Ch 148: Terminal stupidity.

"Hi, everyone." grinned Akeno as the trio joined the others for breakfast. Akeno and Darkness were dressed in their school uniforms, while Medb wore a dark blue variant of her leather outfit.

What the other girls didn't see, however, were two invisible slave collars around Darkness's and Medb's necks, and two very special leather panties under their skirts.

"Hi, Akeno, Darkness, Medb-sensei." smiled Asuka, before she sobered. "We located two more unconscious people when patrolling last night. We bought them over to the hospital. A doctor told us they had two other cases already just from this night and expected more. This is getting out of hand."

Akeno frowned while the other girls greeted each other, then nodded.

"Starting tonight, we'll form at least three groups for the patrols. We now have enough numbers for it. Jeanne, Melusine, what do you intend to do?"

"We will try to find that Servant and their Master as well." replied Melusine, and Jeanne nodded.

“I see.” Nodded Akeno.

“Akeno, would you mind making the food for our bento?” asked Rin, with a slight blush. “I was about to ask Tamamo, since she’s a better cook than me, but you can do make food even faster, right?”

“I do not mind.” smiled Akeno, satisfied that her plan to get Rin addicted to her food was bearing fruits.

She quickly created whole bento sets, and gave every girl their share.

“Thank you.” said Darkness, with a warm smile. Medb looked at her own share with suspicion, wondering if that was anything strange mixed in the ingredients.

If everyone is ready, we should get underway.” Pointed out Asuka. “We don’t want to be late, even if Medb-sensei will not berate us for it.

“I would still punish you if you were late. Darkness, this useless pervert, may have surrendered to Akeno, but this is this, and that is that. I am still your teacher, and in school, you owe me respect!” declared Medb with a tone of challenge as she looked at the girl who had tormented her for days.

“I do not mind.” sweetly smiled Akeno.

Chisato and Asuka looked incredulously at Darkness, who had not reacted to Medb’s demeaning words.

“Hey, Darkness, are you okay?” carefully asked Chisato.

“I am feeling well. Thank you for your concern.” Nodded Darkness with a polite smile.

“Akeno, what the hell did you do to her? Did you replace her with a robot or something? Did you perform percussive maintenance on her brain?” asked Asuka. She wasn’t the only one surprised by Darkness’s behavior.

Akeno only laughed softly at their expression.

“I only made a deal with her. If she can keep her perverted side hidden the whole day, she’ll get a special reward tonight.”

“Ooohh.” exhaled Chisato as she nodded. “That’s going to be hard for you, Darkness. But good luck!”

“She told me I could name my reward. I am determined to succeed.” nodded Darkness, her face starting to change as she thought of her reward. Catching herself, she shook her head and thought about something else.”

“Wow. You’re already calling her Mistress, when you were going on about never submitting and such.” said Rin as she looked at Darkness with a deadpan expression.

“Ahem, we should go to school now.” Said Darkness, fighting hard to keep herself under control.

Rin nodded and stood, and the others took it as their cue to get underway as well.

They kept chatting on the way to school, and when they arrived, Akeno had her turn being surrounded by her new classmates.

The lessons started, with Medb basically ordering the class to self-study as she sat behind her desk, keeping an eye on the students.

When the morning break came near, Akeno smiled to herself as she put a hand into her pocket, reaching for a remote, and she turned the knob.

Medb twitched as she felt her leather panties vibrating against her crotch. This damned girl dared to play games with her in the middle of the classroom!

She glared at Akeno, but the later only seemed more amused. The vibration wasn’t constant, slowing down or increasing seemingly at random, but all Medb could to was grit her teeth and try not to attract attention from the students. Her treacherous body, already suffering from the effects of five days of intense sex slave training, was reacting to the stimulation, and she was getting increasingly horny.

She wasn’t the only one trying hard to act like nothing was happening, as Akeno used a second remote to play with Darkness as well. Although she did so at a lower intensity than with Medb, as she didn’t really want to force Darkness to fail. The girl was making admirable efforts, and all she did was make some hot eyes at Akeno while breathing faster, her face feverish.

The bell rang, signaling the start of morning break, and Akeno turned off the vibrators. Medb glared at her again as she left the room, and Darkness sighed in relief, seeking Akeno’s gaze and feeling happy at the nod of approbation she received.

Akeno was once again surrounded by her curious classmates, and she spent a few minutes politely answering questions and exchanging phone numbers with Ayako Mitsuzuri, Rin’s best friend. She wondered if she would make a move on her later or not. She was cute enough and seemed to have a good character, but would she have the time? After a while, she excused herself, wanting to have a few minutes to herself, when she felt a powerful wave or magic power spread from outside the class. In seconds, all the students lost consciousness and collapsed, save from Rin, Darkness, Asuka, Chisato and Akeno.

“Are we under attack?” asked Asuka as she stood, her hand on her red bangle.

“This seems too wide-spread, and it doesn’t affect us.” quickly said Chisato as she checked the pulse of the nearest student.

“This is… mana drain!” exclaimed Rin as she examined Ayako’s body. “There must be a bounded field around the school! And if the Master decides to drain as much mana as they can for the Servant, they might slaughter the whole school!”

“I can feel the source of the bounded field!” said Tamamo as she materialized. “Not only that, but I can also feel the direction the extracted mana is going to! The Servant must be in the floor under, in the library.”

“I’ll go with Tamamo and destroy the bounded field!” proposed Chisato, taking from her inventory a short sword with Stop runes engraved on the blade. Akeno had given one to every Master as a precaution.

“Thank you.” Nodded Akeno. “Everyone else, let’s go to the library.” She already thought she knew who she would meet there, as this seemed to be a repeat of a scene described by Aria from the original fiction.

The group, minus Chisato and Tamamo, and with Scathach and Britomart ready to take action, rushed down the stairs and violently opened the doors of the library, barging in. A few more students were sprawled on the tables of or floor, unconscious, but their attention was focused on three people standing in a corner.

“Sakura!” shouted Rin as she saw her sister being held hostage, a blade on her throat. The young man holding the knife in one hand, and some kind of magic book on the other, gloated. His short, wavy, dark blue hair and gray eyes identified him as Shinji Matou, and standing beside them was a Servant with very long light purple hair reaching her ankles, wearing a black and purple mini dress, gloves and thigh-high socks, with a purple leather collar around her neck, a purple blindfold, and a red snake tattoo on her forehead.

Akeno, Asuka and their Servants knew from the fiction, and the book held in Shinji’s left hand, that this Servant, Assassin, truly belonged to Sakura.

“Shinji, you vile piece of shit. Release Sakura right now and deactivate your bounded field, or I’ll tear you a new butthole!” threatened Rin, glowing blue lines appearing on her body.

“Do not move, or I’ll kill her.” countered Shinji, tightening a little his grip on Sakura. “Surrender to me, Rin, and I’ll spare you both!”

His expression turned perverted when he looked at Rin’s body.

“You arrogant bitch, you have looked down on me this whole time, didn’t you! I am going to teach you manners. By the time I’m done with you, you’ll be begging for my favor!”

“Wow, the power of delusion is strong in this scumbag.” Muttered Asuka, somewhat impressed by his complete misjudgment of the situation.

Shinji heard, and he twitched as he looked angrily at the other girls, as well as the weak-looking white-haired boy, who had entered after Rin. And the new teacher he heard rumors about appearing near the door. He knew nothing about them, but assumed from them still being conscious that Rin had shielded them somehow from the effect of the bounded field. But as he looked at them more closely, he liked what he saw very much.

“Assassin, use your chains to tie up those wenches. I’ll teach them a lesson as well. And I’ll start with you, Sakura! You think you can run away from me?” ranted Shinji. Since he planned to kill everyone in the school, save the few he would keep as captives, he didn’t feel the need to keep up appearances.

Akeno and Asuka looked at each other, surprised to hear the Servant they assumed to be a Rider to be called an Assassin.

Sakura didn’t reply, but her eyes were cold.

“No.” flat out refused Assassin.

“What?”

“I had advised you not to use that bounded field, but you ignored my warning. Now, you are about to reap what you sowed.”

As if her words were a trigger, everyone felt the bounded field break. Shinji stared in shock for a second, then scowled at Assassin, thinking she was responsible.

“You bitch! I am your Master! You think you can betray me?” ranted Shinji, pouring some of his mana into the book he held. Arcs of purple and red lightning appeared around Assassin, causing her great pain, and she winced, biting down a scream. But at the same time, the book burst into blue flames.

With a yelp, Shinji dropped the book, and it consumed itself before it reached the ground.

“You utterly foolish ‘Master’.“ sighed Assassin. "You have not even realized yet that the three women you face are all Masters, and that there are three Servants beside me in this room or on the rooftop. I will leave you to the fate you deserve.”

She dematerialized.

Shinji blinked, as it took him two seconds to understand that he was completely screwed, then his face twisted in fury.

“Time to end this farce.” shrugged Akeno, using Shunpo to appear in front of Sakura and grabbing Shinji’s hand before he could react, forcing the knife away from Sakura’s throat. With an expression that bordered on boredom, she twisted Shinji’s arm and struck his elbow, making it bend the wrong way. She then backhanded him, sending him careening toward the wall.

“Are you okay, Sakura?” asked Akeno, ignoring the idiot’s scream of pain.

“Ah…yes, thank you.” nodded Sakura.

“I’m sorry. We failed to protect you as we promised.” Apologized Akeno, her head lowered.

“It’s okay. I wasn’t worried at all.” Replied Sakura. This was the truth, as she knew Assassin would have crushed Shinji the instant he looked like he would really kill her.

Rin rushed and gave Sakura a quick hug, then turned her attention to Shinji.

Seeing death in her eyes, he screamed as he scrambled to his feet and ran for the library’s door. Medb glanced at Akeno, silently asking if she should stop him, but Akeno shook her head. Without Rider, no, Assassin, Shinji wasn’t a threat at all, and Sakura would have plenty of time to deal with him later. For now, they needed to focus on making sure all the students weren’t in a dangerous posture, until they would wake up on their own.

…

With the help of the emergency services, all the students, teachers and staff recovered easily. Very little of their mana had been drained. But the principal, suspecting a gas leak, ordered the students to return home.

With the afternoon free, Akeno used the Sanctuary to give a few days' worth of training to Darkness and Medb. Darkness chose as her reward to be bound in the same way Medb had initially been, being teased and receiving shocks if she moved too much. And she moved a lot, deliberately. Akeno used most of her time on Medb, putting her in a wide variety of predicaments, and trading self-humiliation for pleasure. Little by little, Medb was learning to like being bound and tormented.

Akeno had yet to use any Curse on Medb and Darkness. She didn’t put one on Medb, because she was confident that she could reach her goal without resorting to one, and the meaning of her eventual victory would be diminished. For that very reason, she also limited her use of Corruption on Medb, no wanting to reach lv50 with the Thrall Crest too fast.

And Darkness… It was like she already had them all.

When they emerged from the sanctuary in time for dinner, Akeno had a surprise waiting for her. Her smartphone, syncing itself with the return to a normal time flow, signaled that Noah had tried to reach her.

She let Darkness and Medb join with the others, as Tamamo was almost finished with cooking dinner, and stayed alone in her room before calling back.

“Noah, sorry, I was in the Sanctuary.” Started Akeno as she started the video call.

“Hi, beautiful. I miss you. How are you doing?” smiled Noah.

“Everything’s doing really well so far.” Said Akeno, before bringing Noah up to date.

“That’s great. On my side, all the girls are getting acquainted with each other and some like Rias and Rossweisse have started going out in the SAO world. And they’re standing out wherever they go, as I’m sure you can imagine. Well, they returned a tad disappointed, because the Japan over there is almost identical to the Japan they’re used to. Although they did buy a few headsets for VRMMORPG games.”

“Sounds like fun. I’d like to experience those VR games at least once as well.” Smiled Akeno.

“Yes. I’m sure you’ll find at least one game you’ll like. This aside, I called you for another reason as well. I gave everyone details about your adventures, and your new companions, and, well, someone has made a suggestion. One that I think is pretty good, but I’d like your opinion first.”

“Oh?” said Akeno, intrigued.

Noah told her about this suggestion. Akeno was very surprised at first, but after she took the time to think about it, she fiercely approved.

…

After dinner, when everyone took an hour or two to relax and transfer mana to their Servants before the night’s patrol, Akeno took a deep breath and knocked on the door of Asuka’s room.

Asuka opened the door, her head slightly tilted in curiosity.

“Akeno, did you need something?”

“I’d like to talk to you in private, are you available?”

“Sure.” Replied Asuka, turning to Aife.

Aife, who was laying face down on the bed, apparently having been in the middle of receiving a back massage, nodded to them said she was going to guard the house, dematerializing.

“So, what’s this about?” asked Asuka as she sat on the bed.

Instead of replying, Akeno smiled and handed her the smartphone. A video call was already underway.

“Hi, Asuka. How are you doing?” asked Noah.

“Fine. Akeno hasn’t started doing anything perverted to me, so far. Is this going to change?” suspiciously asked Asuka.

“Not at all.” smiled Noah, shaking his head. “I’m leaving the timing and methods to her. The thing is, I am keeping the members of my family informed about the things happening on your side, at least to some extent, so they don’t have to worry about Akeno.”

“I understand so far…” frowned Asuka.

“And I did tell them about… your background, although not in great detail. I’m sorry if I’m violating your privacy.”

“…I see. I don’t much like it, but I was sort of expecting it. I accept your apology.”

“Thanks. Which brings me to my main point. There is someone who wish to speak to you. I’m going to give her the phone.”

Asuka frowned further when the view on the smartphone switched, and someone else appeared. She looked so much like Akeno that Asuka figured out who it was in an instant.”

“Greetings, Asuka. I am Shuri Himejima. It is very nice to meet you. Thank you very much for taking care of my daughter.”

“Hi. It is nice to meet you too. Although no thanks are necessary. It is more like Akeno is taking care of me, since I’m eating the food she makes.” shrugged Asuka, feeling slightly uncomfortable.

“Hopefully, we will have many opportunities to speak later, but for now, I will be blunt. Asuka, I feel very sorry for what happened to your mother, and its impact on your childhood. You have my most sincere condolences. I am sure that she loved you a lot, even if her accident made her unable to express it.”

“…Thank you.” said Asuka, looking away in embarrassment.

“Well, I said I would be blunt, so here it goes. Asuka, would you be willing to consider being adopted into the Himejima family?”

“…Ah?” Asuka’s eyes widened in shock.

“To be clear, I do not intend to replace your mother in your heart, and I will not ask you to call me as such. I just wish to help and support you, and I always wanted to have more than one daughter to take care of. As we learn to know about each other, I am sure I would come to love you.”

Asuka’s opened and closed her mouth as she tried to make sense of her feelings.

“Asuka.” softly said Akeno. ”Noah and I would both like you to accept, but that decision is yours and yours alone to make.”

“… What about my mother? Can Noah maybe revive her?” finally asked Asuka. This was a matter she hadn’t dared ask Akeno or Noah about so far, because it was so painful to her.

“I already asked Noah.” sadly said Akeno. “Yes, he can revive your mom easily enough. But his system informed him that her soul would still have parts of it missing, and that isn’t something our own Healing or Noah’s soul magic can fix. Lilith-sama could cure your mother, but she told him that she would accept this favor as a reward for a future mission. This could be years or even decades from now.”

“You do not have to decide right away.” said Shuri with a warm, motherly smile. “I will accept your decision, whatever it is. But whether you accept or not, I wish for you to know that you aren’t alone. You already have a family waiting to meet you.”

“…yeah.” nodded Asuka, her throat starting to choke.

“Well, that’s all from us.” Said Noah as Shuri handed him the smartphone back. “See you later, Asuka, and take care. We all look forward to meeting our new family members in person.”

Asuka nodded, and the call ended. She handed the smartphone back to Akeno.

“I would love to have you as a sister, Asuka.” smiled Akeno. “But that’s your decision. I’ll give you some space now.”

Asuka watched her leave and close the door behind her. For a long while, she didn’t move, mentally replaying the conversation she just had, again and again, and Shuri’s warm smile.

She finally closed her eyes, and tears began to flow.