Training with snakes 2

A slender girl, dressed in a short pastel turquoise apron lolita dress with a t-shirt, hopped onto a small platform on the left side of the hall as Alex entered the hall, catching his attention.

Along with her two high swinging brunette ponytails, the anime-like facial features and the tight-high white socks with frilly garters, she was a realistic replica of the Dance Evolution Arcade star dancer.

Alex followed her gaze to the opposite end of the hall, where he spotted a large group of small white serpents near the three large modular tanned leather sofas where the Mishakuji in their human forms lounged around in the dim light.

Alex could make out a few females among them, but not their shaded faces.

"Don't drool too much," Shamoji whispered into his ear, causing him to break off his stare.

The whole hall looked like a haphazard mess of a snake cafe, game arcade and a dance club thrown into one entertainment area hastily.

"Prepare! Here we go!" An unseen speaker announced.

The female's eyes fixed intently on the projection of the Dance Evolution Arcade game start shown on the screen, as she positioned herself in the same pose.

Then the music started with a crystalline beat. Her graceful hands moved in a fluid motion, as she stretched them out to copy the first move as the tempo quickened. She executed the hops, hip swirls and turns with precision.

Then Alex noticed it as the sparks flew out of her hands, then two greenish shadows appeared at the side and merged with.

She even copied the special effects from the projections as the sparks flew around.

"10 combos!"

"20 combos!"

"Which is the game and which is the player?" Alex muttered in astonishment.

"30 combos! You are doing great!" The game declared.

"That's the player," Shamoji pointed to the same girl while strobe lights appeared from nowhere as her hips gyrate and sway to each beat of the bass pumping song.

A psychedelic light show of lasers shot out, to the crowd's delight. Wolf whistles echoed out from the appreciative audience. The serpents reared their heads and swaying to the tempo with their elongated bodies, reminding Alex of cobras dancing to the tune played by a snake charmer.

Except the music came from speakers, not an instrument but a fast pumping Jpop song.

"Why is she making all this magic light show?"

"The humans designed the game to train their hand-eye-coordination moves. We modified it." Shamoji pointed at the small rainbow auras created from her swirls, exactly like the computer projection.

The game continued calling combos out for each matched sequence and then the combos cancelled after Alex realized she missed the sparkles.

He realised the Mishakuji configured and changed the entire game system by extending the game functions from just hand-eye-coordination to energy manipulation.

"Rules of the game are not to exceed the use of a soul stone. Anything above 70 combo and they double their soul stone stash," Shamoji added as the dancer's face fell at the completed score and number of combos displayed on-screen.

Not that Alex cared when the eye candy of the slender female stepped down from the platform and halted in front of him to return his stare. Alex didn't notice Shamoji stifling a laugh with his attention on the cute Lolita outfit.

The female circled Alex slowly, inspecting him from top to toe with a sly smile growing on her face. Her tip of the tongue flicked out, licking the slightly parted pink lips.

The heat of the moment welled up within Alex, with desire growing in anticipation as she came closer.

He could hear Shamoji coughing politely, but the woman's gaze entranced him with a hypnotic spell, which made him ignore Shamoji.

She's hot - the thoughts flowed into Alex's mind about her alluring appearance. No female had paid him much attention despite his instincts hinting at a sliver of danger when he was alive except for the occasional drunk girl.

She lifted his chin up with her finger while Alex's eyes remained fixed on her.

"Like what you see?" She spoke in a low feminine tone amidst the snickering in the background.

Alex blinked as his mind screamed out to break away from her eyes while her finger ran across his lips.

"W-well, you… h-h-hot," Alex drawled.

She sidled up to him, grabbing his waist with her hand and pulling him towards her. "So you want me?"

"Saburo, that's enough!" Shamoji's voice called, breaking Alex from the trance, eclipsing it with a moment of clarity while the female morphed into the familiar face of Saburo, whom he had met once.

Instead of the Lolita dress, Saburo now wore his tight fitting T-shirt with jeans and a leather jacket.

Alex pushed away the good-looking young man with his reptilian eyes, much to his horror, and blurted out his profuse but incoherent apologies, as reality sank in hard, worsened by the rounds of laughter from the dim corner.

"S-s-sorry," Alex muttered again as he swallowed hard.

Alex turned his heads to the nearby ten serpents on the ground, who hissed merrily at his expense while swaying their necks around. They snuck up without him noticing.

"No problem," Saburo winked mischievously. "I go both ways."

Alex cringed at his words and wished for the ground to swallow him up to cover his embarrassment. Shamoji guffawed loudly, bending slightly and clutching his abdomen.

"Well, nice seeing you in one piece again," Saburo said, and turned to Shamoji. "You didn't tell him the part about shape-shifting in the game?"

"Wait, weren't you in Kyushu?" Alex blurted out.

"Our shrines port to each other," Saburo replied. "Fastest way of travel, compared to the car."

"Then we shouldn't need the car!" Alex exclaimed.

"Only works for us, not you and the spider," Shamoji said when he stopped laughing.

A whitish smoke surrounded three of the serpents while Alex stared as their elongated bodies lengthen and widen into three female forms.

When the smoke dissipated, three exact realistic copies of the main dancer of the Dance Evolution Arcade, like Saburo's form

"Pity, we can't eat him," one of them said with arms akimbo, with the eyes trained on Alex, forcing him to quickly hide behind Shamoji.

"He's here for training," Shamoji said

"Can he shape-shift?" Another ask, to which Alex shook his head, much to the disdainful look of the questioner.

"Can't shape-shift, so how is he going to train with the program?" Saburo asked as the other three left their side to plonk themselves on the sofa at the side, now disinterested in Alex, who shrunk himself smaller.

"Switch the settings to the one humans play," Shamoji said.

Saburo scratched his head for a movement as a holographic screen appeared.

A few taps from his fingers on screen and he said, "set. But I might give him an additional bonus."

Three holographic figures of slender yet curvy, beautiful women appeared from a sudden beam of light. The eye candy of nubile bodies moving in a seductive serpent-like dance drove lewd thoughts into Alex's mind once again, while he tried to shake the temptations off.

Their bosoms were ample, and they didn't wear bras under their skin tight outfit of a fitting tee and mini skirts which showed their long fair legs.

They are not real, Alex thought to himself. The Mishakuji are up to something.

"OooOOOF," Shamoji gasped, but nodded his head in approval

With each step they took in their high heel shoes towards him, Alex noticed their round buttocks, emphasised by their tiny waists, were like puppies wriggling under their mini skirts.

"My friend, don't ogle too much," Shamoji said as he threw his arm around Alex's neck again like a hook of a tightening noose, hinting at a hidden danger in his tone.

"Huh?" Alex jumped from a whack landing on his back. The 'but' didn't sound encouraging.

"Hand-eye-body coordination and speed, plus attention on the game," Saburo declared with a smug look. "Get distracted and you will find out what those women do."