Harem Hero

Rias and Mitsuru's Excellent Adventure - Part 4

Your heart nearly leapt out of your throat when Mitsuru called you on the emergency line. It was a good thing that you were already on your way back from the jog, and the stay in the dingy hotel that Xenovia became obsessed with. In the end she had a lot of fun. Getting over her quick first time wasn't much effort. She had completely forgotten about it by the time you decided to call it a day and clean up. When you walk through the door and into the lab, Rias is already waiting with a pensive expression. Mitsuru, as usual, is busying herself with a new gadget.

"What's going on? Did they launch an attack?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes," Mitsuru explains. "One of their number, disguised as a human, has been planting monitoring devices on infrastructure around the city. If someone foolishly tries to remove them, they'll explode. Whatever it is they want the data for, it can't be good." She finally looks up from her work and comes face to face with the three of you. Mitsuru's eyes narrow, and she gives you the dirtiest of dirty looks; Her eyes flickering between you, Chun and Xenovia as if to imply something untoward.

You shrug, "What's with the look? Xenovia wanted to join in on the training."

"I highly doubt that description of events," Mitsuru states, "It's statistically more likely that you were completely unable to keep it in your pants."

She's right, but you don't want to admit to doing that in front of your friend. You decide that it'll be easier to plead ignorance and move on. Nothing good ever comes from worrying about other people's love lives all the time. You shake your head, "No, we went and did some exercise together. Jogging in the park, stretches, that kind of thing."

Xenovia nods; "Yes, and then we had sex."

Why did you know she was going to say that? Privacy is so, so hard to get when Xenovia is around. Rias just laughs it off with a smile, but Mitsuru is clearly more put off by the frank admission that you were having sex with Xenovia and Chun-Li an hour ago. Xenovia is so earnest and confident in saying it that she doesn't even realise she has done something wrong until you pull on her shoulder and give her a disappointed dad-face.

"Well, that's lovely," Mitsuru says, "Please refrain from informing me in the future, Xenovia."

Xenovia bows, "Apologies."

"Never mind that," you interject, "What are we gonna' do about these bombs?"

"I'm already printing copies of this for you downstairs. They should be here any second. Once they're both calibrated and tested, we'll need to split up, find them, and defuse them before a hapless bystander tries their luck and loses their fingers."

That's not a pretty image. These aliens are a real bunch of assholes. Mitsuru brings out her phone and forwards a map to everyone in the room. The marks are scattered through various business areas around the city. It would be a serious issue if they disabled their access to power and communications. But it'd be easier to do that than attach bombs to them – it's clear they're trying to gather information.

"I contacted the police and informed them of the situation to make sure nobody gets hurt. You may have to disguise yourself or sneak around the cordons."

That's going to be tricky. The last thing you want is to get identified by the authorities with an unregistered gun in hand. What will their reaction be if a total stranger walks up to one of those bombs? You should have summoned a girl that can turn invisible, but it's too late to fix that now. You can't even think of one on the spot like this. The extent of the changes to Mitsuru's lab is made apparent as a small gap on the table behind her opens and elevates a small metal tray into view.

"Ah, there it is!"

She retrieves the copies of her defusal device and lays them out on the table, conducting a series of short tests with a shoddily built electrical circuit to make sure that they work. Mitsuru must have hooked up an automated printing system to put these together. She doesn't even need to head downstairs into the basement backrooms to get them. Nice to see that she's putting that hard-earned toy money to practical use.