If anyone had asked if I’d had a bad feeling about this, the answer would have been a resounding yes. I had never actually played Twister before, but I knew the general rules.
In a normal game, you’d use a mat with colored circles and a spinner to decide which hand or foot went where. If your knee or body touched the ground, you lost. That was how it was supposed to work.
However, there was no spinner for the Twister game in this room. Instead, Alice unilaterally called out the colors and body parts at her own discretion.
I suppose I should have seen this coming from the start, but right now, I felt it from the bottom of my heart... Alice, you’re going to get it later.
"Now then, next is Kaito-san. Right hand on red."
"……Ugh."
"……"
To be blunt, the instructions given to me were all simple. Even the current command to put my right hand on red didn't require me to take an overly difficult posture.
However, the one thing I couldn't forget was that this game wasn't meant to be played alone.
To put my current situation bluntly: Shiro-san’s chest was right under my nose.
It went without saying that Shiro-san was a God. Naturally, she could calmly maintain postures that would be agonizing for a human, or even positions that were physically impossible due to the nature of human joints.
I could sense something extremely intentional at work here—or rather, she was obviously doing this on purpose. Shiro-san was holding a pose like a low bridge, staring up at me with expectant eyes.
Meanwhile, I had been exquisitely guided by Alice into a position where I was slightly offset, looming directly over her.
Since Shiro-san was staying perfectly still in a pose impossible for a mortal—with her back barely hovering above the floor—it wasn't physically strenuous, but my mental state was being ground down by the sight of her ample chest right in front of me.
Moreover, ever since we started, Alice's instructions had been forcing me to spread my hands and feet little by little, and my face was gradually being lowered toward her.
"Next, Shallow Vernal-sama. Right foot on blue."
"Yes."
Meanwhile, Shiro-san would move a foot or a hand one space over, only to return it to its original position with the next instruction.
By this point, it was crystal clear what Alice and Shiro-san were aiming for. Without a doubt, they were trying to make my face come into contact with Shiro-san's chest.
In fact, the distance was already paper-thin. Even in a position close to lying on her back, her breasts maintained a beautiful shape without sagging at all. Because my face was so close, an indescribably pleasant scent drifted toward me.
The nectar was so close I could practically taste it if I lowered my head just a fraction more. This was pure torture.
My posture was becoming strained anyway. Shouldn't I just give up and let myself fall? I was certain Alice wouldn't accept a loss from something like touching the wrong color...
That thought crossed my mind, but at the same time, I had one major concern.
Normally, if I—the one on top—collapsed, Shiro-san would collapse too. But knowing Shiro-san, she could probably support my entire weight with ease even in that posture. Which meant my body... wouldn't actually hit the floor, would it?
"……Alice, I want to ask you one thing."
"Yes, yes, what is it?"
"……How does this end?"
"When one of you loses, of course. Ah, but since there's such a gap in specs between Shallow Vernal-sama and Kaito-san, I’ll give you a handicap. You’ll be fine as long as I don't judge that your 'entire body has completely touched the ground.'"
"……What if I touch the wrong color?"
"Well, let's be lenient with that sort of thing. This is just an attraction, after all. I’ll turn a blind eye."
In other words, translating that meant: "Even if you collapse and dive into Shiro-san's chest right now, I won't count it as a loss." It wouldn't end. Even if I fell, it wouldn't end. In the worst-case scenario, the game might even continue with my face buried in her chest.
Was there nothing, absolutely nothing I could do to avoid this critical situation? T-That's it!
"Then, we shall continue. Kaito-san, right foot on green."
Okay, now!
"……Ah, oops!?"
Hearing Alice's instruction, I uttered a line with a delivery so wooden even I noticed it, then pushed off the ground hard with one hand to swerve my body to the side.
Then, I would bypass Shiro-san's body and hit the floor—
"—Eh?"
"Is something the matter, Kaito-san?"
"I completely lost my balance just now, didn't I? Why am I back in the original 'looming' posture?"
"How mysterious."
"……"
My opponent was such a cheat that there wasn't even an escape route. She had definitely rewound time. She’d triggered some kind of supernatural phenomenon to rewind my body’s personal clock just to stop me from failing on purpose.
I mean, did she really want my face to touch her chest that badly?
"Yes. Or rather, to be precise, I want to embrace you by cradling your head against my chest."
"……Um, Shiro-san."
"Yes?"
"Is there a reason you have to do that in this specific situation?"
"No, there isn't."
"……I'll let you do that later, so could you please spare me for now?"
"I don't mind."
I felt like I might have dug my own grave a little, but the worst-case scenario for me was the game continuing with my face buried in her chest. Considering that, although it was incredibly embarrassing, this was a trade-off I could accept.
"……So, we've settled it. Alice, end the—"
"No~ but it seems so interesting, and since we've come this far, let's keep going—"
"……I'm giving you the silent treatment for the foreseeable future."
"I'm lying! I'm sorry! I got carried away! I'll end it immediately!!"
I somehow managed to survive the Twister game that felt like it was whittling away my sanity.
However, perhaps because Shiro-san's chest had been right under my nose the whole time, her scent lingered vividly in my mind.
I really wondered why she smelled so good. She wasn't the type to wear perfume or anything. It was a mysterious, reassuring fragrance.
"Then, shall we verify it for a moment?"
"Heh? Verify wha—Mmph!?"
"By the way, this is separate from our earlier promise. I’m just verifying something."
"——!?!?!"
By the time I realized what was happening, my entire face was being pressed against something surprisingly soft. Even though they hadn't lost their shape at all while she was on her back, they were impossibly soft when touched like this. Her faint body heat felt comfort—No, wait! Shiro-san! This isn't what we agreed on! Let go—
"……"
Hey, look here, you Natural God! Why are you calmly ignoring me? You can hear me!
"Oh, come to think of it, after our negotiation was concluded, I kept my mind-reading turned off so as not to be unfair in the ensuing game. But well, there doesn't seem to be a problem, so let's leave things like this for a while. Kaito-san's privacy is important, after all."
"!?!?"
Hey! Excuse me! How can you talk about privacy with a straight face? Wait, seriously, this is bad! Forget about not being able to breathe, the blood is rushing to my face so hard it's dangerous!
Shiro-san is being way too aggressive today... Ah, no... my consciousness is...
"You mustn't suffocate, so I'll make it so you can take in oxygen directly. And to ensure you don't lose consciousness, let's calm your mind a little, too."
With those calm, detached words, she even blocked my escape route of passing out. This was truly... the work of a devil.
Natural God: "Did you not know? There is no escape from God."
Serious-senpai: "She’s a devil to me, too! What is this? Stop it already, seriously, just stop..."
???: "……Wait, what? If it was just going to end up like this anyway, wasn't Alice-chan just getting scolded for nothing?"