Chapter Five

“If you’re feeling tired, you can take the bed tonight, Yamasaki-san.”

It had gotten late, and the only programming on television was related to the portals which had fallen from the sky and landed in various places all over Japan.  In other words, it had become boring, and Yamasaki-san was yawning quite a bit.

We were both sitting on the sofa, a bit apart from each other.  The dishes had been done already and the rest of the cake long since put away.  I offered to let her use my game console but she wasn’t all that interested anymore, she had shifted to half-browsing her phone and asking me weird RPG-related questions about quests and stuff.

Before I knew it, she was sitting on top of me, and had pulled up her shirt to just above her breasts.

“W-what are you d-doing, Yamasaki-san?”  I asked, panicking.

She cupped my chin with her hand, and stared me right in the eyes before grabbing one of my wrists with her free hand and placing it on one of her breasts.  Leaving it there, she took hold of the wrist on my other hand and moved it down below, pulling it with her own hand into her panties.  I could feel the fur-like quality of her maturing bush, and a soft, humid sensation as she pressed my fingers against her dirty lotus.

“You said it was your birthday on Friday.”

“Y-yeah, so?”

“So, I’m giving you a present.”

“P-present…  W-what’s the p-present?”

“You have two hands, Subaru.  I trust you are capable of figuring it out.”  She let go of my chin, and leaned into me, her face now over my shoulder.  “The only wrong thing you can do right now, is to push me off of you.  You really don’t want to do that right now.”

I gulped.  

“I’ll tell you when to stop.”

I’m trapped.  If I push her off, hell awaits me.  I know how to read between the lines of what she had said just now.  To make matters worse, my hand is touching not only one of her bare exposed breasts, but also that part of Yamasaki-san.  My mind is racing as fast as my heart is right now.  I’m scared to touch it.  One of her arms is wrapped around my neck, but the other is holding onto the hand of mine stuffed into her panties.

She began sucking and licking on my neck at first, and when I wasn’t reacting fast enough, she came up to my ear and nibbled on it.  Her breath was audible and tickled my ear.  Her hand began to push and pull my own inside of her panties, and my fingers began to slide in and out of a slippery pathway.

Of course, I’m a guy.  There’s no way that my partner is going to remain silent, with a beautiful woman sitting on top of him, even if I hate her.  So, pressing the matter upwards, in the way only my partner can, Yamasaki-san began gyrating her hips right on it, as she continued to have me slide back and forth along her skanky gyaru pussy.

She didn’t make any moaning noises, save for her rhythmic breathing next to my ear.  I was made to endure this situation by Yamasaki-san for at least five minutes, until it abruptly stopped.  My hand was removed from her panties, then my hand was taken off her breast which I had been absent-mindedly groping, quite poorly, and her shirt covered her body once more.

She climbed off of me, then mentioned that she was tired and felt like going to bed after all, and that I should keep in mind what a pussy feels like, because if I sleep on the sofa again while she’s staying with me, I may find that when I wake up, I’ll have one of my very own to play around with.

Well, it was a bit more colorful the way she said it, however I was now left alone, and having slept for a whole day after being somehow not incinerated by a laser beam from some strange dimensional portal, I thought it might be time to take a quick shower.

I was trying to wrap my head around a lot of unexpected shit happening to me all at once, and wasn’t having a good time at all.  Not to mention the sense of betrayal I felt from my partner who was clearly remembering what my fingers had felt more than the lump of useless gray matter sitting inside a skull three feet above my own ass.

Partner, do you not remember what she did to us back then?

Shame on you!

Enjoying the hot water of the showerhead longer than I should have, all those things I swore I wouldn’t try saying in front of her, after peeking out and making sure she wasn’t somehow in the bathroom or in listening range, I tried, to no avail.  I couldn’t figure out the method, if there was one, for accessing any kind of information on what 「Tendo Subaru’s Deck」 was or what was in it.

I had slept for a full day, so I wasn’t tired in the least, but I also wasn’t all that much of a nocturnal person.  I decided to play one of the card battle video games I had on my console for a bit.  It was pointless to do so, because I couldn’t focus one bit on it.  Instead, I kept feeling some kind of strange pull to my bedroom, but the last place I wanted to be right now was in the bed together with Yamasaki-san.

I don’t exactly treasure my own virginity, but it’s not like I want to waste it on her.  Of all people, her!  But I also enjoy my manhood, and would like to keep it attached to me at all costs.  So what else could I do but just give up on my Sunday, and head into the bedroom.

The thing is, whatever the pull towards the bedroom was, it wasn’t centered on Yamasaki-san.  It wasn’t my hormones or anything like that.  Instead, the feeling was there.  Underneath my bed, inside the container which I had most of my decks in.  I extracted the container and opened it up, when I went to touch one, my most treasured deck, something like a wall of text began flowing upward in front of my eyes, it was like something out of a cyberpunk anime.

When it calmed down and all the text disappeared, I looked at the deck of cards I was holding on to, and began to weep mentally.  All the cards had turned translucent to a degree.  The amazing art on the front, and even the standard image on the back which denoted which game each card was from had disappeared.

What happened to my deck?

「Acquired Tendo Subaru’s Deck」

What do you mean ‘acquired?’  This has always been my deck!

I began sorting through each card, until there appeared a total of seven cards, located in the center of the deck, which had something both drawn and written on them.  Three of them were related to earlier.  The Hamburg steak I had made, the cola I had drank, and the slice of cake I had eaten.  They were all there… as either buffs or restoratives?

Now, there were two specifically named "partner cards" which prominently featured both Yamasaki’s Name, and an image of her which could have only been drawn from my subconscious.

「Gyaru Bully」  and uh…

These were almost like Pokéyou monster cards, as they had skills attached to them, but…  Well, let me just show the difference here:

「Partner Card - Yamasaki Shoko」「LV.1」

「Black - Gyaru Bully」

【Physical Attack】「Slap」

『Yamasaki Shoko’s Slap will deal blunt damage to target.』

【Physical Attack】「Scratch」

『Yamasaki Shoko’s Scratch will deal slash damage to target along with a low chance to inflict the status ailment - Bleed.』

【Physical Attack】「Stomp」

『Yamasaki Shoko’s Stomp will deal blunt damage to target.  If target is already lying on the ground, take critical damage will be taken.』

【Debuff】「Verbal Abuse」

『Yamasaki Shoko is an expert at shit talking.  Target’s actions may be delayed.  Has a chance to inflict the status ailment - Cower.』

【Support】「Hungry Gyaru」

『Yamasaki Shoko is always hungry.  Receiving food from Tendo Subaru will restore vitality as well as apply a temporary buff.』

That one was the safe card.

「Partner Card - Yamasaki Shoko」「LV.1」

「Pink - Tendo Subaru’s Slut」

【Special】「Dirty Talk」

『Yamasaki Shoko’s unreserved nature allows her to say provocative things at Tendo Subaru with ease.  May cause a random status effect.』

【Special】「Edging Kiss」

『Receiving a French kiss from Yamasaki Shoko will circulate the latent mana in Tendo Subaru’s blood, applying a rock-hard defensive buff on him that lasts for thirty minutes.』

【Special】「Sublime Handjob」

『Receiving such a handjob from the experienced Yamasaki Shoko can return Tendo Subaru even from the brink of death.  Therefore, don’t go wasting your life force on your own so easily when you might need it the most, young man.』

This one was not.

Now, I have no idea what the fuck that second card is supposed to be, but I can feel a chill running up my spine looking at the text on it.  The art on the card is from that time on Friday night she was reaching for my belt to undo it when she got out of the shower.  The strange thing is, I can personally attest to having been involved one way or another with each of these skills, on both cards.  Which only leads to further suspicions that this Deck phenomenon is somehow related to my mental state.

「Ability Card - Turtle Breaking Wave」「LV.1」

『Assuming the physical posture and shouting the skill name as you perform the motion from that famous national fighting manga and anime, you can now live the dream of many a youth, releasing a beam of condensed mana from your hands to inflict non-elemental damage to any target in the path of this attack.』

So… I have to actually do a Kamehameha?  Shit, that actually sounds cool.  I mean, all chuunibyou-ness aside, who wouldn’t risk looking like an idiot if you could actually shoot one off?  But I’m pretty sure in the scheme of things I’m a Yamcha-type existence… could he even use it?

「Ability Card - Stealth Walk」「LV.1」

『Years of trying to keep your head low and avoid Yamasaki Shoko and other bullies allows you to move stealthily.  You become harder to detect until you eventually do something to draw attention to yourself, thereby negating this skill.』

Why do I feel like I’m being insulted by this deck by having this card?  Insult aside, it does seem like a useful ability, but it seems like the only one who can benefit from it is me.  There’s no mention in the description of how to activate it, so I wonder how it works?

That was it.  All the text that I saw before my eyes when touching my treasured deck didn’t translate to further cards besides these seven.  I wonder if I will be getting more cards in the future?

Also, now in the corner of my eyes, I could see something.  There was an icon that looked like a deck of cards.  When I focused on it, all of the translucent cards which were my treasured deck had disappeared.

【Tendo Subaru’s Deck】

「Edit Main Deck」

「Create New Deck」

「Delete Deck」

「Card Library」

「Help Topics」

Why does this look like the menu from all the video game card battling games I have?  I reached out to touch the section labeled 「Help Topics」 and a list came up.

「Introduction」

「Partner Cards」

「Item Cards」

「Ability Cards」

Well, let’s give it a look…

「Introduction」

『Welcome to Tendo Subaru’s Deck System.  Japan has now entered a new era, and you are one of the many chosen who may benefit from this change!  As you are lacking in so many areas, you have been given a personalized system to help you cope with these changes.  You will discover the purpose of this system soon, so until then, you should familiarize yourself with the rules and limitations of your system.  For your safety, some features are currently disabled, and will be activated when you reach certain milestones in your new life.  More topics will be added when you grow and experience new things in your life.  Good luck, young man.』

That wasn't very helpful…

「Partner Cards」

『Like all relationships between humans, how you treat them and how you are treated by them is the key to strengthening or weakening a relationship.』

【Owned】

【Partner Card - Yamasaki Shoko】

Okay… that’s not something I didn’t know.

「Partner Card - Yamasaki Shoko」

『People have many aspects of themselves, both private and public. Yamasaki Shoko is no exception to this rule, and neither are you.  Your thoughts on Yamasaki Shoko, mainly how you see her as a person, can manifest in various forms which can be utilized as Partner Cards.  The more you understand the different aspects of Yamasaki Shoko, the more complete they become.  Special Abilities and Traits not readily discovered may become available as your relationship furthers, good or bad.  Yamasaki Shoko’s Partner Cards adjust to reflect your greater understanding about each aspect of her you come to know.』

So… because I know how much of a bully and a bitch she is, the two cards that I have of her took the form of Partner Card Forms and reflected those aspects?

That’s pretty unnerving.  What else is there?

「Item Cards」

『Items have many uses, human history has proven this countless times.  As there are infinite classifications for things, Tendo Subaru’s Deck System will do its best to catalog various things that may be of use to its host.  Right now, only single-use consumable items exist in the Deck.』

【Owned】

【Item Card - Hamburg Steak】

【Item Card - Favorite Cola】

【Item Card - Chocolate Fudge Cake】

Yeah, I can skip this for now.  I can already infer that using something like the Hamburg Steak will increase Vitality like the buff Yamasaki-san mentioned seeing in her status screen.  I’m pretty sure I can use them on myself, and for sure on Yamasaki san.

「Ability Cards」

『Abilities have been around since long before humanity.  Ability Cards simply quantify abilities which may or may not exist, but can be conceived of.  Thought is an energy form, and a completely thought-out concept may manifest as an Ability Card.  The more you know, the more you can grow.  The nature of humans is the concept of monkey-see monkey-do, so the limit of your potential is exactly the moment you decide doing something is impossible.  But training is important too.  Hone your body as much as your mind.』

【Owned】

【Ability Card - Turtle Breaking Wave】

【Ability Card - Stealth Walk】

Okay, so, basically, these two cards represent both aspects of what the flavor text was describing.  What kid never tried that move like a hundred times, right?  With a bullshit martial arts pseudo-science behind it, seeing the full method of how it works and all the explanations over all the episodes of the storyline, it exists as a solid concept, and therefore it can be used as an ability.  Almost like a faith based ability… Since I’ve seen it used, and I believe it can be used, therefore I can use it.  And the other is something I’ve physically trained myself to be able to do over many years of trying to dodge bullies like Yamasaki-san, so that’s a skill that comes much more naturally to me, meaning it’s probably closer to a passive effect?

There’s not enough to go on, but I’m sure it’ll become clear once I discover the way to use it.  So far the only card with an exact method of how to use it is the Turtle Breaking Wave ability card, but at night in my apartment, with Yamasaki-san sleeping on a bed just a meter away, do I really think using that kind of ability right now is wise?

Of course not!  That kind of thing needs a discreet place to fire off, otherwise there is a large risk of property or collateral damage!

Though I was afraid, I did reach for one of the few decks in the container that I didn’t care if something happened to.  Plenty of indecipherable text flooded the space before my eyes when I touched one, yet when I examined those decks afterwards, there were no physical changes to any of the cards.  Examining the Deck menu of my system, there were no new cards of any kind added to my deck either.  So, I have no idea what that was about at all.  All that was left to do was put them away and store them back underneath my bed.

I stood up, and saw Yamasaki-san sleeping under the covers of my bed.  She looked like a normal teenage girl, and not the monster I had come to know.  That those two cards were the only aspects I knew of her kind of stung me a bit.  It’s not like I didn’t want to get to know her back when we were young, but when she did what she did, betraying me so completely as a member of the human race, I guess this is all I am ever capable of seeing.

She’s violent, and a slut.

Yamasaki Shoko.

Yeah.

But I wonder, if she could manifest a Partner Card from what aspects of me she sees, what would it be like?