Act I – You were expecting Sexual Misconduct?
The story goes back to yesterday morning.
That morning I was suddenly woken by a naked Hikaru-chan.
“Kasuga Senpai! Please wake up.”
“Uwa….”
In my confused state I jumped upon the bed.
Wha.. what? Hikaru-chan’s in New York… what’s she doing here?
But the answer’s simple.
“Ne… hahaha! How about it Kyousuke! You waking up now?”
Although I could see Hikaru-chan, it was really my cousin Akane.
The Kasuga family blood is in her too, and she can change her appearance into just about anyone. Actually, she doesn’t change, but what she wants to show changes, so that someone else will think she’s someone else. In other words, this is her power.
The nude Hikaru-chan instantly transformed to the mischievous face of our Akane. But even with this personality of hers she’s an okay girl (even for a relative).
“Akane! You’re a grown woman now – what are you doing – such a stupid thing?”
“Heh heh heh – Kyousuke, this past winter you met Hikaru-chan in New York, didn’t you? Surely you were unfaithful, weren’t you? So I got to thinking. Service! Service!”
“Hey hey…”
“Just having a little fun, okay?” Akane pressed her C cup chest against me with pride.
“Dummy! Cut it out! I don’t want ‘service’ from you…. Demon.” (note: it actually says “horn” but the meaning is implied).
“Well, I have a favor to ask, so... service!”
I see. Akane and her little brother Kazuya always get me into trouble this way. They both have a fondness for getting me into trouble.
“Oh, all right. What’s up?”
I resigned myself to it and got out of bed and opened the curtains. The good warm feeling of spring flew into the room.
“It’s a bit of a problem. As of yesterday Kazuya is gone.”
“Ka… Kazuya?”
“Uh hm. Where do you think he could have gone?”
“Don’t know. Don’t know.”
I hadn’t seen much of that 6th grader this year, but he was still too young to stay out all night.
“He might have gone some place dangerous.”
“Where?”
When I heard where he had gone, I sat bolt upright. Like a wizard or something of the mountains, my jaw was out of place… Ah, well, I mean it was quite a shock.
Anyway, what is that idiot Kazuya thinking?
“He’s a big fan of that Pervert Manga that Hatta-san does. It looks like he went to the world of ‘I’ll forgive you’ and now he can’t come back,” she said.
(You don’t suppose…?)
Kazuya’s power,
more or less, is that once he knows something he sets his sights on it. Now, he
can read people’s minds without worrying about their feelings (even if you
refuse he’ll talk as if it’s okay!). He can switch places with someone if he
knocks heads with them, and he understands his power.
But that kid is overflowing with curiosity and he dreamed himself into a perverted Manga, he might find a way to go to that world, strange as it sounds. (Well, in general he’s strange, but still!)
Ah… can’t be helped. After having some breakfast Akane and I visited Hatta’s place of work.
“Oh, we have problems too,” Hatta’s manager Komatsu (I’m sure he decided on this job himself) said. He invited us into the apartment where Hatta’s office was, and in a rare show of docility went on.
“These past 2 or 3 days Hatta’s just puttered around, no ideas coming at all. Finally he dropped off into sleep, and he’s been groaning ever since.”
“Hatta is…?”
“He said some Kappaneko had cast a spell on him.”
Kappaneko?
Even if it is said, if you haven’t read Hatta’s Manga you wouldn’t know the term.
“I’ll Forgive You” features 3 sailor-suited Angels (all of them pretty girls – it’s full of extreme sex and Hentai stuff) who fight the “Devil Adeluf” of the underworld’s gang – the story is about their continuing confrontations.
Every single time Adeluf uses a slightly perverted (always!) strategy to raid the human world. The usual patters in that once the 3 sailor-suited Angels conquer the villain, the villain says “forgive me!” and the pretty girls say “I’ll Forgive You.”
Ah, and sometimes a former sailor Angel called Madoura will appear if a riddle has been posed, who will save them from danger and then something new will develop (like a window opening or something like that).
Then there’s the Kappaneko.
In the Manga there’s this cat shaped sprite that shows up from time to time. Its characteristics are cat shaped ears, a plate on top of its head (perhaps in an imitations of Matsumoto’s Manga. Such a nice guy).
This character doesn’t do anything important in terms of the plot. Why use it then? It’s a writer’s convenience to set up parts of the story.
“Hey, Hatta. What did Kappaneko do?”
I went into the room Hatta had toppled into, and in the midst of the mess (he slept here?) Hatta was rocking back and forth and groaning. Kazuya had used the Kasuga family power and entered the world Hatta had created, and now couldn’t come back. Just like Akane said, I began to feel that he might be stuck there.
“Oooh… Kasuga. Kappaneko… Kappaneko said ‘You’ve muddled through, but your Manga’s very existence is idiotic’…he threatened.”
“Ka… Ka… Kasuga… That’s what I mean. Once this Manga becomes a hit the money really comes rolling in. There’s been talk of an Anime, a game…”
“Hey hey, Komatsu. It’s difficult enough with you coming in. Turn around and march back out.”
Once I made sure Komatsu was out of the room, I got the story from Hatta.
Somehow it appeared that Hatta had gotten from Kappaneko the story about the Nudist Village in the Primeval Forest at Narusawa in Yamanashi Prefecture. But then he suddenly suffered a mysterious migraine, and the idea wouldn’t release him until he looked into it.
Then, Kappaneko appeared in a dream. “The world has become confused. Come to this world and take a picture of the situation with a camera, and take it back to the human world,” he said.
Hatta said that Kappaneko was always comparing what he wrote to the passage of time, and now this personality was appearing in dreams.
“Take a picture with a camera. What are you talking about?”
“Kasuga, don’t you read my Manga?”
“Hmm? Un, well… sometimes.”
“I read it, Hatta-san,” Akane started to say. “We’re talking about a special complete-in-one issue story, aren’t we? It’s an interesting setup about the Kappaneko family.”
“Perverted I suppose”
“Ka…Kasuga…”
“Listen up Kyousuke. The Kappaneko have some power. In their forest, their world, there’s a miniature garden they like, made and live in.”
“And?”
“Sometimes they take an interest and appear to villagers… they also have a human viewpoint. For example if they find a great bread shop they encircle it and bring it back to the countryside.”
“I see.” I really didn’t, but it caught my interest a bit.
“The Kappaneko that come back when they see something that catches their eye, for example a pretty girl, Shuba! From their plates on their bodies it will come flying out.”
“That’s dumb…”
“Hey Kasuga, you haven’t read my Manga so don’t say things like that. It has a good reputation with the fans. Right, right, Akane-chan?”
“Seems like. Anyway, the girls who come to the countryside when the Kappaneko takes this ‘picture’ that instant is all they see.”
“That instant?”
“Uh hun. In other words Kasuga, as an example, suppose the girl was just eating Ramen.”
“Okay.”
“The girl the Kappaneko had brought to his country would go ‘Huh? What was I doing… eating Ramen?’ they’ll think only that. The past and future, their relationships with other people, they’ll forget it all.”
“Complicated.”
“Nahahaha… complicated stuff always shows up in S.F. Comics. Then, with only that memory of the real world, the Kappaneko places them in a strange parallel world they’ve created, and undoubtedly they come to live there.”
“Ho…..” I can’t really say I either understood or didn’t. However, according to Hatta the Kappaneko transmitted this living legend to the certain Mr. Matsumoto the Manga artist, and from the hints of this legend they appear in the Manga.
(Really… I wonder.)
From here though, the important thing is to figure out the ambiguous whereabouts of this Kappaneko and Kazuya.
“Okay… this Kappaneko family somehow, if a camera takes a picture of some bad event in their country, it gets solved.”
“Yada Kyousuke. I was jus getting to that!”
“Huh?”
“To sum up, in the special one-story book, when the Kappaneko takes a picture of the person that came from the human world, they are carried back to the human world.
“Ah…”
“However, that person gets a bit perverted. An uproar happens in the nudist village in the Primeval Forest.”
“Shit. Still some perverted development.”
“Kasuga, listen. Akane-chan, before that… before that…”
“Right. Anyway, this place? It’s always the same Perverted Cameraman and the other person. He’s always taking pictures of the nudists. Then, by chance at the same moment the other person comes to…”
“A picture is taken, correct?”
“And once that happens the person is returned to the human world; dropped in as it were.”
“Waah… I’m deeply moved, Akane-chan. You remembered all that.”
“Uh huh… I have an outstanding memory!”
It seemed that in talking with Hatta Akane had forgotten all about Kazuya (and just what was Hatta doing, so close to death just a moment before?) Man, if this is what Adult Manga is like, will Japan’s future be all right?
“Hold on a moment, Akane. Anyhow, if we go to the Primeval Forest and take a picture of this bad event, the world of Hatta’s Manga will return to normal, correct?”
I didn’t believe Hatta’s story. But anyway, if Kazuya had gotten himself tangled in this world, a thorough comparison seemed to be in order.
Besides, there was no real reason to show Hatta and Komatsu the Kasuga family power. This was the reason I was willing to pretend I believed what he said.
“Oh, Kasuga, will you go? You have a debt to your friend, you know. Money borrowed to go to America, not yet repaid, no interest…”
“Aw, shit!”
“It’s just… maybe… like an S.F. Comic, if reality and the world I created have gotten mixed up… ha hah… maybe you might have to go to the Nudist Village.”
“Kya… Pervert! Pervert! Hatta-san!”
I left those two noisy people behind and left the room.
I know it took a while to explain how I got here but… Hikaru-chan nude!
Hmm. Suddenly she appeared from the lake in the Primeval Forest, without even the slightest bit of embarrassment, and came towards me.
The 13 year-old Hikaru-chan. The atmosphere was completely different than with the adult Hikaru-chan currently living in New York.
“A… Um… Hikaru-chan?”
“Yes?”
Hikaru-chan placed her hand on a change of clothes hanging from the branch of a tree. The she suddenly came aware that she should feel embarrasses, and laughed that way.
“You… you just called me darling. What do you mean… ha ha ha…” I laughed the same way she did with my words; no real meaning to it.
But still, the Hikaru-chan before me was still the lovesick girl not fully grown… Somehow I began to notice the smell of a peculiar sweetened vinegar… my laugh became ambiguous and I thought it drifted off…
“Uhu. Of course. The Elder said so…”
“Elder?”
“Eh? You don’t know, darling? The Elder of the Kappaneko clan.”
“Kappaneko!”
I see!
I had already entered the world of Hatta’s Manga just as Kazuya had and things were already a bit mad.
The Kappaneko had gone to the human world and thought of bringing Hikaru-chan here.
On top of that, they did it before I first met her. She didn’t know that I’m Kasuga Kyousuke.
“Uh huh. The Elder said ‘Hikaru. Go bathe in the Virgin Lake. There you will meet your life mate’.”
“Life… mate? You mean… you mean we’re to get married?”
“Yes!”
“Yes?… A… er… um…”
“Darling, I’m sure of it. So please, take care of me.”
“You’re certain… what the…”
Just the, before I even knew it, Hikaru-chan’s face was right before me. But she spoke in a voice that was barely a whisper.
“I’m the foretold virgin. Certain!”
“Hi, Hikaru-chan!”
In spite of myself I took a half-step down. But at that same instant I rose up into the air.
Uh, well, it wasn’t my own power that made me rise up. While this was happening a net had lifted me up into the tree.
“Ah! Darling!”
“Hi… Hikaru-chan!”
“Kyada! Kyada kyada! Darling! You like getting into a net and flying in the air this way?”
“Eh? A, er, no… li.. it’s not about like or dislike…”
“A… in that case please quickly come down.”
Just then a solemn, full voice surprised us.
“No! Hikaru. That’s far enough.”
I went “Huh?” and looked down and gasped in spite of myself.
Unbelievable! (said in English) Unbelievable! (said in Japanese)
The Kappaneko that shows up from time to time had appeared… somehow the whole clan had assembled.
“Elder!”
I could tell that Hikaru-chan addressed someone in the middle of the crowd, and indeed an older one came forward.
“No! I went to a lot of trouble to meet up with darling.”
From the family came a small monk that came up to Hikaru-chan’s knee, carrying a bow and spear and the like, as if he were a brave soldier.
But the Elder gave a kind laugh to Hikaru-chan, almost as if she were a granddaughter… on top of that, spoke in some kind of English.”
“Ah, so. I understand, Hikaru. It can’t be helped. But you can’t kiss yet. When we return to our country you can have the honor of marrying him. Besides which, Hikaru, your virginity is very important… over…”
“Ha ha ha. Hikaru, it may be sad but that’s how it is. Be patient a little while longer.” (spoken by the small one).
“Hikaru-chan…”
“Okay everyone, let’s take this one back to our Holy ground!”
Now things got pretty miserable. As I was still in the Kappaneko’s net, caught up like a bear by a hunter, they carried me to their country.
Then there were these shouts of “Pi…” that came from everyone. From the midst of the Kappaneko carrying me came a “he he he…” from the small one I had seen before.
From all those faces came a memory. NO, not really a memory. It looked exactly like my own face from childhood.
“Ka… Kazuya!” I shouted in spite of myself. Then (no doubt this little Kappaneko was Cousin Kazuya) he shushed me. I dropped my voice and asked “What the hell are you doing?”
“OH.. to hear it is tearful, to say it is tearful (sob sob).”
“Idiot! This isn’t the time for such foolishness.”
“Ehe! We can talk once you arrive in their country, Kyousuke-niichan. But isn’t it great?”
“Wh… what?”
“Thanks to me you can get ‘Etchi’ with someone other than Madoka-neechan, eh Kyousuke-niichan? With Hikaru-neechan!”
“Idiot!”
Kazuya let out a laugh. But soon the heads of the Kappaneko nudged together. It seemed that Kazuya had become an underling of their clan… and maybe more.
But this way… even admitting somehow we were in the middle of Hatta’s world, Hi… Hikaru-chan… here… why is she here? Come to think of it, why a 13 year-old Hikaru-chan?
This could be illegal and downright nasty.
While I was thinking about all of that I began to see what seemed to be the clan’s home.