Isekai Transition

Splaaash!

"… bwah! Pfft! Bwah!"

Water. Water! I'd fallen into water. Thrashing about in a panic, I somehow managed to get my head above the surface.

… A river? A lake? Whatever it was, I had to get out.

Luckily, land was right nearby. I swam a short distance and crawled up onto the shore.

… This was an unfamiliar lake.

"Wh-Where is this…?"

Lush nature… A meadow. As far as the eye could see, a plain of short grass stretched out, with a great lake beside it and forests and mountains in the distance.

The sun shone overhead. It was the kind of scenery you'd see out in the countryside or at a nature park.

"… Huh?"

I had no idea what was going on. I should've just arrived at school. Confusion overwhelmed me…

But I couldn't afford to stay confused. Glancing left and right, my eye caught the figure of a girl stranded out in the middle of the lake.

… She was drowning!

"Setsuna!"

Convinced the person in the lake had to be Setsuna, who'd been with me just moments ago, I leapt back into the water.

I closed the distance, lifted her up, and dragged her out.

"… She's not…"

But I quickly realized this girl wasn't Setsuna. The color of her hair, its length, her facial features, all of it was completely different.

Still, that didn't mean I could just leave her there.

Splash, splash…

My uniform was heavy from soaking up so much water and it was a struggle, but I somehow managed.

The whole time I was pulling her out, the question of who she was kept floating through my head, and now I took another look at her.

I'd thought it couldn't possibly be… but there was no mistaking it.

"!? Kazami… Kanan-san!?"

It was the very same Kanan Kazami I despised so much, the one who had bullied, tormented, and tortured me without end.

There was no doubt about it. That face…

But what was with the hair color? It shone a yellow-green hue.

The reason I hadn't been able to identify her while dragging her out had been this hair color.

She had relatively light pigmentation for a Japanese person, but as far as I knew she was just an ordinary Japanese girl.

And yet now her hair had turned yellow-green, like some anime girl's.

… Setting her personality aside, on the outside she was a beautiful girl on par with any anime heroine, so the color suited her like a perfectly polished cosplay.

Was she just someone who looked a lot like her? Or had she dyed it at some point…? Even then, who would dye their hair yellow-green?

She seemed to be unconscious, her eyes closed as if sleeping…

The girl who was always surrounded and shielded by a swarm of hangers-on now lay drenched and alone, defenseless, sleeping in front of me.

In stark contrast to the spitefulness of her personality, her sleeping face was beautiful.

"… Wh-Why are you here…?"

The moment I said it, I realized how nonsensical the question was.

I didn't even know where "here" was, so asking why didn't really apply.

Anyway… what should I do? I was thinking that when it hit me.

… That's right, she was drowning. She wasn't breathing!

"She's… not breathing!?"

I startled myself with my own thought. No way, if she didn't breathe she'd die! Right, she had fallen into the water and drowned…

Wasn't it that brain damage started after about three minutes without oxygen?

It hadn't even been a minute since I came to my senses, but I had no idea how long she'd been not breathing!

There wasn't a moment to spare. I had to do CPR right away!

Even as confused as I was, I forgot my usual resentment and made up my mind to save Kazami-san.

And so I brought my mouth to hers…

My mouth… w-was this okay? With a girl who, at least on the outside, was a peerless beauty. Someone like me…

But this was lifesaving. It was.

Besides, after all the awful things she'd done to me, a little revenge couldn't be that big of a sin.

… Before I knew it, my objective had shifted from saving a life to revenge, and overcoming my hesitation, I pressed my lips to hers.

Smooch…

"…!"

Sweet, soft lips… How… how good this feels…

"!?"

Pikaaa… bashu! Click… Clack.

The instant I kissed her, something flashed and a strange sound rang out.

I was curious, but…

No, no, this wasn't the time to worry about other things. I had to do CPR fast.

Wait, how did you do CPR again? It had kind of just felt like I was straight-up kissing her…

What was I even doing? Sure, this was Kanan Kazami, the girl I hated, but forcing a kiss on a sleeping girl? What a horrible thing to do… Then again, considering all the awful things she normally did to me, maybe it was justified…

While my thoughts spiraled, I couldn't move, my lips still pressed to hers.

"Mn, mnn…"

Just then, Kanan Kazami let out a small moan.

"… Eh?"

Did she… wake up? Wait, but I… haven't done anything besides kiss her…

Could it be that her not breathing was just my misunderstanding…?

Maybe her sleeping breaths had simply been really quiet…?

So I might have just done something downright lecherous to Kanan Kazami, of all people…

I knew I needed to pull away, but somehow the sweetness and warmth of her lips made it hard to part, and while I dawdled, her eyes snapped wide open.

"…"

"…"

Our lips stayed pressed together for a moment as we stared at each other up close, and then…

"Pwah…!"

Terrified, I scrambled back.

"… Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh…!"

Kanan Kazami seemed to have finally realized what had been done to her.

"What are you doing!? What the hell were you…!?"

She sat up, even more flustered than I was.

"You… Naoto!? Y-You… did t-that, t-to me, of all people…!? You actually thought someone like you could lay a hand on me!?"

Furious, Kazami-san raised a whip.

When and where she'd been carrying it, I had no idea.

But that whip in her hand was the demonic tool used to dominate us slaves. Just being struck with it was enough to make you tremble.

"W-Wait…!"

There was no way she'd actually stop just because I told her to, but I forced the words out anyway.

At that moment…

"…!?"

Pita…

She froze.

… Eh? Had she… actually waited?

Had she ever, even once, listened to anything I said?

"Ngh… wh-what is this…? Why… won't my body move…!? H-Hey, you… wh-what did you do!?"

"… Eh?"

Kazami-san stayed frozen with her whip held high, trembling.

… Could her body really not move?

"Wh-What do I mean, what… I just, uh… w-well… If you mean just now, I just said wait, that's all… I didn't really do anything…"

I mean, since when did someone stop just because you told them to wait?

If that worked, the police would have no trouble catching thieves.

"I-I'm talking about before that!"

Before that… did she mean the kiss?

"Y-You put your lips on mine, on mine, when you're nothing but the lowest of slaves! Know your place, trash!"

Maybe because she couldn't move, Kazami-san laid into me with insults instead… Well, I had done something insult-worthy.

I'd just put my lips to hers; I hadn't actually done CPR.

Come to think of it, I hadn't even checked whether she was breathing. I'd just assumed she was drowning because she was in the water.

The fact that she'd woken up without me actually doing CPR meant her sleeping breaths had probably just been quiet, like I'd thought.

"Ngh… mmgh, kuuuh…! Why… won't I move! You, what did you do!?"

Even while raging, she was clearly bewildered.

It really did seem like her body wouldn't move.

What in the world was going on?

There was no way me telling her to wait had actually made her freeze… right?

But I couldn't think of anything else. Could it have been that she was being forced to obey my orders? Kanan Kazami, of all people?

"Hahaha, no way. So if I told you 'take off your clothes,' would you do it?"

In my confusion, I blurted it out.

And then… her body started moving.

She dropped the whip, and…

Shuru… shururu…

"Eh…?"

Kazami-san began undoing the ribbon of her uniform.

She kept right on going, peeling off her jacket and unhooking her skirt. Her clothes were waterlogged and clung to her, slowing her down, but she steadily worked her way through them.

Beneath her see-through, water-soaked underclothes, the swell of her large breasts pushed up against her camisole.

"Eh… K-Kazami-san!? Wh-Why…?"

I was thrown into total confusion.

"Eh? … Why? Because you ordered me to take them off… Wait, what am I doing…!? W-Why am I, of all people, obeying an order from someone like Naoto!?"

Even as she said that, Kazami-san kept undressing, until she was already down to her underwear. Only then did her movements finally stop.

"Wh-Why… what is this…? Why am I obeying orders from someone like him…?"

Kazami-san looked completely bewildered too.

… She'd… obeyed my order?

"… Gulp…"

I couldn't help but swallow hard. S-So beautiful…

With her uniform top and bottom both gone, beneath her white camisole there was nothing but a bra and panties… Her large, ample breasts asserted themselves loudly, and the white valley of her cleavage…

No, no, no, I couldn't just stand there gawking!

For now, there was no point trying to talk while we were both this confused. I tried to think calmly.

… Apparently, at the moment, Kazami-san was obeying my orders. There was no doubt about that.

Then, when I looked closer, I noticed there was a black… collar around her neck.

It was almost completely transparent, which was why I hadn't noticed at first.

But if I really focused, or shifted my angle, I could vaguely make it out.

And from that collar, just like the collar itself, there extended a chain, invisible to the eye and weightless yet undoubtedly there, and it connected to my hand.

It was almost like she had become my slave instead…

The Chain of Domination. The phrase popped into my head.

Of course, that couldn't have been it…

But the way she stood there in her underwear, with me fully dressed, made it seem clear, no matter how I looked at it, that I was now in the superior position.

… Still, I couldn't just leave her like that forever. She'd catch a cold standing around outside in that state.

But I couldn't exactly make her put her water-soaked clothes back on, either.

"… If we could just dry her clothes… is there some way to do that?"

I muttered to myself. I hadn't meant it as an order, but the next instant,

"Drying… clothes."

Kazami-san's right hand moved. And then…

Fwoosh…!

A wind kicked up and engulfed her discarded uniform. It spun round and round inside a small whirlwind, churning the clothes about.

In the blink of an eye, every drop of moisture in the uniform was gone.

"… Eh?"

"Eh?"

Neither of us understood what had just happened.

… The bottom line, though, was that the uniform top and bottom were now dry.

"… Y-You can put your clothes back on now…"

When I gave that instruction,

"Y-Yeah…"

Kazami-san, still bewildered, picked up her clothes again and started putting them on.

She seemed determined, for now, not to dwell on the inexplicable thing that had just happened.

"… Anyway, where exactly is this place? I'm supposed to be at school… How on earth did I end up somewhere like this?"

After sluggishly finishing dressing, Kazami-san finally voiced the most basic question.

A meadow she'd never seen before, like a nature park…

It had looked vaguely familiar somehow, but I couldn't place it.

"Yeah, that's the thing, I have no idea either."

"… You useless waste! Truly the most worthless man!"

I had no comeback… So maybe me being in the superior position really had been just an illusion after all…

I was thinking that when,

"… Hmph. I came rushing in thinking, 'I'll catch myself an otherworld Garumon,' and lo and behold, an otherworld Master comes as part of the set, too."

"!?"

A man's voice. Someone other than us was calling out.