"Hey, something hard is, like, poking me..," Shirakawa muttered groggily.
"O-oh, my bad... it's a morning thing," I stammered.
When I woke up, I was holding Shirakawa from behind.
"Want me to, like, take care of it?" she asked teasingly.
"Shut up, you virgin tease4..," I grumbled.
"What the heck, you're a virgin1 too, Kuroi..," Shirakawa giggled.
"Shut up... I'm getting up soon," I said.
"By the way, did it get a little bigger in here?" Shirakawa asked, looking around the space.
"Huh? Oh, yeah..," I replied.
Last night when we went to sleep, when I laid down on the mat there was only about 30 centimeters of space to the wall, but now it's about double that.
"Whoa, so this is, like, how you level up!" she exclaimed.
"I don't really get it, but in my case I'm using the Item Box3 non-stop, so maybe my leveling up is faster too," I reasoned.
"I gotta use more Magic too. Clean!" Shirakawa shouted.
"Whoa... wait, did you just cast that on this whole space?" I asked in surprise.
"Yep yep! I figured if I'm gonna use it, I might as well go all out," she replied proudly.
"Makes sense. I should think about how I use mine, too," I said.
I got up like I was crawling out of the Item Box and ran to the bathroom in the room. Calm down, calm down, my rationality...
When I came back from the bathroom, Shirakawa cast Clean on me. I mean, I just took a leak, I didn't do that.
"Like, what are we gonna do with this mat?" Shirakawa asked.
"Well, bringing it along would be a pain," I replied.
"Hey, can't you split the Item Box or something?" she suggested.
"Split it?" I asked.
"Yeah, like Item Box A and Item Box B," Shirakawa explained.
"Oh, gotcha... let me try," I said.
Yesterday, I tried opening another Item Box inside the Item Box, but it didn't work. But splitting it feels like it might work. I set the mat up vertically and made a space for it, then built a shelf next to it for the bag, water bottles, food, and stuff.
"Alright, close this up, and then another one over here... Oh, it worked. But is it too cramped?" I asked.
"It's fine, it's totally fine! If we do this, it's all good," Shirakawa insisted.
"W-wait, you..," I gasped.
I managed to split the Item Box, but since I stored the mat in there too, this side got a lot smaller. I was thinking it might be a bit tight for two people to walk side by side, and then Shirakawa grabbed my left arm and pressed herself against me like a proper gyaru2. Her well-developed chest got squeezed right up against me, and my sanity almost flew out the window. I just calmed it down earlier, and now walking is gonna be hard again.
"O-okay, I'm hungry. Let me head out to grab some food," I said quickly.
"Or, like, you could just eat me instead," Shirakawa teased.
"S-shut up, you virgin tease!" I snapped.
"Man, what a totally stubborn virgin..," Shirakawa sighed mockingly.
"Annoying..," I muttered under my breath.
After eating the breakfast we got from the Kitchen, we dug through the costume room to sort out Shirakawa's clothes. They bounce around and poke out and make it hard to know where to look, so I made her pick out underwear first, all of it.
"Hey, which one looks better?" Shirakawa asked, holding up two options.
"Come on... we're not here on vacation," I sighed.
"Ehhhh... It's gonna take a while before we get back to Japan anyway, right? So wouldn't it be super fun to enjoy it?" she argued.
"Well, that's true..," I conceded.
Shirakawa's right, honestly. Right now we don't have a way to get back to Japan, or a way to save our classmate who's being abused. If we're gonna do anything, we need to build up our strength first. So until then, it'd be better to have fun, right? Sitting around frowning and working ourselves to death just isn't our style.
"Then the blue one on the left," I pointed out.
"Whoa, so that's, like, what you like, Kuroi!" Shirakawa grinned.
"No, I don't know anything about fashion. It's just a guess," I defended myself.
"Then how about this one and, like, this one...?" Shirakawa asked.
What Shirakawa's holding is a pure pink bra and a bright red skimpy one. I don't know the details, but to my eyes they look pretty close to the stuff in Japan.
"Pink..," I muttered.
"Whoa, I thought you'd like the red one. Honestly surprising..," Shirakawa commented.
"Shut up... Anyway, will the size even fit?" I asked.
"Hmm... Let me try it on real quick," Shirakawa said casually.
"W-wait, you..," I stammered.
Even though I'm right there, Shirakawa threw off her shirt and started trying on the bra, so I panicked and turned around.
"Hmph, you could look if you want..," Shirakawa teased softly.
"You little... Fine, then I'll stare real good," I gritted my teeth.
"Jk, jk! Wait, no, I can't. I mean, you actually looking is, like, so not happening!" Shirakawa squeaked.
I was gonna brace myself and stare a hole through her, but now it's don't look... I got dragged into this by the Cleaning Magic and saved her, but maybe that was a mistake. After that, once she finished putting on her underwear, she showed off while pushing up her cleavage, but when I got close to stare, she rejected me. What does she even want... I'm gonna grope you, you virgin tease!
In the end, it took until almost noon to settle on a style like some noble family's wild daughter. When we went to the Kitchen to grab lunch, it felt like the amount of food being cooked had gone down. After filling up on the food we snagged here and there, we went to check out the Cafeteria, and there was no sign of the raid group either.
"Kuroi, there's, like, nobody here..," Shirakawa observed, looking around.
"Did they get moved somewhere?" I wondered aloud.
"What do we do?" Shirakawa asked.
"Well, we don't even know where they were moved to, and there are more than twenty of them over there, so they'll figure something out," I explained.
"When we can get back to Japan, should we go save them?" Shirakawa asked thoughtfully.
"Hmm... Well, we'll see when the time comes," I answered evasively.
"Then for a while, it's totally just the two of us, huh..," Shirakawa smiled.
With a mischievous grin, Shirakawa pressed herself against me again.
"H-hey... Come on..," I protested weakly.
"What? Don't tell me you don't like it?" Shirakawa teased.
"I-it's not that I don't like it..," I admitted.
"Then it's totally fine, right...?" she whispered softly.
So soft, and she smells kinda nice, and my heart won't stop pounding. I should be cooler about this... ahh, no way.
Trivia:
- The Item Box expanding overnight suggests that leveling up inside it causes the internal space to grow, meaning Kuroi's constant use of the Item Box is directly tied to the physical size of his safe zone.
- Shirakawa casting Clean on the entire Item Box space at once implies that Magic can be area-targeted if the caster intends it, which is a detail that could matter for future large-scale spells.
- The detail that the raid group and over twenty people have vanished from the Cafeteria hints that the world's system may relocate groups without warning, possibly as a game-like mechanic.
Translation Notes:
1 ↩ Japanese slang abbreviation for "Doutei" (virgin), used as a teasing insult between the two characters.
2 ↩ A Japanese fashion subculture characterized by flashy clothing, heavy makeup, and bold social attitudes, often translated as "gal."
3 ↩ A game-like storage ability common in isekai stories, but here it serves as a livable pocket dimension rather than a simple inventory.
4 ↩ Literally "virgin bitch," an oxymoron used as playful banter meaning someone who acts provocative but has no experience.
Notes:
• Shirakawa - Family name of Shirakawa Kiyoka, the dark-skinned gyaru and classmate of the protagonist who was summoned alongside him to another world.
• Kuroi - First-person narrator and Item Box user. Male protagonist summoned to another world. Has killed three people. Pragmatic and self-preserving, prioritizing his own safety and return to Japan over helping strangers. Plans to loot the castle and escape. Possesses an Item Box skill that lets him hide and store things, and keeps it constantly active, which may be why his leveling is faster. Cynical and rational, with a forgettable presence that he uses to his advantage. He knows the people of this world are trash and plans to return to Japan. He is a virgin and gets flustered easily by Shirakawa's teasing, often struggling to stay calm when she presses against him.