NOVEL WEB An Afterlife Together 2, 3, & 4
Maki's shirt was open but still hanging off her shoulders. She pinched her shoulder blades together, pushing her chest out further and making the sweat-soaked cloth come free of where it had been caught on her hard nipples, baring herself to me. Her breasts were full and round, just big enough that they might have been able to wrap around my enhanced girth, and the pale skin above them was flushed with excitement. The miko's smug expression told me that she too thought quite highly of them.
She opened her legs slightly, drawing my attention to her pretty pink pussy, cleanly shaven save for a nicely groomed patch above it. "I borrowed your scissors and razor. I trust you don't mind."
Ah, I had thought she felt smooth to the touch earlier but was still unsure as to where the hentai physics of this world began and ended. "On the contrary, I appreciate it, very thoughtful."
She preened and without a hint of irony said, "Yes, I'm an exceptionally thoughtful lover."
"Hahaha! Nice. Shameless confidence is sexy on you, Maki. Honestly, I figured you did it for your own comfort and confidence, feels good to look good and all that."
Maki coughed, chagrinned. "In this instance you are correct. I was speaking in general terms, unrelated to the matter." I burst into laughter. She continued, red-faced, over me, "Besides, it had been twenty-five minutes in the shower at that point and I thought that I may as well take the extra time to make myself…presentable." She spread her knees a bit more to emphasize the last word.
The vision of her pale flesh glistening from her arousal cut through my laughter, as she'd intended. I swallowed. I was salivating at the thought of kissing my way up her thighs. "No need to justify yourself to me. I'd fight a dozen ghosts if it meant that this is what was waiting to nurse me back to health."
"Thank you," she said earnestly. "Now, finish undressing me so I may complete my inspection of this ridiculous male body you've tractioned to."
"Before that, there are some spells I can work that should make this easier for both of us in a way, but I'd like your permission before continuing." She opened her mouth to object. "Not like that, I'm not being 'paternalistic' or whatever, I'm taking you seriously. It's just that I enjoy a fair competition, on occasion at least. I don't want to use my magic stuff if you can't use yours."
Maki threw her head back and laughed. "Oh, James, what am I going to do with you? My dear samurai, I have been trained from birth to withstand spiritual and psychological attacks from gods and demons. You may use all of your abilities without worrying about besmirching your honor." She held her arms slightly to the side and leaned towards me. "Go on then."
I confess, her absolute self-certainty had piqued my curiosity as well as something slightly more mischievous. Being able to defend against terror was an altogether different skill set from being able to endure pleasure. Even if they did train the latter in this porn world, I doubted Maki had undergone any such training. But she seemed sure and that was worth investigating.
My knowledge and application of Erotic Sorcery had gone from skilled but inexperienced to sublime, but still inexperienced. The upper limits of what was possible were open to me and I was sure that with time I could replicate a wide variety of other mystical abilities using sexual rituals, but that would take research and experimentation like any other magic. But what I could do was freely modify the simplest enchantments with incredible finesse and without fear of mishap.
I spat into my palm and rubbed my hands together, working my Qi and intention into them. Bodily fluids, mine specifically, were particularly adroit at carrying lust magic, though it was mostly symbolic here. I saw Maki shiver at the display and grinned.
For all the injustices put upon me by the Producers, there was something uniquely mollifying about rolling huge amounts of Dice. My spell was as simple as Erotic Sorcery could be; anywhere I touched would become an erogenous zone for the next hour or so. If Maki hadn't been so cavalier, I may have picked a set sensitivity to ensure I didn't push her too far, but I was too intrigued to hold back. The sensitivity of the affected area, I decided, would be left up to however many Successes over two that I got, with no upper limits.
Show me what you've got, I thought as the Dice clattered. The geometric patterns of the silk rug below seemed to shimmer in my peripheral vision, lending me an additional two. All told, between bonuses and penalties, Aura + Seduction was a pool of eighteen Dice and yielded nine Successes.
"Get ready."
Maki licked her lips with anticipation. She closed her eyes, breath hitching as I laid my hands on her shoulders. I pushed the shirt off her right, running my hand down her arm as I peeled the oversized sleeve off. My fingers could touch my thumb when grabbing even the thickest part of her biceps, ensuring that her arm from clavicle to her fingertips was affected.
Her hand grabbed onto mine as it started to pull away, the only outward sign she gave of being unprepared. I brought it to my face and kissed her knuckles before placing her palm on my cheek.
"Oh," she said, opening her eyes. Her eyes dilated slightly, lips parting. She experimented with stroking my cheek and chin, clearly fascinated with the sensations, and then, trembling, trailed her fingers up and through my hair. "Ah!" Maki gasped and had to stop a second before continuing. "Very considerate, James, thank you. It's perfect."
"To help you better enjoy what you already wanted to do," I explained. "I wanted to let you spoil me like one of your hot babes, but I do need to harvest your orgasms."
She giggled at 'hot babe'. Taking a fistful of my hair relatively gently, she said slowly, "I can definitely see this accomplishing that goal," and leaned forward for a kiss.
I stopped her. "Glad you're enjoying it, but I'm not finished."
I did the same routine for her other arm, finally ridding her of all her clothing. She was itching to get me as naked as her though, so I didn't pause to take in the view. I put my two hands around her right knee, wrapped her thigh between my spread fingers, and dragged the magic all the way up to where her leg met her hips. Because I wasn't a sadist, I only grazed the area around her mons, not wanting to put her in orgasm hell later. I repeated the same for the other leg, savoring the way my hands could so totally envelop her thin thighs. Maki could have stood to gain a few pounds, frankly, but there was something to be said about the delicate fragility of her frame. She was like a porcelain doll, especially with her pale unblemished skin.
I leaned forward and slapped her ass, grabbing a hold of her bare cheeks. At least here, there was some meat to her.
She jumped and slapped my shoulder. "You brute!" she complained with a proud smile.
I brought my hands up to her lower back, traced a quick, finger-thin line up her spine, and moved to her sides and front. My thumbs met under her belly button, hands and fingers spread and splayed out as far as they could stretch. I felt her ribs under a thin layer of fat as I turned the entire front of her abdomen into an erogenous zone.
Had she not been so bold earlier, I may have skipped her breasts, just touching the underside before going around. Maki was already very sensitive there, to the point where my skilled hands didn't need any assistance in the area. But she had, so I palmed them on the way up. Her nipples cut into my palms, sending fireworks through her, and making her curl in over herself. I made a quick detour to caress her armpits before wrapping her neck as though I was about to begin strangling her. Very gently since she was already beginning to twitch and jerk, I finished running either my fingers or palms over her face and scalp, paying special attention to her lips and ears.
Finally, I held her by the back of the neck firmly and brought my fingers to her lips. Maki's eyes went wide, but she allowed me into her mouth without issue. I swiped a finger under each lip and across her gums, rubbed the roof of her mouth, and thoroughly stroked all around her tongue. Then, I pushed further.
"Ghk!" Maki gagged and coughed as a finger hit the back of her throat. She grabbed my wrist as tightly as she could but didn't slap at me or push away. Her body continued to cough as I let the fingers and magic linger there, but her eyes were resolved even as the tears began to flow. The spit she was swallowing down brought my magic into her throat, and as it spilled out the front layered the enchantment more strongly where it landed on her lips, chin, and the tops of her breasts.
She broke into a fit of coughs as I extracted the hand. I pulled her in for a hug and made sure to finish covering the entirety of her back before letting the spell cease.
Maki held herself as still as possible and steadied her breathing. "Too much?" I asked.
She bristled at my tone and pulled away, wiping away a few tears. "Not at all. This is still within the realm of my expectations. Are you finished with your sorcery?"
"For now. I'm going to get started on the healing spell."
"My turn then?"
I nodded.
Maki, for once, looked her age. That is to say, a sort of anticipatory horniness settled onto her features that could only be found in the desperate wanting of someone in their teens or early twenties. She was a college coed kneeling nude in front of a lover, and quite pleased about it, judging from her expression.
The young woman rose to her feet and gestured for me to do the same. I let her move me onto my new couch, and she settled in next to me, breasts pushed into my side.
"Up," she ordered, wasting no time in pulling my boxers off my legs.
My cock sprang out as she tugged the band down, grateful to be free of its prison. A dollop of pre-cum was drooling down the tip, soon joined by another as my libido went into overdrive.
"Ugh, Kami-sama, you're grotesque," she said with a bizarre mix of disgust, wonder, and academic fascination. She took hold of the base and slapped the head down onto her other palm. "It's absurd, look at this. You have a fertility icon for a penis – it doesn't even look real, like it belongs on a giant. And these," she said, cradling my testicles in her hand, "unbelievable."
I would have voiced a complaint but was too busy holding back a premature ejaculation. Just because I had the stamina to go all night didn't mean I didn't still have my pride. I wanted to last a little longer than this at least.
"They're fat and wrinkled, and ridiculously heavy. The thought of them swinging, sweaty and wet, slapping into my thighs or chin while you rut me like a mad bull should make me want to vomit." Her voice got throaty and she pulled my arm so that it was sandwiched between her breasts as she leaned her weight against me. "Should and would if…" she dragged her lower lip up the side of my neck to my ear, "if it wasn't you. But because it's you, my samurai, I love these testes of yours." She cupped them tenderly. Her other hand slowly stroked its way up my shaft. "Because it's you, I love this penis. I love it because it is yours, my samurai's penis, and therefore mine. A disgusting example of throbbing, angry masculinity transformed into an icon of impossible, ascendant beauty which surpasses the constraints of mortal sex and gender, what but a Divine could create such a work of art."
The lesbian burst into a fit of giggles, shaking with sudden glee. The laughs merged with and were interrupted by moans as the movement caused her nipples to brush across my arm.
"Mm, I used to fantasize about sleeping with a Kami, you know? I think we all did, all of us who grew up in the Shrine. At least, I've heard others mention similar fantasies in passing – it's only human, I suspect. You're so lucky that I have that experience. What will other, ordinary women think of you as you transcend your mortality? How will they react as you become transhuman and alien? Because I will be thrilled, James. I will be scintillated and excited to have all my dirty, pubescent fantasies fulfilled by my very own immortal retainer."
Maki had the absolute strangest idea of dirty talk I'd ever heard, but damn if it wasn't working. My head was resting on the back of the couch, eyes closed, mouth occasionally gasping for air. If I didn't have the spell to focus on, I may have already cum just from her bizarre foreplay.
She rested her cheek on my shoulder briefly before pulling away and frowning down at the gauze still covering most of my torso. "We really must get to healing you and getting these awful things out of the way. They are denying me the privilege of feeling your delectably soft, silk skin against me. Will any of my ancestors forgive me if I reach the afterlife without having felt your bare chest underneath me?"
Maki kicked her legs back along the couch and laid herself down across my lap, face resting on one thigh, her breasts lying along the inside of the other. She draped my cock onto her cheek, holding it down to keep it from popping up, and smiled up at me.
"Ah, much better! Softer than silk, probably." She rubbed the shaft back and forth across her cheek and hummed. The little streak of pre-cum on the bottom painted a glistening stripe on her face. Maki paused, curious, and turned her head so that her nose was buried between the base of it and my balls and took a long sniff. A thick, sticky strand connected the tip of her nose and the little pool of pre-ejaculate there as she pulled back to look up at me. "What a delightful scent, you should find a way to bottle this. You'll rub some in under my shirt before I leave, won't you?"
I slapped the back of the couch, my other hand along her back, gripping her side for dear life. "Maki – fuck!"
She gasped. "Are you close? Oh darling, don't fight it. Cum for me." Maki took me by both her tiny hands, maneuvering herself a bit back so that the head of my dick was pointed at her face. She started to twist her hands in opposite directions; it was amateurish, but I didn't need much at the moment. I could feel every hot word and breath as she continued. "Cum. Cum. Lose yourself and c—"
My first shot partially sailed over her prone face, mostly landing on the silk rug beyond, with some leaving a line from her ear to the corner of her mouth. She hurriedly planted her lips over the end and, as the second shot burst out, covered my tip with her tongue. Her eyes dilated as wide as if she'd taken a tab of acid and sucked the rest of my cum out with a fervor that seemed at odds with her normal demeanor.
My orgasm was longer and more productive than I'd anticipated, such that she had to cup her palm under her lips to catch the spillage from her overfull mouth. She nursed and suckled until I was done, and once finished, clapped a hand over her face to keep from losing her snack and took a big gulp.
There was a shock of erotic energy from the miko and her back arched violently as she started to twitch. Had I not been tapped into her pleasure through my sorcery, I may have thought it was a reciprocal orgasm, but it seemed to be something else entirely. Still, whatever the source, her reaction was strong enough that I had to hold her down to keep her from rolling off me and the couch.
[Ally Quest Complete!]
Get a handjob from Maki.
Reward: 20XP, +1 Finesse, +2 Craft (Calligraphy)
Bonus, She swallowed the cum: 20XP, Gain Minor Feat Fuel for Thought (Semen)
[Minor Feat] Fuel for Thought (Semen Upgrade)
Other people who have consumed your semen gain a temporary +1 to Wits and Finesse for as long as it is in their system.
[Hidden Quest Complete!]
Have 6 Dice in Finesse.
Reward: Gain Special Feat Touch to Speak
[Special Feat] Touch to Speak
You have learned to make your hands and fingers sing and dance for you. This grace is most commonly and easiest seen through your artistic creations, which you may now take an additional Die in while making, but is best experienced through handshakes, massages, and even spars through which you may communicate complex ideas with even untrained laymen. When making any Social roll that primarily involves your hands, you gain a Guaranteed Success.
[Hidden Quest Complete!]
Get someone to drink your cum unprompted.
Reward: 25XP, Gain Minor Feat Cum Overflowing
[Minor Feat] Cum Overflowing
You produce an amount of seminal fluid with every orgasm equal to your number of Dice in Endurance times what would normally be produced.
"Oh no, no," she said, between great heaving breaths before licking her palm clean. Maki eyed my cock with caution and semi-terror. "James, you must never let a practitioner you don't implicitly trust ever drink, or even touch, your semen. Promise me."
"What? Don't be silly. I can't do that."
"I'm entirely serious. It's for your safety!"
"Maki, asking me to not let women I barely know suck me off is like asking you to not read books."
"That's insane!"
"Yeah, exactly."
(Part 3)
It was impossible to take Maki too seriously, her request was absurd and so was she, having wiped the streak of cum off her face just to play with it between her fingers. The image of the reserved, bookish woman studying my sticky semen with reverent solemnity was at once so hot and so surreal that I felt like I was high out of my mind. Existential incredulity, I'd call it; I simply couldn't believe this was happening. What had my life become? How did I come to this moment?
"I know you're ignorant of the more mystical aspects of the world, so I will explain this as plainly as I can. Behold, your seed," said Maki, holding her fingers up to me. "For obvious reasons, I have never pursued the use of male vitality as a source of power. I know that it can be done in many ways, though all the ones I've heard of require rituals, items, or in the case of an aunt, a tsukumogami. Now, with that in mind, watch."
The thimbleful of cum on Maki's fingers began to glow blue slowly, resembling a fuzzy cloud covering the meeting point of her thumb, fore, and middle finger. Then, a shimmering, small blue moth appeared, took two flaps of its wings, and disappeared, though Maki's eyes continued tracking its erratic flight for a while longer.
"Cool," I said sincerely. "Never going to get tired of seeing real magic."
"Thank you. It was a messenger to the Divine World, to let the Shrine know that Ken has been avenged and that I'm safe. Normally, that would have taken me twenty minutes of meditation or a prepared talisman, but with your semen, I could do it on a whim while naked. Do you realize what this means?"
I pumped my fist. "Hell yeah, my cum is a force multiplier for your spellcasting. That's sick."
She nodded slowly with a look of withering condescension. "For me and for everyone else."
"You're right, I should recruit more witches."
Maki groaned, slapping her forehead with my cock in apparent frustration. Again, I wondered if I hadn't maybe lost my mind; she had treated it as no different from slamming your head against the wall out of frustration without any apparent irony, a Stooges-esque moment of unintentional comedy from the profoundly weird woman.
"No, that is the opposite of what I'm saying. James, I am a priestess with a vested interest in the public good, and so perhaps you think that because I am a well-adjusted woman, other practitioners are the same, but this is far from the case."
That statement struck me as so odd that it nearly knocked me unconscious. "Maki," I said, ears practically ringing, "you're the strangest person I've ever met."
"As if you are in any position to judge, James Li. And anyway, good, that's even more to my point. Magic has a way of perverting its users with time. It's a slow process, but the oldest and most powerful practitioners are as fickle and particular as any spirit or fairy tale legend. James, I'm telling you, these women measure their plots in decades. One tryst in a nightclub bathroom and you'll end up hunted by a coven for years, is that what you want?"
Her concern was touching but tiresome. I was already basically a sex god, of course I would have to seduce my way out of problems in the future, it was a given. "Look, woman, I'm altogether incapable of being reasonable about this topic, so you'll just have to resolve yourself to having to rescue me."
"When that inevitably happens?" she asked incredulously.
"Yes."
"You're admitting that it will happen?!"
"Mhm." I nodded. "Kidnapping? Got to happen eventually, I figure."
She squinted at me for a beat, before sighing. "At least I won't have to worry about keeping busy. You're lucky you're so pretty." Maki stroked my cock with perfect pressure, her own palms matching me for sensitivity. The touch made her shiver, and the calm repetitions helped her relax. "I suppose if I'm being generous, asking you to avoid using your sexuality in the field is like asking me to no longer prepare talismans. Do use your head though, the bigger one."
I brushed some of her hair behind her ear. "I promise not to be a total dipshit with my magic cum. Unless, of course, I'm doing it as some sort of elaborate gambit."
"Fairly regularly then?"
"Probably. But speaking of magic cum, we've got more pressing business than future hypotheticals."
"It's true, I apologize for getting distracted. By the way, should I be timing my climaxes to yours? I know very little about lust magic, but that was my assumption."
"Huh? Oh, don't worry about it, just enjoy yourself. No, I was actually referring to a great idea I just had. We should do tests! See if you can still use my cum if I've already enchanted it, and what happens when you swallow a spell that's meant to be spread on your skin or vice versa, and that sort of thing. You've probably got more ideas than I do!"
Maki's face was a play of emotions. She quirked her head, furrowed her brow, and stared off into the middle distance for a good while before giving me a look of pleasant surprise. "That's…an extremely sensible suggestion, James. Apart from the shameless depravity of it all, I can't think of any reason not to at least try. It would be irresponsible to leave your abilities uncatalogued."
I tapped my temple. "As the city's greatest lover, I knew that you would find sexual science to be both intellectually and physically stimulating."
She smiled, but her voice was hesitant, overwrought with repressed curiosity. "Yes, very astute. I do probably have more ideas than you do. Are you sure it won't interfere with your healing?"
"As much as I hate to admit it, I'm actually insanely good at magic. It'll still have to be a simple blessing, but I should be fine. Those little spells are thoughtless, like muscle memory."
A switch flipped inside the woman, and a coil of intense interest seemed to unwind into her body language. The idea had been given permission to enter her mind, and I could see it bouncing around her pretty head. Her genius intellect was beginning to whir on in front of me.
"Then I'd be thrilled to research your bodily fluids and sex magic! It's honestly an opportunity of a lifetime. You have no idea what you're offering, you can't, you're a martial artist. You're always bubbling with Qi. But your seed inside my belly, I can feel it hot with potential. It's unlike anything I've ever experienced, the ability to throw my power around without calling on another or preparing it ahead of time. Beyond that, there's also a clean stimulant effect that I quite enjoy."
Maki's unnerving stare made me feel like I was a mysterious icon of ancient power recently unearthed by a slightly insane professor. She was studying, I remembered, anthropology with a focus on East Asian archeology. That made her prime for a future role as either a swashbuckling Indiana Jones-type adventurer or your archetypical Lovecraft protagonist.
The thought made me queasy and uncomfortable, so I stopped thinking it, and observed instead that underneath the slightly manic eyes was an expression of honest joy. The woman was genuinely thrilled at the prospect of studying my cum and delving deeper into its magical properties. I wondered if she'd had the opportunity to really dig into any non-vengeance-related topic since Ken's death. That thought was wholesome enough to absolve her of any eccentricities as far as I was concerned.
Her eyes moved from my face to my dick, growing no less intense as they did. "I was reticent to agree at first since I'd long considered ritualized eroticism to be too dangerous to pursue in my own studies – compromising your ethics is easier if it's pleasurable after all. But somehow with you involved, the risks feel more like challenges than dangers. And it will undoubtedly be mutually beneficial to your long-term survival."
My heart skipped a beat at the implication. "Sorry, are you saying you'll continue to keep helping me research…"
"Oh! Did you just want to play around for tonight?" She asked, doing a poor job hiding her dismay.
"No! I'd be honored. I just didn't want to assume."
"Well, it would naturally take a great deal of time to explore your abilities alone, let alone how they can interplay with mine." She bit her lip worriedly. "It might be years realistically, or ideally I should say. If you enter a relationship with someone and no longer feel comfortable, then I will obviously understand, but…"
I laughed. "Maki, read my face. You're offering to do a PhD thesis on my cock – I'm beyond ecstatic."
"Great!" She beamed.
[Ally Quest Complete (Ishida Maki)]
Establish a long-term sexual relationship with Maki.
Reward: 50 XP, +1 Sensuality, Maki gains +2 Endurance
Bonus, Used no Skill or Attribute checks: Upgrade Special Feat Infused.
Congratulations on upgrading your first Special Feat! Continue to find creative and interesting uses for the others to upgrade them as well!
[Special Feat] Infused (Upgraded 1): While the Mountain of Heaven still stretches on before you, the mortal realm looks small from this distance. The wellspring of Qi in your core has begun to make the metaphysical physical. This greatly enhances previous benefits and grants new ones, esoteric and not, most notable of which are: your aging is slowed, your natural lifespan is multiplied fivefold, and your base Health and Willpower tracks are increased by 3. The raw crystallized essence in your every cell is of such potency that long-term exposure has positive transmutive effects on your environment and companions. Your soul glows only slightly brighter than before, but the 'light' it casts now shines like the grandest of diamonds.
The Producers were trolling me. Were they upset that I'd done it without rolling any Dice? After Maki's dire warning, I couldn't really savor the Reward, and I was never beating the 'You're a god' allegations after this.
Maki was frozen, her smile having warped fully into the domain of insanity. I appeared to have broken her, temporarily I hoped.
I started awkwardly, "You probably have questions…"
She shook herself out of her stupor. "No."
"No?"
"No, I've decided to make you cum until you cry."
"Oh."
Maki went cross-eyed as she examined the head of my cock then stretched out her jaw and tried to take it into her mouth. There was an immediate panic and embarrassment that came upon her as she struggled to pick an angle of attack. She was mostly giving me a lot of the roof of her mouth. Even a bad blowjob is a blowjob though, and Force Armor completely negated any of the discomfort of her failed attempts to keep her teeth out of the way. I did appreciate that she was trying and tried to communicate that by rubbing her shoulder.
She shivered at the stimulation but pulled off me with a pout regardless. "Don't patronize me."
"Sorry. You were so confident earlier, I felt bad."
"I meant what I said! There's just a learning curve I need to get past."
"I have complete faith in you. That said, for my own sake, I must insist on giving you a hint. I know what you're thinking, but it's literally not too big."
Maki scoffed. "Don't make your hints so obvious, you're still patronizing me." She gave my member an appraising look. "So, I need to take it on faith that it's literally not too big…"
She shifted herself and hunched over my cock, visibly irritated at having to lift her breasts off my thigh. After a few steady breaths, she opened her mouth and let her lips get around my bulbous head as best as they could. With one last glance up at me from the corner of her eyes, she pushed herself down slowly.
She coughed as I hit the back of her throat, sending a splatter of spit onto my balls and thighs, and stopped. I felt her pleasure spike sharply and saw her squeeze her thighs shut, fighting it back as best she could.
I slapped a hand down on her actively flexing ass, using a Seduction roll and Touch to Speak to let her know just how much I liked it. "Enjoy yourself, woman!"
A sharp glare told me she had too much pride to climax halfway through the task. She backed off and fell into a fit of coughs.
"A good blowjob doesn't need to go deep, you know?" I offered helpfully with a grin, knowing it would annoy her.
"Shut up, samurai. Your lady doesn't need advice on lovemaking from a wild beast. I'll make you regret looking down on me, James Li."
I leaned back and rolled my shoulders with smug satisfaction. "God, I can't wait to make you cum from eating your pussy. I am going to be so insufferably pleased with myself, you have no idea."
The thin priestess growled, swiping some of her hair out of her face angrily. Then, with a look of inspiration, she grabbed my wrist and placed my hand on top of her head. I ran my fingernails across her scalp as I brushed her hair out of the way for her.
Maki laid her tongue out over her lower lip and teeth and took my head into her mouth once more. She bobbed her head lower but stopped before it could touch her throat and started moving her tongue. The feeling of the wet flat of her tongue stroking broad circles under and around my tip made me involuntarily grip a fistful of her hair. She shined with preening victory at me from the corner of her eyes and arched her back up. Her butt pressed up into my hand and wiggled enticingly.
My fingers slipped like a knife over her ass, making her jump at the touch, and down through her thighs. They were still squeezed shut but the path was well lubricated by her natural juices and I could easily overpower her anemic hip adductors. I let my fingers rub across her folds, avoiding both her clit and making entry, happy to tease her along. Once more, my new Finesse Special Feat helped me play her like a fiddle. Maki didn't want to come just yet and I wasn't going to force it out of her, but that didn't mean I'd make it easy for the girl.
My partner in crime and/or fighting it was a fast learner. She used a combination of feedback from my hand on her sensitive scalp and brief glances at my face to quickly study what worked best to please me. Soon she was bobbing up and down on the first few inches of my dick while twisting her neck and head to treat it to a comprehensive tongue bath. Once or twice she let my cock come to wrest at the entrance to her throat before pulling back.
The problem, as far as I could tell from monitoring the erotic energy gathering around us, was not that she didn't think she could take more of my dick, but rather that the sensation of coughing on top of it would drive her into a rapid orgasm.
I began to circle power into my testes, a mere act of will to transmute some of the energy already starting to pool there into a blessing. Like I'd said, a good blowjob doesn't need to go deep, and this was certainly a good blowjob. I'd be popping off soon and saw no reason not to give the woman her duly earned reward by fighting it back. Maki paused her ministrations, clearly capable of sensing what I was doing.
"Are you preparing the blessing? Can I make a request?"
"Yes, although we'll need another baseline later."
"Another base…" she trailed off into a frown. There was a flash of ethereal blue in her eyes before she groaned loudly. "Are you serious? You've already made yourself more obnoxiously mystical? I don't understand, are you trying to get kidnapped?"
"Not actively," I said semi-indignantly. I didn't want to get kidnapped, but there would probably be some insane Quest Rewards for getting turned into a sex slave if I could arrange an appropriate escape or rescue ahead of time. "I couldn't help it, it just happened at the same time you became more durable."
"I see…I always assumed Kami entered partnerships with mortals to enact their wills better outside of the Divine World, but perhaps there's more to it than that. Well anyway, I wanted to ask if you would give me the same blessing you gave me at Tamaki Grill. We didn't get to talk about it, but I tapped into that well of energy you gave me to survive running back through the rushing water to the exit. I may have drowned without it. I know I'd feel much surer of myself having it on me, and I think tapping into it for frivolous sexual reasons would have a therapeutic preventative effect against trauma since my natural instinct will be to horde it for some feared later emergency."
"Of course, that one's as simple as it gets. It'll probably stick around a lot longer if I use my cum to do it too."
She flashed me a grateful smile. "Lovely, thank you. It will be interesting to see if I can still call on the power for spellcraft if it's already serving a purpose in my body."
Newly resolved and with some confirmation of my impending orgasm, Maki renewed her blowjob with fervor. The frothy spit leaking out past the seal her lips wer forming on my shaft was dripping down, making a mess around the base and over her hand which was tightly grasped there. It was an entrancing sight, but my mind was focused on constructing the two imminent spells. I could feel her barely holding back her own climax and intended to use our mutual release to heal my wounds.
Maki lowered her mouth to where I could feel her throat beginning to massage the tip, opening and closing around it in a mix of panic and anticipation. She patted the back of the hand that was still atop her head holding her hair out of the way.
"Want some help?"
"Mhm," came her muffled answer.
I took a calming breath and made sure that the spells were ready to go, then without further ado, began to push down. The force was steady, slow, and far beyond anything she could hope to fight against. Not that she was trying to; her eyes were closed, and while she was still gagging, she had enough control over her autonomic responses to keep from trying to push herself off me.
I knew that she would have preferred if I'd just thrust her all the way down, but I couldn't resist dragging it out. She was whimpering and mewling by the time we'd reached the halfway point. With only two inches remaining, her legs began to twitch and kick at the couch. At an inch remaining, I slipped two fingers inside her burning pussy and curled the knuckles against her g-spot. Her eyes shot open at that, and we made eye contact as I drove her down the last inch to the base at the same time my thumb pushed past her puckering asshole so that I was now violating all three of her holes at once.
Maki came explosively and I joined her, possessing just enough sense to pull her head back far enough so that she could actually taste my cum on her tongue. The blessing was a modest five Successes imparting her a small Dice pool to use as she saw fit, but the healing spell was a raucous seventeen, a previously unthinkable result.
I had cast a true healing spell, not just something that would have allowed for a Recovery check, but magic actually capable of mending the injuries in an instant. It was difficult magic, clearly meant to be cast with a partner or two to pool your Dice with, and required five Successes to heal even one point of Murderous Damage. I had been ambitious trying it, but I was, shamefully, a real motherfucking Merlin when it came to sex magic.
Seven of my remaining sixteen points of Damage mended themselves at once, the bones and flesh knitting themselves together. The horrifying nerve damage and almost heart-stopping inflammation came down to what I considered a manageable level, relieving me of the insane Injury Penalty I'd been working with.
Maki pulled herself off with a pop before collapsing onto my thighs. She buried her face into the base of my dick and made incoherent noises as her entire body fought through the convulsions of pleasure. Without the additional Endurance she'd received earlier, I had to imagine she would have blacked out.
[Hidden Quest Complete!]
Receive a blowjob from a lesbian.
Rewards: 45XP, +1 Seduction, Gain Major Feat Special Sauce (Semen Upgrade)
Bonus, Included deep throat: 30XP, Gain Minor Feat Snap My Choker
[Major Feat] Special Sauce (Semen Upgrade)
The flavor of your sexual fluids is universally delicious, surpassing what could be experienced in any mundane kitchen around the world. You receive a three Dice bonus to convince anyone who has tasted it before to do so again. However, the real power of this ability is to enhance the properties of your Meals by one step, acting as the ideal companion to any dish.
[Minor Feat] Snap My Choker
Throat fucking is just better when you are involved. Some may even grow to prefer it over alternatives. This both bestows temporary, extremely sensitive erogenous zones to the receiver, an ability to stretch to accommodate any insertion and ensures there is no lasting pain or damage beyond what they would consider to be a pleasant reminder.
[Ally Quest Complete! (Ishida Maki)]
Receive a blowjob from Maki.
Reward: 40XP, +1 Affinity, +1 Investigation
Bonus, Consensual throat fuck: 30XP, +2 Linguistics (Japanese)
She was covered in sweat when she came to a stop. I started to remove my fingers from inside her, but she squeezed her walls and legs shut, making her feelings quite clear even as she remained nonverbal.
My cock was once more painfully, painfully erect. Pre-cum was flowing out of the tip in a steady, pulsing stream, making its way down onto the shell-shocked face of Ishida Maki. As much as I wanted to continue healing myself, if I didn't let myself cum normally we'd be up all night – or at least I would, Maki was clearly struggling to hold onto consciousness already.
I started pumping the two fingers inside her slowly, making her shift restlessly. "I need to nut without pouring lust magic into my Qi network or else I'm going to lose my mind. Got another round in you?"
(Part 4)
Maki's previously boneless body snapped into rigidity. Both hands reached behind her to clutch at my wrist, knuckles whitening from the effort. I let her hold my wrist still and switched from pumping my fingers to flexing them back and forth, stroking the bottom walls and rubbing the tops with my knuckles. My thumb remained in her ass but moved in a slow circle to the same rhythm so that she could feel it not only stretching her sensitive asshole but through into her cunt. The unprepared woman choked on a sharp inhale and coughed spit and whatever remnants of my cum were still coating her mouth onto my leg.
"Ahm! Wait!" She whimpered as she tried to catch her breath.
I slowed down but didn't stop. "Wait for what?"
"Need…to think. Semen," she added quickly.
"Hmm. Believe you told me not to let you think."
"James!" she whined. "I let you rest."
"Fine, fine." I chuckled and withdrew my hand, leaving her empty, and wiped my fingers on her butt before giving it a hearty slap. My thumb was of course, completely clean, subject as it was to the reality-warping porn physics that governed the world in a very localized cloud around me.
Maki gave me a half-hearted glare. "I didn't say pull them out." I barked a laugh in reply. "Hmph. Until we can get set up to record our sessions, it's imperative we discuss our observations immediately after climax."
"Maki, I'm so horny that I'm seeing pink. I'm going caveman mode. James think no so good. Maki too pretty. Maki want fuck?"
She nodded seriously and observed my throbbing cock with a look of concern and, at noticing the stream of pre-cum, a slight hint of greed. "Don't worry, I'll be quick, it does look…volcanic. You seem to be in more of a state than earlier when you stabilized your bleeding. Am I correct?"
"Yes, dumping a truckload of sex magic into my body has had consequences, as you can see." I pointed to my penis helpfully.
"And the sensitivity, has that increased?" The corner of her mouth curled up in a cruel smirk as she ran her thumb up the thick line of pre-cum. She popped it into her mouth and froze while sucking her thumb. "The taste!"
I switched to Japanese, which had gone from passable fluency to indistinguishable from a native speaker to the level of a native-born scholar of the language, all in one night. "Got better, yeah. Sometimes the gains are directly related, like the taste and volume of my cum, and sometimes they're indirectly related—"
"Like getting better at Japanese from having oral sex with a speaker," she completed with excitement just barely bordering on the safe side of unhinged. "You utter bastard, that's so unfair. At least it's going to be fun learning how to keep up with you. Your semen when already imbued with your magic, for the record, is either easier to call upon or is the same. I won't know until I get to experience the new baseline."
"Perfect, let's knock that out, shall we?"
"Ah! Wait—"
I stood and swept Maki into a bridal carry in one clean motion. She would have been light enough to throw around without issue regardless, but doing so without the distracting pain of my Injury Penalty was invigorating. The woman flailed at first like a startled cat before getting her arms around my neck. I doubted she'd been carried like this before or ever expected to be. By now I'd learned to read her fairly well; she was silently afflicted by some emotional turmoil, bothered by the connotations of being held like this.
With those in mind, I turned towards my bedroom instead of the bearskin rug I'd initially intended to move to. Symbolically carrying Maki across the threshold of my room inflamed some romantic impulse within me. And, I had been curious about the changes to the furniture.
"Oh, come on, a ceiling mirror, really?"
I groaned at what the bedroom had been turned into. The majority of the space was dominated by an outrageously large bed equipped with a nine-foot by nine-foot (2.74m) mattress. Its posts and headboard were covered with elaborate arcane carvings, a motif matched by the large silk rug below. The walls were thankfully tastefully decorated with Late Imperial Chinese love poems beside beautiful ink paintings of women in elaborate dresses. They had been made in defiance of Qing-era censorship and smuggled out by Mughal merchants, their history coming unbidden to my mind. The only obnoxious parts were the two full-length mirrors, one facing the bottom of the bed and the other on the side wall, and the aforementioned huge ceiling mirror looking down over the entirety of 81 square feet of mattress. Only in my most depraved, libidinous fugue would I have thought to install a ceiling mirror.
That said, I was already thinking of ways to tease Maki with her reflections, so maybe the Producers had the right idea after all.
Speaking of, I tossed Maki onto the fluffy comforter and silk sheets, savoring the way she blushed at herself in the mirror above. Her pale skin was flushed and covered in sweat, her hair in disarray, and her nipples hard and pointed to the sky. Thighs, chin, and breasts were sticky with spilled sex, and through and over it all was an aura of lust and desire. I hopped onto the bed and straddled her chest so that my cock fell between her breasts and lowered some of my weight down to trap her there.
"This way we can keep discussing our observations," I explained, slapping the head of my cock onto her nipple, anointing the stiff peak with my ample pre-cum.
"Sp-speak for yourself!" stuttered Maki, tossing her head back. I leaned back slightly to ensure that she could see her own desperate expression. "If you recall, you—ah! You bastard!" I swiped her other nipple. "You made me extremely sensitive."
I held the base of my cock, where a fresh fountain of pre-cum was washing away the remnants of Maki's spit, down onto her right breast. From there I painted a slimy wide and long brush stroke across the valley between and onto her left breast. Maki whimpered and clasped her hands over her mouth as I began to deliver light whaps with my heavy rod. The slaps were just hard enough to sting and splashed the pre-cum over her chest, neck, and chin.
"Surely, the iron-willed miko of the Black Harbor Shrine can't be so easily defeated. I, on the other hand, have been so driven mad with lust that this is the least disruptive I can be."
"You're an ogre, James," she said with a sharp look, though all of the bite in her words was diminished by the way she'd begun to run her hands along my outer thighs. Reaching behind me, she slapped my ass with both hands. "Very well, rut away, samurai. I am quite eager to get a taste of the new baseline."
I bucked a little in surprise, poking her below the chin with my dick. "Gladly."
Pushing her boobs together, I forced my cock into their velvety embrace with a slow, slightly downward thrust so that she could feel its meaty heft. Maki and I shared a simultaneous satisfied exhale at the sensations. She lifted her head and bathed my member as it poked through, cooing at the flavor. I let my Force Pythons wrap around her breasts and reached up for one of the many pillows, using it to prop up her neck for her comfort.
Maki applied some greedy suction as I pulled back, stretching her lips over my angry, red head. "Thank you. Though you could grab and force me into position too if you want."
I raised an eyebrow at her. "Like it rough?"
She shook her head. "I like watching you lose control. I like feeling you give in to your lust. It's flattering, you know? I know I'm a good-looking woman, but you are, well, whatever you are. Even if your current state is the result of your magic, it's still empowering to be the object of your bestial affections." Her words were getting faster, her voice throatier. "The most beautiful creature in the city, you could have anyone with a few words and a flash of your heavenly penis, but you're here with me. I'll be a legend amongst practitioners once they learn I seduced you into bed. They may approach me – actually, they will definitely approach me to get to you, but don't worry, I'll carefully curate whom I allow access."
I felt like she was rewriting history about who seduced whom, but I wasn't going to correct her. "Fuck, Maki, you got the weirdest dirty-talk game in the city, but goddamn do I love it."
My complement had a strong effect on the woman. She pushed her chest up into me, momentarily stealing her own breath away. "Yesss. Show me how much you love it. You're right, I could resist this pleasure if I wanted, but I don't. You've got me so worked up, James, that I don't care about our research, I just want to watch you cum for me. I want you to cum for me, James. I want you to fuck my tits," she said, emphasizing the vulgarities, "until we cum together."
I groaned and shuddered. Hearing Maki of all people say 'fuck my tits' had nearly pushed me over the edge. I sent a telekinetic limb to hold her legs together, then used another to fuck her thighs in time with my cock, forcefully rubbing the tendril against her clit, cunt, and ass. If we were dropping the pretext of this being to facilitate a discussion, then there was no reason to hold back.
Maki moaned loudly, not holding her voice back at all, truly giving in to the moment. "Yes, that's it. Fuck my chest and fill my mouth with your cum. Give me your lifeforce, I want that too. I'm going to become the most powerful spiritualist in the city using it, James." I groped her chest aggressively, rolling each nipple between my thumb and forefinger. "Mph! You like that thought, don't you? Like me, you love the idea of a strong, powerful woman moaning your name. James, oh, James, cum for me darling, cum for me and make me a queen. Anoint me with your holy oil, elevate me! Yes! A belly full of your precious seed is going to make me a living legend."
"Jesus Christ," I gasped and had to slow down to avoid busting. Damn, I really did like that thought.
She sipped her teeth in disappointment, but she'd inspired me with that last sentence, and I was far too impulsive in my current frenzy to even consider an alternative. Prior to her statement, actually spending Experience to lean into this magic semen stuff would have been ridiculous to me. I needed to focus on my glaring weaknesses, not spend my limited resources on something that would only make me more likely to be kidnapped.
She dug her nails into my thighs. "Harder, faster," she demanded. "I want to feel your sweat drip on me."
But investing in my semen was investing in Maki, in a way. I could dual cultivate with and train Annie, but I was relying on the priestess to carve her own path to power. I looked down at the beauty beneath me, hair splayed out like a black halo, eyes staring back up at me with naked, possessive desire. A vision of Maki in the future, smiting a Hungry Ghost with casual ease filled my mind – I had to help make it a reality.
Fuck it, I thought. I've been rewarded for all of these impulsive buys thus far anyway.
I bought the upgrade for Cum Overflowing, then engaged Style Maker to come up with a good custom companion feat to go with the growing suite of semen feats. I had high enough related Attributes and Skills as well as several prior feats to build off of, so the real difficulty came in powering through my lust-crazed haze to creatively come up with something.
[Major Feat] Cum Overflowing
You produce an amount of seminal fluid with every orgasm equal to your number of Dice in Endurance squared times what you would normally produce.
[Major Feat] Mr. Fresh & Clean
Your bodily fluids carry with them some of the inexplicable aura of physical purity that you possess. They will stay as fresh and as hot as they were when they exited your body and will leave whatever they come into contact with cleaner than before. Unless deliberately placed into a vessel, they will harmlessly vanish without stains when unobserved for a period of time. While these are inexplicable effects, they are very noticeable.
Oh, hey, that was going to be amazing for keeping my blood off crime scenes too, nice. Already satisfied that I'd made a decent call, I decided to go the additional step and buy another 2 Dice of Endurance. Those were always useful, still left me with 93 Experience, and, most importantly to my erotic-energy-ridden pre-frontal cortex, meant I would produce eighty-one times as much cum as normal.
With that, all higher thinking left my brain. I placed a hand on top of her head and seized hold, keeping her head at the proper angle to catch my cock. Maki rolled out her tongue and stretched her jaw wide, squinting an eye-smile at me. I shuffled up on my knees so that my enormous head was fully occupying her mouth when thrust forward, and began.
Counting on my Porn Physics to keep her safe and happy, I began to properly fuck her tits as hard as I could while still maintaining a rhythm that I could match with my Force Pythons through her thighs. I could have gone faster, but even in my most bestial, I had my principles, one of which was that the woman either came before or with me.
Poor Maki, iron-will or no, she stood no chance. It wouldn't have surprised me if she could have potentially withstood the absurd fifteen Successes I got from a Sensuality + Seduction check, but it was never going to be easy. Her eyes were locked onto mine the entire time, and I could see the exact moment when she decided to not bother fighting the feelings and give in.
The room was filled with the noise of wet slaps, the sound of my thighs and balls hitting jiggling breasts, and heavy breathing. Between the steam heater, my ridiculous body heat, and her sweat, the air in the room was like a thick blanket wrapped around us, comfy for me but perhaps somewhat oppressive for her.
Not that I think she minded, if anything it was adding to the experience for her. Maki, once she'd decided to yield to pleasure, had done a glute bridge as best as she could manage with my telekinesis pinning her thighs together. Despite the position notably shortening her breaths, she was clearly craving the pressure from the weight. Her first orgasm came when I made a minor shift in weight; thus far I'd been avoiding putting enough down to interfere with her breathing, but sensing she wanted it, I took her just past where it would have ordinarily been comfortable.
Maki's eyes, which had been unblinkingly burning me into her memory, rolled up as she came. She slapped and clawed at the sheets as she spasmed helplessly, but impressively didn't stop moving her tongue. There was a large and growing wreath of white, frothy cum and spit atop her breasts, rolling down over her neck and chin that she continued to fervently lap up even in the throes of her orgasm.
I was close as well, but I couldn't give this up just yet, especially after seeing the look of loving gratitude that came upon her once she regained some semblance of lucidity post-climax. For both of us, this was much more than physical. We saw one another as grand conquests, living testaments to our sexual and romantic prowesses.
A narrow two Successes on an Endurance + Willpower check let me titty-fuck another orgasm out of her. This one, built on top of the last, caused her to arch her body up as hard as she could and then collapse bonelessly beneath me. I gave one last thrust and began to cum into her mouth.
Cum Overflowing applied a multiplicative effect to what I would have normally produced. Now, this was the third time I'd cum tonight which meant that it would have been on the smaller side, however, there was an ungodly amount of Erotic Sorcery pumping through my body which was already increased my production.
Maki, still mid-orgasm herself, was unprepared for the force or the volume of the first two shots which hit the back and roof of her mouth, and began coughing, covering the top of her breasts with my pearly white seed. I was nearly bowled over by the sensation myself. It felt not unlike a gut punch, and I ended up covering her face with another three insanely powerful jets before I could shuffle back and take aim.
Eighty-one times the normal volume of cum would have been more than enough to completely bukkake Maki. This was not the normal volume. I covered her breasts, neck, and much of her shoulders in a heavy glaze, my semen being unusually thick and pearlescent; she was quick to recover and lolled out her tongue in a silent request halfway through my climax that I happily obliged. Quite a bit missed her mouth and ended up on her face instead. I winced when she took a shot directly to the eye, but it seemed to cause her no pain nor even enough discomfort to make her blink.
The exhaustion of the day once more returned with prejudice after I finished. I flopped over onto my back beside her. Maki lay arms to her side, panting for breath – I knew she was tired because she made no move to clean herself. Her chest heaved and glistened in the soft mood lighting, the only kind in my upgraded apartment.
"See? Cum covered mess. Man o' my word, I am."
[Hidden Quest Complete!]
Do a one-man bukkake.
Reward: 30XP, +1 Endurance, +1 Occultism (Erotic Sorcery), Gain a random Semen Upgrade feat (Natural Anabolic)
[Minor Feat] Nature's Anabolic (Semen Upgrade)
Other people who have consumed your semen gain a temporary +1 to their Strength and Agility for as long as it remains in their system.
[Ally Quest Complete!]
Tit-fuck Maki.
Reward: 30XP, +1 Empathy, Gain Warding Charm x5 – these wooden charms, when hung over a door or window will prevent entry from most hostile spirits and can provide meaningful resistance to stronger ones.
Bonus, Introduced her to and satisfied a new fantasy: 20XP, +1 Charisma, Gain Minor Feat (Fountain of Holy (Semen Upgrade))
[Minor Feat] Fountain of Holy (Semen Upgrade)
Your sexual fluids can be used in place of holy water for rituals and will prevent most possession attempts, and mind-altering effects placed on those who have been anointed with them. They will not, however, share the same destructive capability as actual holy water does upon Evils.
[Hidden Quest Complete!]
Consensually tit-fuck a lesbian.
Reward: 50XP, +1 Persuasion
[Hidden Quest Complete!]
Seduce an NPC teammate after a successful mission.
Reward: 50XP, +1 Lowest Attribute (Attunement), +3 Random Skill (Lockpicking)
[Recurring Quest Complete]
Have a notable sex scene.
Reward: 5XP, +1 Random Skill (Biology)
Bonus, Elaborate and extended: 15XP
[Producer Reward]
Congratulations on your first major mission! What a day you've had! We at Skindimensional Media would like to show our appreciation for your continued commitment to both play-testing our system and to performing for the Audience. Your proactive method of ensuring future content by putting your life on the line is admirable and worth incentivizing.
We as Producers no longer feel the need to subject you to having to pay rent on your housing; you create more than enough problems for yourself when left to your own devices.
Deed: You are the legal owner of your Base, its Upgrades, and any future Bases and Upgrades purchased through the use of Tokens and Vouchers. The taxes and utilities are handled, and you will have the legal permits to operate any businesses that would suit the facilities. Furthermore, most people will not acknowledge changes made to your Bases via upgrades, and those that do won't investigate how you could have possibly acquired or accomplished them. In short, feel free to purchase Upgrades without having to worry about breaking the Fourth Wall.
(There would still be consequences for the results of your defenses, it's just that the police will be less interested in how you attained mechanized turrets versus the circumstances that resulted in them gunning down a crowd of attackers.)
Additionally, please select from the following categories for a Viewer Selected Reward: Weapons, Gear, Vehicles, Feats, Base Upgrades, and Followers.
I selected Base Upgrade immediately. While I was curious about the rest, particularly Followers, I'd been too recently tantalized by the Base Upgrade catalog to pick anything else. A second or two at most passed between my selecting the category and the result appearing; I took it as evidence that the Audience and Producers perceived time differently than I did.
[Viewer Selected Base Upgrade]
Meditation Chamber: Your Base has been equipped with something akin to an indoor Zen Garden perfect for both stationary and moving meditations. This provides a natural bonus to several related Skills, including any attempts to manage, cultivate, or transmute your internal energies, and has whatever altars, shrines, or circles are required for you to communicate with any beings to whom you have made Pacts, or Deals with.
Oh, joy, a private line to Funikugami, I grumbled in my mind. Still, it would be useful for figuring out what was happening to Annie's Qi, and for that, I was genuinely grateful. Though, I'd continue to grumble about it regardless.
"The volume of fluid increased dramatically every time," said Maki. She had wiped about half of her face off and was holding her palm up to her face, somewhat reverently watching my cum begin to drip back down in stick strands. "Your doing, or your power's?"
"The latter at first and then I went a little nutty with it." I sighed, covering my eyes with my forearm. I could see Maki licking her hand clean in the ceiling mirror and didn't want the distraction. In the crystal post-nut clarity, passive observations were beginning to fall into place. "I think…it would be unwise to rely on Erotic Sorcery for healing."
"Surprisingly sensible for a homeless vigilante."
"Guess you sucked the stupid out of me."
I took stock of my decisions since initially stabilizing my wounds with that first spell; it was not a flattering inventory. Ken had warned me about the corruptive effects of the sword, that my inhibitions would be the first to be affected – I wondered if there wasn't something similar happening to me outside of my perception when I used magic.
Immediately after the first spell, I'd purchased furniture that would look too on-the-nose in the Playboy Manor. I'd dumped a shitload of Experience into Erotic Sorcery, my most embarrassing Skill. And then, to my now horror, made a loud mental proclamation to the Audience and Producers that I would match every Die in Erotic Sorcery with an equivalent in Martial Arts. That was fucked, no getting around it either. I'd be living with that self-imposed tax for the remainder of the campaign.
And then, despite just telling myself that I didn't want to become a sex wizard, I entered into a long-term standing agreement to research the subject with Maki. What the hell was I thinking? I was going to have to be such a himbo fucking idiot to counteract all the magic I was going to be learning now. There was no way that Maki wasn't going to go insanely deep into ritualized eroticism, and I was sure to keep earning Erotic Sorcery Dice from her efforts. The inevitable cost of all the semi-mandatory Martial Arts Dice I'd have to buy to keep up would become extortionary if I wasn't careful.
After the second spell, I'd fully taken leave of my senses. I'd bought not one but two ludicrous cum-feats after being emphatically warned about how dangerous my semen would make casual sex in the city. I might as well have walked into a witch's hut, sat down in the cauldron, and started snacking on the carrots while she made stew because I sure as hell wasn't going to stop having casual sex. At least the throwaway Endurance purchases had paid off.
It had all kind of paid off, I guess, and none of it was terribly out of character for me. I could have seen myself making some of those decisions, but all of them, one after another? No, there had to be an explanation. The more lust magic inside me, the more erratic I'd behaved.
I thought back to the line from the Producer Reward, 'your continued commitment to both play-testing our system and to performing for the Audience'. It sat uneasy with me.
This wasn't just a game or a playtest, in fact, it wasn't really either of those, this was a show, those were just the genre and the twist respectively. I wasn't actually a Player, I was a cast member at best, a guinea pig or subject, really. There would, of course, be hidden mechanics. What if there was a Sanity mechanic in the game, but I wasn't privy to it? There was surely information hidden from me, and information hidden from the Audience – the only real question was, what if anything was hidden from the Producers?
Ah well, tonight had worked out for the best despite my own unhinged behavior. I only had the one mandatory Die of Martial Arts to buy, and I'd earned both Maki's respect and her commitment to our continued relationship. Lady Luck had my back today, and in the future, I'd be more cognizant of the mind-altering effects of magic.
I sat up and smiled at Maki. "Want some water?"
"Yesh, pleash," she said through a mouthful of cum.
There was an additional door in my living room that I ignored. Tomorrow, I told myself. It had been a long, but ultimately great day. If I opened that door and saw Funikugami there, my good mood would have been ruined. After chugging a few glasses of water, I grabbed Maki's phone from her purse on the way back to my bedroom.
"Thanks," said Maki as I put a glass of ice water down for her on the closest end table. It was far out of reach from where she was currently lying on the Alaskan King mattress. "Hey, no pictures!"
"Relax," I said with a laugh, "it's your phone. You can delete them if you'd like."
"Or, let me guess, I could send them to you?"
"Your words, not mine."
Maki rolled her eyes but allowed me to continue taking pictures of her licking the cum off her fingers and palm, even posing seductively for me once she got over her camera-shyness.
"Oh, I forgot to mention, it'll stay fresh and hot indefinitely if stored." She paused, clearly torn between continuing to enjoy herself or if she should do the responsible thing and save the rest in a jar. "I can make more tomorrow, Maki. Have your snack. It's your night."
She nodded. "True. I am celebrating. I avenged my brother and seduced the city's greatest lover tonight, you know?"
"Ha! Nice, very impressive."
"Yes, I think so too."
Once she was mostly clean, I crawled into bed beside her. We took a few selfies of us cuddled up together, and she let me log into my social media to make a post about having broken my phone. Then, finally, with my new partner in my arms, I passed into peaceful oblivion.
Funikugami was sitting on the side of the pool, kicking his feet in the water, splashing a floating beach ball my way.
"Fuck!" I said, jumping in fright at the sight of the crow-headed child. I tried to pull the hot blonde I'd been chatting with behind me, but she had disappeared. "Goddamn it, you're like a living jumpscare, you freak. And what happened to the babes?"
"My apologies," said the death god, "your mind dismissed them when I entered. I do not fit into this dream very well."
"Oh." I looked around at the community pool. It was a perfect summer day, sun high overhead, and temperatures in the upper 80s (~30°C). "Right, I'm dreaming."
"Yes, I came to complete our deal, however, when I found your mind it was under heavy scrutiny from curious mortal practitioners, so I decided to stay and keep watch."
I groaned and conjured a Mai Tai in my hand. "How could I forget, our 'deal'."
He bobbed his head apologetically. "You are understandably upset that I lied to you. Then, you will be pleased to learn that I am bound to tell you only the truth now that you have become a member of the Ishida Clan. Ishida Ken found a way to protect you even in death – he was a remarkable man, was he not? I am sure his sister and family are glad that he is no longer trapped within the Egui's dark stomach."
I narrowed my eyes. "He also warned me not to trust you. How do I know you can't lie to me?"
"It will be easily verified once you speak to your adopted family."
"Fair enough." I summoned a cigar to go with my everful Mai Tai. The taste of tobacco was ordinarily unpleasant for me, but this was my dream so I made it taste like bubblegum instead. "But don't you dare take credit for freeing Ken from the Egui."
"I meant to take nothing from your heroic achievement, but alas, it was the second curse that I placed on you that ensured my sword would be freed. The release of the languishing souls of the ghost's victims was a happy happenstance."
"So that thing about me dying if you told me what it did…"
"I am not privy to the future with such certainty, James Li. That is the realm of a very select few. Though, from what I could see, the second curse only increased the likelihood of your death. Indeed, I did not expect you to survive. Well done, my champion."
[Endowment Received] Champion of Funikugami, Carrion King
Gain 1 Permanent Point of Corruption.
Your Lord grants you the following four abilities. They are yours for as long as you live:
I
[Death's Hand] – Death will not readily claim his Champion. Convert the first four points of Murderous Damage you take in any scene into regular Damage instead.
II
[Oppressive Soul] – Your battle aura is denser than most and is choking to be near. All other characters nearby when you are fighting suffer a 1 Die Penalty to all actions. Your allies can learn to tolerate this with repeated exposure. You can also learn to control this with some experimentation, though it will require conscious control at first.
III
[Black Dog of the Fens] – Gain 3 Temporary Points of Corruption to surround yourself with a cloak of palpable dread. Once activated, you may convert additional Successes on melee attack rolls into Temporary Willpower damage instead for the remainder of the fight scene.
IV
[Curse: Certain Death] – Gain 1 Temporary Point of Corruption. The next time you touch a creature, convert all Damage they have taken into Murderous Damage. For the next 24 hours, all Damage they would receive is Murderous Damage instead. Only supernatural beings have a chance of resisting this Curse, mortals cannot try.
[Hidden Quest Complete!]
Become the Champion of a Divine Entity.
Reward: 50XP, +1 Affinity
Bonus, Funikugami: +2 Stealth, +2 Perception
Funikugami's wretched black power nearly caused me to lose consciousness as it forcibly entangled itself with my soul and Qi network. Thankfully, it was a quick process, and by its end, whatever he had done to or given me felt as native to me as any of my other abilities.
We were on a beach when I came to, both of us reclining on chairs, though the Kami was entirely shaded by an umbrella. Tragically, I was forced to admit it was extremely cute seeing his crow-headed boy form so out of place in this paradise resort.
"So, it was all about that sword of yours? Ken told me it was you who told him where he could find it in the first place."
"Yes," said the Kami, "Fate has tried to keep my blade hidden away since I first created it. Always has there been some circumstance that has intervened to see it lost once more each time I've had it found. I thought that I had finally been defeated when it was swallowed by the Egui; if the Ishida or the Sunada were to seal the creature away, then I would have been bound by my oaths to protect its prison, and thus, prevent anyone from retrieving the Hakkotsu no Ha, which would have been doubly trapped."
"And then Maki left my dumbass alone in the Shrine."
"I had to act quickly. I hope you can understand."
I shrugged. "It's whatever, man. Ken and them other souls are free, that's what's important. Shitty way to get there, and I don't appreciate being tricked, but it is what it is. I knew you were lying to me anyway and I still agreed to the thing, so, can't put all the blame on you. What now?"
"You are wise, champion. Now you do as you please. Need will force you to use my sword in battle, its power is too great to ignore. If you wish though—"
"I don't."
He continued, "I can trade you more power in exchange for Hunting other Evils in the city. Many in Black Harbor cling to life past when I would have preferred them to die. I can empower—"
"Not interested."
"—what I've already given you. Or I can show you memories of great fights that I've seen, so that you may add the dead's talents to your own."
I opened my mouth to rebut him but stopped. Could I really turn that down as the Grandmaster of Black City Kung Fu? Was there any better way to use Style Maker? That was kind of my whole steez, and I was already the death god's champion. I may as well take advantage of the situation.
"I'll…think about it."
"That's all I ask."