Book 5: Chapter 20:

“Yo, onii-wan.”

“Yo? What, are you a rapper now?”

“More people than just rappers say ‘yo,’ yo.”

“Yo-yo? I tried playing with one of those when I was a kid. Ended up being horrible at it and hitting myself right between my eyes. That was one of the few times my dad actually cracked a smile and laughed at my pain. Mom laughed at me, too.”

“Who wouldn’t laugh at you being in pain?”

“That’s more sadistic than tsundere. Speaking of being in pain…”

Fenrir opens his eyes.

Rather than be buried underneath rocks with Eva, he finds himself sitting across from Saya at a table in a coffee shop.

“Did I die or just get knocked out?” he asks.

“You only passed out. Do you want spoilers? I’m allowed to tell you what happened,” Saya asks back.

“Sure.”

“You came super close to death and passed out, then Cass Cass got through enough rocks to reach you and started healing you before you could even be pulled out.”

“She’s probably going to be pissed off at me for doing something stupid.”

“I can’t really blame her, onii-wan. Even if it’s just a game, no girlfriend wants to see their boyfriend get crushed under a bunch of rocks and almost die. Especially for another woman.”

“You didn’t have to throw that last part onto there. That makes it sound like something suspicious.”

“You’re trying to make it sound like it wasn’t suspicious, you womanizer.”

“Hey, since when am I a womanizer?”

“Since I’ve said so.”

“So, since ten seconds ago?”

“Yeah – ow! Don’t flick me! And reaching across the table to do that is rude! Weren’t you ever taught any manners?”

“I don’t know, was I? You have access to my memories.”

“You were, but it seems like you’ve forgotten them!”

“Or you just deserved being flicked on the forehead.”

“I would never deserve being flicked on the forehead.”

“Sure you wouldn’t. By the way, you look cute.”

Rather than wear a sweater like Saya has grown used to wearing, she is currently sitting across from him with a dress and shorts combination that leaves her arms, shoulders, and legs exposed for once.

“Hmph. You’re – you’re only saying that so that I take back what I said about you being a womanizer.”

“Wait, wouldn’t complimenting you on how you look right after being called that make me more of a womanizer instead of not one? Why would I bring up your looks if I was trying to convince you I’m not a womanizer?”

“I don’t know. It’s not like I’m in your head or anything. How am I supposed to know why you are the way that you are?”

“You are literally in my head though.”

“So?”

“So? That completely discredits what you were just trying to say.”

“Don’t try to be so technical, nerd.”

“I’m a nerd now because I pointed out the obvious flaw in your logic? Whatever you say, Pupaya.”

“I – I told you not to call me anything weird!” Saya pouts while kicking his shins underneath the table.

“Alright, I won’t, Pupayawaya.”

“Please not this again! I take it back! You’re not a womanizer or a nerd!”

“Good girl, Pupaya.”

“Just call me my normal name…”

“You say that, but your ears are twitching and I can see your tail wagging.”

“That’s – that’s not my fault! You’re the one who called me a good girl and you know the sort of effect that has on girls with animal ears!”

“You’re right. I do know what effect that has.”

“See?! You’re horrible! You’re not supposed to treat people like pets!”

“Oh, I’m not? I guess I shouldn’t offer to give you headpats or anything. I’m sure you really wouldn’t like me to scratch behind your ears. You would probably really hate me rubbing your belly while calling you a good girl,” Fenrir says with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes closed.

The next time he opens them, he finds himself sitting on the edge of a bed in a private bedroom with Saya laying down over his lap, facing up at him.

“I wasn’t expecting you to give in this much.”

“Shut up. Yes you were.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Fine. Play dumb. Just – just do it.”

“Do what?”

“You know exactly what I want you to do, you baka onii-wan!”

“Wow, you’re really bringing out the tsundere-weeb fanservice to make me do this.”

Rather than say anything else, Saya glares up at him with a mean pout and inflated cheeks.

“Alright, alright,” he says, placing one hand on the top of her head to scratch behind her ears while his other hand pats her belly over her dress.

Saya goes from pouting and angry to melting and blissful almost instantly.

“Who’s a good girl?” he asks.

“I – I am!” Saya answers.

“I don’t know. A good girl would go ‘woof.’”

“Wo-woof.”

“What was that? I thought I just heard something but I’m not sure.”

“W-woof!”

“Maybe howling would be better.”

“A-awoo?”

“Now that I think about it, dogs never just howl for a second and be done with it. They usually keep howling for at least a few seconds.”

“Aw-awooooooo…”

The sheer amount of cuteness radiating from Saya – from Pupaya, is enough to make Fenrir go all out.

While his hand on her head treats her ears with the utmost care, delicately tracing his fingers along them whenever he’s not scratching right behind them, his other hand slides her dress up just enough so that her abdomen is exposed.

She might blush at first and hesitantly try to push her dress back down, but she stops the instant his bare hand touches her exposed belly.

Then the rubbing begins.

Even if she has the appearance of a human girl with only dog ears and a dog tail, she can’t help but to kick her legs and wildly giggle upon her belly being so intensely rubbed.

“There is no resisting the power of belly rubs,” he tells her.

She’s in no condition to deny him nor does she care enough to deny him.

All that matters is that, in this moment, she is receiving an ultimate belly rub.

“Now, Pupaya,” Fenrir says, both his expression and voice far more serious than they probably should be in this situation, “answer me: who’s a good girl?”

Pupaya’s eyes shoot open wide as stars spin within them.

The answer to the question is obvious.

She is the good girl.

The good girl is she.

Yet, receiving such a supreme belly rub in addition to receiving such wonderful head scratches and pettings while being asked that question has triggered something within her.

What does it mean to be a good girl?

What is good?

Is there something better than being a good girl?

As her sight turns into that of spinning stars, colliding galaxies, and the birth of the universe, she ponders such deep, philosophical questions.

She doesn’t even notice the drool running down her chin.

Meanwhile, all Fenrir can think is that he may or may not have broken her. The look in her eyes tells him that they might not even be observing the same universe at the moment.

They may as well be on entirely different planes of existence.

That is the power of the belly rub, head scratch, “who’s a good girl?” combo.

“He-hey, you alright?” he asks after a few moments of suspicious unresponsiveness.

“Hu-huh? O-oh, yeah, onii-wan,” she answers in a drugged-like state. Her tongue is almost hanging out from her mouth, her speech is slurred, and her pupils don’t know whether they want to take on the shapes of hearts, stars, or spirals.

“I… I think that maybe this much service might be a bit too much for you. Maybe I should calm down a bi—”

“No.”

“No?”

“You’re not allowed to stop.”

“You sound like an addict.”

She turns her head away.

“Did – did you actually get addicted to this?”

“It’s not my fault you decided to rub my belly directly while doing all that. You don’t just introduce a cat to catnip and then take the catnip away!”

“I don’t know whether to find you adorable right now or whether I should be concerned about your new addiction. You know I can’t rub your belly twenty-four-seven, right?”

“All that matters is that you’re thinking about it. If you’re thinking about it, that’s close enough until you can actually do it again.”

“What about when I’m sleeping?”

“Then you have to dream about it.”

“I can’t just control my dreams like that.”

“I’ll make you dream about it.”

“Wait, that’s possible? You can control my dreams?”

“I don’t know but I’m willing to try.”

“Wouldn’t that probably break a user agreement somewhere or something?”

“What they don’t know won’t hurt them.”

“You’re seriously addicted.”

“Just… rub my belly more.”

“Sure, sure,” he says, enabling her addiction.

Though, he realizes that there might be something else dangerous about this situation.

She is lying on his lap and squirming around quite a bit thanks to the pleasurable sensations that he is giving her. This means… that she’s squirming around directly over his crotch.

Seeing as how he’s still a man and still has a man’s second-best friend—the first being dogs and little-sister-dogs—between his legs, the wiggling and squirming around that she is doing stimulates him.

He knows that she knows, too, which makes the situation both even more embarrassing and arousing. She is always aware of his thoughts and feelings, so she is aware of the fact that he’s getting excited because of this. That results in even more embarrassment. However, she is also aware that he is getting aroused and isn’t stopping at all. If anything, he can tell that she is purposely pressing her back down against him even harder so that he can feel even more as he rubs her. That results in even more arousment.

“O-onii-wan,” Saya whimpers as his hand rubbing her belly slowly starts to travel father up her body. At the same time, his hand on top of her head slides down to her cheek before letting one of his fingers touch the corner of her lips. “It’s – it’s okay, onii-wan,” she whines, completely lost within the euphoric, belly-rub-induced state that she has already grown addicted to.

She even parts her lips for the finger near her mouth while placing both of her hands on his dangerously-close-to-her-breasts hand, gently holding it and helping to pull it up some more.

Fenrir was most definitely not expecting the situation to unfold like this.

Saya, essentially being part of him and having complete access to his mind, knows exactly how to make herself as appealing as possible to him. She is, quite literally, perfect to him. Her looks, her expression, how she’s behaving and responding to him – everything is perfectly tailored to match his exact tastes. After all, those are her tastes, too.

The situation could not be any more perfect than it is.

Yet, as soon as he realizes what is happening, the temptation completely disappears and he pulls his hands away from her.

“Sorry. I was getting ahead of myself,” Fenrir says, helping her sit up on the bed next to him.

Saya sighs before saying, “I knew that would happen.”

“Is that why you didn’t stop me sooner?”

“Yeah. I guess. I wouldn’t have let you go that far if I didn’t know you were going to stop.”

“So, basically, you knew that I would stop but still let me blueball both of us? Why not just stop it earlier to save us both from being blueballed?”

“Because. I – I wanted to enjoy what I could.”

Fenrir gives her a gentle pat on top of her head and says, “It’s just that—”

“I know. You’re not actually a womanizer which means you won’t do things with me without your girlfriends’ permission.”

“Yeah. I mean, even if you’re my assistant, I still feel like that could cross the line into going too far and being unfaithful if they’re not aware of it. I probably already went a bit too far since I was really getting into it there. Shit. Now I feel really bad.”

“I think you’re fine. There’s no way Serra and Nell would care. Cass Cass might pout a little bit, and I’m not sure how Azawaza would feel, but they probably wouldn’t care as long as you still did stuff with them before or after.”

“But still. Even just flirting and touching this much shouldn’t have been done without their permission.”

“Yeah… I guess.”

“Alright. No more belly rubs or anything else until I talk to them about it.”

“He-hey, maybe that’s a bit too extreme.”

“No. Belly rubs lead into all that other stuff. Therefore, belly rubs are now banned until further notice.”

“Bu-but – but…”

“No more.”

“Maybe… maybe just a little? Just one? Just a gentle one?”

“Nope.”

“What about a two-second one?”

“Not allowed.”

“A one-second one?”

“No.”

“Maybe – maybe just a belly poke?”

Fenrir looks down at Saya and, for once, sees her with watering eyes.

“This is an intervention,” he says. “You’re addicted and need help.”

“But – oh. You’re healed enough that you can go back now,” Saya groans, frustrated at the interruption – at having to actually do her job.

“Thanks for letting me know, and I’ll talk to them about it soon. Probably sometime later today. I guess I better get ready for them to be mad at me.”

“Relax, onii-wan. They’re not going to be mad at you for flirting with me.”

“Just because we want to think that doesn’t mean it’s going to be true.”

“Well… I know one of them is already mad.”

“What? Why? How?”

“Good luck, onii-wan.”

The next instant, Fenrir finds himself staring up at… a very pissed off Cassiel.

“You bas—dumbie,” Cassiel says, her hands on his shoulders.

“What – what did I do?” Fenrir asks, knowing that she can’t be mad already at what he expects her to get mad about.

“You know exactly what you did.”

“The buried-in-rock thing?”

She nods, still glaring.

“I couldn’t resist. Sorry,” he says. Too bad he knows that such an excuse regarding Saya most likely won’t work later.

“You’re such a jerk. How do you think you’d feel if you saw one of us purposely get buried under a bunch of rocks and almost die?”

“To be fair, I wasn’t planning on getting buried.”

“That’s not the point.”

“I know. I’d feel pissed off at the rocks for daring to hurt any of you.”

“I’m pissed off at them, too, but I’m still mad at you for getting so hurt.”

“You know I couldn’t just not try to help.”

“I know. That pisses me off. But… I love that part of you, too. But it still pisses me off.”

“Sorry.”

“Good. You better be,” Cassiel says, leaning over to kiss him.

With her metal breastplate leaning against his forehead, Fenrir says, “I wish you didn’t have your armor on right now. Your boobs would be on my face.”

“Are you trying to piss me off even more?” she asks, their lips just barely not touching.

“It’s hot when you’re pissed off.”

“Fine. Next time I’m mad, I just won’t show any emotions at all.”

“That sounds horrifying. Please don’t.”

They kiss again.

Then, even though he wasn’t planning on it yet, he figures that he might as well since they’re already here and she’s already mad at him for something.

He wants to get all the anger out of the way with now instead of saving it for later.

“By the way… what if I uh… was flirting with and almost did lewd things with my virtual assistant?” he asks.

Cassiel pulls away to stare at him directly in his eyes.

“You mean the one that is supposed to be like a little sister to you?” she asks.

“Ye-yeah. Her.”

“How did you become such a degenerate?”

“Too much time on the internet.”

Cassiel sighs and says, “I don’t care. It’s no worse than looking at porn.”

“I – I think there’s a big difference there.”

“How?”

“Because. You know, porn is porn. You’re completely detached from it. But she – Saya is part of me and in my head. She’s an actual being I know. So—”

“Would you rather me be upset and yell at you for cheating on me or something?”

“Definitely not, but – I feel guilty.”

“So, me being mad will justify you feeling guilty?”

“I… don’t know. I just feel like maybe I shouldn’t be getting off totally free here. That sounds unfair to you and the others.”

Cassiel sighs. “I don’t care. It’s already obvious that Eva is falling for you and Serra will probably give you the go-ahead to invite her.”

“Wait, what?”

“Seriously? You haven’t noticed?”

“No?”

“She’s always staring at you, watching you, and she kept on coming over here every couple of minutes to check on you. She also looked like she was crying before we got to you. So… yeah. You probably made her fall in love with you. If you can make all of us fall in love with you, it’s not really surprising that you made your assistant fall for you.”

“I don’t know whether I should feel complimented or like a manwhore.”

Cassiel shrugs. “Besides. Nell already talked about one of her fantasies with us that involved your assistant creating a harem for you that you’d cheat on us with without us ever being able to find out. We all agreed that we wouldn’t care if you actually did anything like that.”

“You’re all way too good for me.”

“I know. And you’re too good for us. That’s why we don’t care.”

“Pfftt. Yeah right. I’m not too good for any of you.”

“Then we’re not too good for you. Take it or leave it.”

Fenrir finally leans up so that he can give Cassiel a proper hug and kiss. “I don’t know about any of us being too good for the other, but I do know that you’re all the best.”

“We know. You are, too.”

“Now, if only you’d stop sounding mad.”

“No. I’m still pissed that you got yourself hurt.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I can still feel the pain. I’m pretty sure my back broke earlier.”

“Good, and it did. One of their healers had to fix that for you.”

“Shit. I’m going to have to thank them for that later. By the way… how are things?” he asks, looking around.

The tunnel that was created for Azalabulia’s explosion is completely full of caved-in rocks. Several sections of the ceiling in the room that they’re in gave in, too, resulting in piles of collapsed rocks scattered around throughout the room.

Most of the dragons, Azalabulia, and Rao are checking out the dead monsters for any items that they could potentially loot from them. Serra, Nell, Rock, and Shogun are examining them just out of curiosity and to make sure that none of them are alive still. Serra is checking by poking them with the bottom of a spear that she picked up from the ground.

Then, on the other side of the room, Eva and GG are talking.

“Did I seriously make her fall in love with me? You’re exaggerating, right? I mean, we’ve known each other for less than a day,” Fenrir says.

“Maybe she didn’t literally fall in love or anything, but she definitely likes you. There’s no doubt about that,” Cassiel answers. “You don’t look at somebody like how she’s been looking at you without any interest being there. Plus, since you were stupid, she’s looking at you even more now. See?”

Fenrir turns his head to look back at Eva and sees her flying straight at him.

She took off the instant she noticed he was sitting up.

“I – I swear I didn’t mean to,” he says.

“Do you ever mean to?” Cassiel asks with a sigh.

Before she can get an answer, Eva lands in front of them and reaches out toward him with her hands. Though, before she can actually do what she wants – before she can hug him, she pulls her hands back and asks, “How—”

“How’re you feeling?” he asks her first.

“I told you to stop worrying about me. I don’t care if I die in this game and you’re the one who got hurt.”

“That doesn’t answer my question. Are you hurt?”

Cassiel can’t help but to silently glare at Fenrir.

At this point, she feels as if he is lying in regard to knowing the effect that he can have on women.

He helped Eva out in her search, treated her with nothing but kindness and respect without any ulterior motives motivating him to do so, sacrificed himself for her, and then immediately asked her how she’s feeling even though he was the one who broke his back in protecting her.

Yet, despite him doing all of that, he was acting surprised at being told that he managed to make her fall in love with him.

Cassiel just isn’t buying it anymore.

He has to know what he’s doing at this point.

That is why, as he continues giving Eva reasons to fall in love with him, Cassiel will sit in the background glaring at him.

It is not out of jealousy. It is simply out of being fed up with him not realizing his own power.

Though, she does wish he could be this smooth when he’s actually trying to be.

She’s just going to have to make him watch more romance movies with her so that he can learn how to be smooth on purpose.

“You’re so stubborn,” Eva says. “I’m fine. What about you? Are you in pain? Does it hurt anywhere?”

“I’m happy you’re fine. This pain wouldn’t be worth it if you weren’t.”

Eva blushes just a bit and averts her eyes.

This is when Fenrir actually realizes what he’s doing.

“A-ah, I mean – yeah, I’m fine,” he says. “I got hurt a bit, but uh, I’m all healed now, so it’s all good. Kinda sore and stiff but that’s it.”

“Massage,” Eva says.

“What?”

“Let me give you a massage.”

“Why?”

“Why else? To pay you back for what you did. I don’t like being in debt to others.”

“You’re not in debt to me. I didn’t help you out of wanting anything from you.”

“That makes it even worse! Lie down!”

Fenrir lies down. Fortunately, the part of the cave floor he’s lying on is smooth and flat.

Still not the best spot for a massage, though.

But that doesn’t stop Eva from trying to give Fenrir the best massage that she has ever given.

“Tell me where it feels the stiffest,” she says.

“Right… there,” he says, causing her to focus her fingers on his upper back behind his shoulders.

The massage that she gives him is the most pleasurable one he has ever felt before. It is, in fact, so pleasurable that it gets him to make another one of those embarrassing noises that he really hates making.

“How’d you learn to do this?” he asks.

“I got lots of practice. My grandparents told me that they’d give me a dollar for every massage I gave them,” she answers.

“They ran out of money quickly, didn’t they?”

“Yeah. They changed it to only a quarter every massage. Then a dime. Then I told them I’m not doing any more until they start giving me a dollar again.”

“You’re ruthless.”

“I’m a capitalist.”

“Capitalism, ho.”

“I feel like that’s a reference I’m not getting.”

“It is. Don’t worry about it.”

“Hmm. Anyways, are you feeling any better now?”

“A bit. Yeah, thanks.”

“I’m not done yet so hold onto your thanks. Besides, I don’t need a thanks anyways. You’re the one who protected me even though you didn’t need to.”

“I’m going to do it more often if it means getting massages like this.”

Meanwhile, Cassiel takes mental notes on where Eva is touching and how so that she can use these techniques against him whenever she wants.

She wants to know how to get those cute noises out of him whenever she wants.

“Ah, my hero!” Nell says. “You are alive and well, I see.”

“Never been better,” Fenrir replies.

“The way that you sacrificed yourself for her was wonderful! It was so brave – so heroic! Alas, it would have been more tragic had you not survived.”

“Hey. You’re sounding disappointed that I’m still alive.”

“Of course not! I do not mean to sound disappointed that you survived. I am only disappointed that such a wonderful scenario did not have the opportunity to become as tragic as it could have been.”

“AKA, you’re disappointed that I’m alive.”

“We-well, my hero, it is only a game. There is no truly dying here.”

“I’ll keep this in mind the next time you’re the one needing saving.”

“Oh, should the situation ever arise, please let me be. I have already experienced being saved by you once, after all. I am ready for a bad ending!”

“No. I’m going to save you even if you don’t want me to.”

Nell sighs. “I know, my hero. Let me dream at least.”

“Dream about lewd things instead of sad things,” Serra says. “Fen. You okay?”

“Yeah,” Fenrir answers. “Better now that you’re here.”

“Weird time to flirt but okay.”

“That hurts me.”

“Good. You like being hurt.”

“Since when?”

“Since you let a bunch of rocks fall on you.”

Fenrir looks up and sees Serra giving him the same look that Cassiel was giving him when he first came back from being unconscious.

She’s upset that he got hurt, too.

“I’ll be more careful next time,” he says.

“You better,” Serra says before returning to her usual self. “Or no sex.”

“I’ll definitely be more caref—ahn… wait. I – uh,” Fenrir with a reddened face, tail trying to tuck itself between his legs, and twitching ears, regrets being born due to the girlish moan that he was just forced to make.

“Does that spot feel good?” Eva asks even though the answer is more than obvious.

Whatever that spot was, it was far more than good.

“I – I’m all good. Thanks. I feel totally better now,” he answers, looking up at his girlfriends to see all of them but Azalabulia grinning down at him with smug expressions.

“Too bad. You’re going to be massaged until you feel better than better.”

“I don’t know if that’s possible.”

Eva presses down on that stupidly-pleasurable spot again, forcing Fenrir’s tail and ears to both shoot straight up.

He has to bite down to resist making any more noises, but he can’t stop his tail and ears from reacting.

“Fen? How are you feeling?” Azalabulia asks, finally joining up with the rest of his girlfriends.

All he can do is give her a thumbs-up and nod his head. If he untenses his jaw then there is a chance of another one of those embarrassing noises escaping.

“Fenny is making cute noises,” Serra says.

“They are rather adorable,” Nell agrees.

“Too bad he’s being dumb and trying to stop them,” Cassiel explains.

This is when Fenrir realizes that he has two options in front of him.

One, he could resist, not let his girlfriends hear what they want to hear, and disappoint them.

Or two, he could just let loose, stop resisting the noises desperately wanting to escape his mouth, and let them hear some fanservice while making up for worrying them all at the cost of his pride.

He really wants to do the former.

But the good boyfriend within him is telling him to do the latter.

To make up with his girlfriends for worrying them and getting himself so hurt when he really didn’t need to… he sacrifices his pride.