So far, so good. Naru’s reactions so far were positive indicators that his gizmo worked to spec, though it would take a while before her defenses were sufficiently weakened by the subliminal effect for him to properly turn her to his side. To be honest, he had expected a fair bit more retaliation on her part, denial that she felt things like that. For it to be this effective so quickly, she must have some sort of buried, unacknowledged feelings for him. Or she was a closet pervert. Either way it was a win for him.
Keitaro smiled at Naru. She blushed, ducked her head and tried to focus on the lessons. Yes, good luck with that. The longer you wear those glasses in his presence, the more subliminal messages get broadcast and the more you succumb to the influence of Keitaro’s subliminal messages. Sooner or later she would be putty in his hands. Her formidable strength working for him, rather than against.
In other words, he need heed her little mind. Occasionally check in on her to see how she’s progressing, but let the problem solve itself. No special additional action should be required in her case. Simply behave normally around her, and it’s all dealt with. So.
What about the others?
Keitaro drummed his fingers on the desk in front of him. It was a good question, and he had been giving it quite a lot of thought. If anything, Naru was the easiest of the group. The glasses presented an easy opportunity for him to attempt something, but the others would be much trickier for very different reasons.
Motoko disliked him almost as much as Naru, it seemed. However, at least with Naru there was a reason for them to spend considerable time together. In terms of common interest with Motoko, there was pretty much… Nothing. Nothing in their civilian life that they could spend time getting to know each other over. She seemed determined to spend her hours training, working that fit body of hers up into a sweat, and - Keitaro shook his head. The idea of turning her into a lovesick puppy was rather enticing, but the avenue for attack wasn’t immediately obvious to him. It would have to be something that would allow him to get close without her getting suspicious, but what could that possibly be?
Then there was Kitsune, who was the trickster of the group. It was an old axiom that you can’t trick a trickster, which is what was making it all that much harder for Keitaro to see what he could do to dissuade her of her foolish do-gooder attitude without tipping his hand. Though, that being the case he should be dealing with her <i>first</i> before she catches on to anything strange happening to the others.
Su was probably the most outright dangerous one. Her inventions would make his life very difficult, especially if she caught on to what he was doing. Approach her from the wrong angle, and that energetic fireball would burn him to his bones. And finally Shinobu… Well, it was rather difficult to place her as one of those interfering buffoons. Her very presence might make it difficult for him to try anything truly underhanded…
Over the course of the day Keitaro ran several scenarios through his mind that might work. Maybe. The order of the hour was caution. To get what he wanted would take planning, care and a little bit of luck. On that last count he was probably screwed, but he could only persevere.
As usual, the train home was crowded. Packed to the brim with people. As had happened on more than one occasion, he found himself being forced to stand in close proximity to Naru. The main difference this time was that there was no resignation or frustration on her face. It was, he knew, because she was struggling with herself against the message being imprinted into her unconscious mind. She didn’t want to enjoy being in his presence, or did she? Such an interesting little dilemma she must be going through. Not that there was enough breathing room for her to have a choice in the matter.
“Don’t get any f-funny ideas,” she suddenly whispered, though it was pretty clear that those ideas were filtering through her head anyway. “I wish this train wasn’t so packed every day!”
“I know what you mean,” he replied. “So many people in the one place… Say, you look kind of tired. Did you stay up all night again?”
“Huh?” she suddenly gasped. “No, nothing like that. Why would you -”
“It’s just that you look very sleepy,” Keitaro sincerely replied. She did push herself quite hard, even outside of this pointless superhero life. “Veeeery sleepy.”
“Nonsense,” Naru wobbled on her feet a little. “I feel just fiiii… *snort*”
Well. Far be it for him to complain when a pretty girl decides to fall asleep on his chest. It’s a rather oddly pleasant feeling, even if she was snoring like a chainsaw. Warm. Comforting. The feeling of her breasts pressing against him was oddly soothing as well. Keitaro chuckled and carefully embraced her, if only to keep her steady rather than anything else. Not to mention that the opportunity was giving him an intriguing idea.
“Say, Naru?”
“Mmm?”
“I was wondering if you might do me a favour… I was thinking it might be fun to play a little joke on Motoko.”
<hr>
The life of a martial artist is only as difficult as they take it seriously. Being awake meant training of some sort. Mind or body or soul. She was awake. She was home. She had no chores requiring attention nor homework distracting her nor immediate need to perform any form of physical maintenance such as eating or bathing or other matters of hygiene. Therefore! Motoko was training relentlessly. Thrusting her sword against imaginary enemies, parrying their blows, imagining how multiple foes might attempt to strike her all at once and how she might dodge, retaliate, disarm, survive! There was no time in her life for frivolities. The only reason she had friends at all was because the human psyche requires companionship and a disciplined martial artist’s mind was no different. It also helped that she quite liked the people she lived with.
“Evening, Motoko!” said the sole exception, giving her a cheery wave. Returned home from studies with Naru trailing close behind. Something was a little off about her body language, but it was easily put down to exhaustion. Either driving her body too hard, or hadn’t built up enough stamina. “How is everything?”
“Not that it is your business,” she replied, giving a few slashes that were a little bit more harsh than previous attacks. “But I am doing well! Was there anything more specific you wanted, or do you simply enjoy interrupting my -”
A light buzz on her wrist stopped her cold, and a glance told her that Naru had felt exactly the same thing. The tiniest of nods to one another communicated absolutely everything between them. It was a nuisance having to keep her face and identity hidden from the world given that this sort of activity was what she lived for, yet Motoko knew that her friends, her dear and beloved friends, absolutely required the protection it offered. Because outside of their suits, in their everyday and normal lives they weren’t even half as powerful as they were within them.
The only trouble now was that they needed an excuse to flee which Keitaro would not find suspicious. It was a truly fortunate twist of fate that, for whatever reason, he never seemed to be around when they received an emergency call. What might work in this instance? Feign a training injury? No, he might call for medical support or try to check in on her… Sudden recollection of an intended meeting with friends? No, he wouldn’t buy that either -
“Just trying to be friendly,” Keitaro said, sounding a little disappointed. “You finish your training, I’ll ask you about it later on. Okay?”
And off he went, just like that. Motoko watched him leave, a little bit surprised and gratified that she didn’t need to invent some lie or other. His attitude did seem a little bit strange, though perhaps not so strange as Naru’s; She was staring quite intently at Keitaro’s retreating form, and her head was inexplicably tilting over to the side -
“Wake up!” Motoko insisted, snapping her finger right in front of Naru’s face. This broke the spell. “You were awake last night again studying, weren’t you?”
“Huh?” Naru asked, blinking really quite hard. “Oh. Yeah! That’s it. I was just, you know, studying last night and completely blanked. Yep. That’s what it was.”
“Do you feel up to taking part tonight?” Motoko asked, in all sincerity. “If you are drained of strength or lacking focus it would be best if you stayed at home tonight.”
“Oh, no. I’m fine!” Naru insisted.
“Very well,” Motoko replied, hoping that her friend wasn’t letting pride get in the way of good judgement, as pride so often did with terribly effectively results. “Do you know what it was that Mister Manager wanted to speak to me about?”
“Huh? It’s nothing, really,” Naru replied, twirling her foot innocently in that way that not-so-innocent people so often do. “I think it was something to do with training equipment, but I was kind of half asleep when he told me, so it’s a complete blank.”
Motoko snorted in disdain. Keitaro? That pervert providing her with training equipment? The idea was ridiculous on the face of it. Whatever he had to provide couldn’t possibly match up to what she used on a regular basis, so she would simply have to politely refuse… But that would come later. For now, she had an enemy to fight!
… Though it was actually an enemy that was known to Motoko, even if she didn’t realise it beyond their disguise as a villain. That enemy’s name was -
- Haruka
- Seta
- Mei Narusegawa
- Amalla Su
- Tama (… the hell?)
- Someone else
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