It's late into the night of the twenty-first day here at the Skyblock, which means it's been a few days since my last update. Today itself had a lot going on, but before I get to that, I should briefly mention what happened during those days.

Honestly? It wasn't much, which is why I didn't write anything for them. I continued to train my Ren. I can now hold it for about a minute before tiring myself out. I'm still not sure how strong I am when using it, as there isn't much I can use to actually test it and Bisky wants me to focus on pure endurance right now. My ability to sense others has also improved; I can feel any of the others anywhere on the Skyblock. I'm also close to being able to maintain Ten while asleep, having only dropped it twice last night.

The others have gotten started on making furniture in the meantime. The walls of the common area are now filled with bookshelves and Levy had extracted a promise from me that she can buy as many books as she wanted in the next world to start filling them, something we were definitely able to do.

In addition to bookshelves they also made some very simple dressers(that are basically just bookshelves with wood boxes slotted into them) for the bedrooms, and shelves for the pantry. They also made more clay pots, and Levy continued her research into metallurgy to prepare for making more kinds of things.

Dinner the past two nights had also been better than usual, though at the cost of using up pretty much all of our food that wasn't stuff we could grow ourselves. With the portal opening soon, that was fine with me. Even if we couldn't get more food on the other side, we would have used up what we had sooner or later, and we could always go back to salads.

The only other thing of note that happened was the reaction to the new dress code. Mostly Uzume and Chiho's reaction, because now that everyone but Bisky was walking around and doing things in the nude, those two couldn't stop from staring at everyone, no matter how hard they tried.

Most of the time I'd see them watching one of the others before tearing their gaze away and shaking their heads, usually turning their attention to the other to help distract them. And sure, they definitely spent some time checking each other out, but it lacked the same magnetism, and was more casual. They had already tasted each other's body after all.

I caught them staring at me a few times too, particularly my crotch. In their defense, being surrounded by so many girls, one of them Matsu, who enjoyed tempting me at any given point in the day, it wasn't uncommon to see me completely erect. They definitely stared whenever that happened.

Speaking of Matsu, she still hasn't made progress with the Jinki. She insists she's figuring it out, but I've also seen her with her head in her hands, grumbling with frustration. I never expected fast results, but I'm considering switching her to another project, putting it aside until I can get Psychic Talent and a way to grant it to her, if only for her mental health. But I think it's a matter of pride for her now, and she'd fight me on it. I'll let her keep working on it for now, but I'll be keeping an eye on her.

Today was a good break for her though, something to help restore her mood and her confidence.

Last night we had Bisky use one of her special massages on us to make sure we were all rested. See, with Nen, it's more than just a power boost. Once you master the basics, each Nen user develops what's known as Hatsu, or techniques using Nen. These techniques range from empowering your blows in specific ways to far more esoteric things such as telling the future or turning your aura into a substance that has the properties of both rubber and gum.

Bisky had a technique that summons, or perhaps 'creates' would be more accurate, a human-like figure she affectionately named Cookie. Cookie was a masseuse that could use aura to give a variety of supernaturally charged massages. One of them was a 30 minute long massage that gave you the equivalent of a full night's sleep.

Instead of shifting our sleep schedules, I had Bisky use the massage on each of us as midnight approached. It took a while, three hours plus the few minutes it took to switch from one person to another, but it was much better than ruining our sleep schedule, and it didn't take too much out of Bisky.

Cookie's hands felt nice, and in fact I'd go so far as to say that they felt too nice, as I can't recall details of what happened. I just remember feeling content and comfortable and then it was over, thirty minutes having passed.

Tension was high as it got closer to midnight. We had all dressed again and gathered our gear, ready to move out and take on whatever challenge. I remember thinking over the Sekirei world, and what had happened there. It was both so long ago and so recent. I wasn't sure I was ready for another world like that.

So it was both relieving and anti-climactic when the portal opened and I checked the phone to see what world it was. "Love is War?" I read out loud. It rang vague bells, but I couldn't place it.

"Really?!" Matsu interjected. "Oooh, I can't wait!"

I didn't share Matsu's excitement though, my brow was furrowed as I thought about it. "Is that the one with the dancing pink haired girl in the end credits?" I asked.

"Yes!" Matsu confirmed before turning to me in surprise. "Wait, don't tell me you don't know it? But it was the biggest anime of the season!"

I shrugged. "I was busy dealing with college when it aired," I replied, defending myself. "But it's a modern world, right? We'll be able to get a lot of our shopping done."

"Who are we going to try to recruit?" Matsu asked. "Kaguya is pretty cute, but Chika would be more fun… oh, but what about Kei?"

"No one," I interjected. "We won't be recruiting any of them. They're a bunch of normal highschool kids, right?"

"Well… they're pretty smart, but yeah," Matsu said. "But-"

"And none of them are in really bad spots where leaving the world would be an improvement to their lives?" I continued over her.

"Kaguya's dad is an asshole, but no, she wouldn't want to-"

"Then that's that. They're not useful, they wouldn't want to or benefit from it, and I don't know them, so I don't have any particular interest in them," I said.

"But, but, what about Hayasaka?!" Matsu tried. "She's a ninja maid and she's super cool and super pretty!"

"Would she want to come with us?" I asked.

"...no, she's loyal to Kaguya, who relies on her," Matsu admitted. "Kaguya would be in trouble without her support."

"Then no," I said firmly. "Look, we're not going to get new people every time the portal opens. Some worlds we're just going to go shopping, maybe help out the locals, do a mission, do some of the light stamps to get some Credits, that kind of thing. This is just going to be one of those."

"Ugh, you're no fun," Matsu pouted, but I ignored her. I may have decided to be a bit more aggressive with my recruiting, but that didn't mean I was going to pursue a girl just based on Matsu's knowledge and preferences. She has the self-control of a five year old, as evidenced by her winging herself on me.

I took a quick glance at the missions to see if there was anything interesting, and one in particular caught my eye. "Tell you what Matsu. I'll be relying on you for a lot while we're there. If you do a good job and behave, I've got a special reward, just for you, that we'll do before we leave." I turned the screen so she could read the mission on the phone.

Her back straightened as a grin broke her face and she saluted me. "Yes Ashikabi-sama! Matsu will be on her best behavior!"

I rolled my eyes, amused, and turned to the others. "To catch everyone else up, the world on the other side of the portal is, to put it quite frankly, very safe. It is the same as the last world, the one many of you are from, minus any aliens or pharmaceutical companies spying on an entire city with a private army. Bisky, it should be like any normal city, except without secret Nen users or other dangers. Maybe a bit more technologically advanced than what you're used to, but nothing crazy. Does everyone understand?"

There were nods all around, so I continued. "Like before, the time there is probably synced up to our time, so it's likely midnight and very little will be open. The plan is to visit a manga cafe. I want most of you to do some pre-shopping, figuring out nearby locations to buy everything we need using the computers there and figuring out an optimal route. Keep in mind that we have limited storage space. I can store approximately three cubic meters worth of stuff in my Pocket Space, and Levy and I have backpacks that can hold a lot, but not an infinite amount. We'll have to make trips back through the portal to empty our supplies is what I'm saying, so make sure to account for that."

While I didn't know the world we'd be visiting, in this instance that was fine. Quite frankly, this was no different from going to Japan back in my home world. It was just a modern world with a specific set of characters after all, or so I assumed. Matsu had mentioned something about a ninja maid, but superhumanly exceptional servants were nothing new to slice of life worlds such as this and weren't an indicator of a hidden danger.

Even more specifically, Levy and I had come up with more plans for worlds such as this based on our experience in Sekirei. The instructions I detailed to all of them were based on those planning sessions.

"While you work on that, Matsu and I will be working on making other preparations," I said. "And with any luck you'll be able to spend the evening relaxing and enjoying some recreational activities. Shore leave, basically."

Chiho and Uzume exchanged looks at that, sharing a smile, and the others looked pretty excited at that too.

After a couple last minute checks to make sure we were actually ready, we headed through the portal.

As usual, we were deposited into a spot hidden from easy view. This time it looked like the back wall of a bathroom located in a park. Not the most savory of spots, but it could have been worse. I opened up the Mapper app, ignored the location data for the characters in this setting, and found the nearest manga cafe.

The girls chattered excitedly as we walked through the dark city, largely empty of people at this time of night. I was actually sort of grateful that times were synced up. I was more prepared for it this time, but it was still disorienting to shift from the dark and quiet skyblock to a city full of life and noise.

Emphasis on life. I now had another sense that was threatening to overwhelm me in those first few moments where I could feel everyone in all the buildings we passed. Thankfully we weren't in a residential area, so that number was limited, but it was more than I expected. It put me on edge as we walked, making me feel like I was surrounded.

"You get used to it," Bisky assured me, stepping up next to me as she noticed the cause of my silence. "It helps that, when your senses are better, you'll be able to feel more nuance to each source of aura. You'll be able to pick out the threats, which means you'll be able to tell that most people aren't one. Trust me, I'll tell you immediately if we run into anyone like that. But from the description you gave earlier, that shouldn't be an issue."

I took a deep breath, forcing myself to relax. "No, you're right, we shouldn't," I said, working on not paying attention to the sensation of so many people within my detection range. "At worst we'll get some dumb punks trying to hit on you girls. And that's more likely to end up bad for them than me."

Bisky gave me a reassuring smile. "Exactly. So just relax. Oh, and don't ignore them. In fact, this is a good chance to train how far you can sense. Try to sense as far as possible. This is the ideal population density to train that kind of thing."

I sighed. It was always training with Bisky, but that's what I got her for. "Yes Sensei."

It didn't take long to get to the manga cafe, where I paid for several hours of computer use for two different computers. Levy, Bisky, and Kusano shared one, Kusano being the main one in charge as she was the most familiar with modern computers and Earth-like internet, and Uzume and Chiho grabbed another. Which left Matsu and me without one.

"So, what are we doing, Askikabi-tan?" Matsu asked as I led her back out into the dark night. "Preparing for that mission you showed me?"

"No, preparing for our shopping trip," I replied, looking around. "The Company pays me, but we're starting to run low on funds, so we're going to go rob some ATMs."

Did I feel bad about robbing ATMs? No, not at all. The banks were insured and honestly, just by being hired by the Company I was participating in far worse than stealing cash from banks who would barely notice the loss.

I had considered having Matsu find some rich assholes and pulling a Robin Hood, but while having her transfer money in any account I wanted would have been easy, getting that money in a usable form, in 24 hours and without any identification, would have been a pain in the ass. Paper Trail or Psychic Paper both could have solved the biggest obstacles, but it wasn't worth it. ATMs hold a lot of cash, and stealing from them is faster, more convenient, and would net me more money.

Matsu didn't seem to have any hangups about it either, because she just cackled with excitement before grabbing my hand and dragging me down the street. She brought me straight to a spot where three ATMs were set into a wall, a few feet between each one.

I looked around. "Cameras?" I asked.

"Already playing looped footage of a few seconds before we got here," she replied. "There won't be any recordings of us. And Matsu didn't see anyone through them."

"There's no one near," I replied, checking with my eyes despite the fact that I could already tell that there wasn't anything with an aura within my range. Not human sized, at least. I wasn't sure if I could sense small animals like cats or rodents yet.

Matsu let out a pleased laugh. "Ufufufu. So Matsu can drain them dry now?"

"Take roughly half from each one," I told her. "That way they won't notice immediately that there's some missing."

"Ashikabi-tan is smart," Matsu replied, already placing her hand on the center one and focusing. The screens of all three ATMs flickered for a few moments, and then cash started flowing out of each of them.

I scrambled to keep up with the flow of cash, collecting it from each machine before the shelf it put the money on filled up and started spilling over. I quickly threw my bag on the ground between handfuls of cash and started stuffing it in there.

The outer two ATMs stopped producing cash well before the middle one, which was apparently more stocked, but after several minutes of heart pounding and exciting flows of cash, it stopped, and we had a backpack full of Yen.

"That was faster than I thought it would be," I replied. I took out my phone and crouched as I put it near the bag, selecting the cash to be deposited.

"That's because you have Super Hacker Matsu at your service!" Matsu said as the cash disappeared, adding itself to my Company bank account.

I let out a whistle. Just a bit over $40,000 USD. Not a bad haul for what hadn't even been thirty minutes of work. For a moment I considered hitting up another group of ATMs, but I decided not to get greedy. We had gotten several times the amount of money I had estimated it would cost to get everything on our list.

"Good job, Super Hacker," I praised her as I stood up. "You make an excellent partner in crime."

She planted her fists on her hips and puffed out her chest, proudly. "Praise Matsu more!"

I rolled my eyes, but I indulged her. "You did great, I would have been in a bad spot without you," I said as I patted her on the head. "Come on, let's get back to the others."

We made our way back to the manga cafe, our bank account significantly more full, and joined the others in making our game plan for the day. It didn't take the full eight hours we had until stores started opening to do so. In fact, it only took us a few hours, even with double checking things. So we spent a long while just reading manga and browsing the internet.

Levy found yet another copy of Fairy Tail and had read it. According to her, it was slightly different from the version she read in the Sekirei world as well as being slightly different from her own memories. It seemed like even in worlds that also had popular media that my world also had there were minor differences.

Of course, the others found Sekirei as well, and all the natives from that world grouped together to read the single copy the manga cafe owned. Reactions to that were mixed, and I could hardly blame them. The Sekirei manga was mediocre in all truth, saved only by the large amount of titties, which was the main thing drawing mixed reactions.

They also asked about the difference between Kusano in the manga, who was a child, and the Kusano they knew, the teenage girl, and I had to explain about Universal Calibration. To their credit they just rolled with the information, accepting it as yet another quirk of what I did. Kusano even looked flattered that I had gone out of my way just to get her.

After they finished reading, Uzume and Chiho spent a little bit away from the group, talking in whispered voices. The manga revealed a lot about their world, and Uzume got a clear picture of what she had been forced to do under Higa's thumb and the results of that. The two of them needed a moment to process that, but once they joined us again the first thing Chiho did was give me a hug, which I silently returned.

But eventually the sun rose and stores started opening, and after a quick breakfast at a nearby restaurant, we were able to get started with our shopping.

The next eight hours were… hectic and exhausting. We visited more than a dozen stores, hauling our purchases from each one to the portal as we filled up on all kinds of supplies. Food was a big one as we stocked up on supplies that we couldn't easily make, or at least not yet.

I was tempted to purchase the Storage Area perk from the Catalog so I could just instantly transport everything to the Skyblock, but we had enough manpower and time to get everything we needed without it, and Credits are more valuable than our time, for now at least.

The largest purchases were probably the tools we got though. A spinning wheel, an anvil, a woodburning stove, a set of bellows, half a dozen plastic barrels, more cookware, and a slew of other large purchases like that. We also got a gas generator, a ludicrous amount of solar panels that cost us half of our cash, and more than double the amount of cables we needed to hook everything up. It paid to prepare for the future after all. We also got some lighting, both LED light bulbs and candles, so things wouldn't be so dark at night.

Between the six of us, we had come up with a ton of ideas for things we could start making on our own, but we needed the tools and the knowledge on how to do it. Which brings me to our second largest set of purchases- books.

Reference books, educational books, fictional books, and even a few manga all found their way into our shopping cart. After the large purchases from earlier, and wanting to make sure we kept a decent amount of money on hand for the next world, the last one before I'd receive more pay, so I didn't let them get too crazy. But a bit of entertainment was important.

I did some browsing of my own, grabbing a few things, both fiction and non-fiction, that caught my eye. And in fact, I found something very special tucked away in one of the back corners of the store. I'll keep that a secret for now though. Levy reads this journal fairly often, and I want to surprise her alongside the others.

The sound of an acoustic guitar being played drifted through the aisles, drawing my attention. I followed the sound and was surprised to find Levy sitting on a stool, guitar in her lap as she strummed away at it. A few kids were sitting on the ground in front of her, listening to her play.

I stood off to the side, watching her for a bit. I had no idea that Levy could play the guitar, and it was obvious she enjoyed it. She had a serene smile on her face as she played her song, humming as she got lost in her own little world of music.

When the song finished, the kids sitting in front of her clapped, and I joined them. Levy looked up, noticing her audience for the first time and seeming a little flustered, but she gave the kids a smile, even as she blushed.

She put the guitar down on its stand, which had a sign next to it encouraging people to 'try it out', picked up her stack of books and made her way to me, much to the disappointment of the kids.

"Got everything you needed?" she asked me.

"Yeah, I think I'm good," I replied. "You sure you don't want to stay and play a few more songs?

She blushed. "I don't really like playing in front of other people. It's just something I learned because a friend suggested I try finding a hobby that wasn't related to books. I only ever practiced at home and I do like it, but I've never played in front of anyone before, only ever at home. But I saw the guitar and I felt… nostalgic, I guess, and I wanted to play it a little bit again."

"Well, you're very skilled," I complimented her. "And those kids seemed to like it a lot."

Her blush grew stronger and she refused to meet my eyes. "Let's just go check out now," she insisted, heading for the registers. I chuckled and followed her, happy I got to see a new side of Levy. And I remembered that moment, plans already forming.

It took us all day to do our shopping, with us not finishing until the sun was already heading towards the horizon. We had made a dozen trips back to the Skyblock to drop off our purchases and had filled both the pantry and the storage room with stuff. We had also let out Tinks and VV from their pokeballs so they could relax at home rather than be cooped up in their pokeballs.

As we rested in the Skyblock, our main job already complete, I addressed the others.

"First off, good job everyone, both for the efficient planning you all did this morning and the hard work in hauling everything back here. We're going to be very busy this next week with projects and improving our infrastructure, but the rewards for it are going to be amazing."

There were tired smiles on everyone's faces as they shared a feeling of excitement. They'd seen the generators, the solar panels, the cooking equipment, and the various other tools that will improve our life here, albeit with some hard work. Everyone was looking forward to it.

"Second, well, despite it being less exciting than the last two times, we're pretty much done here," I continued. "Matsu and I will work on a quick mission for a few Credits, but the rest of you? Feel free to enjoy a night out in a modern city. I'll give each of you some spending money, so you can do whatever you want. Amusement parks, movies, fancy dinners, shopping, whatever."

"But you won't be with us?" Kusano asked. "I wanted to go on a date with you…"

A small feeling of guilt crawled into my gut at her disappointed tone, but I did my best to ignore it. "I'm sorry Ku-chan," I told her, using the more affectionate nickname for her. "Next time, okay? It's just really important that we earn some credits from this trip."

"Can I come with you and help?" she asked.

But I had to shake my head, sadly. "We have to be sneaky. The fewer people, the better. But don't worry, we won't be in any danger. You just make sure you have some fun with the others, okay?"

Kusano pouted, but she silently nodded, accepting that. I looked at the others. "Does anyone else have questions?"

"Do we have to go as one big group, or can Chiho and I go on a date by ourselves?" Uzume asked.

"I don't mind if you split up, so long as no one is left alone," I replied with a shrug. "Which, if you two go off, then that would mean Levy, Bisky, and Kusano have to stick together. Though staying here is an option too, I guess." I looked around, but no one seemed interested in that, so I shrugged and turned back to Uzume. "So yeah, feel free to go on a date if you want."

Uzume grinned and turned to Chiho, who returned her smile. No one else had any questions, so I gave each of them 100,000 Yen, which was roughly 750 USD, to spend how they wanted to, and each of them left through the portal, leaving just Matsu and me on the Skyblock.

"Do you remember the name of the school?" I asked as I pulled up the Mapper app on my phone.

"Shuchiin Academy," Matsu answered instantly.

I tapped at the app, scrolling over the map it showed me. "Found it," I reported. "Nobody is in the building, not anyone tracked by default at least. And it's not too far away from the portal, maybe a ten minute walk."

"Then let's go!" she said, grabbing my arm and pulling. "Matsu worked hard to earn her reward!"

"Alright, alright, just stop pulling," I said with a chuckle as we passed through the portal. I twitched slightly as I suddenly felt a large increase in the number of people around me, but after spending all day in the city and going in and out of the portal, I had gotten a lot more used to being surrounded by the auras of others. "We don't want to draw attention to ourselves."

"Yes, yes, we'll be very sneaky," Matsu replied flippantly. "You know, Ashikabi-tan is making Matsu commit a lot of crimes today."

"And is that a problem?" I asked, knowing full well it wasn't.

Sure enough, she turned to face me with a big grin. "Nope! Matsu is having lots of fun."

I chuckled. "Good. That's what these trips are supposed to be- fun adventures in new worlds. Sure, they're also our chances to get more stuff, but ideally we have fun doing so."

"Did you have fun in my world?" Matsu asked.

I was a little caught off guard by the question, so I took a moment to think about it. "I'm not sure 'fun' is the right word to describe it," I eventually said. "It was scary and exciting, and… it was satisfying. I got you and Kusano, I helped out Chiho and Uzume, I softlocked the Sekirei plan, and I weakened one of the bigger asshole Ashikabi. I did a good job, both for myself and for the world, and that's a nice feeling."

Matsu hummed in acknowledgement. "Is that why we're not trying to get any of the girls here?" she asked.

"Pretty much." I shrugged. "I'd prefer to operate so that I leave worlds in a better situation, overall, than I left them. At the very least, they need to be neutral. I don't want to ruin or doom them."

"Why not?" Matsu asked, causing me to look at her in surprise. "I mean, Matsu doesn't disagree, but wouldn't that be safer? To get as much as we could from somewhere so you can get strong and protect us?"

"Maybe, but also maybe not," I replied. "We're actually pretty safe on the Skyblock, I don't think much, if anything, can get in. And I can judge if a world is too dangerous for us to handle and we can just not go through the portal." I shook my head. "The point is, yes, it would be safer, but we could do nothing and still be perfectly safe, so taking extreme measures that would leave a bad taste in my mouth isn't necessary."

"I see," she said with a nod. "That's true. Matsu really wants to play with some of the girls here though…"

I rolled my eyes. "Maybe in the future we'll come back with some super seduction powers or something," I placated her. "But for now, we have other priorities."

"Okaaaaay," Matsu relented. "Are we almost there yet?"

I double checked the map, then looked up. "Yes, actually. This is it, Shuchiin Academy."

There was a flight of stairs that led up a small hill, and on top of that hill was a tall brick wall and a gate. Beyond that was a massive brick building with ornate spires and even a clock tower. Every part of it screamed 'rich', from the fancy glass windows to the security guard eyeballing us from a booth near the gate.

I raised my phone and positioned it as if I was taking a picture before I grabbed Matsu's hand and dragged her away, hoping I just looked like a tourist taking a picture of a fancy building. The fact that I was very obviously not Asian hopefully helped sell that image.

"What- where are we going?" Matsu asked.

"The front gate is guarded, and I still feel people inside," I told her. "We're going to find somewhere nearby to eat dinner while we wait for it to empty out a bit more."

Matsu grumbled. "Such a tease," she complained, but she didn't try to change my mind.

"The anticipation will make it better," I consoled her, eyes scanning the street before finding a diner. "There, we can have a nice dinner date before doing the mission."

The diner ended up being a little too far away from the Academy for me to get an accurate read on what was going on there, but Matsu and I had a nice time just eating and chatting. I hadn't spent much time with my bespectacled Sekirei, but just talking about different anime with her was nice. There wasn't really anyone else I could talk to about that kind of thing.

Of course, Matsu's tastes were very skewed to anything with fanservice, and anything recent that just caught her attention, but there was still plenty of overlap in what we knew. Though that was not the case when it came to games. Matsu did play some games, but they were mostly JRPGs and dating sims, and those weren't genres I had spent a lot of time on, only hitting some of the most popular ones.

Over an hour passed like that, the two of us just chatting away. Once the sun had fully set and I no longer saw any students also in the diner we paid our bill and left. The nearby buildings and street lamps prevented the streets from being fully dark, but it was dark enough.

We made our way back to the school, approaching from the back this time. As we got closer, I got a better idea of how many people were within the school grounds, and I found that it was only a couple. They were likely teachers or security guards, and if it was the latter then there wasn't any chance of the number of people in the building decreasing anytime soon.

"Alright, good enough," I said out loud for Matsu's benefit. "Security systems?"

"Cameras and motion sensors for the perimeter," Matsu reported as she turned to me with a smile. "It's not hard to disable them, but if I had my Norito it would be even easier~"

I rolled my eyes before leaning down and kissing her on the lips. Green light flared into life behind her as her wings appeared, but I didn't stop kissing her. In fact, I deepened it. I had a sexy and all too willing alien in my arms and I wanted her to know exactly how I felt about that.

I waited several heartbeats after the light from her wings faded to finally let go of her. She looked out of it and had a dopey grin on her face as we separated. I gave her a second to recover before prodding her. "The security, Matsu."

"Huh?" she asked, blinking the confusion away. "Oh! Right. Done. Motion sensors won't detect anything and the cameras are playing looped feeds of the past thirty minutes, at least on this side of the school."

"Good girl," I praised her. "Now, let's get going."

Matsu and I approached the wall, moving quickly. As a single digit Sekirei, even if she was brain focused rather than brawn, it was easy for her to jump to the top of the ten foot wall and perfectly land on top of it. I wasn't quite there yet, but by running at the wall and then running up it by using it to kick myself upward, I was able to pretty easily scale it and pull myself on top next to Matsu.

I marveled at my newfound strength. It wasn't superhuman, not really. But when I was a teen my friend and I got hit pretty hard by the parkour craze and tried learning it. We never went beyond the basics, largely because we struggled with it, neither of us were really in shape enough to pull off the more advanced tricks. But I learned how to scale a wall, how to roll after a long drop, and a few simple vaults. I had just never done them so easily before.

I made a mental note to look more later, as it would help me keep up with my Sekirei as we traversed cities like this, and turned to Matsu. I nodded, and the two of us dropped down into the school grounds, now officially trespassing.

Why were we trespassing on the school? Well, I'll get to that in a little bit.

I belatedly remembered Zetsu and closed my aura nodes as the two of us approached the school building, quickly dashing through the shadows. My ability to sense the aura of others sharpened, confirming that there was no one nearby who could see us, all the people I could feel were deeper in the building and not near any windows that faced this direction.

Trusting Matsu to know the way and to take care of any electronic measures, I remained silent as I followed her to a nearby door that she carefully opened, keeping the noise to a minimum. I could tell, somehow, that she was excited and amused. Something about her body language, probably.

Neither of us spoke a word as we crept through the silent and dark halls, the little communication that was necessary we did through gestures, such as when I would pull on Matsu's arm and shake my head to indicate that there was someone down a hall she was leading us towards. She would then pick a detour, or we'd hide in a closet and wait for them to pass.

I could tell when we were approaching our destination because it was a long hallway with nothing in it save for a pair of ornate doors at the other end. Matsu also paused at the entrance to it, pressing a hand against the wall for a second before nodding and continuing. I wasn't sure what kind, but I assumed she had to shut down some kind of extra security system.

We silently approached the final set of doors, and Matsu grabbed the door handle before pushing. But nothing happened. Matsu frowned and rattled the handle, but it was immediately apparent that the door was locked.

Matsu looked at me with a panicked look, and I shared her feelings. For some reason it hadn't even occurred to me that the door would be locked the old fashioned way. With Ren, it probably wouldn't be too hard to just break the lock. Maybe. But that would be discovered in the morning, something we couldn't allow.

After thinking for a moment I pointed at the window and tilted my head questioningly. She looked at the window for a moment before nodding, and the two of us stepped next to it. The window in question looked out over the side of the wall of the school.

We carefully worked it open and I stuck my head out to look in the direction of the Student Council Room. There were windows that almost certainly opened into the room, but no ledge to stand on, and no way to know if they were locked or not. And unfortunately, we were several floors up.

But the windowsill was big enough to hang on to. Before Matsu could stop me I opened my nodes again and entered Ten before I clambered out the window. I heard Matsu make some choked noises of surprise, but I was already out the window before she understood what I was doing.

"What are you doing?" she hissed at me.

"Getting to the other window," I calmly whispered back as I hung from the windowsill. "Stay there."

The gap between my window and the student council window was too far for me to reach without some crazy Assassin's Creed style leap, and I wasn't confident enough to attempt that. I was doing okay hanging like this, my Ten keeping my aura close to me, slightly strengthening me, but acrobatics like that would require the strength offered by Ren and coordination offered by experience that I didn't have.

So I took the safer, if slower, route and climbed up. Thankfully we were on the top floor of the building, so it was an easy matter to get my fingers on the lip of the roof. Once there I slowly shimmied to the side rather than climb onto the roof.

It was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be to safely shimmy to the side like that. Or maybe I should say it was a lot slower than I expected. But I knew that messing up and falling to the ground would, at best, lose me more time. At worst I could injure myself and we'd have to retreat to the Skyblock. Or spend the Credits on Body Defense and use the heal, which wouldn't be worth it.

So I kept my movements small, never reaching too far and making sure I was as secure as I could be before letting go with one hand. Matsu watched from the window, her concern and worry evident as she watched me and kept an eye out for people.

I was starting to feel the strain of hanging like that when I finally reached the window of the Student Council room. Climbing down was a lot trickier than I had anticipated though, with me having to try to get a solid grip on a ledge at my waist level with one hand before letting go with the other. Which was a scary moment, because my grip didn't feel strong enough to support me, but with the angle I was holding it and without weight on it, there was no way around that.

So I had a scary moment where I was perched precariously on the ledge with less than half the security that I would like, but then my other hand joined my first and I lowered my legs some more and I was back in a comfortable position. Well, as comfortable as hanging off the side of a building could be, which wasn't very. I could already tell that making it back to the window where Matsu was was going to be difficult, if not impossible.

So I prayed the window was unlocked so I wouldn't have to make the trip back. I looked closer at it, noting that it was the kind that was split vertically, allowing both halves to swing outward. I carefully hooked my fingers onto the top of the half I wasn't in front of and pulled.

It moved slightly before stopping, the lock preventing it from opening.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, forcing myself not to lose my cool and think over my options. Breaking in wasn't one of them, for several reasons. I debated trying to make it back to Matsu or just dropping down and rolling to bleed off the inertia before we tried searching the school for the key, but decided to take a closer look at the window lock first.

Getting an angle on it proved impossible though. I wasn't even sure how far up it was and there was no sign on the outside of the window of where it might be. And I couldn't shift around too much, not without risking losing my balance.

I was stumped, at first. But then I remembered something. A Nen technique that Bisky hadn't taught me yet but would be perfect for this. En, a combination of Ren and Ten that involved releasing a large amount of aura, but rather than letting it flow freely, you controlled it like Ten.

There was actually another technique that could be described the same way, but that one involved still keeping it close to you. The goal with En was to create a controlled space around you filled with your aura, not to boost your physical abilities but instead give you the ability to sense every little thing in that area, down to the finest detail.

Using it could give me all the information I needed about the lock on the other side of the window, but that was easier said than done. En was a pretty advanced technique, and training it was slow. But most of the training was increasing its size, which was largely tied to aura consumption. I only needed to extend it in a single direction a few inches for a short time.

So I pressed my body against the window, closed my eyes to focus on my mental image, and started pushing aura out of my nodes. But unlike with Ren, I kept it close, using Ten.

I could feel my Ten blowing up like a balloon, and keeping control of it grew harder and harder as more Aura flowed from me. I could feel my stamina dropping, slower than when I trained Ren usually, but noticeable. So I frantically tried to direct it towards the lower half of the middle of the window.

I didn't exactly have that much control over it, and my normally steady Ten was more like a stormy ocean as the aura bulged and moved in torrents around me. It also encountered resistance from the wood and glass of the window, struggling to pass through the solid materials.

But it was passing through, and it was working, it just took more effort. I could feel the grain of the wood, the infinitesimally small gap between the sides of the window, and finally, the latch holding them shut.

I immediately stopped my attempts at En, my breath coming heavy as I switched back to Ten. I got a good enough idea of where the latch was and how it worked. More importantly, I was able to confirm that what I was hoping for was true. The lock could be undone by sliding something into the gap and lifting it up, pushing the latch out of its hook.

I had to awkwardly bend over to do it because the lock was so low though, and more importantly I needed something that would fit in the gap that was sturdy enough to lift the latch.

I carefully fished around in my pockets, looking for something I might have stuffed in there. I didn't have any keys or credit cards, which would be my normal option for something like this.

But what I did find was almost as good. A flyer made of a thick plastic-like paper that had been offered to me on the street that I had taken by reflex more than anything. I had stuffed it in my pocket since I hadn't seen any trash or recycle bins nearby and then completely forgotten about it.

It was a little crumpled and bent, but I decided that it would have to do. I straightened it as best I could with only one hand, the other desperately clinging to the top of the window as my stamina slowly dwindled away.

I reached down and shoved the paper between the two halves of the window, the paper almost too thick to fit. I had to carefully slide it in a millimeter at a time so that I wouldn't just crumple the page more.

I was reaching the ends of my stamina when I judged that I had pushed it through far enough. I couldn't see it on the inside due to the angle, but enough of the sheet had been pushed through. So, with those same careful motions, though with some urgency as I felt the approach of the end of my stamina, I then pulled the paper up, to undo the latch.

I felt resistance as I pulled up and I prayed that it was the latch and I wasn't caught on something else. I pulled harder, taking less care, and a spike of fear shot through me as I felt the paper tear just a little bit. But it also moved upwards more when it did.

I paused for a single instant, but quickly realized I had no choice but to gamble on the paper lasting long enough as I couldn't hang on the window for much longer. So I adjusted my grip and pulled it upwards without stopping.

The paper did tear more, but not before successfully pulling the latch open. The half of the window that I wasn't in front of swung outwards, opening the path into the room that I immediately swung myself into.

Once inside I took a moment to catch my breath, my chest and shoulders heaving as I filled my lungs. My heart was pounding away in my chest and my arms burned as they shook with fatigue. I had been hanging from pretty much just my fingers for far too long, Body Tune Up and Nen or not.

I looked around, vaguely recognizing the room from the few clips of the anime that I had seen. The back of the room was dominated by a large desk with a chair that faced the room. I imagined it was where the Student Council President actually sat. Immediately to my right were two couches around a coffee table. On the far wall were some cupboards and cabinets, and to the left were the double doors leading into the room.

I stepped up to them and unlocked the door. Matsu was waiting and slipped inside silently, shutting it behind her. "That was super dangerous!" she chided me, her voice hushed.

"But it worked," I replied at the same volume. "I got us in, and we didn't have to go hunt down a key. Plus, the drop isn't that bad."

Matsu sighed. "That's true… Still, don't scare Matsu like that without any warning."

"I'll give you a heads up next time I leap out a window, sure," I reassured her with a grin. "Now, shall we get down to business?"

Business being the mission we came here for. It wasn't an overly complicated mission, but the Credit payout was pretty good relative to its difficulty and it was a lot more fun than the other options.

The objective? Have sex in the Student Council Office. The only restriction was that we couldn't get caught or leave evidence behind.

Matsu grinned at me. "Take off your pants and sit down in the President's chair, Matsu will service you from below the desk while you rest."

"I like the way you think," I said, returning her grin. Matsu was easily my most perverted harem member, but that was a compliment in my eyes, and likely in hers as well.

Matsu peeled off her dress, revealing her lack of underwear beneath it, and tossed it on the ground as I unbuckled my pants. She immediately crawled under the desk, positioning herself so that she was kneeling facing the chair. It was a good thing she wasn't very tall, because there wasn't exactly a lot of room under there.

I dropped my pants and underwear with it and stepped out of them, falling into the chair. It was a surprisingly simple chair, but it was comfortable enough. As I sat down, Matsu grabbed my legs and pulled me towards her.

I was worried she didn't have enough room to move, but she seemed unbothered, excited even, as she spread my legs open so she could get access to my cock. I was only half hard at this point, starting to get into the mood but not having had much stimulation yet, but Matsu wasn't a stranger to that at this point.

I couldn't see what she was doing, not really. I had had to scooch forward on the seat so she could reach my cock, but that put me close enough to the desk that I couldn't see below it. But I could still feel it as she eagerly took my shaft into her warm and wet mouth, doing little more than that, just letting it harden inside of her.

The lack of sight only made the sensations I felt more potent and it didn't take long for me to harden completely. Matsu hummed in appreciation, stimulating my shaft with the small vibrations. I tensed at the tingles of pleasure that shot through me, my arousal already quickly increasing.

Then she started moving, bobbing her head back and forth. Matsu had dedicated a lot of our bedroom time to learning how to give better blowjobs, often waking me up with one in the mornings. And she put her skills to use then, her throat vibrating as she hummed and squeezing tight around my shaft as she took the entirety of it into her mouth.

I leaned back in the chair and shut my eyes, just leaning back and enjoying it as I focused on just the feeling of her blowjob.

I'm not sure how long we stayed like that. Matsu didn't change things up or stop to make any comments. She just steadily worked away until my dick twitched, my balls churned, and I shot a load of semen deep into her throat.

I heard, and felt, her gulp as she swallowed every last drop of my seed, her lips remaining locked around the base of my shaft even as my hips bucked. Even when I finished cumming she kept going, making sure she sucked every last drop out of me before finally releasing me.

I wheeled the chair back to give her room to get up, which she did. She clambered to her feet, a familiar look of intense arousal on her face. "That was so hot," she said, one of her hands reaching between her legs to start playing with her clit. "It was better than any porno Matsu has read or seen."

"Real life sex tends to be better than fantasies and fiction," I replied, watching her a little amused. "But speaking of fantasies… why don't you park your cute butt on that desk and spread those legs?"

I stood up as she did as I instructed, sitting on the desk with an expectant grin on her face. "Should Matsu pretend to be your secretary?"

"Why pretend?" I asked as I stepped between her legs and lined up the tip of my shaft with her pussy. "From this day forward, you're officially my secretary." She was well suited for it, even if it was a role I didn't have much of a use for.

But she seemed to like earning it, judging from the flash of satisfaction on her face and the way she grabbed my shirt and pulled me in for a kiss. As usual, Matsu's kiss was hungry and deep, and I returned it in kind. I also didn't waste any time in pushing my hips forward and entering her tight snatch. She was already wet from the blowjob and from playing with herself, so I slid inside of her without resistance.

Our lips separated and I felt her hot breath on my face as she moaned. I took the chance to put a hand on her shoulder and gently push her down so she was laying on the desk. Thankfully the desk was clean, so she didn't mess up any papers as she laid there.

Matsu moaned as I started pumping my hips, causing me to momentarily worry about the noise. But there was no one even close to us, not that I could sense, so I didn't stop her. I liked hearing her moan, almost as much as I like watching her, her large chest bouncing each time I thrusted into her with her long auburn hair splayed out underneath her naked body.

I wrapped my hands under her thighs as I fucked her, fingers digging into the soft flesh. Her own hands reached up and started playing with her boobs, seeking to heighten her own pleasure by pinching her nipples.

I eyed her hungrily, wanting more as arousal took over my mind, ignoring the fact that I was already getting as much out of her as I could. My movements grew rougher, harder, and each thrust was bigger than the last as I pulled out further before slamming into her as deeply as I could.

Her moans grew louder to match, though I was too distracted to keep a figurative ear out for approaching guards. Instead I lifted up her legs, putting her ankles on my shoulders as I leaned forward to fuck her harder.

When I climaxed, it was stronger than before. My mind went white with pleasure and all I could feel was Matsu's tight and hot cunt spasming around my dick, cumming as I painted her womb white with my semen.

My orgasm lasted for what felt like forever, spurt after spurt of semen filling her up to the point of overflowing. I could see it drip out of her around my cock and leak onto the desk, but I was beyond caring at that point.

Our mission was to have sex in this room, and technically I could have stopped there. But I didn't want to. The past couple weeks of Sexual Calibration and past week of multiple girls to please me had spoiled me. My first orgasm was usually little more than a warm up to the real sex, especially since I needed to make sure to please all of my girls.

So even if I was just focusing on Matsu, habit pushed me to keep going, telling me I wasn't satisfied yet. So I moved her legs back to the side, leaned down, and scooped her up in my arms without pulling out of her. She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me again, her legs wrapping around my back as she supported some of her own weight, letting me move my hands to her ass as I picked her up and carried her from the desk.

Our next round of sex was on one of the couches, with me sitting on it and Matsu straddling me, the two of us sloppily making out as she rode me to orgasm. After that I finally pulled out of her pussy and we switched to anal, with me fucking her from behind as she leaned over the coffee table, using it as support.

With all three of Matsu's holes filled and every horizontal piece of furniture in the room having been used in our chosen positions, I was finally satisfied. We spent a few minutes just cuddling in post-coital bliss on the couch that we hadn't fucked on, enjoying the moment before moving on.

After getting dressed and cleaning up with some wet wipes I grabbed earlier specifically for this purpose, Matsu and I left the office. Thankfully the door was the kind that you could lock with the door open, so we just made sure to close and latch the window before locking the door and leaving into the hall. From there it was easy to retrace our steps out of the building, avoiding any guards and other security measures.

It was still weird to me that there was so much security for the school, but then again the school was also fancier than any building that I had ever been, so obviously there was a lot of money tied up here.

Once we got outside it was a short trip to the same patch of wall we entered, a quick hop over it, and we were back on the street. It was fairly late by this point, with only a few hours to go until the portal closed, but there were still some shops open.

"Are we headed home now?" Matsu asked as I looked around.

"Not quite yet, there's a quick stop I want to make," I said as I pulled out my phone and the map there. It buzzed as I did, showing a notification that I had completed the mission and ten Credits had been deposited into my account. It was good to know that the Company had already judged that the job we did cleaning up was good enough to satisfy the conditions.

A quick visit to a store that was only a few blocks out of our way wrapped up all the plans I had for this world. All our business complete, and ignoring Matsu's last minute attempts to convince me to stamp one of the girls here, the two of us headed straight for the portal and arrived back home at the Skyblock.

It wasn't as quiet on the Skyblock as I expected. While I didn't see anyone when I stepped out of the portal I could hear them moving and talking inside of the house. Matsu and I entered to find them in the common area, putting away books and organizing them on the shelves they had made.

Bisky was the first to spot us, already looking in our direction as we entered. "They're back," she announced to the others. "How did the mission go?"

"Ten more Credits in our account," I reported. "Ran into a small snag but I figured it out."

"You gonna buy anything with that?" Uzume asked.

I shook my head. "Not yet." I wanted to save up for the perk that would let me share my Talents and other Perks, but it was also nice to just have some Credits on hand in case anything cropped up. There was nothing pressing we needed right now, so we could save a bit.

"But on our way back, I did pick up something for you Levy," I continued with a grin as I turned to her.

"Oh?" she replied, curious.

I used my phone to pull out an acoustic guitar similar to the one I had caught her playing in the bookstore. I wordlessly held it out to her as she looked at it in shock.

"You…" she started before trailing off, struggling to find the words. "I wasn't going to ask for this," she eventually said.

"Well, it looked like you were having fun, and I saw it when we stopped, and I wanted to get it for you," I explained. "Come on, why don't you try it out?"

"Onee-chan can play the guitar?" Kusano asked, face lighting up with interest. The others were also looking at her expectantly.

For a moment I feared that this was too 'public' and she'd get too embarrassed and decline. But while she was definitely blushing, she was only looking at me and not paying attention to the others. After a moment she nodded and took the guitar from me.

She carried it to the dining room table, still our only real source of seating, and sat down with her back to the table. Everyone watched silently in anticipation as she positioned the guitar on her lap and plucked experimentally at the strings, adjusting the knobs at the head of the guitar to tune it.

Once she was satisfied with the sound, and without looking up at the rest of us, she started playing.

I'm hardly a music expert, with the extent of my experience being playing the recorder as a kid in school and having a neighbor friend who had a drum set that we inexpertly banged away at sometimes. But I could recognize Levy's skill and dedication in the music she played.

It was a slow and relaxing song that I'd almost call graceful, as little sense as that adjective makes for a song. But the rest of us, Pokemon included, listened to her play without uttering a single word, just enjoying the music.

After the last note faded and Levy's hands stopped moving, all of us broke out into applause. Levy finally looked up at that and acknowledged our praise with a fierce blush.

"What was really pretty!" Kusano said.

"Yes, it was very nice," Chiho agreed.

"You're very good with your fingers, but we already knew that," Matsu added, giggling.

"Yeah, that was definitely worth buying," I commented. In the end, we had spent most of the money that Matsu and I had obtained from the ATMs, but we still had plenty, so I didn't regret dropping close to a thousand bucks on the guitar.

Levy didn't seem to know how to respond to the praise. "Don't you have a journal entry to write?" she asked, deflecting instead.

"Sure, I'll start that in a minute," I replied easily. "But you know… I would really appreciate some background music while I did so."

She glared at me, but there was no heat in it, and after a moment she sighed. "Alright, alright, I'll play some more."

After that, all of us stripped down once more, save for Bisky, who instead changed into a pair of short shorts and a thin tank top that she had purchased earlier today, and we got comfortable around the dining room table. I started writing this entry, Levy started playing again, and the others chatted or read or enjoyed some of the things we purchased today, a few candles that we had purchased lit and placed on the table, giving us some light.

Levy relaxed as time went on and there was less focus on her. While writing this I kept looking up and watching her for a few moments, and she always had a small smile on her face and her shoulders were less tense each time.

Today wasn't what I expected it to be. The Pokemon portal was a fun and low stakes adventure, and the Sekirei one was a frantic high stakes one. Today was pretty much just a shopping trip, like we were running errands rather than exploring a new world. No new recruits, nothing exciting. But it was also exactly what we needed. Our storage and pantry are full to bursting with all the things we got, and our next week is going to be busy setting everything up. And honestly, I didn't feel ready for another Sekirei.

The next portal is the last one before the maximum Danger Rating increases to four. That doesn't mean we won't still get low danger worlds like we did today, all it does is introduce the chance for a more dangerous one. But it does make me nervous. I still have a long way to go in my training, and some of the DR4 worlds are dangerous beyond our ability to handle them.

Though, with those same risks come increased rewards, as there are several worlds at that rating where I'd love to go and recruit some girls from.

But that's something I'll have to worry about later. For now, I'll just continue to train, improve my home, and love my retinue.

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AN: Considering the lack of waifus in this world, I considered rerolling it. But honestly? After how hectic Sekirei was, a world that was pretty much just a supply run and a chance to relax was sorely needed, and with how much the cast has grown, a portal opening that doesn't involve getting a new waifu or two is nice, especially since we went over the 'limit' in Sekirei.

Sorry to anyone that got excited for Love is War lewds. Matsu is disappointed too. And it does feel a little silly to have a world without captures right after Roland gathers the determination to get more captures… but such is the nature of randomly choosing worlds. But Matsu finally got the focus she deserves!

Also, sorry for the delay on this. Between work kicking my ass several days in a row, getting distracted, and just wanting to play some games during my weekend, it's been difficult to find time to work on this.

Btw, this fic will officially be using the 0.22.12 Stable release of the Waifu Catalog, with maybe a few Unstable things I decide to cherry pick. This is not because I disagree with the recent changes to capture/sale values in the Unstable, in fact I like it(for the most part), but a) such a drastic change mid-story would be a headache at best, and b) The balancing of everything was designed with the old system in mind, on a level that 'tweaking it' isn't really an option so much as it would require completely redesigning things, which I'm not going to do this far into things. For those who don't keep up to date with WC changes, don't worry about it, this is just me saying that things are staying the same for this story.

On the other hand, the Storage Area perk that Roland mentions is new, because I didn't like the old perks that were designed to be like Minecraft ender chests but more convenient. Instead, I brought it back more in line with how the Catalog already handles that but the relevant perk is locked behind Sweet Home, which is blocked here. So I took the "can mark any delineated space as your Pocket Space" from that and offered it as the "Storage Area" perk.