it was much the same for her.
“Hmmm…” After a very long cuddling session she loosened her grip and took her phone. Did she want to take a picture?
My question was answered when I could hear music blaring out of it: Unpredictable Love Algorithm, by Bionikokoro, holding her open palm towards me.
As soon as I grabbed it she flung me around as we began to dance.
We danced through from the porch to the living room, through the hallway, the kitchen, the bathroom and finally our bedroom where we fell on our bed, my wife below me.
We giggled at immediately began cuddling, Tomika playing with the bunny ears on my hood.
“Hmmm…” Tomika, phone still in hand took a picture of us both and posted it on our account, which while we didn’t use as much as we used to in our younger years, we still tried to post something whenever we could.
‘Two bunnies in mating season…’ She showed me what she had written as a description, making me laugh.
I got on my knees, turned Tomika on her belly, her bottom right next to my hips.
She gave an excited squeal, shifting her butt on my bulge, and put her phone on the nightstand.
Just as she wrote, tonight, we would be breeding like rabbits.