Caught in the middle PART TWO
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doreedo
Jouko and Haruko were glaring at each other, each girl sizing the other up as they prepared to get physical.

'Uh, Narrator? Any help? This really isn't the kind of 'girl on girl' action I want to see!'

(((Buddy, you're on your own. I'm an observer, remember? I can give hints every now and then, but I can't actually interfere with anything or anyone. If you want to calm these lovely ladies down, you'd better think of a way to do it yourself!)))

Yeah, you really weren't expecting any differently from the Narrator. Disappointing, but not unexpected.

"Hmph! I don't know why my father thought it would be a good idea for me to join Pandora. How am I supposed to accomplish my goals if rude, bossy commoners keep trying to get in my way?"

Oh right, you forgot that Jouko had a bit of an elitist streak. It wasn't touched upon too often in the game, but she did refer to her schoolmates as peasants or commoners every now and then.

Blunt but not untrue, considering that she was the yakuza equivalent of royalty...

Too bad that aspect of her was slipping out now, you could tell by the anime-style tick mark popping up on Haruko's head that she sure didn't like being referred to as a commoner.

"You! People like you have no place at Pandora! I won't allow anyone to bring violence to this institution!"

All this time, you'd still been at Haruko's side from where you'd initially emerged from the (now-much shrunken) crowd, but you moved to stand back from both girls.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Jouko misinterpreted your action...

"Good thinking, Shujin! I don't have to worry about you getting caught up in this if you put some distance between yourself and this obnoxious girl!"

"What?! He was on your side this whole time?! I thought better of you, Shujin Kou!" The buxom beauty scolded you, just like Jouko not realizing that you very much didn't want to take part in this oncoming brawl.

"Hey, leave him out of this! I already told him earlier that I wouldn't allow him to join my gang or take part in any fights alongside me!" Okay, good, Jouko was doing something helpful and letting Haruko know that you were in fact a neutral party in this mess.

"I should've known you were already trying to recruit people from our school to join your delinquent gang! And a brand new student, too! You probably targeted him because he didn't know anybody at school yet! How low can you get?!"

Or maybe it would make everything even worse. Shit...

On one hand, it was really, really nice looking at Jouko's big, swaying H-Cups as she bounced on her feet in preparation to start fighting (you could only imagine how her humongous dump truck of an ass felt, crammed into pants that you'd made even tighter on her.) Likewise, Haruko's ire was causing the busty girl to take deep breaths to steady her nerves... and unlike Mio, whose massive bust size Haruko was a match for, Haruko was not wearing a custom-made shirt, and her tightly-stretched buttons were not going to hold on much longer if she kept inhaling like that...

But you just couldn't enjoy the sexiness of this situation! You wanted to enjoy life in a slapstick ecche romcom! And the violence that seemed to be just over the horizon was shaping up to be anything but slapstick- Haruko or Jouko could get hurt!

Haruko and Jouko weren't taking their eyes off of each other, and it was only by some miracle that neither girl had actually thrown a punch or swung a shinai yet.

You, on the other hand, didn't need to keep your gaze locked on either combatant. There had to be something around here that you could use to help defuse this tense situation!

Hmm... your fellow students weren't going to help. The ones that weren't watching as if it was some scene from a soap opera or movie were whispering amongst themselves, and you didn't know anybody in this crowd who would be willing to help you try and calm the girls down.

What else was there?

Hmm... wait. What was that?

There was some kind of piping running up the sides the pillars of the gates to the school. But what for?

(((Uh, that's nothing special, Shujin. I think that's just plain irrigation for helping whatever gardeners or janitors maintain the school grounds to water the plants faster. Looks like it could use some maintenance, though. See how rusted it is?)))

You looked, and did see right away what the Narrator was pointing out. The piping did look pretty old and worn, but you didn't see how that helped right now.

"Shujin!"

"Ack! I mean, what? What is it?!" You'd nearly jumped when Haruko's called out your name in such a sharp voice.

"I'm happy that you're trying to make friends on your first day of class, but in the future you'll want to choose your friends more carefully! You'll get hurt following a no-good delinquent like this girl!"

"I don't think it's that big a de---"

"EXCUSE ME?!" Both of you did jump at the explosion of sound from the furious Jouko! She looked the angriest you'd ever seen her, and wow, the 2.5d game graphics did not convey just how intimidating a pissed-off yakuza princess was! You could only hope that she wouldn't snap her fingers and have her men send you all to sleep with the fishes!

"Did you just say what I gosh darn think you did?! I already told him I wouldn't let anything happen to people under my protection!"

"So what if I said that?! It's the truth! You can't just go around talking about how you're going to conquer the school and then act surprised when people you care about get hurt! And I might not have any control over what you do outside of Pandora's grounds, but I sure won't let you bring your delinquency onto school property! That goes double for trying to rope Pandora students into whatever... whatever gang violence you're trying to start!"

Oh, hell. This was it. Haruko had pressed the one button of Jouko's that she absolutely shouldn't have! As you'd mentioned earlier, there were at least two big flaws with Jouko- her short temper, and her lack of patience.

There was an even bigger berserk button of hers that the game had hinted at, and Haruko had gone and stomped on it!

Never, ever, insult Jouko's pride. And what had Haruko gone and done? She'd effectively told Jouko to her face, in front of other people, that she was too weak to protect someone she'd sworn to protect!

You couldn't think of a single thing that would damage Jouko's pride more than that!

Aaaand that was the straw that broke the camel's back! Jouko's eyes flashed, and Haruko's eyes narrowed...

"Get behind me, Shujin!" Came the yell from both girls, almost perfectly harmonized!

"I'm going to kick this bitch's ass!" That was Jouko...

"I'm going to show this thug that bringing violence to school grounds is unacceptable!" And there was Haruko...

-------------------

Oh, fuck. What were you supposed to do here? You didn't need a game guide or a seemingly omniscient voice telling you the results of whatever choice you made here. You had two choices, side with Jouko, or side with Haruko.

And whomever you didn't side with you'd suffer a catastrophic loss of reputation with! Probably so much that you might lock yourself out of a relationship (hell, maybe even a regular friendship) with that girl.

Jouko was a canon heroine, and you were inclined to side with her for that reason alone... plus from the game you knew that she was a genuinely good person. Haruko was just assuming the worst here!

But... if you sided with Jouko, you might get hurt down the line. This wasn't a visual novel or video game- it was real life with real consequences, and you didn't want to be like that dumbass Aki told you about who'd gotten himself killed... even if he'd been trying to do the right thing.

But if you sided with Haruko, Jouko would see that as a huge betrayal! And she could have people sent after you- bad people! Plus, you just plain didn't know Haruko, and as hot as she was you wanted to at least know what she was like as a person before throwing your lot in with her!

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl, and you heard the Narrator speaking in the back of your head. In front of you, Jouko's fists prepared to meet Haruko's shinai...

(((This is it, buddy. The first major choice you'll have to face in this world. Who's it going to be? And I hate to tell ya, but some choices... well, sometimes there's no right or wrong answer, or no ideal outcome. This is life, not a game.)))


1) Side with Jouko, you know she's better than Haruko thinks she is! WARNING: Haruko route locked!
2) Side with Haruko, you like Jouko, but... you really don't want to get yourself hurt, and that'd be a real possibility with Jouko! WARNING: Jouko route locked!
3) Screw that! You're the Harem Protagonist, and you're not going to lose a single lady! 100% GOLDEN ENDING, BABY!


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Level: 6
MIND: 3/5
Esper Level: FF
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March 23