Chapter 126: Just like a jellyfish floating in the sea…

…How should I even start this?

It might be a bit embarrassing to admit, but… I have an incredibly low s*x drive.

That doesn’t mean I have none at all.
Sometimes, I get excited when I see something erotic, and there are times when I can’t resist the urge to relieve myself.
No matter my mental age, my body is still that of a high schooler in its prime.

But those moments are extremely rare.
At most, maybe once a month?

Unless it’s one of those rare occasions, no matter how explicit something is, it doesn’t affect me.
Even when looking at erotic illustrations, I focus more on the composition, and when reading adult comics, I get more absorbed in the storyline.

So, what I’m trying to say is…

[The Angel Falls to Temptation.]
[An Idol Always Longs for Love!]

The reason my gaze was drawn to these wasn’t because of some impure desire.

The booth to my left displayed Koga’s doujinshi.
The cover depicted Koga with her clothes disheveled here and there.
Her cheeks were flushed red, and her vacant eyes stared upward.
Kneeling on the ground with her arms stretched toward the sky, she looked incredibly alluring.
And yet, there was no R-18 label—meaning it was perfectly suitable for all ages.

Right next to it was Nacchan’s doujinshi.
Unlike the other one, its cover radiated a lively atmosphere.
She was wearing the ‘Starry Night’ outfit, released for her birthday, smiling brightly while making a V-sign.
Just like Koga’s doujinshi, this one also had no R-18 label.

That’s right.
I wasn’t drawn to these because of some lustful thoughts or dirty desires.
I was simply intrigued by their stories.
I was just curious about their content, that’s all.

The fact that they’re both all-ages doujinshi proves it!

“Shall we check out that side next, Yuika?”
“Sure.”

Of course, the reason I came to Comiket today was simply to visit the official StarsFlow booth…

But since I was already interested, there was no helping it, right?
And since both lines weren’t too long yet, I could buy them quickly!

And so, I queued up and purchased both doujinshi.

“…Huh?”

And just like that, I got separated from the others.

“Huh? Madoka-senpai, where’s Kayano?”
“Hm? Wasn’t she right next to you, Yuika?”
“Ahhh?!”

Suzuha and Tsubaki.
It was understandable that they lost track of Izumi.

What is Comiket?
It’s the biggest otaku event of the year, held only twice annually.
Over the course of three days, the total number of attendees exceeds 500,000.

No matter where you look, there are countless people.
Once you get separated from your group, the sheer crowd makes it difficult to even realize you’ve lost someone.

On top of that, Izumi tends to become extremely quiet in crowded places.
So, it was only natural that it took a while for them to notice she was missing.
And really, who would’ve expected Izumi to silently join a booth’s queue just to buy doujinshi?

At least, for Suzuha and Tsubaki, it was an impossible scenario to predict.

“…Did she want to buy something?”
“If she did, she should’ve told us.”
“Maybe she tried, but we couldn’t hear her because of the crowd.”

For now, Suzuha and Tsubaki moved toward a less crowded area to assess the situation.
But no matter how they looked at it, all they could confirm was that Izumi was well and truly lost.

With no other option, Suzuha pulled out her phone.

[Koga Suzuha: We lost Izumi. If you find her, stay with her.]

The message was sent to the Mist Code server.

[Aki Nekoto: Got it.]
[Utsumi Ayaka: Understood! ─=≡Σ((( つ＞＜)つ]
[Akabane Yukari: Okay.]

In an instant, the second-generation members—minus Izumi—responded.

“That?”

“It’s a separate Miscord server made for the second-generation members, excluding Kayano.”

“…Huh? A server that excludes Kayano?”

“Yes.”

Of course, it wasn’t that Suzuha or the other second-generation members were ostracizing Izumi.

This server was created to secretly help Izumi in situations like this.

“Kayano is the youngest among us and still in high school. We think it’s only natural to help, but Kayano doesn’t like that. She insists she’s not a child and feels hurt that we’re treating her differently as a fellow member… So, we made this separately.”

“Is it a rebellious phase, maybe?”

“Not sure… But I think she’s improved a lot compared to before.”

“Really? But if she finds out about this, it’ll be a big deal.”

“Well, there’s nothing weird in there… She might just get embarrassed.”

Suzuha quietly imagined the scenario after hearing Tsubaki’s words.

What if Izumi happened to see the chat logs of this Miscord server?

At first, she’d probably say something like, ‘I-I’m not a kid, so I don’t n-need this…!’ But in the end, she’d turn red and mumble, ‘T-thank you, everyone….’

Suzuha was convinced that Izumi, who naturally charmed everyone around her without any intent, would react exactly like that.

“Pfft! Then, can I talk about this on stream later?”

“Mm… I don’t mind.”

“I’ll ask the others separately.”

“Okay.”

“Then, I’ll send a message to Uncle Yuto, too….”

After requesting help from everyone else, Suzuha and Tsubaki started discussing their next move.

“Kayano mentioned wanting to check out the company’s official booth, so should we head there?”

“…That sounds good. I’ll tell Kayano to wait for us in front of the booth.”

After Suzuha sent Izumi a DM, the two started walking toward the official StarsFlow booth.

“Haaaaah….”

The crowd was insane.

After buying some doujinshi, I thought about finding Koga and Namikawa-senpai, so I wandered around—only to get completely swept away by the sheer number of people.

At first, just realizing that was enough to exhaust me, but eventually, I made a groundbreaking discovery.

The struggle comes from trying to resist the flow.

If I just blend in and move naturally with the crowd, it’s not tiring at all.

Like a jellyfish drifting through the ocean, I just have to go with the current….

And if I spot a doujinshi I like, I can step out of the flow for a moment to line up—perfect.

So far, I’ve bought a total of eight doujinshi.

Five were by StarsFlow members, and three were by Uncle.

Of course, I didn’t buy any R-18 works.

I was curious, but since I obviously look like a student, they’d ask for my ID.

If I can’t buy it anyway, there’s no point in even trying.

How many waves of the crowd had I ridden by now?

This time, my eyes landed on…

[The Water Spirit is Sticky]

An R-18 doujinshi of ‘Kayano Izumi.’

…No.

I expected this.

When I ego-searched on Nater, I saw mentions about doujinshi being released at Comike, and I even read a few samples.

“But, um… what should I say?”

Even though I already knew about it, seeing it in person like this…

“Haaah….”

It was incredibly embarrassing.

“Ugh….”

S-Should I try it?

I knew it wasn’t allowed, but I couldn’t help feeling curious.

And the line was pretty long too…
But I was a minor, and they’d definitely check my ID…
What should I do?

As I hesitated, lost in thought, someone placed a hand on my shoulder and asked,

“Do you want to buy that?”
“H-Hiiik?!”

And that person was—

“A-Ah, Lu-Luka unnie…?”
“Yeah.”

It was Aki.

“Here.”
“Th-Tha-Thank you….”

In the end, Aki bought the doujinshi for me.

I was so embarrassed I didn’t know what to do.
I was too ashamed to even look at Aki’s face.

As I stood there with my head down, lost in thought, Aki patted my shoulder and spoke.

“It’s fine. Izu— I mean, Kayano, it’s normal to be curious about these things at your age.”
“N-No, I-I wasn’t interested in it, I just….”
“It’s really okay. Here, look. I got a bunch too.”

Aki showed me the paper bag she was holding.
Inside, there were numerous R-18 doujinshi.
And mixed in among them were some featuring me….

“It’s natural to be curious about how people see us.”
“Ugh… Th-That… I-I guess….”
“Kayano’s embarrassed reaction… I’ll savor it later.”

This was unfair.
I really hadn’t intended to buy it for that reason.

After that, with Aki’s help, I finally met up with Koga and Namikawa-senpai at the official StarsFlow booth.

“If you wanted something, you should have told us, Kayano.”
“S-Sorry….”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Yui also wasn’t mad, just worried about you.”

Of course, I got scolded a lot.

When Koga asked what I had wanted so badly, I showed her the doujinshi I bought of Uncle.
She sighed and shook her head.

Of course, I made sure to hide the ones featuring the StarsFlow members.
Since Koga’s own doujinshi was in there, showing them to her would’ve been way too embarrassing.

I guess I’d have to sneak a look at them later when we got back to the hotel.
I was curious about their contents….

After that, we wandered around until Comiket ended at 4 PM, then gathered at the hotel we had reserved.

“Alright, I’ll head in first.”
“See you later.”
“Bye, everyone….”

Kurokami-senpai, Yuzuki-senpai, and Aki all left for their own reasons.
Kurokami-senpai and Yuzuki-senpai had family matters to attend to, while Aki wanted to hurry home and enjoy what she bought.

Aki was a total otaku….

Well, at least that meant there would be someone streaming from home.

If all of us took a break at the same time, viewers would definitely get suspicious.
They already knew about Comiket, so they’d probably speculate that we all went together.
On top of that, we attracted quite a bit of attention in the morning, so there was plenty of evidence for people to guess.

But with Kurokami-senpai, Yuzuki-senpai, and Aki staying home to stream, we had a solid alibi.

Some might wonder if anyone would even care that much, but I knew better.
Some viewers were absolutely ruthless.

There were people who would analyze the sound of airplanes in a VTuber’s stream just to track down their home address.
Creating a minimal alibi was a necessary precaution….

“…Huh? Izumi, this is….”
“A-Ahh…. K-Koga, th-this is, um….”

Why…
Why did this have to happen?
It felt like the world was out to get me.