Disclaimer: Again I don't own Sengoku Strays or any of these drabbles I'm posting here. I'm merely a translator who got permission to upload them on this site.

勘弁してくれ

Give Me A Break

Ikeda x Kasane

As the sun began to set, Ikeda shifted the documents in his arms and hurried down the corridor. If he finishes reading these important documents, he'll be done for the day. With an expressionless face, Ikeda flawlessly balanced the documents under his left arm while he started reading one the documents in his right hand. He continued down the passageway until…

"Hyaaaa!"

Hearing such a scream coming from one of the nearby rooms, made even Ikeda startled enough to look up from the paper. After taking a good look around his surroundings, Ikeda realized that he walked in the wrong direction and had ended up somewhere in the middle of the castle instead of the normal route to his room.

"I should turn around…" Ikeda thought and he started off in the opposite direction. But then he heard the scream again. Furrowing his eyebrows, Ikeda realized that he recognized that characteristic voice.

"…"

Wondering if something happened, Ikeda headed over to the room where the screams were located. It was situated in an area where men usually avoided to walk through. It's not like they weren't allowed to enter the place, but rather they usually hesitate to walk around this area after sunset.

It was the girl's- Kasane's room.

With an imperceptible voice, he called out, "Kusanagi-dono?". However when he heard no reply, he took hold of the shoji doors and threw them open. "Kusanagi-dono? I just heard a weird scream… Did something happen?"

"Hiii, I-, Ike-, Ikeda-san…"

Just beyond the open shoji doors was a teary, wide-eyed Kasane who turned to him with a pleading face. Without thinking, Ikeda stepped back in shock and before he could ask, Kasane spoke.

"S, Sssssspider*…"

"Cloud*?"

"A spider! A spider…! U-, u-, u-underneath my clothes…!"

"…" Unintentionally, Ikeda paused at the scene. And here he thought something terrible had occurred since he heard her panicked scream.

"Please calm down."

"But! But, the spider is now on my ski-…. Hiiiiiii! It moved! It moved just now!" A hysterical and alarmed Kasane cried out as Ikeda covered his ears. Gazing at Kasane's flustered form from the corner of his eye, Ikeda thought how unexpected this was. To think that this girl, who wouldn't hesitate to fight against men, would get scared of a spider that incidentally fell into her clothes. Somehow she now looked more like a normal girl in his eyes.

"I- Ikeda-san! Pl, please, get the spider out…"

"…Huh!?"

Ikeda's eyes widened at her ridiculous request.

"G- get it out… How?"

"U, use your hand…"

"Ha!?" Ikeda uncharacteristically raised his voice at her next words. At first he thought she was only joking, but the sight of a glassy-eyed Kasane looking up at him only repudiate that previous notion. Sweat uncontrollably ran down his face.

"U, uwaaaaa~…!" Kasane latched herself onto him, her back now awkwardly bent forward. Looks like the spider moved again.

"… I, I understand. I understand so please stop looking at me with those eyes!" Just as Kasane made a face that seemed to be on the verge of tears, Ikeda quickly yielded. Hearing Ikeda's words, Kasane looked slightly relieved as she calmed herself down.

"So the spider… Right now where is it?"

"On my, my back…"

"…"

"If it's the back, then that should be fine…" Ikeda thought and relaxed a little. In the first place, even for an instant, he was always hesitant about diving his hand in a woman's clothes, but if it's just the back then…

"… H-hurry up and take it out…!"

"…"

Though still a bit hesitant towards the girl whose back was now turned towards his, Ikeda nevertheless prepared himself and silently slipped his hand under Kasane's uniform. Just as his hand touch her skin, Kasane's body stiffened for a moment and Ikeda nearly pulled his hand out. But he controlled himself and continued to fumble around for the spider. Still… to touch and to even see the skin underneath her clothes seemed so inappropriate that he frantically averted his eyes away from her form. His face felt hot. No, his whole body felt as if it was on fire.

Her skin was soft and smooth to touch and a nice smell emitted from her body as he continued to grope around for the spider. Both the texture and smell of her was vastly different than a man.

As he admonished himself for having such indecent thoughts, his thought cycle sank deep into a black pit and Ikeda became disappointed that he too was like any other man. Trying recover himself, he frantically searched other things to think about.

"Hya!"

"W-what happened!?"

With Kasane's sudden shriek, Ikeda instinctively pulled away from her body. B-but he was sure he didn't touch anywhere inappropriate. He inwardly panicked, she must have noticed his indecent thoughts just then.

"I-it moved to the front…."

"T-the…front?"

Kasane once more gave him those pitiful, pleading eyes.

"Ugh.…" Ikeda stiffened. But this time, he shook his head.

"E-even if you ask me, I can't do it. If it moved to the front, then you can take it out yourself."

"It's impossible for me! I don't want to touch it!"

He could not bear forsake Kasane as she cried out, "Please don't abandon me, Ikeda-san~…!" So he once more slid his hand under her uniform. As his hand moved from the bottom of her shirt, he caught the sight of her stomach. Feeling as if he saw something he wasn't suppose to see, he frantically averted his eyes. From blushing bright red, to firmly closing his eyes, to gazing at the sniffling girl in front of him, he felt a strange impulse attack him.

(If I don't get this over with… This is going to be bad…)

He wondered why the spider crawled under Kasane's clothes and inwardly cursed it with all his might. If it didn't happen to crawl into her clothes, he wouldn't be in this tortuous situation in the first place. In fact, as right now, he didn't know much he would have preferred actual torture than this.

"…Hn…"

The moment he fumbled across her skin, Kasane jumped and let out a high-pitched cry. The sweat that was pouring down his forehead felt strangely cold.

"Pl-please don't make a weird noise…"

"I, I'm sorry. It, it just tickled…" Kasane remorsefully apologized. Ah, his heart was too loud. He sincerely prayed for this to end quickly.

"Hm…?"

Raising his eyebrows, Ikeda felt the spider crawl and clamber in his fingers.

"…Found it," he announced and captured it.

Now that she no longer felt the sensation of the spider crawling about her skin, Kasane's face immediately brightened.

"Th, thank you, Ikeda-san..!"

"It's nothing…"

As their eyes met, Kasane and Ikeda both stopped moving.

"U…m…"

"…"

Kasane, who was previously only thought getting rid of the spider, finally realized the close proximity she was in with Ikeda and blushed a dark vermillion color. Before her head was only preoccupied with the spider, but now as she thought of her previous requests to Ikeda, it now seemed to be pretty embarrassing to demand those requests from someone whose the same age was similar to hers. Discovering this now, Kasane's faced reddened to the color of a boiled octopus.

Seeing the how modest Kasane now looked, somewhere in Ikeda's heart he wondered how she could react so womanly in this circumstance.

"Give me a break," he thought as he rubbed his head. Ikeda's mind wobbled around as they both stood in the middle of the room.

"Ku-kusa…."

"What are you guys doing~?"

Startled by the sudden voice, both Kasane and Ikeda separated from each other. And there stood a wide-eyed, curious Inuchiyo who stared intently at them nearby.

"I-Inuchiyo-san!? S-since when were you there..!?" Kasane called out, trying not to stutter as she asked him her question. Inuchiyo happily grinned.

"Since I heard Katane's weird scream."

"…"

Kasane screamed, "Uwaaaaa~!" in the deep depths of her heart, as she tightly clenched her head in complete mortification. This was the first time she felt as if she would die of embarrassment.

Though Inuchiyo held no malicious intent behind his smile, his persistent inquisitiveness was quite hard to deal with. Disregarding Kasane's troubled face he cheerfully asked, "So what were you guys doing? What were you guys doing?" to Ikeda.

Ikeda faintly blushed at Inuchiyo's unreserved question and intentionally coughed and said, "It has nothing to do with you, Inuchiyo."

"Inuchiyo! Let's go," Ikeda firmly tugged on Inuchiyo's collar and dragged him out of Kasane's room. As he left with Inuchiyo in tow, Kasane hurriedly called out to him.

"Th-thank you, Ikeda-san!"

"…"

He stopped and turned slightly towards her, "…You don't need to thank me." he awkwardly tried to say without blushing too hard. Just when Kasane smiled at him, Ikeda quickly diverted his eyes and continued walking down the corridor.

"See ya later Katane~!"

"Yeah!"

Inuchiyo broadly waved at Kasane as Ikeda dragged him away. Inuchiyo continued to wave his arm until Kasane's form disappeared from view, he then turned his attention to Ikeda.

"Huh? Katsusaburou, you're kinda red…"

"!"

Inuchiyo looked up at him wonderingly while Ikeda jumped and intentionally avoided Inuchiyo's eyes.

"…You must be imagining things," he managed to say.

"Hmm~," Inuchiyo curiously hummed but didn't say anything else.

He could not get rid of the heat that lingered on his face. He could not forget the sight of Kasane's shy smile. Even now, he could still feel the soft touch of her skin tingling in his fingertips. Subconsciously, he gazed at his own hand. He could still feel his heart throbbing, his cheeks burning…

(…Give me a break)

"It seems that I turn into a normal man if I'm with her," Ikeda faintly whispered in his heart.

*What Kasane says here is "Kumo" which can mean both spider and cloud which leads to Ikeda's confusion in the next sentence.

I hoped you enjoyed this chapter and don't forget to thank フクロウ for writing these stories!