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“And don’t forget my soda, Pareo!”
Chiyu hurried off towards the bathroom, head turned over her shoulder as she shouted back towards Reona. The movie theater wasn’t particularly crowded today, but Masuki still thought Chiyu could take a little more care to watch where she was going.
“I was thinking about buying some popcorn anyway,” Masuki said, placing a hand on Reona’s shoulder. “Why don’t I take care of all that?”
Reona gave a little jump, spinning around to face Masuki.
“Wah… You scared me there, Massu-san,” Reona said, holding one fist cutely against her chest. “That’d be a real help. I was also thinking I needed to, uh, go join Chu2-sama…”
Masuki chuckled at how red Reona’s face got, unable to fully admit she needed to go herself. She reached for her bag to pull out her wallet, only to find her shoulder a little lighter than it was supposed to be. Masuki froze, swearing under her breath and hoping Reona wouldn’t hear clearly. A strong mental image hit Masuki of her bag sitting by the door uselessly, passed over in her rush to get to her motorcycle and over to the theater on time.
“Er, before you go, Pareo…” Masuki said, fighting back her own embarrassment now. “Could I borrow a bit of cash? I must’ve forgotten my bag at home.”
Needless to say, asking a younger girl for money was rather awkward, but Masuki wasn’t the type to ignore a problem just because addressing it would be awkward. Someone had to pay for the popcorn—plus Chiyu’s soda—but without her wallet, that person couldn’t be Masuki.
“I don’t know, Massu-san,” Reona bit her lip nervously, glancing over to the arcade area. “I already lent some money to Lock-san and Layer-san so they could try the claw machine…”
Masuki let out a tired sigh, feeling even worse about this now. How was it that a middle schooler turned out to be the most responsible out of all of them? Sure, it was Reona, but Masuki would prefer not to burden her if possible. Just today, it didn’t seem like it would be possible.
“You know I’ll pay you back, right?” Masuki said, trying to get this over with as quickly as possible. “Just give me some money already so you can… so you’re free to go.”
Masuki held out her hand, talking evasively around exactly where Reona needed to ‘go’, if only because Reona had first. Thankfully, this reminded Reona of her own urgency, pulling out a few bills to shove into Masuki’s hand, before scampering off herself.
Walking over to the concession stand, Masuki could only shake her head, mostly at herself. Hopefully this would be a good reminder to be more careful from now on, especially since she actually ended up getting to the theater with plenty of time to spare. All that rush and panic for nothing.
On that note, there wasn’t even much of a line, Masuki barely having to wait at all before stepping up to the open register. The cashier smiled broadly at her, but he said nothing as he stood there. Only staring at Masuki, waiting for her to order.
“Uh, hi,” Masuki said, still wanting to get this over quicker even if she’d just have to end up waiting for everyone afterward. “Could I get a large popcorn, and also a—”
“YOU WILL GET NOTHING OF THE SORT, SATOU MASUKI!”
The man behind the register exploded into blinding white light, Masuki shielding her eyes with her arm, letting out a cry of shock as she was momentarily blinded.
“IF YOU THOUGHT YOU MIGHT SPEND THOSE ILL-GOTTEN FUNDS, YOU WERE SORELY MISTAKEN.”
The voice less spoke to Masuki than it boomed inside her head. Coming from no direction at all, though when Masuki tried to open her eyes she could still make out the indistinct outline of the man in front of her. Except it wasn’t quite right…
“BULLY! THIEF! DELINQUENT! NO GOOD MOTORCYCLE-RIDING RUFFIAN!” A trio of wings sprouted out from either side, extending past the farthest reaches of Masuki’s vision. “YOU DARE APPROACH ME, AFTER HOW YOU TREATED THAT POOR GIRL?”
“Eh…?” Masuki stood fixed on the spot, having no idea what was going on. “Wait, what did I do to Pareo? I think you might have gotten the wrong—”
“SILENCE, SATOU MASUKI! SILENCE, AND PREPARE TO REPENT.”
The world faded out around her.
When Masuki came to once more, she wasn’t in a movie theater. She wasn’t anywhere, as best she could tell. Just a plain white room, entirely empty save for herself. And also herself.
“…Hey there,” the other Masuki standing in front of her gave an awkward wave, wearing an identical outfit to Masuki’s own. Same short blonde hair, same general confusion over this whole situation. “I, uh, I’m not going to lie, this kind of sucks.”
The angel—or whatever that man had been—didn’t stick around after he had kidnapped Masuki. And also some other Masuki, she supposed. She wasn’t going to try to figure out what the deeper implications of that might be, but for the immediate future they were stuck here together. All Masuki had to go on was the ever-cryptic and useless parting words the angel had given her.
“YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO LEAVE UNTIL YOU HAVE LEARNED HOW YOUR MERCILESS BULLYING MAKES OTHERS FEEL.”
Of course, Masuki hadn’t been given even a moment to explain herself. Taking money from a middle schooler was beneath her, even if Reona wasn’t her friend. But for some reason, between how skittish Reona was, and how suspicious Masuki looked without even trying, even a member of the heavenly host had mistaken what had happened.
“So… Were you supposed to bully me or something?” Masuki asked, trying to make conversation, noting there wasn’t even a pure white couch blending in with the background that they could sit down on. “To teach me some sort of life lesson?”
“I’m guessing as much,” the other Masuki said with a shrug. “Honestly, I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do. I’ve never ‘bullied’ anyone before, and even if I demanded that you hand that money over, I’d just be stealing from Pareo…”
Masuki glanced around, not expecting to find any doors or windows, and in that regard the room didn’t disappoint. In every other aspect, it was a rather boring sight. The floor and walls were a little too shiny and reflective, but with no shapes or colors to break things up, all this accomplished was hurting Masuki’s eyes if she stared too long.
“Well, I don’t know what you think I’ll be able to tell you,” Masuki said plainly. “We’re the same person, aren’t we? If you’ve never wanted to bully anyone, neither have I.”
Now, Masuki was a little shaky on the details about her sudden doppelganger. It was entirely possible they were nothing alike, if examined any further than this surface level interaction. But if some mystical angel could pluck Masuki straight out of a movie theater and into wherever this was, doing the same to another identical Masuki hardly stretched her belief any further.
“That’s just the thing though,” the other Masuki said. “I do want to bully you. I can’t describe why exactly, but I can feel this burning need inside of me. Something insisting that you need to be bullied, and that I’d love doing it…”
Masuki chuckled a little. “It sounds a little suggestive when you put it like that, doesn’t it?”
“Ah?”
Masuki’s counterpart made an odd face, though it didn’t take long for her to catch the meaning. They were the same person, after all. Despite this though, Masuki was caught off guard by her reaction.
“You’re a genius, other me!”
Masuki let out a cry as her other self ran up and grabbed her by the shoulders. Not to throw her to the ground or threaten her, or anything else that could be mistaken as bullying. In fact…
“Er, me?” Misaki said, unsure quite how to address herself. “I’m not sure you really get how this whole bullying thing works. You aren’t supposed to praise your victim.”
Her supposed bully merely laughed this off, adjusting Masuki by the shoulders so they stared at each other eye to eye.
“Oh, is that so? Since when were you an expert on bullying, Satou Masuki?” the other Masuki asked, giving her a sly little grin. “Besides, how can I help myself when my victim is such a cutie?”
What the hell? Masuki fought off a blush, unprepared for the earnest, flirtatious voice her other self pulled out all of a sudden. If they really were the same person, how could Masuki have no clue what she was thinking?
“Don’t try to deny it now,” a finger pressed against Masuki’s lips, warning her not to speak. “Why would I lie to myself? It’s all our own fault for being so damn irresistible~”
Masuki watched herself lean in, placing a small kiss on Masuki’s cheek. Struggling on instinct, Masuki fell back against a conveniently placed wall, though she was sure nothing had been behind her just moments earlier.
“Wait, what the fuck? Just hold on a—”
Before she could get another word out, Masuki’s lips were claimed by, well, Masuki’s lips. Her other self raised up both hands to hold Masuki’s head in place, tilted slightly to one side as she attempted to push her tongue deep inside Masuki’s mouth. She found little resistance.
“Mmm…” Masuki whimpered out something that might’ve been a protest, but perhaps it was a bit too weak to count as such. Her hands technically pushed back against the Masuki on top of her, but they did little more than provide support for how token her effort was.
“Cute, cute, cute,” the other Masuki murmured, pulling back to plant yet more kisses all over Masuki’s face. “All it takes is a few kisses to get us moaning like a whore, who knew? I wonder what we would sound like if I actually got serious…”
The pair of hands on Masuki’s shoulders slid down over her chest. Masuki bit down on her tongue, trying not to make a sound, but this only made her other self giggle louder. Actually giggling, her!
“This is, this is sexual harassment!” Masuki protested, already lifting her arms to push those feeling hands away. But then she froze, staring at herself. “…Oh.”
Masuki watched her grin grow wider, as all this wild behavior finally made sense. Way too much sense. There was something clearly wrong with this whole situation and yet Masuki now perfectly understood her other self.
“It’s ‘bullying’,” Masuki corrected her. There was no ‘other’ anymore. Both of them moved as one, squeezing and being squeezed, hand against chest. “To learn how girls feel when we bully them, we also have to learn how we bully girls~”
The two of them kissed again, the need for words now past. Masuki knew, she knew everything she could ever say to herself. A needy girl folding at the first hint of attention. A pathetic slut moaning for anyone who touched her. Other things that maybe weren’t strictly true, but turned Masuki on just thinking about them. And wasn’t that deplorable in its own right?
Masuki tasted herself inside her mouth, their tongues free to explore the full expanse that lay between them. Their hands followed suit, not just groping, but groping back. Maybe that meant Masuki sucked at bullying, or maybe that meant she was quite talented at it. Maybe her techniques would only ever work on her alone. Masuki had never bullied anyone else before, and certainly no one else had ever bullied her, not like this. She struggled to imagine it could feel this good with anyone else, no matter which side of things she was on.
The thoughts floated through both their heads at once. It felt good. It could feel so much better. Masuki had seen herself naked plenty of times before. Pleasured herself too many times to count. What need did they have for hesitancy, for clothing? There was nothing else here to worry about, only herself. And Masuki couldn’t judge herself too harshly. She understood, she felt the same need lying beneath herself as she did on top of herself.
Neither side broke the kiss, but her hands moved with more purpose now. Mirrors of one another, wearing the same outfits, removing the same outfits, with no one there to tell them—
“E-ENOUGH! STOP THIS AT ONCE!”
Masuki snapped back into a single being once more. Her buttons buttoned back up, the weight above and below her condensed down into one confused girl, standing there staring at the angel. A rather flustered looking angel, still wearing his uniform from the movie theater concession stand, though with a glowing halo in place of the previous hat.
The angel sounded less sure of himself than before, not that this was a particularly high bar, compared to his earlier arrogance. Though, Masuki would take the annoying, clueless angel throwing her in an empty room for no reason over being so untimely ripped away from it all.
She told herself it was okay, that it would be way too pathetic to wish to stay longer, to wonder if maybe the single greatest moment of her life had just ended. But then she imagined scolding herself about exactly how pathetic this made her, and started missing everything all over again. It was way too short! If stripping down naked was the problem, Masuki could deal with that. She’d be happy to go back to just making out, with some light groping over the clothes. That wasn’t too much to ask for, was it?
“N-NOW, I PRAY WE HAVE ALL LEARNED A VALUABLE LESSON TODAY.”
The angel nodded to Masuki, but they weren’t remotely on the same wavelength. He didn’t understand her, not like Masuki understood herself. The room started melting away. The angel was fading out of Masuki’s vision, obstructed by that familiar, blinding light.
“Hey, don’t run away from me, you coward!” Masuki shouted after him, raising a fist up in the air. “I wasn’t done yet!”
It was no use. The angel was already gone. Before her lay only an unmanned cash register, on a counter lined with various candies and machines for popcorn and soda.
“…So does this mean you didn’t get me a soda?” Chiyu asked, standing behind her now.
Masuki swore under her breath. Then she thought better of it, and swore out loud instead.
“That bastard didn’t even get me my popcorn!”