The last bell of the day rang, but Makoto felt none of the relief that usually came with the freedom to go to his dorm for homework and harem hentai.
"Okay playa," Kyu announced as they exited the classroom. "What's the plan?"
"Well, the orders they gave me took longer than ten minutes to happen, so that means-"
"You're not seriously going to stand up those nice girls, who just asked for a favor from their future daddy, right?"
Makoto shuddered at her wording, but Kyu had a point. "Yeah, you're right. New plan."
"Wait wait, that was your whole plan? To just abandon them?"
"Well, no… maybe… yeah."
"Dude, you wanted this, didn't you?"
"...maybe a little…"
"Then fucking act like it! Get that dick pointing forward and let it guide you!"
The student let out a long sigh. Kyu was right. He did want this, to some degree. As embarrassing as it was to admit that you were about to risk everything to make some elaborate jerk-off fantasy a reality, he did want it. And now he had to do something about it.
"Okay, Mukuro wanted me to spot her. That meant she's waiting in the weight room."
"Did, did you just make a pu-"
"And Kyoko wanted me to help her with an art assignment."
"No, no, no, was that shit intentio-"
"At lunch she texted me that she'd be in the art room, which is just across the hall from the weight room. That simplifies the geography."
"Dude this is gonna fuck with me, did you really mean tha-"
"That means all I have to do is excuse myself and go back and forth!"
"That's smart and all but I really have to know if yo-"
"So let's go!"
Kyu was oddly stricken by the sudden determination in Makoto. It was clear that he was one of those kids that could do anything when they set their minds to it.
So he probably had this in the bag.
The Love Fairy grinned to herself as she flew down the halls, following him along the rows and rows of doors. Despite a few hiccups, this shit would be so easy. And she needed an easy case. After all that Nymphojinn stress it'd be nice to just relax and watch this kid get himself a few easy girls.
"Okay, weight room," Makoto said outside of a particular door. "Just need to go in there, help for a bit, then clock out and get to the next one. Easy enough."
"You've got this kid, they'll be sucking your knees in no time."
Not even Kyu being Kyu could phase Makoto at this time.
The Ultimate Lucky Student pushed his way through the doors of the weight room and was relieved to see that it was mostly empty. That was unusual. Usually you could at least rely on Sakura practicing martial arts in the corner.
But in the center was Mukuro Ikusaba. And she looked absolutely gorgeous.
"Holy fucking cowtits," Kyu sputtered as she flew circles around the Ultimate Soldier.
Clad in nothing more than a pair of red gym shorts and a white tank top, her muscular body almost on full display to Makoto and Kyu. She remained oblivious to their presence, doing a toe touch near one of the weight sets. The Ultimate Lucky Student felt his eyes gravitate towards her ass on pure heterosexual instinct, just as she stood up and turned around.
"Hey, nice to see ya," Mukuro commented. "Let's get started."
Makoto felt himself entranced by her command, and he immediately marched over to the bench, Kyu following close behind.
"Load her up," the Ultimate Soldier ordered.
Makoto had a vague idea of what to do. The iron bar rested across the top of the bench, and there was a massive pile of weights on either side. Not sure what to do, Makoto put the smallest weights imaginable on the bar.
"No, no," Mukuro chuckled a little. "I can do way more than that."
Taking the weights back off, Makoto put some slightly larger ones on the bar.
"Way more," Mukuro emphasized.
He gave up and put every weight in the pile on the bars.
"Perfect!"
The Ultimate Soldier was practically quivering as she lay on the bench and planted her hands on the bar.
"If I start to slip, just grip near my hands and help me keep it from collapsing. Got it?"
Makoto nodded, but he couldn't help but notice that the weight was causing the bar to bend even without Mukuro touching it. The likelihood of him being able to help at all was minimal. Still, he said he'd help, and he'd help; and that wasn't even the spell talking.
Kyu watched the pair intently. Gripping the bar and regulating her breathing, Mukuro began lifting it up. The Ultimate Lucky Student's heart caught in his throat as he watched the metal of the bar sag under the weights. For just a brief second, boy and love fairy alike thought they were about to watch the bar drop and Mukuro's head go flying from her body like the cap off a dropped liter of soda.
Instead, something miraculous happened. She started benching the monstrosity. Not only benching it, she did it with apparent ease. In a feat of strength that would've made even the mightiest of Hope's Peak alumni shudder, Mukuro pumped the bar up and down with frightening speed.
"Uh, be sure to pace yourself," Makoto offered as some impotent gesture of assistance.
"Oh yeah, right," Mukuro replied as she increased the speed.
Kyu and Makoto were hypnotized. Mukuro's arms almost became a blur as she seemingly applied as little effort as possible to pumping what must've been at least three-hundred pumps.
And then, the bar snapped.
Makoto and Kyu yelped as they both retreated, yet Mukuro remained completely still. Towards the middle of the bar there was a clean snap, and the Ultimate Soldier let both halves fall to the floor with a deafening thud.
"Well, shoot," Mukuro opined as she sat back up. "I'm gonna go grab another bar. See ya in a few."
And on that note, she bolted, running out of the room faster than Makoto or Kyu could fully register. The duo sat in silence for a second before Kyu spoke up.
"You think she could do that thing with a watermelon between her thighs?"
"Uh, what thing?"
"Nothing."
Another moment of silence passed.
"Well, time to visit Kyoko," Makoto announced.
The Art Room was its usual level of messy. Makoto had already issued a moratorium on cum=paint comments, so Kyu was more pouty than usual as they walked up to Kyoko, who sat at the table with a piece of paper and some crayons in front of her.
"Uh, what are you drawing, Kyoko?" Makoto asked.
"Well, the assignment is to create an illustration of our ideal relationship. But my initial submission was refused on grounds of being unacceptable. I don't understand why."
"Well, let me take a look," Makoto offered as he picked up the paper. Turning it around, he quickly understood why.
The drawing was crude at best, made of only two stick figures drawn in yellow on a white piece of paper. Despite the eye strain, Makoto could see that they were supposed to be in intercourse. All around their heads, phrases like 'ooh' and 'aww yeah' and 'harder pls' were written in green crayon. Beneath it Kyoko had written 'me and my boyfriend' in pencil.
"Well, it's to the point," Kyu reviewed.
"I thought it clearly conveyed the point, personally."
"I… umm…" Makoto tried to find the words to explain. "I think it's… more adult than Chisa wants."
"Oh, so she wants something more childish?"
"Yes, absolutely!" Makoto suddenly piped up. Stupid spell.
Kyoko grabbed another piece of paper, another yellow crayon, and started scribbling away. In just a minute or two, she was finished.
"How does this look?"
This time the drawing was of an stick figure with long hair, wearing a crude diaper. There were several small, squiggly lines on the diaper itself, and it seemed to be sagging. Above the figure was an arrow that came from the words 'me kyoko kirigiri.' The Kyoko Stick Figure held hands with a taller, overly muscled stick figure that had 'my boyfriend' labelled above it.
"Holy fuck, this girl is kinky as shit."
"What do you think?" Kyoko asked.
Makoto had to suppress a gag as he asked a question he already knew the answer to. "What's the diaper for?"
"Well, I have fantasies about being able to melt the stresses of the day away by mentally regressing to an infantile state, with someone I trust watching over me. This picture depicts that situation."
"And… the scent lines?"
"Naturally, I would soil myself and have to be changed."
"Oh okay," Makoto replied, handing the paper back as the spell prevented him from gagging. He knew it wasn't right to mock or demean people for fantasies like that, but it was the 'changing' that mostly got to him.
"That shit is so adorable," Kyu declared. "I'd so change her fucking diaper."
"I think that Chisa is more focused on traditional love stuff, like dates or weddings."
Kyoko's eyes widened a little. "Oh, that is much more understandable."
"Yeah, so, I'm going to leave you to work on that for a sec, but I'll be back in a bit to check."
"Okay, and thank you very much for this, Makoto."
"Of course, Kyoko, and one more thing."
"Yeah?"
"Use a different color. Please?"
The Ultimate Detective nodded and gave a slight smile. "Alright, I'll use black."
Back out in the hallway, Makoto took a deep breath.
"You're doing great, champ," Kyu told him. "Obviously things are gonna start a little slowly, but you just gotta keep doing what you're doing."
"I'm doing great?"
"Hell yeah, you're doing that helpful and polite thing just perfectly. Girls fucking cream themselves over chivalry."
Back in the weight room, Mukuro was carrying a pair of extremely large dumbbells towards the mirrors along the back wall.
"I figured that I got in enough reps before the bar broke, so I was gonna move onto the next step."
Kyu and Makoto were, again, shocked at the physical prowess of the Ultimate Soldier. The dumbbells had '100' clearly marked on the side, yet she still walked around and swung them as if they were made of foam.
"I just need you to watch and make sure my form stays consistent."
He nodded, anticipating another exciting five minutes of doing absolutely nothing. And, true to form, Mukuro immediately launched off into lifting them above her head, alternating between the right and the left arm, with zero effort.
"Dude, this shit is so hot!" Kyu declared as she started flying circles around Mukuro. "These are the kind of things you could waste days away licking."
As if to emphasize her point, the Love Fairy pointed at the mirror to emphasize Mukuro's abs.
Makoto couldn't help but agree, it was quite impressive. But, still not quite the kind of thing he found attractive.
Without the knowledge of the trio, a screw was loose on one of the plastic ceiling fans overhead. In a normal situation, the screw would simply rest a little limply against the plastic case, and the fan would operate as normal. But the luck of Makoto Naegi was a strange thing. Oftentimes it did positive things, like land him in the greatest school in the world or cause an extradimensional business of love fairies to take interest in his fetishes. But sometimes it was bad luck. And that bad luck manifested itself in the cosmic act of the screw falling out of the plastic case. Followed by the other three screws.
The laws of physics were violated, like how Kyu violated herself every few hours ,as the fan turned to the side in mid-air and shot across the room in an almost straight line. Were Makoto's luck to cut out here, it would hit Mukuro Ikusaba and leave a nasty welt. Were Makoto Naegi to be Nagito Komaeda, she'd probably lose a limb. Instead, the fan angled itself in just the right way to catch a loose bit of Mukuro's tank top, ripping it from her body as it sailed across the room.
The Ultimate Soldier couldn't help but be surprised, probably on account of the sound of the fan ripping her tank top triggering a memory of watching the fire of an M60 machine gun rip the flesh from bone on an innocent civilian in the same way, and she spun; accidentally releasing the weights. The force of her spinning and releasing launched the weights in two directions, the floor next to Makoto and the gut of Kyu Sugardust.
"Guh," Kyu ejaculated as she was launched across the room.
"Shit, are you okay, Makoto?" Mukuro asked, the PTSD leaving as soon as it arrived.
"Y-y-yes," Makoto blubbered out, his thoughts overridden with one thing.
Mukuro followed his gaze and looked down. "Oh yeah, my boobs."
The Ultimate Soldier let out a bit of a laugh as she walked over to pick up the weights.
"They're not as impressive as Junko's, but hey, if they catch a guy's attention like yours then they must be pretty alright."
Wait, Makoto thought to himself. This wasn't how things were supposed to work. Usually this was the part where the girl would chase him away while somehow placing the blame for this incident on him.
His thoughts were interrupted by Kyu flying back over. "Fuck, I may be immortal, but that shit hurts. I haven't felt that bad since that time I tried horse st-"
Makoto waved her down as he followed Mukuro with his eyes. "I… I…"
The Ultimate Soldier sighed a little and walked over to him. He almost couldn't properly focus as she rested a hand on his shoulder.
"Relax, Makoto, I don't mind. I… I think of you as a friend, at least, so we should be fine, right?"
"Uh, yes, of course," Makoto told her. There was a kind of vulnerability in Mukuro's words that Makoto never could've imagined from someone like the Ultimate Soldier.
"Well… I'm going to get changed," Mukuro stated, a blush on her face growing more apparent. "See you in a bit."
Makoto used her getaway as a chance to go back to the Art Room, but along the way Kyu stopped him.
"Dude, you're fucking killing it out here! It's been, like, ten minutes and a girl already has her top off in front of you."
"But I think the fan did tha-"
"Doesn't matter, take the compliment."
He did so, and reentered the Art Room. Inside, Kyoko sat at the table, arms crossed, with a look of satisfaction across her face.
"I believe I've created an excellent image, and one that will most assuredly get me a perfect score on this assignment."
Makoto was scared as she slid the paper over to him, but a look at it quickly left him relieved. It was still a childish stick figure portrait, but this time it was in black and red crayon, and nothing freaky was going on. It was just a drawing of a stick figure with long hair and gloves wearing a wedding dress, and a man wearing a suit, and above it the word 'Marriage' was written.
"This is great, Kyoko!" Makoto praised her, the relief at not being traumatized again infusing his words with genuine enthusiasm.
A strong blush crawled its way across the detective's face. "Really?"
"It's just like you said, I'm sure Chisa will give this a wonderful score."
It seemed as if the detective was at a loss for words for a moment, which confused Makoto a bit. Was she really not used to receiving praise like this?
"I was hoping to ask you something else, if that'd be okay."
"Yes absolutely completely okay."
"Would you…" The words trailed off as Kyoko tried her best to word her request correctly. "Would you go out on a date with me?"
"Of course!"
Kyoko was shocked. It was that easy? She'd have to try it more often then.
Makoto was torn. On one hand, yeah, it was a date. That's what he was supposed to be doing. But he wasn't sure how he felt about Kyoko yet, and he wasn't sure that dating was the right first step.
Kyu was pumping her fist and cheering.
"How about next Friday, after school?" Kyoko asked.
"I will gladly do that yes indeed absolutely."
The detective rose from her seat, taking the paper back, and she leaned forward just a bit. Makoto could see it coming from a mile away, but his body kept him from moving on instinct. Kyoko leaned forward, puckered her lips just a bit, and planted a kiss on his cheek.
"Whoo!" Kyu cheered.
Makoto's face turned bright red and he began stammering and sputtering as Kyoko pulled back. His brain barely registered anything else. Kyoko Kirigiri had just kissed him on the cheek. Kisses were things that people did when they were in a relationship. She asked him on a date.
Oh, he was about to be dating Kyoko Kirigiri.
By the time he had put it all together, Kyoko had already left. Instead, there was just Kyu.
"Dude, you're a natural! Let's get back to the weight room so you can do it again."
Fittingly, back in the weight room, Mukuro was sitting on the floor, now in a white t-shirt.
"Hey, Mukuro," Makoto said. "What are you doing?"
As soon as Makoto spoke, she jumped in fright, as if he had taken her out of some deep thinking session.
"I was just… uh… thinking?"
"About what?" Makoto inquired, a little concerned.
"Oh, it's nothing. I was just… wondering… if you were free tomorrow afternoon as well?"
"Oh of course without a doubt always."
"Would you want to go on, like, a date? Tomorrow afternoon?"
"Sure!" Makoto declared, this time not under the influence of the spell. Kyu was impressed by the initiative.
Mukuro leaned over and pulled Makoto into a hug. Despite the awkwardness of Mukuro, sitting down, hugging a standing Makoto, her grip was still noticeably strong. She was gentle enough to not crush him, but Makoto could almost feel the muscles rippling under her skin as she pulled him close. Although, his focus was moreso on just how warm she felt. He couldn't help but hug back.
"I love you," she said, almost surprising herself.
"I… I love you too," Makoto replied.
"Aww," Kyu interjected. "You two will be making babies before ya know it."
This all seemed way too sudden for Makoto, but he couldn't help but enjoy it. The new couple spent the rest of the evening together, locked together in what must've been Hope Peak's most romantic cuddle.