A snippet for that Yuri Garden Writing Competition 2018. I'm pretty sure it's 1,900+ words long. Spoiler How can you tell if someone likes you back? No, no, don’t step back. Please, this is a very important question for me. “Ghrooooaaaar!” “Haruka, mind out of the gutter.” Ah, her voice, it’s just as sweet and refreshingly cool as always. Sometimes it makes me feel that none of these magic beasts that we have fought so far are real. That we didn’t run away from the very comfy palace and we’re still there in the palace garden, amidst the blossoming flowers while basking in each other’s presence, instead of this forest. There’s a foul smell coming closer, and I look over my shoulder to see a magic beast coming from the north direction. I can see purple-colored miasma from the corner of its wide open mouth. It is so big. It looks like a jaguar, but it’s at least three times larger than the jaguar that I knew from National Geography Wild channel. It can definitely gulp both Ilys and I. “Haruka!” Her voice is more urging this time. I turn back to stand straighter against the tree of Manuse, a blessing for human travelers. They’re abundant in wild forests, and they smell foul to the beasts but not for a human’s nose. So these are often the beasts’ blind spots. We’re safe from the magic beast if it doesn’t see us, but once it does, we only have two choices: fight, or run. I look at this otherworld princess on my side. Her amethyst eyes look straight at mine firmly. I’m more of a “run” person, but I don’t even have to guess that she’s a fighter, through and through. “Okay, but no slapping me afterwards this time!” I concede. The last time we did this, my heart hurts more than my cheek, although the imprint did stay overnight. It’s not my fault that we’re in this situation, okay? Ilys blushes, though, and ah, it is so very charming. How come this princess thinks that she can fool others to think that she’s a man when she’s this adorable? Well, despite the fact that everyone else seems to buy it. I step closer. She’s slightly taller than me, so even at the closest distance, the puffed girls on my chest are pressing against hers. It’s of no problem with me, I don’t always feel anything from my breasts, but the moment they touch, she’s always uncomfortable. Fidgety. Highly aware of me. Just like how she currently is, actually. I smile and feel my heart beat faster. Her facial features are always shimmering between handsome and extremely beautiful, but it’s not those that enraptures me. It’s her vulnerability. She never looks this vulnerable before anyone else but me, right from the first time we met. I step to face her, with her back against the tree. She involuntarily closes her eyes, bracing herself for what to come. However, she looks stiff. “Come on, open your mouth,” I murmur close to her lips while my knee push her legs to slightly part, allowing our bodies to press flush against each other. She’s warm, but more than that, I can feel the slight shiver on her body as I trace my fingers against her cheek. “Ilys,” I call her name, and with that, she sighs. I don’t waste time and capture her sweet lips. Never in our contract does it say that I need to do anything else but to press our sigils together, but I enjoy this more than I could ever imagine back in my home world. Her lips are cool to the wind, but I can feel the warmth inside. And she always, always tastes so sweet. My heart jumps against my rib cage, as I still cannot quite believe that this beautiful creature is mine to kiss, even if just for the part of the contract. I’ve long fallen for her, and I wonder if she loves me back too, even if just a little. At least, she trusts me. And so, I must not betray her trust. I press my tongue against the ceiling of her mouth, where both our respective sigils are located in. From that point where our sigils met, a surge of warmth overwhelms my body. I’m engulfed in flames. It’s excruciating, but at the same time, it’s not painful at all. It feels like having my soul ripped out of my body. But thankfully, it’s always over so fast. When I open my eyes, everything is blinding white empty space of nothingness for me. But I feel familiar warmth in my core, in the place where Ilys holding me. In Ilys’ hand, there’s a sacred sword of Spring. She steps forward to face the beast, and I can hear the faint growl from the white space where I’m in. I can’t help her fight, but I’m entrusting my sword body to her. With this, we fight together. ~ * ~ It’s always a bit lonely in this white space. But I can feel the sensation whenever she slashes her way forward with me, or when I can feel my figure split open a skin, muscle and God knows what other things that belong to the beasts. It’s always icky, makes me feel a bit nauseous as if I haven’t bathed in a month whenever I feel large amount of blood sticks to the sword’s blade. However, her steady hold on my grip never fails to make me calm. As long as I calm, we can keep our minds connected to each other. She can draw out my best potential, while I can… well, stay still until she finishes the fight, I think? Once, there was a time when I fell asleep in this world, and it almost turned out to be a disaster. The sacred sword of Sprint is a broad sword to begin with. The large blade is more useful to whack some monsters than slaying beasts, but that is only when it’s a literal deadweight. With me consciously removing my weight, it’s as light as feather in Ilys’ hands while still having the ferocious strike it’s renowned for. It’s hard to explain her hold in my core, uh… It’s not really sexual… Not if I don’t imagine it anyway, which will transfer that kind of images to Ilys’ mind so I better stop myself from entertaining that kind of thoughts. But it’s still very intimate. The first three trials didn’t work that good. I didn’t trust her, and she only saw the sword as a normal object. But after some… uhm, adjustments, that we both worked on together, now I completely belong to her. Maybe it’s that sense of trust, really, that makes me accept being this intimate with her. Unlike her, who always seems uncomfortable whenever we have to activate the sigils. It’s totally not my fault that those are located there, though! But it’s true that I’ve come to enjoy it more than necessary, heheh. And that begs the initial question: I already accept the fact that I can love her wholeheartedly, but does she love me back at all? I know I’m convenient for her, and I’m okay with it. I know she looks at me like an object most of the times. Though I’m pretty sure I’ve advanced from being a pebble on the road to her favorite blanket. Knowing that she has a favorite blanket was another coincidence, re--- It’s hot! My head. “Argh!” I scream. “Haruka!” Ilys voice resounds in my head. I’m still holding it. There’s no blood, but of course. I’m not even corporeal in this state. This kind of danger only befalls us after we ran away from Elente kingdom. I didn’t know how much blessing were we in when we were simply training. Not before I was slightly chipped off, apparently, but now… Now it feels as if my head is being bitten and split horizontally. “I’m okay. Ilys, I’m okay! Go on, I trust you,” I say shakily, and she becomes silent this time. This silence means that she doesn’t believe my words. It happened before. And I can tell from the harder grip on the handle. She yells her fighting spirit in her mind, it must have been her voice too that I faintly hear out of this white space. “Aah!” I scream when I feel searing pain from my right arm, but after that, there’s a cold wind wrapped around me. Ilys must have made a long slash. The beast seems to growl with its dying breath. I can feel that Ilys drags me, half leaning on me as a support as she walks. Only after a while would she remove her grip. Waiting for some moment, I can feel myself getting colder, gradually turning back into my human form. Something warm covers me and for a second, I feel a bit bashful, thinking the possibility that it’s the crossdressing princess. But it’s only her coat. I tighten the wrap, making it completely cover me up. What greets me is her dazzling amethyst eyes, slightly moist as they glisten over me. She looks a bit pale, but that’s normal. If both of us are concentrating to draw our full power, it will be very taxing both for me and her. I smile while pat the silver hair. “I’m okay, you see?” She nods. “…I was a bit lost in thought, so I didn’t catch the scream down when nothing really happened. There’s no need to worry that much.” Ilys bites her bottom lip. If it’s the first time we met, she would have berated me, asking who the hell was worrying about me. But she has grown, I guess. It makes me a bit lonely though. “It’s not nothing. I really did chip the tip of the blade off.” Ouch. Considering that the tip of the blade is probably corresponding to my head, no wonder it felt that painful even if I’m in another dimension. “Well, my scream is justifiable then.” I shrug. If I don’t act nonchalantly, she’ll be burdened with guilt and I want nothing of that marring her beautiful face. “I guess in our next destination, we need to find some sacred materials to strengthen the blade then?” I put my head on her left shoulder as I scoot closer. I can smell her fragrant skin in this distance, and it makes me a bit drunk. She shoves me away, but I persist in squeezing her in. “My head was in great pain and I just want to feel better, okay? If you have a bit of conscience, you’ll let me hug you already, Crown Prince!” I know I said I wanted her not to feel guilty, but this princess who used to crossdress almost despised skinship that I need to take any inch that I can get. “I don’t have that kind of healing effect!” she yelled, her palm grips my cheek, making it puffy. “Yefh, you ghoo!” Yes, you do, Princess! “I don’t! Let go of me!” “Don’t wannaaa!” After more of those banters, she finally gives up with a sigh, and I victoriously settle myself in her hug. Ugh, I really want to bury my face in her bosom, but that’s too intimate for a non-romantic partners like us, I suppose. If only she wants to turn our relationship into something else… I look up and our eyes meet. She blushes furiously as if I caught her doing something wrong, and I just gape in bewilderment. What? What had just happened?? It's more of a snippet than a one-shot, really. So Haruka is 28 year old woman trapped in 18 year old girl's body in another world, and that's not even the only body she's trapped in. She's summoned as a contracted weapon to the Crown Prince, only to find that said handsome prince is actually a crossdressing princess. The princess was 17 when they first met, but now she's 19. In the aftermath of the usual defeat-the-demon-lord routine, the Crown Prince with his sacred sword of Spring was crowned as a hero. When the world was finally at peace, political struggles kicked in and the enemy revealed that she's a girl and thus can't be crowned as the King in the patriarchal society. The kingdom is also more interested in Haruka as a sword rather than as a human being, and so they ran away to make some lives out there. If they seem like noobs when fighting the monsters, that's because the hero party did more stuffs than this pair. They just needed to make up for the number; Haruka the Spring sword is one of the four sacred weapons needed in the last battle. 8D Sheesh so much after note written, but that's only because I probably won't write the prequel/sequel...
Only now I know about the existence of "Yuri Garden" and "Danmei Room" in NU... ...There might be someone that will create a "Bisexual Space" or "Trap/Reverse Trap World" or something in the future
They exist long before you were born, child. (Edit: Actually, probably not. I just want to say that lmao)
I can't believe Isecai who translates one of my favorite novels Pastry would bring out a original yuri ! GJ ! The work was pretty good, having yuri goodness scene and romance.
I hope you win the compet with this work XD haha GL ! Edit: i think the only way you will beaten would be to introduce a 18+ one xD Double Edit: now i want to have a 18+ s** scene of the sword girl x princess saying they love each other. Am i wishing for too much? xD
I think mine is kind of sloppy, so I'm pretty sure a more well written R15 is easier to whip up than 18+ scenes www. 18+ scene eh? Heh heh keep wishing man, I haven't read enough R18 yuri yet to know what's going on down there in flowery details. But if it's not graphic, on the other hand... Maybe? Is that GL for good luck, girl's love, or both?
I'm with Haruka - Ilys sounds dreamy. Should I say "thanks for the meal"? Well, "Bisexual Space" would be redundant, but I've seen enough people joking about a trap room that it might pop up someday soon.
For those who don't know, the Yuri Garden Writing Competition (2018) that this story is entered into is now in the voting stages. Want to read more yuri? Want to help the Yuri Garden? Then you can check out the other entries and vote for your favourite here!
Hm, only probably won’t write a sequel? I’m counting on the possibility that there will be one! *watches thread in hope*