Kyoto perked up a little from her seat in the Genbu cafeteria as a notification in her ear rang, the distinct chime of Emily going admin to contact her. Putting down her mostly finished sandwich the girl started to get up before pausing, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. The blonde had been slightly cagey and busy the past few days, and it had been a while since the last upgrade debacle. Not wanting to jump to conclusions the brunette opened up the chat with a slightly cool “Hello? Yes Emily?”
Emily appeared in a private screen before the eyes of both Kyoto and Hellion within her, which was all the confirmation that they needed and so their expressions soured. For her part as she saw their expressions Emily frowned and pouted, defensively saying “Eh? Wow I can really feel the love guys. What has your panties up in a bunch?” Kyoto just maintained a flat expression on her face, while Hellion heaved a sigh.
“I think you can guess Emily. You only ever contact us like this when you have another update you want to roll out, and long experience has shown your track record for them has been...less than stellar.” At that Emily just pouted a bit more and looked put out, making Kyoto sigh along with Hellion before she began to move. “Yeah, yeah, we are on our way. Be there soon.” Moving with a general lack of enthusiasm Kyoto made her way back to the Admin area, where the update would take effect.
Arriving at the destination, Kyoto paused by the door to the lab and knocked. Chances were as usual that this would be for Hellion alone and so she would be removing him from her body, but then to her surprise Emily called them both in. Kyoto was not quite sure how to take this, as on the one hand it was nice to be included but on the other hand the one time she had been involved in these upgrades had resulted in the Tennis game. Emily focused once again on her sour expression and scoffed, saying “Honestly, it can't be that bad. Anyway, just hold on while I toggle the settings.”
This statement elected a pair of raised eyebrows from the targets, as this was admittedly a bit of a change. For once it seemed an item was not going to be involved in this. A few moments later there was a ping, and both of them received a notification of “Faction Status Updated.” Nothing else seemed to happen at first, but then they noted that Kyoto's clothes had changed style slightly to more closely resemble that of the Genbu guildhouse. A part of Hellion suspected that similar changes would have come over him as well, if he was not already wearing the uniform. After a few seconds of nothing else apparently happening, Kyoto turned her attention back away from her clothes and to Emily.
Glad to go over her latest idea, Emily explained “Considering all the trouble you had with activating and using items before, I decided to try something that should probably be fool proof. I know that it's a little against my usual feelings regarding game balance, but to be honest I am starting to run a little low on ideas. Simply put, I have given both of you 'Highly Valued' status with the Genbu Faction, beyond what a player would normally be able to achieve through quests. All NPC's will have max affinity with you, placing greater value on you.”
This sounded interesting to Hellion, but he could not help but feel that he was missing something. Sure having maximum affinity might look good on the faction page and would lead to the best discounts, but he was not sure how that was really going to benefit him in the long run. Thankfully when he raised this concern with a direct “Em, that sounds good and all, but what is that really going to change for me?” she was able to answer straight away, showing that she Had put some thought into this.
“Well its actually kind of brilliant if I do say so myself. I checked and double checked just to be sure, and in the current system reputation has a higher priority than basic checks, at least when it comes to ranks high enough to have titles, like you do now. Every Genbu NPC is going to become aware of your position as soon as you enter the same room or get within 20 feet of them.” The blondes words filled Hellion with growing panic, as it meant there would be no hiding from them at all any more and-
Emily cut off his worries by speaking quickly, spotting and correctly guessing the source of his widening eyes and paling expression. “Wait, calm down and let me finish. They will know where you are, and more importantly instantly consider you in the best possible regard. No accidental or purposeful crushes, you are exempt from the usual anti-Tinykin responses as a sort of Mascot. Actually, that's kind of your title right now.” Hellion wasted no time in reopening his inventory screen and checking his status, and found that she was indeed telling the truth. Sure it was a little degrading to be relegated to mascot status, but considering his other option was to remain in the realm of ‘pest’ he would take it.
Seeing the boy calm down on her screen, Emily relaxed too and continued to calm his fears. “The same thing is even going to apply to the players too. While they obviously won't be able to detect you unless they specifically look at their maps, you will have the title displayed front and centre marking you as allied and not to be harmed. Of course I can't really promise much about how the players will react, but as an added bonus since you will be officially marked as being on their side you are also immune to their attacks. Friendly-fireproof for the win!”
As before Hellion considered the information that he had been given regarding this upgrade, and found nothing seemed to be glaringly wrong at this moment in time. Of course also as before he was aware that there was probably something about it that he was missing, some lost detail or unexpected caveat that was going to blow back on him, but considering he could not think of it there was not much point in arguing about it. If/when this inevitably blew up in his face he would point out the flaws as usual, and checking with Kyoto he was glad to find that she was agreeing with him on this as well.
The overall point being there was no reason to worry until there was reason to worry, so he simply said through Kyoto “Thank you Emily. I know it's annoying to compromise your sense of fairplay like this, and I do appreciate it.” These kind words were followed up by Kyoto giving her a hug, an action that Emily took smiling and returning it just as hard. With that there was nothing else for it but to try it out, starting with just Kyoto for safety. Emily stayed behind, mentioning that she needed to finish off preparations for an upcoming event for the game. Returning to the Genbu guild hall the woman was met with a hearty greeting from the first maid that she passed, as well as a follow up from a patrolling guard.
Kyoto had gotten some of these reactions before, but it was still nice to see and felt good to be acknowledged. Walking around some more showed that as advertised all of the NPC’s were reacting accordingly, and the players were able to see Kyoto’s title indicating her high value status to the guild and asked what she had done to achieve it. Kyoto deflected the questions as best she could, saying that it was a bit of a secret that she could not share. This annoyed some of the girls, but they accepted it regardless.
However for all that was good, they still needed to perform the main test of the updates viability. To that end Kyoto entered the washroom and removed Hellion from her body, holding him carefully on her open palm. She confirmed with him that he now indeed did have a title indicating his status, but now was the moment of truth. Stepping out into the hallway, almost immediately the mech nearly ran into another girl, and Hellion was shaken a bit by the sudden jerks and had to take a knee. He turned his gaze upwards to see a face framed in black hair looking down at him, and he gulped as her expression screwed up first in suspicion but then confusion.
After what felt like an eternity but was likely just a few seconds the girl at last responded, saying “Genbu…mascot? Huh.” The girl's expression relaxed into a more honest confusion and interest, which made Hellion relax a bit internally as well. Thinking quickly he adjusted his kneeling position into a more relaxed and comfortable sit, not reacting overmuch to the girl and trying to seem non-threatening and unbothered. This un-Tinykin behaviour combined with Kyoto cutting in with a quick explanation/story about him being a newly implemented feature and connected to her own high rank waylaid her confusion and distrust.
The girl looked thoughtful for a few moments, before shrugging and adopting a small smile. “Well, I suppose that’s cute enough. If it stays as well behaved as this unlike the other one’s then I have no problem with it.” It irked Hellion a bit to be referred to in such a diminutive way, but if it kept him from being smashed than he supposed that it was a small sacrifice to make. “If nothing else it’s an interesting change of pace.” With that said the girl walked off, continuing on her way and leaving behind a spark of hope in the mech and tiny boy.
With that initial reaction out of the way Hellion's spirits and hopes were raised, and this upwards trend only increased as the pair entered one of the rest lounges in the guild and came across a trio of NPC cadets. As soon as they entered Hellion and Kyoto were greeted by a mild exclamation of “Ah! Miss Kyoto is here and she has our guild mascot.” Hellion indicated to Kyoto to bring him closer to the couch the trio were sitting on, and as he was approaching the girls their expressions of mild glee seemed to indicate that this was working properly as well.
Without a hint of distaste or hostility on their faces the cadets simply sat and awaited his approach, and once Kyoto was in range all three of them let out small squeals of “cute.” The leader of the group, sitting in the middle and with a pair of long green braids then leaned forwards a bit, her hand reaching out palm up until it was right next to Kyoto. Taking the hint the mech likewise offered her palm, placing it so close that it was possible for Hellion to walk over. It was a risk to be sure, and many things could go wrong, but Hellion still held out hope that perhaps this time things would go well, and so took the metaphorical and literal step to wander onto the NPC’s palm.
As soon as she had possession of Hellion the girl carefully moved her hand to a more stable position, and Hellion was able to easily enough lower himself to keep from falling over. The two girls on either side of the green haired cadet moved forwards a bit so that they could get a closer look at Hellion, and the boy was briefly reminded of his first day in the game where something like this scene occurred between him and Emily, McKenzie and Lucy. However unlike that time instead of him being lifted up and dropped into the girls mouth, her other hand rose up from the side with one finger extended.
The tiny might have worried at this, except he was familiar with the action from it occurring a few times already with Kyoto. Instead Hellion tilted his head in the right direction, and was rewarded with a mostly soft fingertip landing on top of his head and rubbing back and forth. As he was petted he noted that the girl to the left had her hands gripped tightly in front of her chest, visibly trying to not squee, while the other just tilted her head making an “aww” sound. Even Kyoto was not unaffected, as while she was keeping an eye on him she was also thinking that the scene was pretty wholesome.
Eventually and to minor protestations from the NPC cadets Kyoto retrieved Hellion and left the room, holding him close to avoid any accidents in the halls. Once they were more alone the tiny piped up, saying “Okay then, both the NPC’s and players are reacting like Emily hoped and intended, and this has not backfired yet. Still these have just been two semi-isolated events, should we go ahead and stress-test this a little by going to a more populated area?” The mech looked thoughtful for a few seconds before nodding in agreement, and proceeded to head to the cafeteria.
What followed was a solid two hours of good times, for once Hellion getting to experience them as himself and not just through Kyoto. There had been a few more girls in the room than anticipated, but enough NPC’s were present that their positive reaction to the tiny in Kyoto’s hand informed more or less how the players treated him. There was a fair bit of cooing and ahhing, as apparently just being labelled as a “mascot” was enough to overcome by now dislike or apathy for most Tinykin. A few times a new comer would walk up wondering what was happening and take a swipe at him, but that was put to a stop quickly enough, especially once word began to spread more quickly.
There was at times a bit of a barrage of unsolicited pettings and grabs for him, and more than once Hellion was subject to an unexpected hug into a soft bosom, but over all things were kept to a reasonable level. The tiny even got to eat loads of actual food offered to him so that others could watch him eat, something he could only occasionally do with Kyoto and no one else in the safety of the Admin area. One near miss with Emily and a bowl of cereal was enough for him.
In the end both Hellion and Kyoto were able to leave so that the latter could “log out,” in actuality just returning to the admin area tired but happy. When they arrived they found Emily had already logged out so they could not tell her the good news, but they shrugged it off as something that could wait until tomorrow. Before they turned in for the night, Hellion entering Kyoto so that he might rest on the island in her stomach, they spoke to each other about how this seemed to be going rather well. Now Hellion might be able to safely get some actual sunlight for once, and not just experience it through Kyoto or artificial sources.
The next day dawned and the pair woke up nigh simultaneously, faint lights in front of them distracting and disturbing them as they opened their eyes. In a bit of eerie synchronization they waved their hands in front of their faces to try and remove the distraction, which unfortunately for them dismissed a system message that they probably would have wanted to see. They did not notice what happened however, and simply went about their morning as per normal.
Once they were ready they decided to go out again, once more having Hellion outside of Kyoto. Partly it was perhaps pushing their luck, but a part of it was also both of them subconsciously thinking something was going to go wrong eventually, and so they might as well milk this for all it was worth. Leaving the admin area to Genbu academy, they noted to themselves that the NPCs and students were looking a little tense. They decided to perhaps question it later, and left the confines of the guild hall for the courtyard in front of the main gate.
As they arrived they saw a few players huddled near the gate, and overheard on of them saying something about “-ollage is getting hit by the red coats, so maybe we should…” Confused Kyoto walked over to the group, and asked them “Umm, excuse me, what is going on?” The girl who had been speaking, a blue haired former/current classmate of Hellion named Hinako seemed to slightly misunderstand what the mech meant, and so summarised “Just catching everyone up on the current status of the PvP event. The private school girls are hitting Byakko pretty hard, so we were thinking of going after them while their fighters are away.”
Hinako continued to speak about her budding plan, but by now Kyoto and Hellion were not really listening. As one both of them looked at each other, Kyoto down and Hellion up as their simultaneously said “PvP Event?!” Then almost as if summoned by those words, a mass of green came out from behind the grass just outside of the gate, and resolved into a small battlegroup of Seiryuu students wielding their weapons.
With a battlecry from the tens of throats of “Crusade!” the Catholic School girls streamed in through the gates, catching the Genbu students off guard and forcing them to briefly retreat to form a battleline. Kyoto was also forced to hesitantly do so, and considering her fighting style was purely melee with Hellion in her hands she was temporarily defenceless. While she did that Hellion just tried to hold on, all while quickly opening his menu and scrolling through it until he found the announcement he had accidentally dismissed just this morning.
As Kyoto managed to get away from the initial charge her master called up, quickly summarizing the reason for this situation now that he was informed. “Ah shit, this isn’t good. Kyoto, Emily and the other game masters came up with a new event due to some player feedback, a massive free for all. The usual pacification fields around the guild houses have been turned off, and points are being awarded for player kills and raiding the guildhouses. Damages will be restored at the end of the day, but for now it's going to be a warzone out there!”
Kyoto nodded along in understanding, realizing that in this chaos things could go south quickly, and so it would be best to get her master safely in her command centre sooner rather than later. She opened her mouth and raised her hand to it in preparation for getting Hellion inside of her, but she was interrupted by a shout from one of the Seiryuu girls. “Hey! That girl is marked as super high ranking and important, let's get’er!” With that a surge of players in green charged towards the mech, and she was unable to get Hellion inside of her. The Genbu students tried to rally, but the concentrated push shoved them aside, and Kyoto was laid bare. She did try to fight back, but a particularly speedy enemy managed to tag her with an explosion from behind, and she was sent sprawling.
Hellion was launched out of the mech's grasp when she fell, and was briefly sent flying through the air before landing on the walkway in front of the guild hall leading to the gate. He turned to see Kyoto struggling to get up and fight back, which to her credit she was doing, but it was hard going. Then a shadow fell over him, and instinctively he rolled to the side and barely managed to avoid ending up underneath a black loafer belonging to a Seiryuu student. However there was no follow up stomp nor sight of her moving away, instead the girl was standing over him looking down at his prone form. Then a devious smile crossed her face, and with a voice that might as well have been the keel of funeral bells she said “Hey…if this is the Genbu’s mascot, imagine how many points it must be worth!”
Hellion felt his stomach drop out beneath him, as he did recall something in the announcement about how more valuable items being raided were indeed worth more points. So here he was officially marked as a faction’s “mascot” in the middle of a pitched battle. He tried to get up and run, but in a swift movement the girl simply crouched down exposing her panties briefly before snatching him up. Surprisingly this was not followed up by the sensation of popping, although the pressure was there.
It turned out that when making the event, there had been some worries about items being destroyed or wrecked during the fighting, and the stress that might put on the restoration servers. As such a temporary fix was put into place, wherein items above a certain “rarity/value” and below a certain size used in the game were made nigh-invulnerable, and it just so happened Hellion fit into both of those categories. As such he was technically safer than usual, not that he knew that.
Instead Hellion was left shouting his head off in fear, not that anyone not named Kyoto or Emily would have heard it as anything other than squeaking. The girls grip on him was too strong, and since her weapon of choice was clearly magic based on the bolt of ice launched out of her free hand she was not hindered in combat like Kyoto had been. However then things took an unexpected turn for the little guy, as a fist seemed to come out of nowhere and clock the mage girl upside the head. As she stumbled and started to drop the fist opened and grabbed onto Hellion, ripping him out of the Seiryuu girls grip and into another.
Hellion looked up slightly dazed and saw the visage of Hinako looking at him in determination, the boy a little unsure of just what was going on. That mystery was soon answered as the pale eyed girl looked out over the battle and brought Hellion in her grip to her chest, nearly burying him in her abundant cleavage. “Come on girls! Fight them off! We must protect our guild and precious mascot!” The sentiment was in a way kind of sweet, if not for how Hinako jumped away from another attack while still holding him to her chest, making her boobs bounce and bash into him a few times.
Things remained chaotic over the next few minutes, the two sides continuing to fight as weapons, fists, projectiles and magic flew everywhere filling the air with the din of battle. During this time Hellion was fiercely fought over, Hinako eventually literally tossing him to one of her classmates so that she could have both hands free to fight. Most of the time Hellion was in the grasp of Genbu, but sometimes an assailant from Seiryuu would get a hold of him. During all of this the tiny tried to keep an eye out for Kyoto, as for obvious reasons he felt safest with her.
At last things seemed to take a turn for the better, a Genbu healer grabbing Hellion and moving in the direction of Kyoto who was visibly hurt but holding on, dispatching an opponent by the gate. Looking around the mech spotted Hellion, and he could not help but wave at her as he came closer and closer, and her eyes widened in happiness. Then they widened for an entirely different reason, as she stiffened up considerably and looked down to see the spike of pointed metal protruding out her front from her back. Before she could do anything else the sword was withdrawn and she collapsed, revealing the sight of a girl in a white uniform looking slightly smugly around the battlefield.
“Hope we are not too late to the party” the redheaded Byakko student smirked, before more of them moved in through the gates next to her and joined in the battle. As they fell upon the alright slightly tired sides like the tigers of their school seal, Hellion could only stare as Kyoto vanished in a flash of light like every other defeated avatar. This situation just became much more complicated, in more ways than one.
The crusade of the Seiryuu group was caught between the defenders of Genbu and the hunters of Byakko, but they certainly put up one hell of a fight. Fighting with a light hearted religious fervor the girls in green stood firm, and it was clear from the banter flying around that for all the viciousness this was all still in good fun for all sides. Now with the greater chaos Hellion was shuffled around all the more, sometimes even ending up dropped on the ground and blinded by the kicked-up dust of so many feet running around.
It was on one such occasion that things came to a head, as his running path looking for ANY sort of cover was cut off by a wall of black, and the nominal Tinykin and mascot looked up to see the long white hair of one of the lead Seiryuu girls looking down at him in triumph. Before he could do anything another foot smashed down behind him, and a glance showed Hinako squaring up for a fight. Then the trifecta was achieved as the redheaded Byakko leader stepped in as well, boxing Hellion in between a triangle of slightly bloodthirsty girls. Taking it all in, Hellion could not help himself, and cried to the heavens “Oh lord, could this get any worse?”
Just then a shadow fell across Hellion, but he was not alone. The trio surrounding him were also left in the dark, and in fact the entire battlefield was. This confusing turn of events led to most looking around and then up to locate the source, and then all fighting dying down as the cause was taken in. Standing above everyone was a girl, her red uniform clearly marking her as a Suzaku private high student, and she had her hands on her hips and a smug look on her face as she leaned forwards to look down on everyone. Still smirking the girl said “Well hello everyone, lovely day for a fight isn’t it?” She then proceeded to lift up one leg and hover a foot over the scene of chaos below, and continued “I didn’t see any rule about needing to be logged into the game to participate!” Naturally the air quickly filled with desperate shouts of foul play, unfair and above all cheating, but as the foot slammed down like a meteor Hellion only had one thing to say.
“That was not a challenge God!”