Mizuno and Murai
"Murai-kun Wants to Fuck Mizuno-kun" (村井くんは水野くんを抱きたい Murai-kun wa Mizuno-kun o Dakitai) is a one-shot Queer Sex Comedy manga by Rui Takato. It was originally published as two chapters in a 2019 issue of Manga Goraku and reprinted as Bonus Material for volume 12 of Takato's primary series Booty Royale: Never Go Down Without a Fight!.Book editor Mizuno misses the last train home from Shinjuku and hides out in a 24-hour restaurant for the night, which is where he runs into an acquaintance from middle school, Murai Shion... except back when they knew each other, his name was "Shiho". It seems that sometime between then and now, he transitioned to male and has started working in a Host Club. Murai offers to put Mizuno up for the night, and things get interesting.
This manga provides examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Pervert: Mizuno borrows Murai's shower, and gets out to catch Murai shucking his shirt to get in himself—and is startled and uncomfortably aroused by the sight of Murai's bare breasts, having not realized Murai has yet to scrape together the money for top surgery.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Gender-Inverted. In the end Mizuno goes to the restaurant again hoping to see Murai, but sees him the morning after his rendezvous with Urara-chan and assumes they're dating. The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue mentions that Mizuno ultimately married a female coworker and has a child with her, while Murai is in a polyamorous relationship with Urara and a bisexual male coworker.
- Host Club: Murai works as a host, mainly entertaining off-duty female sex workers. In part two, he goes out drinking with a call girl named Urara after hours and ends up sleeping with her.
- Missed the Bus: Mizuno and Murai's first meeting comes after Mizuno misses the last nightly train out of Shinjuku on the Odakyu line, and holes up in a 24-hour restaurant to spend the night.
- Most Writers Are Writers: It's mentioned in passing that Mizuno works as an editor at a small publisher.
- No Bisexuals: Downplayed. Murai considers himself to be gay, but is still willing to have sex with a call girl named Urara who's a customer of his Host Club. He chalks it up as part of being a sex worker and compliments her own performance, but the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue states they're now a thruple with a bisexual male coworker. So it's really just Murai denying he himself is at least a little bi, rather than the entire manga denying that bisexuals exist.
- No Full Name Given: Murai Shion is the only character whose full name is given: Mizuno and Urara only have one canonical name stated (in Mizuno's case, probably his surname).
- Sobriquet Sex Switch: Murai's birth name was Shiho, but he goes by the similar-sounding Shion as a male adult.
- Trans Tribulations: Murai was considered one of the hottest "girls" in school, but acted as an untouchable Ice Queen who turned down every attempt to date "her". He knew that he'd stand out too much if he tried to openly live as a boy, but pretending to be a girl was exhausting, so he just kept to himself to make it easier. Physically, he started hormones too late to prevent breast development, and hasn't had gender reassignment surgery because he's bad at saving money. And when he tries to seduce the ostensibly straight Mizuno, Mizuno ultimately begs off due to feeling it's disrespectful to Murai's gender identity to desire his still-feminine physical body rather than want to have sex with him as a man.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: While showering, Mizuno remarks to himself that, having run into and then gone home with Murai, whom he once admired from afar, that "if this were a manga or a drama, we'd definitely be headed in a sexy direction," while imagining the teenage Murai Shiho taking off her clothes for him. "Unfortunately," he says, "Murai-san... is a man,"having not realized that he's in a Queer Romance manga.
