The three of them together...
Just imagining that scene made Tatsuki Arisawa stop. She did not dare think any further.
Muten Natsu & Orihime Inoue & Rukia Kuchiki.
Orihime Inoue & Rukia Kuchiki & Muten Natsu.
Rukia Kuchiki & Muten Natsu & Orihime Inoue
This... this was just too...
How could that guy Muten Natsu do something like that!
Tatsuki Arisawa had been worried before about how things were progressing between Orihime Inoue and Muten Natsu.
She never expected they had already gotten that far.
Under the covers, that is.
And there were three of them.
Together!
"I can tell from your face that your mind went somewhere weird," Ririn said from where she had been watching TV. "They were just sleeping. What were you imagining?"
Imagining... Orihime Inoue's thoughts drifted off. She imagined the three of them lying in bed together, falling asleep at the same time. She herself transformed into a super robot, battling intelligent machines in a futuristic world. Rukia Kuchiki was in ancient times, driving out demons. Muten Natsu was sleeping in the modern day. Their three dreams intertwined around Muten Natsu's dream as the core. Muten Natsu used a mecha to control Reiryoku, fighting a hybrid of intelligent machines and demons, and that terrifying power even tore apart the boundaries of the dream...
No.
"I should be asking you! When someone brings up sleeping, what else are people supposed to think? Especially when it's three people together!" Tatsuki Arisawa shot back. "Even if they were only sleeping, that's still really weird, okay?"
"Huh?" Ririn froze at the question. "Hiss..."
Tatsuki Arisawa had a point.
Since when had sleeping together become such a normal thing?
Even between couples, sleeping together should only happen after they had reached a pretty high level of intimacy.
How had Muten Natsu managed it so easily, then acted like nothing had happened?
Ririn carefully thought back.
The first person to sleep with Muten Natsu should have been Orihime Inoue. No, that was wrong... it was Retsu Unohana.
Retsu Unohana had come to Soul Society to visit Muten Natsu, and then the two of them slept together.
But even earlier than that, when Rukia Kuchiki was little, she had already slept with Muten Natsu.
When Orihime Inoue saw Muten Natsu and Retsu Unohana sleeping together, she had been a little surprised, but Rukia Kuchiki had acted like it was nothing unusual.
Now, the more Ririn thought about it, the more wrong it felt.
Even if Muten Natsu used to sleep with Retsu Unohana often, that did not mean it was normal for them to still sleep together now.
It was just that Rukia Kuchiki's reaction made something abnormal seem normal.
From that moment on, sleeping together, something extremely intimate, had already become less special in Muten Natsu's house.
Then... with Rangiku Matsumoto's encouragement, Orihime Inoue was dragged into Muten Natsu's room by Rukia Kuchiki to have a private heart-to-heart with him. Muten Natsu sang a lullaby to coax Orihime Inoue to sleep, only to lull himself to sleep instead.
And so the two of them slept together.
When she woke up, Orihime Inoue was still shy and flustered.
At that stage, sleeping together was still something embarrassing.
After that...
Ririn remembered. After that, Rukia Kuchiki noticed Orihime Inoue's strength had improved, so under the excuse of getting stronger, she slept with Muten Natsu.
At that stage, sleeping together went from something embarrassing to a way of improving strength.
After they discovered that two people sleeping together did not improve their strength, but three people sleeping together did, the three of them kept sleeping together.
By that point, sleeping together had completely become an ordinary part of daily life in Muten Natsu's house.
Neither the three people involved nor Ririn, who was watching from the sidelines, felt there was anything wrong with it.
It was not until Tatsuki Arisawa asked that question that Ririn belatedly realized it.
Something was off. Really off.
"What's wrong with it?" Orihime Inoue looked completely puzzled. "If you want to, Tatsuki-chan, we can sleep together tonight too."
"We're different." Tatsuki Arisawa scratched her hair, trying to figure out how to explain this to Orihime Inoue, a girl so lacking in common sense. "Even if we sleep together, I'm not going to do anything to you, but Muten..."
"Muten wouldn't do anything either," Orihime Inoue said, blinking her big eyes. "The moment his head touches the pillow, he's out. He sleeps really soundly."
"This..." Tatsuki Arisawa was momentarily speechless.
So that was it. Ririn finally understood.
The key was that when Muten Natsu slept, he really was only sleeping. He did not do anything else.
That was why everyone had gotten used to it.
"What if..." Tatsuki Arisawa's mind felt a little muddled. "What if he did do something else?"
Orihime Inoue asked curiously, "Do what?"
"Like... that... uh..." Tatsuki Arisawa thought of one. "What if he kissed you?"
Orihime Inoue answered as if it were obvious. "Then I could kiss him too."
"You make it sound so easy. Kissing isn't something you can just... wait." Tatsuki Arisawa suddenly had a bad feeling. "Don't tell me you've already kissed him."
Orihime Inoue nodded. "Yeah. Rukia and I have both kissed him."
"You and Rukia?!" An image of the two of them kissing flashed through Tatsuki Arisawa's mind. "How did you... Wait, wasn't it supposed to be you and Muten?"
"Tatsuki-chan, what are you thinking?" Orihime Inoue blushed at her words. "It wasn't me and Rukia kissing. It was me and Rukia each kissing Muten."
"Oh, right, right. I thought you two..." Tatsuki Arisawa's voice trailed off, and she slapped a hand against her forehead. "My brain."
After one shock after another, Tatsuki Arisawa's brain felt like it had rusted over and could not turn properly anymore.
Orihime Inoue rubbed her head with concern. "Don't hit yourself so hard..."
"This has nothing to do with how hard I hit myself!" Tatsuki Arisawa grabbed Orihime Inoue's hand. "Do you know what you're saying?"
Orihime Inoue tilted her head. "Um... the truth?"
"..." Tatsuki Arisawa felt exhausted. "You two... this... that..."
After several deep breaths, Tatsuki Arisawa finally calmed down from the repeated impact of these revelations. As she organized her words and thoughts, she asked, "You kissed Muten, and then Rukia kissed him too?"
Orihime Inoue answered seriously, "Not exactly the same. I kissed him on the cheek. Rukia kissed him on the mouth."
"And you were watching?"
"Rukia was watching when I kissed him too."
"And Rukia didn't react at all?"
"Of course she did." Orihime Inoue put on a proud little expression. "I saw her press her lips together like she wanted to kiss him too, so I encouraged her a little."
So you even helped...
Looking at the [hurry up and praise me] expression on Orihime Inoue's face, Tatsuki Arisawa had complicated feelings. "When the two of them kissed, didn't it make you feel bad?"
Orihime Inoue's expression dimmed at once. "Of course it did..."
Tatsuki Arisawa nodded in satisfaction. That was more like it.
"At the time, Unohana-san was going to take Muten to Soul Society to fight. Since I wasn't a Soul, I had to go to the boundary gate before I could reach Soul Society." Even now, thinking back to that moment still made Orihime Inoue feel awful. "Muten was clearly going to do something so dangerous, but I couldn't be by his side..."
So that was what had made her feel bad?
It was like a bucket of cold water had been poured over Tatsuki Arisawa. Her chaotic thoughts suddenly settled.
She abruptly realized that although Orihime Inoue was her dear friend, she had already been pulled into a dangerous world that Tatsuki Arisawa was powerless against.
Although Tatsuki Arisawa had not directly taken part in the battle, she had seen the destructive power of Sōsuke Aizen's terrifying strength in Soul Society.
Terrifying enemies, the crisis of the world's destruction. Faced with all of that, there did not seem to be any time or energy to think about romantic problems.
When the world was on the verge of destruction, instead of getting tangled up in feelings, it was better to treasure the time left and love without restraint.
Once she understood that, she could understand the current relationship between Orihime Inoue, Rukia Kuchiki, and Muten Natsu.
The difference was that Tatsuki Arisawa, as an outsider, had needed to realize this before she could understand.
Orihime Inoue had never thought about it at all.
Tatsuki Arisawa understood Orihime Inoue's personality. Compared to pain and sadness, Orihime Inoue would always focus more on the happiness she already had, using her own joy to brighten the people around her.
["If Rukia likes Muten too, then it'll be two against one. We'll have the advantage."]
Looking back now, what Orihime Inoue had said back then did not seem to have been mere talk.
She truly could accept that the person she liked was liked by someone else too.
Because that way, the person she loved would receive twice as much love.
Even if the love she herself received became a little less because of it, that was fine.
Tatsuki Arisawa's originally restless gaze softened, and she rubbed Orihime Inoue's little head firmly. "You really... you've always been like this."
"Hehe~" Although Orihime Inoue did not know what Tatsuki Arisawa had been worrying about, she seemed fine now, so Orihime Inoue happily narrowed her eyes and smiled.
Tatsuki Arisawa lowered her eyes slightly. She understood Orihime Inoue's thoughts now.
But what about Muten Natsu and Rukia Kuchiki?
If their thoughts conflicted with Orihime Inoue's, then the one who would get hurt in the end would undoubtedly be Orihime Inoue.
If Rukia Kuchiki was unwilling to share Muten Natsu with Orihime Inoue, and Muten Natsu chose Rukia Kuchiki, Orihime Inoue would be heartbroken. If Muten Natsu stayed with Orihime Inoue, Orihime Inoue would still be sad for Rukia Kuchiki.
Thinking of this, Tatsuki Arisawa's eyes shifted and fixed on Ririn, who looked like a little bird doll.
Tatsuki Arisawa gave Ririn a look. "Orihime, we have something to discuss."
Ririn understood and left the living room with Tatsuki Arisawa, moving to another room for a private talk.
After making sure Orihime Inoue was not eavesdropping, Tatsuki Arisawa said with a grave expression, "Looks like you already know what I want to ask."
"Mm-hmm." Ririn's doll face was just as serious. "You want to know what Rukia thinks, right?"
"Exactly. Orihime's feelings are already obvious, but things won't turn out well just because she wants them to." Tatsuki Arisawa spread her hands and laced her fingers together. "It has to go both ways... no, all three ways."
As Orihime Inoue's good friend, Tatsuki Arisawa hoped Orihime Inoue would make progress with the person she liked.
When she heard that Muten Natsu had not only made progress with Orihime Inoue, Tatsuki Arisawa had naturally felt resistant.
But after understanding Orihime Inoue's thoughts, Tatsuki Arisawa's own view changed as well.
Ririn, who had watched Tatsuki Arisawa's thought process from the side, understood the friendship between Tatsuki Arisawa and Orihime Inoue. She had also guessed what Tatsuki Arisawa was worried about and understood what she hoped for.
"I don't think you need to worry at all about Rukia objecting. Actually..." Ririn, who had just thought through the whole sleeping situation from beginning to end, gave her conclusion. "Rukia's problem is even bigger than Orihime's."
"Hm?" Tatsuki Arisawa did not understand. "What problem?"
Ririn briefly explained how the three of them had ended up sleeping together. "...That's basically how it happened. See it now?"
"Rukia is... trying to set Orihime and Muten up?" Tatsuki Arisawa said it hesitantly, and even she found it unbelievable. "Why would she do that? That shouldn't be right..."
Tatsuki Arisawa could still understand Orihime Inoue's thoughts.
But Rukia Kuchiki deliberately trying to set up Orihime Inoue and Muten Natsu was something Tatsuki Arisawa simply could not understand.
According to Ririn, there had actually been several times when Orihime Inoue had started to pull back.
It was Rukia Kuchiki who had given her a push, keeping Orihime Inoue from distancing herself from the three of them.
After Muten Natsu defeated the Hollow inside him in his inner world, Rukia Kuchiki could not help throwing herself into his arms.
Standing outside Shijū Saimon, Orihime Inoue stopped.
She had been just as happy that Muten Natsu had succeeded, but after Muten Natsu hugged Rukia Kuchiki, she suppressed the impulse in her heart and did not disturb them.
After they returned home, Orihime Inoue saw Rukia Kuchiki staying by Muten Natsu's bedside, and she left Muten Natsu's room.
She also wanted to stay by Muten Natsu's side, but she chose to leave.
It was easy to imagine that the three of them sleeping together should have ended there.
But Rukia Kuchiki knocked on Orihime Inoue's door, brought Orihime Inoue back to Muten Natsu's room, and the three of them kept sleeping together.
"Things like that have happened a lot," Ririn added. "That's why, after Orihime kissed Muten, she pushed Rukia into Muten's arms."
"Orihime is learning from Rukia's actions..." Tatsuki Arisawa grew even more confused. "But the problem is... why would Rukia act like that?"
"I have a guess. It might not be right. It's something I thought of before, back in Soul Society, when I overheard Muten chatting with someone." Ririn spun her little doll hands twice. "What if Orihime isn't the one learning from Rukia's actions? What if Rukia is the one learning from Orihime's actions?"