Three days had passed. One day it took for you to recover from your injury, which apparently the school’s infirmary had enough equipment to even accelerate your healing to just 24 hours. The next day, everyone else urged you to rest and recover. The next day, Ai had come in with the new cyberprosthetic for you to walk with that had finally finished printing. A total of three days had passed since the incident on Mars, and you felt you were finally ready to rescue Izumi.
“So why the hell are we not doing that, yet?!” you asked frustrated over the fact that they weren’t letting you do that yet.
“As I already said, you still need more time to recover from your injury,” Kiyoko said.
“But I feel fine,” you say, ignoring the fact that you still felt tired all the time.
“And you need practice with your new leg too, trust me on that,” Ai said.
“Come on, I've got the hang of it now.” You try to take a single step forward to demonstrate, but you lose control over the ankle and knee and fall over onto Ai, who catches you. You blush in embarrassment in her arms. “I can get the hang of it soon,” you say.
Ai held you a bit more firmly to comfort you. “I know you’re worried. But if we want to actually succeed, we need to make sure we’re ready. Else we’ll all be in trouble. The quickest path to failure is headfirst through a wall, as Lord Protector Arnold Swarzenegger said.”
You recognized the name but had no idea who she was talking about.
“And besides,” Kiyoko added, “the auction itself will be the best time for us to get her. From my experience, companies in Heinlein keep top security over their slaves, both to keep them from escaping or to keep journalists from reporting on their treatment. The only exception is with auctions, where they have to put the ‘merchandise’ on display, so to say.”
You didn’t have an argument against that, so you changed the subject. “D-don’t call Izumi merchandise. She’d hate that.”
“Wh- I wasn’t. I was just-” Before Kiyoko could continue, Hotaru and Ayano entered the room and interrupted her.
Hotaru had been reduced to one arm and her upper torso since the rescue, but since you were bedridden for the past few days, she had been repairing herself on her own with Ayano apparently helping. This was the first time you’ve seen her fully repaired. It was quite obvious which parts of her were new, since they were shinier and colored red instead of gray.
“Hey Hotaru!” you tried to run over to her, but you failed to learn to control your new cyberleg in the past 2 minutes and fell again, this time into Ayano, who managed to catch you but at the cost of an embarrassed look on her face. “Ah, Sorry. I’m still getting used to this thing,” you say as you tap your metal foot.
“I-it’s fine,” Ayano stuttered nervously. Despite her unease, she still helped you stand on your real leg. It was hard to balance on, but it was better than risking the cyberleg again.
“If you need me to tweak that for ya, I can,” Hotaru offered.
“I’d appreciate that. You look good by the way,” you said.
“Tihi. Thanks. These parts are brand new and they feel good and all, but they don’t have any of the modifications my old body parts had.”
“Yeah. S-sorry we couldn’t save that.”
“It’s fine. I’m glad you saved any of me at all, tihi.”
“Yeah. Speaking of which, help me convince these two to let us save Izumi already.”
“Uh… don’t you need to…self repair still? And what about modifying your leg?”
“She needs to heal still,” Kiyoko corrected.
“And she can't even walk yet on her new leg,” Ai said.
“Yeah, sorry Shujiko. I’m in agreement with everyone else,” Hotaru said.
“Hmph.” You sat back in bed. The rational part of your brain knew they were right, but you still couldn’t think of anything other than your want to do something right now.
Suddenly Ayano sat next to you. “Here.” She held out a game console to you. It looked sort of like a switch, a console you remembered from your time, but the ends didn’t detach and were all black. On the bottom it had an acronym on the bottom “PSVITA”. You had no idea what it could mean.
“What is it?” you asked, taking the console.
“A distraction,” Ayano said. “To keep you busy until the auction.”
“Sh-shouldn’t I help prepare for it?”
“You can leave that all to me,” Kiyoko said.
“And I as well,” Ai said.
“You can prepare by making sure you rest up,” Hotaru added.
“Which Ayano will help you with,” Kiyoko said.
“Wait, what? I thought you just wanted me to her my spare-”
“Anyway, I gotta check on a delivery, you two have fun.” Even though Kiyoko said only she needed to check, she still dragged Ai and Hotaru with her.
With that, you two were left together alone. You looked over to the blushing gamer girl next to you who was looking quite nervous to be thrown into the situation.
At that moment, it dawned on you that Kiyoko might’ve done this intentionally to get Ayano to join your harem for her journalism project. You weren’t angry at her deception, you were probably going to ask out Ayano on your own anyway, but you would’ve appreciated some notice beforehand. Still though, you weren’t gonna miss this chance that she gave you.
“So uh… what is this thing?” you asked Ayano, referring to the console.
“Oh. I-it’s a PSVita.” You kinda wished she said the whole name and not just the acronym, but that didn’t matter to you anyway. “I have a couple of multiplayer games on it, so I guess we can…play together.”
For the next couple of days, you’d play video games with Ayano and grow closer to her while everyone else prepped for the day of action.
“So why the hell are we not doing that, yet?!” you asked frustrated over the fact that they weren’t letting you do that yet.
“As I already said, you still need more time to recover from your injury,” Kiyoko said.
“But I feel fine,” you say, ignoring the fact that you still felt tired all the time.
“And you need practice with your new leg too, trust me on that,” Ai said.
“Come on, I've got the hang of it now.” You try to take a single step forward to demonstrate, but you lose control over the ankle and knee and fall over onto Ai, who catches you. You blush in embarrassment in her arms. “I can get the hang of it soon,” you say.
Ai held you a bit more firmly to comfort you. “I know you’re worried. But if we want to actually succeed, we need to make sure we’re ready. Else we’ll all be in trouble. The quickest path to failure is headfirst through a wall, as Lord Protector Arnold Swarzenegger said.”
You recognized the name but had no idea who she was talking about.
“And besides,” Kiyoko added, “the auction itself will be the best time for us to get her. From my experience, companies in Heinlein keep top security over their slaves, both to keep them from escaping or to keep journalists from reporting on their treatment. The only exception is with auctions, where they have to put the ‘merchandise’ on display, so to say.”
You didn’t have an argument against that, so you changed the subject. “D-don’t call Izumi merchandise. She’d hate that.”
“Wh- I wasn’t. I was just-” Before Kiyoko could continue, Hotaru and Ayano entered the room and interrupted her.
Hotaru had been reduced to one arm and her upper torso since the rescue, but since you were bedridden for the past few days, she had been repairing herself on her own with Ayano apparently helping. This was the first time you’ve seen her fully repaired. It was quite obvious which parts of her were new, since they were shinier and colored red instead of gray.
“Hey Hotaru!” you tried to run over to her, but you failed to learn to control your new cyberleg in the past 2 minutes and fell again, this time into Ayano, who managed to catch you but at the cost of an embarrassed look on her face. “Ah, Sorry. I’m still getting used to this thing,” you say as you tap your metal foot.
“I-it’s fine,” Ayano stuttered nervously. Despite her unease, she still helped you stand on your real leg. It was hard to balance on, but it was better than risking the cyberleg again.
“If you need me to tweak that for ya, I can,” Hotaru offered.
“I’d appreciate that. You look good by the way,” you said.
“Tihi. Thanks. These parts are brand new and they feel good and all, but they don’t have any of the modifications my old body parts had.”
“Yeah. S-sorry we couldn’t save that.”
“It’s fine. I’m glad you saved any of me at all, tihi.”
“Yeah. Speaking of which, help me convince these two to let us save Izumi already.”
“Uh… don’t you need to…self repair still? And what about modifying your leg?”
“She needs to heal still,” Kiyoko corrected.
“And she can't even walk yet on her new leg,” Ai said.
“Yeah, sorry Shujiko. I’m in agreement with everyone else,” Hotaru said.
“Hmph.” You sat back in bed. The rational part of your brain knew they were right, but you still couldn’t think of anything other than your want to do something right now.
Suddenly Ayano sat next to you. “Here.” She held out a game console to you. It looked sort of like a switch, a console you remembered from your time, but the ends didn’t detach and were all black. On the bottom it had an acronym on the bottom “PSVITA”. You had no idea what it could mean.
“What is it?” you asked, taking the console.
“A distraction,” Ayano said. “To keep you busy until the auction.”
“Sh-shouldn’t I help prepare for it?”
“You can leave that all to me,” Kiyoko said.
“And I as well,” Ai said.
“You can prepare by making sure you rest up,” Hotaru added.
“Which Ayano will help you with,” Kiyoko said.
“Wait, what? I thought you just wanted me to her my spare-”
“Anyway, I gotta check on a delivery, you two have fun.” Even though Kiyoko said only she needed to check, she still dragged Ai and Hotaru with her.
With that, you two were left together alone. You looked over to the blushing gamer girl next to you who was looking quite nervous to be thrown into the situation.
At that moment, it dawned on you that Kiyoko might’ve done this intentionally to get Ayano to join your harem for her journalism project. You weren’t angry at her deception, you were probably going to ask out Ayano on your own anyway, but you would’ve appreciated some notice beforehand. Still though, you weren’t gonna miss this chance that she gave you.
“So uh… what is this thing?” you asked Ayano, referring to the console.
“Oh. I-it’s a PSVita.” You kinda wished she said the whole name and not just the acronym, but that didn’t matter to you anyway. “I have a couple of multiplayer games on it, so I guess we can…play together.”
For the next couple of days, you’d play video games with Ayano and grow closer to her while everyone else prepped for the day of action.
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March 23
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