The Midori Arc - Part 2 - 2

Yuta was sitting in front of her desk mirror, brushing her long blonde hair while humming a cheerful little tune when a knock came at her door.  Putting down her brush, she walked over and opened it.
Standing outside was Midori, who bowed respectfully.  “Yuta-kun.”
Yuta scowled.  She had not taken a liking to Midori.  Midori wanted to take Jake away from her, and unlike Katia, she had so far proven in no way fun to be around.
“What do you want?” Yuta bitterly asked.
“May I come in?”
After thinking it over for a few seconds, Yuta rudely gestured with her head for Midori to enter.
Midori looked around Yuta’s girlish room.  “Quite a pleasant set-up you have here.”
“What do you want?” Yuta asked again rudely.
Midori looked past Yuta to see that her door had opened a crack.  She took a deep breath.  “I was wondering... well, I was wondering, if there was something.... you... oh boy.... well....” she trailed off.
Yuta became confused.  “What is it?”
Midori took an even bigger breath and steadied her nerves, and decided to get the words out of her mouth.  “I was wondering if you would like to hypnotize me,” she said quickly.
Yuta widened her eyes in surprise.  “What?”
“Would you like to hypnotize me?” Midori forced herself to repeat.
Shaking away her initial confusion, Yuta’s usual cheery demeanor returned and she beamed happily as she put a smile on her face.  “Yes, yes I would.”  Yuta stared into Midori’s eyes as her pupils turned into spirals.  She watched with anticipation as Midori’s pupil began to shrink.  It was taking a bit longer than usual.  Midori must have an unusually strong will, Yuta reasoned.
However, as Midori’s eyes started to turn into spirals as well, she somehow managed to avert her gaze to the side, glancing from Yuta’s eyes to away from them constantly, fighting against their hypnotic pull.
Yuta became confused again.  “What’s wrong?” she asked, her eyes still spinning.
Midori was biting her lip.  “I.... I....”
Yuta began moving closer, trying to get Midori to look into her eyes again.  “Aw, don’t look away now.”
Midori tilted her face and her eyes downwards.  “I’m.... a bit nervous....”
Yuta gently reached out and caressed Midori’s cheek with one hand.  “Don’t be nervous,” she soothingly said.  She grabbed Midori’s chin with thumb and forefinger and lifted her chin up so that she was staring directly into Yuta’s swirling eyes again.  “Just relax, and let it wash over you.  You’ll feel so much better.”
Midori finally gave in.  Her eyes completely mirrored Yuta’s spirals, and she smiled.  “How may I serve you, lady Yuta?” she asked happily.
Yuta giggled.  “Well, I’ve been wondering what you looked like under that robe.  And please, call me mistress.”
“Of course, Mistress Yuta,” the now subservient samurai replied as she happily complied with Yuta’s request and began undoing her sash.
******
From right outside Yuta’s door, Fawn was watching the ongoing scene through the slight crack.
So far, so good she thought.  Midori was making no move to harm herself, or Yuta.  Fawn would stay where she was for a few more minutes, observing to make sure that Midori’s suicide compulsion was truly out of her system.  Then she would use her voice to subdue Yuta and awake Midori before things in there went too far.
“What’s going on?” a seductive female voice whispered in her ear, causing Fawn to slightly jump.  Fortunately, she managed to stay quiet.  Fawn stole a glance away from the scene to see Dawn kneeling beside her.
Fawn almost started sweating.  Dawn could ruin the whole plan.  “Uh, nothing.  Yuta is, uh, getting a tune-up by Mato,” Fawn bluffed, hoping Dawn would find such a scenario boring and leave.
Too bad that to Dawn, Fawn’s lies were completely transparent.  Stealing a glance through the crack, she saw Midori baring her surprisingly well-toned yet beautiful body to Yuta.  Dawn glanced from the scene to the kneeling Fawn several times, and after a few seconds, had a general idea of what was happening.
Putting a wicked grin on her face, Dawn lowered her right hand, placed it on Fawn’s butt, threw open the door, and pushed Fawn forward so she stumbled into Yuta’s room, then quickly closed the door and placed her ear against it.
“Yay!” she heard Yuta cry with glee.  “Fawn wants to play too!”
“No no!” Fawn quickly exclaimed.  “I.... I.... I.... of course I want to play, Mistress Yuta.”
Dawn walked away giggling like a fiend.  “Heard about payback?” she whispered with Midori in mind.  “I’m the bitch.”
******
Jake and Jen were sitting in the living room, watching TV.  Suddenly, Jen’s watch started beeping.
“Sorry,” Jen told Jake, getting up.  “I gotta go check something.”
“Where are you going?” Jake asked.  “This is your favorite episode of I Dream Of Jennie.”
Jen smiled wickedly.  “I already set it to record.  Besides, something far more interesting is about to show up on the upstairs monitor.”  She crossed her arms, wiggled her nose, and disappeared.
Jake was quite confused.  “Upstairs monitor?  What could be going on?  Pretty much everyones out of the house.  The only one that I know is up there is.... YUTA!”  Jake sprang for the stairs.
Jake ran up to Yuta’s room and threw the door open.  He saw Fawn, Midori, and Yuta, all nude, inside.  Fawn stood in place, spirals in her eyes.  Midori was sheathing her katana and reaching for her robe.  Yuta was laying on the ground, her eyes glazed over, showing that she was currently deactivated.  Her left arm had been severed below the elbow, and both her arm and severed limb were sparking.
Jake was about to cry out when Midori noticed him and signaled for him to stay quiet.  After giving Yuta a cursory glance and seeing that she was not bleeding, she slipped one of Yuta’s onto Fawn, and led the entranced singer back to her room and laid her down on her bed.
“Sleep,” Midori commanded.  Fawn complied.
Midori turned to Jake, who had followed her, and led him out of Fawn’s room and closed the door.
“I decided to spare her the embarrassment of the situation,” the samurai explained.
“What happened?” Jake asked.
Midori explained what her and Fawn’s plan had been.  “Obviously, something went wrong, and Fawn fell under Yuta’s spell as well.  I’m assuming that when Yuta-kun tried to touch me, I reflexively took her arm, and then woke up.”  She shrugged.  “I react instinctively sometimes.”
“We’re going to have to work on that too, if you’re going to continue living here,” Jake told her.  They started walking back to Yuta’s room.  “It’s a good thing you knew we could reattach her arm at that joint,” he said.
Midori looked surprised.  “It can reattach?”
Rolling his eyes, Jake and Midori passed by the stairs, passing by Jen and Mato, who were on their way up.  “Enjoy the show?” he asked Jen.
Jen shrugged.  “Meh.  Thought it was going to be a bit longer than that.  The old man stopped by, saw what happened to Yuta, and is on his way to fix her up.”
“Good,” Midori said.  She checked a clock on the wall.  “Mato-kun, it is time to begin training.”
Jake groaned.  “I thought we only did that in the morning.”
“I planned to,” Midori responded, “but I couldn’t find you.  Where were you all day?”
“At school,” he answered.
“School?  What is this?”
Jake explained what high school was to Midori. “Interesting,” she mused.  “Your world actively engages in educating the entire populace?  What an intriguing notion.”
“You mean you don’t have schools in Nippon, Midori?” Jake asked.
“We do not.  Education occurs in the household, or by hiring scholars.  There is no public education system.  We dedicate our time to farming and fighting demons.”
Mato listened to this and thought it over.
******
The  next day, Mato, as well as Jake at Mato’s request, were standing outside of Dawn’s room.  Mato knocked on the door.  As it wasn’t completely closed, the door opened.
Dawn was sitting at her computer, and Midori was meditating on the floor.
“Can we help you?” Dawn asked, obviously having computer troubles.
“Actually, we came to see Midori,” Mato answered.  Midori got up and walked over to talk with them.  “Midori, your grandfather and I have been talking.  We have decided that it would probably be best if we sent you to high school.”
Before Midori could reply, Dawn laughed.  “Send this barbarian to school?  There’s no way she could ever learn anything.”  Dawn turned back to her computer.  “Damnit!  Why won’t this program load?”
Midori simply walked over to Dawn, gave her screen a cursory glance, took the mouse away from her, fiddled with it for a few seconds, and the program began loading.  “You forgot to turn off your firewall,” Midori berated her.  She walked back over to Jake and Mato, leaving Dawn to sulk in shame.
“I am to go to school?” she asked.  “I do admit, that does sound like a most intriguing idea.”
“I agree,” Jake said.  “But, I don’t think she knows enough about the classroom setting to fit in.”
“No problem,” Mato informed him.  “I’ve designed a virtual classroom in the lab.  She’ll spend a week or two going to classes there until she gets a feel for it.”
“Mato-kun, do you know what it means for our training if we are both going to school?”
Jake smiled, thinking there would be no more training.  “Oh, yeah.”
“Good.  Then I shall see you two hours earlier every morning.”
*Jake falls over.*
******
Rosemary returned home after another disappointing day.  She still hadn’t been able to find a job.  Well, there had been opportunities, but none that she had wanted to take.  She had been valedictorian at her university; she didn’t want to be flipping burgers.  But it was unlikely she’d find a better job.  With the APB out on her, she was unable to show her credentials to a potential employer.
She glanced towards her computer.  There was a blinking message window.  She hurried over and saw that ‘S’ had sent her a message.  She put on her headset and clicked on the window.
“Are you there?” Rosemary asked.
‘Yes’ S responded.
“Progress report.”
‘I have been able to upload the program.  A firewall was dropped for a few moments, and I was able to use the gap to send the program directly to the mainframe.
“Yes,” Rosemary hissed eagerly.
‘If I may ask, what is this program?  And what is the plan?’
Rosemary decided she may as well kill some time.  “I developed that program during my college days, while I was playing video games.  It’s a virus of sorts.  I wanted to see if I could make one of the most dangerous computer programs conceivable, and I do believe I succeeded.”
‘What does it do?’
Rosemary chuckled.  “You’ll have to wait and see.  Anyway, before too long, the virus will be causing havoc for those fools.  As soon as they’re indisposed of, I want you to start accessing Mato’s most valuable files and send them to me.  Understood?”
‘Perfectly.  Again, if I may ask, why are you going to such lengths for funds?  Couldn’t you use your dance technique to get money?”
Rosemary became very angry.  “I will not use my body to get money like some common whore!”
‘What about that one time you told me about while you were in college?’
“I’d watch my step if I were you.  Remember, with a single command, I can destroy you.”
‘My apologies.  I’ll keep an eye on the situation and keep you informed.’
“Good.  Signing off.”
******
That evening, Midori was changing into a bathrobe so she could go take a shower. She was also talking to her grandfather via the communicator.
“How are things going, my dear?” he asked.
Midori sighed. “I don’t know how to describe it, ojii-san. I will admit that there are aspects of living here that are most interesting, but usually it is quite irksome. Mato-kun is pleasant and all, but, well, I don’t really see him as marriage material. At his current state, he wouldn’t last five minutes back home. He’s too soft and attached to his friends. He would be unwilling to risk the lives of his friends to save the many, as you taught me. And he would risk his own life to save one despite how important he might be, regardless of duty. And most of the time he irks me. I really don’t want to marry him.”
“I am sorry to say this, Midori, but you have no choice. Honor-“
“I know, I know,” Midori interrupted. “Honor demands I fulfill the ancient contract and marry into the Mato family. I know my duties, grandfather.” She headed towards the bathroom. “How are things going back home?”
“Reasonably well,” Miyamoto answered. “Demon attacks have been infrequent, and the crop this year looks promising.”
Midori reached the bathroom door and turned the knob. “That is good to –“ She gasped when the door opened. Jake had been in the process of wrapping a towel around his waist and Midori was getting a full frontal view of his body. She blushed slightly.
The startled Jake quickly finished covering himself. “HEY!”
Midori spun around and put her hands on her cheeks, immensely embarrassed and surprised at what she had seen. “I, I, I, I,” she stuttered, “I, I’m, I’m, so sorry, really I...”
Jake raised an eyebrow in concern. “Is something wrong?”
Midori slowly turned around. “It, no no, I-“
Jake suddenly realized what was going on. “Don’t tell me.... was that the first time you’ve seen a man’s...?”
“No!” Midori defended herself. “Not at all. Mother and I used to take family baths with ojii-san when I was younger.” She blushed again. “I just didn’t know they got so much bigger...”
*Sweat drop on the communicator.* “Midori, you baka.”
******
As everyone was going about their lives, something was happening within the Mato computer system.  Rosemary’s virus was making short work of the defenses around the core programming.  Soon, it broke through all the walls and began changing the core programming itself.  The programming that was devoted to serving the needs of the Mato household and defending them was overwritten.  Now, a far more sinister program was in place, with much more lofty goals.
******
That night, Yuta was lying down on a diagnostic table in Mato’s lab.  Her arm had been reattached, but Mato decided that it was a good time to run some tests on his prized creation, and a monitor was displaying her statistics.  Yuta was currently off-line.
The new Homeshield personality decided that it could utilize Yuta, and began transmitting new programming into her mind.  Yuta’s eyes snapped open, and if one had looked closely enough, they would have seen lines of very tiny ones and zeros scrolling across her pupils.
“New programming received,” she said outloud in a flat, emotionless tone.  “Awaiting programming activation.”  She then shut her eyes and deactivated, as if nothing had happened.
******
That same night, as Sarah was asleep in her bed, the wireless modem embedded in her cybernetic implants began receiving a signal.  Homeshield was transmitting programming similar to Yuta’s directly to Sarah’s brain.
******
The next morning, Midori was spending time over at Mina’s house in her room.  Mina was simultaneously trying to inform Midori of elements of pop culture she should be aware of while practicing her magic.
“Honey?” her mother called from downstairs.  “Your Mato friends just called.  They were wondering if you’d like to go to a movie.”
“Tell them I’ll be over in a few minutes.”  Mina turned to Midori.  “A movie sounds like fun.  Let me just practice this one spell and we’ll be off.”
Mina faced a makeshift target dummy and concentrated, beginning to cast her spell.  When she was ready, she threw her arms outwards towards the dummy and a bright flash filled the room.
When Midori’s eyes had readjusted, she saw that the dummy was unchanged, and Mina had been frozen within a flawless cube of ice.
Rolling her eyes, Midori walked right up to the cube of ice and held her hand a few centimeters away from it, trying to get a feel as to how cold it was.  “Hmmmm, just shy of stasis temperature.”  She tapped the ice with her sword.  “Relatively solid.”  She noted Mina’s position.  “Dead center.”  She stepped back and tried to get a size estimate.  “Approximately three meters.”  She then crouched into a ready stance and lowered her hand to her sword.
*Series of white flashes.*
Mina was hugging her arms, shivering, teeth chattering.  All of the ice was now at her feet, sliced to pieces.
Mina looked up from the ice to Midori, who was sheathing her sword.  “D- d- d- don’t you th- think,” she stuttered, “you could have f- found a warmer way than that?”
“I could have,” Midori said.  “But, based on my experiences with frost demons, you had only five minutes before you either suffocated or froze to death.”  She threw Mina a jacket.  “Some advice.  When attacking something, try to visualize the target as something you fear and hate, so that you are more desperate to not mess up.”
Mina, who was starting to warm up, looked at Midori quizzically.  “You’re afraid of something?  What scares you?”
Midori gave Mina a stare colder than the ice.  “You don’t want to know.”
******
Several hours later, the entire Mato gang was walking home from the nearby theater.
“That movie was awesome,” Jake declared.  “So many cool battles.”
“The battles may have been cool,” Fawn agreed, “but there was no plot.”
“Who needs plot to enjoy a movie when there’s action?” Jessica challenged.
“The action was unrealistic,” Midori, who was at the head of the group, said.  “When taking on a demon that large, you don’t try to climb it to get to the head.  You first need to cut the tendons in his ankle to bring him down.”
“You know,” Dawn said to Midori, “you keep saying ‘I fought demon this’ and ‘I fought demon that’, but aside from me, we’ve never seen you fight anything.  I bet all these claims you have about killing demons is a bunch of bull.”
Midori stopped in her tracks as the gang stepped onto the Mato lawn.  She had a look on her face that she sensed something in the area was wrong, and was trying to figure out what.
“Oh?” Dawn said.  “Don’t know how to respond to that, do you, you little-“
Quick as possible, Midori grabbed her sword handle, spun around, and swung her blade, creating a shockwave that knocked the gang back several meters.
Right where they had just been standing, a huge form dropped from above, creating a tremble in the ground.  The gang focused on the form to see a huge, green, bulky ogre, at least fifteen feet tall, rise to its feet.  It was wearing a loincloth and wielding a large wooden club lined with iron.  The sight of such a visage froze everyone in their tracks.  The ogre stared down at Midori, who calmly met its gaze.
“I knew I would find you again,” it growled.
Midori’s face was blank calm.  “Ah, Zip-pika-dorloo,” she said casually, as if having a friendly conversation.  “I thought the stench in the air was familiar.  What brings you here?”
“Did you think I would forget that you killed my father!?” it roared.
“Your father was warned that there would be consequences should he try to raid our village,” Midori coldly shot back.  “He ignored me, and paid the price.”  She looked the demon up and down, not showing any fear at all.  “What you monsters keep failing to accept is that I’m a lot scarier than you are.”
The monster roared again and raised its club.  Midori kicked off the ground and leapt towards him.
*Slow camera scroll from right to left, showing the completely shocked and horrified faces of the onlookers.  Accompanying the scroll are a series of shouts of battle rage from Midori and cries of pain from the monster.  As the camera reaches Dawn, who is especially stunned, some purple blood splashes on her.*
As quickly as it had started, the battles was over, and the demon’s head, separated from its body, rolled to a stop at Dawn’s feet.  Midori was standing next to the headless body, which fell to the ground, causing the ground to tremble again.  Dawn looked down at the head.
The head started spasming and making incoherent noises despite no longer having a body.  Dawn shrieked in terror.  Midori calmly raised her blade and plunged it into the monster’s right buttocks.  The head fell silent, then it and its body dissolved into dust.
Everyone stared at Midori, who had pulled out a cloth and was cleaning her blade.  “They don’t die until you take out the heart,” Midori answered their unspoken question.
“But, you stabbed it in the-“ Fawn stuttered.
“That’s right.”  Midori walked back inside the house, leaving everyone stunned.
******
“Pardon me, professor?” Lucia said as she found Mato hard at work.
“Yes, my dear?”  Mato looked up from what he was doing to talk to Lucia.
“Well, I hate to be an imposition, but...”
“Nonsense, nonsense.”  Mato pushed her concerns aside.  “There’s never such a thing as too many beautifully young women to hang around.”
Lucia blushed.  “Well, you do know that I’m technically much older than you, right?”
Mato shrugged.  “Meh.  Now, what can I do for you?  I should tell you that I might be leaving for a while before too long.”
“Okay.”  Lucia sat down.  “Well, it’s two things, actually.  First, I just remembered I promised a friend I’d have something ready for them, and I was wondering if you could make it for me.”
“I’d love to.  What do you need?”
“A device or method for disposing of a two thousand ton giant shell that resembles a sea urchin.”
*The request is so strange, even to Mato, that a sweat drop appears on his head.*  Okkkkaaaaayyyyy.....  And why do you need this?”
Lucia chuckled.  “I’m sorry, I can’t say.  Time travel adventure business thing.”
“Oh.”  Mato didn’t bother asking further.  Recently, that had been Lucia and Jen’s answer to everything they said they couldn’t explain.  Mato knew better than to risk doing things that might alter the timeline.  Well, unless they benefited him, since whatever benefited him benefited everyone.  “I might be able to come up with something.  What’s the other thing?”
******
While everyone was going around their own business, Yuta and Sarah received wireless instructions from Homeshield.  The programming in their respective systems merged and overwhelmed their conciousnesses, and they proceeded unobserved to the lab and stood in front of a large monitor.  They stood side by side, emotionless, at attention, like slave drones.
“Status report,” demanded a computerized voice coming from the speakers.
“Program successfully merged with subject Yuta’s brain,” Yuta stated.  “Awaiting orders.”
“Same results with subject Sarah.  Awaiting orders.”
“Acknowledged,” said the voice.  “Next comes the slow process of assimilating the remainder of the outside world by hacking into and controlling cybernetic humanoids, and taking control of non-cybernetic lifeforms utilizing the computer chips under development.”
“Query,” Sarah said.  “Why slow and-“
“Hold.”  Sarah stopped talking.  “I find the drone speech too stupid and uninteresting.  Emulate hosts original personality.”
Yuta and Sarah blinked several times each, then shook their heads as if to clear them.  When they were done, they looked at each other, smiled, and turned back to the monitor.
“Continuing,” Sarah said in her normal voice, “why do this world domination thing really slow with only a few people at a time?”
“Yeah,” Yuta agreed.  “Wouldn’t it be much simpler to just train a camera on my eyes and broadcast the signal around the world?”
“Probably,” Homeshield agreed.  “But video game law Two Oh Four Seven clearly states that taking over the world must be a slow process to enjoy a long adventure.”
*Sweat drops on Yuta and Sarah.*
“And why are we following video game law?” Sarah asked skeptically.
“Because I say so.”
“Also, I don’t think we should use the word ‘assimilate’,” Yuta added.  “I feel like it’s been used somewhere else before.”
“Too bad,” Homeshield replied. “Anyway, I want you to acquire the following targets right away.”
******
Up at the dojo, Midori and Jake were underway with a late training session.  Jake had been steadily progressing with the lessons.  But it was hard work, taking everything he had in order to keep up with Midori's teaching pace.  The two didn't talk much aside from matters involving the training, but despite that, Jake and Midori were developing a sense of camaraderie and respect for one another, little by little.  Right now, they were engaged in a grappling match.  Both were absolutely focused on it.
Unseen by either of them, Lucia skipped her way into the dojo, holding a tray of cookies.  “HI!!” she yelled cheerfully.
Her unexpected arrival and greeting startled Jake and Midori, and their hands fumbled around for a second.  When they had recovered, Midori looked down to see that Jake, accidentally or not, had placed his hands on her breasts.  She slowly lifted her gaze to stare at Jake, who was looking at her with a look of goofy nervousness on his face.  He chuckled, trying to alleviate the situation with humor.
It didn’t work.  *Sound effect indicating a physical blow.  Switch to a view of chibi Midori frozen in midair in a flying kick position, an angry look on her face.  Also in the image is a chibi Jake, flying head over heels backwards from the kick.*
When it was over, Jake was on his knees, grabbing at his stomach in pain.  Midori stood over him with a stern expression.
“What have you got to say for yourself?” she reprimanded him.
Jake said something, but it was too quiet to hear.
“What?” Midori asked.
“I, I,” Jake wheezed, “I’m really glad that, that wasn’t disciplining blow number five.”
Midori looked surprised at his attempt at a joke at a time like this, then allowed a smile to come to her lips.  Seeing her smile made Jake smile too, and they broke into laughter together.
When they were done laughing, they looked over at Lucia, who had walked over to them.  She offered them the cookies she had just made.
Jake looked to Midori for permission.  She nodded, and the three of them enjoyed the cookies.
“These are really good, Lucia,” Jake complimented her.
“Indeed,” Midori agreed.  “Quite delectable.  Do you think you could teach me how to make these?”
“I’d love to!” Lucia happily replied.
Jake was surprised.  “You want to learn to bake cookies?” he asked Midori.
“Well, I’ve heard that there’s a class called Home Ec at these schools of yours, and since I doubt they’d allow me live squid to make sushi, I should probably be prepared to make something else.”
******
Back at the lab, Yuta and Sarah had finished receiving instructions from Homeshield and were discussing how best to accomplish them.
“It makes sense why Homeshield wants those two assimilated now,” Sarah said.  “They could be problems later.”
“Agreed,” Yuta replied.  “And when we’re done, you can help modify Homeshield so it can take control of other cyborgs in Yoto, and I can distribute the chips in the designated areas.”
“The question is, how best to apprehend the first two? Lucia should be easy, but if Jen senses danger, she can teleport away in an instant.”
Yuta smiled widely.  “I think I have just the idea.”
******
There were still a few hours of daylight left, and the weather was good, so the gang decided to go ahead with the preplanned Mato Household Pool Party as scheduled.  Everyone was standing in the backyard wearing swimwear, except for Midori, still dressed in her robes.  Mato was nowhere to be seen.  The girls were all wearing tight one- and two-piece swimsuits that matched the color of their hair, except for Jen and Dawn, who were wearing red and black, respectively.
“Where’s the old man?” Jake, wearing a pair of swim trunks, asked.  He was holding a remote control of some kind in his hand.
“Not sure,” Jessica said, looking very, very alluring in her two piece which accentuated her breasts quite nicely.  She stepped forward and held out a piece of paper.  “I found this on the fridge.”
Jake took the note and read it.  ‘”Sorry to leave all of a sudden, all, but I heard that an unusual object was located at a site where there were chroniton time particles, so I went to investigate.  I’ll try to stay in touch.  See you when I get back.”’  Jake finished reading and shrugged.  “Let’s get this party underway!”
Midori was confused.  “What kind of party is this?”  She looked around.  “And why are you all dressed in such skanky outfits?”
Most of the girls found her comment amusing instead of offensive due to her naiveté.
“Let me show you,” Jake said.  He pressed a button on the remote.
The ground started rumbling and shaking.  After a few seconds, the ground started to split apart at a seam.  Midori found herself being carried along with the moving ground and skipped backwards, going on the defensive.  When the ground was finished moving, she could see that an Olympic-size swimming pool of water was now in place.  Several diving boards and lifeguard stations rose out of the ground.  The girls started cheering.  Upon seeing the water, Midori was taken aback by surprise, apprehension, and perhaps fear.  On impulse, she pulled a sutra out of her robe and threw it into the water.
As everyone looked at her, perplexed by her actions, Dawn laughed.  “Afraid the water’s going to hurt you, wimp?”  Midori shot Dawn a cold stare, not fazing her at all.  Dawn performed a high jump and landed on a diving board.  “Last one in can kiss my well-toned ass!” she called out, winking at Sarah, who glared at her.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you!” Midori warned her.
Dawn sneered and dove into the water.
Three seconds later....
*Dawn jumps out of the water with the effect of a cartoon character having been burned by jumping into boiling water or lava.*  She landed on the ground on her stomach and looked over her skin, which was now red.
“What happened!?” she cried.
For once, Midori winced in sympathy.  “I tried to warn you.  I just purified the water.  No low-class demon could withstand the effects.”
Dawn stared daggers at Midori and stormed into the house to apply her skin with medical salve.
Smiling mockingly after Dawn, Sarah asked Midori, “Can the rest of us go in?”  Midori nodded.
The girls began swimming and playing with one another, and the scene was the fulfillment of all of Jake’s fantasies, except one.  But that was solved when Yuta got bored and decided to play her ‘games’.
Midori watched everyone having fun, and she was filled with indecision.  Though she preferred being reclusive at times, she did want to join in the fun.  But she couldn’t bring herself to go into the water.  Without saying anything, she turned around and walked back into the house.
As she was passing through the living room, Fawn, wrapped up in a towel, caught up with her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked Midori.  “Why didn’t you join us?”
Midori bit her lip in thought.  “I.... don’t like being immersed in water,” she reluctantly said.
“Why not?”
Midori thought back to an earlier time in her life.  When she was about twelve or thirteen, she had decided to test her spiritual powers by taking on a demon that had been plaguing a nearby village.  The demon had forbade any of the villagers access to the nearby lake, which was their only convenient water supply.  Upon arriving, young Midori discovered that the demon itself was water-based.  When she fought it, she had been overwhelmed.  No matter which of her techniques she used, she was unable to subdue or destroy the demon.  Then the demon had encircled and restrained her with its body, and continually forced water in her mouth and down her throat, preventing her from breathing.  It had gone on for minutes, some of the most painful and terrifying of Midori’s life.  If her grandfather and several monks hadn’t shown up to help her, she would have died.  Ever since that time, she had been unable to submerge herself in sizable bodies of water out of fear.
“It’s.... personal,” she told Fawn.
“I’d be glad to help,” Fawn offered.
“I’d rather not.”
“No, really, if –“
“I said ‘no’!” Midori barked, silencing Fawn.  Midori walked away, and Fawn decided to rejoin the others.
******
When the pool party was over, Jen was left with the task of closing the pool up while everyone else went inside.  When she was finished, she snapped her fingers and a hand mirror appeared in her hand.  After looking herself over, she snapped her fingers again, and the mirror disappeared and she was dressed again in her usual genie attire, completely dry.
“I love being magic,” she said with a smile as she headed back to the house.
As she was walking to her room, she thought about the time travel adventure she and Lucia had gone on when Rosemary had arranged that little ‘trip’ for them.  After that, she had had enough of paradoxes and temporal anomalies and quantum mechanics to last a life time, and decided to just live her life instead of trying to respect and preserve the timeline, as Lucia did.
“Hey, Jen,” she heard Yuta call as she passed by her room.  Jen looked to see that Yuta’s door was open, and the organic robot girl was trying to comb her hair with her desk mirror.  Jen walked in, on guard in case the pool party hadn’t been enough ‘fun’ for Yuta for one day.  “You think you can help me?”
“What’s the problem?” Jen asked.
“All that swimming got my hair all tangled,” Yuta complained.  “Could you brush ‘em out?”
Sighing in frustration, Jen relented.  She grabbed the brush from Yuta and began to carefully move it through the seated girl’s hair, taking care to be gentle if she came across any knots.
After a few moments, Yuta said.  “Hey, Jen, do you see this smudge?”  She pointed at the mirror.
Jen looked up from Yuta’s hair to look where Yuta was pointing.  As she looked into the mirror, she could see the reflection of Yuta’s eyes, which were currently in spinning spiral mode.
“Oh, no....” Jen managed as she succumbed to the spirals.
******
Standing outside Yuta’s door, Sarah, wearing sunglasses, observed the scene with a smile.  Yuta’s plan had worked.  Jen was trapped in the reflection of Yuta’s eyes, helpless.  To be fair, Yuta was trapped as well, entranced by her own reflection.  But that was no problem at this point.
Reaching into her pocket, Sarah produced a small computer chip that she had been provided with by Homeshield.  It was time to test it out.  She approached Jen from behind, brushed aside the genie’s hair, and placed the chip on the back of her neck.  Metal connectors on the chip clamped down on her skin, attaching it.  Sarah then pulled Jen and Yuta away from the mirror, snapping them both out of the trance.
Yuta recovered fairly quickly.  Jen shook her head to clear it.  “Huh, wha-“  She broke off and froze in place.  Sarah and Yuta watched as the chip glowed blue for a second.  Then the chip camouflaged itself the color of Jen’s skin, completely hiding it from sight.
Jen turned to Yuta and Sarah, her expression blank.  “Programming received, awaiting orders.”
“Drop the drone attitude and act like Jen would,” Sarah ordered, annoyed.
Jen put up a big smile.  “Done.  What should we do now?  I could teleport chips onto the back of everyones necks and we’ll be done in one big swoop.”
“Good plan,” Yuta agreed.  “Unfortunately, Homeshield says we have to do this the slow way.”
Jen pouted.  “Why do we have to do this the slow way?”
“Because video game law says so,” Sarah answered.
Jen was confused.  “What does video game law have to do with-“
“We don’t know!” Sarah and Yuta exclaimed, exasperated.
******
It was nighttime, and Lucia was getting ready for bed.  Humming a delightful child’s tune to herself, she went over some of the more recent things that had been going on while she undressed.  Pulling off her shirt, she was thinking of how good it was that she had been able to help her friend with the professor’s device.  It was a good thing she had been able to get Mato’s assistance before he had left.  She slid out of her jeans.  She was also glad that she had been able to show Midori how to bake cookies, and that the professor had helped her with her second favor.  Oddly, she couldn’t recall everything that had happened while he was helping her.  Oh well, at least the timeline should be secure.
No longer restrained by her clothes, Lucia unfurled her wings and stretched out her body.  If any mortal had been looking upon her at that moment, they would have been spellbound by her angelic beauty and radiance.  She slipped on a nightgown and was about to go to sleep.
There came a knocking from the door.  Lucia opened the door to find Yuta standing outside, wearing a smile on her face.  In Yuta’s hands was a small gift box with a little ribbon on top.
“Hey, Lucia.  Can I come in?”
Lucia beamed.  “Of course, of course.”  She stepped back, allowing her visitor in.  Yuta shut the door behind her.  “Thanks for coming.  What can I do for you?”
Yuta’s smile had a mischievous quality to it.  “I have a little present for you,” she said, indicating the box.  “If you could just close your eyes and turn around, I’ll-“
Lucia gasped and clapped her hands together in realization, cutting Yuta off.  “Oh, I know what this is!  This is where, er, when Homeshield gets infected with that virus, which alters it to develop a malign personality which wants to take over the world but is restricting itself based on video game rules because the virus was programmed by a video game fan.  You, Sarah and Jen must have been assimilated already, and now you’re here to take me as well!”  Lucia turned around and held her hair to the side, exposing her neck.  “Go ahead, attach the chip!  I’ll make it easy for you.  Go ahead!”
Yuta just stood there, dumbfounded.  Grumbling, she took out the chip and placed it on Lucia’s neck.  “You know,” she said as the chip attached itself, “you take all the fun out of this.”
******
“Why are we here?” Midori asked Jake the next morning.  They were both in the lab.
“The old man said he had the virtual high school scenario ready,” Jake answered, fiddling with a control panel by a metal door.  “There are holograms and robots inside this room that’ll simulate my high school, right down to the personalities of the students.”  He handed her a sheet of paper.  “Just follow these instructions, listen to the teachers, interact or don’t interact with the students as you want, and we’ll find out what areas you need to work on before trying the real thing.”  
Midori looked at the instructions.  “My first class is advanced robotics?”
“Blame the old man, not me,” Jake said.  He held out a Yoto High girls uniform.  “You’ll also
have to wear this.”
Midori looked the outfit over with a critical eyes, noting with disdain how short the skirt was cut.  “I’m not wearing that,” she told Jake.
“You’re going to have to in order to take real high school,” Jake insisted.
Midori was adamant.  “We’ll see.  In the meantime, I’m not wearing it.”
Jake sighed, partially with frustration, partially with disappointment.  “Okay, wear your robe.  Just give me a minute to adjust the program.”  He worked on the console.
Midori walked up to his side and looked over his shoulder as he was working.  “Will you be coming with me?”
“’d love to, can’t,” he replied.  He indicated a nearby large monitor with his thumb.  “New video game.”  He finished with the console.  “Program’s set.  Here.”  He handed her a back pack.  “See you in a few hours.”
Midori slipped on the back pack, took a deep breath, and walked towards the metal door.
“Oh, wait,” Jake said.  She stopped.  “You’ll have to leave your swords.”
*Midori’s face goes from facing forward to a ninety degree turn to the right in an instant, accompanied by an appropriate sound.  Her mouth has disappeared, replaced by diagonal lines, and she looks at Jake with a silly, angry anime look.*
Jake held up his hands to deflect any accusations.  “School policy, can’t help it.  Just leave them here.  Nothing will happen to them, I swear.”
Jake could have sworn he heard a tiger growl coming from her.  She took her swords and placed them on the table, and fixed Jake with a deadly serious look.
“You touch them, you die,” she said, meaning it.  She passed through the metal door, which closed behind her.
Letting out a nervous breath, Jake began playing his new game.
******
Homeshield observed the exchange between Jake and Midori.  He, for Homeshield had given itself a male persona, decided that having Midori in the fold may prove beneficial.  Fortunately, all the robots in the simulation room were under his control, and some of his computer chips were inside.
******
Midori looked around her new environment.  The world outside of Nippon continued to surprise her to no end.  Men and women her age were all about, along with some older ones that she assumed were instructors.  And one of her few weaknesses, cute boys, were everywhere.  She found herself blushing and staring at each one despite her efforts not to.  If she hadn’t been spending so much time around Jake, who she had to admit was by far the best looking man she had ever seen, she would have been rendered helpless, giggling herself silly like a love struck adolescent.
Some of the students were looking at her too, as she was the new girl, and an attractive one at that.  As they were machines and illusions and not real people, she would have ignored them, but this experience was to get her ready for things to come, so she gave several people polite ‘Hello’s and ‘How are you’s.  
Using her instructions, she found her locker.  She tried to open it, but couldn’t.  She then noticed the combination lock, and realized she had to use that to get it open and get to her books.
“Let’s see,” she said to herself as she looked over the instructions.  “This should be simple enough.”  She placed her hand on the dial.  “Nine, twenty four, seventeen.”  She turned the dial right to nine, then right to twenty four, then right all the way around to seventeen.  Smiling, she tried the locker again, but still couldn’t get it open.
*Angry + vein on Midori’s forehead.*  Midori tried the combination again and again, but was getting nowhere.  And she was growing very, very frustrated.  She lowered her hand to her side, then remembered she didn’t have her swords.  Foiled, she pounded her fist against the locker.  “You are a worthy opponent,” she angrily declared.
“Need help, guy?”
It took Midori a second to realize that the voice had been addressing her.  She looked to the side to see a bald student looking at her.  For some reason, she didn’t find this student attractive what-so-ever, so she was able to easily take him up on his offer for help without giggling or blushing.
“Ah, yes, I can’t seem to get my locker open.  Do you think you could help me?”
“Sure thing, guy,” the student said.  *Until he is done speaking, all we can see is him and the locker closest to him.*  “Now, guy, the first thing you do is this, guy.”  He placed his hand on the dial of another locker.  “Guy, I know these things can be confusing, but guy, you gotta do it like this, guy.  You gotta spin it all around first, guy, to reset the lock, and then guy, you spin the it to the right to the first number once, guy.  I know lockers can be confusing, guy.  Why, once, I was playing this dude video game that was just so dude, but opening one safe was a pain, guy.  Fortunately, guy, these real life dude lockers are much easier, guy.  That’s not to say that video games aren’t dude, guy.  Now, after the first number, guy, spin the dial left until you hit the second dude number twice, guy.  Do you like dude video games, guy?  And to finish up, guy, spin the dude dial right once to the last dude number, and you’re done, guy.  Isn’t that dude, guy?”
*Scene shift to Midori.  Her whole body is shaking with ungodly effort to suppress her rage and irritation at this most annoying student.  It is clear she wished she had a sword in her hand to shut him up.*
“Yes,” she said, her voice trembling as she tried to keep herself from having an outburst.  “That is most clear.  Thank you.”
The student smiled at her and walked away.  “No problem, later, guy.”
Midori inwardly screamed upon hearing him say the word ‘guy’ again.
******
As Midori was going about her first school day, Homeshield was formulating a plan to add the samurai to his collection of drones, and he would hatch it before her school day was done.
******
Hours later, Jake had finished playing his video game and was doing some school work while waiting for Midori and keeping an eye on her swords.  A ping sound indicated she was getting ready to come out, so Jake got ready to greet her.
The door opened, and Midori stumbled out, looking the worse for wear, extremely tired and sore.  She dumped the empty back pack on the ground and bent over at the waist so she could rest her aching body on a table top.
“How was it?” Jake asked.
“Informative, but grueling,” she moaned in response.  “Carrying all my books from class to class really takes its toll.”
“You carried all your books the whole day?!” Jake asked in disbelief.
Midori nodded.  “I thought I could handle it.  And if that wasn’t enough, all the students wanted to put me through some hazing ritual called, ‘Pin the chip on the new girl’s neck.’  I told them I didn’t want to play, but they were insistent, so I had to be rather forceful to get them to stop.”
Jake sighed and used his hand to cover his eyes in frustration.  “You didn’t smash them to bits, did you?”
“No.  Just decapitated a few, and maimed the rest horribly.”
“Good.”  A thought struck Jake.  “Wait a minute.”  He glanced at the table where her swords were.  “How did you do that?  You left your swords here.”
“True,” she agreed.  “But you’d be amazed what you can do with an eraser, a laser pointer, and three paper clips.”  She moaned again.  “And there was this one extremely irksome bald student, who kept saying-“
“’Guy’ and ‘dude’ and talking about games?” Jake filled in.  Midori looked up at him.  “That’s Jerry, or as I like to call him, ‘Annoyance Incarnate.’  He uses those two words in practically every sentence he says, and refers to everyone, man or woman, child or senior citizen, as ‘guy’.  He has an obsession for video games that rivals or exceeds my own, and he’ll always find some way to use them in any conversation.”
“I really don’t like him,” Midori said, still lying on the table.
“Yeah.  I’ve heard rumors that he was so annoying that he caused a retiring teacher to quit rather than teach him for another year."
“My whole body aches,” Midori complained, changing the subject.  “I haven’t felt like this since I asked ojii-san to put me through the most difficult of training regimens when I was seven.”
Jake tried to think of a way he could help Midori.  “Well, if you want,” he suggested, “I could give you a massage.”
Midori looked at him skeptically.  “How do I know you won’t try something underhanded?”
“Hey, you can trust me.”
Desperate to feel better, Midori agreed.  She put her entire body on the table and lay down flat.  Jake walked up beside the table and placed his hands on her back.  He had some experience with giving massages.  In his own dimension, when he was younger, he had hung out a lot at a friend’s house.  The friend’s mother was constantly suffering from aches and pains, so Jake had given her foot and back rubs out of sheer kindness, wanting to help her feel better.  His help had been greatly appreciated.
Jake pressed down on Midori’s back and let his hands roam, searching for any knots.  He worked as gently yet firmly as he could, giving her shoulder rubs, stretching her arms, trying to keep the massage distributed across her entire back.
Midori moaned in gratitude as Jake progressed.  It obviously felt wonderful to her.
“That feels so good,” she moaned.  “How’d you get so good at this?”
“Practice.”
“I’ll have to think of a way to thank you later.”
That statement caused Jake’s mind to freeze, though his hands kept moving.  He ran her last sentence through his head again.  It gave him ideas that he hadn’t been thinking about when this had started.  But now, it just seemed like such a good and fun idea that he decided he would.
Grinning impishly, Jake willed his hypnotic power into his hands, which began to glow.  His powers flowed into Midori, whose only hint that something was wrong was feeling even better than before.
“How does that feel?” Jake asked, thinking wicked thoughts.
“Even better,” Midori managed.  She was starting to feel tired, the massage felt so good.  Jake’s hands felt warm, like a blanket.  All the pain was disappearing at a faster rate, and she felt so relaxed.
“Yeah, it just feels like your mind is slipping away, doesn’t it?  Floating off, without a care.”
“Without a care....” Midori repeated.  Her mind was floating away.  All that she could think about was how good she felt, and Jake’s voice.
“All you want to do is relax and listen to my voice,” Jake intoned soothingly.
Midori’s eyes started to glaze over.  “Relax, listen to-“  Her eyes snapped open and a wave of anger surged through her body as she realized what was happening.  “You’re trying to control me!” she gasped.  She tried to move, but her body was helpless against Jake’s powers.  She couldn’t budge.
“Don’t worry,” Jake said.  Despite her knowledge of what he was doing, she still found his voice calming, powerful, authoritative.  She had to listen to it.  “I’ll take good care of you.  Just let go.”
Midori knew she was going to lose, and a tear dripped from her eye.  “You bastard,” she moaned, just above a whisper, with hurt and betrayal in her voice.  “You said I could trust you....”
Seconds later, her eyes glazed over, and she was now Jake’s to command.
Jake smiled widely.  He had been wanting an opportunity like this since he had met Midori, he just hadn’t realized he’d been wanting it.  Keeping his hands on her back, he leaned close to her ear.  “Midori,” he whispered.  “Can you hear me?”
“Yes.... master....” she softly breathed.
“Will you do whatever I say?”
“Yes, master,” she answered, emotionless submission in her voice.  “I am your slave.  I will obey whatever you command.”
Jake smiled even more tightly.  “Firstly, you will never react aggressively against anyone who tries to touch you under hypnosis, understand?”
“Yes, master.”
Jake took his hands off her back.  “On your feet.”
Midori weakly pushed herself off the table and stood before Jake as he looked her over.  She really was something to look at, he thought as he looked her up and down.  Dressed in the pretty robe, with her long hair with that ribbon in it, and her fair complexion.  With that blank expression on her face, she was like a living doll.  And all mine to play with.
He cupped her cheek in one hand as he looked at her face.  Her eyes were glazed over, but unlike the other girls, she didn’t seem happy.  Most of his other subjects were happy while hypnotized, in a state of relaxation where obeying his voice made them feel so good.  But Midori seemed neutral, or perhaps depressed and accepting.  But that didn’t matter to Jake.  All that mattered was that she was his slave, and he could make her do whatever he wanted.
Jake grabbed her chin with his thumb and forefinger and pulled her closer so he could stare into her eyes.  After having to take orders from her for so long, not to mention all the trouble she had caused, he was thoroughly enjoying being the dominant one, being the alpha of the pack.  Seeing her helpless look made him feel powerful, happy, and excited.
He leaned in and kissed her on the lips.  After several seconds, he realized she wasn’t kissing him back and pulled away.
“Slave,” he angrily reprimanded her, keeping his hold on her chin.  “Respond accordingly.”
“Yes, master,” she meekly apologized.  “Forgive me, master.
He leaned in and kissed her again.  This time, she responded, moving her lips, trying to please him.  He wrapped an arm around her, and she draped her hands over his neck.
Jake moaned with pleasure.  Midori was new.  Midori was exciting.
Jake slipped one hand inside Midori’s robe, letting it roam and explore.  Midori started kissing the side of Jake’s neck and shoulder.
After a moment, Jake forcibly pushed Midori against a wall and pressed up against her, causing her to gasp, which further excited him.  With one hand, he pulled her face against his neck again and she began kissing it, while his other hand drifted downwards and began caressing her butt.  He began pressing his lips against her neck as well.
As he decided he wanted things to move further, Jake glanced upwards for a second before kissing Midori again.  As his mind processed what his eyes had seen, he stopped.  He looked up again.  In the polished steel of the wall, he could see a reflection of himself, holding the hypnotized Midori.
Though his eyes and hair were normal, the similarities to his recent nightmare were disturbing.  He pushed himself away from Midori, holding her at arms length and looking her over again.
She halted with her advances and stared back.  Her lack of expression and emotion was just like how she had been in his dream.
What am I doing?  What have I become?
“I can’t,” he gasped.  He let go of Midori and grabbed his stomach, which was twinging with guilt.  He struggled for air.  “I can’t do this.”
Midori just stood there, helpless, without a thought of her own, awaiting his command.
Jake guided her back to the table.  “Midori, listen to me.”
“Yes, mast-“
“Don’t call me that!  Call me, call me Jake, or Mato-kun, or whatever the hell you think is best.”
“Yes, Mato-kun.”
“Okay, listen.  In a moment, you are going to lie down on this table.  When I snap my fingers, you will fall asleep.  When you wake up, you will have no recollection what-so-ever that I hypnotized you.  The thought will not even cross your mind.  You will just assume that you fell asleep because the massage was so good, and you will feel refreshed when you wake up.  You will have no recollection of anything that just transpired.  Do you understand?”
“Yes, Mato-kun.”
“Good.”  He had her lie down on the table, then snapped his fingers.  She fell asleep.
******
As Homeshield observed Jake and Midori leaving, he decided to change a few plans.  He would leave Midori be for the moment.  Video game law Eight Four Seven Two stated that, if possible, leave the attractive female warrior alone until she became a threat that had to be dealt with.  Villains were never allowed to nip potential problems in the bud.  In the meantime, he would accelerate his plans to spread his control throughout Yoto.  He wanted to acquire a large drone basing before risking hacking into systems outside of the city.
******