Ryoko Mikado was having a bad day, but to understand exactly why, she'd have to go back a few days, 6 to be exact, in order to understand the pain she was feeling right now.
Day: 1
It started out well enough, I woke-up a bit late because the school was on vacation for a few weeks, and I didn't have any appointments scheduled for most of said vacation. But as soon as Lala showed up dragging Rito to get advice for her latest invention to try and make him happy I knew someone, 'Probably Rito', I noted to myself, was going to be the victim of some cruel sick joke. But I didn't suspect that I was going to be the one on the chopping block of the princess's fun for even a moment.
After getting the advice she needed, Lala set to work on her newest invention and told Rito to go walk around town for about an hour until it was done, and I may or may not have had him play errand-boy for me while he was at it, but that's not important. I left both of them to their own devices while I looked over some old files that needed sorting. I would normally leave this to Oshizu, but she was over at Haruna's right now. I still laughed to myself a bit every now and then about their friendship, what with Haruna being afraid of ghosts and Oshizu actually being a ghost. Anyway after about an hour I decided to take a break from my work and see how the little princess was doing.
I wasn't surprised to find out that she was completely done with her new, rather large machine. Though I was surprised to hear that she had finished it fifteen minutes ago and was actually waiting for Rito to come back on his own, rather than getting impatient and taking matters into her own hands like she usually would. 'I guess Rito's been having a pretty big impact on her personality.' I mused to myself.
Just as I was about to ask what it was I heard a faint yelling that was quickly growing louder and louder until something broke through the window and hit me. Whatever it was knocked me into the machine, and obviously damaged something, because the next thing I knew I was grabbed by some hands and the torture began.
Really, I should have seen this coming. Not the exact circumstances I was in mind you, but some form of punishment for all the time and work I put into doing all sorts of shady and inhumane things a few years ago, back when I was still a criminal.
Lala explained that because of the machine's nuclear power-source, the fact that it was currently running, and the damage done to the machine by what I now knew to be Rito, who was sent flying through my window courtesy of an angry Yami-chan, and into me and then the machine, that she would have to work carefully for awhile to get me out of this thing without causing a nuclear meltdown. She then apologized in her usual happy-go-lucky manner, while Rito was comically scolding her. I would've laughed had I been feeling better, but as it stood I was being poked, pulled, and stretched every which way, and kind of had a headache from when Rito hit me, or was it when I hit the machine? It was kind of hard to tell, at any rate, this is where my torture began.
'This isn't so bad', I mused to myself. 'I can certainly see the benefits of such a machine, but Lala had said I'd be here for awhile, so I have to prepare myself for the worst.'
3 hours later:
'This isn't happening!' I panicked. 'This is all just a dream! Yeah, that's it! There's no way something like this could happen in real life! I mean, nuclear power is too primitive for Lala to use in one of her inventions, and this thing even has a built in bathroom, like she was planning for something like this to happen! And as soon as I have to use it I'll just wake up because I wet the bed! Yeah, that's much better than having this actually be real!' My thoughts were something like this for the rest of the day.
Day: 2
'Damn that Lala!' I raged in my head. 'This is all her fault! I was exhausted and couldn't get any damned sleep last night! She said that 'Berserker Deluxe' pill she gave me yesterday was supposed to give me the energy and nutrients I needed to stay-up comfortably until she fixed this thing! But I'm too tired to even talk, and I can't hear anything but a faint buzz and my inner monologue! I'm also in some serious fucking pain here! I don't know what Rito sees in her! He could do so much better than her easily! Haruna or Yui, just to name a few. Hell, even Yami or his sister would be a better choice than that trouble making bitch!' My thoughts were like this for the rest of the day. Justified, given I had been going through hell for several hours already.
Day: 3
'What did I do to deserve this?' I thought to myself regretfully. 'Was it all the horrible things I did in the past? Was it all the mischief I've gotten into since coming to Earth? Was it my provocative nature, and sexy fashion sense? Whatever it was I'll make up for it 100-fold if you'll just get me out of here now. I'll dress conservatively, I'll do community service, I'll stop flaunting my figure, I'll tell Rito how I feel, I'll...'
'Wait, where did that last one come from? I mean, yeah Rito's a great kid, nice, helpful, someone who would make any girl in their right mind happy, but he's just that. A kid! And I'm about 10 years his senior! Sure that's not much by Japan's standards, and yeah I was impressed when he was the only one who kept a level enough head when my past came back to haunt me to come up with a plan to solve everything, and even though I'd be lying if I said I didn't get at least a little bit excited when I thought he confessed to me at the pool...'
My train of thought came to a screeching to a halt at that, before quickly starting up again. This time in a different direction entirely. 'Oh just listen to yourself Ryoko! It's painfully obvious you love the boy! You don't care how or why it happened, all you care about is telling him how you feel as soon as you get out of this thing, and how you can go about getting him to reciprocate your feelings. That's what I'm going to do, first thing I get out of here!' The rest of that day was spent happily thinking about the, admittedly unlikely, future with Rito that I longed for.
Day: 4
'I'm going to die here!' I somehow panicked to myself through the searing pain I was in. 'That's it! Game over! It's amazing I lasted this long, but I won't last much longer! There goes my small chance of happiness! My small chance of getting with Rito. Gone! I'll never get to tell him how I feel! Never get a chance to win him over! Never get a chance to go steady, or share our first time! Never get a chance to start a family, or get married! I wouldn't have even minded sharing him like I knew I would have to! All I wanted was a chance, however small it was, but now I won't even get that!' I'm pretty sure I faded in and out of consciousness that day, but any thoughts I had were like this.
Day: 5, around noon
'You know what?' I thought calmly, for the first time in days. 'I'm okay with this. I mean Oshizu's dead, and I made her a body, so why can't I have the same done for myself? I mean I couldn't exactly make one on my own, but I could just as easily show Oshizu, and maybe Lala how to make one, and I'm sure I could make the bond between the fake body and my soul a bit stronger if I worked on it a bit, yeah. It'll be like I never even died!' My monologue was cut short by my realization of something.
'It's stopped! The damned thing stopped!' I felt a massive wave of relief wash over me, before I felt something grab me. 'Oh no! Please tell me it's not starting up again! Please, it just stopped!' But then I suddenly realized I was being picked up, not pulled down. Someone was holding me in their arms. For a few seconds I couldn't tell who it was until I smelled something.
'Flowers!' I realized with a jolt. That combined with the fact that I could tell by the feel of their body against mine that it was clearly a boy meant that there could only be one person who could be carrying me right now. 'Rito!' I realized. 'Rito is carrying me, bridal style no less! And I'm still wet from all the showers that damned machine gave me! He must be so embarrassed! I wish I could see the look on his face right now, it must be priceless! It's too bad I haven't been able to open my eyes for two days now.' My thoughts died out around then as I gratefully passed out.
Rito's POV
Rito was pretty upset with Lala's carelessness right now. That in itself was nothing new, really, she was always causing some kind of trouble for those around her, though most were used to it by now. But regardless of what happened all those times, or how others took it, nothing really bad had ever happened, so he never really held it against her.
Until this time.
Because of Lala's newest invention, Mikado-sensei had gone through what Rito could only describe as pure torture for five straight days. The pain she went through at the time was clearly visible on her face during the time, and still was even after it had stopped, and likely would be for quite awhile. Lala may have worked as fast and best as she could to fix things, and if her exhausted state was anything to go by with very few breaks as well, but Rito still felt she should have got it done a lot sooner.
Nonetheless, Lala was too tired from shutting down the machine to move at the moment and Mikado-sensei probably wasn't very comfortable on "The Torture Device" as Rito had been calling it for the past four days, so he took it upon himself to carry Mikado-sensei to her bed. However, it wasn't until after he picked her up that he noticed that she was still soaking wet from the showers "The Torture Device" gave to her, and also that her clothes had water damage and were wet enough to see through to her underwear. Rito's face lit-up to an extremely vivid shade of red upon realizing these facts and he quickly averted his eyes away from her body, while simultaneously trying, and failing to think about something aside from the very sexy woman he was now carrying bridal style to her bedroom.
'This isn't exactly what I pictured myself doing right before lunch.' Rito thought/panicked, still red faced. 'Or at all really, if I was going to carry anyone like this, the first person to come to mind would be Haruna-chan, or maybe Lala. Lala or Haruna-chan, in my arms, dripping wet...' Rito's face got even redder at that thought as he shook his head frantically, and again tried to change his train of thought to something else. 'No, no, no! Keep thoughts like that out of your head Rito! Mikado-sensei has been through a lot and needs some rest on something more comfortable than what she's been on for the past five days.' Rito thought firmly, at least until his mind started to betray him again.
It was about 30 minutes before he finally managed to find her room, it was a pretty big house after all, or at least that was what Rito kept telling himself. In truth, the real reason he got lost so may times on the way to her room was because he somehow found himself, more times than he cared for or should be possible, fantasizing about Mikado-sensei; in a swimsuit, in the shower, in a maid outfit, in a hot-spring, in outrageously sexy underwear, in a schoolgirl uniform, and for some strange reason hopping out of a cake with Lala and Haruna-chan with all 3 of them in wedding dresses, all at least two times each.
'Why does my mind keep drifting to weird things I'd much rather not think about?' Rito groaned inwardly, 'Saruyama would probably say something along the lines of "It's just because you're a man Rito", but being torn between Lala and Haruna is confusing enough without thinking perverted thoughts about someone way older than me, who isn't even conscious.'
Not wanting to be in the room of a woman as free with her body as Mikado-sensei for any longer than he had to, he quickly put her in her bed and quickly made a move to get out of there. But as he tried to, he suddenly felt a slight pressure on his back, tripping him up and making him stumble face-first into Mikado-sensei's breasts. "Not again!" Hissed Rito, as he quickly got up, or at least tried to, as he again lost his footing and slipped head-first into the bedpost this time. 'I really need to learn how to stop falling.' Were the last thoughts Rito had, before passing out on the floor because of head-trauma.
Ryoko's House - With Lala and Oshizu
Lala, having gotten her second wind by now, decided to go see if Rito needed any help with Mikado-sensei. Sadly, she got just as lost as Rito did, and had to have Oshizu show her where Mikado-sensei's room was. "Please try not to cause any more trouble for Sensei Lala," Asked Oshizu as they reached Ryouko's room, "She's been through a lot these past few days because of you as it is, and I really don't want her to get hurt anymore."
Surprisingly, upon having the subject of Sensei's condition brought up, instead of her usual happy-go-lucky attitude, Lala actually looked quite sad and repentant, and instead of an expected perky comment about making things right, she instead said, "I'm really sorry about what I did Oshizu-chan. This is all my fault, and I have no excuse for it. I really didn't mean to make Mikado-sensei have to go through what she did, and I know there's probably nothing I can do to make things okay between the two of us again, but I at least have to try and make things right again. Because if I don't, I feel like I'm going to lose an important friend forever."
Oshizu was thrown for a bit of a loop at that comment. She'd expected Lala to say something happy about using one of her wacky inventions to fill Sensei with energy and she'd have to stop her or something like that, not this. 'I guess even someone like Lala has to admit that this incident was too much to just shrug off with a happy face.' Oshizu reasoned. "Well, as long as you don't use any more of your inventions to try and fix this, I suppose it's okay to just leave you to this." She said as she left Lala to her own devices.
"Thank you Oshizu-chan." Replied Lala, feeling a little better at her words. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she went into Sensei's room. It was pretty nice, she noted. The room was pretty spacious, with a closet, a desk, a few dressers, and a bed. Upon which, was resting Mikado-sensei herself, but that's not what drew Lala's attention the most, rather, it was Rito lying face down on the floor that really drew her eyes.
"What's Rito doing on the floor?" She wondered aloud. It was then that she noticed Sensei's hand had a firm grasp on Rito's, gears started turning in Lala's head, until she came to the most logical (in her opinion) conclusion. "Rito must have wanted to comfort Mikado-sensei by sharing a bed with her, but he fell out of bed in his sleep!" Lala concluded happily.
"Lala-sama, are you sure that's what he was doing?" Peke asked.
"Of course I'm sure Peke. Rito did say that he loved her, Haruna, Yui, Run, myself, and Nana at the pool a few weeks ago after all, remember." Lala stated triumphantly.
"Lala-sama, I'm pretty sure that was just an ac-"
"Now let's get Rito back in bed with her." Lala said, cutting Peke off. Lifting up the covers, Lala gently slid Rito into bed, at Mikado-sensei's side. "Now I have to make sure Rito doesn't fall out of bed again. But how to do it?" Lala only took a moment to think before coming up with what she thought to be a brilliant idea. Lifting Mikado-sensei up, she flipped her over face-first on top of Rito. "There we go, just like a paperweight." She grinned, quite happy with her handy work.
"Now I'll just leave you two alone for now. Oh, and before I forget. Mikado-sensei, I don't know if you can hear me right now, but I'm very sorry for all the trouble and pain my invention caused you, I promise to be much more careful in the future, not just for you, but also for anyone else that could get hurt by my inventions." She said in apology. "Rito does say that my inventions can cause a lot of grief for others." She added sheepishly, before turning off the lights and swiftly making a quiet exit.
Later - With Rito and Ryoko
'What happened to me?' Wondered a rather groggy Rito as he began to rouse from his sleep. 'Let's see... I remember falling into Mikado-sensei's breasts.' Rito's thoughts paused for a moment, as his face turned slightly red at that thought. 'Then I think I fell into the bedpost as I was trying get up. I don't really remember anything else after that, so that must mean the bedpost must have knocked me out. Which would mean I'm probably on the floor right now.'
Rito was vaguely aware that being able to piece that together so quickly meant that stuff like that was happening to him way too often, but he'd worry about that a bit later. Hopefully once his head stopped spinning, and he figured out why he was feeling a bit suffocated. 'Suffocated?' At that thought gears started turning in both his head. 'That would have to mean my face is in someone's breasts.' He concluded. He sat up to confirm his suspicions, and sure enough, once he was no longer feeling suffocated he could see Mikado-sensei, plain as day, sleeping peacefully on his chest, with her arms firmly holding onto him, looking to all the world like she belonged there.
'Yep, this kind of thing really does happen to me way to often, especially if even I'm starting to be completely fine with it.' However starting was the key word here so... "Mikado-sensei!" Rito yelled, in a panicked effort to both wake her up and get her off him. It seemed to work, as she was slowly rousing from her sleep. However seemed to were the key words here, for as soon as she saw Rito her expression took on a very loving appearance, an appearance that Rito was all too familiar, and rather uncomfortable with, as he saw it from several girls on a daily basis, and it usually meant trouble for him.
"Rito." Ryoko sighed lovingly as soon as she saw him. 'This is my chance.' Thought Ryoko, the moment she saw the position she was in with Rito. 'He's right here, in my arms, and can't get away. Come on Ryoko, this is your big chance! Tell him how you feel, and make him yours.' Ryoko worked up all her nerve, and seductively as she could began her confession. "Ohhh Rito." She purred, getting a bit closer to his face.
"Y-yeah" Rito replied nervously. 'Why is she talking like that?' He thought, somewhat scared of the way she was eying him right now.
"I've got a nice secret, Rito. Would you like to hear it?" She said, closing the distance between them a bit more.
"Wh-what are you talking about, Mikado-sensei?" Asked Rito nervously as he tried to back away, only to be blocked by the backboard of the bed.
Ryoko knew he was trying to get away, so she'd have to put a preemptive stop to anything like that from happening, and she knew just how to do it. She grabbed his right hand with her left, put her right arm around his back, and placed his right hand on her chest all in one smooth motion. "Do you feel this Rito?" She asked the very red faced man in question. "Do you feel my heart racing?" She sighed slowly and as seductively as she knew how. This was making him even more uncomfortable, and she knew it.
'Perfect, this is just how I planned for it to happen while I was stuck on that machine. Now if I want this to work I have to go even further and catch him off guard, that should confuse him enough to make him seriously think about what could be between him and I, and that's all I'll need to work with to make him mine, even if I do have to share him. Heck, sharing him might be better for me in case I ever wanted some time to myself.' She reasoned.
"It does that for you, and speeds up when you're close, but you've never seemed to notice that before." She pouted in the most suggestive manner she could, making steam come out of Rito's head. "Well I guess we'll just have to change that then, won't we?" She smirked, as she was about to close what little distance remained between them when she suddenly felt a huge jolt of pain, and in turn did the most simple thing she could think of.
She screamed.
Ryoko had never been in this much pain before, not even when she was on Lala's latest machine did it hurt this much. Heck, it was like reliving all five days of the torture all at once. Even through all the pain and her screaming she could still vaguely hear Rito shouting something, someone come rushing into the room, something ripping, and she also noticed that she fell onto the floor. She didn't know how anyone could be in so much pain without dieing from it. It felt like every kind of pain imaginable; bones breaking, skin and flesh tearing, serious burning, extreme pressure, and several other kinds of pain she couldn't quite place at the moment, were all happening in any place they could, and some she thought they couldn't, all at once and at incredibly high intensities.
Fortunately for her, as quickly and suddenly the pain started, it stopped, as if it had never even been there in the first place. In fact, Ryoko was feeling better than she had ever felt before in her entire life. She casually got up to see what had happened. Looking around, she saw Rito, Lala, and Oshizu, who were all looking at her like she had grown a second head or something, except for Rito, who was frozen in place, and who's face looked more like he had just been violated than anything else.
'What are they staring at?' She wondered, until she noticed something more odd than the looks she was getting were. 'They look shorter than usual. I mean I know I'm supposed to be taller than then, being the only fully grown adult here, but I look like I've got about 60cm on each of them, at least.' Not wanting to be left in the dark she turned her head to where she knew her mirror to be, and was extremely surprised at what she saw.
Where she was expecting to see her usual super sexy self, likely with slightly damaged clothes, she instead saw something very different. She'd grown at least 30cm and her breasts had followed suit in terms of growth, perhaps becoming even being bigger in proportion to her height than before. Her lab coat, vest and bra had torn off and were in pieces on the floor, exposing her bare torso. And her dress was torn just as badly and was threatening to fall off as well. But the most striking change of all to her appearance, was that in place of her usual slim and sexy figure, she instead had more muscle on her than she'd ever seen on any man, and she'd seen some buff men in her line of work. Too stunned to do or say anything else, she turned to Lala and asked. "What the hell happened to me?"
Everyone was stunned to say the least, but when they heard Ryoko say something they snapped out of it, and Rito was the first to speak. "What the hell was that!" He shouted, covering his eyes.
"That's what I want to know too." Replied Ryoko, who was actually starting to lose her normally infinite patience for the first time in she didn't know how long.
"You're the one who started it!" Exploded Rito.
"Started wha-ohhh, that." Ryoko realized with a smirk. "Just so you know this and that are two completely unrelated matters, and don't tell me you didn't like what I know you were thinking of."
Just as Rito was about to respond to that Lala cut in. "Mikado-sensei, how did you get so big?"
'That tears it!' Ryoko thought angrily, as she grabbed Lala by her collar, and brought her up to eye level. "How do you think I got like this you ditz!" She shouted. "It was no doubt because of that stupid exercise machine of yours that I was trapped on for five days! Five fucking days! Do you have any idea how fucking painful that was! Well let me tell you, it wasn't much compared to the pain I went through just now, you bitch! What Rito sees in you I'll never know! Especially when he has me, or any other girl in the universe as an option!"
Ryoko was really mad right now, and she didn't care why, all she cared about at the moment was telling Lala off for all the shit she'd put people through, herself and Rito especially. "Why does he love you, damn-it! Why! Why can't he want me instead?" She finished tearfully. She was panting slightly until she came to her senses and realized what she said and the looks she was getting, which were making even her a little uncomfortable. "Lala, I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me, I-."
"If I may." Peke interjected, nervously. "A common side-effect of the 'Berserker Deluxe' medicine you took a few days ago is a large, though temporary spike in rage and aggression. Mikado-sensei most likely just had a delayed reaction to that effect, due to the differences in physiology between her and the Devilukeans it was originally designed for. I wouldn't be surprised if it also had a hand in your sudden growth." She explained, quite eloquently.
"Ehhh, does it really do that?" Asked Lala, obviously unfazed by Ryoko's sudden outburst.
"You didn't know the side-effects, yet you used it on her anyway! And also, Mikado-sensei, what was all that about earlier? And would you please put some clothes on!" Rito shouted, still red-faced, and still refusing to open his eyes.
"Ara, Rito, have you seen how big I've gotten? None of my clothes would fit me anymore." Ryoko cooed playfully, her earlier trauma apparently forgotten as she walked over to Rito, picked him up until he was at eye-level, and had opened his eyes to see what was happening "And if you haven't figured it out by now you're either the biggest idiot on Earth, or in denial, and the man I fell in love with is no idiot, so you must be the latter."
At those words Rito finally realized what she was doing before, and he did the only thing he could do in response.
He fainted from shock.
Later - With Rito and Ryoko
Since he'd already passed out once before that day, it only took Rito a matter of minutes to wake-up this time, and when he did he was in for quite a shock. "What happened?" He murmured when he woke-up in Mikado-sensei's bed for the second time that day. He took a look around and the question answered itself, in a way he wished it hadn't. To be exact it was the sight of an Amazon-sized Mikado-sensei in nothing but some very risque underwear that answered his question. His response to this sight, "Mikado-sensei!"
That got her attention, "Ara, you're up already Rito? That was certainly fast." She said happily, her earlier rage seemingly gone and forgotten. "Sorry about my clothes, but Lala's little robot friend hasn't finished making the rest of them bigger yet, so this is all I have for right now." She commented, obviously sensing, and oddly enough, actually caring about his discomfort at the sight before him for once. "That and I wasn't expecting you to wake-up so soon."
"You, but, how, what, why?" Was all he managed to stammer out, before he remembered the last thing that had happened before he passed-out. When he recalled what she said and having only one possibly answer as to why she would say that, "Pedophile!" He shouted, a finger pointing accusingly to the woman in question.
"Uh-uh Rito," She teased, wagging her index finger playfully at him. "That title would only apply if I were a man, or over 30, but I'm neither of those things, so you can't call me that."
"Don't say that like it's the most obvious thing in the world!" He shouted, his already red-face getting more and more vivid in color. 'This is just great,' He groaned inwardly, 'First Lala says she loves me, then Run, and now even Mikado-sensei's fallen for me! I remember back when I only had Haruna-chan on my mind, but with so many women interested in me, and my feelings torn between two girls, one of whom I haven't even confessed to yet, and the other one insisting that polygamy is okay, I just don't know what to do here.'
Ryoko seemed to sense his confusion, as she went over to Rito and embraced him, though it only made him more panic, squirm, and stutter something incoherent in protest. "Rito, calm down, you'll faint again if you get too stimulated, I only want to help right now. Nothing sexual, I'll save that for my dreams for the moment." As she said this Rito realized she was only concerned about his well-being, and did calm down a bit, though the comment about her dreams brought back a bit of the unease. "You've just had a pretty big shock, though all things considered, you should be used to all matters related to women by now." She joked as she backed-off a bit.
"Don't say that like it's a good thing." Whined a downtrodden Rito. "You make me sound like some kind of pervert."
"Rito, some boys are just really popular with girls," She reasoned reassuringly, "And sometimes those boys just see a lot of things they'd rather not see and get hurt for it. It's not exactly something you can really help."
"I suddenly feel a lot worse now than I did before, but thanks for trying anyway." Sighed Rito. "But that aside, where did you learn to talk like that?" He asked curiously. 'Saying something profound like this really isn't her style at all.'
"Oh that, I just read something similar in a manga once that's all." She said as if it wasn't really all that great.
'So that's where that came from.' Rito deadpanned inwardly.
"But at any rate Rito you haven't gotten red-faced once since you calmed down." She pointed out.
Now that he thought about it she had a point. She'd been holding him in her underwear this whole time, and he hadn't even noticed. Hell, he wasn't even bothered enough to complain about it now that he'd noticed it. "I guess I'm just used to it by now." He said nervously, as the very thought of being okay around nude, or scantily clad women made him feel like a huge pervert.
The thought didn't last long however, as Ryoko took this time to use her newly gained strength to push Rito back onto the bed, and press herself up against him, further emphasizing her already huge chest. "Hey Rito, you wanna do something naughty with me?" She asked seductively. "Sleeping with a strong woman should be pretty exotic, don't you think?"
"Will you cut that out!" Yelled Rito, who was suddenly back to his normal, red-faced self.
"Looks like we're back to the old Rito." She smiled as she got off him, and went over to the chair at her desk. "I'm not surprised, really. Men like you aren't supposed to be comfortable around nude women until they're married, and even then it's only with their wife that they're okay with it. I'm perfectly fine with waiting a year or two before you're fine with seeing me nude. It's more fun to tease you for the moment anyway"
'Why does she always do this kind of stuff to me? With the way she worded that it's like she's sure we're going to get married someday, and she even admitted that she enjoys poking fun at my expense.' His mind panicked at the thought, the fantasy of her, Lala, and Haruna-chan in wedding gowns, jumping out of a cake he'd had earlier that day coming back in full force, only this time Mikado-sensei had her new muscles and was carrying the other two on her shoulders. 'Bad thoughts, bad thoughts!'
'But now that I think about it, this whole time it's like she's known exactly what I needed to hear. I mean, because of what she just said and did, I don't feel like a pervert anymore, I just feel like I'm a victim here, and that's a feeling I'm more than used to and okay with by now. I wonder why she'd look out for me like that.' Feeling a bit better, if not still somewhat uncomfortable about the facts that Mikado-sensei was in her underwear, was apparently in love with him, and was now strong enough to make any fantasies she has about him a reality if she really wanted and tried to, he decided to vocalize a few of the questions that had been weighing heavily on his mind.
Not wanting to see her next to nude any longer, but not wanting to be taken by surprise again either, Rito angled his head up a bit so that Ryoko's head was just at the edge of his eyesight and asked. "Why did you say all that stuff before?" He managed to squeeze out, embarrassed as he was.
"What stuff? You'll have to be more specific." Ryoko teased playfully.
"What you said to calm me down, and what you did with your uhhh, well, to make me, well, you know." He stammered at the end, trying, and failing, to not get embarrassed, and to dance around the subject of when she pressed herself up against him to make him go back to normal. "It seemed like you knew exactly what I needed."
"Well that's because I did, since I'm a doctor I have to be very observant of these things." She explained. "But I usually use this skill to tease you, so it's no wonder you were surprised by it. But as for the reason as to why I suddenly decided to be so comforting just now, it's simply because I love you."
'So that's what it was. I feel like someone just pulled a horrible prank on me, but because she just said she helped me because she loves me, I can't get angry at her without looking like a jerk.' Thought Rito, until he remembered his other question. "Umm, would you mind if I also ask-." He began, until he was cut off by...
"Ryoko! Peke finished making your new clothes." Lala chimed as she entered the room with a large stack of the clothes she'd just mentioned. "Oh Rito, you're up, Ryoko said you might wake-up soon, since you already slept for five hours today."
"Ah, thank you Lala, Rito was starting to get a bit uncomfortable with my lack of clothes." Ryoko smiled as she took the clothes.
"Yeah, he does that with me too." She chirped
"I had to use some of your clothes as material to make the rest of your outfits bigger." Said Peke. "I hope you don't mind."
"Not at all, Peke. I'm just happy to have a wardrobe that actually fits me again." Ryoko beamed as she held up a newly fitted shirt.
Rito was about to try asking the question that Lala had interrupted again until a few far better ones popped into his head that he decided to ask instead. "Mikado-sensei, didn't you tell me that you didn't expect me to wake-up so soon?"
"Oh, I lied about that so you wouldn't get angry at me for sending Lala away. You know, so we could have some alone time." She explained simply, softly laughing as she began putting her clothes back on.
'So that's your reason?' Thought Rito, before he decided to vocalize his second question. "But if none of your clothes fit you anymore, why did you still have underwear on when I woke-up?" He asked, somewhat annoyed at her answer to his first question, and afraid of how she would answer this new one.
"I had her fix that much before she left. The right underwear can make a girl sexier than she would be in the nude, and I wanted to see the look on your face when you saw me like that." She answered shamelessly as she finished getting dressed.
'I should have known that her answer would be something like that.' Rito sighed, grateful that she was at least dressed now.
"Ehhh! Does it really work like that Ryoko?" Asked Lala excitedly.
"Of course it does Lala. If it didn't I wouldn't have asked you to fix my underwear before you left." Ryoko smiled as she folded her arms beneath her bosom, pushing them up and down.
'These two are going to be the death of me.' Thought Rito grimly. Though not wanting his earlier question to go unanswered, Rito decided to dare and ask. "You seem to be taking this all pretty well Mikado-sensei, why is that?"
"Oh that's all very easy to explain Rito." Ryoko started with a smirk that immediately told Rito he wouldn't like where this was going. "You see I don't mind having all this muscle because of what I'm getting out of it."
"And wh-wh-what is that?" Rito managed to stutter out through nervously chattering teeth.
"Well since you're the one who knocked me into the machine causing it to malfunction in the first place, so Lala and I agreed you're going to have to take responsibility for it."
"A-and h-how do you ex-expect me to d-do that?" He barely managed to get out.
Ryoko walked over to Rito, bent over, spread out her right hand a few centimeters in front of his face, and said. "You're going to go with me on five dates, one for each day I spent on that machine."
Shock was Rito's first reaction, but because he was already too well rested to faint again he had to settle for the next best thing. "I have to what?" He barely managed to ask at an audible level.
"You heard me Rito," Began Ryoko, still a bit too close for comfort, "Five dates, at the time, place, and length of my choosing, and don't try to avoid it, because I know your conscience won't let you."
She had him there. He knew as well as she did that if he didn't do something to make up for what he put her through he'd feel like dirt for months. 'But does it really have to be in the form of dates?' He whined to himself. 'I already have Lala, or maybe Haruna if I ever confess to her, and then make up my mind about which one I really want, I don't need to be torn between anyone else.' He would've voiced his complaint if not for one thing.
*GRRRRUUUUURRGGGLLLE*
Their was a short pause before. "Oh that's right, I suppose we both haven't had anything to eat in a while, have we Rito?" Ryoko commented at the sudden growling of both of their stomachs.
"Ohhh, can I cook Ryoko?" Asked Lala excitedly. "Rito says I really need to work on my cooking."
"Absolutely not!" Exclaimed Rito. He would rather he not get third-degree burns in and on his mouth and tongue, thank you very much.
"Then I can cook." Chimed in Ryoko as she exited Rito's personal space.
"That's even worse!" Rito shouted, remembering his previous, rather ecchi encounters with anything that Mikado-sensei had a hand in brewing up.
"You don't think I'd be good at it?" Whined Ryoko cutely. "I have to cook for myself and Oshizu-chan all the time you know." She explained matter-of-factly.
Rito had to admit that, logically she did have a point, however his almost primal and somewhat justified fear of having Mikado-sensei prepare his food won out over his more logical side. "Sorry Mikado-sensei, but Mikan is expecting Lala and I to get home for dinner." That was a lie, Lala and Rito hadn't been home before nine-thirty ever since Mikado-sensei got trapped on Lala's machine, but this was the best excuse he could come up with on such short-notice. So, as politely, and as nervously, though the latter was unintentional, as he could, he grabbed Lala, and got out of there as fast as possible.
Ryoko couldn't help but chuckle at how fast Rito had left. "He's obviously lying, but I swear, that boy's faster than a bullet train sometimes." She mused. "But still, I would've liked the chance to find out his preferences in foods in order to make deciding where our dates should be even a little bit easier."
"Ehhh!" Squealed Oshizu, who Lala had brought out earlier when she fainted at the same time as Rito for some reason she wasn't quite able to recall, but had awoken when she heard some noise and had come to investigate. "You have a date Mikado-sensei? Who with?"
"Why Rito of course." Ryoko said to Oshizu, who slipped out of her body upon hearing this. "Don't you remember me confessing to him just a few minutes ago?" She chuckled.
Oshizu, though reeling from what she'd just heard, managed to remember what had caused her to faint in the first place, and then proceeded to get back into her body and attempt to dissuade Ryoko from her plan. "B-but Mikado-sensei, Rito's so much younger than you are. It just wouldn't be right for you to date him, and why would he want to anyway?" She said in a bit of a panic, a fact which did not escape Ryoko's notice.
"We agreed that the best way for him to repay me for getting me caught-up in Lala's machine would be for him to go out with me for awhile. But, you seem to be quite keen on not wanting me to date Rito, nee Oshizu-chan." Ryoko noted, a sly grin creeping across her face. "Don't tell me you just want me out of the picture so you can have Rito all for yourself?" She teased, quietly laughing at the end when she saw Oshizu's face light up like a Christmas tree.
"N-n-no, no, of course not Mikado-sensei!" Oshizu the red-faced ghost exclaimed. "I-I'm just worried about, well, maybe not, I don't, what I mean to say is-." She babbled incoherently.
"You're worried about how your friend Haruna would feel about me going out with the man she loves, right." Ryoko completed for her simply.
For a few moments there was silence, and Oshizu slipping out of her body again. "You knew about Haruna, but you're still making him go out with you?!" She exclaimed. "Why? How could you do something like that?"
Ryoko smiled softly at the naivete of the young girl. Well, maybe not so young since she was over 400 years old, before she decided to explain a little bit about how love works these days. "Oshizu, there's an old proverb that goes, 'All's fair in love and war' I'm simply putting that idea into practice, that's all. There's no shame in it as long as I don't intentionally hurt someone, understand?"
"I guess you're right." Oshizu admitted, she really couldn't hold something like what she was doing against her, especially since she herself had encouraged Haruna to use the very same tactics to try to win Rito's affection. 'Well, based on what Haruna's told me about him, it's not as if Rito's the kind of person who would fall for someone so much older than him, even if he did have to go out with her for awhile, right?' She silently reassured herself. 'At least, I hope he's not.'
Meanwhile, Rito was walking home with Lala, his body slouched over in poor posture and his feet dragging on the pavement, as if only to emphasize his discomfort at what had just happened. 'Why do I have to go out with her? Five Times!' He shouted in his head. 'It wasn't as if I meant for this all to happen, so why do I have to do this?'
For all his wishes to the contrary, Rito knew it was pointless to try and get out of having to do this. After all, ever since Lala first came to Earth, he'd found himself, far more often than he wished, in situations he'd rather not be in, and every time they happened there was never any way out, and he was always left to just wait it out. Past experience had shown him that even attempting to get out of it on his own, and sometimes even with help, only led to more suffering. And though he didn't think it could get any worse than what he was already in for, someone always found someway of proving him wrong on that particular thought, and he didn't feel even remotely lucky enough to gamble his chances of getting out of this on anyone he knew.
Lala, who was walking a few paces behind Rito, had somehow taken notice of his desire to be left alone to think on the way home. However, they had already been walking for several minutes now, and as she was getting very tired of the awkward silence that had been going on during that time she finally decided to speak-up. "So Rito, where do you think Ryoko's going to want to go with you on your date tomorrow?"
Rito was just going to ignore her and keep on his sad trudge home, but something she just said had caught his interest. "Tomorrow? What do you mean tomorrow?" He asked, his curiosity just barely strong enough to get past his depression.
"Oh that, Ryoko said she'd be coming over at about ten tomorrow morning to pick you up for your first date." She replied, happy that he was starting to come out of his funk.
Rito sighed for what seemed like the 100th time that day before continuing his string of questions. "You seem to be taking this pretty well," he started, "And why are you calling Mikado-sensei by her given name?"
"That's easy! She said that if we're both going to marry you someday, that I should start getting used to calling her Ryoko." She responded, completely oblivious to how wrong that sounded, and to the fact that it made Rito bang his head against a traffic pole in frustration so hard that it left a dent.
'There's just no point in trying to talk sense to her.' Rito finally realized as he opened the door to his house.
"You two are home early." Said Mikan as they walked in. "Did Lala finally manage to get Mikado-sensei out of that exercise machine?"
"Mm-hm, I sure did, and she's coming over tomorrow at ten to pick-up Rito for their date." Lala answered enthusiastically to a suddenly white-faced Mikan.
Mikan was shocked at Lala, who she knew to be in love with Rito, happily saying that he had a date with someone else. But she quickly got over it when she reasoned that this was Lala they were talking about, and chalked up her attitude towards this to a combination of both her clueless personality and a cultural divide.
Rito, who was frantically trying to explain the situation, on the other hand was her older brother and was certainly not of a different culture, therefore, in spite of having already gotten the basic details of his rather poor explanation, 'Something about Mikado-sensei making him do this to make-up for getting her trapped on the machine in the first place.' it was her job as a sister to poke fun at him for the situation he was in.
"Rito, you're such a playboy." She said to him, with a sly smirk working its way across her face. As she left to go start dinner, she could hear Rito moaning at what she'd just said. 'Good luck Rito. You're gonna need it.'
The Next Morning
Rito wasn't happy when he woke-up, and not for the usual reason of finding Lala or one of her sisters sound asleep in his bed, though waking up alone did lift his spirits somewhat, and not because he'd finally gotten to sleep at midnight and woken-up at five in the morning. No, he was upset because of what happened yesterday and what he had to do today. "Why does stuff like this keep happening to me?" He asked of no one in particular as he got himself dressed for the day.
Flashback. Last Night, at Dinner:
"Ehhhh! Rito's has to go out on five dates with some pedophile?!" Yelled Nana. "And you're okay with this onee-sama?!"
"Mm-hm." Nodded Lala cheerfully. "By the way, what's a pedophile?" She asked, completely oblivious to the looks that she was getting from everyone around her.
"Hmm, so Rito and onee-san are okay with polygamy then?" Momo said as she got a very sly look in her eye. 'That means that I have a chance then!'
"What are you thinking about Momo!?" Nana yelled as if she could tell what her sister was thinking about.
While all this was going on, Rito had already long since given-up trying to explain the situation to everybody, and was instead focused on his dinner and what he thought Mikado-sensei would want to do tomorrow. 'Knowing her it'd probably be something along the lines of a hotel or something.' He shuddered at the mere thought of the idea. 'I don't want lose my virginity at such a young age, especially not with someone I wouldn't do it with even if I was already prepared for it.' It was painfully obvious to him that he'd have a hard time getting any sleep tonight, whether it be from the fact he'd already gotten so much sleep today, or because he feared what would happen tomorrow. So he excused himself from the table and went directly to his room in an effort to get at least some sleep to prepare for tomorrow.
End Flashback.
"Since I'm probably not going to get any more sleep, I might as well get ready for the day." He sighed as he went to take a bath, hoping that no one would pop in on him, he'd had far too many encounters with women in baths for him to not worry about another one of those encounters happening every time he went to wash-up. Fortunately, fate seemed to be on his side today, as no such encounter had happened, Rito decided that it was because he had woken-up so early that everyone else was too busy sleeping to intrude on his bath for once.
The thought that there was a time of day where he wouldn't have to worry about anything while he took a bath was tempting enough to give some serious consideration to getting up at this time everyday, but he put that thought aside when he decided that such a daily pattern would be more trouble than it's worth. Not wanting to sit around doing nothing for the next few hours, he elected to go for a walk before the other sleeping residents of the house woke-up and annoyed him to no end.
As he walked he tried to keep his mind off the subject of Mikado-sensei, but he was having a pretty had time actually doing so as she kept appearing in his thoughts every ten seconds or so. "What did I expect really?" He sighed, barely aware that he'd said that aloud. "I'm expected to go on five dates with her, the first of which is today, of course I can't keep her out of my mind no matter how hard I try." As he said this he leaned against a wall in order to relax a little. He looked up at the sky for what seemed like hours, thinking about what would likely be in store for him on these dates with Mikado-sensei, when suddenly it occurred to him that he had absolutely no idea where he was.
When he'd been walking earlier he'd been too focused on what he was going to be in for today to be able to pay attention to where he was going at the time, but now that he thought about it, he had no idea where his feet had taken him when he wasn't paying attention.
"I couldn't have gone too far," He reasoned, "I'm sure that if I look around here I'll find something that looks familiar and find my way home from there."
His search didn't last long, for when he looked around the wall he'd been leaning against for the past several minutes he saw the last thing he wanted to see.
"Mikado-sensei's house." He sighed as he slid down the wall he was leaning on in despair. When he thought about it, the fact that he walked here subconsciously wasn't really all that surprising, after all he'd walked to and from here every day with Lala for the past five days, and he couldn't get Mikado-sensei off his mind the whole way here, so it was only natural that he would come this way.
"It's a good thing it's so early and I know how heavy of a sleeper she is, otherwise I'd be panicking right about now." He breathed a sigh of relief, instead of sorrow as he usually does, at the knowledge that there would be no awkward encounters at her front door happening.
Deciding that he should be getting home about now, he got up and went to go home, when suddenly...
"Rito?" Came a voice that he knew all too well for his comfort at the moment from behind him.
He froze in his tracks and slowly turned around to see, "Mikado-sensei."
'This is certainly not what I expected to see at my house at six in the morning, not that I'm complaining of course.' Mused Ryoko happily. "Well this certainly is a pleasant surprise Rito. What are you doing at my house so early in the morning? Most people aren't usually up at this hour."
"I c-couldn't sleep, and decided to take a walk." He replied before also asking. "What are you doing up so early?" 'She's not exactly an early-riser herself after all.'
"The same story. We did both get a lot of sleep yesterday already after all, and I didn't feel like just sitting around doing work this morning." She explained before she decided to have a little fun. "But if you just wanted to go for a walk, why did you cone to my house I wonder? Couldn't wait for our first date could you?" His face turned red and panic filled instantly when she said that. 'I really have too much fun teasing the poor boy.'
"N-n-no, not at all! I just wasn't paying attention to where I was going, and before I knew it I wound up here." In the small part of his mind that actually somewhat understood women, and was still keeping it's cool, he realized that what he'd just said would only help her side of the argument.
"So, let me see if I get this straight." She began slyly. "You were just wandering aimlessly around town, and you somehow wound up coming to my house. Now forgive me if I'm wrong, but if your story really went as you said then that would mean that you came here subconsciously, and the subconscious, simply put, is the most basic, primitive, and uncensored desires of your mind. That being said, exactly what kind of primitive and uncensored desires did you have that brought you here Rito?" She worded in such a way that made steam come out of Rito's head.
'Yep, I really do love to tease Rito far too much. I should probably stop before he overheats and passes out again. I mean, I do have a date with him today.' She mused.
"Calm down Rito, there's no need to be so stiff about this. But since you're here anyway, why don't we start our date right now?" She suggested helpfully.
"N-now? As in right now?" He asked nervously, already fearing what she might have in store for him.
"Sure, why not? We could go for a walk, talk for a while, and if we pass an open restaurant we could stop there for something to eat, my treat." She suggested simply.
Rito stopped to think upon hearing this. 'Okay, that's definitely not what I was expecting. She only wants to go for a walk and have breakfast with me. This might not actually be as bad as I was making it out to be.'
"Okay then, that sounds nice." Was his still somewhat uncertain reply.
"Well what are we waiting for, I know a nice place not too far from here that has a good breakfast menu, though I'm not sure if they're open this early."
During the walk they didn't really say much outside of the occasional observation of how different the streets are so early in the morning, the awkward silence between them making them both a bit uneasy, though Ryoko did a much better job of hiding it. When they got to the restaurant they were quite glad to see that it was open, and the nervous looks on the faces of all the staff, and the few early-rising customers like them when they saw Ryoko walk in, made the woman in question chuckle at the sight.
After they ordered their meals the silent tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife, with neither party really knowing how they could break the silence that was making the situation that much more awkward.
Surprisingly, the one to finally break the heavy curtain of silence blanketing the room was Rito. "Umm, Mikado-sensei?" He began nervously, getting her attention. "What was it that made you, well, errrm, fall in love with, well, me? Or, why exactly did you tell me?" He asked the latter question in a somewhat panicked tone, hinting that he was unsure if the first one was really appropriate to ask.
She sighed a bit at the question, weather in sorrow, thought, or something else he didn't really know, but he waited patiently for her response. The response that he got was quite a surprising one. "When I was on that machine, it really made me fear for, and think about my life. What I had done in the past, what I was doing right now, and what I wanted to do with my life in the future. It made me remember all the horrible things I'd done in the mafia and how I have to live with all the bad decisions I made back then. It made me think of how glad and lucky I am to have the life that I lead now. But most importantly, wonder exactly what I still wanted out of life. It was then I realized that what I wanted most in the universe was someone who would always be with me, and the only person I could imagine myself with was you Rito."
Rito was stunned by her answer. 'I've never really thought that much about all that stuff, and when I did it was never that deep.' His train of thought began. 'And there was something else about her response, 'feared for...my life', Was she afraid that she might die on that thing?' He was about to ask about that, when the food arrived and ruined the mood. 'I suppose that I could ask her about that later.' He thought as he began his meal.
After they'd finished, Ryoko had told Rito that she had some appointments with patients that she needed to keep, and that he could go home now.
"But, I don't feel right, ending the date so soon I mean. It feels like I've ripped you off, or something Mikado-sensei." He reasoned.
"I have other appointments to keep, and it would've gone more or less the same if I'd come over when I said I would anyway, so you don't have to feel guilty about anything."
"Even so I-" He began, but was cut off.
"If you really want to make it up to me, you just have to do me one small favor."
"What that?" He asked, without the slightest bit of unease in his voice, she noted happily.
"Call me Ryoko from now on, and we'll call it even." She smiled brightly.
"Mika-" He began, but stopped himself before uneasily saying. "Ryoko."
"That's good, call me that from now on and we shouldn't have any problems." She said as she walked off to her house.
Rito stood in place for a few minutes, trying to comprehend exactly what had just happened, before he decided it would be best if he went home before his extended family started jumping to crazy conclusions.
Unbeknown to both parties involved, a very dangerous person had been observing them since they meet at Ryoko's house that morning. Someone who could, and more importantly, would use what he'd just seen take place to his advantage.
The name of that person, was Sallem Cortez.
On his way home, Rito noticed that a lot of stores were opening up around now, which meant that everyone back at home should be waking up soon too, and that would mean he'd have some explaining to do when he got back. "Oh well, at least I've had a decent morning so far." He spoke aloud unknowingly. "The date wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be, and one date down means only four more, and they probably won't be all that bad anyway, at least if the first date is anything to go by." Upon saying this his thoughts took a sudden, though not surprising, turn for the worse.
"But what if she was just taking it easy during the first date to get me to let my guard down? I wouldn't put it past her to try something like that. From what I know of her that may be just what she's planning." Rito was really starting to panic right now. 'This isn't good, my thoughts are going straight downhill, from what used to be such a happy outlook.' Pausing to think about it as he was opening the door to his house, he decided that for the safety and well-being of his mind, he would be best off giving Ryoko the benefit of a doubt, and to see where this all goes.
"Rito, where have you been?" Asked Mikan the moment he walked into the house. "Everyone's already had breakfast."
"Sorry about that Mikan," Began Rito, "But I woke-up early and decided to go for a walk so that I wouldn't bother anyone."
Mikan eyed him suspiciously, before relenting, obviously accepting his excuse. "All right, I don't mind if that's what happened, but you're going to have to live with cold eggs today, because I'm not going to warm them up." She said firmly.
"That's okay, I've already eaten." Replied Rito before he knew what he was saying.
"You've already eaten? Where and when did this happen?" Mikan asked him accusingly.
Rito was beginning to panic, and as anyone who knows him can tell you, Rito panicking mostly consists of a long, rambling, and nervously stuttered excuse. "W-well, you see, on my walk I ran into Ryoko and-"
"Ryoko? Don't you mean Mikado-sensei?" She interrupted teasingly. "And what does she have to do with this?"
"I ran into her as I passed her house and-" He began hurriedly, before he was again cut off.
"And what exactly were you doing at her house at this hour?" If there was any hidden meaning to her words, they didn't escape Rito.
"I walked to her house because I'd been going to and from there for the past five days, and wasn't paying attention to where I was going!" He explained frantically, before Mikan could interrupt once more. "Anyway, she was going for a walk too, and she decided to start our date then, and we went to a restaurant." Rito was short on breath after that long winded explanation, but Mikan wasn't done giving him the third-degree just yet.
"But that still doesn't explain why you called her Ryoko." She said simply.
"She asked me to, okay?" He sighed from running his mouth too much, too quickly.
"Hmmm, and is that all that happened today? Because that doesn't seem like Ryoko at all." She said while placing a little extra emphasis on Ryoko, and getting an amusing response from Rito in return.
"I swear that's all that happened Mikan." He said exasperatedly. "You know, you're beginning to sound a bit like Ryoko, yourself."
She thought this over for a minute before saying. "That's not really so bad, especially if I start to look like her too. Then boys might start acting like my own personal slaves."
"Ehhh, Mikan wants to get strong?" Wondered Lala, who, as usual, had just come at the worst time possible.
"Strong? What do you mean Lala?" She asked, oblivious to Ryoko's current physical state.
One Explanation Later
"What?!" Yelled Mikan after hearing about the state Ryoko's in. "Your machine made Ryoko buff, Lala?"
"Yep." Replied Lala simply.
"Hmmm." Mikan had to think for a few seconds, before continuing. "I had no idea Rito was into that kind of woman." She said, while casting a disapproving glance at Rito.
"I am not!" He shouted in protest, but to no avail, as Mikan was never really serious and was just teasing Rito.
"Well, I suppose that some boys are just into that kind of thing." Mikan thought aloud. "But Rito, are you sure that you're not one of them?"
"Positive!" Rito declared panicking.
Mikan pretended to mull this over for a minute, before she decided that she'd teased Rito enough for one morning. "Well, it's not like it makes any difference to me. Unless Ryoko gets impatient, suddenly becomes my sister-in-law, and I wind-up an aunt." Okay, so apparently she still had one dosage of taunting left in her.
"It's not like that!" He shouted for the umpteenth time.
"If you say so, Rito. But be sure to tell me how people react to her at school tomorrow." She requested.
"Tomorrow?" Wondered Rito aloud, until he realized something. "School starts again tomorrow!" He realized fearfully.
"Of course." Reminded Mikan. "Don't tell me you forgot that Rito?"
"I guess that with everything that's happened these past few day, I just lost track of time." Rito reasoned. "But still, now that you mention it, I can't help but wonder how everyone's going to react to Ryoko at school." He really wasn't looking forward to seeing that spectacle, especially not after all the looks they got at the restaurant this morning.
'I just hope that she doesn't mention the fact that I'm now basically seeing her to anyone. That wouldn't help me at all with Haruna-chan... Or Lala.' He added as a sad afterthought. 'I really need to decide who I really want, before this gets anymore out of hand.'
The Next Day
'People can't seem to stop staring at me.' Thought Ryoko on her way to school, happy that she was still drawing much attention, even though it was for a completely different reason than it used to be. 'I can't wait until I get to school and really start turning heads. After all, everyone there knows me pretty well already, and it's only been a little over a week since they've last seen me, so their reactions to my sudden growth should be pretty funny.' She thought to herself with a chuckle as she came up to the entrance to the school. 'Well, looks like it's time for people to really start gawking at my sex appeal, if you can still call it that anyway.'
The moment she walked through the school gates, she was not the least bit disappointed at all the stares she got, and the whispers she heard. One of the benefits of having pointy ears was that they tended to pick-up even very quiet sounds clear as day, just like a dog's ears.
"What the hell happened to Mikado-sensei?" One guy said.
"She looks like she got a whole head taller." Someone commented.
"Forget her height, she looks like she could bench press a truck." Another person retorted.
"A strong woman! Right here at school! It's like a dream come true!" Some pervert said.
"Eww! You're just sick!" Replied someone who'd overheard.
"How on Earth did she get that big in just a week?" Someone asked.
"Maybe she's on drugs." Someone answered.
"Or maybe she's an alien." Another person supplied.
"Don't be stupid. There aren't any aliens on Earth." Retorted someone who obviously didn't pay any attention to all the insanity at the school.
"Ryoko-chan! Noooo! What happened to your slim and sexy figure?" Whined The Principal.
'Well, seems I'm still the talk of the town.' Thought Ryoko happily. 'Even though it's for different reasons than it normally is, with some exceptions of course, I'm just glad to flaunt what I've got. Although, the idea that I'd use drugs for anything other than medicine and aphrodisiacs is a little insulting.' She thought as she tuned-out the rest of the comments and continued on towards her office. 'If they knew that the real reason I have all this muscle is because I went through hell for five days straight, they wouldn't be so quick to gossip.' She thought somberly.
'But, at least I have a chance with Rito now.' She brightened up. 'And who knows, maybe I'll win him over and be his wife someday, or one of them, or at least a concubine.' She got uncomfortable at the last thought. 'Well, hopefully I'll be one of his wives. After all, I kinda want to have an official marriage, and I don't really want to disappoint Lala or Haruna, and maybe any other girls who can get Rito to reciprocate their feelings. I wonder how many he'll end up with.'
'I haven't heard any gossip about Ryouko so far, so maybe not many people noticed her.' Thought Rito, as he and Lala walked into their classroom.
"Rito!" Shouted Saruyama. "Something incredible happened this morning!"
'Or maybe not.' Rito sighed inwardly "What is it?" He asked, though he was already painfully aware of the answer.
"Mikado-sensei got huge! And I'm not talking about her chest, even though that did seem to get bigger too!" Saruyama commented. "Anyway! She looks like she's grown 20cm, at least! And she's totally ripped! She looks like she could bend iron bars with her bare hands! How the hell do you think she got that big in just a week?"
"What makes you think I would know?" Commented Rito slightly nervously, obviously having a hard time trying to lie, especially since he'd already been a little unsettled by the sudden verbal attack.
"Oh, that." Intervened Lala. "An invention of mine malfunctioned and did that." She said before Rito could stop her.
"Why did you tell him!" Shouted Rito.
"Oh, well that makes sense." Replied Saruyama evenly, causing Rito to fall over in shock.
"It does?" Exclaimed Rito.
"Sure, Lala's inventions do all kinds of weird stuff, after all." He reasoned bluntly.
"Well, that may be true, but-" Rito began, but was cut off.
"Alright class, settle down." Began Honekawa-sensei. "I know that this is rather sudden, but we will be having a new transfer student joining us. He's only going to be here for the next three months, but I hope you'll all make him feel welcome."
'A transfer student?' Thought Rito, and no doubt almost everyone else in the room, at least if all the murmuring was anything to go by. At least until something occurred to Rito. 'Wait a second. Every time we get a sudden transfer student, it's always an alien.' He realized sorrowfully. 'Oh, please let it not be another alien. Please! I have my hands full just trying to survive the ones already here, I don't need any more problems! Especially now that I'm dating Ryoko!' He wrapped-up his thoughts there, as he was now stepping into dangerous waters.
"You may come in now." Said Honekawa-sensei, as he looked to the door, causing everyone in the room to follow suit. Everyone just stared at the door for at least 30 seconds, before Honekawa-sensei went to open the door to check. "Huh? Where did he go?" He wondered aloud.
Just as he said this, the window suddenly opened, drawing all eyes in the room.
"Huh? Why did the window open?" Asked a few kids in class.
It was as they asked this, that they suddenly heard a faint noise, that was steadily growing louder.
"Loooook ouuuuut!" Came the voice from outside.
Then suddenly, something, or someone, came flying through the window. For a split second, everyone was in total shock. But that shock was quickly replaced with comical confusion, when whoever or whatever it was that flew threw the window ricochet off the ceiling, and made a sound like a pinball machine. Then the object, who everyone now new to be a person bounced to the wall, and repeated the previous pattern at least six times, before finally landing with a sharp beep that sounded vaguely like 'tilt' behind Honekawa-sensei's desk.
For a few seconds, everyone in the room was too stupefied to speak. 'Did that seriously just happen?' The vast majority of everyone present thought.
"Oroooo." Came the groggy voice of whoever it was that just came flying into the room.
"Oh my god! Are you alright?" Exclaimed Honekawa-sensei when he finally processed what just happened.
"Yeah. I've taken worse blows before. I just hope that my entrance was SUPER!" Said whoever it was that had just landed in the room, as he hoisted himself up onto the desk, revealing that he was wearing a brown fedora, He had well defined, somewhat rugged features, curly brown hair that seemed to be long in the back, and a mustache, goatee combo, but that was all they could see, since he was barely standing on his knees behind the desk. "Pardon the mess, but I'm the new student. My name is Sallem Cortez. It's nice to meet you all." Sallem said with a salute.
"Ohhh! Sallem-kun!" Exclaimed Lala.
"Hello there, Lala. Nice to see you again after so long." Sallem replied, prompting instant gossip about this strange new student who just came flying in through the window, and apparently knew the most attractive girl in the school somehow. Rito, however, was in no mood to talk to anyone right now.
'Crap! He came flying in through the window! And he knows Lala!' He panicked. 'If those aren't sure signs he's an alien, I don't know what are! Is it just too much for me to ask for some normalcy in my life?' He knew today was not going to be easy.
"Pardon the mess," Said Sallem as he got out from behind the desk, revealing his full attire. He was dressed in what looked like a mismatch of cosplay; long orange scarf, green flac jacket, white long coat, black hakama, and black boots. "I decided that entering via rocket feet would be more exciting than just coming in a door, but I guess I overshot my mark" He explained.
"He has no cheek!" Exclaimed Saruyama.
"Thank you for pointing out the obvious." Remarked Sallem dryly as he turned to a profile pose, making his scarring that much more noticeable. "Lost it a while ago to my mortal enemies, but compared to what they could have done, it's a small detail. I mostly just keep it this way because it's cooler like this."
"Hold on a second!" Declared Yui. "Scarred face aside, that outfit is a clear violation of the school uniform!"
"This school has a uniform?" Asked an honestly (sounding) baffled Sallem. "I thought it was just some weird fashion choice that everyone decided to make today."
"Certainly not!" Rebuked Yui. "This school has a strict dress code! Everyone is wearing the same thing because those are the school rules!"
"If those are the school rules then explain the short, chubby, bald guy in the suit that I saw walking into the girl's changing room with an armful of cameras." Sallem deadpanned.
"Short... Chubby... Bald..." Said Yui, before she and everyone else realized who that had to be. "DAMN THAT HENTAI PRINCIPAL!" She and every other girl in the room, except for Lala and Haruna, exclaimed as they rushed off to find, and pummel, said principal, until he told them where the cameras were.
"So that's who he was." Commented Sallem, completely straight-faced. "When those girls come back, tell them that I went home to change into the outfit I was given when I transferred to this school." He said as he left. "I knew there was something strange about the school giving me clothes." Everyone remaining heard him mumble on his way out. "One more thing!" He said as he popped his head back in the room. "The sleeping pills that I slipped into the teacher's coffee this morning should be kicking in in three... two...one..."
He left the room again just as Honekawa-sensei passed-out at his desk. As he left, the few students remaining in the room heard...
"Yohohohohoho!" Sallem laughed maniacally as he walked down the halls.
"So Lala," Began Haruna after they all got over the initial shock of Sallem's antics. "How do you know Sallem?"
"Sallem's been an important business partner of papa for nine years now." Said Lala happily. "Papa even tried to have him marry me."
"So he was one of your fiance candidates?" Asked Rito.
"No." Replied Peke. "He turned down the offer instantly, and was quite rude about it as I recall."
"What did your father do about it?" Asked Rito fearfully, for he knew from experience that Lala's father was not someone to make mad.
"Absolutely nothing." Replied Peke much to Rito's shock. "Even at his young age, Sallem-sama was far too important to king Deviluke-sama for him to risk offending him. To this day, Sallem-sama technically holds more power than king Deviluke-sama himself." This really shocked Rito.
"More power than Lala's father?" Said Rito fearfully. "But isn't he the ruler of the galaxy?"
"On paper, yes. But ten years ago, at a tender eight years of age, Sallem-sama founded Zero Industries, which, due to his incomprehensible intellect, has become the most powerful and influential company in the galaxy. Even the massive political and physical power held by king Deviluke-sama is no match for the incredible economic power and reach held by Zero Industries. It would be more accurate to say that Sallem-dono is the true ruler of the galaxy, and that he just allows king Deviluke-sama to rule in his place because he barely has any interest in running his own company, let alone the whole galaxy." Peke explained.
"He rules the galaxy?" Shuddered Rito. "But then what's he doing here?"
"Sallem slacks-off and has a lot of weird hobbies." Chimed-in Lala. "He's kinda like papa, but tons better at getting away from work. He does stuff like; rescuing survivors of apocalypses, building machines, coming up with new medical advances, playing horrible pranks on people, slaying zombies, being a pirate, hunting ninjas, playing matchmaker, whatever all of that stuff is." She said cheerfully, in spite of the fact that some of those things were definitely not cheery things.
"Z-Z-Zombies?" Stammered Haruna fearfully.
"Playing matchmaker?" Said Rito fearfully. "Where did you hear that?"
"Sallem told me the last time I saw him." Lala replied. "I haven't seen him in three years though. I wonder what he's doing here." She hummed to herself.
'Based on his list of hobbies I can make a few guesses.' Panicked Rito.
Meanwhile, with Ryoko.
"I wonder where I should take Rito on our second date." Ryoko hummed to herself, since no one else was in there except Oshizu. "I only have five chances to make him fall for me, and I've already wasted one just to eat with him and share an awkward silence. He does more than that with Lala every day, and it took him more than a year to fall for her."
"Mikado-sensei," Said Oshizu nervously. "Are you sure you really want to do this?"
"Of course I am Oshizu." Said Ryoko as she placed a hand to her chest and sighed lovingly. "After all that I've seen of Rito, I can tell that he's just my type. If Haruna, Lala, and any other girls want Rito too, I don't mind sharing him with them." Oshizu popped out of her body for a moment, but quickly collected herself.
"Sh-Sh-Share him?" Stammered Oshizu. "Why would you want to share him?" She may have been dead for about 400 years, but she was pretty sure customs hadn't changed that much since she died.
"It's not really that I want to share him any more or less than I want him all to myself, but he has many other girls who want him as well, and I don't want to disappoint them all." Ryoko explained. "Last time I checked, he has eight women after him, including; Lala, Haruna, and myself." She mentally counted. "So Rito's probably going to have his hands really full in the foreseeable future."
"But Mikado-sens-" Oshizu tried to argue before...
"Excuse me, is this the nurse's office?" Came a voice from the doorway, drawing all attention to the newcomer. Ryoko was shocked at who it was for a few seconds, but quickly realized that it was obvious in hindsight.
"Oshizu," She began. "I'm sure that you have class to attend, so I won't keep you waiting."
"Mikado-sensei, what are you-?" Oshizu tried to say before...
"Just go," Ryoko interrupted. "I can handle things here."
Oshizu, while confused by what was going on, didn't press the issue further, and quickly left the room.
"So," Began Ryoko once she was certain that Oshizu was gone. "I'd say 'to what do I owe the pleasure' but I'm pretty sure that I know what you're doing here. Am I right, Sallem?"
"You know me too well." Replied Sallem deviously.