Harem Hero

Location, Location, Location

Things have settled down in terms of monster attacks. A few days have gone by since Lala's introduction to the 'harem chamber' that she snuck in under the foundations of your garage HQ. Though in other ways things have gotten increasingly chaotic and out of hand. Your baseball stadium rescue has resulted in a media tumult – with hundreds of journalists descending on the city to try and find the identity of the mysterious superhero.

There are TV specials, round the clock talk show speculation, and people painting murals of you onto the side of local apartment blocks to celebrate your actions in rescuing the people at the game. There's a veritable Harem Hero frenzy ongoing. And Mitsuru is more than happy to stoke the flames of that frenzy.

She summoned Venelana Gremory using the Sledgehammer (without your knowledge) and attained her assistance in spreading the word about her new toy line, released to coincide with the trend. She didn't just want to conquer the store shelves, she wanted to conquer the multi-media landscape! You've started to overhear her speaking with producers and licensors about new products, comic book tie-ins and potential lawsuits from the people whose intellectual property you are now plucking characters and concepts from.

There's just one problem with that – Mitsuru has not only hidden her identity, but also the location, registration and finances of your new 'company.' It's a black box from which no information can leak or escape. The government doesn't even know who you work for. Plus, the rather tenuous legalise theory that you aren't really selling other people's ideas. Mitsuru had quietly shelved the replica cards and replaced them with non-copyright infringing alternatives. Some of them are more obvious than others.

The first one-hundred-thousand-dollar cheque slid into your bank account with little fanfare, after bounding between various proxy accounts intended to protect your identity. It's even more than Mitsuru initially suggested, pushing upwards into the one-hundred-seventies. Suddenly you don't need to worry about rent or your expenses anymore. It's both liberating and constricting. What are you going to do with so much cash? Rias had some good ideas. Why not live it up a little with a flash car and a new, larger apartment?

And thus, the apartment search begins. You know that Lala has the ability to add compressed space rooms to any building – so space may not be such an important factor. You're just looking for something more liveable, and maybe a little impressive so you can feel like a big shot. With such a huge amount of liquid cash on hand, you can pay the down payment for pretty much any available apartment in the city. Sans the ones constructed to launder dirty money in the downtown district – doomed to never be lived in.

You created a shortlist of several that catch your eye, all of them offering premium perks like an underground parking space, a private elevator, and panorama views of the district they're located in. Many of them have been built in speculative locations close to the garage and by the waterside. The attempted gentrification of the former industrial and shipping area hasn't been doing so hot – so there are plenty of bargains to be found.

Having sent a message of interest to one of the estate agents involved, you received a response from them promptly. They couldn't show you around in person, but they would leave a spare key under one of the potted plants in the outside hallway for you to use. If nothing else it should provide a fun diversion to see how the 'other side' lives. You walk through the abandoned warehouses and industrial yards to an area that has been flattened and landscaped into a new high-end business and residential area.

The building you seek towers above the others. A reflective monolith of glass and steel – an overcompensating construction that seeks to be the tallest around. You walk through the repaved courtyard slash park and into the cold embrace of an empty skyscraper lobby. There isn't a soul to be seen, but the lights are on and the doors still open so...