Epilogue - Twintails and Us

Epilogue: Twintails and Us.

The morning commute was no different from every morning before it.

Two elementary school girls passed them, humming to themselves.

Having heard her confession, Souji was now painfully aware of how dangerous Twirl’s gaze was when little girls walked by.

Aika watched them go, one eye on Twirl to head off trouble, and said:

“Ne, Souji. What do you think your mom’s Elemera is?”

“Don’t. Don’t go there.”

“No, I’m actually serious. Since I became part of the Twintails, I’ve been doing it without thinking. Looking at people on the street and wondering. What Elemera does this person have … is it something ordinary, or something they couldn’t tell anyone…?”

Come to think of it … maybe he did the same.

“Elemera, huh.”

Twirl’s world, where all passion had been lost.

Some people’s deepest anchor was a favorite hairstyle, or trains, or books, or a specific kind of clothing. Things that, overheard from the outside, might get a dismissive laugh. But those things were what kept them standing.

You didn’t have to shout it.

“…you know, when I really think about it, the best world is one where people can just keep liking what they like.”

“…yeah.”

The world’s awareness could be half joke, half a festival. That was fine.

As long as they could protect this world without anyone having to live in fear of an invasion, wasn’t that the best outcome possible?

There had been no witnesses to the greatest battle. The morning news was running its usual feel-good Tailred footage. Watching the same clips on the same loop kinda made yesterday’s battle feel almost like a fever dream.

As a side note, I spotted my mother in the living room, hand-sewing something that could only be described as a bondage-adjacent costume, and that was when the origin of the Masked Twintail’s mask became clear to me. She was probably planning to put it on and play Commander in the secret base. I couldn’t stop crying inside.

“Souji-sama … thank you. For avenging my world…”

Twirl’s world had been destroyed by Dragon Guildy. So even with two Tailgear in play, the outcome of the climactic battle had been fifty-fifty at best. A gamble, she’d said.

And they’d managed to defeat the most powerful enemy in under a month.

There would still be remnant forces out there, but with the commander gone, the consensus was likely that it wasn’t worth losing too much sleep over from here.

“…when Ultimeguil is completely wiped out, will Twirl go back to her world?”

“I will not!! After using me as a stepping stone through all those intimate moments, throwing me out once I’m in the way … Aika-san, you are heartless as ever!!”

“If you want to be a stepping stone so badly, I’ll wring you dry right here until there’s nothing left—sound good?!”

…that was embarrassment talking, Souji thought, watching Aika roll up her sleeves for dramatic effect.

She didn’t want Twirl to leave. Neither did he.

“Fuh—the old me wouldn’t have stood for this!! Anti-Aika Unit One—Fire!!”

“This thing is so weak.”

“What?! She stopped Anti-Aika’s attack with one hand?!——!!”

“All right, let me fold your bones nice and slow.”

“And here comes the usual us——!!”

Those two are using illegal weapons and disproportionate force on a public street, please have mercy on me.

Personally, Souji’s first concern was that Twirl was walking to school in a uniform as though that were perfectly normal—but apparently it was fine with everyone.

“Oh, give it a rest. If you want to transfer, transfer. Putting you somewhere surrounded by boys might actually cure your pathological tendencies.”

“I am not some sort of whore like Aika-san!! Watch and see—I’ll have the whole school’s unofficial approval within three days.”

“Fine! Don’t think you’ll beat me! I’ve made up my mind too, you know!!”

Approval for what, exactly?

If it was some kind of campus-creep championship, then given the things Twirl would inevitably do the moment she arrived, three days seemed two days, twenty-three hours and fifty-seven minutes too generous.

“But … sorry. Let me say it properly.”

“What’s gotten into you, Aika-san? you’re not usually like this.”

“For suspecting you. For thinking you were scheming behind our backs—planning something. And without even meaning to, I was harder on you because of it…”

What an incredible lie to start the morning with. Your hands were always that quick to violence.

Twirl fidgeted. “Ehe, uh, but I was scheming. The stronger Tailred grows, the more Loli Attribute blooms across the world right alongside the Twintail Attribute. Adorable little girls everywhere—is exactly according to plan, ehehe.”

…that one’s a lie too, Twirl.

The hobby, the tactical advantage—none of that is why.

Tailred becomes a little girl because Twirl gave him something else too—put another wish of her own into it.

…that’s the reason, isn’t it? …right? Say it is.

Aika cleared her throat, wiped her palm on her skirt, and held out her hand to Twirl.

“I’ll take good care of the Tailgear. From now on, I’ll call you a friend properly. But what you just said and what I said … those are separate things.”

“——Understood. Let’s see who gets officially recognized first—race you!”

After the handshake, Twirl stepped lightly out ahead of Aika, turned with her hair and skirt swinging wide, and smiled with the afternoon sun behind her.

…why is she holding a dynamic pose in the middle of a gust of wind.

The edges of the world were starting to softly white out.


Original work: Twirl


CAST

Twirl: Twirl

Mitsuka Souji: Mitsuka Souji

The Evil Vixen: Tsube Aika

…

……

…what kind of hallucination is this? What game’s ending credits text just started rolling??

“Heroine death. BAD END.”

“AHGHYAAAAAAAA my pastel watercolor soft-white-out HAPPY END just turned into a black screen white text DOWNER ROUTE————!!”

Those two really are having fun, aren’t they?

I found myself idly wondering whether S and M were their own Attribute categories. Not that any two people in particular had put that thought in my head, of course.

Thinking something that thoroughly stupid, I rather pivoted to the happiness of living in a world where people could just keep loving what they loved.

That was why we’d protect it. The Twintails, I mean.

He looked up at the sky with renewed resolve.


“Whoah!!”

The clear blue sky cut with a blur into a hologram, just like the day of that first global broadcast.

First thing in the morning! A craggy beast-face filled the screen.

“WAHAHAHAHA!! Twintails!! You may be riding high, but it won’t be so easy!! With Lord Dragon Guildy’s ascension, this world is a death march for us as well—we’ll take every last Attribute no matter what!! And to that end—a powerful reinforcing armada has arrived!!”

“…I knew they wouldn’t quit.”

“At this point, even every single day wouldn’t surprise me anymore…”

Aika stood hands-on-hips, staring upward with a put-upon expression.

“School swimsuit!! The water’s embrace—the garment that surrenders to the mother planet—truly that is the Attribute that carries the planet’s will!! Dragon Guildy’s sworn ally, Tiger Guildy, is here to claim the School Swimsuit Attribute!!”*

A new Elemerian, delivering its declaration with theatrical flair.

“Every day … huh.”

He checked the time.

Twenty minutes until the warning bell. To avoid walking in at the same time as Aika and getting teased about it, he needed to wrap this up in ten.

“Hey, Aika. Picked a club yet?”

“Huh?”

“Twirl, too. Any preferences?”

“Hmm.”

“Not really … it’s been nothing but chaos.”

“I want to be wherever Souji-sama is. A locked clubroom, after school, a young man and women … ehehe.”

“Right, then…”

In formal response to the declaration of war, he thrust his right arm high at the thing blocking his morning sky.

“…The three of us—what do you say we actually go ahead and start it? The Twintails Club.”

Twirl tilted her head. “Hmm. And what would we do?”

Aika glanced at Twirl—as if to question her answer—and turned to give Souji a bold, fearless smile in return.

“Obviously——”

The red bracelet on his raised arm caught the light.