A Katarina Vacation Arc

"Ooh! So you're Katarina?" her taller aunt said. "Ooh, let me look at you!" She released Katarina's mother, who sagged in relief, and came close to Katarina.

Katarina expected the cheek pinches, shine they were an 'older female relative' staple, though usually they were a grandma thing. She expected the hands at her shoulders and biceps, though the sudden lift that momentarily took her off her feet was unexpected. Her probably-aunt going behind her and skinshipping Katarina's bust was probably just something the developers added in for the CG though. Still, Katarina rolled with it. What's a little harmless skindhip between female relatives?

AH! She had female relatives now! She was so happy her smile felt almost painful!

No, wait, that was probably-auntie pulling at the edges of her mouth.

"Ooh, look at the size of that smile!" probably-Aunt Leonarudo said, her own smile just as big. "Yup, that's definitely an Adeth smile! Good width, nice show of teeth!"

"L-leona!" Katarina's mother choked out. "Please contain yourself, Katarina's…" For a moment, Mother paused, an indecipherable expression coming over her face. "Actually, never mind."

"Eh? Not going to get me to remind me what proper behavior should be, little sister?" most likely-Aunt Leona said as she started to tickled Katarina's sides. Ah, ahaa ha ha ha, ah, maybe this was hahahaha another CG?

"Ah, hahahaha!" Katarina laughed, breathless. "Ha haha ha! P-please, stop, I can't breathe!"

"Dear…" one of the men, who had orange-y red hair pulled back in a pony-tail, and might be an uncle said, sounding strangely Keith-like as he chided her. "Please, let's go easy on the poor girl, you've only just met."

"Eh, I guess," Aunt Leona said, letting up on her tickling.

BUT! This was the chance Katarina had been waiting for!

"Counter!" Katarina cried, going straight for the other woman's sides. "Riposte!"

"Wah! Ah! Ah hahahahahahahaha!" Now it was her auntie's turn to laugh helplessly as she put her tickling skills to the test! Sure, she might have been rusty, since Mary and Sophia were easy to tickly, and Keith always ran away, but in her past life, her tickle attack didn't lose to anyone! "Ah, no– HAHAHAHA– No fair suddenly attahahahahahaha! No fair hahahahahaha!"

"Katarina!" her mother said sternly.

Katarina froze, her hands slowing as her aunt spasmed with laughter.

Her mother pointed, rare smile on her face even as her eyes took on a look a villainy. "She had sensitive ears, and the sides of her breasts are extra ticklish. Continue, for the honor of House Claes."

Eh? Was mother… telling her to keep going?

"Yes, mother!" Katarina chirped, even as she went for the indicated spots!

"Ahahahahahahahahaha!" Aunt Leona cried, falling to her knees. "Mili! How could youhahahahahahaha!"

"I never won a tickle fight against you, ever," Katarina's mother said with villainous dignity even as her younger sister giggled and hugged Mili in glee. "Fortunately, my daughter proves to be an apt champion in my stead. To victory, Katarina."

"Yes, mother!" Katarina said, blowing on her aunt's ear.

"Ah! Stop thahahahahahaha!" Aunt Leona laughed. "Surrender! I surrender! Stop ahahahahaha!"

Katarina looked at her mother, who was visibly thinking it over. Ooh, her smile was showing teeth now! It was a proper villainous smile! Ah, she wished she had a screenshot and an internet to post this, it was be a great meme.

"Hmmm…" Katarina's mother said. "What do you think, Sheryl?"

Likely-aunt Sherringfor-slash-Sheryl smiled beatifically. "Keep tickling."

"TRAITOHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"That's what you get for stealing my muffin," Aunt Sheryl said. "I had dibs and you know it."

Gasp! A muffin thief? How terrible! Katarina kept tickling.

"It's good to see you so happy, Mili," one of the other men, also probably an uncle, said over the muffin thief's laughter. "Marriage has been good for you."

"Thank you, Henry," Katarina's mother said.

"I see you've found your smile," her probably-uncle Henry continued. "It's sincere and mildly terrifying."

For a moment, her mother's smile slipped, looking worried. And then the smile was back full force, and Katarina was vaguely reminded of that old American Kaiju movie that made her stop bathing for a month, in case THE SHARK came out of the faucet while she wasn't looking.

"I don't usually show teeth," Katarina's mother said, "It disturbs the other ladies. But it's Leona."

Said aunt was slapping the ground in surrender, so breathless she could barely laugh.

"Yay! Victory!" Katarina cried, making non-ahegao peace signs of victory as she respected the ancient and nobles rules of tickle-fight and let the defeated go.

"You did well, Katarina," her mother said.

AH! MOTHER SAID SHE DID WELL! SHE'D GOTTEN A MOM-AFFECTION POINT! THE DAY COULDN'T GET ANY BETTER!


YES! Finally, character introductions! Now Katarina could put names to faces.

There were her aunts, her mother's sisters, Leona and Sheryl, and her uncle Henry. Then there were her aunts and uncles by marriage. Uncle Saloman, who was married to aunt Leona; aunt Henriette, who had HUGE… tracts of land (as Sophia would put it) and was married to aunt Sheryl; and aunts Viola and Eileen, who were married to uncle Henry and THERE was the isekai harem thing she'd been expecting after all these years! Katarina wondered how many of these characters would be important. She hoped she wouldn't have to remember all their names, but with a DLC, you never knew which characters were just there to infodump, who was the DLC capture target, and who was secretly a boss waiting for you to accidentally set off their encounter.

Why had Fortune Lover even HAVE secret bosses, it was supposed to be an otome game, you don't even have weapons!

She could practically hear Acchan laughing evilly and going 'That's how Miyazaki-sensei rolls!'.

Then there were her cousins by aunt Leona, Matthew– who she was surprised to find was a girl, wasn't that a western boy's name?– who was the one who'd been knighted but like Maria hadn't joined a guild or order or covenant or whatever; Olga, the one she pegged as a tsundere (and likely capture target) who was the only one of the sisters with magic and would be going to the academy next year; and Marie, Olga's more friendly twin sister and all right, what was with this series? It had a Mary, a Maria, and now a Marie! Did they just really like that name?

Since aunt Sheryl was married to a woman and Fortune Lover wasn't one of those series with yuri pregnancy magic, even if there was a legend about the 'Coffin Of Transformation' guarded by ogres and hidden in a weird cave, they only had one child, who was from aunt Henriette's previous marriage. Cousin Watson could have likely also been a capture target, since he was 'a cousin not related by blood' and went by his birthmother's maiden name of Arsene instead of Adeth, which was always a convenient flag. But no, this DLC was meant for Maria, not Katarina, so it was probably some kind of twist reveal near the end of his arc.

Then there were uncle Henry's daughters, one from each of his wives, and now Katarina had to wonder if this DLC was some kind of sop to those who wanted more yuri routes (she'd bet Watson was still the canon route though, because of course). Adella and Iosefka were only a week apart in age, with dark-haired Adella being the younger of the two, which was about a year older than Katarina. They seemed to be doing the contrasting black vs white color scheme thing, but were seemed very friendly. Their route was either an easy harem or a complicated yandere-fest. Katarina was glad she wasn't Maria and would have to figure that out.

The introductions were finished by Aunt Leona handing Katarina and her mother a folder each. Inside where sketches depicting everyone, drawn in pencil and sprayed with some kind of varnish so they wouldn't get smeared.

"I figured you'd want something where you can check if you got everyone's names right," Aunt Leona said with great self-satisfaction. "You loved guidebooks telling you how to act, as I recall."

"I'm not a teenager, sister," Katarina's mother said. "But thank you for the portraits. I can put them next to your old portraits on my dresser."

"Aw, you're making us blush," Aunt Leona said.

Katarina leafed through the folder– NO! The Characterpedia Files! They had sketches, short description, birthdays, heights and weights, even blood types in the new format Maria had helped invent! Wow, this was so convenient! She was willing to bet that if she'd stayed in school, the DLC would also have had character files for all the regular characters. She'd have to ask Maria if she'd found one! OOH, does this mean she might be able to find in-game versions of special CG? That would be awesome!

"Thank you auntie!" Katarina squealed. "This is great! Now I know who everyone is and won't get them confused!"

Really, after that time she'd mixed up things for the black-hearted prince route and the emo musical artist prince route in her previous life and pushed her affection points back by giving them the wrong items, she was taking no chances!

"Awww!" Aunt Leona cooed, patting Katarina on the head. "You're welcome!"

"Well!" Aunt Sheryl said, clapping her hands. For some reason, Aunt Henriette was standing behind her and was using her head as a someplace to rest her… huge tracts. "Why don't the two of you get up to your rooms and rest? You've had a long journey, after all. Mili, we've prepared your old room, and Katarina, we've put you a little bit farther down the corridor, close to your cousins."

Katarina wanted to tell them that she didn't need to rest, that she was rested enough since she'd just been sitting for days on end like some kind of recluse trapped at home because of some deadly pandemic spreading outside, but she remembered her mom was old and did like taking rests. And if mother was taking a rest, she wouldn't be around to tell Katarina not to explore!

"Thank you sister," her mother said. She smiled, looking up at the huge, ivy-covered stone walls of the manor in front of them. "I will admit… it's good to be home."