It was a little strange feeling so drained after only two short meetings. But then, that was how the integration of the game and your new life must've worked. It would've broken the 'balance' if you'd been able to marathon events in just a single day.

The rest of the day at school had passed by in a blur, with... relatively normal activities. You'd attended classes, eaten lunch, and studied like a normal student.

Sadly, you hadn't seen any new heroines, and you'd seen Kiyoko and Ava again once or twice in the halls, but you hadn't actually been able to speak to them again. Must've been because the in-game limit was only 2-3 events per day.

Hopefully you'd get A)more stamina, or B) interactions with the girls that weren't limited to events, otherwise that might actually inhibit your new life by quite a bit.

Regardless, the day ended and that was that.

The next morning, life continued like normal. After a quick shower and breakfast (nothing special, just a bowl of cereal,) you grabbed your school books, tucked them into your backpack, and headed off.

Oh, and you'd grabbed a couple of granola bars for the road too. You weren't sure why exactly, but the Narrator had been insistent that you take them. It wasn't like you needed a snack or anything so soon after eating breakfast...

Oh well, pushing those thoughts aside, you could at least enjoy the scenery as you walked down to school. You'd left a little early, so you could go at a slow pace if you wanted to. There weren't too many other people out, but it was nice seeing the few people out walking dogs, jogging, or also heading to school or work. All in all... it was a very picturesque morning.

Just another morning in... wait. Huh.

You really needed to learn the name of the town you lived in.

Oh well.

Looking up at the sky, you admired the way there were very few clouds in the sky, allowing the sun to light up the bright blue sky and the drone coming right at you...

Crap!

(((Think fast, Shujin! Don't fail this quick-time event!)))

Eyes wide, you realized the drone was on a collision course with you. It might hurt a bit if it ran right into you, but it wasn't very big and at a glance you were pretty sure it wouldn't do much worse than bruise you.

The metaphorical clock was ticking, and you prepared to sidestep out of the way of the apparently out-of-control drone...

No, wait! That was a bad idea! This drone was probably Hotaru's, her intro scene had started something like this, and she'd been annoyed with the player for 'damaging' her drone.

It might not be your fault, but if you let her drone smack into the pavement... it definitely wouldn't put her in a good mood.

With an agility you didn't know you had, you reached out as you sidestepped out of the way... there was a slight sting as the friction scuffed your palms, but the drone jerked to a halt in your hands. Safe!

The sound of feet pattering against the cement sidewalk caught your attention.

"That was... *Huff* Amazing! How did you do that?!" And there was the tinkerer tomboy herself, panting and sweating slightly from the effort of having dashed towards you as fast as she could go. It must've taken a lot out of her to sprint this far, as you hadn't even seen what direction she'd come from. Plus, aside from Ava, Hotaru was physically the weakest, least in-shape of all the heroines. She was an inventor, not an athlete, after all.

Hotaru herself, just like Ava and Kiyoko, looked exactly as she did in-game. Short brown hair, brownish, almost amber eyes, a little red bow on the right side of her head, and a short, slender body dressed in the boy's uniform rather than the girl's uniform of your school.

As Hotaru caught her breath, chest heaving... you noticed that her chest looked a little bigger than it should've. Already? You hadn't even said anything to her though!

Oh yeah. The 'canon' of this event was that her drone was damaged by crashing into the player. You'd prevented that, which meant that you were starting off positive rather than negative.

Not that Hotaru had suddenly sprouted huge boobs or anything. If Ava had gone from totally flat to an A-cup in your interaction with her the other day... Hotaru here had started at an A-cup and was now... a slightly bigger A-cup?

"Uh... no problem. Your, um... drone, doesn't seem to be damaged at all." You got out, quickly looking over the small machine in your hands. You remembered something about the rotor snapping in the in-game event, but right now you didn't see any loose pieces or anything.

"Oh, that's such a relief!" Hotaru sighed, letting out a great, big exhale of breath, seeming to finally have caught her breath.

"Here you go."

"Thanks! You're a lifesaver! I just put the finishing touches on my baby here last night, and I would've been heartbroken if it got wrecked so quickly!" Hotaru exclaimed, gratefully accepting the drone as you handed it over to her.

"What went wrong? It looks pretty, uh... complete to me." You weren't sure what else to say; you were no gadgeteer wiz like Hotaru was after all.

No bust-up this time. Guess that was too neutral a statement. That was fair, you didn't want something ridiculous like every sentence you said to pump the heroines up.

"Hmm... well, I was flying it this just a few minutes ago, when suddenly I lost control of it! The drone veered off course and wasn't responding to my controls! Rrgh... There must be a flaw in the controller's wiring..." Hotaru grumbled.

"Well, hopefully it's not a complicated fix."

"Nah, I'm sure it'll be fine. I'll just have to take apart the controller to examine the wiring when I get home today." Hotaru said, indicating a rather stereotypical video-game style controller in one hand, which you hadn't noticed until she'd brought it up.

"Wait, when you get home? Did you make this yourself?" The words came out naturally; you honestly meant them. Seeing text on-screen was one thing, but looking at the actual machinery in person was on an entirely new level.

"Um... yeah?" Hotaru responded, eyes narrowing as a small frown appeared on her face.

"That's awesome! How long did it take to build your drone?"

"W-what?" Ba-boing! You cheered silently as a familiar and very welcome sound of fabric stretching alerted your senses.

If Hotaru hadn't already been a B-cup, she was now!

"O-oh... that's really unexpected. Most people seem weirded out when I tell them that stuff."

"Why would they be? It clearly took a lot of effort to make something like that." No growth this time, but again, you didn't want to trigger growth with every sentence. That would've gotten out of hand way too quickly.

"Well... it's nice to hear that. You're alright, you know that? What's your name anyway? I'm Hotaru. Hotaru Tomino."

Had Hotaru given the player her last name in-game? Eh, that wasn't important.

"Shujin Kou. It's nice to meet you!"

Another small, barely noticeable sound of fabric-stretching. Hotaru was firmly into the B-cup territory at this point, by your estimation. Like Ava, her chest was pushing out further from her shirt by a small but noticeable amount. It was kind of funny to think about, but both girls (Ava especially) had a long way to go before they were even at something like Ai's bust size, let alone Kiyoko's (new) size.

Just like Ava and Kiyoko, Hotaru clearly hadn't felt or seen anything amiss. You weren't sure how she was somehow unaware of the fact that she was now wearing a bra that was at least a full size too small, but... maybe girls with smaller breasts noticed the difference less than girls with big (or at least average) breasts?

(((That's stupid.)))

'Thanks for that, Narrator.' You sighed under your breath at the Narrator's crack, who had apparently popped into your conversation for no other reason.

Regardless of why Hotaru didn't notice anything different, she did look a bit different. She was still far away from having enough bust to actually stretch her shirt out, but she at least now filled it out more than before.

The tomboy returned your smile with a bright one of her own; and for a moment you were reminded of how cute she was! Hotaru didn't have the raw sex appeal that someone as bodacious as Izumi did, the fitness of Ai, or the all-around beauty that Kiyoko did, but you were reminded in no uncertain terms that Hotaru's looks were firmly in the 'heroine' category. How could you not like that bright, cheerful smile on her face?

"Well, thanks again, Shujin! Looks like you're wearing the same uniform I am, so we must go to the same school! Funny that I've never seen you around till now. Hopefully we can catch up later! I should probably get going now!" Hotaru stated, turning away from you, the drone tucked under one arm.