Awhile after the music showcase thing, nothing else had happened lately. No having to do weird things for school, no weird fights outside of sparring with my classmates, no weird monster sightings. It was quiet, too quiet. And I didn't like it.

There was one thing I did like though. Murasaki and I had gotten a lot closer. Ever since Zelda pointed out that I should think of Murasaki as my girlfriend because I might upset her if I didn't, it made me weirdly less anxious about talking to her. And I got a little flirtier, even though sometimes I surprised myself.

I was messaging her as usual, just kind of venting about the crap going on, or the lack thereof.

"Does it freak you out that nothing has happened lately?" I sent to her.

"a lil bit but maybe no news is good news?" she responded.

"I don't know about that, but okay," I sent back. "Has it seemed like you know who is up to something? Or has she gotten better at calming down and acting normal?"

"she has gotten better at that yeah, but thats worrying now that u say it? like she probably is up to something by acting more normal. like tryin to gain miyabis trust or something?"

"Yeah... but all we can do is wait and see. Anything more positive happen lately?"

"my favorite author online updated her story today which was pretty great. ive told u about it before i think?"

"The Rapunzel the shinobi story? Yeah, I've actually been meaning to read it myself. Then I could talk about it with you." I really had. I just always forgot. So, that very moment, I opened it up on my phone, so I could text in one tab and then read it on the other.

"would u really do that for me? ur so sweet!" I couldn't help but feel warm and fuzzy when she called me sweet. "ugh brb i gotta shower now that imu isnt taking forever in there lmao"

And it was then that I decided to be needlessly flirty, maybe too flirty...

"Ooh, send pics, haha. Just kidding, unless?" And I put a laughing emoji.

Her response shocked me.

"hmm maybe lol." And a tongue sticking out emoji.

About half an hour later I actually got a picture, with a message saying "dont open this unless ur alone lol." I could feel my face getting all warm already, and carefully made sure Tris was still in the living room before opening it. I would feel legitimately weird if she knew I was talking to Murasaki like this, even if she did way, way worse with Ryona.

And I opened the picture.

It was a selfie of Murasaki, fresh out of the shower, her boobs coyly peeking out from the plush pink towel she had half wrapped around herself. Somehow they looked even bigger than they did when she had clothes on. The towel was stretched to its absolute limit trying to cover them, and of course, it was failing. The fabric was just low enough to reveal her perfectly pale pink nipples, which made me remember how fun they'd been to play with that one time at the sleepover. How nice it was to fondle and lick them and feel them get hard by my touch. How soft and squeezable her boobs were in general.

And then, further down in the picture, I could see a sliver of her lower half showing off a tiny strip of neatly trimmed hair. The deep purple carpet matched the curtains, and somehow that made it even more enticing. I wanted to do more with her. I would never be Ryona level submissive, but the idea of submitting to Murasaki just a little bit... to have her be the pillow princess while I did everything I could to make her cum... I was getting all worked up just thinking about it.

Then I realized she was awaiting a response, and I wasn't exactly sure what to say. Like obviously I wanted to express adoration, being an appropriate level of flirty and fun without being too crude. Ugh, that crap is hard.

"Damn, didn't actually want to make you feel pressured into sending anything, but I am so glad you did. You are so hot I can't even... ugh, we gotta get together again soon and spend some time together while not being interrupted this time..."

"really?" she sent back seconds later. "youre makin me blush lol."

"You're making me blush too. So we're even on that count. But now I owe you a spicy picture of me, I mean if you want one?" And I put a blushing emoji.

"of course i want one, but take ur time. send it when ur really feelin yourself?"

"Will do." But that presented another problem. Sending her a sexy picture. I had no how idea how to do that. How do you sexy? How do you make sexy happen?

On the other hand, maybe I could learn something from this experience. I was bold, and I made the first move. And I got something good out of it. Maybe that was a sign about how I should be in terms of fighting. Instead of just waiting all the time for something to happen, maybe I should make the first move.

Maybe.

But I didn't even get a chance to, because the next weekend was when something happened again. Finally.

"It seems as though we have to go to the shopping district to fight yoma again," Zelda told me telepathically, without so much as a greeting or anything. I'd been drinking a marble top soda in a glass bottle when she butted into my head, and I barely managed to keep myself from dropping it.

"What kind?" I asked her, oddly grateful for the ability to talk to her in my mind and drink soda at the same time. "You've got to have more for me than that."

"They were in the shopping district. So, naturally, it was Shiki that saw them. She was attacked by one. Apparently they're large gooey blobs that materialize seemingly out of nowhere, and eat the bags of unsuspecting shoppers. Purses, shopping bags, and so on. Shiki had her purse eaten, so she killed the monster with her scythe. When it died, it melted away, leaving behind a used tampon, much like the other yoma, and her purse, somehow still intact. Like the thing just swallowed it whole, and didn't even digest it."

"...Ew. Ewww." That was all I had to think about that. Wait a minute... "Wait, if the yoma are usually shielded behind a shinobi barrier, but they're taking things from random people, then are the regular people freaking out about monsters suddenly appearing?"

"It seems that she's able to make these yoma invisible to people that aren't shinobi. So, regular people just notice their belongings go missing. There's been increased police activity in the area because of this alleged thievery. Only Shiki was able to see what was happening, probably because of the powers in her scroll."

"Well, people not seeing them is a plus. We don't need them freaking out and looking around for where these things are coming from." I took another gulp of soda. "But it's up to us to clear them out, of course."

"Yes, that would be the right thing to do. Should we meet up there today, then?"

"Of course today. As soon as possible." And I started gathering my things to go.

When I got there, I found that Zelda had brought along a couple of her classmates. I recognized Yumi. The other, I assumed, was Yozakura, the only classmate of hers I hadn't met yet. Yumi was armed with her fan, and Yozakura had massive metal gauntlets primed for punching.

"All right, we're all here. So where are these things?" She was already punching at the air, like she was preparing herself.

"I suppose we have to lure them out somehow?" Yumi said, holding her fan delicately. "Perhaps I should pretend to be shopping?"

But when I looked around, I could already see like five of them oozing around up the sidewalk toward us. It was probably just the power of our scrolls that lured them, without us having to do anything special. I drew my sword and started heading toward them. Yozakura darted forward too, and punched the front most one vigorously. But, as the monster was gooey in texture, punching didn't appear to do much. And then... slurp.

The monster swallowed Yozakura whole.

I yelled out as I started slicing at the thing, hoping I could cut her out of all the goo without cutting her. And it worked. I cleaved the monster in half horizontally, and she was able to pop safely out of the middle.

Of course, the monster had eaten her clothes, leaving her standing there shaking in a cute floral bra and panty set. One that seemed too delicate to match her tough personality. But she was tough enough that she didn't seem too fazed by the undressing.

"Damn it, my punching doesn't do crap to these gooey things! Yumi, get over here. You could slice them up to bits with your fans." She shivered in disgust. "Ugh, I really, really don't like these things."

Zelda gasped. "That's it!"

"What's what now?" Yozakura seemed perplexed.

"That's what these are called. Like likes. They typically eat shields, among other things. So the name is from an old proverb. Shield eaters and world leaders have many likes alike."

"Yeah, but how does this help us kill 'em?"

"It doesn't, but..."

Yumi shook her head and giggled at Zelda. "You always know that kind of stuff. You're such a nerd." It wasn't clear if that was an insult or a compliment, but either way, Zelda was blushing a little, like it didn't even matter which one. "Here, let me deal with them." And Yumi darted over as well, using her fan to slice and dice another one of them to bits. Good thing they moved slow.

But it wasn't slow enough. Pretty soon Yumi was swallowed up by another one while she was distracted by the one she was fighting. Except this one didn't hold onto her for long. Instead, it spat her out with a wet plop. And of course she was now reduced to her panties as well. Delicate feminine pale blue ones. Now Zelda was blushing even more...

"What?!" Yozakura started punching at the one that had swallowed and spat out Yumi, still attacking it even if it had no effect. "Was it just doing that to be a perv? What is this, Katsuragi as a yoma?"

"That's not a very nice thing to say," Zelda said, mostly on my behalf. "Kat's a nice person, even if she's... Kat."

"Yeah, she's..." Yozakura trailed off.

"This is quite embarrassing," Yumi said, as she continued to slice and dice up the like like monster with her fans.

If I could get words out, I'd have told her that it's something you get used to. In fact, honestly, I was surprised she wasn't used to it already. She'd been a shinobi here longer than I had. Maybe she was just more self conscious than me. I cut another like like in half. These were easier to kill than it seemed like they would be, as long as you had something sharp.

Or so I thought, because there were more of them gaining on us. A whole crapton of them now. And pretty soon, we were surrounded, to the extent that none of us could get out from them without being swallowed up and spat out. One of them had gotten Yumi again, sucked her up and spat her back out, and now she was completely naked.

"Oh, dear..." Zelda was super red now, like, anyone would notice it. And she made it even more noticeable. She took off the scarf she had around her face as part of her battle outfit, and tossed it over to Yumi, who wrapped it around herself as soon as possible. But, in the time that it took her to do that... slurp.

One of them got her. It slurped her in and spat her out, without her battle outfit on. As soon as she got back on her feet, she sliced it to death with her kunai, and it left her outfit behind. She was able to scoop it up, even though it was sticky.

"Yeah, when we're all done with this, we're gonna have to recover all our stuff," Yozakura said, sounding huffy.

I nodded, feeling her irritation as well. Knowing that, well, I was the only one who hadn't been gotten yet, and that I would be. Because it was inevitable. I could clear these things out super quick if I could use a spin attack, but the problem with that was that the other three of them were trapped in this circle with me. If I did a spin attack, I'd hit them all as well. So I couldn't do that. I had to keep fighting them one by one.

And then it happened. Slurp.

I was swallowed by the goo, and thrust into total darkness for a moment. Sticky, slimy, wet darkness. I could feel it slurping my tunic right off me, and then at last, it spat me out. Returning to the light all of a sudden stung my eyes and hurt my head. But of course, another one slurped me up immediately after. And that one took my undergarments.

Guess who involuntarily got to join team naked-during-battle, yet again? Yup.

I was now trapped in my own individual circle of yoma, separate from where Zelda, Yumi, and Yozakura were trapped. Now I could spin attack. I focused energy into my scroll before releasing it, and there. I'd cleared out like five of these things at once. And now it'd be easier to kill the rest. I snatched up my sticky tunic, bra, and panties off the ground. And I knew what I had to do.

Instead of going to rescue the others who were still fighting, I ditched them like an asshole for a second. But just a second. I took my clothes and dashed into a nearby dark alleyway. Then I pulled my phone out of my tunic pocket.

And I took a naked battle selfie, making a cutesy victory sign in it. I wasn't sure how sexy that was, but hey, it was cute? And now I had something for... later. I just hoped it turned out decently. As soon as I was done taking it, I yanked my tunic back on, and shoved my bra and panties in my pockets for later. I didn't have time to get the whole outfit back on properly. I dashed back out to where the rest of the group was fighting, to help them finish the monsters off.

"What the—you ditched us to put your clothes back on?" Yozakura sounded offended as she continued punching the monster to no effect. I swooped in and killed it with my sword just to help her out.

"She's just being proper and maintaining decorum," Yumi said, defending me for some reason. Then I remembered Zelda claimed Yumi had a crush on me? Or at least she used to? But personally if I had a crush on someone, I'd like it if they were naked. I'd probably rather them stay naked, rather than having them put their clothes back on. I mean, if they were comfortable being naked around me.

Which apparently the person I was into was... and I felt myself blushing mid-fight, just thinking about it.

I was glad when we'd successfully cleared out all the monsters. Now we had to gather up our left behind clothes, and clean up the used tampons that were used to summon the monsters in the first place. And the whole time, Zelda was blushing too. So at least I wasn't the only one.

"I'm glad it's late out," Yumi said, sighing. "And no one's been in the shopping district anyway lately either, because of these things..."

"But now people can start coming back and shopping again," Zelda said, beaming proudly as she picked up another tampon by its string. But then she started glancing around looking for some place to put them, and... "Where are the public trash cans?"

"Those are few and far between around here," Yumi said, a giggle in her voice. "I guess it's just a Japan thing, that there was a huge dangerous bombing in trash cans once, so now we just kind of don't have many anymore?"

"Really? Talk about culture shock..."

"Here, put them in this piece of cloth that fell off of someone's battle costume. Wrap them up in it, and you can toss them when you get home."

"Ugh... okay."

"Everyone good to get home okay?" Yozakura asked. "You all gonna be safe?"

"I'll be fine," Yumi said.

"I'm good to go alone, but I'm willing to accompany anyone who needs it," Zelda said.

I just nodded.

"Are you okay? ...Do you not talk?" Yozakura asked me.

I nodded again.

"I'll tell you about it later," Zelda did, saving me from bonus awkwardness. "I'm surprised I haven't already. She and I are very close, you know. But... not in that way." She was blushing. "I'm definitely not dating anyone right now..." Hint hint, Yumi...

I hoped the two of them would end up together soon.

And speaking of together...

Later that night, I ended up looking back at the selfie I'd taken. I had the camera tilted down at myself at an angle that made my boobs look huge. Like, I knew they were huge, but the camera angle did a bonus on them, I think. And because I was sticky from the monsters, my body was glistening with the goo, in a kind of suggestive way. And so I was satisfied with it.

I sent Murasaki a text with the image attached.

"Guess what I did today?! Image for your eyes only."

Moments later, I got a message back.

"holy crap what happened? u look hot... but ur all wet and sticky..."

"Yeah, I took the picture mid battle with some clothes eating slime monsters because you said to take a picture when I was really feeling myself and I just felt like it in that moment?"

"ah, thats... something... u do look hot though. i would so love to see u like that in person..." And a blushing emoji.

"We'll get around to it soon, I hope." I put a heart emoji. "I won't be wet from the monsters that time..." And I felt myself blushing again. Why did I say this crap?

She sent back winky and kissy face emojis. So I guessed it wasn't bad after all.