Story: UY Destiny Temps

 

We return our attention to Ryuunosuke and Shinobu, in the wake of them examining their newfound harem girl powers. For Shinobu, it was an awkward thing. Suspicious. Highly dubious. Even if Ryu-chan looked absolutely amazing in her -

No, no. Focus. "Ryu, we must be careful," she said. "I am extremely sure these costumes are some effort to brainwash us into becoming members of Ataru's inevitable, destined harem. We shouldn't make use of them, we really, really shouldn't."

But Ryuunosuke wasn't listening. She was too busy looking down at herself, giddy with delight at what she was seeing. "So girly! So feminine!" she twirled around in place. "Haha! This is great! This is awesome! I don't see no downside to this at all!"

"Ryu-chan! Focus!" Shinobu grabbed her shoulder. "I mean, yeah, you do look super cute and girly like this, but that's the trap! We're being seduced! Bamboozled! Urgh! I need to think about this, one second, don't do anything for a little bit okay?"

Shinobu stepped away at bit her bottom lip, thinking carefully about what she should be doing next. Should they confront Ataru over this? That seemed like the sensible option. Of course, he'd deny everything... Perhaps even demand to see what they were talking about, which would mean having to transform right there in front of him.

That felt dangerous. If she was wearing this right in front of him, she might feel a compulsion to dance. To flaunt her body. To show off her every feminine curve, tap into the well of seductive charm that she normally left alone. Worse yet, she might inadvertently draw Lum into this as well, since she was bound to be around. Going directly to Ataru seemed like a bad idea.

"Hey, you over there!" a familiar voice yelled. It was Ryu's dad! Ah, you know something, now that she thought about it she didn't remember hearing his given name. He was stomping towards them in an ill mood, oh no! Was he about to pick a fight with his daughter? He never liked it when Ryuunosuke did anything remotely feminine, so - "Excuse me young madames, have you seen my son anywhere?"

For a moment there was silence. Then, Ryu-chan stepped forward and got into her father's face.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear that properly could you repeat that?"

"I said, have you seen my -"

"No, no!" Ryu-chan interrupted. "Before that."

"Eh? I said, excuse me young madames -"

"Could you say that again?" Ryu-chan interrupted.

"I said <b>excuse me, young madames</b>! Are you deaf or something?!"

He didn't recognise her. He thought Ryu-chan was someone else. Well, that was an easy enough mistake to make. She did look quite different just now, Shinobu wasn't sure she would have recognised the girl if she hadn't already known.

"Nah," Ryu-chan said. "It's just that a lot of people mistake me for a boy."

"Huh? Mistake you for a boy?" her father scoffed. "Impossible, a girl like you? Listen. If anyone tries to say you look like a boy, be sure to smack them one for me! They're clearly blind or stupid."

Ryu-chan's grin was practically splitting her face at this point. "Hehehe... not wearing nothing else ever again," she muttered to herself.

"Anyway, have you seen my son or haven't you?"

"Nope!" Ryu-chan said. "Ain't seen no son of yours. If we see <b>him</b> we'll let you know!"

And off he sulked, scouring the streets for his wayward 'son', not realising that 'he' was right in front of him. This was... probably a bad thing. Look at how happy she was right there. Dressed up all girly, even her father not recognising her and calling her a girl... It was everything Ryuunosuke had ever wanted. It made Shinobu wonder if maybe, these costumes weren't such a bad thing after - 

No. No, she had to be firm about this. There were other ways that Ryuunosuke could embrace her femininity without giving in and joining Ataru's harem. Or walking around dressed like - like this! She wouldn't just give up like that, she would - Oh hell was that a runaway carriage barrelling downhill?

"Hey! Hold on, I'm coming!" Shinobu yelled, effortlessly leaping out thanks to the power of her costume. Ryuunosuke joined her, and the two of them quickly grabbed the sides of the carriage, bringing it to an immediate halt, then the two of them carefully wheeled it down to the bottom of the slope. "Phew... thank goodness we were there, you guys could have gotten... hurt?"

Looking inside, Shinobu was surprised to see two quite familiar girls. Ryoko Mendo and Asuka Mizunokōji. Two rather wealthy girls who were apparently close friends, but also very different in terms of personality. Ryoko loved to tease and torment, while Asuka was simply afraid of men and stupidly strong. Ryoko took one look at the two of them, and then asked a simple question:

"Shinobu? Is that you?"

=====

Of late, Ryoko Mendo's priorities had shifted. Changed, transformed... some might even say improved. Her lot in life was substantially higher than it had been last week, and that was saying something.

For one thing: She was now in charge of her family's affairs. For another, she had found a lifelong romantic partner, with whom she would be spending the rest of her life. The fact that said romantic partner was also going to be with a variety of other women didn't bother her so much as it perhaps ought.

One of those women being her good friend, Asuka. Timid, yet mighty. Afraid of men... until recently, when she had learned to appreciate the touch of one man in particular. And now, she had been rescued by two of the other women in Ataru Moroboshi's life.

They were now reclining at the Mendo estate. Her estate. No sign of her brother, as he had been booted from the premises. Probably planning and scheming some form of futile revenge... But for the time being, one question did come up on Ryoko's mind.

"Those clothes you are wearing," she said. "They are reminiscent of belly dancers from the Middle-East. I did not take the two of you as the sort to go around like that in public."

"Yeah, well, they're some sorta... enchanted costume," Ryuunosuke said. "I'm not sure of the details. Shinobu found them somewhere."

"And I'm trying to get rid of them because they're perverted," Shinobu firmly stated. "Except, you know, I keep on finding people in trouble, so I have to keep on putting them on. It's like something is trying to make me wear it all the time."

"Um, I don't get the issue?" Asuka innocently asked. "I mean, it shows off a lot of your body, but if it gives you superpowers, what's the problem?"

"The problem is! I'm pretty sure this thing is trying to warp my mind," Shinobu said. "Urgh, I shouldn't be telling you this, it's so embarrassing..."

"Say no more," Ryoko put a finger to her lips. "You have the interest of the two wealthiest families in Tomobiki. Asuka, let us pool our family's resources to examine these costumes. I sense a tremendous business opportunity here... once we have eliminated the side effects."

The side effects she was meaning, of course, being little things like 'Shinobu not wanting to join Ataru's harem'. That was very obviously what she was meaning, after all. How fortunate for her, to fall into Ryoko's lap like this. One might even call this a destined meeting.

She was quite certain that Asuka would look really cute dressed up like that too. How darling!