Outbreak Company: Volume 5 Read online

  My name is Kanou Shinichi.

  I don’t mean to brag, but I’m a completely average, totally unremarkable high-schooler.

  Or perhaps I should say I was a high-schooler. There’s a serious question of whether my old school even retains any record of me by now.

  Anyway.

  I... am an otaku.

  In a word, I adore anime and manga and games and light novels. Your typical Akiba maniac. Again, nothing really unusual. You can see dozens of people just like me in Akihabara on any given weekend, or at Comiket or WonF*s.

  The difference between me and them is that for all the otaku out there, there aren’t many who have been duped by the Japanese government and dragged off to an alternate world to spread the gospel of geek culture as the General Manager of the parallel-world-first entertainment company, Amutech.

  You heard me. An alternate world.

  This is top-secret stuff—but Japan is engaged in diplomacy with another world.

  It all started with a hole someone discovered near Mt. Fuji in the “Sea of Trees,” an area better known as one of the most famous places in the country to commit suicide.

  This hole—and no one knows exactly how yet—contained a link to another world, a Middle Ages-style fantasy land with dragons and magic, the sort of place that appears in all kinds of games and manga.

  You’d think that would be the discovery of the century, wouldn’t you? The Japanese government, however, covered it up; they began to investigate the hole by themselves, keeping it a secret from any other countries.

  And it was just as big a find as you would think. Virgin land, untapped resources, unknown cultures. If Japan could keep all this to itself, it could lead to an explosion of wealth, enough to lift Japan straight out of the economic doldrums it had been in for so long and make the country the world’s second-largest economy once again.

  Thus the Japanese government opened diplomacy with the country it found on the far side of this secret hole—the Holy Eldant Empire.

  Magic, a unique feature of this other world, made communication simple. Magical telepathy allowed relations to progress with astonishing smoothness.

  The problems came after that.

  Diplomacy was all well and good, but Japan couldn’t do anything too obvious. If they moved too many people or resources over to the Eldant Empire, they would be discovered by some foreign power—and anyway, the hyperspace tunnel leading to the other world was pretty tight. It was just big enough for a large-ish truck to get through.

  Naturally, then, they sent a small number of people to exchange resources that were limited in both scale and size. Cultural exchange seemed like the way to go.

  But as it turned out, the Eldant Empire, having a very not-Japanese history and culture, showed no interest in any of the traditional Japanese goods they were offered “as a token of friendship.”

  So what’s a stymied government to do? The Japanese delegation, afraid that all the things they were hoping to gain from the Eldant Empire were about to slip through their fingers, tried every object and item they could think of. And strangely enough, the one thing the inhabitants of this world had the best reaction to was manga and anime, stuff hot off the streets of Akihabara.

  It looked like otaku culture was going to be Japan’s way in here.

  So it was that the Japanese government decided to make otaku culture the tent pole of their diplomatic strategy. However, they quickly discovered that no one in the government really knew that much about otaku stuff. Or rather—as I learned later—there were a few people who met the criteria, but for one reason or another, none of them were suitable for posting as the “goodwill ambassador.”

  Well, then they would just have to find someone who was.

  And the person they settled on was a home security guard who was in danger of being evicted from his home by his parents, and thus was dispiritedly looking for work in Akihabara. Namely, me. Kanou Shinichi.

  So that’s my story.

  The government pretty much tricked me—heck, they did trick me—and dragged me off to the Holy Eldant Empire in this other world. They made me General Manager of Amutech and charged me with spreading otaku culture.

  Yeah, I was surprised, too, at first. And definitely confused.

  But you know what else is surprising? How much this turned out to be the perfect job for me.

  By and large, we had been pretty successful at spreading otaku culture to this new world. A little too successful, in fact, to the extent that I worried some people were becoming addicted.

  That was when the other shoe dropped.

  I learned that the whole cultural exchange thing was just a pretense. This was an invasion.

  Japan’s “peace constitution” meant the country didn’t have a lot of military weapons—so they would just conduct their invasion without them. If we could get people addicted to otaku culture, so much the better in the eyes of the Japanese government. It would provide the foothold they needed to essentially make the Eldant Empire a vassal state.

  When I found out about that, I rebelled. Why? Because I thought of all the friends I had made in the Eldant Empire—Myusel the maid, Brooke the gardener, the Empress Petralka, the artist Elvia, the knight Garius and the Prime Minister Zahar, among others—and I couldn’t stand the idea of becoming their enemy.

  There was another reason, though, which was that I also hated the thought that my beloved manga and anime and games and light novels were being used as tools of invasion.

  Naïve? Maybe. Anyway, as a result, some people in the Eldant Empire who had caught on to the fact that their culture was being undermined committed an act of terrorism, and meanwhile the Japanese government, upset that I had “gone rogue,” sent a JSDF special forces unit to liquidate me. Let’s just say it was pretty tense for a while.

  With plenty of help from those around me, though, I somehow managed to get through all of it.

  Even the Japanese government decided that as long as I was producing results, they would wink at what I had done (a weirdly tsundere-ish policy), and had been pretty flexible since then. The result was a relatively idyllic stretch of time.

  Until now...

  After 2P Elvia—I mean, Amatena—left the room, I just sat there, unable to move, staring at the door she had gone through. A good look suggested that door was by far the toughest thing in the room, and judging by the movement and sound when she closed it, it was probably made of steel. It had a doorknob but no keyhole. I guessed it could only be opened from the outside.

  In other words, this might have looked like a normal room, but it was really a prison.

  But hang on...

  “Bahairam...”

  That was the name of the place that our beast-girl-cum-artist-in-residence, Elvia, hailed from. She had actually started off as a spy for this country. On the orders of her nation, which had mistaken the Amutech mansion for some kind of military installation, she had been sent to observe us. Which is where we had caught her, but in exchange for not executing her, she was required to work at my house.

  In any event, Elvia was at heart an earnest and easygoing person, so much so that I soon forgot that she was really a spy sent by an enemy nation.

  And that’s what she was. Bahairam was really an enemy of the Holy Eldant Empire. As what amounted to a guest of the Eldant Empire, that effectively made them my enemies as well—or at the very least, the Kingdom of Bahairam probably regarded me as one of their enemies.

  And that was dangerous. Very, very dangerous.

  It meant I had effectively been kidnapped by a hostile nation.

  I had no idea why they would do such a thing, but I wasn’t expecting a warm welcome.

  Torture, maybe. Execution. Brainwashing. My mind was flooded with the most hideous possible imaginings.

  One wrong move, and I could end up in trouble I would never get out of.

  “But how in the world could I possibly...?”

  And so on and so forth.

  �
�Sire.”

  My thoughts, half-frozen with panic and terror, were interrupted by a voice from nearby. The tone was very businesslike, almost emotionless.

  I looked over and saw that the beast girl named Clara was suddenly at my bedside. And she was staring straight at me.

  Which suggested...

  “‘Sire’... Do you mean me?”

  “Yes,” Clara said with a crisp nod. “I apologize for failing to introduce myself. I am called Clara Belbaris.”

  “Uh—Uh, sure. Nice to meet you. I’m Kanou Shinichi.”

  “I know,” Clara said with another nod.

  Ooh! Man, something about that gesture was really cute. She didn’t have a lot of expression, but the way it sort of evoked a small bird or something, it was just—ahhh! You know what I mean, don’t you? Don’t you?

  “I have been instructed to see to your needs, Sire.”

  “My needs?”

  “Yes, Sire,” Clara said forcefully.

  Ahh!

  My heart danced in my chest.

  “Sire!” Go-shujin-sama!!

  Clara’s address echoed in my head, accompanied by Japanese subtitles.

  What a brilliant and beautiful thing to say!

  I mean, this was go-shujin-sama we were talking about. How many maid-lovers must there be across the country who dreamed of being called such a thing, only to have to bear up with harsh reality...!

  And while the person addressing me might not be wearing a maid uniform, she was a sweet young woman. Physically small, almost as if she was still growing—in fact, how old was she, anyway?

  Granted, I had one very specific example of someone who wouldn’t have looked out of place with an elementary-schooler’s backpack on, yet who turned out to be nearly my age—so I knew how dangerous it could be to judge someone by their looks.

  On top of all that, Clara here had animal ears and a tail. Another deliciously adorable element—they looked great on her.

  “To imagine the day would come when a girl like this called me ‘Sire’...!”

  I clenched my fist, overflowing with emotion.

  But then through my mind—

  Master...

  —flashed the image of a half-elf maid.

  “Huh...?!”

  No! No, Myusel, it’s not like that!

  As great as it is to be called “Master” by you, “Sire” is, you know—it’s the classic maid word, and so, uh, you see, I wasn’t really...!

  Believe me, you’ll always be my maid of maids, number one in my maid ranking! This is just, I mean, we’re not really talking about the list right now, and, uh...!

  And so on, meaningless excuses flooding my head at high speed.

  “I wonder how everyone is doing...”

  Myusel. Petralka. Minori-san. Elvia. Brooke. Cerise.

  Did any of them know I was here, in Bahairam? Or had nobody figured out yet that I had been taken?

  They must have been worried that I wasn’t there—or at least, so I liked to think.

  But...

  “Sire,” Clara said again. I had fallen silent. “I wish to serve you.”

  “Huh—? Oh. S-Serve... me? Oh, serve me, right.”

  That’s what maids do, right? They serve. Basic.

  They make food, or do the laundry, or clean the house, occasionally being klutzy in the process.

  I nodded, picturing Myusel bustling industriously about the mansion.

  The thought of food made me pause to wonder: what time was it?

  I put my hand to the curtain covering the window on my bed. All the sunlight implied it definitely wasn’t nighttime, but—

  “Yikes.”

  I opened the curtain a little and peeked out to discover that the window pane was reinforced and barred.

  Yep. Definitely a prison.

  This dose of cold, hard reality sent a serious chill down my spine.

  “Will you have a meal? Or would you prefer a bath?” Clara asked, looking at me quizzically.

  Gosh. She sounded just like a solicitous new wife. In my head, I could practically picture her with an apron on, a ladle in one hand, greeting her husband as he came through the front door after work.

  And then she went on—

  “Or will you have me instead?”

  “.........Uh?”

  That made me blink a couple times.

  Had I misheard her? Had my otakuism taken over so completely that I had finally lost my tenuous grip on the distinction between fantasy and reality? Wait, did I just say any of that out loud?! Crap!

  I was panicked but silent. Clara seemed to have her own interpretation of what this meant, because she put a hand to her clothing and...

  “Just a—!”

  Clara was already dressed in an outfit that would make a bikini look modest. Clearly it would take about two seconds to take off her clothes if she decided to...

  “Cl—Clara...san...?!”

  What was happening right now?! What was I seeing?

  “Yes, Sire?” Clara answered demurely.

  She didn’t stop moving even as she spoke, though, unhesitatingly removing every scrap of cloth on her small body and letting it fall to the ground.

  Whoa-oa-oa-oa-oa!

  “Pardon me,” Clara said (I didn’t know if that was because she saw how flustered I was or not), and then she climbed onto my bed. On all fours. Like she was going to just crawl right on top of me.

  “Ha-Hang on just a—wait just a second!” I cried, finally coming back to my senses.

  God, that was close.

  Not that this was my first experience with nearly being jumped by a girl with animal ears. Maybe that’s why I was able to keep my head, or at least get it back eventually. If this was the first time it ever happened, I might have been swept up by circumstances and let that happen, or maybe this, like an animal myself.

  A moment’s sober reflection, however, revealed just how strange this all was.

  Here I was, kidnapped by an enemy nation. And yet this beast girl, whom I had never met before, was perfectly happy and not the least bit embarrassed to jump into bed with me.

  There had to be something behind it.

  Calm down, Shinichi. You’re in Kong Ming’s trap! Not the actual Kong Ming, of course.

  “Is something...?” Clara tilted her head in a gesture that looked totally innocent despite the fact that she was still practically on top of me.

  What is the story with this girl?!

  “Is... Is this what you meant by ‘serving me’?!”

  “This? Which?”

  “I mean, you know, how do I put this... serving my... my lower half...”

  As renowned as I was for my ability to say totally the wrong thing at the wrong time, even I couldn’t bring myself to look a girl in the eye in a situation like this and use words like sex or ecchi or getting’ it on or unh! unh! ahh! ahh! or [remainder of list omitted].

  “Yes,” Clara said with a confident nod. “There are three ways to make a man happy. Food, a bath, or interc—”

  “La la la, I can’t hear you!” I shouted, cutting her off before she could finish.

  Girls are not supposed to use words like sex or ecchi or making love or getting’ it on or unh! unh! ahh! ahh! or [remainder of list omitted]! It’s just not right! It would shatter my all-too-fragile dreams!

  I mean... Wait a minute. What is this, some kind of ero game?

  “A-Anyway, maybe you could just kind of, uh, move aside for a moment?” I begged, unable to look directly at her. I knew my voice was about half an octave too high, and believe me, it was embarrassing. But I’m a healthy teenager! How was I supposed to stay calm under these circumstances?

  Clara was crawling on top of me, naked as the day she was born. The difference in height meant her face was right in front of me—but that meant that if I moved my eyes even a little downward, her modest but developing swell would be completely visible, by which I mean, her pale skin and those small, pink... [redacted by author]

 
“Why?” Clara asked.

  I couldn’t help noticing how she looked down as she spoke. I followed her gaze and realized she was looking directly between my legs. Let’s just say I wasn’t getting any excuses from that part of my body. From that perspective, her question made a certain amount of sense. Ahhhh... I hardly understood what I was saying myself.

  “Could it be,” Clara asked with a hint of surprise, “that I am not to your liking, Sire?”

  “No! You’re very much to— er...”

  I can go for pretty much any sort of moe character; I can be moe for just about anything except the absolute most flash-in-the-pan fad stuff. But that’s beside the point.

  “So there’s no problem, then.” She moved so her face was right up next to mine.

  “Th-There certainly is! Stop already!” Mustering every ounce of self-control that I possibly could, I pushed her away.

  This was not the time to be getting swept up in my desires. For one thing, it might be a trap, but more importantly, if Clara was as young as she looked, getting involved with her could easily be against the law, or at least make me a total monster. I mean, granted, human laws didn’t necessarily apply in alternate worlds.

  But whatever, it was still wrong! It had to stop!

  Anyway, this was where endurance would bear fruit! Be silent, O my kingdom! (Meaning unknown.)

  As I fought my desperate struggle to be a gentleman, Clara seemed to be watching me with perplexity. By the way, I say “seemed to be” because I was battling to not actually look at her. Still, I could practically feel her gaze on me.

  Finally...

  “Is there some other to whom you’ve given your heart?” Clara asked.

  “......Huh?” The sudden question left me at a loss. “Someone to whom I’ve...?”

  Think who we were talking about here. The guy who was brutally shot down by his childhood friend and later went full home security guard.

  How could I have given my heart to anyone?

  Anyway, in the last year and a half, the only girls I had really talked to were Myusel, Petralka, Elvia, Minori-san—oh, and Cerise, Romilda, and some of the female students at school.

  And yeah, Myusel especially gave me these shy smiles that were adorable, and just talking to her was a lot of fun. And the way Petralka would get all huffy if I teased her even a little was pretty cute. Minori-san had that baby face and those huge boobs, but when I talked to her, it turned out there was some real sweetness there.