Editing Golden Time:Volume4 Chapter3

===Chapter 3===

Then in view before him, a handsome man, looking like a foreign model, who seemed to have been given the same duties as Mitsuo, went trotting by, beer in one hand, wearing flesh-colored bikini-style briefs. Speaking of a raw atmosphere, down there in his nether region heavy things were swaying. Without realizing it, he followed him the whole time with his eyes. That figure from behind, the bare behind better than Mitsuo's own, stole the words from his mouth.

"I... got it on... but..."

Mitsuo groaned in a very thin voice. When Banri looked back at him, he was practically nude.

"...I wonder, will this, be okay...!?"

Tension showed on his handsome, manly face, and every time he moved the shadows of his muscles stood out mesmerizingly. His body was like a sculpture.

On the other hand, the center of the flesh-colored bikini's sparkling lame lewdly shouted to all the world, "Ev-er-y-body! Here is something obscene!"

"...You're, you're fine! You're super cool, Yana-ssan!"

The horribly embarrassed Mitsuo shoved his hair into order, and, looking desperate, held his head high. The jeans, underwear and socks he had removed were tossed into a chair.

A black guy dressed as a chinese girl... or maybe a really tall girl, in any case one of his fellow co-workers for this evening, zipped past him carrying a silver tray just like Banri's and whistled at him.

"Thanks! Jeez, it's no wonder I thought that was a lot of money! This isn't just an ordinary job, for that kind of money!"

"Nevertheless, Yana-ssan, with those see-through briefs you're up by 10,000 yen!"

"If Chinami were to see me like this, I'd probably die!"

"Nooo, wouldn't Oka-chan normally run with it? Laughing like crazy, and then waving her camera around!?"

"No, no way no way no way! I wouldn't be able to stand it! What if Kouko saw you like that?"

"Yeah! Kaga-san might even be good with this, and let me be seen as if it were normal!"

It wasn't about not wanting to be seen in women's clothing, but rather it was about lying and working a part time job, and yet...

"Really? But of course, you're pretty cool about it! I mean, the way things are right now, I wonder what those guys are dressed up like? NANA-senpai and Linda!"

"They said they had to change, and disappeared. I haven't seen them for a while now!"

"There's no way they're like this!"

Said Mitsuo, pointing at himself,

"No way!"

Banri laughed loudly, but at that moment,

"Ooh!? Ya, Yana-ssan... isn't it!? Eh, Tada Banri!? Wow, NANA-senpai, take a look!"

"Whoa, fantastic!"

It was Linda and NANA-senpai's voices. Looking back at the two of them,

"Eeeh... Eh...!?"

"No, aren't you two the fantastic ones!?"

Reflexively, Banri and Mitsuo pointed too, and both sets wound up pointing at each other.

[[Image:Golden Time vol04 167.jpg|thumb]]

Linda and NANA-senpai were dressed exactly alike, in precisely the same fashion.

Their wigs were like Banri's, cut to follow the jawline, but were purple. They wore devil horns attached to hairbands, an earphone in one ear, and a pouch with a wireless receiver in it.

The only thing covering any part of their upper bodies was a skimpy black bikini top.

Secured only by flimsy straps around the neck and around the back, their upper chest, back, stomach, armpits and navel, in the darkness everything seemed to be exposed, standing out pure white. And yet exposed as they were, it hardly felt erotic. NANA-senpai so stoic and so very gaunt, with Linda who was so poised and beyond pretty, he wondered if they were from the same planet. What's more, as a matching set of two, they had twice the character, so to speak.

The lower half of their bodies was dressed similarly, with short shorts, lame tights and knee-high boots, silver trays in one hand, the two of them alike.

"We're the 'Devil Twins'!"

According to NANA-senpai. As it happened, there was a lighter and three cigarettes stuffed into the bikini bra over her flat chest. The deep bass notes shook the painful looking piercings that extended from her earlobes to the cartilage, making them shake in the darkness, mysteriously glittering like a summons.

For her part, Linda, a little bit embarrassed, hiding her chest with her tray,

"But the Boss told us 'You guys have no sex appeal at all! Skin and bones like that, you're going to wither away and die!' I mean…"

She laughed with a nasal voice.

"Neither Yana-ssan and Tada Banri match each other at all!"

She looked up at Banri and gave him a sharp glance. The makeup on her face was much stronger than her usual.

NANA-senpai's face, with that makeup, was hardly any different from usual, but Linda's face, made up like that, was like that of a stranger.

Her eyelids painted over darkly by eyeshadow, her eyeliner was drawn sharply uplifted, giving a cat eye effect. She wore glossy, fake eyelashes. She had applied coloring to her narrow eyebrows, as if they were lips.

Whereas normally she was just lightly built, nicely arranged and easy on the eyes, with that makeup she was transformed into a truly different person. Her looks were so exotic, they felt beautiful. She had a small face, it's silhouette that of a very young girl, but with a cold gaze that seemed incredibly low and deliberately mean. Her abs were quite solid, for a woman, and he wondered how much attention their three-dimensional appearance attracted from those around her. How she acquired them, he had no idea, but made to dance by her bright, deft movements, they made the devil-Linda's looks all the more conspicuous.

Not putting on airs, treading lightly, naturally, simply... that was Linda's normal image, but this evening she was completely the opposite. Everything was backwards. She was a baleful demon, the thing itself, danger dripping thickly from her.

"Li, Linda..."

As if it were being drawn to it, Banri's mouth approached Linda's ear. But at that very moment, the volume of the music rising even more around them,

"...Senpai, this isn't the first time for you at this job!?"

"Hm!? What!?"

His voice couldn't reach her anymore.

"Well, that's the word! Everybody to work! Move it!"

The staff in suits clapped their hands and sent the keyed-up part-timers out into the hall.

Mitsuo was too nervous to move, but the foreigner who was dressed the same as him came over, whispered something in his ear, and right away started rubbing Mitsuo's body down with oil. Banri was a little shocked at the undisguised gayness of his hand motions, but Mitsuo seemed rather determined, and took the oil in hand and started spreading more and more over his entire body. Combing up their hair as a finishing touch, the other handsome guys gathered there began to disappear behind the curtain. Incidentally, with all of them in flesh-colored bikini shorts, it seemed he'd made the right choice.

Pushing Banri from behind, NANA-senpai jerked her chin.

"Well, get moving! Do you know what you have to do!? First of all, go over to the bartenders with a tray and get sake. Move around amongst the customers as much you can, and no taking any for yourself! If you receive a request, pass it on! Likewise, when you go out with food, no taking any for yourself! The bartender's girls made them for us after all! Keep the glasses and trash collected for us! Read the mood well, become a part of the scenery, and be cool, calm and collected!"

"Un, understood! Oh yeah, cellphones..."

Banri's cellphone had been stuffed into the pocket of a bag and left behind on the back of a chair. He had intended to stuff it in the pouch with the wireless while he worked, but,

"Cell phone!? You can't, no way, that would make the Boss really mad!"

Reproved like that by Linda, he'd given up. Well, he supposed it couldn't be helped. It's a job.

While begging that it simply not be stolen and hiding the bag under a chair where it couldn't be seen, Banri followed after Linda and NANA-senpai, passing through the curtain too.

The stressful, hot, humid air, the retina-cooking laser beams, and the loud detonations of the breaking beats right in front of Banri's body all rushed in to assault him.

<span style="font-size: 300%;"><center>* * *</center></span>

Winding his way between the ecstatically dancing people, age-inappropriate light sticks placed on their sweat covered bodies here and there, Banri strutted around on to the floor in high heels.

"Anything's good! Gimme a strong sake!"

When a forty-ish looking woman, dressed in a loose, one layer, one piece dress, a silver whistle stuck in her cleavage, shouted in his ear, Banri stopped.

When the party had just started, though every time somebody called him, he'd respond, "Ah, yes sir!" "Here's the menu!", the boss would shout at him "You're too hesitant!" and stuff three pieces of gum into his mouth all at once. He could handle the disgusting flavor, so whenever he was to chew it, Banri dutifully kept chewing on the now flavorless gum.

As he did so quietly, he would glance from side to side. With a simple nod, he would dodge.

From here and there arms would reach out to him on their own and place empty glasses on his silver tray. Once he had enough, he would walk over to the bar counter. They looked like glasses, but in reality they were light plastic tumblers, and however many were piled up, they weren't dangerous.

Selecting the appropriate drinks from those already prepared, he returned to where the person had been. He had to excuse himself twice, bumping into the wildly enthusiastic guests and spilling sake on them.

After he handed over the sake and collected the empty glasses, he received instructions over the wireless to pass out hors d'oeuvre. He thought it was certainly about time for them. Virtually everybody was dancing like crazy, non-stop. Without a doubt, they all needed the calories.

The party was getting terribly crowded.

Around midnight the birthday song rang out. It took some time to blow out all the candles on the huge cake for the female guest of honor (she looked young, but when he peeked in the kitchen, there were 45 candles there), but if you thought about it, it was a unique way of telling time.

Who knows how many hours went by after that? There were ever more guests, the sake kept flowing, there were famous guest DJs that Banri wasn't familiar with, and adults who should have known better fooling around non-stop.

In the middle of it all, when he turned to see what people were cheering at, he could see scattered here and there around the hall individual pedestals, with foreign models in flesh-colored bikinis showing off their wares (no touch!). All of a sudden, the Boss threw off his golden suit and sprang up to dance on one. His Calvin Kleins screamed out, stuck closely to his posterior. When it appeared that his disgusting belly was dashed against the other man, and the two of them were entangled as if they were pushing their hips together, the excitement of the older ladies looking on all at once went up. Shortly, however, the Boss, brandishing the splayed fingers of both hands, was shouting "Gets! Gets!" As you might expect, he had none of the presence of <span class="plainlinks">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandy_Sakano Dandy]</span>. At least take your socks off, he thought.

When he looked towards Mitsuo on his own pedestal, his face said clearly "I'm glad he didn't come over here!" It was so easy to see that when he met the laughing Banri's eyes, he showed a soft smile too. At being passed by that smile, the women stared and stared.

Amidst the boisterously flashing and dancing lights, Mitsuo's skin shone brightly. His supple, muscular body was young, and as beautiful as an animal. Even if he didn't draw the attention the foreign models did, lifting both his arms high, flexing his abs to the music, was he not rather splendid?

One time, while in the restroom during an intermission, he said "The foreigner guys told me it was okay to be a copy-cat, so that's what I'm doing!" sweat dripping quietly from his face as he was breathing heavily. Between this and that, it even looked like he was having fun. Swinging his shoulders as if to fan and cool them, he composed his expression as cool as he could, turned a hot gaze to just beyond touching distance, became one with the other beautiful things livening up the hall and for just one night anonymously channelled the wild enthusiasm of those around.

''He's in a mental state where he doesn't even understand it'', thought Banri.

This night was sliced out of Tada Banri's life, and as far as he was concerned, it was, unexpectedly, not bad.

In this unusual environment, he was changed into a another person entirely. Chewing on gum while feeling cool and creepy, he had become like a machine, simply doing his work. And so the time went passing by. The music and the deep rumbling was transmitted through his high-heels to his pelvis, spine and even his skull, continually providing a stimulus as if to numb him, and in the darkness, the garish lights danced wildly about, as if they'd gone mad.

His five senses were painted over by the overwhelming stimuli, his ego was painted over with the image of another person, his body was enslaved to the job: he himself had no room for choice in the matter. Strangely, it felt good for now.

Not possessing even his own body, he would ride through this brilliant night.

When he bent over to load up his silver tray with hors d'oeuvre, he seemed to feel somebody touching him, as if to catch him. He turned around.

It was the Devil... Linda, laughing.

She was looking at Banri, her bare skin moistened by sweat because of the heat, her cheeks, collarbones and shoulders gleamed damply, and as far as he could tell in the darkness, her face was red too. And then,

"Aren't you exhausted!? Are you okay!?"

While the heavy beat pushed her hip softly against him in time with the music, Linda shouted in his ear. Between this and that, his ears had already become completely dull.

"It's rather fun! Somehow, I seem to have gotten surprisingly addicted!"

Drawing her ear closer to Banri so he could shout back to her, her purple wig stuck to her cheeks by her sweat, Linda gave a big nod.

"It sure is that way! It's something fun for me too, and in fact this is the fourth time I've worked an event for the Boss!"

"Wow! Is that you how usually dress!?"

"Nope! It isn't fixed! I've done many kinds!"

Their bodies equally heated, both of them soaked with sweat, if they'd only realized, the two of them were stuck together at the shoulder. If they weren't so close, they wouldn't be able to hear each other.

And,

"You two over there, you're super cute! Could we take pictures!?"

A group of completely drunk girls were shouting and pointing their cell phones toward them. The bewildered Banri stammered out,

"It's okay!"

In the mood for it, Linda pulled Banri's shoulder over and posed as if they were dancing close together. ''Kyaa!'' The girls got excited, and the other guests began to notice them. He felt Linda's tights against his inner thigh. Body heat. Getting the chills, he had goosebumps all the way up his spine.

But, if they drew attention to themselves here, it would be really uncool, and the mood would be broken. So that he could somehow match Linda's sharp, bouncing movements, Banri wrapped his hand around her firm waist.

Entwining her arms with Banri's, Linda bent her waist back and forth softly, in synch with the rhythm. Her gaze self-assured, she was clearly having fun. As if directing the people's gazes, she slowly fluttered her white fingertips.

This evening, in this place, they were not Tada Banri and Hayashida Nana, but a cool, gum-chewing cross-dressing maid and a cat-eyed devil.

They were two bodies, without past, present or future, with no relation to such things, for the moment only, limited to this place, existing only in this moment.

Thinking it funny, one of the guests stuck a glow-stick in Linda's mouth. Accepting it gracefully, Linda bit the point with her front teeth while she lifted the ends of her lips in a smile.

He was thinking, I want to do like that, right now.

Without any sort of reason, nor goal, nor even desire, Banri's body simply moved. Placing his arm behind Linda's back, he forced her back, supporting her with his legs. Leaning over her, he bit the other end of the light stick.

The cheering rose more and more hotly, deafening his ears. The pounding beat grew far away. Linda narrowed her cat-like eyes a bit, as if to see the color of Banri's eyes.

At that moment, at the edge of his vision, he glimpsed a pair of incredibly pretty shoes.

They were high-heeled sandals, of delicate make, but having a gorgeous profile.

It suddenly struck Banri: To wear such shoes, a woman must surely be suited to them. He, too, knew what it was to wear high heels, but he was not the sort to be forever standing on tip-toes while remaining conscious of his own body. He wondered, how in the world could one sacrifice, in pain, to sustain their own body weight on something so high and yet so tiny?

What's more, her ankles were so slender, her calves were tense. Her knees were slim too, and she had truly beautiful feet. A model, or a star? An actress? He wondered: when she walked, were her feet not completely exalted in beauty?

And then, halfway up her thighs, he saw the hem of her skirt. It had the appearance of a summer knit. When he looked beyond, he saw a sleeveless ruffled one-piece dress. At the base of her neck there was a necklace, and she had matching bracelets.

That's a woman with a rather ideal shape, thought Banri, strangely carefree. Her face could not be seen, but though he could not see up to the face, he felt an aura that shouted "There's a beauty here!"

He wondered, had he been born a woman, would he have done up his hair like that, so extravagantly? Would he hold a clutch-bag under his arm like that, expose his slender shoulders like that, and show off his perfect looks to the public like that?

Indeed, truly perfect...

"...Huh...!?"

Gum clogging his throat, Banri spat out the glow-stick he'd held in his mouth.

Flipping his body up, he looked at the perfect shape of that person.

Lost in this party, dressed in a brand-name one-piece dress, a perfect beauty with a beautiful face as frightened as could be. A perfect smile. A perfect standing figure.

The woman: the perfected Kaga Kouko.

Taking one step towards Banri, who was still holding the Devil's... no Linda's form, her perfect, beautiful face not moving a single millimeter yet,

"...Bah...!"

She splashed the sake she had in her glass in Banri's face.

His eyes and nose. He threw his head back, coughing as if about to drown, unable to speak yet. How was Kouko here? How? Why?

"You're mistaken, Ko-ko-chan!"

Her voice echoed, as if she were screaming.

"You're mistaken! Look, it's me, Linda! Hayashida Nana!"

Picking herself up and out of Banri's arms, Linda frantically raised her voice.

He realized that Kouko's lips were moving, saying "I know that." And then,

"...ngh!"

Her open hand flew up and delivered a hard slap to Banri's cheek. And then, for some reason, there was applause from all around. The feverish, surging beat did not stop.

| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume4 Chapter4|Chapter 4]]