Story: Kiss-O-Matic

Here's this week's winner! I hope you enjoy it.


When one has trained sufficiently in martial arts, one understands that it is not simply a case of training the body but also training the mind. It is pointless to know how to throw someone to the floor if the mind freezes as soon as it realises danger is afoot. If the mind is not as sharp as the body, then it is worthless. The other way around also applies. Both must be honed to be truly effective.

A particular trick to the mind is that it does not always give us full conscious information of our surroundings. It gets on with unconsciously cataloguing everything else around it, while our conscious mind focuses on what is in front of us. If something meriting attention is noticed on an unconscious level then it sends an alert to the brain and - We react. This is the so-called danger sense. An unconscious awareness of “something not being right” without knowing entirely what it is. A martial artist is trained to listen to that sense more keenly than a typical person. This can grant them a greater appreciation for the nature of the threat before it strikes. This way they can defend themselves, defend others if need be, or at least have a better appreciation of the most appropriate reaction.

At this particular moment, in the middle of her training, Motoko’s danger sense was screaming for her to <i><b>get the hell out of there</b></i>. Right now. Anyone that knew Motoko well enough knew that there was only one thing she’d seriously consider running from, if not for the fact that running might make things worse.

Though when she turned around to take a look, the sight of Su in pursuit of what must be her latest invention did make her feet twitch a little.

“Hahaha! Come back!” Su yelled, wielding that net-firing pistol of hers in a rather careless (or carefree?) manner. “I just want to study you!”

The invention was skittering along the ground at a rather remarkable pace, but it was more remarkable still that Su was able to keep up with it. Not quite catching it, but very nearly. Motoko wiped a bead of sweat from her head and turned her blade away from her practice towards the inevitable threat to the (unusual) peace the dorm had been enjoying of late.

“Halt!” she yelled at the rather large spider-like contraption, wielding her sword above her head. It made no effort to stop, zigging and zagging across the ground as if it were sketching a bolt of lightning. “I said! Hold it right there!”

It did not comply. Therefore, she strode forward with the intention of slowing it down long enough for its creator to catch up. Destroying the device outright might well hurt Su’s feelings, and the thought of the normally hyperactive girl in tears didn’t exactly make Motoko feel remotely comfortable. It wouldn’t be difficult, really, perhaps slice off a single one of its legs to make it lose balance; Su could easily repair that much. She began the vertical cut -

And her sword was yanked out of her hand by an ill-timed net fire.

“Uh oh,” Motoko said, wondering exactly what this metal monstrosity was going to do when it leaped towards her suddenly defenceless face. The force of impact sent her rolling to the ground, and she felt its metal legs wrap completely around her head. Motoko reached up with her hands to pry the damn thing off, but it became rapidly apparent that the only way that would work would also remove a fair amount of her scalp. Such a powerful grip!

And then it started to do… Something. Motoko felt something ticklish brush around her face, as though searching for something. Which it soon found. Her mouth. Motoko’s lips were being gently, irresistibly forced apart by a tiny series of (surprisingly pleasant) electrical impulses. What was this soft thing on the underside? What was it trying to do to her?

What was it putting in her mouth?!

Suddenly ripping out her own scalp seemed slightly less frightening. But only slightly. She renewed her struggle, unconsciously screaming in fear as she tried desperately to free herself. The curious part was that she had absolutely no trouble breathing in spite of how tightly clamped it was around her face but right now that wasn’t high on her list of things to think about. Motoko attempted to close her mouth, but each time she tried there would be this strange electrical impulse that made it feel so <i>nice</i> to keep her mouth open that it made her forget for a second how scared this whole thing was making her.

And then it touched her tongue, and Motoko saw a glimpse of heaven. It gently stroked against her tongue and her whimpers of panic evaporated into the ether. She stopped fighting the electrical impulses, and felt her lips and tongue start moving in response against something soft. Her hands fell to the ground, her cheeks turned red and she began to whimper in an even more undignified way than she’d been screaming. Her whole body felt hot, but nice and -

All of a sudden it popped off her face and began to skitter off along the ground, leaving Motoko lying there watching Su pursue it. She felt so… empty all of a sudden.

“More,” she whimpered, barely able to pull herself to her feet. “I… I want more.”

“I know you do, hun!” Mitsune said, resting a hand on Motoko’s shoulder before she could join the chase. When had she arrived? Motoko’s attention had been so completely consumed by that thing… She hadn’t even been made aware of her arrival at all! “I guess we could help each other out a little, huh?”

Before Motoko could ask what she meant by that, she felt her lips being captured for the second time in as many minutes. She made absolutely no resistance this time. If anything, she pulled Mitsune’s body closer….

1. The device encounters Naru next.
2. The device encounters Keitaro instead.
3. The two “victims” notice another side effect.
4. Something else