The Trials and Tribulations of a would be Yuri Harem Goddess (Highschool DxD AU)

[SamPardi]

1999 - Uganda

"I never would have imagined a course of events that could push us to this," A tall man with red hair said. "Certainly we haven't been the best of friends, but this..."

His opponent grunted in acknowledgement. "I have to admit, I wasn't expecting you to come yourself."

"Ah, and waste my cute subordinates? Sometimes, it's just a matter of having the raw power." The redhead turned slightly to look on the wasteland behind his foe without letting his enemy out of his sight. "Besides, who knows how much power you got from that feast."

The being chuckled. "If you really think I only ate the pathetic mortals, then you're really going to underestimate me."

"I was wondering where the Egyptian Pantheon were..." The man replied.

"Weaklings. Couldn't protect even one of their precious followers when it came down to it!"

For a long moment the crimson haired man was silent. Still his slight frown spoke eloquently of his opinion of the news. "Then I suppose I really shouldn't hold back."

"No. You shouldn't."

Red light illuminated the area in the color of fresh blood. A monstrously large black sphere that paradoxically glowed red struck the being and detonated in a brilliant flash of light visible for miles around.

Their battle had only begun.

---

A few months later - Japan

An old woman in a dark shawl shambled through the narrow streets of a suburb. Her skin was cracked and pale enough one might not at first notice her middle eastern descent. Dark eyes still sparkled with purpose and intelligence though as they caught on every face and individual.

Some of those that passed whispered. Wondering if she were a refugee from the recent crisis, or what she might be doing in such a normal neighborhood. She ignored them easily enough. The fact she was a refugee meant little to her, and was certainly nothing she felt ashamed of. No she had a purpose, and for her purpose she must find someone who meets her criteria. So few did. So few.

Finally she saw someone who did. A woman, young, in her prime. The subtle divination the old priestess was using revealed more than mere sight. Married, active sex life, soon coming to the peak of her fertility and showed some subtle signs of recently going off her normal birth control. Perfect.

With a burst of speed the old woman placed herself in the woman's path and approached her with all the subtlety of a bull... Or an old woman who no longer gives a shit about other's opinions. Either one really.

"I'm sorry... Can I help you?" The younger woman asks, confused.

A rickety hand withdraws within the old woman's shawl and pulls out a golden ankh large enough for its lower pillar to be held like a handle. "Here. This belongs to you now." She forced the ankh into the woman's hands, honestly not caring what happened to the artifact after it had touched the woman's hands.

Mission complete the old woman turned and bustled off, ignoring the questioning cries of the young woman. She had one last mission and not much time to complete it. Once she'd found herself relatively alone she called on the meager remains of her stamina and the power of a useful acquaintance to open a teleportation circle as far away from there as she could... She managed to land in an alleyway two prefectures over.

"Good enough," she grumped. "It'll have to be."

The woman raised a frail hand in front of her face. "It was enough..." She nodded in confirmation and then leaned back. Her eyes closed as she fell into peaceful sleep. Seconds later the tattered remnants of her soul shattered into dust leaving her body a lifeless husk.

---
The Trials and Tribulations of a would be Yuri Harem Goddess
A DxD AU Quest

2015 (Quest Present) - Japan
"Ow!" You hastily pull your face away from your vice-captain's questing fingers. You gently slap her hands away.

"Oh you big baby." Lin Satsuzaki threw her hands up in defeat and frustration. "You know President Shitori is going to bitch you out hard for showing up to your classes looking like you got into a fight."

"I did get into a fight. It's not my fault the other schools mostly enter gorillas in the tournaments. It was a club event, all official with the paperwork done and everything. She can't give me shit for that!" You shoot back.

"An official event for a club she doesn't like and clearly wants to shut down." Lin frowned at you for a long moment, but finally shook her head. "This boxing club is your baby, I can't understand why you aren't more careful to keep it."

"Because I'm sick of being careful. Why do you think I took up boxing?" You smirk. "Well, with that taken care of, I guess I can go take a shower now~"

Lins hands clamp on your shoulders freezing you in place. "Now, Captain. The girls have all agreed its safer for everyone if you just wait till they're all done. You wouldn't want any... accidents, would you?"

"Hah, ha, heh... No. No accidents. You're absolutely right," you nod in agreement while pretending that you're only imagining the dangerous gleam in her eyes.

Silence drags on for a long few seconds as you sweat under her stern glare. Finally the door to the captain's office opens and one your club members pokes their head in. "Everything okay in here?" She turns her mild gaze to you, but it only makes you sweat more. In fact you put your back up against a wall and try to look small just to be safe.

"We're fine. She's behaving herself," Lin replies.

You nod hastily in agreement. She may appear to be a mild mannered giantess, except in the chest department, but Airi Katsumori does not fool you for a second. Truly this is no girl but a monster in human flesh. Far too strong for the likes of mere mortal. But that strength waits, behind the safety of its mild mannered genius veneer for the first sign of perversion and then... it strikes.

No, you are not fooled at all.

"Well the showers are free. I was the last. Later," she gives a brief wave of goodbye and then disappears on her way.

"I say again. Total baby," Lin says with a snicker as you slide to the ground in relief.

---

"Ah! The Empress of Perversion approaches!" Aika Kiryuu greets you before class. "You look like you got your ass kicked."

"Nah, I left the ring on my feet. Can't say the same for my opponent. So bow, Queen of Perversion, for not only am I your Empress, but now also the prefecture's lightweight boxing champion!" You shoot back.

She gives you an over the top bow of an obsequious nature, "truly you are a marvel of our time, Kyou-chan!"

Vaguely you're aware of the so called 'perverted duo' wailing in the corner pleading with god to correct some oversight or other. While it was annoying when you first came out to have them constantly going on about it being some great cost to men or something like that, you eventually learned to tune them out. Frankly the opinion of a couple losers meant less than nothing to you now.

"Oh and happy birthday." Aika grabbed a small game case out of her bag and handed it to you.

"Oh, that's sweet. Thank you. Now what's this?" Your eyes light up as you read the title. "Strawberry Shrine*Sweet, Special Edition! This is the version with the loli-gitsune! How did you get this? It isn't supposed to release until the weekend!"

"Oh, I happen to know a few people. Anyways, happy birthday. Honestly, I don't know what you see in that series. They even added the bishounen shrine assistant with a tortured past and you can't even romance him!" Aika expounded.

Your eyes flash, "cute bishounen boys are nothing before the power of Yuri, Aika! He exists only so you can prove your pure heart and intentions to the cynical world weary onee-san character! Truly the value of purifying a young woman's heart is a hundred, nay, a thousand times as worthy as wooing a mere bishounen!"

You freeze at the sound of a man clearing his voice behind you. "That's very interesting, Hyoudou-san, but if you wouldn't mind taking your seat; I'd like to start my class now."

"Ah, hai-sensei!" You try to ignore Aika's giggles as you shuffle into your seat and get out your home room materials.

For the next few hours you sit in your usual window seat, though for some reason today the sun feels more... friendly? In fact it feels so nice you're having trouble not dozing off. During a particularly boring part you just can't keep your eyes open, your eyelids are just too heavy. You assure yourself you're only closing your eyes for a moment. Just a moment. Just...

You open your eyes to an expanse of sunny field. Drifting. Floating. Gravity doesn't feel real, but you aren't really moving away from the ground either. Then it appeared before you.

[ ] [Power] A lioness, her fur darkened and stained with blood. Scars cover her form and even as she growls more blood pours from her maw. (Combat Focus. Fighting is replaced with Ki Artist. [Sun Element Ki] merit gained.)
[ ] [Power] A cow standing on a dais of corpses. Despite the macabre sight, the cow itself seems positively radiant and its stance is oddly protective of the corpses below rather than condescending. (Charisma focus. Slow Appearance gain. Ability to interact with the dead. Eventual ability to judge spirits and force them into the appropriate afterlife.)
[ ] [Power] A cat, of black fur with golden tips and adorned with a solid gold collar. It's amazing how well the cat stands out as it's actually in the center of a veritable sea of cats. Just, for some reason you know the first cat is the cat. (Luck focus. From now on cats will never really be far from you. While you won't be mobbed, they'll just kind of be there but everywhere. However these cats will intervene in times of great distress and danger, and may call in their friends if the need is truly great. While they won't simply follow orders, they can pass messages for you if it's of great importance. More may be possible if you train up your animal ken, leadership, and investigation.)
[ ] [Power] An empty throne, resplendent in gold and turquoise. You're not sure what to make of it, since the base is solid gold so there are no legs. It actually looks kind of uncomfortable. (Magic Focus. You gain 1 rank of Sun Magic proficiency an immediate dot of occult. Also once per week you can ignore any knowledge or skill limits to create a single perfect magical artifact of a rank equal or lesser to your current Sun Magic Proficiency. It does not have to be a Sun Magic Artifact.)

You only see it for a moment before the sun rises behind it and blinds you. When you blink your eyes, the glare fades to reveal your classroom where life seems to be mostly going on like normal. A big yawn forces its way out, but the teacher has his back turned so you get away with it. Soon enough you're following along like normal, only the slightest twinge of concern left for your strange experience.

---

Day 1 - Monday
Like most school days, your day is already taken up by school and your club. Only the evening and night are available. Choose two.

[ ] [Action] Training. You can always tighten up something. (3 hours)
- [ ] Specify what you want to train in. You must already have a dot in it.
[ ] [Action] Socialize.
- [ ] Aika
- [ ] Lin
- [ ] Airi
- [ ] Boxing Club Members
[ ] [Action] Play your new Eroge. It is your birthday after all.
[ ] [Action] Go looking for some delinquents to beat senseless.
[ ] [Action] Look something up at the school library.
- [ ] Specify what you want to look up. Can be as generic as a keyword or as specific as individual's name.
[ ] [Action] Look something up on the internet.
- [ ] Specify what you want to look up. Can be as generic as a keyword or as specific as individual's name.
[ ] [Action] Wander around town. Why not, it's generally a safe place and none of the local thugs are much danger to you anyways.

---

What you IC know about the AU:
There was some kind of nuclear fuck-up over in Uganda back in '99. Problem is it took a huge bit out of Lake Victoria and blocked off the feed into the Nile. Uganda couldn't afford to fix it so Egypt made a deal with Sudan and mobilised to conquer Uganda. Several of the central African powers saw their chance to gain huge leverage over the militarily and economically more successful Egypt.

Within a year, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo had both collapsed as functioning governments and Tanzania and Kenya were seriously embattled with Egypt and several smaller actors. UN sanctions flew, but ultimately did nothing. 'Free Agents' from a host of middle eastern nations entered the region ratcheting up religious tensions in an already ethnically volatile area. It was rumored Isreal got in on the conflict on an unofficial level for the purpose of keeping Egypt in a state of economic recession.

In 2007 an armistice was reached by the major players of the war. A corporation, the Victoria-Nile Corp, was formed with the combatant nations acting as share holders with each country holding equal shares and with a board appointed by Egypt but subject to confirmation or summary dismissal by a majority vote of share holders. Lake Victoria itself and all unoccupied land for ten miles surrounding it was ceded to the corporation.

The first corporate micro-nation was formed. Deliberation is ongoing as to whether they should be granted a seat in the UN or not.

Soon the Nile began to flow again, and Egypt's fortunes were on the rise. Not that the area ever truly pacified. Terrorists of nearly every stripe are always active in the area.

During this, there has been an increase in strange events across the globe. Terror attacks on churches have been on the rise, as well as unexplained disappearances of locally important officials. The internet is rife with rumors of a secret war in the dark and repeated hoax movies showing people with weird laser guns and lightsabers fighting people with black wings throwing around spears of hardened light.

And that's nothing next to the mysterious fire that burned down almost ten square blocks in a town down in the Kyushu region.

What I'll confirm OOC about the setting:
While there won't be wholesale crossovers, ideas will be stolen from various series and made to fit the setting. So you might meet the human-devil hybrid that benefited from their ancient ancestor turning a contract around on a devil. Their immortality spell now only passing on their power and physical attributes to their successor rather than consuming their soul and replacing it with the devil's. (BtVS) Or one of the many organizations of mere humans and what few magicians and creatures they can con or coerce into helping them that take on the hard and often lethal job of combating the lesser supernatural threats that slip the large factions' radars. (Hellsing, FEAR)

Your Sacred Gear is Twice Critical. It isn't active yet, you need to be in a fight in which you seriously chance dying first. No amount of training or leveling it will cause it to become Boosted Gear. This isn't a transitory stage, it really is Twice Critical.

Rias Gremory isn't interested in you. With Twice Critical locked away and neither you nor it particularly powerful, you don't especially smell of dragons or even seem to have any special power. Unless the only other option is letting you die in front of her, Rias will not add you to her peerage.

Sona doesn't like you and considers you barely above a delinquent. She still might offer you a spot in her peerage though as you are on the shortlist of possible candidates. Knight and Rook are both on the table depending on how you develop your skills between now and whenever she makes up her mind whether or not to invite you to her peerage.

Don't expect to fall into the stations of canon. This is going off the rails hard and early. Certain canon events are also more or less guaranteed to play out differently. The factions are much more tense in this AU and I'm not just talking about the big three.

I'm using a homebrew variant of the Storyteller system. I'll try to explain the system in more detail in a future post.

While this is a Yuri harem, I'm willing to consider sufficiently feminine crossdressers (see: Gaspar Valdi). I am fine with lolis in the harem, but ultimately it's up for vote.

Also this quest will ultimately be a Shounen flavored quest, with heroic saves and impressing girls with your pure heart and intentions and all that. After a few turns, I may hold a vote to see if there is interest in running a parallel quest in NSFW for a Hentai flavored villainous route.

Also one last vote to nail things down. What do the players want as a difficulty level?
[ ] [Difficulty] Easy
[ ] [Difficulty] Normal
[ ] [Difficulty] Hard
[ ] [Difficulty] You Will Die (Death is inevitable, its what you accomplish beforehand that counts.)
[ ] [Difficulty] Ma'at (Let your heart weigh no more than a feather... Karma only goes negative, ergo free tickets for the GM to take a die off a roll at will, and every infraction carries more bad karma than the last.)
[ ] [Difficulty] War, War never changes... (The Second Great War is now an inevitability. No amount of good leadership, or impassioned speeches will stop it. The Underworld and Earth will be ravaged by their battles, but even Heaven can't count on being spared. You will not be able to avoid getting caught up in it.)

 

[SamPardi]

Characters

Kyou Hyoudou (you) Lin Satsumaki Airi Katsumori Aika Kiryuu

• 
  
  Spoiler: Image

  
  Name: Kyou Hyoudou
  Nature: Human(?)
  Archtype: Tomboy
  Concept: Lesbian Issei, minus bullshit tier advantages
  Demeanor: Indomitable
  
  Motivation: I want a harem of cute girls to wait on my every whim! (Lust)
  Limit: I can't stand to see a girl cry, or stand by when someone is in danger! (Kindness)
  
  
  Attributes Talents Skills Knowledges Powers/Spells/Artifacts Backgrounds/Relations/Reputations Merits/Weaknesses Virtues/Vices

  • 
    Strength: OO
    Dexterity: OOO
    Stamina: OOO
    
    Charisma: OO
    Manipulation: O
    Appearance: OOO
    
    Perception: OO
    Intelligence: OO
    Wits: OOO
    
  • 
    Acting:
    Alertness: O
    Athletics: O
    Martial Arts(Ki Assisted): O
    Dodge: O
    Empathy:
    Intimidation:
    Leadership:
    Streetwise:
    Subterfuge: O
    
  • 
    Animal Ken:
    Archery:
    Etiquette: OO
    Firearms:
    Melee: O
    Music:
    Repair:
    Security:
    Stealth: O
    Survival:
    
  • 
    Bureaucracy: O
    Computer:
    Finance:
    Investigation:
    Law:
    Linguistics: O
    Medicine:O
    Occult:
    Politics:
    Science:
    
  • 
    Artifacts
    Twice Critcal:
    
  • 
    Backgrounds
    High School Student
    Native Language (Japanese)
    Childhood Friend (Shidou Irina)
    
    Relations
    Friend - Aika Kiryuu: OO
    Friendship - Boxing Club: OOOO
    Friendship - Airi Katsumori: O
    
    Reputations
    Lesbian Pervert (Kuoh Academy): OOO
    Problem Student (Student Council): OO
    Embarrasing Captain (Female Boxing Club): OOOO
    
    
  • 
    Merits
    Noble Pervert:
    This character is very vocal about their perversion, to the detriment of their reputation. However they have an enobled view of their actions and are not remotely tempted by the darkest lusts. Add Valor to lust rolls, so long as they are not purposefully harrassing or assaulting a woman.
    
    Sun Element Ki:
    You've naturally unlocked the Ki channels in your body and can now focus your energy. At the start of a round you can choose a specialty for Ki Arts, punches, dodges, kicks, and all actions of that type are treated like a normal specialty (1 extra die on roll). The specialty ends at the end of round. Your physical attributes all gain a 'sunlight' specialty, where they are better when fighting in the light of the sun, once Ki Arts reaches three dots.
    
    Weaknesses
    Oppai
    This character when exposed to a female's breasts must make a willpower check or lose one turn to daze. Mere cleavage is a regular check, but naked breasts are made a -1 disadvantage. Physical contact also causes a -1 disadvantage. Both disadvantages can stack.
    
    Seduction by females
    When females are attempting to seduce this character, this character loses one 1 dice from their defensive rolls.
    
  • 
    Virtues
    Chastity: OO
    Temperance: O
    Charity: OOOO
    Diligence: OOO
    Patience: O
    Kindness: OOOO
    Humility: OOO
    Valor: OOOOO
    
    Vices
    Lust: OO
    Gluttony: O
    Greed: OO
    Sloth: OOO
    Wrath: OO
    Envy: OOO
    Pride: OO
    Craven: O
    
  
  
  Willpower
  OOO
  
  Karma
  O
  
  Determination (Formerly Temporary Willpower)
  
  Health
  -0 [ ]
  -1 [ ] [ ]
  -2 [ ] [ ]
  -5 [ ]
  Incapacitaded [ ]
  Dead [ ]
  
• 
  
  Spoiler: Image

  
  Name: Lin Satsumaki
  Short Description: The vice president of the girl's boxing club that Kyou founded. A good friend of Kyou's even if they don't see each other much outside of the boxing club. Is of Chinese/Canadian heritage on one side and Japanese on the other. Has often felt isolated from others due to her looks and heritage. Can be very rowdy and not afraid to act sensual, very much afraid of real intimacy though. That way lies monsters.
  Nature: Human
  Archtype: Sexy Tough Girl
  Concept:?
  Demeanor: Playful
  
  Attributes Talents Skills Knowledges Powers/Spells/Artifacts Backgrounds/Relations/Reputations Merits/Weaknesses Virtues/Vices

  • 
    Strength: OOO
    Dexterity: OOO
    Stamina: OO
    
    Charisma: OO
    Manipulation: O
    Appearance: OOOO
    
    Perception: O
    Intelligence: OO
    Wits: OO
    
  • 
    Acting:
    Alertness: O
    Athletics: O
    Fighting: O
    Dodge: O
    Empathy:
    Intimidation:
    Leadership:
    Streetwise: O
    Subterfuge:
    
  • 
    Animal Ken: O
    Archery:
    Etiquette: O
    Firearms:
    Melee: O
    Music: O
    Repair:
    Security:
    Stealth:
    Survival:
    
  • 
    Bureaucracy: O
    Computer:
    Finance:
    Investigation: O
    Law:
    Linguistics:
    Medicine:
    Occult:
    Politics:
    Science: O
    
  • 
    Powers
    
    Spells
    
    Artifacts
    
  • 
    Backgrounds
    High School Student
    Native Language (Japanese)
    Native Language (English)
    Mixed Heritage (Chinese/Canadian & Japanese)
    
    Relations
    Friendship - Boxing Club: OOO
    
    Reputations
    Violent Temper (Kuoh Academy): OOO
    Problem Student (Student Council): OO
    
    
  • 
    Merits
    Battle Maniac
    This character's spirit rises as battles draw on and become harder. So long as they are not completely overwhelmed, they are immune to social attacks during combat.
    
    Weaknesses
    
  • 
    Virtues
    Chastity: O
    Temperance: O
    Charity: OOO
    Diligence: OO
    Patience: O
    Kindness: OOO
    Humility: O
    Valor: OOOOO
    
    Vices
    Lust: OOO
    Gluttony: O
    Greed: O
    Sloth: OO
    Wrath: OOO
    Envy: O
    Pride: OOO
    Craven:
    
  
  
  Willpower
  OOOO
  
  Karma
  O
  
  Determination (Formerly Temporary Willpower)
  
  Health
  -0 [ ]
  -1 [ ] [ ]
  -2 [ ] [ ]
  -5 [ ]
  Incapacitaded [ ]
  Dead [ ]
  
• 
  
  Spoiler: Image

  
  Name: Airi Katsumori
  Short Description: A serious and studious girl, but also tall and gangly. She's also seventeen and hasn't developed better than an a-cup. While she isn't ever mistaken for a man, she does look somewhat awkward for a woman and she has something of a complex about it.
  
  She joined the boxing club for unknown reasons, but since she's obsessed with some Tamaki guy at the university you're fairly certain he has something to do with it. Honestly you really don't mind, she's amazingly strong when she tries... Even if she only really tries when she catches someone doing something perverted.
  Nature: Human
  Archtype: Serious Type A
  Concept: Smart but a real Bruiser
  Demeanor: Serious
  
  Attributes Talents Skills Knowledges Powers/Spells/Artifacts Backgrounds/Relations/Reputations Merits/Weaknesses Virtues/Vices

  • 
    Strength: OOO
    Dexterity: OO
    Stamina: OO
    
    Charisma: OO
    Manipulation: OO
    Appearance: OO
    
    Perception: OO
    Intelligence: OOOO
    Wits: OO
    
  • 
    Acting:
    Alertness: O
    Athletics: O
    Fighting: O
    Dodge: O
    Empathy:
    Intimidation:
    Leadership:
    Streetwise:
    Subterfuge:
    
  • 
    Animal Ken:
    Archery:
    Etiquette: OO
    Firearms:
    Melee:
    Music:
    Repair:
    Security:
    Stealth:
    Survival: O
    
  • 
    Bureaucracy: O
    Computer: O
    Finance:
    Investigation: O
    Law:
    Linguistics:
    Medicine: OO
    Occult:
    Politics:
    Science: OO
    
  • 
    Powers
    
    Spells
    
    Artifacts
    
  • 
    Backgrounds
    High School Student
    Native Language (Japanese)
    
    Relations
    Boxing Club: OO
    
    Reputations
    Violent Towards Perverts (Kuoh Academy): OOO
    Exemplary Student (Student Council): OOO
    
    
  • 
    Merits
    Medical Intern
    This character works as a medical intern, giving them extra knowledge of not just medicine but hospitals in general. Bureaucracy specialty in hospitals, Medical specialties in first aid and nursing.
    
    Weaknesses
    Insecurities
    Doubts her own looks and beauty, making her weak to social attacks involving those.
    
    Enraged by Perverts
    When catching a pervert acting in a way that could be interpreted as harassment, she can add her wrath to all combat rolls, but must subtract her wrath from all perception, alertness, and willpower rolls.
    
  • 
    Virtues
    Chastity: OOO
    Temperance: OO
    Charity: OO
    Diligence: OOOO
    Patience: OO
    Kindness: OOO
    Humility: OO
    Valor: OOO
    
    Vices
    Lust: OOO
    Gluttony: O
    Greed: O
    Sloth: O
    Wrath: OOOO
    Envy: OOO
    Pride: OOOO
    Craven: OO
    
  
  
  Willpower
  OOO
  
  Karma
  O
  
  Determination (Formerly Temporary Willpower)
  
  Health
  -0 [ ]
  -1 [ ] [ ]
  -2 [ ] [ ]
  -5 [ ]
  Incapacitaded [ ]
  Dead [ ]
  
• 
  Under Construction.
  

 

[SamPardi]

System

First, a word from the QM:

I don't have a book from the Storyteller games in front of me. This system is homebrewed to use my current understanding of it, fill in the gaps myself and wrench things into place where I don't or wouldn't have agreed with them in the first place. So if you disagree with one of my rulings or how I handled something and the first thing out of your mouth is, 'but that's not how storyteller does it' your argument is invalid.

If on the other hand your complaint is 'this makes no sense' or 'that's not consistent' now we're getting somewhere. This is the system's playtest and I fully expect certain parts to need hammering out.

On with the show.

In Brief

We aren't going to touch on everything because a lot of it is, 'just like in storyteller'. Dots mean dice, success is flat 7 and up, more successes than the DC or the opposition 'wins'. When you do something that needs dice, as the QM I'll mostly decide what needs to be rolled based on how you seem to be approaching things. So arm wrestling someone to test your strength will be a strength roll alone. Doing so to pin them in place while you social fu will be a strength+stamina+intimidation roll, strength to be able to compete, stamina to keep the fight going, and intimidation to mentally put him off his game. Doing so with the intent to lose gracefully to someone well below your level would be strength+acting+etiquette.

The system is currently balanced around mortals. 5 dice being peak human,10 being a stand out level of ability even by supernatural standards. Certain characters, but especially the actual gods of major religions, are simply centuries or even millennia of development beyond you. If Sirzechs or Indra are with you in a scene, even if you maxed out ten dice in everything, you are only alive at their whim and could as soon stop a supernova as give them a serious fight.

Temporary Willpower has been renamed Determination. It just made sense to me and keeps things a bit more clear.

Virtues, Vices, Motivations and Limits

This is probably the most changed part of the entire system. The virtues and vices are no longer special things applying here and there, they are now a full set of the 7 heavenly virtues and the 7 deadly sins with Valor added to the virtues and Craven added to the sins. All of them have their own dots maxing out at 5 for mortals, or 10 for supernatural creatures.

While some virtues and vices are in obvious competition, Diligence/Sloth for instance, it's important to understand why they are separate. For instance, when Diligence and Sloth are equal but both high it means a character who is normally a slacker or who hates getting worked up can also become an obsessive workaholic when something actually peaks their interest. Outside of that interest they remain apathetic and unmotivated.

Another good example of their separation is Issei Hyoudou himself, and by extension Kyou Hyoudou our MC. Although he is called a pervert, his character actually had relatively low Lust. A character with a high Lust vice would be drawn to the darker acts of dub-con, and compelled to take advantage of situations to sate their lusts. In reality he just got some bad advice as a kid which his Valor latched on to and thanks to his low temperance he turned a fairly normal level of teenage hormones into a challenge against the world.

For the most part, these levels just help the QM inform the character. Will their Temperance allow them to show some tact? Will they be Kind in this situation or let their Envy get the better of them? Will they be Valorous in this dealing and simply boldly lay things out up front in the interest of a fair deal, or are they more Greedy and willing to conceal information that may harm the other person in the name of getting a better deal?

Now players can choose when an action or stunt is clearly favoring one or another to add the dots of their Virtue or Vice to the die pool, if it's opposed your enemy gets to add an appropriate Vice/Virtue as well.

For Virtues, this will cause the loss of a dice from that pool. This simulates fatigue, if it falls far enough to matter it might be expressed 'I've helped everyone lately, where's the help for me? (Charity)' or 'I can't save everyone, and I'm not sure I can keep trying. Let the police handle this one. (Valor)'.

For Vices, this will cause the gain of a dice in that pool. This simulates corruption. 'I ripped off that other guy, what does it matter if I know this guy has kids at home? (Greed)' or 'I'm sick of their bullshit! No more second chances, from now on they challenge me and they die! (Wrath)'.

Now this is where Motivation and Limits come into play.

A Motivation is your character's overriding goal and reason for doing what they do. When faced with a chance to fulfill this it will become an overriding concern and you will use it's related Vice for rolls directly related to fulfilling it. Individually those rolls won't add dice, but success or failure the invocation of your Motivation in a scene will add a dice to that pool.

This is obsession. If you follow your goal with single mindedness, it obviously becomes a vice. That vice bleeds over into everything you do, and becomes a stronger and stronger part of your character.

Your Limit on the other hand is a situation that you, personally, find utterly intolerable and forces you into action. In this case you add the associated virtue to all rolls directly related to relieving the limit, and again only lose one dice from that virtue at the end of the scene.

Again, this is emotional exhaustion, as if invoked back to back you can be quickly worn down.

Willpower can be spent to add or remove points from virtues and vices, but only to return it to base levels. Only consistent decisions by the player base can, at QM's discretion, cause permanent changes in virtues and vices. Lost willpower can only be regained through multiple resting actions.

There is a second reason all this is important. While you won't know them without high mutual relationship or investigation, NPCs have Motivations and Limits too. You can push them into situations that activate their motivations or limits and max out the related Virtue/Vice. At which point they'll be vulnerable to social attacks aimed to change their Motivations or Limits. Essentially you can force the kind of mental break that Xenovia went through in canon by finding out about God's demise.

This isn't always a hostile action. Like news of God's demise, sometimes people need to face hard truths or their heart is in the right place but they aren't helping as much as they think. Using this method you can force that confrontation and insinuate yourself into their mental reconstruction to make sure it's healthy and puts them on the right course.

However, be aware, you are just as vulnerable to this kind of attack as anyone.

Magic

I'm borrowing the excellent magic system from Alexander's quest, with permission. I'll update this with a link to that quest and the description of his system at some point in the future.

[Under Construction]

 

[SamPardi]

Spoiler: Winning Votes

[x] [Action] Play your new Eroge. It is your birthday after all.
No. of Votes: 7

[x] [Action] Socialize.
- [x] Aika
No. of Votes: 3

[X] [Action] Socialize.
- [X] Airi
No. of Votes: 3

[x] [Difficulty] Normal
No. of Votes: 5

Due to the tie on who to socialize with, you'll meet both of them together rather than one of them alone.

[x] [Action] Play your new Eroge. It is your birthday after all.

You all but sprint home after a relatively short club meeting. There hadn't been a lot of training going on anyways, as you'd mostly been reviewing the clubs performance at the tournament. A good way to take the stress off without losing focus, you thought.

"Mom, I'm home! I'll be in my room!" You shout as you power through the door, nearly trip yourself in your rush to get your shoes off and then race down the hall to your room.

"Take it slow in the house! Really..." Your mom shakes her head in exasperation. The grin you shoot her only earns you a dry look.

Your room is a fairly typical western style setup, a regular bed under the window and a bookshelf full of anime, manga, and eroge across from it. A shelf above your computer has a figurine diorama of the Gundam "Alex" facing off against a red Gelgoog with Zaku II parts scattered about their feet. A few inches away a purple haired woman in a military uniform and cape locks swords with a red head in a scarlet flight suit.

A rhythmic tapping of impatient fingers keeps time as your computer slowly awakens. As soon as it's responsive you grab Aika's present from your bag and slide the disc into the player. Once its installing in the background you deign to check your e-mail and a few of the fanfics you regularly follow... And one that you now unfollow. Ugh. Orihime/Ulquorria is kind of disturbing but at least understandable. Aizen? Buulllllshit. Too bad too, good Tatsuki centered fics are sooo rare.

Thankfully the install completes and you can cleanse your palette with a bit of professionally crafted Yuri goodness.

(Roll for unlocking special path: Perception+Int. (5, 7, 9, 6) 2 Successes. Difficulty 1. Pass.)

A while in you notice a few flags and choices that seem odd for the usual paths. More than willing to go on an adventure you start to feel them out. A couple just lead to bad ends, but you know you're getting closer when the bad ends start to feature strange elements like Youkai Samurai Spirits. Finally you navigate the path just right and wind up falling through a secret door at the shrine and into what seems like a small garden. There you meet the rumored loli add-on character, crying and obviously lonely from her limited dialogue.

From there you absolutely devour the story despite any poor choice now being almost always fatal. It's a beautiful tale of girls from different worlds, natural enemies even, unwilling to break the peace of the shrine and thus slowly coming to learn of each other. K-chan is, despite her youth making her practically an infant in supernatural terms, being pushed to become a leader equal to her legendary mother. Unable to cope with the stress she started coming to the shrine to hide from her minders and collect her thoughts. The protagonist is fearful and not a little spiteful of supernatural creatures due to some retconned 'lost memories'.

After a time the two grow closer. The story builds towards the climax. Eventually the kitsune shows the protagonist how to get into the Yokai kingdom from the shrine in the hopes of showing the girl she's crushing on her home. However tragedy immediately strikes in the form of a coup, and Kunou is captured. You lean in towards the screen as you prepare your character for the battle of a life time, storming a castle full of yokai, but you have to. K-chan must be saved!

*Piririri-riri. Piririri-riri.*

You jump almost a foot out of your chair in surprise from your phone going off. A growl escapes you as you grab it and check the caller ID. Aika? This better be important.

"Hello? Aika?" You answer the phone.

"Oh, Kyou! Thank god. Katsumori-san is in your club right?" She asks.

"Yes...?" You reply uncertainly.

"Then you need to get down to the Southern Park. She looks like she's hurt, but she's glaring away anyone who tries to get close." Aika tells you.

One of your club members? Hurt? It certainly wasn't from club activities. Suddenly concerned you save your game and surge to your feet. "Keep an eye on her. I'll be there as soon as I can."

(You've gained a Merit.
Secret (Shrine Entrance)
There was something oddly specific about the secret shrine entrance to the supernatural world in the game Strawberry Shrine*Sweet that makes it stick out in your mind.)

---

[x] [Action] Socialize.
- [x] Aika
- [x] Airi

(Roll to see if you're in time: Athletics+Dexterity+Stamina. (9, 6, 2, 7, 5, 1, 7) 3 Successes, Difficulty 3. Pass.)

As you enter the park you first notice Airi resting on a bench on the apex of the park's grassy knoll. Secondly you notice Aika leaning against a tree a few yards away, looking concerned. The third thing you notice a group of bleach haired boys cockily approaching your club member. It doesn't take you more than a moment to grab Aika and drag her over to Airi's bench while you glare the boys down. Whether they get the message or just chicken out when they don't have numbers on their side, the boys veer off and just keep walking.

"Captain," Airi acknowledges you but doesn't really look at you. Giving her a quick once over you realize that while her eyes are only puffy and bloodshot from crying, her lip is very much split from blunt trauma to the mouth. She hasn't bothered to care for the wound either.

"Airi, we-"

"Captain," she cuts you off and stares at you with a sudden passion in her eyes, "fight me!"

You're caught off guard, but it's clear something serious is going on here. You:

[ ] Tell her hell no, and get that lip treated. It could get infected like this and then where would she be.
[ ] Agree. She obviously needs to work through something.
[ ] Agree to a match tomorrow with proper equipment and etiquette in the club room. Right now she needs to get that wound taken care of.
[ ] Get Aika to distract her from her immediate goal, and then try to talk her into a more rational state of mind together.

(You may write in stunts for these options. But unlike an Exalt you can't force little things to go your way, so be prepared for the chance of things going off script or in unintended directions.)


(A/N: God that took too long to write. I'm really rusty on my writing speed. =(
BlackThief12 and Dutchman that vote was already closed, but please feel free to participate in this one!)

 

[SamPardi]

"Ah, sorry, I can't. Not here and now," you tell her.

Her eyes flash with annoyance, "Why not!?"

"Because it isn't safe. We don't have the proper equipment. And if anybody caught us or rumors started of us brawling in the streets then they could use it to shut down the club."

(Roll to see if you persuade her: Charisma. (10, 1, 2) 1 Success. Difficulty 2. Fail.)

"Right, as if you haven't gotten into your share of street fights," she shoots back.

"Not since I started the boxing club," you tell her, matter of factly.

"Airi, your clearly agitated. You shouldn't be picking fights like this!" Aika cut in. "I mean I know you boxers are all meatheads, but this is just ridiculous."

Airi bristled then turned to you, "you're nothing but a coward. Too afraid to loose to give me a real fight!"

(Airi rolls to see if she can persuade you: Charisma+Manipulation. (8, 7, 6, 2) 2 Successes. Difficulty 5 (Will+Vote(2/3). Fail.)

You shake your head. "Your obviously upset. Go home. Sleep on it. If you still want, we can have a match before school tomorrow... But before any of that, you're still bleeding. Let us help you."

She stares at her hands for a long moment, drawing your own attention to them. Now that you look they actually seem a bit bruised, probably from whatever fight gave her the split lip. "Whatever. Just do what you want." She says barely above a whisper.

It's all Aika needs before she's pulling a handkerchief and a bottle of water out of her bag. Soon the rag is soaked and she's applying it to the taller girl's mouth. "Hold still!"

"God, that didn't even hurt till just now. Be more gentle!" Airi snaps back.

"Oi, no arguing with the cutman!" You tease.

"We don't have a cutman," Airi replies.

Both of your gazes drift to Aika.

"Oh no!" The glasses girl puts her arms up in a firm x of denial. "You are not dragging me into your insane need to beat on each other like... like boys with more muscles than brains. Not in a million years! Wait, don't distract me!" At the last moment she realizes she'd stopped tending Airi's wound and came back with a vengeance.

"Ah, damn it! Save me Captain!" Airi pleaded.

"Nope," you cheerfully rejoin.

For the next hour or so you keep up the light banter while Aika tends the girls wounds. Though you must admit to being impressed with the sheer quality of the glare Airi gave you when you mentioned her hands needed attention too. It didn't phase you nearly as much as finally seeing those knuckles. The skin over them was torn up, though not bleeding with any speed. You can't help but wonder what exactly she'd been hitting, a brick wall? Asking is off the table though. She clearly won't open up until she gets this fight off her chest, whatever the hell it's supposed to prove.

Airi is, unsurprisingly the first to leave.

"You thinks she'll ever tell us what happened?" Aika asks.

"Maybe. We won't know until tomorrow. You going to be there?" You ask.

Aika scowls, "of course. I can't just leave this to you meatheads now."

"Thanks, Aika," you tell her with genuine gratitude.

She smiles a little shyly, "what are friends for?"

---

As you walk home you can't help but think of the fight tomorrow. Normally you'd be looking forward to it, but this is way off. Frankly, you don't think a fight is what she really needs. Something made her doubt herself, and if you win, likely but not assured, it may cause her to break. On the other hand you agreed to it... Damn, you wish you had some better options right now, but you don't so you decide.

[ ] Fight normally. Keep on the defense early on trusting to your superior dexterity and stamina to eventually wear her down.
[ ] Fight aggressively. Her reach is wider than yours allowing her a much larger striking zone. You may not have the strength to overpower her in a clinch, but getting close enough can keep you from getting picked apart at a distance.
[ ] Look for the one hit kill. You'll stay on the defense looking for the perfect moment to break through and take her down in one hit. It'll be pretty dramatic, but you don't doubt you'll be able to get the story out of her at that point.
[ ] Get someone to talk to her first. Maybe you can't get through to her, but maybe someone else can.
- [ ] Aika, they know each other now, kinda. The feeling of owing her for tending her wounds might Airi more talkative.
- [ ] Lin, they're pretty good friends. Surely Airi can tell her friend whatever it is.
- [ ] Hishida-sensei, the club adviser. She may not have the best reputation for success, but Hishida-sensei has heart. That sincerity may break through where others fail.
[ ] Ask around before the fight, try to get some idea what might be going through Airi's head. Then use that in the fight to control the mental aspect, and possibly pry the truth out mid-match.

 

[SamPardi]

At nearly any other school in Japan Haruka Hishida would have been a standout beauty. Her thin frame, long neck and expressive eyes would have had her stand out from the crowd despite being, in most ways, a very typical Japanese woman. At Kuoh Academy she was barely above average. Of course, she'd never really cared about any of that. Haruka had become a counselor because she truly believed her path in life was helping her students to achieve their dreams... Well for a while she'd conned herself into thinking that her task was to enforce conformity, that doing so would clearly lead to the best results for the student but an incident at another school had shown her the error of her ways.

That was why, despite it being disfavored with the Student Council President, who could sometimes be accused of all but running the school honestly, she'd volunteered to act as adviser for the Women's Boxing Club and had defended her position before the board. "We want our students to feel empowered by their education, not confined by it," were the boards words as they accepted the proposal for the club, and she'd felt vindicated by them. So when the nascent club's president had come to her for assistance as both an adviser and a counselor, she didn't even think of turning her down.

Nor did she particularly think through how she would approach the young miss Katsumori, other than catching her as early as possible before the actual match that morning. This is why she approached the girl in the changing room with most of her club members still around.

"Miss Katsumori," she didn't even blink when the taller girl turned and towered over her, "I was hoping we could talk before the match."

The other girls all but ducked behind cover, creating as much space as possible between them and the pair. Lin gave the taller girl a commiserating pat on the shoulder, but ducked away all the same. Airi gave the part-chinese girl a covert glare but immediately turned her attention back to the club adviser, though from her body language you'd think she were caged in with a lion.

"Hishida-sensei... are you sure it can't wait until after the match?" Airi tried.

"But it's the match I'm worried about. You've never been a battle maniac like your Captain and Vice-Captain. I think, if you have problems you should talk them out, that's much more fitting for you," Hishida said.

"No, no, that's okay, sensei. I think, this time I'd rather just have the match..." Airi looked distinctly uncomfortable, "even if I'm not a battle maniac, It's still kind of personal."

(Hishida rolls for insight into Airi's problem. Perception+Empathy+Leadership 4 dice. (10, 1, 5, 2, 5) 1 Success... Cursed removes one success. Difficulty 2. Botch.)

Hishida sighs, "let me guess, you were trying to catch someone's eye and it just wasn't working?" Airi blinked in surprise and started to nod... "There are better ways to work out your romantic tension with the Captain than to challenge her to a match." And the poor girl was struck speechless... But not the rest of the club as they quickly started to whisper about the apparent bit of juicy gossip.

"It's not like that!" Airi protested, her voice cracking. "I like boys. Men really. Big, strong men! With big strong... err, can we just not talk about this?"

Hishida stares blankly at the girl. "It's not good to bottle these things up. And I may not know much about boxing, but I know that if you aren't paying attention during the match you could get really hurt. As your adviser I can't just let this go."

"It's... There's nothing wrong with me! I'm not going to get hurt. I'm strong! strong enough for this, at least!" Airi protested.

(Hishida rolls again for insight into Airi's problem, this time she expends a point of kindness to add those dice to her pool. Perception+Empathy+Leadership+Kindness 8 dice. (7, 8, 3, 4, 1, 0, 3, 9, 0, 6) 5 Successes... Cursed removes one success. Difficulty 3. Pass.)

"Of course you're strong. Even I know you're one of the strongest girls in this club! And this club is for people who want to get even stronger still. If someone has been making you feel like you aren't strong enough, that isn't any reason to hide away or be ashamed. If someone else is saying you're weak then forget them! And if you think you aren't strong enough then that's what your captain is for, to help you get stronger! You don't need to prove anything to anyone first, just talk to them! They'd be ecstatic to help you," Hishida told the girl.

Airi blinked and stared in shock at the older woman. Then a tension she hadn't realized she had left her shoulders and for the first time in days she felt... unburdened. It seemed so obvious in hindsight, even if she won against the Captain, what would that prove? It wouldn't matter to that person and there was a good chance she could have lost, and then how would she have felt... And all along, she could have just approached the Captain honestly and gotten real help, not just a feeling.

"I... You're right, Hishida-sensei. I really haven't been thinking straight. Thanks," Airi replied.

"Of course. I'm your adviser, and a councilor, you should be able to depend on me!" Hishida turned to leave, but stopped and turned back. "Besides, I'm sure if you built up some muscle, you'll definitely catch the Captain's eye!"

"I'M STRAIGHT!"

(Hishida's success at doing good deeds has triggered her Curse. Misfortune follows her throughout the day.)
---

While you and Airi still had your match it was nothing like you feared. In fact it quickly became more of a spar, as you talked her through some of the finer points of footwork. Due to her long legs and high power, she usually only used really stable footwork that supported her heavy hitting style, but you got her to move around more without sacrificing her ability to dig in for a blow.

After the match she joined you in the small room set aside for officer meetings and you finally got the story.

"There's this boy... We grew up together really, all of the way through elementary school. I couldn't really explain it, but we were from a small town and everyone were old samurai lines, onmyouji, all of that and we were all just kind of expected to get into martial arts. My family didn't have any special school of our own or anything, so I just joined him after school for the basics then left when his dad got to family specific stuff. Anyways this kept up until the first year of middle school, and somewhere along the way I realized I'd grown a real crush on him. I was hardly the only one, I think half the girls in the school had a crush on Tamaki-kun, but I actually knew him, you know."

She leaned back for a moment, clearly uncertain how to continue.

"Obviously this wasn't Kuoh." You inject trying to give her a starting point.

"No... No I didn't come here until after... It's just that one day... Well one day it all changed. There wasn't anything big, at least not that I remember. Just this smell... It was... It was just a terrible smell. I didn't even know what happened really, I wasn't old enough to comprehend. I mean someone tells you that your childhood friend is in the hospital and his whole family was killed by... A broken gas main? That's what they said, but that wasn't what his eyes said. He'd seen things. I didn't understand that then..."

"That must have been horrible for you, even if you didn't really understand," you commiserate.

She barks a single hard, sarcastic laugh. "Horrible for me... I ran into him yesterday. I remembered how much he'd loved practicing martial arts, and the old feelings just kind of bubbled up. I said hello. We exchanged small talk. I couldn't help it. I felt like bragging a bit. I was a part of a boxing club and I'd placed well in the tournament..."

You nod.

"He laughed. Not a nice laugh, not even a sane laugh... Maybe... Maybe he's still broken, but that laugh." She unconsciously shivered, "and then he told me... That I was just a little girl playing pretend. He told me I was weak, and I'd never even imagined what true strength is. That I should just give up pretending and go hide away like all those good little people and hope I never find out what it means to be strong."

You wince, "that's... harsh. You certainly aren't weak, Airi. Hell, in pure physical strength you're stronger than me by a wide margin. I think if we can shore up your agility and get you some good counters you'll reach a whole other level."

She smiles shyly, "I realize that now. I let him shake me, and to his mind that probably proved him right. So I need your help Captain. I need to get strong enough to prove to him just how wrong he was!"

You smile, "absolutely! We'll get started this afternoon."

You left the room in good spirits with Airi behind you looking immensely relieved. Only to receive a barrage of wolf whistles.

Airi instantly crashed past you, red faced and shouting, "It's not like that, damn it!"

Throughout the day you're frequently bemused at the rumors of your being some kind of over the top lesbian Casanova capable of turning straight girls gay, and infuriated at the other rumors of your toying with a pure young maiden's heart. Mostly though, you have no idea where any of this started or why.

Day 2 - Tuesday
Like most school days, your day is already taken up by school and your club. Only the evening and night are available. Choose two.

[ ] [Action] Training. You can always tighten up something. (3 hours)
- [ ] Specify what you want to train in. You must already have a dot in it.
- [ ] Train with Airi (Dexterity, Athletics and Fighting(Ki Arts))
[ ] [Action] Socialize.
- [ ] Aika
- [ ] Lin
[ ] [Action] Play Eroge. It's relaxing and honestly kind of useless, but very satisfying.
[ ] [Action] Go looking for some delinquents to beat senseless.
[ ] [Action] Look something up at the school library.
- [ ] Specify what you want to look up. Can be as generic as a keyword or as specific as individual's name.
[ ] [Action] Look something up on the internet.
- [ ] Specify what you want to look up. Can be as generic as a keyword or as specific as individual's name.
- [ ] Tamaki may only be a given name, and a common one at that, but there can't be that many who survived their whole family's death. Maybe you should look this guy up, for Airi's protection of course. Wouldn't do to let her chase after someone really dangerous would it?
[ ] [Action] Wander around town. Why not, it's generally a safe place and none of the local thugs are much danger to you anyways.

 

[SamPardi]

Your first order of business on getting home is trying to look up this Tamaki guy from Airi's story. It's not that you don't trust her, or anything like that, but more that you don't trust him. Trauma like that doesn't usually produce really stable people, and given that Airi herself related that he'd become something of an asshole... Well you don't want her getting hurt, especially now that she's a friend.

Reality though kicks back. You aren't any sort of expert with computers. While you have a decent date range, you don't actually know where you're looking. Worse it somehow didn't make the national news, somehow, so you're forced to fiddle around until you can search a large segment of the local news sites. When you finally find something it's... underwhelming. It really doesn't take an expert to realize that someone went to a lot of trouble to keep this quiet.

(You attempt to determine if this was kindness or conspiracy. Subterfuge+Intelligence+Perception 5 Dice. (4, 8, 7, 0, 6, 4) 3 Successes. Difficulty 3. Success.)

And it wasn't for the benefit of the family, the Kennoki. It isn't easy to put it together, but frankly the void left by the lack of information tipped you off. There were no memorials despite the patriarch being in the news several times in the years prior. Their obituaries were short and empty of detail. There were absolutely no signs of an investigation by the police, and the house was somehow sold off only a few months later.

Still with a last name you could finally find some sign of Tamaki himself.

Well that was the idea anyways, but other than a few obvious false positives nothing came up. It was possible he'd been adopted and changed his family name, or was taken out of the country or something. In any case Tamaki Kennoki was a non-entity as far as the internet was concerned.

You do however make a note to ask Airi more about her home town. It seemed like a lot of weird shit was going on down in the Kyushu region these days, though you'd think the Amakusa islands would be a little out of the way from all that...

---

You had a crit on random event roll so I'm allowing you to vote on a general path to follow:

[ ] [Path] We Need a Montage! There will be training, it will be hellish, but you will improve. (A more shounen experience, hot sensei character, more likely to attract Sona's attention.)
[ ] [Path] A Lamb to the Slaughter! Your first introduction with the supernatural is decidedly not friendly. (A more horror experience, more likely to wind up friendly to the exorcists.)
[ ] [Path] You Never Go Full Goku! Even beyond harem potential, you need a broader cast of rivals and support characters behind you. (Side story, but lays the foundation for building your own faction.)
[ ] [Path] No! You can't be the Shrine Maiden! Visiting a small shrine in the middle of the night can get you involved in more than you bargained for. (Comedy side story, eases character into the supernatural with an eventual introduction to the Shinto and Yokai factions.)

 

[SamPardi]

Winning Vote:
[X] [Path] No! You can't be the Shrine Maiden! Visiting a small shrine in the middle of the night can get you involved in more than you bargained for. (Comedy side story, eases character into the supernatural with an eventual introduction to the Shinto and Yokai factions.)

---

Despite the sun already having passed behind the cityscape to the west, you decide to go ahead and take a walk. You have a lot to think about, considering what you'd learned about this Tamaki guy. Besides, Kuoh isn't too bad of a city. You're plenty tough enough to keep yourself safe for an evening stroll.

While you spend a while mulling over Tamaki, the subject inevitably leads you back to one thought, "Ah, one of my club members has finally trusted me with their problems! I feel like a real Club President now!" You can't help saying out loud. It fills you with a subtle feeling of warmth. And hey, maybe now Airi will even consider you a real friend, and not just someone she has a club in common with!

Umm, actually you're feeling kind of hot. You're pretty sure warm feelings were supposed to stop before they became a burning in your extremities... There's a snap more felt than heard and your body suddenly lets off a flash of blinding light.

"What the fuck?" You curse and rub your eyes as blinding spots linger even behind your eyelids. Instinctively you move into a nearby alley to get out of the way of passing traffic, even though there isn't any a this time of night.

'Man, what the hell was that?' Feeling relatively recovered you look around still trying to blink the remaining spots from your eyes. However now you notice that at the far end of the alley is a Torii Gate where the pavement ends and a stone path continues on instead. "Was that always there?"

You scrunch up your nose with thought and try to remember if you'd seen it before... "Yes. Yes, it's always been here. I can definitely remember seeing it before. It just didn't seem... Important?" You try to work through your thoughts out loud. "Ah, whatever... Now I want to see what's down there!"

It wasn't like you had anything else you were doing, and a shrine in an out of the way location like this is practically manga material. Without even a moment's doubt you set off down the dirt path, appreciating the well tended sod and bushes surrounding it. The journey isn't long, the shrine in question is in a small grove, but if you look hard you can see the modern walls surrounding it through the tree cover. The main shrine building isn't large by any means, but it has at least the basic amenities you'd expect of a shrine.

The sound of a broom scratching against tile and the slightest swish of red fabric around a corner draws your attention. Right shrines meant shrine maidens, even if it was a bit late at night for one to usually be about. Shrine maidens... One of your personal hot buttons, the image of youth and innocence, the slightest edge of the taboo for wanting something so pure in such a dirty way.

You try your best to be stealthy as you move over try and get a look past the building blocking your view. Maybe she'll be innocent and obliviously sexy, or perhaps more mature but refined and elegant...

"You're definitely imagining something bad. Now what are you doing in my shrine?"

"Argh!" You jump at the sound of the raspy voice and twirl to face the speaker. "AAARGH!!!!"

The old miko stares at you unimpressed as you clutch to the shrine wall and mumble about broken dreams and the cruelty of reality. At least for a while. "You just going to stand there all day... well night now, I guess, but anyways you just gonna stand there or were you here for something?"

"Oh, umm... I just noticed the gate and thought I come pay my respects...?" You can't help trailing off in a questioning manner. Honestly you hadn't really thought much about why you'd want to come here. It just seemed more interesting than wandering around town.

The old lady harrumphs. "I don't get many visitors these days. That's the way I like it."

"Won't that interrupt people's worshiping the kami though?" You ask.

She guffaws, "We may be small, but we're a Shinmei shrine. I think lady Amaterasu has enough worshipers and well wishers without filling this shrine. Might as well just maintain it. Practice my fortune telling, teach my granddaughter."

You blink in surprise. There was a lot of surprising things in that first half, but of course you mind grasped the last, "granddaughter?"

Her eyes narrow in suspicion and you raise you hands defensively while looking sheepish. "Yes, my granddaughter, she usually comes over after school during the afternoon. Its not as much as I'd like, but she'll at least learn some of the arts this way."

"Arts?" You ask in confusion. "Like... Fortune telling?"

"Hah, so much more. Kids these days, so ignorant! Can't blame them though, damn Meiji." She scowls, "Damn western beliefs poisoning our culture. Suddenly you couldn't have a woman with wisdom and power, oh no, forget the generations of wise women, mediums and fortune tellers! Now what do they do? Pageantry! Not that it isn't important, mind, sacred is sacred. But powerful? Bah! Most of these girls couldn't exorcise a youkai if their life depended on it!"

"That sounds... fascinating." And to your surprise you mean it. While you had some idea that the idea for magical shrine maidens came from somewhere, you'd had no idea they did so much in actual history.

"Harrumph. Come back in the afternoon sometime, then I'll teach you a little and you can see how you take to it. You seem like the sort that could use a bit of meditation anyways," the old woman says. "What's your name anyways, girl?"

"Kyou Hyoudou, nice to meet you," you say.

"Heh, my name is Haruna Tatsukishi. Now run along, I want my nice quiet night back," the woman grumps.

"Eheheh... Right, I'll just be going then."

---

After a good night's sleep, you wake to greet the new day... And your parents complaining about their perverted, muscle-head of a daughter who'll never get married. >.<

Day 3 - Wednesday
Like most school days, most of your day is already taken up by school but you don't have another club meeting until Friday. Afternoon, evening and night are available. Choose three.

[ ] [Action] Training. You can always tighten up something. (3 hours)
- [ ] Specify what you want to train in. You must already have a dot in it.
[ ] [Action] Socialize.
- [ ] Aika
- [ ] Lin
- [ ] Airi
- [ ] Boxing Club Members
[ ] [Action] Head to the shrine for the afternoon to see Miko lessons first hand.
[ ] [Action] Go looking for some delinquents to beat senseless.
[ ] [Action] Look something up at the school library.
- [ ] Specify what you want to look up. Can be as generic as a keyword or as specific as individual's name.
[ ] [Action] Look something up on the internet.
- [ ] Specify what you want to look up. Can be as generic as a keyword or as specific as individual's name.
[ ] [Action] Wander around town. Why not, it's generally a safe place and none of the local thugs are much danger to you anyways.