by Hirukuma,
The tidbit that Director Bear is part of a race called bear fiends is valuable, but I’ll leave that aside for now. Hmm… Ever since my body turned metal, it seems as if I’ve been released from desires like that, but I do keenly understand.
“And then there’s the problem of hygiene. If disease spreads, it will hold up the reconstruction work. Nevertheless, if we control it too strictly, we’ll have a different problem on our hands. I know this is an unreasonable request, but, Boxxo, have you any ideas?”
It really is unreasonable. Hmm… I do have one idea regarding diseases. But I’m not too knowledgeable about this world, so I’m not sure if something similar exists.
To test it out, I’ll give him one and see his reaction.
The items come in boxes, so I have to add a new feature. Let’s see… I suppose Boxed-Item Support would work. Hmm, yes—I can sell boxed candy and cigarettes with it, too. The issue is that I’ve never smoked once in my life, so I’ll have to give up on selling the latter.
I add the item and put it on display.
“Interesting—so that’s how you change your products. Hmm… What is this box? Is this your plan, Boxxo?”
“Welcome.”
“Then I will buy one. It looks like there are three varieties, so I’ll buy them all. Still, ten silver coins isn’t very cheap.”
These go for about a thousand yen a box in Japan, so I set their price to align with the drinks—if it’s too expensive, I’ll think about changing it.
“I open the box, yes? It looks like a small pouch with nicks in it. Do I tear this part open to get it out?”
“Welcome.”
“Hmm, so I’m not wrong, then. With my hands, this is a bit hard to manage. I know—this works out nicely. I’ll call her. Shirley, please come in.”
At Director Bear’s summons, another door along the wall opens up, and a woman appears in the doorway.
If I were human, I would have said “whoa.”
The evening dress clinging to her body has a slit that goes all the way up to her waist, and her long, shapely legs look like porcelain, coming in and out of view with every step she takes. Her shoulders are bare, and the neckline is cut quite boldly as well, causing the eyes to naturally focus on her ample cleavage.
It would be no exaggeration to say that she has the ideal body any woman would be jealous of. On top of that, her distinct features are without flaw.
Her lustrous black hair flows down her back, and her eyes, heavily lidded and wistful, when combined with her light-crimson lipstick, are the pinnacle of seduction.
Oh, she does that sort of work. The way she presents herself has that sort of appeal.
“Oh, would this be Boxxo? Pleased to meet you. I’m Shirley.”
Even her smile is sexy. If my body weren’t a vending machine, I wouldn’t even be able to look her in the eyes. And the way she’s crossed her legs after sitting on the sofa—she has to be purposely keeping things just barely out of sight.
“This is the item Boxxo has provided us. It’s a bit hard to do with my hands. Could I get you to do it?”
“Of course. This item will help us out, right? I wonder, do you tear it here…? Oh. Now, this is a strange material. It stretches and contracts—how interesting.”
Why do I feel like a terrible person?
“There’s a warm fluid stuck to the sides. Is this for…?”
“I have no idea. Come to think of it, there was a paper inside the box. Try reading that.”
“Thank you. Oh—I see how it is. There’s a helpful diagram here, so it’s easy to see.”
I wish she would stop smiling so voluptuously. I feel like I’m going to malfunction.
“Oh, so you know? How is this item used?”
“You put this on a gentlemen’s member before inserting it into a woman’s secret place. It looks like the different boxes are to suit a man’s size. With something this thin, it won’t get in the way of the act, but it will still prevent disease. What a fine article this is.”
As might be expected from a professional—she figured out what the condom was at a glance. She looks truly happy, rather than trying to flatter me.
As an aside, the boxes are separated into small, medium, and large. If I can only stock things I’ve bought in my past life, then why am I able to stock three different sizes? All I’ll say is this: They’re my vanity, my pride, and my reality. I’m sure every man has done some testing while imagining the real thing…right?
Shirley goes through the boxes, checking their sizes, quantities, and prices, taking notes and nodding to herself. “I would very much like to purchase these. If you have any other products you can recommend, I’d like to see them as well.”
I…I guess I have no choice. She’s being so insistent that I have to show her. S-still, I haven’t bought much in the way of adult products, so there won’t be too many.
After that, we manage to strike an agreement, and Shirley leaves the director’s office, swaying her hips as she goes. I was in some trouble at the end when she left me with a “If you were human, I would have personally offered my services. How unfortunate.”
But after meeting back up with Lammis…
“Huh? Boxxo, you feel a little warm. Was there something that made you happy?”
…she said something that made me freeze. I almost panicked that my Heat-Retention feature had broken. That was when I first learned that her perceptiveness was both a good and a bad thing.
The Public Baths
“Boxxo, let’s get going.”
Having finished her dinner, Lammis greets me at my position outside the Hunters Association headquarters.
Now that she mentions it, it’s today, isn’t it? Lammis goes somewhere every third evening, and lately she’s been taking me with her no matter what.
Today, once again, she slides me onto her back and, skipping lightly, heads for our destination.
“Hmm-hmm, hmm-hmm! I worked a whole lot today, so I can’t wait to—”
“Is that you, Lammis? And Boxxo as well. Thank you for the other day.”
This all-too-silky voice—Shirley? She’s the lady running the night business, the one I provided the condoms to as a result of the sex-related issue before.
Is she on her way to work? She looks elegant today, wearing the same incredibly exposing evening dress as last time.
“Shirley, are you on your way to work?”
“No. I had some free time this afternoon, so I decided I would wash off a little sweat.”
“Oh! Then we’re going to the same place. I’m going to the bath now, too.”
Yes—today is public-bath day. Normally, Lammis just wipes herself with a wet cloth, but she always makes sure to go to the public baths once every three days. On these days, she’s in a good mood all day long.
She seems to love taking baths, but it costs a fair bit of money, so she puts up with taking only one every three days.
“Ah, I see. How lucky of me—and Boxxo is with you,” she says, casting a flirtatious glance at me. I may be a machine, but you’re making my heart pound. Could you please stop?
There’s a reason Lammis is happy to be going with me. The reason will become clear as soon as we arrive at the public baths, but— Oh, we’re here already. I can see a building made of stone up ahead.
It’s the largest building in the Clearflow Lake stratum, next to the Hunters Association’s. At a glance, it looks like a school gymnasium, but this is the public baths.
The walls are made of stone, and the curved roof looks wooden. There are two entrances, the left being for women and the right for men—not the masculine dream of a mixed bath.
“Great, we’re here! Chaaaaaarge!”
Lammis, still excited, runs through the left entrance without hesitation—with me on her back.
Inside, it’s a room with a wooden floor, and everyone takes their shoes off before stepping onto it. Beyond that is a high platform against the wall, like the attendant’s booth at a Japanese public bath. Atop t
he platform sits a little old lady with a face full of wrinkles.
“It’s five silver coins.”
“Here you go, five coins.”
She hands the silver to the old lady and proceeds inside without setting me down. There’s a changing room with lockers lined up on the wall, where you can put belongings and clothes. And well, the reason I can observe this calmly is because it isn’t my first time here.
She places me in a corner of the changing room, as always, so I decide to take a quick look around.
The parts with benches for resting and magic-item-looking things for weighing yourself seem like what you’d expect from a normal bath. We appear to have come during an off-hour, and aside from Lammis—and Shirley, who entered after us—there are only two others.
One looks like she’s about to get into the bath. She’s completely naked, with nothing extra to cover her up.
She has an ample chest, an ample waist, and an ample bottom. A perfectly well-endowed…bear. Well, you know. She may be female, but seeing a beast person in the nude doesn’t make me happy at all.
And in this world, the beast people aren’t the simple kind where only their ears and tails are animallike—these are actual animals, and the sole impression I have of seeing them naked is “I think I’ve seen this at the zoo before, or on TV.”
The other person is a human female, but she’s the regular old lady who visits me early in the morning, so I have no particular comment.
“Wooowww! Shirley, you’re so pretty… I’m jealous!”
“Hee-hee. Thank you.”
I hear the girls talking, so without particularly thinking about it—just casually, no ulterior motives whatsoever—I look over at them.
Lammis is using an arm to hold up the pair of big beach balls on her chest. Leaning forward in nothing but her panties, she has quite the suggestive appearance as she stares at Shirley. No—those aren’t beach balls. Her breasts are just way too big.
When fully liberated, they pack an incredible punch. If a man saw them, I don’t think he could be blamed for forgetting himself and staring for a while. My male instincts may or may not be shouting that averting my eyes would be a crime.
And her eyes are pointedly focused on Shirley, who’s completely naked. But why? She has a perfect body, and she’s supposed to be sexy, but it doesn’t turn me on. She has an ethereal sort of look to her, as though I’m looking at a piece of art. There is no carnal desire there—just a bewitching beauty.
At times like these, I’m not sure whether I should be thankful I don’t have a physical body, or frustrated. It’s hard to decide.
“Boxxo, can we buy the usual things?”
Whoops. Lammis just spoke to me, snapping me out of it. Right—that’s the reason I’m here.
I add hand towels, bath towels, soap, shampoo, and hair treatment to my vending machine items. Ever since Lammis first said we were going to the baths and I stocked bath goods out of consideration, I ended up being taken to the changing room so that everyone could make more use of me.
This is certainly not something I asked for. I’d like to emphasize that this was purely coincidental. Yes—a product of coincidence. I am not sitting here in this public bath changing room because I want to, and I need to make sure that’s clear.
“This liquid hair-washing detergent feels great in my fingers, and it makes my hair unbelievably shiny. I’ve just run out of it, so maybe I’ll buy a few extra. Oh, but I’ll have to carry them back with me.”
“Then after we get out, let’s go to your shop with Boxxo. Does that sound good, Boxxo?”
“Welcome.”
Now that she mentions it, I’ve never been to her shop before, so I have a fair bit of interest in it. I wonder if it’s a gaudy place with neon signs, like in Japan. Or maybe it’s made to look no different from a house at first so they can do their business in private.
“Oh, that would be nice. I wanted to order more of those from Boxxo, too,” she says in a seductive voice while combing her hair back, completely naked, making me worried my internal circuitry will short out. If I had a heart, it would be beating out of control right now.
“Okay. Boxxo, we’re going in, so wait here for a bit.”
“Please come again.”
Go in up to your shoulders and warm your whole body. Don’t mind me—you can take your time. Really, don’t pay any attention to me. Clean every last part of your body and wash away today’s exhaustion.
They disappear into the bathing room, so I wait patiently for time to pass. Nobody is here, and I don’t need to do anything, so I just keep waiting.
Should be about time—it usually happens around now.
“Phew, I’m bushed.”
“We made a lot today. Want to go for drinks after this?”
“That sounds great!”
There they are. Because it gets more dangerous after dark in the wild, hunters generally finish their work around this time and come to wash off the grime from their outdoor activities.
You may think that after witnessing perfect beauty, anything else will affect you less—but that isn’t the case. Rather than bodies like works of art, ones with some sort of flaw or imbalance are easier to appreciate, have more humanness to them, and feel more attractive to me.
And youth itself can be a weapon all its own. However much you care for yourself, you can’t get back the tight skin and physical beauty that only the young are permitted to have…or so I remember a friend of mine once passionately explaining. That is certainly not my own opinion.
Anyway, my friend’s opinion, which I suddenly remembered, doesn’t matter. A group of young hunters throw open the door and enter. I can’t tell their ages, but from the way they talk, they’re probably kids.
The ones who came are two foxes and two raccoons, all walking on two legs.
Ah, yeah. The public baths have turned into a zoo.
The settlement has a lot of people in it, and I see beast people like Director Bear every once in a while. They have better physical abilities than humans, and hunters include them in their teams quite often. It’s not strange for a bunch of them to show up at once.
I mean—this would actually be easier to enjoy if I closed my eyes. Their voices sound like young women, after all.
“I’ve been shedding a lot lately.”
“That’s just because it’s that time of year, isn’t it?”
“And I’ve been feeling that ache recently.”
“Yeah, we’ll be in heat soon. If you see any good males, be sure to tell me.”
Right, well. This isn’t enjoyable at all. It’s too vivid.
They say high school girls don’t get embarrassed about this stuff when there are no men around—but with the animal instincts mixed in, the sexual openness is too much for me.
“Oh, Boxxo’s here today! I’m going to buy the fur wash.”
“Me too, me too!”
Well, they are covered in fur, so they go through a whole lot of shampoo and treatment. I’m not about to complain about good customers.
“If this makes my coat of fur look good, it’ll have all the males howling.”
“And they can’t resist the scent, either! The other day, my boyfriend was getting into it even though he’s not in heat.”
The raccoons and foxes disappear into the bath room in a friendly line. I mean, their chests may be slightly curved and their bottoms may look like a lady’s, but that doesn’t mean they seem sexy to me. Apparently, things like this do arouse certain people, but I’m not that sophisticated.
Anyway, I’m a vending machine, so even if they were humans, I couldn’t care less about naked women. However, I must say that having been a human male originally, a little part of it still tugs at me, saying it would be a waste not to enjoy the moment.
Yes—before I am a vending machine, I have the soul of a man, and I must not forget it!
“Phew. Now that I’m out, maybe I’ll have a drink.”
“Welcome,” I say to t
he old woman.
Ma’am, I would recommend either the cold fruit milk or the coffee milk for your post-bath beverage. If you sweat too much, then rehydrate with a sports drink.
“I think I’ll buy this drink with the odd color.”
Oh, I knew she’d choose the fruit milk. Obviously, you have to have that or coffee milk after getting out of the bath. And of course, in a jar. This is a public bath tradition that I won’t yield.
A paper illustrating how to properly open the container is affixed to the side of the vending machine, so everything is perfect. Lammis is the artist, by the way. Her pictures are pretty flavorful and cute. I like them quite a bit.
“Phew! I was a little dizzy. This really hits the spot.”
“Thank you. Please come again.”
Seeing a customer’s joy after buying an item really is the moment I feel happiest as a vending machine… Wait, wasn’t I thinking about something else before? Well, whatever.
“Aaah. I feel refreshed.”
“That felt good.”
Oh, and while I was talking to the old lady, Lammis and Shirley finished their bath. I’m not the only one who thinks wearing nothing but a bath towel is hotter than being completely naked, am I?
That slim line, where you can almost see but you can’t, amplifies the allure. Yes, this isn’t bad at all.
“Boxxo, I’ll have a cold one! The brown kind today.”
“I think I’ll have the same.”
They each grab their freshly chilled coffee milk, put a hand on their hip, and gulp it down. The whole putting-a-hand-on-your-hip-while-you-drink thing seems to span cultures—even different worlds.
Fresh from the bath, their flushed bodies are permeated by my white liquid—but when I describe it like that, it sounds lewd.
Lammis finishes hers off and exhales noisily. “Shoot, this is the best!”
Lammis, I’m happy you’re happy, but you’re acting like an old man.
“The cold feels good,” says Shirley after letting out a more refined breath. Compared to Lammis, Shirley is twisting to and fro. It’s too sexy; it’s poison for the eyes. She’s exudes a certain sophisticated sex appeal, the likes of which would immediately put me in trouble if I were a boy in puberty.