Hello everyone, I'm Rinnosuke Morichika.

The winter is drawing to an end and the snows have stopped. We're entering the month of April, but there is still a lingering chill in the air. How are you faring in this weather? I imagine most people would stay inside, but there are others who are setting out on long treks to distant places.

So - April. April means spring. Spring is associated with cherry blossoms, but more generally spring means a time of transition into a new stage of life. Children graduating from elementary school, young adults leaving home to begin living on their own - moving into a new home with new furniture and starting a new life - it's a period of excitement and uncertainty.

I'm in that same situation. I'm filled with uncertainty as well.

Actually...

Rinnosuke "Haa~..."

All I can feel is uncertainty. Because I'm...

Keine "Rinnosuke, should we take a break?"

Rinnosuke "I suppose so."

With her...

Tokiko "Rinnosuke, what kind of book would be good for a baby?"

Ran "Rather than a difficult book it would be best to go with a picture book."

Chen "Isn't this rattle a bit too loud?"

And them...

Kasen "Can I set this here?"

Kagerou "I hope the child doesn't have thick hair like mine."

Sekibanki "I got beanbags!"

Seija "Wow, that's lame!"

And them as well.

It's a bit embarrassing to talk about, but... I'm actually married to all of them. Keine, Tokiko, Ran, Chen, Kasen, Seija, Sekibanki, and Kagerou. And not just them, also Yamame, Alice, Yuugi, Akyuu, Kosuzu, Mitori, Yuuga, and Sanae. 16 women in total.

If you were wondering how it is that I found myself married to so many women, in essence it was due to my own curiosity and lack of forethought. I decided to try something from a book from the outside, and my attempt at it failed spectacularly. However... it seems I was the only one who thought it had failed, as it had worked on Keine and the others (who I had tested it on).

After that their attitudes changed completely. I thought they were just avoiding me, but as it turns out they were just embarrassed and uncertain of how to face me after what had happened. However with them avoiding me I had no way of clearing up the misunderstanding, and so I finally went to Eirin for advice. She was older than me and had plenty of experience to draw on, so perhaps she could share some advice.

But that was wrong. It was a mistake to even try asking her for help.

She produced a medicine and gave it to Sanae. Given the situation it was unlikely that Sanae would take anything from me, so they held a banquet at the Moriya Shrine as a way to get us all to repair our relationships. I had no idea the medicine was mixed in the food that was served.

Eirin had said the medicine would loosen us up and make us less nervous so we could talk, but... well, in essence it was an aphrodisiac. As the women drank and ate they began to feel hot and their behavior changed. Their cheeks flushed and their bodies heated up as their minds went blank and their eyelids drooped as if they were half asleep. And of course Eirin's medicine worked on all manner of creatures. Thanks to my half-yokai nature I didn't feel the effects as strongly, but as Yuugi continued to push drink after drink at me I began to feel the effects.

I think it goes without saying what happens when men and women are together and under the effects of an aphrodisiac. When the aphrodisiac is made by Eirin it's only worse.

By that point the women had overdosed on aphrodisiac - and they came for me. Fortunately I still had my wits about me, but unfortunately the medicine was making it difficult for me to move. Even if I could move I was facing 15 women. Without the aphrodisiac's effects I could perhaps do something to handle each of the women individually, but against all 15 at once I was physically outmatched - and that's ignoring their supernatural abilities.

The exits were sealed and my body held down. As they took turns with me the last bit of reason I had was extinguished. The drug kept me from feeling fatigue as I kept going and going... until eventually my senses were completely blanked. Even then my body continued to move.

A harem is not something to envy. A bunch of women filled with lust and only a single man to satisfy them all. It was a festival of debauchery. It might be enjoyable if done for a short time, but Eirin's drug kept us going for hours and hours. No sooner was one woman temporarily satisfied than the next was coming back for more. And even if the sole man should cum he would have to keep going regardless.

And if you're still not grasping just how long this went on, let me make it clear - it wasn't just all night or for a full day. It was several days. Several days of endless sex without stopping to rest or eat. Regardless of the time of day we never stopped for more than a minute or two. The Moriya Shrine was the worst to suffer. We weren't just nearby - we were inside of the shrine. Day after day we carried on, making it impossible for any of the normal shrine business to occur. Eventually Luna Child blanked out the noise coming from inside.

I didn't regain control of myself until after the drug wore off. When I finally opened my eyes the sun was high in the sky and the event was over. I looked around and found that I was surrounded by all of the women without a single stitch of clothing on. They were all asleep - and they seemed to be quite satisfied. The room was filled with the mixed smells of sweat, aphrodisiac, and various other scents.

Sanae told me what happened after I lost consciousness. It felt like only hours had passed, but... to think it had been days. The women remembered everything. Their memories were a bit fuzzy... but they remembered. Unlike me, they lost their control but did not lost consciousness. They were aware from start to finish. And poor Akyuu... thanks to her power she had the most vivid memories of all.

The atmosphere was awkward during breakfast. None of us said a word, and I didn't dare look any of them in the eye. None of us felt particularly eager to eat, but our bodies were craving sustenance after several days of non-stop activity.

To be blunt, it was not our fault that this had happened. The fault was entirely with Eirin and her drug. But... if you traced her actions back that meant it was really my fault. My fault for putting us all on awkward footing to begin with.

Surprisingly the women didn't seem all that upset. They had been conscious throughout so they didn't try to place blame on anyone. It seems that they accepted that in the end they had been doing just as much as I had, so they each took responsibility for their own actions.

I didn't feel that way. I felt that my actions had caused what happened, and so I wanted to find a way to clear my conscience. Sanae then suggested that I give them each a present. Something I made with my own hands. When asked what they would like, all of the women said a ring.

Fortunately there was plenty of metal at the Kourindou. I took the various scraps and melted them down to get remove impurities, then used the purified metal to craft rings. Kourindou had the materials and I had the skills to get it done.

I kept my tired body going as I crafted each of the rings. For some reason I decided to make one for Sanae as well.

A few months passed before one of the women discovered she was pregnant.

I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe what I heard, but as I looked at the obvious swelling of her stomach it was clear that it was true. And that wasn't all. She then asked about us getting married. I was having a hard time answering her, but then the rest of the women that I had presented rings to came forward to also request that I marry them.

With such a large group of women pressing in on me - and with my children possibly growing inside of all of them - I couldn't possibly refuse. My life as a bachelor came to a very firm and final end.

A wedding for one man and 16 women was of course such a strange occurence that Shameimaru quickly filled the newspapers with the story - complete with a large photo of all of us. Everyone in Gensoukyou soon knew about us. The wedding was held at Moriya Shrine and many humans and youkai gathered for the event. I hadn't expected it, but all of the women wore white kimono for the ceremony. They even did their hair in the traditional style - though those with horns or ears on the top of their head, such as Tokiko and Chen, had difficulty with the ornamental hair dressings. At one point Seija got fed up with them and ripped off her hair ornaments and threw them away.

Sanae was leading the proceedings, though today she was dressed in a kimono as well instead of shrine maiden garb. The two gods of the shrine watched with odd expressions. Before those two gods we all swore to love each other eternally. I then gave them their rings once more and kissed them. Considering what we had already done together, kissing each of the girls in front of a crowd was hardly something to be embarrassed about. Most of the onlookers wished us well, but there were some that muttered bitterly as they judged us.

In any event, part of me just wanted to get away from there as fast as possible. Ran sensed how I was feeling and created a bouquet of flowers. She announced that the person to catch it would be the next to marry, then lobbed it into the crowd. A fair number of people leapt for the bouquet - a large portion of them single women - and for a short time the crowd was thrown into chaos. During this period Ran transformed into her ninetailed form. We all climbed onto her back or took hold of one of her tales before she vanished us from the shrine like a sudden gust of wind. She took us all around Gensoukyou for good measure.

In the outside world a newlywed couple will attach cans to the back of their car so that as they drive away they announce their marriage and ward away misfortune. Well, all of Gensoukyou already knew about our marriage, and I doubted that any sort of misfortune would ever dare come near this group of women. We didn't need the cans.

Though the wedding ceremony was over there was still the reception. We celebrated our union at the Moriya Shrine, the festivities lasting all night. I was having a hard time feeling festive, given that I'd suddenly found 16 partners with whom to share the rest of my life. We would have to do a lot of work if we were to all live together. They certainly couldn't all fit into the Kourindou.

That's how I found myself building a house for us.

Akyuu provided the land for us. If we built the house amongst the humans it would result in youkai living amongst them, which would obviously be less than ideal. I don't think I could stand seeing the girls that had come to be my friends looked at as something to fear. But outside of the town youkai were everywhere - and some of them would wish to harm us. The youkai like Ran would be fine, since they could protect themselves, but the humans with no ability to fight like Akyuu and Kosuzu would be at risk. The Forest of Magic was out of the question.

Luckily Akyuu had an idea for a place we could go. It was a bit outside of the human village, but ultimately it was the ideal place to build a house. The youkai weren't as plentiful there and we'd have access to plenty of animals and wild vegetation. Apparently we'd even be able to look out across the village from there.

The land was not only part of the Hieda family holdings, but apparently Hieda no Are had once lived there. When Are was reincarnated as Aichi the Hieda home was moved to its current location and the land was no longer used. However they felt that the land would serve a purpose at some point and kept it.

We went to the site to see it with our own eyes and found a dilapidated ruin that had formerly been a house. A quick look around gave the impression that it was a sizeable piece of land. The foundation of the house was still solid and we had access to plenty of lumber. The well was also intact. It was almost as if the land had been waiting for someone to come back to it.

Before beginning work I needed to get Akyuu's permission. The house that Are had lived in all those years ago wasn't stable enough to be used in any way, meaning that it would have to be cleared away before we could begin building. But I needed Akyuu's permission before I dared to remove anything. After all, if you went back far enough Akyuu was Are, so it would be nice to have the permission of the former owner of the house before I began to work.

Akyuu (Are) "I understand. It's okay."

Akyuu gave me permission. But her voice was not the voice of the 9th generation of the Hieda family, it was the voice of Are.

With that settled I got right to work. I'd already prepared plans. When it became clear that we'd all need to live together - and that the Kourindou would not suffice - we concluded that a new house would have to be built. Before we had even secured land to use I asked each of them what they would want included in the new house. I used their requests to create the layout and building plans for the house, because I was certainly not going to wing it and risk hearing complaints for the rest of my life.

This project had to be the most difficult task I'd ever attempted. The size of the house was far beyond the scale of the Kourindou and was possibly even larger than the primary school building. The Kourindou was fairly quick and easy to construct as I hadn't needed much, but this was completely different. The rebuilding of the school building had been fairly large-scale as well, but ultimately the building was mostly large empty classrooms. The building I was constructing now would have to be an actual house - a home. And a home for more than 10 people. That increased the scale significantly. On top of that each of the women would have her own specific needs, which would add more work for each of their living spaces.

It soon became obvious to me that regardless of species or age all women are greedy and selfish in one respect or another. Make a place like this for drinking, make a garden like this, make a quiet place, etc... and as they heard each others requests they began to build on each other and inspire new ideas for further additions. If nobody stopped them they'd come up with an endless flood of new ideas. At this rate we'd need a house like the Scarlet Devil Mansion to fit everything.

I eventually convinced them to refrain from adding on anything more, though it was certainly difficult to do. If I wasn't careful I could not only end up with 16 unsatisfied and angry women, but I might end up sparking an accident. If that should happen it wouldn't be just me that suffered, but likely all of Gensoukyou would be in danger and it was unlikely that Reimu and the others would be able to stop it.

As for the construction, I wouldn't be doing it on my own. This was a home for all of us, so they'd be coming to assist when they could. Though the girls like Keine and Akyuu had so much to do that they'd likely never be able to come help.

So my assistants for now are...

Nitori "I've come to help, partner!"

Suika "With me here you have the strength of a million men."

Nitori and Suika.

Nitori "Oh, right. I guess partner is a bit weird now? Should I call you onii-chan now?"

Nitori was happy about her older half-sister Mitori's marriage.

Suika "I can't believe Yuugi got married~"

*Text says "Suika" not "Yuugi," but I assume it's a typo.

Suika was surprised to learn that her friend and fellow Deva of the Mountain Yuugi had married someone, but she too was happy about the development.

I was glad to have the two with me. Suika especially was a great help. Suika could make herself larger or split off into countless smaller forms to run about and help us. With her strength and her abilities we were able to get all of the lumber moved and begin setting up the frame in a short time. The only thing she lacked was technical skill, which Nitori and myself were able to provide.

Ran and Alice were able to send assistance through their shikigami and dolls, meaning they could help us even if they couldn't make it personally. With all of their help the work went smoothly.

Rinnosuke "Whew..."

We reached a good stopping point in our work and took a break.

Keine "Here, a towel."

Rinnosuke "Thanks."

I took the towel from her.

Keine "How much longer do you think it will take?"

Rinnosuke "Well... I'm not certain, but if we keep this pace it will be another 2-3 months perhaps?"

Keine "You can finish that fast!?"

Rinnosuke "Well I'm not sure, but hopefully..."

I couldn't blame her for being surprised. It was truly fast. I initially feared it would take us years to complete the construction, but with Suika and the others helping we were making steady progress.

Normally we'd have needed heavy machinery to flatten the ground for the foundation, but Suika could simply enlarge herself and stamp the ground flat and firm with her foot. Her smaller splits were able to quickly carry and assemble the lumber to form the frame of the house, although when technical skill was required we'd have to come assist or finish the job.

Despite this, I was honestly feeling a bit worried.

Rinnosuke "Keine, are you feeling okay?"

Keine "I'm fine, I'm fine. I can still move around."

Keine's stomach was swollen with her pregnancy. Seeing her stomach swell day after day as our child grew inside of her made it impossible for me to feel comfortable with her helping us, even if she was only doing minor tasks on the periphery.

Rinnosuke "Are you sure? If you feel uneasy at all I don't want you to force yourself to stick around."

Keine "I know. Really, I do."

She smiled as she rubbed a hand on her stomach. Eirin said next month would be the final month of her pregnancy.

Now I imagine some of you may be confused. I can guess why that would be and I'm not really surprised.

"Why is Keine pregnant?" is what you were wondering, right? Of course she would be. We did what causes pregnancy, after all. When a man puts his thing inside of a girl's thing and ejaculates semen inside, the sperm cells made in the man's testicles will seek out an ovum produced by the girl's ovaries to fertilize. That fertilized zygote will then grow and develop into a baby. I'm sure you all knew that already.

So I'm guessing the part that is confusing is how she's reached this state in just a few months. And I'll add to that confusion by saying that she's not alone - Mitori, Kagerou, and Sekibanki are just as pregnant as Keine is.

And some of the others have already given birth. Alice, Kasen, Yuugi, Seija, and ... have already birthed their children.

I was surprised too. Typically it takes somewhere from 9-10 months for a child to be born, but so far none of them have taken that long. Eirin was surprised as well. We couldn't believe it was possible, so we had Momiji check for us - and the children developing inside were completely healthy and looked ready to be born.

Perhaps it was another effect of Eirin's drug.

Eirin "Who knows?"

Was the only reply she gave when I asked her about it.

I had wondered if perhaps it had something to do with the different races and my own half-youkai nature that somehow caused it... but Yamame, Kosuzu, and Yuuka were all different races but were all similarly showing no obvious signs of pregnancy yet. So it seemed unlikely that it had to do with race - either theirs or mine.

So is it because we're in Gensoukyou? I wasn't as bad as Sanae, but I felt that I should perhaps have learned more about Gensoukyou to know if this was a possibility or not. But... it seemed difficult to say that Gensoukyou had caused the short pregnancies. Myself and Mitori were evidence against that hypothesis. Mitori had taken the normal period of time to be born, and I recalled having heard from my mother that I had taken 9-10 months to be born as well. So aside from my wives all evidence pointed at that being the normal pregnancy period.

In the end we never could figure out why the pregnancies were so short. My wives were all healthy and our children were all healthy, so I suppose it doesn't really matter.

I cared about the wellbeing of my wives, but I really didn't have the time to be too concerned with the present. I needed to be planning for the future.