Chapter 35

Cass sat on the edge of the bed, her body still. Her hands gently covered her breasts - Loki was behind her, and the goddess was applying another update to her falna. She toyed with that word in her mind - fal-na. Fall-na. Fall meaning... what happened when you lost your balance. Na meaning... what? Nah, which meant no? No-fall? So you wouldn't... fall. That made sense. It made you stronger, so you didn't fall.

"Whoopie!" Loki proclaimed loudly. "After Rei failed to Level, I figured there wasn't any chance the rest of you would, but here! You! Are!" She plastered a piece of paper up against Cass's back. "You even got a Skill!" She seemed very excited, which was nice. Especially since she was excited about something other than groping a girl. "You've got a couple Development Abilities to pick from. There's Fist Fighter, and Stealth! That one's pretty rare, I guess all your sneaking around really paid off."

"Mn." Cass thought about those. Fist Fighter... that meant good at punching. Stealth... that meant good at hiding.

"Before you pick, you gotta see your new Skill!" Loki proclaimed, tossing the paper in front of Cass. Cass caught it out of the air, and simultaneously grabbed Loki's wrist with her other hand, preventing the goddess from groping her like she wanted to. "Ow ow ow!" The goddess proclaimed as she was forcefully twisted around, though Cass hadn't actually hurt her.

She stared at the paper for a few seconds.

Cjhtoqerrn Zoaqbe

• Reizaizl Agity Brelfayf. Etcet gaonyetl urueds faeroch oveprser.

"I can't read," she said, after staring at the page for a few seconds. The letters seemed to want to swim and bounce around between each word, rendering the entire thing gibberish to her. She had tried a little, but it was even harder, since they wrote with different letters here (not that she would have realized that if Drake hadn't told her).

"Whaaa?" Loki said. "Okay, gimme that," she said, reaching for the paper with her free hand, still held at a strange angle. Cass let go of her wrist, because she wasn't planning to grope her any more. "C̵h̡ir̀o͏p͠t̵e҉ŕàn̴ Speed. Raises Agility greatly. Effect greatly reduces for each ̛o͢b̡şe҉r̶v̀e͜r̵."

"What's that word mean?"

"Chiropteran? Skills sometimes have silly nonsense words like that. Ardigalea. Dvergr. Don't worry about it."

"No... the last word." She had understood that Kai-rop-terr-en was something that Loki didn't care about.

"O҉b̕s̡e̷r̴v͘e͏r̶?" She asked. Cass nodded. "It means, like, a person who can see you. I'm observing you."

Cass nodded. So the skill made her much faster, when no one was looking. She smiled at that, a stupid thing that made her embarrassed. She'd never really... cared about Level that much. It was good. It made her stronger. Able to help people. But this Skill... it was like the universe was saying that she was good enough for the symbol.

"You're reeeeally cute when you smile," Loki said, her fingers wiggling threateningly, but she wasn't actually planning to grope Cass. She was just looking for a response.

"Fist Fighter... means good at punching, Stealth means... good at hiding, right?"

"Well, it can also mean being quiet, stuff like that. It's pretty good synergy with your new Skill."

Cass nodded. She thought of Day-da-lus Street, and how the people there were faring after the Nyx familia had been wiped out. She didn't need to be stronger, any more. Eris-

She didn't need to be stronger. There weren't any Level Threes in Day-da-lus Street. She could protect the people there as long as she was there to protect them... "Stealth," she said.

"I knew you were gonna say that," Loki said, with a big, gregarious grin.

* * *

Erza could see the melancholy written on Haruhime's features, as the renard quietly stared out the window. Despite being saved from her grim fate, she was still unhappy. Erza understood why, of course - the girl didn't have any friends! Or at least, none at the Loki familia. Julia had decided to go on an adventure outside the city, leaving Haruhime all alone. Perhaps she had some back among the Ishtar familia, and after it had been broken up, they had wound up somewhere else? If that was the case, Erza would do her best to reunite her with her friends!

"Haruhime," Erza said, making the renard turn her head her way.

"Oh," Haruhime said, her voice soft. "You are the one who actually defeated the Ishtar familia members who went to that battle... thank you," she said, bowing gently. "I am glad to be safe from that terrible fate, and it is thanks to you, and Rei, and Drake, and Cassandra, and the dark-skinned girl without a name." Her expression remained cool and distant, despite her words. She looked so sad that it hurt Erza to see. She had fought so hard to save her, yet that wasn't enough. She had to do more!

Erza's hand curled into a tight fist. "You can't simply stay here," she declared, making the girl blink in confusion. "You need to leave the Manor!" There was an even bigger look of confusion and apprehension on her face. Was she truly that frightened of the outside world? "We're going on a shopping trip! I will pay for whatever you want!" She declared. Shopping for clothes always made Erza feel better, and she was hopeful that it would work for Haruhime too.

Haruhime's expression shifted subtly in response to Erza's words, but at last she nodded. "Very well. Thank you, Erza-sama."

"Any friend of The Prettiest Princess is a friend of mine," Erza declared, making Haruhime flush as she took the renard by the hand. Where should they shop first?

* * *

Haruhime walked alongside the great Erza Scarlet. Given the woman's fierce showing in the War Game, it seemed impossible to say she was anything but the strongest Level Two in history. She was perhaps even as strong as Phryne, from how fast she had moved. The woman was one of Drake's wives. It was easy to see why Drake would like her - she was so... gregarious and energetic, it carried an infectious note to it. Haruhime couldn't help but be swept along.

Of course, Erza was beautiful and sexy, too. Anyone with eyes could have seen that, and she wore it freely, selecting risque dresses of the sort that would have made Haruhime the one called scarlet if she had been made to wear them. She had a confidence that was enviable, as she stood there in a dress with a plunging neckline and a low back that she had just bought. Haruhime had, at her insistence, tried out a few dresses of her own. She didn't quite like any of them, though, so she hadn't bought them.

They seemed to wander the city freely, bouncing from store to store. Erza carried more and more bags as she bought things. Sometimes, even, she would insist on buying something nice for Haruhime. A pair of sandals, crafted by a Level Two, that felt almost like slipping her feet into a warm bath, they were so comfortable. A hair clip with the design of a cherry blossom on it, which reminded her of home. Even a healing potion, "just in case."

But in the end, Erza was carrying a dozen bags, and only a few of the items she had purchased were for Haruhime. She seemed rather happy with her haul, in any case. "I know!" She proclaimed, seemingly completing a thought that was entirely obscure to Haruhime. "Let's go to the Hostess of Fertility! We can get something to eat there, and they have truly delicious cake!"

Haruhime had never been to this particular restaurant, but she nodded, letting Erza guide her down the streets to the building in question.

* * *

Syr's eyes perked up when she saw that Erza was there - not alone, but also not with Cassandra. It was an opportunity, but she had hardly prepared at all to take advantage of it! Still, she approached their table with a broad smile, and Erza greeted her in turn. Her brilliant white soul had that same solid beauty to it, like a prism or a lantern.

The girl she was sitting with, though - one of the former Ishtar familia members, no? She wore a melancholic smile, and her soul was in complete accord, dourly beaten down by tragedy. Not a particularly pretty soul. It was stained black, and not in the brilliant way that some souls were - just in a nasty, ugly way. Maybe once it had been beautiful, but that just brought the ugliness out all the more. Like someone had smeared food across a painting.

She just smiled at the pair, though - Haruhime's soul wasn't nearly so ugly as the filthy maggot-soul, so she could ignore it. "Hello, what can I get for you today, Erza?" She paused for a moment. "Cass isn't sick or anything, is she?" That thought almost sent her into a fit - Erza was oblivious enough that even if Cassandra was dying, she couldn't be sure the woman's soul would be in an appropriate amount of turmoil.

"No," Erza reassured her. "I was just taking Haruhime out, and I thought that this would be a nice place to finish," she explained.

"Ah, that explains the bags!" Syr said with a smile, looking down at the truly enormous pile of things. "I hope you found some good things!"

"I did! There are plenty of beautiful dresses in there - I'll soon be trying them on." She paused, glancing from Haruhime, some playful embarrassment and teasing interest bubbling up behind that solid white wall of her soul. "Hopefully Drake likes some of them. Now that we've rescued Haruhime, I'm hoping we can have another proper date!"

Syr kept her smile firmly affixed to her face. Drake. She didn't like him. Obviously, there was the fact that he was sleeping with Cassandra (instead of her), but it was so much more than that. His soul was pretty enough, all cool lovely blues that were soothing to look at, but that pretty soul hid something more important. His lack of appreciation of Cassandra. Oh, she was sure he was nice to her, but if it had been her, she would have held Cassandra in her arms every night, would never have bothered with other women, certainly wouldn't have seduced any more women, and most importantly, would never, never, ever-

Wait. Rescued Haruhime? Her thoughts stalled and then whirred as she consciously processed that turn of phrase, her gaze going to the girl in question, and inwardly she performed all the important calculations. Yes. Ottar had mentioned that, hadn't he? She had thought at the time that it was a quiet change in conditions by the Loki familia to acquire the renard. After all, Lena could surely be counted on to join the Loki familia, for the puppy dog heart she followed Drake around with, now that Ishtar was no longer in position to keep her in the familia after her... outburst.

But if that had been the plan from the start... her eyes went to Haruhime, a smile on her lips. Another one. Another fucking one. It wasn't enough that he strolled into this city with the filthy maggot-soul, Noriko, and Erza, in addition to Cassandra. He had also added Rei and Lena, and now he was trying to add another girl to his harem. "Oh? So that whole thing was just for your sake?" She could see the girl's ears dip, so she quickly recovered and changed tack. "That's so amazing! Especially you and Cass's work. I spotted Cass leaving, and even though it wasn't displayed, I think I know why Rei the Goliath passed out," she said. It was playful as she said the words, but she was also probing. Without Cassandra present, she could actually finally, properly, dig into Erza as a source of information.

"Oh?" Erza asked her. Ah. The woman was too oblivious to pick up something like that, of course. "What do you mean by that?"

"Ah... I don't want to say it in front of other adventurers!" That was the truth. Information she had but others didn't was valuable. If she was correct, though, it would be dangerous to the others. "But there were a whole lot of Reis in here not so long ago, you know?" She prompted again. Once again, it clearly sailed over Erza's head. She just let out a sigh. "Ah, don't worry about it."

"Oy! You're not being paid to yak it up!" Syr kept up her smile. Mia was just playing her appointed role too.

"Sorry, sorry!" She proclaimed. "I just got so distracted, it was so exciting! What will you two be having?"

"A large strawberry cake," Erza said. "No, two," she corrected.

"And you, Haruhime?" Syr asked, making the girl blink in confusion. She hadn't seen Erza go at a cake, clearly.

"Ah... what would you recommend?"

She hummed as she considered the question. It was a tough one. If someone was in a foul mood, she might have recommended something crunchy and sweet, but Haruhime was just... down. Something very lightly alcoholic might lift her mood, perhaps. Not too much, only enough for a pleasant buzz. But, that would probably make the girl become even more of a mess if it worked. "We have this delicious sweet hot cocoa, and I think another cake would be good for you," she suggested. The cocoa would wake her up a bit, and perhaps drive her to eat more. Depressed girls never ate enough.

"Then I will have that."

"Great!" Syr said, jotting it down. "Once I've got these orders logged, I might just ask for a break so I can talk to you more!" She told the pair, smiling as she did. "It's been too long since I saw you, Erza!"

"I'm sorry - we had to keep to our familia manor, after Ishtar attacked us," she explained.

"You can make it up to me with a biiiig tip," she proclaimed. Part of her wanted to ask if they had attacked Cassandra, but she already knew the answer. Of course they had. That stupid fucking bitch Ishtar - she deserved far worse than the Loki familia had done to her. If it was her... she'd already be back in Tenkai. She headed back to the kitchen to put in the order.

She spotted Ryu as she finished, pausing for a moment. Ryu looked to be finishing her shift, by the way she started to undo parts of her uniform. She took a moment to just admire Ryu - the curve of her face, of her body, of her soul. It was like a beautiful work of porcelain art, with just one single crack running right through the center. But it wasn't like Haruhime, the ugliness deepened by the beauty - the beauty was sharpened by the damage. There was also the knowledge of just how much worse the damage had been, when she had first found the girl. "Ryu," she said. "I'm really sorry. Can you take over the rest of my shift? Erza's here for the first time in a week! And she brought a friend who's feeling down. Mia won't let me spend time with them properly?"

Ryu paused, her thoughts gently processing. The smooth movements of her soul were always so solid, so methodical. "Very well. But, you should reciprocate at some point."

"Any time," she replied, smiling brightly. Horn had recovered from her injuries, so if it was a truly dire time, she could always send her familia member out in her stead.

Soon enough, Syr was prancing back to the pair's table, sliding in against Erza, who allowed her in. What should she ask about first? Cassandra, but she knew so much about the girl, and the purity of her soul was one that left so few truly interesting things hidden away. She was what she appeared to be: a sweet, loving, kind, generous, gentle, virtuous, firm, disciplined, heroic young woman. There was no secret dark side hidden in there. Her history didn't really interest Syr, either. A beautiful painting is beautiful regardless of the artist.

Drake, then. He was interesting. Afraid of her, when they'd met, which was so very strange. Could he suspect her true nature? It was hard to imagine, especially given the behavior of his - blech - wives. Was he simply skittish? Phobic? Hm. Perhaps that annoying little magic trick of his really worked? Obviously, there was nothing actually wrong with her and Cassandra getting together - it was hard to think of anything that could be more right - but perhaps it suggested how good it would be for him? "Why do you think Drake was afraid of me, when he visited?"

"Ah?" Erza asked, completely oblivious. "You are too harsh on yourself, Syr," she said, bringing one might hand down on her shoulder. "I am sure Drake isn't scared of you."

"Are you? He hasn't been back since that visit..." she said, pouting slightly. Getting him back would be even better than picking Erza's brain. Still, she had to be subtle about it. "Hm. If he's not afraid, could he be - in love with me?" She teased Erza.

"I do not know. But if he is, that would be wonderful!" It was a strange response in the young woman's soul. It was pure brightening - as if there wasn't anything to quiet the effect at all. Not something where she was happy, but. Just happiness. No hint of jealousy. She resisted the urge to frown. Love was jealous. Love wanted to have. To have exclusively. Not to share. Had he truly bewitched his wives, to make them respond this way? No, their souls were untainted by anything like that. A soul looked one way when you had used Charm on it, and another way when you hadn't. It could be just as beautiful either way - but it was different.

"Oh? You think it would be wonderful? I bet he's getting really tired, with you, and Cass, and Noriko, and Rei, and Lena, and... the other one," she added. She couldn't exactly call her a filthy maggot-soul out loud! She spared a glance over at Haruhime. Perhaps that would dissuade her? "Plus Haruhime too, apparently!" She clapped her hands. "Oh, and there's rumors from your familia-" she leaned in close to whisper the rest to her "-that he's sleeping with Loki, too."

"He has never been too exhausted to spend time with me," Erza responded. "And Cass, Noriko, Rei, The Prettiest Princess, and Loki are all my friends," she explained, with a hand tightening into a fist in front of her. Her soul was surging with the sort of fervor that Freya usually associated with religion or nationalism. "And I hope that Haruhime and Lena will be too!" She proclaimed.

"Oh, I see," Syr said, with a small nod and a smile. The dynamic was so... tch. She looked closely at Erza's soul, seeking out any sign of Charm or magic holding to it once again - but no. The love was au naturel. Perhaps, maybe, she could convince herself the love itself had been created by magic, but certainly, there wasn't the sort of twisting and warping that would be necessary to make a woman proudly declare all her metamours to be her friends. That was just the way Erza was.

It was so... unappealing. It didn't make Erza's soul any less beautiful, any more than it made her body less beautiful, but... love is jealous. That is just part of what it is. When you took that away, what remained was simply less of the thing-in-itself.

Ryu came out at that point, that porcelain soul of hers looking as beautiful as ever, and Syr smiled at her as she placed down the three cakes - two for Erza, one for Haruhime, and none for her. "Oh, you should tip her extra, she took over my shift so I could spend some time with you," Syr told Erza in a stage whisper.

Ryu's lips tugged slightly at the edges, but there was too little response beyond that. "If you require anything more, please, feel free to wave me down," Ryu said, hands clasped before her, giving a small bow before turning to go.

* * *

Haruhime listened quietly as Syr busily prodded and questioned Erza. The young woman was playful and friendly, and Erza replied to all her questions with a comfortable ease. Hearing her talk about Drake the way that she did, though... it made her miss him. He had given her the space she had asked for, without any hesitation, treating her with kindness a lowly whore like her did not deserve.

Drake had... not always been there, but he had been there more than enough. He and the dark-skinned girl both were lights in the darkness of her time at the Ishtar familia. And they had been helped by Erza and Rei and Cass and Loki... would she be free today, if it weren't for Drake having so many women? It seemed hard to imagine.

It was that thought that steeled her heart. She had read a poem about love, when she was very young, and she could recite it from memory. The relevant part was: Where others would find ugliness, I find beauty / In your stubbornness, I find rectitude / In your pettiness, I find focus / In what annoys others, I find a smile drawn across my lips. It had stuck with her for that idea, and now that she truly contemplated it - was it not true here? Was it not the case that she was only so saved by Drake because he had so many women, something others might consider disastrous? And... if she dared actually contemplate it... if she dared truly accept his words... then perhaps part of what Drake found appealing about her was that she was a whore? Had he not said that the fact that she was a prostitute made him care more, that very first time they met?

Syr's head turned her way, as if she could see her thoughts. "What are you thinking about, Haruhime?" She asked, with a pleasant, prying tone that sent a flush of embarrassment across her cheeks.

"Ah... about Drake," Haruhime said. She fidgeted, then looked to Erza. "Is he... do you think... that if I were never a..." she trailed off. She sipped her cocoa, enjoying the taste of it on her lips as it offered her an excuse not to speak.

"I am afraid I do not understand what you wish to know, Haruhime," Erza said.

"I think..." Syr paused, tapping her cheek with one finger as she looked at Haruhime, eyes probing and friendly at once. "I think she wants to know how Drake feels about her."

"He cares for you, very deeply," Erza explained.

"He sure does do that a lot, doesn't he?" Syr chimed in.

"He is a man with an enormous heart!"

"Probably pretty big somewhere else, eh?" Syr prompted, with a teasing note to her voice.

"Yes, he is very tall!" Erza said, completely oblivious to Syr's meaning.

"I've seen taller," Syr said, this kind of weak, kittenlike counter, without any real venom or strength to it. Her eyes went to Haruhime once more. Despite the pleasant, playful smile on her lips, her eyes seemed to be keenly peeling her apart. At last she sighed. "I don't get it! What's so amazing about him?!"

Erza began to explain, which just made Haruhime smile. It was very clear that Syr did not actually want Erza to explain, and Haruhime tried to avoid laughing at her increasingly obvious discomfort.

When the pair left the restaurant - Erza having left a one hundred percent tip - Haruhime was feeling... strangely good. The acceptance the conversation had brought to her was something that stilled all that chaos in her heart that had existed up until that point. When they arrived back at the Manor, she walked right alongside Erza, right up to her shared bedroom.

The woman simply burst into her bedroom, still carrying all those bags, finally setting them down in one corner. Drake was sitting there, scribbling away at a desk, and it was only once Haruhime stepped into the room that he glanced up. "Oh. Haruhime. Hey," he said, closing what he was writing. "Uh. What's up?"

"I wanted to say... thank you for saving me," Haruhime began. She wanted to say so much more than that. The words he wanted to hear most... they needed to be true for whatever magic it was. She paused for a moment, then just started to speak, the words coming out fast and hard. "I want to be with you," she said. "I want - I want to be your wife, not just, not just because, you're the only one who will take me, but because you're brave, and kind," and her vision began to swim a bit from tears, her voice cracking at the edges. "Because you're gentle, and thoughtful. Because- because I, I understand, you like me not in spite of being a whore, but in part, because of it - and I like you, not in spite of being a- a polygamist, but in part, because of it." She swallowed, then forced the last three words past her lips. "I love you, Drake Holt," she said.

It felt enervating, to finish that sentence. She wanted to simply collapse, now that all those words and feelings had left her lips. Instead, she was suddenly wreathed in a hug by Drake. He moved fast - that was the difference between a Level One and a Level Two, she supposed. Again, her cheek was pressed against his chest, and she didn't feel the urge to puke, not even when she remembered she ought to. "Thank you, Haruhime," he said, his voice soft, his fingers trailing through her hair, brushing at her ears. "That means - a lot to me." He took a moment. "I love you too."

He just held her for a long few seconds, her own hands eventually coming up to wrap around his back, to hold him up against her. She could feel his manhood, hard and erect, pressing against her stomach, and she felt her cheeks burn. She was surprised that she still hadn't felt the urge to puke, but she didn't want to push any further, so she simply held him back.

Then Erza suddenly wrapped her arms around the pair of them, hefting them easily up off the ground with a strength far beyond what any mere Level Two should have been able to muster. She let out a small gasp of surprise - and from the air being pushed out of her lungs - but it was still nice, being held like that, by Erza and Drake. By her... friend, and her... lover. Just thinking those words filled her with a sense of peace, that made her want to simply drift off to sleep in their arms.

"Erza... little tight," Drake said, and Erza promptly released the pair, letting Haruhime catch her breath.

"I'm sorry," Erza said. "I have been training so intensely, it is hard at times to keep track of my own strength."

Haruhime just smiled. This... this was what having a family was like.

* * *

Rei #6 couldn't help but grin as she finished her work on Ishtar's body. It was a loooot harder than just giving Julia big boobs or making her tongue super sensitive, but it had seemed possible from the very start. It had taken hours of effort to get the goddess sculpted down to what she wanted, but she had succeeded.

She wiped her brow and hefted Ishtar up, the goddess a hell of a lot lighter than when she'd started. She had actually gone back and forth earlier in the design phase, and decided on something quite simplified. It was something like a cylinder, ending in the pluming shape of an ass, complete with pussy, clit, and rosebud, all just begging to be used by somebody. On the other end of the cylinder was a simple pair of pretty lips, equally begging to get used. If you peeled them apart, there was even a warm, wet mouth, complete with tongue and no teeth. You could stick something all the way through, from mouth right down to cunt, or vice versa, so Drake's dick would pop out the far end when he stuffed it through.

Ishtar was now about as the size of a water bottle. Indeed, given that Julia had KO'd this bitch for days - and that she'd keep pumping the new poison into her, over and over, to keep her in this state forever... was it even really right to call her Ishtar any more? She was just a meat onahole. What would be an appropriate name for her now? Fleshlight? Onahole? Fucktoy? Hm. Eh. Whatever.

She stuck two fingers into Ishtar's pussy, and it felt just the same as a normal woman's pussy on the inside, at least as far as her fingers reached. "I'm done," she told Julia, who promptly bounced to her feet, wrapping Rei #6 in a big hug.

"You did it so good, joousama," she proclaimed. "Ah, I can't wait to jerk goshujinsama off with this bitch!"

Rei #6 grinned at her words. Yeah. It'd be fucking hot. "This is what you get for fucking with me, Ishtar," she said, squeezing the object. It was all squishy and boneless - she'd actually managed to pull out all the bones from Ishtar's body, leaving her with a consistency closer to cartilage. "You shouldn't have killed Rei #7, and tried to mind control me, bitch! How's it fucking feel? Oh, it doesn't feel like anything, because you're literally a fucktoy now?"

Okay. Gloating was fun but it wasn't as fun as she'd expected. Probably the utter lack of response on Ishtar's part was doing it, though Julia's fingers were sliding down from her waist towards her pussy. "You're so incredible, joousama," she praised, which went right to Rei #6's head. "It's so sexy... ahn... imagine turning other gods into onaholes..." She licked her lips as she contemplated that idea. "Oh! We could even do it to Phryne!"

"Nah," Rei #6 said. "First off, bitch ugly, second off, I could only do this much in the first place because she's a goddess. She's only kinda a human... it's weird."

"Let's wrap it up, then," she declared. "We don't want Freya to see it when we go back to Orario, after all!"

"Sure thing. First, though, bitch, all your touching has me horny as hell," she told Julia, who immediately, obediently, got down on her knees and started eating her out, just as was her job, as her soulmate and bitch or whatever.

Yeah. This was fucking awesome. She never knew enacting justice could be so much fun!

* * *

I knew for a genuine, undeniable, cosmically confirmed fact that Haruhime loved me. Saying the words back - I wasn't quite as sure if they were the truth. What I felt for her was different from what I felt for Noriko, but what I felt for Noriko was different from how I felt about Erza, or Cass, or Julia, or Rei, all of whom I knew I loved. I wanted her to be happy. I wanted to take care of her. And, of course, she was beautiful and sexy.

She still puked when we tried having sex without me using disguise magic of some kind, though. Well, actually, I took off my shirt and she pretty much immediately started gagging. That was fine, though. First off, I had literally more than enough women to satisfy any libido-based desires (mostly thanks to Rei being a duplicating little horndog), and second off, I didn't need that from Haruhime in the first place. I understood that it wasn't me, and that she did genuinely love me - that she did want to touch me and do things with me, she just couldn't. Sex was secondary. (Not that I didn't enjoy sex with her. She was genuine and loving and passionate in her own very pleasant way.)

Julia got back from her little trip only a few days after leaving. I didn't have the slightest idea what it was that she had been doing, but she was definitely excited to learn that Haruhime had stated she wanted to become my wife. "Ah! I'm so sorry, goshujinsama! I wasn't here for such an important moment. I'm sorry to you, too, Haruhime! Ah! It was such a difficult time for me, and I wasn't here to support you... I feel so rotten!"

"It is fine," Haruhime said. "It meant I got to spend more time with Erza. She's... very nice."

"I'm glad to hear it! Ah, I hate to bring up sex after such happy news-" Julia said, completely out of character, "-but are you still having trouble with your androphobia?"

Haruhime's eyes dove to the floor almost instantly, her tail flagging a bit. I gently wrapped my arm around her, doing my best to reassure her. "She is, but it's okay. Sex is what you're for, Bitch." Haruhime's ears twitched a bit at that, but I had explained to her what Julia's tastes were like, so it wasn't as much as it might have been earlier.

"Ah, goshujinsama is so wise," Julia said, nodding rapidly. "Still! I bet that Haruhime wants to be able to look at goshujinsama when they're having sex. I'd feel so terrible if I couldn't. Ah, obviously I'd love it if you blindfolded me or fucked my eyesockets or something, goshujinsama, but that's different." She snapped her fingers. "Oh, I know! Rei and I got a sex toy while we were out of the city! Haruhime could wear a blindfold and jerk you off with it, it'd be much easier than normal sex, I bet!"

Haruhime seemed to consider that. I let her, just standing there, arm still wrapped around her shoulder. Julia had this brilliant, happy look on her face, seeing me and Haruhime together like that - the sort where, if she had been the one with a tail, I had no doubt it would be swinging from side to side behind her with copious amounts of giddy energy. "I do... want to get better... and that might help," she agreed, her voice trembling subtly.

"If you want to do it," I said, gently playing with her ear in a way I knew she liked quite a bit. The three of us returned to our bedroom, and Julia quickly locked the door and double-checked the blinds before she finally produced the sex toy. It looked like a fairly typical sex toy, the only unusual part being the color - rather than a pink flesh tone, it was more an earthy brown. Haruhime flushed as she looked at it, but Julia just put it down on the bed, quickly pulling a blindfold from the dresser, getting right to that part too.

I went over to the sex toy, though. It was startlingly realistic to look at - the pussy was actually colored like a woman's sex, pink once you got past the outermost folds. It was also warm to the touch. As I stuck my finger in the mouth, my brain finally processed the signs in front of me, as well as the woman who had brought it here, and I jerked in surprise, almost straight up dropping what I was... pretty sure was Ishtar.

"Goshujinsama? Is something wrong?" Julia asked, blinking guilelessly up at me.

I could ask her about it. I didn't think she would outright lie to me... but I didn't want to be put in a situation where I had to lie to gods about it, and as long as I didn't know... "Haruhime?" I asked the fox girl, my sudden seriousness making her jerk up straight. "If there was something that was dangerous to know, and harmless not to know - would you want to know it?"

Haruhime seemed to consider the question seriously. "...I am glad to be in less danger, goshujinsama," she said. "If it were truly harmless not to know a dangerous truth, I believe I would prefer that it pass me as a stranger in the night." She also, rather notably, did not ask why. In a sense, that was genuine confirmation that she didn't want to know whatever it was that had prompted the question.

I thought about it for a few long seconds. This was definitely... richly deserved by Ishtar. It was a fairly reasonable conclusion that Haruhime's androphobia was caused by her becoming a slave of the Ishtar familia and being forced to have sex. And, obviously, Julia liked it...

I had so many reasons to go along with it, and I couldn't think of one not to go along with it, except that it felt wrong. Would Ishtar get free? The gods find out what we'd done? Only Julia actually knew what she'd done. I only vaguely suspected. It was rape, but... Ishtar was getting off easy, in any eye-for-an-eye sense. I looked at Julia, who just stared at me quietly, perhaps knowing exactly what I was thinking.

"Do you think that you should try this sex toy out first, Bitch?" I asked Julia.

"Ah... I think Haruhime would benefit so much more, goshujinsama," she proclaimed happily. "Are you ready, goshujinsama? Or do you want to play with it more before you use it? It's just a toy, so you don't have to be giving at all," she told me.

"Oh." I looked down at Haruhime, who nervously stood there, waiting for me to get to her at last, still blindfolded. "That's true, Bitch, but Haruhime deserves some loving attention, don't you think? Haruhime, would you like for Bitch to eat you out?"

"A-ah?" Haruhime flushed at the words, hesitating in place. "That... is an offer that a woman should make herself, if it is to be offered, I think..."

"Oh! I'll eat you out if you want, Haruhime! I have to eat out Noriko and Rei whenever they ask. It's not a problem at all! I love when goshujinsama whores me out!" She did think that I was actually getting day laborers to pay her to fuck, still. Either that or she suspected, just like I suspected the true identity of the sex toy in my hand, and decided not to ask.

"I see..." Haruhime said. She seemed to seriously consider the idea. "Thank you, Princess, but I would like to focus on... becoming more acclimated to a man's body."

"If that's what you want," Julia said, with a broad smile, gently directing Haruhime to kneel in front of me. "Do you think you have more trouble with smell or with touch, Haruhime?"

"...touch," Haruhime said.

"Okay then! Goshujinsama will take out his cock now," she said, with a big, bright smile, and I let my pants fall down at that point, my very erect cock popping free. "How does it smell? I bet with your renard nose, you can really smell goshujinsama's cock in a way I never could, not even if I stuffed it directly into my nostril!"

Haruhime sniffed at the air, her nose cutely twitching in place. There was a momentary stilling of her tail at the scent, which went on for much longer than I would have thought. Then the tail began to wag again, and she simply smiled. "It smells pleasant," she explained. "It smells like Drake."

"It does!" Julia agreed. "I never knew how nice the person you love smells, until I met goshujinsama," she explained. "Now, goshujinsama, wrap the sex toy around your cock!" She proclaimed, with giddy delight. "You can use any of the holes, whichever one you prefer!"

I looked down at the toy. It felt like a big decision, despite the fact that it was clearly completely meaningless. I ultimately decided to push my cock into the mouth. It felt warm, wet, and alive, just like a woman's mouth, other than the complete lack of any movement from the tongue, or any resistance from the throat. My cock slid all the way inside, and just the very tip of my cock poked out of Ishtar's pussy, teased in front of Haruhime's cute face.

Julia took hold of Haruhime's wrist, bringing it up to the toy. "Now you can jerk goshujinsama off without touching him!" She explained to Haruhime, who simply nodded, wrapping both hands around it a moment later, and beginning to jerk me off, slowly at first, then ever more intensely, her nose desperately drinking in the air as she moved it faster and faster up and down my cock. There was a certain... wildness in her movements, that wasn't there ordinarily when we made love. I could only attribute it to her enthusiasm at making progress in overcoming her androphobia.

* * *

To Haruhime's nose, the sex toy smelled like Ishtar, but it didn't feel like Ishtar. It felt like a strangely warm sex toy. It squished beneath her fingers when she squeezed, gripping Drake's hard length, making him groan and pant in response to her touch. She wondered if the mad, nonsense conclusion she had reached was true. If she really was using Ishtar as an onahole right now, jerking off her beloved in that way.

It sent a certain sadistic thrill through Haruhime's own body. A side of her she had not known she had, until that very moment. She had always tried to be kind, to be proper - she still wanted to do those things. But didn't Ishtar deserve this?

It was probably just a coincidence, or Princess had specifically scented the toy that way, but there was a delight to mistreating the toy, to just squeezing it tight, enjoying the way what felt like flesh bloomed between her fingers. She loved it. Loved the idea of the thing in her hands truly being Ishtar, as absurd as it was. Her hands jerked faster and faster, trying to bring Drake off as quickly as she possibly could. She wanted him to ejaculate, to spray hot cum into the fucktoy right in front of her. She could smell his precum, lingering on the air, as she jerked him off, faster and faster, harder and harder.

Arousal even bloomed in between her thighs, her nipples poking against the fabric of her dress as she knelt there. She was pleasuring a man - not one hidden behind an illusion - and she was becoming aroused from it. There was no urge to vomit whatsoever, the sheer excitement of the whole situation overpowering it. She wanted to scream at the toy, but her ridiculous fantasies weren't the sort of things one said out loud. One just did. One jerked, and jerked, and jerked, and enjoyed the image of Ishtar reduced to a toy. She panted softly, squirming gently in place.

"Joousama, are you sure you don't want me to eat you out? You look like you'd really enjoy it," came Princess's soft voice.

"Later," was all Haruhime got out, in her wild-eyed lust. She couldn't see a thing, but she could feel something more intense than that, feel the soft, fleshy feeling of the fucktoy in between her hands, and she could enjoy it, relish it, and then Drake let out a low groan, jerking in place as pleasure overtook him.

She pushed the toy all the way down his cock in response, as if he were being taken to the base. She felt, before she could even smell it, the wet splash of hot cum against her cheek. Staining her features. His scent thickened a thousandfold, but it was still pleasant rather than disgusting, delightful rather than nasty. She couldn't help but smile as she enjoyed it. She knew the spell would end when she took off the blindfold and saw his cock, but the fact that she could smell him - perhaps even taste him? - was such a wonderful thing.

It drove her, even, to lean forward, gently flicking her tongue against the very tip of his cock, tasting his salty cum and length. It was wonderful... but she certainly was not ready to take him to the base with her mouth.

"Thank you, goshujinsama, Princess," she said, to the pair, feeling tears threatening to blossom from the corners of her eyes. "Thank you so much, for everything..."

Princess wrapped her in a big, friendly hug. "It's no problem. Goshujinsama and I were happy to help you!"

Drake, fortunately, took the time to pull up his pants before he hugged her as well. "Yeah," he added. "Saving you... I'm glad I did it."

She was glad he did too.

* * *

Hephaistos softly patted the head of her much-taller familia member, Setsuko squirming in place as tears ran down her cheeks. "There's no reason to worry," Hephaistos said. "Goro is a Level Five, he's completely safe." Setsuko had simply had a terrible nightmare, and it was the sort that left her with the sense of truth to it. She could explain that dreams were just things that happened inside a mortal's mind, representing nothing beyond its confines, but it was clear that wouldn't help. "I'll check," she said, closing her eyes for a moment, consulting her contracts.

She paused as she finished sorting through them. She hadn't noticed Goro's on a first pass. She had so many, though, surely it was simply a mistake, she had missed it in her searches. Her lips thinned, as she contemplated them all again. She counted them out. Sorted them.

They were all there, except one.

Goro Iwakari was dead.