Hitomi pulled up in front of my house. I had been too absorbed looking over all the pictures taken from the Okinawa trip to realize. Mio leaned on my shoulder, fast asleep in the back of the car.
"We're home, sleepyhead."
Mio rubbed her crusty eyes and groaned. She was one of the many students who complained about leaving Okinawa. It wasn't until we got to the airport that it dawned on us that our eden was temporary.
"Eugh… I don't wanna be here. Take me back to Okinawa!" she complained.
"You're a succubus. You can fly there whenever you want. Get out of the car already," Hitomi said from the driver's seat, her patience growing thin.
"Oh, right. Teehee!" That was enough to perk up Mio's mood.
As we were grabbing our stuff from the trunk, Hitomi leaned out of the window and said, "I shouldn't need to remind you, but we've got exams next week."
"Why should it matter to me?" Mio asked, scratching her head.
Hitomi glared at her. I glared at her.
It was easy to forget we didn't need to physically eat food in order to survive anymore. Natural laws of physiology went out the window as soon as I became a succubus. To Mio, this world was just a plaything. She didn't need money to survive. While that may also be true for me, unlike Mio, I was born of this world and still had many societal obligations to consider.
Namely, getting accepted into a good college, career choice, and eventually, a family.
Never mind that I had to eventually face the music with my parents coming back. A whole bunch of issues with my identification was bound to come up later. Especially, for example, my birth certificate and government issued ID has me registered as a boy.
I vaguely recalled Hatsumi saying that she would do something about it. I wondered what exactly she could even do.
"Putting Mio aside, we could set up a study session this weekend. Today's only Friday after all, so it leaves two days to study," I suggested.
Mio rolled her eyes "Aw, man. You guys want to study?"
"School is still important to the rest of us native Earth folk. In fact, since you're living in this world now, you should think carefully about your future. You can't keep freeloading off the Ito household," Hitomi scolded.
Both of us agreed to hold a study session at my place tomorrow, and then at Hitomi's house on Sunday. My grades were pretty average across the board. Kana was above average. The true breadwinners were Hitomi and Rika. Both of them consistently ranked top twenty in our class, with Hitomi floating between first and third in every examination.
When I walked through the door, heavy footsteps rushed downstairs until I was brutally tackled back out of the house.
I saw the sky above me, and on my chest was a mess of pink hair.
"You guys left me alone for an entire week!" Hana wailed.
Mio picked Hana off me and asked her, "Didn't we tell you we had a trip?"
"Uwwhhhaaaaat? Is that why like a third of the school was gone?" Hana glanced at each of us expecting an answer. Our stare was all it took for the gears in her head to click into place. "O-Oh… Wait a minute. So why didn't you invite me and Yumi?"
Hana pouted so hard her cheeks looked like they were about to burst.
"It was only a trip for the third years. You'll have one in two years," I answered.
Her pout deflated to a blank expression. Then she started punching Mio in the stomach.
"I could have gone if you put me as a third year! Damn you, Mio!" she shouted in despair. Then, as quickly as a flip of a coin, the pink-haired helion reverted back to her eccentric self. "That's right! While you guys were gone, I picked up a new hobby."
"That… can't be good, coming from you." I took a step back, but Hana took a step forward.
"It's not porn, I swear! I've long given up the director's seat and megaphone for a much more pure artform," she said, thumping her chest.
Mio and I weren't convinced, but this didn't seem like something Hana was going to let go.
"Okay, I'll bite. What is it?" I asked.
"Yesss. Yessssss! Give me more of that uunnf. I love it. You two are perfect. So sexy!" Hana hovered over us like a fly to rotting meat, snapping pictures with my camera.
People walking past us made weird looks around, presumably at the sound of camera shutters going off. Since we three were invisible, no one knew that two succubus were posing in the nude— in the middle of the streets.
Hana suddenly stopped taking pictures. "Come on, Saeko. If you're gonna play the demure and embarrassed exhibitionist, at least own it."
"THIS ISN'T WHAT I HAD IN MIND!" What was meant to be a mental scream, came out in full blast. I covered my mouth, but the damage had been done and people were looking left and right for the source. "I thought you said it wasn't porn?"
"It isn't! This is gravure!" she said in a horrible posh accent to sound sophisticated.
I smacked my face, angry for letting her trick me into this.
"What the hell made you want to shoot gravure anyway...?" I dared ask.
"Uwahaha— Well… video editing turned out to be harder than I thought. When I was stitching and editing the shots together, the files got corrupted." Hana shrugged as if my embarrassment and dignity at the time of filming amounted to nothing.
Mio snuck up behind me, cupped a handful of my breasts and squeezed. "Come on! I know you're an exhibitionist at heart. You love this shit."
"Th-This isn't turning me on…" I said, lying through my teeth.
My body was hot as an oven, and the wetness between my legs was evidence of how turned on I was. Crowds of people were walking past me. If it weren't for the invisibility spell, countless eyes would be staring at me. Not only that— they would be taking pictures and videos of me. In this day in age, that would spread through the internet like wildfire, and no doubt get to my school in no time.
I would live the rest of my life with people who'd seen my pictures occasionally recognize me in public. No matter how dressed up I would be, they would see the naked me underneath all the clothes. Who knows how many people would use me as fap material. Just the thought made my pussy twitch and nipples hard.
Though, I wasn't about to admit that out loud.
"What are you even planning to do with those pictures anyway?" I asked Hana. She didn't answer immediately. Maybe for good reason. People took pictures for one or two things— money and memories. I sure as hell wasn't going to put them in a photobook, which left the only one other option. "Hana. Answer the question."
"Look, I'll put censor bars over your eyes. No one will know it's you!" Hana assured, but I was no less convinced.
"As if I can believe that!" I dove for the camera, but Hana flew into the sky.
"You're all stepping stones for my dreams! Uwahahaha!" Her shrill laughter was all I heard as I chased after her.
I was about to ask Mio for help, but I see her eyeing a food stall.
"We can eat later. Help me catch Hana before my ass and tits are all over the internet!" I pleaded.
Mio shifted her eyes between me and the kebabs as if it was a hard choice for her.
"But they've got lamb and steak," she said.
After hunting Hana down, we got dressed and picked up some snacks on the way home. I ejected the sd card from the camera to delete the pictures later. If it weren't for photos of my Okinawa trip, I would have burned the card already.
When we got home, another pair of feet was stampeding. I prepared to get tackled again, but it was Hatsumi who whisked me off my feet instead of slamming into me like Hana.
"Ahhhhh! I missed you so much, Saeko! It's been a whole week since I've seen you. Did you think of me? Did you miss me?" Hatsumi hugged me to her chest so tightly, I was suffocating from the lack of oxygen.
I pat her arm to tap out. "I missed you, too. Can... I breathe now?"
Yumi was in the kitchen helping Hatsumi cook. She gave Mio and I an affectionate hug, but not the fatal kind that my sister gave.
"Have you guys just been living at my house now? Isn't this a step down from where you live, Yumi?" I took a seat at the table. Miso soup and plenty of side dishes were prepared for five people. Hatsumi and Yumi cooked together in perfect harmony, like they were colleagues from the same restaurant.
"Ara~ You don't want me here? Even though Hatsumi and I pour so much love into cooking delicious meals for you?" Yumi asked, trying to make me feel guilty for my remark.
Looking at all the food on the table, and then the rest that was being cooked in the kitchen, the savory aroma made me hungry despite having snacked not too long ago.
"Fair point," I conceded. "But I have a feeling my bed is going to be crowded again, and I rather liked having my own futon during the trip."
Hatsumi sat up to face Mio. "Speaking of the trip. Pictures of Saeko…"
"I got 'em right here." Mio pulled out her own camera and slid it across the table like they were making a drug deal.
I stared at both of them suspiciously.
"There aren't any uncompromising photos of me in there… right?" I asked.
Neither of them answered and avoided eye contact with me.
Hatsumi cleared her throat and asked, "Did you take any pictures, Saeko?"
A shiver ran up my spine. Those pictures were mixed in with Hana's stupid gravure photoshoot. Hatsumi of all people definitely cannot see them.
"We did, but I'm going to go through it all before letting you see them first," I answered.
"What? But why?!" she asked, shaking me by my shoulders.
I woke up next morning to a crowded bed. Including the succubus trio, my sister seemed to have snuck in during the middle of the night. Buried under the weight of three adults and an elementary school-sized body, Iwas firmly stuck. Maybe I was going crazy, but my position beneath a pile of people was happening more frequently.
Fortunately, one of my hands was free enough to move about. So I poked Mio's cheek until she woke up.
"What's the point of a room if you guys just keep taking over mine?" I asked her.
Mio lifted her head, eyes still closed and said, "It's comfier like this."
And then fell back asleep.
"Damn it. Get out of my bed already!"
Yumi left for the day after helping with a few chores around the house. By noon, Hitomi, Rika, and Kaede came over for our first study session. Kaede was a bumbling mess right through the door.
"P-Pardon the intrusion!" she exclaimed and nearly tripped taking off her shoes.
Hatsumi peeked into the hallway as my friends were coming in and introduced herself. "Thank you for always taking care of Saeko at school. Please make yourself at home, I'll prepare some drinks and snacks, and try not to make myself too much of a bother."
"Your sister is so pretty and mature, Saeko," Kaede said, starstruck.
"Among other things…" I mumbled.
It was the three of them's first time in my room. They molested every corner and belonging I had with their eyes. Hatsumi lent me a table and cushions for the five of us to sit around. She used to hold plenty of study sessions with her friends while in high school. Seeing us like this must be nostalgic to her.
I noticed Kaede and Rika a little too fidgety for what was supposed to be a boring day of studying.
"Are you guys feeling okay?" I asked.
Rika cleared her throat and said, "This is technically my first time in a boy's room."
"I always had the impression from Saeko that her room would be more girly. It's surprisingly… normal," Kaede added.
"What do you mean surprisingly? I was a boy! Besides, I like my room the way it is," I said, taking a seat at the table.
"If you're looking for Saeko's porn mags, she doesn't have any. I've already checked," Mio told Hitomi, who had stopped in front of a picture of me and my family.
Hitomi picked up the photo frame of me when I was a boy, and held it in front of me to study the differences.
"You look exactly the same were it not for the longer hair and bigger chest," Hitomi said.
"There's nothing funny about it! I never liked being so effeminate to begin with." I snatched the photo and placed it back on top of the drawer. Staring at the photo of the boy me back then, I could see now how strained his smile was. What kind of face would he make if he saw what I became. "Not that it mattered anyway… since I'm a girl and— "
Mio cleared her throat. I was one word away from revealing to Kaede my secret. That was a close one.
We started pulling out our notebooks, but the moment Kaede flipped to an open page, it was hard not to notice her drawings.
"T-These are just doodles I make in my free time." Kaede quickly shut the notebook.
"Those are drawings I'd see from a professional mangaka." The compliment made her blush, but she was comfortable enough to show us what she drew. Likening her to a pro was an understatement. There were entire action sequences on a single page like it was ripped out of a shounen manga. They could put some established artists to shame.
"Is drawing manga what you want to do as a career?" Rika asked her.
"Well… sort of…" Kaede twiddled her thumb and then looked me in the eye. "Promise you won't laugh or think I'm weird?"
"No way. I'd support whatever it is you're giving your all for," I said.
Kaede took a deep breath, then flipped to the next page.
"Wha—?!"
"Oh, my."
Rika and I were speechless. Hitomi stared hard, her poker face unbroken. What was two pages of intense battle drawings had turned into a hentai doujin at the flip of a page. A busty demon girl was getting railed in multiple holes, even her hands and hair weren't spared the gangbang assault.
"I want to become an ero mangaka!" Kaede shouted her resolve that Hatsumi might have even heard from downstairs.
While Rika went red up to her ears, Mio took a sudden interest.
"Damn, that's hot. Wish it was me," she said.
Hana peeked over from Mio's back and chimed in, "Uwooaaahhh— do my eyes deceive?"
She hopped off Mio's back and shook Kaede's hands so hard her entire body shuddered.
"We're kindred spirits! Producers and peddlers of porn, 2D and 3D alike—" The rest of her sentence was cut off as Mio grabbed Hana by the neck, opened the window, and hoisted her out the second floor.
Kaede watched in horror, mouth hung open, as Mio shut the window and clapped her hands like it was trash she tossed out.
"S-Should we help her?" Kaede leapt from her seat to check the window..
The door flew open and in returned Hana. "I'm back!"
I could tell by Kaede's confused face she was wondering if the crazy one was her.
The study plan for the day was to spend an hour on each subject. We would take fifteen minute breaks in between. It made studying all day a lot more bearable. If the school schedule was like this, I wouldn't mind longer days because classes felt less like a chore.
Three subjects into the study session, Hatsumi had brought us freshly baked cookies and tea. Rika and Hitomi thought it was fine to take a slightly longer break to refuel our brain power.
"Saeko, where's your camera?" Hitomi asked.
"I didn't upload the pictures yet, so it should be on my computer desk. Why?" I asked back.
"Rika and I wanted to see if you took any scenic pictures," she said.
"I should have known better than to trust Hiichan with the camera," Rika glared at Hitomi.
It wasn't until the sound of the camera turning on did it hit me like a wrecking ball. My camera, the pictures— the exhibitionist photos that Hana took of me and Mio were still in them.
"Hitomi, wait!"
I was too late. She and Rika shifted through the digital photos with a mixture of shock and fascination. Hitomi handed the camera to me as a wave of despair filled my soul to the brim. Mio leaned over and nodded in approval, while Kaede tried to figure out what the fuss was about.
Hitomi put her hands together in front of her face. "Thank you for the meal."