A lot of the annoyance of being a dress up doll for hair shenanigans fades away when you have an enhanced body that can handle extreme stress and trauma, the ability to adjust body shape and hair/eye/skin color as required with little to no effort, and the company of beautiful women who actually care for you even as they slowly drive you mad.

That said: John had his limits. "No more shaving my head. Thank you."

Grace huffed. "I don't know why she keeps pushing for the reverse mohawk anyway! You looked adorably mature when bald or with some of the more unusual patterns, but why keep insisting!?"

Temptation couldn't help giggling. "Because the hairdressers who are spying on us kept making horrified noises and hilarious faces when I would buzz a massive chunk out of his silky hair."

Sigh. "I knew we should have just done this back at the hotel."

Grace hummed as she triggered his hair to grow out further once again for combing. "Your sister has already relocated and is setting up a different place for us to 'bunker down', we couldn't stay there anyway… Besides, you have to go to a stylist to get a hair style! It's tradition or something my Lord!"

He couldn't help roll his eyes. "John, Grace. Please call me John in public."

And she pouted.

Good grief, why did he even bother? "...Fine, but try to keep it to a minimum at least? It's bad enough that Temptation keeps messing with people around us, we aren't exactly blending into the crowd with her making dominatrix jokes and you literally worshiping me."

Soft hands combed softly through his new bright green hair, causing his neck to pleasantly tingle. "Oh Master, BOTH of us worship you in our own ways… In literal ones too, when we move onto that stage of our relationship."

Grace didn't even flinch as she used the spray bottle of water used to keep his hair moist to spray her sister. "Down girl." Then she smiled at John through the mirror. "Could you shift your eyes to a more murky blue? I'm hoping that if we use more natural and swamp related coloring it may provide a less distracting outlet for your various side effects on reality."

Hmm? "What do you mean?"

Both girls gave him a look… And then gestured at the slightly illusionary waters that rippled at the touch of his feet and the ambient sounds of a moonlit bog hiding away the swimmers below.

Oh, right. "I don't think most people can see that stuff! After all, we had to adjust our defenses pretty comprehensively just to allow THIS level of manifestation of my Deck and more 'normal' people should just be blind to it all!"

Something that had SEEMED to be a log suddenly submerged into the algae coated water, vanishing into ripples that clearly DIDN'T terrify the store's audience of hair care attendants. See!? It wasn't an issue at all!

Grace sighed as Temptation poked the solid floor to the confusion of the locals, the ripples and effects invisible to those with weaker Souls. "Let's just file this as an experiment. A way to gather some data, to make sure these recent alterations won't cause long term issues."

But this was taking forever! "Not sure how messing with my hairstyle and eye color is going to correlate with providing an outlet for any froggy energies." If anything, the effect should be minimal, right?

Hell, you'd probably have to take the entire mess to a silly level to even see a reaction! "I mean unless I alter my whole body or force me to wear a frog suit or something, I doubt you'll even notice a… Why are you both looking at me like that!?"

His mind flickered and… SHIT! Go for a distraction! "HEY, uh… Didn't we try this eye color three hairstyles ago? Maybe we should go for something a bit darker and…"

The looks didn't change.

He slumped. "Can we at least go for a realistic frog? Or something awesome, like a buff Substitoad with guns and swords and stuff?"

Temptation was now FULLY distracted from her idle messing with the local salon staff. "Maybe scale up some of those adorable frog plushies online?"

Grace's eyes were sparkling! "I can make it squeak when we hug him! Or some sort of combination of squeaking and croaking!?"

Crap! "I get veto power! I can veto ANY costumes before being seen in public with them!" How was he going to get his opponents to take him seriously if he was dressed up like an animal during a Duel!?

Temptation grinned as she pulled him into her soft body. "Oh Master, I'm sure this will only allow you to ambush your opponents, putting them off their guard!"

Grace nodded as she mentally began designing outfits. "Being underestimated is a strength, my Lord! A virtue to be praised and… Ooh, maybe a big soft lilypad pillow for him to Duel on!?"

John hesitated… Oh he knew they were both playing him, but they DID bring up a good point. It WOULD catch future Duelists off guard if the giant plush frog suddenly destroyed them with an epic amphibian deck of awesomeness…

Temptation somehow sensed his weakness and whispered into his ear, probably saying something that was supposed to push him over the edge to agreeing with them but honestly just distracting John for other reasons… Fine.

At least they would have fun, and he'd still get to do some awesome poses and stuff. "Can we push for some sort of frog prince angle? Instead of just turning me into a big squishy frog?"

The angelic woman sparkled once more! "My Lord shall be the Toad Emperor! May his many ponds of followers be ribbeted as he cleans up the pond scum of opponents that threaten his reign!"

Temptation smirked! "They shall croak as he hops up to the challenge, his tad-poll numbers will go through the roof!"

Meanwhile one of the other customers hesitantly whispered in the background. "Is this some sort of local show or event? Are we being filmed?"

Oh.

Right.

They were currently in a public hair salon and had a fairly large audience.

…Meh, whatever. Grace was too distracted by puns and costume design to feel embarrassed and Temptation fed on any awkward social issues or situations like fine cuisine.

Though uh… Jessica might be a bit annoyed considering how NOT low profile the three of them were acting right now… Um.

Oh, right! This was all just to distract any potential watchers to better allow her to set up their next temporary base without being observed! Brilliant!

In fact, maybe he should make a bigger scene? "Should we go to the mall and see if they have any frog related furniture or props or whatever? Or more costume designs?"

BOTH girls loved that idea… So now they had a plan!

As he stood up with a green afro (Why, Grace?) and began moving towards the exit, he paused.

Uh… How much did one normally pay for 'buying a haircut' but actually 'renting the hair cutting station and equipment for his girlfriends to mess around'?

…Best to just take the normal cost for a hair trim and multiply it a few dozen times.

And add a tip.

Considering the small mountain of hair that had built up over the last few however long this had been: A huge tip.

Best collect that mess for scrap before leaving too. "Grace, just leave a thousand or something at the station as we leave. I think they take digital currency, so we can pay the rest on our way out."

The crowd blocking their exit helpfully split apart without a request or even a glance, which was VERY convenient!

Now let's go cause a bit of a scene to keep the heat off his overworked sister!

He was SUCH a good brother!

~~~Pocket System~~~

Jessica wanted to strangle something. Or someone. "What do you mean, 'My brother is trending online'?"

She was pacing back and forth half way through the city, on the way to the new hotel that she had planned to rent a room at for the party.

Another report was passed along, an automated subroutine that Grace had set up translating it into the standard Pocket System interfaces… Showing a growing list of video sites and social pages and… A fan club?

Good grief. "John and the girls have their own fan club."

Because of course they did. Why wouldn't they?

There was an entire SUBCULTURE in Japan that revolved about ditzy young boys being bullied by 'experienced' older sisters. It showed up in media and fiction, it was a whole thing.

Normally? Real world cases didn't crop up often. After all, ages were a legal issue… That kept actual chaos from erupting in the real world as often as it did on the various fan based threads and forums focused on favorite anime or games or whatnot.

Just, not in John's situation. Which was unfortunate.

The fact that all the individuals in this case were legal, someone somehow DISCOVERED that little tidbit and then SHARED it with the internet as a whole…

Welp, they were going nuts. "Holy crap, they already are selling merch?"

That was FAST right there. "Send those items to Grace so we can get a handle on that… Wait! No, don't do that. She or Temptation would just feed the fires and offer 'official products', so scrap that whole thought process."

Crap, and they have hundreds of people using cell phones to record her brother shifting his hair color and stuff too, so THAT was an ability that the world was now gossiping about. Thankfully, technology was RIDICULOUSLY advanced here in some areas… Most of the net was assuming it was a personal holographic prototype being tested by some big corporation.

Therefore, in return for people assuming her brother was a media planted shill secretly trying to influence the market for future profit? Most people DIDN'T automatically assume he was magical or the twelfth arrival of Jesus Christ or whatever.

Sure, some idiots online did… But that was the internet for you. Everything and every issue had some die hard believers out there SOMEWHERE if you looked long enough, and if not? There was an army of people willing to lie to your face that they DID just to be contrary.

Another report filed in and… "No, just shove all the online rule 34 and fanfiction and fanart into a separate folder. I'm sure Temptation will be thrilled for it later, but I do NOT want to see that: Thank you very much."

At least those strange watchers and listeners were FULLY distracted now… Sigh. "Scratch the hotel plan, John can't be seen in public. Despite the hair color alterations and the many skin tones, he didn't bother to alter most of his Body and the girls are far too recognizable… See about finding a house to rent instead. There should be something, hopefully."

Her people received their orders and began scurrying about all those levels of reality, now fully adapting and taking advantage of the various tools and interfaces Grace kept idly designing and implementing to allow Jessica's Soul agents to better interact wit the various features of the Pocket.

The woman's focus was caught once again as she groaned! "Really John!? A crown!? Where did you even… Did you Craft that?"

…No, because there was video feed of him PURCHASING the stupid thing and then wandering over to get it engraved at the local mall.

Which on one hand: Good, it was only some costume stuff and not literally covered in rare gems and gold and silver and stuff.

On the other hand: Hoo boy, was there a LOT of witnesses…

He had to have Crafted that 'royal cape' though, considering there were not many places that would even stock purple clothing with 'The Frog Emperor' embroidered over the back.

…Though the high resolution image of Substitoad giving an amphibian peace sign with his webbed foot/hand was a pretty adorable addition to the ensemble.

Sigh.

Well, if she tried to look at the bright side of this: They'd probably not have to worry about people 'possibly' discovering that John was involved with the sudden and shocking vanishment of all Frogs from the Duel Monster's dimensions.

And she was now FULLY confident that she could avoid being discovered by investigators.

Technically.

Since they were practically turning themselves in.

GAH! "Should I just put up huge lights and a billboard, 'Come ask us about the frog issue'!? Dang it John!"

Nope!

Calm. Breathe in. Breathe out.

She could handle this.

…One of her agents had just submitted an update about her brother accepting being interviewed in front of a crowd.

Thankfully he saw her Soul's expression and then quickly backed off.

Good lad, probably deserved a promotion.