For what must have been two days, the four of us just lounged around in the cabin. There were exactly enough rooms for each person. The interior was cozy and modest in size. It kind of reminded me a little of Beatrice's cabin that I saw when she inhabited me. A living room connected all our bedrooms. There was an upstairs area which led to a beautiful bathroom with a big tub, and beyond that was a balcony offering a view of the flower courtyard.
"Uwahhhh~ This is the life," Hana said, lying face down on the couch with several translucent hands massaging her.
"I've been meaning to ask for a while… Are you casting that magic?" I asked.
"Nu-uh. Here I was wishing for a massage, then voila! Magical hands appeared outta nowhere to do just that. Can you believe it? Probably something to do with Gerdell's magic. I ain't complaining about the extra hospitality! Watch. Hey, hands? My shoulders are feeling stiff. Get to work on them," she ordered.
As though on command, two more hands appeared to massage each side of Hana's shoulders. I squinted at the hands.
Magic… hands…
"Where ya going?" Hana asked as I turned to head into my room.
"You're hogging the couch, so I'm going to get a massage elsewhere," I said and closed the door shut behind me.
Alone and in the privacy of my bedroom, the horny side of me was beginning to win out again. I took a seat at the foot of my bed and glanced around in case there were some kind of… listening devices or something Gerdell planted.
"I also want a massage," I murmured.
On cue, two translucent hands materialized to knead my shoulders. They felt good. Real good. I needed the knots worked out of them. However, another idea came to mind. Something that would really take the load off.
After all, if these hands did whatever we asked them to, then surely they must do more than massaging.
"F… Finger me," I said as quietly as possible and spread my legs open.
A hand appeared between my crotch. I gulped hard, imagining many hands playing with my sensitive body. Having sex with Kana, even though he wasn't mine from my timeline, had gotten me in the mood. I needed a release.
The hand got as far as my thighs and stopped. It raised a finger and wagged at me scoldingly before vanishing.
"Damn it, Gerdell!" I went beet red.
Well, the mood went out the window. I stood up, and the other hands massaging my shoulders also vanished. Gerdell had mentioned needing some prep time first. Half a day had gone by. How much more time did she need?
I emerged from my room to check on Shayle and Layla. Hana was still in the living room, enjoying her massage. It didn't take much effort to find the dark elf. She was training out front, sparring with what appeared to be translucent humanoids. Four had her surrounded, but she easily dispatched each one with a blast of magic from her hand.
Spellcasting was a cinch for Shayle. Maybe it was due to being a dark elf, and her race was simply predisposed to it. I didn't have much of a trainer and had been thrusted into most fights. The last two people who trained me were Beatrice and Selene. While they were fruitful, those sessions were incredibly short.
Without the Blade of the First Temptress, my firepower had certainly been reduced. All I had to rely on was my base sexual energy pool within myself and my unrefined succubus strength.
"Ah, Saeko?" Shayle wiped the sweat from her face and plopped down on a bench. "I didn't see you there. Don't mind me. Just keeping my senses sharp. Did you need something?"
"Oh, no. I just wanted to see what the rest of you were doing. I was getting kind of restless inside the cabin, so I came out and saw you training. Do you do this often?" I asked.
She nodded. "Training? Of course. I wouldn't want to get complacent. Like anything that requires skill, repeated application is the key towards perfection. I have to protect you and Queen Elendir. The only way I can do that is to stay strong. To that end, I enrolled into the various martial arts of your human world."
"Wait, really? What have you been training in?"
Shayle proceeded to list off Taekwondo, Brazilian jiu jitsu, Aikido, Muay Thai, and more that made my jaw drop. I wasn't even sure where she found the time for any of those, but apparently her short residence in Japan was a productive one.
"I have also tried to get into sumo wrestling, but members of a club I visited laughed and told me to get lost. A shame. I would be willing to put on those extra pounds just to experience it," Shayle explained with a hint of dejection.
"Holy crap. You're all over the world with martial arts then. Can you show me some moves?" I asked.
"I suppose it couldn't hurt. Come at me. I'll apply some techniques from my training," Shayle insisted, and went into a stance with just her feet at shoulders length apart.
Come at her… I knew no other form of combat other than throwing hands. After taking a deep breath, I flew for Shayle intending to tackle her to the ground. Before I realized it, I saw the artificial sky. My back was on the soft dirt.
"Uh. What just happened?" I blinked in surprise.
"I used your own weight against you and threw you to the ground. That was Aikido!" Shayle exclaimed, seemingly having impressed herself.
We went again. Instead of throwing, Shayle tackled and pinned me to the ground such that I couldn't do a thing. Even though I was physically stronger as a succubus, once she got a hold of me, there was no chance of breaking free.
Apparently, those grappling moves were Brazilian jiu jitsu.
In the end, I yielded. Shayle was just too strong and knowledgeable in martial arts. As I laid on the ground, body aching and out of breath, the dark elf appeared over me with a hand outstretched.
"I think… you need to start… giving yourself more… credit…" I panted.
"Heh. Thanks. But it wasn't as if this was a competition. I apply myself to better serve you and Queen Elendir," Shayle reminded me.
At some point, Shayle started looking real good under the sunlight. Her skin was glowing. Her lips looked extra supple. She wasn't as stacked as Queen Elendir— though not many people were— the dark elf had a strong jawline and piercing gaze to go along with a hot body.
"Now… when you say 'serve me', does that also include other ways?" I asked coquettishly.
Shayle's brows snapped up. Her gaze softened, and she offered a soft and inviting smile.
"Your wish would not only be my command, but also mypleasure. I also have just the thing to enhance our fun." Shayle drew closer to me and pulled out a dick potion.
I thought I was going to get lucky until Gerdell showed up out of nowhere between us.
"Just in time," Gerdell said.
Both Shayle and I heaved a sigh.
Biggest boner kill ever.
"Maybe I'm asking the wrong person, but can it wait another hour?" I asked.
"No. It must be now. Fetch Hana from the living room and Layla from her entanglement," Gerdell implored us.
We grabbed the other two and brought them outside to meet Gerdell. The second she saw us together, a spell sparked from her staff. In a flash of light, we returned to the celestial time chamber that originally sent us to the first timeline.
The lightheartedness that the chronomancer displayed when we first met was absent. Instead, her expression showed a kind of direness which put a damper on the relaxation we earned in the last two days.
"Saeko, Shayle, Hana, and Layla. Where I'm about to send you is in a very precarious state. The knots of the temporal anomaly are so entangled, and their threads taut with tension, that a mere tug may cause it to snap. You may be tempted to undo things, to change things, but I urge you to leave it all be and focus on searching for the anomaly. Do you understand?" Gerdell asked.
We nodded, but I couldn't shake the anxiousness in the back of my mind. A timeline so messed up that Gerdell needed to warn us not to intervene in anything? Talk about careful.
"As an extra step of precaution, should I find that the timeline is becoming much too unstable, I'll come to fetch you four," Gerdell said.
"What's going to happen to the timeline if we don't fix the temporal anomaly then?" I asked reluctantly.
"It will spiral out of control and become irreparable. To prevent it from causing temporal anomalies in other timelines, I must quarantine that world… and dismantle it," she answered to our horror.
With that, Gerdell pressed the base of her staff into the lock at the center of the room.
The world went black— and it stayed that way. We found ourselves standing in the middle of a city in ruins. An unusual dark sky with smog instead of clouds lingered above our heads. Downtown Tsukiji's many tall buildings were toppled or in disrepair, their windows blown out, and sections of them had collapsed in a heap of rubble.
I blinked several times, hoping everything before me wasn't real. The smokey air in my lungs suggested otherwise.
"Where… are we?" Layla hesitated to ask.
"This is Tsukiji for sure, but it's been destroyed? Something terribly wrong happened in this timeline. We need to check my place!" I insisted.
Before I took off flying, Shayle grabbed my hand.
"Wait, Saeko! I hope you're not planning on intervening in anything. Recall Gerdell's words. We're only here for the temporal anomaly," Shayle said.
"I-I know… Look, I promise I won't do anything rash. But you can't tell me searching my house is a bad place to start," I suggested.
"She's right." Hana shrugged and took my side. "Kinda like how in the other timeline, we found out Saeko ain't a chick or a succubus. Put us on the right track, didn't it?"
Layla nodded in agreement. Since Shayle was outnumbered by our vote, she relented in going with my plan.
The four of us flew straight to my house. We stayed a little higher in the sky than normal to avoid being seen or having a succubus detect our auras. My mistake in the previous timeline was forgetting that Selene could detect our auras even if lesser succubi couldn't.
Soaring over the suburbs, my heart sank into the pit of my stomach. Every house was either leveled or in ruins. It didn't give me any hope that my own place was going to be intact. However, as soon as we reached the home I'd grown up in, it was… untouched. Actually, it was practically the only place not demolished.
"What the heck is going on?" Hana asked the one question on our minds.
Now, the next question was whether or not we should go down there and investigate. Doing so might expose ourselves to nearby succubi.
"Let's check if Kana is home. He might be able to help us like in the other timeline," I said.
When we flew to Kana's house, it wasn't there. As in, like all the others in the city, had been destroyed.
"We may need to rethink how we approach this temporal anomaly," Shayle warned.
"Uhm… I think we have company!" Layla pointed ahead, where a huge swarm of succubi was flying right for us.
Crap. I thought we were high enough not to be seen or noticed. Guess not. The other three turned to me for orders. For once, I was at a loss. Layla and I were invisible, and we had our auras hidden. Unless there was a greater succubus among that group, they would only be detecting Hana.
What was the right move here? I had to decide soon. Those succubi were getting closer. With precious seconds left, I swallowed my hesitation and made a decision.
"Hana, Shayle. Confront them. If things go wrong, Layla and I will reveal ourselves," I said.
They nodded, and not a second too soon, the succubi swarm had arrived.
"It's Hana!" one succubus exclaimed.
"She's with a dark elf, too!" another added.
"Uwahaha! Yes, it is I!" Hana puffed out her chest, playful as always.
"I don't know why you're showing your face now, Hana, but you're not getting away this time! You'll fork over where the Saeko faction is hiding!" a fierce succubus growled.
"Wait… we're not friends?" She cocked her head sideways.
Hana had all but a split second to react when a volley of spellfire showered her. Layla and I panicked. We broke in all directions. Shayle dove away just in time to avoid the volley.
"Hey! Ow! Stop that! Does this count as 'things go wrong' yet?!" Hana threw up both arms and dryad tentacles to shield herself.
Layla and I flew behind the group before unleashing an even greater volley of magical fire. Caught by surprise, many of them plummeted into the city. The few that managed to defend themselves with magic or move out of the way, Shayle and Hana took care of.
"That… aura…" A battered succubus clutching her arm stared in my direction.
"Shit!" I cursed under my breath.
My aura slipped!
Hana grabbed the succubus from behind and cast a spell that put her to sleep. We breathed a sigh of relief.
"Someone had to have seen our battle just now, and those injured succubi won't stay down for long. We need to find some place to hide!" Shayle shouted.
"Follow me!" I led the way and descended into the city.
When Kana and I were little, Tsukiji had many places to hide in. It wasn't just parks we played at. I guided everyone to a bridge that crossed over a dried river. Dried in this timeline. In mine, it was the same river and riverbank I'd walked along to go to and from school.
Underneath a bridge was the perfect place to hide. Aside from some rubble and a long abandoned dwelling made of plywood, tarp, and broken mattress, no one would find us down here. Hopefully.
"Okay, so we know they are looking for Hana and the 'Saeko faction'. Whatever that is." Shayle shrugged, setting the unconscious succubus to the ground.
"Maybe I'm some sort of super important, legendary evil in this world!" Hana exclaimed aloud.
"Sh!" I slapped a hand over her mouth. "I doubt it. By the sound of it, you're a part of the Saeko faction. At the very least, that means there's a second faction going against them."
It had to be another succubus that was leading the other faction. None of us needed to say it to realize we were thinking the same thing. After all, only a greater succubus could command lesser succubi. Since it wasn't the me of this timeline, then…
"My money is on Beatrice," I said. "It's possible Saeko and Beatrice are still vying against each other."
"That is the logical assumption. But let's be sure. We have a captive after all." Shayle drew our attention to the unconscious succubus she brought along.
Layla and I had to stay invisible, as well as keep our auras hidden. I allowed Shayle and Hana to lead the interrogation, since it wouldn't be too unusual for those two to be seen.
The succubus snapped awake the second Shayle ended the effect of her spell. Weary eyes fluttered groggily. She started struggling right after coming to consciousness. Fortunately, I'd cast magical chains to bind her wrists beforehand. A lesser succubus wasn't going to break out of that.
"Alright, bozo." Hana kneeled down next to the growling succubus. "We got questions. You got answers. What's Queen B up to?!"
Shayle, Layla, and I slapped a hand to our faces.
"Hana, you're supposed to be subtle about it! Don't you think the Hana of this timeline would already know?" I whispered.
The succubus furrowed her brows. "Queen B… Is this another one of your pranks? Listen, this isn't a fight you, Saeko, or whoever else is on her side can win. Queen Hatsumi is still willing to let bygones be bygones. Just surrender. Resist, and this won't end well for anyone."
All four of us fell silent. She just called Hatsumi the queen. As in, the succubus queen?
"GROUP HUDDLE!" Hana yelled, dragging away and out of earshot.
"Wait, why a group huddle?" Shayle was just as baffled as we were.
"I can't talk to Saeko and Layla without the bitch hearing, can I? My brain just went buuuaaahh! It might've been one of those deja vus. Hit me like a truck though, probably because I'm in the same timeline as another me. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remember a memory I shouldn't have. Remember when you and Queen B faced off at that shrine? Right before you punted her into the void?" the pink-haired trickster asked.
"Yeah, what about it?" I tried to follow her logic but was still lost. Sёarᴄh the NovelZone.fun website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
"I'm remembering it differently now. Hatsumi got one up on Queen B instead and beat the shit out of her with you. Sister power prevailed, but you guys ended up splitting. She wanted to change you back into a human boy, and you refused. Then it culminated into a full-blown war!" she explained.
"It feels like you skipped a few steps in your story…" Layla frowned.
The rest of us exchanged glances with one another, trying to discern if this was Hana screwing with us or not.
"Okay, that's it. I need to know what happened in this world," I said and walked up to the captive succubus.
Although I was still invisible, she heard my footsteps and looked in my direction. I exacted a powerful charm by strangling her with my aura.
"This aura, I knew…" The succubus' eyes softened as she fell under my control.
"Answer me: who do you serve?" I asked.
"Queen Hatsumi," she answered promptly.
My heart sank. It was real. Hana's deja vu phenomenon turned out to be true. The Hatsumi and Saeko of this world really were fighting. That brief fight that my Hatsumi and I had when Beatrice turned her was hard enough for me. I loved my sister too much, so I couldn't imagine what that was doing to the Saeko here.
"One more question. You're searching for Saeko and her faction, right? That means she's hiding. There's a reason she's hiding, isn't there?" I asked.
"Yes." She nodded. "Because Saeko can't bring herself to fight Queen Hatsumi."
I knew it.