Project Necro is an official initiative by Re:Library.

The strange woman who suddenly appeared right in front of me knew about the real-life relationship between me and Sol.

“…!”

I instinctively tried to stand up and run away… but my legs wouldn’t hold me. My feet couldn’t brace themselves, and my body kept tilting backward. Oh no, my head’s going to…

“Whoa, that was close?!”

The impact I’d expected didn’t come; instead, I was caught by something soft and springy.

“Phew, you should stop doing things that give me a heart attack out of the blue, nya.”

I was being held tightly by that person, blinking my eyes in surprise.

“Anyway, let me introduce myself, nya. I’m a friend of Ayame-chan’s from high school, and a junior to Reiji-senpai. In the game, I went by the name Milly.”
“Um… that way of speaking—”
“Oh, this? When I talk like this, the guys who jump to conclusions automatically assume I’m catfishing and don’t come near me, so I kept doing it—and before I knew it, it became a habit.”
“H-huh…”

It was a much more trivial reason than I’d expected.

Or rather, I didn’t even know Ayame had friends. Come to think of it, I hardly know anything about Reiji and Ayame’s social circle, do I…?

“Oh, by the way, I’ve heard all about you from Ayame-chan, so it’s fine. And I promise I won’t tell anyone, okay?”

…Well, I can’t imagine Ayame would say anything weird to some untrustworthy person, so I guess it’s okay…maybe?

“Now that we’ve finished the introductions, I’d like to get down to business… but there’s something I have to do first.”

Milly-san suddenly adopted a serious tone and expression.

“I’m going to touch you a little now. If you really can’t handle it, tell me right away.”
“…Huh?”

She gently pulled my arm and drew me into an embrace. Before I knew it, I found myself buried in those voluptuous breasts… What do you mean, “just a little”?! More than any impure thoughts, the feeling of being restrained made my hands and body twitch. I was scared, scared, scared, scared… Huh?

Something was gently patting my back in a steady, slow rhythm. Huh, it wasn’t that scary after all…?

“That’s right, don’t be scared, don’t be scared. With that frightened look in your eyes, you must have gone through something terrifying, right? It’s okay—I’ll never hurt you, Iris-chan. Once you’ve calmed down, try to tune out the noise around you and just listen to the sound of my heartbeat… okay?”

As she continued to pat my back, I gradually began to feel calmer. I did as she said and focused solely on that sound.

……Ah, I could hear it. Thump, thump—the sound beating in a steady rhythm. As I focused on it, the surrounding noises and the flow of people gradually faded from my mind. Being held so gently like this, wrapped in her warm body heat, and listening only to this sound… it somehow felt just like……

Suddenly, another sound reached my ears…… Was this my own heartbeat? I’d always thought my heart was beating erratically, but there it was, beating just as usual.

Ah, oh no, this feels so good……――

.

“Uuuuuuuuuuu……”

Before I knew it, quite a bit of time had passed. My memories of what happened in between were completely blank. The moment I realized what was going on, blood rushed to my face, and tears began to well up in the corners of my eyes.

“Hehe… Doing this to a small, cute kid really is the best… The feeling of them squirming in my arms, that endearing way they seek their mother so defenselessly—I just can’t get enough of it…”

Milly-san looked somehow content and lost in a daze. What should I do? I was too embarrassed to look up. Being held in a woman’s arms, soothed by her heartbeat… and ending up dozing off a little at the end—wasn’t this just like being a baby?

“U-um… I’m sorry for everything.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. It’s just part of the job. Besides, since we’re here, why don’t you use this chance to let it all out? It’s better somewhere private—do you have a room you’re renting or something?”
“Um, well, there’s a room I’m allowed to use, so if we go there…”
“All right, then let’s have Round 2 there…I don’t take no for an answer, not when you look that horrible.”

Before I could stop her, she dragged me along without giving me a chance to object, and before I knew it, I’d been hauled all the way back to my own room.

.

“Um… why am I sitting on your lap?”

The moment we reached the room, she scooped me up in a flash. Being carried princess-style by a woman was insanely embarrassing… but wait—was my body really that light? Maybe I should try a little harder to eat from now on. Wait, no, that’s not the point. Before I could even say anything—my mind having gone completely blank from the shock—I was plopped down. …On Milly-san’s lap, right on top of the bed.

“Don’t worry about it, don’t worry. Is it uncomfortable? I actually think I’m pretty soft and cozy myself.”
“Well, um… yes, very much so.”

Since Milly-san’s—if anything, rather voluptuous—body was softly enveloping my entire body, it was just… Wait, no, what’s going on here?

“Besides, this way, if you get scared, I can just give you a big hug right away, can’t I?”

My back shuddered at those words. The fear I’d forgotten slowly crept back.

“Are you… going to do something scary…?”
“Well, I suppose it is scary. I’m going to have you tell me why you’re so terrified right now. Ever since I first saw you, I’ve been worried—it felt like you were about to break at any moment.”
“…?!”

I instinctively tried to break free and run away, but I was already firmly held in place, and with my body being so weak, it was impossible.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t run away. You have to properly purge all that darkness from your heart.”
“No way, I can’t do that! I don’t want to! I don’t want to remember something like that…!”

I thought you were a kind person—why were you suddenly saying such cruel things?! Even as I thrashed about trying to escape, the arms holding me back were impossible to break free from.

“Even so, I’m going to make you do it. Both you and Reiji-senpai are guys, so you tend to focus only on solutions and overlook the bigger picture. And Ayame-chan, since she’s the kind of girl who can do just about anything, she doesn’t understand either. That’s probably why both of them were just overprotective and avoided you like a hot potato, isn’t it?”

I felt like I couldn’t breathe. She’d hit the nail on the head. It was exactly as Milly-san said—as if she’d been watching us the whole time.

“Yep, I knew it… it was just a guess, but it seems I wasn’t too far off. That’s why you’ve bottled up so much pain. But… talking to someone is more important than you three realize, you know?”

Her tone turned serious, and she whispered gently, as if trying to reason with me.

“Especially after something particularly scary happens, you tend to separate it from your past and think of it in fragments, so sometimes, out of the blue, you’ll remember it and feel an overwhelming sense of fear. That’s because it’s a past that hasn’t truly ended yet. That’s the state you’re in right now. But in reality, it’s already over. You’re here now because you’ve already been saved, right? So, even if it’s scary, you need to process what happened as a ‘story that’s over’ and properly accept it within yourself.”
“B-but… I’m sure I’ll lose myself, and I’ll be a bother…”
“It’s okay. It’s fine to be scared during that process. It’s okay to cry. Just make sure someone listens to you, and turn it into a part of your past—something that ‘had happened.’ So…”

I felt the gentle touch of a hand patting my stomach. Somehow, the tension started to drain away. Tears welled up slowly. Was this okay? I used to think it was embarrassing to show my vulnerable side so freely, but maybe I didn’t have to hide it after all.

“No matter how long it takes, I’ll listen. If you can’t get it all out in one go, come see me again and I’ll listen. So… tell me everything, okay?”

.

Prompted by Milly-san’s encouragement, I told her everything. At first I was hesitant, but once I started talking, it was like a dam had burst—I couldn’t stop. That’s right—this was exactly what I’d been wanting to get off my chest all along. The incident in my original world. My little sister. How I met Reiji. All the stories about the time we spent together. And then, what happened after I came here.

The time I was held captive was humiliating, terrifying, and agonizing. My speech became so garbled I couldn’t make sense of it myself, and I cried, and cried some more.

The things currently happening to me. This body, where even my gender had changed from my original world. Faced with the fear that I might cease to be myself, I lost my composure in the most pathetic way imaginable.

And… the anxiety that, if things continued like this, I’d become a useless burden who only held those two back. Despite that, I felt frustration and anger toward them for not even listening to me.

I really think I exposed a lot of my embarrassing sides. I said a lot of selfish things I’d been too afraid to voice for so long, for fear they’d drift away from me. But every time I did, she would say nothing and simply hold me close, gently stroking my hair—and strangely, I could feel the waves of emotion subsiding.

.

By the time I’d finished telling her everything, the sun was already beginning to set, and the western sky was tinged with red. My eyes were completely red from crying, but strangely, I felt much clearer than I had before I started talking. I’d read somewhere that women don’t necessarily want solutions—they just want someone to listen to them—and when I was a man, I used to think that was irrational. But after living through it this way, I realized that it’s actually an important piece of wisdom for getting through life.

“…Well then, Iris-chan. I’m going to point out two things you did wrong.”
“Uu… yes…”

I straightened my back with a start. Now that things had calmed down, I realized there was so much to reflect on—especially regarding what happened yesterday and today—and I felt restless and on edge, just like a child after getting caught doing something mischievous.

“First off, you going outside without permission. No matter how you look at it, this means you broke a promise to the people who were worried about you—or, to put it another way, you disregarded the people who care about you. Is that clear?”
“Yes…”

If I’d suddenly vanished, of course they’d be shocked. I’m sure I would have caused them a lot of worry. I was so overwhelmed with worry about the two of them, and yet I was about to inflict that exact same feeling on them. I felt an overwhelming sense of guilt, wondering if I’d lost sight of that.

“One more thing. You let your emotions get the better of you and cut off the conversation. Sure, they might have been a bit stubborn, but if you were serious, you should have discussed it with them over and over again, persuaded them, and convinced them. By ending it in a huff, didn’t you actually just run away?”
“Yes… You’re absolutely right. Looking back now, I’m truly ashamed…”

I wished the ground would swallow me up. Throwing a tantrum just because things didn’t go my way and demanding they accept me—that’s just unreasonable, isn’t it? I was completely speechless. What should I do? I was completely at a loss.

…Huh?　

It just occurred to me—since she’s Ayame’s friend, that means she’s actually younger than me, right? What is this? She seemed so motherly.

“Well then, with that in mind, what do you want to do, Iris-chan?”
“…I want to apologize. And on top of that, I want them to listen carefully to what I have to say about the future…”
“Okay, all right. Then, when they come back, you’ll be able to do it properly… You’ll be able to do it, nya.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at Milly-nya, who had suddenly started adding those little “-nya” suffixes to her sentences as if trying to cover things up at the last minute.

“Ahaha… Yes, when they get back, I’ll apologize properly, explain exactly what I want to do, and this time, I’ll make sure they accept it!”

After laughing for a while, I wiped the tears welling up in the corners of my eyes with my finger and, feeling refreshed, agreed with a smile… Wait, why was she looking away?

“…What a dangerous little thing… Ayame, what on earth have you gone and made?”

As she covered her mouth and muttered to herself while looking off in the opposite direction, I just tilted my head, a question mark seemingly floating above me.

.

“…Either way, Ayame and Reiji-senpai sure are late. Are they always this late?”
“No, they’re usually back before evening… I wonder if something happened.”

A sense of unease crept up on me. Come to think of it, it was unusually quiet outside—even though it was the time of day when the streets should be bustling with people heading home from work. Just as that anxiety was taking hold…

“…Gh, aaaah?!”
“Iris-chan, what’s wrong?!”

Suddenly, a sharp pain pierced my entire body. I felt a chill, as if something terrifying was approaching. This pain felt familiar. That time, not long after I arrived here, in the forest…?!

Just then, the floor below suddenly became noisy. I could hear someone running up the stairs. The door burst open, and a flustered Mrs. Miranda rushed in, shouting breathlessly.

“Young Miss! Oh, thank goodness—you were home! Hurry, get out of here… Some strange monsters have invaded the town!!”
“…!”

It felt as if my heart were being squeezed tightly.

“Um, I know a little about fighting—I can help people evacuate… Wait, hey, Iris-chan?!”
“I’m sorry, but I’m going to go look for Rage and Sol-niisama!”

I grabbed the staff leaning against the wall, slipped past the two of them, cast a body-enhancing spell on myself, and dashed out into the town. There was no way those two would lose so easily. Even though I believed that, the unease in my chest wouldn’t subside—as though I was gradually being swallowed by darkness.

***

The actions depicted in this story are fictional; please do not attempt to imitate them.