77. Unchanging Even as a Second-Year (3)

The day the results of the 1st semester midterm exams for second year were announced.

Our school hands out individual paper report cards after each midterm and final exam, which list all the grades (raw scores, percentile, ranking, etc.) so far.

In other words, with just one report card, you can tell whether your grades have gone up or down compared to the previous exams.

[Report Card]

[Literature (3) Raw Score 98 / Subject Average 67] [Ranking : 1]

[Language & Media(3) Raw Score 97 / Subject Average 63] [Rank Grade: 1]

[Mathematics 1(3) Raw Score 95 / Subject Average 58] [Rank Grade: 1]

[Mathematics 2(3) Raw Score 93 / Subject Average 49] [Rank Grade: 1]

…….

…….

[Japanese 1(3) Raw Score 98 / Subject Average 69] [Rank Grade: 1]

The numbers stamped onto my report card – a stagnant holding pattern, as ever. Neither soaring nor plummeting compared to last year’s final exams.

Though maintaining the status quo is supposedly the hardest thing in the world. So, I must’ve done alright yet again, right?

“Math 2’s raw score is the lowest, though…”

I muttered to myself, then glanced down at the bottom of the report.

In the space reserved for special notes and the homeroom teacher’s comments, a message written in neat script: [Just keep this up until your senior year. You’ll get into any department you want~ ^^].

“……”

Any department I want, huh.

Truth be told, if I just maintain these scores, I could choose almost anywhere – save for maybe med school, as the teacher said. The trouble is, there isn’t a particular department calling my name.

‘Decisions, decisions…’

Hmm, should I really just go to the College of Physical Education, like everyone keeps saying?

The kind of privileged quandary that would make others roll their eyes, all that…

*Thump.*

Someone’s hands landed on my shoulders.

“Uju~chan, how’d your exams go?”

Turning around, who else but Aki.

Instead of answering, I chuckled and casually nudged my report card aside.

Aki, with a look of utter fascination, glanced at my grades.

“Rank 1, Rank 1, Rank 1…. Wow, all Rank 1s again…?”

Her eyes widened, and she covered her mouth with her hand.

“How did *your* exams go, Aki? How’d you do?”

“……Hehe.”

*Click.*

Aki planted her hands on her hips, a knowing smile spreading across her face.

Just by the look of it, she must’ve done well, but I wondered just *how* well she’d performed, given her confidence as I turned my gaze toward her report card.

[ACADEMIC REPORT CARD]

[Literature (3) Raw Score 94 / Subject Average 67] [Rank: 1]

[Language and Media (3) Raw Score 93 / Subject Average 63] [Rank: 1]

[Math 1 (3) Raw Score 87 / Subject Average 58] [Rank: 1]

[Math 2 (3) Raw Score 84 / Subject Average 49] [Rank: 2]

…….

…….

[Japanese 1 (3) Raw Score 99 / Subject Average 69] [Rank: 1]

Save for a few subjects where the exam was particularly brutal, nearly all were Rank 1.

Considering my last mock exam last year was in the early Rank 2s, with a peak of 1.8, my current position, roughly around 1.5, has not just broken through that peak, but rocketed sky-high.

School grades, being what they are, become exponentially harder to improve the closer one is to the top, so this truly *is* a commendable feat.

“Oh? Looks like you’ve gotten your old mojo back?”

“Heheh, of course! And who am I?!”

Aki, visibly proud, puffs out her chest and grins prettily.

‘At this rate…’

These are the kinds of grades where one might aim to only meet the minimum requirements for the university entrance exam and try for university through rolling admissions, wouldn’t they?

I was about to ask her which department she was thinking of applying to when—

*Whoosh*, Aki embraced me from behind.

“Uju~chan, do you remember that bet we made last month?”

“Huh? A bet?”

“The one we made on my test scores. The one where if my scores improved, we’d each grant the other a wish!”

“……Ah, right.”

We *did* make such a bet, didn’t we?

I remembered now that Aki mentioned it. It was roughly a month ago, and its contents were unmistakably, ‘If Aki’s test scores improve, we will each grant the other a wish.’

“My test scores improved *so* much, so can I have two wishes?”

“Two? Hmmm…”

“Pleeease? Huh? I worked *so* hard, you see. Huh? Uh huh…”

“……”

Indeed. Aki *did* work incredibly hard. To the point of even turning down the sugary sweets she loved so much.

Alright, what the heck. I nodded in understanding.

“Alright, alright. Two it is. What’s the wish?”

“…Heh.”

*Squeeze.*

Aki, clinging to me, hugs me even tighter.

Of course, when she does this, something soft presses against the back of my head, squishing and shifting.

“I’m not using them now.”

“Eh? Not using them now?”

“Uh-huh, later. …Much, much later.”

*Squeeeeeeze.*

“I’ll use them when the moment feels right. There wasn’t a deadline on using the wish tickets, was there….”

“Well, yeah, but….”

Then when the heck *is* she going to use them?

Feeling her chest pressed against the back of my head, not even noticing, spinning words like that… It gave me a vaguely unsettling feeling. But as Aki said, there wasn’t any deadline set for the wish, so there wasn’t anything I could do about it right now.

“What’s *your* wish, Uju~chan?”

“Me? Well, I…”

“Just so you know, *I* can grant anything Uju~chan wants. …Anything at all.”

“……I.”

“Really, anything. From something a little risqué, to something *very* risqué. No, even beyond that. Yeah, all of it….”

“…….”

*Cough.*

A cough involuntarily escaped.

Having her chest pressed and rubbed against the back of my head while saying something like that, for a moment, a stray thought flashed in my mind: ‘Could something like *that* be possible…?’

I quickly shook my head, banished the impure thoughts, and went for something more wholesome.

Well, considering we’re both 18, something at about this level of raunchiness should be alright.

I quietly voiced the wish I had been secretly harboring.

“…Then, about that cosplay we talked about last time…”

“Cosplay? Ah, the bunny girl suit, half-open at the chest?”

“Yeah, that. …Could you show it to me?”

Not that I need to justify myself.

I’m just curious, y’know?

Just what in the world a proper bunny girl looked like, and how one even wore the getup.

“…Heheh. Of course, I can show you!”

Aki answered immediately, pulling me in tighter.

If I exaggerated just a bit, the back of my head would have sunk right between Aki’s br*easts.

Aki hugged me that tightly, and whispered to me just like that,

as if she had been waiting only for these words.

“I’ll go show you after school, so look forward to it…?”

“…Yes.”

* * *

“Well, how is it?”

“……”

I was at a loss for words.

Aki’s outfit, standing before my eyes.

It was far too scandalous, far too lovely to behold.

The bunny ear headband perched lightly on her head, the bow tie, the cuffs on her wrists were all so cute.

The glossy black corset, deeply, no, *very* deeply plunging, was so s*xy that I suddenly felt like reaching out and touching it.

And below that, the coffee-colored stockings running from her slender waist, over her curvaceous hips, smooth thighs, calves, ankles, down to her delicate toes…

There were just no words.

I swear, I’ve never had a thing for stockings, but for a moment, I seriously wondered, ‘Did I always have a thing for stockings…?’ That’s how far gone I was.

I swallowed repeatedly, my Adam’s apple bobbing, as I frantically scanned Aki’s figure from top to bottom.

A perfect bunny girl cosplay outfit, with literally not a single thing to fault.

If there were bunny girls like this in a casino, I might just spend the whole day admiring their backsides, gambling be damned.

“Cute, right? Huh? …Cute, right?”

“……Yes.”

“Heehee…”

Aki slowly walked towards me.

Perhaps because the corset exposed more than 50% of her chest, something soft, big, and squishy bounced up and down every time Aki took a step.

“…Whoa.”

Natural.

No, this is the greatness of nature.

How could they ripple like that, no, tremble, uh… Hmm….

“Want to touch them?”

“…Huh?”

I echoed back, like a robot with a short circuit.

Aki gazed up at me, my jaw hanging loose, before lightly taking hold of my sleeve.

“You can touch them if you want…”

“……”

A twitch.

I nearly moved my hand of its own accord.

If I’d been just a little slower to regain my senses, I probably would have grabbed a fistful and been done with it.

And what exactly I would have grabbed a fistful of, well, I won’t sully my own mouth by saying it…

“…Uhm, Master?”

Aki embraced me softly.

With only the thin bunny-girl corset between us, Aki’s chest pressed directly against my abdomen.

“Atashi gets lonely if Master doesn’t do anything…?”

“……”

“…Hih.”

Aki’s lips curled up into a slight smirk.

She seemed pleased that I was frozen like a stone statue, unable to utter a word.

Or maybe, well, maybe there was another reason.

Perhaps.

“What’s this…?”

Some indescribable state of affairs.

Aki glanced not at me, but at my waistline.

Then, she pulled me even closer, as if trying to gauge something. She pressed her lower abdomen against my lower abdomen, gently, subtly, rubbing us together.

“…Master, it’s been tough on you, right?”

“No, that’s…”

Why am I even Master?

That’s what I tried to say, but Aki’s tight embrace was quicker.

“Feeling good, you can do it without a wish ticket…”

“……”

“Just one word, and you can do whatever you want with me in this…?”

“……”

Before I knew it, I’d already imagined it.

Me, doing *that* with Aki, dressed in a coffee-colored stocking bunny girl outfit, deeply cut in the front, back, and around her chest.

Just the imagining sent shivers down my spine.

If it were actually possible, it would feel several, no, dozens of times better than I could even conceive.

That, I felt certain of.

“Hm? Master, feeling… good… with me…? Ah, mmm…”

“…Ha.”

I couldn’t hold back.

And so, I k*ssed her.

It was a sudden k*ss, but Aki didn’t panic, instead wrapping her arms around my neck.

I, in turn, wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her close, and using my arm strength alone, lifted her slightly so she had to stand on tiptoes, before deepening the k*ss, a hot exhale escaping as our tongues intertwined.

“Mmm, mmm… Smack, smack…”

“……”

“……Chwerp.”

“……”

“……*Phew*, mmm.”

The k*ss stretched on, long and lingering.

“Smack, heh…”

“……”

“……*Ha-yawn*.”

“……”

“Slurp, *haa*… …*Hngh*.”

“Hoo…”

I broke the k*ss, breathless.

Even though we’d stolen gasps of air between.

“…Heh, you’ve got tint on.”

Aki lightly wiped the corner of my lip with her index finger.

It was a long k*ss, true, long enough for the faint stain of her tint to ghost onto my lips, as Aki had said. Long enough to leave a thrumming ache at the root of my tongue from the thorough mixing.

I gazed at Aki, my eyes half-glazed over.

Aki, mirroring my dazed look, regarded me in silence.

“So, what’s next, Uju-chan…?”

She whispered, her voice thick with longing.

And so I,

“……Next…”

“Yes, next…?”

‘……Ah, I really don’t want to say it.’

I desperately tried to quell the fire blazing within, and spoke with a voice heavy with regret.

“I think… maybe we should do it later…”

“……”

“……Sorry.”

Thump.

Aki gave my stomach a soft thump with her fist.

There was no strength behind it, it didn’t hurt at all, but I could immediately sense the emotion swirling inside it, mirroring my own.

“……Hmph, idiot.”

“I’m really sorry. But I can…”

“Forget it, come here.”

Aki slipped her hand slightly under the hem of my shirt.

Her fingers moved subtly, tracing the tender skin along my side with the tip of her index finger.

“Let me at least touch the rice cake I can’t eat…”

“……Sorry.”

“If you’re sorry, then just pin me down already…!”

“……”

Just wait a little longer.

When the time comes.

I won’t stop even if you beg me to…