The Mysterious Sisters

The two part-timers are of unknown identity.

And after the interview, I discovered something outrageous after a little investigation.

"The older sister's daily DP income… is 0!?"

That fact was enough to make me smack the floor in shock.

Daily DP is a measure of strength, and an average C-Rank would give about 50-70 DP. In particular, if they know skills, it tends to be higher.

And having 0 DP is something I've only seen in people connected to dungeons like myself, Rokuko, and Haku-san, or in people with absolutely no combat ability, like Niku was when I first picked her up.

However, it could also be the effect of some concealment skill I don't know about.

The younger sister, Nayuta, gives 85 DP daily… Yeah, about the same level as Gozoh. She said she's an alchemist, so she probably knows various skills. By the way, Ichika's daily DP went from around 60 to 75 DP after she learned those skills.

"Well, I didn't notice at all. As expected of you, Kehma. You look at different things～"

"Don't look away, oi."

"B-but there's no need to look at individual DP, right?"

"It's a good measure for gauging an intruder's strength. Keep an eye on it."

"Ugh, fine. I'll be careful from now on."

Even so… the younger sister has DP? Hmm.

I don't know what conditions result in someone giving 0 DP, but staying vigilant is essential. Especially toward the older sister.

"Hey, Kehma. Maybe you could find something out if you transform into Setsuna? Can you do that?"

"… Hoh. Let me try, [Super Transformation]."

The best way to learn about your opponent is to become them. So I used [Super Transformation] to transform into the older sister of the part-timers—Setsuna.

Whoa, my chest is heavy. Really weighty.

Normally when I transform into a woman, there's this strange feeling in my lower half… but it doesn't feel that way this time… nn?

…

It's there!? No, wait, it's there!!

Wh-what? What's going on? A crossdresser? No, these breasts seem real…

…

…!?

After checking, there's both a man's thing and a woman's thing. What… how do I put this… yeah. Right. Extra topping? No, she's a hermaphrodite.

Just who is this person? Being half dog and half rabbit is one thing, but being half in gender too? I want to believe this is a bug in [Super Transformation]… But I got a close look at the actual person before transforming, so I should accept this as reality. When I transformed into Rokuko, there definitely wasn't anything extra there.

"Maybe… are hermaphrodites not that uncommon in this world?"

"No, um… I wonder? They're probably quite rare."

The people I've met so far were probably clearly either male or female, but I never verified what was between their legs. In fact, I would have assumed Setsuna was a woman too if I hadn't checked like this. Her bloomers weren't bulging either. You wouldn't normally check someone's crotch.

… Rokuko is definitely female. The only one I can trust is Rokuko…!?

"It's okay. Niku, Ichika, and Rei don't have anything growing there either."

"O-oh. Thanks?"

"Um, you're welcome?"

I ended up hearing information I both wanted and didn't want to hear.

For now, let me summarize what I know about Setsuna.

• Appears to understand Japanese

• 0 DP per day. Someone connected to a dungeon, or due to an unknown skill?

• Is a hermaphrodite.

That is all.

Now her identity has become even more mysterious.

I don't even know if they're truly sisters anymore. Or rather, is it okay for her to be the older sister? … Well, it's about how you identify in your heart, so older sister is fine. Even the Uzoh Muzoh brothers are brothers despite not being related by blood. A hermaphrodite older sister—sure, why not.

But what's their goal? Even after transforming, I have no clue.

Rokuko suggested I try transforming, and I did, but all it does is change my form to match theirs. It doesn't copy memories… I don't know if leveling it up would change that though.

So what should I do now?

… Let's just watch and wait for now.

Yes, the classic Japanese approach of maintaining the status quo. Put off troublesome problems. If time will solve the problem, it's best not to meddle.

What if the problem gets worse? Good luck, future me.

"… Hmm, well. Just stay vigilant for now. They might make a move after the interview."

"Okaaay. I'm the one who decided to hire them, so I'll take responsibility."

I don't know how she plans to take responsibility, but I decided to cancel the transformation and go to sleep for now.

I returned to my room, lay down on the futon, and activated Sleepsword Siesta!

… I was asleep within ten seconds.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

I was still concerned, so I decided to go check on the mysterious sisters directly. Niku came with me as a bodyguard. The younger sister, Nayuta, was sitting at the reception desk right now. As for the problematic older sister—ah, according to the map, she's sleeping in her room.

When I approached, Nayuta lightly bowed her head in greeting… She'd been reading a book. She was on duty, but with no guests passing through, she was just killing time.

"Yo, how's work?"

"Nothing to report. Going smoothly as usual."

"I see. What were you reading?"

"A collection of Advanced-tier magic formations. Look."

With that, Nayuta opened the book and showed me.

A collection of magic formations was like a poetry anthology—a book gathering magic formations together. There, on a two-page spread, only a single magic formation was drawn… Time… stop… subspace, it read. Hmm. This seems to have an effect similar to [Storage]. About half of it was missing though.

"Hmm. Is there no commentary or notes on this?"

"… Oh? Village Chief-san, are you interested in magic formations?"

"No, but Nerune loves this stuff. She'd be happy if she could read it."

"Ah, I've already lent Nerune-san the Beginner and Mid-tier collections I had on hand."

Well, that's helpful. Our strategic options are expanding more and more.

By the way, Beginner-tier apparently has simple, already-analyzed formations, while Mid-tier has explanations of the actual effects when activated. And Advanced-tier just has discovered formations that haven't even been activated yet, written down as-is.

"So what effect does this formation have?"

"Well, I don't actually know, but if I guess from the magic characters… this is 'time,' this is 'advance,' this is 'different'… so I think it might be for a doppelganger or something."

"Hm? … Is that so."

The characters Nayuta pointed to were the parts I could read as 'time,' 'stop,' and 'subspace.' The content was wrong, but there was no reason for me to point it out.

"Of course, sometimes meaningless characters are written to preserve secrecy by making the formation look ineffective. This 'advance' here could mean the complete opposite depending on the missing portion of the character. This one's target part is also missing, so I can't distinguish it."

Ah, so that's how it works… Translation Function-san, you can even supplement the missing parts? That's amazing.

"I see, you're quite knowledgeable."

"It's my profession, after all. Furthermore, there are hints on other pages to guess what the missing parts of this formation might be. If you apply enough of them, you can explain more parts and—"

She finally released me thirty minutes later. What a long talk. She even lent me a Beginner's Introduction to Alchemy, but yeah… read it? Become an alchemist? Sacrifice my sleep time to talk more? No thanks.

Nayuta turned out to be an unexpectedly aggressive talker. The meaning of her name is apparently "a very long unit of time," and her talk length lived up to it.

… Setsuna's name means "a very short unit of time"—does that mean she talks quickly?

Just then, I bumped into Setsuna in the hallway. She was supposed to be sleeping in her room.

"Ah, Village Chief-san! Good morning～. It's past noon though."

"Yeah, good morning. If you just woke up, that's fine."

I encountered Setsuna walking down the hallway in her bloomered gym clothes. Her thighs and various things were bad for my eyes. And my gaze kept trying to drift to her crotch, but I managed to resist somehow. Once you know something's there, you can't help but be curious…

"Oh, perfect timing! Hey Village Chief-san, are you free right now? Wanna have a mock fight? You're the only one left!"

"Why would I—wait, what do you mean I'm the only one left?"

"I've been challenging every C-Rank and above adventurer in the village to mock fights. I've won all of them so far. I asked Gozoh-san too, but you and your group are only C-Rank at this dungeon, right? Let's mock fight?"

"Why not fight Ni—… Kuro? You did the other day, right?"

"She was pretty strong so I wouldn't mind another go, but I already fought Kuro-senpai. I want to fight everyone in the village!"

I see, so rather than being quick with words, she's quick with her fists.

I glanced at Niku. She seemed to have lost once, but she looked motivated.

… I also have something I want to test out.

Now, what should I do?