Episode 24: Apparently, We’re Genetically Compatible
—And so it was, for those dozen or so minutes, Ayano was huddled close to Yuuto, shrinking in on herself.
“Damn it, they’re here too! We won’t have enough ammo at this rate!”
“Take the left at the end of this corridor! The laboratory is just ahead!”
“—No good. There are too many… Different route.”
From the very beginning, the story was filled with gunshots and hoarse groans.
The movie Ayano brought was a so-called “zombie flick.”
Being a common theme, many of the general plot points were similar.
This movie was about a world overrun by a zombie virus, where the protagonists, a special forces unit, investigate the laboratory believed to be the source and retrieve data to create a vaccine… or so it went.
Being a Hollywood film, it boasted flashy, high-quality production and a cast of famous actors. The Japanese dub featured popular voice actors from anime, making it a relatively new work that had been trending on Social Media.
Currently, the scene was set after a lull in the fighting as they aimed for the destination laboratory, with the protagonists taking a breather in an office they had barged into.
“Hey, Ayano.”
“Hyaa!?”
Yuuto tried to speak without startling the trembling Ayano, but her fear seemed to have reached its peak before the climax.
“W-What is it…?”
“Well, you still don’t like horror stuff, do you? You don’t have to force yourself—”
Since childhood, even before her mother’s incident, she had been unable to handle anything labeled “horror,” regardless of the degree.
He remembered her trembling after they casually watched a paranormal program together when they were young.
Then, a clatter as something fell.
“What was that? What happened?”
The burly Black man with a gun and Ayano reacted in unison.
“Hey, Ayano, that hurts. Your fingers are digging into my arm!”
“Oh, sorry…”
She quickly let go, offering a dry smile.
“Should we stop watching?”
“No… I’m okay. I’ll endure it.”
“You’re really pushing yourself, aren’t you?”
Ayano, exasperated by Yuuto’s sigh, retorted,
“Because it was forced on me! I even said, ‘Horror stuff is a bit…’ but they insisted, ‘It’s absolutely hilarious!’ And everyone else was like, ‘Watch it, watch it~’ I couldn’t refuse. I need to see it to keep up with the conversation…”
“They really pushed it on you.”
He consoled her with sweet chocolate, saying,
“Still, I didn’t think girls liked zombie movies that much.”
“…Well, the zombies themselves are like a bonus,” she sighed wearily, savoring the sweetness.
“Did you know that the actor playing the protagonist and the actress playing the heroine are newlyweds?”
“Oh, I saw that on the news… Come to think of it, the voice actors for the dub were also a married couple, right?”
“Exactly. The ‘collaboration of a loving couple’ is what’s moving,” she said.
Now it was Yuuto’s turn to frown.
“Does that have anything to do with the movie’s content?”
“Ahaha, girls are like that sometimes.”
As he returned his gaze to the TV at her dry laugh, the scene had changed somehow, and the protagonists were moving forward again.
Blocking their path was a horde of zombies.
The TV screen was filled with them, a climax early on.
“Aaargh! Aaaaargh!”
The pale face of one of the zombies was zoomed in, howling like a beast.
“—!”
As Ayano clung to him, speechless like the protagonists, Yuuto thought, “This must have been tough to film.”
Also, by the time this movie is over, my arm might be broken, he thought.
◇
Suddenly, Ichinose Ayano felt breathing close to her, realizing she had been sleeping in an awkward position, leaning on something.
It was soft yet firm, and warm.
A familiar scent, a mix of fabric softener and shampoo.
“…”
Opening her eyes, she found her beloved boyfriend’s face right next to hers.
Her heart skipped a beat, but there was no need to scream and recoil.
After all, she had been like this until she dozed off.
After somehow managing to finish watching the zombie movie, Ayano had been trembling like a newborn fawn.
Overall, it was more of an action movie depicting the bond between the protagonist and heroine than a horror film.
Yuuto’s impression was, “There weren’t any particularly scary elements,” but for Ayano, who couldn’t handle ghosts or anything of the sort, the two hours with zombies were quite heavy.
She remembered watching a video of “kittens playing” on a portable game console connected to the TV to change her mood.
They had been watching it casually while chatting about trivial things, but it seemed to have been a boring time for him.
His goofy sleeping face was amusing, but she belatedly felt bad.
But thanks to that, she would have no problem talking about the movie if asked.
She was certain that she would have broken the disc early on if she had been alone.
“…I wonder why?”
Ayano muttered, leaning against him.
She could watch a movie she couldn’t watch alone just by being like this.
—Come to think of it, it had always been like this.
When she couldn’t do anything alone. When she hated everything. When she was scared and lonely.
He had always been there for her.
That alone reassured her.
His warmth and voice.
“…Ah—maybe it’s this after all.”
And, more than anything, it was the scent.
It wasn’t an obvious “good smell” like shampoo or perfume, but it was strangely appealing.
Just having her head on his shoulder calmed and healed her.
She didn’t think she had that kind of preference, but thinking back, she had hugged him without any reason as a child, feeling a sense of security, so maybe she had that tendency?
(No, but still…)
Frowning suspiciously, she brought her face closer to his neck.
…She smelled it more intensely and clearly than ever before.
(Hmm? This is… really…? Huh? Am I serious about this…?)
She became convinced as she sniffed and scrutinized, glad he wasn’t awake.
—I wonder what it’s like to like your boyfriend’s scent? What would he think? Would he hate it?
She felt a bit of a crisis as she couldn’t stop herself from thinking that.
(…Ah—this… might be bad.)
Just as the depths of her body began to feel warm and fuzzy,
“—Liking your boyfriend’s scent apparently means you’re ‘genetically compatible.'”
“Eh…?”
Her boyfriend’s older sister, Kamijo Yuna-san, was peeking into the room.
She grinned and said,
“But sniffing your sleeping boyfriend and moaning is kind of perverted, isn’t it?”
“I’m not moaning!?”
With a thud! Kamijou Yuuto, who had been pushed over, groaned and writhed like a zombie.