A moment later...
Ai Hayasaka returned to Mahiru's home, except she had already used disguise techniques to assume Akasaka's appearance.
She wore a realistic skin mask.
The kind that adhered directly to her face.
There was a wig, too.
Even the two peaks on her chest had been tightly bound with bandages, flattening her breasts as much as possible to imitate a man's chest.
This was the brilliant plan she had come up with—she would use this trick to fool her way through things for now.
As Mahiru sat idly in her chair, she saw Akasaka open the door and return. Cradling her already swelling belly, she hurried over in her slippers, her footsteps pattering rapidly across the floor. She threw her arms around Ai Hayasaka, who was disguised as Akasaka, and poured out her longing as she buried herself in Hayasaka's embrace.
"I missed you so much. Why did you take so long to come back?"
"Where have you been all this time?"
"You haven't come home for over a month."
Shiina Mahiru's eyes brimmed with tears.
To be honest... seeing Mahiru's moist amber eyes, even Ai Hayasaka, as a girl herself, nearly had her heart stolen.
Ai Hayasaka struggled to maintain Akasaka's image. She instinctively embraced Mahiru and spoke softly, "Sorry, I came back late."
After tightly hugging Ai Hayasaka's false body, Shiina Mahiru noticed something was wrong. She could tell this was not Akasaka... Her face sank into shadow, and no one knew what Mahiru was thinking.
Ai Hayasaka believed her disguise was flawless. She breathed a sigh of relief and let down her guard.
Somehow, Mahiru produced a fruit knife and held it to Ai Hayasaka's throat, her gaze cold.
That unfamiliar look...
It was nothing like the gentle, angelic Mahiru.
With an indifferent expression, she