Aimi still refused to admit she had just acted like a complete doofus. So instead, she redirected her attention to the blanket and grumbled:
"The blanket... we should just use the same one."
"Knew it..." Kotomi Izumi wasn't surprised at all. She shrugged and casually placed the new blanket she was holding back into the closet.
She had known full well that Aimi wouldn't agree to them sleeping under separate blankets. The only reason she brought it out in the first place was to tease Aimi.
One of Kotomi's favorite pastimes was teasing Aimi.
Suddenly, she understood why little devils love to torment others...
Even with Aimi beside her, she couldn't help but think of Iroha Isshiki.
Finally done with the fuss, Kotomi climbed into bed and took the side next to the wall. Whether she was sleeping alone or with Aimi, she always preferred the wall side. It just made her feel safer.
"We have school tomorrow, so once you finish your milk, get ready to sleep. I'm starting to feel a bit sleepy." Kotomi handed Aimi one of the milk bottles she had taken out earlier.
"Thanks, Onee-chan." Aimi accepted it. Though she often made milk for Kotomi, she herself didn't usually drink milk before bed.
But since her Onee-chan gave it to her, even if she wasn't used to it, she'd finish every last drop! Thinking this, Aimi unscrewed the cap and started gulping it down.
"Don't drink so fast. You might choke. Drinking milk before bed is actually a great way to relax after a long day. It's nice to sip slowly while watching your favorite anime or reading a novel. Honestly, if I didn't pass out from exhaustion half the time, I'd want to enjoy that kind of evening every day."
Kotomi gave a light reminder and shared her habit of drinking milk before bed—but more importantly, she was subtly warning Aimi to slow down. If she ended up choking and spraying milk all over the blanket...
Well, if there was one thing Kotomi absolutely hated, it was washing bedding.
Especially after it's soaked and heavy, carrying it to the drying rack was a whole ordeal. Just thinking about it made her break into a sweat.
"Onee-chan, you're worried I might spill milk on the blanket, aren't you? Relax, I'm not the same little kid I used to be. I won't chug milk and then barf it all over your bed again."
Kotomi hadn't even brought it up yet, and here Aimi was—involuntarily recalling the childhood incident herself.
"If that's really the case, then that's a relief," Kotomi said half-seriously. She drained her bottle in one go. When Aimi finished hers, Kotomi handed over her empty bottle too.
"Can you toss these in the trash for me?"
Tonight, the task of turning off the lights also fell to Aimi. Why? Simple.
She was on the outer side of the bed. Compared to Kotomi, she had the easiest time getting up. Who else would turn off the lights?
It was like being in a college dorm and getting the unlucky bed closest to the light switch and the door.
All the lights in the bedroom were turned off, except for a small nightlight left on for emergencies.
Lying in bed, knowing she had school tomorrow and that Aimi was sleeping right next to her, Kotomi didn't open Azur Lane as she usually did. Otherwise, she'd just end up staring at the new character artwork and getting so engrossed that all her drowsiness disappeared and she became even more awake.
Just as Kotomi was about to close her eyes, she suddenly heard Aimi's soft, delicate voice beside her:
"Onee-chan, every room in our house has good soundproofing... so the two of us right now... it's a rare opportunity."
After saying that, Aimi blushed and lowered her lashes shyly.
A rare opportunity...
Those four words carried a kind of magic that made Kotomi want to cast away her reason and go with her desires.
Sharing a bed with a beautiful girl she loved—and who loved her back—honestly, Kotomi wouldn't mind if this happened every day. But still, the current relationship between her and Aimi...
Kotomi mused. When it came to her first wife meeting her second wife, she had remained rather calm, as if there was nothing to worry about. Yet in other situations, she sometimes crumbled like a dropped connection.
Kotomi's attitude toward serious matters had always been somewhat ambivalent.
Her vision started to blur, and she finally realized just how sleepy she was. Whenever this happened, she would find herself weaving long strings of thoughts in her mind—some that didn't even make sense. If she had her phone in hand, she might be writing about one thing one moment and completely shift topics the next, without realizing.
There had been a time she stayed up late writing. Her eyelids were constantly drooping, yet she couldn't let herself stop. She kept typing through yawns, and before she knew it, the Word document would contain bizarre, unrelated sentences.
In response to Aimi's suggestion, Kotomi gave her answer after a brief silence:
"Let's just get some sleep."
With that, Kotomi closed her eyes. She really was tired. Normally, she might still be lying in bed on her phone at this hour, but tonight she just wanted to sleep.
Even with Aimi right next to her, the first thing that came to mind was simply pulling Aimi into her arms and hugging her like a body pillow.
"Okay. Good night..." Aimi replied. She didn't say much more, but the hint of disappointment in her voice was clear.
Why the disappointment?
Kotomi could more or less guess. Aimi had hoped for more to happen—and here Kotomi was, already muttering about how tired she was.
Thinking that, Kotomi couldn't help but smile. The expression vanished quickly, and she gripped the corner of the blanket tightly.
Kotomi wasn't feeling unwell. If anything, thanks to Aimi's suggestive words, she was now exerting all her willpower just to endure it. She was terrified that, if she slipped up even a little, she'd impulsively kiss Aimi's lips—or do something even more dangerous!
She hadn't noticed it before, but now that she had, it was too late...
The side effect of the Queen of All Females constitution had started stirring again, teetering on the edge of eruption.
If the Queen of All Females constitution had a humanoid form like Kazumi, then the thing Kotomi most wanted was to find a way to trick her out, throw a sack over her head, and beat the living daylights out of her with punches and kicks.
Enough is enough. Recently, every time she lay in the same bed with another girl, the Queen of All Females constitution—which had been perfectly quiet a moment ago—would suddenly erupt like a volcano, spewing fire into the sky!
Even though she had triple-confirmed with Kazumi, who had solemnly sworn: the Queen of All Females constitution had no consciousness. It was just that Kotomi's race happened to be the Queen of All Females, so she possessed its traits.
However, the timing of those side effects becoming active was just too suspicious. Even Kazumi, whose system latency was notoriously high, began to feel something was off. After digging through various records, Kazumi suddenly discovered something even she hadn't known before.
Kotomi's race was indeed the Queen of All Females, but her constitution wasn't pure. It contained 50% succubus blood.
If you wanted to be accurate, Kotomi was half Queen of All Females, half succubus.
But how could she be? Her biological parents were human, and yet she had connections to both the Queen of All Females and the succubi?
If you just stated that sentence, people would instantly imagine a melodramatic soap opera with over a million words of drama. But the truth was far less complicated.
When Kotomi was born—before being abandoned by her biological parents in a public park—her race was human. This was what made her special: her racial change wasn't innate. It happened later.
If that kind of event were ever exposed, it would cause a massive upheaval in human understanding. Who knows how many scientists would go completely insane upon learning the truth?
Back to the main point.
The reason Kotomi became a hybrid of Queen of All Females and succubus after being abandoned was that she had narrowly escaped death and survived until she was discovered and adopted by the Izumi couple. On the surface, it seemed like pure luck.
But behind that "luck" was a hidden hand that pushed her away from death's door. In exchange for her humanity, she was given a new race—and allowed to survive in the world with a human appearance.
That hand belonged to Kazumi.
Kazumi had noticed Kotomi at birth—just because she gave her a second glance in the crowd. From then on, Kazumi remained by her side in an invisible form, blending into the air, silently watching her grow.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that Kotomi was someone Kazumi had watched grow up.
When Kotomi was stuffed into a box and abandoned in the park by her parents, Kazumi was terrified but powerless to intervene. Back then, she wasn't even a system yet—not old enough for the exam. She was just a student at the System Academy, with barely any power.
When she saw Kotomi on the brink of death, with the gates of hell wide open and the black-robed reaper approaching without emotion, Kazumi made a reckless gamble. Like a thief snatching fire from the gods, she made the boldest decision of her life—she rewrote Kotomi's race from human to Queen of All Females.
She had purchased the Queen of All Females race certificate on a whim long ago on the black market, out of curiosity, and kept it as a collectible. She never imagined it would one day come in handy.
Race certificates on the black market—especially for good races—sold for high prices. Back then, Kazumi was a broke student and could barely afford anything. Not that she has any money now either...
Back then, the Queen of All Females race certificate had been so absurdly cheap that Kazumi thought she was seeing things.
After triple-checking the price and confirming it was correct, she gritted her teeth and bought it on the spot. Afterward, she glanced at the prices of other race certificates in the black market stalls and felt secretly proud—she had really scored a once-in-a-lifetime bargain.
She used to wonder why the Queen of All Females certificate was so cheap. After all, it was a noble and high-tier race. Such a low price shouldn't even buy a single strand of its hair.
Looking back now, it all made sense. It was a hybrid—part succubus. No wonder it was so cheap.
Succubi were also considered high-tier races, but if it was a mixed bloodline, even between two high-tier races, the value would plummet.
After Kotomi was changed from human to Queen of All Females, it was as if Kazumi had erased her name from the Book of Life and Death with an eraser. The reaper from Hell lost his signal to track her. Even though she was right there, the reaper, unable to sense her, could only look around in confusion. Finally, dejected, he dragged his scythe back to Hell.
Kazumi's reckless gamble had succeeded. She had saved Kotomi's life, and the change in race brought back just enough vitality for her to survive until she was found and adopted by the Izumi couple.
Kazumi had never told Kotomi about this. After all, even someone like her had pride. To bring it up herself would sound like she was desperate for Kotomi to acknowledge her as a savior.
She really liked their current dynamic—equal, with neither above nor below the other. Kazumi had no family and didn't know how families were supposed to behave, but she longed for that connection. She didn't fully understand it, but she felt that what she shared with Kotomi might be something akin to family. Still, something seemed missing—something she couldn't define. It felt like only by filling that gap could she feel fully satisfied with her bond with Kotomi.
But what exactly was missing in their relationship?
Kazumi didn't know. She was still trying to figure it out.
How was she supposed to explain to Kotomi that she wasn't purely Queen of All Females, but actually a hybrid—Queen of All Females + Succubus?
After thinking it over for a long time, Kazumi finally went with:
"In every race, there are always rare hybrid individuals who inherit the blood and abilities of two lineages."
"You just happen to be the rarest of rare combinations—a hybrid of Queen of All Females and succubus!"
"And the succubus bloodline you inherited is super special. It only activates around girls and only desires girls. Paired with the Queen of All Females trait, it's like the ultimate combo. If this were a game, you'd be rarer than a UR drop."
"Kotomi, you're sitting on a goldmine!"
Kotomi clutched the corner of her blanket, recalling Kazumi's enthusiastic explanation of how special her constitution was. Her face was a perfect picture of despair.
"Rarer than a UR drop... why can't I feel even remotely happy about that? I used to stare at succubus doujins all day... and now I find out... I'M the succubus?!"
She muttered this to herself, hoping to drift into sleep quickly.
But just as she was settling down, Aimi suddenly clung to her from behind, those soft mounds pressing unreasonably against her back.
"Uuuu... I wanted to sleep, but as soon as I closed my eyes, I dreamed of scary monsters again! S-So scary... Kotomi, can I sleep while hugging you like this?"
Aimi had grown up...
That was Kotomi's first thought as she felt herself embraced. She took a deep breath, then bit down hard on her lip to suppress a surge of emotion.
Moments later, a faint, weak mumble came from Kotomi:
"S-Sure... come on in... sister..."
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