"After all, women dress for those who appreciate them. Our Rias-chan has long been prepared to wear the sexiest swimsuit for Bokue-kun."
"W-well, 'sexiest' might be overstating it..."
Once again thoroughly teased, Rias blushed again, her previously fluent speech becoming stumbling.
Having scored consecutive openings, Serafall turned aside, covering her mouth with a meaningful chuckle.
"Oh? Is that so? So Rias-chan is saying she's unwilling to wear the sexiest swimsuit for our Bokue-kun?"
"I-I didn't mean that either..."
One trap after another—caught in verbal loops of her own making, Rias had completely lost the ability to fight back.
At the end of the day, what "sexiest or not" remained between her and Bokue anyway? The latter had probably already counted every mole on her body. What did it matter what she wore?
"Hehehe, isn't this nice though?"
Meanwhile, Himejima Akeno—seated in the first position on the right-side sofa—smiled while gently stroking her cheek.
"A little competition now and then isn't bad. Everyone can wear their most confident swimsuit for a showdown. At least I, Akeno, absolutely have no intention of conceding defeat."
'Mm...'
Rias's mouth twitched slightly.
'What is this—a challenge declaration? Challenging me, the club president?'
'Shouldn't we be on the same team as close friends??'
"Alright, then that settles it."
Bokue clapped his hands.
"I'll go tell Kuroka and the others too. Then after dinner, we'll all head out together to buy swimsuits... hm?"
His words barely finished when Bokue suddenly felt his hem being gently tugged.
Looking down, he saw a certain white-haired cat-eared girl had somehow appeared before him. She held a half-eaten pudding cup in her mouth, white pudding liquid coating the corners of her lips. She looked up at him with blinking golden eyes.
"Don't forget Gasper."
"Gasper?"
Bokue didn't immediately catch on.
"Doesn't Gasper live with you all? You haven't told her yet?"
"Gasper, she..." (Read below)
Koneko hesitated, as if recalling something. Even her cat ears drooped slightly, seeming a bit downcast.
"Actually, we did tell her."
Rias pressed her palm to her forehead, taking over with a soft sigh.
"Honestly, I don't know what's gotten into Gasper lately. She feels kind of... should I say she's been avoiding us...?"
Huh?
A question mark appeared above Bokue's head.
He knew Gasper's personality was extremely shy, plus a bit socially anxious—the type who'd get nervous when strangers approached, then activate her time-stop ability when nervous.
But logically, Rias, Koneko, and the others were all longtime household members. No reason she'd still be shy or nervous enough to avoid them, right?
"Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what's happening. Most of the time she stays alone in the storage room and won't come out."
Rias looked quite helpless.
"And if we go in directly, she activates time-stop and runs away. In short, we can't have any conversation at all."
"I see. Then I'll go check on her now."
Bokue spoke while turning to leave the parlor.
The timing worked out perfectly anyway—especially since vampires were nocturnal creatures. Evening was precisely when she'd be waking up.
Going now should be just right to—
Creeeak~
Scene transition. As the storage room's wooden door was slowly pushed open from outside, Bokue leaned in sideways.
"Gasper, are you... uh?"
The instant he looked inside, he saw a blonde-haired vampire girl who seemed to have just woken up. She sat topless in the cardboard box serving as her coffin substitute, hands covering her slightly swelling small chest. Her clothes-to-wear lay beside her. She stared blankly at him.
❁❁❁❁
Rewinding time two minutes earlier, inside the old schoolhouse's first-floor storage room.
"Mm..."
Inside the large cardboard box serving as her coffin substitute, the vampire girl who'd just awakened stripped off her sleeping clothes. In the hazy sunset light streaming through the window into the storage room, she cupped her small chest, examining it carefully while looking down.
It feels... like it got slightly bigger again.
Though not very obvious, it had definitely grown.
If previously there'd been absolutely nothing—to where you couldn't distinguish front from back by touch alone—now she could feel a tiny bit of softness.
At least it completely filled the hollow of her palm.
But why is this happening...
The vampire girl felt deeply troubled.
This situation had started after they'd moved the old schoolhouse from Kuoh Academy to Itogami Island.
More precisely, it began from that time she'd been playing Metal Gear Solid stealth-style with a cardboard box outside the bathroom door, only to be discovered by Nagisa.
Unlike Nagisa who'd become a vampire later, Gasper was born a vampire.
And vampires all shared one trait—before adulthood, they were genderless. Though possessing female bodies, they lacked reproductive capability. Only after reaching adulthood would their psychological state determine whether they'd become male or female.
Of course, this process wasn't instantaneous. It might involve years of gradual change, with starting times varying early or late.
But usually everything stabilized in the few years before adulthood, so when the actual day arrived, it would be natural.
Which was precisely why Gasper felt so troubled.
She only had two years left until gender determination. Normally, vampires at this age should already be showing changes.
Of course, she was indeed changing.
Just not the changes she wanted.
'She was supposed to be a total bro! So why—with only two years until adulthood remaining—was her chest starting to grow??'
Not only that. These past days, Gasper could clearly feel other parts of her body changing bit by bit too.
Her waist grew slimmer, her hip circumference widened, and even her leg lines became more graceful.
Beyond that, originally she could spin nonstop in the gaming world for twenty-four hours straight as long as she had her console in hand.
But now, though she still maintained tremendous interest in games, whenever sounds of Rias and the others "bathing" with Bokue came from the first-floor bathroom at night, she couldn't suppress her inner impulses. She'd slip into her cardboard box and stealthily creep out, hiding in the hallway corner outside the bathroom to "get a piece of the action."
Obviously, if this continued, she'd definitely end up becoming a delicate, fragile girl.
'Why is this happening??'
Just as the vampire girl's mental state exploded, she suddenly heard the sound of door hinges rotating from the entrance.
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