Shopping and Encounters

The training was done before noon, which left us with a considerable amount of time free. A certain option had appeared as well as a possible way of spending some day.

[Game Dungeon Key – God of War

Type: Key

A key that allows you to create an Instant Dungeon on any area that can be opened. A large area containing the areas of the original God of War game, from the lead up to the Hydra fight to the death of Ares. Escape is impossible until the death of Ares]

In theory, it was a possibility that could go either way. I had played through the Game more than once and from what I could recall, the enemies were… Low risk, I suppose the word should be. Aside for Ares himself of course, who was a God of deceptive strength. On the other hand, the other ninety nine point whatever amount of nine of enemies should be ones I was pretty sure I could fight as they were not really all that powerful or cheat-like… The Hydra was large, to say the least. It probably ate whales casually.

There was also Pandora's Box itself which might result in an easy victory. One of the greatest hurdles with Ares was his sheer, mountainous, size. Beyond that however, most of his attacks were very physical from what I recall, and until he explodes with a nuclear blast, he did not really have that much divine power to him.

Even then, the attack on Athens lasted for days. Ares and his force couldn't destroy the city in the time it took Athena to ask Kratos for help, for him to sail there, spend three or so days climbing up Cronos and going through the temple. Just destroying the city should not have taken that long… So plot, probably.

…on the other hand, I could barely fight an accordion and got slapped around a lot by a shield-bird. There would be hundreds, if not thousands, of enemies in the city and the Temple of Pandora, which meant a lot of experience to be obtained, but it also meant that I had just about no chance with my current stats. Even if Melusine would be there with me, maybe even Tamamo. I might actually be able to reach a sufficient point near the end and Divine Dividing, even if it was now the Ray Horizon, is supposed to be a Longinus, a God Slaying Weapon.

However… I decided against it for now. I was not quite ready to face such impossible odds. Even if the enemies were monsters that had no mercy in them, I did not have the sufficient experience to believe myself capable of slaying them easily. Just about everything should, in theory, be provided there, assuming I get all the same privileges as Kratos, but I was not Kratos in terms of readiness either and some of the enemies were likely to bleed even more than me.

As such… I needed a different way to spend the day. "…Hey, Caster…" The world stopped.

[>[Want to go to a love hotel for some privacy for a few hours?]

[Your clothes stand out… You should change them if you want to be seen in public.]

[Want to go on a date with me? Clothes shopping, at least. It might not even really be a date…]

[I need practice for tomorrow, so do you want to go out with me?]

[W-W-W-Would you… You know… Like to… Go… Out with me? Or… N-Nevermind I said anything!]

[I-It's not like it would be a date or anything! So don't get the wrong idea! But… Do you want to go shopping with me?]

[Ay yo future baby mamma wanna get an early taste of this dick? I will make you Tamamamoan!]

[Forget decency, let's make this house shake.]

[Nevermind, it's nothing important.]]

What in the actual fuck are most of these options… "Want to go on a date with me? Clothes shopping, at least. It might not even really be a date…" She suddenly stopped as well and proceeded to absolutely light up with joy that made me feel bad for the fact that I was, in fact, asking this to make sure I had something proper to wear for tomorrow.

"Yes! Yes, of course!"

"Well then um… Let's go." Suddenly I feel strangely guilty.

o.O.o.O.o

I seriously hoped that this would go well. There were more than a few ways for this to go seriously wrong, chief among them being the very likely chance of one of the Fallen to see us, or even that the Devils end up catching wind of this. Tamamo assured me that her… Additional features were hidden, but even if she was making herself seem notably more human, she was still wearing the same outfit she had as a Heroic Spirit, which would rather obviously catch a lot of attention due to how much it stood out. The weather was just warm enough however and I had taken a light jacket mostly to complete the look Issei normally had.

"…I don't… Want other people looking at you the wrong way, okay…"

[+15 Affection with Caster]

That notification somehow made it more embarrassing, only further brought forward by the very short blush that Tamamo had when I had draped the jacket over her which changed to a sort of smirk as soon as she saw my expression. She practically nuzzled into me, putting my arm between her breasts and hugging it until it was too awkward to continue walking in such a position, but even then she just continued holding my hand.

Unprotected handholding!? How lewd! …yet I missed her warmth a little a mere few moments later. There was a bit of a breeze that placed the actual temperature at 'warm enough to just be in a shirt but cold enough a jacket would be needed'. Not that I could actually complain personally. Tamamo was still wearing even less clothes than I was. I had to beat down the thoughts of embarrassment however before I somehow find a way to embarrass myself.

Thankfully we reached a clothing store soon enough and from there it was time to play dress up. Tamamo cheerfully started picking out clothes for me. It quickly became evident however that we were both… A bit unskilled for that. Aside for memories of her life and legend and all that, she was provided with the necessary information to go through a Holy Grail War, more likely in the Moon than the modern era. Meanwhile I just did not know fashion very well… Which meant we both just picked out what seemed good rather than worry about details.

The fact I had to pick out some clothes for her as well was… A frightening one on its own, but I did my best not to fret and just choose something with a hope that she would shoot it down if it was bad. Which itself lasted until a certain thought which caused the world to stop once more.

[>["Hey, um… You're not wearing a bra, are you…"]

["Want me to pick out your underwear?"]

["It's pretty hot that you're not wearing a bra."]

[Pull down the front of her outfit and expose her breasts]

[Reach out and squeeze her chest to test if she is wearing a bra]

[Squat down to check if she is wearing panties]]

…I knew for a fact that she was wearing panties, at least she had been back in the Moon Cell. My eyes had wandered a little when she was kicking around and they were black. I was pretty sure she hadn't noticed me noticing though, considering she struck me as the type to bring something like that to attention.

"Want me to pick out your underwear?" Though the question came out rather naturally, I quickly felt a small fluster reach me at asking the question. For a moment, I had considered reaching out… But it felt too early to do so, as well as being too public.

Tamamo looked down as if realizing only now that she wasn't actually wearing a bra. "Sure." And answered simply with a knowing smile. I swiftly found out why. I felt an immense amount of pressure coming from behind me as she waited, expectedly, and I stood in front of the underwear section. No choice was popping up and I was just left standing there feeling the full effects of having to actually go and pick something out.

Well, there was one benefit… There were quite a few suspicious looks I was getting until Tamamo absolutely made her presence known. Without actually doing all that much, her presence absolutely intensified to that of a true Heroic Spirit which probably caused such fear in the doubtful they just chose to move on rather than test their luck against the insurmountable obstacle.

I had to make the right decision. If I choose wrong, she might dislike me even more than when I pushed my luck and all but told her I would be surrounded by women. Worse, if I choose right, she would probably use the next chance she could to show off the underwear.

Even knowing all of that… I went all in. "O-Oh… Oh my~" It would likely serve what I was pretty sure was the basic purpose of underwear while leaving very little to the imagination considering it was black and lacy enough it should, in theory, only cover the basics that needed to be kept covered for the sake of decency while leaving the rest rather accented.

[+5 Affection with Tamamo]

I was pretty sure that was a good sign. I pretty much put all of my speed to use in the next few moments, picking up another set quickly as well as a… Low cut hoodie? Maybe it was closer to a jacket? I was not entirely sure what to call it, but I vaguely remembered one of Tamamo's canonical casual outfits including a sort of light parka, if that was even the word, that normally covered her whole body if zipped up all the way but had been left unzipped enough to allow her bra to be seen. A bra that she wasn't wearing right now. I also grabbed a pair of shorts… Cause they're comfy and easy to wear.

After a few blinks, she took the new set of underwear without saying anything, as well as the hoodie and went to get changed. As soon as she got out, I started being worried again however. The top was… Actually fitting. A bit too large for her normally, but with the small amount she had zipped up, I could assume that it would be a bit binding against her sizable breasts if she could even zip it up over them in the first place. The sleeves being a bit long on the other hand gave her a bit of a cute quality.

[+300 LP]

Yeah, that seems about right… Especially considering I had taken a size of shorts too small… And she hadn't actually bothered to correct it. With the shorts about half way up her thighs, she went out of the changing room anyway to show off. They clung to her legs rather nicely, all things considered and just having them there seemed just so lewd… But the greater part of me immediately gained the concern that it would be some comment on her weight or something of that like.

So instead I focused back on her breasts and top. She was already wearing the new bra. I was pretty sure the original had hoodie-jacket-whatever had pink stripes and the bra was pinkish. This bra however was rather close to crimson, surprisingly so, and the top did not have stripes or anything, just being rather plain but none the less very nice.

Not trusting my mouth to say anything good, I just gave her two thumbs up and a smile.

[Skill Obtained!

[Expressive Expression Lv.1/10] – Your smiles and general facial 'animations' for lack of a better word are more capable of displaying the emotions you want them to… Or even the ones you do not want to, leaking your true emotions in some situations.]

Looking down to acknowledge the notification though, I remembered the bottom situation and pretty much jogged to try and find something that might fit her better instead… Would a skirt fit better… Does she even need something to wear below other than underwear? The top was just about long enough…

o.O.o.O.o

That was… More or less the highlight of the shopping trip.

Using a lame excuse like needing to cool myself down a little, we ended up in a local sort of restaurant eating parfaits. While waiting, Tamamo had mostly just watched me with strange interest that made me a good kind of uncomfortable. I was not used to having that much attention on myself… Or any of this, all things considered. But the looks she was giving me were… Very genuine. It wasn't a lie.

If nothing else, I found myself more ready and willing to believe that she was genuine about our supposed husband-wife relationship. This did not fully make me all that much more comfortable about the whole situation, but I was pretty sure I would adapt and grow into it… Wouldn't I? There were quite a few things ahead of me. More importantly, quite a few women… Melusine was technically with us all the way as well, but she just observed even if I could swear I heard an occasional snicker from her.

She was wearing the clothes I picked out, which was nice. Ultimately we had decided not to go for shorts or a skirt, so she was just wearing panties underneath and her bra was exposed as if it was actually a top. The lacy pair of underwear was also bought, to my simultaneous fear at eventually being faced with her wearing it and relief that I had somehow made the right choices apparently. All of it was quite a hit on my funds, but it was worth it!

Not wanting to make the scene more serious, I just asked Tamamo some casual questions, as casual as I could. How she liked the town so far, if at all, what her thoughts on… My room… Were… It was fun, even if I quickly seemed to run out of things to talk about, but this strange probably-date was coming to an end anyway.

A bit surprisingly, she hadn't introduced herself to my parents just yet. Though I was more or less able to feel her displeasure when the sore topic of Raynare slash Yuuma came up, brought up by Mother. I was out in town for quite a while and came back with some new clothes after all, so the logic worked until the illogical was considered.

With all of that done… It was time to continue in the Moon Cell. There were one or two places I definitely had to check out.

The Moon Cell was weird. Technically, as far as I could remember, the entire thing was actually being generated by the SE.RA.PH., the core of it all, from the academy building itself to the Arenas in which we fought. The school itself was large and detailed, yet also simple at the same time, easy to navigate and remember, having three floors, each splitting two ways and leading to classrooms and whatnot, with a basement floor in which the shop was, a rooftop… And a motherfucking Chapel behind the school.

The first place I went to however was the library as that was simply more likely to be… Well, open. There was an NPC there, but she was not important right now. The library was designed by the Moon Cell to have the basics of every Heroic Spirit, in spite of its relatively small size. Almost every legend and historical figure theoretically existed within the walls and on the shelves of a truly small library…

The Moon Cell itself recorded all of the past and present, simulating the future as it did so, or maybe even observing everything from a higher dimensional perspective in which everything, past, present and future was happening at the same time instead, so the library had a hell of a lot of potential as a place of learning, more than any library on Earth. If there was a reason for it being there, this place probably also had lost knowledge and books… They just had to be found.

Knowing that the library which might have all of human and inhuman knowledge stored within itself was open to me, I continued back down and along, reaching the Chapel which seemed completely out of place here. I pressed my hand against the heavy doors and expected to open them… Instead I was just sort of warped inside. Right. Game logic and entering a different load area…

Sitting on the left and right of the altar were two women who most certainly were not nuns or members of the clergy. They were two sisters and most definitely not twins, one with long and pure red hair and red eyes, in a gray hoodie, while the other looked much more serious, blue eyes and short blue hair, a cigarette in her mouth. Touko and Aoko Aozaki, hackers in the Moon.

"Hey there, welcome to the chapel. You're here to perform an Alteration of the Soul?" Red, Aoko, asked.

"Ah, you're that exceptional one, aren't you? Excellent. The more test subjects the better, I always say. Welcome to the Eden of the East. I assume you're here for an Alteration of the Soul?" Blue, Touko, started just after.

Alteration of the Soul. A gameplay mechanic where skill points gathered by leveling up were used to upgrade the Servant the Master, Hakuno, had at their side. Otherwise, in lore, it was strengthening the link between Master and Servant. Technically speaking, it took hacking one's soul into the Moon Cell in the first place to get oneself into the Moon Cell under normal circumstances. And considering how Sacred Gears were supposed to work… Well, this could be quite fruitful.

"So… If I did, which one should I go to?"

"Well, normally it would be her. But if you value your life, do not put any trust in her abilities. I doubt she could even do anything with your… Situation." Touko probably knew more about my oddities than she was letting on… But how…

"Well, I certainly wouldn't mind giving it a try… I don't know what would happen either…" I admitted. Somehow, it felt more relaxing here. "Though… Would it be possible for me to learn how to do it myself as well?" They scoffed in perfect synchronization at my question, then glared at each other. "…please? I'll do my best to find a way to repay you…"

There were only seven weeks to this War and this sort of skill would be useful beyond the Moon Cell as well. Not just for myself either, so this would increase my value even further. "Hm… Well, I suppose there are a few errands I could have you run. But don't expect me to keep you around if you don't even end up showing any promise." Touko agreed.

"Well, it's not like I have anything better to do." So Aoko agreed as well in their constant competitive nature. "Don't expect much though."

"Don't expect even less than much either."

"Well it's not like you'd do much better."

o.O.o.O.o

They ended up arguing for a while before the first step was to be taken… Which was actually unlocking my Magic Circuits. I was pretty sure those weren't normally used when hacking, but I could be wrong.

[Perk Obtained!

[Fairy Patterns] – Magic Circuits are a pseudo-nervous system that spreads itself through the human body, residing within the soul, and what qualifies a person to be a Magus. They are also an unnatural presence in the body which causes discomfort, numbness, pain, increased temperature and other possible side-effects when activated. Fairy, or Divine, Patterns however are a natural part of the body of Fairies which allow them to perform Mysteries without the use of things like Foundations, Mystic Codes, or formulas as well as without the negative effects. They are naturally far superior to Magic Circuits in almost every way]

[Skill(s) Acquired!

[Fairy Pattern Quality Lv.1/?] – In addition to your Magic stat, further increases the power of spells if the Patterns are used as an additional enhancement. Current Quality: E

[Fairy Pattern Quantity Lv.1/?] – In addition to your Magic stat, further increases the amount of MP that can be put into spells to further empower them. Current Quantity: 5, Rank E]

This resulted in an impressed whistle from Touko. "You really are a strange one. How interesting…" Considering what I had done with Melusine, that probably made sense yet I found it no less surprising that I had Fairy Patterns instead…

One way or another, some Alterations were performed, Tamamo's performance capability increased in doing so while the actual Sacred Gear received some nearly surface level changes given that neither Touko nor Aoko could fully penetrate into the whole thing in the current situation. It was enough however to move the Balance Breaker closer and farther at the same time.

The Scale Mail was the standard Balance Breaker of the Divine Dividing and Boosted Gear, manifesting as a full set of armor instead of just the Wings or the Gauntlet. Now it became possible to manifest a set of armor different from Melusine's own yet closer at the same time. While Melusine's armor was obviously a set of armor, what could manifest around me was closer to an additional layer made of a nearly metallic material that was somehow still a bit organic.

She wore armor while I just… Manifested dragon scales with an almost identical pattern to her armor. I even got her face mask along with it. Well, her 'final' form was that of an almost mecha dragon rather than truly looking organic, for lack of a better description of course, so this was very much fine.

They proceeded to shoo me out, most likely to actually prepare study plans. Well, I did need to go to the Arena anyways…

All things considered, this certainly made me a bit more confident… But a considerable amount of that confidence vanished with the thought of the fights ahead and the reminder that I had no idea how this War was actually going to end. As far as I recall, the one who stood as the strongest and most determined, above a total of one hundred and twenty-seven lives and desires, got to make the path to the SE.RA.PH., the Moon Cell core and make a wish that could rewrite reality… Only, usually, to be stopped by an almost insane man who wanted to dive the world into endless war and conflict to ensure humanity keeps progressing, but cannot do so himself as he is little more than a Ghost and he would not survive stepping into the core and making the wish himself.

Twice… Might exist even now. Or he might not. As far as my memory went, the wish that Hakuno made was to end the Holy Grail Wars entirely, at least these lunar ones. The possibility further existed that Hakuno lost before making it all the way. This could not exactly be after Hakuno in any other way, unless I was wrong. Maybe this was before even Twice. I would not know until I reached the final elevator that took the ultimate winner standing on nine hundred ninety-eight corpses to make their wish. No. To call them corpses would be wrong. Everyone who lost in this was erased from existence itself, reduced to dust and noise.

I did not want to die. In a way, I was happy that I hadn't encountered my opponent for this round. Facing the possible screams of refusal in their end… I was not sure if I could handle such a thing. I did not want to die, but I did not want to kill for the sake of survival either. Right now, I did not have some grand wish I was willing to kill and die for, but others likely did. So if their will to have their wish granted exceeds my own to survive… Then they will win, won't they?

Maybe that was why I was so terrified of Twice, who killed enough former winners to make a small hill of coffins, corpses, stacked behind him. How could I compare to the sheer will of such a madman?

Even while thinking such things, we had entered the Arena… "Let's stay together today. Get used to each other's movements or something like that…" I decided.

"If you say so."

"Okay~"

…Tamamo was a bit more willing than Melusine to do so, but that was probably fine. The enemies were not actually strong or numerous enough, as was swiftly proven, for us to need to work together though… So maybe that was why Melusine was not quite as willing. With a sigh, I prepared to tell them the plan was changing, reverting back to how we had done yesterday, but another set of footsteps got my attention before that.

I had to blink a few times to actually be sure if I recalled correctly… But I was pretty sure there were only so many Heroic Spirits who would immediately freeze up and… Well, lose their ears, at the sight of Tamamo. Added to her general state of dress… It was probably Osakabehime, who had gotten bullied at some point to swap from a fox to a bat-motif individual. Supposedly the two of them were email buddies.

The sheer fearful nervousness on her face was also a pretty useful giveaway. She was… Not all that combat focused a Heroic Spirit if I recalled correctly. Or was it just that she was a lazy shut-in but actually had considerable potential in combat? I was not fully sure and my focus instead ended up being on her… Master. In spite of having an almost basic appearance, he practically screamed 'asshole' in the way he carried himself.

"So, you're my opponent for this round huh?" He asked as soon as he was close enough to be an asshole in effective range.

"And you are mine, huh…" He… Did not spark as much fear as annoyance. Tamamo on the other hand was, as far as I could tell, giving Osakabehime utterly terrifying looks. Or Osaka was just very, very, naturally terrified of this whole situation without Tamamo needing to actually put in any effort on her part.

"Hm… You don't look like much." Rude. "But you've got some cuties on your side, don't you?"

"…Yes I do." I could not deny that.

He put a hand on my shoulder. "Listen. It would be a waste to let them go to waste, so you should probably make use of them while you can." Make… Use of them. "I know your type is very spineless, but you should take charge. I'd hate to see you screaming out in rage when you're dying that you never even got to hit that." …was this guy for real? "Or, if you won't, then maybe I could show them—"

Before he finished the sentence, I suddenly found my fist impacting his face with enough force he was lifted off the ground… Tamamo helped, further launching her knee up toward his ribs with what seemed like enough strength to at least crack them… Only for both of us to look on in surprise when he was further lifted up toward the upper edge of the wall, no ceiling there to stop his ascent.

What the fuck!? How did we hit him that hard!? He found us in one of the corridors which were just one platform wide, but this was still ridiculous! Tamamo, Osakabehime and I were frozen in shock and confusion. The walls were still ridiculously high! Was he just that light!? Unlucky?! Was the System cheating somehow for me?!

[You are roughly four times stronger than an average high school student and Caster is a Heroic Spirit. Is lifting another average someone ten or so feet into the air by punching and kicking them really all that surprising?]

…okay, maybe that was valid… Ah… He fell over… ...Oh shit he fell over!? "Melusine! Help!" I ordered, hoping this wouldn't consume a Command Seal. She just nodded casually and flew over the edge herself, leaving me waiting in tense silence as I went down to all fours and watched through the platform on the ground, surprising myself that I wasn't worried about one of my fears from yesterday coming to fruition now. I really could fall down into the endless darkness!?

I got up as Melusine returned, only to note that she was not actually carrying anyone. Still, she took my hand and held it. …no, she put a hand in my hand. A severed hand. I looked between her and the hand a few times. "What?" …apparently she did not understand the sheer problems of bringing me his severed hand with command seals instead of helping him not fall endlessly.

I waited for the system to punish us. Nothing came. Instead, a very loud cry came from Osakabehime who was also here. "Chotto a minute what just happened?!" She fearfully demanded. "Nani the hell!?!What happens now?!"

At that question, I suddenly remembered I was holding a severed hand and twitched my whole body, jerking it away from where I was. Nothing… Nothing was happening?! No punishment?! Nothing!? Then… It's fine?! But what about Osakabehime… "Caster, stop her from wailing." …she was still on the edge of crying and now she had a piece of paper over her mouth as she flailed in fear and I tried to think of a plan that did not involve the words 'I have a plan, but someone is going to have to suck my dick'.

The only plans I could think of that would certainly work involved the use of LP and I needed more LP. The best way to do so however would be fucking of some sort. But responding to this situation with 'I have a plan but someone is going to have to fuck me' did not seem appropriate in any way! …even if the idea is pretty attractive, considering that Osakabehime is also quite… Curvy… And so is Tamamo while Melusine was… Melusine.

…and how did Melusine manage to cut the hand off without any actual blood being on it…