Labyrinth of the Blue Witch by Gakuto Mikumo

midair—
    For a while, Kojou simply froze, unable to comprehend the sight spread before his eyes.
    “Er…ah?”
    There were already guests in the bath.
    One was a homunculus girl with but the slightest hint of redness in her cheeks from the temperature, her slender, nude body floating in the water of the bathtub. And in front of the wash area’s shower, a silver-haired girl was lathering up her shampoo.
    Noticing that Kojou had entered the bathroom, both girls turned their heads toward him as one.
    “Akatsuki…?”
    “Intrusion of the Fourth Primogenitor confirmed.”
    Kojou looked all around in incomprehension.
    “Kanase…and Astarte? Why…?!”
    The situation was too bizarre for him to register surprise.
    The layout of the bath was largely the same as in Kojou’s apartment. However, the tub and faucet locations were mirror images.
    Many apartment buildings used identical designs for neighboring apartments. Kojou didn’t know the brands of the shampoo and body soap sitting on the table. However, they smelled the same as Yukina’s hair.
    Piecing together the available information, Kojou was reasonably certain that this was the bathroom of Yukina’s apartment. He could therefore accept why Kanon and Astarte were here in the bath.
    In other words, Kojou had apparently blundered into the washroom of Yukina’s next-door apartment.
That’s nuts
, thought Kojou. It was totally insane.
    Even covered in shampoo, Kanon bowed her head in a polite and proper bow as she spoke.
    “I’m sorry, we were in the bath first.”
    The whiteness of her skin was very apparent even with suds all around her, as if you could see right through them.
    Kojou replied in a calm tone as well.
    “R-right…take your time…”
    It hurt how Astarte was looking at him with an expressionless gaze.
    Kojou turned to his right and exited the lavatory, closing the door behind him.
    That instant, cold sweat gushed over his entire body with great force, drenching him.
    “…What was that just now?! What’s going on?!”
    He looked around once more, seeing only the sights of the very familiar Akatsuki residence’s changing room. Kojou’s toothbrush was right on the washroom table right where he’d left it.
    Just to be sure, he went out of the dressing room, but this was indeed Kojou and Nagisa’s apartment; Nagisa was in the kitchen preparing supper, and Yuuma was helping.



It was the exact same apartment in every way. The only things different were the expressions Nagisa and Yuuma wore.
    Nagisa’s face was beet red up to her ears while her cheek twitched.
    “Kojou…what…are you doing?”
    “Huh?”
    Yuuma had a pained smile as she covered her eyes with a palm.
    “That’s…ah, a bit of a problem. It’s still evening, and I’m not emotionally prepared for…”
    Seeing their reactions, Kojou remembered the fact he wasn’t wearing a single piece of clothing.
    “Eh?! Ah…!!”
    Here he was, calling out oddities and leaping out buck naked in front of his middle school–age little sister and his childhood friend, a teenage girl he hadn’t seen for four years. That was Kojou’s current situation. It was assuredly close to per— Well, no, it
was
perverted.
    Kojou yelled out as he returned to the dressing room.
    “U-uwaaaaaaaaa!”
    The echoes of Nagisa’s shriek and the breaking of the dishes she threw filled the air behind him.
5
    Meanwhile, Asagi Aiba was still inside Keystone Gate. She was on the twelfth level below surface level.
    This was the Gigafloat Management Corporation’s security department.
    It was an office built with a domed roof reminiscent of the cockpit of a passenger jet aircraft filled with innumerable active monitors, keyboards, trackballs, and other input devices, but the keyboards were layered vertically like those of a pipe organ. It was a room that gave you the eerie, oppressive sense of being buried in machinery, but to Asagi, it was as comfortable as her very own home.
    Displayed on the monitor in