Harem Hero

Head to Head

Mitsuru interrupted your day off with a request first thing in the morning.

She was picking up a strange signal from somewhere in the city, one which existed as a beacon to be followed. Checking it out was a short detour from your usual route, so you decided to do her a solid and see for yourself who was making so much noise on the sensors. It led you directly to the city's largest park. If they wanted to launch an ambush on you, there were much better places to do it.

The tension is palpable as you walk down the long dirt path to the specific area where the interference is emanating from. These guys have a lot of dirty tricks up their sleeves, so it wouldn't surprise you to find some kind of trap waiting. Every second that passes without something attacking you only serves to heighten your paranoia. So engrossed in it are you, that you fail to note the woman sitting on one of the benches as you walk by.

"I knew you'd show up."

Your back stiffens as a voice calls out to you, an unassuming girl with tanned skin and black hair is seated there sporting a cocky smile. She gives you a small wave and beckons you over, as if to invite you to sit beside her.

"Who are you?"

"Oh, uh. I almost forgot... I'm Donna."

All that confidence seems to drain away as she walks headfirst into an actual conversation with you. Contrary to her outdoorsy appearance, it seems that she's rather shy around strangers. Considering that she's the one shouting out to you after following the unusual signal Mitsuru described, it begs to reason that she's the person responsible.

"Is there a particular reason you dragged me out here?" you ask, nodding towards the conspicuously large bag on the bench which could contain the transmitter.

Donna crosses her arms and nods, "There is a reason. I called you here to have a chat, a negotiation if you will."

"On behalf of who?"

"Who else? Interdimensional Commune Voldaz, the aliens you've been fighting tooth and nail for the past three months."

You recognise her voice now, heavily modulated sure, but it's the same one that came from the copycat superhero that they deployed to try and kill you earlier. She was a human the whole time? You suppose it makes sense given her familiarity with human media franchises; she summoned characters from High School DxD to try and counter you.

"Don't tell me that you're the one who fought me earlier."

"That was me," she admits sheepishly.

"That was you?" you repeat in disbelief, "You're the one wearing that black knockoff suit?"

"I guess it is kinda' weird, but those weird alien people told me that I could use it to fight and that I'd get to summon a bunch of my favourite characters to be in my harem if I did. It sounded like a sweet deal at the time."

It's the same deal that Mitsuru extended to you. Though it takes on a much more sinister air when it's contextualised against a background of conquering the world for a group of alien invaders. It doesn't surprise you that someone could be craven enough to betray their home planet for the sake of scoring with a bunch of anime boys. Not that you'd do the same thing. If Mitsuru came to you with a plan to conquer the world, you would have said no and tried to snap her out of it.

"And you decided to tell me this because?"

Donna is nervous, "I was hoping that we could resolve this whole thing without having to murder each other or something horrible. I'm not the murderous type. They didn't tell me that I was going to be fighting other humans when they picked me up, they just said that I was going to be protecting the peace of the universe and fighting evil."