Book 3: Chapter 1: Patch 1.0: The Latest Addition

Ryouta would never have imagined that he’d be reunited with his childhood friend, and especially not like this. The girl that he spent almost all of his free time with as a child now stands before him. He feels stupid for not noticing the similarities between her and the girl he bumped into on the street just days ago.

Just looking down at her face fills him with nostalgia. She looks exactly like an older version of herself from childhood. With her brown hair styled into a bob cut that hangs down to her shoulders while covering all of her forehead, she even has the same hairstyle from when she was a kid. Her eyes, while also brown, are bright with life and excitement as she stares up into his eyes. The most distinct feature that he’s ashamed for not recognizing before is that she has freckles reaching from cheek to cheek connected by a bridge of marks that extend across her nose.

She had to have only been seven or eight the last time he saw her. Whereas she was a child before, now she is an adult and has a body that proves that. Everything about her is bigger than before except… well, except for her chest from what he can tell when looking her over.

“Ry-ou-ta! Where do you think you’re looking? You should be looking at my face! If you want to do that then we should wait until we’re alone at least!” Aiko tells him, snapping his eyes from her body and back to her own eyes.

“Sorry, I just – I can’t believe it’s really you. I thought I’d never see you again. I tried looking you up a few times every now and then just to try and check up on you to see how you were doing, but could never find anything,” Ryouta explains. “Oh, come in and chill for a bit.”

Aiko happily skips into his apartment.

Closing the door behind her, he sees Aiko standing by Serra and signing to her. “You know sign language?” Ryouta asks.

“Of course! I learned it just for my best friend here! Well, my only non-future-husband best friend,” Aiko explains.

“You know each other?”

“Yup, yup! We’ve been besties for like… I don’t know, maybe a couple of years now?” Aiko says, looking back at Ryouta, then returns to signing to Serra. However, Serra signs something that makes Aiko hug her and pet her head. “Don’t worry about it! It’s okay, I promise!” she says, placing her face directly in front of Serra so that her lips can easily be read.

“What’s wrong?” Ryouta asks.

“She feels bad about not connecting us sooner! She said she had a feeling that I might’ve been the girl you were talking about when you told her about what happened to us, but never brought it up. But, that’s okay! She showed me pics of you and her together and I didn’t put it together either, so we both messed up!”

“Ex-excuse me, ah, Aiko, yes?” Alice asks.

Aiko looks at Alice and answers, “That’s the name!”

“By the way, Alice,” Ryouta interjects, “I should probably mention that I didn’t tell you the whole story about when I was hit by that autotruck. I got hit saving my friend by pushing her out of the way, and that friend is Aiko here.”

Alice’s eyes light up. “You mean… what happened afterward?” Alice asks.

“My parents sucked and took me away by making us move!” Aiko answers.

Alice’s eyes light up even more. “Then… my hero saved his childhood friend, sacrificing his legs in the process, and then his heroic effort was punished by being separated from the one he loved so dearly that he would put himself in harm’s way for her?”

“Pretty much!”

“That’s – that’s so horrible, but now that you are both reunited… it is such a wonderfully tragic story! And now, finding out that the love of her life has already acquired three girlfriends for himself, she will compete with them to try and win back the heart of the one she loves most! But then, but then—”

“Three girlfriends?” Aiko asks, narrowing her eyes at Ryouta.

“A – a lot has happened these past few months,” Ryouta says.

“I know about Cassandra since Serra told me about her, but who’s this third girlfriend?” Aiko’s voice lacks any of the playful excitement that it had earlier.

Ryouta looks at Alice then back at Aiko.

Aiko looks at Alice.

The jealous, threatening glare that Aiko stares into Alice’s eyes with is enough to make the latter girl shiver.

Aiko looks Alice up and down before staring directly at her chest.

“Ryouta! Is there something wrong with having no boobs? How come everybody you collect has bigger boobs than me? Even Serra’s are bigger than mine! I’m half a foot taller than her but she can actually be groped! I’m just… I’m a pancake!” Aiko whines, huffs, and stomps around while scolding Ryouta. “Both of you!” Aiko looks at Serra and Alice now, making sure to sign along with what she says. “Both of you need to share! We’ll – we’ll transfer the fat out of yours and into mine! Then it’ll be fair and I can finally stop having a little kid’s chest! You both love him, and since he clearly likes boobs so much, do the right thing and share!”

Ryouta remembers Aiko always being energetic as a child, but this is something else. Her level of energy has grown with the rest of her body. The only parts of her that haven’t grown are her breasts.

More importantly, he has to verify if what she really says about being smaller than Serra is true. Something about a taller girl having smaller breasts than a borderline loli is hard to believe. Since he is already well aware of Serra’s size, which he knows are essentially perfect for cupping within his hands, he looks at Aiko’s chest.

He doesn’t even see a bra outline underneath her shirt. As for anything else underneath her shirt… nothing. She may be the flattest girl that he has ever seen. He’s pretty sure that even Tabitha has her beat in the chest department, and Tabitha purposely made herself look like a prepubescent girl.

“Ry-ou-ta! I told you to wait until we’re alone!” Aiko shouts at him.

He’s definitely getting noise complaints from his neighbors.

Then somebody knocks on the door.

Ryouta opens it and sees Cassandra standing on the other side of it with a few bags of her own packed to the point of overflowing with clothes, makeup supplies, and hygiene products.

Aiko pokes her head out from behind Ryouta and looks at Cassandra – or rather, she looks directly at Cassandra’s chest.

If there is any girl in this increasingly-complicated relationship that can be known for her bust, it is Cassandra. Even when wearing a loosely fitting sweater that shows little skin, those large mounds pressing up against its fabric are obvious to anybody whom looks her way.

Aiko crosses her arms and huffs.

“Who… is this?” Cassandra asks.

“Uhh, remember the girl I told you that I saved as a kid? Aiko?”

“Yeah?”

“Meet Aiko.”

Cassandra's eyes open in surprise, but then looks guilty and whispers to Ryouta, “Did I do something wrong? I don’t think she likes me. Did you tell her something weird about me, you bastard?”

“Don’t worry about it. She just has a boob complex, I think.”

“I – I don’t have a boob complex! It’s not my fault that this world is unfair! I mean, look!” Aiko shouts, pointing at Cassandra’s chest. “Those things don’t need to be so big! They’ll just cause her back pain and get saggy when she’s old and itmakesmereallyangryandjealousbecauseminearen’tthatbigandit’snotfairandIwantsomeofthem! So! That is why! You! Have! To! Share!” Aiko explains through shouts, heavily breathing with sweat running down the side of her face once done.

“Uhhhhh,” Cassandra returns to Ryouta’s ear, “is she okay?”

“She’s just energetic. At least she doesn’t threaten to kill me several times on a daily basis,” Ryouta teases.

“Don’t make me threaten you again right now,” Cassandra says.

“Who threatens to kill you on a daily basis, husband?” Aiko asks, the energetic personality from before gone and replaced once more by an aura of darkness. “I know nobody would ever threaten to hurt my Ryouta. Anybody who does threaten my Ryouta is clearly an insignificant insect deserving to have its little legs slowly pulled off one by one and then dissected and left for something else to eat. So, husband, please tell me exactly who has been threatening you.”

Ryouta looks at Cassandra and sees her paralyzed in fear from Aiko’s menacing presence and words. At this moment, Aiko is acting like the villain from some psychological horror movie, and he knows how much Cassandra loves horror.

That is why he pushes Cassandra forward and calls her out. While Cassandra lets out a surprised squeak and tries to get back behind him, Ryouta keeps her held in front and tells Aiko, “Her.”

Aiko’s eyes look into Cassandra’s, and Cassandra feels as if her very soul is being glared into. Aiko is terrifying enough that Cassandra covers up her eyes and… hears Aiko giggling?

Cassandra uncovers her eyes and looks at the giggling Aiko.

“It was just her? That’s okay! If she loves you then that makes us sisters! She has to be a great person if she loves you!” Aiko explains, holding a hand out to Cassandra. “I’m looking forward to working with you!”

Cassandra’s legs are still shaking when she nervously accepts Aiko’s hand.

“Just know that if you ever really hurt him, I will return any pain he suffers tenfold,” Aiko explains, her dark aura returning only for a few seconds before being replaced by her smiling and energetic self.