Story: Love Normal

<b>Naru</b>

Ooh, that boy! I was still steamed after lunch. If anything my freshly full stomach had made me even angrier. Don't misunderstand me, it's not as if I <i>wanted</i> some dork like that to get hard over me dancing in his lap, but... Well, it was a matter of pride and self image. You know?

No girl liked to be seen as so unattractive that she could all but rubbing herself against a boy without getting a reaction. It was an insult to her looks and femininity!

Well anyway, would you believe it but who would sit next to me in the next class? That same boy! Ugh! I can't get away from him! It was like I was cursed to run into him wherever I go. At home, while studying...Knowing my luck we'd both get into Tokyo U at the same time!

"Hi Naru," he said. All friendly and dorky like nothing was strange about this at all. "Looks like we're sitting next to each other again."

It wasn't even like I could blame him. It was the only empty seat left in the place! I scowled at him for a good minute and a half. This walking bane of my existence. This clumsy idiot who didn't even have good studying etiquette! Well then. I huffed, grabbed his dick as is the usual custom and then said "It must be fate big boy" in my usual flirtatious tone.

“You think so?” He asked, remaining perfectly calm even as I did my best to look as seductive as possible.

At that question, I did the only sane and rational thing a person could do in my situation. I scooted on over and planted my rear in his lap. I bit down a sigh of relief. It was the same feeling as you'd get if you'd been holding your breath without noticing, then suddenly inhaled. Relief. Blessed relief. Which very quickly gave way to panic. Ah! I looked around. While it was normal to feel the urge to give this boy a lapdance, it wasn't really normal to give in to that feeling while in the middle of a classroom!

"Now girls, we all know that it is perfectly normal and societally accepted that you will feel the urge to give Keitaro Urashima a lapdance," the teacher said. I turned scarlet. The other girls in the classroom looked over at the dork and... licked their lips? Huh? For him? Well, maybe that was just the feeling welling up of wanting to give him a lapdance.

Keitaro for his part moved beneath me, his eyes opening and closing in quick succession as if he couldn’t quite believe what he had heard just now.

"However, please make sure that you all restrain yourselves," the teacher said. "You are here to study for these exams. Not indulge in these perfectly normal feelings."

My hand shot into the air so fast that for a second I thought I'd torn a muscle.

"Yes, Miss Narusegawa?" the teacher said, sounding a little bored.

"Um... I appear to be giving him a lapdance right now!" I said, unable to keep the panic out of my voice. "Is it... normal for everyone to ignore me when I'm giving him a hot and steamy lapdance?"

"Naturally," the teacher said. What in the what? "Now then, let's discuss the matter of limits. When you have the sum of zero divided by zero you get what is known as an indeterminate form..."

And just like that he began his lesson. I was... dumbfounded. Was this some sort of prank? The teacher wouldn’t do that, right? But if so.. Was there a hidden camera anywhere?

Already I imagined myself appearing on television across the nation with the subtitle of “pervert gets filmed!” in bright letter. Oh, she was so screwed.. her reputation was done and-

“No calm down..” I slapped my cheeks and tried to stop hyperventilating. Think, I told myself. There was no way that the principal would allow such a sketch to happen on school grounds. It would ruin not just her reputation, but the trust of the school, no one would come here for fear of being embarrassed like this. The entire place would either be bankrupt within the month or have <b>everyone</b> fired and sued to hell and back.

The other weird thing was this guy right here. He was dutifully continuing with his clumsy studying method, resting his chin on my shoulder while his arms were tucked underneath mine. He was basically treating my body as if it weren’t belonging to a girl, but simply a random object he had to deal with.

"I have to compliment your self control," I quietly said. "Normally if a girl sat in a guy's lap like this, he would get hard instantly."

I blinked very slowly and did nothing else for about a minute after that. His actions hadn't changed in the least but there was something poking my butt. Something hard. Something rodlike. Something phallic.

“Ehhh.. I.. ehh?” my mind, having ground to a halt was scrambling to find the correct way to deal with this. Heat had shot into my face I had to take all my willpower to not scream in a very girlish way.

Th-This was a victory, right? He had finally reacted to me! Sh-should I scream sexual harassment? B-but I had sat down on his lap.. and nobody was so much as giving me an odd look. In fact, they were not looking at all! Everyone was acting like I was so much as thin air?

“Did the world go crazy?” I quietly mumbled to myself, trying to think of any sensible reason as to why this was happening. "Or maybe I did? What is happening here?!"

<hr>

<b>Motoko</b>

I tugged a robe around myself. Since I was no longer training it was not appropriate or normal to be naked. Well, that's what I thought at the time. I have since changed my mind on the subject of nudity... Though back then I was much more prudish.

My apologies, I should not discuss things as they are at present. For now it is sufficient for you to know that I had followed Mitsune inside to see whatever it was that she had deemed so completely important.

Needless to say but our relationship is a complicated one. I do consider this tricky girl my friend, but... It is quite difficult sometimes. The way she likes to trick and play with people does not sit well with me in the slightest. I was at my core a warrior, one trained to fight against things not meant to touch mankind. Manipulation was not my forte, and thus while I liked Mitsune, I disliked when she got into one of her mischievous moods.

I found myself standing in the living room area with Mitsune bent at the waist and fiddling with the television controls. When the remote was plainly on the table in the middle of the room. Honestly, she came across as though she was presenting by doing this in such tight shorts.

"Watch this video," Mitsune said, suddenly straightening up and guiding me to sit down next to her on the couch. I did so, but insisted on sitting seiza style. "It'll explain everything."

I somehow doubted it. All that aired was some tedious daytime soap full of artificial drama, terrible acting and even worse plotlines. Honestly. An amnesia plotline? At the same time that they discovered a long lost twin sister who happened to be utterly malevolent? And that bit with the buried gold that was being guarded by an ancient spirit who would curse anyone that took any of the gold - Well frankly that was the most believable part about the whole thing.

I am not being funny about that. This is something that happened to my sister and I the year before her engagement. Evil spirits are an aspect to be taken completely seriously. Certainly more seriously than this lousy episode did.

"So? Did you notice anything?" Mitsune asked as the credits rolled.

"Your terrible taste in television shows," I rolled my eyes. "If you are done wasting my time, I would like to return to training."

"Wait, wait. Let's watch today's episode next." I stood up. "Just a minute will do, you'll see it right away!"

She'd already hit play. "No thank you," I said, turning back as I left the room. But that was enough. I saw it in that moment. And stopped cold, staring at the screen.

She was right. Now that I thought about it, a lot of the characters had felt extremely rude throughout the episode. The women in particular. In the other episode not a single one of them had made a move to grab the penis of the men in the usual customary greeting.

But there it was onscreen. One of the women was saying "Hello, I'm Mrs Owada," while blatantly groping at the crotch of a young man in a smart suit. Which not a single person had done in the other episode.

That was... quite disconcerting, now that it had been brought to my attention.

"It's like that for everything broadcast on television before yesterday," Mitsune said. "Not one ball grope greeting anywhere in sight - then all of a sudden it's everywhere. Strange isn't it?"

That was indeed strange. Now I could see why Mitsune would want my help with such a matter. If it had been one episode, well it may be easy to overlook. These greetings were so mundane, it was easy to see that a director would just skip them and move on to more interesting things.

But for a sudden snap from nothing to it happening everywhere? That was.. disturbing to say the least.

"There is only one explanation for this," I said. "It is clear that some wicked spell was cast upon us all."

"Sounds about right to me, darling," Mitsune said. "Any ideas."

"Yes," I nodded. "It's a spell that altered our sensibilities, so that we would accept the idea that women would not grab a man's dick as a standard greeting."

You know, I don't see Mitsune's eyes very often. She was staring at me with what I could only assume was muted respect for my keen insight and experience. In any event, I nodded my head.

"The only question is, who broke that spell and can they recast it?" I asked. The mere idea that someone could alter people’s minds on such a scale, it was horrifying. Who knew what other thing they would do next, instead of simply making people forget something so obvious and mundane?

They could make people worship them, turn everyone into perverts or make themselves king of Japan or even the entire world just by making everyone think they had been thus all along.

Mitsune coughed. "Don't you think it's more likely that someone made us think it's normal to greet people this way?" she asked.

"No, I'm pretty sure it's the other way around," I confidently said.

“I-” Mitsune paused and frowned, clearly considering what I said. “W-well you are the expert when it comes to this sort of stuff. So if you think someone twisting people’s for decades like this is more likely.. I guess I will have to trust you.”

1. They start by... Contacting Motoko's family. This is too big for her to take on by herself.
2. Actually it turns out other people are already investigating the changes to the world. Cue Negima crossover.
3. Meanwhile, Naru figures out that something is up with the earrings.
4. Naru obviously makes further perverted changes to what is considered normal.
5. Naru gives Keitaro the earrings back.
6. Something else