Author's Note
This is a short story by Grayman.
It's been a while since I last wrote an activity report. I'm answering the questions I see in the comments section here.
Be aware that there are some light spoilers.
It was the second day since returning from the Gray World.
Today I decided to investigate Grayman, also known as Aya, at my mansion.
"Well then, can I try it out right away?" I asked.
"Yeah. Got it," Aya replied.
After saying that, Aya closed her eyes. After waiting a short while, Aya's body began to glow, and when the light subsided, another young girl had appeared.
"It's my first time to look like this. So, please be considerate to me," said the young girl.
Her hairstyle had changed, going from semi-long to long hair. Her tone also seemed much more adult-like. However, her height was the same as Aya, which was equivalent to a 5-year-old child.
"Yeah, nice to meet you," I greeted.
"I finally got to meet you. I've been asking for ages, but Aya is so mean," she replied.
"What do you mean?" I asked the Huewoman, who sounded a little pouty.
"I asked Aya many times to switch roles, but she wouldn't accept... We had been given such good terms, so everyone else thought that there was no need to take the risk of revealing a different personality..." she replied. According to the story, in Graymen and Huemen, decisions were made by majority vote of 1024 people. It seemed that the Huewoman wanted to be switched but lost the majority vote.
"I was also there when Aya was rescued. Even though I have a weak sense of self, the scene has been burned into my memory, and I have not been able to get it out of my head. There is no doubt that Aya loved you the most, but I am proud to say that I was second, " the Huewoman said that and smiled innocently. Despite her young appearance, she had a strange sexiness to her...or so I thought.
Now, I had no plans to give names to these 1,022 people I had never met, but now that they've made such a bold appearance, it would be rude not to give them names.
"Since you've come all the way out here, do you need a name?" I asked.
"Please, please. If possible, please give it a cute name," she replied happily.
"I'll do my best," I said that, then muttered, "Cute name... Cute name..." as I folded my arms and thought. Unlike usual, no options pop up.
"Well then, how about Ayano?" I suggested.
"It's cute, but it's almost the same as Aya," she replied.
"Bad," I muttered. It was unclear whether the lack of options was a problem or whether my original sense was terrible.
"No, it's a name you thought up for me. There's no way I could disagree."
"It's a relieve to hear you say that," I felt relieved as Ayano smiled happily. Furthermore, the entry Ayano had also appeared in the status column. In other words, the name column for the 1,022 unnamed people were still blank.
"Next is adulthood..." I said. Right now, Aya[1] was drinking the leftover bath water after I got in. This was because ingesting my bodily fluids was a condition for maintaining Hueman state. And by absorbing my sweat, Huemen could transform into their adult form for a short period of time. Their biology was a mystery.
"Thank you," saying that, Ayano quickly took off her one-piece children's clothing.
"What are you doing?" I asked her.
"I thought it would be too tight to turn into an adult while still wearing my clothes, so I took them off. My pants stretch so I think they'll be fine, but would it be okay if I took them off?" Ayano replied. Ayano, who didn't appear to be wearing a shirt to begin with and was only wearing a pair of children's pants, I asked her as she put her hands on them.
"No, it's fine as it is. It was the same for Aya, but do you guys have no shame?" In Aya's case, she had no shame even in her adult form. Lack of shame might be a characteristic of Huemen in general.
"It seems not to be the case... But, yes. Considering the common sense of this world, it's probably best not to expose your skin to others too much. I've decided not to expose my skin except in front of you," Ayano declared.
"Is it okay if it's in front of me?" I tried to confirm.
"Of course. I have nothing to hide from you." Ayano replied. I could see the complete trust in her eyes.
"Regardless of how much you trust me, make sure you hide it when it's not necessary," I said to her.
"Yes. I understand," Ayano replied.
"Well then, would you like to try licking it now?" I asked.
"By all means," as she said that, I bent down for Ayano, who was walking along with tiny, shuddering steps. Ayano stuck out her small red tongue and brought her face close to my neck. Why does she come up to me with his tongue out when he could just stick out his tongue after getting close to my face? Also, her appearance is strangely sexy, even though she has the body of a five-year-old...
"Hmm...," like Aya, she let out a soft moan and her body grew larger.
"Phew...Thank you for the meal," now in her adult form, Ayano was probably a little shorter than me. Although her proportions were not as good as Aya's, her body was well-balanced and beautiful. If I had to point out a problem, it would be that the children's underwear reduced her appeal.
"Your adult appearance is quite different from Aya's," I commented.
"It seems so. Oh..." Ayano replied. In an instant, she reverted to her child form.
"Maybe it's because we're not in the bathroom and I'm not sweating much?" I wondered.
"That seems to be the case. Next time, please do it in the bathroom," Ayano suggested.
"Even though it's mostly just for me, I'm not sure about bringing a girl into the bathroom...," I said.
I guess it's a bit late now, considering the maids come to wash my back.
After Ayano put her clothes back on, we moved on to the next test.
"Oh dear, Aya is pestering me to take over. What should I do?" (Ayano)
"I'll leave that to you. It's not something I should have anything to say about, is it?" (Jin)
"I wish you'd told her that you wanted to be with me, but I guess it can't be helped," Ayano looked down slightly, as if she was thinking about something.
"Jin Shindo-sama, was it boring being with me?" Ayano asked me.
"No, that's not the case," I replied.
"Was I inferior compared to Aya?" Ayano again.
"That's not the case either," when I answered that, Ayano smiled with relief.
"Thank you. From now on, it looks like I'll be able to take turns going out with Aya. I'm glad I didn't incur your displeasure. ...For now, Aya will take over from here, okay?" saying that, Ayano closed her eyes and switched places with Aya again.
"Seriously, absolutely no chance of letting my guard down! I got snatched away from my public role! I guess replacing me with Ayano was a mistake after all...," Aya mumbled.
"Hey, Aya, welcome back," I greeted her.
"Is it okay to say 'right now'? We share memories, so it's just that our personalities have really changed," Aya replied.
"That's complicated," I said. From Aya's perspective, it felt like she had been by my side all this time in the form of Ayano. Also, Aya and Ayano are confusing (totally my own fault). Next it will probably be Ayaka (I won't learn).
"Well, what's been decided can't be helped... So, what should I do next?" Aya asked.
"That's right. I want to see how useful your skills are." Aya and the other Graymen did not have any skills to begin with. Could skills be given to them? If they were given skills, to what extent could they be used (magic aptitude, etc.)? There were many things that people were curious about.
"Got it! Come on, bring it on!" Aya exclaimed and slapped her nonexistent chest. Her proportions were quite impressive in her adult form, so I wanted to see it in that form. It would have swayed nicely.
"Well, let's try giving it a ‹Sword Mastery›. Before that, I'd like to see its original qualities, so please try swinging the wooden knife," I said.
"Okay," Aya replied.
Aya took the wooden knife from me and swung it, saying "Here goes!" Naturally, you can't expect any force or technique from a knife wielded by a five-year-old.
"Yeah. It's no good," I commented.
"Is that terrible!?" Aya was shocked by my criticism.
"Well, I knew that, so it's not a problem. The problem is what to do after you acquire the skill. I'll give you the skill, so try again," I said to her.
"Yeah, I get it. ...Here goes!" Aya exclaimed. After handing over the skill, her movements had naturally became more refined.
"This is... incredible..." Aya seemed to be enjoying the fact that her body was moving in a completely different way from before, as she continued practicing her swing over and over again.
"Next, I'll give you ‹Physical Strengthening›" I said to her.
"Bring it on! Come on!" Aya exclaimed. I gave ‹Physical Strengthening› to Aya. Like ‹Sword Mastery›, but it was only at level 1. The next moment, Aya's sword speed increased significantly.
"Really! It's amazing!" she shouted. She didn't just practice her swing, he also mixed in slashing attacks while moving her body, enjoying to the fullest the use of her enhanced physical abilities. But, isn't there one thing I'm forgetting?
"Oh, what happened?!" Aya was surprised. Her movements suddenly slowed down and she turned back into Grayman. Yes, she was out of energy. It was only natural that if she moved faster in ‹Physical Strengthening›, she would use up more physical strength (energy).
Aya was running and almost crashed into the wall. I used Flash Step to move in front of the wall and gently catch her.
Perhaps because she had been blown away, Aya's eyes were spinning. After waiting a little while, I showed Aya, who had woken up, my neck.
"Come on, lick it (Note: this is not a dirty line)[2]," I urged her. Aya slowly approached me and licked my neck. With that, Aya returned to her Huewoman state.
"I had a terrible experience..."
"I never told you to go that far. You got what you deserve," I said.
"I admit I got carried away," Aya seemed to be aware that she had gotten too carried away and was dejected.
"Well then, let's continue the test."
"Are we still going?" Aya asked and seemed a little hesitant.
"Yeah, now I want you to use magic," I said.
"...Okay. I'll do it," Aya replied. Upon hearing about magic, it seemed her curiosity won out.
I gave Aya ‹Water Magic›. This was because it seemed to have the least impact on the surroundings. Even if she made a mistake, she would not be given ‹Fire Magic›. It would be a disaster if the power turned out to be stronger than expected. I learned that in the Goblin Forest.
"Yay!" Aya exclaimed and put her hands forward and began to chant. ………But nothing happened.
"Huh? Come on! Come on!" Aya shouted.
………But nothing happens.
"Rather than an offensive spell, can you use a spell that simply produces water?" I asked her.
"...I tried. ...It didn't work," Aya replied.
Can't she even perform the simplest magic?
"Is this the same as Tiramisu?" I wondered.
"Tiramisu? Who is that?" Aya asked.
"My familiar. She has bad compatibility with magic, so she can't use magic at all," I replied.
In the Gray World, magic was completely unusable. Although it was possible to use magic by forcibly bending the rules using ‹Broad Interpretation›, this was nothing more than an exception. So perhaps it was not surprising that Graymen, a resident of such a world, did not get along well with magic. I didn't fully understand the differences in specifications between the worlds either.
"So, Aya can't use magic...?" Aya asked.
"No, you should be able to use Sakura's ‹Original Spells›. At least, Tiramisu could," I replied.
"I want you to let me do it!" Aya exclaimed.
As a result, Aya was able to use ‹Original Spells› such as Portal. Even though she was finally able to use magic, Aya was still in a bad mood.
"You seem grumpy, what's wrong?" I asked her.
"I wanted to use an offensive spell!" Aya replied.
This was a lot more dangerous than what I had imagined back in her Graymen days.
"That's impossible," I rejected.
"Cruel!?" (Aya)
Sakura didn't create offensive magic with ‹Magic Creation›, so she just had to give up on that.
After experimenting with it a bit, I discovered something a little interesting.
"Hehe, leave the ‹Sewing› to me, okay?" that was what Ayano said. In addition...
"It seems I'm good at ‹Painting›."
"I am better at Sculpturing..."
This was confirmed with the personalities that appeared on the surface other than Aya and Ayano. Apparently, each of Grayman's personalities had different strengths in different skills. Graymen might appear to be one person, but in reality, there were 1024 of them, so it was only natural that each one had their own personality.
As what I'd heard, this was limited to skills. Also, I discovered that when they used a skill they were good at, they got better results than an ordinary person. To put it simply, they had a higher affinity with skills than the inhabitants of this world. It was as if it fills the gap where magic couldn't be used...
Since we had the opportunity, I decided to have Aya and the Graymen do a jack-of-all-trades regarding skills within the mansion. The ability to do many things was a powerful weapon. I considered having them work as a maid, but they said they would rather not do that as it would require a lot of energy. It turned out to be a better fit than I had expected, as we could get results while keeping their physical movement to a minimum.
"By the way, what skills are you good at, Aya?" I asked.
The moment she realized that she was good at technique-based skills, Aya handed her personality over to Ayano. Therefore, we had yet to hear about Aya's best skills.
Even without actually using a skill, Graymen seemed to be able to intuitively know that they were good at it just by having that skill. So, there was no way I wouldn't know what skills Aya was good at.
"Hehehe. You'll be surprised when you hear it! It's called ‹Singing›!" Aya declared. Bang! She was making a pose that sounded like it would be accompanied by a sound effect.
"Aya's singing voice will enchant everyone!" Aya replied.
"Sorry. We already have someone in charge of music." (Jin)
"We have!?" (Aya)
Author's Note
The author's intention is to make up for his lack of ability to incorporate new characters into the main story with a short story.
It's best to prepare a short story for a character who doesn't have much impact on the main story. Even if it's just one episode, they can still become the main character.
Translation Note
[1] Not sure if it's Aya or Ayano. I seems by the context, it should be Ayano, but in the raw it was Aya.
[2] This is a note from the author. It's written there in the raw.
I need more vocabularies for dialogue descriptors.