You and Lala walk toward school the next morning, a little earlier than you would normally leave. Your mother expressed some doubts about how easy it would be to get Lala into school, but you reassured her that you wouldn't have any issues. You got the impression that your words didn't change her opinion much, but she was willing to let you handle it up until the point of failure.
Which won't happen. Your mother isn't familiar with your school's principal, so she isn't aware of how easy he is to manipulate when you have a cute girl on hand.
Lala hums cheerfully as you walk, swinging her bag, an old spare of yours. She's dressed in the Sainan High uniform already. You showed Peke a picture and that was enough for her to replicate it. And you're getting several different kinds of looks from the other students walking to school.
While there are far fewer than you're used to, you're far from the only student heading to school at this time. They look at the pair of you with confusion and curiosity. You, they recognize. You're only moderately popular, but your distinctive hair is well known through the student body, and many of them know you by sight at least.
But not a single person looks at Lala and even feigns recognition. All of them know that there's no way they would have missed the presence of such a beauty in their school. You note a few people who look between the two of you, no doubt comparing your hair and coming to the conclusion that the two of you are related.
The boys who reach that conclusion watch Lala with obvious hunger. The ones who don't think the two of you are related send you glares of jealousy. The girls mostly just look curious, with a wider variety of minor reactions ranging from envy to interest.
You ignore all of them though. None of them matter. Your only concern is Lala, and any friends she might make.
When you arrive at school you teach her how people wear different shoes inside of the building and where they're switched. Peke once again proves her usefulness and just changes to the appropriate kind of shoe as you swap your own shoes.
Lala is looking around in excitement, practically bouncing as she looks at all the other students and the building itself. She asks a few questions about what different things are and you explain them patiently.
It doesn't take you long to reach the principal's office and you don't hesitate to knock on the door.
"Come in!" you hear, only slightly muffled by the door. You open the door and the two of you enter the office.
The office itself is nothing special, indistinguishable at a glance from any other principal's office. A desk facing the door takes up the majority of the floor space, with two comfortable chairs facing it. The walls are lined with filing cabinets and bookshelves and filled with books, binders, and a few innocuous knick-knacks and awards.
The principal himself, however, is very unique. He's a short and overweight man dressed in a suit and dark sunglasses. The top of his head is bald, but the hair growing on the sides of his head is styled so they poke straight up in two horn-like shapes.
"Saitou-san," he greets you politely. "What can I do for you and your… lovely friend?"
His dark glasses might hide his eyes, obfuscating where he's looking and blocking a few tells you normally rely on to read someone, but you can still easily tell his attention is entirely on Lala, looking at her desire. You feel anger boil in your gut, feelings of possessiveness and protectiveness rising.
You don't let your feelings show though, keeping a neutral and polite smile on your face. "This is Lala Deviluke. She's come to stay in Sainan for a while and she was hoping to attend this school while she's here. But her documentation was lost in the trip-"
"That's fine!" the principal said, cutting you off. "She's cute, so we don't need to worry about little things like that. I'll get her registered straight away."
You pause. You have a whole cover story planned, even explaining why she's already dressed in a uniform and why you've been absent for the past two days. But, in hindsight, you definitely over-prepared. You could have just pointed at her and said that she wants to join and he'd agree on the spot, pervert that he is.
You're not hypocritical enough to condemn the man for giving so much of himself to chasing his desires. After all, you became an employee of a multiversal slaving company just to build a harem of pink-haired girls.
But you are protective of your girls, so while you're willing to look past him creeping on most of the student body, him turning his attention to Lala is unacceptable.
There's little you can do about it right now, but you make a mental note to find a solution later. "Thank you so much for being so understanding on this," you continue politely, your mask perfect. "Lala's been so excited to go to school here."
"Thanks a lot, mister!" Lala cheers.
"You'll have to call him Principal from now on," you tell Lala.
"Oh, right, thanks a lot mister Principal!"
Well, close enough. The Principal doesn't seem to mind. "Of course my dear," he replies in a happy tune as he collects some paperwork together. He then turns to the two of you with a smile. "You can go ahead to class, Saitou-san. Don't worry, I'll make sure to place her in yours so she has someone familiar to help her."
You resist the urge to narrow your eyes. Leaving Lala alone with this man is not something you want to do.
"All due respect, but while Lala can speak Japanese pretty well, she's still learning to read it, so I'd like to be here to make sure she understands everything she's filling out and signing," you say firmly.
"No worries, no worries, I can help Lala-chan with anything she needs," he says, dismissing you.
You consider fighting harder, but you don't want to raise suspicion. Not yet. So instead you nod and then turn to Lala. "I'll see you in a few minutes, Lala." And then, using your Technomancy, you whispered in English. "Peke, if he does anything untoward to Lala, stop him and encourage Lala to rebuke him. With violence."
"Understood, Akihito-dono," Peke whispers back.
"Okay, Aki-kun!" Lala says as she gives you a hug. The way she looks at you tells you she got the other message too. You're not sure she completely understands, but Peke does, and Lala will follow Peke's instructions if need be.
You hope you're worrying over nothing. The Principal's bad habits worsened over the series, just as Rito's luck did. Your memories of this life tell you that he's a known creep, but hasn't yet attempted to assault a student directly.
Your worry sits like a small pebble in your gut as you leave the office and head to class. As you do, you get a text message on your phone.
Agent: Check your available missions
Oh? You quickly pull up the appropriate app on your phone. Missions are the jobs you mentioned to Lala, various tasks that the Company wants you to undertake in exchange for a reward. You were planning to check them out this evening after school, but you can't ignore a prompt like that.
When you open the app you see that you have three missions available to you right now. You open each of them to take a look at the details.
Panty Raid
Scope: Quick
Location: Sainan
Objective: Acquire a pair of Mikado Ryouko's panties, used and unwashed, for a Client.
Condition: Mikado Ryouko must not be aware of you taking them.
Reward: 5 Credits
Hidden Alien Criminal
Scope: Quick
Location: Sainan
Objective: There is an alien with a bounty on his head living in Sainan, disguised as a human. Find them and report them to Zastin. Information about the alien will be provided on mission acceptance.
Condition: Do it yourself without any direct help from retinue members
Reward: 20 Credits
Perverted Principal
Scope: Quick
Location: Sainan
Objective: Remove the Principal of Sainan High from his position and prevent him from preying on any girls again, using any means.
Condition: Don't get caught doing anything against local laws
Reward: 20 Credits
The first two missions are somewhat interesting in themselves. The first mission has a small reward, but it's also a short and easy one, relatively speaking. You do note that the condition isn't that you can't get caught, but that Mikado-sensei, the school's nurse who is also an alien and your personal physician, can't be aware of you taking them.
Which means you can't just go and ask her for them. You've known Mikado-sensei since she moved into the area and she became your personal physician, the only person even somewhat qualified to be your doctor considering your uniquely mixed heritage. She's always been very flirty and open about sex. Sadly, she doesn't have pink hair, so you've never been interested. But you're pretty sure that, if you asked her, there's a decent chance she'd just give you a pair of panties. But that option is off the table it seems.
The second one seems pretty straightforward. You remember a few similar instances in canon. Investigating isn't something you're experienced in, but you don't think you'd do poorly at it either. And if they have a bounty, even if it's a small one, that might raise your standing in the eyes of Gid.
But it's the third mission that really catches your eye. It seems that the Company, at least your Agent, is encouraging you to take care of the Principal problem. And they don't seem to care how you do it. It only encourages the thoughts you were already having, about the best way to prevent the principal from going after your girls.
You can go the more surefire and drastic method, of course, and just kill him and dump the body somewhere. You'd feel no guilt over that. The principal is not a good person, and it's only a matter of time before he starts attempting to assault girls regularly, throwing off his clothes and seeking to pin them beneath him.
That being said, killing him is risky, at least with your current abilities and resources. The safer option would be to just get him thrown in jail. Collecting evidence for that shouldn't be difficult. Hell, student testimony alone should at least see him fired and forced to flee the city. Not that that would be enough to complete the mission, he needs to never go after a girl again.
You frown as you continue your walk to class, deep in thought. In fact, how is he still the Principal? You haven't heard of any coordinated effort to get rid of him, but considering the number of times he's been caught trying to peep on the girls' changing rooms, that's weird, right? You've never put much thought into it before, but now it feels like something is off. Is it just a quirk of the setting, the world? Or is there something else going on? You'll have to investigate if you take that mission and that route.
You arrive at the classroom before you can settle on anything and put your phone away. You'll consider accepting one of the missions later.
When you enter the classroom you note that it's only about half full, with students still trickling in during the few minutes before class starts. You take your usual spot behind Mio and Risa, sitting in the back row near the right side of the room, close to the exit.
"Aki-kun, where have you been!" Risa greets you.
"Taking care of some personal business," you reply as you put your bag next to your desk and sit down. "Did I miss anything interesting?"
"Not unless you count Haruna-san and Yuuki-kun becoming even more sickeningly sweet and cute together," Risa replies casually. "Of course, they haven't even progressed to holding hands yet, but the way they both so obviously want to but are too nervous to do it is hilarious to watch."
You hold back a sigh. It's no surprise that Rito is stalling. But honestly, that's fine. You got them together and then made the whole thing moot by snagging Lala early anyway. The rest of Rito's relationship is up to him. "Good for them," you say instead.
"Oh? Is that jealousy I hear?" Mio teases with a sly grin. "You pushed them together, but now you're all alone, right?"
But you just smirk. "Trust me, I have no reason to be jealous."
The two of them latch on to the bait you set. "Oh? Has the unapproachable Pink Prince found his Princess?" Risa asks.
You snort at how close she is to the truth. Lala is a princess after all. The Pink Prince title is one you had in middle school though after you rejected a series of popular girls confessing their love to you. It died down pretty quickly, but Risa never forgot it and enjoys bringing it up on occasion.
"You'll find out soon enough," you say, being purposefully vague and enigmatic.
"Oh my gosh, he did!" Mio says with excitement, taking your statement as confirmation. "Who is it? What's she like? Is that why you were gone the past two days? How far have you two gone?"
You pinch your fingers and drag them across your smiling lips, miming the motion of zipping them shut.
The two girls keep pestering you with questions until the bell rings, stopping only to greet Haruna and Rito as they enter the classroom. The two of them enter at the same time, but they sit in different spots. Rito has the protagonist's spot, second from the back and next to the windows. Haruna sits in the center in the second row.
You wait impatiently as the time ticks by, waiting for the bell to ring. It finally does, but then you have to keep waiting as the teacher hasn't arrived yet. That's not too unusual for Honekawa-sensei as he's getting quite old and is sometimes a little late. But today you know why he is.
You perk up as you recognize Lala's cheerful tone, even muffled as it is by the door and the distance. A few moments later, the door opens and Honekawa-sensei enters the classroom.
"Good morning class," he says as he walks toward the podium at the front of the classroom. He leaves the door open. "This morning we have a surprise transfer student. Deviluke-san, please come in and introduce yourself to the class."
Lala bounces into the room, nearly skipping in her excitement. The class starts murmuring immediately upon seeing her and how beautiful she is. You feel some tension ease out of your shoulders.
Her gaze sweeps across the room until she finds you and she waves. You smile and wave back, drawing looks of interest from pretty much the entire class.
"Hi everyone!" Lala says in a bubbly tone. "My name is Lala Satalin Deviluke! I'm not from Japan but I'm staying with Aki-kun!"
That draws some reactions, causing half the class to look at you. Mostly the guys, but a few girls as well. You ignore them though and focus on Lala. Your only instruction to Lala was to not reveal she was an alien. You more or less expected her to mention you though, and you're fine with it.
"Are you related to him?" Haruna asks, her voice filled with genuine curiosity.
"Nope!" Lala denies. "I'm his girlfriend!"
Now all eyes are on you, including the teacher's. Their gazes are filled with shock, but you just smirk at all of them, smugly confirming her words.
"WHAAAAAAAT?!" the whole class shouts in unison.
Lala is placed in the seat next to you, which is conveniently open. She immediately scooches next to you so she can share your textbooks with her. Not that she can read them, not yet at least. You spend a lot of class whispering to her, reading the relevant lines for her while pointing them out.
You also spend a lot of time looking back at your fellow classmates, shooting them smug grins in response to their questioning and jealous stares. Your friends only give you a few looks, willing to wait until lunch to ask you questions.
The morning passes surprisingly normally otherwise. Lala is attentive to the teacher and absorbs the material like a sponge. You can tell she's even starting to be able to read some basic Japanese. Her sheer intelligence is extremely impressive, and you find yourself distracted by it.
But eventually, lunch comes, and things get chaotic.
Mio and Risa are sitting in front of the two of you, so all they have to do is turn around. But the rest of the class quickly packs in around the four of you, preventing Haruna or Rito from joining you, and all hurling questions and comments at Lala.
"Where are you from?" "Wow, your hair is so pretty!" "Are you guys really not related?" "Please go out with me!" "What's your favorite food?" "Is that tail real?" "Why are you living with Saitou-san?" "Do you want to join the literature club?"
Lala doesn't seem at all phased by the crowd or the stream of questions though. "I'm from Deviluke. Thanks, I like yours too! No, we're not related. Sorry, I can't go out with you, I already have Aki-kun! My favorite food is dark matter pudding. Yes, my tail is real! Please don't touch it. I'm living with Aki-kun because he invited me to. And I don't know what club I want to join yet, but I'll consider it!"
The crowd collectively pauses, caught off guard by Lala actually answering each question in turn, and you use that chance to step in.
"Look, guys, I know you're all excited about Lala, but I think she'd appreciate the chance to eat her lunch, right? And shouldn't you guys be eating too?"
You see a few blushes and chastised expressions, and the crowd disperses with a few grumbles. The curiosity is still there and strong as ever, but the energy has been taken down a couple notches, giving you some breathing room.
Haruna and Rito join your group, pulling up additional abandoned desks. Your lunch group is quite large now with the addition of two new people, Lala and Rito.
"Everyone, this is Lala Satalin Deviluke," you say, introducing her. "She's a foreigner, but more importantly, she's my girlfriend, so please treat her well."
"And call me Lala!" Lala tacks on. "Nice to meet you all!"
"Lala, these are my friends," you continue. "Those two are Momioka Risa and Sawada Mio. If they're grinning, don't trust anything they say."
"Hey!" Mio protests in faux-anger.
"Yeah, you can't just ruin our fun like that before we even get a chance to tease her!" Risa continues.
Lala giggles as you give them a dry look. They put on innocent smiles and you just shake your head before moving on. "And these two are Sairenji Haruna and Yuuki Rito. Rito-san here actually lives right next door to us."
"Really? Neat!" Lala replies.
"Haha…" Rito says awkwardly. "Actually… about that… Do you two know a large man who wears armor made out of bones?"
"They're not actually bones, they're just stylized like that because of tradition or something," Lala explains. "But yes! That would be Zastin!"
A small frown tugs at your lips. "How'd you meet him? And connect him to us?"
"Well… he was kinda in my house when I got home yesterday."
"...what?" you reply, caught off guard.
"I- I think someone gave him the wrong address," Rito explains. "He had his back to the door, and he said your names as he turned, but then he realized that we weren't you two. He got really embarrassed then, and he asked where you lived. We pointed him to your place and then he knocked on your front door and I think your mom let him in?"
You sigh, pinching the bridge of your nose. "God dammit Zastin," you mutter. No doubt that was his first attempt at trying to be intimidating, but he fucked it up. You had high hopes that maybe Zastin wouldn't be as useless as he was depicted in canon, but those hopes were starting to wither away.
"He definitely shouldn't be breaking into people's homes like that!" Lala protests. "I'll chew him out for that tonight."
"Chew him out?" Risa repeats, confused.
"Zastin is Lala's head bodyguard," you explain.
"Lala has bodyguards?!" Mio asks a little louder than necessary. A couple heads turn, interested, but you don't pay them any mind.
"Lala's from a wealthy foreign family," you explain. "And old money kind of deal."
"So how did you end up here?" Risa asks.
"I ran away from home!" Lala cheerfully explains, surprising the others. "Papa kept trying to make me marry all these gross men, so I ran away so he couldn't!"
"T-then, did I mess up, pointing that guy towards Akihito-san's house?"
"Nah, you did the right thing," you reassure the boy. "Lala ran away and I ran into her by chance. I let her stay at my place, but both I and my mom agreed it would be better if Lala confronted her Father. Lala and I talked to him, and we got him to agree to back down. Well, kind of. That was yesterday morning, so before Zastin showed up."
"Kind of?" Haruna asks.
"Aki-kun got Papa to consider letting me marry him instead of one of those gross men!" Lala says. "We're not engaged yet, but Aki-kun is the only one of my suitors I like so we might as well be!"
"Wait, when did you two meet?" Mio asks, gears turning in her head.
"Midday on Monday," you reply casually.
"And Tuesday morning you were asking for her hand in marriage?!"
"Yes," you answer with zero shame or hesitation. "It was love at first sight."
"Wow," Mio and Risa say simultaneously.
"So fast," you hear Haruna whisper. Rito is looking at you with wide eyes like he can't believe it.
"Aki-kun is the best! I fell in love with him straight away too!" Lala adds.
Risa turns to Lala with a vulpine grin. "So… how far have the two of you gone?"
"Risa-chan!" Haruna admonishes her. But you can tell she's a little interested. Mio is also leaning forward in interest, and Rito is just blushing and trying to act like he's not part of the conversation.
You consider intervening, but if you're being honest, you kind of want to see how Lala will answer, and if she'll remember your talk with her and keep it vague or not. So instead you carefully don't change your expression.
"Hmm," Lala says, thinking about it. "We went to the tall shopping mall the other day!"
Everyone's heads drop in exasperation as Lala's misunderstanding undercuts the tension that had been building up.
You let out a laugh. "Yeah, that's probably the farthest we've gone on a date. We'll go somewhere further out next time."
"Okay!"
"So how long are you staying?" Haruna asks quickly before Risa can clarify what she meant.
"Hmm, I'm not sure? I want to stay until Aki-kun graduates, but it depends on how the engagement works out!"
The conversation from there continues fairly normally, with your various friends asking about Lala. Lala can handle most of it, and you let her. This is the public school experience she wants, and you'll gladly let her have it.
Lunch comes to an end with all of your friends hurriedly eating their lunches they had been ignoring to talk more with Lala. Lala also has to scarf down her food, since she was talking the entire time.
After lunch, there are more classes, and those go the same as the morning ones. You don't absorb much of what the teachers are saying, focused as you are on catching Lala up to speed. You consider purchasing Talent Sharing for your Communication Talent so Lala can take advantage of it and learn Japanese quickly. But honestly, she's learning it fairly quickly as is, and it will probably only be a matter of a few weeks until she can read well enough to understand the schoolwork.
When classes end you say a quick goodbye to your friends before quickly pulling Lala out of there, having no desire to get swarmed again. The two of you quickly join the stream of students leaving campus and start heading home, walking hand in hand.
"So how was your first day at school?" you ask Lala.
"It was great!" she replies. "There were so many nice people and the material was interesting! Though Math was a little boring."
You snort. Yeah, no surprise that the girl who makes physics-defying inventions as a hobby found your basic algebra class a bit under her level. "Your average high school student is as good at math as you are," you explain.
"Is that so?" Lala says. "Well, I guess Momo and Nana aren't as good as me either, but they're still way above that."
"That's just the difference between a public school in a pre-Galactic Age civilization and private tutoring in the capital of a galactic empire," you explain. "Earth still has a long way to go."
"That's true," she accedes. "The rest of the classes were neat! I always hated history lessons back home, but I liked them here!"
"I'm glad you had fun," you say with a small smile and a squeeze of her hand.
"Yep! Though I wish we could have stayed longer."
"The others had clubs to get to, and I would have thought you wanted to spend some time in your new lab?"
"Oh right! I did! Come on, let's hurry home!" She pulls you on faster and you just laugh at her sudden enthusiasm as she drags you back home.
You and Lala arrive at an empty home, your mother still at work. She usually is at this time, with the past few days being the exception due to everything going on. Lala gives you a kiss on the cheek before excitedly opening a portal to your Grand Manor and entering her lab.
You smile, glad she's so excited. It makes the Credits you spent on it entirely worth it. You then head upstairs, pulling out your phone and opening the Company app as you do so. You thought about it over the day and decided that you want to get started on one of the Missions available to you. More Credits in your account are more options in your pocket.
Unfortunately, you can only accept one at a time. Fortunately, the two that you don't choose will remain for you to accept later- after you've finished the one you choose. Probably. If they were time sensitive, or if you turned one down, or if your Agent decided you had enough chances at it and he wasn't going to offer it anymore, then it will disappear. But for small missions like this, so long as you don't take too long or your situation doesn't change too much they should both remain.
The real question is: what mission to accept? You've also been thinking about that. You immediately decide against the Panty Raid mission. Too much risk for too few Credits, at least with your current resources and skills.
You're tempted to pick the Perverted Principal one… but you decide against it for now. For all that the Principal is a danger, his lackadaisical nature is also useful in getting your companions into the school without a fuss. There's no guarantee that his replacement will be so cooperative. Granted, you can think of half a dozen ways to ensure that they are, from finding or creating blackmail on them or just purchasing a companion and setting her up as the new principal, but despite your wariness earlier today, you believe you can afford to wait on taking any action against him. Though the 20 Credits it offers are very tempting…
No, instead you decide to take on the Hidden Criminal mission. The 15 Credit payout is nice, it will make the town safer, and it will increase your standing with Gid. There aren't any downsides. Unless the criminal in question is dangerous; that would be a pretty big downside. But you don't have to face them directly, just find them and tell Zastin. Though now that you think about it, you'll have to find a good excuse for how you found them… Ah well, you'll cross that bridge when you get to it.
You open your bedroom door and step inside, slinging your bag onto the ground next to your desk and booting up your computer as you sit down. As it boots up, you accept the Hidden Criminal mission.
Immediately you get a notification of a new message. You check it to find that a PDF has been sent to you titled "Hidden Criminal Bounty". Convenient. You open it up and start reading as your computer warms up.
Bounty Name: Maeks "August Ghost" Dareax
Reward: 10,000 Galactic Credits
Information: August Ghost is an infamous thief known throughout the Galaxy for their high-profile heists. Their usual targets were pieces of art with a high degree of media attention on them, such as pieces by renowned authors being revealed for the first time. A large number of grand reveals being ruined by their thefts, paired with the obnoxious hologram calling card they left behind, made them extremely unpopular with the public.
The August Ghost stole dozens of paintings, sculptures, and more over the course of five years, never leaving behind a single trace. Even traps to capture them failed to trigger, despite their bait being stolen.
However, four years ago that changed. One artist laid a trap not to capture the August Ghost, but simply to track him. He purchased a high-end tracking device that was undetectable on an initial sweep as it only activated when undergoing Warp travel. He placed it on a painting set to be revealed without telling anyone.
When the tracking device activated, authorities were able to follow the trail to a civilian home on planet Ivorix. A raid was performed alongside local authorities, but the August Ghost escaped. Fortunately, their identity, Maeks Dareax, was revealed in the process, and all of the stolen art was recovered, not having been sold on the black market.
However, the stolen art was not found in his home. Instead, it was haphazardly stored in a storage unit. Several of the more fragile pieces had suffered environmental damage from the poor conditions. The investigation of their home and questioning of his acquaintances drew investigators to the conclusion that Dareax had no interest in money or even the art he stole, and instead did it to fuel some kind of superiority complex, and perhaps his kleptomania.
This worsened his already poor reputation with the art community at large. When his Bounty was issued, as is standard procedure for any non-dangerous criminal who cannot be reliably tracked by official law enforcement, personal donations quickly increased the bounty to the cap for Dareax's crimes.
However, despite the high bounty, there have been no confirmed sightings of him since the initial raid. Investigators tracked his personal space cruiser to the Citer Space Station, a large hub for intergalactic travel. It is believed that the ship was abandoned there and Dareax fled to an unknown location using illegal transportation options, but the investigation team was unable to pick up the trail.
See below for more detailed information about Maeks Dareax, his thefts, and all investigation reports.
Huh. This isn't the kind of criminal you were expecting, but you're glad it's not someone dangerous. The high bounty is nice, but the best part is that it's someone who seems to not be very well-liked. Which means capturing him will earn a significant amount of goodwill and reputation with the Galaxy at large. It won't make you a celebrity overnight or anything, but it'll put your name out there in a positive light, making it a good first impression.
According to the Mission text, Dareax is hiding somewhere here in Sainan, narrowing it down to an incredible degree relatively speaking. Unfortunately, it isn't as easy as just looking for an alien in Sainan. There are a surprisingly large number of them, going purely off of Mikado-sensei's clientele.
You skim the rest of the information, mostly focusing on the information about the "August Ghost" himself. You assume the 'August' in his title isn't the month but rather the word defined as "respected and impressive" as that fits his apparent personality more.
You also learn some important information about his race, the Ivorixians. They're a relatively unremarkable race of people with a minor talent for creating things, from art to machinery. Goods from Ivorix are considered reliable and inexpensive, making them moderately popular.
Appearance-wise, they are your common bipedal. They have slightly longer limbs and stretched-out proportions compared to humans and their skin comes in various shades of blue. They also lack hair and their heads are just a little oddly shaped, but their faces are otherwise pretty similar to a human's face. Not that they'd ever pass as one, not without a significant disguise.
There's a picture of Dareax attached. His skin is a fairly light blue, all things considered, but otherwise, he seems pretty average for his race. He apparently worked at a factory and used his vacation days to travel across the galaxy to steal art.
You quickly scroll through some of the investigation reports, but you already have an idea of where to start looking for this guy. He might be hiding on Earth, a backwaters planet with no Galactic Empire presence, until recently that is, but you're confident that he has kept up his thieving ways. There's no way he could resist. His actions up until his discovery clearly spoke to a man obsessed with showing off his thieving skills.
So you have a timeframe, you have a central location, and you have a type of crime. The first step is figuring out what he's been up to and looking up thefts of high-profile art pieces where a calling card was left behind. Easy, right?
Well, it isn't easy, but you make decent progress. You vastly underestimated how much data you would have to sift through. Mostly because you quickly realize that Dareax isn't active in Sainan, at all. The only thievery happening here is stuff like burglaries with clear signs of breaking and entering and the occasional purse snatching. Not Dareax's MO at all.
Of course, a quick check of his thefts revealed he never stole anything from Ivorix either, presumably so he wouldn't draw too much attention to his home. That strategy would have backfired on him eventually, but with how big the Galaxy is, the number of planets where he hadn't stolen anything were the vast majority of them. Ivorix was just one of a vast number of planets that were never visited by the 'August Ghost'.
He kept to the same strategy here, presumably using some kind of transportation to get around. You have no idea what kind of range that transportation has though, so you were forced to look globally.
And boy are there a lot of high-profile thefts on a global level.
Thankfully, it seems that investigating a crime is similar enough to committing one for Covert Talent because it was at this point where you felt the familiar sensation of rapid learning that you've come to associate with your Talents. It helped you sift through all the data more efficiently.
Aside from taking a break to make and eat dinner, and for a quick bath, which you took separately from Lala who was also pretty busy working away in the lab, you've spent your entire evening sifting through the data. You narrowed it down to just unsolved crimes where the thief left no trace and left behind a calling card. Then you organized those by calling cards and ignored the ones that started more than four years ago.
That still left you with a handful, and you were momentarily stumped on how to progress further. That was until you looked up news articles about each stolen art piece. Most of the thieves went after art pieces with varying levels of media attention on them. But only one consistently went after pieces with dozens of articles written about them.
The Suave Spectre.
In hindsight, the barely changed name should have been a giveaway.
But basing your deductions on something as weak as that would have been bad form. It's decent supporting evidence for what you've found already at best. You make sure to check the names of the other 'phantom thieves' that you had narrowed it down to, just in case. All of their names are pretentious, but none of the others match the same theme as the 'August Ghost'.
You save their information anyway, just in case the Suave Spectre is a dead end. And then you frown at your screen.
What do you do with this information?
You have a list of what the Suave Spectre has stolen, which is useful you suppose. If you can find his stash, where he's keeping the things he stole, then you can verify that it's the man you're looking for. That's easier said than done though.
A quick search online says two storage facilities in Sainan offer units big enough to contain all of the art the Suave Spectre has stolen. One is a large chain with facilities across the country, and the other is a smaller chain with only a handful of locations in this region of Japan. Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that he's storing them here, close to his home. It's not like he cares about them, so having them easily accessible isn't a priority.
Then again, the August Ghost had his stolen goods close by. The question is, would he have learned from that mistake?
You are inclined to think that no, he wouldn't. After all, it being close to him had no bearing on him being caught. Still, if he could travel all over the world to steal art then it wouldn't be hard for him to get a storage unit in an entirely different country.
You shake your head, frustrated. You're starting to second-guess yourself. Checking out those storage facilities is your only real lead at this point. If you can't find the stolen goods in either of them, then you'll have to rethink your logic. But they're likely enough to be worth checking out.
Of course, it's not like you can just check every storage unit in both facilities, not in a reasonable amount of time.
But maybe you don't have to.
You pull up the websites for both storage facilities and check their security measures. Thankfully, both are modern and use digital security. Each person that enters the facility is tracked. What they put in or take out isn't, but their entry is.
That's enough for you. You can compare the dates the art pieces were stolen and see if it lines up with any particular person's entry. You just have to get your hands on that data. Not an easy feat, but it's made significantly easier with your ability to talk to machines. You can probably convince a computer to email you the logs if you can distract the employees and prevent them from overhearing you.
You lean back and close your eyes, taking a moment to rest. You've never done this kind of investigation before, but you feel pretty satisfied with how well you did. Roughly five hours of work to narrow things down that far is pretty good, though you have Covert Talent to thank for that.
As you rest your eyes, your phone vibrates. You fish it out of your pocket and check it to see a message from Lala.
Lala: Come to the lab, I've got something for you! 3
You raise an eyebrow. Does she have that self-defense invention ready for you already? Well, she is a pretty quick worker, able to whip up minor inventions in a matter of minutes in canon. You'll just have to make sure it's stable. You save your work and shut down your computer, finished with your investigation for tonight, and open a portal to the Grand Manor on your wall.
You step through it and arrive directly in the lab. Portals really are convenient. It only takes a second of looking to spot Lala's bright pink hair at a nearby workbench, and you head in her direction.
Lala looks up and spots you and her face immediately lights up with a smile. "Aki-kun! I'm all done!"
"Done with what?" you ask, not wanting to assume.
"Remember the other day when you said you wanted something to protect yourself in case any of the suitors do something dangerous?" she asks, to which you nod. "I decided to work on that first! See, I had a really good idea for something based on another thing I made before, the Sticky-Gooey Launcher-kun."
She pushes a few buttons on her D-Dial and a large sci-fi rocket launcher appears in her hands. You vaguely recognize it as an invention that showed up exactly once in canon, a launcher that does exactly what the name implies; it shoots large balls of a sticky substance to hinder an enemy.
"Here, let me show you how it works," she says, leading you to a nearby shooting range complete with a target dummy. She effortlessly shoulders the large launcher, takes a second to line up a shot, and pulls the trigger.
A beige blur shoots out with a wumph, hitting the target a second later with a wet slapping sound. You look down range to see a mostly-solid ball made of what looks like wet foam about the size of a basketball stuck to the target.
Lala continues pulling the trigger, sending a short burst of rapid-fire shots down the range, all of them hitting the target. By the time she lowers it, the target is nearly invisible due to all the sticky balls covering it.
"It certainly seems effective," you comment. But then you eye the launcher. "But how heavy is that?"
"I don't think it's too heavy," Lala says before holding it out for you to take.
You carefully grab it and then grunt with exertion as she lets go of it. You don't fall over or drop it, but it's certainly not easy to hold it up. You struggle to get it onto your shoulder. The weight isn't quite as bad once it's there. That is, until you try moving around.
You shake your head and carefully lower it to the ground. "No, I'd exhaust myself trying to use that."
"That's okay, that's not the one I made for you!" Lala reassures you as she takes back the launcher, storing it in her D-Dial. "I made that a couple years ago. For you, I made the Sticky-Gooey Pistol-kun!"
She pulls out another device, this one much smaller. As the name implies, it's about the size of a pistol. But where the launcher version clearly looks like a sci-fi weapon, this one just looks like a toy water gun, or maybe a Nerf gun.
"As you can see, miniaturization was my main goal," Lala explains as she fiddles with a console near her. Down on the other side of the target range, the floor opens up beneath the target dummy and it is lowered down. A second later, a fresh target dummy rises up and the floor closes. "But I made a lot of other improvements!"
Lala takes aim once again and fires.
You notice several differences immediately. For one, it's much quieter, sounding like a particularly quiet paintball gun. Second, the projectile is much smaller and faster. Your eyes can't even track the blur, but you can see the marble-sized projectile as it hits the target.
The projectile itself is different as well. It's a darker color, almost gray, and it looks more solid. For a moment, you wonder if it's even helpful at that size, but your concerns are alleviated as it starts rapidly expanding while on the target, growing from the marble size it was before to something closer to a soccer ball.
Lala fires a few more shots and you note that her fire rate is a little slower than with the launcher. Once again, the target is covered in sticky balls. These ones look a bit more solid though.
You also realize she fired it over a dozen times without anything going wrong, alleviating a lot of your fears about it blowing up in your hand as soon as you try to use it.
Lala turns to you with a smile. "A smaller barrel means it can only fire small things, but I improved the formula for the sticky foam a lot! It expands now, but it's also resistant to most forms of force, including cutting and pulling, as well as most chemicals and heat! And the best part is you can even breathe through it!"
That sounds incredibly familiar, but more importantly, it sounds absolutely perfect for what you need. "That's fantastic," you say, genuinely excited. "But what about cleanup?"
"It's easy!" she replies cheerfully, seemingly happy that you asked. "With the old version, the foam would eventually harden, at which point you could break it with a bit of force. But this new formula will stay sticky for a super long time! Until you do this, at least."
She flips a switch on the side of the pistol that you hadn't noticed and points it downrange again. This time when she pulls the trigger, what is fired isn't a small marble of foam but a beam of pale blue light. When it hits one of the sticky balls, the ball loses all of its luster, visibly drying. Within seconds it starts crumbling, collapsing under its own weight. A few moments later and it's gone, reduced to dust.
"I've installed a secondary fire method that dehydrates them!" Lala explains as she quickly fires at the other balls, turning them into dust. "It leaves behind a bit of a mess though."
You see the gray dust piled under the target. "Well, that's pretty easy to clean up," you say, not worried about such a minor drawback. The convenience of being able to disable it like that is more than worth it.
"Here, you try!" Lala says, handing you the pistol.
It's light, lighter than you expected. In fact, you'd compare it to an empty water gun, giving it even more of a toy-like feel. But that's convenient for you.
Lala steps aside and you flip the switch on the side of the pistol before taking a firing position, both hands on the gun. You're not confident enough in your aim to one-hand it. There aren't any sights on the gun to aim down, making aiming a little harder. But you line it up as best as you can and pull the trigger.
There's not even a kick, just a faint vibration, as the sticky foam ball shoots from the pistol's barrel… and smacks against the wall behind the target dummy.
You squash the faint sense of embarrassment rising up inside of you. You've never fired a gun, not even a paintball gun. Needing to learn how to aim is only to be expected and you make a mental note to spend some time training your aim. You fire off a dozen more shots. Most of those miss as well, but one of them does clip the shoulder of the training dummy, latching on and growing.
You notice something odd about the trigger though. The trigger remains depressed for a moment when you use it, only to snap back out.
"Oh, that's the recharge," Lala explains when you ask her about it. "The downside of making it so small is that it can't fire as rapidly as Launcher-kun."
"Do I need to worry about ammo?" you ask.
"Probably not unless you spend all day every day shooting it for a few months straight," Lala says with a shake of her head. "Most of the ammo reserves are stored in a digital space. It's not infinite, but I put a lot in there. Whenever I do maintenance on it I'll top you off with more."
"How often will that be?"
"I usually do maintenance once a month!"
You nod, satisfied. Then you look up at her with a smile. "Thanks a lot, Lala, I really appreciate it. I feel prepared for the suitors now that I have this. In plenty of time too, since your father will tell them where you are the day after tomorrow." It will probably take a couple extra days on top of that before they start arriving.
"We'll kick their butts if they cause any trouble!" Lala agrees as she raises her fists in the air. Then she lets out a big yawn, mouth opening wide.
You give her a fond smile. "Sounds like it's time for us to go to bed. Just let me clean up my shots."
"No need," Lala says, pushing another button on the control podium. The range is flooded with that blue light, turning all the spheres to dust in a few heartbeats.
"Useful," you note. You activate Pocket Space, one of the prerequisite perks for the Grand Manor, and store the Pistol-kun in your vault, which is located on the first floor. It's more convenient than Lala's D-Dial for storing objects like that, though it has much less space.
"Come on, let's get ready for bed," you say, heading back to the portal you came in through, Lala in tow. You are very eager to get in bed with Lala to continue her sex education.
It doesn't take either of you very long to get back in the room and strip down. Peke wishes the two of you a good night before going to sleep on your desk again, and then you slip under the covers with a naked Lala.
Lala doesn't waste any time cuddling up against you, immediately throwing a leg over yours as she presses herself against your side and leans forward to kiss you. You don't mind at all, of course, and eagerly accept her kiss, wrapping your arms around her to draw her closer.
Lala's lips are soft and sweet, and her breath is hot as she immediately deepens the kiss of her own accord. There's an edge to her actions; a hunger. It seems as if your steady lessons on sex have finally gained momentum, giving Lala a strong desire for more.
You lift one hand up to her chest and sink your fingers into her soft boobs. She moans into your mouth and shifts her hips slightly, pressing them against you. You knead the pliant flesh under your palm and catch the already-hardened nipple between two of your fingers.
Lala reaches down and wraps her hand around your nearly fully erect shaft, quickly bringing it to full mast. You squeeze her tighter as she starts eagerly stroking you.
But just as you start to feel the pleasure building up, she stops. She pulls her head away from you, a strand of saliva connecting your lips for a moment before collapsing under its own weight. Her hand pauses on your shaft, and she looks at you with more clarity than you expected.
"I had an idea!" Lala says with barely contained excitement.
"Oh?" You are incredibly curious about what idea she had.
"Well, you know how it feels really good for you when I use my hands or boobs to completely wrap around your penis?" she starts, and you nod. You still aren't used to Lala talking about lewd things, so hearing her say something like that is still a little strange, but you don't let it distract you too much. "And how it feels really good for me when you thrust your fingers into my vagina? Then wouldn't it feel really good for both of us if you put your penis in my vagina?"
You blink at Lala, processing what she just said. A snort escapes your lips, and it quickly turns into a chuckle, which only escalates to a full-blown laugh. Lala looks at you, half amused and half confused, as you fail to contain your laughter.
"Sorry, sorry," you say after it finally subsides.
"Did I say something funny?" she asks. Thankfully there's no hurt in her tone, just confusion.
"No, not really, you just caught me off guard," you reassure her with a smile. "Remember last night, when I told you that there are multiple kinds of activities that are sex, but there's one in particular that people usually mean when they use the word? Well, you just described it."
"Aw, it's not a new idea?" Lala pouts cutely.
"Sorry Lala, you'll have to try a lot harder to come up with a type of sex that no one has ever thought of before," you say with a grin. "But just because someone else thought of it first doesn't mean it isn't a great idea. I'd really like to do it with you."
You planned on waiting, easing her into things slower, and savoring the experience. But if she's already eager enough that she's 'inventing' sex on her own, then you don't see why you should wait.
"I wanna try it!" she agrees.
You grin, feeling your blood starting to pump already. You take your hand off of her boob and roll over onto her, pushing her onto her back as you position yourself above her. You give her a quick kiss before pushing yourself up onto your knees and between her legs.
Lala lets go of your dick, instead raising her hands to head level as she looks up at you. Her expression is anticipatory and excited, her eyes sparkling as she waits for you to introduce her to a new world of pleasure. Her beautiful pink hair is spread out on the bed below her.
You take a moment to feast your eyes on her body. Her skin is smooth and creamy, and so soft looking. Her boobs lay flattened on her chest due to gravity pulling them down, but even with that, they're still decently large. Her pale pink nipples poke straight up, hardened from her arousal.
The rest of her figure is curvy and luscious. You've never seen such a perfect woman. Lala encompasses everything that sparked that obsession with pink-haired girls you gained all those years ago.
"Aki-kun?" Lala asks, pulling you out of your thoughts.
"You're beautiful," you tell her in a breathless, awed, tone.
You expect Lala to accept the compliment with ease and a casual thank you, as she always does. But she doesn't. She averts her eyes, a blush appearing on her face. "Thank you…" she says quietly, almost meekly.
Your mind grinds to a halt.
Lala embarrassed?
Lala blushing?
So cute.
Heat and desire erupting inside of you. It's time. You grab Lala by the hips, your fingers sinking into her soft flesh, and pull her closer to you as you get her in position. She lets out a little noise of surprise at your sudden actions, but just looks at you with anticipation, a blush still on her face.
Your dick stands tall in the air above her crotch, twitching and begging to be buried in Lala's insides. But you take a quick moment to make sure she's wet enough, running a thumb over her clit and down her entrance.
Lala gasps at your touch, and your thumb comes back with plenty of girlcum coating it. She's more than wet enough. You pull your hips back so you can line your penis up with her pussy. Your tip easily splits her slippery folds and you press against her tight entrance.
You pause there, looking up at her. She's staring down at the spot where your dick is about to enter her, biting her lips in anticipation. She looks up at you when she realizes that you've paused and she meets your eyes with her own before giving you a smile and a nod. There's still a hint of a blush on her face, but there's no hesitation, no nervousness. She wants this and she's ready.
You tighten your grip on her hips and then push. You're immediately met with tightness as you slowly force your way inside. Lala's hands clench, grabbing the bed sheets below her as she opens her mouth in a soundless gasp. Heat and pressure assail your cock as you slowly slide inside of her, each heartbeat turning the flames and pleasure up another notch.
You keep pushing, driven by desire and passion. Lala squirms under you, letting out small grunts and gasps as enter her. You're not sure how long it takes, most likely only a few seconds, but each moment is filled with so much stimulation that it overwhelms your sense of time and makes it feel so much longer.
But finally, you reach as far as you can go. You feel the tip of your dick hit a wall at the same time your balls touch her ass as you fully sheathe yourself inside of her.
But before you can get used to the sensation, Lala lets out a low moan and her insides convulse around your cock, clenching tight as her body stiffens. Even with your mind assailed by pleasure, you easily recognize that she just climaxed.
You give her a moment to recover, giving thanks to Sticky Fingers as you do, and to take your mind off of the urge to move that is steadily filling your entire body. You watch her face, her eyes wide in surprise.
When she recovers, she looks back at you once more. "Wow…" she breathes.
"Yeah," you agree. Just those two words are enough for you to communicate your feelings about what just happened. You tighten your grip on her and give her a look. She takes a deep breath and then nods, telling you she's ready.
You pull your hips back, the small feeling of loss from not having your entire length inside of her more than offset by the lightning bolt of pleasure that shoots through you at the sensation moving inside of her, and the way her inner walls grip at you and slide against your most sensitive spot.
You don't pull out too far, only a couple of inches. You pause there for a moment, and then push forward, quicker than last time. Lala lets out a moan as your smaller head presses against the entrance to her womb once more.
You repeat the motion, just slightly faster this time, and Lala moans again. The sound of her voice is music to your ears and only serves as even further encouragement. You thrust into her again, even faster, pulling back further.
Lala's insides are still incredibly tight, but you find it easier to thrust into her as you fall into a rhythm. You start slow, but as your arousal increases and the pleasure builds up, your mind clouds with desire and you give into instinct.
Your hips rock back and forth rapidly as you pound the beautiful pinkette beneath you with unrestrained force. Lala's moaning is soon joined by the sound of flesh slapping against flesh as you make sure to completely fill her with every thrust.
Lala's back arches and she pulls at the bedsheets hard enough that you worry that they'll tear as her insides clamp down on your dick. She lets out a higher-pitched moan as she cums. But unlike last time, you don't give her a chance to rest. In fact, you pick up the pace while she's climaxing, rutting her harder before it even finishes.
Her voice hitches and there's a tearing sound as the bedsheets give out, her grip too strong for them to handle. Neither of you pay the new holes in the bedsheet any mind though as you continue to fuck her, the pressure steadily building inside of you.
Lala's breasts bounce up and down on her chest as you ram into her. Her hair splays out beneath her, messy and frazzled but sexier than ever. Her body is tense and covered in a light sheen of sweat. Her legs are crossed behind you, locking you in close to her and preventing you from escaping. Not that the thought of doing so ever crosses your mind.
But it's her expression that your eyes latch on to. You can see so many different emotions on her face. Joy, excitement, surprise, desire, love, and more. But most of all you can see just how much she's enjoying it and how much pleasure is filling her body, and hear it in her every moan.
This time, when Lala cums, it pushes you over the edge as well. As she tightens around you, you thrust in one last time, harder than any thrust before, pressing the tip of your dick against the entrance to her womb.
And you cum.
You grunt as that feeling of pure satisfaction washes over you and you pump spurt after spurt of thick cum directly into her deepest parts. Your body is tense and twitching as you fill her with your seed and your mind goes blank, consumed by the feeling.
When your orgasm peters out and the feelings fade away, you come back down to earth, once again aware of more than just the spot where you're connected to Lala. Your chest is heaving and your heart is hammering in your chest. You can't remember a time when you felt even half as good as you did just then. No other orgasm, in either of your lives, could compare.
You look down at Lala who seems to be in a comparable state. She's laying limp beneath you, completely drained of energy. There's a strand of hair stuck to her face. But she has the biggest smile on her face and is looking up at you lovingly. You smile back at her. "I love you," you tell her quietly.
"I love you too," she whispers back.
You're reminded that you're still inside of her by the way she twitches, aftershocks of pleasure coursing through her. You pull out slowly, and both of you shudder at the sensation. As your dick springs up, still hard, as you free it from her, a couple small spurts of cum are wrung out of you. They land on the small patch of light pink hair above her pussy. You see Lala notices it, but she doesn't seem to mind.
Fatigue washes over you as you remove yourself from between her legs and lay on the bed beside her. She cuddles up against you once more and kisses you. This time without tongue, but even then you can feel the emotion behind the simple kiss.
Your lips part and she settles her head down on your chest, using you as a pillow. "Sorry about your sheets," she whispers.
You wrap an arm around her shoulders. "Don't worry about it. I'll pick up a new set tomorrow."
"Mmkay," she says, voice barely audible. "I love you…" Her voice trails off and her breathing evens out as she falls asleep, tired from your activities.
You feel it claiming you as well. You kiss Lala on her forehead, the only part of her you can reach, and then lean back and allow yourself to be whisked away to a dreamland.
Shifty's SubscribeStar: subscribestar com / shifty-s-fiction
Shifty's Discord Server: discord .gg/shifty-writing
This is the story-only edit of a Quest I run over on Questionable Questing! If you'd like to participate in the Quest and vote on decisions the character makes, head there!
