A drinking party with friends that happens once every few months, the group is
always the same. The number of people goes up or down a little, but it's a comfortable space with people he
knows well.
But good times pass fast. Before he knew it, he was walking alone on the road home.
"Haah..," he sighed, letting out a long sigh without thinking, and the
tension drained from his shoulders.
It was supposed to be the usual drinking party, but today's topic was a little
different.
One of his friends announced out of nowhere, "I'm gonna marry her."
It was a topic that would come up eventually. He knew the time would come sooner or
later.
One of his friends confessed it at the start of the party, looking embarrassed.
Today's conversation was almost all about that, wrapped in a happy mood.
But for him, it was a topic that had nothing to do with him. He didn't have a
girlfriend, and there was no woman he was interested in.
He graduated from college, and after job hunting he finally landed a job, but the
people there didn't fit him, so he dropped out.
He had no choice but to make a living with part-time jobs. He had no dreams. He
just spent every day in a self-destructive way.
His name is Kaginushi Souta. He's 24, two years out of college. His hobby is
reading.
He said goodbye to his friends and was walking to the nearest station, but then he
noticed he was on a different road than usual.
Was it unconscious? More like his feet were walking there on their own.
He noticed it and stopped, and there were stairs going down.
As if inviting him in, a neon sign on the wall glowed bright with an arrow and the
word [INN].
"Huh?" His inner voice slipped out on its own as he stood there.
Even if he tried to leave, his heart wouldn't follow. A strange feeling.
It wasn't like being pulled back, and it wasn't like being pushed forward.
If he had to put it into words, it was like the feeling of opening the sliding door in the crane's repayment
story.
You're definitely not supposed to peek, but curiosity wins and you end up doing
it anyway. That was exactly what Souta was like right now.
A little music leaked out, and the lively voices of men and women reached his ears.
He thought it must be fate that his feet led him here, and Souta took one step,
then another, down the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs was a fairly big door. It wasn't modern – it was a
Western-style double door, and there was a placard stuck on it that said [Club ISK].
It felt more like a hostess club than a bar. For a moment, a sense of danger
crossed his mind telling him he should leave, but his body had already put his hand on the door and pushed it
open.
Beyond the door was a room about three tatami mats big, with a counter and red
decorations as the main theme.
"Welcome~," the woman behind the counter cooed, her soft greeting having
a slightly drawn-out ending.
"Ah… uh!" Souta flinched for a moment. The woman's outfit was so
revealing that he didn't know where to look.
It was too small to even call a swimsuit. The cloth covered only the important
parts of her body with a tiny bit of fabric.
She had bat-like wings on her back, and her full, ripe breasts were completely
exposed.
She had long purple hair, and what caught Souta's eye most was the tattoo on
her lower belly.
She looked exactly like a succubus1 – something that shows up all the time in the kind of novels he loves to
read.
"Is this your first time here, Fana~?" she asked.
She asked Souta, who was frozen stiff.
"Fa? Fana?"
"Yeees~ Here we call our customers 'Fana' with lots of love and
respect~"
Backing away slightly, Souta stammered, "N-no, wait… I think I'm in the
wrong place."
"Ehh~, really~?"
Souta tried to turn around in a hurry, but she was a step faster and grabbed his
hand.
Her hand was strangely warm, but it wasn't unpleasant. Instead, he was hit with
a feeling like he didn't want to let go.
"You came all this way, so why not have some fun before you go~?"
At some point, Souta was already holding her hand back with both of his.
That hand was led into the valley of her breasts.
"There are lots and lots of other cast members here who are way, waaay more
attractive than me, you know?"
"Huh?"
There's no way you know what I like, he argued in his head.
At the same time, the door in the back opened, and loud music leaked into this room
too.
He couldn't see what was in the back, but the lights were glittering brightly,
and moody BGM was playing.
At the same time, another woman came to this place.
Her clothes were completely different from the woman in front of him – calm.
She looked exactly like a maid2 –
something that appears in the books he loves to read.
She wore a long skirt based on black and white, and round glasses gave off a
serious vibe.
"Ms. Saki, is this a Fana?" the maid asked.
"Yes, yeees~ I thought he was a new customer, but he says he's in the
wrong store~"
Unlike the succubus-like Saki, the maid sent Souta a cold look.
Turning to Souta, the maid began, "I see. Then please take your leave-"
Before the maid could finish, the back door opened again, and two women came into
this room.
"A Fana's here, meow!" the cat-eared girl chirped.
"I'm free today, so I'll give you a service!" the tall woman
chimed in.
Both of them wore swimsuits that hid their private parts with just a tiny bit of
cloth, just like Saki.
The one on the right had cat ears on her head and a long thin tail swaying as she
clung to Souta's right arm.
The woman standing on the left was big – way taller than Souta. Her body was
muscular and tough, and her swimsuit had a cow pattern, which made him think of a cow.
She even had a choker with a cowbell on it, which made the cow feel even stronger.
"Ms. Nono, Ms. Mio, you're too eager. This person wanted to go to a
different store..," the maid said.
Right then, Saki slipped the hand she was holding into the valley of her own
breasts.
"Here, you can do this kind of thing, and even better things too, you know~?
Even so, do you still want to go somewhere else~?"
"Saki, that's cheap, meow! This Fana's mine, meow!" Mio pouted.
"Hey hey, ain't fair. I'm free today, so let's all have fun,
yeah?" Nono interjected.
The big woman called Nono came over to Souta too, to join the fight between Saki
and Mio over him.
"W-wait! Everyone, please stop. The Fana is in troub-"
A loud voice cut through the maid's attempt to stop them and echoed through the
small three-tatami room.
Overcome by the atmosphere, Souta blurted out, "I'll go here! I want to
have fun with everyone here!"
"Huh?" "Yaaay~" "As expected, meow!"
"Hehehe"
The four people there each showed their own reaction.
The one who was most surprised wasn't the maid – it was Souta himself, the one
who said it.
Trivia:
- Souta compares his pull toward the stairs to the crane's repayment folktale,
a story about a man who peeks at what he shouldn't and loses everything – a quiet hint that this choice may
cost him.
- The club sits underground behind a Western-style double door with a placard,
meaning the entrance is hidden from the street and not meant to be found by accident.
- Saki says "you came all this way" the moment Souta tries to leave,
implying the club already knows he arrived and will not simply let him walk back out.
Translation Notes:
NOTE_1 | サッキュバス (Succubus) | A creature from myth that appears in the kinds of
novels Souta reads. The English reader may not connect that Souta recognized her type instantly from fiction,
which is why he froze less from shock and more from disbelief.
NOTE_2 | メイド (Maid) | Refers to the Western-style servant outfit, not a modern cafe
maid. Souta recognizes it from the books he reads, which is why the maid's appearance feels familiar and
unsettling to him at the same time.